Speaker 1: This week's episode deals with disturbing themes of child sexual assault.
Speaker 1: Parental discretion is advised. You're listening to the third and
Speaker 1: final part of Unexplained, Season six, episode twenty five. Once
Speaker 1: There was a Way. In early April nineteen ninety, West
Speaker 1: des Moines police were informed by authorities in northern Mexico,
Speaker 1: where only that month they've been chasing a lead into
Speaker 1: the disappearance of Eugene Martin, that the body of a
Speaker 1: young man had been discovered in a drainage ditch just
Speaker 1: south of Humor in Arizona. The man was identified as
Speaker 1: a John E. Gosh. Agonizingly, for Noreen and John Gosh,
Speaker 1: the man did not fit the description of their son,
Speaker 1: and was later identified as the adopted son of a
Speaker 1: couple from Tacoma in Washington. There were numerous strange coincidences
Speaker 1: besides the name. Just like Noreen and John's son, John E.
Speaker 1: Gosh was named after his father, also known as John
Speaker 1: Gosh Senior. He was almost exactly the same age, having
Speaker 1: also been born in nineteen sixty nine, only three weeks
Speaker 1: before the missing boy from Des Moines, and he'd even
Speaker 1: lived in Oklahoma around the time when Noreen and john
Speaker 1: Son was allegedly seen begging for help while being dragged
Speaker 1: away by two men. Shortly after he disappeared, dental records
Speaker 1: were requested just to be sure, which ultimately proved beyond
Speaker 1: all doubt that John E. From Tacoma, who was thought
Speaker 1: to have been killed in a drug dealing related incident,
Speaker 1: was not the missing newspaper carrier. For Noreen and john
Speaker 1: it was yet another hideously cruel twist to their unending nightmare,
Speaker 1: and one that left them unwilling to invite any more
Speaker 1: false hope into their lives. So when the following year,
Speaker 1: former Nebraska state Senator John DeCamp called them up, claiming
Speaker 1: he had some vital information he thought they might want
Speaker 1: to know, it's not surprising they were a little apprehensive
Speaker 1: about it. As detailed in Part two, John DeCamp was
Speaker 1: a vocal supporter of the numerous claims of child abuse
Speaker 1: made against the then chief executive of the Franklin Credit
Speaker 1: Union in Omaha, Nebraska, Lawrence King. King was found guilty
Speaker 1: of embezzling tens of millions of dollars from the credit union,
Speaker 1: but had also been accused of funneling some of that
Speaker 1: money into the running of a child prostitution ring, among
Speaker 1: other unproven allegations. Of particular interest to DeCamp was the
Speaker 1: individual Poor Banazzi, who testify it as one of the
Speaker 1: alleged survivors of King's apparent prostitution ring. Banazzi's claims were
Speaker 1: later dismissed by a grand jury. As de Camp explained
Speaker 1: it to Noreen and John Gosh, However, there was much
Speaker 1: more to the case than had been revealed in the press,
Speaker 1: the most pertinent part being that Banazzi had not only
Speaker 1: apparently been abused, but had also been coerced into recruiting
Speaker 1: other children into the abuse ring too. One of these children,
Speaker 1: he apparently told DeCamp, had been Johnny Gosh. Poor Bonazzi
Speaker 1: was born in nineteen sixty seven and by all accounts,
Speaker 1: had a deeply sad and traumatic upbringing, growing up in
Speaker 1: difficult circumstances. He is thought of first suffered sexual abuse
Speaker 1: at the age of six. In nineteen ninety, Garry Karadori,
Speaker 1: the lead investigator hired by the Nebraska state government's committee
Speaker 1: set up to run their own investigation into Lawrence King,
Speaker 1: got a tip off about Banazzi and arranged to interview
Speaker 1: him at the time, Banazzi, who was by then twenty
Speaker 1: two years old, was serving time in jail on three
Speaker 1: charges of abusing a minor, but had been named by
Speaker 1: another apparent victim of the alleged chard abuse ring as
Speaker 1: some one worth speaking to. What he eventually told Karadori
Speaker 1: astounded him. According to Banazi, he'd first been pulled into
Speaker 1: the ring around the age of ten, and by the
Speaker 1: age of twelve was regularly being transported across the country
Speaker 1: by King among others, to attend countless depraved sex parties,
Speaker 1: where he was forced to take drugs, sexually abused, and
Speaker 1: even forced to abuse other children for the entertainment of
Speaker 1: the guests. Banazi's story had everything from allegations of pedophilia
Speaker 1: to sadism and satanic ritual including the frequent mention of
Speaker 1: a strange group of cloaked figures who would often be
Speaker 1: present at the parties but never revealed who they were.
