Check out NEWS AND EVENTS to hear VERY TOUCHING song entitled "Whitehouse Boys" by a Canadian band named Dhallium. Click HERE:


Several WHBz have Facebook sites running, and Mary B. has a very nice one too!  Send in your links to your Facebook sites, and I'll post them so the others can join you, if you wish!

Note from Webmaster: 
Folks - Don't forget! This website belongs to YOU.  I was the one to set it up and do the technical "stuff" but that's my job, and sending in interesting and newsworthy items is yours.  It needs input from everyone! Please don't forget to use the GUESTBOOK often. If you find a news story, send it in. (I don't always have the time to scour the internet looking for stories). Send a recipe, news about an event in your life such as a wedding or a baby's birth, or send a photo of you or family.  Say hello to other WHBz and please don't forget to send well wishes to Frank or Dick.  Keep us updated on any illness for the new Prayer Requests & Updates  page. No one has sent me a summary of the reunion events yet.  I have photos, but it would be nice to post an article about it for those who couldn't attend.  Those things should come from all of you, and I'm the technical person who posts them.   In the next few months, I'll be adding MANY more Yellow Jacket photos, but that's just my little contribution.  Please do your part to keep the website current, and interesting because it belongs to ALL OF YOU.  p.s. Have you tried the guestbook yet?  The questbook is VERY easy to use, all you need is a name and an email address.  Why not give it a try and say hello to your WHB brothers and families?
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Go to LEGAL NEWS to read the FDLE report and Robert Straley's Rebuttal as well as many other news stories.
 
DON'T FORGET TO CALL OR EMAIL FRANK MARX.  HE'S NOT FEELING VERY WELL RIGHT NOW, AND NEEDS HIS WHB BROTHERS!

PLEASE REMEMBER TO MAKE USE OF THE GUEST BOOK.  IT IS VERY EASY TO USE!  MAYBE THOSE OF YOU WHO ATTENDED THE REUNION COULD POST A NOTE ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCE? 

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CHECK OUT CURRENT STORIES FROM
NEWSPAPER & TV BY CLICKING HERE.
READ THE FDLE REPORT HERE
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IMPORTANT MESSAGE REGARDING WHITE HOUSE BROTHER:  FRANK MARX

Please remember our dear Brother and Sargeant at Arms, Frank Marx, and his wife / our Treasurer, Peggy, in your prayers each day.  It is with a heavy heart that I report to you all that Frank has been diagnosed with cancer, and the doctors are painting a grave picture.  He needs a miracle right now since the doctors are saying "3 to 6 months".  However, we know that our Lord and Savior is a Mighty God, and if it be his will, he can keep Frank around for many more years to come, so Frank can continue doing good deeds on behalf of the White House Boys, as he has been doing for a long time now.  May God watch over him, his family, and his doctors as they care for him.  May Frank endure the chemo with minimal side effects.  May the Lord give him the strength to attend and enjoy the fellowship of his brothers at the April reunion.  May the family have the resources they need to give Frank the best care possible.  May the Lord show daily mercy on him and his family.  May his spirits be uplifted by phone calls, emails, cards and prayers from all his White House Brothers.  Let Frank and Peggy know you love them, and support them with your prayers, cards, letters and phone calls. Frank's number is  941-356-2517 or you can leave a comment for Frank on our Guest Book, which he will be checking frequently. 

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS Elected January 1, 2010

MEMBER – Jerry Cooper, Legal Affairs Committee
AT-LARGE BOARD MEMBER – Babs Cooper, Reunion & Grievance Committee (Interim Reunion Committee: Mary Brodnax)
AT-LARGE BOARD MEMBER – Roger Kiser, Research Committee
AT-LARGE BOARD MEMBER – Mike Sapp, Special Projects Committee
AT-LARGE BOARPRESIDENT – Dick Colon
VICE-PRESIDENT – Nathaniel Dowling / Richard Huntley
SECRETARY – OPEN!
TREASURER – Peggy Marx
AT-LARGE BOARD MEMBER – Marti Somnitz, Printing & Photography Committee
AT-LARGE BOARD D MEMBER – Ben Elder, Media Committee
AT-LARGE BOARD MEMBER – Frank Marx. Sergeant-at-Arms
AT-LARGE BOARD MEMBER – Don Stratton, Master of Ceremonies & Auction Committee
Note: These are the results of the Mail-In vote back in December and January.  Ballots were mailed to EVERY White House Boy for whom we had an address, and results were originally posted on www.officialwhitehouseboys.com on Jan. 11, 2010.  The Next Election will be held in December/January 2011 and we urge EVERY WHB to participate!

