THE OFFICIAL FRANCIS E. DEC F.A.Q

ON TO THE Q&A:s!

Q: CAN I JOIN THE FANCLUB? HOW DO I JOIN? IS IT EXPENSIVE?

A: Of course you can join! Just e-mail me with the message title "I want to join"! Joining is 100% free and gets you a nifty membership certificate, among other things!

Q: WHO ARE YOU?

A: I, zer0 - the creator, presenter and maintainer
of this site - am a Swedish artist/cartoonist who
happens to find the insane delusions of Francis
E. Dec both amusing and interesting. To find
out a bit more about me, and about other regular contributors to this web site, check out this page.

Q: WHO WAS FRANCIS E. DEC, ESQ.?

A: He was a lawyer, hailing from the state of NY. Or rather, he used to be one. That was before he was convicted and disbarred for his involvement in two counts of second degree forgery and second degree grand larceny, as well as fraud in performing his duties as a notary public. Details remained rather sketchy until 2006 and 2007, but now more information has been located which can be found here, here, here and here thanks to Ted Torbich and Mr. Forrest Jackson, both huge fans of Francis E. Dec, Esq.!

After he was excluded from the NY State Bar and his license to practice law was revoked, Mr. Dec embarked on the career for which he is most widely known today, namely that of an insane, criminal menace to this worse Gangster Government. Or, you know, just “insane kook” if you like that term better. Either way he would come to spend the next 20 years or so isolated alone in his house in Hempstead NY, furiously typing and sending out mad letters of warning to thousands of random households, media outlets and small businesses all over the United States. From what I’ve been able to gather from his writings, it may have been a combination of being convicted and disbarred as a lawyer along with the intense isolation in what he refers to as his “low, deadly niggertown old house” that finally drove Mr. Dec over the edge - although I suspect more than a fair helping of paranoid schizophrenia may have been a contributing factor to his madness, as well. Whatever the case, the results were to become as interesting as they are hilarious.

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Q: SO YOU THINK DEC AND HIS DELUSIONS ARE FUNNY?

A: Oh hell yes, I fucking love this guy. As stated above, Dec and his insane diatribes must truly be one of the greatest comedic gems of the 20th century. I think the main reason why the rants become so funny is that their humor is entirely unintentional. Dec really thought he was warning the world of a deadly, vicious conspiracy by sending out his mad letters when, in fact, the only thing he actually succeeded in doing was making people like me laugh our asses off at the sheer lunacy of the things he believed were true. I’m dead serious here, folks; there’s not a single thing you could possibly change about his insane beliefs that would make them any funnier. If Francis E. Dec was a cartoon character on TV, he’d have a cuckoo on a spring that’d jump out of a little door on his forehead every time he’d say something.

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Q: SO WHAT ARE DEC’S DELUSIONS ALL ABOUT, REALLY?

A: I won’t tell you. It’d spoil the humor of listening to him for the first time. Plus, I could go on and on all day about what Dec’s delusions are about but the only way of gaining any real understanding (term used lightly in context) is to actually experience them for yourself. Like the Matrix. Yes, almost exactly like the Matrix, come to think of it.

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Q: DO YOU BELIEVE IN ANY OF THE STUFF DEC RANTS ABOUT?

A: No, I do not. About the only conspiracy theory in any of Dec's writings into which I put any stock is his allegation, contained in his two appeal briefs, that he might have been singled out for purposeful discrimination and persecution by members of the Nassau Country judiciary. Other than that, I consider all of Dec's claims to either be schizophrenic distortions of historical facts or pure fantasy invented by a deranged mind. Some of the real-world experiences described by him - such as his flight to Poland, for example - probably did take place in reality, but even these claims of Dec's are so mixed up with delusion and paranoia that it is hard to figure out precisely to what extent they're true or what actually took place.

