Joe Biden is back in the Virgin Islands. Before Epstein Island was "closed", he used to stay there often.

When Joe was VP he used to visit Water Island, St. Thomas, an old military facility that tested bio and chemical weapons, that guarded a submarine base, that was only eight miles from Epstein Island.

We won’t necessarily tie Joe Biden to Jeffrey Epstein’s international human trafficking/weapons smuggling ring in this post, instead, we will introduce some curiosities and possibly relevant information for the research “crowd” and our own future research.

Water Island is a small Island on the south side of St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The island has its own source of fresh water and so has been relatively strategic since the pirate days.

The island has mostly remained out of the news for most of its existence until relatively recently. However, in a Politico article published January 28, 2020, author Ben Schreckinger revisited a possibly “less-than-arms-length” deal between Joe Biden’s brother James Biden, and lobbyist Scott Green. As the  linked article details,

“In 2005, Joe Biden’s brother bought an acre of land with excellent ocean views on a remote island in the Caribbean for $150,000. He divided it into three parcels, and the next year a lobbyist close to the Delaware senator bought one of the parcels for what had been the cost of the entire property. Later, the lobbyist gave Biden’s brother a mortgage loan on the remaining parcels.”

The lobbyist, Scott Green, was a former Senator Biden staffer who left in the early 90’s. In 1994, he co-founded Lafayette Group, a lobbying and consulting firm focused on law enforcement and national security that is now headed by his son.

The Politico article insinuates that in the ensuing years, the Lafayette Group maintained a relationship with the Bidens and that they received their share of access and government contracts; typical swamp activities.

All else being equal, James Biden sold some land that he paid about $50,000 for in 2005, to Scott Green for about $150,000 in 2006. Green also provided a mortgage for the two other parcels.

The Water Island transaction was not exactly the bribe of the century, if that what it was at all.

“Night Boat to Epstein Island”

There are a few reasons why Water Island is interesting. The reasons are not necessarily connected, but maybe we can find some connections.

Biden Visits

Politico reports, in between election night 2008 and Barack Obama’s inauguration, Biden and his family traveled to Water Island over the winter holidays. As vice president, he returned to the island over the next two holiday seasons.

Biden did not apparently stay on the property owned by his brother as it was not developed at the time. Politico reports he rented a place on the Island.

Proximity to Epstein Island

Water Island is only about 8.3 miles over open water from Epstein Island. Any standard 25 foot center-console doing 35 knots can make the run in under 15 minutes between islands.

Submarine Bases on (near) Water Island

According to this Water Island History website , in 1939 the US Navy leased 225 acres to build a submarine base in the area now known as Crown Bay, on St. Thomas. The area where the submarine base was located on St. Thomas was directly across the West Gregerie channel from Water Island.

Mostly concurrent with the construction of the submarine base on St. Thomas, construction of Fort Segarra began on Water Island for the bases overall defense.

Fort Segarra and various defensive outposts on Water Island included artillery emplacements, pill boxes, anti-aircraft guns, searchlights and various underground facilities. Construction came to a halt in 1946 with the end of the War.

Biological and Chemical Warfare Testing

The Army’s Chemical Warfare Service used San Jose Island, off of Panama, starting in 1943. Testing ended in December 1947 when the lease termed out and St. Thomas and Water Island were chosen as the new testing site. 

By the end of May 1948, all the equipment, personnel and chemical munitions had been moved to St. Thomas into the former Navy Submarine Base. An area of about 2,095 acres, consisting of the entire west end of St. Thomas, was condemned for lease. Fort Segarra on Water Island was also included in this condemnation process.

Between May 1948 And May 1950, the San Jose Project continued limited testing on St. Thomas and Water Island. Testing included mustard gas (blister agent) and phosgene (choking agent). Later tests were planned to shift to captured German munitions and nerve agents. While incomplete, records show that only non-persistent choking agents were tested on St. Thomas while persistent and lethal munitions appear to have been performed on Water Island. It appears that only a limited number of tests were performed on Water Island.

By September 1950, the San Jose Project in total was moved to Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah and the leased land on St. Thomas was returned to the Virgin Islands Government. The Army did retain a permit to use Water Island.

The Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah come up a lot in our research. The site is much more inaccessible than Water Island, St. Thomas and has considerably less appeal as a honey-moon destination. In our post, Would it be all that odd if it turned out the Coronavirus “Plandemic” was a Nazi Inspired Ft. Detrick experiment, like the mass “suicide” at Jonestown?  we looked at Dr. Laurence Layton, one of the financial sponsors of Jim Jones’ Guyana colony, who was also once in charge of the Dugway Proving Grounds in the 1950s.

We note that original chemical/biological weapons site on San Jose Island, Panama, and Water Island were chosen because of their climate, in order to test the chemical/biological agents in a tropical environment. There is a school of thought that Guyana was chosen as the location of the Jonestown colony for the same reason. (Dugway has a dry, high-dessert climate.)

As also detailed in the post, Dr. Layton’s son, daughter and wife lived at the Jones’ colony. The daughter, Deborah, was in Panama, depositing money (laundering) during the mass suicide.

