I have to do a little bit more investigating, but David Graham of the Witches Coven who was part of 7 guys who were arrested for sex trafficking has similar features of the sketch. His known location of 4214 University Street puts him 5.9 pretty direct drive miles from both Johnny and Eugene. David Graham was a teacher at Roosevelt and Weeks Transitional School which is by where Eugene was abducted. - and lived only a few houses from another unsolved case of Diane Schofield who was found by the airport “Eugene’s” neighborhood. His other teacher associate Jerry Woodcock lived near Johnny at some point at 2005 Locust Street which another attempted abduction occurred at 15th and Locust. These guys also had connections to hiring young boys at the Iowa State Fair which occurred in the time frame of both abductions.

A local legend says this area may contain evidence.

41°38'40.2"N
94°15'58.8"W

Do you think it's possible that Noreen herself is involved! That she sold him?

I'm very new to deep research on this case so forgive me. Wasn't Johnny's sister's boyfriend staying with the Gosch family at the time? If so, was the boyfriend ever investigated?

I’m looking for information about whether Johnny or Eugene played little league baseball and which teams. I believe Johnny was playing soccer in 1981 or 82. The WDM little league teams in the late 70s early 80s were the Mariners, Sharks, Pioneers, Trojans and perhaps 3-4 more.

What are your opinions on these unknowns and little known/discussed facts. What sticks out to you? Anything to add or eliminate?
1) The information we know about Johnny’s friends has never been publicized. They were not mentioned in the documentary. Little is known is about his scuffle at school.
2) The Gosches were threatened to keep quiet in the mid 80s.
3) The siblings and witnesses, except Rossi, have remained quiet. The Birges were left out as witnesses in public reporting. Neighbor Diane DePhillips reported seeing him in her historical fiction book.
4) We know little about the Gosch Yoga practice and interest in Metaphysics.
5) The police have never released a public timeline of events.
6) To our knowledge, DNA has not been used in the Schofield, Snow, Randolph, Gosch, Martin, Perry and Baldwin cases.
7) Murderer Raul Ancer came to Des Moines from Mexico through Miami and basically avoided prosecution and/or jail time until his death in 1988. He was reported to be from Lebanon and Mexico.
8) Convicted murder and pedophile Ken Scholz, lived a quiet life in Des Moines after leaving prison in Illinois.
9) Accused child stealer/abuser and foster child parent, Ken Newell, was known by police for previous transgressions, lived in their neighborhood and was not known by the general public.
10) The award winning HBO documentary about the case is only publicly available at the Library of Congress. It contains an interview with his friend Scott.
11) The Pidgeon family owned a popular furniture store. They were also in the porn business. Thomas Pidgeon was accused of murder in California. Barry Pidgeon was reportedly the target of a hit by Gosch neighbor and union insurer Louis Risken.
12) Little is known about Gosch neighbor and accused kidnapper Frank Gazzo.
13) Des Moines Register employee Beverly Parks was murdered by her husband. She was reportedly a circulation manager.
14) Kim’s Academy was in financial trouble according to court documents. Students included cocaine dealers and connections to pedophile and metaphysics practitioners Tasumo Makami and Shane McGlothen.

While I have a few theories on the cases, IMO the Gosch and Martin cases are potentially solvable using DNA. As [u/affectionatepain7554](u/affectionatepain7554) mentioned, from Eugene’s bag and also from the stamp and envelope received from Industry, CA. Both may reveal someone with knowledge about the disappearances. Does anyone think differently?

Watching Cold Case on Netflix regarding Tina Faelz in 1984. Her purse was hanging in the tree. About 20 years later a new Cold Case Detective using new technology thought hey let’s look at the purse again that was found in the tree which lead to identifying the true killer. Why not look at Eugene’s bag that was found over by the airport? - If same abductor as Johnny why did he discard the bag instead of taking it with?

What’s your Theory on why the abductions stopped? If these three (Johnny, Eugene, Marc) are related and even if they aren’t why do you think the abductions stopped? Most kidnappers/killers wont stop until they are caught?

Johnny’s brother could provide a wealth of information. Didn’t they both have motorcycles and ride together? Eugene and Marc both had siblings that were active in the investigation.

For more context on why I am asking about the mystery post card: I am interested in knowing more about it because if you look where the circle is on the post card they area where the hunters said they came across a bad smell would of been in Zook Spur, Iowa. I don’t know if this is pure coincidence, but coming across Eugene family his uncles who searched for Eugene their mom Bonnie was born in Zook Spur. Just curious to what’s the odds of that? If you look up more information on his uncle Anis he has a pretty good rap sheet, and looks very close to the sketch that was provided in the Johnny Gosch case. What’s also interesting as another Reddit person mention is Anis served time frame/prison as John Wayne Gacy.

