John David “Johnny” Gosch (born November 12, 1969) was a 12-year-old paperboy in West Des Moines, Iowa when he disappeared on September 5, 1982, presumably kidnapped. His case and the subsequent publicity played an important part in the growing public awareness of missing children cases in the 1980s.

His mother, Noreen Gosch, maintains that Johnny Gosch escaped from his captors and visited her in 1997, but fears for his life and lives under an assumed identity. Gosch’s father, divorced since 1993, publicly stated that he was not sure whether the visit occurred.[1] Authorities have not located Gosch or confirmed Ms. Gosch’s account, and his fate continues to be a subject of speculation, conspiracy theories, and dispute.

The case received publicity in 2006 when photographs possibly showing Gosch in captivity were left at his mother’s doorstep.
Contents
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* 1 Disappearance
* 2 The search for Johnny Gosch
* 3 National interest
* 4 Another missing paperboy
* 5 A confession
o 5.1 Credibility
* 6 Noreen Gosch’s visitors
* 7 2006 photos
o 7.1 Dispute
* 8 See also
* 9 References
* 10 External links

[edit] Disappearance

On Sunday, September 5, 1982, in the suburb of West Des-Moines, Johnny Gosch left home for his paper route before dawn. Though it was customary for Johnny to wake his father to help with the route, the boy took only the family’s dachshund, Gretchen, with him that morning. Other paper carriers for The Des Moines Register would later report having seen Gosch at the paper drop, picking up his newspapers. It was the last sighting of Johnny Gosch that can be corroborated by multiple witnesses.

However another paper carrier named Mike reported that he and Gosch were approached by a stocky man in a blue two-toned Ford Fairlane with Iowa plates who asked them for directions. Mike later stated that Gosch told him the man had made him uncomfortable. As Gosch headed home, Mike noticed another man following Gosch.[2]

Gosch was last seen wearing blue rubber thong sandals, warm up exercise pants, and a white sweatshirt reading “Kim’s Academy” on the back.

John and Noreen Gosch, Johnny’s parents, began receiving phone calls from customers along their son’s route, complaining of undelivered papers. John Gosch performed a cursory search of the neighborhood around 6 AM. He immediately found Johnny’s wagon full of newspapers, two blocks from their home.

[edit] The search for Johnny Gosch

The Gosches immediately contacted the West Des Moines police department, and reported Johnny’s disappearance. Noreen Gosch, in her public statements and her book Why Johnny Can’t Come Home, has been critical of what she perceives as a slow reaction time from authorities, and of the then-current policy that Gosch could not be classified as a missing person for 72 hours. By her estimation, the police did not arrive to take her report for a full 45 minutes.

Police came to believe that Gosch was kidnapped, but they did not establish a motive.[3] They turned up little evidence and arrested no suspects in connection with the case.[4]

Several private investigators assisted the Gosches over the years. Among them are Jim Rothstein, a retired New York City police detective; and Ted Gunderson, a retired chief of the Los Angeles FBI branch and government conspiracy theorist.

In 1984, Gosch’s photograph appeared alongside that of Juanita Rafaela Estavez on milk cartons across America; they were the first two abducted children to have their plights publicized in this way.[5]

[edit] National interest

Johnny Gosch quickly became a poster boy for missing children across the nation. Gosch’s disappearance became something of a cautionary tale to midwestern youth, Johnny Gosch jokes swept the nation’s schoolyards, and dollar bills began turning up with “Help me! – Johnny Gosch” scrawled across them.

The case snowballed into a national interest as Noreen Gosch became increasingly vocal about the inadequacy of law enforcement investigation of missing children cases. She established the Johnny Gosch foundation in 1982, through which she visited schools and gave seminars about the modus operandi of sexual predators. She lobbied for “The Johnny Gosch Bill”, state legisation which would mandate an immediate police response to reports of missing children. The bill became law in Iowa in 1984, and similar or identical laws were later passed in Missouri and seven other states.[6]

In August 1984, Ms. Gosch testified in Senate hearings on organized crime, speaking about “organized pedophilia” and its alleged role in her son’s abduction. She began receiving death threats. Ms. Gosch also testified before the U.S. Department of Justice, which provided 10 million dollars to establish the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Ms. Gosch was invited to the White House by Ronald Reagan for the dedication ceremony.[7]

[edit] Another missing paperboy

In 1984, another Des Moines-area paperboy disappeared under similar circumstances. Eugene Wade Martin disappeared while delivering newspapers on the south side of Des Moines. Authorities have been unable to prove a connection between the two cases, yet Ms. Gosch claims that she was personally informed of the abduction weeks in advance by a private investigator who was searching for her son.[8] Her account is uncorroborated.

[edit] A confession

In 1989, Paul Bonacci – a young sex offender imprisoned in Nebraska – told attorney John DeCamp that he was in a sex ring with Gosch as a teenager and was coerced into participating in Gosch’s abduction.

[edit] Credibility

There are conflicting legal decisions on whether Bonacci tells the truth or whether Noreen Gosch tells the truth. FBI and local police believe that Bonacci is not a credible suspect in the case, and Bonacci has not been interviewed by law enforcement.[9]

Bonacci accused Lawrence E. King, the director of the Franklin Credit Union in Omaha, Nebraska, of running an underage prostitution ring and victimizing him since an early age. The sex ring allegations were the subject of newspaper coverage in the Washington Times and the New York Times.[10][11]

In 1990, a grand jury declined to charge King, finding the allegations to be “a carefully crafted hoax”. Alleged victims Paul Bonacci and Alisha Owen were convicted of perjury and jailed. Nonetheless, King was sued by Bonacci in 1999 and was ordered to pay Bonacci $1 million in a default judgment. The judge’s decision reads, “The now uncontradicted evidence is that the plaintiff has suffered much. He has suffered burns, broken fingers, beatings of the head and face and other indignities by the wrongful actions of defendant King”[12]. At the time, King was serving a prison sentence for fraud and tax evasion involving the theft of $38 million from the Credit Union.

