Conspiracy of silence(documentary)

[dannybananny]

I watched this movie and it really shows what's happen when you get to deep and touch people that are untouchable! it reminded me when C's didn't want to mention names for Laura and crew safety and this is very god example what happens when you got names, you turn up dead in some "accident"!
Summary:

Conspiracy of Silence is a 56 minute documentary film detailing an alleged child sex scandal that involved many children from Nebraska institution, Boys Town and Lawrence King, or Lawrence "Larry" King. The organized child sex parties implicated the Reagan and Bush White House during the 1980s. King was the ringleader of the sex ring which had links to other fellow political conservatives in Washington D.C. including Republican lobbyist Craig J. Spence, Sen. Elizabeth Dole's staff, along with members of the financial elite of Nebraska.Larry King was judged to have been responsible for curtailing Paul Bonacci's civil rights and was ordered to pay him $1 million as compensation. The documentary was produced over the course of ten months by British corporation Yorkshire Television for broadcast in the US on May 3, 1994 on the Discovery Channel.However, the documentary was never aired. This is because Congress threatened more restrictive television laws. Most copies of the finished product were destroyed by parties unknown, but a mostly completed work print of the documentary was sent anonymously to former State Senator Nebraska attorney John DeCamp a year after all copies were supposedly destroyed. The movie can be found with various file sharing programs such as BitTorrent or through the Freenet. Adherents to the movie's outlook claim that the case has never been fully brought to justice and that many of the investigators and witnesses have subsequently died under suspicious circumstances. There was, however a small victory in the amount of one million dollars to victim Paul A. Bonacci."Conspiracy of Silence" by Britain's Yorkshire TV -scheduled for the Discovery Channel on May 3, 1994 but cancelled and never publicly aired until now on the web, includes much of the Franklin Committee's video interviews with the child victims.The Omaha Herald led the media vilification of the kids. The FBI threatened the alleged victims with perjury prosecution if they testified, and after 2 recanted their stories, the remaining witness was found guilty of perjury and sent to prison. After the State's lead investigator Gary Caradori and his young son were killed in the unexplained breakup of his plane in midair the investigation died as other victims refused to talk or recanted their video testimony in court. This documentary picks up the pieces.Then-Nebraska State Senator John DeCamp, who continues to be the kids' lawyer, pro bono, wrote the best-selling The Franklin Coverup, now out in an updated edition. The former CIA director Bill Colby ambiguously acknowledged to John DeCamp that the scenario described is real, and not long thereafter Colby turned up dead under suspicious circumstances

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HsboUn3Qbw&feature=related

 

[Azur]

Re: Conspiracy of silance(documentary)

Here is another documentary in the making about this:

_http://p.castfire.com/R8toH/video/197939/197939_2009-11-25-161341.flv

or go to the main page to see it online: http://rumur.com/hoax

A Carefully Crafted Hoax is a feature investigative documentary that examines child prostitution and sexual exploitation in America by focusing on the well-documented story of Johnny Gosch, a paperboy adbucted in Des Moines, Iowa, and its connection to a notorious pedophile network based in Nebraska.

The shocking disclosures begin at an old brick warehouse in a seedy section of Washington, DC, progressing through the $40 million dollar bust-out of a nondescript Midwestern credit union and then back to a DC party-house that was wired for blackmail. A tragic tale that tears at your heart and rips your soul, A Carefully Crafted Hoax proves that child-pandering was covered up from the utmost pinnacle of power - using the CIA, FBI, Secret Service and a corrupt judicial process.



Every 40 seconds a child is abducted or goes missing in the United States. Some have run away, some have strayed from their parents and are temporarily lost, but many others fall through the cracks and become entangled in the webs of predators - only to end up being abused, enslaved, pandered, or worse. An estimated 100,000 to 300,000 American children under 18 years of age are victimized through prostitution every year. The traumatic effect that losing a child has on the families and communities would lead one to believe that protecting our nation's youth would be law enforcement's top priority, but Shared Hope International, a sex trafficking watchdog, has found that most Americans, including far too many government officials, have no idea that children under the age of 18 are being shipped from state to state as child prostitutes. How could this be happening right underneath our noses?

