In 2012, Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott sold Dozier Boy's Reform School to developers. Primarily because Federal Investigators from the Justice Department wrote a devastating report after a 2009 inspection. Dozier was located in Marianna Florida in Jackson County, in rural northern Florida near the Florida/Alabama/Georgia Border, which is over 95% White Evangelical Christian and poor. Immediately after they arrived, horrified construction crews discovered boys' graves everywhere. In 2019, 27 more boys' bodies were located by crime scene investigators. Many of these boys had broken bones, a couple of boys had bullets in their backs. Since the facility opened, until the late 1980's, boys claimed they were tortured and murdered by the local White Evangelical Christian Guards/Police Officers, mostly over 200 pound ex-Army Soldiers/Marines, hired to work at Dozier. Soldiers are taught to kill without guilt or remorse. In the 1970's, Dozier became integrated and black children learned first hand about torture/murder. These guards were hired locally and reflected the community in which they lived.
From the WhiteHouseBoys website, the boys knew who to fear and occasionally they would find a decent human being. You should go to the WhiteHouseBoys website and read their original testimonies/history as to what life was like there. Speaking for themselves is better testimony than anything I could say. http://www.thewhitehouseboys.com/
There were some decent people who gave some of the boys respite from the horror of Dozier:After leaving Robert Sealander joined the Peace Corps. He stated that he never got over having to "whip" the boys in his care. He never returned to the United States and died in Puerto Rico in 1999. http://www.thewhitehouseboys.com/employeephotos.html
Not saying sir, walking on the grass, mumbling under your breath, not finishing a meal, letting a cuss word slip out, being slow, smoking, throwing up, being sick, bedwetting, horsing around, showing perceived "disrespect" to the staff, having diarrhea and soiling your underpants, not attending Evangelical Church Services on Sunday, there was NO freedom of religion at Dozier, running away, all warranted beatings and torture from the guards. But these were not the number one reason for beatings and torture of these boys. Boys were made to work as slaves on neighboring farms, sugar cane fields and orchards, later they became slave labor at local businesses too. The guards from Dozier supervised them as the boys worked, for which they and the warden were paid extra. Guards all wanted this job because of the extra income, most often this assignment went to the torturers, who always got the most work out of the boys, because of the fear and terror they inspired. If a guard felt a boy had not worked hard enough, didn't follow orders, slacked off, he would be taken, immediately, after the 10-12 hour work day was done and they returned to Dozier, their first stop was the "white house," the name guards gave to their torture chamber, where the boy would be beaten and tortured.
The profit motive became more and more important to the warden and guards as the years went along, the boys would be farmed out to farmers and local businessmen as slave labor, to do lawn care, construction, etc. The warden and guards knew a good thing when they found it.
Former students Bryant Middleton, Richard Huntly and Roger Kiser, who all attended, (ATTENDED, who attends a prison?) in the 1950s, told DailyMail.com what they endured during their time
'When I was being beaten it was like I had to holler inside of me. You are panting, you're praying, you're crying and you're screaming inside of you,' Kiser, 73, said
Punishment was meted out in a small squat building known as the White House
Kiser remembers two boys that had been sent there 'were bloody on their buttocks and down the backs of their legs. It, their rear end, was like hamburger meat' Not spanked, not paddled, but struck multiple times with a leather strap, the kind often seen in barber shops. But this strap had a metal insert to increase the painful impact.
Kiser served part of his time in the facility infirmary, he remembers an 8/9-year-old boy who ran away, was chased down by guards and dogs, had the **** beaten out of him by the "christian" guards and was then brought into the infirmary, where no one did a damn thing for him, allowing him to die. What kind of nurses or doctors would allow this to happen? Dr. Mengele comes to mind.
Aged just 11, Huntly chopped the top of his toe off while cutting sugar cane with a hoe and remembers his first beating, 43 vicious licks from a barber's thick leather strap
Can you imagine an 11-year-old boy working as a slave 10 to 12 hour days, chopping off part of his toe, instead of hospitalization and humane care, is beaten and tortured with a thick barber's leather strap instead? They were angry because his injury prevented him working as a slave and making them money.
Though through the years reports of the crimes at Dozier were made to the local sheriff and his successors, they never investigated these boys' claims of TORTURE AND MURDER, because they, too, were White Evangelical Christian. And, remember, the guards were probably sitting in the Evangelical, Southern Baptist or Assemblies of God, etc. pews next to him. In rural northern Florida along the Georgia/Alabama State Lines, there were few, if any, Mormons, Catholics, Jews and if you were agnostic, atheist or gay, you made sure that you were the only person who knew.
A boy, who was 12, when he was at Dozier for running away from home after being beaten by his alcoholic parents, told the story of a ten-year-old boy. The boy wet the bed. Kids at his school found out and relentlessly teased, bullied and beat him up. As a result, he stopped going to school.
Boys who wet the bed are victims of a medical condition. These boys sleep too deeply and don't wake-up when they need to pee. These boys have no control over their bed wetting, but eventually, when they are about 13, grow out of it.
A Bible Belt "christian" judge sent him to DOZIER PRISON for being a truant. The first day he was at Dozier, he wet his prison bed. Dozier guards were NOT going to put up with a boy wetting his bed, regardless of cause. The "christian" guards grabbed him, stripped him naked and began hitting him with a paddle for over 15 minutes at first, then 30 minutes, a few days later they hit him with another paddle, this one with studs to rip a boy's flesh, a device for torture, not punishment, later they began punching and kicking him, including punching and kicking him in the "nuts". By the end of the week these "christian" guards had broken his arm, by the end of the month they had beaten the 10-year-old boy to death, they murdered him.
Boys at Dozier said boys' screams filled every night at the facility. Boys knew that if the guards hit them with a baseball bat or bull whip, they were in danger of being murdered. Guards didn't want the boys to get broken bones which would prevent the boys from working as slaves on neighboring farms, sugar cane fields and orchards, unless they were prepared to murder them for being a "problem".
Guards, Staff, the Warden, Cooks, Nurses, Doctors, Teachers all knew that boys were being tortured and murdered at the facility but none of them cared. The facility and its staff had unwavering support from local preachers who constantly praised Dozier and its staff, for the jobs and money it brought to the area, in their sermons. Local Bible Belt "christian" law enforcement, the sheriff, deputies, judges, lawyers, preachers all knew of the torture/murders too. Visiting Evangelical Preachers came to preach at Dozier, they knew too.
