“Doc"

something about it. Nothing was done. This is Robert Agastino, who we heard from last episode in nine nine. Robert and his co worker Roger Wrenn had witnessed firsthand sexual abuse that was taking place at Anna Waki. Trying to get something done about it proved to be quite difficult. Here's Roger wren In those days, it was a lot looser and you could suppress it, and and we were pretty well suppressed. Bob and I were very frustrating. They

were whistleblowers. Here's journalist Albert Edgen. He spent the better part of six years covering the inn Awaki story. They did the right thing, and they brought it to the right authorities, and they knew the hierarchy of things in the state, and so they brought it to the people that they needed to bring it to. That happened in late and they pressed it and they were frustrated by it.

We felt like we were out on a limb. You cannot imagine being year old and knowing something that is horrendous and telling people in fact screaming and nobody listening. It was a real rough time in my life. And I know Bob and I've talked about it. We both suffered. I tried left unawake. I went to de Facts and try to get them involved. Well Burn Ellis was the head of de Facts. He knew about it because some of the students had told me they went to speak

with him. The earliest correspondence from the Department of Family and Children's Services regarding wrongdoing it an Awaki is a letter dated August six well Born Ellis, director for the Division of Children and Youth, request representation from Assistant Attorney General Wheeler Brian. The letter states it is quote in regards to the probable revocation of Antawaki's license as a child caring institution and any other legal action which may

become necessary. For months, the de Facts Board waffled back and forth on whether hearing should happen. Rennandak Costino needed more than their word if anyone was going to take them seriously. Bob and I were pretty involved in trying to get anybody who would talk to come in so we could get some proof. Everybody kept saying, can you prove it, and so we ended up having to get

some HALFI Davis and affid. David is a sworn written statement detailing behaviors or events that you consider to be illegal. Rennon Dakastina would need Anywaky patients to swear their abuse in order to build their case. Boy, it was tough. I just remember a couple of cases where I thought they weren't going to sign, and then they finally would, and then they say, no, I don't want to do it.

They were so scared and and part of it had to be fear of of the repercussions, but one of them, I think was fear of letting down Lewis Petter because he had developed relationships with these kids and some of them believed that he was the only person who could help him. So getting them to sign anything was tough, and it was a rejection of him as their father figure. We were involved in trying to find some way to extricate him from the camp, and as I recall, we

started hearing a lot of negative things about us. Rennon Dagastina were tipped off by a social worker in Douglasville. The pattern had begun spreading some serious rumors about them, possibly an attempt to discredit their story. There were people in Douglasville who heard that we were communist. He told the kids we were, and of course we're gone. We're not in any position to defend ourselves, and we were concerned that would happen when we left, and it did.

Several people that worked for him out there that were pretty close to him, and they made sure that they said as many negative things as they possibly could about us, and UH tried to take our validity as reporters and destroy it. He came after us. He called Bob Dagastino, who is, I might add, a very conservative gentleman, a Czechoslavaka and communist, and I was a Romanian communist, which was hilarious. I'm a rock group conservative. I served under

Ronald Reagan. The Just Department was Barry Golder's county chairman. That's when we went after him for a libel. It was. It was pretty rough. Robert Agostino then filed suit against Louis Petter for the cost of one million dollars. Rin says that at this time, if someone claimed you were a communist, that was a serious charge and could derail

your whole career. Dagostino explained that filing this suit was a way to put the case in front of a judge and hopefully get the attention of the board at an Awaki and the idea was to show everybody what was going on in an awake. Walker, who is my counsel, said maybe that will excite the insurance company. Maybe that will excite the board into doing something. And I laid it out in that lawsuit. Laid it out had no effect. Well, I think there's a lot of pressure. I think Pedro

had a lot of tentacles into Douglas County. The court really was not interested and they put it aside, and we really had a rough time in court. The attorney did not do what Bob and I considered to be a credible job of looking at the background, and so we end up in court and nothing happened, absolutely nothing, and it was put aside. It's probably still in the

being in there waiting to happen. Over the past several weeks we have received the number of very serious allegations concerning both the facility out there in a number of individuals involved with him. It was just a form of their therapy. They were told to do it, and at the time he was fourteen and a half fifteen years old, they didn't know any better. I asked him, why are you letting this happen? Why are you covering up for

