Nassau Group

The Nassau Group is the name Paul Schatzkin's serialized biography of Thomas Townsend Brown gives to a Bahamas-based network of backers. In 1965–67, according to that account, they offered Brown money to move his laboratory to Nassau, placed their own men inside his Philadelphia venture, and took part in handing his work to Floyd Odlum's company Guidance Technology [S1][S2][S3]. The name has three separate lives: a 1960s account resting on Brown's daughter's journals and an anonymous informant; a real 1970s Nassau letterhead Brown wrote on; and a post-2008 claim by Tim Taylor that he belongs to a time-travel group of that name [S4][S5]. Contrary to what has often been repeated since 2024, the phrase was not coined in 2021. Schatzkin published it in 2007 [S1].

The 1965–67 account

Schatzkin serialized Defying Gravity online from 2005 to 2008. He built the Nassau episode from Linda Brown's journals and from "Morgan", a pseudonymous informant [S1][S6]. In that telling:

• In March 1965 "a new organization forming, an operation out of Nassau" lets Brown keep his lab in Homestead, Florida [S7].
• That summer Brown flies to Nassau. Nassau attorney Peter Graham takes him to a meeting where Morgan meets Sir William Stephenson [S8].
• In February 1966 a visitor Linda knew only as "Mr. X", or simply "Nassau", offers $100,000 cash to move the lab to the Bahamas. She later identifies Graham as "the attorney who had made the offer" [S2][S9].
• Brown chooses Philadelphia instead. At Martin Decker's laboratory two men, Puscheck and Spirito, are "identified by the Nassau group as 'our men at Decker's'" [S1].
• In autumn 1966 "Nassau" ends the Decker arrangement over security concerns. Schatzkin calls it "'Nassau' (aka 'The Caroline Group')" [S10].
• In 1967 the "Nassau" interests join Odlum's negotiations to place Brown at Guidance Technology in Santa Monica [S3].

The Brown family's own timeline uses "Caroline/Nassau" as early as a 1945 entry [S6]. For the family and for Schatzkin, "Nassau" is the Bahamas face of the same private intelligence network he calls the Caroline Group.

What independent records support

The mainland half of the story checks out. Martin Decker was a real Bala Cynwyd laboratory owner [S11]. Brown's patents passed through Electrokinetics, Inc. [S12]. The Eisenhower Library's finding aid for Floyd Odlum's papers holds a "Brown & GTI" folder series for 1967–70 [S3]. Peter Graham was a real and prominent Nassau lawyer, founder of Graham, Thompson & Co. in 1950 [S13].

The Nassau half does not check out, at least not yet. No record independent of Schatzkin and the Brown family names a Nassau backer. The "Rootes Building" where the 1965 meeting supposedly took place is unattested. Graycliff, where the group supposedly lunched, was a private house in 1965, not the "hotel" of the story [S14]. Stephenson's documented postwar base was Jamaica and later Bermuda, not Nassau [S15]. Brown's FBI file, which could test the claim about Puscheck and Spirito, was destroyed [S16].

The firmest independent link between Brown and Nassau is a letter. It was printed in 1977 by the researcher Rolf Schaffranke, writing as "Rho Sigma", on the letterhead of "The Townsend Brown Foundation, Ltd., Nassau, Bahamas", dated 14 February 1973 and "personally signed by T. Townsend Brown" [S17]. A correspondent from the mid-1970s recalls replies postmarked from the same Nassau foundation while Brown himself lived on Catalina Island [S18]. See Townsend Brown Foundation.

Tim Taylor's "Nassau group"

The time-travel version starts with Tim Taylor. Around 2008 he told Chris Bledsoe that Bledsoe might need to "hide out" in Nassau for protection [S19]. Bledsoe's son made the claim public in a tweet on 19 October 2021: Taylor "was in an elite group called the Nassau group headed up by T. Townsend Brown" with time-travel technology [S4]. Jesse Michels' American Alchemy then spread it from 2024. Michels added that Brown was the group's "president" and that Brown met Robert Sarbacher in Nassau; the research found no source for either [S5][S20].

Every element of Taylor's claim except his own membership was already public before he made it. Schatzkin's 2007 chapters put "the Nassau Group" next to Brown saying "time travel was a distinct possibility" [S21]. On 30 August 2007 readers on the Brown forum were already discussing "the Nassau Group" [S22]. The likeliest explanation, and it is an inference, is that Taylor adopted Schatzkin's term rather than disclosing an ongoing group [S21][S22].

Open questions

• Linda Brown's unpublished 1965–67 journals, the primary source under the whole account.
• The Odlum papers' "Brown & GTI" folders, which could name the "Nassau interests" in the 1967 negotiations [S3].
• The Bahamas registry entry for "The Townsend Brown Foundation, Ltd.", with its directors and registered agent.
• Nassau newspapers for September 1965, to check the Rootes Building and the damage from Hurricane Betsy.

