CA - Dr. William Ayres for child molestation, San Mateo, 2007 #1

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  • #341
Johnson got there in 1958. The earliest Ayres would have started there is 1959, although it sounds from his testimony at the trial that he started around 1961. Johnson doesn't remember seeing any psychiatrists - just "masters" who beat and kicked and raped the boys, including himself.
 
  • #342
PS - Let's get this danged thread back into "Crimes in the News."
 
  • #343
  • #344
Credit goes to Believe09 not just for getting this thread back to its proper home but also for her amazing detective work on the ayres case!
 
  • #345
Here's the email I received from Richard Johnson, who was at the Reception Detention Center where William Ayres worked in the early 1960s. I am reprinting it here with Johnson's permission:

I was fifteen years of age when I encountered the Youth Service Board Reception Detention Center at 450 Canterbury Street in Roslindale, Massachusetts. That is the date in the winter of 1958 I shall always remember.

At the time, the Youth Service Board Act of 1948 was not fully implemented. Judges were not allowed to try youths and youths were not provided so-called Constitutional rights. Instead, the judge of a juvenile court would hear a complaint and, upon a finding of probable cause, would “remand” the youth to the custody of the Youth Service Board.

The Youth Service Board was supposed to find out if an offense was actually committed and if so, provide appropriate “remedial action,” which might involve sending the perpetrators to one of the various “reform” or “training” schools. In principle, a youth could also be sent home if it was found that no offense had occurred.

This did not happen. Instead, youth were warehoused at the Roslindale detention center until there was a bed available at one of the reform schools. The reform school used was based entirely upon age. Children of a younger age than 13 were sent to the Institute of Juvenile Guidance (IJG) in Bridgewater. Children from age 13 to age 16 were sent to the Lyman School for Boys (LSB) in Westborough. Finally, children with an age over 16 were sent to the Industrial School for Boys (ISB) in Shirley, Massachusetts.

At the time I was at the Roslindale Detention Center, there were no tests, no interviews, and no discussion with anyone of authority except the “Masters.” My sole encounter with an YSB board member was when Mr. Turley informed me that I was being sent “…To the Lyman School For Boys, until such time as you have earned 700 credits.”

Seven hundred credits (about seven months) was a typical sentence and functioned as a throttle to keep the institutions full, but not overcrowded. It was simply assumed that every child was a criminal offender as no interviews were conducted nor any evidence reviewed or even collected.

Note that in that period it was commonplace for the police to round up all the neighborhood boys as soon as any crime occurred in the area. They would all go to reform school.

My book tells that Lyman School was actually a very good place. Superintendent Borys and his assistant, Mr. Kenny, were reformers who prevented any abuse and started some new programs, which worked exceptionally well.

The Youth Service Board was, however, Hell on earth. The guards were called “Masters” and seemed to have been selected from the most cruel and subhuman stock available. Children were routinely beaten to the extent that they had facial features destroyed –broken noses, broken teeth, displaced jaws, etc. They were often thrown to the floor, smashed against walls, kicked in the stomach and subjected to other brutal treatment including kicking and punching in the testicles. That was the “day shift.”

In the nighttime, children were selected by the nighttime masters for rape. My book details my rape. These rapes occurred right out in the open on the floor of the “day room” which was now empty. Since there were two masters on duty in the nighttime, the rapes occurred in pairs, two masters, and two boys.

These rapes and abuses were well known at the time. They were impossible to cover up. The Reverend F. Robert Brown, who was a Lyman School chaplain and writes the Afterword of my book, was instrumental in helping to curb the abuses that were so extreme that the YSB was completely reestablished and emerged as the DYS (Division of Youth Services). It was at that time that the reception-detention center was renamed to the Judge Connelly Center. Perhaps changing the name would erase the history.


Cheers,
Richard B. Johnson
Book: http://[B]www.AbominableFirebug.com[/B]
/
 
  • #346
Credit goes to Believe09 not just for getting this thread back to its proper home but also for her amazing detective work on the ayres case!
Ah, enough of that-credit goes to On, all the other survivors who are still carving out their place in the world in spite of their abuse, Victoria Balfour for devoting time money and getting results in these last 5 years....these are the folks that are changing the world here.
 
