Franklin Cover-up / Franklin Credit Union Scandal

Lawrence E. 'Larry' King Jr. (not to be confused with the television presenter) is an African American community leader, Republican, from Omaha, Nebraska. He leads the Franklin Community Federal Credit Union and is a prominent figure in the Republican Party, having sung the national anthem at the 1984 Republican National Convention. In November 1988, the National Credit Union Administration seized the Franklin Credit Union, revealing embezzlement of approximately $40 million.

Parallel to the financial investigations, allegations of sexual abuse of minors emerge. Several young people, including Paul Bonacci, Alisha Owen and Troy Boner, allege that they were victims of an organized pedocriminal network orchestrated by King. The allegations include:

• Parties with drugs and sexual abuse of minors in homes in Omaha and during trips to Washington D.C.
• The alleged involvement of Republican political figures from Nebraska and Washington
• A link with Boys Town (Father Flanagan's Boys' Home), the celebrated Catholic orphanage in Omaha, from which some of the alleged victims originated
• The alleged use of the network for political blackmail

Nebraska State Senator Loran Schmit presides over a legislative investigative committee (the Franklin Committee). The investigator hired by the committee, Gary Caradori, dies in a plane crash on July 11, 1990, along with his 8-year-old son, during a private flight. The NTSB attributes the cause of the accident to mechanical failure, but the circumstances fuel suspicions of a conspiracy.

The Nebraska federal grand jury, convened in 1990, concludes that the allegations of sexual abuse are a 'carefully crafted hoax'. Alisha Owen, who maintains her allegations, is convicted of perjury and spends more than four years in prison. Paul Bonacci, another key witness, obtains in 1999 a civil judgment of one million dollars against Lawrence King for 'sexual abuse and conspiracy to deprive the plaintiff of his civil rights' (Judge Warren Urbom qualifies Bonacci’s testimony as 'credible'). This civil judgment, however, was never contested by King (default judgment).

Lawrence King is sentenced in 1991 to 15 years in prison for the financial embezzlement (not for the abuse allegations). He is released in 2001.

Lawyer and former Nebraska Senator John DeCamp publishes 'The Franklin Cover-up: Child Abuse, Satanism, and Murder in Nebraska' in 1992, which compiles testimonies and alleges a systematic cover-up. The book is criticized for its sensationalism and allegations of ritual Satanism (common during the 'Satanic Panic' of the 1980s-1990s).

In 1994, Yorkshire Television (United Kingdom) produces a documentary titled 'Conspiracy of Silence' that was to be broadcast by the Discovery Channel, but is withdrawn from the programming just before its broadcast. An unfinished copy leaks and circulates widely. The withdrawal is explained as an ordinary editorial decision, but theorists see it as proof of censorship.

The case remains controversial. Troubling elements (the Bonacci civil judgment, Caradori’s death, the withdrawal of the documentary, Owen’s perjury conviction while maintaining her allegations) are offset by the grand jury’s conclusions, contradictions in some testimonies, and the context of the era’s ‘Satanic Panic’.