OUR COLORS:  Red, White & Black. 
What do they represent?
Red- for the blood that was spilled
White-for White House Boys
Black -for Stolen childhood and Lost children
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Sign up for our Email Newsletter

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READ PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS, INCLUDING THE ONE WITH REUNION INFO, BY CLICKING HERE  

THEN AND NOW
Below is a small photo album featuring some photos of the White House Boys with their sports teams.  There are also a few photos of the men at reunions many years later. You can click each photo to enlarge.  For more photos and articles from the Yellow Jacket, click HERE.

NOTE TO *ALL* WHITEHOUSE BOYS, FAMILY, ETC... from your webmaster...
*PLEASE* SEND ANY INFO YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE ON YOUR WEBSITE TO
theofficialwhitehouseboys@gmail.com and our website will continue to grow, with YOUR stories and photos.   It is *my* job to POST anything you or the Board sends me, on this web-site, but NOT my job to hunt down the info, or give my "opinions" and such on here.  I am ONLY the "technical vehicle" you have to make YOUR website an informative and interesting place for everyone to read.  If ANYONE sees an article that you want on the website, or has news in your family, or even a recipe or photo, please send it in!  If there are reunions, or picnics, or gatherings that WHBz are invited to, post them here.  This is NOT "my" site, it is YOURS!  Make it interesting!  Send in articles, stories, whatever, and I'll do my best to post them as soon as I receive them.  I haven't seen the WHB'z in the news lately,  so  I'm at a lull, waiting for NEWS to come in.  This is YOUR website!  I pledged to never post "my opinions" on the website, but YOUR OPINIONS are Welcome.  This is YOUR SITE!!  Make the best of it! 

FRANK MARX UPDATE, (Plus Prayer Requests for Babbs Cooper and Dick Colon) - click HERE.

Check out our PHOTO GALLERY which contains photos from the April Reunion and the May Picnic.

Don't forget to check the various tabs above or you'll miss out on news!  Check out the Legal News and Newspaper Stories for updates.

Congratulations to Reporters Ben Montgomery and Waveney Ann Moore and photographer Edmund D. Fountain for their superlative reporting!

St. Petersburg Times series 'For Their Own Good' a Pulitzer Prize finalist
Times staff
In Print: Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The St. Petersburg Times' investigation into abuse at the state's oldest reform school was named a finalist on Monday for the Pulitzer Prize in local reporting.  Reporters Ben Montgomery and Waveney Ann Moore and photographer Edmund D. Fountain documented the effects of brutal whippings at the school in the 1950s and '60s in a series called For Their Own Good. They showed that not only did the abuse occur, but that it was only one chapter in a 100-year history of state-sponsored violence and neglect. 

Click HERE to read the rest of the story.  To read the full series, click on "For Their Own Good" above.
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REUNION WAS A GREAT SUCCESS!  PHOTOS ARE POSTED HERE.  We need someone to write up a summary for those who couldn't attend! Also please find a post with a link to over 100 photos in our Guest Book.  Thank you Mary Brodnax for taking all these photos and posting them on Facebook so quickly!


URGENT NEWS POSTED 4-2-10
re:  DEATH AND DISAPPEARANCES OF WHITE HOUSE BOYS
The following is an email sent from Jerry Cooper, to Ben Montgomery of the St. Pete Times on Wednesday, March 31, 2010 at 12:00 PM. It contains VERY  IMPORTANT INFORMATION that EVERY WHITE HOUSE BOY and ALL OTHERS should read! 

