FL - White House Boys, Dozier School for Boys, Marianna

[JeannaT]

This is a topic that is very interesting to me. I grew up in the 60's, and it was a common thing for kids to joke that if they didn't behave they'd be sent to reform school, and teachers would say that kind of stuff in jest too, "behave or we'll ship you off to reform school". Even as a child, I knew those institutions were brutal.

It's pathetic that nothing was done. I heard an interview with a brother of one of the deceased, his family simply got a letter in the mail that the brother had died (two months after arriving there, healthy) and had already been buried. End of story, case closed, and it "devastated" his family.

That certainly wouldn't go on now. 96 boys killed.

Thank God they've now been given permission to exhume all the remains and return them to families. I wish there were some staff left alive to prosecute.

 

[Donamena]

They had places run by nuns here, for 'wayward girls'. Not so much schools but work-houses, doing laundry etc. A couple years ago I got chatting to an elderly lady at a city market - she told me about such a place operating not far from where we stood up until the 70's. Girls died there, too - one 'fell' out of a window, but the lady said her friend saw a nun push her and it was definitely murder. She seemed very upset that this was never investigated. But who'd believe a bunch of wayward girls?

One of the places Jimmy Savile mined for child sex was a reform school for girls, in the UK.

I'm sure they existed all over the US too. Horrible places, just pits of cruelty and abuse most of 'em that I've ever heard of. I am so, so glad the truth about this one is coming to light, for victims both living and deceased.

Was that the Madeline Laundries set up by nuns in Ireland, etc.?

 

[Donamena]

I was just reading this tonight on CNN! This could be an absolutely amazing case. I cannot imagine that there are no records of this place or the individuals that ran it somewhere. It's intriguing, to say the least. I look forward to hearing more about this. I wonder how much Google info is out there? May be too long ago.

I was in a Louisiana library I'll not name doing research in the late 90s. Some of the primary documents I read had been thrown out by the courthouse clerks as a house-cleaning measure. Many were rescued by local amateur historians. Some of them were from the late 1700s & were of particular interest to Louisiana historians. The reason cited was 'no room' I can't even find my divorce record from New Orleans..gone, possibly in a shuffle from Katrina?

 

[JaxFlaGal]

Here's a lengthy 4-part CBSnews.com article, including very interesting links to documents/artifacts over time, including testimony to Congress by staff, correspondence to the FBI, and the US Dept of Justice findings from 12/2011.

Editor's note: This story is the first in a four-part Web series about the former Dozier School for Boys, a shuttered Florida juvenile detention facility that garnered a lasting reputation for brutality. 96 boys died while incarcerated there, and 45 are believed to be buried at the site. As reported by the CBS Evening News, Florida officials voted this week to begin exhumations there. This is the story of the search for the dead.

Part 1: Seeking answers
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_...ier-juvenile-detention-facility-seek-answers/

Hubert, the brother sent to Marianna with Thomas, never spoke of what happened at the school for fear he would be sent back. When Hubert died years later, his son, Glen, decided to bring home the body of the uncle he never met. But when Glen went to the school and requested an exhumation the school came back with an answer he never expected. They had no record of where his uncle was buried.

The school couldn't tell Ovell Krell Smith, a retired Lakeland police officer, where her brother was buried either. In the summer of 1940, Ovell's 14-year old brother, Owen Smith, was sent to the Florida Industrial School for Boys accused of wrecking a stolen car.

Part 2: abuse allegations
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_...nile-detention-facility-detail-alleged-abuse/

Some staff members became concerned about the abuse. On March 4, 1958, a psychologist named Dr. Eugene Byrd who worked at the Florida School for Boys for a year gave testimony during a U.S. Congressional hearing.
Byrd had received so many complaints about what was happening in the White House, he asked permission to witness one of the beatings.

"The blows are very severe," he said in recorded testimony. "They are dealt with a great deal of force with a full arm swing over his head and down, with a strap, a leather strap approximately a half inch thick and about 10 inches long with a wooden formed handle. Each boy received a minimum of 15."

He later added, "In my personal opinion it is brutality."

In 2007, the father of Justin Caldwell wrote to the FBI about the abuse his son suffered at the reform school.


Some of his alleged abuse was caught on camera, and later put on YouTube.