A gravestone from Tombstone Arizona's Boot Hill Cemetery, the same name the boys gave their cemetery at Dozier. Cowboys, lawmen and gunslingers in the old west would be proud to welcome these boys into their pantheon of heroes.
The guards had a team of boys grab his naked body and take it to the "garbage pit," as the guards called the boys' cemetery and dig his grave. After the boy's body was dumped in the "garbage pit," the warden would write the boy's parents a threatening FRAUDULENT/CYNICAL letter saying the 10-year-old ran away and that they would be sentenced to prison if they hid him. That one act is pure satanic evil.
The boys called "their" cemetery BOOT HILL, after the famous cemetery in Tombstone, Arizona, where many a lawman and gunslinger lies buried, giving their fallen Dozier comrades a small degree of honor and respect. Boys bodies recovered from the cemetery are mostly naked, only having bloody, filthy sheets as shrouds. Guards would send another set of boys would be sent to the "white house" to wash blood, urine, feces and flesh/brains off the walls. When construction crews began tearing down Dozier, they found traces of BLOOD still present on the "white house" walls.
In 2014, after the preliminary criminal investigation, Florida REPUBLICAN Evangelical Attorney General Pam Bondi announced NONE of the Evangelical TORTURE/MURDERER Guards would be prosecuted. Bondi's explanation, the guards, in their 50's/60's/70's/80's, were too old to be prosecuted; the case would be the boys' word against the guards, the guards were sworn officers of the law, with full police powers at the facility. Although all of these dead boys' bodies proved these kids were telling the truth; Republican Evangelical Attorney General Bondi then added the torture/murders happened too long ago, ending in the 1950's, though the boys themselves report that the torture/murders were still occurring through the Reagan Administration, which ended in 1988. Dozier was THE MAJOR EMPLOYER in the area, more kids in jail meant more employed guards, more state aid and money in the local economy. Everyone in Marianna and Jackson County wanted that; finally, Attorney General Bondi said it would cost too much and take too much time from her office, which had more pressing cases. Do you agree?
14-year-old George Owen Smith was hanging out with a 19-year-old cousin when the older boy "borrowed" a car from a family member. Unfortunately, the car was reported as stolen. Neither boy had a driver's license when they were pulled over by a sheriff's deputy. A judge sentenced George to Dozier. Within a few weeks George would be dead. Before being sent to Dozier, George was described as a happy go lucky kid who always wanted to make people laugh and become a star on the Grand Ole Opry, George was a pretty good guitarist, that ended the day he was given a death sentence by that Evangelical "christian" judge in 1940. Researchers turned up a copy of a letter from the warden to George's family saying he ran away. In 2012, George's body was one the bodies recovered from the guard's garbage pit. His skull has been crushed from repeated massive blows/punches. George had been beaten to death by the guards.
Gov. Ron DeSantis fought prosecuting anyone involved with beatings, torture, sexual abuse and murder at Dozier Reform School/Prison for Boys.
I grew up in the heart of the Confederacy, Bible Belt South. I was bullied when I was a kid for not being an Evangelical. I was also taught that Evangelicals hate Jews, Catholics, Hispanics, Native Americans and Blacks. This hit home for me when I was about 10-years-old. About a mile from my house is where INNOCENT Jewish Factory Owner Leo Frank was lynched. Leo Frank had been accused of the rape and murder of 14-year-old Mary Phagan who worked at National Pencil Factory, of which, Leo Frank was the plant manager. The actual murderer, James Conley, was the only witness against him. A 14-year-old office boy, Alonzo Mann, testified that he saw Conley with Mary, Conley threatened to murder the boy if he spoke about what he had seen.
I went to daycare in a remodeled house in Marietta, Georgia. In the playground was a huge tree. Long after I attended, my mom was driving us to eat Rio Vista Restaurant for all you can eat fried chicken when I noticed a huge stack of flowers around the large tree in the playground of my former school. I asked my mom why people had brought flowers and she told me that was the tree from which Leo Frank was hanged. Leo Frank's torture/murderers were so proud of what they had done that they took photos. The hate spewed out by RACIST Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, Lester Maddox and George Wallace never came as a surprise to me after that.
Note the Evangelical "christian" men who did this brought their sons to see the torture and murder of Jewish Leo Frank. Southern Christian Family Values?
Thomas Curry an Irish Catholic teenager from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania arrested for hitchhiking to see his grandparents who lived in Miami. He received a year in prison from an Evangelical judge and was immediately sent to Dozier. He didn't last long, disappearing after less than a month in the boys' prison.
One website indicated this may be the trestle, now converted to a public park walking bridge over the Suwanee River in Jackson County. Only question, was Thomas Curry's body planted at the bottom of the trestle to cover-up his torture/murder by Dozier guards or was the whole story made up?
Irish Catholic Thomas Curry, 15/16-years-old, had gone to visit his grandparents in Miami Florida in 1925. His mom and dad were from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thomas had been arrested for hitchhiking and was sent to Dozier Reform School/PRISON A few weeks later he was reported as a runaway, at which point he/disappeared. Days later his body was reported to have been found in the local paper, from information provided in a statement from Dozier. They described finding his body in a creek at the bottom of a railroad trestle. Records at the facility, indicate he fell off a railroad bridge possibly when a train came.
His family asked for his body to be shipped to them. They received Thomas's body in a wooden casket and a shipping container, after paying for the casket and shipping costs. The wooden casket was tightly sealed with long screws. I wonder if they advised Thomas's family that his body had started to rot, since it was days before it was found in the boiling hot Florida sun and since no one offered to pay for embalming as his body was decaying, to make sure no one would open his casket and examine Thomas's body.
I imagine this was done because a family might request an HONEST Medical Examiner like NYC's Milton Halpern or Pennsylvania's Cyril Wecht would find evidence of rape, torture or murder if they conducted an autopsy.
Questions arose during the Dozier 2009 investigation about all the boys reported to have died there, Thomas's body had a paper trail and cause of death, so a team of forensic scientists was sent to Philadelphia to dig up the body of Thomas Curry and perform an autopsy to verify he fell from a railroad bridge. In the meantime, Thomas' death certificate was found, which indicated he suffered multiple severe blows to the head, with a handwritten note in pencil and apparently added later, "Fell from RR Bridge." Falling from a 75 foot rail road bridge should have broken several bones in Thomas's body but probably would NOT have been limited to MULTIPLE crushing blows to his head, while a horrific beating might. When Dozier investigators dug Thomas's casket up in Philadelphia, PA, they and the press were in for a shock, after opening Thomas's wooden casket they found only wooden planks and rocks, there was NO body.
