The New England Institute for Medical Research

John H. Heller, Director

In 1954, Heller was at Yale University and was a consultant to Philip Morris. (Letter of agreement signed by Heller and L.G. Hanson, vice president of PM, Feb. 15, 1954.)

"I have been given to understand today (May 6) that a former associate of mine has been advised to approach the American Tobacco Company apropos of a study very similar to the type you now have under consideration. This man is a competent investlgator and I had discussed with him my general feelings about cigarette smoking, and how the problem might be attacked, in considerable detail, before I had become associated with you. I am further given to understand that, before approachlng the American Tobacco Company, he had discussed this program with a member of the National Research Councll and a member of the American Cancer Society, both of whom strongly urged that he go ahead with the program and that he approach the American Tobacco Company. I felt that this would be of considerable interest to you, hence I am relaying it on. I did not indicate at the. time that I was affiliated with Philip Morris in any way, so that, to the best of my knowledge, the American Tobacco Company will not be aware that such a program is under conslderatlon by you.. With best personal regards. Sincerely yours, John H. Heller, M.D." (Heller to Robert N. DuPuis, director of Research & Development, Philip Morris, May 6, 1954.)

Heller wanted PM's support to develop an electrostatic filter. (DuPuis to O. Parker McComas of Philip Morris, May 13, 1954.) DuPuis declined, on the grounds that the work should be sponsored by the TIRC. (DuPuis to Heller, May 13, 1954.)

He withdrew his application on Aug. 2, 1955. He said the Institute grew out of the Department of Physical Medicine at Yale, but was now separate.

Heller filed a patent in 1957 for "Immunizing Against and Treatment of Diseases." In 1961, he submitted a "Proposal for the Establishment of a Biogeophysical Research Center," based on a Task Force initiated by the President's Special Assistant for Science and Technology, Jerome B. Weisner, for "the coordinated study of the action of geophysical forces on biological systems, especially man."

On the 1963 Board of Trustees of the New England Institute for Medical Research was Lieut. Gen. Leslie R. Groves (ret), of Darien, Conn., who headed the Manhattan Project. On the Scientific Advisory Board were Dr. Walter L. Brown, Physicist, Bell Laboratories (one of Shockley's group); Dr. Gerald Johnson, Assistant to Secretary of Defense for Atomic Energy; and a couple of Yale professors. On the Advisory Council are Prescott Bush (S&B 1917); Thomas R. Jones, Vice Chairman of Schlumberger Ltd. at Murray Hill, NJ (the Bell Labs locale); and Harold D. Lasswell, Yale Professor of Law. Its Executive Director was Dr. John H. Heller.

In 1964, former Vice President Richard M. Nixon joined the Advisory Council. Although Heller's letter to the Vice President of P. Lorillard Co. says that RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company has supported the Institute annually since 1960, none of these documents appear to be on the RJRT website. (Heller to J. Edgar Bennett, VP and Assistant to President, P. Lorillard, May 18, 1964.) They had financial support from a long list of corporations and foundations, as well as the U.S. Government. In 1963, they opened a new lab wing on Cape Haze, near Sarasota, Florida. (New Lab Wing Here To Help Research To Battle Cancer. Sarasota Herald Tribune, Mar. 10, 1963.) The President's Committee on Health Education, which is credited as the first step toward health fascism, was created during the Nixon Administration, and the National Cancer Act of 1971 was enacted, which reorganized the National Cancer Institute at the behest of Mary Woodard Lasker and her allies.

This was sent to C.C. Little of the Tobacco Industry Research Council by a trustee of his Jackson Memorial Laboratory, with the comments that "My Step Mother-in-law (Mrs. Doubleday) knows as much about Scientific Research as my HOOF. She is one of the Backers of Dr. Heller and this Institute. It sounds to me like a PHONY and I would be very interested to get from you a CONFIDENTIAL statement as to what it is all about. I wonder where they get their MICE?" (James H. Ripley to C.C. Little, April 20, 1965.)

Little replied to Ripley that "He consulted us about a financial grant but, since he insisted that the money be given outright to be spent as he wished without a pre-arranged program, he did not fall into the category that we feel we can support." (Little to Ripley, April 22, 1965.)

