[jobim]

Radical-In-Chief by Stanly Kurtz gives, in my opinion, the single best background information describing the swamp this viper was hatched in: the Midwest Academy of Chicago. It's fully detailed in the 60 pages of chapter 5.

[a fool in paradise]

Some reports include references that he was raised on the knee of a communist who was a family friend (who may have taken liberties with their young son).