(Publisher’s note: What follows is only a partial record of the correspondence relating to the fore going manuscript. It is our belief that many key documents have either been destroyed or removed from the relevant files. We would like to make it clear that official spokesmen for the Federal Government have declined to comment on what would appear to be high-level inter-agency communications. Facsimiles of which are reproduced here. It is for the reader to judge the authenticity of these documents and draw the appropriate conclusions.)
American School of Oriental Studies Wadi-al-Joz, Jerusalem, Israel
To: Professor Moritz Kaufmann
Curator-Dead Sea Scrolls
HEBREW UNIVERSITY, JERUSALEM
9 August 1958
From: Dr Arthur Lovell
CONFIDENTIAL
Dear Moritz,
The Resnick Scroll/Catalogue No. Q-11-7
I have to tell you that Frank Walker and I are in a terrible quandary over what to do with this document. In fact, we both heartily wish that Dr Sterckx’s team had not opened Cave Eleven at all. At least we would be able to sleep nights.1
Clearly, a Dead Sea Scroll written in American-English – a language which was not in existence at the date inscribed on the document (340 Minyan Shetiroth = 30 AD) is a logical absurdity.
Despite the fact that the syntax and idiom employed by the writer includes certain phrases that are quite unfamiliar to us (eg: ‘Let me run it by you’) the internal stylistic evidence points to a supremely impudent hoax by someone with, at the very least, a college education and who is also something of a religious iconoclast.
Frank is of the opinion that the culprit is probably a contemporary American writer of science-fiction but I was struck by the reference to the Gnostic texts from Nag Hammadi. As you know, the contents of these have been kept secret since their discovery and they are currently under lock and key in the Coptic Museum in Cairo. Neither Frank nor I have yet seen them and there cannot be more than a dozen or so international scholars who know of their existence. So the joker may be nearer home. However, that is the least of our problems.
The fact is, we are totally floored by the results of the laboratory tests we have carried out. All the results serve to confirm the scroll’s total authenticity and date as coming from the same period as the other documents found in Q.11. I have enumerated our findings as follows:
1. The Papyrus is, without doubt, early first century. Frank is inclined to think it is pre-50 AD. The weave and multiple sheet composition are identical to the other papyrii we have recovered from this period from Qumran and elsewhere.
2. Condition of the Scroll: of all the papyrii found to date, Q-11-7 is almost flawless. The only surface flaking that has occurred is around the edges. The text has been preserved in its entirety (including the four-letter words). It is this remarkable state of preservation that gives rise to our suspicion that Q-11-7 is an impostor but …
3. Analysis of Ink Samples: these were taken from the preface to the scroll and at intervals throughout the text. The standard tests were applied and produced a perfect match to the composition profile we have constructed of inks used on fully authenticated documents.
4. Carbon Dating: analysis of both papyrus and ink confirm the comparative evidence for the age of the scroll.
5. Pottery Storage jar: this is identical to several others we have found and, by our present criteria, totally authentic. The potter’s mark matches that on other storage jars found in Q-11, Q-1 and Q-4.
6. Provenance of Scroll: there is absolutely no doubt that the scroll was inside the jar which was opened, like the others from Q-11, under controlled conditions and under the personal supervision of Dr André Sterckx. (Who, I might add, is just as upset as we are.)
7. Jar Plug and Sealant: the standard ceramic plug and pitch sealant was used. Both gave positive results when tested.
8. Location of Scroll Jar: this, I am afraid, is the one that puts us right behind the eight-ball. 0-11-7 was found buried under a twelve-inch layer of dust and other debris along with six other jars containing papyrii scrolls with Aramaic texts. There was no sign of any disturbance of the covering layer. As you can imagine, this is a real headache. For we are obliged to ask the following question: If the scroll is a forgery (as we firmly believe it to be) how did it get into the cave alongside five indisputably authentic documents? References in the text to World War Two indicate that it is of recent origin. General Eisenhower is mentioned as having been President. It therefore seems unlikely that the text was composed prior to his term of office. But to avoid any detectable signs of soil disturbance, the jar would have had to be inserted at least twenty to thirty years ago. Which makes the forging of the scroll even more difficult. The writer would not only have to be an archeaological expert, he would also have to be something of a seer!
9. Handwriting analysis: I do not accept this idea but Annette Schuman claims that there is graphological evidence to support the notion that the writer of Q-11-7 could be the scribe/copyist of at least three other Hebrew documents from Q-4 that are currently under analysis. Annette’s expertise in this field is not in question but the idea is quite preposterous. Frank and I both feel that further comparative analysis along these lines would be a fruitless exercise.
CONCLUSION: We are faced with an apparently insoluble paradox. Clearly, the scroll is a forgery. However engaging the story might be it is both improbable, impractical and, more to the point, scientifically impossible. Indeed, it raises more problems that it purports to solve. But how do we reconcile this conclusion with the results of the scientific tests? If we reject the Resnick Scroll then, by the same criteria, we must reject all the other scrolls that we have already accepted as genuine.