I am aware, however, that some mentally ill or delusional people out there actually believe not only in Dec being a supposed victim of "mind control" at the hands of an evil computer, but in even more far-fetched stuff that he rants about as well. Some of these people have actually contacted me in the past; angrily frothing about how Dec was right and how I'm a deluded socialist nigger kike chemtrail statist sheeple co-conspirator for not realizing it. Since I am not mentally ill myself, however, I do not share their beliefs in any way. Additionally, before you ask, I'm not a believer in "normal" conspiracy theories (NWO, Illuminati, Mothman, faked moon landings, etc.) either.

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Q: OK, SO WHAT EXACTLY IS IT THAT YOU FIND SO INTERESTING ABOUT
    DEC'S RANTS, THEN?

A: Lots of things. For starters: their humor. The entirety of Francis E. Dec's worldview is just so twisted, insane and demented that it becomes unintentionally hilarious. It becomes 100% obvious while listening to Dec that he really believed everything he wrote about to be true. He didn't see anything at all strange in people having backup-brains in huge cities on the lunar surface or former US presidents organizing "sodomy swimming parties" in the back of the White House. Dec's delusions are simply so unspeakably bizarre that they remind you more of some kind of elaborate parody of Schizophrenia than anything else. But there is no parody here, folks, it's all for real. In Dec's world, both this planet and the entire Universe is a twisted, hostile place and everyone and everything is in on the giant conspiracy against him. It's amazing! Also: everyone is obsessed with anal sex.

I don't just find Dec's rants interesting because of their unintentional comedy, however. Dec also had what you might call "a way with words". So much, in fact, that it becomes a true joy to read his rants because of their rambling style of writing and the (likely) unintentional poetry which they contain. For example, Mr. Dec's texts are completely riddled with different forms of sentence constructions and alliterations (like "hopeless helpless homeless derelicts") which actually gives them a genuine poetic touch. They are also rife with prime examples of what clinical psychiatrists refer to as "word salad", notably in such gems as the phrases "Computer God computerized brainthinking sealed robot operating arm surgery cabinet machine removal" or "Deadly Gangster ghetto-communist Gangster Computer God-manipulated Gangster Court". You have to read and listen to the rants themselves to understand what I'm talking about here. The bottom line is that Dec's style of writing serves to both enhance the already hilarious nature of his delusions, as well as transform his literary production into a true and shining example of outsider art.

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Q: WHAT THE HELL WAS WRONG WITH DEC, SERIOUSLY?

A: That’s a very, very good question, but I think I have gathered enough information to actually answer it with a good deal of accuracy. As far as I’ve been able to analyze it, Mr. Dec probably suffered from severe acute schizophrenia complete with both hallucinations and paranoid delusions. My judgment is based on the many, many symptoms described by Mr. Dec in his rants, many of which fit the symptoms of schizophrenia to a tee. For example, Mr. Dec repeatedly describes seeing and hearing things which are not there, such as “radio noises“ inside his head when sitting very still or the wife of felon-gangster Parroting Puppet rectum-lapper sodomist Judge William Sullivan offering up her anus for sucking at Dec’s trial. I think it is pretty safe to say that neither of these things ever happened outside of Mr. Dec’s own mind. Of course, this complete inability to separate one’s “inner” world from the outer, real world is also a symptom of severe Schizophrenia.

Naturally, there are many different sub-forms of schizophrenia, all of which exhibit many different symptoms. It would be my educated guess that Mr. Dec suffered from the kind referred to by Victor Tausk as "Schizofreniform Influencing Machine Delusion". In this particular sub-type of schizophrenia, the sufferer becomes convinced he or she is controlled and constantly monitored by an omnipotent, manipulating machine of some sort or other. One sufferer was 18th Century paranoiac James Tilly Matthews, who at length explained his mad delusions of being "tortured-at-a-distance" by an influencing machine he referred to as an "Air Loom" which, in turn, was operated by a team of spies skilled in "pneumatic chemistry" who influenced and monitored his thoughts using "animal magnetism and Mesmerism". Comparing Matthews delusions to those of Dec's, it is not at all difficult to see certain similarities between the "Air Loom" and the "Worldwide Mad Deadly Gangster Computer God"...