Speaker 1: In one particularly harrowing episode, Banazzi described how he and
Speaker 1: another boy were forced to perform various sexual and violent
Speaker 1: acts on the body of another victim who'd apparently just
Speaker 1: been shot dead in front to them. That boy's body
Speaker 1: was then said to have been later dumped out of
Speaker 1: a plane, and all of it was filmed for posterity,
Speaker 1: he said by a director called Hunter Thompson. B Natzi,
Speaker 1: who was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder shortly after his arrest,
Speaker 1: claimed that all the traumatic memories he had were only
Speaker 1: known to a select number of his purported personalities. It was,
Speaker 1: by all accounts, a horrific story. For the Nebraska grand
Speaker 1: jury who presided over his accusations in nineteen ninety, however,
Speaker 1: it was all a little too much to be believed.
Speaker 1: In the end, they ruled that although he had undoubtedly
Speaker 1: been a victim of sexual abuse at some time in
Speaker 1: his life, there was zero evidence to prove he'd been
Speaker 1: abused by anyone related to the Franklin credit union scandal,
Speaker 1: nor in the manner in which he alleged. Have you
Speaker 1: ever been interested in a conspiracy theory? What's the most
Speaker 1: fascinating one you've ever heard? In Land of Delusion, cultural
Speaker 1: historian and acclaimed author Colin Dickie dives deep into two
Speaker 1: bizarre theories gaining traction in the United States and Russia
Speaker 1: to day from a worldwide empire erased from the history
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Speaker 1: hundred years ago, taken entertaining but grimly serious journey into
Speaker 1: the warped logic of conspiracy theorists that may just hint
Speaker 1: at where present society is heading. In Land of Delusion.
Speaker 1: I immensely enjoyed Dickie's book, which was riveting and maddening
Speaker 1: an equal measure, as I came face to face with
Speaker 1: one character after another who, despite having access to the
Speaker 1: exact same information about the world as I do, seem
Speaker 1: to have come to a completely different conclusion about it,
Speaker 1: and neither one of us would be able to convince
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Speaker 1: a free sixty day trial. Despite the grand jury's ruling,
Speaker 1: John DeCamp remained convinced there was just too much intricate
Speaker 1: detail for it all to be dismissed entirely out of hand.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety, dismayed by the grand jury's verdict, he
Speaker 1: decided to take on the role of Banazzi's legal representative
Speaker 1: to help get his allegations out to the wider public, and,
Speaker 1: to his mind, at least bring the men that he'd
Speaker 1: accused to justice. In July nineteen ninety one, De Camp
Speaker 1: claimed to have come across the transcript of a psychiatrist's
Speaker 1: interview with Banazzi, in which he discussed an incident concerning
Speaker 1: a newspaper carrier in Iowa. It was then that De
Speaker 1: Camp said he went to his local library to research
Speaker 1: the details of John Gosh's disappearance and found it matched
Speaker 1: precisely with what Banazzi had told him. Despite everything they
Speaker 1: had already been through, it was too much for Noreen
Speaker 1: and John to ignore, and so that same July in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one, the couple traveled to meet poor Banazzi
Speaker 1: the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, where he was incarcerated.
Speaker 1: It's impossible to put into words how Norin and John
Speaker 1: would have felt as they sat on the opposite side
Speaker 1: at the glass screen, waiting to speak to the man
Speaker 1: who was claiming to have been involved in the abduction
Speaker 1: of their son. For Noreen, at least, she'd anticipated feeling
Speaker 1: nothing but anger, but when the slight and fragile looking
Speaker 1: banacy finally shuffled into view, what she also felt was pity.