We are therefore left with the following options:
(a) Destruction of the scroll: a move which, despite its counterfeit nature, we would be most reluctant to make. Frank and I both believe that it should be preserved, if only for its curiosity value.
(b) Remove all reference to Q-11-7 from the manuscript catalogue and put it into cold storage. There are many years of work ahead for the restoration and translation teams. I think this one can be safely put at the bottom of the pile.
I therefore return it to your safekeeping,
Cordially yours,
Arthur
State University of New York Downstate Medical center Brooklyn, N.Y.
Dr Arthur Love 11
American School of Oriental Research
15 Sept 1958
Jerusalem, Israel
Dear Arthur
Ref: Document Q-11-7
Thank you for your letter and enclosures of August 15. I have read the typed transcript carefully and examined the photostat showing a section of the scroll. It’s an interesting problem. The scroll is obviously a very clever fake but I am unable to supply a plausible explanation for the apparently unshakeable scientific evidence which points to its utter authenticity. However, since your letter shows you are keenly aware of this I shall not labour the point, apart from saying that you have my sympathies.
It has taken me a little time to trace the people on the list you enclosed. Hence the delay in replying. So far, I have discovered the following:
(a) A Mr and Mrs Philip Resnick live at 112 Polhemus Place, Brooklyn, NY. They have a daughter, Bella, aged 18, and a son, Leonard Nathan Resnick, aged 13. He is currently attending Friends School in Brooklyn Heights.
(b) Rabbi Abraham Lucksteen lives at 206 Fisk St, Brooklyn, NY. This is just around the corner from the Resnicks. He and his wife have a daughter Abbey, aged 13. I called the secretary of Resnick’s school and she confirmed that he and Miss Lucksteen were classmates. I also called the Rabbi and he was kind enough to confirm that he had conducted Leonard Resnick’s barmitzvah.
(c) No joy on Dr Miriam Maxwell. From the approximation of her age given in the transcript she would now be 10-11 years old. Her father may be a doctor. I propose to check the AMA listings for the state of New York and will let you know w
hat I turn up. The address given in the scroll preface for her appartment is presently a construction site.
(d) Nothing so far on Linda or Peter Kovacs. The indications are that these people may be refugees from the 1956 Hungarian uprising. I will check with immigration.
(e) There is a D.E. Russell currently undergoing recruit training with the NYPD but there is insufficient evidence to positively identify this individual.
(f) Nothing available on Lazzarotti, McDonald, Fowler or Shiragawa. So I cannot confirm that these are real people either.
(g) Perez: I checked 49th Street between Fifth and Third Avenue. There are no dry cleaners or laundry shops operating under or owned by anybody with this name.
Just out of interest I include the following:
(h) Dr Henry Kissinger is a lecturer at Harvard and a part-time national security consultant to the Eisenhower Administration.
(i) Richard Nixon, as you know, is currently Vice-President under Ike. He is undoubtedly an adroit politician but, unlike the writer of the scroll, my Republican friends do not view him as Presidential timber in his own right.
(j) Clint Eastwood: I understand from my youngest daughter that he is an up-coming TV actor currently playing a character called ‘Rowdy Yates’(!) in a new series titled ‘Rawhide’
(k) David Frost: The writer implies that he is some kind of celebrity/interviewer similar to Walter Cronkite or Arthur Godfrey. Nobody here has heard of him.
Incidentally, I must say that I took exception to the scurrilous remarks about Ike. He’s a good man and far above that kind of thing
Even though this document is pure fiction I feel bound to remark that it portrays a chilling, and somewhat depressing, view of life twenty years from now. The use of explicit language between men and women and the free-for-all sexual licence I find rather upsetting. And I simply cannot believe that a stag film of the kind described in the text and titled ‘Deep Throat’ could ever be allowed to be shown publicly. I can only say ‘God help us’ if it is.
Similarly, as I will be eighty in twenty years’ time, I find the idea of 12-year-old muggers absolutely horrifying. As much as I admire the aggressiveness with which the writer expresses some of his ideas, his description of life in this future New York reveals a morbid preoccupation with sex and violence.
Let me know if I can be of any further assistance.
My best wishes to Sheila, and Frank Walker,
Your friend,
Jake
(Professor S.J. Wassmeyer Department of Psychology)
American School of Oriental Studies Jerusalem, Israel
To: Professor Moritz Kaufmann
Curator – Dead Sea Scrolls,
HEBREW UNIVERSITY, JERUSALEM
25th September 1958
From: Dr Arthur Lovell
CONFIDENTIAL
Dear Moritz
Ref: Q-11-7
I enclose a copy of a letter from Jake Wassmeyer. His comments, I am sure, will be of interest. I must say Frank and I are more than a little disturbed to discover that some of the characters in Q-11-7 appear to be derived from real people. What is more, at the time the related events are supposed to occur, twenty-three years from now, the real Leonard Nathan Resnick will be the same age as the purported narrator of the scroll. I hardly need to point out that the implications of this development are quite frightening.
