James Shelby Downard, who died at the age of eighty-three in 1996, is one of the most compelling conspiracy theorists of the twentieth century. Robert Anton Wilson wrote that Downard's "King-Kill" essay, regarding the involvement of Freemasons in the murder of John F. Kennedy, is "the most incredible Illuminati theory of them all." Marilyn Manson wrote a song based on "King-Kill 33°," and even two rock bands, one in Atlanta and the other in Seattle, named themselves after Downard's piece. The Carnivals of Life and Death is James Shelby Downard's thrilling life story, detailing the skullduggery and ritualism of the KKK and Freemasonry and how they imposed themselves on the young Downard and his family in Depression-era Deep-South America in the 1930s. Editor Elana Freeland writes in her introduction, "Downard's tale is a piece of the puzzle of a very important period when networks of fraternal orders were front and center in consolidating techniques of sociopolitical control." Interest in the hidden aspects of Freemasonry is reaching boiling point today, and James Shelby Downard's eagerly awaited contribution to this secretive and little-known aspect of American culture will be widely read and discussed.