Judge Sweeney later wrote to the U.S. Board of Parole that he had been strongly
inclined to suspend or reduce the sentence but the government (Maguire and Mills) con-
vinced him that Reich and Silvert would continue the “orgone business” if not sent to jail^19.
There is one further bit of information bearing on Judge Sweeney’s thinking about Reich’s
future intentions for the accumulator. According to Moise, Reich signed a statement prior
to being transferred to a federal prison^20. The statement was to the effect that orgone accu-
mulators would not be distributed ifhis sentence was suspended or reduced. (Moise’s mem-
ory is not exact as to what this statement said.)
I have not been able to confirm whether or not Judge Sweeney ever received any-
thing from Reich about accumulators prior to the imprisonment. Indeed, it is impossible to
confirm absolutely that there was such a document. We do know that Maguire and Mills kept
pushing their view of the future—“they will continue the orgone business”—on Judge
Sweeney and that he bowed to it.
After a night in the Portland jail, Reich and Silvert were driven on March 12 to the
federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, by two deputy marshals. Greenfield has comment-
ed on the trip to the federal prison: “In the car, Reich and Silvert sat handcuffed in the back,
discussing weather conditions and observing the state of vegetation they passed.”^21
31 : The Destruction of Orgone Energy Accumulators and the Burning of Reich’s Publications 433