  • #347
Mercyneal and Believe--Two things. Did either of you note the case of the Delaware judge, William Bradley? His case is recent so it can be googled and there is a thread I started in the archives:

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-94503.html

Just another powerful man who is known to have molested boys. Note, he was only the second seated judge to be accused of molestation. Spend a moment and look over his case and see if there could be any connection to an "underground".

Given the cases of Ayres, Levine, Silverman, Bradley, Gajdusek, and Foulk--just to name a few--is there any way to determine if they had biological children or if their children were adopted. What I'm trying to ask, in a delicate way, is did they consummate their marriages, if they had one?

I have heard that Art Silverman was most certainly gay and yet was married to a female psychiatrist. If you look at his appeal decision there's even a statement from a psychiatrist (I think Beebe) advising Silverman to not share the fact that he was homosexual with his wife. The couple's only child, a boy, was adopted. We know that Foulk and Gajdusek "collected" boys. I don't think Gajdusek was ever married but Foulk was and his wife left him. Bradley's a different kettle of fish as he was mainly going after little girls. He also purportedly has four biological children. His wife left him also, though, in 1998.

My question is are these men actually gay and the marriages merely a cover-up for propriety, especially given the age of these men? At the time of their college days and early years of practice, very few men (even in the SF Bay area) were totally out. It would be far more easy to have a wife on the arm. I don't mean to be disrespectful or rude but Silverman's wife is not what most would describe as an attractive woman and comes across almost asexual and possibly on the spectrum. I've spent untold numbers of hours in tiny treatment rooms with her as she consulted on my children's meds. She's quite bright but extremely odd. She also assisted her husband in hiding out in Israel for nine years. Interpol finally followed her to locate Silverman. When I've seen photos of Ayres with his wife, they don't strike me as a happily married couple who dote on one another. Do we even know if the Blankenberg twins were married or had children? We know Rev. Murphy of Wisconsin had no wife as he was a priest. He systematically raped and molested over 200 boys. His arrogance knew

Could these lives--the families, community service, children--be merely a complete and carefully constructed facade, a sham--set up with one goal in mind--the procurement of boys? The more I read, the more calculating each man seems to be. It's as if the attraction and illness of pedophilia did not grow "organically" for these men but was the plan right out of the starting gate. JMO
 
  • #348
MissIzzy:

You've raised such an interesting and important facet of the case. Mel Levine is married but has no children. Ayres is married - got married at age 30 in 1962 in Boston. This would be considered to be marrying rather late in those days. He married Solveig Troxel, a teacher who taught boys at the Manville School at Judge Baker. These boys boarded at Judge Baker. A teacher who was there at the same time remembers that Ayres was "always hanging around the classroom, watching the boys." Hmmmm. Seems to us that he liked Solveig because she shared an interest in young boys ( but not to molest) AND because she unwittingly was a pipeline to boys for Ayres. Ayres tried to present himself at Judge Baker as one of the few shrinks who truly cared about the boys at Judge Manville. Word is he wrote a scathing memo about the director of Judge Baker, criticizing him for not doing enough for the Manville School. Others who were there when Ayres was there say this is bunk - that the director was very caring about the kids.

Ayres has two biological children - Robert, who is about 47, and Barbara, a couple of years younger. Barbara has no relationship with either parent. Robert- looking haggard- attended his father's trial every day. He is a struggling actor and it appeared to observers that he was attempting to put on an exaggerated "show" of support for his father.

Pedophile child psychiatrist Dr. Donald Lee Rife - who trained at Judge Baker as well- has never married and has no kids. In 2006, he told a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times that he was "straight" and had a girlfriend. However, the following year, for a yearbook published for his 50th reunion Yale , he wrote that he was "gay" and always thought he had been the only gay student at Yale.

Ayres seems effeminate and very gay to many. If you peruse 1953 University of Wisconsin Badger yearbook - that's the year he graduated -one can only imagine the pressure he must have felt to appear straight. Page after page of dances and couples out on dates. In fact, one of the pages that introduces the senior class photos shows a male hand putting an engagement ring on the finger of a woman.
 
  • #349
One of the things that struck me about Ayres early photos is his features-he is not a robust looking person. Now my dad was the original 5'6" 90 lb weakling, but he was hardened and Brooklyn NY street tough. People did not mess much with him even then.

Ayres makes it clear in the little that I have seen and read of him that females do not interest him.