It would also be my educated guess that Mr. Dec was actually driven to type up his rants and flyers in the first place out of a strong paranoia and fear of being killed (or as he puts it, “exterminated”) by the "Gangster Government". As he raises fears over meeting this fate in pretty much every single letter, it would seem a logical assumption that he would try to spread the word about the giant conspiracy threatening his life to as many people as possible. This would likely serve two purposes: one being to alert others about it and another to discourage the "Lurking Government Assassins" from murdering him since they’d know he would be missed by at least some of the recipients of his letters. This theory is also supported by Dec himself in one of his rants, where he explicitly states: “Now after all these years, after I've mailed worldwide thousands of my letters exposing the Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God, I can once again walk the streets solely as I did before 1969.”

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Q: WHEN WAS FRANCIS E. DEC BORN?

A: Having extensively pored over the databases of the NARA, more specifically their World War II Army Enlistment Records, both Francis E. Dec's date and place of birth are now at long last known. He was born 1926 in the state of New York.

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Q: WHAT DID FRANCIS E. DEC LOOK LIKE? IS THE CARTOON VERSION OF HIM ON THIS
    PAGE SIMILAR TO HIS ACTUAL APPEARANCE?

A: No, it is not. When I originally created the cartoon version of Dec I - like most other people - was largely unaware of what Dec actually looked like and just extrapolated wildly based on the general impression of his personality that I got from his rants. The resulting caricature was a choleric and almost-insane looking unshaven maniac with a shock of crazy, unruly white hair and a solid jaw to indicate moral righteousness in the face of a million corrupt gangsters. However; the real Dec in his heyday probably did not look very, if even at all, similar to my cartoon caricature of him. I think my caricature of him is more in keeping with what his actual personality must've been like, though.

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Q: WHERE DID FRANCIS E. DEC LIVE?

A: He appears to for his entire life have been a citizen of Long Island, NY. More specifically of Hempstead. His exact address was 29 Maple Ave. It is still currently unknown if he were born on Long Island or if this took place elsewhere in the state of New York.

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Q: WHEN DID FRANCIS E. DEC DIE?

A: In October 2006, brand new never-before-known information about Mr. Dec's exact time of death was located, thanks to Decologist Ted Torbich. It was early in 1996 when Dec left this Gangster-controlled-and-manipulated worse ghetto-Communist mortail coil, something which took place at the St. Albans VA Extended Care Facility in Queens, NY. For (much) more info on Dec's life (and death), see the Official Timeline!

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Q: DID DEC HAVE ANY FAMILY?

A: Yes he did. His rants identify the existence of a single brother named Joseph I. Dec, whom Dec refers to as a “deadly felon-murderer and secret assassin-spy agent against me for this Gangster Government”. They seem to have lived together in the same house on 29 Maple Ave, Hempstead, NY up to 1966 when Joseph moved out. According to Francis, Joseph beat him repeatedly and had anal sex with loose women while Dec hid in the garage. Given the nature of Dec’s mental health, these statements had better be taken with a grain of salt. Or an entire truckload. Francis E. Dec also had a mother named Rose M. Dec and a father named John F. Dec, both of which immigrated to the US from Poland (his mother from the Polish part of what was then Galicia) and spoke fluent Polish. As was revealed in late 2008 they also apparently taught Francis to speak Polish, although it is unknown what level of proficiency he achieved.

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Q: IS THAT DEC’S VOICE I HEAR IN THE AUDIO RECORDINGS?

A: No, it is not. Some of the rants, originally recorded way back in the 1980s, are read and recorded
by one Boyd Britton, better known as “Doc on the ROQ”. See the “About” -section for more info on
him. The voicework for the other rants on the web site were done much more recently by other fans
of Dec, including yours truly.

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Q: DID DEC OFFICIALLY TITLE EACH OF HIS RANTS?

