Speaker 1: Campell. Anna Waki is a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressing this podcast are solely those
Speaker 1: of the author and participants and do not necessarily represent
Speaker 1: those of I Heart Media or its employees. Due to
Speaker 1: discussion of traumatic, sexual and violent content, listener discussion is advised.
Speaker 1: I was twenty seven years old. I was in law school,
Speaker 1: and I just thought that people would be really upset
Speaker 1: about this. I thought people would rise up and do
Speaker 1: something about it. Nothing was done. This is Robert Agastino,
Speaker 1: who we heard from last episode in nine nine. Robert
Speaker 1: and his co worker Roger Wrenn had witnessed firsthand sexual
Speaker 1: abuse that was taking place at Anna Waki. Trying to
Speaker 1: get something done about it proved to be quite difficult.
Speaker 1: Here's Roger wren In those days, it was a lot
Speaker 1: looser and you could suppress it, and and we were
Speaker 1: pretty well suppressed. Bob and I were very frustrating. They
Speaker 1: were whistleblowers. Here's journalist Albert Edgen. He spent the better
Speaker 1: part of six years covering the inn Awaki story. They
Speaker 1: did the right thing, and they brought it to the
Speaker 1: right authorities, and they knew the hierarchy of things in
Speaker 1: the state, and so they brought it to the people
Speaker 1: that they needed to bring it to. That happened in
Speaker 1: late and they pressed it and they were frustrated by it.
Speaker 1: We felt like we were out on a limb. You
Speaker 1: cannot imagine being year old and knowing something that is
Speaker 1: horrendous and telling people in fact screaming and nobody listening.
Speaker 1: It was a real rough time in my life. And
Speaker 1: I know Bob and I've talked about it. We both suffered.
Speaker 1: I tried left unawake. I went to de Facts and
Speaker 1: try to get them involved. Well Burn Ellis was the
Speaker 1: head of de Facts. He knew about it because some
Speaker 1: of the students had told me they went to speak
Speaker 1: with him. The earliest correspondence from the Department of Family
Speaker 1: and Children's Services regarding wrongdoing it an Awaki is a
Speaker 1: letter dated August six well Born Ellis, director for the
Speaker 1: Division of Children and Youth, request representation from Assistant Attorney
Speaker 1: General Wheeler Brian. The letter states it is quote in
Speaker 1: regards to the probable revocation of Antawaki's license as a
Speaker 1: child caring institution and any other legal action which may
Speaker 1: become necessary. For months, the de Facts Board waffled back
Speaker 1: and forth on whether hearing should happen. Rennandak Costino needed
Speaker 1: more than their word if anyone was going to take
Speaker 1: them seriously. Bob and I were pretty involved in trying
Speaker 1: to get anybody who would talk to come in so
Speaker 1: we could get some proof. Everybody kept saying, can you
Speaker 1: prove it, and so we ended up having to get
Speaker 1: some HALFI Davis and affid. David is a sworn written
Speaker 1: statement detailing behaviors or events that you consider to be illegal.
Speaker 1: Rennon Dakastina would need Anywaky patients to swear their abuse
Speaker 1: in order to build their case. Boy, it was tough.
Speaker 1: I just remember a couple of cases where I thought
Speaker 1: they weren't going to sign, and then they finally would,
Speaker 1: and then they say, no, I don't want to do it.
Speaker 1: They were so scared and and part of it had
Speaker 1: to be fear of of the repercussions, but one of them,
Speaker 1: I think was fear of letting down Lewis Petter because
Speaker 1: he had developed relationships with these kids and some of
Speaker 1: them believed that he was the only person who could
Speaker 1: help him. So getting them to sign anything was tough,
Speaker 1: and it was a rejection of him as their father figure.
Speaker 1: We were involved in trying to find some way to
Speaker 1: extricate him from the camp, and as I recall, we
Speaker 1: started hearing a lot of negative things about us. Rennon
Speaker 1: Dagastina were tipped off by a social worker in Douglasville.
Speaker 1: The pattern had begun spreading some serious rumors about them,
Speaker 1: possibly an attempt to discredit their story. There were people
Speaker 1: in Douglasville who heard that we were communist. He told
Speaker 1: the kids we were, and of course we're gone. We're
Speaker 1: not in any position to defend ourselves, and we were
Speaker 1: concerned that would happen when we left, and it did.
