Bohemian Grove camp parties were like college but with ‘more money and better alcohol,’ says ex-employee suing club

A former employee of the elite and mysterious Bohemian Grove, who is now suing the old social club, says the club’s famous summer camps act as expensive frat parties and result in “a lot of public urination.”

Anthony Gregg, one of three named plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit against the club, said in a recent publication Airmail interview the men who attend the club’s summer camps spend the sessions partying like they’re young again.

“These guys don’t want their college experience to disappear,” he said.

“Now they (just) have more money and better alcohol,” he added. The piece notes that there is also significant public urination among the redwood trees.

The suit was filed in San Francisco in June and alleges that as servants for the luxury camps, they had to work “non-stop” 16-hour shifts, during which they were reportedly not given a toilet or lunch break.

While the male-only membership is kept secret, notable visitors to the Grove have done so as well Clint Eastwood, Henry Kissinger, Walter Cronkite, Richard Nixon, Ronald, George HW Bush, Reagan, Herbert Hoover, Charles Schwab, Mark Twain, Bill Gates, Conan O’Brien, and Clarence Thomas.

It has long been rumored that the summer conference would end with a bizarre ceremony involving a human effigy and the burning of a giant sacrificial owl.

The lawsuit alleges that employees were paid for eight hours a day, none for the massive amount of overtime they worked.

It is also alleged that, despite tens of millions of dollars in assets and members including some of the world’s richest men, employees were often told that the club simply did not have enough money to support the wage increases.

Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential election campaign is said to have been launched in the camp. It was also reportedly the site of early discussions about the Manhattan Project between J. Robert Oppenheimer and Edward Teller.

Founded in 1872 by a group of journalists, writers and actors, the Bohemian Club raised more than $4.5 million in 2020, according to the latest federal tax returns, which also showed total assets of more than $38 million.

The club, which is officially run from a city clubhouse in San Francisco, dismissed the lawsuit when it was filed, arguing that “the individuals involved never worked at the club and that the lawsuit” is a transparent attempt to put the club in to their individual circumstances. .’

“We have reviewed the allegations and it is clear that the claims in the lawsuit have been made by individuals who have never been employed by the Bohemian Club and therefore the club should not be a party to this action,” the club said in a statement. June.

Despite the club’s claim, Gregg says he believes the club will choose to settle the lawsuit immediately once they enter the discovery phase.

“I know where the bodies are buried,” he said.

William Cohan, who wrote the Air Mail piece, points out that drinking is the main activity of the summer Grove gatherings.

‘It’s the kind of partying you learn in a dorm, developed by men whose careers depend on conviviality: gin fizzes in the morning; Kahlua and coffee; wine with lunch, white and then red; more wine at dinner; and, routinely, Manhattans with cigars,” he wrote.

A rumored specialty cocktail at the Grove is called the Nembutal, Cohan claims. The drink consists of hot chocolate with the addition of a horse anesthetic, a concoction that sometimes causes a person to lose control of the bowels and bladder.

However, drugs are strictly prohibited on the Northern California campus.

Then California Governor Ronald Reagan (center left) and the US Vice President. Richard Nixon (right), in Bohemian Grove, California, 1967, listening to Roger Stone’s speech

The club’s practices are shrouded in secrecy and reportedly involve bizarre, often campy, rituals

The world’s elite have resided at the club’s lavish summer camp in California for more than 150 years, where the true nature of the cloak-and-dagger retreat is shrouded in secrecy.

Decades-old questions about the club’s practices can be answered when the trial plays out in public.

The court claims that the club hosts three events each year – the Spring Jinx, the Spring Picnic – the only event to which wives, daughters and girlfriends are invited, and the Summer Encampment.

It has long been rumored that the summer conference would end with a bizarre ceremony involving a human effigy and the burning of a giant sacrificial owl.

For those invited to the Sonoma County estate, the participants are divided into approximately 140 separate camps, with names such as the Camel Camps, the Last Chance Camps, and the Monastery Camp — supposedly the most luxurious of the options.

It is rumored that the wealthy members of the club indulge their hearts in the camp, including by putting on plays and musical theatre.

While the Grove’s motto is “Weaving Spiders Come Not Here”—a Shakespeare quote implying outside business is not encouraged—the club’s membership has routinely been a who’s who of power and wealth.

Waiting times to join are known to stretch beyond thirty years, but once inside, members find themselves in the heart of a billionaire’s playground.

It is said that the members perform plays and theater during the camps, pictured in 1934

Members of Bohemian Grove seen on the grounds during the Spring Jinx in June 2017

A photo taken at a Bohemian Grove camp in the early 20th century

Bohemian Grove member Jack London (right), pictured with other notable attendees in 1913

Bohemian Club treasurer Bill Dawson is reportedly singled out in the lawsuit, accusing him of directing the servants to “false payroll records and work off the clock.”

The document claims that those present would all be aware that the parking attendants would work “almost non-stop” while on the premises, taking few, if any, breaks.

“Employees were intimidated or coerced into waiving meal times,” the indictment reads, adding that employees were not allowed to make phone calls longer than 30 minutes, and not at all between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Employees also report being paid ‘under the table’.

During a Spring Jinx “Burgundian Lunch,” four servants “were reported to have worked non-stop for approximately 18 hours to provide a two-course lunch and dinner for 90 guests.”

The Burgundian lunch is organized by the Kloosterkamp and it is required that all attendees bring an ‘excellent’ bottle of Burgundy. One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit says he believes the guests consumed $175,000 worth of wine at lunch this year.