The name William Morgan runs through the Mystery Babylon series in two distinct forms, and readers who only skim the episode guide can easily conflate them. The genuine historical William Morgan disappeared in upstate New York in September 1826 after threatening to publish Masonic ritual secrets, and his case triggered one of the most consequential political scandals in nineteenth-century America. Separately, in MB20, MB21, and MB22 (May 14-18, 1993), Cooper conducted a live, three-part interview with a modern informant who used “William Morgan” as a chosen pseudonym, explicitly invoking the historical name. This hub separates the two: the documented 1826 history, and what the 1993 broadcast trilogy actually contains. As on every page of this site, the framing is documentary. For the full series, start with the complete episode guide.
The Real 1826 Affair
William Morgan (born around 1774, disappeared September 1826) was a resident of Batavia, New York, and, by most accounts, a Freemason of several years’ standing. After a falling-out with his local lodge, he announced plans to publish a book, Illustrations of Masonry, exposing the rituals of the first three Masonic degrees. In response, a group of Masons burned the shop of David Miller, the newspaper editor who had agreed to print the book, and briefly abducted Miller himself, who was released unharmed.
Morgan was not so fortunate. On the night of September 11, 1826, he was arrested in Batavia on a trumped-up charge (an unreturned borrowed shirt and tie), then a second charge for an unpaid small debt of $2.65. A stranger paid his bail, and Morgan was immediately forced into a carriage and driven roughly fifty miles east to a jail in Canandaigua, witnesses reporting he shouted “murder” as he was taken. That carriage ride to Canandaigua is the last confirmed sighting of William Morgan. Investigators later traced a chain of horse-and-carriage relays carrying a man matching his description onward to Fort Niagara, on the shore of Lake Ontario, but no confirmed trace of him exists after that point.
Illustrations of Masonry was published in 1827, after Morgan’s disappearance, and became the most widely read exposure of the Blue Lodge rituals of its era.
The Legal and Political Aftermath
New York’s governor issued a proclamation calling for the arrest of those responsible, and a grand jury eventually indicted several men on conspiracy and kidnapping charges. The trials, however, produced only minor convictions on lesser charges (most defendants who were tried received short jail terms for the abduction itself, not for murder), and no one was ever convicted of killing Morgan, in part because his body was never conclusively identified. Public suspicion that Masonic-controlled juries, sheriffs, and witnesses had shielded the men involved fed a wave of anti-Masonic sentiment across the Northeast.
That sentiment organized into the Anti-Masonic Party, generally regarded as the first genuine third party in American electoral history. Founded largely through the organizing work of newspaper editor and political operative Thurlow Weed, the party ran candidates in New York and several other states through the late 1820s and early 1830s and fielded a presidential ticket in the 1832 election. Its rise coincided with, and substantially contributed to, a sharp decline in American Freemasonry’s membership and public standing that lasted roughly a generation, with many lodges across the affected states going dormant.
What the Mystery Babylon Trilogy Actually Covers
Listeners approaching MB20 through MB22 expecting a narrative retelling of the 1826 case will find something different. The three episodes are a live, real-time interview format, a departure from the reading-heavy style of most of the series. Cooper’s guest is identified in the broadcast, and in this site’s episode pages, as “William Morgan” (pseudonym): a member of the Citizens Agency for Joint Intelligence (CAJI) who had risen from Entered Apprentice to 32nd-degree Scottish Rite Freemason in the two years since joining in June 1991. In MB21, Cooper pauses to explain the pseudonym directly to listeners: the guest chose the name to invoke the historical Morgan, whom Cooper describes as having been killed by Masons for breaking his oath of secrecy, a charge the fraternity has denied. Cooper tells listeners he intends a future, separate program devoted entirely to the historical case; this site has not found a broadcast in the surviving Mystery Babylon run that fulfills that promise.
The trilogy’s actual content is a guided walkthrough of contemporary Masonic practice as the pseudonymous guest describes it firsthand: recognition handshakes specific to each of the first three degrees, foot positions, hand signals, and password phrases; the fork in the road after the Master Mason degree between the York Rite and Scottish Rite tracks; and, in MB22, a closing reading from Charles William Heckethorn’s The Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries. In other words, the trilogy’s evidentiary value in the series is as an insider’s description of 1990s lodge practice, not as historical reporting on the 1826 case, however much its title and framing borrow from it.
Primary Sources
- William Morgan, Illustrations of Masonry (1827) — Public domain. The book whose planned publication precipitated the historical abduction. Search archive.org for scanned editions.
- Charles William Heckethorn, The Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries (1875, 1965 University Books reprint edition read on air) — The original 1875 edition is public domain. Read at the close of MB22. Search archive.org.
The full cross-reference of every source to every episode is in the sources and bibliography hub.
The Historians’ View
The 1826 abduction, the failure of the resulting trials to produce a murder conviction, and the rise and modest electoral success of the Anti-Masonic Party are all solid, well-documented history, treated as such by mainstream historians of the period. What actually happened to Morgan after Canandaigua has never been conclusively established; the most common historical assessment is that he was murdered by a small group of Masons acting outside any official lodge sanction, though alternative theories (that he was paid to leave, or died accidentally during transport) also circulate in the historical literature. No serious historian treats the case as evidence of an ancient or ongoing “mystery religion,” a step of interpretation that belongs to the series’ broader thesis, not to the documented 1826 record itself.
Separately, the 1993 interview trilogy cannot be independently verified the way the 1826 case can: the guest’s identity, CAJI’s structure and claims, and the specifics of his account are unconfirmed by outside sources, standard for a pseudonymous radio informant. This site records what the broadcast presents without independent verification of the guest’s claims.
Where This Hub Connects
The Freemasonry hub collects all six Masonic episodes, including this trilogy, alongside MB05 and MB15. For the series’ broader claim that fraternal orders descend from a single ancient tradition, see the Mystery Schools hub and the secret societies hub.
Listen to the Episodes
All surviving audio is preserved at the Internet Archive: Mystery Babylon audio collection on archive.org. This site embeds and links the archive.org copies and never hosts or distributes the recordings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are MB20-MB22 about the real 1826 William Morgan case?
Not directly. They are a three-part live interview with a modern, pseudonymous CAJI informant who took the name “William Morgan” to invoke the historical case. Cooper explains the connection in MB21 and promises a separate, dedicated program on the real 1826 history, which does not appear to survive in the broadcast archive under that description.
What actually happened to the historical William Morgan?
He was abducted from a Canandaigua, New York jail on the night of September 11, 1826, and never definitively seen again. Several men were later tried in connection with the abduction and received only minor sentences; no one was convicted of his murder, and his ultimate fate has never been conclusively established.
What was the Anti-Masonic Party?
A political party formed in the aftermath of the Morgan affair, organized substantially through the efforts of Thurlow Weed. It is generally considered the first true third party in American politics and fielded a presidential ticket in 1832. Its rise coincided with a sharp, roughly generation-long decline in American Freemasonry’s membership and public standing.
Who is the guest in the MB20-22 interview trilogy?
He is identified only by the pseudonym “William Morgan,” described as a member of the Citizens Agency for Joint Intelligence and a 32nd-degree Scottish Rite Freemason. His actual identity is not disclosed on air, and this site has not independently verified his claims, consistent with the documentary, non-endorsing approach taken throughout this site.
