***At the risk of showing my ignorance, who is Chuck Hayes?***
Grabbe was not just a conspiracy theorist, rather he is historically the closest person resembling the character of Q. He had inside information from Intel sources, including rogue former CIA agent, Charles Hayes - aka The Angel of Death.
Hayes was outing various D.C. swampers who were cashing in on their official positions and squirreling it away off shore.
I searched through my archives and finally found some dated stories about Hayes. For example - Washington Weekly, 'Charles Hayes: A Prison Interview' by Wesley Phelan, May 25, 1998 {story no longer on site}:
Charles Hayes is a remarkable figure. Hayes generated a following after he was introduced to the American public by two writers: James Norman, a former editor of Forbes magazine; and Orlin Grabbe in the now famous "Fostergate" series.
Pikeville, Ky., Sept. 1 (AP) -- A United States Attorney's secret computer files, including electronic copies of sealed indictments and information about pending F.B.I. inquiries, were mistakenly sold by the Government a month ago to a businessman who paid $45 for what he thought was only broken computer equipment.The Justice Department now says the sale could compromise any number of criminal cases, and it has sued the businessman to get the data back.
The businessman, Charles Hayes, who resells Government surplus items, says that he would like to cooperate but that the equipment he bought, and various parts from it, have now been mixed with his previous inventory and so he is no longer sure which is which. He says he is trying to determine which of his customers may have bought some of the equipment, but he is resisting the Government's demand that he identify those customers, terming it an unwarranted intrusion into his business.
The Government finds Mr. Hayes's attitude insufficiently forthcoming . . .
The book from which the following is excerpted, The Octopus: Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro, by Kenn Thomas and Jim Keith, will be available in late November from Feral House, POB 3466, Portland, OR 97208.One person who might have had a view of how PROMIS works was Charles Hayes. Newspapers identified Hayes as a salvage dealer in Pulaski County, Kentucky . . .
I knew I had seen that name before, and yet, as you said, he has disappeared.
I went back to The J. Orlin Grabbe Memorial Archive, so much material. Makes me wish I had fewer responsibilities, so I could just sit and read this stuff. I did, however, read about Charles Hayes. He should have been released from prison over two years ago, if he had survived and served his full sentence. Nothing on the web. Very, very puzzling.
thanx for dusting off grabbe/hayes for us bob.