LibraryLady
Emeritus
I am a great Law and Order: Criminal Intent fan, which has absolutely nothing to do with Vincent D’Onofrio. Nothing. An episode from the first season began to really interest me, and since most of their plots are ripped from the headlines, I went to TV.com to take a look. Sure enough, it seems to be based on the Anthony Godby Johnson case, which I knew nothing about. So I started doing a little research. Hey, it’s what I do.
I checked here and didn’t see a thread, and since it seems to me to be a perfect case for the need to be skeptical, I thought I’d start one.
Tony Johnson was a fifteen year old boy who wrote an autobiography about the horrific abuse he suffered as a child. He was physically, emotionally, and sexually abused, and at the age of 11 rescued himself by calling a hotline. His parents were convicted, but their friends, who had participated in the abuse, threatened his life. He was adopted by a social worker, Vicki Johnson, whose name he took. Then, on top of everything else, he was diagnosed with AIDS.
The book had an afterward by Fred Rogers and was read and promoted by people such as Armistead Maupin, author of Tales of the City, Oprah Winfrey (of course), and Keith Olberman. They spoke to Tony on the phone, and promoted his book enthusiastically. They were sent pictures of him by his adoptive mother. This was in the 1990s, and it was expected that this young boy, whose life had held nothing but tragedy, would die shortly. In spite of all this, his attitude was brave and cheeky, and his writing was phenomenal. There was only one problem.
No one was ever allowed to meet Tony. His mother refused all visitors. His editor, people who had donated large amounts of money, all took his very existence on faith. Eventually, doubts began to surface. Maupin’s then lover noticed that the voices of Tony and Vicki were remarkably similar. There didn’t seem to be any records of his parents’ arrests or trials.
Eventually, in a spurt of actual investigative reporting, the ABC News show, 20/20, uncovered Vicki Johnson’s real name, Joanne Vicki Fraginals, and discovered that she had never been a social worker at all, but an elementary school teacher. Indeed, the photographs of “Tony” were actually of one of her former students, Steve Tarabokija, who was considerably nonplussed to find this out.
Fraginals still claims that the boy is real, although none of the celebrities involved, and there were quite a few, have ever seen him. Maupin wrote a (not very good) novel about the experience called The Night Listener. Olbermann, who was co-authoring a book on baseball with “Tony,” admitted his error on his show, Countdown and canceled the collaboration. I can’t find any comments from Oprah about the case, post exposé.
I have not yet read the book supposedly written by Tony, although I have it on my official list. Knowing all this up front should make it an interesting read.
Anybody else interested in this story?
I checked here and didn’t see a thread, and since it seems to me to be a perfect case for the need to be skeptical, I thought I’d start one.
Tony Johnson was a fifteen year old boy who wrote an autobiography about the horrific abuse he suffered as a child. He was physically, emotionally, and sexually abused, and at the age of 11 rescued himself by calling a hotline. His parents were convicted, but their friends, who had participated in the abuse, threatened his life. He was adopted by a social worker, Vicki Johnson, whose name he took. Then, on top of everything else, he was diagnosed with AIDS.
The book had an afterward by Fred Rogers and was read and promoted by people such as Armistead Maupin, author of Tales of the City, Oprah Winfrey (of course), and Keith Olberman. They spoke to Tony on the phone, and promoted his book enthusiastically. They were sent pictures of him by his adoptive mother. This was in the 1990s, and it was expected that this young boy, whose life had held nothing but tragedy, would die shortly. In spite of all this, his attitude was brave and cheeky, and his writing was phenomenal. There was only one problem.
No one was ever allowed to meet Tony. His mother refused all visitors. His editor, people who had donated large amounts of money, all took his very existence on faith. Eventually, doubts began to surface. Maupin’s then lover noticed that the voices of Tony and Vicki were remarkably similar. There didn’t seem to be any records of his parents’ arrests or trials.
Eventually, in a spurt of actual investigative reporting, the ABC News show, 20/20, uncovered Vicki Johnson’s real name, Joanne Vicki Fraginals, and discovered that she had never been a social worker at all, but an elementary school teacher. Indeed, the photographs of “Tony” were actually of one of her former students, Steve Tarabokija, who was considerably nonplussed to find this out.
Fraginals still claims that the boy is real, although none of the celebrities involved, and there were quite a few, have ever seen him. Maupin wrote a (not very good) novel about the experience called The Night Listener. Olbermann, who was co-authoring a book on baseball with “Tony,” admitted his error on his show, Countdown and canceled the collaboration. I can’t find any comments from Oprah about the case, post exposé.
I have not yet read the book supposedly written by Tony, although I have it on my official list. Knowing all this up front should make it an interesting read.
Anybody else interested in this story?