The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division decided to investigate the school. In December 2011, they released their findings. The official report states, "The youth confined at Dozier and at JJOC were subjected to conditions that placed them at serious risk of avoidable harm in violation of their rights protected by the Constitution of the United States. During our investigation, we received credible reports of misconduct by staff members to youth within their custody. The allegations revealed systemic, egregious, and dangerous practices exacerbated by a lack of accountability and controls."

The Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys was shuttered on June 30, 2011, shortly before that report was released.

Part 3: Push for Justice
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_...juvenile-detention-facility-push-for-justice/

In a 2009 article for the Tampa Bay Times, Ben Montgomery wrote that boys aged 5 to 20 sent to Marianna "...went in damaged and came out destroyed."

On October 21, 2008, the White House Boys assembled at the school. Outside the White House, a plaque was erected. It read, "In memory of the children who passed these doors, we acknowledge their tribulations and offer our hope that they have found some measure of peace. May this building stand as a reminder of the need to remain vigilant in protecting our children as we help them seek a brighter future."

The plaque has since been taken down. When CBS News visited in January 2013 a patch of discolored paint to the left of the front door, marks where it used to be.

Part 4: Exhumation efforts
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_...shuttered-dozier-juvenile-detention-facility/

After extensive archival research and interviews with former students and employees, the team determined that a minimum of 98 people, including boys aged 6 to 18 years old and two adults, died at the school between 1914 and 1973. They also discovered that seven of those boys died following escape attempts from the school and that 20 died within three months of being sent to the school.

Dr. Kimmerle also learned that on multiple occasions, school officials did not report deaths to the state, have a physician certify death or include all of the deaths in public reports and state investigations.

Through the use of ground penetrating radar in the field, the team found what appear to be the grave shafts of at least 50 unmarked burial sites.

 

[JaxFlaGal]

Man Recalls Horrors Of Florida Reform School
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/08/21/disappeared-boys-florida

Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Guest Roger Dean Kiser, a former resident of the Dozier School for Boys and author of “The White House Boys: An American Tragedy.”

“I’ve only been able to describe it almost as a concentration camp,” Kiser said. “You have to be very careful — you don’t see, hear or say anything. And if you do, they’re going to get you, and they’re liable to beat you to death or you’re liable to disappear in the middle of the night.”

 

[Backwoods]

The first time I saw this thread on WS, I wondered if serial/spree (depending on which definition one is using) murderer Paul John Knowles, of Florida, ever was here. I knew that he had spent time in reformatories.

A few days ago, I found my answer, in a 1974 article:

Records show Knowles' career of crime began at the age of 9. He served four terms in the reformatory at Marianna and one in a Maryland reformatory.

more at: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2P4rAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pccEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1863,6379790

For several reasons, I have done and still am doing a good bit of research on Knowles, and, of course, I wonder if his experiences here contributed to making him what he became -- or was he already "unsalvageable"?

 

[rabidstoat]

This reminds me of a book I'm currently reading called "Help At Any Cost", about the 'troubled kids' industry over the years. In these cases, they were 'homes' or 'schools' that would take in 'incorrigible' youth for increasingly large amounts of money.

Some of them were truly troubled souls, involved in drugs or alcohol or crime. Some merely had behavioral problems or depression. Some were just ordinary teenagers, a little mouthy and sullen at times. Even for cases where the children could benefit from help of some sort, in a lot of cases these places were little more than money-making ventures with little to no oversight.

I'm halfway through the book now and reading about the 'wilderness retreats', where parents would pay up to $500/day for months of sending their children on retreats into the wilderness to 'reform' them. Now, not all the schools were bad, but it sure seems like the vast majority were. By being a 'wilderness school' they could really save on facility costs. It was common to hire young adults (some just 18 or 19 years old themselves!) with no medical or counseling training to oversee the children. If they even had a 'staff psychologist' they'd maybe see the kids once a month, if that.

They also discouraged anything but a minimum of monitored communication between children and parents, in the form of letters, and parents were told that complaints and pleas their children had were typical lies and forms of manipulation. This means that when there were serious problems -- and sometimes, there were problems where children died after agonizing and inexcusable cases of neglect -- they were dismissed as being lies. Eventually the kids would 'toe the line' to have any hope of going home. It was not uncommon for them to watch other students being abused and do nothing to intervene, as they (probably rightfully) assumed that if they did, they'd just suffer abuse too.