Here is the email. PLEASE READ ON....

Subject: Witness!!!!!!Ben,I have a notarized, sworn, and witnessed statement that proves what happened to Edgar Elton, from a witness that was present that day!!! I am trying to get an appointment with Glen Hess, who is the State's Attorney Prosecutor I have to go to!! I am asking for a sit down for the 2 of us with him at his location choice!!!

I now have permission to openly discuss the situation involving the 1979-80 issue, so I need to decide what I should do to handle this. Thank God U.S. Marshal Jim Disbrow has stepped up to help me!!! If you have any reason at all to speak to him I have his phone #.  His F.B.I agent, that is going to meet with me,  is due back into the country soon and I am looking forward to it!!

I spoke to Chief Forensic Officer Mike Lapperty (not sure if last name is spelled correctly) He is the man here in Lee county!!! I already knew the answers to my questions before I asked them!!!!! He says , "You're correct Jerry. There would be no blood evidence in that building in a very "Short Period Of Time" because blood evidence will disappear very rapidly when MOLDS, MOISTURE,and BACTERIA are present!!!!" And he said the chance of finding any evidence of blood after FOUR DECADES is absolutely "O"!!!!!!!!!!!! I already knew this!!!!!!!!!

The FDLE has made it look like no boy was ever beaten in this building by the " FINAL REPORT " they issued!!! When I questioned Berlinger and Davis as to why they even did the blood evidence, their answer was that they are required to do so!!!!!! I said, "Why didn't you put in the report that you all knew there would be NO BLOOD EVIDENCE???????????" The phone went Quiet.

I then asked them about what they found out about "TONY TURNER", the boy that was taken from my classroom to the white house and never returned to my classroom???. I then heard papers shuffling for some time and finally Davis in a sudden turn of attitude says, "Jerry, it seems nothing we say to you satisfies you at all" and I said, "YES MA'AM". You are right on track". I was glad she finally joined my club for a few minutes!!!!

I asked Berlinger right then, "Let's use any of your labs to put me on polygraph about: 1."Edgar Elton"s Death" 2."The Disappearance of Tony Turner" 3. and the recordings I have listened to by a white house boy claiming his involvement in murder with Troy Tidwell!!! 4.Do I know where the boy is buried by the information I have "YES" 5.Do I know where and who this white house boy on the recording is "YES'. Tom Berlinger has replied to me that they do not want to test me because they have no reason to doubt me at all!!!!!

Ben, I was trying to get them to do the test, because, if not, I now have to pay for my test and the test for the witness involving Edgar's death!!! FDLE has also, in their last report, made all of us, including myself, look like we have lied about blood all over that building!!!! I have refused to give FDLE the Statement I have at this time nor the location of said grave for good reason!!! I and many others all saw blood in that building!!!! I will only agree to speak to Prosecutor Glen Hess or to the Federal Individual at this time regarding what I have and know!!!! I made a call to his office yesterday and had to leave a call back number!!! I have heard nothing from them yet and may not get a return call!!!! I am aware of what is going on!!!

So I don"t forget!!! "MIKE WORKS FOR FDLE!!!!!!!! I plan on saying what I need to tell to everybody present in Tallahassee on April 10th and let it fall wherever it does!!!! My personal web site is http://www.jerrycoopercountrymusic.com. It will soon have the full scope of "THE WHITE HOUSE BOYS" for the entire world of Country Music to view !!!!! THANK YOU BEN MONTGOMERY!!!!!!!Jerry Cooper - "A WHITEHOUSE BOY"    *************************************************
Welcome to the new website!  There are blue buttons at the top of this page that will connect you to other pages of information.  Also, there are a lot of places on each page where you can "click to" another article.  Please enjoy the website.  The page with the links to news articles is still being completed and the the photo galleries are still not done, but we decided we'd go ahead and share what we do have with you.Please take a minute to use our GUEST BOOK, which can be found on this page, or just click on these words GUEST BOOK and it will take you there.  You can sign up to leave a comment very easily.  Please let us know what you think. ALL Opinions are Welcome!!! 

