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

20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Troop 137.md

@@ -1,31 +1,50 @@
 ---
 tags:
   - Organization
-  - Boy_Scout_Troop
-  - Child_Trafficking
-  - New_Orleans
+  - BoyScoutTroop
+  - ChildTrafficking
+  - NewOrleans
   - Louisiana
   - 1970s
-  - Delta_Project
-  - Odyssey_Network
+  - DeltaProject
+  - OdysseyNetwork
 category: "Private Organization"
-summary: "Troop 137 was a Boy Scout troop chartered in eastern New Orleans in 1974 by three men: Richard Halvorsen, Raymond Woodall, and Robert Lang."
+summary: "New Orleans Boy Scout troop organized in 1974 by Richard Halvorsen and Raymond Woodall, raided in September 1976; nineteen men were charged, among them millionaire clients from Massachusetts and California."
 start: 1974
+end: 1976
 location: "New Orleans, Louisiana"
+relations:
+  - type: founded
+    with: "[[Richard Halvorsen]]"
+    reverse: true
+    start: 1974
+    fn: 2
+  - type: founded
+    with: "[[Raymond Woodall]]"
+    reverse: true
+    start: 1974
+    fn: 2
+created: 2026-04-28
+updated: 2026-09-22
 ---
-Troop 137 was a Boy Scout troop chartered in eastern New Orleans in 1974 by three men: [[Richard Halvorsen]], [[Raymond Woodall]], and [[Robert Lang]]. Around forty boys from low income families were recruited into the troop, from which approximately ten boys aged between eight and twelve were groomed and supplied as boy prostitutes to a network of wealthy clients across the United States. The troop's exposure in September 1976 revealed a child pornography and prostitution operation linked to [[John David Norman]]'s [[Delta Project]] in Chicago and the [[Hermes]] newsletter.[^1]
+Troop 137 was a Boy Scout troop organized in [[New Orleans]] in 1974 by [[Richard Halvorsen]] and [[Raymond Woodall]], with about 40 boys as members. From them the two men selected about ten to go on Scout trips, during which sexual acts took place; one boy was injured and hospitalized. The victims in New Orleans were eight to twelve years old, and documents seized in the raid led police to believe the ring may have involved as many as 30 boys, including wards of the Louisiana Welfare Department. Halvorsen was a volunteer probation officer, and many of the suspects had worked with volunteer agencies dealing with runaways and boys from broken homes; Halvorsen and Richard A. Pass gave boys guitars and a motorcycle as inducements. District Attorney [[Harry Connick]] said the Scout leaders had drawn up applications for state and federal money to establish homes for boys.[^2][^3]
 
-The case broke when film reels of child pornography discovered by technicians in a broken down commercial film processing machine in Dallas were traced to an assistant scoutmaster named Harry O'Cramer. Boys from the troop and their scoutmasters were subsequently identified engaging in sex acts on the discovered film, leading to the arrest of Halvorsen, Woodall, and Lang. Further investigation revealed Halvorsen and Woodall had previously worked at a private children's school in Florida called Adelphi Academies, owned by [[Peter Bradford]]. The pair moved to New Orleans in the early 1970s and were approved as juvenile probationary officers, using these positions to access and reactivate case files on juvenile offenders to leverage against their families with scholarship offers to attend the Adelphi Academy in Florida. At least six boys from New Orleans had been trafficked to Florida for sex and pornography.[^1]
+Acting on a tip, New Orleans police raided the troop's headquarters in September 1976 and arrested Halvorsen and Woodall. Halvorsen, 51, and twelve other men were first charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated rape and aggravated crimes against nature; four, including the assistant scoutmaster Harry O. Cramer, 23, of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, were then at large. A search of Halvorsen's home produced card files with the names and addresses of boys in other states. "It seems to be like spider webs strung out all over the nation," said the juvenile detective Mason Spong, who said the investigation extended into 34 states; nineteen men were eventually charged.[^2][^3]
 
