Boys Town
Boys Town, the distinguished Catholic orphanage on the outskirts of Omaha, Nebraska, was established in 1917 by Father Edward Flanagan. Its altruistic purpose was to offer “help, hope and healing” to abused, abandoned, and neglected children. Having begun with a population of six boys, Boys Town currently houses thousands of boys and girls at numerous sites across the country.Caradori’s “Leads List ” cites a number of Boys Town students who were the purported victims of sexual exploitation, and his “Investigative Report” of April 20, 1990 notes that he interviewed the sister of a former Boys Town student who was allegedly exploited. She said that her brother was “extremely scared” because the State Patrol and FBI had been “very harsh” with him .
A former employee of the Franklin Credit Union told Yorkshire Television that Boys Town students were customarily employed by the credit union, and he corroborated those statements for me. Documents indicate that the Franklin Credit Union had an ongoing working relationship with Boy's Town since December 1979. The Franklin subcommittee also acquired excerpts from a Boys Town “Departure Report” that discussed a student employed by King moving into King’s home after leaving Boys Town.
The first former Boys Town student on Caradori’s “Leads List” I managed to locate is David Hill. The thirty-seven-year-old Hill was in the class of ’83 and had played football for Boys Town, but years of drug addiction have whittled away at his formerly husky physique. He wears a baggy blue T-shirt, blue sweatpants, and beat-up NIKE tennis shoes. Initially, he is guarded but also chatty, a banter gleaned from the streets of north Omaha. He is quick witted, and a large, gold incisor dominates the broad smile he flashes. Hill’s self-destructive lifestyle has kept him perpetually unemployed, and he bounces back and forth between his parent’s couch, his girlfriend’s house, and a homeless shelter.
