As most of you know, rarely do I ever comment on books on this website, or review them. But every now and then exceptions to the rule have to be made, for every now and then a book comes along that connects a lot of seemingly isolated dots (belonging to entirely different categories of information, incidentally) into a scenario that makes sense. In this case, the book is Empire of the Wheel II: Friends from Sonora by my friend and colleague Mr. Walter Bosley:

This books connects a number of seemingly incongrous details of late nineteenth century western American history, including the Airship mystery, its mysterious connections to Germany, and even - get this - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, their highly unusual escape to South America to, get this, Rio Negro province of Argentina (yes, you read that correctly), and how all that connects to high financiers in the USA and Germany. It's a story that made my jaw drop when I read it, and trust me, I rarely read any book in one sitting.

Bosley admits his scenario is speculation, but I've rarely read dot-connecting - with a careful eye on details - like this, and Bosley's suggestion for the solution of the NYMZA mystery is to my mind probably the closest anyone is going to come to it. For those who don't know the story, NYMZA is the alleged secret society that was based in Germany in the 19th century (before the founding of the German Empire in 1871 in fact), that was supposedly one of the hidden sources of finance and other oversight for the development of the airships. (See my Covert Wars and Breakaway Civilizations).

If Bosley's solution is correct, and if this all dovetails in with the Butch-Sundance mystery (after all, consider the implications of notorious wanted train-robbers being able to book passage to South America), then one might be looking at the beginnings or first hints of the breakaway group as early as the mid-19th century, and, for that matter, a split between the German and American components, one that was only patched up after World War Two, and then only very tenuously.

My only complaint about Bosley's book is that it is not footnoted, though he does provide a bibliography of his sources. That said, after reading it, I had that intuitive reaction that while I might disagree with this or that bit of minutiae or speculation, overall, I think Bosley is on to something, and it is probably very significant.

For those interested in some genuinely creative speculation, particularly as regards the mystery of NYMZA and the airships, this one is a must, so much so, in fact, that I've posted Mr. Bosley's book in my webstore.

See you on the flip side.