Featuring first hand interviews with several of the players at the center of story, including child victims, their parents, members of the trafficking ring, and law enforcement, A Carefully Crafted Hoax seeks to understand how such behavior can go unchecked. Most importantly, the film seeks to answer the questions the mainstream media has been too negligent - or too afraid - to ask. Are our politicians, top business and media personalities compromised? Is there a covert checks-and-balances system affecting our body politic?



BACKGROUND

Journalist Nick Bryant stumbled on to a U.S. Customs report on the "Finders" (see _http://adangerousmovie.com/Finders.pdf), a group reportedly responsible for kidnapping children. Seven years and 40,000 miles later and he's written the authoritative history on the cover up of a child trafficking network centered in Omaha in his newly released book The Franklin Scandal: A Story of Powerbrokers, Child Abuse & Betrayal. (See: _http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0977795357/ref=s9_simz_gw_s0_p14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1HP2FYNVXYZQHZMRPXA9&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846 )

He located several of the young victims, who are now adults, and persuaded them to talk - some for the first time ever; he tracked down members of the sex-ring, getting them to speak publicly about what happened. Digesting thousands of documents and conducting hundreds of hours of interviews, Bryant has written the definitive narrative of our country's most suppressed scandal. More than just an expose', this is also an amazing chronicle of courage, faith and fortitude amidst great betrayal.

THE STORY

On September 5, 1982 Johnny Gosch was abducted while delivering newspapers during his regular morning route. His mother Noreen Gosch has spent the past 27 years investigating what happened to her son. Twelve years later on an episode of America's Most Wanted, Paul Bonacci met with Noreen and confessed to helping kidnap Johnny as a teen and told of being used to lure kids into the clutches of a child prostitution network. He also revealed details about Johnny she had never told anyone - leading her to believe Paul was telling the truth. Paul's testimony was relayed to the Des Moines Police Department and the FBI but they called him un-credible.

In 1989, Lawrence "Larry" King, Jr., General Manager of the Franklin Federal Credit Union, was accused of pilfering million dollars from the bank to fund his lavish lifestyle as a political high roller. Shortly thereafter, a special Legislative Committee was convened in Nebraska to investigate King's financial crimes as well as allegations of widespread sexual abuse and rumors of wild parties where kids from Boys Town, the distinguished Catholic orphanage on the outskirts of Omaha, Nebraska, were given cash and drugs to engage in sexual activities with prominent figures under King's control.

Although overwhelming evidence existed for King's national pedophile network, the Committee's efforts to expose it were continuously stymied by Federal and local law enforcement's refusal to cooperate with inquiries, and by threats dispensed to witnesses and victims. The efforts of the Committee were irrevocably derailed when its chief investigator, Gary Caradori, died in a mysterious plane crash, and a grand jury would ultimately conclude that the child abuse allegations were "a carefully crafted hoax." The victims were used, abused, and discarded, and they knew what would happen to them if they ever came clean. In one case, Alisha Owen, a young girl who had been abused since the age of 14 refused to recant her abuse to the FBI, and she was sentenced to prison for 9-15 years on trumped up perjury charges. She spent nearly two years in solitary confinement.

A Carefully Crafted Hoax

By combining original footage, news clips, lost scenes from a suppressed documentary, Conspiracy of Silence, telephone recordings, classified documents, and interviews with the victims who are now adults, A Carefully Crafted Hoax builds on the mountain of existing evidence to present a portrait of Johnny, Paul, Alisha and the rest of the throwaway kids whose lives were fatefully intertwined in the disturbing world of child prostitution.

The film seeks to understand what happened to Johnny and elucidate Alisha's fate, and look at Boys Town's role in the national pandering network. What has become of King's pedophile ring? Who is collecting these kids off our streets and selling them? How can we stop it?

