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Political sex scandals are not new, but the events that investigative journalist Nick Bryant reports in The Franklin Scandal are so intensely horrific, and the subsequent cover-up so far reaching, that it may be hard for readers to believe that this story is real. But Bryant is a seasoned writer who pursued every avenue to get to the bottom of this story. The amount of information presented in The Franklin Scandal can be overwhelming at times, but when readers discover the level of obfuscation involved, it’s obvious why Bryant didn’t leave out any details.
In the late 1980s, one of the Republican Party’s bright young stars, Lawrence E. King, was involved in a credit union scandal when investigators discovered that millions of dollars had been stolen from the Franklin Credit Union in Omaha, Nebraska. King, who was the bank’s general manager, was indicted on forty counts, including fraud and embezzlement.
As the news of King’s alleged embezzlement hit the local newspapers, the long-simmering rumors of his pedophilia surfaced. Soon, a subcommittee was convened to investigate both King’s credit union crimes and his possible involvement in a nationwide child prostitution ring. The committee interviewed many former residents of Omaha’s famed Boys’ Town, both male and female, who alleged that they had been flown around the country and brought to private parties, where they were forced to have sex with men. Some reported seeing nationally known politicians at these parties. During the investigation, victims were allegedly threatened by Nebraska police and FBI. Some were coerced into retracting their statements, and many law enforcement officials and attorneys removed themselves from the investigation. Several people died under mysterious circumstances. Eventually, the special prosecutor, retired judge Samuel Van Pelt, declared that the accusations against King of child pandering were “a carefully crafted hoax.” King was eventually convicted of embezzlement.
Bryant uncovers and documents many abnormalities regarding the investigations and the trials, and his book provides enough of an evidence trail to convince readers that something strange was going on. The book also features 100 pages of facsimile documentation that back up Bryant’s assertions.
The book is heart-breaking, and Bryant presents the stories of the abused in a very matter-of-fact manner. No embellishment is needed since Bryant allows the victims, some of whom are now drug addicts or in prison, to speak for themselves. Victim after victim talks about being beaten, being slipped drugs or alcohol, being brought to parties and forced into rooms with strange men. One said, “It was like one big orgy…. You’d get tortured, handcuffed, beaten, and videotaped.” Some of the victims still bear physical scars.
Any rational reader will wonder if this was indeed a hoax, as the special prosecutor said, who crafted it, and why? No rational explanation was given at the time as to why a group of at-risk children and teenagers would get together and concoct this story, accusing a man with whom they would normally had no contact. But when one of the victims tells a story of taking a late night tour of the White House, readers will see that there may have been a reason for politicians to collude in a cover up.
Many of these chapters could be books by themselves, and the most compelling chapter, “State v. Owen,” comes in at over 150 pages. This chapter outlines the perjury case against one of King’s accusers, Alisha Owen. As her lawyer states during the trial, the state spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to persecute Owen for lying, and her role in concocting the hoax. There never is any clear reason given as to why the state would spend that amount of money to prosecute a perjury case. In this chapter, the enormity of the scandal comes together. Agents and police seem to lie while under oath, one former witness in the original case recants his previous statements, then recants his recantation, and then ends up dead. Owen’s original attorney abruptly quits when Owen literally catches her playing footsie under the table with one of the FBI agents during Owen’s interview with the FBI and state police. Later, this attorney made statements against Owen to the local paper, the Omaha World-Herald. The state’s main argument was that Owen planned to write a book and sell movie rights to her story of abuse and to civilly sue the people in charge, but in the over 20 years since this case first began it is investigation, Owen has done none of this.
This is a difficult book, both for its subject matter and for the sheer density of information. But the amount of work done by Bryant is impressive, and readers will appreciate his ability to present his case logically and to give these victims a voice after so many years.
(January 2010)
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