---
tags:
  - Concept
  - Criminal_Operation
  - Chicago
  - Illinois
  - Dallas
  - Texas
  - 1970s
  - Odyssey_Network
  - Child_Trafficking
category: "Intelligence Operation"
summary: "The Delta Project was the operational name for John David Norman's child trafficking and prostitution network, also referred to as the Odyssey Network."
updated: 2026-10-14
---
The Delta Project was the operational name for [[John David Norman]]'s child trafficking and prostitution network, also referred to as the [[Odyssey Network]]. Norman came to the Chicago area in mid-1973 from [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]], where the Odyssey Foundation had operated, and the Chicago Tribune reported that the Delta Project began in [[Cook County Jail]] in 1976 and was run from a Chicago post office box afterward.[^1] The Delta Project operated through a system of "sponsors" connected via coded communications in the [[Hermes]] newsletter and front organizations including the [[Odyssey Foundation]] and [[Educational Foundation for Youth]]. The writer S. Dovey wrote that an FBI memo from February 1977 confirmed the Delta Project's connection to [[Troop 137]] in New Orleans and noted that Norman's conviction in December 1976 had ended an ongoing investigation that had continued under [[Phillip Paske]]. The Delta Project was linked to [[Francis Shelden]]'s [[North Fox Island]] operation, [[Father Bud's Boys Farm]] in Tennessee, and [[John Wayne Gacy]]'s network in Chicago through shared participants.[^2]

An October 19, 1976, memorandum of the FBI Chicago office (file 166-2548) records information from an investigator for the Cook County state's attorney's office that Norman, John Shanks and Phillip Paske ran "The Delta Project" as a business transporting young males interstate to paying customers, some of whom may be federal employees.[^3]

### Footnotes

[^1]: *Chicago Tribune*, May 16, 1977, reprinted in U.S. House of Representatives, *Sexual Exploitation of Children*, Serial No. 12 (1977), pp. 433-434. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41153502_0041
[^2]: Dovey, S. (2023). *Eye of the Chickenhawk*. United States: Thehotstar.
[^3]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, memorandum, SAC Chicago (166-NEW), dated October 19, 1976, file 166-2548, FOIPA release 1352511-001 (Philip Paske file). https://vault.fbi.gov/philip-paske/philip-paske-part-01