From: James Randi --- Wizard <randi-hotline@ssr.com>
Subject: Action initiated . . .

This morning, December 3rd, 1996, my action against Earl Gordon Curley was initiated. It is being handled by Toronto's largest legal firm, and the check to retain their services was mailed out. I expect that Mr. Curley's impatience with this matter will shortly be ended; he has been complaining bitterly that I've been slow in getting this show on the road, and now he'll have somewhat different reasons to complain.

I note that his three phone numbers (as shown in the current Toronto telephone directory) are no longer in service. And, two of my correspondents report that the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police, equivalent in Canada to the FBI in the USA) have notified them that Mr. Curley has been told not to distribute the Dreaded Tape, as he had promised to do.

I'm told that this action may take as much as two years, and that if the defendant has no assets, I cannot expect much monetary award.

However, I'm in the position of having to do what I can to defend myself against Mr. Curley's attacks. And, I will shortly be in Canada to sign the appropriate papers. To quote Mr. Curley from his posting of November

As Curley said in his November 19th posting:

> Randi, come back to Canada. There are a few
> people waiting to talk to you after I supplied them
> with the tape of your solicitation, the newspaper
> articles from Rumson, the allegations made
> against you by Robinson, the law suit between
> you and Patrolman Stephen Xanthos, your
> statements that you have funds equivalent to
> $750,000. or more in the James Randi
> Educational Foundation, your loss in the court
> case between you and Eldon Byrd, and on and
> on and on.

Fair enough. I will announce here the time and date of my arrival in Toronto, Canada, the hotel at which I'll be staying, and how I may be reached. I'll do that as soon as my lawyers tell me when they'll need me there. That will be in plenty of time for Mr. Curley to arrange for these "few people" to be notified and prepared to meet with me at my hotel to discuss all these matters.

Just in case these mysterious "people" would like to be saved a trip, I'll tell them now that the "tape" is not one of "solicitation," but was prepared by me (and not as a wire-tap, as Mr. Curley has chosen to believe) to trap some bad guys. It worked, and the bad guys were identified, charged, and convicted.

I will bring along a COMPLETE file of the newspaper files alluded to (not from Rumson, which had no newspaper back then, but from Asbury Park) including the articles that supported my allegations against the Middletown police, and the record of the conviction of those who I trapped by means of the "tape."

As for the "allegations made against [me] by Robinson," I do not know what is being referred to, since I've never seen any such evidence.

The "law suit between [me] and Patrolman Stephen Xanthos" never existed, so I need not explain the non-existent "out-of-court settlement" that Mr. Curley has invented. Incidently, Xanthos was eventually canned from the police force for the very tactics that I'd accused him of, opened a bar, and was charged with beating up a customer. Nice guy.

Mr. Curley is very hot on my "statements that [the James Randi Educational Foundation has] assets equivalent to $750,000 or more," so I will be prepared to present -- to responsible persons -- a statement of assets for the JREF. Regarding "[my] loss in the court case between [myself] and Eldon Byrd," that is easily handled; in the first few moments of the court hearing that Mr. Curley chortles about, I told the jury that I had indeed -- inadvertently -- made a mis-statement of fact concerning Eldon Byrd, that I had said that he was a convicted child molester, when in fact though he WAS a confessed child molester, he had not been convicted of it, since he had plea-bargained the charge down.

The judge ruled that all the jury had to decide was whether Mr. Byrd was due any monetary reward as a result of damage to his reputation that might have resulted from my statement. The jury awarded Mr. Byrd zero. (The jury heard the "tape" -- at my insistence -- and were satisfied as to how, why, by whom, it was prepared.) I was represented pro bono (free) by a prominent Baltimore law firm.

When Mr. Curley refers, above, to ". . . and on and on and on," I cannot imagine what else these "few people" might like to discuss, but take note:

I will keep you all informed as the legal action matures.

A side-question.... What, we might ask, has ANY of this got to do with whether or not Mr. Curley -- or anyone else -- has psychic powers?