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Creepy Unsolved Mysteries - From unsolved murders to unidentified people to unexplained supernatural events, what are some of the creepiest unsolved mysteries you've ever heard of?
It’s Thursday, May 29th, 2025 in Garden City, Utah. Garden City is located in Rich County on the border of Idaho and Wyoming. Due to its proximity to Bear Lake, it is a summer tourist destination but has a year round population of only 602. In May of 2025, the county’s law enforcement consists of only a sheriff and two deputies.
On that night at 9:44 PM, 15 year old Kylie Arellano texts her mother, Stephanie, saying "I love you, Mama. Goodnight." Stephanie replies, "I love you too, baby girl." It has never been publicly stated where Stephanie was that night, but it was not at home with her two teen girls. At 10:37 PM, Kylie’s phone disconnects from the service provider. The phone’s GPS indicates that it is 300 feet (just over 90 metres) away from her house at the time of disconnection. Someone sees Kylie wearing a black nightgown with a metallic cross on the chest, fishnets and no shoes. She’s carrying a black suitcase with a skull on it. She had purchased the suitcase earlier that day. She’s walking west towards a mountain range that eventually leads into the Logan Canyon.
The next morning Kylie’s 13 year old sister, Jaedyn, texts their mother saying that Kylie is gone. This is alarming for multiple reasons. The family moved to the area in 2023, and Kylie has struggled to make friends at school. In 2024 she was the victim of a crime the nature of which has not been disclosed to the public. She has run away once before, she is in therapy, and her forearms and thighs are covered in self-harm scars. When Stephanie returns home, she finds Kylie’s jacket in the driveway and notes a number of Kylie’s possessions, including her Xbox, are gone.
Sheriff Dale Stacey recognises how vulnerable Kylie is and how ill-equipped his department is to handle the case. Early in the investigation he twice reaches out to the Salt Lake City FBI field office and twice the FBI refuse to assist his department. They investigate abductions and kidnappings but not runaway teens. Sheriff Stacey submits Kylie’s details to the standard nation databases like NamUs and NCMEC. He and Stephanie go to the media and the case receives regional and then national coverage. Dateline NBC even tries to pressure the Salt Lake City field office into taking the case without success.
The only credible tip comes in during the beginning of June. On May 31st, a woman was at a rest stop along highway I-15 outside of Perry, Utah. This is 66 miles (106 km) southwest of Garden City. In order to travel through the mountain range west of Garden City, Kylie would have had to have taken state highway 89. Highway 89 basically meets the I-15 at Perry and then runs parallel to it for some distance into Salt Lake City. The woman attempted to enter the handicapped stall in the bathroom. She found it was locked but could not see any feet under the stall. Moments later, a girl whom the woman has identified as Kylie exited the stall wearing a black wig and beanie described as being identical to the ones she’s wearing in the photo above. She had a black suitcase with a skull on it. She then removed the wig and beanie and began doing her makeup. The woman noted that she was wearing baggy sweats and white tennis shoes. She found it odd that such a pretty girl was trying to hide her appearance.
After getting back in her car, she noticed the girl sitting on some rocks outside of the rest stop. She felt something was wrong and that she should speak to the girl. As she worked up the nerve to approach the girl, a Hispanic man walked up to the girl and started speaking to her. The girl reacted warmly to the man, and the two walked off together. The woman assumed the man was the girl’s father and that he was taking her to get food. Kylie is half-Latina and evidently bore a resemblance to the man. As soon as the woman saw media coverage of the case, she reported the sighting to the police and even spoke with Stephanie. There is absolutely no mention of Kylie’s father in media coverage, so he is either completely absent from her life or dead. If he is alive, the police hopefully have investigated him. They have not commented either way.
On August 25th, 2025, the FBI took and interest in the case and spoke to Stephanie. It has since been learned that a Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) is the primary agency investigating the case. There are multiple JTTFs throughout the United States almost always run out of an FBI field office. They have a sordid history with suspects dying during interrogations and having been sued by the ACLU. From what I can tell, missing children are not part of the mandate of any JTTF in the US which suggests there has been a credible link between Kylie’s disappearance and an organisation with ties to terrorism.
