In the 80s, Lawrence E. King Jr. operated the Franklin Community Federal Credit Union, which he embezzled $39M from. Under his direction, the Franklin Credit Union expanded its services like the initiative with the Consumer Service Organization, which managed welfare, disability, and Social Security checks. This expansion allowed a significant addition to the coffers of the Franklin Credit Union. King began offering high-interest certificates of deposit, marking at 2% to 3% above market rates in an attempt to secure greater deposits at the credit union. This quickly became a Ponzi scheme where additional CDs were required to cover payments for maturing ones. These rates attracted investments and grants from corporate powerhouses and religious organizations, securing millions for the credit union. King leveraged these perceived successes to network with the movers and shakers of Omaha and, later, the national political arena. King started as a McGovern Democrat, but he changed his affiliation and became the chairperson of the National Black Republican Council. He was tasked with coordinating efforts to mobilize the Black vote across 17 states, a role that placed him at the confluence of national politics.
King funneled vulnerable children from both organizations into his home, businesses, and parties under the guise of empowerment and employment. In 1985, a social worker with the Nebraska Department of Social Services received a call from the Sheriff's Department in Washington County about child abuse complaints under the foster care of Jarret and Barbara Webb. Jarret was a board member of the Franklin Credit Union, and Barbara was Lawrence King's cousin. The call detailed three foster children who had significant bodily injuries. The children complained of abuse from their foster parents. They claimed that they had been beaten with a railroad iron and belt. The Webbs fostered nine children, and more than half had run away from home in the past. During later investigations, DSS would remove several siblings from the home after reports from six of the children that they had been stripped nude and beaten for extended periods of time, and they had been denied meals. Unfortunately, the abuse didn't stop there. One victim, Lisa Webb, told Jane Tully of the Sheriff's Department that she had been sexually abused since the age of 9. The Washington County prosecutor, Patrick Tripp, didn't believe Lisa's testimony. He required that she take four separate polygraph tests. She passed all four times, but Tripp attempted to discredit her, claiming that her story was too fantastical to be real. Other children in the Webb home claimed to have found graphic images and videotapes, some portraying underage victims. They reported hearing that these materials had been produced and provided by Lawrence King. Julie Walters, a youth care worker at Boys Town, developed an extensive 51-page report based on interviews with Nellie and Kimberly Webb. She had extensive experience working with children who had suffered abuse, and she emphasized that the Webb children seemed truthful. Their narratives shared a remarkable level of detail, thematic consistency, and implicated figures, only enhancing their credibility. Nellie Webb reported that King would attend parties at the Omaha Girls Club or he would throw parties at his home. King would call the Webbs and tell them to provide one or more children who would be forced to attend. She claimed the parties were attended by 30 adult patrons seeking the company of sex workers and children who were co-mingled. They would pay money, and the encounters would happen in communal areas, side rooms, or bedrooms. Horrifyingly, Nellie spoke about King flying her to Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C., where she met significant political players, including Vice President George Bush Sr. She described that these parties had countless bodyguards, admission key-cards, and pat-down security, and behind closed doors, she saw powerful politicians engaged with young male sex workers. The Walters' report was given to the Department of Social Services in 1986, but there seemed to be little, if any, investigative interest. Barbarette and Jarret Webb lost their foster license, but they were not subject to any criminal charges for the abuses perpetrated.
Separately, a 17-year-old girl and her mother filed a report with the Omaha Police Department after participating in an illicit photography session. The photographer, Rusty Nelson, approached the 17-year-old to be his subject for a European portfolio he was developing. The girl and her mother followed Nelson to his apartment for a five-hour session where Nelson made inappropriate remarks and attempted to convince the girl to pose nude. The girl's mother noticed several nude photographs in the studio. Many of the subjects appeared to be minors. Officer Carmian interviewed the two women about the exploitation attempts of Rusty Nelson. They claimed that Nelson spoke of being self-employed but regularly spoke of someone he called "the boss." Investigators arrived at his apartment, and they found it had been vacated just nine days after the initial report. The lease for Unit 3B in the Twin Towers apartment complex was registered under the name Lawrence King. When the FBI spoke with King, he said he had evicted Nelson when he heard about the incident. Officers discovered that King rented several units in the Twin Towers complex, including the penthouse, and an interview with the building manager revealed rumors that King was a heavy drug dealer with a preference for young boys. Nelson would later contend that King used his deep bankroll to make the investigation go away. Nelson would not be indicted on these charges, and he would disappear for several years before making critical contributions to the investigation in 1990.
Mysterious deaths
William Colby death - The following day, FBI agents, armed with a subpoena, arrived at Caridori's office, requiring the surrender of all evidence related to the Franklin case, as well as any phone logs and financial documents related to Caridori's investigations. Senator Schmidt feared that Caridori's death was one more example of corruption and cover-up. The committee hired former CIA Director William Colby to investigate the plane crash. During his tenure with the CIA, Colby notably devoted out-sized resources to Operation Phoenix, which sought to disrupt the political and social support system of the Viet Cong by infiltration, assassination, torture, and more. The program resulted in over 25,000 deaths, many of whom were civilian non-combatants. Colby later became outspoken about the CIA's practices, and he received tremendous political and social pressure to keep his secrets. Colby, familiar with the pressures of political conspiracy, warned DeCamp and Schmidt about the forces at play. Colby investigated Caridori's plane crash and could not find evidence to indicate tampering with the plane. However, it's rumored that he told three members of the Franklin Committee that he believed Caridori had been assassinated. Mysteriously, Colby would take a solo canoe trip near his Maryland home in 1996, and he would go missing, only to be recovered nine days later. There were no witnesses, and the scene was not thoroughly investigated, as authorities believed it was a stroke or accidental drowning. His life jacket was missing from his shed, but it was not recovered with his belongings.
