Delta Project

The Delta Project was the operational name for John David Norman's child trafficking and prostitution network, also referred to as the Odyssey Network. Based initially in Chicago and later Dallas, 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. 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.¹