Kylie had few friends in real life and was extremely active on both Snapchat and Discord. Public statements made by the Rich Count Sheriff suggest that they had not been able to learn much about Kylie’s online friends. While investigating her online activities, they learned that she had been receiving money via PayPal though have not been able to identify the sender or senders. They also learned that she received gifts in the mail but also could not identify the sender(s).
At the time of her disappearance, Kylie was 15 years old, she has since turned 16, she was 5’6” (~168 cm), weighed 115 lbs (~52 kg). She has a tattoo of a black cross on her right middle finger, and Koda, which is her dog’s name, tattooed on her right ankle also in black. Some sources claim she has more tattoos on her thighs, but they are short on details. Both of her ears are pierced and she had black dental braces.
On August 25th, 2025, the FBI took and interest in the case and spoke to Stephanie. It has since been learned that a Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) is the primary agency investigating the case. There are multiple JTTFs throughout the United States almost always run out of an FBI field office. They have a sordid history with suspects dying during interrogations and having been sued by the ACLU. From what I can tell, missing children are not part of the mandate of any JTTF in the US which suggests there has been a credible link between Kylie’s disappearance and an organisation with ties to terrorism.
Kylie had few friends in real life and was extremely active on both Snapchat and Discord. Public statements made by the Rich Count Sheriff suggest that they had not been able to learn much about Kylie’s online friends. While investigating her online activities, they learned that she had been receiving money via PayPal though have not been able to identify the sender or senders. They also learned that she received gifts in the mail but also could not identify the sender(s).
That seems like the most likely reason a JTTF would be involved. What a fucked up group of people. I was on /b/ back in the halcyon days of 4chan, and never thought the shit we were doing would result in this kind of shit.
David Vernon Lovely, known as Dave, was last seen in the vicinity of County Road 201 in Fort Bridger.
The story of Lovely's disappearance is baffling. Although the last time his family heard from him was August 5, 1985, the case didn't come to the Sweetwater County Sheriff's Office until nine days later when some campers found his abandoned burgundy 1978 Yamaha motorcycle near Baxter Road.
Lovely had become separated from his family during a cross-country move. According to police reports, Lovely's mother was driving a large U-Haul truck and he was driving the motorcycle. They stopped every 30 miles to check on David. When they got to Evanston, Lovely's mother and sister wanted to stop but he wanted to keep going. He left the two, telling them he would wait for them at a rest stop further east. They never saw him again.
The last time he was heard from was when he called his aunt. He told her he had had trouble with his motorcycle and pushed it into the Bingo Truck Stop in Fort Bridger. A "rough looking" man on a motorcycle worked on the bike and "fixed it better than it was," Lovely told his aunt. He also told her he was afraid of the man who fixed the motorcycle.
The family and authorities rode to the area where the motorcycle was found with ATVs and searched all around. The keys were left in the bike, and it had a half tank of gas. It was in running condition. However, no sign of Lovely was ever found. Source
Here is a more detailed article and here is a podcast featuring his family.
Green Boots was finally identified. Contrary to popular belief, he was not Tsewang Paljor, but the other speculated person, Lance Naik (a rank in the ITBP, which is the equivalent rank to lance corporal) Dorje Morup of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police. ITBP will be recovering his body. Sadly, Tsewang Paljor is still missing to this day.
The Denver Strangler was an unidentified serial killer operating in Denver, Colorado from 1894 to 1903. He was responsible for killing three prostitutes in the span of 10 weeks in 1894, and although many suspects were arrested, nobody was convicted. The Strangler is also supposedly responsible for the 1898 murder of clairvoyant Julia Voght and 1903 murder of Mabel Brown, but this remains only speculation.
That seems like the most likely reason a JTTF would be involved. What a fucked up group of people. I was on /b/ back in the halcyon days of 4chan, and never thought the shit we were doing would result in this kind of shit.
