Was the EAR.... CORN?

[thetriplelindy]

I’ve searched for this information on both this board and others, and believe its new information. I at least might add some additional insight if it’s been discussed elsewhere...



I was looking at the AFC sticker recently with the assumption that the witness may have incorrectly recalled a good portion of its detail, yet still captured aspects of its intent or symbolism. The symbolism that was most obvious to me was some type of military air or space reconnaissance. In one of those “trips down the rabbit hole” we all take with this case, I wound up reading Air Force Special Projects Production Facility History, Vol 1, in the NRO reading room. On page 1-5, I came across the following sentence:



“On October 1963, the Controlled Range Network (CORN) was established as a program designed to support the imagery analysis task…”



In a nutshell, CORN was responsible for maintaining both fixed and mobile resolution targets for satellite imagery calibration via nine mobile field units. “Home base” for the California unit was in Lancaster, CA, as of 1970, but I haven’t been able to confirm if it relocated at any point after. Fixed targets were permanently painted on airfields, military bases, and in desolate and open spaces. Mobile targets were dispatched to a specific area “on call” and as needed. You can see one such fixed target as it exists today at Travis AFB here.



There’s a good amount of CORN related material in the NRO and CIA reading rooms. There’s also a great book called Our Mission Revealed, by Lloyd R. Spanberger, which provides context to the program and its secrecy. To give context as it relates to the EARONS investigation, satellite reconnaissance was so strategically important to US defense, that the “fact of” a program wasn’t formally acknowledged by a President until Jimmy Carter in 1978. In Spanberger’s own words, Air Force Special Projects were “Black Operations” and “beyond Top Secret” (p. 154 – 155). Personally, I haven’t come across any classified documentation that was made public prior to 2012. It’s very much possible (and I’d guess even likely) that Air Force Investigators at the time of EARONS attacks, and following for decades, had no indication a CORN program was in existence.



The documents in the reading rooms I’ve found most useful in regards to CORN are:

• Volume 1 of the Air Force Special Projects history I mentioned above. Volumes 2 and 3 have content, as well, (and those are also searchable in the NRO reading room) but most of the CORN discussion is in this link to Volume 1. www.nro.gov/foia/declass/historical/15-02.PDF
  
• Controlled Range Network Standard Operating Procedures. www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP03-00121R000100010005-0.pdf
• CORN ‘73/’74. www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP03-00121R000100010002-3.pdf

I’m not fully convinced myself, but there may be a connection between EARONS and this CORN program. I wanted to share the information with this community. Here’s my thinking as to why EARONS may have been involved with the CORN program in some capacity…



Most important, it’s called CORN (duh).

• CORN was seen on the perp’s jacket as he was caught unprepared on July 5, 1979. When questioned by investigators, and discussing if it may have been “coach” or another more common word to see on a jacket, the witness stood by his account of having seen “CORN”. That said, it wasn’t a resounding affirmation – according to Shelby, CORN was settled on as “being possible, but only possible”.
  
  

The CORN Program would explain a lot about EARONS chosen locations and reconnaissance capability.

• Most important, CORN makes neighborhood reconnaissance the EARONS job. CORN teams were required to mobilize to their assigned location days prior to mobile target deployment. At that time, they would scope out the best area in which to lay the target.
  
  
• This also may explain why EARONS concentrated on certain neighborhoods and would return to those neighborhoods for multiple attacks. In theory, EARONS would have maps of the neighborhoods available, prescribed entry and departure points, known locations to stage materials, and possibly targets for his illicit attacks already picked out from his time in that neighborhood for legitimate CORN business.
  
• It also provides a good explanation for EARONS attack locations having proximity to schools, fields, and other open spaces. These would have made appropriate sites for mobile CORN target deployments (no tree cover, sufficient size, etc.).
  
• Finally, there’s a chance it may explain access to wiretaps (not that that’s ever been confirmed in this case, but there has been speculation given EARONS knowledge of daily routines, vacation schedules, new work schedules, etc.). There may have been enough of a “need to know” of the daily routines and other “goings on” of neighbors in these locations, that the CORN team may have had an opportunity to listen-in on phone conversations in the area in which they would be deploying targets or another team or agency may have done that on their behalf and made reports available. There would be a lot of important information gathered by listening in on conversations to determine when folks would be out of their homes and less likely to spot a team of Air Force personnel unfurling giant canvas targets in open spaces near their properties. (To go another step, one could even speculate that EARONS superiors in this program may have known he was breaking and entering properties, but gave permission or turned a blind eye to the practice, given nothing of value was stolen and it enabled the team to collect the best information on each neighborhood…)
  
  

Having his face exposed while wearing a CORN jacket, may explain why the July 5, 1979 attack was so fundamentally disruptive and necessitated a change in location for EARONS future attacks.

• During that one incident, EARONS gave away his own personal identity and may have given away the name of a top-secret intelligence program. It was after this attack that EARONS moved south to Santa Barbara and Orange Counties. One could speculate as to the reason why this relocation may have happened. For example, EARONS may have reported the incident to a superior, as the standard operating procedure (SOP) confirms was the practice for CORN personnel at that time, and was fired as a consequence (he may have even lied and said he had been spotted in the jacket while in the process of a lesser crime, like breaking and entering, for example). Alternatively, EARONS may have just decided that the encounter was “too close” and that he would cease this method of piggybacking off of the CORN reconnaissance when executing future attacks. Whatever it was, EARONS moved his attacks to Goleta and never returned to Northern California.
  