FEATURING:

• Noreen Gosch, Mother of Johnny Gosch
• Lawrence King, Former President of Franklin Credit Union and accused ringleader of a national pedophile network
• Paul Rodriguez, Washington Times, broke stories on powerbroker Craig Spence, King's partner in pandering and blackmail
• John DeCamp, Former Nebraska senator who wrote The Franklin Cover-Up, a book detailing the scandal
• Eulice Washington, First victim of King's to come forward
• Tony Harris, Boys Town student who was flown around the country by King for sexual exploitation
• Henry Vinson, owned the largest escort service in DC history and supplied escorts to Craig Spence and Larry King
• Paul Bonacci, A victim who was awarded a $1 million judgement against King and admitted to abducting Johnny Gosch.
• Fred Carter, Former Boys Town mayor who privy of Boys Town students being used for for sexual exploitation
• Alisha Owen, One of six exploited kids to come forward and testify before the grand jury
• William Colby, Former Director of CIA
• Rusty Nelson, Blackmail photographer hired by King
• Val Peter, President and director of Boys Town
• Rue Fox, Former Boys Town student who was exploited by King
• Troy Bonner, Former victim exploited by King
• Nikolai Cayman, Former Boys Town student exploited by King

 

[Gaby]

Re: Conspiracy of silance(documentary)

Here is another documentary in the making about this:

_http://p.castfire.com/R8toH/video/197939/197939_2009-11-25-161341.flv

or go to the main page to see it online: http://rumur.com/hoax

Just came across these movies today. It is totally sickening! Sigh.

 

[realitybugll]

I just watched "conspiracy of silence". It makes a very compelling case to me. from viewing things like this, I am believing with more confidence in the STS hierarchy, 4D STS existence and so on.

I had to stop watching the documentary at one point. Some of this stuff is so bad I don't want to believe it or deal with it.

 

[Gaby]

A good complement to this documentary is Anne C. Salter's "Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, And Other Sex Offenders." It is a tough reading, but full of important knowledge. Here is a review from amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Predators-Pedophiles-Rapists-Other-Offenders/dp/0465071732

Salter, a psychologist, draws on 20 years of studying sex offenders to provide a disturbing and absorbing look at how and why sex abusers generally get away with their abuse. Sex offenders are usually not the monsters most expect them to be; instead, they are charming, likable people who count on those traits to hide their true intentions and activities. Using interviews with sex offenders, Salter offers chilling portraits of a variety of people, including priests, teachers, coaches, and others who come in daily contact with children, who take advantage of their positions and the trust of children and their parents to commit heinous acts. Salter profiles child molesters, rapists, sadists, and psychopaths, including their general techniques for deception. Her final chapter, focused on helping parents to protect their children, emphasizes deflecting sex offenders--because detecting them is nearly impossible--with practical suggestions for vigilantly monitoring children's activities and who coaches or counsels them. Despite some chilling profiles, this is an insightful look at a subject that concerns all parents.

Here is a quote from the book taken from Michael DeBardeleben a counterfeiter and sadist, one who kept voluminous notes on his exploits. Among the notes was found his recipe for a relationship:

A [man] must be aware of all this:
-Get his satisfaction early
-Isolate her contacts with others
-Don't let her make any decisions
-Don't let her acquire any skills (working, driving, social skills, etc.)
-Don't let her have any power (bank accounts, ownership, inside information-material for blackmail)
-Never trust her completely
-Don't "enlighten" her with knowledge (specially of psychology)
-Always remember that the relationship is temporary+likewise prepare to "cut her loose" before she does it to you
-Set the "price" higher than needed at first; whip, infidelity, extreme humiliation-then gradually reduce to keep at an adequate level
-Actively seek a "new" partner when she begins to show signs of rebellion
-Make her more dependent: drugs? Live in country. No phone (or hidden-for my use only) no drivers license, no books (except fantasy) no fancy clothes, no doctors
-Never show weakness, guilt or insecurity.

This was a few of the things that I read from the chapter of sadists. To be honest, I don't remember if I read or not the entire chapter:

"If this is not something you want to read, you can skip this chapter, and the rest of the book will still make sense. To be honest, you'll like the world more if you don't read it."

It's hard to read, but wisdom about predators is the best kind of defense against sexual offenders. From the foreword by Gavin de Becker:

"Sexual abuse is an enormous problem, particularly for young teens. Thank God mine aren't there yet."
No sorry, says reality, the most common age at which sexual abuse begins is three.

"Well, sure, if you have homosexuals around small children, there's a risk"
No sorry, says reality, most sexual abuse is committed by heterosexual males.

"Yeah, but that kind of pervert isn't living in our neighborhood"
Sorry, says reality, but that kind of pervert is living in your neighborhood. The Department of Justice estimates that on average, there is one child molester per square mile in the United States.