Speaker 1: Several people that worked for him out there that were
Speaker 1: pretty close to him, and they made sure that they
Speaker 1: said as many negative things as they possibly could about us,
Speaker 1: and UH tried to take our validity as reporters and
Speaker 1: destroy it. He came after us. He called Bob Dagastino,
Speaker 1: who is, I might add, a very conservative gentleman, a
Speaker 1: Czechoslavaka and communist, and I was a Romanian communist, which
Speaker 1: was hilarious. I'm a rock group conservative. I served under
Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan. The Just Department was Barry Golder's county chairman.
Speaker 1: That's when we went after him for a libel. It was.
Speaker 1: It was pretty rough. Robert Agostino then filed suit against
Speaker 1: Louis Petter for the cost of one million dollars. Rin
Speaker 1: says that at this time, if someone claimed you were
Speaker 1: a communist, that was a serious charge and could derail
Speaker 1: your whole career. Dagostino explained that filing this suit was
Speaker 1: a way to put the case in front of a
Speaker 1: judge and hopefully get the attention of the board at
Speaker 1: an Awaki and the idea was to show everybody what
Speaker 1: was going on in an awake. Walker, who is my counsel,
Speaker 1: said maybe that will excite the insurance company. Maybe that
Speaker 1: will excite the board into doing something. And I laid
Speaker 1: it out in that lawsuit. Laid it out had no effect. Well,
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of pressure. I think Pedro
Speaker 1: had a lot of tentacles into Douglas County. The court
Speaker 1: really was not interested and they put it aside, and
Speaker 1: we really had a rough time in court. The attorney
Speaker 1: did not do what Bob and I considered to be
Speaker 1: a credible job of looking at the background, and so
Speaker 1: we end up in court and nothing happened, absolutely nothing,
Speaker 1: and it was put aside. It's probably still in the
Speaker 1: being in there waiting to happen. Over the past several
Speaker 1: weeks we have received the number of very serious allegations
Speaker 1: concerning both the facility out there in a number of
Speaker 1: individuals involved with him. It was just a form of
Speaker 1: their therapy. They were told to do it, and at
Speaker 1: the time he was fourteen and a half fifteen years old,
Speaker 1: they didn't know any better. I asked him, why are
Speaker 1: you letting this happen? Why are you covering up for
Speaker 1: Louis Patter. He had no answer to that question, involved
Speaker 1: having asitution and absolutely the contrary of what they should
Speaker 1: have done. I'm disturbable over the fact of something I
Speaker 1: can still going on it and I wake you. I'm
Speaker 1: Josh Stain, and this is camp Hell and Awake. By
Speaker 1: now you were starting to get a picture of how
Speaker 1: things operated behind the scenes at Atawaki. The mastermind pulling
Speaker 1: the strings was the head and founder, Louis doc Petter.
Speaker 1: Here we're going to take a break in the story
Speaker 1: to look at who Petter was, where he came from,
Speaker 1: and how he was able to wield so much power.
Speaker 1: Whenever I asked people about Louis Petter, I usually get
Speaker 1: the same type of response. Very charming. He knew how
Speaker 1: to work a crowd, if you will, and was socially
Speaker 1: very competent. He's very polite. Even as his crises mounted,
Speaker 1: he was very polite and civil when he needed to be.
Speaker 1: Lewis Petterick was a charming person, and he definitely has
Speaker 1: some charisma. Looking back, I can see why a lot
Speaker 1: of the boys who were looking for father figures would
Speaker 1: have been attracted to him. But under all that charm
Speaker 1: was something much darker. I asked journalists Albert Edgin about
Speaker 1: Petter's origins. He had worked in a series of jobs
Speaker 1: in a state of Georgia, public service jobs with agencies
Speaker 1: that dealt with criminal kids, you know, juvenile delinquent kids
Speaker 1: who were in prison or are some way in a
Speaker 1: jail or in some sort of supervisory situation. He was
Speaker 1: fairly well educated. He was developing this reputation of being
Speaker 1: innovative in child development, particularly in working with troubled children.
Speaker 1: But he also through those years, as he was working
Speaker 1: in the state government, it is very meticulous about maintaining
Speaker 1: relationships with people who were in physicians of power. It
Speaker 1: is hard to track Petter's professional trajectory exactly. Surprisingly, he
Speaker 1: managed to get his name in local papers fairly regularly,
Speaker 1: dating all the way back to the forties. You can
Speaker 1: begin to see Petter's involvement with youth dating back to
Speaker 1: nineteen forty two. One article mentions him as a counselor
Speaker 1: of a boy Scout camp which is about to open.
