This book is absolutely devastating. Bryant is a professional journalist, but after deciding to do an article on the infamous Franklin scandal, no editors would take his story. It was just too hard to believe. Unfortunately, this is the typical response to allegations or evidence of acts of the most extreme depravity. It's a lot easier and comforting to believe these kinds of activities (and here we're talking about the organized abuse, torture, murder, prostitution, selling, and trafficking of children) do not happen. It's the same response many Germans had during the Holocaust: a stubborn refusal to admit the crimes being committed by their own leaders.
On their own, such acts are not that hard to believe in. Any perusal of the literature on psychopathy or crime history will show plenty of examples of this type of abuse, just like any study of history will show leaders who tortured, raped, and murdered without hesitation or remorse (Beria comes to mind). It's the fact that this activity involved so-called 'pillars of the community' that was so shocking. A list of the persons implicated in the Franklin crimes (essentially an organized pedophile network) includes a police chief, a senator, a judge, a congressman, a high-ranking Department of Justice official, an influential news editor, a Hollywood producer, as well as a local Nebraskan millionaire.
Bryant's research on the case is top notch, despite what his detractors say (and he's bound to have many, given the subject matter). He presents a load of documentation showing the gross injustices that occurred during the official investigations and trials in the matter. The litany of miscarriages of justice, threats, blackmail, mysterious deaths of key witnesses and investigators, coercion of victims and witnesses, lies, and blockades courtesy of various federal agencies and institutions will leave the reader with no doubt that Larry King et al. were involved in some of the most horrible crimes imaginable. And they were covered up.
As Bryant notes, this is NOT a 'conspiracy theory' - it is a conspiracy, and one that has been repeated in recent years in Belgium, France, Portugal, UK, and France. Some reviewers seem content to slam this book with guilt by association. Their tortured logic is akin to those Germans already mentioned, against all reason and evidence to the contrary. Thankfully, their critiques are fairly transparent. They bear a striking resemblance to those you will read about in this book, of those who either could not believe, or who actively covered up their own crimes and those of others.
What bothers me the most is the treatment of the true victims. This was honestly the most depressing and frustrating book I've ever read, in that regard. The injustice meted out to Alisha Owen in particular was unimaginable, while the perpetrators were for the most part fully exonerated of their crimes (except perhaps for a couple fall-guys: Larry King, who did time for his financial crimes, and Peter Citron, for some 'minor' sex crimes - the fact that he was named by witnesses and turned out to be a serial pedophile with a stash of kiddie porn should've been a big clue as to the reality of the situation).
I see this book as a vindication of not only the victims, whose lives were left ruined as they almost invariably fell into drug addiction (helped along by their abusers) and mental illness, but also of those investigators whose credibility was maligned, who were smeared in the press (namely the Omaha World-Herald, for which Peter Citron was a columnist, coincidentally), and who, in the case of Gary Caradori, ultimately met their demise. Kudos to Mr. Bryant for having the conscience and tenacity to go through with this investigation. I know there are many who appreciate it.
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I'll also look for some more links to put on sott.