"Well, at least the police know who these people are"
Not likely, says reality, since the average child molester victimizes between 50 and 150 children before he is ever arrested (and many more after he is arrested).

When all defenses against reality are taken away, some parents switch to resignation, literally resigning from responsibility: "Well, there's nothing you can do about it anyway." This misplaced fatalism actually becomes fatal for some children.

Another common refrain uttered by deniers of the dangers of sexual abuse is: "Well, kids are resilient. When bad things happen, they bounce back."

Absolutely not, says reality. Children do not bounce back. They adjust, they conceal, they repress, and sometimes they accept and move on, but they don't bounce back.

When it comes to pedophiles, rapists, and other sex offenders it can be really disturbing. But as the author says, illusions are themselves susceptible to the impact of trauma, which sometimes shatters them, leaving a bleak world in its wake. And there are plenty of predators in this world. Knowledge protects.

 

[Mrs.Tigersoap]

A good complement to this documentary is Anne C. Salter's "Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, And Other Sex Offenders."

I'm actually reading this book right now. This is really, really hard to read. I think it was Gimpy who was worried about the 'barf factor' of some of the books we have to read, well to me, this one along with Programmed to Kill (which in part deals with pedophiles and kid porn) take the prize.
The author, Anne Salter, says that when she was interviewing a child molester for a documentary she was making, her crew actually got really sick during filming 'because their souls were taking a beating'. I can totally understand that.
I read how they operate, how they think, but as soon as their explanations become too 'graphic' and detailed (they love to gloat), especially their sexual 'exploits', I skip. I get the picture, I do not need to stare at the picture... At first, I was reading everything but there are images that I will never be able to erase from my memory, unfortunately.

"Yeah, but that kind of pervert isn't living in our neighborhood"

Why do people always think that bad stuff only happens elsewhere? So that they don't have to do anything about it, probably? The level of trust (or lack of caring, in some instances) of people sometimes baffle me. I was talking with a colleague about kids and how they can be demanding, etc. and she was saying 'well, thank god for baby sitter services and summer camps'. And I said that I would never use either of those and several of my colleagues were looking at me like I'm some deranged, overprotective freak, so I started explaining that well, no, I don't leave my kid to people I don't know anything about, etc. Which to me is basic common sense but to them, i was exaggerating, they were arguing that they had spent glorious times in summer camps, had a great baby sitter to watch over them when they were kids, and basically I would be denying my kid great joys not to mention prevent her from growing. Interestingly, none of these people has ever read an article, let alone a book about any type of predators nor do they know about sociopaths. To them, the only child molester around here is Marc Dutroux and thank god he is in jail...

Maybe I am overprotective (am I?)... but I also know that 1 little girl out of 3 and 1 little boy out of 6 will be molested during childhood or teenage years (Anne Salter's numbers). So these child molesters must somehow find access to these children for the numbers to be that staggering...So, I prefer not to take any chances, to be honest. I'm pretty sure she can grow and learn just as much with us somewhere in the background.

 

[truth seeker]

Maybe I am overprotective (am I?)... but I also know that 1 little girl out of 3 and 1 little boy out of 6 will be molested during childhood or teenage years (Anne Salter's numbers). So these child molesters must somehow find access to these children for the numbers to be that staggering...So, I prefer not to take any chances, to be honest. I'm pretty sure she can grow and learn just as much with us somewhere in the background.

I've wondered this about my self as well. I've seen from personal experience how quickly some predators can act. While I don't think I look for a predator around every corner, when I used to babysit, I tried to be very aware of who was around. Also the jobs I had, for the most part, were with people whom had previously known me and whom I had known so trust wasn't an issue. The ones I didn't know beforehand were given references.

Many people have had good experiences at camp and with babysitters when they were a kid, so I suppose it may be a matter of how well they are checked out beforehand - getting references and such. This may be a case of the specific situation determining whether something is "good" or "bad".