If we hadn't had water on us, we probably would have passed out. People don't realize how horrible California heat is. It's only really cool when you live on a beach.
You get a short time of nice chill weather and the rest of the year it's heat and humidity. With no clouds. You have to carry water on you if you even walk or bike outside.
The only thing here I disagree with is the humidity of California actually, it’s low compared to America east of the Rockies especially inland, where the Mojave Desert lies. There’s almost no humidity. I believe the low humidity is what contributes to the fires, along with the little rainfall the result of the Pacific high pressure off the coast.
That’s what causes Death Valley; it’s to the east of a bunch of mountains, in a massive rain shadow, where even the coastal areas don’t see much rainfall. So in the winter, Southern California will get some storms with precipitation, but almost none of that makes it over the multiple ranges. Along with it being around the latitude of Las Vegas, you get extremely hot summers that can kill, like what happened to the Death Valley Germans. To get back on topic.
The only thing here I disagree with is the humidity of California actually, it’s low compared to America east of the Rockies especially inland, where the Mojave Desert lies. There’s almost no humidity. I believe the low humidity is what contributes to the fires, along with the little rainfall the result of the Pacific high pressure off the coast.
Me feeling like I'm stepping into an oven when I go outside tells me otherwise, lol. I've seen times where humidity was high as hell when I'd check the weather.
Southern California and cities in beach areas famously get high humidity. Periods of it. Not constantly, but it happens. But SoCal gets the worst of it.
For example, I got curious and searched Santa Ana. It currently has almost 80 percent humidity. That whole county is fucked tbh, lol.
A lot of the times, California gets fires because it's hot but also dry. Very dry. Which triggers fires.
In April 1993, the memoir A Rock and a Hard Place arrives on US shelves and quickly becomes a bestseller:
Purportedly written by adolescent Anthony Godby Johnson (henceforth Tony), the memoir details Tony’s history of abuse (which results in his infection with HIV) and subsequent rescue and adoption by the Johnsons, who encourage him to tell his story.
During the writing of the memoir, Tony’s illness progresses to full-blown AIDS.
Even before publication, however, Tony has his detractors, particularly Newsweek reporter Michelle Ingrassia, who publicly question his existence.
Why?
Because no one has ever seen Tony.
Tony’s adoptive mother Mrs. Johnson declines any on-camera interviews, citing Tony’s poor health, as well as fear of reprisal by those associated with his abusers.
In the following years, Tony - now an adult - is "adopted" by occasional journalist and producer Lesley Karsten, who has his story featured in a television special About Us: The Dignity of Children, hosted by Oprah Winfrey.
Upon being informed that long-term supporter Armistead Maupin intends to write a novel about their relationship, Tony vanishes.
In 2001, journalist Tad Friend proposes the author of Tony's memoir is his adoptive mother Mrs. Johnson.
Rather, Joanne Victoria Zackheim (nee Fraginals; henceforth, “Vicki”):
Undated, 1980s (older brother Daniel on the left; younger brother Vincent on the right)
Undated, 1980s (mother Felicia)
While it is clear that Tony never existed, I’m more interested in the question of what is necessary for Tony to exist.
I will therefore treat him as if he is (or at least was) real.
In this installment we'll take a look at Vicki's life and Tony's "life," prior to meeting one another:
Vicki is born into a working-class, Cuban-American family and grows up in Union Ciry, New Jersey, directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan:
Vicki’s early life is unremarkable, simply the middle child sandwiched between two brothers, in a predominately Cuban/Cuban-American community.
While it is never recommended to read too much into a sentence in an article, one does have the impression Vicki is something of an afterthought (Portman 1971: 25):
The Jersey Journal
13 October 1971.
(For context, Vicki's mother was being interviewed for a "cook-of-the-week feature.")
A woman, Sheila Moffet claims to have become pen-pals with Vicki in mid-1979.
While she states that Vicki is initially pleasant, Moffet eventually distances herself, characterizing Vicki as emotionally manipulative.
