Return to the main index
[PART 15]
SCANDAL IN NEBRASKA
As the call boy ring affair dominated the cocktail gossip circuit in
Washington, another scandal, halfway across the country in the state
of Nebraska, peaked. Again this scandal knocked on the President's
door.
A black Republican who had been a leader in organizing minority
support for the President's 1988 campaign and who proudly displayed
a photo of himself and the President, arm in arm, in his Omaha home,
was at the center of a sex and money scandal that continues to rock
the Cornhusker state.
The scandal originated with the collapse of the minority-oriented
Franklin Community Credit Union in Omaha, directed by Lawrence
[LARRY] E. KING, Jr., a nationally influential black Republican who
sang the national anthem at both the 1984 and 1988 Republican conven-
tions. King became the subject of the Nebraska Senate's investigation
conducted by the specially created "Franklin Committee" to probe charges
of embezzlement. In November 1988, King's offices were raided by the
FBI and $40 million was discovered missing. Within weeks, the Nebraska
Senate, which initially opened the inquiry to find out where the money
had gone, instead found itself questioning young adults and teenagers
who said that they had been child prostitutes. Social workers and
state child-care administrators accused King of running a child prostitu-
tion ring. The charges grew, with the former police chief of Omaha, the
publisher of the state's largest daily newspaper, and several other political
associates of King, finding themselves accused of patronizing the child
prostitution ring.
King is now serving a 15-year federal prison sentence for defrauding
the Omaha-based credit union. But the magazines "Avvenimenti" of Italy
and "Pronto" of Spain, among others, have charged that King's crimes
were more serious: that he ran a national child prostitution ring that
serviced the political and business elite of both Republican and Demo-
cratic parties. Child victims of King's operations charged him with
participation in at least one SATANIC RITUAL MURDER of a child
several years ago. The "Washington Post", "New York Times", "Village
Voice" and "National Law Journal" covered the full range of accusations
after the story broke in November of 1988. King's money machinations
were also linked to the Iran-Contra affair, and some say that King provided
the CIA with information garnered from his alleged activities as a "pimp"
for the high and mighty.
"Pronto", the Barcelona-based, largest circulation weekly in Spain
with 4.5 million readers, reported that the Lawrence E. King child
prostitution scandal "appears to directly implicate politicos of the state
of Nebraska and Washington, D.C. who are very close to the White
House and George Bush himself."
The weekly stated that Roy Stephens, a private investigator who has
worked on the case and heads the MISSING YOUTH FOUNDATION,
"says there is reason to believe THAT THE CIA IS DIRECTLY IMPLI-
CATED," and that the "FBI refuses to help in the investigation and has
SABOTAGED any efforts" to get to the bottom of the story. [This
indicates that the FBI is now owned and controlled more or less by the
CIA. A far cry from the days of Elliot Ness and Al CaPone when the
FBI was more concerned with enforcing justice. - Wol.] Stephens says
that "Paul Bonacci directly accused President Bush of being implicated"
in the affair when he testified before the Franklin Committee. / Note #3
Bonacci, who had been one of the child prostitutes, is identified by
leading child-abuse experts as a well-informed, credible witness.
Lawrence King was no stranger to President Bush. And Lawrence King
was no stranger to Craig Spence. Several of the Omaha child prostitutes
testified that they had traveled to Washington, D.C. with King in private
planes to attend political events which were followed by [CHILD] SEX
PARTIES. King and Spence had much in common. Not only were they
both Republican Party activists but they had gone into business together
procuring prostitutes for Washington's elite.