Speaker 1: And then, over the next hour or so, between sobs
Speaker 1: and lengthy pauses, he explained exactly how he'd allegedly come
Speaker 1: to take part in Johnny's kidnapping. According to Paul, who
Speaker 1: would have been around fifteen on the day in question,
Speaker 1: he and another child, Mike, were traveling in a car
Speaker 1: driven by a man he called Emilia, who was said
Speaker 1: to be one of the enforcers of the apparent sex
Speaker 1: abuse ring. At one point, Emilio is said to have
Speaker 1: told Paul and Mike to duck down in the back,
Speaker 1: and a few moments later he stopped the car to
Speaker 1: us some people for directions. When Emilio started driving again,
Speaker 1: he then said to Paul and Mike to be prepared
Speaker 1: to hold someone down in the back. A few minutes later,
Speaker 1: they stopped once more, at which point Emilio was said
Speaker 1: to have grabbed a boy from the street and pulled
Speaker 1: him into the back of the car, where Mike and
Speaker 1: Paul then held him down as they sped off. In
Speaker 1: another version of the story, Paul also claimed to have
Speaker 1: used chloroform to subdue the boy. As Norene and John
Speaker 1: struggled with the thought of it all, they pressed all
Speaker 1: to say more about their son, looking for any irrefutable
Speaker 1: evidence that he was telling them the truth. Banatzi is
Speaker 1: then said to have successfully described various markings on Johnny
Speaker 1: Gosh's body, although much of it was publicly available information
Speaker 1: according to Johnny's parents. One scar that Paul mentioned on
Speaker 1: Johnny's tongue, which he'd injured in a fall as a
Speaker 1: young boy, had not been mentioned before. He also said
Speaker 1: that Johnny once told him about how his mother taught
Speaker 1: him yoga. Noreen, who was a yoga teacher, was dumbfounded
Speaker 1: since that also had never been disclosed to the press before.
Speaker 1: As the gosh Is said in an Omaha World Herald
Speaker 1: article a few days later, there was no doubt that
Speaker 1: Banatzi knew some incredible things. And by the end of
Speaker 1: their time together, Noreen and John had little doubt also
Speaker 1: that Banazzi was telling the truth. Not long after their meeting,
Speaker 1: John de Camp hired private investigator Roy Stevens to look
Speaker 1: deeper into Banazzi's claims. Stevens, the founder of an organization
Speaker 1: called the Missing Children's Foundation, had achieved some notoriety the
Speaker 1: year before after getting involved in the case of nine
Speaker 1: year old Jill Cutzel from Norfolk, Nebraska, who disappeared while
Speaker 1: en route to her babysitter's house. Convinced that a local
Speaker 1: man named David Phelps, who lived in the same building
Speaker 1: as the young girl, was responsible for her kidnap and murder,
Speaker 1: Stevens took it on himself to force a confession from him.
Speaker 1: Phelps was eventually convicted of the crime, though questions remain
Speaker 1: over the legitimacy of his coerced confession. Stephen spent hours
Speaker 1: questioning Bonatzi and chased up all manner of leads from
Speaker 1: Iowa to Colorado. One lead involved a man from Des
Speaker 1: Moines who Bernatzi claimed had also been involved in Johnny's abduction.
Speaker 1: This man is said to have been an individual that
Speaker 1: the Gosches had been suspicious of for some time, but
Speaker 1: nothing ever came of it. In the early nineteen nineties,
Speaker 1: with the ten year anniversary of Johnny Gosher's appearance approaching,
Speaker 1: producers of the television show America's Most Wanted decided to
Speaker 1: cover his and Eugene Martin's story. The show, which first
Speaker 1: aired in nineteen eighty eight for those who aren't familiar
Speaker 1: with it, ran profiles of fugitives wanted in connection with
Speaker 1: major crimes and coouraged viewers to call in with any
Speaker 1: information that might lead to their capture. The host of
Speaker 1: the show at the time was John Walsh, the father
Speaker 1: of Adam Walsh, whose tragic disappearance and murder was discussed
Speaker 1: in Part two. Paul Bonatzi was featured in the episode
Speaker 1: where he was filmed once again relaying his story to
Speaker 1: an agonized Noreene, Expanding on what he'd already told her.
Speaker 1: He went on to claim that many of the children
Speaker 1: had been branded with the symbol that was unique to
Speaker 1: the Chard abuse ring should they ever try to escape.
Speaker 1: He also claimed that when he and the other children
Speaker 1: were ferried about from place to place, they were often
Speaker 1: kept locked away in various safe houses dotted throughout the country.
