The Psycopathic Reasoning

Despite my new title, the problems still continued in the laboratory and now, with
Carl's office near the laboratory, everyone ran to Carl with their problems. I still
had continuing problems with Buzz and I had a new problem that was becoming
more and more irritating. The problem involved the disappearance of laboratory
equipment. I would order and purchase laboratory supplies, frequently in excess of
need and put them supplies in the cabinets in the lab. Within a week or two, all of
the supplies would be gone! This was particularly irritating when I would be work-
ing in the laboratory and need a piece of equipment which I had purchased, only to
find the item was missing. I discussed this problem with everyone, but no one knew
anything about it. Then one day Jeff said he wanted to show me something. He
took me to George Landry's office and opened a desk drawer. There was all of the
equipment I had been purchasing which subsequently turned up missing. Why Gene
the head of Quality Control would want the items was a mystery to me. Jeff claimed he made the discovery accidentally while looking for something. It was just one more crazy incident that was going on and I was becoming more and more curious as to why all these events were taking place.

Shortly after the changes had been announced, Carl and I were in Darth's office
listening to Darth go on one of his ego trips explaining his views of the world. One
thing was always true about Darth and his conversations; he was always extremely
egotistical and if given a chance, he would brag. I was trying to figure out why he
had called me in his office when he began explaining how the human mind tends to forget things if conditions are made unbearable enough and that the brain secrets chemicals when under extreme stress so that a person can forget traumatic
experiences. As I sat there listening, my heart began to race. Was that the reason for all the harassment and irritation? Was my time at Gamma Supplies suppose to be so unbearable that I wouldn't know or remember what had happened to me in order to get my testimony? If that had been the purpose, it had not been successful and what if “they” knew I could remember things? What else would they do? The thoughts raced through my head. And I couldn't help but think how arrogant and stupid Darth was. But most important to me at this point was who ultimately was behind this idiotic plan!? I now knew for sure that I was dealing with some REALLY SICK PEOPLE!?

Then Darth turned his attention to the real purpose of the meeting. He had
decided “Rapid Set” was now competitive with the Better Supplies' “Fast Set” and he
now wanted me to direct my efforts toward developing a sister product called “Ice Box” on which Better Supplies had another set of patents. This was possible now because Judge Myron Gordon, The FEDERAL JUDGE presiding over the legal battle had surprisingly ruled the “Fast Set” patents were invalid on a filing date technicality. If the ruling stood, Gamma Supplies had won the legal battle over the “Rapid Set” patent infringement. This apparent victory had made Darth feel so confident that he felt he could brag about the plan to get my testimony.

Judge Myron Gordon's ruling seemed ridiculous to me and it made me question his integrity too. However, the victory would not be final until until all of the appeals had been made, but in the meantime Darth wanted to start an attack on the “Ice Box” set of patents. I was not pleased with his request because I knew my days at Gamma Supplies were numbered, and if form held true, I would be gone by the Christmas holidays. To make sure I thought about the threat of loosing my job, Darth finished by saying that he wanted the “Ice Box” type system by the end of the year. I left the meeting knowing I was never going to develop the system Darth wanted.

In mid-September another incident occurred which caused me a lot of internal
conflict. Darth said he wanted Carl, Jay and me to give a presentation at the
September 19th American Foundry Society/Wisconsin Chapter meeting. I told
Darth I preferred to wait until the February regional meeting and give a full length
talk on “Rapid Set” by myself. As always, Darth agreed although I was somewhat
surprised since the regional meeting was after the end of the year. Two weeks later
the notice for the meeting came out, and there I was listed as one of the speakers.
Before I had a chance to object, Carl and Jay were upon me discussing what the
topic should be and how we should divide up the talk. Reluctantly I gave in and
agreed to give a presentation on the importance of quality control.

I was presented to the audience as Gamma Supplies Technical Director and I talked on the importance of the quality control for the “Rapid Set” system. I had only a couple of days to prepare for the speech and I was not pleased with the content, but the presentation at the meeting was a success. Again I had been forced into doing something I did not really want to do, and as a result a lot of internal conflict had been generated. Parading me in front of other people also gave Gamma Supplies and the people behind the attack on the Better Supplies patents “proof” that Gamma Supplies had treated me well and had honored their commitment to me.