  
• Further, one could argue that at the Santa Barbara and Orange County crime scenes, EARONS relied on features of the landscape to more crudely mask his attacks because he didn’t have the same CORN reconnaissance information available that he had been using previously to maneuver through targeted neighborhoods with stealth. In Goleta for example, EARONS relied on the coverage of the San Jose Creek and trails “known to locals” to approach and depart his crime scenes. In Irvine he had access to orchards to do the same. He was no longer attacking the middle of neighborhoods as directly as when he had been in northern Sacramento, for example. This may suggest he had broken with the CORN program in 1979, following the July 5 attack, and no longer had access to an abundance of neighborhood reconnaissance material on which to base his crimes. That could have slowed the frequency of crimes, as well, in that he was no longer able to attack with the confidence of evading discovery via CORN reconnaissance and overall program secrecy.
  
  
  

One thing I haven’t been able to verify myself but believe may be true, is that the type of architectural paint discovered at a few of EARONS crime scenes is a good requirement match and may have been used for CORN targets.

• The CORN SOP outlines strict guidelines for target maintenance, including washing and repair. A clean target was absolutely necessary to maintain the integrity of its use for calibration. The “self-cleaning” properties of the EARONS architectural paint evidence would ensure a natural cleanliness, even as moisture and dirt collected on the target from normal environmental conditions.
  
  
• This type of paint also has anti-fade properties for sunlight, which would be beneficial for a good number of fixed CORN targets deployed to desert environments.
  
• A paint sprayer would likely be used to apply these fixed targets to an expanse of concrete exceeding hundreds of square feet. This concrete would be at ground level on airport or air force base runways and taxiways (such as the example at Travis AFB shown above) or a dedicated concrete pad on the base or somewhere else remote.
  
  
• In addition to the fixed targets, the mobile targets were painted on canvas. I’d guess that there would be a good reason to have consistency in the type and color of the paint between the fixed and mobile targets, but haven’t confirmed that. I also haven’t confirmed if the same type of architectural paint performs as well applied to canvas as it does to concrete. If it does, it may explain why the paint recovered at the crime scenes appears to have flaked from a canvas source.
• Finally, although CORN primarily used “gray scale” targets and the paint recovered from the crime scenes is blue in color, one can see a blue hue in the fixed target at Travis AFB in the link that’s shared above. Blue may have also offered advantages to target clarity when painted near black asphalt areas of runway. So, it is possible that a blue colored paint would have suited the target application.
  
• The whole subject of paint as it relates to CORN targets would benefit from a review by someone more qualified to provide insight. There are several documents in the NRO and CIA reading rooms not linked above that pertain to technical aspects of the CORN targets and may provide more to go on.
  
  

It’s important to note that drawing a map like the “Punishment Map” was a significant part of the tasks CORN personnel would execute on-site at a target location.

• As part of reporting on mobile target assignments, CORN personnel were tasked with documenting a “Location Report”. An example is in Figure 14 (pg. 29) of the Controlled Range Network Standard Operating Procedures. Per instruction, the location report can be drawn with its own map symbology, as long as a key is defined, but does provide suggestions for certain features. Notice that those suggestions align with the “Punishment Map”. Some are obvious – roads are drawn the same, which is likely coincidental. Trees also match. The symbol for “buildings” shows the overhead footprint. This symbol matches the same use on the “Punishment Map” and, at times, matches the same symbol exactly. Most notably, the symbol for “high vegetation, not to include trees” is used near the “empty cul-de-sacs” on the bottom right of the “Punishment Map”. There’s enough consistent between the two to imply that the “Punishment Map” may have been a draft or a training exercise for a CORN location report.

CORN was a top-secret reconnaissance program and likely provided its personnel exceptions to laws and common daily practices not provided to a typical citizen. That may help explain certain themes, including access to a variety of vehicles and connections to other industries (healthcare and real estate, for example).

• Into the early part of the 1970s, CORN teams were deployed via 5-ton truck. If needed, a car would be made available to the team to supplement the truck. That alone sufficiently explains a means through which EARONS could access a series of random vehicles. However, as the decade unfolded, we know that the CORN team continued to experiment with approaches to target materials, deployment teams, and types of targets. The program was also subcontracted and up for periodic renewal and/or rebidding. It’s possible that the use of field vehicles may have become more permissive as other significant program changes were affected.
  
  
• The CIA, at the time of the attacks, was retaining secret vehicle license tags to be used by their personnel and associates. A December 1972 Florida Sun article entitled “CIA Has 67 Secret Florida License Plates” is one confirmation of that practice. CORN, as a joint military and intelligence program, may have been provided a similar capability.
• There is much speculation as to a career or industry affiliations for EARONS; construction, real estate, healthcare, and information technology are the most frequent cited (in addition to military). While CORN crew chiefs were full-time staff, field crew employees were part-time. EARONS may have had a second part-time job in one of those industries.
  
• That said, the perception of specific industry ties might have been created more from CORN practice as a top-secret organization, than from a direct relationship to or employment in those industries. For example, the many aspects of the case related to the real estate industry may have appeared more significant because empty houses make good places to perform neighborhood reconnaissance in secrecy. Also, posing as an agent gave reason to be in each neighborhood, asking questions of neighbors and other knowledgeable agents. Owners of certain real estate or development agencies may have had ties to the CIA or NRO and fed them data or provided access to open space in neighborhoods that were newer, less populated, and sometimes vacant and/or in a state of construction. There could be countless other ties that seem significant to EARONS employment, but were really used as a masking technique to ulterior motives or were coincidental to other covert activities.
• The connections to hospitals, doctors, and other aspects of healthcare are difficult to deny. Hospitals are loaded with staff that work part-time jobs and EARONS may have had one as a “daytime cover”. This may have been something like hospital data entry, reception, security, or a type of nursing.
  
• As mentioned above, the CORN program was subcontracted. For a large part of CORN’s existence, Data Corporation ran it. Other subcontractors appear to still be classified, so we don’t know if it changed hands and when. Other parts of the case have been connected to Raytheon (EARONS tools, its presence in Goleta, etc.). Some of the victims had backgrounds in the information technology space or “computers” in general. In my opinion, Data Corporation warrants a closer investigation.

