THE LONE GUNMEN JOHN FITZGERALD BYERS RINGO LANGLY MELVIN FROHIKE BACKGROUND: Mulder's primary source of trusted background information are three "conspiracy buffs" who for several years have been self-publishing a muckraking magazine devoted to purported U.S. government conspiracies, covert activities and black-budget items. The magazine name, The Lone Gunman, is an ironic nod to our successfully persuading the public of our "Lone Gunman" theory of John F. Kennedy's assassination. By extension, they have nicknamed themselves "The Lone Gunmen." Despite their natural paranoia — a term perhaps too strong, given their troublesome accuracy — they collectively possess remarkable, largely self-taught skills in computing, electronics, surveillance and investigation, with a solid grounding in the natural sciences. While the long-haired Langly and the unkempt Frohike appear unconcerned about their outward appearance, Byers seems to take pride in a deliberately "retro" 1960s government-man look. This might all have been more calculated than originally surmised by the now-departed analysts assigned to them: We had regarded the three as generally harmless eccentrics until recent events unfortunately required us to revise our position drastically. The autodidactic trio began working together in 1989, after inadvertently becoming involved with FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder (then of the Bureau's Violent Crimes Section) during an investigation at a Baltimore electronics convention. Byers was there representing his then-employer, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC); Langly and Frohike were there to sell illegal cable-piracy boxes. Our covert operative X, years away from being assigned to the Mulder case, had arranged Mulder's involvement in our search for fugitive government scientist Susanne Modeski, who had threatened to expose aspects of the Syndicate to the public. (X's successful retrieval of Modeski and his experience with Mulder later factored into his final assignment.) A brief fourth member of the group was "über-hacker" Kenneth Soona a.k.a. "The Thinker." Soona was the rogue element who on April 10, 1995, unforeseeably accessed the classified "MJ Files" containing the Syndicate's alien-collaboration background and related research. (It was these downloaded files, on DAT, that were stolen by rogue former Syndicate operative [ NAME WITHHELD ] a.k.a. "Alex Krycek.") Soona, a clear and present danger to international security, was shortly afterward dispatched with extreme prejudice. back to top