Jim Marrs was an early client – an absolutely great guy and great writer.
He died on August 2, 2017 He was a newspaper journalist and a New York Times best-selling author.
Jim Marrs was a world class journalist and an extraordinary researcher.
He wrote about government conspiracies, UFOs, and alien abductions and whatever else off-the-grid he found intriguing.
A proud Texan through and through, Jim was all about history. Jim was a walking encyclopedia of history as a matter of fact. But it was his take on history-his conspiratorial take, a “let me tell you what really happened” kind of history. His first book, Crossfire: The Plot to Kill John F. Kennedy, was the basis for Oliver Stone’s movie JFK. That book was still selling after more than 25 years.
Jim was nice looking, with warm face, short and stocky with a Civil War era beard, which he stroked quite often while deep in thought. He also had a real live Civil War cannon in his front yard which he’d shoot off for visitors. To top it all off he wore an Indiana Jones fedora.
But mostly he sat, alone, at his desk, deep in conspiracy research with stacks and stacks of books around him. I think his family was tired of hearing about whatever his latest findings were. And he could be a little off-putting with his extreme enthusiasm. He was always sure that “this next one was the big one.”
I’d make appointments with publishers and editors and he’d fly to NYC and we’d sell his next manuscript. Often, he was in Manhattan because he was giving a lecture or was to be interviewed for TV shows. He almost always slept on my sofa.
I thought the world of Jim, loved his book proposals, although at times while reading a manuscript, I’d put it down, call him right then reading him the passage I was wary of: “Where’d you get this info? Don’t you know that guy always makes stuff up? Take that out if you’re serious about publishing.” My task for him was to always hunt down the origin, the real truth of a conspiracy and if he couldn’t find an original source, then to drop it.
It’d been a while since he’d been to NYC and I’d been super busy, was tired, and stressed-out New York style–stress which tops anywhere else I’d ever lived. He, on the other hand, was rested, energized and ready to discuss the latest and greatest conspiracies he’d been researching.
He arrived, taxied in from the airport, settled into my apartment and about an hour later I arrived home from a crazy day at the office. He met me at the door-taking my bags, my coat while starting in on his newest conspiracy. It was like Jim had been holding in all this material, all this research he’d been discovering, just waiting for a willing vessel to dump it into and I was it. He started in telling who’d done what, when and where and then what happened, etc. The basis of his new manuscript-Rule By Secrecy.
I asked questions, threw in my own ideas and was fascinated. After sitting in the living room with a glass of wine, Jim with a beer, we moved to the kitchen. I started dinner, throughout dinner, after dinner, after several beers after dinner-with Jim talking non-stop. Okay, now it is midnight; I’m tired and want to go to bed.
Jim is a night owl. I am an early morning person. I go to the bathroom-saying I have to get some sleep. Jim stands outside the bathroom door with “another thing” and “another thing that you have to understand before you go to bed.” Now it is 2AM.
I have exhausted my interest in this subject or any subject for that matter. There is nothing else to say. Jim thinks differently. We talk another hour. I can barely stay awake. Jim, I tell him, almost begging, I have to go to bed.
“Okay,” he says, and follows me to my room.
“Jim this is off limits.” We’re standing on opposite sides of the door. My hand is pushing it shut.
He keeps talking. “I have no one to run all of these conflicting scenarios, nefarious relationships, weird theories past because no one knows as much about these issues, these conspiracies as you do- I have to do it when I can. I’m sorry, but I know we’ll be in meetings all day tomorrow and this is my last chance.”
He stands outside my bedroom door, closed, and keeps talking for another 30 minutes. Finally, he gives up and goes to bed.
I awake at 7 still exhausted, but am at my desk by 8 AM. Jim sleeps in, walks down to the office around 11ish, still popping with energy, ready to meet editors. We sell his newest book that day: Rule by Secrecy: The Hidden History That Connects the Trilateral Commission, the Freemasons, and the Great Pyramids.
Lesson: Let it be. When you realize a friend is bursting with knowledge and they want to share that knowledge with you, don’t shut down, push aside or ignore it. This was Jim’s deepest, most treasured and often secret inside information (in our world) and his gift. Researchers such as Jim Marrs devoted their lives to getting the truth out, it in spite of all the negative feedback, ridicule and ostracism.