 

[Mrs.Tigersoap]

Many people have had good experiences at camp and with babysitters when they were a kid, so I suppose it may be a matter of how well they are checked out beforehand - getting references and such

True. But reading Salter's book, you can also see how some children appeal to child molesters (those they perceive as weak, usually lacking a strong father figure but sometimes it's also just a matter of looks) and so I guess that even within a summer camp or a Scouts meeting where a child molester operates (apparently, the Scouts were so routinely 'targeted' by child molesters that they actually tried to have some sort of screening procedures only to find that there was not any, since child molesters vary greatly - and are superb liars), some children might be just fine (because they do not appeal to the child molester in the first place) and hence, the summer camp might receive great reviews from the parents.

It's also a sad fact that the vast majority of children do not dare to report these acts. Especially when they trust the child molester (and they are very good at grooming their prey and gain their trust). When they actually do tell, most adults do not believe them (many examples of that in the book). Out of all existing cases, 3% actually go to court.

I remember seeing a documentary about a very disturbed German psychopath (cannot recall his name) and how his neighbours were always asking him to babysit their children because 'he was so great and gentle'. Until he was convicted for killing a man and eating parts of his body. These people are professionals at lying and deception is their game.

So to me, references are just not enough. The vast majority of people do not know the first thing about predators. They think that if somebody seems nice, he is nice.
I just can't trust my child to some stranger based on their (ill-informed) opinion.

 

[truth seeker]

True. But reading Salter's book, you can also see how some children appeal to child molesters (those they perceive as weak, usually lacking a strong father figure but sometimes it's also just a matter of looks) and so I guess that even within a summer camp or a Scouts meeting where a child molester operates (apparently, the Scouts were so routinely 'targeted' by child molesters that they actually tried to have some sort of screening procedures only to find that there was not any, since child molesters vary greatly - and are superb liars), some children might be just fine (because they do not appeal to the child molester in the first place) and hence, the summer camp might receive great reviews from the parents.

It's also a sad fact that the vast majority of children do not dare to report these acts. Especially when they trust the child molester (and they are very good at grooming their prey and gain their trust). When they actually do tell, most adults do not believe them (many examples of that in the book). Out of all existing cases, 3% actually go to court.

I remember seeing a documentary about a very disturbed German psychopath (cannot recall his name) and how his neighbours were always asking him to babysit their children because 'he was so great and gentle'. Until he was convicted for killing a man and eating parts of his body. These people are professionals at lying and deception is their game.

So to me, references are just not enough. The vast majority of people do not know the first thing about predators. They think that if somebody seems nice, he is nice.
I just can't trust my child to some stranger based on their (ill-informed) opinion.

I completely hear you. :) That was just one suggestion, but honestly, I'm not sure what the answers are.

 

[Hildegarda]

I remember seeing a documentary about a very disturbed German psychopath (cannot recall his name) and how his neighbours were always asking him to babysit their children because 'he was so great and gentle'. [..]
So to me, references are just not enough. The vast majority of people do not know the first thing about predators. They think that if somebody seems nice, he is nice. I just can't trust my child to some stranger based on their (ill-informed) opinion.

I am with you on this, Mrs. Tigersoap. When I was little, it was common for kids to go to summer camps for the whole summer. My parents never sent my sister and me there, instead, we went to my grandmother's and stayed with her. Those ended up being the fondest childhood memories, full of fun and friendship. Sometimes, I would whine to my Mom about why we never go to summer camps. But even then it was more because I felt that I had to want to go there, but I actually never wanted to. Staying away from home in dusty, drafty, ugly barracks, with some strange people, following a routine while being poorly supervised, eating bad food, no books or favorite toys ... umm, no. There were, in the whole country, probably only two truly elite camps that were said to be great. But others, where everybody went, were such that I absolutely do not feel I missed anything. As I grew up, I was beginning to be downright thankful to my parents that I never went to summer camps, and that's even before I learned about abuse etc.

The people you talk to sound like some of the people I know, too. For whatever reason, even though they love their kids as any parent would, they would rather spend time without them. May be they never developed connection and patience with them, or may be that's how they themselves were raised, feeling that they had to get out of their parents' hair. So it is natural for them to value learning to "grow up" and being able to turn to others things and enjoy them. May be this is where they are coming from.