Gerald Woodrow Johnson joined the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in 1953, and was later associate director for nuclear testing in Nevada and the Pacific. He was Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Atomic Energy and Chairman of the Military Liaison Committee to the Atomic Energy Commission, 1961-1963; and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Defense Intelligence Agency, 1965-1969.

"...General Leslie Groves [the general in charge of the Manhattan project], he's a fat man, and he hates people who smoke and drink." He had a covert feud with Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, who was a chain smoker who drank cocktails and hated fat men. (One hell of a big bang. Studs Terkel interview of Paul Tibbets. The Guardian, Aug. 6, 2002.)

In 1967, John H. Kreisher, Assistant Director and Research Associate of the NEIMR, joined the Council for Tobacco Research as Associate Scientific Director, under Robert C. Hockett. Also, Dr. Howard B. Andervont and Dr. Paul Kotin resigned from CTR's Scientific Advisory Board, and were replaced by Clayton G. Loosli and Sheldon C. Sommers. (Confidential Report. The Council for Tobacco Research - U.S.A. Jan. 27, 1967.) Kreisher was the original CTR contact for Carol J. Henry and Richard E. Kouri, project leaders of the Microbiological Associates mouse inhalation study, in 1971.

Heller's work with rf fields caused microorganisms and also inanimate bits of plastic to move, which has inspired various claims of biological effects by the kind of quacks who don't consider even fundamental parameters such as field strength to be important issues. (High Frequency Fields, by Cyril Maire. Paper presented at Symposium of the Dr. Abraham J. Ginsberg Foundation for Medical Research, June 29, 1959.)

In 1972, Heller submitted an application to have the National Cancer Institute pay for the Institute's experiments with Enzyme Q-10 and breast cancer, but failed to make the necessary grant application. Although NCI staff did not believe their animal experiments warranted contract support, an NCI staff member, Dr. Rubin, brought it to the attention of Sen. Jacob Javits (R-NY). "Notwithstanding these factors, in view of the interest expressed by Senator Javits and the current interest in the field of immunotherapy, the Director recommended to the Panel, and the Panel agreed, that a special committee of singularly well-qualified scientists and doctors in the field of immunology, chemotherapy, and breast cancer have a look at all the research data and the proposed program and determine whether it is a program that NCI should support." Also, the contract to operate the Fort Detrick facilities, now the Frederick Cancer Research Center, was awarded to Litton Bionetics. Benno C. Schmidt, Dr. R. Lee Clark, and Dr. Robert Good were the Panel members. (Proceedings, President's Cancer Panel, Jul. 28, 1972.)

Heller contacted Joe E. Edens, President of Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company, for funding of research on Co-Enzyme Q-10. (Heller to Edens, Feb. 12, 1975.)

A current member of Congress, Rep. Sue W. Kelly (R-NY), gives as part of her background that she was a biomedical researcher at the New England Institute for Medical Research.

Prescott S. Bush, Skull & Bones 1917

Prescott Sheldon Bush was the father of former President George Herbert Walker Bush (S&B 1948), and the grandfather of President George W. Bush (S&B 1968). Prescott Bush married Dorothy Walker, the sister of Dr. John Mercer Walker, S&B 1931, who was president of the board of managers of Memorial Hospital in New York City from 1965 to 1974. (Bush/Walker/Pierce/Robinson Family Tree. In: The Family. The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty. By Kitty Kelly. Random House, 2004.) The Walker family's money fueled the Bush family's political rise. (Powerful alliance aids Bushes' Rise. By Michael Kranish. The Boston Globe, Apr. 22, 2001.)