She also claims Vicki continues to sporadically contact her (and her family), even introducing her to her adopted son Tony:
(NB: The following comes from a blog. I'm treating this as correct, but I have seen inaccuracies floating about RE: Tony, usually bc the information conflates Tony's story with the narrative presented in The Night Listener.)
(If anyone has any thoughts on tracking down the episode - likely 12 January 2007 - I'm all ears!)
By the late 1980s, Vicki is working as a 4th-grade teacher for a Catholic school.
In a January 2007 report for the news program 20/20, former pupil Steve Tarabokija (Facebook link) recalls Vicki as the “nicest” of his early teachers.
While some parents “remembered Vicki as a very involved teacher who threw herself into activities like school plays,” one parent “characterized her as a woman who craved attention and pity” (Elliott 2006).
Of course, this sounds remarkably like Sheila Peak Moffett’s alleged experience.
And it will also reflect the relationships Vicki and Tony develop with Tony’s supporters.
One parent also recalled Vicki’s photographing the students.
As it turns out, all known photos of Tony (including the dust jacket photo) are actually photos of Vicki’s then-pupil Steve Tarbokija (Elliott 2006):
"Tony"
Steve Tarakijo
Caricature of Tony (1994)
(For context, Vicki was likely Steve's teacher at/around the same time she encounters Tony.)
During this time, Vicki - now in her early 30s - is single with no children and living in this apartment building in Union City, which is also associated with her younger brother and his 2 daughters:
Summit Avenue and 11th St., Union City, NJ
And in late 1989, Vicki - allegedly operating in some capacity with a crisis hotline - receives a call from an 11-year-old boy named Tony who is contemplating suicide.
Meeting him at a coffee shop, Vicki describes Tony as dressed inappropriately for the 29-degree weather with “just a sweatshirt,” pants that are too short, “no socks.” Tony’s hair is “down to his shoulders.” His eyes are bloodshot; he’s feverish (Painter 1993: 2D).
Despite this, Tony is unfailingly polite, holding the door for Vicki and attempting to “pay for her coffee” (Dreyfous 1993: A2).
Vicki convinces Tony to let her take him to the hospital for treatment, and eventually to share his remarkable story with the world.
Tony’s home, parents
Tony is born in Manhattan in 1977 (Johnson 1994: 29).
I propose that Tony is born on November 13th, based on intertextual evidence, but will discuss my reasoning in a future installment.
I assume Anthony is his birth name, though we are right to treat every statement made by Tony with suspicion.
Tony’s publisher acknowledges that names were changed for publication, to protect the privacy of people featured in the memoir, as well as to protect Tony from his alleged stalkers (a point we shall return to).
In an essay about his experience with Tony (to be discussed further), memoirist Paul Monette acknowledges these alterations extend to locations as well (Monette 1994: 235).
Tony’s middle name appears to have "originally" been Robert.
In August 1991, Anthony Robert Johnson writes a fan letter to Paul Monette, singing off "Your friend, Tony" (Friend 2001: 88 | UCLA Paul Monette Collection link).
His middle name Godby references his friend and counselor Jack L. Godby, who writes the introduction for the memoir.
His original surname is unknown, as Johnson is the name of his adoptive parents.
Tony grows up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
He cites his home as a 4-room, 10th floor apartment on W. 85th St. S. (Johnson 1994: 36).
Given the area, it’s likely the floor plan looked much like this:
The difference would be that Tony places his parents’ bedroom at the front of the apartment rather than in the back (Johnson 1994: 37).
For context, here are two examples of apartment buildings that (roughly) match Tony's (generic) description/location:
In an essay published in 1997, 4 years after the memoir, Tony instead places the family’s apartment on the 9th floor.
In the memoir, Tony claims his father is a civil servant but makes no mention of his mother’s employment (Johnson 1994: 33).
Tony later specifies that his father is a police officer with the NYPD (Friend 2001: 95).
