Jim Gilchrist

 Jim Gilchrist is the founder of the Minuteman Project.

Gilchrist served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam in 1968-69, worked as a journalist and then accountant.

Gilchrist started the Minuteman Project after hearing of the work of Chris Simcox, who ran an organization named Civil Homeland Defense (now Minuteman Civil Defense Corps Inc.). After hearing "news accounts of Simcox's work, [Gilchrist] came to Arizona to meet him and in October launched the nationwide recruiting drive for the Minuteman Project." 

Controversies
In December 2007, Gilchrist endorsed Mike Huckabee for president, which drew heavy criticism from inside the Minuteman movement, particularly from Chris Simcox, who said that "Jim Gilchrist speaks only for himself - not for my organization and not for the Minuteman movement." Gilchrist's former co-author, Jerome Corsi, then used articles he wrote at WorldNetDaily to prod Gilchrist into retracting his endorsement.

Gilchrist has also been accused by others in the Minuteman Project of "using $300,000 of the group's money to support his pet causes, including promoting a book he co-wrote and funding an unsuccessful run for Congress in a 2005 special election. ... The dispute centers on $750,000 in donations raised for the Minuteman Project by HSP Direct, a now-defunct Herndon direct-mail firm hired by Gilchrist. After the company deducted expenses, the project received about $100,000. Deborah Courtney, a Minuteman Project employee until last month, said the group should have received about $300,000 more."

Book

 * Jim Gilchrist and Jerome Corsi, Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America's Borders, World Ahead Publishing, July 2006.

Contact Details
Minuteman Project Inc. Attn: Jim Gilchrist P.O. Box 3944 Laguna Hills, California 92654-3944 Phone: 949-222-4266 Fax: 949-222-6607

Other SourceWatch Resources

 * Chris Simcox