I have no doubt that "pro-life" Evangelical "christian" Guards took special enjoyment from torturing/sexually abusing the Irish Catholic Yankee 15-year-old boy from Philadelphia. I am surprised they let him live that long.
A new level of depravity, Roger Kiser spent 10 years in Dozier from the time he was 8 until he was 18, because he was an orphan. He said there was one group that he avoided because they were persecuted the worst, mentally ill boys. Again, Evangelical County judges let greed define their job. Counties had to pay for mental institutions, but the state of Florida paid for Dozier. More boys, including orphans and mentally ill boys, in prison more money, more jobs. The mentally ills boys needed medication and therapy, instead they got almost continuous beatings and torture. Most often this is believed to have been related to their work as slaves for local farmers/businessmen. They were beaten and tortured almost every day. Many are believed to have committed suicide, if not during their time there, shortly after they were released.
Sheriffs in rural northern Florida would raid trailer parks immediately before harvest season for farms and orchards. White boys 12 through 17 would be arrested for any pretext deputies/the sheriff could come up with: jay walking, littering, not cooperating with police officers, disobeying traffic laws on bicycles, any excuse imaginable to explain/justify arresting them so they could work as slaves for local farmers during harvest season every year. These boys were beaten and tortured to get the most labor possible out of the boys. Released they would know it would happen the next year at the same time.
One of the items in the budget of Dozier is interesting, the prison spent a great deal on PHONY PR photos for the prison. Here is a carefully orchestrated photo from the prison at Christmas. Actually, the only presents boys got from community groups were sold immediately after the publicity photos were taken. Greed always TRUMPED Jesus at Dozier. Roger Kiser said he prayed every night to die so he could be released from this living hell that he had been sentenced to.
It was the Evangelical Bible Belt, the least Christian place on earth.
The bodies of boys were never returned to their families if they had been subjected to abuse, to hide their child's beatings, torture, sexual abuse and murder. Dozier investigators report that they have not found Thomas Curry's real grave yet, lending credence to the WhiteHouseBoys claim that the number of tortured/murdered boys buried at Dozier could have been 130 or more.
Now, it must be taken into account, between 75 and 102 boys' bodies found inside Dozier grounds, we know some tortured/murdered boys' bodies were buried offsite, while other boys' bodies were shipped back to their families when estimating the number of murder victims at Dozier. But that isn't the end of the story...
About 200 boys are reported to have run away from Dozier Reform School for Boys and never recaptured. It is now believed that many of these were murdered by police officers/guards/staff at the facility, buried in the swamps off campus or fed to alligators. Worse yet, we know staff doctored and falsified records, boys who were tortured/murdered were dumped in the swamps, then any record of them being at Dozier was DESTROYED. There could be more boys than this total.
One 11-year-old boy got up to pee after lights out and walked in on an adult staff member getting oral sex from a 12-year-old boy. He woke up a boy who slept next to him and told him what he had seen. The next day the boy who witnessed the sexual abuse, was reported to have "run away," but in all probability was murdered, then either buried anonymously in the swamps surrounding Dozier or chopped up and fed to the alligators which inhabit those same swamps. It was, after all, the Evangelical Bible Belt.
Swamp and watershed areas in Jackson County, which are the home to 1,000's of alligators.
How many "runaway boys" were actually raped, tortured and murdered by staff and guards, sworn police officers, then buried off campus or fed to alligators in the swamps around Dozier? Worse yet, we know police, guards and staff at the facility falsified the boys' records, meaning the number might be much, much higher, possibly as high as 500 boys murdered by the guards/staff. The number of rapes could run into the 1000's. They also destroyed records: boys who disappeared, were MURDERED, at Dozier, suddenly never existed, at least as far as the Dozier prison records recorded. If they could get sympathetic judges/court clerks, many of whom visited Dozier for sex with the boys, destroyed court records, then the boys never existed as far as the State of Florida records indicated. We may never know the truth.
At this point, it should be mentioned that EVANGELICAL Florida Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi supervised every step of the investigation and approved all the findings. Bondi served as REPUBLICAN Attorney General from 2011 to 2019. She claimed, without supplying any evidence, that the abuse ended in the early 1950's. She cited the figure of 57, then later revised to 75 as more and more boys' bodies turned up. Then she was PROVEN WRONG again, when 27 more boys' bodies were found in 2019. The White House Boys estimate of tortured/murdered boys is 130 or more, after interviews with survivors and independent research. The surviving White House Boys admitted that too might be an underestimate.
The only problem with Republican Attorney General Bondi's official "opinion"/cover-up, boys, who served time at the facility formed a survivors group called the White House Boys, testified that torture was systematically practiced at Dozier through the late 1980's and the boys claimed a murder by guards occurred at Dozier as late as 1980. Worse yet, individual acts of torture by guards were reported right up until the facility's closing and sale in 2012. Republican Attorney General Bondi obviously believed the guards and not the boys, whatever the truth of the matter. I would argue all the dead boys' bodies prove they told the truth, not the guards.
In the 100 year history of the facility there were occasional, respites, if a reform minded/progressive warden was appointed at the facility. Unfortunately, they usually earned the enmity of guards and staff who liked running the facility their way. The staff/guards would lobby the legislature and governor to replace them with someone more in sync with what they wanted. One or two years of decency and compassion were usually followed by a new reign of TERROR.
A few months ago, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis ORDERED all college professors to clear any testimony before the state legislature with him first and they were warned if he did not like their professional advice or opinions they would be fired immediately. DeSantis made it very clear, he would not allow anyone to testify truthfully if it disagreed with what he wanted them to say.
For those who don't remember, Florida Evangelical Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi dropped Charity Fraud and Tax Fraud investigations of the Trump Foundation and Trump University after Trump donated $25,000 CASH to her re-election campaign for Attorney General. Investigations have determined that the Trump Foundation never did one single act of charity, it was simply a Trump family TAX FREE SLUSH FUND. Trump "university" employed fast food employees on their "faculty" and never qualified as a University.
