Exclusive: California schools official promoted extremist 9/11 and Holocaust conspiracies

A recently promoted California education official has trafficked in extreme conspiracy theories for more than a decade, including that the 9/11 terrorist attack was an “inside job” and Holocaust memorials are part of a deep-state plot led by a cabal of secretive, murderous Freemasons, a Sacramento Bee investigation has found.

Craig Heimbichner was hired in January as education administrator for the California Department of Education’s charter school oversight division. He reviews financial plans and documents from schools seeking certification and spent three years in a similar role as a consultant.

Years before he took his state job — and when he was CEO of a Sacramento-area charter school system — Heimbichner spun a web of conspiracy theories about Freemasons, government cover-ups and a “cryptocracy” that academic experts in hate and extremism said should disqualify him from his job in California education.

Under Heimbichner’s byline, a 6,500-word post in Paranoia Magazine dated January 2013 and called “The Cryptocracy’s Greatest Hits” spells out a host of outlandish, debunked theories about “ritually-structured” killings — from serial murderers to terrorist attacks and genocide.

“We will see that individual and mass ‘hits’ are not mere tools of expediency,” Heimbichner wrote, “but alchemical stagings of the Cryptocracy for shocking and manipulating the Group Mind.”

Of the death of 6 million Jewish people during the Holocaust, Heimbichner wrote that museums and history lessons are structured to promote a permanent Jewish state — among the goals of the global cabal.

Heimbichner, who says he received a master’s degree in education administration from CSU Sacramento, wrote in the Paranoia Magazine article that the “education system” is also part of this plot.

“The Nazi action toward Jews has become the bottom-line justification of Zionism, a goal of the Cryptocracy central to kabbalistic Overlord endgame calculations — a ‘message’ which has been ‘delivered’ to and ‘received’ by both U.S. political parties, the education system, the media, several European governments, the United Nations, and the churches.”

An email address associated with Heimbichner was listed as subscribed to a newsletter from one of the world’s most prominent Holocaust deniers, according to a tranche of files published by WikiLeaks.

Heimbichner joined the state education department as a consultant under Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson in 2017 and was elevated to his current position under Superintendent Tony Thurmond this year.

As an education administrator, Heimbichner is involved in directing the planning, administration and evaluation of the state’s charter school oversight group. His work also has included representing California’s education department in disputes over state approval of charter schools.

Emails the state published online about one such conflict in Marin County noted Heimbichner is an “author specializing in the occult, cults and conspiracy theories.” A letter to the state from a group supporting public schools asked the California Board of Education to review its staff qualifications “to ensure competent, unbiased and experienced personnel are available.”

“Unfortunately, Mr. Heimbichner is emblematic of what we have experienced over the last 5 years of CDE ‘oversight,’ “ reads the letter from Stand With Ross Valley Schools.

Heimbichner did not respond to a voicemail or an email seeking comment for this story. Although he appears to have read three text messages from a reporter seeking comment, he did not reply.

The Department of Education said it had received a complaint about posts associated with “one of our employees” last week and is investigating.

“Due to the serious nature of the allegations, the CDE immediately launched a full investigation, which is ongoing. This matter will be addressed swiftly and appropriately,” said Daniel Thigpen, deputy superintendent of communications.

He added: “The CDE denounces in the strongest terms possible all forms of anti-Semitism, bigotry, and hate, and will not tolerate any instance in which an employee has demonstrated such behavior.”

After The Bee’s investigation was published online Thursday, Thigpen said the department put Heimbichner on paid leave effective “immediately.” The department is also commissioning a third-party review of the case that could also result in a review of hiring processes and background checks.

’Evidence is plentiful that 9/11 was another inside job’

Heimbichner’s Paranoia Magazine article also parroted conspiracy theories that the federal government was involved in the Oklahoma City Bombing. And he sympathized with claims that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were authorized by some of the top officials in the U.S. government, including former President George W. Bush.

“Evidence is plentiful that 9/11 was another inside job — another ‘Pearl Harbor,’ ” the article says. “The evidence ranges from the coordinated, high-level ‘stand down’ orders, which must have been given to belay the mandated air force intercepts of the airliners, to the numerous indications of planned explosives planted in WTC Building 7.”

Journalists, he said, are “a cabal of Government Whores posing as ‘news media.’ ”

His writings appeared to fit “squarely within the realm of anti-Semitic conspiracy theory,” said Rachel Hope Cleves, a professor of history at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.

“I don’t think that anybody who subscribes to extremely pernicious and hateful conspiracy theories should be involved in crafting any type of education policy,” Cleves said in an interview.

“This article strikes me as near the extreme end of what might be termed the anti-Masonic spectrum, insofar as the range of evil it attributes to the movement and its members,” said Michael Barkun, a professor emeritus of political science at Syracuse University who studies historical conspiracies.

Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said the essay was entrenched in some of the oldest, most-trafficked conspiracies in history related to Freemasons. The claims about a deep-state cabal mirrored some of what QAnon followers have espoused more recently, he said.

“He should be removed forthwith,” Levin said. “There is no way that someone who promotes wild conspiracy theories that are often tinged with bigotry should be in any place of adjudicating the propriety of school curriculum.”