A: Not generally, no. Most of Dec's rants contain one giant, massive stream of rambling, paranoia-laden insanity that isn't even broken up into sections. Words literally cover every single square inch of Dec's rants. When a "title" appears to be present, it is generally so much a part of this stream-of consciousness that it is virtually indistinguishable from it. For this reason, I have in the interests of naming generally gone with the ancient Sumerian practice of naming an epic after the first line contained therein, as per the Sha Nagba Imuru. Of course, some exceptions to this rule exists. Other rants have been named more after their general theme than anything else. The rant LONG Island Lunacy, for instance, was expressively given this title in question by Doc Britton. Another example is The Top-Secret Dual Food Standard, which was given its name by Decologist Ted Torbich.

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Q: YOU’RE PROFITING FROM POOR MR. DEC’S INSANITY AND SHOULD BE ASHAMED
    OF YOURSELF, YOU BAD MAN, YOU!

A: This entire page is 100% non-profit and will so always remain. I built this page solely to pay homage to and to celebrate Mr. Dec, as well as spread his humor to brand new generations world-wide (as a Frankenstein slave). Fanclub memberships are 100% free, I don't demand money for viewing anything contained on the page and hence do not profit in any way what so ever from any of the material contained on it. Rather, I hope to be giving Mr. Dec the official comedic recognition he sadly never received in life.

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Q: FRANCIS E. DEC WAS OBVIOUSLY AN INSANE RACIST AND YOU MUST BE TOO
    BECAUSE YOU PUBLISHED HIS RANTS. I HOPE YOU DIE IN A FIRE, YOU LOUSY COCK-
    SUCKER! I AM MORALLY OUTRAGED BY YOUR WORK! RRRAARRRGGHHH!!!

A: Did you even read the disclaimer? Otherwise, I suggest you do so now. It’s not there just for clicking through, you know. Yes, it is true that Dec was an insane racist anti-semite, but his hatred did not limit itself to any specific groups of people; he hated everyone with equal passion. Dec seriously believed everybody was in on the massive conspiracy against him, including black people and Jews. And the Catholics. And the Communists. And the police and judges. And Ronald Reagan. And Jimmy Carter. And so on and so forth. This is part of what is so funny; the unintentional humor inherent in his massive paranoia.

Since I am not an insensitive person (or a racist maniac, for that matter), I can understand if the illustrations I've created for some of Dec's rants could cause offense in certain viewers, as some of them do contain gross caricatures of various ethnic or racial groups drawn in a fashion that could possibly be perceived as having defamatory, slanderous or offensive intent. To any individual that has taken offense from my artwork, I would like to make the following statement:

First off, I apologize if you've taken offense from anything I've drawn on this page. It is not, nor has it ever been my intent to slander, defame or otherwise insult any ethnic or religious groups through my work. Rather, the purpose of my illustrations is to depict the world in the way Dec would have perceived it, something that can only take place through grossly exaggerated, misrepresentative (and frequently offensive) caricature.

Please note that everyone and everything in my illustrations of Dec's rants is caricatured, including Dec himself, other white guys, former U.S. Presidents along with the entire universe and the very nature of existence. This is a necessity: Dec's perception of the world was that of a dark, twisted place full of material evil intending him grievous bodily harm. Hence, this is the way in which I've chosen to depict it; as a twisted caricature of itself in which objects and people are rendered according either to Dec's explicit description or implied perception of them. Hence, if Jimmy Carter is described by Dec as a "felon yokel" and Franklin D. Roosevelt as a "legless drug addict", it stands to reason ethinic groups mentioned by Dec should be depicted in accordance with his views, as well. Needless to say, the results aren't pretty; mainly because Dec viewed all minorities (other than ethnic Poles) in the most offensive, racist way imaginable.