CORN personnel were largely (maybe exclusively) deployed in teams. One of the more confusing aspects of the EARONS case is the inconsistency in composites and witness descriptions of suspicious individuals. A team may help explain this.

• There are so many of these accounts of suspicious persons in the many books written on the EARONS case, that I won’t retell them here. But, throughout the case, prowlers were observed doing all types behaviors that ranged from typical to bizarre and included taking unexplained shortcuts through backyards, leaving fence gates open that owners know had been closed, hiding in bushes or behind trees, crawling in front of houses, walking through neighborhoods in an odd manner, and being spotted on homeowners front lawns without good reason for being there. Several times, but not always, prowlers were described as clean-cut, military types. If there is a connection between EARONS and the CORN program, it’s safe to assume that some of these activities may have just been related to regular CORN business and harmless.
  
  
• Similarly, there are a multitude of physical descriptions of the assailant. Sometimes, a second actor appears during the attacks, but its unclear if this was true or intentional deception by EARONS. In most discussions of the case, a single assailant is assumed. His appearance is boiled down to the most common traits available from multiple witness statements and composites. That makes a lot of sense, given the questionable reliability of witness recollections. But, CORN provides one other very valid explanation as to why such a broad range of personal characteristics could have been documented in these statements. First, teams were deployed to specific areas to do location reconnaissance, as was described earlier. This goes a long way in explaining the volume of suspicious encounters and types of individuals prowling neighborhoods noted above. In addition, by having a team around him, actively engaged in covert activities, it makes it just a little easier and more realistic to consider that EARONS may have convinced others to participate in his crimes. He may have taken others along not knowing they would participate in a crime or they may never have been told otherwise. If he had been dropped off and picked up by a friend or family member, for example, under the auspice of doing work, that individual may have never known a crime was committed in that unfamiliar neighborhood unless they happened to come across it in the newspaper the next day. Finally, it may be possible that EARONS only very rarely had a partner – maybe someone that wanted to try it out, but backed away and kept quiet knowing that they were now a guilty party as well. In that way, the CORN program would provide one possible explanation for all the various odds and ends descriptions of attackers – the detection of an accent, crying at only a few attacks, one victim believing EARONS was African American because of his deep voice, the different physical features like leg muscles, and the color and type of leg hair, different sensations of his body weight, and different accounts of penis size, for example. Remember, only a few EARONS attacks have been linked by DNA evidence. Less have been linked from his time as the East Area Rapist – the time when this line of thinking assumes EARONS may have been working within a team for CORN.
  
• When EARONS took a victims’ car, he never seemed to drive it further than a few miles and seemed to leave it knowing it would eventually be discovered. Were cars taken simply to help evade capture? Or, was it possible that EARONS had been running late in getting to a rendezvous point for CORN pick-up and needed to use the car to make up lost time?
  
• CORN also explains a lot of the waiting around before and after attacks. On some of these occasions (like when EARONS was “waiting for his parents to leave”), he may have actually been waiting for his rendezvous instead.
  
• The suspicious paint markings found on fences in neighborhoods that experienced EARONS attacks would only be in place for one of two reasons – to remind an individual of a chosen location when his memory alone may not recollect or to mark locations so that team members can collectively recognize their significance to a particular task. Given that EARONS was committing crimes and would be less inclined to leave evidence (remember, how intentional he had been about not leaving fingerprints, taking murder weapons with him, etc.), it makes sense that those markings may not have been used by EARONS to commit his crimes, but were used for CORN purposes instead.
  
  

There also seems to be a significant amount of “bad police work” that went into some investigations. CORN involvement provides a different context.

• Several sources (most notably, the Crompton and Shelby books) list suspicious individuals that were seemingly just “let go” or not pursued further by law enforcement. The DOJ employee at a town hall meeting, the man who had weapons and rope in the trunk of his vehicle, the lotion man, or the individual parked in a van “looking at the stars” all stand out (“looking at the stars” actually sounds like a CORN euphemism to me). Some of these folks may have been let go because of their security credentials and were able to use the top secrecy of the CORN program as an excuse for their activities.
  
  
• From Our Mission Revealed (p. 65) -- this excerpt has nothing to do with the EARONS case specifically, but does gives context as to how the Air Force or NRO were able to “solve a problem” when CORN teams ran into issues (the underline emphasis is mine): “On one particular CORN target deployment, somewhere in the Southwestern desert area, the CORN targets were to be gathered up after dark, for whatever reason. As our contractors were doing their job, the local police discovered their presence and arrested them. The charge was (believe it or not) attempting to communicate with UFO’s. One can only guess what they were thinking when they saw those big CORN targets spread out. Of course, they had no idea about our satellites. When the Communications guys got the eventual phone call, our security team solved the problem. They always seemed to do that and we never knew how they did it. I’m sure the local police are still scratching their heads about those targets.”
  
  

There are so many military connections in the case that it would be a book to list them all. EARONS choice in selecting victims, statements he made while committing his crimes, some tools and training that were employed, and attack locations with a close proximity to military bases, all give credibility in making that connection. Knowing that EARONS would likely have been Air Force, CIA, or NRO personnel, or a defense contractor – maybe one that had past military experience – if he was involved with CORN, makes a lot of those connections obvious or at least plausible. So, I won’t spend a lot of time going through them in detail. More interestingly, CORN does provide a good motive for the Maggiores’ murders.

• That is that EARONS and Brian knew, or at least had been in contact with, each other prior to the attack.
  
