An Early Brownstone Sex/Blackmail Operation

An Early Brownstone Operation–Sex and Blackmail Ring

“Brownstone Operation” is another name for a sex/blackmail ring. A number of sources indicate that Roy Cohn operated one in the 1970s. It was reported that Cohn services including providing boys for men of wealth and power. A escort service was used as a “cut-out” for the sex and blackmail operation. A extension of his work was carried on by CIA agent Edwin Wilson and a former Eisenhower administration official who probably was not a CIA agent. There are reports that Wilson and Cohen cooperated in sex/blackmail scams since the 1950s.

A club run by a South Korean intelligence agent was used by them in the 1970s. . The former Eisenhower official was active in the 1976 and 1980 Reagan campaigns and held a White House under the former California governor but reported to CIA Director Bill Casey. In the late seventies, CBS’s “Sixty Minutes” reported that it was the city’s unofficial shadow government. In the eighties, Wilson was jailed on charges illegal gun running, but he always insisted he was carrying out orders.

Former agent Frank Terpil wrote about agent Ed Wilson’s role in the blackmail operation and added that photographs were taken by the agency’s Technical Services Division. The service was used to blackmail members of both parties as well as high government and military officials. Child sex was available, and prominent names were associated with the sex ring, including a future vice president and a very sanctimonious member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Some report that Wilson did not operate the ring in the eighties; it passed to a higher official at Langley. There is only a little information on where the children were obtained.

One good source say some came from religiously operated home for runaway boys. The former Eisenhower official and one of his subordinates had close ties to the boys home. The home was affiliated with a similar home in Guatemala, which was favored by President Anastazio Samoza. The American boys home was lauded by the Reagan administration as an example of what privatization of these services could accomplish. It was also linked to Americacares, an organization that funneled money to the Nicaraguan contras.