"Prescott entered St. George's after the sweet summer of 1908, and his graduation five years later brought him to the threshold of his life's most formative experience—Yale, class of 1917. 'For me,' he said years later, 'it all began with Yale.' He credited the university with shaping his entire life. Certainly his career would have been different, for he met his future boss Walter Simmons, who hired Prescott for his first job, at a Yale reunion. His personal life would have been far different as well. Because of that job in St. Louis for the Simmons Hardware Company, he met the wealthy Yale family the Walkers and his future wife, Dorothy Walker. After a series of sales jobs, Prescott used his Yale connections to launch his career as an investment banker." "After graduation, Prescott regularly attended Yale class reunions and Whiffenpoof anniversaries. He visited New Haven and the tomb of Skull and Bones at least once—and sometimes as often as five times—a year. Whenever he could, he sang at the tables down at Mory's, the clubby Yale restaurant where the Whiffenpoofs assembled to raise their glasses and sing their songs. He was an associate fellow of Calhoun College from 1944 to 1972; a Chubb Fellow in 1958; and an associate of Saybrook College. He served as a Yale trustee. He was the first chairman of Yale's Development Board. Prescott sat on the Yale Corporation for twelve years, served as secretary of his alumni class, and was a member of the executive council. Figuratively and literally, he never left Yale." "Prescott walked onto the New Haven campus as a Yale "legacy" of his paternal grandfather, the Reverend James Smith Bush, class of 1844, and his maternal uncle Robert E. Sheldon Jr., class of 1904. Within four years he would create his own legacy, which would open Yale's exclusive doors to several more generations of Bushes, including his four sons, his three grandsons, his two nephews, and, in 2001, his great-granddaughter." (Excerpt, Chapter One. The Family. The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty. By Kitty Kelley. Random House, 2004.)

Wallace Delafield Simmons, a son of Edward Campbell Simmons, the founder of Simmons Hardware Company, was Skull & Bones 1890. He was a director of the Philadelphia National Bank from 1915 to 1929. The Simmons brothers were cousins of Charles Philip Helfenstein, S&B 1841. (Bulletin of Yale University. Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1929-1930, pp. 127-129.) His brother, George Welch Simmons, was Wolf's Head 1900. (ibid, pp. 170-172.) "When the Simmons business was merged with the Winchester interest, he was elected vice president of the Simmons-Winchester Company, from which he retired on Jan. 1, 1924, to take the vice presidency of the Mechanics and Metals National Bank of New York. He retired in 1927 from the Chase Bank and became president of the George W. Simmons Corporation." (George W. Simmons Dies at a Polo Game. New York Times, May 22, 1930.) Simmons Hardware signed a five-year contract with the Rev. E.E. Duckworth, pastor of the First Methodist Church of Oconomowoc, Wis., to evangelize among its 700 employees, for which he prepared for the Episcopal ministry. (To Be Workmen's Special Minister. Chicago Daily Tribune, Dec. 30, 1894.) Charles P. Helfenstein assisted his brother, I. Albert Helfenstein, in the U.S. Land Office in Milwaukee.

W.A. Harriman's brother, Edward Roland Harriman, was a 1917 Bones classmate. When World War I began, the War Industries Board was staffed with Bernard M. Baruch, whose brokerage firm handled Harriman railroad securities; Prescott Bush's father, Samuel P. Bush; and Robert S. Lovett, president of the Union Pacific Railroad, chief counsel to E.H. Harriman, and executor of his will. George Herbert "Bert" Walker and his business crony from the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, former Gov. David R. Francis, the son-in-law of a founder of the Mississippi Valley Trust Company, were powers behind the throne in the Democratic Party. (Chapter 1. The House of Bush: Born in a Bank. In: George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, by Webster Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin.)

Godfrey S. Rockefeller's wife, Helen Gratz, was from St. Louis, Missouri, and Mrs. Prescott S. Bush of Columbus, Ohio, formerly Dorothy Walker of St. Louis, was supposed to have been an attendant. (G.S. Rockefeller to Marry June 26. New York Times, Jun. 7, 1923.) Mrs. Rockefeller was president of the Research In Schizophrenia Endowment (RISE), whose activists included Sen. Prescott S. Bush, Mrs. Prescott S. Bush Jr., and Dr. John Walker, S&B 1931. (Greenwich Fete May 4 to Aid Reasearch in Schizophrenia. New York Times, Apr. 24, 1960.) Godfrey Rockefeller was elected a director of Benson & Hedges in 1946. He exchanged his shares for those of Philip Morris in 1954, completing the Cullman takeover of Philip Morris.