Louis Patter. He had no answer to that question, involved having asitution and absolutely the contrary of what they should have done. I'm disturbable over the fact of something I can still going on it and I wake you. I'm Josh Stain, and this is camp Hell and Awake. By now you were starting to get a picture of how things operated behind the scenes at Atawaki. The mastermind pulling the strings was the head and founder, Louis doc Petter.

Here we're going to take a break in the story to look at who Petter was, where he came from, and how he was able to wield so much power. Whenever I asked people about Louis Petter, I usually get the same type of response. Very charming. He knew how to work a crowd, if you will, and was socially very competent. He's very polite. Even as his crises mounted, he was very polite and civil when he needed to be. Lewis Petterick was a charming person, and he definitely has

some charisma. Looking back, I can see why a lot of the boys who were looking for father figures would have been attracted to him. But under all that charm was something much darker. I asked journalists Albert Edgin about Petter's origins. He had worked in a series of jobs in a state of Georgia, public service jobs with agencies that dealt with criminal kids, you know, juvenile delinquent kids who were in prison or are some way in a jail or in some sort of supervisory situation. He was

fairly well educated. He was developing this reputation of being innovative in child development, particularly in working with troubled children. But he also through those years, as he was working in the state government, it is very meticulous about maintaining relationships with people who were in physicians of power. It is hard to track Petter's professional trajectory exactly. Surprisingly, he managed to get his name in local papers fairly regularly,

dating all the way back to the forties. You can begin to see Petter's involvement with youth dating back to nineteen forty two. One article mentions him as a counselor of a boy Scout camp which is about to open. Another from nineteen forty three list Petter as the head of a y m C a group from Makin called the Junior Commandos composed of boys aged eleven to thirteen who wanted to help with the war effort from home. Activities included running military drills and learning a new form

of self defense called judo. Petter was married to his wife and future co founder of Annawaki, Mabel Reese, in Macon, Georgia, in nineteen forty three. At this time, he was serving as an assistant pastor at the Mabel White Baptist Church while continuing his master's degree at Mercer University. Petter's connection to the Baptist Church would continue through the rest of

his life. Aside from a few wedding efficient announcements. The next mention of Louis Petter in any newspaper comes from an article outlining the need for a full time psychologist for the Juvenile Court of Fulton County, Georgia in nineteen fifty one can already begin to see Petter working his way through the ranks of local government. Petter was working as a part time psychologist and probation officer for the

Juvenile Court of Atlanta at the time. This would later lead Petter to help develop and head the first juvenile domestic Relations court in Savannah, Georgia. Another article from nineteen fifty shows a preview Petter's future career. The headline reads one thousand dollars pledged for support Buckhead Club to help

youth begin new life. It described a juvenile delinquent whose stories of theft and killing were documented in a psychological test done during one of Petter's graduate classes at Emory University. The Buckhead Boys and Girls Club of Atlanta raised money for the youth's re orientation and development. Already Petter was finding ways to organize communities to raise funds in the

hope of helping teens. A follow up article from Ninette tells the story of Jimmy, the troubled youth who had been pulled out of a life of crime by none other than Lewis Petter. The article also states the Jimmy's case was receiving one hundred dollars a month from each member of the Buckhead Exchange Club to help his cause. Through the nineteen fifties, Petter's name pops up continually in

the Atlanta papers. Most of these are announcements of meetings at p t A's churches and schools, with Petter speaking about troubled teens, how the problem is only growing and must be addressed. Many of these lectures were said to pertain to youth conservation. Petter was not only serving as a reverend, court psychologists, and probation officer. He was now lecturing parents about the problem of juvenile delinquency. To put this into perspective, Petter's influence on the community of parents