Given his preferences, I am digging right now into a study I found mentioned in a journal that was done as a jt task between DYS MA and the Dept of Mental Health MA trying to predict delinquent behavior in juveniles; what makes the study of some relevance here was the group being studied was 100 Jewish Boys between the ages of 7 and 16. I am trying to get what years the study was run...I mean can we say kid in a candy store regarding Ayres???? just sayin. I will post links when I finish digging around...
 
  • #350
On the gay/not gay issue:

I think the issue is WAY more complex than that. You'll often hear "the gay lobby" argue that pedophiles who are attracted to the same sex are NOT GAY. I don't think it's that simple either. I think that people are gay or straight or some range of both, and ALSO are or are not pedophiles, AND they may or may not be attracted to the same sex children or both. I think that the pedophile component of the mix is independent, and I think that's what the Fact Sheet on Pedophilia is saying:

"Some individuals prefer females, usually 8- to 10-year-olds. Those attracted to males usually prefer slightly older children. Some prefer both sexes. While some are sexually attracted only to children, others ALSO are sometimes attracted to adults."


This is actually an important thing for people to understand CLEARLY. If you're feeling warning signs about a possible same-sex pedophile, it's a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE mistake to assume that because they appear happily married, they probably are fine...

During the ayres trial, Weinberg went to great lengths to DISPLAY Solveig (ayres' wife) and his son Robert. They even went to the trouble to mention his daughter, and said that she was unfortunately not able to be there. This was CLEARLY a maneuver to snow the more ignorant members of the jury.

On Solveig:

I think it's a mistake to make the assumption that Solveig is not attracted to the same kinds of things that ayres is. This seems to ruffle feathers when I say that. People seem to assume some level of sympathy for the wife who's world is crumbling apart. Here are some things to think about before giving the benefit of the doubt:

A. The spouse very often is one of the first to know that there is a "problem" and they are also the first to ignore and deny it. In engaging in this denial, they allow further damage. This in itself is BAD.

B. With Solveig specifically, she actively defends her husband in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. This is not normal behavior. Public anger is normal behavior. (Even Hillary Clinton STILL distances herself from Billy, and theirs is CLEARLY a marriage of expedience.)

C. There are PLENTY of famous and not so famous cases where the spouse is actively engaged in or at least knowledgeable of the criminal activity. Elizabeth Smart, Jaycee Dugard, etc. I personally know of one not-famous case where the wife was not (according to testimony) actively engaged in the abuse, but was there while it was taking place, and doesn't deny it. She argued that it's what her husband needed, so it was OK.

D. Pedophiles seek other pedophiles. It IS UNUSUAL for women to be pedophiles, but not THAT unusual.
 
  • #351
I think it is clear pedophiles can be attracted to adults-Chester Arthur Stiles in Pahrump NV/Las Vegas is an excellent example of that to me. He performed with the mothers and grandmothers of his victims, seeming to have intimate adult relationships with them...once he obtained their confidence, he would assault the 3-6 year olds in their house holds.

I am always suspicious of the spouses of these men. If they are anyway observant, like you said, they knew there were problems long before they reached these levels. I will be curious to find out if there was any level of complicity in this case. In the Ayres case we are talking about at the minimum being willing to sacrifice your children or family with the ongoing "performance" that the perp was a stable, loving father and spouse. No one should ask their kids for that kind of cover.

If Robert was also molested, then the burden he is carrying is HUGE as well.
 
  • #352
I know this sounds strange, but I am trying to figure out where pedophiles fit in the evolutionary chain...like why would anyone evolve into this? The view of the courts here in MA is once the child reaches a certain age or appearance, it is not necessarily pedophilia, but something else regarding pubescent children...I dont know why the separation since you cannot consent to sexual activity until a certain age, but the whole subject is complicated....
 
  • #353
If Robert was also molested, then the burden he is carrying is HUGE as well.

Yes, I agree that it would be a huge burden. He should be thinking about that carefully as he's sitting there violently agreeing with the defense attorney. He will pay heavily with feelings of guilt as he grows up a bit more, if he knows firsthand what was going on with dad.

And I have long wondered why the daughter wouldn't speak to her mom.
 
  • #354
at the minimum Robert was subjected to the same "birds and bees" discussion Ayres displayed on the PBS videos, and that would have been a challenge to take even if his father was not attracted to boys.
 
