FL - White House Boys, Dozier School for Boys, Marianna

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Sleuthster, came to post this and saw you got here first. TY! This was an amazing article, bless everyone in this effort to find the truth, wherever it takes us.
 
This new article posts quite a bit about the 3rd boy identified - Thomas Varnadoe.
It's another long read but great writing about amazing work being done.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article5427669.html
More bodies found than expected at the Dozier School for Boys
By Ben Montgomery
Tampa Bay Times
01/04/2015 11:01 PM

There's a photograph of Thomas Varnadoe, a black and white family portrait taken late in 1925. Thomas is 4 years old, wearing a Peter Pan collar and breeches and he's squinting against the light. He's barefoot like his big brother, Hubert, who's standing behind Thomas. It's the only photograph of Thomas his family has.
The Hernando County sheriff came for Thomas and Hubert nine years later, in 1934. They'd been accused of stealing a typewriter from an old maid and they were charged with "malicious trespassing." They were not represented by a lawyer, nor were they tried. Their parents protested, but couldn't stop the sheriff, who shipped the boys that September north to the Marianna reformatory, which by then had a brick-making plant, printing press and farm, all of which relied on child labor.
Thirty-four days later, Thomas, 13, who left home in good health, was dead. The campus newspaper, the Yellow Jacket, reported the news under a front-page story about the school's productive dairy farm.
Click to expand...

And this part... Thomas's brothers at the funeral held for him this year.
Glen spoke first, about how long and hard they'd fought for this day, about the journalists who wouldn't let the issue die, about Erin Kimmerle's work to find and exhume Thomas. Gene was next, and he told of how the unanswered questions had haunted them all.

"We can only imagine the horror," Gene said. "Some of the Old South slave mindset died hard in Florida."

Glen invited Richard to speak. The old man stood and faced the crowd. He could barely talk.

"I feel like we plucked my brother out of the depths of hell," he said.

When it was over, people slowly peeled away, heading back to work and school and life. Erin Kimmerle, too. There were still questions about Florida's oldest reform school, about who the rest of the remains belonged to and how those boys died. But this chapter felt closed. A family had answers. And they had bones that belonged with them. This part of her job was finished.
Click to expand...
 
http://www.tampabay.com/news/public...ectile-in-body-from-dozier-school-for/2216518

TAMPA — University of South Florida researchers announced Thursday morning that they've found what may be a projectile near the lower abdomen or upper thigh area of a badly decomposed boy exhumed from a burial ground at Florida's oldest reform school, the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna.

Hillsborough County Sheriff's Detective Greg Thomas sent the small metal object to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for analysis. FDLE ballistics experts found that the "lead ball cannot be definitively determined to be an ammunition component due to damage and corrosion; however, it is consistent with 000 Buck size shot pellets for various muzzle loading balls based on weight, size, and physical appearance."
 
Also of interest: http://tampabay.com/tbprojects/dcloud/dcloud-template.html?doc=1630218-cabinetdozierupdate very long read, detailing numerous irregularities about the bodies found at the sites the team exhumed.

I realize during the earlier years of this school, poverty, Jim Crow south and other factors meant life was cheap, but I'm still just heartbroken that children were actually treated like this, even if some of them were delinquents or throwaways, it's all still horrendous.

Some of the report details violence that may have stemmed from other boys at the school. Another story of one child hunted down from running away from the school, sounds as if he was located at his own home and possibly killed with a weapon in the house.

Yet it's pretty clear administration at the school took no interest in the health and welfare of most of these kids in any way whatsoever. :tantrum: JMO
 
http://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/two-more-bodies-identified-dozier-school-boys

Two more sets of remains were identified today from the Dozier School for Boys...

Researchers from the University of South Florida investigating the Dozier School say one of the two people identified was found with a lead ball lodged in the remains of his hip. He's identified as Sam Morgan, who entered the reform school in 1915, at the age of 18. He was later used as an "indentured servant" at local farms and businesses. But he was never listed by the school as deceased...

The other person was identified at Bennett Evans, an employee at the school who died in a fire in the dormitory in 1914.
Click to expand...
 
Authorities call for reopening Dozier School for Boys investigation
Investigators find another 20 bodies

http://www.news4jax.com/news/author...dozier-school-for-boys-investigation/31365058

[Excerpt]
For more than 60 years, the Dozier School for Boys in rural north Florida was a place to be feared. A 2009 investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found 31 marked and unmarked graves at the school.

Now, after authorities found another 20 bodies, there are calls for a state law enforcement investigation to be reopened.

When University of South Florida researchers began unearthing bodies at the defunct school, many local residents were unhappy.

"It's something that happened 50-60 years ago. You know, let bygones be bygones," said insurance agent John Perkins.

"I believe it's going to be a hornet's nest," John Cooper said.

-
My note: The "Additional 20 bodies" is only additional to the 2009 FDLE search at Dozier, not the most recent count if you've already been following the USF efforts on this case.