Hence, my illustrations are intended as representations of Dec's conceptions. They are attempts at portraying the world in the way Dec perceived it, and are not in any way representative of any personal opinion of mine regarding any ethnic group, race or religion. Instead, consider my artwork an invite to laugh at the sheer idiocy of Dec's twisted and hateful beliefs, along with the beliefs of modern-day racists sharing the same intolerant worldview as he did.*

Last but not least, publishing an insane madman’s crazy rants and thinking they’re funny does not make me share his opinions. I’m not celebrating Dec’s racism here, but instead his unintentional humor. If you can’t see that humor you are very obviously looking at the wrong website. Go someplace else instead; I’m not forcing you to read this.

*All artwork on this site is copyrighted, by the way. If you see any of my art used elsewhere on the interwebbs, it therefore probably means someone stole it from here without asking my permission first. If so, please feel free to send me an e-mail and let me know!

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Q: ARE THERE ANY OTHER PEOPLE OR WEBSITES CHRONICLING THE LIFE AND
    TIMES OF MR. DEC?

A: You bet. When this site first started out, not too many people had heard of Francis, but this has changed tremendously during latter years and today it is possible to find not only online resources on Mr. Dec, but also archived recordings of his rants and artwork done by independent artists.

One, if not the first site on Mr. Dec available online, and from which I myself first heard about the man, was the web site The Kooks Museum; a great site run by author Donna Kossy that has been online for more than 10 years. It has a section on Dec along with lots of other wackos. Some of my initial information on Francis was borrowed from this site, although nowadays most of it has been either extrapolated from the rants themselves or dug up by other fans of Dec from various government archives and the like. When visiting the Museum, be sure to check out Mr. Forrest Jackson's account of actually meeting Francis E. Dec, Esq. In the flesh! On his DEATHBED! Definitely a worthwhile read! Additionally, if you like both kooks and Donna's site about them, you should definitely check out her book!

Audio versions of several of Dec's rants have also been available for your listening pleasure for several years via UbuWeb, the web's leading non-commercial resource for avant-garde recordings and material. Be sure to check out additional recordings by other outsider artists while you're there! The good folks over at the radio station WFMU are also quite partial to the rantings of Francis E. Dec!

Speaking of audio, the band Coldcut were so inspired by the concepts of Mr. Dec that they based their 2006 album Everything is Under Control on them. Check the album out if you haven't already! Additionally, Venetian Snares also drew upon the rantings of Mr. Dec for the song Americanized, included on the 2004 release Infolepsy EP.

The delusions of Francis E. Dec were, in 1999, also dramatized in the form of a stage play by theatre company Radiohole. You can check out their page for the play here, including a link for downloading the script. Additionally, here's a review by the web site CurtainUp!

In 2010, artist and illustrator erd yakingun created an exhibit inspired by the life and times of Mr. Dec. The exhibit, called On The Fringes, ran from June 15 to June 29 at the London Metropolitan University. See more pictures of it here!

Last - but definitely not least! - Fanclub member Mike Toole (aka. Exilechump) has created a wonderful animated short film based on the concepts contained in Dec's rants, so be sure to check it out! Other works by Mike can also be viewed via his Youtube channel.

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Q: HOLY SHIT, I HAVE MORE INFO ON DEC WHICH ISN'T YET ON THIS SITE OR HITHERTO
    UNPUBLISHED RANTS BY HIM!

A: This Fanclub reached its present state of greatness solely because of all the kind-hearted people who's donated new material to it. If you therefore should happen to have ANY new info on the man, the myth, the legend Francis E. Dec, Esq., please get in touch with me immediately! Information on Dec can lead to big things, such as swift and immediate promotion if'n you're a member of the Dec Fanclub! See this page for details on how you can contribute to the fanclub. Also: The same thing goes for unpublished rants, which we are obviously also extremely interested in!

ANY info on Dec is welcome, so please feel free to get in touch with me today! Alternatively, you could also check out the forum if you'd like to chat with fellow Dec-fans!

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Q: HEY, YOU MISSED A QUESTION, DUMMY!

A: If you think I missed something in this FAQ, please get in touch with me and let me know!