Amused by the political antics of the late Edmond Hou-seye of Sheboygan, newspaper reporters through the years have used lighthearted adjectives to describe him. “Maverick,” “rascal,” and “political gadfly” were often seen in headlines about Hou-seye’s latest attempt to thumb his nose at the government and pull the wool over the eyes of taxpayers.
Released FBI documents, however, reveal that Hou-seye was so bitter toward his lack of sustained employment and imagined slights toward him from the U.S. government and society, that he felt compelled to express sympathy toward one of the most infamous presidential assassins in U.S. history. Hou-seye also dabbled in an attempt to release nuclear energy, pushed Nazi propaganda onto co-workers at a military arsenal where he was employed, and joined the Communist and Socialist parties to avoid being turned into a “robot.”
Two weeks after Lee Harvey Oswald was alleged to have assassinated President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, Oswald's widow, Marina Oswald, received a letter expressing sympathy toward her late husband (who was himself shot to death two days after the assassination). Accompanying the letter was a $2.00 check for Marina to use toward helping her children have a “Merry Christmas.”
Released FBI documents, however, reveal that Hou-seye was so bitter toward his lack of sustained employment and imagined slights toward him from the U.S. government and society, that he felt compelled to express sympathy toward one of the most infamous presidential assassins in U.S. history. Hou-seye also dabbled in an attempt to release nuclear energy, pushed Nazi propaganda onto co-workers at a military arsenal where he was employed, and joined the Communist and Socialist parties to avoid being turned into a “robot.”
Two weeks after Lee Harvey Oswald was alleged to have assassinated President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, Oswald's widow, Marina Oswald, received a letter expressing sympathy toward her late husband (who was himself shot to death two days after the assassination). Accompanying the letter was a $2.00 check for Marina to use toward helping her children have a “Merry Christmas.”
On October 30, 1964, Marina Oswald turned the letter over to the FBI as part of the Warren Commission's investigation into the Kennedy assassination. The letter was from Edmond Hou-seye of Sheboygan.
In the letter to Oswald’s widow, Hou-seye wrote:
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“Enclosed you will find a small check for $2.00 as an expression of my sympathy for the ordeal and torment of your late husband. I was impressed by the attitude of a hostile society toward your husband and feel he was driven by cruel circumstances into this act of violence, if indeed he is the guilty party. Whether or not your husband is guilty is not nearly so important to me as those responsible for his failure to secure a suitable employment and social acceptance. Please accept this $2.00 and use it to help your children have a Merry Christmas. I’m sorry I can’t help more but we are lucky to have a Christmas ourselves. “
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The FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover, then sent agents from its Milwaukee division to question past employers and neighbors of Hou-seye, as well as seek more information on Hou-seye from the Sheboygan Police Department.
Among the FBI’s findings was a 1962 letter from Hou-seye to the Atomic Energy Commission warning the agency to not come knocking on his door with accusations that he was violating the Atomic Energy Act, because of private “work” he was conducting into nuclear energy. Hou-seye, who lived on 12th Street in Sheboygan, wrote that he was corresponding with the Soviet Academy of Science in an effort to bring about his dream of releasing nuclear energy by “bringing forth energy from common elements.” Hou-seye was so convinced his “scientific heresies” were likely to become a reality, he wrote the agency seeking assurance that he wouldn’t face violence at the hand of the government.
It’s unknown what became of Hou-seye’s nuclear ambitions, but the FBI report next shows questioning of Hou-seye’s former co-workers at the U.S. Army Weapons Command - Rock Island Arsenal in Rock Island, Illinois where Hou-seye was employed as an inspector of small parts for arms from November, 1962 until June, 1963, when Hou-seye’s employment was “terminated,” according to the Army.
The report shows Hou-seye explaining that in 1946, before he turned 21, he added an “e” to the end of his name and a hyphen between “Hou” and “seye.” He also wanted his name pronounced like the Hispanic pronunciation of “José.” His explanation for doing this was, “cause I wanted to.” He also felt he was “not mandated to carry any name not in agreement” with his “legal rights.”