~ corq
 
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news...-fdle-new-dozier-findings-20150219-story.html

[Excerpt]
Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam has asked the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to review new findings about the former Arthur G. Dozier school for boys, where dozens of bodies have been unearthed, and see whether they warrant more investigation.

In a letter dated Wednesday, Putnam — who is one of three members of the Florida Cabinet — cited a recent report by researchers at the University of South Florida.

Anthropologists have found the remains of 51 people buried at the school during a dig. That's 19 more than had been identified by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in a 2010 investigative report.

The USF researchers also uncovered garbage, syringes, drug bottles and a dog encased in an old water cooler buried in the cemetery.

They are trying to identify who was buried there and the stories behind how they and others died at the school.

The recent report, prepared for the Florida Cabinet, identifies two more people buried in graves, in addition to three who were identified previously.
 
http://www.wpbf.com/news/cadaver-dogs-to-search-okeechobee-school-for-boys/31452674

As researchers exhume unmarked graves at the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna,, Florida, detectives are searching for possible bodies at the sister campus in Okeechobee.

The Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office told WPBF 25 News they plan on bringing cadaver dogs to the campus in April.

When the notorious state-run reform school in Marianna became overcrowded, they opened a second Florida School for Boys campus in Okeechobee in the late 1950s. Several of the same staff members accused of brutal beatings in Marianna were transferred to the Okeechobee campus.
Click to expand...
 
I would not be surprised if this happened in Okeechobee either during that same time frame, it was just an attitude toward willful wayward kids that likely grew into abuse to maintain control of them, or worse. Think: No one's going to believe these "bad kids" anyway, and sadly wouldn't even listen to children of color, at all. Okeechobee may be where I originally heard the "legends" about boys' schools in general, I grew up closer to Okeechobee that Marianna, some of it may well be folklore, but folklorish stories tend to start with grains of truth.
 
The search for human remains is underway in Okeechobee at the former site of the Florida School for Boys.

In a recent report, 51 graves -- most unmarked -- were found on Dozier’s school property and there could be even more bodies waiting to be discovered.

Cadaver dogs will search for potential human remains starting Tuesday and will possibly shed more light on the disciplinary practices used at this former reform school for boys.

http://www.baynews9.com/content/new...icles/cfn/2015/4/14/search_begins_for_hu.html
 
corq said:
Authorities call for reopening Dozier School for Boys investigation
Investigators find another 20 bodies

http://www.news4jax.com/news/author...dozier-school-for-boys-investigation/31365058

[Excerpt]
For more than 60 years, the Dozier School for Boys in rural north Florida was a place to be feared. A 2009 investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found 31 marked and unmarked graves at the school.

Now, after authorities found another 20 bodies, there are calls for a state law enforcement investigation to be reopened.

When University of South Florida researchers began unearthing bodies at the defunct school, many local residents were unhappy.

"It's something that happened 50-60 years ago. You know, let bygones be bygones," said insurance agent John Perkins.

"I believe it's going to be a hornet's nest," John Cooper said.

-
My note: The "Additional 20 bodies" is only additional to the 2009 FDLE search at Dozier, not the most recent count if you've already been following the USF efforts on this case.

~ corq
Click to expand...
SABBM

What ? Oh, right, just skip over what those children endured. Hell, no. They were treated like garbage -- with no one to stand up for them.
I'm guessing many were placed in these institutions without fair trial . :(

After all the time that has passed, probably few people still alive to charge with abuse --since most of the perps are likely deceased -- but there are families who want closure !
And for those with no families to claim their remains --is it too much to ask for at least exhumation and answers to how they died ?

I'm grateful for those who are pushing for some sort of justice, however delayed.
With the exhuming, it's a little like digging up a crime scene.
( Yes I said "crime scene" and I'm sticking by it. While some of these youth had committed crimes---the admin. had no right to abuse them (some of them were abused to death) and to summarily execute them. )
:moo:
 
corq said:
Also of interest: http://tampabay.com/tbprojects/dcloud/dcloud-template.html?doc=1630218-cabinetdozierupdate very long read, detailing numerous irregularities about the bodies found at the sites the team exhumed.

I realize during the earlier years of this school, poverty, Jim Crow south and other factors meant life was cheap, but I'm still just heartbroken that children were actually treated like this, even if some of them were delinquents or throwaways, it's all still horrendous.

Some of the report details violence that may have stemmed from other boys at the school. Another story of one child hunted down from running away from the school, sounds as if he was located at his own home and possibly killed with a weapon in the house.

Yet it's pretty clear administration at the school took no interest in the health and welfare of most of these kids in any way whatsoever. :tantrum: JMO
Click to expand...
RSBM

From corq's link : I found this -- "... She also feared...possible retribution if she pursued it at this time..."
It's right before the following paragraphs about Thomas Curry.

Retribution from whom, exactly ? The boy's 'home' ? The local le in the area of Dozier ?

Crazy that the families may have been threatened into silence ; and this also indicates the 'home' knew full well what they were doing was wrong. :maddening: :stormingmad:

It will be interesting what more will be uncovered ; imo.
Rest in peace to all of those who suffered at the hands of those 'reformers'.
 
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