WANT TO TELL YOUR STORY, OF WHAT HAPPENED IN YOUR LIFE  *AFTER* THE WHITE HOUSE? CLICK HERE.       

OUR MISSION STATEMENT
 A Project Dedicated to the Survivors of the White House

We are the faces of 108 years of state sponsored child abue.

“Those who do not learn the lessons of history are bound to repeat them.” Santayana

The state of Florida has one of the worst records for juvenile care in the United States. The negligence on the part of the Department of Juvenile Justice continues to this day: Underfunded, poorly trained and screened staff, overcrowding and the lack of a progressive system of care, treatment and skill training produces a recidivist rate “…for males … 46 percent and for females it is 28 percent.” (Florida Performs.com.) That includes boys and girls returning to the system for “more of the same,” or “graduating” to adult correctional institutions.

“Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee…” John Donne

We are more than “our brother’s keepers.” We are the guardians of the health and welfare of any child in our neighborhood, town, city, county and state. The children are our heritage and our future. When one is mistreated, it affects an entire society. We must stand for justice now; on their behalf and ours.

Where are we now?

As is any democratic movement for justice, it takes time and requires patience and diligence. It requires of us to exhaust every available institutional remedy so when and if we reach the point of a negative response from the powers that be, we are able to demonstrate to the citizenry that we have been reasonable and met with unreasoned response. When we have exhausted that democratic course and we must seek alternate methods in our pursuit of justice.

With the “abeyance” of the Claims Bill in the Florida legislature we have reached one of those negative responses to our call for justice. If and when we enliven the Claims Bill we will officially state our grievances, provide the proof of the wrong done to us and our kind and hold the state government responsible for our reparations while at the same time educating the voting people of the state of Florida, especially that of our class of people, of the consequences of this system of injustice levied upon us and now upon the current class.

We have now entered the first course with our class actions suit in the Circuit Court of the Sixth Judicial Circuit in and for Pinellas County, State of Florida, Civil Division. Should our case fail there we have the option to continue with appeals into the appellate courts and the federal courts. That process is fraught with years of delay; not a healthy outlook for the aging “White House Boys.” And frankly, our case is not likely to overcome the barriers of Statute of Limitations which require a court to rule that the damage done was so severe as to demand that the statute be set aside in pursuit of justice or Sovereign Immunity (King’s Law stipulating that you could not sue the King (the state) for the wrongs it has done you.”) That too requires a judgment that the harm is of such magnitude that it overrides the King’s protection; in this case its defense of its minion, Tidwell it has thrown the cloak of the king over him.

Frankly, we will never receive justice if we are unwilling to work for it. We will never receive justice if it is we who stand alone. We can only achieve justice if the people of the State of Florida rally to our cause and demand redress and reparations be ordered by the legislature and signed into law by the governor. This process is as old as the call for political and social justice and it requires conscious raising, organizing and the means to bring the voice of the people to the powers that be. What follows is a tried and true democratic method to achieve just that.

Getting here.

We have had our differences in getting here. Some were where we allowed personality issues to override principles, some of the differences were of a strategic nature and we bear the error. Much of the personal pain that effected those decisions came from the irrevocable lash marks and sexual defilement and their pain consequences and more reflected damage done us.

But it is time to let the past be the past for there is one common factor that unites us: we were the throwaway kids of the State of Florida and victims of the infamous White House and dens like it at other Florida School for Boys and Girls.

The state treated us with inhumane measures, but we have survived. We were the children who would be under the rule of DJJ today. Thus, we are in a unique situation to be of service to those who are like us. (For the accurate Time Line of how we became “the White House Boys” and the history of our campaign)

The social origins of the children who would become known as “The White House Boys” which includes all the boys and girls confined at the Florida Schools for Boys and Girls and the later designated prisons for juveniles:

Understanding the racial and economic backgrounds of The White House Boys, all those juveniles who suffered incarceration in the Florida Schools for Boys and Girls and under the rule of the Department of Juvenile Justice, tells us that kids from our class are that last of the last. We are the last to have stable homes; the last to have the benefit of emotional support for our growing years; we are the last to have adequate funds for food, clothing, lodging, adequate health care; last to have decent a decent education; the first to be drafted; the first to be casualties of war; the last to be adequately defended in court– we were then, the last to have a decent enough background for jobs; to be able to earn our way.

