The Los Angeles Archdiocese of the organized pedophile ring known as the Catholic Church agreed to a record $880 million settlement in sex abuse cases. This is in addition to $740 million paid to Southern California victims of sex abuse.
That’s a lot of money, but there were a lot of survivors. And a lot of enabling. Also, it doesn’t put much of a dent in the net worth of this institution. Recall that in the rare instance where criminal charges are brought, it is often decades later and prosecutors and judges tend to fall for the “he’s an old man now, how about a year in the Big House?”
Read about men in the “thumb” region of Michigan and Rogers City who have been charged recently in CSAM cases. (Child Sexual Abusive Material)
If you are a Detroit Free Press subscriber, you can read about a 58-year-old retired Clarkston pathologist, Charles Yee, who plead guilty two days ago in a Troy courtroom to two misdemeanor counts of indecent exposure at lovely Somerset Mall in the summer of 2023. Other incidents apparently flew under the radar and he was “unchecked” for years. This plea is no doubt the tip of the iceberg. Unchecked misdemeanors of this type tend to escalate to felonies. He’ll be back.
Two things really stood out for me. One, that 8 mm snuff films were commissioned privately. This makes total sense. Two, such a film would have ended up in a safe or safe deposit box and the beloved family members of the owner (yes, the uncle who never married is on point here–I can think of one candidate whose name has graced the case notes in the OCCK case), destroyed that shit upon finding it after his death to preserve the family name and that of the dearly departed.
I am going to remind you in general terms of what a survivor of a Michigan child sex ring from the OCCK era told me a few years ago. He has called the Oakland County Prosecutor’s office numerous times over the past few years. I doubt anyone there ever spoke with him. We spoke for four straight hours. I believe every word he said. To law enforcement and others who think people make this up or who close their minds to the implications here–a pox on all of you. You, much like the shocked family member who would destroy evidence, are also enablers of these crimes.
It was all important, but here is what I need you to understand. He was trafficked by a family member (not uncommon), who took him to the Busch cottage at Ess Lake. Chris Busch attempted to negotiate the killing of this child on camera. This was discussed in front of the child. The trafficker balked at this–perhaps he did love this child in spite of what he was putting him through; perhaps he was also not prepared to lose this source of income.
The child went into one of the bedrooms with Busch. There was a camera set up on a tripod. This monster, this POS, this animal, was operating all over Michigan before his death in November 1978. This worthless but well-educated son of a General Motors executive was acting with complete impunity and later immunity, courtesy of the actions/machinations of the “legal” system in Michigan. The same can be said of Frank Shelden of course.
When police in this case are quick to point out and that facial recognition was used by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and international law enforcement in the OCCK case, don’t forget that a privately commissioned snuff film would have never made it into the “review.” Furthermore, this person told me that kids sold by these Michiganders often had plastic bags taped over their heads while they were being raped as part of their “training.” I’m not so sure facial recognition is very valuable under those circumstances.
Client lists, note cards, all the evidence pointing to the customers who fueled these crimes–they always go missing or are destroyed. The victims are not heard and if they are, in many cases are not believed. And you wonder why sex crimes against children continue to proliferate.