  
• There’s many ways this could have happened. As security personnel, Brian may have needed to be aware of CORN and its goings on as it related to base security. Maybe he didn’t know the program by its real name. Or, perhaps Brian was required to memorize EARONS face to know that he had a certain level of security access without other credentials. From the outside, one can only speculate.
• But, based on the attack itself, the foot chase that unfolded, and what appears to be a strong intent to murder both victims, it’s obvious that EARONS felt the Maggiores had to die. Either Brian knew something prior to the attack and his murder was planned. Or, Brian stumbled across EARONS in a compromised position and recognized EARONS, the CORN program, or some other aspect of EARONS military relationship. Regardless, in EARONS mind, Brian needed to be killed to keep that secret.
  
  

To me, in a nutshell, the CORN connection kind of “feels right”, although I do remain skeptical. CORN provides a very concise and believable explanation for case facts and gives realistic context to some of the most bizarre or conflicting episodes. As I’m currently re-reading both the Shelby and Crompton books, I’m trying to focus on evidence that either supports or refutes CORN involvement. I’ve yet to find any significant detail that disproves an association. The sheer number of corroborating facts is encouraging – as circumstantial as they may be.



That said, there are a few things that trouble me in aligning CORN with the case facts:

• First, too much of the linkage between the crimes and the CORN program is circumstantial. I’ve included a lot of ideas above, but too many are explained as “it may have” happened one way or another. One or two key, compelling physical connections are needed to give the argument more traction by adding corroborating detail to the most notable jacket evidence. Maybe this is something like a match on the paint evidence with the existing CORN targets.
  
  
• Most troubling is a question that’s been bothering me about that jacket evidence itself. The question is: If CORN was “Black Ops” and “beyond top secret” as Spanberger implies in Our Mission Revealed, then why would a jacket exist that boldly states its acronym to the public? One explanation may be that it wasn’t intended for public use. Perhaps the jacket was to be used only on a base, in a secure area, or when EARONS was around other CORN personnel. Maybe EARONS just got lazy and wore a jacket in public when he wasn’t supposed to wear it. Or, maybe I’m wrong, and putting the CORN moniker in public view wasn’t a very big deal. I can understand how a jacket would be helpful when executing a mission at a remote location. A “uniform” of CORN jackets would help with the organization and execution of that deployment, especially when 10+ members were involved. And I wouldn’t expect that any bystanders would understand much about CORN had they come across personnel in those jackets

Any thoughts that might help push this forward? Any that may dismiss it as an avenue to pursue further?  As you can tell by the length of this post, I've been looking at this and thinking about it for a while.  I appreciate any fresh perspective.

[Ranger71]

Wow, this is interesting, great job spelling it all out. Certainly alot of interesting parallels. So he may have been an EAR of CORN?(sorry i had to)

[Drifter]

thetriplelindy ...

I have had time only to quickly scan your summary. But I must say you have really done a lot of serious thinking about the perp and his potential involvement in this "CORN" government program.

I’ve searched for this information on both this board and others, and believe its new information.

What you are describing in your original message is certainly new to this forum.

Congrats on a lot of original research.  I especially like the way you have applied critical thinking skills to your theory.

I may have additional questions later. But the first question I have, which you may have already answered and I just skipped over it, is >>> what exactly was the purpose of the CORN's program to target "neighborhoods" in Sacramento?

What exactly was the government trying to accomplish, with this CORN program?

Drifter

[spodey]

Sept 9, 2017 9:10:23 GMT Drifter said:

thetriplelindy ...

I have had time only to quickly scan your summary. But I must say you have really done a lot of serious thinking about the perp and his potential involvement in this "CORN" government program.

I’ve searched for this information on both this board and others, and believe its new information.

What you are describing in your original message is certainly new to this forum.

Congrats on a lot of original research.  I especially like the way you have applied critical thinking skills to your theory.

I may have additional questions later. But the first question I have, which you may have already answered and I just skipped over it, is >>> what exactly was the purpose of the CORN's program to target "neighborhoods" in Sacramento?

What exactly was the government trying to accomplish, with this CORN program?

Drifter

I was pretty impressed with the "CORN" info, too.  I think that certain sized target images involving truck - sized striped or banded images were placed on trucks and driven often to various locations in cities and rural areas.  As satellites flew over in the daytime, images of the areas where the trucks and their "panels" were taken to study how clear the optics of the satellites' cameras were.

The government contract required extensive map making skills by subcontractors so as to locate the trucks and panel imagery from what I read in a quick scan of the contract requirements.  The example of a hand drawn map was very interesting!
 

[shard]

Good job. It also supports my hunch that EARONS/GDK/ was also SOG (Sons of Gestapo).

[thetriplelindy]

Thanks to all of you for the encouraging words.  My answers to your questions, Drifter, are inline in red below.

Also, I realized this morning I didn't do a very good job in my original post explaining why I think this might be so special.  That is this:  

When you think about this case, and what we actually "know" about EARONS in totality, it isn't much.  We don't know where he lived, where he worked (if he worked), if and where he went to school, any organizations he belonged to, we haven't identified an occupation, any personal habits or traits that are self-identifying, any friends, family members, or 6th grade teachers, we can only speculate on a religious association and likely ancestry, and we have a physical description that's about as average as it can be -- a 5'8" or so white male in his twenties (maybe).  So, anytime a connection can be made to any of the physical evidence or unique remembrances related to the case, in my mind its special (that includes the AFC sticker, the CORN jacket, the bull tattoos, the paint evidence, etc.).  

IF (a big "if"), this CORN program is a link to EARONS based on the witness' jacket statement, then it may reduce the pool of suspects to < 20 (that is, based on my "spitball math" -- that there were about 5 to 10 California CORN mobile team members at a time based on the documentation, plus some additional to factor in turnover and new team members as well as other types of support staff.. then you'd obviously subtract some because of race, age, etc.).  It's not exact -- 20 is just an educated guess -- but the point is that the pool of suspects becomes a much more manageable size and may lead to a suspect or new information.  Also, we'd be able to understand other aspects of the case with certainty (the military connection and understand its capacity, for example), if CORN can be proven out.