Bush's name had repeatedly surfaced in the Nebraska scandal. But his
name was first put into print in July 1989, a little less than a month
after the Washington call boy affair had first made headlines. Omaha's
leading daily newspaper reported, "One child, who has been under
psychiatric care, is said to believe she saw George Bush at one of
King's parties." / Note #4
A full three years after the scandal had first made headlines, Bush's
name again appeared in print. "Gentleman's Quarterly (GQ)" carried
a lengthy article, viewed by many political observers in Nebraska as
an attempt to refute the charges, which would not die, despite the
termination of all official inquiries. The "GQ" piece disputed the allega-
tions as a conspiracy theory that went out of control and resonated
because of some mystical sociological phenomena allegedly unique
to Nebraskan rural folk who will believe anything and burn "with the
mistrust of city life that once inflamed the prairie with populist passion."
Numerous polls over the last few years have recorded over 90% saying
they believe there has been a "cover up" of the truth.
"GQ" reported that yes, there was theft, corruption and homosexuality
in this story, "but no children were ever involved in this case." In fact,
"the only child even mentioned was a 9-year-old boy, whom the least
reliable of [Senate Committee investigator Gary] Caradori's witnesses
claimed to have seen in the company of George Bush at one of Larry
King's Washington parties."
Gary Caradori was a retired state police investigator who had been
hired by the Nebraska Senate to investigate the case, and who had
DIED mysteriously DURING THE COURSE of his investigations. /
Note #5
Sound crazy? Not to Steve Bowman, an Omaha businessman who is
compiling a book about the Franklin money and sex scandal. "We do
have some credible witnesses who say that 'Yes, George Bush does
have a problem.'... Child abuse has become one of the epidemics of the
1990s," Bowman told "GQ". Allegedly, one of Bowman's sources is a
retired psychiatrist who worked for the CIA. He added that cocaine
trafficking and political corruption [Bush and his CIA associates were
allegedly involved with all three. - Wol.] were the other principal themes
of his book. / Note #6
It didn't sound crazy to Peter Sawyer either. An Australian
conservative activist who publishes a controversial newsletter,
"Inside News", with a circulation of 200,000, dedicated his November
1991 issue entirely to the Nebraska scandal, focusing on President
Bush's links to the affair. In a section captioned, "The Original Alle-
gations: Bush First Named in 1985," Sawyer writes, "Stories about
child sex AND pornography first became public knowledge in 1989,
following the collapse of the Franklin Credit Union. That is not when
the allegations started, however. Indeed, given the political flavor
of the subsequent investigations, it would be easy to dismiss claims
that George Bush had been involved. He was by then a very public
figure....
"If the first allegations about a massive child exploitation ring, centered
around LARRY KING and leading all the way to the White House, had
been made in 1989, and had all come from the same source, some
shenanigans and mischievous collusion could be suspected. However,
the allegations arising out of the Franklin Credit Union collapse were
not the first.
"Way back in 1985, a young girl, Eulice (Lisa) Washington, was the
center of an investigation by Andrea L. Carener, of the Nebraska
Department of Social Services. The investigation was instigated
because Lisa and her sister Tracey continually ran away from their
foster parents, Jarrett and Barbara Webb. Initially reluctant to
disclose information for fear of being further punished, the two girls
eventually recounted a remarkable story, later backed up by OTHER
children who had been fostered out to the Webb's [sic].
"These debriefings were conducted by Mrs. Julie Walters, another
welfare officer, who worked for Boys Town at the time, and who
had been called in because of the constant reference by the Webb
children and others, to that institution.
"Lisa, supported by her sister, detailed a massive child sex, homo-
sexual, and pornography industry, run in Nebraska by LARRY KING.
She described how she was regularly taken to Washington by plane,
with other youths, to attend parties hosted by King and involving
many prominent people, including businessmen and politicians. Lisa
specifically named GEORGE BUSH as being in attendance on at
least two separate occasions.
"Remember, this was in 1985," emphasized the Australian newsletter.
The newsletter reproduces several documents on Lisa's case, including
a Nebraska State Police report, a State of Nebraska Foster Care Review
Board letter to the Attorney General, an investigative report prepared
for the Franklin Committee of the Nebraska Senate, and a portion of
the handwritten debriefing by Mrs. Julie Walters. Peter Sawyer says
that he obtained the documents from sympathetic Australian law
enforcement officers who had helped Australian Channel Ten produce
an expose of a national child prostitution ring, Down Under. The
Australian cops seem to have been in communication with American
law enforcement officers who apparently agreed that there had been a
coverup on the Nebraska scandal. Subsequent investigations by the
authors established that all four documents were authentic.