In fact, the only qualification Trump looked for in his "faculty" were good salesman/woman, with no academic credentials or bona fide experience in the field of real estate, who could get students to purchase extra courses/tutoring whether they could afford them or not. The New Yorker Magazine reports that Trump advertised on Fox News and other right-wing/conservative outlets, targeting people without college/high school degrees or any experience in real estate. These "teachers" actually encouraged students to mortgage their homes to pay for more unaccredited Trump Real Estate courses, which could cost up to $35,000 for a 3 week supplemental course. Trump "university" was shut down for FRAUD by the New York Attorney General. Pam Bondi would later serve as Trump's Impeachment Lawyer. Obviously she has a broken moral compass and is too cheap to get it fixed at SEARS.
Orphanages were few in number in rural Bible Belt communities, especially northern Florida, and totally funded by the local community. Juvenile Prisons were paid for by the state of Florida. So local officials, instead of funding and building more facilities for these kids, used local judges to ship girls to the orphanages that existed, then shipped ORPHAN BOYS, 7 to 18-years-old, to Dozier Juvenile PRISON as a practical and very profitable alternative, since more boys sent to Dozier meant more money for Marianna and Jackson County from the Florida state government. For the boys it was the beginning of their hellish nightmare. Orphan Roger Kiser spent 10 years in prison for the crime of being an orphan.
Not prosecuting Policemen/State Prison Guards who TORTURED and MURDERED children, most of whom were orphans, runaways, truants, kids violating curfews, smoking cigarettes, caught drinking a beer they "lifted" from a convenience store, boys hitchhiking, cussing in public, kids guilty of arguing with parents and/or teachers and petty misdemeanor "criminal" kids, like kids stealing a candy bars or bikes, joy riding in a car, could get you sent to the worst juvenile prison in the Bible Belt or the country, so these kids' torture/murder should come as no surprise to us. And Pam Bondi's cover-up continues the Dozier Torture/Murder crime against humanity.
IMPORTANT AND HORRIFIC UPDATE: Most of the information that I've repeated here came from research I did in 2014 at the time EVANGELICAL Florida Republican Attorney General Bondi REFUSED to prosecute the Guards/Police Officers, they had police powers, even the legal right to beat and torture these boys, who TORTURED AND MURDERED THESE BOYS. I was so angry that I began researching what happened there and reporting the suffering these boys suffered. Going back and doing some more research for an update in 2021, I learned something I had never heard before, but which does not surprise me in the least.
Wikipedia:
In 2015, a multi-year investigation of the cemetery and grounds by the University of South Florida (USF), which was attempting to find undocumented burials on the grounds, revealed details of a secret "rape dungeon," where boys mostly younger than 12 were sexually abused.
Among the allegations of a group of survivors known as the White House Boys, the organization of Dozier Prison Survivors, nicknamed for the building in which they say they suffered the worst abuse, are accounts of youths being beaten unconscious while chained to walls or beds, gang raped by guards (staff?) and some "special" cooperative boys were given sex with younger boys as a reward from the guards/staff in a basement (orchestrated by guards as a reward to favored older boys or as punishment for the rape victim?) or simply disappearing after excessive punishments for minor infractions such as smoking or truancy.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/06/dozier-school-for-boys-abuse-florida-new-allegations
Many women's groups say many rapes have little to do with sex, they are to demonstrate the perpetrator's power over their victim. Sexual abuse at Dozier had to have roots in both sexual gratification and power over these unfortunate children.
Robert Straley was 13 in 1963, he was 5' 4" and weighed 105 pounds, when he was sent to Dozier for running away from home. Almost immediately he became a special target of guards attention. He received several horrific beatings from chief torturer Mr. Tidwell and other guards, who seemed to take sadistic joy in the torture sessions, but then it got many times worse. He spoke in an interview with the Miami Herald, how within a few days he was taken to a hidden room and anally gang raped by a group of guards and other staff. When he started to cry from the pain, the guards would start to beat him. Finally, he mercifully passed out. Throughout his time at Dozier he and other boys were raped 100's of times, passed around from guard to guard. Certain "good looking" boys, 14-years-old and younger were always favorite targets for discipline by the guards and staff and for this "special treatment".
Mr. Straley was a co-founder of the White House Boys support group of Dozier Reform School Survivors. It should be noted that Florida Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi estimates the number of boys buried at Dozier at between 57 and 75,* while most experts estimate the number at more than 100, much more likely considering the 27 boys' bodies found in 2019, Attorney General Bondi's figure is no longer seen as credible. The White House Boys themselves have researched the matter, taking eyewitness testimony from the boys who served time there and survived. They estimate the number of tortured boys in the 10,000's and the murdered boys at about 130 through their eyewitness accounts and independent research. http://thewhitehouseboys.com/
When I brought up about another missing boy that was on recording number three (which was very clear) she acted like she hadn’t even heard it. I told her about Louis getting up one night to use the bathroom and catching his cottage father, Mr. Robinson making a Mexican kid perform oral sex on him. Mr. Robinson slapped Louis in the face and sent the Mexican kid back to bed. The cottage father then hog tied Louis and started to electrocute him with a cut off extension cord. During the course of the torture all of Louis’ teeth got broken.
One night Mr. Robinson took that boy out of the dorm to sexually abuse him, but something went wrong. Mr. Robinson came back into the dorm without the boy and he got two of the bullies to go with him. The cottage father locked the doors into the dorm. He then backed his car up to the rear door and then he drove away. The next morning he told the boys in the cottage that the kid had run away.
http://thewhitehouseboys.com/glennraymax.html
Roger Kiser: Dr. Currie, the Dozier Staff Psychologist was molesting me. Of course this was in 1959
Early one morning Doctor Robert Loyal Currie called me to the head office. He told me that I would soon visit the White House, which was a torture room for boys who broke one of their many rules or tried to escape. I was sent to the school for trying to escape from the Children's Home Society orphanage in Jacksonville. I had been incarcerated there for 10 years for the crime of having no parents to care for me.
When I heard that they were taking me to this White House, an extreme fear came over me. I almost passed out and was trembling so badly that my legs collapsed under me. I fell to the floor and lay there. The men told me to "get my sorry butt up" and sit down on the hard, wooden bench outside the office. I waited there for the two men who would take me to the "White House" GUARDS' TORTURE CHAMBER. I knew their routine well, as I had heard about it from many other boys who were taken there. Other than the time I learned that I had cancer and would die within six months, I have never known more fear than when I was told I was going to be taken to this place.
