The Playboy Shadow Mansions, the CIA & Drug Trafficking [PART 1]

It's time to fire up an old-school flowchart...

I have so much information to give you that, for the first time, I’m not even going to write an introduction, so put on your wetsuit because we are about to dive in. (By the way, I think this is one of the best series I have ever written, so if you like my work, you should love this one.)

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When you hear the phrase “The Playboy Mansion,” what do you think of? If you’re like me, you think of this guy.

This pool.

These babes.

And this building.

But what if I told you that the mansion in California was only the “mother lodge,” per se? That’s right. This mansion was just the head location. Its smaller sister, located in Chicago, Illinois, was referred to as “Mansion East.” The Chicago home was actually the first mansion, purchased by Hefner in 1959 for $400,000.

When the Los Angeles, California, mansion was purchased in 1971, Chicago became the second most important. We will come back to Mansion East in a little while.

Would you be surprised to learn that those were not the only two locations? Operating under the guidance of Mansion West (Los Angeles) and Mansion East (Chicago) were what those on the inside refer to as the “shadow mansions.” The shadow mansions were strategically placed across the nation. These locations were run by men who were said to be Hugh Hefner’s “close associates.”

Here is one of the shadow mansions. It was located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Although now abandoned, you can see how extravagant it once was.

Insiders report there were as many as 13 locations within the network. I like to make flowcharts when I research, so let’s fire one up.

Just looking at that image, this looks like a structured business or like a franchise operation. The question is, what exactly was the business? Playboy magazine? It needed 15 mansions across the nation to operate one publication? That seems odd. I have always been under the impression that models were flown out to the California mansion to shoot for the mag. In fact, that is the story that has been published in the magazine itself, so what exactly did the 14 additional mansions do? I knew there was more to the story, but I wasn’t prepared for the rabbit hole (pun intended) that I was about to fall into.

DRUG TRAFFICKING

All of the mansions were filled with drugs - and I don’t mean a little pot and some party pills; I mean major drugs.

There was so much drug activity that the Feds believed Hef was involved in an immense cocaine running operation. You see, this is why the Chicago location was so important. Chicago’s O’Hare airport had just opened for commercial traffic in 1955, four years prior to the purchase of Mansion East. The airport quickly became a main importing and exporting hub of the United States. Mansion East happened to be conveniently located a straight shot down the expressway from the airport, and transit between the two locations took only one hour. In a matter of time, Hugh Hefner would invest in a private jet.

Bobbie Arnstein, Hugh Hefner’s executive secretary and confidante, was arrested for distribution and conspiring to transport cocaine. She would ultimately be convicted and ordered to serve a 15-year sentence. But, for unknown reasons, she was freed pending appeal. While awaiting her appeal, she was found dead in a hotel room. The case was quickly labeled a drug overdose suicide. This is because a short suicide note was said to have been discovered by police. They claim the letter essentially stated that Hugh Hefner was innocent, and she didn’t want to testify against him. The case was closed.

Bobbie’s friends now say this is not the real story. They claim Bobbie was prepared to testify against the Playboy empire, and, being Hef’s right hand, she knew too much. Those who knew her best further state that she did not kill herself.

Sondra Theodore, Playmate of the Month, July 1977, states she was a drug mule for Hugh Hefner and adds that Bobbi was too.

Interestingly, this is running concurrently with the cocaine boom of the 1960s. This was also while the Vietnam War was occurring. As soon as I heard that, I immediately thought of the CIA’s involvement. If you don’t remember, amongst other things, they were running drug operations in Laos, which is this entire area:

This is when they were using their covert airlines, such as Air America, to take heroin out of the region. It seemed odd to me that while the CIA was running a massive drug operation, the Playboy empire, with its 15 mansions placed strategically across America, was under investigation for running a massive drug operation. I couldn’t help but wonder, “Was this entire thing with Hugh Hefner and Playboy nothing more than a CIA operation? Are all of these Shadow Mansion operators CIA assets? Did taxes fund the establishment of these mansions?”

Although this might sound unbelievable, if you read my eBook Evergreen and the Black Budget Operation, you already know about the vast array of shell companies and front companies the CIA controlled and how they worked. Is it possible that Hugh Hefner and Playboy as a whole were one of the many? If that were true, it would change history as we know it. Such a scandalous secret would require some digging…

CASTLE BANK

I came across a rather mind-blowing article that was published by the Washington Post in 1980. It was called CIA Helped Quash Major, Star-Studded Tax Evasion Case. The article is about a bank in the Bahamas called Castle Bank & Trust. Let me quote from it,

“For years IRS agents had been trying, without much success, to obtain documentary proof that Americans were using offshore banks in the Caribbean to hide income and evade taxes… So one night in 1973, while an official of the Castle Bank was having dinner at a posh Key Biscayne, Florida, restaurant with a woman an IRS informant let himself into her apartment, took the banker’s briefcase and gave it to two IRS agents. After photographing the briefcase’s contents, the agents had the briefcase returned to the woman’s apartment and, for the time being at least, the banker was none the wiser. The photographed documents were a revelation. One of them was a computer printout of the bank’s account holders -- some 308 names, including not only nationally known U.S. businessmen and entertainers but quite a few well-known organized crime figures as well. The account holders controlled about a quarter of a billion dollars in assets.”

