Plausible Deniability

The term "plausible deniability" refers to the strategy employed by some leaders who wish to escape responsibility for the actions of an organization. They create an intentionally disorganized chain of command so that any consequences that occur from the activities of the underlings can never be traced all the way to the top.

The Iamaphoney story has taken many twists and turns over the past couple years, but how much of the insanity that we have been following can really be attributed to the person who started a thread on the Nothing Is Real forum back in November of 2006? The Rotten Apple Army has given the man at the top quite a bit of plausible deniability.

The shadowy figure whose current identity on NIR is "Bill" started the "Rotten Apple 2" thread with four posts dated November 27, 2006. Each post consisted of a single YouTube link for Rotten Apple 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively.

Bill's member bio on NIR reads as follows:

Name: Blll
Email: hidden
Birthday: 11/20/1963
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 48
Date Registered: Sept 27, 2006, 2:15pm
Account Status: Not Activated

Another early post by "Bill" (Iamaphoney) gave a hint as to his spelling prowess, but more importantly, his primary objective:

glad you guys likes it...
There is so much more on its way...
trying to get some investers to help me out.
...hopefully it will be the big revalation film,
The film that tells the true,and the final answer from the dead man himself

-Bill 11/28,2006

The Rotten Apple thread is up to 210 pages and over 5000 responses. It spent a period locked behind a password as punishment for some nasty exchanges between Iamaphoney fans and foes. "Bill" or Iamaphoney simply stayed out of it, never defending himself from attacks and refusing even to correct his fans when they went overboard in jumping to his defense. It was surreal how intense the fighting became. The conversation sometimes bordered on perceived threats attributed to Iamaphoney, yet the subject of the conversation maintained plausible deniability by staying out of it all. Iamaphoney never threatened anyone.

The early responses gave no hint of the war that eventually emerged within the Rotten Apple thread.

As we all know, those early videos were not sophisticated, dealing mainly with reversals of speech that were received as new discoveries by his early fans at NIR. Then the videos seemed to reflect evidence that his initial request for investors had been answered. The increase in the quality of the videos (and accompanying soundtracks) coincided with some setbacks. Rotten Apple 25, 28 and 30 disappeared from YouTube for a while, possibly because of copyright infringement. Ironically, two of the three deleted videos dealt with Charles Manson and Aleister Crowley, two topics that would create much controversy in the world of Iamaphoney. The third video contained some footage from American Bandstand with Dick Clark. New versions of the three videos appeared later and featured original music and slicker editing more in line with subsequent Rotten Apple efforts.

As the quality of the Rotten Apple videos increased, so did the resistance among members of NIR, and Iamphoney was being accused of stealing ideas from the board and incorporating them into his videos. Other viewers took issue with the increase of association with Crowley, Manson, satanism and serial killers in the videos. Another thing that Iamaphoney can take the blame for was the use of major fires as backgrounds on his YouTube channels. Some considered it a sick joke, while others even insinuated that Iamaphoney was responsible for setting the fires.

Iamaphoney reached a significant crossroad at the time of Rotten Apple 65. For a brief time, there was a version of RA 65 that showed a rather straight documentary format, even featuring a voiceover by an English voice, although not the same voice known as the "English Gentleman" who said, "Paul McCartney, world renowned musical genius, a trend-setting pop star of Beatle fame." This voice was a narrator only, not someone presented as an insider.


The documentary version of RA 65 also seemed to include recent interviews with experts who seemed to be willing to talk about the Paul Is Dead rumor.

Frequent Beatles Co-Star Victor Spinetti sat down to talk to "someone" about the clues.



Another interview subject was Beatles expert and author Bruce Spizer who seemed to enjoy talking about Paul Is Dead clues.



In addition to his excellent books, Spizer had written an April Fools joke article about Paul Is Dead rumors. But I wonder who interviewed him about the Paul Is Dead clues.

There was also an interview with this unidentified woman who seemed to possess information about the Beatles' relationship with Aleister Crowley.



The documentary clip contained explorations of several clues including the name Joe Ephgrave from the Sgt. Pepper credits, the changing of the lettering of "Lonely Hearts" on the Sgt. Pepper drum head, the "Son of the Magickian" anagram and the famous "Love Code."



The documentary style was admirable and it could have been the PID aficionado's dream. There was only one problem. Compared to the trippy, spooky videos that Iamaphoney was producing at the time, the documentary format was boring. The documentary was quickly pulled and Iamaphoney committed himself back to the path of darkness. Rotten Apple 66,6 returned to Charles Manson and Aleister Crowley.