I am glad your committee agrees that we should all do our utmost to conceal the existence of this document whilst stopping short of its destruction. Frankly, it raises too many disturbing questions for which there are no reasonable answers.
With your permission, I propose to put a transcript of the text and photostats of the scroll together with copies of this correspondence into a safety deposit box at my bank in Boston on my next visit home. If, by the Grace of God and John Foster Dulles, the world is still in one piece twenty years from now, I will make arrangements for this extraordinary document to be brought to the notice of the appropriate authorities.
Cordially yours,
Arthur.
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY, LANGLEY, VA
INTERNAL MEMORANDUM
COPIES: Original
One copy to FC File
MOST SECRET/YOUR EYES ONLY
To: Internal Operations Director
Date: Monday 13 April 1981
From: Field Co-ordinator ‘Gordon’
SUBJECT: OPERATION EASTER BUNNY
Sir,
The following first-response surveillance measures have now been successfully deployed and are at go status. Daily field reports will be submitted if and when target arrival is confirmed.
1. Agent ‘Sugar-George’, who was recruited into the Field Services Department of the Agency in October ‘77 has now been working as Resnick’s personal secretary for the past two years.
2. The janitor of Resnick’s apartment block was replaced by Agent ‘Hotel-Queen’ at the beginning of this year.
3. Agent ‘Victor-Bravo’, a fully-qualified doctor from our Medical Intelligence Unit, has been assigned as an internee on Dr. Miriam Maxwell’s team at the Manhattan General.
4. Communications intercepts have been installed on the appropriate private and business lines of all individuals on Target List Q-11-7.
5. By arrangement with the NY Police Commissioner, Agents ‘Orange-Dog’ and ‘Able-Zebra’ have been assigned to the Narcotics Division of the Organized Crime Control Bureau based in the Seventh Precinct. These two agents are the nucleus of the proposed external surveillance team. Lt. Dan Russell from the NYPD Internal Services Department has been appointed as Police Liaison Officer.
6. The co-operation of civilians on Target Q-11-7 will be solicited and/or additional Agency personnel will be inserted into the surveillance net as required.
7. Arrangements have been made to secure the contents of Resnick’s safety deposit box at the mid-town branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank should the tapes and allied documentation listed in the Target File materialize as physical evidence.
MEMORANDUM ENDS
OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF INTERNAL OPERATIONS CIA/LANGLEY/VA
Date: 17 April 81/1600 HRS
To: Blue One/Washington
Copies: None/Read and Destroy
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
OPERATION EASTER BUNNY
Sir,
There are now increasing indications that the Q-11-7 event may be about to occur on a sequential real-time basis. If so, we will need a decision in the next seven days on the containment strategy to be adopted in respect of the individuals concerned.
The graduated options open to us are as listed in Memorandum 12.
We also need to decide, within the same time-frame, whether or not we should inform Israeli Airlines of the possible danger to their Flight 072 on May 12.
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY – I/OP TELEX TRANSCRIPT
ORIGINAL TRANSMISSION TIMED AT 1800 HRS/18 APRIL 81
ORIGIN:FIELD-CO GORDON
TO:INT-OP ONE
MESSAGE BEGINS
AGENT VICTOR-BRAVO CONFIRMS
RESNICK DUE TO MEET MAXWELL 2130 HRS TONIGHT
MANHATTAN GENERAL HOSPITAL STOP
AGENTS ORANGE-DOG AND ABLE-ZEBRA WILL MAINTAIN SURVEILLANCE OF TARGET ARRIVAL POINT EAST SIDE MANHATTAN STOP
LATEST WEATHER REPORT FOR NY AREA FORECASTS HEAVY RAIN STOP
MESSAGE ENDS
A Note on the Author
Born a man of Essex, Patrick Tilley spent his formative years in the border counties of Northumbria and Cumbria. After studying art at King’s College, University of Durham, he came to London in 1955 and rapidly established himself as one of Britain’s leading graphic designers. He began writing part-time in 1959 with three episodes for ATV’s Crane.
In 1968 he gave up design altogether in favour of a new career as a film scriptwriter. Work on several major British-based productions was followed by writing assignments in New York and Hollywood. His books have been translated into several languages, and have a
chieved cult-novel status.
This electronic edition published in 2012 by Bloomsbury Reader
Bloomsbury Reader is a division of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 50 Bedford Square,
London WC1B 3DP
First published in Great Britain 1981 by Michael Joseph Ltd
Copyright © 1981 Patrick Tilley
All rights reserved
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may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The moral right of the author is asserted.
eISBN: 9781448209842
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