Sept 9, 2017 9:10:23 GMT Drifter said:

....

I may have additional questions later. But the first question I have, which you may have already answered and I just skipped over it, is >>> what exactly was the purpose of the CORN's program to target "neighborhoods" in Sacramento?  It may not have explicitly targeted neighborhoods in Sacramento.  We do know there was a connection -- the Air Force bases in the area had fixed targets that required maintenance.  Travis still has one (as I linked earlier).  Also, I'm going off the top of my head and would need to confirm where I remember seeing this in the documentation, but I believe when the program moved headquarters from the East Coast in 1975 (Westover AFB), to the West Coast (Edwards AFB), SAC (Strategic Air Command) -- which had locations at Travis and Mather AFB, as well as the South Bay, I believe -- assumed responsibility for target selection and reconnaissance.  I can't seem to find much about mobile team deployment in the NRO or CIA reading rooms to confirm that they spent much time in the Sacramento area.  Some of the mobile team reporting exists in the reading rooms, but the locations of the deployment remain redacted.  There's no reason to believe Sacramento, or any other location significant to these crimes, didn't correlate with CORN mobile target deployments.  Additionally, other factors may have made certain locations (like, hypothetically the Sacramento area) appealing -- it could have had less cloud coverage, weather and climate conditions that would provide a match and baseline for a different international target, it could have related to the time of day, or, maybe location wasn't always important and Sacramento was chosen frequently because of its nearness to SAC operations or it was just someone's good luck spot.  Who knows -- but there is a Sacramento connection there through the AFBs, and there could be much more we don't yet know about.

What exactly was the government trying to accomplish, with this CORN program?  The purpose of the program was to provide calibration of satellite photography.  As I understand it, the satellite would take an image of the CORN target as it passed overhead.  It would also take images of things like Soviet nuclear sites in that same pass.  As analysts interpreted the photographs, they would use the shots of the CORN target to understand how well edges of objects were being resolved in the photos, whether adjustments were required to the hue of the image, etc. in order to make the most sense of those other sensitive or strategically significant photos (the Soviet nuclear arsenal, in my example).  The CORN program itself was responsible for a wide range of tasks to accomplish that calibration -- that included maintaining (including washing and painting) fixed targets like the one I linked in my original post at Travis AFB today.  Also, deploying canvas mobile targets "on call" anywhere in the United States. The program was in existence from the 1960s into at least the mid-1980s (it may still exist today, for all I know).  It was a joint effort between the Air Force, CIA, and NRO, as well as some other agencies.

Drifter

[shard]

Would foreign assignments (such as Melbourne)as a supervisor or worker be traceable by the FBI (I would hope)?

[jasonpower]

Sept 9, 2017 14:47:11 GMT shard said:

Good job. It also supports my hunch that EARONS/GDK/ was also SOG (Sons of Gestapo).

Is this in regards to the train derailment in 1995? If so what makes you think he is connected to that?

[justwondering]

One of the addresses given on the documents was one E El Segundo Blvd in LA close to Reseda...does anyone know who Apprentice father worked for besides his "development" business? Russell said they both flew

I did not know that LA had an airforce base also , just south of LAX

[Any of N]

thetriplelindy :

This message board is all about debating and disagreeing. Posters disagree with me all the time. It wouldn't be any fun or enlightening if we were all in agreement all the time. So here are some honest points of contention.

First, our offender was presumably very careful in hiding his tracks. It's hard to imagine him leaving a sticker on his vehicle that had any connection to his profession. Or wearing a jacket to an attack that did the same. That kind of carelessness is what gets a criminal caught.

Second, while a project like CORN will be very highly classified, I don't see anything inherently advantageous for home invasion recon. Looking at aerial maps would be somewhat helpful, but how much more could he learn as opposed to looking at a map and walking/driving through an area?

Third, are you telling me that guys running around with image-focusing targets were wiretapping civilians in California? For what possible reason would they even have the ability to do so?

Fourth, nobody ever noticed the big weird aerial targets near all the attacks? They do, after all, stand out. The military wouldn't even want to advertise what they were doing in a civilian area.

 

[Mitchell]

A lot of interesting information. Regardless of whether or not it bears fruit where EAR is concerned, very interesting.

Good job, friend.

In a nutshell, CORN was responsible for maintaining both fixed and mobile resolution targets for satellite imagery calibration via nine mobile field units.

Weren't we still perfecting high altitude reconnaissance photography via spy planes at that time? Satellite imagery is hard to imagine in the early '60's, let alone the late '70's.

Imagery calibration as cover for high altitude targeting systems, maybe? One possibility is that a lot of these missions were flown out of Nevada or New Mexico to the coast as part of the R&D process.

Most important, it’s called CORN (duh).

CORN was seen on the perp’s jacket as he was caught unprepared on July 5, 1979. When questioned by investigators, and discussing if it may have been “coach” or another more common word to see on a jacket, the witness stood by his account of having seen “CORN”. That said, it wasn’t a resounding affirmation – according to Shelby, CORN was settled on as “being possible, but only possible”.

Would an Above-Top-Secret intelligence program print up a bunch of windbreakers and ballcaps with the company logo for their unofficially employed personnel to wear? Did the Manhattan Project hand out mousepads and coffee mugs adorned with mushroom clouds and a likeness of Vishnu at the office Christmas past? I doubt it, but I'm often wrong.

One thing I haven’t been able to verify myself but believe may be true, is that the type of architectural paint discovered at a few of EARONS crime scenes is a good requirement match and may have been used for CORN targets.

The CORN SOP outlines strict guidelines for target maintenance, including washing and repair. A clean target was absolutely necessary to maintain the integrity of its use for calibration. The “self-cleaning” properties of the EARONS architectural paint evidence would ensure a natural cleanliness, even as moisture and dirt collected on the target from normal environmental conditions.

