The kidnapping disappearance of Johnny Gosch

[Hawker]

This happened in the early 80's I believe. Did UM ever do a segment about this? The mother was just in the news recently claiming someone left a photo at her doorstep of her son and 2 other boys bound and gagged on a bed. I saw the photo on her website, it's pretty chilling if it's legit. The photo was obviously taken shortly after the kidnapping, as Gosch would be a grown man now.

Some people have connected him to an alleged pedophile ring in D.C. that provided sex slaves to high profile politicians and dignitaries. There is a book by former Nebraska state senator John DeCamp called the Franklin Cover Up that deals with this. Apparently there is court testimony by one of the victims supposedly caught up in this ring confirming its existence, and he claimed he knew Johnny Gosch and was forced to participate in a snuff film with him. Very weird stuff.

[Kane]

This happened in the early 80's I believe. Did UM ever do a segment about this?

They most likely didn't, because I don't recall such a story being on the show. However, it was featured on America's Most Wanted in the early 1990s.

Johnny Gosch disappeared in 1982.

[DarkDante]

There is a thread about this case located here

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=181869

Many of us are at the very least skeptical about Mrs. Gosch's claims regarding many aspects of her son's case.

[Hawker]

From what I understand the pedophile ring story did not originate with the mother but with independent researchers looking into the Franklin Cover-Up scandal, and Gosch's name came up in Paul Bonacci's testimony, who claims to have been a victim of this ring led by Larry King, head of a S&L in Nebraska. King is serving time for theft from the company and Bonacci won a civil judgment against him. Bonacci claimed to have taken part in the kidnapping of Gosch, and the judge found him to be credible.

The Washington Times did a whole series of articles in the late 80s about the King scandal and it's connection to prominent politicians and Bush I administration officials

[kadrmas15]

Well I know Johnny's dad has said that he doesnt believe his ex-wife. He said he didnt believe her claim that Johnny visited her in 1997 and he doesnt really find this picture that was found by her to be credible either. It sounds like Johnny's dad thinks his ex-wife is just a total nutcase. I know they divorced back in the early 1990's and Johnny's disapperance and his mom's reaction to it had a lot to do with the divorce.

[Kane]

I know they divorced back in the early 1990's and Johnny's disapperance and his mom's reaction to it had a lot to do with the divorce.

That's not surprising. A tragedy involving a child (disappearance, murder, death from an illness, etc.) can easily put a strain on a marriage, especially a marriage that goes through the murder of a child. In fact, John Walsh once said that 80 percent of the parents who lose a child to homicide get divorced. :(

[CowboyStudTied]

he was maybe sold possibly to the black market

[Clockworkhigh]

Okay, opening up an old thread here, and to be honest I never paid attention to the Gosch case until now. I have watched footage the last hour to figure things out. It is one of the strangest cases I have ever seen.

It starts out normal. Johnny is delivering his paper route in 1982 on Sunday morning. He is seen being dragged into a car by two men. So far so good. But the twists only begin. Johnny always was required to go with either one of his parents on the route but didn't this morning. That is a fantastic coincidence or just terrible, terrible luck. If it is the former then it might tie into a theory that his parents, or his dad, was in on it.

There are those mysterious pictures that pop up. There is the sighting of Johnny 6 months after his abduction at a gas station pleading with a woman to help him but he is dragged away by two men. There is the admission of a man who claims he was involved in the abduction of Johnny because he was "forced" to do it based on his own experience as an abused child in a pornography ring. Then in 1997 Johnny's mother claims he comes to the door and talks to her for three hours. Very, very strange. He says he can't stay long, he is in danger but that he is alive. She never reports it until a few years later.

Even stranger, Johnny's dad and mom split up in the early 1990s. Johnny's dad is the exact opposite of Noreen. He is skeptical of every single lead. He didn't believe the inmate who claims he helped abduct Johnny. He didn't think the picture looked like Johnny at all because his "ankles" look different. Really? That is bizarre. I have no clue how to even describe my own ankle's let alone my son's. Maybe he just wants to disagree with everything his ex-wife says but either way, he seems far to dismissive for my liking.