Mrs. Julie Walters, now a housewife in the Midwest, confirmed that in
1986 she had interviewed the alleged child prostitute, Lisa, who told
her about Mr. BUSH. Lisa and her sister Tracey were temporarily living
at the time in the home of Kathleen Sorenson, another foster parent.
Mrs. Walters explained that at first she was very surprised. But Lisa,
who came from a very underprivileged background with no knowledge
of political affairs, gave minute details of her attendance at political
meetings around the country.
From Julie Walters' 50-page handwritten report: "3/25/86. Met with
Kathleen [Sorenson] and Lisa for about 2 hours in Blair [Neb.]
questioning Lisa for more details about sexual abuse.... Lisa admitted
to being used as a prostitute by Larry King when she was on trips
with his family. She started going on trips when she was in 10th grade.
Besides herself and Larry there was also Mrs. King, their son, Prince,
and 2-3 other couples. They traveled in Larry's private plane, Lisa
said that at these trip parties, which Larry hosted, she sat naked
'looking pretty and innocent' and guests could engage in ANY sexual
activity they wanted (but penetration was not allowed) with her....
Lisa said she first met V.P. George Bush at the Republican Convention
(that Larry King sang the national anthem at) and saw him again at a
Washington, D.C. party that Larry hosted. At that party, Lisa saw no
women ('make-up was perfect -- you had to check their legs to make
sure they weren't a woman').
"The polygraph test which Lisa took only centered around sexual abuse
committed by Jarrett Webb. At that time, she had said only general
things about Larry's trips (i.e. where they went, etc.). She only began
talking about her involvement in prostitution during those trips on
3/25/86....
"Lisa also accompanied Mr. and Mrs. King and Prince on trips to
Chicago, N.Y. and Washington, D.C. beginning when she was 15 years
old. She missed twenty-two days of school almost totally due to these
trips. Lisa was taken along on the pretense of being Prince's babysitter.
Last year she met V.P. George Bush and saw him again at one of the
parties Larry gave while on a Washington, D.C. trip. At some of the
parties there are just men (as was the case at the party George Bush
attended) -- older men and younger men in their early twenties. Lisa
said she has seen sodomy committed at those parties....
"At these parties, Lisa said every guest had a bodyguard and she saw
some of the men wearing guns. All guests had to produce a card which
was run through a machine to verify who the guest was, in fact, who
they said they were. And then each guest was frisked down before
entering the party." / Note #7
The details of the accusations against Mr. Bush are known to be in the
hands of the FBI. A Franklin Committee report stated: "Apparently she
[Lisa] was contacted on December 19 [1988] and voluntarily came to the
FBI offices on December 30, 1988. She was interviewed by Brady, Tucker
and Phillips.
"She indicates that in September or October 1984, when [Lisa] Washing-
ton was fourteen or fifteen years of age, she went on a trip to Chicago
with Larry King and fifteen to twenty boys from Omaha. She flew to
Chicago on a private plane.
"The plane was large and had rows of two seats apiece on either side
of the interior middle aisle.
"She indicates that King got the boys from Boys Town and the boys
worked for him. She stated that Rod Evans and two other boys with the
last name of Evans were on the plane. Could not recall the names of
the other boys.
"The boys who flew to Chicago with Washington and King were between
the ages of fifteen and eighteen. Most of the boys were black but some
were white. She was shown a color photograph of a boy and identified
that boy as being one of the boys on the plane. She could not recall
his name.
"She indicates that she was coerced to going on the trip by Barbara
Webb.
"She indicates that she attended a party in Chicago with King and the
male youths. She indicated GEORGE BUSH was present.
