The Journey 116. Rick Marcelli and Robin Bragg-Marcelli: Gay Freedom, Psychological Warfare, and Brian Epstein’s Death.

Publisher Kris Millegan speaks with Rick Marcelli and Robin Bragg-Marcelli about the changes our culture has seen over the past many decades, the psychological warfare used against us, the struggle for gays to live openly, and Rick and Robin’s book, HIDE YOUR LOVE AWAY, which is about Larry Stanton’s relationship with Brian Epstein, the manager of The Beatles, and the chance that Brian was murdered.

Kris: We’ve all seen some really amazing changes.

Robin: There were a lot of struggles that homosexuals [had to endure] and we’re very concerned with that history, which is the backstory of our book.

Rick: We feel that that struggle would be important to a new generation of people who are gay or who are interested in the gay world. But we find that a lot of the new people almost deny that there was a struggle and don’t really want to know that there was a struggle.

Gay people in the ‘50s and ‘60s could not go out and hold hands or embrace each other. It was illegal. And in certain parts of the world, it’s still illegal, to show that kind of open affection in public.

Kris: And there is a big political push-back on the idea that homosexuality is not a quote-unquote sin; it’s something that happens and has happened for millennia and beyond.

I was raised as a little kid in the South. I remember not really understanding how come you’d go to a gas station and there’d be [doors for] “Men” and “Women” and then “Colored.” There have been a multitude of changes.

A lot of it has to do because of the personal computer and the internet and seeing the earth back in the late ‘60s [from space] and looking with a more holistic type of outlook, rather than just the outlook of, “Well, I guess I’ll just get up in the morning and feed the cows.”

Rick: And yet it seems to me, while the words have changed, we still have the same problems and issues with color. Now they’re hiring people because of color. When do we get it that we’re all human beings and stop making issues about color?

I never knew, as an Italian-American, what box to check, because they didn’t have any box for me to check. So I always used to put down “human being.”

Kris: Things have changed and I think they’re changing in a good direction because we’re having the discussion, and change comes from discussion and understanding and moving forward with the generations instead of going backwards.

Robin: That’s the importance of making sure that history isn’t forgotten. And a good portion of the people in this country and the world are looking for something better.

Kris: I see lots of different agendas, lots of different players.

Rick: I do think, our political system, either side of the fence, it’s the ultimate show business. It actually makes me laugh sometimes because it’s so obvious. Everyone grandstands. It’s all about “me” and whatever they’re trying to pitch. And I think our country really takes a hit for that. Because we’re forgotten that thing, “we the people.”

A lot of politicians have a wonderful job with lifetime benefits. And yet they forgot to take care of the people they represent.

Kris: America has been subjected to years of psychological warfare to help create almost the society that we live in today. You talked about education. One of the first things that Skull and Bones did was to take over the education system. You look at the eighth-grade tests from the last 1800s. A lot of college graduates couldn’t pass those today. They brought in the Prussian education system that taught you what to think instead of how to think.

We have this book, SCHOOL WORLD ORDER, which I said was very scary in my Publisher’s Foreword, because it shows how the quote-unquote powers-that-be are using the education system to funnel kids into their dream.

So… HIDE YOUR LOVE AWAY. I learned a lot of new stuff about Brian Epstein. Like you said, it really is the story of Larry Stanton and this hidden love.

Robin: We lost Larry earlier this year and we feel privileged to have been able to tell his story. Unfortunately, till his death, Larry still struggled even though a lot of doors had opened up for homosexuals. Because he was an older gentlemen, it was ingrained in him, it was very hard for him to feel the acceptance.

Rick: We were very close to him. I knew Larry since I was twelve-years-old, and Robin had known him for the last twenty-five, thirty years. Having to [stay hidden] has changed for the new generation [of homosexuals]. Nineteen sixty-seven, when Brian Epstein passed away, was the same year they started changing the laws [against homosexuality] in England. They didn’t change those laws in the United States until something like 2010.

When Brian died, it was reported that it was from drugs that he was taking. But we feel strongly, because of what Larry told us, that there was more to it than just him accidentally taking pills.

Kris: There were plenty of reasons by a couple of different people to want him to be gone, at least as far as the evidence that I’ve seen.

I’ve seen some of the change. My nephew is Eric Millegan, who played Zack Addy on the TV show BONES, and he was one of the first gay actors who was openly out in Hollywood.

Rick: Lord Boothby would throw these elaborate, men-only parties in the 1960s, where some compromising photos were taken of Brian that were stolen from him by the person we call in the book “the toxic lover,” and that created a whole bunch of problems for Brian. He was concerned, if his homosexuality were known, that the public would take it out on his clients, The Beatles.

Robin: That’s where blackmail and all sorts of criminal elements started to come into play that were very hard for Brian to deal with.

Rick: There were a couple of gangster types called the Kray twins who were pretty notorious back in the day. People were afraid of them. One of the twins was gay. They were really close to Robert Stigwood, and he wanted to have a business relationship with Brian. And that sort of put Brian into a corner.

The last year that Brian was alive was the last year of his contract with The Beatles. He was about to renegotiate a new contract with them. And Stigwood wanted to become partners with him. He wanted to take over his company. I believe Brian was being pressured into thinking that that merger could happen. I think all of that, plus the toxic lover moving in the backfield, really put Brian’s life in jeopardy.

It was Larry who had introduced that man to Brian and started that whole toxic relationship.

Kris: It’s an amazing story. People really ought to get the book, HIDE YOUR LOVE AWAY.