Bill Baker - Bill Baker was a restaurant owner in Omaha. Baker knew King and was a partner in his pornography operations. He was found shot in the back of the head.
Shawn Boner - Shawn Boner was the brother of Troy Boner. In 1991, Sean was just 20 years old when he was found with an accidental gunshot wound to the head. Investigators told reporters that Sean had fired the weapon himself. He was found slumped on the couch.
Aaron Owen - Aaron Owen, brother of Alicia Owen, was was found hanging from a ventilator by a prison-issued bed sheet in 1990. He was serving a four to seven year term for several charges, and he died in his cell just hours before one of Alicia Owen's court dates.
Claire Howard - Claire Howard was Alan Baer's former secretary. She had access to his schedule and personal information, revealing his attendance of King's parties and prior relationships with underage boys. She mysteriously died in her sleep in 1991.
Dan Ryan - Lawrence King associate, Dan Ryan was found suffocated in his vehicle.
Charlie Rogers - Lawrence King associate, Charlie Rogers was shot with a shotgun, which was ruled a s**t. Joe Malek was found with a gunshot wound, which was also ruled a s**t.
Joe Malek - Lawrence King associate, Joe Malek was found with a gun shot wound, ruled a suicide.
Curtis Tucker - Lawrence King associate, Curtis Tucker was thrown or jumped from the window of a Holiday Inn.
Mike Lewis - Mike Lewis was a caregiver for Shawnetta Moore. He died of a severe diabetic reaction.
Bill Skoleski - Bill Skoleski was an Omaha police officer who had been conducting his own investigation into King, and he died of a cardiac event.
Kathleen Sorensen - Kathleen Sorensen had fostered Nellie and Kimberly Webb after they left the care of Jarrett and Barbara Webb. Sorensen died in October 1989 in a two-car collision, just two miles east of Arlington, Nebraska. Sorenson collided with another vehicle when it crossed the center line and hit her head on.
Harmon Tucker - Harmon Tucker, who supervised vocational schools in the area, was reported missing on October 18th, 1988. He was found on November 1st along a logging road 1,400 miles away from Omaha. Tucker was found by hunters with a .22 caliber gunshot wound to the head just a few miles away from hunting grounds frequented by Harold Anderson.
Grand Jury cover-up
The purpose of the Douglas County Grand Jury was to judicially review the Franklin-related child abuse allegations. The Grand Jury proceedings would be private, and they would make decisions on who to indict to stand trial as criminal defendants. The prosecutor began by calling witnesses, reviewing testimony, and sharing evidence with a jury of Nebraska citizens. They began by reviewing the earlier allegations of the adopted Webb children, and they released an interim report that would be used to indict Jarrett Webb on third-degree sexual assault charges against his adopted daughter Lisa. This interim report was released to ensure charges could be filed before the statute of limitations expired the possibility. The grand jury spent the majority of their time reviewing Caridori's videotaped interviews. The witnesses themselves appeared before the grand jury, and Danny and Troy upheld their recantations. Troy claimed that Owen had called him and fed him the information contained in his seven-hour taped interview, and Danny echoed these claims during his short time on the stand. Owen spent two days testifying, and she was questioned about her history of psychiatric hospitalizations, drug use, financial fraud, and more. The Douglas County Grand Jury released its final report on July 23, 1990, less than two weeks after Caridori's death. The subsequent publication of the World Herald read: ''Grand Jury says abuse stories were a carefully crafted hoax''. The report claimed that child abuse allegations related to King were nothing more than rumors. It claimed to have found no evidence of any children being transported on interstate flights, despite passenger manifests and pilot interviews missing from admitted evidence. The report concluded that Lawrence King had used money to solicit and procure men in their late teens and early twenties, which was considered "adult pandering." King was not prosecuted because of the pending federal financial case that would result in his conviction. In 1991, King was convicted of embezzling over $39M from the Franklin Community Federal Credit Union. The court found him guilty of making fraudulent financial transactions and misappropriating funds, which led to the credit union's insolvency and subsequent federal takeover. King was sentenced to 15 years in prison, a judgment that aimed to hold him accountable for the financial damages his actions caused. In addition to his prison sentence, King was ordered to make restitution, although the prospect of recovering the embezzled funds was considered slim due to the scale of his theft and his depleted resources.
Discovery Channel cover-up
In 1994, a British television company known as Yorkshire Television produced a documentary titled Conspiracy of Silence. The documentary was developed in cooperation with the Discovery Channel. It sought to publicize and explore the allegations of child abuse and exploitation surrounding the Franklin scandal. It was scheduled to air on Discovery and the event was printed in the TV Guide for its debut time slot. At the last minute, the Discovery Channel unexpectedly pulled the documentary from the broadcast schedule shortly before its airing. While the official reason was not named, it's believed that legal and political pressures were responsible.
By: Pandox...
Raped by: Otto Heckel
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