We were the first to be victims of our parent’s dysfunction, many of who were previous victims of the same social system into which we were born: drug addiction, alcoholism and spousal and child abuse. These were a matter of everyday life in our homes. Out of the dysfunction we exploded into the arms of the law enforcement and the courts. Rather than support, care and treatment; rather than having the benefit of adequate legal representation before a court, or psychological testing and then counseling or treatment, we were ship-loaded into the state system: whether it was first orphanages, (foster care homes,) or directly into state-wide institutions, we soon became the basis of a sub-class of Floridians whose most likely final destination was more confinement, more dysfunction and then more confinement until a good part of our lives had been wasted away.

The “career path” for our peers was meaningless jobs or the military. Very few of our class would every see the “American dream” realized. At best it would be working our lives away at menial jobs, labor or low management positions; living on high interest credit until a meager Social Security would allow us to die slowly, encumbered by age and illness. That was the forecast if we were lucky enough to evade life sentences in prison or mental institutions or death row.

Only a couple of times in Florida history have this abomination of life been revealed: in the true story realized in Gideon’s Trumpet (Henry Fonda television movie,) and Chattahoochee, with Gary Oldman and Dennis Hopper. Those were the only portraits of the cruel and inhumane Florida system of corrections and mental health treatment for the world to see. Or recently in the cases of Anderson who was smothered to death in a boot camp or Caldwell who was hammered to the ground and gang beaten at Dozier have we seen how this system continues its role as the grim reaper of the children of Florida’s dysfunctional poor, working and destitute classes.

The White House Boys cause is larger than the recognition of our pain and suffering; more important than an apology from the temporary politician living in the Governor’s mansion; more significant than any reparations given us. Our cause is to bring light where there has been none and is to this day the dark shadows in which the state best operates. To reveal a social and economic system so inherently corrosive that it eats away the lives of millions of people by either jailing them or holding them in submission to the profit of the state until old age or death takes them.

The political course of action — What Must Be Done:

First each of us must prepare then send out our story to our respective websites, www.officialwhitehouseboys.com and www.theofficialwhitehouseboys.com , then to everyone you know via email, directing them to our websites. Build an E-Mail and phone tree: you will have five non-White House Boys to email and/or phone when there is significant news or an event that requires attention. Each of those five will know five more, and so on and so on.

Second, we must ask those to pass it on to everyone they know, and so on and so on.

Third, arrange for speakers for events at your church or social organization to explain who the White House Boys are and what we are about. A speaker’s committee and a information committee (to provide both print and electronic information on the White House Boys,) must be elected with volunteers to serve.

Fourth, each of us must write emails or hard mail to, and then telephone the offices of, your state elected officials telling our stories and demanding that the State of Florida take the necessary measures to “make us and our families whole” for the damage done to us and our peers.

Fifth, we must reach out to the religious institutions in our community and ask that they join with us in pursuit of justice for ourselves and our families, and extend a watchful eye over and a call for mercy for those behind the wires of DJJ.

Sixth, because we chose this course we must exhaust the state and, where applicable the federal court remedies – while simultaneously supporting the forthcoming Claims Bill which will cause legislation to be passed giving us reparations and putting into law those reforms necessary to see that the state of Florida will “Never, Ever Again” abuse its most vulnerable children but rather, lock into place budgetary and legislative guarantees that those children placed in the State’s care receive the education, psychological and physical care that will better their lives and give them an equal opportunity to be socially successful.

Lastly, we must prepare to follow in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. who taught us that those in power only respond to more political power and that peaceful, nonviolent protest is constitutionally guaranteed and is a righteous process for letting those in power know they may be not long in power should they not join us in our just cause.