Anyway, a sad but interesting read, if anyone is interested.

 

[KateB]

The Legislature put $190,000 into the state budget to fund the research, determine the causes of death, identify remains, locate potential family members and cover the costs for any re-internment.

The university researchers led by Erin Kimmerle and Christian Wells have a one-year window to search the grounds for reportedly unaccounted-for bodies of boys who died between 1900 and 1952.

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2013/08/27/usf-to-begin-digging-for-bodies-at-dozier

 

[Backwoods]

Hefty federal grant will help unearth graves at old Dozier School for Boys

...DNA samples will be shipped to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, where they will be compared to samples submitted by relatives of several of the dead and entered into the Combined DNA Index System and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.


The relatives of seven dead boys have submitted DNA. DNA and other biological evidence from the unidentified remains will be used to compare with others from the two national databases in hopes of finding matches.

read more at: http://www.tampabay.com/news/politi...elp-fund-unique-dozier-graves-project/2138703

Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys: USF wins federal grant to help exhume gravesites

...Some former students have accused employees and guards at the school of physical and sexual abuse. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigated but concluded in 2009 that it was unable to substantiate or dispute the claims.


Researchers said they have already used historical documents to discover more deaths and gravesites than what the law enforcement agency found; they have verified the deaths of two adult staff members and 96 children - ranging in age from 6 to 18 - between 1914 and 1973. ...


...Kimmerle said researchers can also use facial reconstruction on remains that don't yield DNA results. The research team will also try to determine a cause of death for each student....

more at: http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/state/...-wins-federal-grant-to-help-exhume-gravesites

 

[JaxFlaGal]

USF begins the first of a number of digs that are authorized for the next year. Work at Boot Hill is today through 9/3.
http://www.news4jax.com/news/usf-to...hool/-/475880/21655534/-/13fqj98/-/index.html

A temporary restraining order, issued in October 2012 by Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper, has delayed the state's intention to sell the Dozier property.
Cooper's order allows the research work to proceed until the body of Thomas Varnadoe is exhumed.
Varnadoe died a month after arriving at the school in the 1930s. He was 13. A family member from central Florida has sought to move the remains to a family graveyard.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/town-t...-near/-/475880/21726404/-/osw771/-/index.html

CNN will provide on-site video coverage of the USF work for other media, with the Tampa Bay Times providing still photography. All other media will have to remain outside the fenced-in compound.

 

[MsFacetious]

Human bones found in dig at notorious Dozier reform school in Florida

------------------

"We have found evidence of burial hardware - hinges on coffins," said Dr. Christian Wells, an anthropologist from the University of South Florida, in a briefing about a mile from the closed excavation site near the former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys.

"There appear to be a few pieces associated with burial shrouds, and there are pins consistent with the 1920s and 1930s, - based on the style of the pins - and they appear to be brass," he said.

Some "large-bone fragments" were found on the first day of digging, Wells said.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/201...otorious-dozier-reform-school-in-florida?lite

 

[zwiebel]

They're bringing them home.; the missing who never even got to make the lists of missing.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/01/bones-notorious-boys-home

 

[mysteriew]

Researchers go out there and in one day find more than the LE investigation did in it's totality. They have found undocumented remains.

I think it shows the lack of commitment that went into the LE investigation.

 

[oceanblueeyes]

Researchers go out there and in one day find more than the LE investigation did in it's totality. They have found undocumented remains.

I think it shows the lack of commitment that went into the LE investigation.

I don't consider a lot of these kids really bad kids. Most of them were runaways running away from a bad home life or truancy. Some were as young as 6 years old. Unbelievable how a little six year old could be sent to reform school in our country.

As I said before, every time I have passed by there over the past 4 decades I get such a feeling of sadness and doom. Its as if it permeates with evilness surrounding it.

I think all along officials and even LE knew that bad things were happening there but turned a blind eye.

I often wonder if the staff that worked there that tortured, maltreated and murdered these children are perhaps family members of officials in local government or even state government back then and now. Plus some could have had ties with law enforcement and even be family members.

There has to be a nefarious reason why it has taken this long for the exhumations to finally happen.