Regarding summer camps, there may still be options even for the careful parents. My kids never went to camps by themselves. But recently I went with my daughter to a mother-daughter Girl Scout camp for a few days. After 24 hours there, I was ready to bash my head on a wall, the daily routine was so depressingly institutional and the endless sing-songs so annoying. But my daughter really liked it. Moreover, I got to check that camp top to bottom, and was pleased. There was tight supervision with a lot of checks and balances; I got to speak to and learn about the camp director and main caretakers, and the impression was favorable; and there were teenagers from families that I knew among the counselors. Knowing this, I would be comfortable sending my daughter at the age that she is now to this particular camp for a short time with some friends that she knows.

Anne Salter's and Gavin de Becker's books shocked me deeply too when I read them. Yet, being scared of everyone that our children come across is probably not an answer either. I do not remember all the particulars perfectly from those books, but appear to have taken home the message that there's got to be a way to discern suspicious people. One of them would be that if someone is too good to be true, he may very well be. At one time, a former landlord, am elderly man, offered repeatedly to us to babysit our then 3 y.o. daughter. That, to us, was a red flag. Even if you are a nice old man that the whole neighborhood loves, you probably have something better to do other then babysit an unrelated 3 y.o. for a couple who never even asked you to do it. We said, no thank you. He was most likely all right, but we never had to find it out the hard way, which is obviously the best thing.

 

[Gaby]

A good complement to this documentary is Anne C. Salter's "Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, And Other Sex Offenders."

I'm actually reading this book right now. This is really, really hard to read. I think it was Gimpy who was worried about the 'barf factor' of some of the books we have to read, well to me, this one along with Programmed to Kill (which in part deals with pedophiles and kid porn) take the prize.

Anne Salter's and Gavin de Becker's books shocked me deeply too when I read them.

I agree. It was a shocking reading to say the least. But I could see that I had to read it. This stuff happens everyday! Fred and Rose by Howard Sounes was equally disturbing. That gave me nightmares. I do believe I didn't skipped anything from that book, although I should have had... After that, I read other books on the subject that made me feel stronger with knowledge: The Lost Girl: How I Triumphed Over Life at the Mercy of Fred and Rose West, Doc: The Rape of the Town of Lovell by Jack Olsen, and Where There is Evil by Sandra Brown. This last one turn out to be most useful. It is the author’s account of a young girl's disappearance, Moira Anderson, from a small town of Coatbridge near Glasgow in 1957. Sandra’s quest to find out what happened to Moira began nearly 30 years later, at a family funeral, when her father confessed that he had been involved in the girl’s disappearance.

Sandra’s father was a pedophile whose activities were known by everyone, including the police! After putting the puzzle together, she becomes totally certain that her father was indeed involved in Moira’s disappearance.

Where There Is Evil is written from the author's point of view when she was a little child and then as an adult; her memories are recounted in chronological order giving us the insight of how a little girl can perceive the events as they unfold and later on the insights she gains as she does her investigation. This book teaches us how so many people who are supposed to care and should care for their beloved end up being silent, protecting thus sexual aggressors for no good reason at all! It is actually shocking and mind boggling how so much abuse can be brushed aside in favor of pathological people. It is also an a reading that shows us how sexual abusers act, operate and fool so many people for such a long time. Pretty sad, but true. If we are to protect our children and ourselves, then we must definitely read books like this one.

Here is one of my favorite quotes from Anne C. Salter and to what Mrs. Tigersoap was referring to:

But the violence I see now is a long way from a basketball court, and I have discovered there is a price to be paid for seeing it. Once in a three-day taping that included several sadists, the material was so overwhelming that both the film crew and I got sick- I with a sinus infection, and the entire film crew with a flu so severe they had to delay their departure from the motel. Our immune systems had weakened, I believe, from the beating our souls had taken.

Malevolence takes a bite out of your spirit. Just sitting with it, just talking with people who consciously and deliberately exploit others, feels like being beaten. Over the years, I have seen many therapists burn out and leave the field entirely. Even though I have stayed, I have become less trusting than most, more protective of my children (some would say more paranoid) in general.

But if what I know hurts me personally and affects my life in ways I am not happy about, it still feels like work that needs to be done. It is precisely our lack of knowledge and understanding that gives predators their edge, and there's nothing wrong with trying to level the playing field a little bit. -Anna C. Salter, "Predators, Pedophiles, Rapists and other Sex Offenders"

 

[Gimpy]

A good complement to this documentary is Anne C. Salter's "Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, And Other Sex Offenders."