Speaker 1: Bonatzi then led the show's producers to one such place
Speaker 1: in Colorado, where he claimed to have crossed paths again
Speaker 1: with Johnny in nineteen eighty six. The building turned out
Speaker 1: to be an old, abandoned farmhouse in the middle of
Speaker 1: the desert. Paul broke down as he approached it, seemingly
Speaker 1: too overcome with emotion to go inside. After eventually going in,
Speaker 1: he then guided the crew down to a large basement
Speaker 1: where he claimed the children had been kept, even pointing
Speaker 1: out where some of them had apparently carved their initials
Speaker 1: into the walls. According to the producers of America's Most Wanted,
Speaker 1: the owner of the house was said to have been
Speaker 1: a former prison guard who had seemingly completely disappeared. However,
Speaker 1: just as it seemed to John de Camp that they
Speaker 1: might finally be getting somewhere, he claimed in the nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety two book he later wrote about it, All The
Speaker 1: Franklin cover Up, Child Abuse, Murder, and Satanism in America,
Speaker 1: Paul Sparrow, the executive producer of America's Most Wanted, soon
Speaker 1: grew anxious about the whole thing. According to DeCamp, Sparrow
Speaker 1: had been told by the FBI that they were not
Speaker 1: willing to assist the show with the story, with the
Speaker 1: implication being that they were unhappy about where the story
Speaker 1: was leading. Since the show benefited hugely from a close
Speaker 1: relationship with the FBI, Sparrow didn't want to force the
Speaker 1: issue and decided to pull back on the alleged Paul
Speaker 1: Banatzi connection. Sparrow later said that Johnny Gosh and Eugene
Speaker 1: Martin's case were the ones that haunted him more than
Speaker 1: any other. John DeCamp took all of Banatzi's latest revelations
Speaker 1: to the police, but claimed they were completely uninterested in it.
Speaker 1: The police counted that they had in fact contacted Banazzi's siblings,
Speaker 1: who confirmed that he was with them in Omaha the
Speaker 1: day that Johnny was abducted. A year later, in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety three, a production crew from Yorkshire Television in the
Speaker 1: United Kingdom were commissioned by the Discovery Channel to make
Speaker 1: a documentary about the child abuse allegations directed at Lawrence King.
Speaker 1: The production team promptly set about digging into the story,
Speaker 1: recording hours of interviews with many of the apparent victims,
Speaker 1: along with their supporters such as John de Camp and
Speaker 1: State Senator Lauren Schmidt, who'd headed the Franklin Credit Union
Speaker 1: Investigation Committee from the Nebraska state government. Shortly before the
Speaker 1: film was finished, however, producer Nick Gray was instructed by
Speaker 1: Discovery to pull the plug on it. Some, including Gray,
Speaker 1: leaved their refusal to broadcast it was all part of
Speaker 1: a deliberate conspiracy to hide the truth of what was
Speaker 1: going on in Nebraska, as others have pointed out. However,
Speaker 1: since the film contained countless sexual abuse related allegations against
Speaker 1: named individuals without any concrete evidence to prove them, it
Speaker 1: is highly unlikely it could have been supported legally either way.
Speaker 1: The film, now known as Conspiracy of Silence, was never broadcast.
Speaker 1: By the end of nineteen ninety three, with the years
Speaker 1: of anguish having finally taken their toll on Narene and
Speaker 1: John's relationship, the couple separated and filed for divorce. Best
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Speaker 1: the art Best Fiends. In nineteen ninety nine, Paul Bonazzi,
Speaker 1: represented by John De Camp, finally succeeded in bringing a
Speaker 1: civil lawsuit against Lawrence E. King, in which he accused
Speaker 1: him of continually subjecting him to repeated sexual assaults, false imprisonments,
Speaker 1: infliction of extreme emotional distress, organized and directed satanic rituals,
Speaker 1: as well as forcing him to scavenge for children to
Speaker 1: be a part of King's sexual abuse and pornography ring,
Speaker 1: and forcing him to engage in numerous massochistic orgies with
Speaker 1: other minor children. King was not legally obliged to appear
Speaker 1: in court, and the case was ruled in Bonazi's favor.