After a wait of about 30 minutes, these two men came to get me. They grabbed me by my arms and lifted me off the bench. There were several other boys in the office with me, so I had to try to act as though I was not scared, but they knew. The two men walked with me across the grass circle that divided the offices from the "White House." We stopped at another office and a man, Troy Tidwell took the place of one of the men holding me. We continued walking toward the mess hall. As we rounded the building, I could see it right in front of me: THE WHITE HOUSE.
My mind was just going crazy with fear. My thoughts seemed to be swimming in a circle, like a cat that had been thrown into a cold river. I was so scared, I could not think straight. Words were coming from my mouth before my mind could think of what it was I was attempting to say. I was trying to decide if I should run and hide or maybe kill myself. Anything was better than what was going to happen in there.
When we reached the door, one of the men took out his keys and stuck one into the lock. I looked back over my shoulder and I saw about 50 boys. They stared in silence. As the door opened, an ungodly odor filled my nose and I could hardly breathe. I remember trying to step through the doorway, but the odor was so overwhelming that I fell in the short hallway inside. One of the men grabbed me by the back of the shirt collar and jerked it up around my neck, choking me. One of the buttons fell off my shirt and hit the floor, rolling very slowly around the corner. Almost everything was happening in slow motion. My whole body was just numb and it was very difficult for me to breathe. I tried to pull the shirt down from around my neck, but the man jerked it once again and hit me on the top of the head with his knuckles. I hit the floor again and bloodied my nose from the impact. At that point, I was not walking at all; my legs would not work.
The two men picked me up and carried me into a small room, which had nothing in it except a bunk bed and a pillow. They put me down on the floor and ordered me to lie on the bed facing the wall. Crying, I pulled myself up onto the edge of the bed and wiped the blood from my nose onto my shirtsleeve. When I looked up at the men's faces, they were plain, cold and hard. They had no expression whatsoever. I did what they told me to do. One of them said to move my hands to the top of the bunk bed and grab the bar at the headboard. I did so as quickly as I could. Not one sound could be heard. I felt one of the men reach under the pillow and slowly pull something out. I turned over quickly and looked at the one who was standing near me. He had a large leather strap in his hand.
"Turn your God damn head back toward the wall!" he yelled.
I knew what was going to happen and it was going to be very bad. I had been told what to expect by some of the boys, who were taken to the White House. I never heard from some of them again.
I also heard that this giant strap was made of two pieces of leather, with a piece of sheet metal sewn in between the halves. Again, everything was dead silent. I remember tightening my buttocks as much as I could. Then I waited and waited, and waited. I remember someone taking a breath, then a footstep. I turned over very quickly and looked toward the man with the leather strap. There was an ungodly look on his face and I knew he was going to beat me to death. I will never forget that look for as long as I live.
I tried to jump off the bed, but I was knocked backward when the leather strap hit me on the side of the face. I jumped to the end of the bunk and began trying to climb up the cement wall but there was nowhere to climb. Mr. Hatton kept beating me with the leather strap about the chest, back and legs. The men grabbed me, pulled me down and held me to the floor. I was yelling to God to save me, begging for someone, anyone, to help. There was blood all over everything. It was everywhere.
"Please forgive me! Please forgive me," I repeated at the top of my voice. "Please forgive me! Dear God, please help me!"
But it didn't do any good; God didn't hear me that day. Maybe He was smart enough not ever to enter the White House, even to save a child.
After about five minutes of begging, pleading and crying, they told me to get back on the bed and grab the top rail again. They warned that if I tried to get off the bed, the whole thing would repeat from the beginning. I slowly pulled myself up off the floor and got back onto the bed. Again, I grabbed the rail and waited; everything became quiet, except for the two men breathing really hard. Once again, I tightened up my buttocks and waited.
Then all of a sudden, it happened. I thought my head would explode. The thing came down on me over and over. I screamed and kicked and yelled as much as I could, but it did no good. He just kept beating me over and over. However, I never let go of that bed rail. Then there was nothing. The next thing I remember, I was walking into Doctor Currie's Office and the secretary asked me who I was. I was so bloodied that she could not recognize me. Minutes later, still in a stupor, I was taken to Mr. Hatton's office. I was sitting on a wooden bench in the one-armed man's office. I remember wiping the slobber and blood from my mouth. My body felt like it was on fire. I stood and found that I hardly could.
God, God, God, it hurt badly. I will never forget that until the day I die.
One of the men in the office yelled at me to sit down. I told him that I had to go to the bathroom really bad. He pointed at a doorway and said that it was the bathroom; he told me to "make it quick."
"I'm gonna tell somebody about what you people are doing around here when I get out of here one day," I mumbled.
"Talk like that around here will have you wake up dead tomorrow morning, sonny boy," said the man, as he squinted his eyes and pointed his finger at me.
Please Consider buying these Roger Dean Kiser Books for the whole story:
The Story of Dozier
The Imaginary Trial of Troy Tidwell
An Investigative Summary
Other books from Dozier Survivor Roger Dean Kiser
My parenthetical additions come from a scandal a few years ago at Republican Private for Profit Juvenile Prison in the rural West. Boys as young as 10 up to 16-years-old were "given" to 200 pound 16/17/18-year-old boys for sex, they were RAPED repeatedly with full knowledge and approval of prison guards, staff and administrators. These 200 pound boys were used to make sure the prison ran smoothly and their were no troublemakers. Any trouble, the troublemaker would have the **** beaten out of him by these vicious bullies until they got the message. Both of these crimes were ignored by prison guards, staff and administrators. And crimes which the local sheriff, DA's and Judges NEVER allowed in their courtrooms. Later charges of cover-up occurred online when the story disappeared from newspapers after a gag order from a local judge. Evangelical Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi, apparently, is not the only one with a broken moral compass.
THE INNOCENT...
Pictured above is Roger Kiser an orphan from Jacksonville who was sent to Dozier for running away at age 8 from the orphanage because of beatings and abuse, remaining there until his 18th birthday. Roger described his first torture session:
One of four boys let slip the word Sh** and we were immediately grabbed by the guards.
He and four other boys marched to the White House, but he tripped as he got to the door.
'The man behind me grabbed me by the back of the shirt and slugged me as hard as he could in the back of the neck. My face hit the floor, bloodying my nose.
'Then he jerked me backwards and the top button on my shirt fell off and, in slow motion, I watched it roll down the hallway.'
