0:00

This week's episode deals with disturbing

0:02

themes of child sexual assault. Parental

0:05

discretion is advised. You're

0:17

listening to the third and final part of

0:19

Unexplained, Season six, episode

0:22

twenty five. Once There

0:24

was a Way. In

0:32

early April nineteen ninety,

0:34

West des Moines police were informed

0:37

by authorities in northern Mexico,

0:39

where only that month they've been chasing

0:42

a lead into the disappearance of

0:44

Eugene Martin, that the body

0:46

of a young man had been discovered in

0:48

a drainage ditch just south

0:50

of Humor in Arizona.

0:53

The man was identified as a John

0:56

E. Gosh.

0:58

Agonizingly, for Noreen and

1:00

John Gosh, the man did not fit

1:02

the description of their son, and

1:05

was later identified as the adopted

1:07

son of a couple from Tacoma

1:10

in Washington. There

1:12

were numerous strange coincidences

1:14

besides the name. Just

1:17

like Noreen and John's son, John

1:20

E. Gosh was named after his

1:22

father, also known as John

1:24

Gosh Senior. He

1:26

was almost exactly the same age,

1:29

having also been born in nineteen

1:31

sixty nine, only three weeks

1:33

before the missing boy from Des

1:35

Moines, and he'd

1:38

even lived in Oklahoma around

1:40

the time when Noreen and john Son

1:42

was allegedly seen begging for help

1:45

while being dragged away by two men.

1:48

Shortly after he disappeared, dental

1:51

records were requested just to

1:53

be sure, which ultimately proved

1:56

beyond all doubt that John E. From

1:58

Tacoma, who was thought to have been

2:00

killed in a drug dealing related

2:02

incident, was not the missing

2:05

newspaper carrier. For

2:07

Noreen and john it was yet

2:09

another hideously cruel twist

2:12

to their unending nightmare, and

2:14

one that left them unwilling to invite

2:17

any more false hope into their lives.

2:21

So when the following year, former

2:23

Nebraska state Senator John

2:25

DeCamp called them up, claiming

2:28

he had some vital information he thought

2:30

they might want to know, it's not

2:33

surprising they were a little apprehensive

2:35

about it. As detailed

2:37

in Part two, John DeCamp

2:40

was a vocal supporter of the numerous

2:42

claims of child abuse made against

2:45

the then chief executive of

2:47

the Franklin Credit Union in

2:49

Omaha, Nebraska, Lawrence

2:52

King. King was found

2:54

guilty of embezzling tens of

2:56

millions of dollars from the credit union,

2:59

but had also been accused of funneling

3:01

some of that money into the running

3:03

of a child prostitution ring, among

3:06

other unproven allegations.

3:09

Of particular interest to DeCamp

3:12

was the individual Poor Banazzi, who

3:15

testify it as one of the alleged

3:17

survivors of King's apparent

3:19

prostitution ring. Banazzi's

3:22

claims were later dismissed by

3:25

a grand jury. As de

3:27

Camp explained it to Noreen and

3:29

John Gosh, However, there was

3:31

much more to the case than had been

3:33

revealed in the press, the

3:35

most pertinent part being that

3:38

Banazzi had not only apparently

3:40

been abused, but had also been

3:43

coerced into recruiting other

3:45

children into the abuse ring too.

3:48

One of these children, he apparently

3:51

told DeCamp, had been

3:53

Johnny Gosh.

4:01

Poor Bonazzi was born in nineteen

4:04

sixty seven and by all accounts,

4:06

had a deeply sad and traumatic

4:09

upbringing, growing

4:11

up in difficult circumstances.

