If anybody running a scam, I think it's Bill Kaysing and the major conspiracy theorists.

Absolutely no question about it.

Kaysing is pretty much a hired gun for any anti-government conspiracy you can name. He tried to sue Jim Lovell for something like $10 million for calling him a kook. The suit was obviously dismissed.

Bart Sibrel vigorously defends the copyright on his video, even though it's been hacked up solely for the purpose of establishing a copyright claim. You can't see the footage without paying him for it.

David Percy advertises that he's willing to answer questions about his charges, but his answer to all of them is, "You must buy my book and video in order to get your answer."

Collier is dead, but there are plenty of people willing to reap profits from his video.

Ironically I don't think money is necessarily the object. Books are fantastically expensive to produce. That's why vanity presses require so much up-front money. And so these conspiracy-type authors have to hard-sell the books in order to recoup the investment.

But I think it's mostly notoriety. They like to be famous, not necessarily rich. Sibrel, in fact, laments that he's forked out half a million dollars of his own money. As Oscar Wilde said, "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."

Bill Kaysing the nondescript technical writer would have died in obscurity. But now he'll die a martyr with a following. Some people are happy selling their souls for a bit of immortality.