Keith Skues and the 'miracle' of Caroline ....

When we began to expose the virgin birth of Caroline, the true believers who never question anything, all reacted in horror. It was as if we have started off a new Scopes' 'Monkey Trial'.

For those who know nothing about that event which disputed words in the 'Holy Bible', here is a quick overview:

So we wondered, just have far back in time do you have to go to find the truth about the birth of Radio Caroline?

We flipped open our copy of Keith Skues weighty work claiming copyrights in 1968, 1994 and 2009, so you would think that by 2009 Keith had got his facts straight, wouldn't you? You would be wrong!

There are his 'magic words' on page 11 of 'Pop Went the Pirates II':

"..... the conscientious Ronan O'Rahilly was making progress fast. He had already found seven millionaire backers including ..... Mr Jimmy Ross."

So Paul Rusling was in solid head-in-the-sand company when he made the same claim in his 2019 'bible'.

How about that massive 1996 doorstopper by Mike Leonard called 'From International Waters'? On page 61, Mike says that Allan Crawford met Ronan O'Rahilly as early as 1962, which contradicts both Allan Crawford and Ian Cowper Ross who said that it was around March 1963, and the connection was made via "mutual acquaintances living in the then ultra-fashionable King's Road area of Chelsea." Now we are back to King's Road, again. Mike also invents a bogus history of Planet Productions Limited and claims that it was a 'holding company' used by Ronan O'Rahilly to raise money from the father of Ian Ross who Mike turns into ".... a venture capital broker in the City of London." But in a quick thumb-through we could not find any mention of Jimmy!

In 1992, academic Robert Chapman wrote on page 62 of his book 'Selling the Sixties': "Radio Caroline's original board of directors included C.E. Ross, owner of the Ross group of companies ...." Well, at least he didn't turn C.E. Ross into 'Jimmy Ross', even though he did invent a business identity for C.E. who he described as the father of Ian Ross. Later in the book he refers to C.E. again and makes it look as though he and John Sheffield of Norcros more-or-less own the controlling shares in Radio Caroline.

These fantasy stories, one built upon another are now so firmly ingrained that they are akin to religious dogma, and to attack these myths is like starting a new "Monkey Trial" with true believers who go ape wild. To then strip Ronan O'Rahilly of his Teflon coat and reveal him as a total fraud and liar, well, that is akin to attacking the person of Jesus Christ. After all, Hans Knot wrote that the Holy Bible was on the same level of necessary reading as Paul Rusling's 'bible'!