| John Norman | |
| Birth Name: | John David Norman |
| Birth Date: | October 13, 1927[1] |
| Birth Place: | Ada, Oklahoma, U.S.[2] |
| Death Place: | Coalinga State Hospital, Coalinga, California, U.S. |
| Other Names: | John Paul Norman Steven Gurwell Alan Hitchcock Charles Caldwell Clarence McKay Patrick Nelson |
| Organization: | Odyssey Foundation Delta Project Handy Andy |
| Beginyear: | 1960 |
| Endyear: | 1998 |
| Country: | United States |
| States: | California, Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Texas |
John David Norman (October 13, 1927 – May 22, 2011) was an American pedophile and sex offender convicted numerous times between 1960 and 1998 on charges of child molestation and child pornography. Throughout his life, Norman operated various direct mailing services dedicated to distributing child pornography and arranging sex trafficking. Among these operations were the Odyssey Foundation based in Dallas; the Delta Project, Creative Corps and M-C Publications of Chicago; and Handy Andy from Pennsylvania.
Norman is known for his alleged links to serial killers Dean Corll and John Wayne Gacy, the latter via Norman's associate Phillip Paske. Norman used at least 20 aliases in his life, including John Paul Norman, Steve Gurwell, Alan Hitchcock, Charles Caldwell, Clarence McKay and Patrick Nelson. He was eventually arrested for the last time in August 1987, in Illinois, and spent the rest of his life in state custody. He died in 2011, at age 83.
Norman was born on October 13, 1927, in Ada, Oklahoma, and is known to have lived in California, Colorado, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas.[3] A July 1944 article from his hometown's newspaper, The Ada Weekly News, states that he moved to Houston with his family in 1943. The article also states that Norman, then 16, was working as a radio engineer for the station KTRH and was planning on attending Northwestern University.[4]
In 1999, Norman was declared a sexually violent predator by the State of California and committed to Atascadero State Hospital. His psychiatrist, Dr. James Reavis, said about Norman: "John is an unrepentant adult male sex offender who in my opinion will go to his grave without any remorse for what he had done." Norman was released from Atascadero in October 2008 under strict conditions, but soon returned to custody after handing a sexually suggestive note to a 19-year-old male clerk at an El Centro grocery store.[5] [6] Norman was recommitted to Coalinga State Hospital in March 2009, where he died two years later.[7]
Norman's criminal record dates back to the 1950s, when he was twice arrested for sexual assault in Houston in 1954 and 1956, though it is unknown if he was convicted of any crime in these cases.[8] Court records and some news reports indicate he was first convicted of sex crimes in 1960.[9] Norman was convicted of sexual assault in California in 1963, and in federal court in 1970 for sending obscene literature through the mail. He received a 15-month prison sentence for the federal charge and served time at the McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary.[10]
On August 13, 1973, Dallas Police received a memo from the FBI stating that they had talked to a 21-year-old named Charles Brisendien who contacted the agency on the advice of Rob Shivers, the Dallas correspondent of the gay magazine The Advocate. Brisendine told agents that he had been invited to Dallas as a "fellow" by a "sponsor" of an organization called The Odyssey Foundation. The sponsor's name was John David Norman, and Brisendine would stay the night at Norman's apartment, where the two had sex. Brisendine began to realize that his "sponsor" was instead preying upon young men for procurement into sex and prostitution by leading them in under the false pretenses of being a gay support organization. He began to go through the literature, where he found that several of the fellows were "missing" and had the word "Kill" stamped on their file.
Brisedine grew concerned as he thought that it may be connected to the Houston murders. He also stated that Norman would get agitated when the topic of the murders were brought up while on the phone. He would then call his friends at The Advocate who suggested he talk to the FBI. Rob Shivers and the FBI both believed that the files stamped with "Kill" wasn't literal and was instead a publishing term referring to trashing outdated materials. Upon receiving the memo, the police jumped on the lead quicker than usual due to the Houston murders and raided Norman's apartment at 3716 Cole Avenue based on the tip.[11] Police seized booklets bearing the name International and containing photographs and contact information of teenage boys and young men, as well as 30,000 index cards listing between 50,000 and 100,000 clients located in 35 U.S. states.[12]
Dallas Police Lt. Harold Hancock told the Chicago Tribune in May 1977 that prominent public figures and federal employees were among the names found in Norman's client list. Investigators sent the index cards to the State Department, a fact confirmed by State Department Counselor Matthew Nimetz. Nimetz stated that the State Department destroyed the index cards after determining them to be "not relevant to any fraud case concerning a passport". Norman was charged with possessing marijuana, conspiracy to commit sodomy and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile; he was released on bail.
The Odyssey Foundation groomed teenaged boys and young men from bus stations, or because they were known to be homosexuals. These boys and young men (referred to as "fellows") were photographed for the booklets and trafficked to clients (referred to as "sponsors") who paid for their "company". The "fellows" were trafficked across the country, staying with "sponsors" for one to three days on average before traveling to the next "sponsor".
After being released in Dallas, Norman fled to Homewood, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, in late August or early September 1973. Using the name Steve Gurwell, he began living with Charles Rehling, an Odyssey client from Homewood. Norman had previously trafficked a 16-year-old boy from Independence, Missouri, to Rehling, who went on a trip to Europe with the boy.