In a USA Today article during the lead-up to the memoir’s publication, it’s suggested both parents work “middle-class jobs” (Painter 1993: 2D).
Sue Vice states Tony’s parents are “well-to-do” (2014: 44).
There is nothing in the memoir to directly support this claim, though it may follow from subsequent statements by Tony.
It may also simply be this particular neighborhood or the Upper West Side generally.
By the time Tony is in elementary school, at least one neighboring apartment building is “going co-op” (Johnson 1994: 92).
Tony later claims that his parents are Jewish (Friend 2001: 94).
In the memoir, however, Tony makes no mention of the family being Jewish as either a religious or (secular) cultural identity.
Tony describes himself as blond-haired, blue-eyed, “All-American” (Johnson 1994: 74).
Both in the memoir and in the later 1997 essay, Tony uses this self-descriptor to contrast his appearance with others, whether his Blatino best friend David or his peers at his initial elementary school.
While not impossible, it also forms an interesting contrast with later claims of Jewish ethnicity, as well as with pictures of Tony (rather, Steve Tarabokija) sent to admirers.
The description also crops up in initial reviews, emphasizing the shocking nature of Tony’s experiences (that could have been YOUR child!)
Tony cites relentless physical, emotional, and sexual abuse by his parents and their associates.
Tony says he is forced to sleep on the floor in a “closet-sized back bedroom” and that his clothes are “usually the throwaways of other tenants” (Johnson 1994: 36).
He is not permitted on the furniture, expected to keep the home clean, and fed only intermittently, food being treated as a privilege to be earned, with the father’s goal being to “make a man out of [Tony]” or failing that, to “kill [him]” (Johnson 1994: 37).
He is routinely beaten, which eventually result sin “54 unhealed bones,” discovered when Tony is X-rayed after his rescue (Johnson 1994: 57).
Even Tony’s basic health needs are neglected, with his toothbrush provided only due to a giveaway from the school as part of a dental-care program (Johnson 1994: 37).
Winter clothing comes, again, from items left behind by former tenants or, later, the efforts of his best friend David (Johnson 1994: 33).
Tony cites two main sources of relief during this period.
The first is Fred Rogers’ program Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. Tony describes Rogers’ emphasis on the value of the individual as a vital counterpoint to his parents’ claims of Tony’s inherent worthlessness (Johnson 1994: 44-45).
Rogers later writes the afterword for Tony’s memoir, praising Tony’s “unselfish love” (Johnson 1994: 304).
The second source of relief is reading, despite his father’s assertion that “only sissies read” (36) and that Tony is a “faggot” for enjoying reading (Johnson 1994: 162).
Early intervention
At age 5, while in kindergarten, Tony is sent to speech therapy to correct a stutter and a lisp.
The therapist recommends Tony be placed in a “special” education program, believing the impediments beyond correction and presumably reflecting a delayed intellect (Johnson 1994: 138).
(NB: Later, Tony claims to have been unable to articulate “the sounds for l and r” (Johnson 1997). He makes no mention of a lisp.)
Interestingly, Tony does not note the lisp as stereotype of the homosexual male.
I note this due to Tony’s repeated assertions of his father’s virulent homophobia.
Tony claims to then enter a period of muteness, following his father’s assertion (as well as a beating) that if Tony is unable to speak correctly, he “shouldn’t talk at all” (138).
Following intervention from a caring principal, Tony improves his speech over the course of 6 months and is promoted to first grade, due to his advanced reading and writing skills (Johnson 1994: 139).
There is however something suspicious about Tony’s claim.
In the 1997 essay, Tony describes his experience in first grade.
Here, his speech impediments have not been corrected. There is no mention of Tony’s having been in speech therapy nor of a caring principal, nor of his having been promoted.
He cites his teacher as Mrs. Feeney. In the memoir, she is Mrs. McNeil (Johnson 1994: 43), though their characterization is otherwise the same.
(There is also the possibility that Tony continues to anonymize people from his life, for his own security.)
