Famed gonzo journalist Jon Ronson has given his insight into just what may have set Alex Jones down the path to becoming the conspiracy theorist king.
Speaking to Krishnan Guru-Murthy on Channel 4’s long-form podcast series, Ronson recalled a story told to him by Josh Owens, a former employee of Jones’ ‘Central Texas Command Centre’.
One element of Alex’s self-professed origin story is that he was hounded out of Dallas as a teenager and had to move to Austin because he uncovered police corruption. According to Owens, the real story is much less juicy.
John Ronson said: “He was a bully and everyone was afraid of him, and one day he was invited to a party in a barn, but it was a trap. He was the victim of a conspiracy – all the kids that he had bullied beat him half to death and that’s why he left town.
“Isn’t this extraordinary, Alex became a conspiracy theorist because he’d been the victim of a conspiracy.”
Ronson has been a long time on-and-off friend of Jones dating back to the year 2000 when they both infiltrated the Bohemian Grove society in the redwoods of California for separate documentaries.
While a disgruntled employee might not be the best source of information, it’s just one of the many tales we can add to the Alex Jones folklore.
Ronson elaborates on this story as part of his investigation in to Jones’ teenage years, in the This American Life podcast series.