“It appears that his discretion is so devoid of logic and facts that he is unqualified for any position where scholastic decisions are made on the basis of his findings.”

Oversaw troubled Sacramento-area charter school

His connections to Sacramento go beyond the state education department.

For more than four years, Heimbichner was the CEO of Horizon Charter Schools, a system with facilities across the greater Sacramento area. His tenure was met with turmoil.

Most notably, Heimbichner was in charge in 2012 when a Horizon school in Rocklin abruptly closed its doors. Officials gave parents and students just five days’ notice, The Bee reported. At the time, Heimbichner told parents the school closed because Placer County officials said it did not have the proper permit for 400 students. The traffic, he said, caused safety issues.

Problems persisted through the year with the charter system closing its entire accelerated learning program in December 2012. That same month, eviction notices were posted at Horizon Charter School sites in Elk Grove and Auburn, as well as at the Rocklin site already vacated.

Yet Heimbichner remained in his position until October 2014.

At a mid-month board meeting, he was still working as the superintendent and CEO. The board convened a special meeting two weeks later and, in a closed-door session, discussed “public employee discipline/dismissal/release,” according to archived meeting minutes.

Officials announced Heimbichner’s departure soon after.

They said it was “by mutual agreement.” Additional details were never made public.

A person who worked at Horizon with Heimbichner, speaking anonymously, told The Bee that Heimbichner once took a leave of absence and did not come back for weeks after he was scheduled to return to work. Piles of unopened mail and unpaid bills were left in his office. The charter school was working on renewing its Western Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation at the time, according to the source.

While the source said Heimbichner did not leave the charter school because of his published work, staff members were aware of his writings at the time.

Connections to prominent anti-Semite

Heimbichner has written two books about Freemasons and other secret societies that appear to further conspiracies about the so-called New World Order. His first, “Blood on the Altar” in 2005, is about the Ordo Templi Orientis, “the higher secret society to which elite Freemasons emigrate as part of a process of occult succession.”

“A must read for anyone concerned with truth and reality,” one reviewer on Amazon wrote.

“There is a dark intention from the writer of this book,” said another.

Michael A. Hoffman II, a prominent conspiracy researcher who critics have described as a notorious Holocaust-denying anti-Semite, was the book’s publisher — Heimbichner in an author’s statement on Amazon appears to have tried to distance himself from the work, which Heimbichner wrote was edited without his blessing. “The publisher, unbeknownst to me, ghost wrote whole sections and published the tremendously altered version without my prior knowledge or consent.”

Heimbichner’s association with Hoffman put him on the Anti-Defamation League’s radar more than a decade ago, said Aryeh Tuchman, the ADL’s senior associate director for the center on extremism. The more recent articles under Heimbichner’s name in Paranoia Magazine uses language widely viewed by experts as veiled anti-Semitism or phrases hostile toward Jewish people, he said.

“Even if he is not willing to come out right now and articulate a bold-faced anti-Semitic orientation, these are words that clearly resonate with anti-Semites,” Tuchman said.

“The incorporation of these terms into conspiracy theories is another example of how easy it is for conspiracy theorists to embrace elements of anti-Semitic ideologies even while avoiding overtly talking about Jews.”

Thigpen, the state education spokesman, said the department was working to expand implicit bias training for staff, allocating grants to school districts for anti-racist educator training, and continue its Education to End Hate Initiative.

“As the state and nation have seen an increase in anti-Semitic acts,” Thigpen said, “the CDE remains committed to proactive and ongoing efforts to leverage the power of education to combat all forms of bigotry.”

Other appearances, recent interviews

In 2011, Heimbichner appeared on an episode of “Decoded,” a History Channel show about conspiracy theories hosted by Brad Meltzer. The episode was about the elite Bohemian Grove gatherings in the Northern California redwoods along the Russian River.

After Heimbichner explains the group’s history, the show’s investigators “pursue rumors of ritual sacrifice and secret agreements that control the lives of everyday Americans.” At one point, Alex Jones kayaks with them to the camp’s banks, and two of the producers get arrested.

Heimbichner has worked as a stuntman, according to his IMDB page. He’s a martial arts instructor and was once a classical pianist, according to his online resume and YouTube channel.

In an interview published in 2016 with the editor of Paranoia Magazine about people being labeled conspiracy geeks, Heimbichner reportedly said “anyone who is not tuned in to the numerous conspiracies that have been leaked in this Revelation of the Method era is hypnotized, slumbering in the arms of Shaitan (evil spirits).”

“The challenge,” he continued, “is to apply critical analysis so that one can discern the real situation from disinformation and false theories occasionally sown by the Cryptocracy.”

A half-dozen experts who reviewed the post for The Bee agreed that it was the kind of conspiracy theory that has long existed, borrowing from a line of fringe thinking about Freemasons and deep-state agenda.

What makes the thinking particularly dangerous is when it finds a footing in contemporary society, as has happened with QAnon and other fringe theories.

“Material like this can be influential,” Karen Douglas, a professor of social psychology who studies conspiracy theories at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, wrote in an email. “Conspiracy theories can affect people’s attitudes, intentions and behaviours, so they shouldn’t be dismissed.”

This story was originally published February 25, 2021 at 5:00 AM.