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Wallace:

Unfortunately, the material I need to answer you with some precision is in storage boxes, but I can offer these general thoughts...

WELCH SUCCESSOR
Yes, Larry McDonald was chosen as Welch's successor. However, within the upper echelons of the JBS, it had always been assumed that Welch would pass the baton to Tom Hill.

Unfortunately, since the JBS forbids outsiders from reviewing its internal documents AND since the JBS itself does not produce any in-house history, we cannot presently know how, when, and why McDonald was chosen over Hill.

CATHOLICS: You inquire if the "percentage of Catholics vs. others" in the JBS remained constant through the decades. I don't know. Aside from Welch's remarks in 1961 which I quoted, a 1965 JBS publication entitled "What Is The John Birch Society?" stated that "We estimate that about forty percent of our total membership is Catholic."

POST-WELCH SCHISM:
Aside from the material on Stang's website, I also have correspondence between and among several very prominent Birch officials---including several National Council members and Coordinators---which reveal a very bitter internal dispute.

Allegations include financial improprieties at HQ, top officials demanding absolute obedience to HQ instructions and thwarting any independent thinking or innovative local programs; accusations about a "hidden anti-Christian (primarily anti-Catholic) agenda" at HQ; allegations about top officials lining their own pockets, and engaging in dishonest conduct and orchestrating smear campaigns against critics who were JBS chapter leaders, section leaders, and Coordinators. 25-35 year veterans described JBS HQ edicts as "deliberately destroying" the organization which Welch created.

So much about the JBS is unknown (and perhaps unknowable). One major source of new information has hardly been scratched: private papers of prominent JBS officials. Hopefully, sometime in the future, scholars will be able to piece together the puzzle with some degree of accuracy as they peruse the private papers at various universities of such key figures as William Grede, Tom Anderson, J.B. Matthews, Clarence Manion, T. Coleman Andrews. Also would be fascinating to discover if persons like John Rousselot and Tom Hill left any private papers which would shed light on JBS history.

One thought occurred to me that may be worth pursuing. Liberty Lobby folded several years ago, as the result of lawsuits or possible financial improprieties of its founder, Willis Carto. Liberty Lobby never made any attempt to become a grassroots organization, preferring to communicate via their newsletter and their periodical, The Spotlight. Carto and several men associated with the organization, such as Revilo Oliver, were Birch Society alumni. Oliver's side of his dispute with Robert Welch is available through the Web site of an admirer of his. However, the positions of Carto and other "right wing deviationists" (to borrow a Marxist term) in Liberty Lobby are not known.

The records of Liberty Lobby are presumably now in the hands of the bankruptcy court. Do you know if they are a matter of public record? If they are, they would probably provide some perspective, though likely tainted with sour grapes, of the John Birch Society and its operations.