vault backup: 2026-09-22 22:51:38

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Claudius Vermilye.md

@@ -2,22 +2,48 @@
 aliases:
   - "Cladius Vermilye"
   - "Father Bud"
+  - "Claudius I. Vermilye Jr."
 category: "Crime & Abuse Networks"
 tags:
   - Person
-summary: "Claudius Vermilye established Father Bud's Boys Farm as a rural foster home incorporated under The Church of New Revelation in New Jersey."
+  - ChildAbuse
+  - Tennessee
+summary: "Former Episcopal rector of Alto, Tennessee, who founded Boys Farm, Inc., in 1971 for wayward boys sent by state agencies and was convicted in June 1977 of crimes against nature."
+relations:
+  - type: founded
+    with: "[[Father Bud's Boys Farm]]"
+    start: 1971
+    end: 1976
+    fn: 2
+  - type: prosecuted
+    with: "[[J. William Pope]]"
+    reverse: true
+    start: 1976
+    end: 1977-06-03
+    fn: 3
+created: 2026-04-28
+updated: 2026-09-22
 ---
 
-Rev. Claudius Vermilye was an ordained Episcopal priest known by the alias Father Bud. He owned and operated [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Monteagle, Tennessee, as a foster home for boys. Juvenile delinquents were sent to the farm by youth corrections and welfare agencies in Tennessee.[^1]
+The Rev. Claudius I. (Bud) Vermilye Jr., known as Father Bud, was an ordained Episcopal priest and formerly the rector of the Episcopal church at Alto, Tennessee. In 1971 he founded Boys Farm, Inc. ([[Father Bud's Boys Farm]]), in the Roarks Cove community near Alto, as a rehabilitation center for wayward boys; the boys were sent there by the state correction department, juvenile authorities and welfare agencies, and the farm was partly financed with state and county funds.[^2][^3][^4] After an appearance on the *Today* show by the investigator [[Kenneth Wooden]], author of *Weeping in the Playtime of Others,* Vermilye contacted him and asked for his help in obtaining a boy from the State of Tennessee.[^5]
 
-Claudius Vermilye established [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] as a rural foster home incorporated under [[The Church of New Revelation]] in [[New Jersey]]. The farm served as a placement for troubled boys from state agencies, providing a supposed rehabilitative environment on his property. Vermilye, as the ordained Episcopal priest and owner, positioned the operation as a legitimate youth welfare program.[^1]
+Vermilye was divorced and the father of five sons. His eldest son, aged 22, disappeared on July 5, 1974; his car was found several days later behind the student union building of the seminary at Sewanee and his empty wallet on Alto Road. Vermilye told the authorities he was "absolutely certain" his son had been killed and buried in the Roarks Cove area and ran newspaper advertisements offering a reward. After the charges against him, Tennessee investigators said they regarded the disappearance "with a different light," although they could establish no link; "To us he's still just a missing person," said Pete Bouldin of the district attorney general's office.[^3]
 
-### Criminal Activities
-Boys at [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] were supplied with drugs and alcohol to make them pliant for participation in orgies. These orgies were filmed and photographed, with the materials distributed to a mailing list of sponsors. Sponsors could pay additional fees to arrange personal visits to the farm for direct access to the boys.[^1]
+### The Raid and the Trial
 
-Vermilye's operation at [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] sent filmstocks to [[Gerald Richards]] for development and distribution through networks including MAIL-O-MATIC in [[North Carolina]] and F&S Distributors in California as early as July 1976. The farm was raided by authorities on November 10, 1976, leading to the discovery of its links to child pornography distribution. On November 11, 1976, the Detroit Free Press reported the farm as a national porno hub.[^1]
+Films found in the possession of the Michigan photographer [[Gerald Richards]] at his arrest in July 1976, and films seized in the [[New Orleans]] raid on [[Troop 137]], led Tennessee authorities to raid the farm after they recognized some of the "actors." The police had also found Vermilye's name in the files of the New Orleans scoutmaster [[Richard Halvorsen]]. The raid produced pictures and films of sexual acts between boys at the farm and a list of more than 270 "active sponsors," among them [[Francis Shelden]], the owner of [[North Fox Island]]. District Attorney General [[J. William Pope]] said the boys were shown obscene films and given liquor before orgies that were filmed with a hidden camera, and that films were sold to sponsors to raise money and some sponsors came to the farm to have sex with the boys. Half a dozen Illinois men had bought films from Vermilye, one of whom paid more than 4,000 dollars. Richards testified to the Senate that the farm "sold raw film to other men. They would bring it to me to process."[^3][^4][^6]
 
-The farm’s foster program was incorporated under [[The Church of New Revelation]] in New Jersey, described by authorities as a sham referral agency for pornography distribution rather than a legitimate church. [[Francis Shelden]] appeared on a seized list of sponsors for the farm’s materials.[^1]
+Vermilye was indicted on 16 counts: three of crimes against nature, eight of aiding and abetting crimes against nature, four of contributing to the delinquency of minors and one of using minors in the production of pornography. On June 3, 1977, at Winchester, a jury of ten men and two women convicted him, then 48 and defrocked, on all charges: three counts of crimes against nature on boys in his care and nine counts of aiding and abetting, after four days of testimony involving boys as young as eleven and sponsors of the farm. Circuit Judge Thomas Greer deferred sentence.[^2][^3]
+
+### The Distribution Network
+
+Vermilye's films were said to have gone to Richards for development and distribution through networks including MAIL-O-MATIC in [[North Carolina]] and F&S Distributors in California as early as July 1976, and the farm to have been raided on November 10, 1976, and described by the *Detroit Free Press* the next day as a national pornography hub. The farm was said to have been incorporated under [[The Church of New Revelation]], and Vermilye to have written to Halvorsen inviting him to visit.[^1]
 
 ### Footnotes
-[^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). Eye of the Chickenhawk. United States: Thehotstar.
+
+[^1]: Dovey, S. *Eye of the Chickenhawk.* Thehotstar, 2023. Sole source for the passages so cited. The Record-Eagle lists Boys Farm, Inc., as a separate entity from the Church of the New Revelation, and the hearing record shows only that his name was found in Halvorsen's files; Richards's testimony names "Mail-O-Matic operations in Rocky Mount" and "F & F Distributors" in other connections.
+[^2]: "Former Clergyman Is Convicted of Acts Against His Wards." United Press International, *The New York Times,* June 4, 1977, p. 33. https://www.nytimes.com/1977/06/04/archives/former-clergyman-is-convicted-of-acts-against-his-wards.html
+[^3]: Wright, Marilyn. *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1976-1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime. *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, Serial No. 12, 1977. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041
+[^4]: Moseley, Ray, with Michael Sneed and George Bliss. *Chicago Tribune,* May 1977, reprinted in *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* Serial No. 12, 1977, and in U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* hearings, 95th Congress, 1st session, 1977. https://archive.org/details/protectionofchil00unit
+[^5]: Testimony of Kenneth Wooden, Director, National Coalition for Children's Justice, in *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* Serial No. 12, 1977. Wooden places the farm at Monteagle, Tennessee.
+[^6]: Testimony of Gerald S. Richards, May 27, 1977, in *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* 1977, p. 41. https://archive.org/details/protectionofchil00unit