Bob Lansberry
Robert Roy Lansberry (May 8, 1930 - June 10, 1999) was a philosopher, consumer advocate, mind control activist, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's most famous and beloved street protester and the subject of the award winning documentary, Don't Call Me Crazy On The 4th Of July.
| “ | To achieve any happiness, you must be paranoid. - Bob Lansberry | ” |
Life and times[edit]
In the early 1970s Bob Lansberry began protesting on the streets of Pittsburgh, wearing signs accusing specific government officials of withholding or censoring his mail and subliminally controlling his mind. His signs and fliers proclaiming messages such as WHY CAN'T LANSBERRY GET MAIL? and ARE YOU MIND CONTROLLED? became icons of downtown Pittsburgh life.
Several times during the 1980s, Lansberry ran for public office. In 1984 his campaign carried Kennedy Township in the race for U.S. House, and garnered over 30,000 votes in his bid for clerk of courts, though ultimately losing both races.
During the approximately 30 years that he spent protesting on the street, seeking proof that the government was controlling his mind through a radio receiver in his dental filling, Lansberry wrote frequent letters to the Federal Bureau of Investigation requesting the contents of any files that were kept on him. Several years prior to his death he received over 400 pages of documents from the FBI detailing their interest in his life beginning in 1975, shortly after he took to the streets.
He is buried in the "Fort Indiantown Gap Cemetery" alongside other veterans of the Korean War.
Bob Lansberry in Popular Culture[edit]
His public protests inspired the band Hector in Paris to write the song "Silent Radio" which they performed live at the 1987 Three Rivers Arts Festival. Lansberry is the subject of a 1991 video produced by Shawn Quinlan called "Xenophobia". In 2004, Richard Pell, released a 30 minute documentary about the life of Bob Lansberry entitled "Don't Call Me Crazy On The 4th Of July". An online archive of documents and photos relating to the FBI investigation of Lansberry, his protests and lawsuits against several government agency's and his campaigns for public office is available. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a special Bob Lansberry memorial in their section called "The Digs", including several photographs of him that the paper had published during his 30 years on the street.
See also[edit]
- Street protester
- Project ARTICHOKE
- United States President's Commission on CIA activities within the United States
External links[edit]
- Post-Gazette's Historic Bio on Lansberry
- Learning From The Legacy Of Lansberry - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
- Don't Call Me Crazy On The 4th Of July - Documentary about Bob Lansberry at Vimeo
- Don't Call Me Crazy On The 4th Of July Homepage
- Bob Lansberry's Obituary
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