The bigger issue comes with Tony’s claim that his speech improves over six months and that he is advanced to the first grade.
If we follow the implication that Tony is promoted following his improvement (which would contradict the 1997 essay), Tony would be entering first grade three-quarters of the way through the school year, which seems unlikely.
On the other hand, if we treat the two events - speech therapy and promotion - as distinct, then it’s possible Tony advances to the first grade while continuing to correct his speech.
Per his own words, he is promoted based on his reading and writing abilities.
As for the principal, Tony claims he is subsequently fired for being HIV-positive (per the gossips, due to having “gotten mixed up in ‘the wrong lifestyle’”) and dies alone “in a hospice, with a priest reading prayers to him” (Johnson 1994: 140).
(One wonders how Tony would know of the principal's last days; presumably, he overheard additional gossip.)
We’ll see a very consistent pattern in Tony’s narrative, wherein Tony introduces people who provide him with some important life lesson (e.g., empathy, the joy of reading, compassion), and upon providing the lesson are dispensed with - often through death.
Tony’s principal, having served his narrative function, is removed to hospice.
A male teacher, who introduces Tony to the pleasures of 19th C. literature, is similarly dispensed with.
In this case, fired when his homosexuality is discovered (Johnson 1994: 162-163).
By the time he's writing the memoir, Tony has lost two friends - including his best friend - to overdoses.
A mutual friend sinks into a depressive torpor and turns to cocaine for comfort.
Another classmate is institutionalized.
Several classmates prostitute themselves in Times Square, or sell drugs, whether for necessities or luxuries.
Another friend ends up homeless in the subways, with one leg amputated by the time Tony randomly encounters him.
Each time, however, Tony is able to learn some lesson from a peer's example: to be hopeful without being naive, to be clear-eyed without being cynical.
Above all, to survive.
These lessons make up most of the memoir, though are neglected in favor of Tony's relationship with his parents, both biological and adoptive.
(These stories also highlight the challenge of Tony's timeline, so I'm weaving them into the narrative.)
Tony provides some internal evidence of where his elementary school is located.
He claims the school is eight blocks from the family’s apartment on W. 85th St. S (35):
This raises the interesting question of why he was not attending, say, PS 009 Sarah Anderson, located a block over on W. 84th St. S.:
En route to his elementary school, he passes an apartment where his friend Zeke lives, one block south on W. 84th St. S. (Johnson 1994: 89).
That is, the same block as PS 009 Sarah Anderson.
It’s possible then that Tony’s purported elementary school is PS 087 William Sherman, located on W. 78th:
For 4th grade - likely Fall 1985 - Tony transfers to a progressive school for “gifted” students where he remains enrolled until running away from home in late 1989 (Johnson 1994: 63, 74).
He identifies his advanced school as being across the street from a “special-ed facility… [for] students with problems ranging from Down’s syndrome to cerebral palsy” (Johnson 1994: 171).
As Newsweek observes, however, during an initial investigation into Tony’s memoir, “No school in Manhattan could be found to match that description” (Newsweek 21 June 1993: 14).
In response, Tony's mentor Paul Monette - cited above - claims that locations were changed to protect Tony’s privacy, along with names (1994: 235).
(This does, of course, raise the troubling question of how much may be altered before a memoir ceases to be non-fiction...)
While Tony’s academic life is flourishing, however, his home life is rapidly deteriorating.
Jake
Around 1986, at age 8, Tony’s mother “pimps” him out to a family friend.
It is unclear whether this is the first time Tony is trafficked, though Tony describes trafficking as “not very unusual in their circle of acquaintances… [trading] one another’s children around to participate in bizarre rituals” (Johnson 1994: 40).
Tony never qualifies these “bizarre rituals.”
It is important to note though that Tony’s memoir comes during the waning years of the Satanic Panic.
Figures like Lawrence Pazder and his patient/muse (later wife) Michelle Smith asserted that Satanic cults were targeting children for use in physically and sexually abusive rituals.
Given Tony’s later claim of Jewish heritage, there is also perhaps a touch of blood libel to the narrative.