Speaker 1: It is sometimes stated that Bonazzi won this case and
Speaker 1: was awarded a million dollars in damages. In truth, how
Speaker 1: in what is known in legal parlance as a default judgment,
Speaker 1: this ruling, which was handed down by a district judge,
Speaker 1: Warren Urban, was merely an automatic ruling which occurs whenever
Speaker 1: the accused party fails to engage with the suit. Banazi
Speaker 1: ultimately received none of the money that was awarded to him,
Speaker 1: likely due to King's legal representatives later arguing successfully that
Speaker 1: the case and its judgment should be annulled. More interesting, however,
Speaker 1: was the testimony that Norien Gosh delivered at the trial.
Speaker 1: Having been asked to speak in support of Paul Banazi's claims,
Speaker 1: Noreen made the stunning revelation that she had good reason
Speaker 1: to believe Banazi's story because her son Johnny had confirmed
Speaker 1: it to her. With the court collectively Shocked by this admission,
Speaker 1: Noreen went on to explain exactly what had happened. Back
Speaker 1: in March nineteen ninety seven. At around two thirty a m.
Speaker 1: She claimed she was awoken by an insistent knocking at
Speaker 1: her front door. When she finally got up to open it,
Speaker 1: she found two sheepish looking young men on her doorstep,
Speaker 1: one of whom introduced himself as Johnnie her Son. In
Speaker 1: a state of shock, Noreen invited the two men inside,
Speaker 1: where the apparent Johnny, who would have been twenty seven
Speaker 1: at the time, proceeded to tell her about everything that
Speaker 1: had happened to him, confirming that he had indeed been
Speaker 1: kidnapped and indoctrinated into a child sex abuse and pornography ring.
Speaker 1: The two men had since escaped together and were in hiding,
Speaker 1: living at an undisclosed location somewhere else in the country.
Speaker 1: Noreen then claimed that she offered to call the police immediately,
Speaker 1: but Johnny had begged her not to, saying that their
Speaker 1: lives would be in danger if anyone from the ring
Speaker 1: ever found out where they were. Before Noreen even made
Speaker 1: it home from court, her testimony was all over the news,
Speaker 1: and everyone seemed to have an opinion on it. How
Speaker 1: on earth had she kept that a secret, they asked,
Speaker 1: And why hadn't she alerted the police or done more
Speaker 1: to make her son stay For Noreen, however, it was simple.
Speaker 1: Johnny had asked her not to tell anyone, and so
Speaker 1: she didn't. Noreen's ex husband, John Gosh Senior, who unlike Noreen,
Speaker 1: had by then begun to reevaluate Paul Banatzi's possible involvement
Speaker 1: in the case, later stated that he was unconvinced by
Speaker 1: nori story. In two thousand nor In Gosh's own account
Speaker 1: of the story, Why Johnny Can't Come Home, was published,
Speaker 1: which helped to raise the profile of the story once more. However,
Speaker 1: in the years that followed, despite the Goshes continuing to
Speaker 1: hire private detectives to keep working on the case, little
Speaker 1: new came to light. That was until one Sunday in
Speaker 1: August two thousand and six. It was August twenty seventh
Speaker 1: of that year when Noreen awoke one morning to find
Speaker 1: an envelope who had been left for her on her
Speaker 1: front doorstep. Inside it, much to her horror, she found
Speaker 1: a series of photographs showing a collection of young boys
Speaker 1: who had all been tied up and gagged. Some of
Speaker 1: the photos showed a group of three boys together, while
Speaker 1: others showed images of a boy on his own, which
Speaker 1: Noreen was utterly convinced was Johnny. In one of the photos,
Speaker 1: whoever had delivered them had ringed what looked like some
Speaker 1: kind of mark on one of the boy's arms and
Speaker 1: labeled it the Brand, a clear reference to the symbol
Speaker 1: that Paul Banazzi alleged many of the apparent victims of
Speaker 1: the child abuse ring had been branded with. Noreen immediately
Speaker 1: took the pictures to West Des Moines Police, after which
Speaker 1: it transpired that other people connected to the case had
Speaker 1: also received the same photographs. In the end, three of
Speaker 1: the children shown in the pictures were traced back to
Speaker 1: a case from nineteen seventy nine in Hillsborough County, Florida,
Speaker 1: long before Johnny's disappearance. The boy in the other images
Speaker 1: was never identified. As of today, it has been forty
Speaker 1: years since Johnny Gosh disappeared. It's whereabouts and the truth
Speaker 1: about what really happened to him remain completely unknown. If
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Speaker 1: All elements of Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced
Speaker 1: by me Richard McClane smith. Please subscribe and rate the
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