'I was told to lay down on the bed, face the wall, grab the rail and when I did I felt that leather strap with a piece of sheet metal in it slide from under the pillow.
I remember I was shaking so badly. When you're that age you try not to act scared because you are trying to be a man.
'There were little pieces of lip on the bed which boys had literally bitten off as they were being beaten.
'I jumped up and I looked up at him and the look on that man's face told me all I needed to know.
'I knew he was going to beat me to death.'
From an interview with Roger Kiser
Years later Kiser worked with Ed Asner and Michael Landon to make sure this never happens again. Roger made one point in his website emphatically, 90% of the boys who were sent to Dozier were not bad kids, most of whom should NOT have been there, but there were kids, who were either career criminals, drug addicts/alcoholics or violent, possibly mentally ill, teens, 10 to 25% of the boy inmate population, who should have been in prison to protect us. But even so, not even they deserved some of the things which happened at Dozier.
The Good...
That man was Troy Tidwell, who police investigated in 2008/2009, after a former student accused him of either killing a boy or being responsible for disposing the murdered boy's body, which occurred at the boys' prison/school around the late 70's, early 80's.
Police decided not to press charges against the guards, to the surprise of no one. Law Enforcement's first loyalty, Semper Fi, is to each other, not us. He and former director Robert Hatton, who is now dead, were particularly remembered by the boys for their vicious and totally unnecessary cruelty. Vicious "christian" sadism and cruelty for their own sake.
Another boy, an Italian Catholic Orphan from Jacksonville Florida was forced into a Southern Baptist Orphanage after his parents died by an Evangelical "christian" judge. Almost immediately this boy became the subject of the boys and staff's wrath for refusing to convert to their Southern Baptist Faith. These boys and staff weren't asking, they were telling him. After several beatings by staff and the boys, he ran away. For running away, an Evangelical Judge sent him to Dozier Reform School/PRISON, almost immediately he began to be beaten and tortured by the Evangelical "christian" police officers/prison guards there. It was the Bible Belt.
A post about juvenile "justice" in Florida:
Yes, I remember, too. Boys who were convicted of the slightest infractions, or were of an "inconvenience" to their families, were sent to "Marianna." Those who came back relayed their horrific experiences there in real-time stories, but no one paid attention, and there was no investigation. Many stayed until they aged out, and then went into the service because they had nowhere else to go. Back then - and in some current cases - judges "sentenced" those who were of enlistment age to join instead of ordering incarceration. But getting back to Marianna, there were those who died, and those that returned home told the stories about them; but, then again, no one paid attention or investigated. A place of lesser "punishment" with some of the same practices was Florida Sheriff's Boys' Ranch in Ocala, Florida, but there were horror stories about that institution as well. Yes, boys died there, too. Again, no one investigated - because it bore the word "Sheriff" in its name. I had a childhood friend, who was 12 years old, when his mother had him sent there. He was "in her way," and, if anyone should have been sent away, it was HER. We wrote letters back and forth. His mother and her "companion" took me with them one time to see him. He told me the truth. I told my mother the truth. I don't know if she told his mother or not. Six months later, he was dead. No one ever told me "how" or "why." I suspect it may have been suicide, as he was scheduled for a "hearing" to come home, but didn't. Since that time, any time I've heard the name "Dozier Reform School," or "Marianna" mentioned, I've spoken up. I was thrilled when this expose came out. RIP CM. You deserved better.
Not all that surprising...
Attorney Clarence Darrow asked why should he, as an agnostic, be forced to say an Evangelical prayer at the beginning of court each day?
As Baltimore journalist HL Mencken said during the Clarence Darrow/William Jennings Bryant Monkey/Evolution Trial in 1925, the Bible Belt is least Christian place on earth.
I DON'T! I bet the boys tortured and murdered at Dozier, along with Jesus Christ, agree with me, not Evangelical Republican Attorney General Bondi. You can't be a little pregnant or a little dishonest. Once you cross that Rubicon, you've defined yourself for the rest of your life. Who do you see as the VILLAIN in this story?
Boys named the staff and the guards who beat, sexually abused and tortured them. Troy Tidwell, the guard who was accused of being involved in either the murder of a boy or covering it up and disposing of the boy's body around 1980 disproves Florida Evangelical Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi's 2014 claim that the torture/murders all but stopped over 70 years ago, by the beginning of 1950.
Troy Tidwell was born December 19, 1923 to Mary Ocie and Archie Hinson Tidwell. He attended Malone High School and began work at the Florida Farm Colony in Gainesville in 1941. After marrying the love of his life, Lucile Baxter on December 19, 1941, they moved to Marianna in 1943. Troy began working for the Florida School for Boys (later named the Dozier School for Boys) in May 1943. Tidwell retired at the end of the 1980's. Troy Tidwell died April 5, 2021 at the age of 97, he died in his bed surrounded by his family. From Troy Tidwell's obituary in the local newspaper, the Dozier Boys would have a much different obituary for the man who made their lives a living hell. Tidwell TORTURED and terrified boys at the facility for over 45 years because of his inhuman and vicious beatings.
When confronted with accusations against the guards like Tidwell at Dozier, Jackson County Police and DA's refused to investigate or prosecute them. Tidwell's reputation for beating the hell out of kids was horrific. In a 2009 deposition, he said he spanked boys with a paddle a few times. One boy remembered him laughing as he hit the 12-year-old 57 times as hard as he could causing the boy to cry, scream and become drenched in his own blood. Tidwell would scream at the crying boys, BE A MAN, STOP CRYING, as he beat the **** out of them.
But no one cared. Certainly not Pam Bondi, Republican Governors Rick Scott or Ron DeSantis. Even after all the boys' dead bodies were found, police, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Governors Rick Scott and Ron DeSantis refused to arrest or prosecute Mr. Tidwell or any other guard.
From the WhiteHouseBoys Website, the sworn statement of the last Dozier murder, which the Jackson County Sheriff, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Evangelical Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi decided was not worth pursuing or prosecuting. There is no statute of limitations on murder.