Disclaimer: I know that I have came forward with a lot of theories about who some of the abductors could be and why I think that may be them - I'm only doing this to open up everyone's mind (including my own) to different possibilities of what may have happened to Johnny, how it happened, and who did it.

2 days ago AffectionatePain7554 posted a newspaper clipping that explained the following...

• In September 1982, "Eldon Boone Jr." & "Mark Shannon" were out squirrel hunting in Madrid, Iowa when they began to smell a foul odor. As they followed the odor, they discovered a freshly dug patch of dirt that was 5ft in length and 2 1/2 ft in width - that's when the odor got worse. The 2 men believed that something dead was buried there. Following this incident, the 2 men would report this information to a friend with the intent of having this friend report said incident to the police, but due to a miscommunication this wouldn't happen and the claim wasn't investigated until 2 years later.
• Shortly after the abduction of Eugene Martin, a letter from Industry, California (dated "August 24, 1984) that not only contained a newspaper clipping about Johnny Gosch & Eugene Martin, but it also contained an Iowa roadmap that had a circle around the area where Boone & Shannon smelled the foul odor. After this, the FBI, the Local County Sheriff's Department, & the DCI would conduct a 3 day search on the area. They didn't find anything but Lee Struble (Dallas County Sheriff) explained how they wouldn't continue digging due to the massive combination of man-power & machinery that would be needed.

Seeing this article, reminded me of something. In the time building up to Johnny's abduction, a woman with California license plates was sighted taking pictures of Johnny. As I did some research, I learned that the porn-movie industry had a large hub in California due to the amount of actors, celebrities, and film-producers that lived there.

I also discovered that Industry, California is an actual place where many businesses reside so that way they could avoid paying high amounts of money in taxes. This also allowed businesses to operate 24 hour factories without getting into legal trouble. 2 notable scandals took place here during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

• White Collar Crimes: Orchestrated by James Marty Stafford, a ring of people would change construction contracts in a way that would increase development costs from there original costs. He & others involved would pocket the extra money. The men involved were order to pay $4.5 million in fines and Stafford was sentenced to federal prison.
• The Perez Family: The Perez Family owned a group of businesses and one of them is known as "Zerep Corp" - this is a company that handles trash pick-up maintenance, and logistics. Zerep Corp signed a contract with the local government that put them in charge of city maintenance, but the Perez family also involved in City Council - this meant they were able to edit the contract and make it constantly renew itself. This ultimately allowed the family to steal $219 million from the local government. The Perez family also owned majority of the housing in the city and they promised to provide those with housing if said people voted for them - allowing them to maintain control over the city. This family was also implicated in different scandals of sexual harassment and subsequent intimidation tactics.

Not that these scandals are important but I mentioned it just in case it may serve some use later. I thought I'd try investigating all of the sex offenders that lived in that area but none pulled up. Do you guys believe there could be more to the tip or do you think the tip was made to mislead the investigation?

“On Wednesday, the Prince George’s County Police Department charged a suspect in connection with the murder of 10-year-old George Burdynski, Jr., affectionately known as “Junior”, 33 years after he disappeared in his Brentwood neighborhood. The suspect is 61-year-old Joseph Lynch who lived in Junior’s neighborhood at the time of his disappearance and murder in 1993. “

Does anyone remember if any of these kids went to Valley? Did they live in Johnny’s area?

Its been 44 years since Johnny Gosch's disappearance. Do you believe there is any way we could progress this case?

Also, I wish the Gosch family well.

I'm about 2/3rds there way through and my thoughts are mixed.

First off, I'm not sure how real it is.
Second, assuming all the letters are from the people it says then what Noreen said isn't that far off base: there was a trafficking ring and the govt was involved.
The players, however, are completely different and the boys (most of them) went willingly and largely didn't mind the fact they were trafficked for CP and sex. In fact they defend their abusers (Emilio and Tony).

Thoughts?

She was a 13 year old British girl who just like Johnny she dissappeared while delivering newspaper serial killer Robert Black was the prime suspect. Her body has never been found.

Hi,

Is there any way to join the Franklin Files Forum or otherwise access it? I put in my registration request months ago and have yet to get a response from anyone. The forums contain valuable information and seem to be a repository for a lot of the research materials that Bryant acquired over the years.

Actually the episode came out about a year ago and is in my opinion one of the best coverages of the case that i have seen. Also be proud becouse this subreddit is second on their thanks list.

I don't know if I believe this or not some people are stricken with grief they start to see things I am not saying that is what happened to Noreen. People play sick jokes on parents of the missing all the time.

Nicholas Barclay comes to mind it really wasn't a sick joke as much as weird the family accepted this guy who claimed to be him even though he had a different eye color and French accent. Maybe she did why didn't she ask him where he was going?