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

10 - PEOPLE/(T-Z)/Raymond Woodall.md

@@ -1,18 +1,32 @@
 ---
 category: "Organized Crime"
+aliases:
+  - "Raymond T. Woodall"
 tags:
   - Person
-  - OrganizedCrime
-summary: "Raymond Woodall served as a scout leader in New Orleans, Louisiana, associated with Troop 137."
+  - ChildAbuse
+  - NewOrleans
+summary: "Former Adelphi Academies maintenance man who organized New Orleans Boy Scout Troop 137 with Richard Halvorsen in 1974; arrested in September 1976 and convicted by May 1977."
+relations:
+  - type: founded
+    with: "[[Troop 137]]"
+    start: 1974
+    fn: 2
+  - type: employed_by
+    with: "[[Adelphi Academies]]"
+    role: "maintenance man"
+    fn: 2
+created: 2026-04-28
+updated: 2026-09-22
 ---
 
-Raymond Woodall served as a scout leader in [[New Orleans]], associated with [[Troop 137]]. He worked alongside other leaders including [[Richard Halvorsen]] and [[Harry O'Cramer]]. Boys from [[Troop 137]] participated in activities under the supervision of Woodall and his colleagues, which later came under scrutiny due to illicit involvement. Woodall's role in the troop positioned him in a position of authority over young boys, facilitating access that was exploited in criminal enterprises.[^1]
+Raymond T. Woodall worked with [[Richard Halvorsen]] as a maintenance man at the Adelphi Academies in [[Coral Gables, Florida]], identified by Florida police as a former male prostitution front, before the two moved to [[New Orleans]], where in 1974 they organized Boy Scout [[Troop 137]] with about 40 boys and selected about ten for Scout trips during which sexual acts took place. New Orleans police arrested him and Halvorsen in September 1976, and by May 1977 both had been convicted and were awaiting sentence. Police said Woodall's address book contained the name of [[John David Norman]], then in the Illinois state prison at Pontiac, whose ring, according to the Chicago police, sent boys around the country to a network of clients.[^2]
 
-### Criminal Activities
-In September 1976, film reels containing child pornography were discovered by technicians in a malfunctioning commercial film processing machine in [[Dallas, Texas]], and traced back to Harry O'Cramer in New Orleans, revealing involvement of [[Troop 137]] boys and their scoutmasters, including Woodall, in depicted sex acts. Woodall participated in a boy prostitution ring that operated through the scout troop, producing and distributing explicit materials featuring minors. The operation connected to broader networks, including [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee run by [[Claudius Vermilye]], where juveniles were drugged and coerced into orgies for filming and sponsorship by paying clients, with Woodall's activities in New Orleans feeding into similar exploitation patterns involving [[John David Norman]]'s international contacts.[^1]
+### The Escort Service
 
-### Legal Outcome
-Woodall was arrested in September 1976 alongside fellow scout leaders [[Richard Halvorsen]] and [[Robert Lang]] following the identification of participants on the child pornography films from the Dallas discovery. The case was prosecuted by District Attorney [[Harry Connick]] in New Orleans, who became implicated himself through testimony from one of his witnesses during court proceedings. The arrests exposed the depth of the child trafficking network tied to [[Troop 137]], leading to convictions for the involved parties in the boy prostitution and pornography ring.[^1]
+Woodall was said to have run an escort service that began with adult prostitutes and turned to boys from the troop; his associate [[Lewis Sialle]], testifying under immunity, quoted him: "They'll get $50, a good meal and all that jazz." The case was said to have broken when film found in a commercial processing machine in [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]] was traced to the assistant scoutmaster [[Harry O. Cramer]], and Woodall to have been arrested with Halvorsen and [[Robert Lang]]. The operation was connected to [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee, run by [[Claudius Vermilye]].[^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. It spells the assistant scoutmaster "Harry O'Cramer"; the hearing record and Louisiana Supreme Court captions give Harry O. Cramer. Robert Lang does not appear in the 1977 hearing record.
+[^2]: Wright, Marilyn. *Traverse City Record-Eagle,* 1976-1977, and *Chicago Tribune,* May 1977, both 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, pp. 439-443; the Tribune piece also in U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency. *Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation,* hearings, 1977. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041