4:13

He is thought of first suffered sexual

4:15

abuse at the age of six. In

4:18

nineteen ninety, Garry Karadori,

4:21

the lead investigator hired by

4:23

the Nebraska state government's committee

4:26

set up to run their own investigation

4:28

into Lawrence King, got a tip

4:30

off about Banazzi and arranged

4:33

to interview him at

4:36

the time, Banazzi, who

4:38

was by then twenty two years old,

4:40

was serving time in jail on three

4:43

charges of abusing a minor, but

4:46

had been named by another apparent

4:48

victim of the alleged chard abuse

4:50

ring as some one worth speaking

4:53

to. What he eventually

4:55

told Karadori astounded

4:58

him. According

5:00

to Banazi, he'd first been

5:02

pulled into the ring around the

5:04

age of ten, and by the age

5:07

of twelve was regularly being

5:09

transported across the country by

5:11

King among others, to attend

5:14

countless depraved sex parties,

5:16

where he was forced to take drugs,

5:19

sexually abused, and even

5:21

forced to abuse other children for

5:23

the entertainment of the guests. Banazi's

5:27

story had everything from

5:29

allegations of pedophilia

5:31

to sadism and satanic ritual

5:34

including the frequent mention of

5:36

a strange group of cloaked figures

5:39

who would often be present at the parties

5:42

but never revealed who they were. In

5:45

one particularly harrowing episode,

5:48

Banazzi described how he and

5:50

another boy were forced to perform

5:52

various sexual and violent acts

5:55

on the body of another victim who'd

5:57

apparently just been shot dead

5:59

in front to them. That boy's

6:01

body was then said to have been later

6:04

dumped out of a plane, and

6:06

all of it was filmed for posterity,

6:09

he said by a director

6:11

called Hunter Thompson. B

6:15

Natzi, who was diagnosed

6:17

with multiple personality disorder

6:20

shortly after his arrest, claimed

6:22

that all the traumatic memories he had

6:24

were only known to a select number

6:27

of his purported personalities.

6:30

It was, by all accounts, a horrific

6:33

story. For the Nebraska

6:35

grand jury who presided over

6:38

his accusations in nineteen ninety,

6:40

however, it was all a little

6:42

too much to be believed. In

6:45

the end, they ruled that although

6:48

he had undoubtedly been a victim

6:50

of sexual abuse at some time in

6:52

his life, there was zero evidence

6:54

to prove he'd been abused by anyone

6:57

related to the Franklin credit union

6:59

scandal, nor in the manner in

7:01

which he alleged. Have

7:09

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7:11

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7:14

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7:16

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7:19

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7:21

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7:23

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7:28

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7:30

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8:48

Despite the grand jury's ruling, John

8:51

DeCamp remained convinced there

8:53

was just too much intricate detail

8:55

for it all to be dismissed entirely

8:58

out of hand. In

9:00

nineteen ninety, dismayed by

9:02

the grand jury's verdict, he decided

9:04

to take on the role of Banazzi's legal

9:07

representative to help get his allegations

9:09

out to the wider public, and,

9:12

to his mind, at least bring the

9:14

men that he'd accused to justice.

9:17

In July nineteen ninety one,

9:20

De Camp claimed to have come across the

9:22

transcript of a psychiatrist's

9:24

interview with Banazzi, in which

9:26

he discussed an incident concerning

9:29

a newspaper carrier in Iowa.

9:32

It was then that De Camp said he

9:34

went to his local library to research

9:36

the details of John Gosh's disappearance

9:40

and found it matched precisely with

9:42

what Banazzi had told him. Despite

9:46

everything they had already been through, it

9:48

was too much for Noreen and John

9:50

to ignore, and

9:53

so that same July in

9:55

nineteen ninety one, the couple

9:57

traveled to meet poor Banazzi the

10:00

Nebraska State Penitentiary in

10:02

Lincoln, where he was incarcerated.

10:06

It's impossible to put into words

10:08

how Norin and John would have felt as

10:11

they sat on the opposite side at

10:13

the glass screen, waiting to

10:15

speak to the man who was claiming

10:17

to have been involved in the abduction

10:19

of their son. For

10:21

Noreen, at least, she'd anticipated

10:24

feeling nothing but anger, but

10:27

when the slight and fragile looking

10:29

banacy finally shuffled

10:31

into view, what she also felt

10:34

was pity. And

10:36

then, over the next hour or

10:38

so, between sobs and lengthy

10:41

pauses, he explained exactly

10:44

how he'd allegedly come to take

10:46

part in Johnny's kidnapping. According

10:50

to Paul, who would have been around fifteen

10:52

on the day in question, he

10:54

and another child, Mike, were

10:57

traveling in a car driven by a

10:59

man he called Emilia, who

11:01

was said to be one of the enforcers of the

11:03

apparent sex abuse ring. At

11:06

one point, Emilio is said

11:08

to have told Paul and Mike to duck

11:10

down in the back, and a few moments

11:13

later he stopped the car to

11:15

us some people for directions. When

11:18

Emilio started driving again, he

11:20

then said to Paul and Mike to

11:23

be prepared to hold someone

11:25

down in the back. A

11:27

few minutes later, they stopped once

11:29

more, at which point Emilio

11:32

was said to have grabbed a boy from the street

11:35

and pulled him into the back of the car,

11:37

where Mike and Paul then held

11:39

him down as they sped off. In

11:42

another version of the story, Paul

11:45

also claimed to have used chloroform

11:47

to subdue the boy.

