Walter Bowart

Biographical Information
Walter Bowart (died in 2007), "a founder and the first publisher of The East Village Other, a New York newspaper so countercultural that it made The Village Voice look like a church circular, died on Dec. 18 in Inchelium, Wash... Published twice a month from 1965 to 1972, The East Village Other was among the country’s first major underground newspapers. Founded by Mr. Bowart and three colleagues — John Wilcock, Sherry Needham and Allan Katzman — the paper had, at its height, a circulation of 60,000.

"Mr. Bowart, who left the paper in 1968, was later best known for his book “Operation Mind Control” (Dell, 1978), which argued that the United States government conducted covert psychological experiments on unwitting people.

"For seven heady years, The East Village Other waxed lyrical on the counterculture’s movers and shakers, among them Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary and Abbie Hoffman. As publisher, Mr. Bowart (pronounced BO-art) came to national attention in 1966 after he recommended, in testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, that the committee members try LSD...

"Mr. Bowart’s four marriages, to Linda Dugmore, Peggy Mellon Hitchcock, Margo Jordan and Rebecca Fullerton, ended in divorce. Besides Wolfe, his son from his first marriage, who lives in Perth, Australia, Mr. Bowart is survived by two daughters from his second marriage, Sophia Bowart of San Francisco and Nuria Bowart of Berkeley, Calif.; a son from his fourth marriage, Wythe, of San Francisco; three sisters, Janet Ryan of Inchelium, Nancy Maloney of Grover Beach, Calif., and Kathy Hollis of Hamilton, Mont.; and two grandchildren."

In Bowart’s later years, he researched and wrote prolifically. He created The Freedom of Thought Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the education of the public about mind control. wiki

Affiliations

 * Former contributing editor, Mindnet Journal

Related Sourcewatch

 * Fletcher Prouty