I'm actually reading this book right now. This is really, really hard to read. I think it was Gimpy who was worried about the 'barf factor' of some of the books we have to read, well to me, this one along with Programmed to Kill (which in part deals with pedophiles and kid porn) take the prize.
The author, Anne Salter, says that when she was interviewing a child molester for a documentary she was making, her crew actually got really sick during filming 'because their souls were taking a beating'. I can totally understand that.
I read how they operate, how they think, but as soon as their explanations become too 'graphic' and detailed (they love to gloat), especially their sexual 'exploits', I skip. I get the picture, I do not need to stare at the picture... At first, I was reading everything but there are images that I will never be able to erase from my memory, unfortunately.

"Yeah, but that kind of pervert isn't living in our neighborhood"

Why do people always think that bad stuff only happens elsewhere? So that they don't have to do anything about it, probably? The level of trust (or lack of caring, in some instances) of people sometimes baffle me. I was talking with a colleague about kids and how they can be demanding, etc. and she was saying 'well, thank god for baby sitter services and summer camps'. And I said that I would never use either of those and several of my colleagues were looking at me like I'm some deranged, overprotective freak, so I started explaining that well, no, I don't leave my kid to people I don't know anything about, etc. Which to me is basic common sense but to them, i was exaggerating, they were arguing that they had spent glorious times in summer camps, had a great baby sitter to watch over them when they were kids, and basically I would be denying my kid great joys not to mention prevent her from growing. Interestingly, none of these people has ever read an article, let alone a book about any type of predators nor do they know about sociopaths. To them, the only child molester around here is Marc Dutroux and thank god he is in jail...

Maybe I am overprotective (am I?)... but I also know that 1 little girl out of 3 and 1 little boy out of 6 will be molested during childhood or teenage years (Anne Salter's numbers). So these child molesters must somehow find access to these children for the numbers to be that staggering...So, I prefer not to take any chances, to be honest. I'm pretty sure she can grow and learn just as much with us somewhere in the background.

No, you are not being overprotective, just smart. :)

When reading tough material like this, this is what I do:

1. If the book has chapters, skim those first, looking for any heavy trigger words
2. Check the index if there are no chapters to spot descriptions of icky subject matter, to get an idea on intensity.
3. If the book can be read and make sense by skipping chapters, skip them.
4. If you must read the nasty chapters, no more than 1 at a time.

Like Anna's film crew, I can , and do get sick. I used to think this was a weakness of character. Now its just a sign to me that I'm pushing my spirit beyond its limits and need to either stop what I'm doing for good, or stop enough to heal from the exposure. (Because it is an exposure to a toxin.)

I know that the above can read as over zealous or paranoid....and I wish I could say I was kidding. But you cannot abrade your mind with too much of this kind of reading at one time, especially if you're sensitive.

Counter the abrasions and "mucky feelings" by doing something that really makes you happy: I hug and groom my dog, cook a good dinner for my husband, clean the kitchen....any little thing that brightens life for someone makes me happy; so does taking photos, designing an art quilt, listening to music...etc. I've seen people go to pet stores and play with puppies and kittens, and I've done that too.

Be careful if you decide to sweat in your FIR bag or take long showers, sometimes you'll feel so yucky you might overdo them and hurt yourself.

A rule that's helped me get through tough reading is that I don't do more than one tough book in a month. If its really bad, I won't pick up another tough one until I'm sure its not going to send me into a spiral of physical illnesses. If you've ever been abused as a child, this is a very real possibility.


As far as people turning a blind eye? Its out of sight, out of mind. They want to think the world is safe, that its only dangerous in strange places they don't know, which is basically everywhere outside of their favored group/lifestyle/economic class. For some life really IS 'The Cosby Show'.

As hard as that is to accept, its harder when you run into a very cold truth: they just don't care...and that is an attitude that's been shoved into them from outside, by pathology, for most.

 

[Mrs.Tigersoap]

I am with you on this, Mrs. Tigersoap. When I was little, it was common for kids to go to summer camps for the whole summer. My parents never sent my sister and me there, instead, we went to my grandmother's and stayed with her. Those ended up being the fondest childhood memories, full of fun and friendship. Sometimes, I would whine to my Mom about why we never go to summer camps. But even then it was more because I felt that I had to want to go there, but I actually never wanted to.

