“belong in orgonomy.”^14
Both Herskowitz and Baker found him quite calm in their last meetings together.
Baker felt that for Reich his organizational involvement in orgonomy had come to an end,
regardless of whether he went to jail or not. Reich had in mind taking a long vacation, per-
haps in the American West, perhaps in Switzerland. He would continue to think and write
but he would not lead an organization.
Most of the physicians Reich had trained remained loyal, helping with the heavy
financial legal costs even though many of them felt his particular way of fighting the case
was doomed to failure. Reich expressed little personal bitterness toward them, but general-
ly he felt that most of them did not really have contact either with his essential orgonomic
themes or with him. At bottom, despite all his resilience, he was very tired of people and
wanted peace for his own thoughts.
Given the situation, Reich conveyed a sense of “the end” to Baker in their last
meeting. With Wolfe gone, Baker was the orgonomic therapist destined to carry on the tra-
ditions of Reich’s treatment. According to Baker, Reich asked him at that meeting if Baker
would assume responsibility “for the future of orgonomy.” Baker said he would. Reich asked
him whom he would like to help him. Baker proposed one physician. Reich vetoed this
choice and instead proposed Albert Duvall and Eva. Baker accepted. That was the last time
Baker was to see Reich.
Reich left considerable ambiguity about his official intentions as to which people
were to carry on leadership in orgonomy and the extent of their responsibilities. Thus, in his
last written will, signed February 10, 1957, Reich designated Eva as the executrix of his
archives, a powerful position since the executrix controlled the republication of Reich’s
books as well as the unpublished papers. In prison, Reich appears to have reconsidered Eva
as executrix^15.
Reich could not entirely envision orgonomy without him; he often said he wanted
no successor.This aversion stemmed in part from his fear that anyone with power in orgon-
omy might build up an organization inconsistent with the truths of orgonomy, as he
believed the Church to have done to Christ’s principles, the Communist parties to Marx’s,
and the psychoanalytic organizations to Freud’s.
More was involved, for Reich could not let go of the work. Although he often said
he would die in jail, he was optimistic for the future, as we shall see. And in the early months
of1957, part of him refused to believe he was going to prison.
That part of Reich was wrong. On February 25, 1957, the Supreme Court decided
against reviewing the decision of the lower courts. Reich and Silvert sought for suspension
or reduction of their sentences. Judge Sweeney ordered a hearing for March n, with jail to
follow if suspension was rejected.
Even before the Supreme Court decision, Reich seems to have become more des-
perate than ever to strike back at his opponents, especially Maguire and Mills. Eva, Bill
Moise,Silvert, and Reich himself phoned and appeared at FBI offices to convince the
agency that espionage was involved in this case and that Maguire and Mills had committed
31 : The Destruction of Orgone Energy Accumulators and the Burning of Reich’s Publications 431