OEM 202 REVIEW ....

Our primary interest in Radio Caroline relates to the period prior to 1964 which ends in 1967, and therefore we skimmed the current edition of OEM 202 for information relating to our research.

On page 52 of the 'Terry Bate Interview' by Ray Clark, there is a casual remark attributed to Terry Bate about "a guy called Ross".

He has no first name, but Terry Bate says that he "had a big house in Surrey and a Rolls Royce", and that he was "an English businessman who owned a chunk." (sic)

The time frame of this reference, says Terry Bate, is when Philip Solomon "bought  a chunk of Caroline. He puts some money in."

On page 41 is another reference to a person named Ross. This is in the interview with Mike Plumley, who says: "My introduction to Radio Caroline - apart from being a teenage listener in the 60's - was when I met Ian Ross, one of the first investors in the station."

Mike Plumley then adds: "Ian and I were in the clothing business together ...."

Because Paul Rusling has previously stolen some of our some of our research involving Ian Ross, and then twisted it to fit into his own fictitious narrative which he then produced as a vanity publication, it is necessary to address these two references now appearing in OEM 202.

The Terry Bate reference is tied to the involvement of Philip Solomon who made his primary appearance after Allan James Crawford pulled out. It has been falsely claimed that Project Atlanta Limited was broke and that Ronan O'Rahilly bought it out, which is when Philip Solomon is supposed to have entered the picture.

But Project Atlanta Limited did not go broke and Ronan O'Rahilly had no money to buy out anything. In fact, the only company that was actual running Radio Caroline in the UK was Project Atlanta Limited with the assistance of Hengown Limited, and both had been set up when Crawford entered the picture. There never was a company called Caroline Sales Limited, and that fact got Ronan O'Rahilly personally into trouble with the UK Board of Trade who investigated the entire Radio Caroline corporate structure.

So what of "Mr Ross" and "Ian Ross"?

Well, herein the myth-makers have dreamed-up all manner of rubbish and polluted Wikipedia and other sites with their nonsense - the same kind of nonsense spewed out to the gullible by Paul Rusling - for a fee. A true confidence trick.

Years ago we paid a private investigator to tell us who Ian Ross really is. We have told you this before: Ian Ross is Ian Cowper Ross and his father is Charles Edward Ross and his mother's first name is Phyllis.

Ian Cowper Ross was born in London and later, when his father moved into a house at Hindhead which had been part of a bigger estate which was then broken up by the owner, Charles Edward Ross moved in - for a time.

UPDATE! Editorial Correction since writing and posting the original copy: Charles Edward Ross was employed by a dry-cleaning company that was originally based in Scotland, and which after extensive franchising it moved its home office to Chelsea, London. The company floated its shares via an old-established merchant bank called Close Brothers. Its later equipment seems to have come from a manufacturer of dry-cleaning equipment that sheltered under the holding company called Norcros, which was owned by John Sheffield and he called his operation Norcros. That name came from the combination of the names of two English villages where near to Sheffield's home.

Norcros Limited was a financial hub which Sheffield used to raise collective capital by using the combined assets of several companies. For a time, Norcros also absorbed a Birmingham company called Jensen Cars Limited when they were in financial trouble. As far as we now know, there was no business connection between the Jensen company and Charles Edward Ross.

​Norcros also had a subsidiary company called Southcros. Jocelyn Stevens bought shares in that company and became one of its directors. Stevens married the daughter of Sheffield. It seems more than possible that both Sheffield and Stevens knew of Charles Edward Ross because of the dry-cleaning business connection to Norcros.

​This familiarity probably accounts for the way in which Ian Cowper Ross came to have control of an expensive Jensen car, even though he was still in his teens and totally irresponsible. Charles' teenage son Ian first wrecked a vintage motorbike, and then he wrecked a Jensen car in a head-on collision. He almost lost his foot in the accident, and after surgery his friends called him 'Flipper', due to its deformed state.

Ian Cowper Ross also ended up in court as a result of his reckless driving. His dad, from what we have uncovered, seems to have also had his appearances in court by driving a Rolls Royce under the influence of alcohol. In other words, he was a drunk driver. But in that brief window of opportunity where all that glitters is not gold, and where appearances are deceptive, C. E. Ross moved into a big house in Hindhead near Haslemere, Surrey.

that big house and at the time, he had access to a Rolls Royce and a Jensen car. It made Charles Edward Ross look as if he was very wealthy, and one of his two sons named Ian, made the most of this deception. Even the Jensen car company was disgorged from Norcros and it eventually went into liquidation. Ian's parents seem to have parted company and Charles Edward ended back in Haslemere, intestate.

Now what of Ian Cowper (Flipper) Ross?

Well about the time that Allan James Crawford exited from Caroline, and Philip Solomon moved in, which was in the same sort of time frame that the mv Mi Amigo ran aground at Frinton, Ian left and went into a series of boutique businesses with several other people. In other words he flitted about London.

However, the main driving force (pardon the pun) in Ian's mind, was a quest to get married into aristocracy, and this is exactly what Ian managed to do - twice. Once via his wife's family, and once into the family attached to his sister-in-law. It was by these connections that a most bizarre chain of events unraveled which anoraks have never heard from anyone, but which explain a lot that they don't know about Radio Caroline.

Now an update on 'Dial 999 for Caroline'.

We thought that our investigation had more-or-less turned up all that could be discovered, but we were wrong.

In addition to the story of Ian Cowper Ross which will be explained in the book, we have now had the fortune of receiving unpublished documents that help to explain another mystery involving Texas and the pre-Caroline story of the mv Mi Amigo.

Not only did this trail lead us back to Texas, but it also led us to take deeper look at the relationship between the Mi Amigo and Robert Kennedy, and the murder of his brother on November 22, 1963.

But there is more!

In an interview by Dave Cash on BBC Radio Kent, Tony Benn was asked point-blank about our work relating to Herbert W. Armstrong; the European Union and the offshore radio stations. Benn played coy and dumb. He said "I did not know that" and remarked that "nothing would surprise me".

Well Tony Benn came with his own American baggage that did not hail from Texas, but from Ohio.

Her name is Caroline!

While Caroline Benn, a US citizen, tried to keep her head down and out of the newspaper headlines, it was Caroline Benn who linked to JFK politics and it was Caroline Benn who led the charge into wrecking the Tory hold on UK government during the UK General Election of October 1964.

We are collecting more evidence and it will also be forthcoming in the book.

Like the man once said, "You ain't heard nothing, yet!"