in Atlanta begins in the nineteen fifties. In the post World War two age of booming babies and nuclear families, there was also a wave of rebellious teenagers. Racial barriers were starting the slow process of breaking down, and teams were beginning to revolt in new ways not seen before. This new culture of youth included rock and roll, The beatnext and recreational drug use, all bubbling up into the

mainstream for the first time, and it's scared parents. In the middle of the twentieth century and the United States of America, hundreds and hundreds of teenage boys and girls are becoming hopeless dopandics every year. It's fantastic, it's unbelievable, and it's terrible, but it's true. Just as fast as rules were broken, others established in an attempt to keep this new generation in line. Talk of sex was shunned,

and dancing and hair length were now hot topics. This all adds up to the perfect storm for someone to act as a hero for parents who don't know how to deal with their teen's troubled behavior. It's hard to grow up if a teenager has extra problems, emotional or social. It's even harder. Kids like this, not wanted by any other group or anyone else much, tend to hang out together.

Rowdy kids, troubled kids headed for trouble. Still a couple of years from real crime, but with destruction and violence their only outlet, they're on their way to it unless their outlook can be changed. Louis Petter builled himself as just the person who could help a narrative he would continue to push for the rest of his career. By the mid nineteen fifties, Lewis Petter had now fully intrenched himself within the local government as well as many communities

of parents in the Atlanta area. He was moonlighting as a Baptist minister while also serving as a juvenile psychologist and parole officer for the State of Georgia. Petter worked his way up to the position of Vice president of the Georgia Probation and Parole Association, putting him in control of many youths inside the Georgia legal system. It is here that he would meet a young bureaucrat who would

prove in value build his professional career. Jim Parham. Parum came up in a relatively poor household, but was brilliant. He went to Emory University. He got himself really well educated. He also was somebody who thought innovatively about child care child development, but he had more broad interests and he became a bureaucrat. Harms working relationship with Petter begin in Atlanta as far back as Palm served as a night attendant on the graveyard shift at a juveniv Attention Center

while finishing up school. During the day, Petter as a supervisor and Parum as a jail guard in the county jail where they were keeping these kids. They had plenty of time over the weeks and months to have long conversations at night, and Petter became a mentor to Parhum. Petter had all of these innovative ideas and Parm was a young, very smart kid, really willing to learn and figure out ways to implement these kinds of ideas. So it was a very very good relationship between the two

of them. For Parum, a very important relationship. He was Petter's friend, Petter was his mentor. Pariam and Petter would work in tandem holding panels to discuss the issue, which they now termed juvenile delinquency. They would work in developing a camping and cave exploring program to quote assist in changing attitudes of youth on probation. In August n Parm would follow Petter to Savannah, Georgia, where Petter was enlisted as head of the states first Juvenile Domestic Relations Court.

He started a few innovative programs in Savannah that I had no idea of until I read about it many years later, having to do with marriage, counseling and dealing with children who had been ruled juvenile delinquents who had broken the law in one way or another. Robert Agastino had heard about Petter's history with Georgia's Department of Family and Children's Services during his lawsuit against Petter in seventy Dagostino went to Savannah to see what he could find

out about Petter's time working for the government agency. He was in Savannah first, he was in the departminent Family and Children's Services in Savannah, and he was squeezed out of Savannah as a psychologist because of, let's say, inappropriate touching of juvenile boys that were under subvisit Junil Court.