This was going to be the single biggest tax-evasion case in IRS history…. Until it was suspended by the IRS commissioner, Donald Alexander. He stated the search was illegal; therefore, it could not be used as evidence. The DOJ quickly dropped the case, and so did a federal judge. It was over; there would be no prosecution against Castle Bank.

It would later come to light that the reason the case was suddenly dropped wasn’t actually the illegal search; it was the Central Intelligence Agency. Specifically, they told the DOJ and other government entities that this case must vanish because it was a matter of national security. Why would that be? Why on earth would a shady Bahamian bank hiding funds be a matter of national security? Well, it’s because Castle Bank & Trust was founded in 1962 by Burton Kanter, a tax lawyer, and Paul Helliwell, a CIA officer. Its entire purpose was to be “the conduit for millions of dollars earmarked by the CIA for the funding of clandestine operations.” Ah, ok, so this was the CIA’s bank! The next question is, who are the customers of the bank? Surely they must be CIA affiliates. I mean, if not for the CIA, how would someone learn about the bank to begin with? If not for the CIA, how would they open an account at the secret bank and begin partaking in offshore transactions? It sure seems like exposing the customer list of the bank means exposing CIA assets. Let's check out some of the names and see if we find anything eyebrow-raising…

One member was Chicago’s Pritzker family. They were Jews from the Ukraine who founded the Pritzker & Pritzker law firm in Chicago and co-founded Hyatt Hotels Corporation. They own a share of the Royal Caribbean International cruise line as well as Braniff Airlines. They also oversaw all kinds of trust funds and charities. They have made so much money that they have been consistently ranked among the top 10 on Forbes magazine’s “America’s Richest Families” list since 1982. Members of the family have held assorted government positions.

Then there was actor Tony Curtis, who was from a Jewish immigrant family. Tony acted in many movies, including Spartacus. He is the father of actress Jamie Lee Curtis.

Next was Detroit, Michigan, land developer Arnold Aronoff. Arnold was the former vice president of the Edward C Levy Company in Detroit. Mr. Aronoff pled guilty to defrauding Penn Dixie Industries of over $3 million. According to the internet, he is now an angel investor and land developer in Michigan.

The list also included the former rock group Creedence Clearwater, which was signed to Fantasy Records, owned by Saul Zaentz, a Jew from Poland.

The next account holder at the CIA’s offshore bank was Morris Barney “Moe” Dalitz, a Jewish American mobster who was one of the major figures who shaped Las Vegas. He opened, amongst many other things, the Stardust Resort & Casino.

Moe Dalitz wasn’t the only Moe on the list. There was also Moe Kleinman, an Ohio mobster and bootlegger who was associated with Moe Dalitz. He is referred to in the book “Morris “Moe” Kleinman, an Ohio Mobster” as a “Jewish hoodlum” who “was among a triumvirate of Mafioso that controlled Cleveland’s underworld into the mid 1950s.”

Then there was Penthouse magazine owner Robert Guccione. He was known to own one of the biggest mansions in Manhattan. He was so rich that in 1982, Guccione was listed in the Forbes 400 wealth list. If you’re not familiar, Penthouse was known for being the first pornographic magazine. It showed fully exposed private parts and even anuses. Here’s a fun fact for you: In the early 1970s, Guccione invested around $45 million in the construction of Haludovo Palace Hotel, a luxury hotel resort in Yugoslavia. When the hotel opened, Saddam Hussein was one of its first guests. So the guy showing assholes in magazines was linked to Hussein and was a member of the CIA’s bank? Right alongside the mob, the entertainment industry, and politicians who owned transportation companies?

The last name that we have access to is our guest of honor, Mr. Hugh Hefner. Yep, Mr. Hefner was housing millions offshore in a Bahamian bank that was established by the CIA to fund their clandestine operations. What are the odds? I can find no other way to explain this than by affirmatively stating Mr. Hefner was part of CIA operations. This means the entire Playboy network, along with its drug running, was [most likely] affiliated with, if not entirely controlled by, the CIA. This also means it was funded by our tax dollars. And is it of interest that Penthouse, which we are told was a huge competitor of Playboy, was also one of the few members of the CIA’s offshore laundering bank? Coincidence? Or controlled opposition? And just how much money are we talking about?