Lastly, the former White House reporter Jeff Gannon. Look, I have no idea where he is now. It seems to me that he vanished after all this stuff came out that claims he is Johnny Gosch. Just on the surface he does seem to look like Johnny as an adult, just saying. In the interview I saw him in, the host conducts a very bizarre interview barely even letting him talk to say his side. Basically the host is trying to persuade everyone that it isn't Johnny without "Jeff" even saying anything. Jeff speaks weird, almost robotic, in the interview too. He could have easily squashed the story right there if he was persuasive during the interview but while he claims he would take a DNA test he never did as far as I know. Why is that? Why not give the Gosch family peace of mind? Why not go out of your way to put the story to bed?

So much of this case is very, very weird. Is Johnny actually Jeff Gannon the mysterious reporter that know one knows too much about?

[jasonbigley]

This is a VERY VERY weird case indeed. First off all, I have to wonder, if Johnny was sold into a sex ring, how come they claimed all these sightings of him in the USA? Was it a traveling sex ring? Then the mom (Noreen Gosch) claims that 2 men (one was supposedly Johnny) visited her apartment at 2:30 in the morning in 1997. She claims that he told her he could never make contact with her again because his life was in danger. If I was a parent, I would have done everything in my power to keep him there the night he visited. I would have called the police immediately. I would NOT have let him leave again like that (especially when there is a 15 year gap involved here). I dont know why Noreen would let 2 strangers in her apartment at 2:30am. Im not shure if Noreen is telling the truth or not. She may have been so grief stricken over this that it affected her mental health. They recently had a special on Johnny Gosch on Nancy Grace: Missing America. The one phychologist said that there probably was not much more law enforcement could do because most likely he died very soon after he was abducted and buried in a remote location. She also went on to state that parents in this situation are ripe to be used and abused by private investigators and/or phychics because they know the parents are in a terrible emotional state and they will search every expert in the book until someone tells them what they want to hear. I feel bad for Johnny's parents. No one should have to go through something tragic. If I had magical powers, I would reunite Johnny with his parents (and every missing kid with their parents). Then for the evil perpetrators, I would throw them into a HOT HOT fire pit and watch them suffer.

[Orange_Sody_84]

Quite honestly it's one of the stories that can keep me up at night. So bizarre and disturbing indeed... Maybe it's better not to know what happened.

[asmitty]

This will sound odd, but I grew up on this case. I'm from Des Moines, IA. Johnny was taken from the suburb of West Des Moines when I was 2 (the day after my 2nd birthday to be exact). The disappearance of Johnny Gosch was the bedtime story we all heard to scare us about strangers growing up. "Don't talk to strangers or you'll get kidnapped like Johnny Gosch."

The case is steeped in mystery and surrounded by strange events. I remember adults in Des Moines, my familly and parents of friends, making remarks concerning Noreen being someone who wanted to keep herself and her son's case in the limelight. Many of these comments hinted and/or implied that she was doing so in a negative way or for her own benefit more than to see the case solved. I can't speak for any of that, it's only what I remember.

I agree with you, Clockworkhigh, that it is a remarkable coincidence that Johnny went missing the one time he tackled the paper route alone. Two years after Johnny went missing, another paperboy named Eugene Martin went missing in Des Moines (this time less than 6 blocks from my grandmother's home) under nearly identical circumstances. The only real difference in the two cases, is that Johnny made it to the spot to pick up his papers before being taken while Eugene was still on his way. In Eugene's case, as in Johnny's, the boy normally has someone with him. Eugene's older step-brother normally joined him but did not in this case. This similarity makes me think both boys may have been targeted ahead of time and stalked until they were alone.