Some people have consistently accused Iamaphoney of glorifying satanists and serial killers, but I don't think Manson's quote about the "Elvis Presleys and Mesca Besleys and all them guys" is exactly flattering to Manson. It is certainly not as flattering to Charles Manson as Vincient Bugliosi's description in his book "Helter Skelter." I understand the motive to make Manson out to be a genius in order to make Bugliosi a bigger genius for defeating him in a court of law. But Bugliosi even went as far as sharing a story of when his reliable wristwatch stopped for the first time ever and he looked up to see Manson staring at him and grinning. Give me a break. I also think that if Iamaphoney was a big fan of Manson, he would be doing his musical treatment to some of Charlie's songs (some of which are nearly listenable) instead of focusing on some of the most obscure tracks in Beatles history. I also think Iamaphoney would set Aleister Crowley's poems to music if Crowley were really the object of his fascination.

There have been many insinuations that Iamaphoney was a Beatles insider, but I can't find any claims of that directly traceable to videomaker/musician Iamaphoney. The closest thing to that would have been the mini biography that appeared briefly on wikipedia, but was quickly removed. The bio suggested that Iamaphoney was one Ian Paul Bill Martin Jr., a musician, recording engineer and journalist. There was no direct Beatles connection, but at least he was in the business. However, I don't know that we can say for certain that Iamaphoney wrote or approved that bio.

Another source of contempt among Iamaphoney foes and annoyance even among fans has to do with the large number of alias YouTube channels that feature copies of rotten apple videos with different names or, in some cases, entirely new videos. Iamaphoney videos about Paul McCartney are one thing, but a YouTube channel for one PauIMcCartney (with a capital "I" instead of an "l") seems like a deliberate attempt to fool real McCartney fans. But I can't find a way to prove that YouTube user PauIMcCartney is Iamaphoney, even though I am reasonably sure it is. I am reasonably sure that YouTube user BlllShepherd is Iamaphoney, and reasonably sure that YouTube user S3ANL3NN0N is not. I have no idea if YouTube user lAMAPH0NEY, who posted a four-second video this week is Iamaphoney or someone else. But Iamaphoney maintains plausible deniability by remaining silent.



There have been many references to the Rotten Apple Army and the Iamaphoney organization. We have seen the Iamaphoney actor and at least one camera operator in the videos. There has been a talk of an editor who spices up the videos. I have been contacted by individuals who claim to be members or former members of the Iamaphoney organization.

I have had a total of about five interactions with the YouTube person called Iamaphoney. Each consisted of a back and forth exchange via YouTube. Some of those interactions regarded some images that were placed in a photo album at picasaweb on a few different occasions. I published all of those photos on this blog. Some of those images turned up later in Rotten Apple videos.

I have also had a few exchanges with someone claiming to work for Iamaphoney. I believe that person was telling me the truth.

One of the more interesting contacts was someone who claimed to be a former member of the Iamaphoney organization. This person gave me some information and pictures that I published on this blog. One of the pictures was a color version of what was implied to be a Paul McCartney doodle that included the words "chase phoney."



I contacted this individual when another "former member" threatened to release seven videos that would reveal everything, and then disappeared before anyone saw the first of the seven. My contact told me that something had been worked out with the traitor. Once again, Iamaphoney had plausible deniability.

There was one chink in the armor of the former member of the Iamaphoney organization who contacted me. After about three months of silence, the former member contacted me and told me to check my "secret place." This puzzled me because the former member always used megaupload to send me things. It was Iamaphoney who used the "secret place."

I retrieved the document and published it here, but I had a question for this supposed "former member" of the Iamaphoney organization.

I asked, "Does this mean that you and Iamaphoney are together?"

The answer I received was "ono."

I followed up with, "It is just that you were always using MegaUpload and it was Iamaphoney who was putting things in the "secret place."

The "former member" responded, "your solution is in your problem."

I replied but received no answer and have not heard from the person since then.

Was the supposed traitor I was dealing with actually Iamaphoney himself? I couldn't tell you. He remains hidden under the cloak of plausible deniability.

The bigger question remains. Who is funding Iamaphoney? How is he able to jet around the world leaving suitcases that make him the object of ridicule with no apparent effort to profit financially? Who is behind the Iamaphoney organization? Whoever that is must have written the book on plausible deniability.