Image courtesy of Tea Krulos
American Madness - documentary promo image
Masked heroes have had a long run in American pop culture. Before the Lone Ranger and Superman, Zorro left his mark on the bad guys, however, masks have also been the costume of bad actors, cloaking the darker reality of American history. The Ku Klux Klan?
American Madness, the new documentary by Eric and Kim Hayden and Tea Krulos explores one man’s descent from superhero fantasies into dangerous reality. Krulos is a Milwaukee author (and Shepherd Express columnist) fascinated by subcultures and outcasts. Like an anthropologist, he inhabits rather than observes. Eric Hayden directed American Madness from Krulos’ book of the same name, which tells and contextualizes the true story of wannabe superhero Richard McCaslin aka The Phantom Patriot.
The context is the sickness that has gripped American society, an addiction to the twisted explanations of conspiracy theories. McCaslin’s “Patriot” is one manifestation of a trend that has magnified political dysfunction, heightened distrust and resulted in violence.
McCaslin contacted Krulos after reading his book Heroes in the Night, which delved into the phenomenon of the masked men (mostly men) known as “real life superheroes.” No, they’re not going about in Halloween Batman costumes. They’re their own made-up characters: The Watchman, The Fox, Citizen Tiger … Krulos profiled dozens of them from across the U.S. Most of those heroes clean riverfronts, help the homeless and perform good deeds wearing comic book garb. Some are vigilantes. Krulos hung with one self-appointed crime fighter, Seattle’s Phoenix Jones. The documentary includes cell camera footage of the melee that ensued when Jones and his crew intervened in a street fight. The author got bonked on the head.
Hidden Masters
McClasin saw himself as a vigilante, albeit on a higher level, fighting not mere hooligans but the hidden masters of this world. He was obsessed with conspiracies involving reptilian space invaders, the Illuminati, the Jews, the Democrats, the Republicans … weaving together webs of delusion. McCaslin achieved notoriety after his 2002 arrest for penetrating the Bohemian Grove, the redwood forest sanctum where many of the nation’s blue-blooded men gather each summer for a bizarre ceremony and secretive networking and discussions.
American Madness gives a short history of the Bohemian Club, a male-only conclave of politicians, financiers, CEOs. They have long been a subject for conspiracy theorists, culminating in bellowing rants from Alex Jones (Infowars). Hearing the call of destiny, The Phantom Patriot took action. Dressed in a black and red jumpsuit with a skull mask wrapped in an American flag bandana, McClasin slipped into the Grove and set fire to a building. Photographs show him armed with a samurai sword and a de rigueur assault rifle. He was sent to prison.
Little wonder McClasin caught Krulos’ interest. He produced a Phantom Patriot comic book depicting his world-saving crusade and numerous YouTube videos denouncing the “socialist new world order” and the “snakes” in government, education, religion, virtually all institutions. He even recruited Krulos to costar in a Phantom Patriot movie, never finished (but the documentary includes a scene). Now that’s a writer getting deep inside the story!
That story ended darkly without a Phantom Patriot sequel. McClasin killed himself outside a Washington D.C. Masonic temple, accusing Freemasons of plotting World War III.
McClasin’s Phantom Patriot was fringe in 2002, but the fringe has widened by 2026 to engulf the mainstream. Leading figures in our government routinely spout conspiracy theories that once were confined to the dark web. Interviewed for American Madness, journalist Mark Rothschild described how many conspiratorial streams congealed in QAnon, “the universal theory” that ties all machinations into a bundle of distortions: the Deep State, the Blood Libel, the Protocols of Zion, the pedophile cabals, the ‘80s satanic scare, the extraterrestrials … and let’s give a shout out to the Clintons!
Alongside a rise in depression and mental illness, what are the tangible results of all this conspiracy mongering? American Madness focuses on one sad case, the National Butterfly Center. The director says she was digitally, verbally and physically assaulted by weirdos incensed by rumors that this sanctuary for migratory monarchs on the U.S.-Mexico border was really cover for a sex-trafficking cartel.
Pizzagate and The Phantom Patriot are only two symptoms of the wildfire of madness that has overtaken a society lacking wisdom and critical thinking, a mad scramble for answers in all the wrong places. Unlike all too many mediocre indie documentaries that occupy space at film festivals, American Madness is edited and handled with great skill for a compelling presentation of its story. American Madness examines particular cases and rises to reflect on the algorithmic machinery that spreads conspiracy and powers our world. (How that happened might count as a real conspiracy!)
American Madness premiered earlier this year at the Los Angeles Film Fest where it won for Best Documentary and was nominated for Best Picture. The documentary receives its Milwaukee premiere 6:30 p.m., July 30 at the Avalon Theater, 2473 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. Tickets are $13 and available here: www.ntg-wi.com/movies/americanmadness
Prior to the screening, Krulos will sign copies of his American Madness book at Lion’s Tooth, 2421 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., at 5 p.m. Stick around until 5:30 for a round of conspiracy trivia.