It's an odd case, for sure, and one that has kept me thinking over the years.

[RobinW]

I've spent a lot of time reading about the Johnny Gosch case and it's simultaneously one of the most fascinating and disturbing mysteries of all time. However, spending too much time studying it can make one's head explode, especially with all the crazy conspiracy theories.

I often think there's at least some truth within the wild stories that Noreen Gosch has told, but I can never take anything she says 100 % seriously. My breaking point with her was when she posted "mysterious" photos that she claimed she received on her website which featured a bunch of guys in robes standing over a child. She asked for help identifying the men in the pictures, but the "photos" were clearly stills from a movie or TV show. I mean, my God, these so-called photos had a network logo in the right-hand corner! :confused:

[Clockworkhigh]

Alright and Jeff Gannon? What is his story. He never took a DNA test as far as I know.

Look, it might be outlandish to think he is Johnny Gosch but in the interview I saw him in he had every opportunity to "humanize" his points but he didn't. Stuff like: "My Aunt (maybe even say her name) was in the delivery room when I was born, she could tell you." He just says some weird stuff. Even about the DNA test. "Yeah I can take one, but they could have gotten some the other day when I pricked my finger." Again, with the past tense. Or how about a picture of when he was young, where he grew up, etc. He did nothing in that interview that was anything but a teleprompter-type of response. It was robotic and lacked any genuine attribute.

How about a face to face with the mom? Or dad? Geez, you think you'd know your kid, even 30 years later. Do what you have to so you can go on with your life.

Maybe it isn't him, but he had every opportunity to persuade me he wasn't and he didn't in that interview.

[Zoe F]

Alright and Jeff Gannon? What is his story. He never took a DNA test as far as I know.

Gannon is twelve years older than Gosch. We know that Gannon graduated college in 1980. Gosch wasn't kidnapped until 1982. If they're the same person, your only options are that Gosch led a secret life as a ten year old college student or Gannon is a time traveler.

My personal view is that Noreen Gosch is either lying for some reason known only to her, or she has absolutely lost her mind. I lean toward the latter. I haven't been able to give her story any credence since she took the composite drawings of Michaela Garecht's kidnapper and tried to claim they were of a guy named "Tony" who kidnapped her son. And no, there isn't a single thing linking those two kidnappings in any way whatsoever.

[Clockworkhigh]

Gannon is twelve years older than Gosch. We know that Gannon graduated college in 1980. Gosch wasn't kidnapped until 1982. If they're the same person, your only options are that Gosch led a secret life as a ten year old college student or Gannon is a time traveler.

My personal view is that Noreen Gosch is either lying for some reason known only to her, or she has absolutely lost her mind. I lean toward the latter. I haven't been able to give her story any credence since she took the composite drawings of Michaela Garecht's kidnapper and tried to claim they were of a guy named "Tony" who kidnapped her son. And no, there isn't a single thing linking those two kidnappings in any way whatsoever.

That's the thing, Gannon in an interview said he was 48 years old (in 2005). I don't care if you drank 20 bottles of water a day, there is no way you can look that young at 48 years old. He looked in his mid 30s back in 2005 which would be the same age as Gosch was. If Gannon was truthful you think he'd jump at the chance of a simple DNA test right? Something about him bothered me.

And Noreen? She is either the stupidest, sneakiest or most mentally ill person profiled on a case like this. Her son knocks on her door 15 years after he disappeared and she does nothing because he claims his life is "in danger"? Come on. I would tied my kid up with a rope and call the police so he couldn't leave. At that point you would have to kill me before I would let my son just walk out of my life again. So she either didn't call the cops and she is truthful, she is lying through her teeth intentionally which throws the investigators in limbo or she imagined everything and its a mirage which shows you how sick she is and is something I have sympathy for

[sffan]

Very puzzling dissapearence. Also if anyone already didn't know this, this case was featured on the show Disappeared, on ID.