I am not satisfied with the investigation either that was supposedly conducted. They have several eye witnesses/victims who are still alive who can tell the truth as to what happened there and by whom. The criminal case would be no different than all the boys coming forward when they reached adulthood to testify about what happened to them as children by Catholic priests.

IMO, I truly think it is the highest mass murder case in Florida's history which was swept under the rug because they felt no one would care about these boys even if they died.

I pray that The White House Boys get all of this exposed once and for all. They have fought a long honorable fight. None of these boys should be buried there at this house of horrors. They either need to be returned to their families or a special cemetery should be made just for them so they can finally rest in peace.

May the truth finally come to light.

 

[Still_Seek_Answers]

After reading these posts I am sick!!! What is it with Florida and not identifying people? I know from our own experiences how tightly they circle the wagons and I am hoping this time they are forced to identify every body that is buried there. Oh those poor poor children..............

 

[Karmady]

I don't consider a lot of these kids really bad kids. Most of them were runaways running away from a bad home life or truancy. Some were as young as 6 years old. Unbelievable how a little six year old could be sent to reform school in our country.

As I said before, every time I have passed by there over the past 4 decades I get such a feeling of sadness and doom. Its as if it permeates with evilness surrounding it.

I think all along officials and even LE knew that bad things were happening there but turned a blind eye.

I often wonder if the staff that worked there that tortured, maltreated and murdered these children are perhaps family members of officials in local government or even state government back then and now. Plus some could have had ties with law enforcement and even be family members.

There has to be a nefarious reason why it has taken this long for the exhumations to finally happen.

I am not satisfied with the investigation either that was supposedly conducted. They have several eye witnesses/victims who are still alive who can tell the truth as to what happened there and by whom. The criminal case would be no different than all the boys coming forward when they reached adulthood to testify about what happened to them as children by Catholic priests.

IMO, I truly think it is the highest mass murder case in Florida's history which was swept under the rug because they felt no one would care about these boys even if they died.

I pray that The White House Boys get all of this exposed once and for all. They have fought a long honorable fight. None of these boys should be buried there at this house of horrors. They either need to be returned to their families or a special cemetery should be made just for them so they can finally rest in peace.

May the truth finally come to light.

you passed by there while the facility was operational?

 

[oceanblueeyes]

you passed by there while the facility was operational?

From what I understand it finally closed in 2011.

I have traveled from Georgia (my home state) to Florida going this route many times starting in the 1960s.

IMO

 

[oceanblueeyes]

They worked on two grave sites today. While they have spent many hours digging in the hot sun, their findings have been years in the making.

After rain on Monday afternoon halted work, some members of the research team took a chance to talk to the media. They said their work will continue after the ground dries.

As for their work so far, they have found remains which have helped create a timeline.

"We've uncovered bone and teeth, coffin hardware, remnants of wood from the coffin," Associate Professor of Anthropology said. "On the first individual we are even able to estimate his age. He's probably 10 to 13 years old. He's about 5'2, 5'4 in height. Based on the coffin hardware we believe that it was manufactured after 1930."

http://www.wtvy.com/home/headlines/...t-Former-Florida-Reform-School-222108841.html

 

[oceanblueeyes]

After reading these posts I am sick!!! What is it with Florida and not identifying people? I know from our own experiences how tightly they circle the wagons and I am hoping this time they are forced to identify every body that is buried there. Oh those poor poor children..............

I believe that has been the main problem for so long now. So many that live there just want it to go away and stay buried. IMO, that can only be because they are maybe family members of the staff and higher ups that worked there and ran the place through the decades.

Any decent person without absolutely anything to hide would stand up for these 'lost boys' and what happened to them there. They would want justice for them like they would for their own child if it had happened to them. They would want the truth to be known even if it puts others in a very bad light. No matter how the town folk desires for this to go away..........it isn't and they should realize that now and all should come together wanting the truth to come out.

I hope they also disclose how these boys' bodies were positioned. Were they respectfully placed in the ground or just toss in a hole and covered up? I mean the ones that don't even have markers on their graves. And even the ones with markers sat right by a trash dump on the site. How sad is that.

IMO

 

[killarney rose]

http://www.wtvy.com/home/headlines/...da-Reform-School-222108841.html?device=tablet