11:55

As Norene and John struggled with

11:57

the thought of it all, they pressed

12:00

all to say more about their son, looking

12:03

for any irrefutable evidence that

12:05

he was telling them the truth. Banatzi

12:08

is then said to have successfully

12:10

described various markings on

12:13

Johnny Gosh's body, although

12:16

much of it was publicly available

12:18

information according to Johnny's

12:20

parents. One scar that Paul

12:23

mentioned on Johnny's tongue, which

12:25

he'd injured in a fall as a young boy,

12:28

had not been mentioned before. He

12:31

also said that Johnny once told

12:33

him about how his mother taught

12:36

him yoga. Noreen,

12:39

who was a yoga teacher, was

12:41

dumbfounded since that also

12:43

had never been disclosed to the press

12:46

before. As the gosh

12:48

Is said in an Omaha World Herald

12:50

article a few days later, there

12:53

was no doubt that Banatzi knew

12:55

some incredible things. And

12:57

by the end of their time together, Noreen

13:00

and John had little doubt also

13:03

that Banazzi was telling

13:05

the truth. Not

13:07

long after their meeting, John de

13:09

Camp hired private investigator

13:12

Roy Stevens to look deeper

13:14

into Banazzi's claims. Stevens,

13:18

the founder of an organization called

13:21

the Missing Children's Foundation, had

13:23

achieved some notoriety the year before

13:26

after getting involved in the case of nine

13:28

year old Jill Cutzel from Norfolk,

13:31

Nebraska, who disappeared

13:33

while en route to her babysitter's house.

13:36

Convinced that a local man named

13:39

David Phelps, who lived in the same

13:41

building as the young girl, was responsible

13:44

for her kidnap and murder, Stevens

13:47

took it on himself to force a

13:49

confession from him. Phelps

13:52

was eventually convicted of the crime,

13:54

though questions remain over the legitimacy

13:57

of his coerced confession. Stephen

14:01

spent hours questioning Bonatzi

14:04

and chased up all manner of leads

14:06

from Iowa to Colorado. One

14:09

lead involved a man from Des Moines

14:12

who Bernatzi claimed had also been

14:14

involved in Johnny's abduction. This

14:17

man is said to have been an individual

14:20

that the Gosches had been suspicious

14:22

of for some time, but

14:24

nothing ever came of it. In

14:34

the early nineteen nineties, with the ten

14:36

year anniversary of Johnny Gosher's

14:38

appearance approaching, producers

14:41

of the television show America's Most

14:43

Wanted decided to cover his

14:45

and Eugene Martin's story.

14:48

The show, which first aired in

14:50

nineteen eighty eight for those who aren't

14:53

familiar with it, ran profiles

14:55

of fugitives wanted in connection

14:57

with major crimes and coouraged

15:00

viewers to call in with any information

15:03

that might lead to their capture. The

15:06

host of the show at the time was

15:08

John Walsh, the father of

15:10

Adam Walsh, whose tragic disappearance

15:13

and murder was discussed

15:15

in Part two. Paul

15:18

Bonatzi was featured in the episode

15:20

where he was filmed once again relaying

15:23

his story to an agonized Noreene,

15:27

Expanding on what he'd already told her.

15:29

He went on to claim that many

15:31

of the children had been branded

15:33

with the symbol that was unique

15:35

to the Chard abuse ring should

15:37

they ever try to escape. He

15:40

also claimed that when he and the other

15:42

children were ferried about from

15:44

place to place, they were often kept

15:47

locked away in various safe houses

15:50

dotted throughout the country.

15:52

Bonatzi then led the show's producers

15:55

to one such place in Colorado,

15:58

where he claimed to have crossed paths again

16:00

with Johnny in nineteen eighty six.

16:03

The building turned out to be an

16:05

old, abandoned farmhouse in the middle

16:08

of the desert. Paul

16:10

broke down as he approached it,

16:12

seemingly too overcome with emotion

16:14

to go inside. After

16:17

eventually going in, he then

16:19

guided the crew down to a large

16:21

basement where he claimed the children

16:23

had been kept, even pointing

16:25

out where some of them had apparently

16:28

carved their initials into the walls.