[Zoe F]

Personally, no I don't think he'd jump at the chance for a DNA test. If someone was making wild accusations about me being a missing person, I wouldn't want to give them any response whatsoever. It gives their claims a feeling of validity which they honestly don't deserve. I don't think complete strangers should have the power to make me prove that I am not someone, nor do I think they should have the ability to do that to anyone else.

I don't think Gannon looked particularly young. Even if I thought he had, that wouldn't prove anything. It's uncommon for an adult male to look ten or more years younger than he actually is, but it certainly happens.

[Steve W.]

"I agree with you, Clockworkhigh, that it is a remarkable coincidence that Johnny went missing the one time he tackled the paper route alone. Two years after Johnny went missing, another paperboy named Eugene Martin went missing in Des Moines (this time less than 6 blocks from my grandmother's home) under nearly identical circumstances. The only real difference in the two cases, is that Johnny made it to the spot to pick up his papers before being taken while Eugene was still on his way. In Eugene's case, as in Johnny's, the boy normally has someone with him. Eugene's older step-brother normally joined him but did not in this case. This similarity makes me think both boys may have been targeted ahead of time and stalked until they were alone."


Maybe someone should have looked into who hired Johnny and Eugene as the paperboys for those routes. It seems like that would be the type of person that would have known they were alone on their routes that early in the morning (or at least in Johnny's case: I read that Johnny had a morning route).

[Clockworkhigh]

Personally, no I don't think he'd jump at the chance for a DNA test. If someone was making wild accusations about me being a missing person, I wouldn't want to give them any response whatsoever. It gives their claims a feeling of validity which they honestly don't deserve. I don't think complete strangers should have the power to make me prove that I am not someone, nor do I think they should have the ability to do that to anyone else.

I don't think Gannon looked particularly young. Even if I thought he had, that wouldn't prove anything. It's uncommon for an adult male to look ten or more years younger than he actually is, but it certainly happens.

You wouldn't want to put the issue to bed? I would. If anything wouldn't you want to give the claims these people are making to have ZERO credibility? It would only take a second to disprove them. And where is Gannon now? Nowhere to be found?

I just find it strange that in that interview he had such a softball question thrown at him: "Are you Johnny Gosch?" I don't know about you, but I could prove I wasn't him just simply with my words and be able to convince a jury of who I really am. That's the issue I had here. I believed Gannon was closer to being Gosch after I saw his interview than before. That should never be.

How did even the mere suspicion of him being Gosch come up in the beginning anyway?

[Steve W.]

Here's a photo of Johnny Gosch around the time of his disappearance in 1982 at the top and then a photo of "Jeff Gannon" from sometime in the '90's (I believe) at the bottom:

http://media.portland.indymedia.org/images/2005/03/313300.jpg

It does look like it could be the same person.

I always figured that he was just abducted and murdered but maybe there is something to this Franklin Cover Up/Washington D.C. Sex Slave theory.

[Clockworkhigh]

Here's a photo of Johnny Gosch around the time of his disappearance in 1982 at the top and then a photo of "Jeff Gannon" from sometime in the '90's (I believe) at the bottom:

http://media.portland.indymedia.org/images/2005/03/313300.jpg

It does look like it could be the same person.

I always figured that he was just abducted and murdered but maybe there is something to this Franklin Cover Up/Washington D.C. Sex Slave theory.

Wow..................

[Zoe F]

You wouldn't want to put the issue to bed? I would. If anything wouldn't you want to give the claims these people are making to have ZERO credibility? It would only take a second to disprove them. And where is Gannon now? Nowhere to be found?

Conspiracy theories seldom work that way. One needs only to look at the Barack Obama birth certificate saga to see that. People insisted that he must have been born outside of the United States, so he produced a birth certificate. The conspiracy theorists said that wasn't good enough, so he produced his "long form" birth certificate. The conspiracy theorists still say that isn't good enough, and they're insistent that everything is actually an extremely elaborate hoax. From their perspective, Obama was born in Kenya and that's that.

