Boy prostitution emerged as a systematic commercial enterprise during the 1970s, operating through organized networks that trafficked male children across the United States and Europe. In Dallas, [[John David Norman]] ran a mail-order boy prostitution service out of his apartment, using an organization called [[Odyssey Foundation]] as a front. The foundation was structured as a non-profit mentorship program pairing adult sponsors with boy fellows for inter-state educational trips, with sponsors providing lodging and paying travel expenses. Police raids on the apartment seized thousands of index cards listing clients around the country, including prominent people and federal employees in Washington. Classified ads for Norman's callboy service were placed in both gay magazines and underground boylover newsletters circulated through the post, and the service was popular among child pornographers who sought fresh talent for photographs and films.[^1] ### Interstate Trafficking Operations The network extended to major cities on both coasts. Detective John St. John of the Houston Police Department stated that photographer [[Roy Ames]] and his associates were shipping boy prostitutes back and forth between Houston and the West Coast. Ames had been convicted in 1975 for using the mails to distribute obscene material, and photographs of Houston area victims were seized following the arrests of [[Elmer Wayne Henley]] and [[David Owen Brooks]]. The trafficking operation used specially constructed compartments concealed in vehicles to transport children across state lines. In California, [[Guy Strait]] operated a mail-order child porn business and testified before a congressional inquiry that he had known John Norman and a Houston child pornographer named Roy Ames, confirming the interstate nature of these operations.[^1] ### Institutional Fronts and Exploitation Boy prostitution networks also operated through ostensibly legitimate organizations. In Massachusetts, [[Richard Halvorsen]] and [[Raymond Woodall]] chartered [[Troop 137]] in 1974, recruiting approximately forty boys from low income families. Around ten boys aged between eight and twelve were groomed and supplied as boy prostitutes to wealthy clients across the United States. Clients charged included millionaire [[Robert B. Mallers]], Boston real estate mogul [[Hugh Mellor]], and financier [[Richard C. Jacobs]], a minority owner of the New England Patriots. Over twenty men were charged as accomplices or clients, though wealthier defendants such as [[Peter Bradford]] and Jacobs absconded on their bonds without serving prison sentences. Halvorsen and Woodall had previously worked at a private children's school in Florida called Adelphi Academies, and they used their positions as juvenile probationary officers to access case files on juvenile offenders to leverage against their families.[^1] ### International Networks In Amsterdam, the trade continued into the 1990s. [[Warwick Spinks]] managed boy brothels masquerading as gay nightclubs in the Spuistraat district, including the [[Gay Palace]]. Spinks was involved in mail order boy prostitution and pornography through the 1980s and 90s, pioneering the trafficking of boys as young as ten from the streets of London and, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, from Eastern Europe. Having brought them to Amsterdam, he used these "chickens" himself, sold them into brothels or through escort agencies, and put them in front of the camera. Some resisted, some ran away, but most were made to comply through the removal of their passports and doses of drugs and violence. Further allegations implicated prominent figures including members of the Dutch Royal family, with witnesses claiming they had been used as boy prostitutes during the 1980s. The callboy service called Bell Boys, operated by [[Karel Maasdam]], catered to Dutch justice officials and was linked to senior government figures whose names appeared in a rolodex kept by a professor serving as a go-between.[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). Eye of the Chickenhawk. United States: Thehotstar.