Speaker 1: Another from nineteen forty three list Petter as the head
Speaker 1: of a y m C a group from Makin called
Speaker 1: the Junior Commandos composed of boys aged eleven to thirteen
Speaker 1: who wanted to help with the war effort from home.
Speaker 1: Activities included running military drills and learning a new form
Speaker 1: of self defense called judo. Petter was married to his
Speaker 1: wife and future co founder of Annawaki, Mabel Reese, in Macon, Georgia,
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty three. At this time, he was serving
Speaker 1: as an assistant pastor at the Mabel White Baptist Church
Speaker 1: while continuing his master's degree at Mercer University. Petter's connection
Speaker 1: to the Baptist Church would continue through the rest of
Speaker 1: his life. Aside from a few wedding efficient announcements. The
Speaker 1: next mention of Louis Petter in any newspaper comes from
Speaker 1: an article outlining the need for a full time psychologist
Speaker 1: for the Juvenile Court of Fulton County, Georgia in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty one can already begin to see Petter working his
Speaker 1: way through the ranks of local government. Petter was working
Speaker 1: as a part time psychologist and probation officer for the
Speaker 1: Juvenile Court of Atlanta at the time. This would later
Speaker 1: lead Petter to help develop and head the first juvenile
Speaker 1: domestic Relations court in Savannah, Georgia. Another article from nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty shows a preview Petter's future career. The headline reads
Speaker 1: one thousand dollars pledged for support Buckhead Club to help
Speaker 1: youth begin new life. It described a juvenile delinquent whose
Speaker 1: stories of theft and killing were documented in a psychological
Speaker 1: test done during one of Petter's graduate classes at Emory University.
Speaker 1: The Buckhead Boys and Girls Club of Atlanta raised money
Speaker 1: for the youth's re orientation and development. Already Petter was
Speaker 1: finding ways to organize communities to raise funds in the
Speaker 1: hope of helping teens. A follow up article from Ninette
Speaker 1: tells the story of Jimmy, the troubled youth who had
Speaker 1: been pulled out of a life of crime by none
Speaker 1: other than Lewis Petter. The article also states the Jimmy's
Speaker 1: case was receiving one hundred dollars a month from each
Speaker 1: member of the Buckhead Exchange Club to help his cause.
Speaker 1: Through the nineteen fifties, Petter's name pops up continually in
Speaker 1: the Atlanta papers. Most of these are announcements of meetings
Speaker 1: at p t A's churches and schools, with Petter speaking
Speaker 1: about troubled teens, how the problem is only growing and
Speaker 1: must be addressed. Many of these lectures were said to
Speaker 1: pertain to youth conservation. Petter was not only serving as
Speaker 1: a reverend, court psychologists, and probation officer. He was now
Speaker 1: lecturing parents about the problem of juvenile delinquency. To put
Speaker 1: this into perspective, Petter's influence on the community of parents
Speaker 1: in Atlanta begins in the nineteen fifties. In the post
Speaker 1: World War two age of booming babies and nuclear families,
Speaker 1: there was also a wave of rebellious teenagers. Racial barriers
Speaker 1: were starting the slow process of breaking down, and teams
Speaker 1: were beginning to revolt in new ways not seen before.
Speaker 1: This new culture of youth included rock and roll, The
Speaker 1: beatnext and recreational drug use, all bubbling up into the
Speaker 1: mainstream for the first time, and it's scared parents. In
Speaker 1: the middle of the twentieth century and the United States
Speaker 1: of America, hundreds and hundreds of teenage boys and girls
Speaker 1: are becoming hopeless dopandics every year. It's fantastic, it's unbelievable,
Speaker 1: and it's terrible, but it's true. Just as fast as
Speaker 1: rules were broken, others established in an attempt to keep
Speaker 1: this new generation in line. Talk of sex was shunned,
Speaker 1: and dancing and hair length were now hot topics. This
Speaker 1: all adds up to the perfect storm for someone to
Speaker 1: act as a hero for parents who don't know how
Speaker 1: to deal with their teen's troubled behavior. It's hard to
Speaker 1: grow up if a teenager has extra problems, emotional or social.