The son, Laurence Jr. was part of the security force that killed Congressman Leo Ryan, and the wife, Lisa (also Alisa) Layton née “Phillips” , had been the colony’s administrator/business manager, up until she passed away from cancer, succumbing about two weeks before the massacre.

That name, Phillips

After the biological/chemical weapons testing left St. Thomas and Water Island for Utah, the US Army turned over Water Island to the Department of the Interior under an indefinite revocable permit. The permit was then assigned to the St. Thomas Development Authority in 1951.

A more detailed version of the story is here; in short, the Development Authority leased Water Island to Walter and Floride Phillips and the partners Raymond and Edward Bills (via Water Island Inc.). Walter and Floride were a retired couple from New York City who had been prompted about the opportunity by Isidor Paiewonski (1909 – 2004), “…historian, author, publisher, businessman, the premier chronicler of Virgin Islands history,…” (link to full obituary)

Walter Phillips (Water Island Inc.) signed the lease (master lease) on August 1, 1951. The original basic terms were for 35 years with a 25 year option, but with US Army revocation rights.

A year later (July 1952), a new lease was negotiated with a 20 year term and 20 year option and no revocation rights (the revocation rights would have prevented development since the Army could take the island back any-time it wanted.) The new lease also required the development of a 50 room hotel by January 1, 1958.

Shortly after the new lease was signed, the Phillips bought out there partners the Bills brothers after disagreements about the size and scope of the future development of Water Island. The Phillips wanted a “low-key”, “informal”, development plan and the Bills were favored a more “deluxe”, ambitious plan.

Walter then launched a public stock issue to raise $269,000 needed to complete the first phase of the development program of converting facilities left behind by the Army into a medium size hotel that would accommodate 100 guests.  Link.

Phillips is of course a pretty common name. At this early phase of our research, we do not know if Walter and Floride (née Cheeseborough) Phillips have any familial connections to Lisa (Alisa) Phillips Layton.

We do think Walter and Floride are worth a closer look since they managed to lease the entire Island for about $30,000 a year in 2020 dollars ($3,000 per year in 1951 dollars) as long as they spent at least $2 million ($200 thousand in 1951 dollars) on development. 

It may just be a coincidence that Water Island was the Army’s predecessor to Dugway, and that Lisa Phillips Layton’s husband Dr. Laurence Layton, ran Dugway, and that Walter and Floride Phillips managed to secure the Water Island master lease from the St. Thomas Authority after the Army stepped aside.

Phillips and Phillips

There are a number of inconsistencies about the origins of Lisa Phillips. The official story is that she was from a Jewish banking family in Hamburg, Germany and had managed to escape to America in 1938.

Bankers from Hamburg named Phillips suggest a connection to the Philipps family (also Phillipps, also Phillips, we’ve seen different spellings) the original founders of one of the world’s largest commodity trading firms “Phibro”, aka Philipp Brothers. We get into more about Phibro here.

The post at the same link also notes the possibility that Lisa Phillips had a sister that relocated to Texas at about the same time Lisa was “escaping the Nazis”, and that the sister, Eva,

…blended into an Old South aristocratic family of Houston were President of the Reichsbank, Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, one of the most important figures of Nazi Germany, was positioned.

The as of yet unrelated Phillips (Walter and Floride) of Water Island, US Virgin Islands are described as a retired couple from New York, who fell in love with Water Island. It took a little bit of digging, but we were able to determine Walter and Floride were originally from Texas.

Walter Hershell Phillips graduated from the University of Texas in 1922 with a Bachelor of Laws. His hometown is listed as Sherman, Texas, which is about an hours north of Dallas. Walter passed away on Water Island in 1997 at the age of 97.

Walter and Floride Phillips, Water Island

Walter’s bride, Floride Noble Cheeseborough was from Galveston, Texas. She was from a aristocratic South Carolina family. Her great-grandfather on her mother’s side, Patrick Noble was Governor of South Carolina (1838 to 1840, died in office) and her grandfather was a nephew of Senator and Vice President John C. Calhoun.

(We have not put any effort into finding a Gibson Island connection to Walter and Floride Phillips of Water Island, however, briefly perusing the John C. Calhoun Wikipedia biography, we notice that the former V.P. was related to the Clemson family (Clemson University, Tigers, my old man’s Alma Mater) and that the Clemson’s did have a presence on Gibson Island. We plan to look for stronger Gibson Island and Water Island ties later.)

Walter and Floride are shown as New York City residents in the 1940 census, living at 34 East 51st Street. As mentioned, Walter was a retired investment banker when he discovered Water Island and decided to lease the entire island for development. We have yet to find out what firm he worked for or who his circle of associates might have been.

His wife Floride’s pedigree puts her solidly in the Southern Aristocracy branch of the Eastern Establishment ruling elite class, which provides at least some support for the premise that the Department of the Interior and US Army gave Walter Phillips a sweetheart deal to lease Water Island for some unknown reason.

That Jeffrey Epstein would later set up his island honey-pot operation only eight miles due East of Water Island makes us think the two islands both have intelligence organization origins.

Hopefully we have the time to take a closer look at Water Island. In the meantime, the screenshot below shows many of the early sub-lease holders. If any names stick out, please let us know in the comments.