The Rock Island Arsenal report also contains statements from Hou-seye’s former co-workers detailing how Hou-seye circulated anti-Semitic literature called “Common Sense,” and also promised to bring copies of “The Stormtrooper” magazine which was published in the 60s by the American Nazi Party.
The former employees reported that Hou-seye spent about 1/3 of his time walking around the shops encouraging other employees to do like he did and “get in on the ground floor” by writing a check to the Communist and Socialist parties. Hou-seye explained that he was keeping the cancelled checks as evidence that he was “one of the boys” instead of one of the “andraids [sic].” Hou-seye told employees that the United States government would eventually be taken over by either the Communist or Socialist party, and they would put chemicals in the drinking water causing everyone to be turned into robots. Hou-seye said having the cancelled checks in his possession would prevent him from being turned into a robot.
Like Hou-seye, Lee Harvey Oswald was a former U.S. Marine. Oswald had defected to the Soviet Union in October 1959, where he claimed to be a Communist. He returned to the United States in June, 1962. Police believed that the Kennedy assassination was a communist plot.
The FBI went on to interview Sheboygan residents about Hou-seye.
A reporter for a credit bureau told investigators that in 1962 Hou-seye had several collections and judgments against him, and that his 12th Street house had been repossessed in 1963. He was currently living near Highway 41, where he was self-employed as a tool shop operator and repair man.
The bureau employee said that in 1962, Hou-seye was tried in the County court for violation of a city zoning ordinance for placing large signs in his yard advertising his lawn mower repair service. Hou-seye appealed the case to the United States Supreme Court without success. After the trial Hou-seye wrote letters to the state governor and Supreme Court claiming that his rights were being denied him.
The bureau employee and others who knew Hou-seye described him as referring to himself as a “Democratic free thinker” who came in seventh place in a 1961 run for mayor of Sheboygan. A captain for the Sheboygan Police Department told investigators that there were no arrest records on Hou-seye, but advised that he frequently wrote letters to the police department and newspaper. The Sheboygan Police Captain also said Hou-seye had applied for a job as a police officer, and during their background check teachers commented that Hou-seye “had a poor attitude and his school work was poor.” According to the FBI documents, Hou-seye returned to high school in 1947 after serving in the Marine Corps, but quit prior to graduation.
The police captain said Hou-seye was employed by various business firms throughout the Sheboygan area, but only worked a short while on any job due to his inability to get along with his fellow employees. While all of Hou-seye’s neighbors described him as highly intelligent and a good family man, they also said he was a “self-centered, opinionated, and hot tempered individual.”
The police captain told FBI investigators that he never heard Hou-seye espousing Communism, but he considered Hou-seye “a man of few friends, with a small sphere of influence.” The captain said Hou-seye was known in the Sheboygan area as an “intellectual screwball,” but never observed any indication of violence.
The FBI closed their investigation in 1965 stating that, “In view of the fact that Housey is currently running for a political office [mayor] and is not engaged in activities which are inimical to the national defense interests of this country, no further investigation is being conducted by the Milwaukee Division.”
Hou-seye tried several more failed attempts at running for office in the 1960s through the 1990s, including alderman, sheriff, state senator, and governor.
In 1970 Hou-seye convinced one of his gas station employees named Robert Zimmermann to run as a “Wallace Democrat” for Secretary of State against veteran Republican Secretary of State Robert C. Zimmerman. Hou-seye’s plan was to confuse voters with his candidate’s similar name, and to take advantage of voters who voted a straight Democratic ticket. The popular and well-respected incumbent had held the Secretary of State position since 1957.
According to the September 27, 1970 Appleton Post-Crescent, Hou-seye would be the campaign manager to his Zimmermann candidate, who slept in a back room in Hou-seye’s gas station. The Post-Crescent reported that Hou-seye depicted his candidate as “a sort of John-the-Baptist preparing the way for Hou- Seye's coming as the Messiah of the Right Wing” and that Hou-seye “talks about saving the country from going to damnation” and “spins complex theories involving God and politics.”