Tidwell sat motionless in the front seat. All I could hear was the sound of rustling papers and the other boy somewhat whimpering and cursing. Mr. Tidwell opened his door, walked to the back and opened the door where the boy was laying. Once again the two of them began to curse and scream at one another. I looked over my shoulder when I heard the boy spit. I cringed when I saw Tidwell wiping the spit from his face in the light of the full moon. He lowered his hand and just stood there not saying a word. Suddenly, he reached in, grabbed the boy by his shirt, jerked him out of the car and threw him to the ground. The boy was screaming, every word a curse word. Trying my best to watch them, my legs slipped off the seat. I struggled and finally managed to get back up on the seat, my head now facing the two of them on the driver’s side of the car. Tidwell reached down and grabbed the boy by the handcuffs and jerked as hard as he could, causing the boy to scream out in pain. He un-cuffed the boy’s hands from his feet and jerked him to a standing position. Swinging as hard as he could, he hit the boy (with his right hand) so hard that the boy fell sideways; his head slammed full force into the side of the vehicle. Instantly, everything went silent except Tidwell breathing. I waited for the boy to begin cursing but there was no sound at all. All remained silent except for the thousands of crickets and an occasional bull frog. ‘Maybe the boy finally learned his lesson and was remaining still and quiet,’ I thought.
I lay perfectly still waiting to see what might happen next. The next thing I knew the man walked around the car opened the door and began unlocking my handcuffs from my ankle chains. I was instructed to get out of the car and hop to the back of the vehicle. Only being able to take baby-steps, he jerked me by the shirt forcing me to the back of the vehicle where he opened the trunk.
“DAMN!” he yelled in disgust, as he hit the back of the car with his fist. Still breathing really hard, he bent forward and held onto the vehicle with his one arm. We both stood there looking at the lifeless body on the ground.
“Is he dead Mr. Tidwell?”
“Shut your damn mouth,” he screamed.
I could tell that Tidwell was scared. I had never seen him scared before. He was a rough, tough mean man but never did I ever see him scared of anything or anyone. There was a large hinge bolt which held the door onto the vehicle. I think the side of the boy’s head hit the bolt when Tidwell knocked him into the car. I didn’t see any blood but I knew the boy was deader than a doornail.
“Don’t you say one damn word, do you understand me boy? You get down on the ground and lay flat on your belly,” he demanded. He ordered me to stay quiet and remain totally flat on the ground. I watched his feet beneath the automobile as he walked toward an old tin building. Several minutes later he returned with a shovel in his right hand. I was directed to dig a grave about twenty yards off the road. I immediately began digging. Once in a while I would look up at Mr. Tidwell who was constantly staring at me. I dug the hole until it was about up to my knees and then I stopped.
“Twice as deep,” he ordered.
I knew right then and there he was not going to leave any witnesses.
“Mr. Tidwell, have you ever seen the movie “Cool Hand Luke?”
He didn’t respond.
As I continued to dig, I whispered loudly, “You remind me of Cool Hand Luke, Mr. Tidwell. You’re a big and strong man just like Mr. Luke;”
“I was a good boy myself when I first came to work here; a very good boy. You know what that means? But that’s all changed now,” Tidwell said, in a slow, somber drawn out tone of voice.
“My daddy always beat me real bad Mr. Tidwell, real black and blue too. He tried to smother me and my brother and he shot my mama one time too. I wanted to be strong like Cool Hand Luke but I never could do it. The beatings just hurt too badly. Maybe I could be strong one day just like you Mr. Tidwell. That’s what I want to be one day; to be big and strong just like you.”
Tidwell stood not saying a word.
“I won’t say nothin’ about what happened here, really I won’t Mr. Tidwell.”
“I can’t take that chance son,” he replied.
When I looked up at his face, because of the bright moonlight, I could see tears running down Tidwell’s cheeks. But again, he said nothing.
I looked back down and began to dig. My body began to shake and tremble uncontrollably. I was so scared that I couldn’t even start crying. I tried to think but my mind kept running in a never-ending circle of confusion. ‘Could he kill me? Would he really kill me? Why did he start crying? Mr. Tidwell never cries, ‘cause he’s real strong just like in the movie Cool Hand Luke.’
There was one way for me to save myself. It was real, real bad but not as bad as havin’ to die. I stopped digging, looked directly up at Mr. Tidwell and said, “Mr. Tidwell, please don’t hurt me. I’ll suck your dick really, really good if you don’t hurt me and I’ll do it good to.”
Half a smile came to his face as he pressed his lips together as if he were thinking; but all he did was shake his head “no” as if in a state of disgust. I thought about dropping the shovel and running out into the woods, but I knew that the gators or snakes would get me just like the other boys who ran away and were never heard from again.
When the hole was about up to my waist, Mr. Tidwell ordered me stop digging. I watched as he walked over to the boy, grabbed him by his handcuffed arms and drug him to the waiting hole. I kept saying over and over, “I won’t tell anyone Mr. Tidwell, really I won’t Mr. Tidwell.” He acted as if I were not even there. With one arm he flung the boy’s body into the hole as if it had no weight to it whatsoever. The body landed on me and I fell to the bottom of the damp hole and began crying.
After the boy was thrown into the hole, I was instructed to cover him with dirt. When the hole was about half full, I stopped and looked at the one arm man.
“Keep filling,” he instructed.
After completely filling the hole I began patting down the soil so it wouldn’t leave a big hump.
“Nobody’ll ever find him Mr. Tidwell. No way, not way out here.”
“I’m going to take you to lock-up and you had best keep your damn mouth shut. You keep that mouth of yours shut and every once in a while I’ll take you to town and buy you a soda pop.”
“I gave you my word Mr. Tidwell and I won’t ever go back on that. Really I won’t.”
I knew that I had just saved my own ass from a certain death. To this day I don’t know what it was that touched the heart of one evil and vile man like Troy Tidwell.
It is this story which has led me to believe that many more boys may have been TORTURED/RAPED/MURDERED at the facility than the 100 +/- bodies found on the campus so far might lead us to believe. Swamps and alligators are only a few 100 yards away from the campus, any boy's body dumped there would never be found.
In 2009, Federal Investigators inspected Dozier and immediately called for an official investigation of the facility. They found that over 200 boys claimed that they had been sexually abused/RAPED at Dozier, remember this phenomenon, most boys who are sexually abused and raped will never admit, whether it was by guards/police/preachers/other boys, and 10,000's of boys claimed they had been tortured by the guards.
Troy Tidwell testifying under oath at his deposition, arguing that he only "paddled" a few boys and only when they deserved it, which was good enough for police, the local DA and the Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum in 2009.