Same here. I would go to my grandmother's and have the best time. My mother would have never let me go to a summer camp. She thought they had a bad reputation (food, lodging, untrained staff, etc.) and were for parents who did not want to see their children. As a child, I once visited cousins in such a camp and was not impressed at all. Kids seem so happy to see parents (even when it was not actually theirs!), it was sad. Same goes with Scout camps: I had numerous friends and cousins telling me about their 'games' and initiation ceremonies and it was downright scary: waking the kids up in the middle of the night, driving them to an unknown village and leaving them there so that they have to find their way back by themselves. This was for 10 years old kids. Apparently, some were almost having nervous breakdowns, were sobbing, etc. Their monitors were teenagers and they were drunk every night, etc.

Yet, being scared of everyone that our children come across is probably not an answer either.

Absolutely. As Salter says, there are 'high risk situations' and those are the ones to avoid. Still, I always prefer to err on the side of caution, since I don't feel I would be able to really immediately recognize a predator. The example of the old man you gave is one I would have reacted the same as you did.

Where There Is Evil is written from the author's point of view when she was a little child and then as an adult; her memories are recounted in chronological order giving us the insight of how a little girl can perceive the events as they unfold and later on the insights she gains as she does her investigation. This book teaches us how so many people who are supposed to care and should care for their beloved end up being silent, protecting thus sexual aggressors for no good reason at all! It is actually shocking and mind boggling how so much abuse can be brushed aside in favor of pathological people. It is also an a reading that shows us how sexual abusers act, operate and fool so many people for such a long time. Pretty sad, but true. If we are to protect our children and ourselves, then we must definitely read books like this one.

Oh my, I would need some time before being able to read this one.. So heartbreaking.
Thank you for the quote Psyche, it's indeed the one I was referring to.

1. If the book has chapters, skim those first, looking for any heavy trigger words
2. Check the index if there are no chapters to spot descriptions of icky subject matter, to get an idea on intensity.
3. If the book can be read and make sense by skipping chapters, skip them.
4. If you must read the nasty chapters, no more than 1 at a time.

:D I see you even developped a technique for this!! That is so spot on. I don't think it's overzealous or paranoid and it will actually help me. Thanks!

Counter the abrasions and "mucky feelings" by doing something that really makes you happy: I hug and groom my dog, cook a good dinner for my husband, clean the kitchen

When I read such a book, my daughter gets ten times more hugs and kisses than she normally does (I think she's fed up with it ), which means a lot. I just wish I could take all these abused children and grown-ups and hug them and make them feel loved, you know? Because this is all so atrocious.

A rule that's helped me get through tough reading is that I don't do more than one tough book in a month.

This is what I will do from now on. Again, thanks Gimpy!

 

[Laura]

"Where There is Evil" by Sandra Brown (not OUR Sandra Brown, but one in UK) is HIGHLY recommended. You get a child's and bird's eye view of the phenomenon that might give you just the cues/insights needed to protect yourself or someone you love.

I agree with Gaby that the story of Fred and Ros was utterly impossible to take. I skipped a lot of it because I just couldn't take it. But it, too, was valuable. The thing that occurred to me most strongly after reading this book was that these were simply animals in human form. Undoubtedly psychopathic, but something even more disturbing there because they really weren't that bright, but lord, were they ever bold and cunning!

How many of the people we meet are like this and have such a hidden life behind their civilized facade? Probably a lot more than we would ever think in our wildest dreams.

 

[Jacques]

"Where There is Evil" by Sandra Brown (not OUR Sandra Brown, but one in UK) is HIGHLY recommended. You get a child's and bird's eye view of the phenomenon that might give you just the cues/insights needed to protect yourself or someone you love.

I agree with Gaby that the story of Fred and Ros was utterly impossible to take. I skipped a lot of it because I just couldn't take it. But it, too, was valuable. The thing that occurred to me most strongly after reading this book was that these were simply animals in human form. Undoubtedly psychopathic, but something even more disturbing there because they really weren't that bright, but lord, were they ever bold and cunning!

How many of the people we meet are like this and have such a hidden life behind their civilized facade? Probably a lot more than we would ever think in our wildest dreams.

Ouf, may i say that it is a tough reality. :O