During his time in Homewood, Norman sexually abused ten teenage boys, enticing them with beer, showing them pornography and committing acts such as groping and oral sex upon them. Homewood Police received an anonymous call on October 31, 1973, stating that "Steve Gurwell" (Norman) was sexually abusing boys. Norman was out of town at the time, but police were able to locate Rehling who assisted them in their investigation. Upon his return to Homewood on November 14, Norman was arrested and charged with five counts of indecent liberties with a child and eight counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
In the spring of 1976, while still awaiting trial on charges related to the Homewood crimes, Norman was bailed out of Cook County Jail for $36,000 by an unknown person from California. In December 1976 he was sentenced to four years in prison and sent to Pontiac Correctional Center. Shortly before he was released on bail, Norman began his next sex operation, the Delta Project, and began publishing a newsletter called Hermes. From Cook County Jail, Norman sent out three newsletters using the jail's printing press, claiming that the Delta Project aimed to "provide educational, travel and self-development opportunities for qualified young men of character and integrity" and that "Delta-Dorms" were being established across the U.S. with each dorm having two to four "cadets" overseen by a "don". Police alleged that the "cadets" were underaged male prostitutes recruited in Chicago. In a May 1977 interview with the Tribune, Norman denied that Project Delta was sexual in nature and claimed to have sent the newsletter to over 7,000 people. At the time of the interview, police said that the newsletter had 5,000 subscribers and grossed over $300,000 per year.[13]
Norman was paroled in the fall of 1977, but was arrested again in Chicago in June 1978 for having sex with two underage boys from a local foster home and taking pornographic pictures of both. One of the boys informed investigators that Norman was in the process of selling him to a client and he (Norman) was simply "waiting for [his] plane ticket".[14]
Norman was accused of re-founding the Delta Project, now called the Creative Corps and M-C Publications, after being released from prison and operating it out of his apartment at 685 1/2 West Wrightwood Avenue, allegedly sending photos of the boys to a "don" in Canada.[15] [16] In a raid of the apartment, 20,000 pink index cards (or possibly 50,000 to 100,000) containing the names of customers were found.[17] [18]
Between October 1983 and May 1984, Norman produced and published a child pornography magazine called Handy Andy from his rural home and a nearby motel in Aspers, Pennsylvania. He exploited at least twenty teenage boys from the area, enticing them with drugs and alcohol and photographing them engaged in various sex acts. Norman fled Pennsylvania after his home was raided on May 31, 1984, but was captured in Bolingbrook, Illinois, in October 1984. He was released on bail in March 1985 and promptly fled again.[19]
Norman was captured in August 1987 in Urbana, Illinois, and given a six-year prison sentence for crimes in Illinois. He was later extradited to Pennsylvania and sentenced to 18 months to 36 months in prison for charges related to Handy Andy. A 1986 news report focusing on Handy Andy stated that Norman was wanted in five different states for child sex crimes.[20]
Norman was convicted of child molestation in Colorado in 1988 and of distributing child pornography in California in 1995 and 1998. He was released from prison in California in 1999, but was declared a sexually violent predator and was detained indefinitely at Atascadero State Hospital.[21] He was eventually released from Atascadero to the rural town of Boulevard, California, under strict conditions. On February 2, 2009, Norman violated those conditions by giving a note containing his contact information to a 19-year-old grocery bagger in El Centro. In March 2009 he was ordered back into state custody, this time at Coalinga State Hospital, where he died in 2011.
Following Norman's 1973 arrest in Dallas, news reports indicated police were investigating if he had any ties to serial killer Dean Corll.[22] Corll murdered at least 28 teenage boys and young men in Houston between 1970 and 1973. Corll was himself killed on August 8, 1973, by his accomplice Elmer Wayne Henley, just days before Norman's arrest. Norman had previously lived in Houston, as evidenced by his 1954 and 1956 arrests there. Additionally, the source who tipped off police about the Odyssey Foundation was a prostitute involved in the organization who got scared after an unidentified man in Houston requested his services.
Henley gave a statement to police following Corll's death in which he stated that Corll claimed to be involved with a Dallas-based organization that "bought and sold boys, ran whores and dope and stuff like that".[23] Police stated they did not think Corll's other accomplice, David Owen Brooks, was involved with the Odyssey Foundation, but also did not rule out Corll and Henley as being involved, though they stated they had no evidence connecting them to Norman's organization. In 1975 however, Houston police reported finding pictures depicting eleven of Corll's victims during a raid on a child prostitution ring, once again raising the possibility of connections to Norman.[24]
Norman is also alleged to have been connected to another serial killer, John Wayne Gacy, who murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men in Chicago between 1972 and 1978. Norman's closest associate and personal friend was Phillip Paske,[25] [26] who was briefly an employee of Gacy's construction business, PDM Contractors.[27] Police alleged that Paske had taken over running the Delta Project after Norman was sent to prison. He was also at Norman's apartment during Norman's arrest in 1978, though Paske himself was not arrested.
Gacy implicated Paske, Norman and two other PDM employees as his accomplices in murder. He described Paske as dangerous and stated that he "pimped girls, boys, for sex or movies."[27] [28] In a 1992 interview, Gacy claimed Norman and the Delta Project were producing snuff films of young boys, possibly including some of Gacy's victims.[29] At least two victims believed to have been murdered by Gacy, Kenneth Parker and Michael Marino, had last been seen alive close to where Norman lived.[30]