"She indicates that she set [sic] at a table at the party while wearing
nothing but a negligee. She stated that George Bush saw her on the
table. She stated she saw George Bush pay King money, and that
Bush left the party with a nineteen year old BLACK BOY named Brent."
Lisa said the party George Bush attended was in Chicago in September
or October 1984. According to the "Chicago Tribune" of October 31,
1984, Bush WAS IN Illinois campaigning for congressional candidates
at the end of October.
Lisa added more details on the Chicago trip, and told why she was sure
it was George Bush she had seen. According to a May 8, 1989 report
by investigator Jerry Lowe, "Eulice [Lisa] indicated that she recognized
George Bush as coming to the party and that Bush had two large white
males with him. Eulice indicated Bush came to the party approximately
45 minutes after it started and that he was greeted by Larry King. Eulice
indicated that she knew George Bush due to the fact that he had been
in political campaigns and also she had observed a picture of Bush with
Larry King at Larry King's house in Omaha."
There is no question that Lisa and Tracey Webb were abused in the
way they claimed. But, in keeping with the alleged pattern of coverup, a
Washington County, Nebraska 'judge' in December 1990 dismissed ALL
charges against their abusers, Jarrett and Barbara Webb. The judge
IGNORED presented testimony of the 1986 report by Boys Town official
Julie Walters. The report stated: "Lisa was given four polygraph tests
administered by a state trooper at the State Patrol office on Center
Street in Omaha. The state trooper, after Lisa's testing was completed,
told [another foster parent] he tried to 'break Lisa down,' but he was
convinced SHE WAS TELLING THE TRUTH." / Note #8
Furthermore, numbers of foster care officials and youth workers
debriefed the sisters. All of them fully believed not only their general
story of abuse, but specifically their account of Bush's involvement.
The March 1986 report on Bush was incorporated into the Foster Care
Review Board's official report presented to the Senate Franklin Com-
mittee and to law enforcement. As Kathleen Sorenson wrote in a report
dated May 1, 1989, "This was long before he [Bush] was President. It
seems like there were more exciting people to 'lie' about if that's what
they were doing." / Note #9
Notes for Chapter XXI...
3. See Thomas Burdick and Charlene Mitchell, "Blue Thunder" (New
York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), p. 229. The following account of the
relations between Bush and Aronow relies upon this remarkable study.
4. "Ibid.," p. 182.
5. "Ibid.," p. 18.
6. "Ibid.," p. 34.
7. "Ibid.," p. 71.
8. "Ibid.," p. 95.
9. "Ibid.," p. 103.
10. "Ibid.," pp. 326-27.
11. "Ibid.," pp. 351, 357.
Notes for Chapter XXII
1. "Washington Times," Aug. 9, 1989.
2. "Washington Times," July 7, 1989.
3. "Pronto" (Barcelona, Spain), Aug. 3, 1991 and Aug. 10, 1991.
4. "Omaha World-Herald," July 23, 1989.
5. On July 11, 1990, during the course of his investigations, Gary
Caradori, 41, died in the crash of his small plane, together with his
8-year-old son, after a mid-air EXPLOSION whose cause has not
yet been discovered. A skilled and cautious pilot, Caradori told friends
repeatedly in the weeks before his death that he feared his plane
would be sabotaged.
6. "Gentleman's Quarterly," December 1991.
7. Report, written on March 25, 1986 by Julie Walters and
authenticated by her in an interview in 1990.
8. Report, early 1989, compiled by Jerry Lowe, the first investigator
for the Franklin Committee of the Nebraska State Senate.
9. A book recently published on the Nebraska affair by a former
Republican state senator and decorated Vietnam veteran, John W. De
Camp, "THE FRANKLIN COVER-UP: CHILD ABUSE, SATANISM AND
MURDER IN NEBRASKA" (Lincoln, Nebraska: AWT, Inc., 1992) tells
the whole story.
Return to the main index
| 