Six of One secretly tape-record editor in his own home.

In 2001, Dave Healey (the highly-regarded editor of then Six of One Society magazine "In The Village"), and several other Society coordinators, attended a meeting at which Roger Langley (the self-appointed head of Six of One and, along with his wife Karen, keeper of the accounts) stated that the Society had run into financial difficulties and that there wasn't enough money to cover the next 12 months worth of mailings that members had paid for in their subscription.

In a subsequent communication from Langley, the coordinators were reminded of the financial problems and told to put a "positive spin" on things, and that renewals and new memberships should be encouraged regardless. Details of this communication can be found HERE.

Dave Healey, quite rightly, said that in light of this it would be unfair to send out renewal notices (which were due to be sent out with the next issue of the magazine) to members if there was no admittance of financial problems, or guarantee that their full allocation of mailings would be provided. Dave told us:

"I was not happy for the magazine (which included my home address as the editorial address clearly indicated on the contents page) to be sent out WITH renewal forms asking for money for a four issue subscription when Roger had clearly indicated that society funds were insufficient to pay for existing liabilities i.e. owed mail-outs. If Roger had been willing to indicate the financial difficulties and confirm that a proportion of the subscription would be used to offset the shortfall there would have been no problem. However, once Roger had admitted the problem I felt it unreasonable to mislead members who were sending money to Six of One in good faith."

One of the other coordinators, Max Hora, then went round to Dave Healey's home, masquerading as an impartial friend. He then proceeded to secretly tape-record the conversation, trapping Dave into giving his honest opinions of Roger and his stance. At no point was Dave asked if he could be tape-recorded. Max Hora subsequently played back the recording to Roger and Karen Langley, and others, without informing Dave that he had taped the conversation.

Roger Langley and his new coordination team then sent out a document entitled "End of Year Report" (colloquially known as "the yellow document") to the entire membership of the Society (although notably not Dave Healey, Patrick McGoohan or Carlton International) boasting of this illegal/secret taping, and smearing Dave Healey's good name, without giving any of the facts relating to his announcement that the Society had little funds, but that renewals should be collected anyway. The document was jointly "signed" by all the members of the new, hand-picked, coordination team. According to Dave Barrie, (Society founder and current coordinator), an original draft of this document was much stronger and had to be "watered down"!

There had been much dissatisfaction from the membership and coordinators regarding Roger Langley's involvement in the running of Six of One up until 2001. It is clear that Roger was unhappy with Dave Healey (who was editor of the magazine, and not afraid to encourage debate within the magazine regarding Society issues) and Max Hora's covert taping provided a way to oust Dave from the "team".

No apology for this illegal act has ever been given by any Six of One coordinator, and Max Hora remains on the Society's coordination team. When pressed, every coordinator questioned has defended this publication and action.

*One of the most fundamental themes of The Prisoner TV Series is that covert surveillance is wrong.*

Please see below scans from the yellow document (written and distributed by Roger Langley and his coordination team), in which the secret taping is admitted, and a statement from Dave Healey (made on the alt.tv.prisoner newsgroup in 2003) confirming that he did not know he was being tape-recorded.

"I can assure you that I had no idea that Max was taping the conversation. I had no reason to suspect him of such underhand activities. Not only had I considered him a good friend for many years, he was also at that point in time portraying himself as a mediator in the discussions concerning the future running of Six of One. Clearly he was unfit for this role too."

Statement by Dave Healey - 21/10/03 at alt.tv.prisoner

This, of course, raises another issue. What happened to that issue of the magazine? Click HERE to find out.

In February 2005, the coordination team of Six of One issued a statement on a Yahoo-based members-only Prisoner Forum and again admitted that the secret taping took place, that all the coordinators supported the use of the tape's contents, and again refused to apologise for or admonish the action:

"Then, at the end of 2001, someone taped a conversation between himself and the other person.........The person who did the taping then reported the conversation to the society's organisers. He was a society organiser, but was acting personally in this instance.......However, the information he provided could not be ignored and the maker of the statements had to be challenged. He repeatedly denied making the comments and in the end, Six of One's co-ordinating team had no option but to disclose that the 2001 conversation was on tape, revealing other questionable comments as well. The person was at that time editor of the society's magazine and this could no longer continue. A re-organised team was put in place...." Six of One Statement 28/2/2005

This 2005 statement also included other remarks, some of which are dealt with HERE.

In 2006, Langley and Hora were interviewed by a Cambridge-based journalist, Ned Beaumann, about the Society. Langley, when asked about the secret taping, stated:

"We don't approve of that. We don't approve of any underhand ways of dealing with things."

Funny how Langley listened to the tape, and typed up some of the content for his end of year statement. Hora unbelievably told Beamann:

"I did what I thought was right. If you go through history you will find all sorts of people who have done what they believed to be the right thing. You can go back to the Tolpuddle Martyrs, the Suffragettes. It was my decision, I have no regrets."

Their arrogance knows no bounds. As of July 2012 no apology has been given for this disgusting act and the other acts purpotrated by the coordination team, who remain in place at the helm of Six of One to this day.

Click HERE to see other appalling aspects of the "yellow document".

Click HERE to return to the main page, where details of many other dirty deeds can be found.

This page updated 27/7/12