Ok, Leigh Beadon, there is no smoking gun as such, but a lot of odd little things that, when added up, might suggest a thing or two about James Randi’s private life …

First of all, about those infamous teen sex tapes floating around the internet that have dogged Randi for years — here’s what he had to say about that (reportedly) explicit phone-sex (while still in the closet):

“I was the victim of harassing telephone calls from teenagers in the area who called me at all hours. This was put in the hands of the local telephone authorities, we traced the calls, and arrests were made. The calls ceased. Writes Kapnistos:

Randi later said that he had been working on behalf of the telephone company in its attempt to track down a minor who had been making obscene calls. It seems that at various times Randi has said that this tape was made by his enemies to blackmail him, that he made it himself, or that the police asked him to make it in an attempt to track down a teenager making obscene calls to his home.

Yes, I did work at the instruction of the New Jersey Bell company, I made the evidential recording with equipment I borrowed from radio station WOR, where I worked a program at that time, but I never said that the tape I presented to the authorities was “made by [my] enemies.” The JREF prize is yours as soon as you provide that evidence, too, Kapnistos. You continued:

On May 22nd, 1999, Randi gave a public lecture at Cal Tech, in California. At that time Randi read from a formal statement that he had apparently already sent to some people, and for which he invited others to write to him. This statement consisted of Randi´s explanation for the infamous “Blackmail Tape” and repeated his version of the events that led up to the production of the tape. Randi claimed that he made the tape under the direction of the police chief of Rumson, New Jersey, to entrap harassing obscene callers.

Yes! You finally got something right, “journalist”! I flooded the media, law enforcement, the U.S. Postal Service, and New Jersey police, with that document, and later related the entire matter to an audience at Cal Tech. But you forgot (?) to mention that on that same occasion, as I finished reading the document, I took the opportunity of flooring a nasty chap who had made similar accusations about me, and had been boasting about it loudly. One shot, to the chops. He went down, and was carried out. VERY satisfying, I assure you. Want some, Mr. Kapnistos? I got some…”

http://web.archive.org/web/20090425045739/http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/525-a-champion-grubbie-speaks-out.html

Perhaps it’s a common thing, for middle-aged men to get unsolicited phone calls from homosexual teenage boys wanting to talk dirty. And in order to trace the call, it requires keeping them on the phone for a very long time. And in order to keep them on the phone, it requires engaging in homo-erotic talk. All at the encouragement and direction of the police. (Maybe I’m the only one who finds this story a little bit odd?)

Also, from an article in Time Magazine long ago:

“Randi has never married. “I was too good an escape artist,” he explains. Over the years, however, he has given shelter to young aspiring magicians, taking them in as apprentices and serving as a foster parent. “Kids keep showing up at my door with knapsacks on their backs,” Randi says, “offering to work for nothing if I help train them.” Today he shares his secluded, cluttered Florida house with his cat Charlie and Jose Alvarez, 20, his latest protege.”

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,149448,00.html

Reading between the lines, it seems that the Time writer might have been trying to say something without actually saying it. Jose Alvarez may have been Randi’s last “foster child”/”apprentice” — the two are still together. I don’t know if any of the young “apprentices” have ever spoken out about what went on behind closed doors, but it’s not hard NOW to imagine why Randi might have been so welcoming to having these youngsters living with him. But, hey, at least they were a few years older than Michael Jackson’s preferred age in house guests — even if some were under 18.