This publisher of
controversial books started in 1970 as a partnership between
Peder Lund and
Robert K. Brown, who both believed there was a market for specialized books about the
military and other adventurous topics. Brown was already publishing under the name Panther Publications, but they agreed to changed the name to Paladin Press to avoid any association to the
Black Panther movement.
Their first book,
150 Questions for a Guerrilla, was a translation of a
guerrilla training manual originally written in
Spanish by General
Alberto Bayo, the military
mentor of pre-revolutionary
Fidel Castro. The book's successful release affirmed Lund and Brown's mission to publish detailed military information that was typically supressed.
By 1974, Paladin Press was publishing several government military manuals that were otherwise difficult to obtain, but Lund and Brown couldn't agree on which direction the company should take. Brown ended up selling his half of the business in 1975 so he could start publishing
Soldier Of Fortune magazine, while Lund stayed with Paladin to expand the subject matter of their books beyond military training.
The publisher's firm commitment to
first and
second amendment rights emboldened them to publish books on a wide variety of topics, including "identity change, credit secrets,
self-defense,
undercover operations,
espionage, personal freedom, action careers, covert surveillance, electronic
eavesdropping,
bounty hunting,
explosives, knives and
knife fighting, sniping,
martial arts, and
police science". Now that Paladin's books could be applied more to everyday life, Paladin Press started to catch heat for crimes committed by people who had obviously learned it from one of their books. With books like
How To Kill by
John Minnery and detailed bombmaking manuals, even staunch
freedom of speech advocates had a difficult time standing behind the right of Paladin Press to print them.
On March 3, 1993,
James Perry applied the knowledge he learned from a Paladin Press book,
Hit Man: A Technical
Manual for Independent Contractors, and accepted a job from
Lawrence Horn to
murder Horn's ex-wife,
Mildred Horn, and their
quadriplegic seven-year-old son,
Trevor Horn, in a plan for Lawrence to collect Trevor's US$2,000,000 accidental
paralysis settlement. Perry also ended up murdering Trevor's nurse,
Janice Saunders, who was also at the scene at Mildred Horn's house near
Rockville, MD.
Despite following the rules of Hit Man
to the letter, the police caught on to Horn and Perry's scheme, and discovered a copy of Hit Man at Perry's apartment. Naturally, Perry and Horn were
convicted, but it didn't end there. After the multiple-murder trial, a civil suit was filed against Paladin Press for
aiding and abetting the murderer. Initially, the judge decided that the first amendment protected Paladin Press, but it was overturned on appeal in 1997, prompting an undisclosed settlement from Paladin Press to the victims' relatives.
Paladin is still in business today, selling hundreds of books and videos through a printed catalog and through their web site at www.paladin-press.com.