Since I did not want to work on a “Ice Box” type product at this point, I spent
most of my time in the laboratory getting involved in problems which were of
immediate importance. In two instances I was able to solve major problems which
were baffling to the people involved in the projects. Quickly solving problems that
confused Darth and Carl only help confirm my opinion about there general
incompetence. In fact, on one such problem Darth set up a meeting in order to get
me involved and solve the problem. Of course to Darth, exploiting me only showed to himself what a brilliant manager he was. I was being used as a consultant and Darth's use of me in that role said my days at Gamma Supplies were numbered. Despite the fact that I could quickly solve problems that baffled the dynamic genius duo of Darth and Carl plus the other people in the laboratory, I did not fit into Gamma's future and their plans seemed only to get the most out of my services while I was there. My only real purpose was to provide testimony in the lawsuit and amusement for my captors.

More Suggestions and a "Promotion"

I was scheduled to take a trip to Tenneland, and as usual, I had the secretary
make the arrangements. I told her I would need a rental car and that I wanted a
compact car. When I arrived in Summerfield, I found the car reserved for me was a
mid-sized Cutlass Supreme, which was the standard company car for salesmen and
it was the same model company car that Ravi had driven as the Technical Director. Obviously the secretary had reserved the wrong car. On my previous trips to Summerfield the rental cars had been much less luxurious and roomy. Again the implication was that I, as Technical Director, would have a company car.

The suggestions about a company car become more blatant a week before the big
announcement. I was talking to Jay Wells and Paul Jones about a trip to Neenah Foundry in Neenah, Wisconsin. We were discussing how we were to make the trip and who going to drive.

Paul looked at me and said, “Maybe you should wait until next week and you can go in a new company car.”

Jay looked at Paul as if to say, “your getting a little too obvious.” After a period of awkward silence, the conversation continued until we decided to wait until the following week after the big announcement to determine who should drive.

The day before the announcement, Carl came into my office and told me that I would be the new Technical Director. At the same time, he would become Vice President of Technical Operations, and he would be moving into Ravi's old office next to mine. He also implied that he would be taking a more active role in the running of the laboratory operations, which meant that I would have even less say in running the laboratory than I already had. It was now evident why Carl had been “hidden” from me when I first joined the company and why his role in the company had never been well defined until now. The fact that Carl was a klutz and borderline competent was really disheartening. At least Ravi had been competent and scientifically knowledgeable and that was one of the major reasons I had come to Gamma Supplies originally.

The fact that Carl was going to play an increasing roll in the laboratory had been evident when in July he had informed me he was doing the laboratory budget for the next year and he wondered if there were any items I might want. After a year of trying, and now as “Technical Director”, I still did not even get a copy of the budget. The day after Carl had told me of my promotion, an official announcement was made in a memo which stated that I was the new Gamma Supplies "Technical Director." What confused me about all of this charade, was why was all of this being done in an official and public manner.
______________________________________________________________________________

* I always considered both Darth Corey and Carl Host to be marginally competent. I now know that as a fact, given that 20 years latter, Gamma Supplies has shown zero, none, nada growth in terms of real dollars. I don't know how many years Darth and Carl stayed on at Gamma Supplies after I left, but I do know they were there 6 years latter when I returned. In 1998, the Clines sold Gamma Supplies to HA International a large foreign owned company. I sure that they,Darth, and Carl if they were still there at the time, made a lot of money off of my efforts. But that's what makes america great; the powerful exploiting the poor.

For anyone reading this and who owns a business, Darth and Carl both claimed to have an advanced degree from the University of Chicago Business School. Based on their performance, I would discourage any business owner from hiring anyone from the Chicago School of Business!

Purpose in the harassment.

After Darth left my office, I sat there debating what to do. If I accepted the “promotion and the title, I would be lending credence to their story that they had treated me well and given me all that they had promised while at the same time if I rejected the promotion, they would have more reason to jump all over me and create more guilt and negative feelings.

I decided I would not decline the offer, but that I would ignore the whole thing. Besides, the "promotion" would enhance my chances of getting a better job in the future. Refusal to accept the promotion would also put me in a position of having to defend myself and my views and by now I was avoiding as much confrontation a possible. I also decided not to inform my wife because I did not want to get her hopes up especially since she had just quit her job and was beginning to get ready to go to school to become a nurse.