Prescott S. Bush was Treasurer of Planned Parenthood's fundraising campaign in 1947; Mrs. Albert D. Lasker was a Vice Chairman, along with Thomas S. Lamont. (Planned Parenthood fundraising letter, Jan. 8, 1947. In: The Family. The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty. By Kitty Kelly. Random House, 2004.)

Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts (KKR) and the Bush family: "[W]hen Prescott Bush was arranging a job for young George Herbert Walker Bush in 1948, he contacted Ray Kravis of Tulsa, Oklahoma, whose business included helping Brown Brothers, Harriman to evaluate the oil reserves of companies. Ray Kravis had quickly offered George a job, but George declined it, preferring to go to work for Dresser Industries, a much larger company. That was how George had ended up in Odessa and Midland, in the Permian basin of Texas. Ray Kravis over the years had kept in close touch with Senator Prescott Bush and George Bush, and young Henry Kravis had been introduced to George and had hob-knobbed with him at various Republican Party and other fund-raising events. Henry Kravis by the early 1980's was a member of the Republican Party's elite Inner Circle." Kravis was a huge contributor to both G.H.W. Bush's presidential campaign and the Republican Party. (Chapter -XIX- The Leveraged Buy-out Gang. In: George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography. by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin.) KKR later took over R.J. Reynolds Tobacco to make the company throw the state lawsuits against the industry to help the anti-smokers loot and plunder smokers.

Prescott Bush was a director of The Episcopal Church Foundation, a lay group created by twenty industrialists, financiers and lawyers. Eugene W. Stetson of the Guaranty Trust and Alexander E. Duncan of the Commercial Credit Company were fellow directors; George E. Whitney, president of J.P. Morgan & Co., Inc. was treasurer; and Edwin S.S. Sunderland of the Guaranty Trust's law firm of Davis, Polk, Wardwell & Kiendl was secretary. Its Chairman of the Board, The Right Rev. Henry Knox Sherrill, described it as an "'unashamedly Christian movement' to seek material resources for the task of 'making a Christian America the basis of a Christian world.'" Its annual budget was set at $5,634,617 a year for the next three years. (Heads Church Group. New York Times, Apr. 15, 1950.) In November, 1200 official and 5000 unofficial delegates convened in Cleveland at what Christian Century magazine called "the most important event in the life of the Protestant Church since the Reformation." "Chief business will be the merging of eight interdenominational, cooperative agencies, including the Federal Council of Churches, to form the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States." The merger was also to include the Foreign Missions Conference of North America, Home Missions Council of North America, International Council of Religious Education, Missionary Education Movement of the United States and Canada, National Protestant Council on Higher Education, United Council of Church Women, and the United Stewardship Council. "Church leaders say the organization will draw the battle lines for a more militant Protestantism in America." (100 From D.C. Due to Help Form Council. Washington Post, Nov. 25, 1950.) The first lay president of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, in 1947 and 1948, was Charles P. Taft, S&B 1918, the son of William H. Taft, S&B 1918, who was a Republican Party crony of John C. Topping Jr., who set up the US Environmental Protection Agency to issue its fraudulent report claiming that secondhand smoke causes cancer.

Bush was US Senator from Connecticut from 1952 to 1963.

Prescott S. Bush Jr.

Prescott S. Bush Jr. and William B. Macomber Jr. were ushers at the wedding of Alethea Kunhardt to Harry Webster Walker 2d. (Miss A. Kunhardt to be Wed June 17. New York Times, May 19, 1950; Nuptials Are Held for Miss Kunhardt. New York Times, Jun. 18, 1950.) Her father, Kingsley Kunhardt, was a vice president and head of the investment department of the Guaranty Trust since 1941, also a business crony of Alan A. Ryan Jr., and chairman of the investment committee of the National Council of Churches of Christ in America. Macomber "served in the CIA before moving to the State Department, where he held several appointments, including Ambassador to Jordan [Kennedy administration] and Turkey [1969-73], until 1977." (Alumni Deaths. University of Chicago Magazine 2004 Feb;96(3).

cast 06-13-11