Terry Burns recalled spending a month in solitary confinement right after he arrived at age 13 for hitchhiking. He made the mistake of being slow to a meal and was being taught a lesson. He slept naked on a concrete floor and ate three pieces of bread each day. He had a metal bucket for a toilet and was routinely beaten and tortured every day for no reason. Despite the torture, he said he felt blessed to still be alive. Other Dozier boys weren’t as lucky.
Billy Hayes, 12/13-years-old while at Dozier, said during an interview years later, after a few torture sessions, he would pray, like 8-year-old orphan Roger Kiser, to die every night he was there.
BOARD OF EDUCATION OR TORTURE?Pictured below a Dozier "paddle" with STUDS/SPIKES on it to rip into the flesh of boys 7 to 18-years-old at Dozier Reform School. This was not designed to punish boys, this was designed to TORTURE them. Devices like this explain why the boys were stripped naked by their Bible Belt Evangelical "christian" guards. The guards didn't want blood on the boys' clothes. Then they were kept naked in solitary confinement cell until the boy's wounds healed, at which point, they were put back in the general population---until their next torture session or being carried and buried in the "garbage pit." Many might suspect a sexual sadism motive may be involved as well in the actions of these Bible Belt "christian" guards too. A not unreasonable assumption. I wrote that before learning about the latest finding of systematic sexual abuse of the boys, which seems to have targeted boys under 14-years-old, especially boys 12-years-old and younger, 90% of whom shouldn't have been in prison in the first place.
Staged photo ops showing what a wonderful place Dozier Torture/Murder School was.
I would be curious if anyone is as surprised as I am at how many really young boys, 7 to 14-years-old, were imprisoned at Dozier. I was perplexed what these children could have done to be sent to prison, then I learned that judges would send ORPHAN BOYS, who were NOT Southern Baptists, Assemblies of God or other Evangelical "christians" to Dozier instead of orphanages and foster homes, which were reserved for girls, as a means of keeping the facility full so they could keep Florida Taxpayer money/funds coming in to Marianne and Jackson County. The one thing everyone must realize, these children didn't matter to these "christian" judges at all.
Of course, posed photos for the press presented the story that officials wanted seen.
This photo had a caption: boys sent to Dozier became "SLAVE LABOR" for local farmers and businessmen, again to the profit of the warden and the guards, for the hard labor, beatings and torture of the boys, there is nothing I need to add. There is some reason to believe that Evangelical Sheriffs would raid trailer parks and poor parts of town looking for boys to become slaves.
At planting and harvest time every year, Southern Baptist, Assemblies of God and other Evangelical Sheriffs across northern Florida would send their deputies into white trailer parks and black areas to arrest every poor boy from 12 to 17-years-old, for any fake "crime" they could come up with, so they could work as SLAVES. The boys would then be framed in a fraudulent trial by the corrupt Evangelical DA's and Judges and sentenced to up to 3 months in Dozier Boys Prison every spring and fall so they could work as SLAVES on local farms and orchards. The boys were beaten and tortured by guards if they did not feel the boys worked hard enough, many would be sexually abused as well. The guards, sheriffs and prison staff got kickbacks from local farmers for these boys' slave labor. Everyone made money from this brilliant "christian" idea except the boys who were Bible Belt Evangelical "christian" slaves.
Slavery and long work days helped you fend off predatory older boys, but did nothing to help with vicious "christian" guards.
By the 1960's and 1970's sports were played between the black and white boys, though their housing was still segregated. As a step towards integration, all boys were tortured in the "white house". Racist Governor Fuller Warren came from Marianna and he lobbied the state legislature to drastically increase the size of Dozier Juvenile Prison in his hometown. Gov. Warren (1949-1953) was a very proud member of the KKK. Through his efforts, Dozier became the largest and worst juvenile prison in the US.
Local Police throughout Northern Florida were encouraged to creatively arrest and DA's to prosecute poor boys under any pretext so the Dozier facility was always full, which served as a boon to the local economy. Judges were active participants and willing accomplices. Justice had NOTHING to do with what was occurring at Dozier. They even sent ORPHANS to Dozier by default. There were burglars, rapists and murderers at Dozier, though few in number. Not even they deserved what happened to them there. As to be expected, greed was the #1 motivation for sending boys to Dozier, far more important than Justice.
White House Boys said life at Dozier was a living hell, but black boys had it worse. Most local guards were vicious racists and never attempted to hide it. Apparently many of them were sexual sadists and child molesters, considering the update reported in Wikipedia of a Boy Rape Dungeon for the Guards and Staff reported in 2015. But always remember it was the Evangelical "christian" Bible Belt.
Note guards supervising meals, looking for any reason to beat/torture the boys.
No matter how horrific it was for white boys, at best black boys had it as bad, if not worse, until the facility was integrated in the 1970's, when every boy was treated equally bad, unless they got a vicious, racist guard.
I think my interest in the Dozier Reform School Scandal came from a movie made by RKO, one of the big studios during the Golden Age of Hollywood, in 1939, called Slave Boys about a Southern Reform School. It tells the horrific hellish life of juvenile delinquents in the Bible Belt, where slavery, torture, beatings and murder were the norm. I remember seeing it on TV once in the 1960's when I was about 10-years-old. Southern Bible Belt Politicians and Evangelical Preachers successfully got it banned from local TV in Atlanta because they said it gave an unfair portrayal of the Bible Belt. I had to go to a Russian Website to find it. Actually, it turns out to be ahead of its time and told the TRUTH. In 2012, Florida sold off Dozier Reform School to developers. Horrified construction crews were discover boys' bodies everywhere they dug. I wrote about Dozier on my blog. I became interested in Dozier when Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi REFUSED to prosecute guards who TORTURED/MURDERED boys at the facility. I posted the movie on YouTube in five parts if you are interested in seeing it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7NLCr2slvw
The location of Dozier Reform School, where boys were abused, tortured and murdered.
May the name of REPUBLICAN EVANGELICAL "christian" Pam Bondi LIVE IN INFAMY UNTIL HELL FREEZES OVER and may the boys tortured and murdered at Dozier be waiting for her at St. Peter's gate, when it is slammed in her face.
When I was 11-years-old our school principal came over our school PA and announced that Martin Luther King had been murdered. I will never forget a few kids in my class applauded. I was shocked. I knew these kids, they were all from church going Evangelical families. I don't think I ever had a bad opinion of church goers, except the Baptist Preacher and KKK Police Officers who tortured and murdered Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner for registering blacks to vote in Philadelphia Mississippi in 1964. My view of religious people changed forever after I saw that.