Speaker 1: It's even harder. Kids like this, not wanted by any
Speaker 1: other group or anyone else much, tend to hang out together.
Speaker 1: Rowdy kids, troubled kids headed for trouble. Still a couple
Speaker 1: of years from real crime, but with destruction and violence
Speaker 1: their only outlet, they're on their way to it unless
Speaker 1: their outlook can be changed. Louis Petter builled himself as
Speaker 1: just the person who could help a narrative he would
Speaker 1: continue to push for the rest of his career. By
Speaker 1: the mid nineteen fifties, Lewis Petter had now fully intrenched
Speaker 1: himself within the local government as well as many communities
Speaker 1: of parents in the Atlanta area. He was moonlighting as
Speaker 1: a Baptist minister while also serving as a juvenile psychologist
Speaker 1: and parole officer for the State of Georgia. Petter worked
Speaker 1: his way up to the position of Vice president of
Speaker 1: the Georgia Probation and Parole Association, putting him in control
Speaker 1: of many youths inside the Georgia legal system. It is
Speaker 1: here that he would meet a young bureaucrat who would
Speaker 1: prove in value build his professional career. Jim Parham. Parum
Speaker 1: came up in a relatively poor household, but was brilliant.
Speaker 1: He went to Emory University. He got himself really well educated.
Speaker 1: He also was somebody who thought innovatively about child care
Speaker 1: child development, but he had more broad interests and he
Speaker 1: became a bureaucrat. Harms working relationship with Petter begin in
Speaker 1: Atlanta as far back as Palm served as a night
Speaker 1: attendant on the graveyard shift at a juveniv Attention Center
Speaker 1: while finishing up school. During the day, Petter as a
Speaker 1: supervisor and Parum as a jail guard in the county
Speaker 1: jail where they were keeping these kids. They had plenty
Speaker 1: of time over the weeks and months to have long
Speaker 1: conversations at night, and Petter became a mentor to Parhum.
Speaker 1: Petter had all of these innovative ideas and Parm was
Speaker 1: a young, very smart kid, really willing to learn and
Speaker 1: figure out ways to implement these kinds of ideas. So
Speaker 1: it was a very very good relationship between the two
Speaker 1: of them. For Parum, a very important relationship. He was
Speaker 1: Petter's friend, Petter was his mentor. Pariam and Petter would
Speaker 1: work in tandem holding panels to discuss the issue, which
Speaker 1: they now termed juvenile delinquency. They would work in developing
Speaker 1: a camping and cave exploring program to quote assist in
Speaker 1: changing attitudes of youth on probation. In August n Parm
Speaker 1: would follow Petter to Savannah, Georgia, where Petter was enlisted
Speaker 1: as head of the states first Juvenile Domestic Relations Court.
Speaker 1: He started a few innovative programs in Savannah that I
Speaker 1: had no idea of until I read about it many
Speaker 1: years later, having to do with marriage, counseling and dealing
Speaker 1: with children who had been ruled juvenile delinquents who had
Speaker 1: broken the law in one way or another. Robert Agastino
Speaker 1: had heard about Petter's history with Georgia's Department of Family
Speaker 1: and Children's Services during his lawsuit against Petter in seventy
Speaker 1: Dagostino went to Savannah to see what he could find
Speaker 1: out about Petter's time working for the government agency. He
Speaker 1: was in Savannah first, he was in the departminent Family
Speaker 1: and Children's Services in Savannah, and he was squeezed out
Speaker 1: of Savannah as a psychologist because of, let's say, inappropriate
Speaker 1: touching of juvenile boys that were under subvisit Junil Court.
Speaker 1: What I found out in my investigation down there is
Speaker 1: what he was doing was measuring their penises, handling their
Speaker 1: penises and measuring it under the theory that the longer
Speaker 1: the penis, the more likely you were to be a delinquent.