-### Clients and the Escort Service
+### Adelphi Academies
 
-Among those charged as clients were a millionaire from California named [[Robert B. Mallers]], a Boston real estate mogul named [[Hugh Mellor]], and a Boston financier named [[Richard C. Jacobs]], who was a minority-owner of the New England Patriots NFL team. An associate of Raymond Woodall named [[Lewis Sialle]], who had been given an immunity deal to testify, claimed under oath that District Attorney [[Harry Connick]] had been the lover of a boy pornographer named [[John Reed Campbell]], a fugitive wanted in connection to the Troop 137 case. Sialle alleged: "I knew that Harry Connick was involved with John Campbell as his lover, and there was a cover-up." Campbell was a prime suspect from the beginning, with victims telling police they were introduced to the Troop 137 leaders at Campbell's residence after posing as models in "Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer" portraits Campbell had painted of them.[^1]
+Halvorsen and Woodall had come to New Orleans from [[Coral Gables, Florida]], where they worked as maintenance men for the [[Adelphi Academies]], identified by Florida police as a former male prostitution front. Halvorsen recruited six New Orleans boys for the academies by telling their mothers he could obtain free scholarships; the co-owner, [[Peter Bradford]], flew to New Orleans, had sex with one of the boys and met the parents, and the six boys enrolled. Bradford was charged in New Orleans with two counts of aggravated crimes against nature, forfeited bond and stayed in Florida, where no charges were filed.[^3]
 
-Woodall had also operated an escort service that initially used adult prostitutes but transitioned to using children from Troop 137, with Sialle testifying: "The service started out using adults, but they began ripping off the customers. That's when Woodall said we could use the kids. They'll get $50, a good meal and all that jazz." Halvorsen, Woodall, and O'Cramer all received lengthy prison terms. Robert Lang was the only key figure to avoid prison, with the State Department of Corrections putting in a good word with the judge on his behalf, recommending probation in view of his "minimal involvement" and describing Lang as of "high moral character."[^1]
+### The Clients
 
-### Connections to Broader Networks
+Among those charged were [[Richard C. Jacobs]], millionaire president of the Jet Spray Corporation and a former part owner of the New England Patriots, who forfeited a 50,000-dollar bond to avoid trial in Louisiana; [[Robert B. Mallers]], a California millionaire; and [[Hugh Mellor|Hugh Scott Mellor]] of Brighton, Massachusetts, president of a real estate holding company.[^2][^3] Woodall's address book contained the name of [[John David Norman]], whose ring, according to the Chicago police, sent boys around the country to a network of clients. Halvorsen's files contained the name of [[Claudius Vermilye]] of [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee, and the films seized in New Orleans helped Tennessee authorities identify boys filmed at the farm. By May 1977 Woodall and Halvorsen had been convicted and were awaiting sentence.[^2][^3]
 
-An FBI memo from February 1977 confirmed the [[Delta Project]] connection to Troop 137 in New Orleans and noted that Norman's conviction in December 1976 ended an ongoing investigation into the Delta Project, which had continued to operate under [[Phillip Paske]]. A letter sent by [[Claudius Vermilye]] to Halvorsen personally inviting him to visit [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee established the link between Troop 137 and the wider interlinked network of operations. Don Berlage, a district attorney in Charlevoix County, Michigan, was also connected to the case through the broader network.[^1]
+### The Sialle Testimony
+
+The case was said to have broken when film found in a broken-down commercial processing machine in Dallas was traced to Cramer, and [[Robert Lang]] was said to have been a third founder, arrested with the others, and the only principal to avoid prison, after the state Department of Corrections recommended probation for his "minimal involvement" and "high moral character." Halvorsen and Woodall were said to have used their positions as juvenile probation officers to reactivate case files and leverage families. An associate of Woodall, [[Lewis Sialle]], given immunity to testify, said that District Attorney Connick had been the lover of the boy pornographer [[John Reed Campbell]], a fugitive in the case, and that "there was a cover-up"; victims said they had met the troop leaders at Campbell's home after posing for his "Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer" portraits. Sialle testified that Woodall ran an escort service that turned to the boys of the troop: "They'll get $50, a good meal and all that jazz." Halvorsen, Woodall and Cramer were said to have received long prison terms. An [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] memo of February 1977 was said to have confirmed the link to Norman's [[Delta Project]], then run by [[Phillip Paske]]; Vermilye was said to have written to Halvorsen inviting him to the farm; and [[Don Berlage]], a district attorney in Charlevoix County, Michigan, was connected to the case.[^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 (*State v. Cramer,* 362 So.2d 581, La. 1978) give Harry O. Cramer. Neither Lang, Sialle, Campbell nor Berlage appears in the 1977 hearing record.
+[^2]: 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
+[^3]: *Chicago Tribune,* May 1977, reprinted in *Sexual Exploitation of Children,* Serial No. 12, 1977, pp. 439-443, and 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/protectionofchil00unit