16:31

According to the producers of America's

16:34

Most Wanted, the owner of the

16:36

house was said to have been a former prison

16:38

guard who had seemingly completely

16:41

disappeared. However,

16:44

just as it seemed to John de Camp

16:47

that they might finally be getting somewhere,

16:50

he claimed in the nineteen ninety two

16:52

book he later wrote about it, All

16:55

The Franklin cover Up, Child

16:57

Abuse, Murder, and Satanism

16:59

in America, Paul Sparrow,

17:02

the executive producer of America's

17:04

Most Wanted, soon grew anxious

17:06

about the whole thing. According

17:09

to DeCamp, Sparrow had been

17:11

told by the FBI that they

17:13

were not willing to assist the show with the

17:15

story, with the implication being

17:18

that they were unhappy about where

17:20

the story was leading. Since

17:22

the show benefited hugely from

17:25

a close relationship with the FBI,

17:27

Sparrow didn't want to force the issue

17:30

and decided to pull back on the

17:32

alleged Paul Banatzi connection.

17:35

Sparrow later said that Johnny

17:38

Gosh and Eugene Martin's case

17:40

were the ones that haunted him more

17:43

than any other. John

17:51

DeCamp took all of Banatzi's

17:53

latest revelations to the police,

17:56

but claimed they were completely uninterested

17:58

in it. The police counted

18:01

that they had in fact contacted

18:03

Banazzi's siblings, who confirmed

18:05

that he was with them in Omaha the

18:08

day that Johnny was abducted. A

18:12

year later, in nineteen ninety

18:14

three, a production crew from

18:16

Yorkshire Television in the United Kingdom

18:19

were commissioned by the Discovery Channel

18:21

to make a documentary about the child

18:24

abuse allegations directed

18:26

at Lawrence King. The

18:28

production team promptly set about

18:30

digging into the story, recording

18:32

hours of interviews with many of the

18:34

apparent victims, along with their

18:36

supporters such as John de Camp

18:39

and State Senator Lauren Schmidt,

18:41

who'd headed the Franklin Credit

18:44

Union Investigation Committee from

18:46

the Nebraska state government. Shortly

18:49

before the film was finished, however, producer

18:52

Nick Gray was instructed by

18:54

Discovery to pull the plug on it.

18:57

Some, including Gray, leaved

19:00

their refusal to broadcast it

19:02

was all part of a deliberate conspiracy

19:05

to hide the truth of what was going

19:07

on in Nebraska, as

19:09

others have pointed out. However, since

19:12

the film contained countless sexual

19:14

abuse related allegations

19:16

against named individuals

19:19

without any concrete evidence to

19:21

prove them, it is highly unlikely

19:23

it could have been supported legally

19:26

either way. The film, now

19:29

known as Conspiracy of Silence,

19:31

was never broadcast. By

19:34

the end of nineteen ninety three, with

19:37

the years of anguish having finally

19:39

taken their toll on Narene and John's

19:41

relationship, the couple separated

19:44

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Best Fiends. In

21:00

nineteen ninety nine, Paul

21:02

Bonazzi, represented by

21:04

John De Camp, finally succeeded

21:07

in bringing a civil lawsuit against

21:10

Lawrence E. King, in which

21:12

he accused him of continually

21:14

subjecting him to repeated sexual

21:17

assaults, false imprisonments,

21:20

infliction of extreme emotional

21:22

distress, organized and directed

21:25

satanic rituals, as well

21:27

as forcing him to scavenge for children

21:30

to be a part of King's sexual

21:32

abuse and pornography ring, and

21:35

forcing him to engage in numerous

21:38

massochistic orgies with other

21:40

minor children. King

21:43

was not legally obliged to appear

21:45

in court, and the case was

21:48

ruled in Bonazi's favor. It

21:51

is sometimes stated that Bonazzi

21:53

won this case and was awarded

21:56

a million dollars in damages.

21:59

In truth, how in what is

22:01

known in legal parlance as a default

22:03

judgment, this ruling, which

22:06

was handed down by a district judge,

22:08

Warren Urban, was merely an automatic

22:11

ruling which occurs whenever the accused

22:13

party fails to engage with

22:15

the suit. Banazi

22:18

ultimately received none of the

22:20

money that was awarded to him,

22:22

likely due to King's legal representatives

22:26

later arguing successfully that

22:28

the case and its judgment should

22:30

be annulled. More

22:33

interesting, however, was the testimony

22:36

that Norien Gosh delivered at

22:38

the trial. Having

22:40

been asked to speak in support of Paul

22:43

Banazi's claims, Noreen

22:45

made the stunning revelation that

22:48

she had good reason to believe Banazi's

22:50

story because her son

22:53

Johnny had confirmed it to

22:55

her. With the court

22:57

collectively Shocked by this admission,

23:00

Noreen went on to explain exactly

23:03

what had happened. Back

23:06

in March nineteen ninety seven.

