Join the Conspiracy: How a Brooklyn Eccentric Got Lost on the Right, Infiltrated the Left, and Brought Down the Biggest Bombing Network in New York

A right-wing “wannabe spy” is overshadowed by his anti-war compatriots in this so-so debut from Butler, who founded Brooklyn food fair Smorgasburg. After joining the Air Force in 1948, George Demmerle (1930–2007) followed Red Scare fears down a rabbit hole of “paranoid patriotism” and became a member of the John Birch Society, a right-wing fringe group, in the ’60s. Eventually growing tired of the organization’s “bureaucracy and inaction,” Demmerle began cold-calling the FBI in hopes of getting the Bureau’s blessing to infiltrate leftist anti-war groups. His plan worked: though the FBI hesitated because of Demmerle’s history of mental illness, by 1967, the agency made him a paid informant. Butler tracks Demmerle’s involvement in a slew of downtown New York anti-Vietnam-war groups, including the Crazies, notorious for interrupting political speeches and serving up raw pigs’ heads on platters, and the Melville Collective, whose members set off a series of bombs throughout New York City and were stopped thanks to Demmerle’s tips. While there are plenty of well-constructed protest scenes, including at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Demmerle never comes across in full color, especially in comparison to the vivid, suspense-filled accounts of the activists he ratted on. Readers are likely to be left wanting. (Sept.)