In the primary election, Hou-seye’s candidate managed to garner 170,033 of the votes compared to the incumbent’s 204,509. In the general election, the incumbent defeated Hou-seye’s candidate 804,002 to 487,584, according to the 1971 Wisconsin Blue Book.
In the late 1970s Hou-seye founded the “Research Universal Life Church” and Edmond, his wife Mary, and their son, Job, acquired mail-order ministerial ordinations from the “mother church” in Modesto, California. At some point Edmond Hou-seye began referring to himself as Bishop Edmond Galileo Hou-Seye. The Hou-seyes held Bible studies in their tire store business while withholding tax payments, claiming they were allowed the same tax exempt status as churches. The courts rejected those claims and the Hou-seyes, who owed $177,000 in back taxes and interest, was eventually evicted.
In the letter to Oswald’s widow, Hou-seye wrote:
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Enclosed you will find a small check for $2.00 as an expression of my sympathy for the ordeal and torment of your late husband. I was impressed by the attitude of a hostile society toward your husband and feel he was driven by cruel circumstances into this act of violence, if indeed he is the guilty party. Whether or not your husband is guilty is not nearly so important to me as those responsible for his failure to secure a suitable employment and social acceptance. Please accept this $2.00 and use it to help your children have a Merry Christmas. I’m sorry I can’t help more but we are lucky to have a Christmas ourselves. “
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover, then sent agents from its Milwaukee division to question past employers and neighbors of Hou-seye, as well as seek more information on Hou-seye from the Sheboygan Police Department.
Among the FBI’s findings was a 1962 letter from Hou-seye to the Atomic Energy Commission warning the agency to not come knocking on his door with accusations that he was violating the Atomic Energy Act, because of private “work” he was conducting into nuclear energy. Hou-seye, who lived on 12th Street in Sheboygan, wrote that he was corresponding with the Soviet Academy of Science in an effort to bring about his dream of releasing nuclear energy by “bringing forth energy from common elements.” Hou-seye was so convinced his “scientific heresies” were likely to become a reality, he wrote the agency seeking assurance that he wouldn’t face violence at the hand of the government.
It’s unknown what became of Hou-seye’s nuclear ambitions, but the FBI report next shows questioning of Hou-seye’s former co-workers at the U.S. Army Weapons Command - Rock Island Arsenal in Rock Island, Illinois where Hou-seye was employed as an inspector of small parts for arms from November, 1962 until June, 1963, when Hou-seye’s employment was “terminated,” according to the Army.
The report shows Hou-seye explaining that in 1946, before he turned 21, he added an “e” to the end of his name and a hyphen between “Hou” and “seye.” He also wanted his name pronounced like the Hispanic pronunciation of “José.” His explanation for doing this was, “cause I wanted to.” He also felt he was “not mandated to carry any name not in agreement” with his “legal rights.”
The Rock Island Arsenal report also contains statements from Hou-seye’s former co-workers detailing how Hou-seye circulated anti-Semitic literature called “Common Sense,” and also promised to bring copies of “The Stormtrooper” magazine which was published in the 60s by the American Nazi Party.
The former employees reported that Hou-seye spent about 1/3 of his time walking around the shops encouraging other employees to do like he did and “get in on the ground floor” by writing a check to the Communist and Socialist parties. Hou-seye explained that he was keeping the cancelled checks as evidence that he was “one of the boys” instead of one of the “andraids [sic].” Hou-seye told employees that the United States government would eventually be taken over by either the Communist or Socialist party, and they would put chemicals in the drinking water causing everyone to be turned into robots. Hou-seye said having the cancelled checks in his possession would prevent him from being turned into a robot.
Like Hou-seye, Lee Harvey Oswald was a former U.S. Marine. Oswald had defected to the Soviet Union in October 1959, where he claimed to be a Communist. He returned to the United States in June, 1962. Police believed that the Kennedy assassination was a communist plot.
The FBI went on to interview Sheboygan residents about Hou-seye.
A reporter for a credit bureau told investigators that in 1962 Hou-seye had several collections and judgments against him, and that his 12th Street house had been repossessed in 1963. He was currently living near Highway 41, where he was self-employed as a tool shop operator and repair man.
