Anthony Godby Johnson

[LibraryLady]

I am a great Law and Order: Criminal Intent fan, which has absolutely nothing to do with Vincent D’Onofrio. Nothing. An episode from the first season began to really interest me, and since most of their plots are ripped from the headlines, I went to TV.com to take a look. Sure enough, it seems to be based on the Anthony Godby Johnson case, which I knew nothing about. So I started doing a little research. Hey, it’s what I do.

I checked here and didn’t see a thread, and since it seems to me to be a perfect case for the need to be skeptical, I thought I’d start one.

Tony Johnson was a fifteen year old boy who wrote an autobiography about the horrific abuse he suffered as a child. He was physically, emotionally, and sexually abused, and at the age of 11 rescued himself by calling a hotline. His parents were convicted, but their friends, who had participated in the abuse, threatened his life. He was adopted by a social worker, Vicki Johnson, whose name he took. Then, on top of everything else, he was diagnosed with AIDS.

The book had an afterward by Fred Rogers and was read and promoted by people such as Armistead Maupin, author of Tales of the City, Oprah Winfrey (of course), and Keith Olberman. They spoke to Tony on the phone, and promoted his book enthusiastically. They were sent pictures of him by his adoptive mother. This was in the 1990s, and it was expected that this young boy, whose life had held nothing but tragedy, would die shortly. In spite of all this, his attitude was brave and cheeky, and his writing was phenomenal. There was only one problem.

No one was ever allowed to meet Tony. His mother refused all visitors. His editor, people who had donated large amounts of money, all took his very existence on faith. Eventually, doubts began to surface. Maupin’s then lover noticed that the voices of Tony and Vicki were remarkably similar. There didn’t seem to be any records of his parents’ arrests or trials.

Eventually, in a spurt of actual investigative reporting, the ABC News show, 20/20, uncovered Vicki Johnson’s real name, Joanne Vicki Fraginals, and discovered that she had never been a social worker at all, but an elementary school teacher. Indeed, the photographs of “Tony” were actually of one of her former students, Steve Tarabokija, who was considerably nonplussed to find this out.

Fraginals still claims that the boy is real, although none of the celebrities involved, and there were quite a few, have ever seen him. Maupin wrote a (not very good) novel about the experience called The Night Listener. Olbermann, who was co-authoring a book on baseball with “Tony,” admitted his error on his show, Countdown and canceled the collaboration. I can’t find any comments from Oprah about the case, post exposé.

I have not yet read the book supposedly written by Tony, although I have it on my official list. Knowing all this up front should make it an interesting read.

Anybody else interested in this story?

[Tiktaalik]

I just saw a documentary on a similar theme, although the name escapes me. A lady invented an entire facebook community, family, friends, you name it, including tragedies of various sorts. When the guy making the documentary finally tracked her down, she was a middle-aged housewife with a handicapped son, and most of the rest of the family & friends didn't exist, including the young woman the filmmaker thought he was in love with.

Interesting stories, perhaps made easier to pull off by the advent of social media?

[LibraryLady]

Originally Posted by Tiktaalik

I just saw a documentary on a similar theme, although the name escapes me. A lady invented an entire facebook community, family, friends, you name it, including tragedies of various sorts. When the guy making the documentary finally tracked her down, she was a middle-aged housewife with a handicapped son, and most of the rest of the family & friends didn't exist, including the young woman the filmmaker thought he was in love with.

Interesting stories, perhaps made easier to pull off by the advent of social media?

Well, since the Tony Johnson thing took place in the early 1990s, I don't think social media had much to do with it. "He" did create a Facebook page eventually, but if you look at it, it just quotes the Wikipedia article about the hoax, so it must have gotten shut down.

[Accidental Martyr]

There is a film version of The Night Listener with Robin Williams and Toni Collette. It's not too bad.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448075/?mode=desktop

[GT/CS]

Originally Posted by Tiktaalik

I just saw a documentary on a similar theme, although the name escapes me. A lady invented an entire facebook community, family, friends, you name it, including tragedies of various sorts. When the guy making the documentary finally tracked her down, she was a middle-aged housewife with a handicapped son, and most of the rest of the family & friends didn't exist, including the young woman the filmmaker thought he was in love with.

Interesting stories, perhaps made easier to pull off by the advent of social media?

That was a great movie called Catfish but there are questions as to how much of the documentary/movie was real and how much was staged.

[Tiktaalik]

Originally Posted by GT/CS

That was a great movie called Catfish but there are questions as to how much of the documentary/movie was real and how much was staged.

Yep - that was it - couldn't remember the name, except that it was a weird, one-word name. It was pretty good - obviously a bunch of it was "staged", they knew from pretty early on that something "fishy" was going on. I enjoyed it. It's a fascinating study in personality - much like the one the OP is talking about.

[LibraryLady]

But what I find fascinating is the fact that numerous people of pretty high intelligence were so easily fooled. Why would that be?

[Marduk]

Originally Posted by LibraryLady

Anybody else interested in this story?

Only from the perspective of for every Godby theres a hundred who's stories being real and emotionally disturbing, decide not to tell it. Which is a real tragedy

[Marduk]

Originally Posted by LibraryLady

But what I find fascinating is the fact that numerous people of pretty high intelligence were so easily fooled. Why would that be?

Because saying to a child "I don't think your abuse is real" can backfire really badly unless theyre sure of their facts.

[Minarvia]

Originally Posted by LibraryLady

But what I find fascinating is the fact that numerous people of pretty high intelligence were so easily fooled. Why would that be?

Because high intelligence doesn't mean low compassion? I know what you mean, but when we hear so many tragic stories that are true, we don't dismiss the ones that are not out of hand because they are so sadly believable.

This is a fascinating thread and I'll now have to look into this case.

I'm reminded of a show that was on Court TV about a teenaged girl who staged her own kidnapping for attention. I recall that at the hospital people began to notice the oddity of her story when her fingernails were clean and there were small inconsistencies in her story that began to grow larger the more she was questioned about her "ordeal." I wish I could remember her name.

[EHocking]

Originally Posted by LibraryLady

But what I find fascinating is the fact that numerous people of pretty high intelligence were so easily fooled. Why would that be?

See if you can find any copies of Brass Eye.

Their Drugs episode was brilliant.

The media reaction to their Paedogeddon episode was beyond ironic and proved that their satire was bitingly prescient.