DeCamp, who represented Bonacci both times, wrote a book titled The Franklin Coverup, which was prefaced by retired CIA chief William Colby and published in 1994. The book elaborated on Bonacci’s claims, and alleged a conspiracy and successful cover-up of underage prostitution by King and others. (Main article: Franklin Coverup Scandal)

[edit] Noreen Gosch’s visitors

In 1999, Noreen Gosch testified in Bonacci’s lawsuit against King. During her testimony, DeCamp asked her whether she had seen or heard from her son since his disappearance. She responded that Gosch had visited her once, in 1997. She had not told her ex-husband John, and it was the first time she mentioned this visit in public.

By Noreen Gosch’s account, she was awakened around 2:30am one morning in March, 1997 by a knock at her apartment door. Waiting outside was Johnny Gosch, now 27 years old, accompanied by a man she had never seen before. Gosch said she immediately recognized her son, who opened his shirt to reveal a birthmark on his chest. “We talked about an hour or an hour and a half. He was with another man, but I have no idea who the person was. Johnny would look over to the other person for approval to speak,” says Ms. Gosch. “He didn’t say where he is living or where he was going.”[13]

In a 2005 interview, Ms. Gosch said, “The night that he came here, he was wearing jeans and a shirt and a coat on because it was March. It was cold and his hair was long, it was shoulder length and it was straight and dyed black.” After the visit, she had the FBI create a picture she says looked like Johnny.[14]

On her website, Ms. Gosch gives more details of her account:

* Johnny Gosch confirmed Paul Bonacci’s account of his abduction, named the people responsible, and asked his mother not to reveal that he had been to her home[15]
* Johnny Gosch was angry, but he feared for his life because he could name his captors, and was living under an assumed identity for that reason[16]

Ms. Gosch finally turned off her porch light after this visit.

Noreen Gosch self-published a book in 2000 titled, Why Johnny Can’t Come Home. The book presents her understanding of what her son went through, based on the original research of various private investigators and her son’s visit.

[edit] 2006 photos

On September 1, 2006, CNN reported that Gosch’s mother found two photographs left at her front door, some of which she posted on her website. In the days since, she has updated the site several times with possible leads in the case.

In total, Ms. Gosch received several photos. One color photo shows three boys bound and gagged. Ms. Gosch stated that her son appears “on the right” in the first photo. A black-and-white photo appears to show 12-year-old Johnny Gosch with his mouth gagged, his hands and feet tied, and an apparent human brand on his shoulder. Ms. Gosch says he is wearing the same sweatpants as the time he disappeared. The image has a red arrow pointing to his shoulder labeled “The Brand” which was photoshopped on to further the story of kids being branded like cattle. Since then, Ms. Gosch has added additional photos to her website of her supposed bound and gagged son. Remarkably, these photos have only a passing resemblance to Johnny Gosch. The photos show an emaciated boy, a stark contrast to the husky Johnny Gosch.

A third photo, posted several days later, shows a man, possibly dead, who may have something tied around his neck.[14] Ms. Gosch explains that the man was claimed to be one of the “perpetrators who molested [my] son”.[17]

Ms. Gosch updated her site to say that the first two photos had originated on a website, and police confirmed this fact. Some of these pictures have since been removed.[18]

[edit] Dispute

The identity of the children in the photos was first publicly disputed on September 13, after an anonymous letter was mailed to Des Moines police.

Gentlemen,

Someone has played a reprehensible joke on a grieving mother. The photo in question is not one of her son but of three boys in Tampa, Florida about 1979-80, challenging each other to an escape contest. There was an investigation concerning that picture, made by the Hillsborough County (FL) Sheriff’s Office. No charges were filed, and no wrongdoing was established. The lead detective on the case was named Zalva. This allegation should be easy enough to check out.[19]

Nelson Zalva, who worked for the Hillsborough County, Fla. sheriff in the 1970s, confirms the details of the letter and adds that he also investigated the black-and-white in “1978 or 1979″, before Gosch’s disappearance.[20] “I interviewed the kids, and they said there was no coercion or touching. … I could never prove a crime,” Zalva says. Ms. Gosch is adamant that the black-and-white photo shows her son. “One of the photos is definitely Johnny,” she said.[21]

As of September 22, Florida authorities had not found the files related to Zalva’s case. “It’s been like searching for a needle in a haystack,” Zalva said on September 21. Zalva still maintains his recollection of the case, and expressed hope that the tipster or someone in the pictures would step forward. Lt. Jeff Miller, spokesman for the West Des Moines police department, said that he does not believe any new leads are being pursued.[22]

On Monday, September 18, Ms. Gosch received another death threat. The same day, she renewed her insistence that her son is in the cropped black-and-white photo by posting an uncropped, color version of the black-and-white image on her website. She says that a birthmark visible in the color photo proves that the boy is Johnny Gosch, and she says the color photo was obtained from the same website which the other photos had appeared on. According to the Register, police confirmed that the photos originated from and had been removed from that website.[23]

As of October 17, 2006, according to reports on WOI-TV in West Des Moines, the photos do not depict Gosch.[24]