The bureau employee said that in 1962, Hou-seye was tried in the County court for violation of a city zoning ordinance for placing large signs in his yard advertising his lawn mower repair service. Hou-seye appealed the case to the United States Supreme Court without success. After the trial Hou-seye wrote letters to the state governor and Supreme Court claiming that his rights were being denied him.
The bureau employee and others who knew Hou-seye described him as referring to himself as a “Democratic free thinker” who came in seventh place in a 1961 run for mayor of Sheboygan. A captain for the Sheboygan Police Department told investigators that there were no arrest records on Hou-seye, but advised that he frequently wrote letters to the police department and newspaper. The Sheboygan Police Captain also said Hou-seye had applied for a job as a police officer, and during their background check teachers commented that Hou-seye “had a poor attitude and his school work was poor.” According to the FBI documents, Hou-seye returned to high school in 1947 after serving in the Marine Corps, but quit prior to graduation.
The police captain said Hou-seye was employed by various business firms throughout the Sheboygan area, but only worked a short while on any job due to his inability to get along with his fellow employees. While all of Hou-seye’s neighbors described him as highly intelligent and a good family man, they also said he was a “self-centered, opinionated, and hot tempered individual.”
The police captain told FBI investigators that he never heard Hou-seye espousing Communism, but he considered Hou-seye “a man of few friends, with a small sphere of influence.” The captain said Hou-seye was known in the Sheboygan area as an “intellectual screwball,” but never observed any indication of violence.
The FBI closed their investigation in 1965 stating that, “In view of the fact that Housey is currently running for a political office [mayor] and is not engaged in activities which are inimical to the national defense interests of this country, no further investigation is being conducted by the Milwaukee Division.”
Hou-seye tried several more failed attempts at running for office in the 1960s through the 1990s, including alderman, sheriff, state senator, and governor.
In 1970 Hou-seye convinced one of his gas station employees named Robert Zimmermann to run as a “Wallace Democrat” for Secretary of State against veteran Republican Secretary of State Robert C. Zimmerman. Hou-seye’s plan was to confuse voters with his candidate’s similar name, and to take advantage of voters who voted a straight Democratic ticket. The popular and well-respected incumbent had held the Secretary of State position since 1957.
According to the September 27, 1970 Appleton Post-Crescent, Hou-seye would be the campaign manager to his Zimmermann candidate, who slept in a back room in Hou-seye’s gas station. The Post-Crescent reported that Hou-seye depicted his candidate as “a sort of John-the-Baptist preparing the way for Hou- Seye's coming as the Messiah of the Right Wing” and that Hou-seye “talks about saving the country from going to damnation” and “spins complex theories involving God and politics.”
In the primary election, Hou-seye’s candidate managed to garner 170,033 of the votes compared to the incumbent’s 204,509. In the general election, the incumbent defeated Hou-seye’s candidate 804,002 to 487,584, according to the 1971 Wisconsin Blue Book.
In the late 1970s Hou-seye founded the “Research Universal Life Church” and Edmond, his wife Mary, and their son, Job, acquired mail-order ministerial ordinations from the “mother church” in Modesto, California. At some point Edmond Hou-seye began referring to himself as Bishop Edmond Galileo Hou-Seye. The Hou-seyes held Bible studies in their tire store business while withholding tax payments, claiming they were allowed the same tax exempt status as churches. The courts rejected those claims and the Hou-seyes, who owed $177,000 in back taxes and interest, was eventually evicted.
