A Narrative Timeline regarding the OM (“Original Manuscript”) lawsuit Compiled from the “Manuscript Litigation” Facebook page, the AAHistoryLovers Yahoo discussion goup, and lawsuit documents filed with the State of New York.

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF NEW YORK: COMMERCIAL DIVISION

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, INC., Plaintiff,

– against – Index No: 652676-2017 (filed May 18, 2017) KEN ROBERTS, QUESTROYAL FINE ART, LLC, and PROFILES IN HISTORY Defendants.

New York State Supreme Court Website: http://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/iscroll

Source tags MLFB “Manuscript Litigation” Facebook page, files section CDocs Court Docs filed with the lawsuit Common Common Knowledge SSF Stepping Stones Foundation letters

1971 – January 24, Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alchoholics Anonymous and primary author of the fellowship’s basic text, dies. His wife Lois Wilson inherits the OM which had been in Bill’s possession. (Common) 1975 – Barry Leach pens the AA book, “Living Sober” and receives a lump sum of $4,000 from AAWS. (MLFB, “Barry Leach Correspondence 1982-1983.pdf”) 1978 – Lois gifts Barry L. with the OM as thanks for his many years of service and loyalty. (handwritten note from Lois to Barry in the OM) 1979 – April 10, By a signed and notarized letter, Barry L. gifts the OM to AAWS, with the condition that he would retain possession of it until his death. (CDocs) 1982 – March 7, Barry L. letter to AAWS: “I feel mistreated more and more by A.A. World Services because they continue not to pay royalties on “Living Sober” as they do on other books. As of the end of 1980, they had already sold 472,917 copies of “Living Sober”, grossing $824,607.75.” (MLFB, “Barry Leach Correspondence 1982-1983.pdf”) 1982 – May 25, AAWS (John Bragg) replies to Barry L: “I really don’t see any analogy between the agreement to pay royalties to Bill Wilson…. And agreements made with you, Ralph B., Niles

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P., Mel B. or many other writers engaged by AAWS for specific jobs.” (MLFB, “Barry Leach Correspondence 1982-1983.pdf”) 1983 – February 14, Barry L. replies to AAWS: “I am left no choice. Therefore I hereby formally file this claim… for a total of $191,416.54… I also ask that AAWS… cease and desist any publication, sale, distribution or advertising of “Living Sober”. (MLFB, “Barry Leach Correspondence 1982-1983.pdf”. No suit was actually filed, as far as we know). 1985 – Barry Leach dies. AAWS was not given the OM, and there is no record of AAWS requesting the OM from Barry’s family, as far as we know. 1986 – May 8, Francis Hartigan, secretary to Lois Wilson and author of “Bill W.”, sends a letter to Lenora Leach acknowledging meeting with Thomas Fenn Leach (Barry’s brother and Executor of his Barry’s estate) to discuss “Barry’s papers” and “appropriate archives” with Lois. (SSFL, 1986) 1986 – June 4, Frank Mauser, AAWS archivist, sends a letter to Fran Hartigan acknowledging the gift letter, and stating that the OM belongs to AAWS. (SSFL, 1986) 2001 – Joseph B. (Barry’s nephew?) states he was given the OM by his aunt, an AA who knew Bill personally. (the ‘Grace’ mentioned in the article?). Joseph also states in the article his efforts to find interest in the document within Alcoholics Anonymous “ran into a lot of brick walls, a lot of dead ends.” (NYT article, June 14, 2004) 2004 – June 14, Judith Stanton, AA Archivist examines the OM to be autioned June 18. “As it turned out, we have already a copy of this manuscript in our collection at the GSO and probably hundreds of other members do, as copies have been widely shared amongst A.A. members. Our copy was shared with us some fifteen years ago.” 2004 – June 18, Joseph B. sells the OM at a Sotheby’s auction to William A. Shenk for $1,400,000 ($1,576,000 including fees). Employees of AAWS attend the auction, but at the time the gift letter had not been discovered. (Court docs and Sotheby’s website) 2007 – June 21, Ken Roberts purchases the OM at a Sotheby’s auction for $850,000 ($992,000 including fees). (Court docs and Sotheby’s website) 2007 – September, AAWS discovers the Barry Leach gift letter in its archives. 2009 – Hazelden approaches AAWS to inquire about copyrights to the OM, informing AAWS of their intent to cooperate with Ken Roberts to publish “The Book That Started It All”, which will include facsimile reproduction of the OM. AAWS informs Hazelden that it has no ownership interest in the OM. (Bill N., former Director of AAWS present at the meeting) 2010 – September, First printing of “The Book That Started It All”. 2017 – April 7, Ken R. notifies AAWS that on June 8, 2017 the OM will be auctioned at Profiles in History auction house in Calabasas, CA, and it is scheduled for display at QuestRoyal Fine Art in New York City on May 18-20, 2017. The auction price is expected to be between $2 and $3 million according to the auction pamplet. (Greg T. affadavit) 2017 – April 23-29, The 67th General Service Conference is held. No mention of the OM is made to the Conference attendees, and no plans exist to pursue litigation. (as reported by conference attendees). 2017 – May 17, Greg T. makes a formal demand for the OM to Ken R., and signs a sworn affadavit the same day. Ken R. refuses to relinquish possession of the OM. (CDocs) 2017 – May 18, AAWS files the complaint (lawsuit), requesting cancellation of the June 8 auction, and seizure of the OM. (CDocs)

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2017 – June 1, AAWS receives the 1986 letter from Frank Mauser (AA Archivist) to Francis Hartigan (at Stepping Stones) about the OM which contradicts some statements in the sworn affadavit. AAWS/GSO claims they had no knowledge of these contradictions. No correction has been made to the public record as of September 24, 2017. 2017 – July 7, Judge Gerald Lebovits orders the auction cancelled, and the OM transferred from QuestRoyal Fine Arts (New York City) to Crozier Fine Arts (New York City) for storage pending further action. (CDocs) 2017 – December 13, Scheduled preliminary conference between Plaintiff and Defendents at the New York County Court, IAS Part 7, Room 345 at 10:00 am EST. (CDocs)

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