After Darth informed me of my pending promotion, a couple of peculiar
incidences occurred. Ben Kenholz, from the quality control laboratory started
coming to my office and kidding me about changing offices and moving into Ravi's
old office which was adjacent to my mine. Ben's timing and his almost daily
presence at my office door told me he knew of the impending announcement, but
every time I asked him if he knew something I didn't know, he would profess
ignorance. I kept wondering how a laboratory worker from quality control knew
about my “promotion” to Technical Director, but all he would ever say was “when
are you moving into your new office?” I never did consider changing offices, but I
often wondered who would move into the now vacant office.

Another implication involved the use of a company car. One late afternoon,
Darth asked me to join him, Josh Rilley, Dave Lipton and Ralph Sampson for drinks
at a near-by tavern. I reluctantly agreed to stop by for a few minutes. When I
arrived Darth was there and we began to chat. Shortly afterwards, Josh joined us.
As the three of us sat there talking, Ralph Sampson and Dave Lipton came in and
started kidding me about driving a “purple Lincoln”. I asked them and Josh, to
whom Ralph reported, what they were talking about. Josh just shrugged
his shoulders and the other two just went silent. I left that night wondering what all the talk about a “purple Lincoln” was all about.

After that, just about everyday at work someone at work would come up to
me and say, "Gee, I wish I had a 'purple Lincoln'”. As soon as I tried to question
someone about what they had said, they would ignore me. The only purple Lincoln
that I knew of in Gamma Supplies was the one driven by Joel Gitz who was the original
owner of Delta Oil. Joe was now retained as a consultant and adviser, and he drove
a deep plumb colored Lincoln.

The suggestions were made to imply that I was going to get a company car. I did not expect a company car, and I assumed the comments and suggestions were just
another form of harassment to drive me out of the company. But what I didn't fully
appreciate was that I had been abused so badly that I was loosing control of my
rational thought processes. I also didn't realize at that moment that causing me to
loose control of my rational thought process was the exact purpose of all of the
harassment.

By late July I hardly spoke with Darth and my dislike for him and his practices
had grown to a hate. I was still having trouble with Jeff and Buzz in the lab and
just as he had done with Ravi and John, he ignored the problem. In addition, now
Darth was taking actions aimed at thwarting my every move in the laboratory.

“Rapid Set” was now at least equal to “Fast Set” in performance, yet Gamma was
having little success in the field. I surveyed the sales results and came to the conclusion that there was no well defined plan of attack to introduce the product into the market place. I drew up a memo outlining the problem and proposed a strategy for careful control and planning of all future “Rapid Set” tests. The memo went to Al Jordan, Vice President of Sales, Jay Wells, Carl Host and
Darth Korey. I received no verbal response from any of the recipients. Several
days later, I walked into the laboratory and there was a five gallon pail of “Rapic
Set” sitting on the lab bench.

“What this?” I asked Jeff

“Oh Darth is sending that to Caterpillar foundry for a test run.”

“Who is running the test and when is it going to be?” I asked.

Bill responded. “He's just sending it down there for them to test when they get
the chance. There's nothing definite.”

I was angry. Two days after I outlined a plan for conducting successful “Rapic
Set” tests, Darth was flaunting his disregard in my face. It seemed like a deliberate act to irritate me. In addition, I never was able to find out if the trial run had been carried out or what results were obtained. I never was able ascertain if the test run had been conducted and the results of such a test were deliberately withheld from me.

A second “Rapic Set” test was carried out a couple of weeks later without my
knowledge. I was sitting home one evening when I got a call from Jay Wells.
He said he was in Louisiana running a “Rapid Set” test that day and the results had
been terrible. I had not even been informed of the test and when I inquired about it, I found the test had been run under the worst possible conditions. I told Jay that the test shouldn't have been run and that under the conditions he used, it was bound to fail. I asked why he hadn't discussed the trial with me first. But all Jay kept saying was, “What am I going to tell them tomorrow? What am I going to say about why it didn't work?”