Full research report

Sources

[S1] "Defying Gravity, Ch. 65: Good Morning, Sweetie Peach" — Paul Schatzkin (posted 29 Aug 2007; Wayback capture 10 Oct 2007) URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20071010061036/http://ttbrown.com/defying_gravity/65_SweetiePeach.html Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: "identified by the Nassau group as 'our men at Decker's'"

[S2] "Defying Gravity, Ch. 57: A Decision To Make" — Paul Schatzkin (Wayback 10 Oct 2007) URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20071010061512/http://ttbrown.com/defying_gravity/57_DecisionToMake.html Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: Linda Brown's 13 Feb 1966 journal entry; $100,000 offer; "Nassau" as a code name

[S3] "Odlum, Floyd B.: Papers, 1892-1976" — Eisenhower Presidential Library finding aid; with Schatzkin, Defying Gravity Ch. 77 (Wayback 11 Apr 2008) URL: https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/finding-aids/pdf/odlum-floyd-papers.pdf Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: "Brown & GTI" folders 1967–70; GTI renamed from Summers Gyroscope 1961; Schatzkin's "Nassau interests" in the GTI negotiations

[S4] Ryan Bledsoe, tweet of 19 Oct 2021 URL: https://x.com/RyanDBledsoe/status/1450579143461163013 Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: "Nassau group headed up by T. Townsend Brown… time travel technology"

[S5] "Fabulist, Fraud, or Phenom? A Review of Paul Schatzkin's The Man Who Mastered Gravity" — T.F. Boyle URL: https://tannerfboyle.substack.com/p/review-paul-schatzkins-the-man-who Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: Michels' 2024 use of the Bledsoe tweet; Schatzkin's pseudonymous sources

[S6] "Library – Timeline" — thomastownsendbrown.com (Wayback 8 Jun 2013) URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20130608010352/http://www.thomastownsendbrown.com:80/misc/timeline.htm Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: "Caroline/Nassau" (1945); month-by-month 1964–67 sequence

[S7] "Defying Gravity, Ch. 36" — Paul Schatzkin (Wayback 5 Jul 2006) URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20060705203902/http://ttbrown.com/defying_gravity/36_quarters.html Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: "a new organization forming, an operation out of Nassau"

[S8] "Defying Gravity, Ch. 38: Parallel" — Paul Schatzkin (Wayback 2007) URL: https://web.archive.org/web/2007/http://ttbrown.com/defying_gravity/38_parallel.html Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: Greycliff brunch, Peter Graham, "Rootes Building," Stephenson meeting

[S9] "Defying Gravity, Ch. 58: Mileage" — Paul Schatzkin (Wayback 7 Oct 2007) URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20071007143814/http://ttbrown.com/defying_gravity/58_Mileage.html Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: Graham "made the offer of $100,000 cash"; "the Nassau Group having an interest"

[S10] "Defying Gravity, Ch. 74" — Paul Schatzkin (Wayback 7 Feb 2008) URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20080207111553/http://www.ttbrown.com/defying_gravity/74_cadreamin.html Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: "'Nassau' (aka 'The Caroline Group')"; end of the Decker arrangement

[S11] "Rich Men and the Castles" — Lower Merion Historical Society; In re Martin M. Decker, 465 F.2d 294 (3d Cir. 1972) URL: https://collections.lowermerionhistory.org/home/full-text/rich-men-and-the-castles Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: Decker as president of Decker Corporation Research Laboratories (1963); 1971 bankruptcy

[S12] "US3187206A Electrokinetic apparatus" — Google Patents URL: https://patents.google.com/patent/US3187206A/en Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: Assigned to Electrokinetics, Inc., a Pennsylvania corporation; issued 1 June 1965

[S13] "Loss of a legal legend" — The Tribune (Nassau), 26 Jun 2020 URL: https://www.tribune242.com/news/2020/jun/26/loss-of-a-legal-legend Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: Peter Graham, founding partner of Graham Thompson (1950), former parliamentarian

[S14] "Graycliff History" — graycliff.com URL: https://www.graycliff.com/graycliff-history Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: Private residence until 1966; a hotel from 1973

[S15] "William Stephenson" — Britannica URL: https://www.britannica.com/money/William-Samuel-Stephenson Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: Operated postwar mainly from Jamaica; retired to Bermuda 1968

[S16] FBI FOIPA response, Brown, Thomas Townsend (Req. 1387201-000), via The Black Vault URL: https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/fbifiles/scientists/tbrown-fbi1.pdf Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: Records not located; others destroyed 1971 and 1990

[S17] Rho Sigma (Rolf Schaffranke), Ether-Technology: A Rational Approach to Gravity Control (1977), p. 44 URL: http://www.zamandayolculuk.com/pdf-1/ethertech-.pdf Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: Letter from "The Townsend Brown Foundation, Ltd., Nassau, Bahamas," 14 Feb 1973

[S18] "G'day, Larry Reed – Latecomer to this forum" — ttbrown.com forum URL: https://www.ttbrown.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=833 Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: Mid-1970s reply "post marked T.T. Brown Foundation, Nassau, Bahamas"; Brown at Avalon, Catalina

[S19] "Why NASA Studies This Man (He Attracts UFOs!)" — American Alchemy, 6 Jan 2026 (Chris Bledsoe) URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM18PJY6_Zc&t=1312s Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: Taylor's ~2008 remark about hiding out in Nassau

[S20] "The CIA Scientist Who Built UFOs Before Bob Lazar" — American Alchemy, 22 Feb 2024 URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTEWLSTyUic&t=3895s Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: Michels' unsourced Brown–Sarbacher Nassau meetings

[S21] "Defying Gravity, Ch. 59: The Whole Deal" — Paul Schatzkin (Wayback 10 Oct 2007) URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20071010062942/http://ttbrown.com/defying_gravity/59_wholedeal.html Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: "time travel was a distinct possibility… offered to me through the Nassau Group"

[S22] "security measures" — ttbrown.com forum post by "grinder," 30 Aug 2007 URL: https://ttbrown.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8579#p8579 Accessed: 2026-09-27 Claim: Readers using "the Nassau Group" in August 2007