To give the Gemstone Files any credence, any believability, one must start with a single stark accusation standing like a thorny tree in a barren landscape, and work from there - for the Gemstones are little more than one stark accusation followed by another, with no supporting evidence.

There were the main cast of four characters:

• Aristotle Onassis,

• the Joseph P. Kennedy clan,

• Howard Hughes and

• the Mafia - the last alone made up of a cast of thousands.

Four barren trees in a desolate landscape of history, somehow said to be connected through unseen roots below the surface, with the path they create leading into a dark and shadowy jungle of history. What are those alleged connections that have resulted in drug trafficking, fraud, bribery, political control, even assassination?

Certainly the principals themselves, with the exception of the Mafia, aren't about to get their fingers dirtied with the blood of their victims; they have that public image of benevolence and graciousness and aristocracy to uphold. And even the High Princes of Crime themselves, within the Mafia, seldom do the dirty work themselves.

No, one has to look for common threads. Who are their political fixers? Their bagmen? Their closest most trusted aides? Their associates and lieutenants? Their victims? What are their favorite hangouts and clubs and restaurants? Racetracks? Hotels? Even churches? What deals have they made money on? Who have they cheated and betrayed along the way? What common timelines do they share? Where do their paths, and those of their underlings, cross?

Yellow Brick Road to the Land of Oz?

That is where this search takes us, not along the Yellow Brick Road into the Land of Oz, but along a thorny, overgrown path into a Land of Shadows. It is there, hidden along that weedy, thorny path into God knows where that one finds an occasional "gemstone", a glitter of light caught by the sun and easily missed.

These "gemstones" are not a particular piece of paper, as believed by some of those who claim to be their creators or facilitators. They are nuggets of history itself, upon which no one can place a copyright or a patent. Like all good explorers, we then take our finds to the appraisers and see if they're worth anything. The appraisers are the bits of recorded history, the verification, the documentation that tells us whether we've found a true "gemstone" or whether we have no more than fool's gold.

Bruce Roberts is "creator" of the Gemstone File - but not of the "gemstones" themselves. Roberts put together a specific stack of paper some 1,300 pages high, but he never had it appraised, and so one wonders - is it gold or fool's gold?

A Puzzle With Missing Pieces

To use another analogy, he left us a large box containing pieces of a puzzle, but some of those pieces are fake and won't fit anywhere in the puzzle. And many of the pieces are missing, while others are broken and incomplete. No one has ever put the puzzle together until now. Those hawking their wares and staking their names on someone else's work have contented themselves with dangling these unconnected, unverified puzzle pieces in front of our eyes, as if that vain act in itself constitutes all there is to truth.

And to make it even more painful, even if this Bruce Roberts puzzle were put together and its irrelevant, un-matching pieces thrown out, it is only a piece of yet a larger puzzle. All of the pieces are connected to little strings that lead to other pieces without necessarily providing a broader view of the historic picture itself. And so you end up with a tangle of string, like a kitten might have formed in its playfulness.

In short, it's a researcher's worst nightmare - and perhaps that why no one bothers to check it out.

The connecting pieces presented here are unfinished. They will never be finished in my lifetime. Look at the list - the timeframe and the names. Many of them remain missing. Others remain incomplete. As new material is found, it is added and the picture is filled in just a little more. But it is a growing thing, a living thing that never ends. It has its roots not only in history, but has its growth in the ever-changing future.

It is said that "history is nothing but the lies agreed upon by the victors." If so, the victors change over time, as the struggle continues, and victory swings from one side to the other. As it does, that history is altered by whoever happens to be in power at the time. So it is only through that ongoing struggle and alteration that we see bits of history materialize, put there by the victors of the moment. We snatch it up and hide it away for future generations, because as sure as the sun comes up, there will be a new boss, and the old history will be swept away. We just pick up the pieces. That's the best historians can hope to do. We are just the Chroniclers of the Age, working with pieces of fog that are there one moment and gone the next.

If you're a bit apprehensive about traveling too far back in time, you may wish to start with "A Skeleton Key to the Gemstone Files," which gives you a gentler introduction to the time travel you are about to experience. If you're feeling brave, and ready to plunge in, go to The Beginning.

At the left you will find your control panel, which will take you to all the years currently programmed into our databanks, and to a background briefing on those individuals, organizations, and places which play a prominent role in the travels you are about to experience. They should always be there on your screen, as a comforting and reassuring link back to your present world. Those links in blue have been activated; those in black are still under preparation, and you are advised not to try to go there.

Good luck - and have a safe voyage! We'll see you on The Other Side.

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