Suddenly the failure had become my problem. I gave him a few suggestions and
then hung up. I went to the family room and two scotches to try to calm down.
Jay had reported that he had run the trial unprepared, and now he was calling me
for an explanation for his poor results. My strategy to have successful “Rapid Set”
test trials had been designed to avoid exactly that situation.

In the confusion of everyday events, a very dramatic, yet almost unnoticeable
change had taken place in John Mason's behavior. John was now very quiet, reserved
and barely visible. When he was present, he no longer was the loud-mouth author-
itarian, but rather he was taciturn. His relationship with me became very distant and there were stretches of time when I barely saw him. Quietly and slowly, John had vanished as my antagonist and Buzz had grown to replace him. The dramatic
change in John's behavior baffled me and gave more credence to my belief that his
initial absurdly aggressive behavior had been planned and orchestrated.

In early August, Darth came in my office , sat down and started a dialog.

“Russ, I was planning to make some changes next January, but I decided to
move them up and make them now. I think it's time you get some stripes. Your
going to become the Technical Director. There will be some other changes too,
but they don't effect you. The changes will be made at the end of the month”. Darth continued on but I really didn't pay any attention.

After he left my office, I sat there debating what to do. If I accepted the “promotion" and the title, I would be lending credence to their story that they had treated me well and given me all that they had promised while at the same time if I rejected the promotion, they would have more reason to jump all over me and create more guilt and negative feelings. In fact, this was a classic "no-win" situation.

Film/Screen Play writer wanted.

The big event at Gamma Supplies in July was “Fish Day” which was a trip to a fish hatchery just north of Chicago. The invited people fished for a short time, drank and then had a picnic. It was a big outing for the Gamma Supplies Chicago area people because it gave the workers located at the plant a chance to meet and talk with the sales people from different areas. The people from the Chicago plant were invited by invitation only and I, of course, as head of the laboratory expected to be invited. A week before the event I still had not received an invitation, so I mentioned that fact to Jay. Jay acted surprised and said he was sure I was suppose to go and that he would talk to Darth about it. By now, I was tired of the useless confrontations with Darth and felt if Jay talked to him, it might be best. I also approached Carl about going to the “Fish Day”, but he said it was for only for salesman. Since Jay never did get back to me, I was effectively excluded from a company event. Ralph Sampson, Jay Wells and the rest of my management group attended.

Since I had resigned myself to the fact that I would be leaving Gamma Supplies, I had drawn up some plans and a timetable for a sequence of events. On thing I planned was to make some improvements to the house to increase its resales value. One project was to build an elevated deck off the family room which could be accessed through sliding glass doors.

To build the deck I needed some three foot lengths of galvanized steel pipe
which cost about $50.00 at a hardware store. I planned to do the work on th following Saturday. On the proceeding Wednesday, I went to the Gamma Supplies plant
workshop and found the tubing I needed. I then went to Bill James, the plant
manager and told him what I needed and asked if I could have the scrap pipe in the
workshop and if he could have it cut in three foot lengths. He said the pipe was
scrap and he saw no problem getting it cut into three foot lengths. I emphasized that
I needed the pipe by Friday and thanked him for his help. On Thursday I checked
with the man in the workshop and he confirmed that Bill had talked to him and he
would have the three foot lengths ready Friday. I caught Bill in the hall the next day and again emphasized that I needed the pipe before the weekend. He assured me
that there was no problem. Friday afternoon I went to the workshop and found no
one around. The pipe I wanted was lying on the ground uncut where it had been. A
cursory look around the shop revealed no suitable pipe cutting equipment that I
could use. Since I couldn't find Bill, I left work without the pipe.

That weekend I purchased the necessary pipe cut in three foot lengths and laid the
foundation for the deck. As usual at Gamma Supplies, I had been promised something and nothing had been delivered.

The following Monday, Bill popped his head in my office bright and early and
said, “Hey, your lengths of pipe are in the shop all cut. Do you still want them?”

As I sat there I couldn't help thinking he knew I no longer needed the pipe.
Politely I said “sure”. I took the pipe for use as fencing, but I couldn't help but feel the delay in getting the cut pipe had been deliberate.