This type of paint also has anti-fade properties for sunlight, which would be beneficial for a good number of fixed CORN targets deployed to desert environments.

A paint sprayer would likely be used to apply these fixed targets to an expanse of concrete exceeding hundreds of square feet. This concrete would be at ground level on airport or air force base runways and taxiways (such as the example at Travis AFB shown above) or a dedicated concrete pad on the base or somewhere else remote.

1.) I have never heard of "self-cleaning" paint before. Is that possibly a reference to a hydrophobic coating either applied to or mixed with the paint? Do you think?

2.) You mentioned that the pant chips left by EAR were blue. Is that correct? I thought they were green.

3.) Did you find any other information relevant to the type of paint used to meet the desired criteria(or what I would imagine the criteria to be)?

Alright, I'm thinking the paint would have to be white for maximum reflectivity and visibility from the greatest altitude. However, if it were too reflective it could potentially distort the target and over-expose the film itself. Hmmm.

We are discussing an asphalt or concrete runway...The temperature of the surface through-out the day would rise but a heat dispersing sub-coat or primer could be used to trap some of the heat without losing too much light. Fluorescent material?


I wonder if a material like gallium could be used to increase the conduction of something like a high altitude laser targeting system for an AC-130.

[Justflint]

Sept 10, 2017 3:11:26 GMT Mitchell said:

A lot of interesting information. Regardless of whether or not it bears fruit where EAR is concerned, very interesting.

Good job, friend.

In a nutshell, CORN was responsible for maintaining both fixed and mobile resolution targets for satellite imagery calibration via nine mobile field units.

Weren't we still perfecting high altitude reconnaissance photography via spy planes at that time? Satellite imagery is hard to imagine in the early '60's, let alone the late '70's.

Imagery calibration as cover for high altitude targeting systems, maybe? One possibility is that a lot of these missions were flown out of Nevada or New Mexico to the coast as part of the R&D process.

Most important, it’s called CORN (duh).

CORN was seen on the perp’s jacket as he was caught unprepared on July 5, 1979. When questioned by investigators, and discussing if it may have been “coach” or another more common word to see on a jacket, the witness stood by his account of having seen “CORN”. That said, it wasn’t a resounding affirmation – according to Shelby, CORN was settled on as “being possible, but only possible”.

Would an Above-Top-Secret intelligence program print up a bunch of windbreakers and ballcaps with the company logo for their unofficially employed personnel to wear? Did the Manhattan Project hand out mousepads and coffee mugs adorned with mushroom clouds and a likeness of Vishnu at the office Christmas past? I doubt it, but I'm often wrong.

One thing I haven’t been able to verify myself but believe may be true, is that the type of architectural paint discovered at a few of EARONS crime scenes is a good requirement match and may have been used for CORN targets.

The CORN SOP outlines strict guidelines for target maintenance, including washing and repair. A clean target was absolutely necessary to maintain the integrity of its use for calibration. The “self-cleaning” properties of the EARONS architectural paint evidence would ensure a natural cleanliness, even as moisture and dirt collected on the target from normal environmental conditions.

This type of paint also has anti-fade properties for sunlight, which would be beneficial for a good number of fixed CORN targets deployed to desert environments.

A paint sprayer would likely be used to apply these fixed targets to an expanse of concrete exceeding hundreds of square feet. This concrete would be at ground level on airport or air force base runways and taxiways (such as the example at Travis AFB shown above) or a dedicated concrete pad on the base or somewhere else remote.

1.) I have never heard of "self-cleaning" paint before. Is that possibly a reference to a hydrophobic coating either applied to or mixed with the paint? Do you think?

2.) You mentioned that the pant chips left by EAR were blue. Is that correct? I thought they were green.

3.) Did you find any other information relevant to the type of paint used to meet the desired criteria(or what I would imagine the criteria to be)?

Alright, I'm thinking the paint would have to be white for maximum reflectivity and visibility from the greatest altitude. However, if it were too reflective it could potentially distort the target and over-expose the film itself. Hmmm.

We are discussing an asphalt or concrete runway...The temperature of the surface through-out the day would rise but a heat dispersing sub-coat or primer could be used to trap some of the heat without losing too much light. Fluorescent material?


I wonder if a material like gallium could be used to increase the conduction of something like a high altitude laser targeting system for an AC-130.

By the late 60's the sr71 could read a license plate from around 100,000 feet. Satellite correction and reading capabilities is more likely. Atmospheric attenuation was a concern for lasers at the time. A problem which was solved in the early 80's. 

Self cleaning paint would be like what is used in utility marking today. It degrades after a few weeks or so. 

[thetriplelindy]

Thanks, Any of N.  Great points.  My thoughts are in red below...

Sept 10, 2017 2:44:40 GMT Any of N said:

thetriplelindy :

This message board is all about debating and disagreeing. Posters disagree with me all the time. It wouldn't be any fun or enlightening if we were all in agreement all the time. So here are some honest points of contention.

First, our offender was presumably very careful in hiding his tracks. It's hard to imagine him leaving a sticker on his vehicle that had any connection to his profession. Or wearing a jacket to an attack that did the same. That kind of carelessness is what gets a criminal caught.  This might be something we just don't wind up seeing eye to eye on.  My take on it is that it's very likely he got careless at a lot of his attacks.  I would argue he benefited quite a bit from the effectiveness of his MO, just plain luck, and the time period in which he operated just as much as any personal "prowess".  We know EARONS was very intentional in his actions.  He was a planner.  He did things to avoid being caught.  But, at that particular attack where the CORN logo was noted, EARONS was also confronted before he had prepared.  In previous attacks, he had turned jackets and shirts inside out.  That may have the been the plan for that attack, as well, had he not been disrupted.  That July 1979 Danville attack would have been something like EARONS 50th.  Even the best criminals would have made mistakes at some point over the course of 50 violent crimes.