According to an old Vanity Fair article, Playboy was founded in 1953 (two years before Chicago’s airport opened for commercial traffic). The first issue, published that December, featured a previously unpublished nude photograph of Marilyn Monroe (who many believe was a CIA affiliate). History claims over 50,000 copies sold for 50 cents per piece. The first Playboy club opened in 1960 in Chicago, Illinois. Come 1965, there were 13 clubs that grossed nearly 20 million dollars. The following year, there were 15 clubs, and they were generating almost 25 million, and those are just the clubs. Those figures do not count magazine sales. Let’s go back to Castle Bank for a moment.

When Castle Bank “collapsed,” the CIA kept its operations going using a new bank, Nugan Hand Bank in Australia. The bank was staffed by retired United States military and intelligence officers, including William Colby. Colby was a CIA fellow from the 1940s until the 1970s. Not only was he made Director of the CIA, but he was also interviewed by Playboy, thus appearing in the magazine. (Fun fact: Playboy magazine published no less than 405 articles related to the CIA.)

Regarding Colby, according to a document called “Affidavit of William Case,” it was Colby himself who approved the smuggling of cocaine into the USA. Per the same document, the drug trafficking was carried out in conjunction with Bill Clinton and Bill Weld. Weld was part of the Trilateral Commission and the World Economic Forum. In the affidavit, Case names many colluders, including John Poindexter (naval officer and Department of Defense official), Robert McFarlane (National Security Advisor for President Ronald Reagan), Oliver North (US Marines, Iran-Contra), in addition to the CIA, NSA, and Army Security Agency. So that is who was overseeing the transport of the cocaine, which Hugh Hefner’s Playboy empire was a part of.

Another member of the new bank was Paul Helliwell. This guy was the president of Castle Bank & Trust prior to it going out of business. He was also the director of Sea Supply, Inc., Civil Air Transport, and Air America. All of these companies were owned by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Then there was Earl P. Yates, a high-ranking admiral in the Navy. This guy had a senior position in the Nugan-Hand Bank.

Edwin Black was said to be an account holder at Nugan. Mr. Black is the son of Jewish Holocaust survivors from Poland. Like Hugh Hefner, he was from Chicago. As an investigative journalist, he produced a large variety of content which appeared in leading papers including the Tribune, the Daily News, the Sun-Times, and Chicago Today. Since 2014, Black has been touring the country fighting “racial injustice” against Jews.

That is just some of what was going on at the CIA’s Australian bank. Sure is a whole lotta military involved in these evil operations, eh? Do you know who was in the military? Hugh Hefner! He was in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946. During this time and after, Army high-up positions were staffed by Freemasons. We know this from one of the top Freemasons-turned-whistleblowers, James “Jim” Shaw. In his book The Deadly Deception: Freemasonry Exposed by one of Its Top Leaders, he talks about entering the Army and noticing the positions of importance were filled by men wearing Freemason rings. On page 17, Shaw wrote, “Toward the end of basic training, two men from my unit were to be selected for Officer Candidate School to be trained as officers and commissioned second lieutenants. I was not selected, and the two who were selected were both Masons. I thought about my four years of ROTC, my age, my experience and wondered why I had not been selected. I didn’t realize then that these men had been selected by Masons because they were Masons. In later years, I would understand very well.” Reality is, you cannot get anywhere unless you are in the club or support it. Hugh Hefner was in the organization overseen by Freemasons. If I had to guess, I’d say this was when he became part of the club. Let’s add what we learned onto the flowchart:

THE “CREDIBLE” MASTURBATION MATERIAL

“Playboy’s strategy was fourfold: (1) to sexually stimulate readers, (2) to encourage orgasms by normalising masturbation, (3) to discourage marriage, and (4) to glorify promiscuity/recreational sex,” but, for the plan to proceed without skepticism regarding the innerworkings of the organization or its true intentions, the magazine needed credibility. For this, the “trusted” men of society, along with some esteemed women who held immense power in one way or another, were deployed. Jimmy Carter, Bertrand Russell, Ayn Rand, Bill Cosby, Fidel Castro, Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly, Jackie Gleason, Jim Garrison, Jimmy Hoffa, Joe Namath, Johnny Carson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and even US Supreme Court Justices Douglas and Goldberg wrote content that appeared within the magazine. Yep, Supreme Court judges wrote pieces for a magazine designed to be a self-pleasure aid. Now that you stop and think about it, isn’t that hugely deranged? In my opinion, the whole thing is absolutely mind-blowing, but this is just the beginning of the story. The really important stuff isn’t the shadow mansions running drugs and money laundering for the CIA, it’s far worse…

NEXT READ: The Gay Pedophile Network - The Untold Story of Playboy and The CIA

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• Disclaimer: The Playboy organization denies all accusations. Playboy / Hefner deny any direct knowledge of Castle Bank. They acknowledge the account was there but claim the account was there due to some business transaction that they did not thoroughly investigate. The organization denies any relationship with the CIA.

• Note: The flow chart shown in this series spans 30 years

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