If someone believes there is already a conspiracy, it's not very difficult for them to justify that the evidence against their conspiracy is actually just proof that their ideas are right.

Anyway, I think it's silly to ask where Gannon is now. He was a news story seven years ago, and nothing about him is relevant to anyone except those who still believe he must be Johnny Gosch. Asking why he's "nowhere to be found" is like asking why Elian Gonzalez is "nowhere to be found". Neither of them have been a news story in years.

Oh, and here are the origins of the conspiracy as far as I can tell: A user on Democratic Underground noted, not very seriously, that Gosch and Gannon looked a bit alike. Other posters took it very seriously, and they came up with "evidence" that the two were actually the same person. Among their evidence was that Gosch and Gannon have the same initials. This same standard would imply that there's a very good chance they're both actually Janeane Garofalo. Anyway, the conspiracy spread throughout blogs, and a writer for the Des Moines Register wrote about it. Other sources then complained about the absurdity of publishing such things, but that only served to give it more attention. A larger group of people heard about it and decided it must be true, so we ended up where we are now.

[asmitty]

"I agree with you, Clockworkhigh, that it is a remarkable coincidence that Johnny went missing the one time he tackled the paper route alone. Two years after Johnny went missing, another paperboy named Eugene Martin went missing in Des Moines (this time less than 6 blocks from my grandmother's home) under nearly identical circumstances. The only real difference in the two cases, is that Johnny made it to the spot to pick up his papers before being taken while Eugene was still on his way. In Eugene's case, as in Johnny's, the boy normally has someone with him. Eugene's older step-brother normally joined him but did not in this case. This similarity makes me think both boys may have been targeted ahead of time and stalked until they were alone."


Maybe someone should have looked into who hired Johnny and Eugene as the paperboys for those routes. It seems like that would be the type of person that would have known they were alone on their routes that early in the morning (or at least in Johnny's case: I read that Johnny had a morning route).

Both boys had morning paper routes and went missing very early in the morning. The details of Eugene Martin's case can be found here:

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/martin_eugene.html

He was seen at approximately 5:15am at 12th and Highview streets talking to an unidentified man. He never made it to the spot to pick up his papers at 14th and Highview two blocks away. My grandmother lived on Payton (one block over from Highview) halfway between 12th and 14th (there was no 13th through that part of town). I've always felt that these two cases were related due to the similarities of the circumstances. The Eugene Martin case received very little media attention as his parents did not push to publicize the case. I wouldn't know about Eugene Martin if I hadn't lived in the neighborhood. I think some sicko was finding victims by targeting paperboys in the Des Moines area. Eugene and Johnny were taken from different sides of town, so I doubt that the same person would have hired them. Young paperboys were very common in Des Moines in those days.

[Clockworkhigh]

Conspiracy theories seldom work that way. One needs only to look at the Barack Obama birth certificate saga to see that. People insisted that he must have been born outside of the United States, so he produced a birth certificate. The conspiracy theorists said that wasn't good enough, so he produced his "long form" birth certificate. The conspiracy theorists still say that isn't good enough, and they're insistent that everything is actually an extremely elaborate hoax. From their perspective, Obama was born in Kenya and that's that.

If someone believes there is already a conspiracy, it's not very difficult for them to justify that the evidence against their conspiracy is actually just proof that their ideas are right.

Anyway, I think it's silly to ask where Gannon is now. He was a news story seven years ago, and nothing about him is relevant to anyone except those who still believe he must be Johnny Gosch. Asking why he's "nowhere to be found" is like asking why Elian Gonzalez is "nowhere to be found". Neither of them have been a news story in years.