Speaker 1: Of course, he was trying to be psychoanalytic, I suppose,
Speaker 1: and it was so ludicrous I didn't believe it. It
Speaker 1: was also told to us, Bob and I that he
Speaker 1: had a stick that he used and made the children
Speaker 1: when he was in probation officer show their privates and
Speaker 1: then he would say, ah, this one's got a good prognosis,
Speaker 1: bad prognosis. Dagostino says, Peters tane in history had little
Speaker 1: to no effect on his future prospects in childcare. Remember
Speaker 1: that the Department of Family and Children's Services actually placed
Speaker 1: boys in that camp even though they knew about what
Speaker 1: he did. In Savannah. There were people in the Georgia
Speaker 1: government in the late forties and who were aware that
Speaker 1: there were accusations of child abuse and sexual contact between
Speaker 1: Petter and young people that he was supervising all the
Speaker 1: way back to the late forties. Another connection that Lewis
Speaker 1: Petter would first meet in Savannah is Brett Baxley. Baxley
Speaker 1: would join Petter in his quest to start an outdoor camp.
Speaker 1: Here's what Roger Wren remembers about Mr. B He had
Speaker 1: many talents, very patient, was good with the kids. I
Speaker 1: thought he was very effective group therapist. I've been doing
Speaker 1: it for a while, so I was pretty comfortable with it.
Speaker 1: And he would come in and also added to the group.
Speaker 1: And I thought like an uncle or like a father,
Speaker 1: I thought he did a pretty good job with that.
Speaker 1: I was surprised that he did not step up when
Speaker 1: when the thing came apart, because I know he cared
Speaker 1: about the kids. I never understood what was going on.
Speaker 1: If there's probably more there than meets I. Once Petter
Speaker 1: left Savannah, there's not much record of his actions until
Speaker 1: nine the year and Awake he was founded. By using
Speaker 1: his skills to raise funds through community outreach, Petter, his
Speaker 1: wife Mabel, and Brett Baxley were able to acquire a
Speaker 1: large plot of land in Douglasville, Georgia. While the details
Speaker 1: of this land deal are not explicitly known, through land deeds,
Speaker 1: we can see that three large plots of land were
Speaker 1: sold to Bread Baxley and his wife Joyce in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty three. This place would become known as Anawaki in
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three, one year after an Awaki was founded,
Speaker 1: Jim Parham would go on to take a new position
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, Georgia, as the Director for the Division of
Speaker 1: Children and Youth at the Department of Family and Children's Services,
Speaker 1: the same government body that would be in charge of
Speaker 1: any oversight of Anawaki. By the summer of nineteen seventy,
Speaker 1: Robert Dagostino and Roger Wren were fully entangled in a
Speaker 1: legal dispute with Lewis Petter and an Awake. DA Gastino
Speaker 1: had filed a libel lawsuit against Petter, but did so
Speaker 1: in a very clever way. During the libel court proceedings,
Speaker 1: da Gastino was sure to mention the fact that he
Speaker 1: left due to concerns of sexual behavior between Petter and
Speaker 1: patients at Ain't Awake. Filing a libel lawsuit was a
Speaker 1: roundabout way to get a court hearing to address abuse
Speaker 1: of patients at Antawaki, but eventually it worked. Rince says
Speaker 1: this is in part due to the pressure of the lawsuit,
Speaker 1: but also the fact that they were able to get
Speaker 1: ridden affidavit's from former patients. Bob really pushed and we
Speaker 1: had some people who would help us, and finally I
Speaker 1: think they were embarrassed at the point where they had
Speaker 1: to hold the hearing. I would say that they were
Speaker 1: half hearted to begin with, and even the Assistant Attorney
Speaker 1: General told us I didn't believe this. The representative of
Speaker 1: the State of Georgia there turning General's office to know
Speaker 1: what to think, except he was told that I was
Speaker 1: not sir, I was lying in everything else. On September three,
Speaker 1: the State Board for the Division of Children and Youth
Speaker 1: held a hearing regarding possible removal of Anawak's license as
Speaker 1: a child caring institution. It consisted of a three member
Speaker 1: panel from the Department of Family and Children's Services, including
Speaker 1: Chairman Don Howe, Zack Smith, and Mrs Lester Harbin. Over
Speaker 1: four days, this panel would hear testimony from multiple patients
Speaker 1: and counselors from anna Waki. Attorney Charles Edwards would represent
Speaker 1: the Anawaki Foundation. Charles Edwards, who led it was of
Speaker 1: course hustle from day one. He was definitely tied up.