Second, while a project like CORN will be very highly classified, I don't see anything inherently advantageous for home invasion recon. Looking at aerial maps would be somewhat helpful, but how much more could he learn as opposed to looking at a map and walking/driving through an area?  I'm assuming by "home invasion recon" you mean "learning the types of things that would be useful for a home invasion under the pretense of doing reconnaisance for CORN".  I'd say those types of things would include who lived in a home, their daily routines, any prolonged periods when they wouldn't be in the house, how interested those individuals might be in the goings on around the neighborhood, etc.  A lot of the same information that could be used to plan a home invasion of EARONS type would also be helpful to determine the best neighborhoods, times of day, etc. to deploy CORN targets without being noticed by neighbors.

Third, are you telling me that guys running around with image-focusing targets were wiretapping civilians in California? For what possible reason would they even have the ability to do so?  No, and I apologize if I pushed that point too strongly (especially since there's really no evidence EARONS had wiretap access in the first place).  I guess my point there was that when you bring intelligence objectives into the discussion as a possibility for some of EARONS neighborhood reconnaisance work, it might imply some additional capability that your run of the mill ransacker would likely not have.  We know that the CIA, for example, spied domestically during that same period and tapped phones of US citizens that may have connections to overseas drug trades, opened first class mail without oversight, and even tried to determine if one of the McGuire sisters was sleeping with Dan Rowan from Laugh-In on behalf of Chicago's mob boss (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/washington/27cia.html).  CORN was a "Black Ops" effort, so it's not a giant stretch to assume they may have had access to domestic surveillance.  For all intents and purposes, feel free to totally disregard that point -- it really doesn't add anything to my original thoughts.  I got a little carried away there with speculation...

Fourth, nobody ever noticed the big weird aerial targets near all the attacks? They do, after all, stand out. The military wouldn't even want to advertise what they were doing in a civilian area.  That's a great point.  I don't think it disproves an association between CORN and EARONS, but it does add some additional doubt.  If I was going to offer a counter argument, just to play devil's advocate, I'd point out that at least hundreds (thousands maybe) of these mobile target deployments happened across the US annually throughout the 1970s.  Yet, it remained top secret until these records were declassified. 
In looking for corroborating materials I found no evidence it existed in publications dated prior to 2012.  There's almost no discussion of it on the internet.  Over the course of the CORN program, mobile targets were deployed thousands of times, yet its like it almost didn't exist. 
 

[thetriplelindy]

Thanks, Mitchell.  Again, my thoughts below are in red...

Sept 10, 2017 3:11:26 GMT Mitchell said:

A lot of interesting information. Regardless of whether or not it bears fruit where EAR is concerned, very interesting.

Good job, friend.

In a nutshell, CORN was responsible for maintaining both fixed and mobile resolution targets for satellite imagery calibration via nine mobile field units.

Weren't we still perfecting high altitude reconnaissance photography via spy planes at that time? Satellite imagery is hard to imagine in the early '60's, let alone the late '70's.  Spy planes were definitely still in use.  After one of those U2 planes was shot down in 1960, satellite recon programs were expedited.  The first US photos from space were as early as the 1950s (1959, I believe).  By 1977, we weren't just taking images from satellites, we also had the capability to send them direct to earth, more or less real-time!  Prior to that, a film canister was returned to earth and developed.  Kodak developed special film for one such project in a continuous spool of very broad sheets that needed to be trimmed after production to fit the specifics of each satellite mission.  The rumor is (according to Our Mission Revealed) that the trimmings were actually repackaged as some of the first examples of Kodak color retail film we all used for our family photos.  You can check out the histories of the GAMBIT, HEXAGON, etc. programs.  It's amazing what was accomplished and refined so quickly.

Imagery calibration as cover for high altitude targeting systems, maybe? One possibility is that a lot of these missions were flown out of Nevada or New Mexico to the coast as part of the R&D process.  That's true.  There's a document in the CIA reading room entitled Final Report (U) Controlled Range Network from 1970 that has a map on page 3 in Figure 1.  Keep in mind that that document was written in 1969 or 1970, so it's safe to assume that the locations mentioned there may have changed quite a bit.  But, it does depict the 9 CORN Target Crew locations across the US at that time.  Albuquerque and Tucson are included in the southwest (in addition to Lancaster, CA, like I mentioned above).

Most important, it’s called CORN (duh).

CORN was seen on the perp’s jacket as he was caught unprepared on July 5, 1979. When questioned by investigators, and discussing if it may have been “coach” or another more common word to see on a jacket, the witness stood by his account of having seen “CORN”. That said, it wasn’t a resounding affirmation – according to Shelby, CORN was settled on as “being possible, but only possible”.

Would an Above-Top-Secret intelligence program print up a bunch of windbreakers and ballcaps with the company logo for their unofficially employed personnel to wear? Did the Manhattan Project hand out mousepads and coffee mugs adorned with mushroom clouds and a likeness of Vishnu at the office Christmas past? I doubt it, but I'm often wrong.  That's a good point.  I actually captured it in my original post as one of my significant doubts, as well.  Again, to think it through from all sides, I did post some thoughts there as to why that might have happened.  But, I agree -- that might be the biggest point of doubt I have, too.

One thing I haven’t been able to verify myself but believe may be true, is that the type of architectural paint discovered at a few of EARONS crime scenes is a good requirement match and may have been used for CORN targets.

The CORN SOP outlines strict guidelines for target maintenance, including washing and repair. A clean target was absolutely necessary to maintain the integrity of its use for calibration. The “self-cleaning” properties of the EARONS architectural paint evidence would ensure a natural cleanliness, even as moisture and dirt collected on the target from normal environmental conditions.