On this occasion in 1986, Tony is at least given the veneer of volition, though.
Following a showing of The Muppet Movie at his school, Tony’s mother finds him humming “The Rainbow Connection” and offers to purchase a cassette recording for him, provided he “do something for her,” which is “allow her friend Jake” to rape him (Johnson 1994: 40).
Tony suggests his father is present during the assault, the two men “doubled over with laughter” RE: Tony’s injured body after the assault (Johnson 1994: 168).
Alternatively – not that it’s better – the two may have simply laughed about the incident at some point afterwards, as part of a broader pattern of sex-based humiliation.
Tony does, however, assert having been sexually abused by his father, “sexual activity between two or more men, or between men and young boys [being] quite common” among the group, despite the men involved being otherwise robustly homophobic (Johnson 1994: 161-162).
Nor is there much affection within the group.
Tony claims that several weeks after the encounter, the group jokes about Jake having AIDS (Johnson 1994: 64).
At some point later, his parents find themselves laughing again, as Jake does eventually die of AIDS (Karsten 1997).
Following his own diagnosis, Tony suspects that he was infected with HIV by Jake during one of their “sessions” (Johnson 1994: 64).
The day after Tony’s rape, his mother denies having promised to purchase the cassette tape, and to do as he is told, when instructed to do so, without question (Johnson 1994: 41).
And he is beaten, of course.
Tony later claims that his trafficking becomes routine, Tony being purchased “for an hour at a time, sometimes two, sometimes for a night” (About Us).
Which is not to say Jake is the only purchaser.
Tony later claims also that other men in the group were police officers like his father, which contributes to the danger of him being “outed.”
To the trafficking ring he also adds singer Sammy Davis, Jr. and then-NYC mayor Ed Koch (Friend 2001: 91—92).
Escape
By late 1989, Tony – now 11 – finds his situation untenable (Johnson 1994: 265).
Following another beating, Tony resolves to kill himself by “walking in front of a bus… stepping off into the subway tracks… or cutting his wrists” (Johnson 1994: 45-46).
Tony subsequently describes the experience (along with his experiences with trafficking) in the 1997 television special About Us: The Dignity of Children:
10:41
Disembarking from a subway car, he resolves to throw himself in front of the next train as it arrives.
Instead, he calls a “nationwide hotline,” the result of which leads to his rescue (Johnson 1994: 46).
(Suicidal ideation is a running theme throughout the memoir, with Tony learning to manage it.)
According to Tony, he calls the “crisis” line from a phone booth at the corner of 85th St. and Amsterdam Ave. (Johnson 1994: 47).
Later, this number is described explicitly as a suicide prevention hotline (Painter 1993: 2D).
The man provides Tony with phone numbers for area resources, and the one he calls puts him in touch with Vicki.
Journalist Tad Friend claims the number Tony is given to call is for a “child-welfare service in Manhattan” (2001: 90).
The memoir makes no claim of Vicki’s relationship with the hotline, simply that hers is “a referral number” (Johnson 1994: 48).
At a coffee shop on 54th and Broadway, Vicki convinces Tony that he needs immediate medical attention, and he allows her to take him to the hospital (Johnson 1994: (48-51),
Thus, Tony is led to immediate safety, which turns out to be permanent when Vicki - along with her new husband - adopt Tony.
Next time, we'll take a look at Tony's adoptive parents, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson.
In particular, I've found it very interesting to compare (rather, contrast) the "Vicki" presented in the memoir with the real-life Vicki.
Dreyfous, Leslie. 11 April 1993. Tony Overcame Child Abuse and Embraced Life; Now He Faces Death at 15. The Los Angeles Times: A2, A11.
Elliott, S.M. 3 August 2006. Anthony Godby Johnson, the Invisible Boy. Swallowing the Camel. Link | Archive
Friend, Tad. 26 November 2001. Virtual Love. The New Yorker. New York: Conde Nast.