Speaker 1: Was Loui pattern one way or another financially. The hearing
Speaker 1: was set to begin at two p m. John Hinchi
Speaker 1: would represent the State of Georgia, with Ralph Walker representing
Speaker 1: Robert Dagostino and Roger Wren. Before the proceedings had even begun,
Speaker 1: Annawekie's lawyer, Charles Edwards, filed objections to Ren in Dagostino's
Speaker 1: legal counsel an emotion to dismiss all charges, a sign
Speaker 1: of what was to transpire once the hearing was finally underway,
Speaker 1: Edwards began by examining a former patient, Van Awaki. His
Speaker 1: name withdrawn from the legal document. The following is an
Speaker 1: excerpt from the testimony performed by voice actors. John Hinchy,
Speaker 1: counsel for the State of Georgia, started his questioning, during
Speaker 1: the time you were at an awake, did you have
Speaker 1: an opinion on Dr Petter's character? Yes, Sir Charles Edwards
Speaker 1: objects yet again, wait just a minute. We would object
Speaker 1: to his asking that the proper foundation has been laid
Speaker 1: to ask a question of Dr Petta. In fact, Dr
Speaker 1: Petta is not the man on trial, and these charges
Speaker 1: my response to that charge number ten lays the foundation
Speaker 1: for Dr Petter's character. In fact, it is the very
Speaker 1: issue in question. Chairman Don Howe sided with the Antawaki's lawyer,
Speaker 1: but reminded the room that his power was limited as
Speaker 1: it was not an official court of law. If I
Speaker 1: were a judge, I'd sustain it, but all we can
Speaker 1: do is note it. Let me make it totally clear,
Speaker 1: we object to any answer of this witness to the
Speaker 1: question propounded by Mr Henschey. First, he had not laid
Speaker 1: the proper ground for it. Second, Dr Petta is not
Speaker 1: charged here in this hearing. The Foundation is the one
Speaker 1: that charge has been made against here and not Dr Petta.
Speaker 1: And we move further that at this time and make
Speaker 1: this motion that it appears that this charge is leveled
Speaker 1: against Dr Petta and not really the Foundation. We move
Speaker 1: that all charges be dismissed on the ground that this
Speaker 1: particular charge, I'd say would be dismissed on that ground.
Speaker 1: That charge which Edwards is referring to, states that Anna
Speaker 1: Waki was in violation of the minimum requirements applicable to
Speaker 1: a child caring institution, in particular the clause that the
Speaker 1: executive shall in every instance be a person of stable
Speaker 1: sound judgment whose integrity is above reproach. In this case,
Speaker 1: that would be Lewis Petter reported to have had immoral
Speaker 1: and illicit relationships with one or more of the patients.
Speaker 1: The fact that this was not an actual court trial,
Speaker 1: but a hearing means that objections could neither be sustained
Speaker 1: or overruled. Only noted. This would not stop Edwards from
Speaker 1: objecting at any chance he could. Hinch's questioning continued, Can
Speaker 1: you say whether or not you ever observed or participated
Speaker 1: in any acts of homosexuality while you were on the
Speaker 1: Anna Waki campus. Yes, sir, I did when I was
Speaker 1: first admitted to an awake. There are more objections by
Speaker 1: Charles Edwards. They are noted as before. Please proceed. I
Speaker 1: participated in a homosexual relationship with Dr Petter for the
Speaker 1: reason stated that my problem was that I was suffering
Speaker 1: from homosexual fright. Who told you that Dr Petter I
Speaker 1: was afraid that I was a homosexual. Then several times
Speaker 1: I was under hypnosis and he said he was going
Speaker 1: to hypnotize me and this would make it easy for
Speaker 1: me to relate, and what I needed was a homosexual
Speaker 1: experience with him. Did he recommend any treatment for this
Speaker 1: apparent problem, Yes, sir. He said that I should have
Speaker 1: a homosexual experience with him and therefore ease my tension
Speaker 1: and would no longer have a problem. Did you have
Speaker 1: such an experience, yes, sir, numerous times over a period
Speaker 1: of about three years. Were these homosexual acts that you
Speaker 1: refer to with Dr Petter voluntary on your part? Yes, sir,
Speaker 1: Sometimes they were and sometimes they were not so valid
Speaker 1: Darry I was persuaded that this was I felt a
Speaker 1: lot of guilt about it and didn't feel like it
Speaker 1: was helping me. I don't know. I was persuaded that
Speaker 1: this was the thing, you know, just to try it,
Speaker 1: go all the way, loosen up, relax Who told you
Speaker 1: that Dr Petter? The reason that this wasn't doing me
Speaker 1: any good these experiences was because I wasn't relaxing. I
Speaker 1: was giving of myself. I wasn't, you know, going all
Speaker 1: the way so to speak. That's what he said. I'm
Speaker 1: going to ask this question, and I'm subject to being
Speaker 1: overruled by the board, but I'm going to ask you,
Speaker 1: and I ask you to reserve your objection, Mr Edwards,
Speaker 1: to describe these homosexual acts which you have already testified
Speaker 1: that you have engaged in with Dr Petter, just so
Speaker 1: that we can establish the fact that they were homosexual acts. Well,
Speaker 1: it involved Dr Petter masturbating me to the point of
Speaker 1: ejaculation and then with anal intercourse where he wanted me
Speaker 1: to have intercourse with him annally and oral intercourse. And
Speaker 1: you engaged in all of these acts with Dr Petter
Speaker 1: that you have just described. Yes, sir, can you stayed
Speaker 1: on approximately how many occasions? You know it was like
Speaker 1: on an average of once a week? Was it over
Speaker 1: the entire period you were at an awaking, Yes, sir,
Speaker 1: Over the entire period that you were there once a week, yes, sir.