Oh, and here are the origins of the conspiracy as far as I can tell: A user on Democratic Underground noted, not very seriously, that Gosch and Gannon looked a bit alike. Other posters took it very seriously, and they came up with "evidence" that the two were actually the same person. Among their evidence was that Gosch and Gannon have the same initials. This same standard would imply that there's a very good chance they're both actually Janeane Garofalo. Anyway, the conspiracy spread throughout blogs, and a writer for the Des Moines Register wrote about it. Other sources then complained about the absurdity of publishing such things, but that only served to give it more attention. A larger group of people heard about it and decided it must be true, so we ended up where we are now.

I see.................

Still strange for someone to come up with something like that even as a joke. Its like saying Scarlett Johansson looks like Michaela Galbrecht (please don't take that seriously). I mean why would someone even have that on their mind.

I don't know, just the things about Gannon, the mystery behind his past and his very poor and inability to convince me in that interview beyond a shadow of a doubt that he isn't Johnny Gosch makes me wonder, if only a bit

[Steve W.]

"I wouldn't know about Eugene Martin if I hadn't lived in the neighborhood. I think some sicko was finding victims by targeting paperboys in the Des Moines area. Eugene and Johnny were taken from different sides of town, so I doubt that the same person would have hired them. Young paperboys were very common in Des Moines in those days."

Tha link you provided to Eugene Martin's case stated that they were taken from the same vicinity and both (Gosch's Charley Project page) had the West Des Moines police department listed at the bottom of the page as where to send/provide any information. That doesn't make it seem like they were taken from different sides of town.

Now that I think about it, I agree it probably couldn't be the person that hired them, especially since Johnny didn't tell anyone that he was going to leave that morning without waking up his father (who normally went with him). But I do think it could have been the same random stranger that took both of them.

In both cases, it appears that a man in a vehicle was pretending to ask for directions from each boy (basing this off of the eyewitness descriptions). I'm guessing he just slowly followed them for a minute or two afterwards and then just grabbed them, threw them in his vehicle, and sped off.

[ms_bates]

Conspiracy theories seldom work that way. One needs only to look at the Barack Obama birth certificate saga to see that. People insisted that he must have been born outside of the United States, so he produced a birth certificate. The conspiracy theorists said that wasn't good enough, so he produced his "long form" birth certificate. The conspiracy theorists still say that isn't good enough, and they're insistent that everything is actually an extremely elaborate hoax. From their perspective, Obama was born in Kenya and that's that.

If someone believes there is already a conspiracy, it's not very difficult for them to justify that the evidence against their conspiracy is actually just proof that their ideas are right.

Anyway, I think it's silly to ask where Gannon is now. He was a news story seven years ago, and nothing about him is relevant to anyone except those who still believe he must be Johnny Gosch. Asking why he's "nowhere to be found" is like asking why Elian Gonzalez is "nowhere to be found". Neither of them have been a news story in years.

Oh, and here are the origins of the conspiracy as far as I can tell: A user on Democratic Underground noted, not very seriously, that Gosch and Gannon looked a bit alike. Other posters took it very seriously, and they came up with "evidence" that the two were actually the same person. Among their evidence was that Gosch and Gannon have the same initials. This same standard would imply that there's a very good chance they're both actually Janeane Garofalo. Anyway, the conspiracy spread throughout blogs, and a writer for the Des Moines Register wrote about it. Other sources then complained about the absurdity of publishing such things, but that only served to give it more attention. A larger group of people heard about it and decided it must be true, so we ended up where we are now.

I agree with all of this.

Let's say that Gannon were to agree to a DNA test, boom, the results come in and he is not Johnny. The conspiracy theorists are just going to say that someone in the lab was paid off to mess with the test results. You can't win with people who have a conspiracy answer for everything.

[CowboyStudTied]

Okay, opening up an old thread here, and to be honest I never paid attention to the Gosch case until now. I have watched footage the last hour to figure things out. It is one of the strangest cases I have ever seen.

