3 Middle Georgia Cases Revealed in Boy Scout ‘Perversion’ Files

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT/AP) – A trove of some 14,500 pages from the Boy Scouts’ so-called perversion files have been made public, and the files show that on numerous occasions local officials helped cover up abuse allegations.

A Portland attorney held a news conference on Thursday after which he made the files available.
The documents date from 1959 to 1985. This is the first time the earliest documents – those from 1959 to 1971 – have been made public.

The documents show that in many instances the files succeeded in keeping pedophiles out of Scouting, but many times they did not.

Records of three alleged incidents occuring in Middle Georgia are included in the records released.

Claudie Hershel Franklin of Macon was named in a report from 1965.  He served as a Scoutmaster in Warner Robins. According to the records, he was an officer at Robins Air Force Base.  An official at the base hospital called a Scout leader to tell him to Franklin should not be allowed to serve in Scouting, but didn’t offer any other information other than saying he suffered from perversion and a psychiatric problem.  The report also indicates that Franklin would be retired from military service.  There’s no indication as to what prompted the Air Force official to make that recommendation, and there’s not an indication that whatever prompted the report on Franklin led to any prosecution.

Paul B. Hill of Warner Robins is also listed among the files released.  Documents from 1973 indicate the Houston County Sheriff’s Office investigated after Hill was accused of child molestation. According to the report, boys made accusations against the Scoutmaster, but their parents didn’t want to take the issue to court.  The scout executive who reviewed the case said in his report that “if the parents had taken him to court he would not have had a chance.”

Abram Willis of Warner Robins, a civil service federal employee at Robins AFB, faced four warrants for child molestation in 1965.  According to the report, he admitted that the charges were true.

In all of these instances, local boy scout officials requested that these men be added to the list of people who would not be allowed to serve as leaders in the Boy Scouts.