Speaker 1: On an average, you know there would be times where
Speaker 1: there wouldn't be any for two weeks, then sometimes twice
Speaker 1: a week. Did you engage in homosexual activities with anyone
Speaker 1: else other than Dr Petter while you were at an
Speaker 1: awaken No, sir. The patient from Anawaki described some of
Speaker 1: the ways in which Petter would use therapy to manipulate him.
Speaker 1: I remember the suggestion that I was suffering from homosexual fright,
Speaker 1: and the suggestion that this was the reason for a
Speaker 1: lot of my anxieties and my self destructiveness was because
Speaker 1: of my homosexual fright and suggestions that certain ideas I
Speaker 1: had about sex related back to homosexuality. For instance, he
Speaker 1: asked me one time what I thought about when I masturbated.
Speaker 1: I thought about women. He told me that this actually
Speaker 1: was my homosexuality coming out, but reversed because what I
Speaker 1: really wanted was a man, but because I couldn't admit
Speaker 1: it to myself, I was thinking about a woman. While
Speaker 1: reporting on an AWAKEI Albert Edgin saw more examples of
Speaker 1: this type of manipulation through therapy. Petter had a way
Speaker 1: of targeting boys that he was going to eventually develop
Speaker 1: a sexual relationship with, and it seemed to be consistent,
Speaker 1: and it would begin with somehow denigrating the boy's father.
Speaker 1: He would give this child in a therapy session a
Speaker 1: reason to believe that his father had not been an
Speaker 1: adequate father figure, and that definition of father figure quote
Speaker 1: unquote father figure was fluid. Petter worked it to his advantage.
Speaker 1: For example, there was one boy who had that I
Speaker 1: remember well, who had a physically abusive, alcoholic father who
Speaker 1: had specifically said things that came out during therapy sessions.
Speaker 1: Petter would then take that information and discuss it with
Speaker 1: the boy and then gradually say, you know, you need,
Speaker 1: basically what the message was, you need a father figure
Speaker 1: like me. It was in sidious, and he had these
Speaker 1: cockamami ways of describing the evolution of somebody's sexual being.
Speaker 1: But it was not a consistent philosophy. It was a
Speaker 1: manipulative system that he used based on what he knew
Speaker 1: about that particular boy's problems and pathologies. It was as
Speaker 1: manipulative as it could be, and it's as close to
Speaker 1: human evil as as I can imagine Charles Edwards following
Speaker 1: cross examination shows just how low in a week he
Speaker 1: was willing to go to cover for themselves and discredit
Speaker 1: the former inawaky patient. Now, you had a good bit
Speaker 1: of trouble with your mother, didn't you. I've always had
Speaker 1: trouble with my mother. You've always had troubles with your mother. Now,
Speaker 1: do you have improper relations with your mother? No, sir,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? Improper relations? Did you have
Speaker 1: any set your relations with your mother? No? Sir. You
Speaker 1: have told people that your mother tried to have sexual
Speaker 1: relations with you, haven't you. Well, it's hard to say.
Speaker 1: What do you mean tried to have sexual relations with me?