It starts out normal. Johnny is delivering his paper route in 1982 on Sunday morning. He is seen being dragged into a car by two men. So far so good. But the twists only begin. Johnny always was required to go with either one of his parents on the route but didn't this morning. That is a fantastic coincidence or just terrible, terrible luck. If it is the former then it might tie into a theory that his parents, or his dad, was in on it.

There are those mysterious pictures that pop up. There is the sighting of Johnny 6 months after his abduction at a gas station pleading with a woman to help him but he is dragged away by two men. There is the admission of a man who claims he was involved in the abduction of Johnny because he was "forced" to do it based on his own experience as an abused child in a pornography ring. Then in 1997 Johnny's mother claims he comes to the door and talks to her for three hours. Very, very strange. He says he can't stay long, he is in danger but that he is alive. She never reports it until a few years later.

Even stranger, Johnny's dad and mom split up in the early 1990s. Johnny's dad is the exact opposite of Noreen. He is skeptical of every single lead. He didn't believe the inmate who claims he helped abduct Johnny. He didn't think the picture looked like Johnny at all because his "ankles" look different. Really? That is bizarre. I have no clue how to even describe my own ankle's let alone my son's. Maybe he just wants to disagree with everything his ex-wife says but either way, he seems far to dismissive for my liking.

Lastly, the former White House reporter Jeff Gannon. Look, I have no idea where he is now. It seems to me that he vanished after all this stuff came out that claims he is Johnny Gosch. Just on the surface he does seem to look like Johnny as an adult, just saying. In the interview I saw him in, the host conducts a very bizarre interview barely even letting him talk to say his side. Basically the host is trying to persuade everyone that it isn't Johnny without "Jeff" even saying anything. Jeff speaks weird, almost robotic, in the interview too. He could have easily squashed the story right there if he was persuasive during the interview but while he claims he would take a DNA test he never did as far as I know. Why is that? Why not give the Gosch family peace of mind? Why not go out of your way to put the story to bed?

So much of this case is very, very weird. Is Johnny actually Jeff Gannon the mysterious reporter that know one knows too much about?


WHAT IF the father kidnapped him... the photos were all found at the mother's house it is possible he dropped them there.. for her to spot...

[Orange_Sody_84]

But even if the Dad did theoretically kidnap him surely Johnny would've contacted his Mother years ago. Sorry I don't buy it. I realize it could happen. (Look at poor J.C.) But I think Johnny would've turned up if his Dad had nabbed him. *something* would've surfaced. Sadly I think the man claiming he is Johnny is just a con artist preying on people's emotions.

[Steve W.]

But even if the Dad did theoretically kidnap him surely Johnny would've contacted his Mother years ago. Sorry I don't buy it. I realize it could happen. (Look at poor J.C.) But I think Johnny would've turned up if his Dad had nabbed him. *something* would've surfaced. Sadly I think the man claiming he is Johnny is just a con artist preying on people's emotions.

He (Jeff Gannon) isn't claiming that he's Johnny: other people are claiming that he is.

[Orange_Sody_84]

But why won't he take a DNA test and debunk this whole thing? I've watched the interview. (If you could call it that.) To my knowledge he has never had a DNA test. He claimed to be a male model and gay male Escort. I wonder if he has made profit from this whole strange case. Like I said I don't think it's Johnny.

I'm sorry to say I think Noreen is a certified Bird. Claiming Johnny and other kids were kidnapped and programmed to be sex slave Zombies by the C.I.A. and given multiple personalities. But good for her for managing to write a ludicrous book about Johnny's diassappearence and making $ off of it. Not a legit book. But one filled with wild theories.

[Steve W.]

"But why won't he take a DNA test and debunk this whole thing?"

I agree.

I know someone above mentioned that it won't satisfy conspiracy-theorists, but to people who can be rational (and I think that goes for all of us in this thread who think Gannon should just take the DNA test and get it over with) it would be enough to satisfy us once we could learn the test results.