as a pedophile, apparently for his own and Duncan's arousal as well as to prove himself to Duncan. "Well, Lance," Henry wrote after an unusually graphic account of his molestation of an eight-year-old cousin, "the above is just a sample of my peuo

experiences with my cousin. I hope I was explicit enough."47

Eventually Henry visited Duncan, who for a fee provided Henry with access to three young girls, whom he molested. At one point, Henry asked Duncan if a certain child whose father rented her out for $100 a night could be made available. "Perhaps some deal with Chuck (the father) could be made to reserve (the girl) for one, two or maybe all three holiday weekends," Henry wrote. "I'd give Chuck $250 to have (the girl), say from noon Saturday 48 until 6 p.m. Monday.

When Duncan was arrested for child molestation, police found approximately 300 other letters from pedophiles. From reading the letters, the police identified 16 children, from 18 months to 16 years old, who had been "sold" by Duncan to other men for 49 sexual purposes over a three-year period.

Rarely do investigators find other criminals so willing to incriminate themselves in print. even to the point of discussing prices, intended victim and time of the act.

Woodward, a gifted engineer who did top-secret contract work for the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, used a simple code system in his letters for his ring of correspondents and victims, but he too went into explicit detail about crimes he had committed or planned to commit. He discussed the production, duplication and distribution of child pornography, and various acts of molestation.

Los Angeles Police Det. William Dworin, who has carried on correspondence with many pedophiles, was able to unravel an international child prostitution ring involving men from France, Panama and Italy, all through the seizure of correspondence betweeen pedophiles. According to Dworin. "A conspiracy does exist among pedophiles. Magazines and personal contacts

encourage the molestation of juveniles, train the closet

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pedophile. promote child pornography and reinforce the idea that 50 sex with juveniles is both acceptable and necessary.

Many law enforcement agencies have exploited pedophiles' penchant for incriminating themselves by devising false pedophile newsletters and pen pal organizations in order to identify child pornography distributors and child molesters. The most successful to date probably has been "Crusaders for Sexual Freedom," a sting operation originated in 1984 by U.S. Postal Inspector John Ruberti of Chicago. Ruberti reported that CSF developed evidence that led to the arrests of about 35 child 51 molesters and child pornography traders.

Several major metropolitan police departments use similar programs, which are time-consuming but often effective. Such sting operations have become so popular with police that several investigators told the Subcommittee they had corresponded with suspected pedophiles for weeks only to later discover they were writing to other undercover police officers.

USE OF COMPUTERS BY PEDOPHILES

The computer age has produced an alternative,

high-technology form of communication which enables pedophiles to find and correspond with one another with greater safety than letters or telephone calls would permit. In recent years, thousands of home computer users have learned to communicate with one another by leaving electronic messages on computer "bulletin boards." By using the proper access code, users can gain entry to entire communities of special interest, from electronic flea markets, to specialized hobbies, to explicit messages about a wide variety of sexual activities. The pedophile underground was quick to take advantage of this new, anonymous means of exchanging information.

Messages have appeared on computer bulletin boards offering to buy, sell or trade child pornography, establish correspondence about sexual interests, trade names of "available" children and

newsletter suggested that the speed and anonymity of bulletin boards are especially valuable to pedophiles, "given the fact

that many of the positions we take are at or near the borderline 52

of the law.

An undercover officer from the West Coast told the Los Angeles Times in September. 1985, that he had left this message on a computer bulletin board: "Hi! My name is Billy. I'm 13 and I wonder if I can find a friend to tell me more about the life style." Within hours, the officer had received several dozen messages from adult men hoping to meet "Billy.w53

Sgt. William Brown of the Houston Police Department was able to access "at least 30" bulletin boards of a sexually explicit nature, several of which contained ads for persons wishing to buy, sell or trade child pornography, correspond or meet with other pedophiles, and in some cases actually contact

The bulletin boards actually are an electronic form of the classified ads that appear in sexually-oriented magazines throughout the country. The difference is that the computer operators can communicate with each other over the computer by using a device called a modem, which allows computers to share data over regular phone lines. Some of the networks available to computer users are free, while others require small annual dues ($10 to $20) to obtain the special codes needed to become "validated" and leave messages on a bulletin board. The bulletin board users, who normally use aliases, now have virtually complete anonymity because police are not authorized under current federal law to intercept computer conversations without a warrant based on probable cause. "We've seen that the (bulletin board) ads tend to be a bit more explicit," Brown reported, "because they (the senders) have a sense of anonymity or security. There's a likelihood they'll never be caught.

#55

Federal law does prohibit the transmission of obscene or indecent material across state lines. but the exchange of names between pedophiles, even if they were names of potential victims,

could not be regulated under current law. Recently, attempts have been made in the U.S. Senate to ban the transmission of

information over computer lines that facilitates the sexual abuse of children and also prohibit the transmission of advertising that deals with child pornography.

56

The largest bulletin board accessed by Sergeant Brown was called "Lambda" and was based in San Francisco. It charged users $20 to obtain the code allowing them to leave messages. "Lambda" also had three telephone lines which enabled clients to carry on running conversations using their computers. Brown also

-

"Free for All,"

identified three bulletin boards in Houston "Zachary Net" and "Connection"-- and one in Alexandria, Virginia, called "Switchboard," on which participants could exchange information about sexual interest in minors. Many of the systems indicate how many calls have come into the network, and Brown reported that he never saw one with fewer than 20.000 calls.

57

Nicholas Battaglia of the San Jose, California, Police Department's vice section told the Subcommittee that as of May, 1985, he had developed four criminal cases on pedophiles based on information obtained through computer bulletin boards. In the Bay Area alone, Battaglia had found nine bulletin boards containing pedophile-related messages.

Battaglia believes electronic messages are replacing more traditional mail correspondence between pedophiles. "There's really an attitude that these are more safe." he said. "The ads and messages are more provocative, not secretive. You can't trace them through false names and you can't eavesdrop on computer conversations." He added that the increasing participation of law-enforcement officials in undercover letter-writing has forced many pedophiles "farther underground. You'll see more use of these bulletin boards and also the

insistence that they meet you face-to-face. 58

going out the window.

Letter writing is

sex with children have been active in the United States and

Europe at least since the 1960s. The goals of these groups often are couched in legal and psycho-sexual arguments about "age of consent" laws and prevailing social attitudes, but at the heart of each group examined by the Subcommittee was a basic obsession with justifying "consensual" sex with children, regardless of age. In some cases, the groups' leaders were convicted child sex offenders. The groups range from anarchistic, underground clubs whose newsletters and philosophies are haphazard at best to well-organized, politically-astute groups that march in parades and openly distribute literature.

Although primarily based in major cities, the American pedophile support groups have members throughout the United States and foreign countries. Subcommittee interviews with former members of these organizations, some of whom were imprisoned for child molestation, indicate that while they ostensibly exist to support such goals as "sexual liberation for all persons," these groups serve primarily as contact services for pedophiles. Like most clubs, they bring people of similar interests in touch with each other; in the case of pedophiles, however, the purpose of this contact often is to exchange child pornography and information about meeting children.

Although most of the American pedophile organizations described in this report have been investigated, if not infiltrated, by police agencies, they are not normally prosecuted

as criminal organizations. Instead, individual members are prosecuted for specific acts, even though they may have been aided by membership in the group. Most of the groups' activities (public meetings, newsletters, etc.) fall into

constitutionally-protected areas. In addition, the depth of infiltration of these groups by police is severely limited by an officer's obligation to never allow a child to enter a situation