This type of paint also has anti-fade properties for sunlight, which would be beneficial for a good number of fixed CORN targets deployed to desert environments.

A paint sprayer would likely be used to apply these fixed targets to an expanse of concrete exceeding hundreds of square feet. This concrete would be at ground level on airport or air force base runways and taxiways (such as the example at Travis AFB shown above) or a dedicated concrete pad on the base or somewhere else remote.

1.) I have never heard of "self-cleaning" paint before. Is that possibly a reference to a hydrophobic coating either applied to or mixed with the paint? Do you think?  Just to clarify, I took that terminology from the evidence discussion on coldcase-earons.com.  Here's the verbiage:  "The reason for this line of thinking is that the paint contained silicates. Silicate-based paint is used as an overcoat, because it's a material which provides the surface with a "lotus effect", the name referring to the repellant and self-cleaning properties of lotus flowers and leaves. The silicates repel the dirt and encourage them to adhere to water, which then rolls the dirt off of the surface. The paint chips found at EARONS scenes contained these silicates, which is why it's theorized that the paint is most likely from a paint that's used in construction on building exteriors. Porous exterior surfaces are the materials that benefit most from this type of application."

2.) You mentioned that the pant chips left by EAR were blue. Is that correct? I thought they were green.  Again, I got this from coldcase-earons.com.  Here's the description:  "Detective Ken Clark of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department described them as microscopic chips of blue architectural paint that likely came from someone who had been using a paint sprayer. "

3.) Did you find any other information relevant to the type of paint used to meet the desired criteria(or what I would imagine the criteria to be)?  Yeah, there's actually quite a bit of it on the CIA and NRO sites.  I couldn't make enough sense of it to even attempt making an informed opinion.  That's why I noted it may warrant a read through by someone with a little more expertise.

Alright, I'm thinking the paint would have to be white for maximum reflectivity and visibility from the greatest altitude. However, if it were too reflective it could potentially distort the target and over-expose the film itself. Hmmm.

We are discussing an asphalt or concrete runway...The temperature of the surface through-out the day would rise but a heat dispersing sub-coat or primer could be used to trap some of the heat without losing too much light. Fluorescent material?  I've seen mostly concrete.  A lot of times the fixed targets were painted on dedicated concrete pads.  There were tons of them at Edwards AFB.  In the Travis AFB map view I linked to in my original post, you can see how they're painted on.  It's important to note that a lot of times, these were painted on taxiways, rather than runways, which seem to be concrete more often than asphalt (I have no great evidence other than personal experience to back that up, though).


I wonder if a material like gallium could be used to increase the conduction of something like a high altitude laser targeting system for an AC-130.

[michael]

Sept 10, 2017 3:11:26 GMT Mitchell said:

A lot of interesting information. Regardless of whether or not it bears fruit where EAR is concerned, very interesting.

Good job, friend.

In a nutshell, CORN was responsible for maintaining both fixed and mobile resolution targets for satellite imagery calibration via nine mobile field units.

Weren't we still perfecting high altitude reconnaissance photography via spy planes at that time? Satellite imagery is hard to imagine in the early '60's, let alone the late '70's.

Imagery calibration as cover for high altitude targeting systems, maybe? One possibility is that a lot of these missions were flown out of Nevada or New Mexico to the coast as part of the R&D process.

Most important, it’s called CORN (duh).

CORN was seen on the perp’s jacket as he was caught unprepared on July 5, 1979. When questioned by investigators, and discussing if it may have been “coach” or another more common word to see on a jacket, the witness stood by his account of having seen “CORN”. That said, it wasn’t a resounding affirmation – according to Shelby, CORN was settled on as “being possible, but only possible”.

Would an Above-Top-Secret intelligence program print up a bunch of windbreakers and ballcaps with the company logo for their unofficially employed personnel to wear? Did the Manhattan Project hand out mousepads and coffee mugs adorned with mushroom clouds and a likeness of Vishnu at the office Christmas past? I doubt it, but I'm often wrong.

One thing I haven’t been able to verify myself but believe may be true, is that the type of architectural paint discovered at a few of EARONS crime scenes is a good requirement match and may have been used for CORN targets.

The CORN SOP outlines strict guidelines for target maintenance, including washing and repair. A clean target was absolutely necessary to maintain the integrity of its use for calibration. The “self-cleaning” properties of the EARONS architectural paint evidence would ensure a natural cleanliness, even as moisture and dirt collected on the target from normal environmental conditions.

This type of paint also has anti-fade properties for sunlight, which would be beneficial for a good number of fixed CORN targets deployed to desert environments.

A paint sprayer would likely be used to apply these fixed targets to an expanse of concrete exceeding hundreds of square feet. This concrete would be at ground level on airport or air force base runways and taxiways (such as the example at Travis AFB shown above) or a dedicated concrete pad on the base or somewhere else remote.

1.) I have never heard of "self-cleaning" paint before. Is that possibly a reference to a hydrophobic coating either applied to or mixed with the paint? Do you think?

2.) You mentioned that the pant chips left by EAR were blue. Is that correct? I thought they were green.

3.) Did you find any other information relevant to the type of paint used to meet the desired criteria(or what I would imagine the criteria to be)?

Alright, I'm thinking the paint would have to be white for maximum reflectivity and visibility from the greatest altitude. However, if it were too reflective it could potentially distort the target and over-expose the film itself. Hmmm.

We are discussing an asphalt or concrete runway...The temperature of the surface through-out the day would rise but a heat dispersing sub-coat or primer could be used to trap some of the heat without losing too much light. Fluorescent material?


I wonder if a material like gallium could be used to increase the conduction of something like a high altitude laser targeting system for an AC-130.

Blue paint in Sacramento, Green fibers in Goleta.