As I read the Ray Franz books a couple years ago, he mentioned several things that I had personal knowledge of. This really gave a ring of truth to everything he wrote, even if there were some things that couldn't be verified. One thing was the idea that some of the GB thought Sputnik was a signicant event marking the last days. This was not offically taught. BUT, I personally heard Schroeder present this idea from the platform at a special event (as they were called in the day). It was in Pocatello, Idaho.
JW's had always said Ray's books were full of lies. But several small things like this that I personally knew were true really helped me trust the content of those books.