23:09

At around two thirty a m. She

23:11

claimed she was awoken by

23:13

an insistent knocking at her front

23:16

door. When she finally

23:18

got up to open it, she found

23:20

two sheepish looking young men on

23:22

her doorstep, one of whom

23:25

introduced himself as Johnnie

23:28

her Son. In

23:30

a state of shock, Noreen

23:32

invited the two men inside,

23:35

where the apparent Johnny, who

23:37

would have been twenty seven at the time,

23:39

proceeded to tell her about everything

23:42

that had happened to him, confirming

23:44

that he had indeed been kidnapped and

23:46

indoctrinated into a child

23:49

sex abuse and pornography ring.

23:52

The two men had since escaped together

23:54

and were in hiding, living at

23:57

an undisclosed location somewhere

23:59

else in the country.

24:02

Noreen then claimed that she offered

24:04

to call the police immediately, but

24:07

Johnny had begged her not to, saying

24:10

that their lives would be in danger if

24:12

anyone from the ring ever found

24:14

out where they were. Before

24:18

Noreen even made it home from

24:20

court, her testimony was

24:22

all over the news, and everyone

24:25

seemed to have an opinion on it. How

24:28

on earth had she kept that a secret, they

24:30

asked, And why hadn't she alerted

24:32

the police or done more to make her

24:34

son stay For Noreen,

24:37

however, it was simple. Johnny

24:40

had asked her not to tell anyone, and

24:42

so she didn't. Noreen's

24:45

ex husband, John Gosh Senior,

24:48

who unlike Noreen, had by

24:50

then begun to reevaluate Paul

24:53

Banatzi's possible involvement

24:55

in the case, later stated

24:57

that he was unconvinced by nori

25:00

story. In

25:08

two thousand nor In Gosh's

25:10

own account of the story, Why

25:12

Johnny Can't Come Home, was

25:14

published, which helped to raise

25:17

the profile of the story once more.

25:20

However, in the years that followed,

25:22

despite the Goshes continuing to

25:25

hire private detectives to keep

25:27

working on the case, little

25:29

new came to light. That

25:32

was until one Sunday in

25:34

August two thousand and six.

25:37

It was August twenty seventh of that

25:39

year when Noreen awoke

25:42

one morning to find an envelope

25:44

who had been left for her on her front

25:46

doorstep. Inside

25:49

it, much to her horror, she

25:51

found a series of photographs

25:53

showing a collection of young boys

25:56

who had all been tied up and gagged.

26:00

Some of the photos showed a group

26:02

of three boys together, while

26:04

others showed images of a boy

26:07

on his own, which Noreen

26:09

was utterly convinced was Johnny.

26:13

In one of the photos, whoever

26:15

had delivered them had ringed what

26:17

looked like some kind of mark on

26:19

one of the boy's arms and labeled

26:22

it the Brand, a

26:24

clear reference to the symbol that Paul

26:26

Banazzi alleged many of

26:28

the apparent victims of the child abuse

26:31

ring had been branded with. Noreen

26:35

immediately took the pictures to West

26:37

Des Moines Police, after which

26:40

it transpired that other people

26:42

connected to the case had also

26:45

received the same photographs.

26:48

In the end, three of the children

26:50

shown in the pictures were traced

26:52

back to a case from nineteen seventy

26:54

nine in Hillsborough County, Florida,

26:57

long before Johnny's disappearance.

27:00

The boy in the other images was

27:03

never identified. As

27:06

of today, it has been

27:08

forty years since Johnny

27:10

Gosh disappeared. It's

27:13

whereabouts and the truth

27:15

about what really happened to him remain

27:18

completely unknown. If

27:26

you enjoy unexplained and would like to help supporters,

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the book and audiobook, featuring

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ten stories that have never before been covered

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on the show, is now available to buy

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worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon,

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other bookstores. All elements of

27:53

Unexplained, including the show's music,

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are produced by me Richard McClane smith.

27:58

Please subscribe and rate the show wherever you

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28:09

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