Speaker 1: Do you mean my mother tried to seduce me? No,
Speaker 1: you never told anybody that or that any sexual relations
Speaker 1: of any kind with your mother. I lived with my
Speaker 1: mother ever since my mother and father were separated. My
Speaker 1: mother would occasionally walk through the house without any clothes on,
Speaker 1: and other words, just a nightgown and just things that
Speaker 1: would happen just living with somebody. Did that upset you? Sometimes?
Speaker 1: It would upset me to see your mother without clothes on, Yes, sir.
Speaker 1: Did you have an erection? Then? No, sir, now, then,
Speaker 1: did you see your mother do anything else other than
Speaker 1: walk through the house without her clothes on, No, sir,
Speaker 1: not that I can remember. Did you ever discuss sex
Speaker 1: with her? No, sir. Did you have all anyone that
Speaker 1: she tried to break down the door to get into
Speaker 1: your room? Yes, sir, she's done. That was that because
Speaker 1: she was trying to have relations with you? No, sir,
Speaker 1: that was because she wanted to see what I was doing.
Speaker 1: A former patient had spelled out how Petter groomed him
Speaker 1: for his own pleasure, only to be made out to
Speaker 1: be some type of incestual sexual deviant. How could an
Speaker 1: Awaki's counsel have known about this background of the patient?
Speaker 1: By reading between the lines of this interrogation, we can
Speaker 1: see how Annawaki would use a patient's own medical history
Speaker 1: against them. The boys who were identified as victims of
Speaker 1: the abuse had been treated in an Awake, Anawaki had
Speaker 1: access to their psychiatric records. The defense lawyers for Annawaki
Speaker 1: for the accused used information about their pathology to discredit them,
Speaker 1: to question their credibility, and to humiliate them. Charles Edwards
Speaker 1: scathing cross examination continued. Do you remember telling anyone that
Speaker 1: you had had homosexual experience with others when you were
Speaker 1: up at the Special School before you came to an Awake.
Speaker 1: You remember that, don't you. We didn't have I don't
Speaker 1: know what you call homosexuals. We had some experience with animals.
Speaker 1: You had sexual experience with animals, Yes, sir, you do
Speaker 1: say that you had sexual relations with animals prior to
Speaker 1: going to an Awake, Yes, sir. An Awake's lawyer had
Speaker 1: been primed with questions that related to the patient's former therapy.
Speaker 1: How else would Edwards have known to ask questions such
Speaker 1: as these, to outright ask a boy if he had
Speaker 1: participated in best reality, knowing full well he had in
Speaker 1: some form Doctor patient confidentiality meant nothing if it was
Speaker 1: something that could help Petter and in Awake, there were
Speaker 1: more witnesses who would speak up, and others who were
Speaker 1: too scared too. Da Gastino and Brin had come this
Speaker 1: far to try and take Petter down, But would their
Speaker 1: efforts be in vain next time? On Camp Hell in Awake,
Speaker 1: Mr Petter told me not to discourage their sexual behavior,
Speaker 1: but to tell them they shouldn't be promiscuous about it.
Speaker 1: To encourage this relationship you've heard the charges. Damn lie,
Speaker 1: you know you have a homosexual problem that you need
Speaker 1: to work through. The only way you can work through
Speaker 1: this is having one masculine image around you all the time. Well,
Speaker 1: I would think that Louis Petter goes further in his
Speaker 1: efforts to help people than most anybody in the business
Speaker 1: I know. So he said they were going to try
Speaker 1: to wreck his home, his family, and anna wake itself.
Speaker 1: There have been hundreds of children and families brought back
Speaker 1: together and helped. That is the best damn program to
Speaker 1: rehabilitate character disorders of any place in the United States.
Speaker 1: Camp Hell Anawaki was created and hosted by Josh Thane,
Speaker 1: with producer Miranda Hawkins and executive producers Alex Williams and
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick. The soundtrack was written and performed by Josh
Speaker 1: Thane and Adrian Berry. This episode featured the voices Mike Perkins,
Speaker 1: Robin Bludworth, and Michael Weaver. Archival footage provided by WSB
Speaker 1: and CBS News. Find us on Instagram at Camp Hell pod.
Speaker 1: That's c A M p h E L l p O.
Speaker 1: D educate yourself about the issue of child abuse and
Speaker 1: things that you should look for At the Darkness to
Speaker 1: Light website D two well dot org. That's d the
Speaker 1: number two l dot org camp hell Ana Waki is
Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts for
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to podcasts