We continue to explore organized child abuse and the methods used to keep it going.
Caradori's death cast a pall of terror over the state.
Civil rights leader Rev. James Bevel, who visited Nebraska in October 1990 as part of a fact-finding commission, said that he had never seen such terror on people's faces, "not even on the faces of Mississippi Negroes in the 1950s and 1960s," who lived under the threat of lynchings by the Ku Klux Klan.
Rev. James Bevel
In this atmosphere, Douglas County and federal grand juries indicted victim-witnesses Alisha Owen and Paul Bonacci.
The Senate Franklin committee went out of existence on January 9, 1991. On June 21, 1991, Alisha Owen was found guilty, and Douglas County prosecutors dropped the charges against Paul Bonacci.
Paul Bonacci
As far as the Nebraska political establishment was concerned, the door on the Franklin case was slammed shut for good.
Thousands of Nebraska citizens are concerned that what Gary Caradori uncovered not go with him to the grave. The story of the Franklin Credit Union investigation is intertwined with the systematic cover-up that investigation confronted, from the time of the first cries for help from children six years ago.
CHAPTER 2
LARRY KING, A MAN WELL-KNOWN TO CHILDREN
Larry King
The first alarm went off on June 10, 1985, when the Washington County, Nebraska, Sheriffs Department contacted a Nebraska Department of Social Services (DSS) social worker handling the case of Sean, “Sally* and Steve McArthur*.
The children were living in foster care with Jarrett and Barbara Webb of Fort Calhoun. The social worker wrote up the call: The Sheriff's department phoned today and stated they have the McArthur children in their custody and they had picked them up from the Webb home due to child abuse complaint.
Sean had welts and scratches over parts of his back which he said the Webbs had beat him with a rail- road iron and belt.
They also had picked up the Webbs' son Joey*, age 16. Joey also complained of being beaten by his parents.... Sean said the Webbs have been beating [them] for quite some time and this is not the first time this has happened to them. They were afraid to say anything the other times.... Jarrett Webb worked for the Omaha Public Power District and was a board member of the Franklin Community Federal Credit Union, headed by Lawrence E. King, Jr.
His wife, Barbara, is Larry King's cousin. Foster child Sean McArthur and adopted son Joey Patterson Webb were removed from the Webbs' custody that month.
Other of their foster and adopted children-there were as many as nine in the house at one time-tried to make their break, sometimes alone, sometimes in pairs.
In August, Joey's sister Kimberly Patterson* Webb (age 14) and another brother, Michael, ran away, but were returned to the Webbs.
In November, Nelly Patterson Webb, 16, fled to the home of her grand-mother, Ruby Patterson.
The Fremont office of DSS reported on the reasons, in a document dated December 18, 1985: Our office and a Deputy interviewed Kimberly [who had obtained permission to visit Nelly at their grand- mother's] and Nelly separately and together.
Both girls stated numerous times that they refuse to go back to the Webbs.... Both girls have stated they have received "whippings" and "beatings" from both Barbara and Jarrett at different times.
These started in 1978, approximately eight months after they moved into the Webb home. The girls said they were hit with objects: an extension cord, a belt, a “black thing," (rubber hose) and a "railroad prop" (a narrow piece of heavy black rubber approximately two feet long with several holes in each end).
Before they were struck, they were made to remove their clothing. They were mainly struck on the back or on the behind, but occasionally on the head or face.