June 23 2018: The boys and their soccer coach become trapped in the caves
July 8: Musk tweets that he is using Tesla engineers to build a ‘kid size’ submarine to try to get them out
July 8 – 10: The boys were rescued gradually in a complex mission involving hundreds of people
July 13: Vernon Unsworth gives a CNN interview where he is asked about Musk’s plan. He calls it a ‘PR stunt’ and says: ‘He can stick it where it hurts’ in reference to the submarine
July 15: Musk tweets calling him a ‘pedo guy’
Musk tweeted this last July after Unsworth told CNN the Tesla CEO’s plan to rescue the boys with a submarine would not work
July 17: Musk apologizes
August 15: Musk hires Howard after he got in touch with him saying, in an email: ‘Dear Elon, you may wish to dig deep and look into Mr. Unsworth’s past… no smoke without fire!’
They set about launching their ‘investigation’ but go to great lengths to keep Musk separate from it. In emails, Musk’s associate Jared Birchall carried out their dealings and Musk was referred to as ‘the principle’. He and Birchall never discussed it in writing.
August 24: Birchall emailed Howard asking for ‘confirmation that Unsworth met his wife when she was a minor’
August 25: Birchall emailed Howard saying: ‘For successful confirmation of nefarious behavior there is an additional $10k bonus’
August 27: Howard is instructed to launch a media ‘leak’
‘Priority is to divert the story away from the principal and let the UK tabloids develp there [sic] story,’ he said.
He goes on to say UK readers are ‘familiar’ with Thailand ‘& its culture to welcome and protect sex tourist.
‘We call it Yellow Fever where older men leave there [sic] wives for a young Thai friend.’
Howard then told him in one text that he was the ‘only link on the chain who knows who the beneficiary is’.
‘The Thai team and Richard all believe that this is for a children’s charity in the UK,’ he said.
Despite trying to get journalists to print the unsubstantiated claims, none do.
August 28: Musk tweets in response to a follower who accused him of lying about Unsworth: ‘You don’t think it’s strange he hasn’t sued me yet?
August 30: BuzzFeed reporter emails Musk for a comment. He replies saying, among other things, that Unsworth married a ‘child bride’ and inferring that he is a rapist
September 4: BuzzFeed publishes the story
September 5: Private Investigator emails Birchall, Musk’s associate, saying: ‘At no time have have I reported that the target is a child rapist.’
September 17: Unsworth files a lawsuit against Musk