Lewis Looper

A tough-talking and famously grumpy American. He was V. M. Straka's literary agent and played the role of go-between between Straka and his adversarial editors. Many say Looper a fictional persona used by the author himself, donned occasionally for public appearances when he did not want to be recognized.

Biography
He claimed to have been born in 1885 in Wilkes-Barre, PA. He studied at Columbia University. In 1907 he was on board the Lusitania on its maiden voyage where he met German publisher Udo Karst (of Karst & Son). There is no evidence that any of this was true.

During the filming of The Santana March (perhaps early 1920s), a man calling himself Looper was on the set. He displayed erratic behavior and volatile temper, causing the main problems. Director Benno Fontana said that when he asked him questions about the work or any of Straka's books he had nothing sensible to say and doubted that he had any connection to Straka at all. Fontana and others speculated that this man was simply a con man using Straka's celebrity and works for money and attention.

Around 1924 Looper sent a letter to Straka warning him that he shouldn't take F.X. Caldeira, arguing that she is an unknown quantity and money grabber. He then disappears from briefly the public.

In 1925 he appears again and puts up for auction some items (a wooden whistle with an S burnt mark and 19 pieces of obsidian etched with S), claiming they are centuries old, found in a shipwreck near Azores and were all precious to Straka.

Looper had split the S group and prompted their doubt. In 1926 he leaves the organization.

Radek Rybarik, who claimed to have been a colleague and friend of Vaclav Straka, claimed to have tracked and identified Looper. The only corroborating evidence, is a blurry photo of a man on a city street who is turning his back on the camera. Shortly thereafter Rybarik was institutionalized.

He disappeared in 1930, according to Caldeira his second disappearance.