In the fast-paced twenty-four-hour news cycle, Americans have grown used to constantly changing headlines and a barrage of multiple breaking stories. But two narratives in the past fourteen months have become embedded in the American psyche. Today we find ourselves on the anniversary of a misfortune that intertwines both of these phenomena and shines a light on the most malignant parts of our social structure.
At am, exactly thirty-eight years ago this morning, year-old Johnny Gosch left his home in suburban Des Moines, Iowa to deliver newspapers. This was the first time Johnny did his paper route without being accompanied by his father. Instead he was joined by his dog Gretchen as he pulled his red wagon full of newspapers through the neighborhood. Multiple witnesses, both teens and adults, recall seeing a strange car driving aroundβa blue, two door Ford Fairmont with Nebraska platesβat one point stopping to talk to Johnny.
They also reported seeing a man, after being signaled by the driver, emerge from between two homes and follow Johnny down the street. Out of sight, people heard the slam of a car door and the screeching of tires. When John Sr. Johnny had vanished. When an officer arrived forty-five minutes laterβdespite the station only being ten blocks awayβJohn and Noreen had already surmised the incident described above. The Des Moines police informed them that they were declining to act before Johnny had been gone seventy-two hoursβin , the perquisite wait before you could report a missing child.
The next day, John and Noreen organized a thousand volunteers to search the town and comb through the local woods. Cooney appeared determined to sandbag any efforts undertaken by the family. Thinking creatively, Johnny became the second missing child to ever be put on a milk carton. He had to have been abducted. That has now become the national standard. Bonacci has been diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, a side effect from having suffered sexual abuse since the age of 8.
According to Bonacci, Johnny was brought into the world of child sex trafficking, with Paul claiming to be the first person to molest Johnny on film, as a sort of advertisement for predators. Bonacci said he saw Johnny again in , where he was being held with other children in a house in Colorado. Noreen Gosch is adamant that Bonacci is being truthful. Despite this corroboration, Des Moines police have repeatedly declined to interview Bonacci. The accused operator of this Omaha-based prostitution ring was Lawrence E.