The Hou-seye family also battled the City of Sheboygan for years over their collection of approximately 75,000 used tires that surrounded the business from 1988 until 1998. The Department of Natural Resources declared the tire pile a fire hazard that attracted mosquitos. At one point, Edmond Hou-seye reportedly threatened to pour gasoline on the tires and start them on fire. The Sheboygan Press reported that taxpayers eventually paid the bill for the DNR to remove the tires, and the building was demolished in 1998. |
In 2005, at the age of 78, Edmond Hou-seye’s final act as a “rascal” was to illegally duplicate 48 copies of a state disabled parking identification card that had been issued to his late wife. The police report highlighted the fact that illegally reproduced disabled parking cards were being sold on the black market in Milwaukee and Madison for $300 apiece. Hou-seye claimed he didn’t know that counterfeiting the disabled parking cards was illegal, and said nothing was printed on the cards indicating it was illegal. But a DOT staff attorney said that when the department mails the customer a disabled parking card, it includes an insert that advises the customer of the penalties if the card is fraudulently used. The city’s assistant attorney said they had no evidence Hou-seye was selling the cards, only duplicating them.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation said each of the 48 reproductions could count for a violation against Hou-Seye, but the assistant city attorney said the city issued only one citation covering all 48 counts. Hou-Seye was fined $200 and court costs, then announced he would appeal. Lack of court documents show Hou-seye must not have been charged.
That same year, in 2005, Hou-seye was crossing a busy Sheboygan intersection in a motorized handicap cart when he was run over by a van driven by a Hispanic minister who operated a church out of the former AIM Insurance building in Sheboygan. Hou-seye’s son, Job Hou-seye held a protest at the intersection because the driver of the van was not charged. (A local radio station reporter was the only media person to show up at the protest). Witnesses had stated the lights turned green before Hou-seye finished crossing, and the van driver didn’t see him. Edmond remained unconscious in a nursing home until he died in 2010. Ironically, not too long after the accident involving Hou-seye and the Hispanic minister, an apartment above the AIM Insurance building caught fire and the damage forced the minister and his members to relocate.
Hou-seye's son, Job, shares the disposition of this father, and has continued in his father's footsteps of defying the government, running unsuccessfully for office (nine times at last count), advancing conspiracy theories, threatening lawsuits, and expressing a "poor attitude" toward people who criticize or reject him because of his antics.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation said each of the 48 reproductions could count for a violation against Hou-Seye, but the assistant city attorney said the city issued only one citation covering all 48 counts. Hou-Seye was fined $200 and court costs, then announced he would appeal. Lack of court documents show Hou-seye must not have been charged.
That same year, in 2005, Hou-seye was crossing a busy Sheboygan intersection in a motorized handicap cart when he was run over by a van driven by a Hispanic minister who operated a church out of the former AIM Insurance building in Sheboygan. Hou-seye’s son, Job Hou-seye held a protest at the intersection because the driver of the van was not charged. (A local radio station reporter was the only media person to show up at the protest). Witnesses had stated the lights turned green before Hou-seye finished crossing, and the van driver didn’t see him. Edmond remained unconscious in a nursing home until he died in 2010. Ironically, not too long after the accident involving Hou-seye and the Hispanic minister, an apartment above the AIM Insurance building caught fire and the damage forced the minister and his members to relocate.
Hou-seye's son, Job, shares the disposition of this father, and has continued in his father's footsteps of defying the government, running unsuccessfully for office (nine times at last count), advancing conspiracy theories, threatening lawsuits, and expressing a "poor attitude" toward people who criticize or reject him because of his antics.
Sources:
FBI report
http://host.madison.com/news/local/hou-seye-copied-parking-id-for-disabled-a-charge-says/article_6e61270f-c915-5ab3-bff1-05ec940811a9.html
https://www.wicourts.gov/ca/opinion/DisplayDocument.html?content=html&seqNo=9789
http://www.doa.state.wi.us/documents/dha/Decisions/DNR/1995-1999/ih-95-14.pdf
*Thanks to those, who shall remain anonymous, who shared newspaper clippings.
FBI report
http://host.madison.com/news/local/hou-seye-copied-parking-id-for-disabled-a-charge-says/article_6e61270f-c915-5ab3-bff1-05ec940811a9.html
https://www.wicourts.gov/ca/opinion/DisplayDocument.html?content=html&seqNo=9789
http://www.doa.state.wi.us/documents/dha/Decisions/DNR/1995-1999/ih-95-14.pdf
*Thanks to those, who shall remain anonymous, who shared newspaper clippings.