Johnson, Anthony. Fall 1997. The Right Questions. Teaching Tolerance Issue 12. Link | Archive | Magazine page archive
Johnson, Anthony Godby. 1994. A Rock and a Hard Place: One Boy’s Triumphant Story. New York: Signet.
Karsten, Lesley. Producer. 1997. About Us: The Dignity of Children.
Monette, Paul. 1994. "Getting Covered" in Last Watch of the Night: Essays Too Personal and Otherwise. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Newsweek. 21 June 1993. A Mystery Continues. Newsweek Vol. 121, No. 25: 14, 16.
Painter, Kim. 10 May 1993. Tony’s story: Love prevails over abuse. USA Today. 1D-2D.
Portman, Catherine. 13 October 1971. Rice With Beans Her Spanish Specialty. The Jersey Journal. 25.
UCLA Paul Monette Collection. Letter, photograph in Box 21, Folder 12. link
Vice, Sue. 2014. Textual Deceptions: False Memoirs and Literary Hoaxes in the Contemporary Era. Edinburgh University Press Ltd.
I've attached the major texts cited.
If you get the bug and would like to see any of the newspaper articles, let me know. They're just awkward to clip, ha ha.
I've recommended Swindled's podcast episode for an overview (YT link). It leans very, very heavily on Tad Friend's New Yorker article, which is an excellent read.
Thank you for giving me a place to dump all this stuff I've been hauling around for years.
As I've said, if there's something you're hunting for, there's a newspaper archive waiting for you - DMs is open!
ETA: Corrections made due to my poor, poor typing; and to clarify certain points. No changes have been made to the substance of the text. ETA2: Fixed attachments in folder.
Unmask Alice & just fnished the section on Jay's Journal. This bitch is Satanic.
She doesn't even have the usual shitty childhood you'd expect from a female lit grifter. She's just a midwit angry about not being famous enough.
Hanna-Barbera did pull some labour rights fuckery on her that I would consider actionable nowadays, but that's no excuse for becoming a career con artist, especially when your husband is an oil millionaire.
Anyway, 10/10 it's fun and re-readable like Bad Blood or a Texas inheritance murder nonfiction (the bio, not the fake diaries), short but provides all necessary context for non-Americans. The author is a former edgy radio DJ so there's jokes and Pratchett-esque footnotes all over the place.
It's infuriating what she did to that family of the boy who killed himself. It's already bad enough that he killed himself but she royally screwed them over and destroyed his memory and who he was.
I had a friend like her in some regards with family life and stuff. Knew of some kids like her too. It's self explanatory and I hope she's okay wherever she is.
While investigating her online activities, they learned that she had been receiving money via PayPal though have not been able to identify the sender or senders. They also learned that she received gifts in the mail but also could not identify the sender(s).
It's infuriating what she did to that family of the boy who killed himself. It's already bad enough that he killed himself but she royally screwed them over and destroyed his memory and who he was.
The next section is about the teen boy suicide epidemic in 1980s USA, which I was unaware of, but which the author clearly demonstrates is largely caused by literal boomers doing what they do best, which is not fucking listening to anyone and refusing to accept that "the passage of time" exists. I hate men and children but it seems their own parents hate them more than I could ever hope to.
Anyone in this thread could if they had her phone.
The crime was obviously rape followed by no one in her life giving a shit and her using unsupervised internet access to meet more abusers.
Unmask Alice & just fnished the section on Jay's Journal. This bitch is Satanic.
She doesn't even have the usual shitty childhood you'd expect from a female lit grifter. She's just a midwit angry about not being famous enough.
Hanna-Barbera did pull some labour rights fuckery on her that I would consider actionable nowadays, but that's no excuse for becoming a career con artist, especially when your husband is an oil millionaire.
Anyway, 10/10 it's fun and re-readable like Bad Blood or a Texas inheritance murder nonfiction (the bio, not the fake diaries), short but provides all necessary context for non-Americans. The author is a former edgy radio DJ so there's jokes and Pratchett-esque footnotes all over the place.