Coincidences, Coincidences, Coincidences

Two other coincidental incidents happened that June which were equally perplexing. Thefirst involved my old friend in sales, Paul Johnson. As the humid weather of summer beset upon the mid-west, problems involving “Rapid Set” were arising. Darth arranged for me to go with Paul and a local salesman to visit some foundries in Iowa and observe the problem first hand. I knew what the problem was and knew how to solve it, but I also knew the solution would potentially cause more conflict with other Better Supplies' patents. I also believed Darth knew what was wrong, but I had to go through the discovery process myself and come up with the solution. That way I couldn't say that Darth told me the answer and what to do.

The trip to the Iowa foundries was pretty routine. The problem was self-evident and I assured Paul and the local salesman that I knew how to correct the situation. That evening in Iowa, we were having a couple of drinks when I mentioned to Paul that I had seen one of Allis Chamler's people who had been at Paul's Christmas dinner at a Waylon Jennings concert in Chicago the previous week. Paul was surprised that I had recognized the man, but acknowledged that the particular person did like country music. At the time I couldn't understand why Paul was so surprised that I had recognized and remembered the man and the situation where I had met him. What I didn't realize is that all the stress I had been deliberately subjected to since I had been at Gamma Supplies was in part to reduce and wipe out memory. This would become more evident as time went on.

The next day I returned to Gamma Supplies and told Darth what had to be done to solve the “Rapid Set” problem and that it might cause more conflict with the Better Supplies' patents. Darth quickly rationalized the patent conflict away and said to make the necessary changes. I made sure Darth knew of the potential conflict and that he approved of the changes. He seemed totally unconcerned about the potential conflict.

That afternoon Ralph Sampson came into my office and told me that he, Joah Rilley, the company comptroller, and Dave Lipton were going over the Full Sails for drinks to celebrate Dave's's Birthday. He thought I might want to join them. I thought it was strange to invite me to join them since I had not been to the Full Sails with Gamma Supplies people for several months, but I said I would be glad to join them. I went in and found Josh Rilley there by himself. I joined him for a drink and as soon as I sat down at the bar, Waylon Jennings' song “Good Hearted Woman” came on over the stereo system that had been on. All the time I had been in the Full Sails, I had never heard a Waylon Jennings song and I couldn't even remember ever hearing a country and western song playing. Now the day after I mentioned Waylon Jennings to Paul, Waylon music is played the minute I walk in the door. The thing seemed orchestrated, but it seemed so absurd and there was no reason I could see for orchestrating such a bizarre coincidence. I finished my drink, talked awhile with Josh and then left. Ralph Sampson and Dave Lipton never did show up.

The Cover Up - Use Terrorism

The management meeting started with Darth passing out a short IQ/creativity test
which can be found in most brain puzzle books. The test was a series of mathematic
operations in which the conventional meaning of mathematic signs had been changed. For example, the instructions may state that the + sign means to multiply instead of adding thenumbers. Thus, in a series of math operations you have to remember what the new mean-ing for each sign is. Since I had seen the test before and knew what it was, I deliberately plodded through it and made sure I was the last of the group to complete it. As long as everyone was playing for a dummy, I thought it was best to live up to the image. After the test, we went on to cover the assigned topic.

A discussion of trust in management arose and I related a story of how I had worked for a person for 2 years without missing a day of work. Then one day I became ill and forgot to call in to tell the office I would not be coming in that day. I was home sleeping in the bedroom when the phone in the kitchen rang. I managed to get out of bed and make it to where the phone was located just in time to have the person calling hang up on me. It turned out it had been my boss calling me and I related how it really bothered me that my boss didn't trust me and had to call, wake me up, get me out of bed and then hang up on me. I said it was really an annoying experience.

The next day at work, I was working in the laboratory and my phone rang in my office. I made a mad dash to my phone, picked it up and heard a dial tone. The party had hung up!, It could have been a coincidence except that this was to become a routine the rest of my stay at Delta Oil. Usually, the calls would come at times when I was far removed from my office. I just accepted the calls as part of the planned harassment to drive me out of the company. It didn't even occur to me at the time that all other managers had their calls answered by the company switchboard operator when they were not in their office. What I did not understand was why “they” waited until I had mentioned it before that form of harassment began. Everyone knows that hanging up the phone on someone is highly irritating. I couldn't understand why that form of irritation was done to coincide with any
comments I made at the management meeting. I never consider the possibility that someone wanted to make me look paranoid or even worse, to make me paranoid.