  • #355
Thinking more about Robert brings some thoughts to mind about victimization and the stresses associated with it. Age is always a trigger and I would love to know more about why. For example (and please forgive the O/T)

My dad was a violent man who was raised by a violent man. The family tradition had to do with a beat down between the son and the dad-it was very archaic in that the day you could put your dad through the wall in response to a beating was the day you were a man and you earned his respect....that was how he was raised and he was fond of telling these stories of legendary beat downs while breaking my brothers heads. As my older brother grew, the beatings were inexplicably infinitely worse-the verbal abuse was worse...I mean it was something. It seemed almost as if my dad hated his sons, the oldest in particular. Long story short, the day of the beatdown commenced and my oldest brother finally won. He was 14 and he knocked my dad out. My dad never laid another finger on him.

It took me years to figure out what had happened-it was my brothers age that had triggered all of the additional violence. He started to approach the age that my dad was when he took a knife to his own father's throat...am I making sense?? They were locked in this cycle-one generation visiting it on one another.

I can tell you with great pride, that my brother NEVER EVER did the same. He ended it, as hard as that was for him. And my nephew is turning 18, having been accepted to college and never having known what a beat down was.
 
  • #356
I keep thinking about Ayres' "courtship" of Solveig at Judge Baker, with him hanging around the classroom while Solveig taught the boys. At first she probably thought he was attracted to her. There must have come a point when she realized his interest was really in the boys. Maybe it made her angry and resentful of the boys who were the true object of interest for her husband. Maybe that made her angry and resentful of enough of the boys to not care that they were molested. Maybe she's blaming the boys maybe she thinks they seduced her husband. It's all so weird.

The Ayres blog has received word from two child psychiatrists that in 2005, Solveig went to an annual meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry without her husband. This was right after the news reports came out that Ayres had paid a settlement to a molestation victim. The two child psychiatrists report that Solveig went around at the meeting and badmouthed the boy who received the settlement to anyone who would listen. She absolved her husband of everything and blamed the victim.

Like Ayres' other crony, San Mateo Juvenile Judge Marta Diaz, Solveig may harbor some real hostility towards boys. Freud would have a heyday trying to psychoanalyze her.

Solveig's father was also a doctor. Who knows.. maybe he molested kids. Or maybe he had a bunch of extramarital affairs.

To be honest, I am quite curious about Ayres' father, Edmund Dale Ayres who was an engineer who taught at the University of Wisconsin and then left midlife to to a university in Ohio. I always wonder if he was the subject of some scandal. Or maybe he was having extramarital affairs with some neighbor lady.
 
  • #357
Believe09: Ayres has never been what anyone would call skinny. He's well over six feet. Even in his youthful days he was fleshy around the middle.

But by his forties he was truly obese. A very fat hulking tub of lard who towered over the much smaller boys he chose for his victims. He had an arrogant manner. Yet people - including some victims - have described him as effeminate.

I have never heard of homosexuals saying that a pedophile who picks same sex victims is not gay. In fact, homosexuals I know call Ayres a " gay pedophile. " He doesn't like females of any age.

I don't think the orientation of the predator matters. The fact is that Ayres and other pedophiles have ruined kids' lives. In some cases, Ayres has caused some victims to commit suicide or domestic violence and commit robbery.
 
  • #358
www.williamayreswatch.blogspot.com has new posts up about Richard Johnson, the man who was raped as a boy at the Reception-Detention Center For Boys, where Ayres worked in the early 1960s.
 
  • #359
Thanks for the description-maybe it was the black and white from the Wisconsin days that made me think he looked, hmmm, not fragile, but not solid.

I will spare everyone my thoughts on the mental images that have now come to mind....so the bottom line is we have a "gay pedophile" who clearly shows absolutely no interest in females, yet is married with children.

Are they biologically his?
 
  • #360
Yes, they are biologically his. I recall at the first trial he said he moved from Boston to California when his son Robert was "in utero." Gave me the creeps for some reason. He somehow left his wife out of it. He could have said "We moved from Boston to California when my wife was pregnant." Instead he uses the clinical term. He also said he was married in 1963. He was married in 1962.

I don't believe he or anyone else said at the trial "My daughter could not be here." He just said he had a daughter named Barbara and there was a strained pause after that.

Word is that the police found something that Barbara had written when they searched Ayres' home- and word is it was something incriminating about her father.
 
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