What I found out in my investigation down there is what he was doing was measuring their penises, handling their penises and measuring it under the theory that the longer the penis, the more likely you were to be a delinquent. Of course, he was trying to be psychoanalytic, I suppose,

and it was so ludicrous I didn't believe it. It was also told to us, Bob and I that he had a stick that he used and made the children when he was in probation officer show their privates and then he would say, ah, this one's got a good prognosis, bad prognosis. Dagostino says, Peters tane in history had little to no effect on his future prospects in childcare. Remember that the Department of Family and Children's Services actually placed boys in that camp even though they knew about what

he did. In Savannah. There were people in the Georgia government in the late forties and who were aware that there were accusations of child abuse and sexual contact between Petter and young people that he was supervising all the way back to the late forties. Another connection that Lewis Petter would first meet in Savannah is Brett Baxley. Baxley would join Petter in his quest to start an outdoor camp. Here's what Roger Wren remembers about Mr. B He had

many talents, very patient, was good with the kids. I thought he was very effective group therapist. I've been doing it for a while, so I was pretty comfortable with it. And he would come in and also added to the group. And I thought like an uncle or like a father, I thought he did a pretty good job with that. I was surprised that he did not step up when when the thing came apart, because I know he cared about the kids. I never understood what was going on.

If there's probably more there than meets I. Once Petter left Savannah, there's not much record of his actions until nine the year and Awake he was founded. By using his skills to raise funds through community outreach, Petter, his wife Mabel, and Brett Baxley were able to acquire a

large plot of land in Douglasville, Georgia. While the details of this land deal are not explicitly known, through land deeds, we can see that three large plots of land were sold to Bread Baxley and his wife Joyce in nineteen

sixty three. This place would become known as Anawaki in nineteen sixty three, one year after an Awaki was founded, Jim Parham would go on to take a new position in Atlanta, Georgia, as the Director for the Division of Children and Youth at the Department of Family and Children's Services, the same government body that would be in charge of any oversight of Anawaki. By the summer of nineteen seventy, Robert Dagostino and Roger Wren were fully entangled in a

legal dispute with Lewis Petter and an Awake. DA Gastino had filed a libel lawsuit against Petter, but did so in a very clever way. During the libel court proceedings, da Gastino was sure to mention the fact that he left due to concerns of sexual behavior between Petter and patients at Ain't Awake. Filing a libel lawsuit was a roundabout way to get a court hearing to address abuse

of patients at Antawaki, but eventually it worked. Rince says this is in part due to the pressure of the lawsuit, but also the fact that they were able to get ridden affidavit's from former patients. Bob really pushed and we had some people who would help us, and finally I think they were embarrassed at the point where they had to hold the hearing. I would say that they were half hearted to begin with, and even the Assistant Attorney

General told us I didn't believe this. The representative of the State of Georgia there turning General's office to know what to think, except he was told that I was not sir, I was lying in everything else. On September three, the State Board for the Division of Children and Youth held a hearing regarding possible removal of Anawak's license as a child caring institution. It consisted of a three member panel from the Department of Family and Children's Services, including

Chairman Don Howe, Zack Smith, and Mrs Lester Harbin. Over four days, this panel would hear testimony from multiple patients and counselors from anna Waki. Attorney Charles Edwards would represent the Anawaki Foundation. Charles Edwards, who led it was of course hustle from day one. He was definitely tied up. Was Loui pattern one way or another financially. The hearing was set to begin at two p m. John Hinchi would represent the State of Georgia, with Ralph Walker representing

Robert Dagostino and Roger Wren. Before the proceedings had even begun, Annawekie's lawyer, Charles Edwards, filed objections to Ren in Dagostino's legal counsel an emotion to dismiss all charges, a sign of what was to transpire once the hearing was finally underway, Edwards began by examining a former patient, Van Awaki. His name withdrawn from the legal document. The following is an

excerpt from the testimony performed by voice actors. John Hinchy, counsel for the State of Georgia, started his questioning, during the time you were at an awake, did you have an opinion on Dr Petter's character? Yes, Sir Charles Edwards objects yet again, wait just a minute. We would object to his asking that the proper foundation has been laid to ask a question of Dr Petta. In fact, Dr Petta is not the man on trial, and these charges my response to that charge number ten lays the foundation

for Dr Petter's character. In fact, it is the very issue in question. Chairman Don Howe sided with the Antawaki's lawyer, but reminded the room that his power was limited as it was not an official court of law. If I were a judge, I'd sustain it, but all we can do is note it. Let me make it totally clear, we object to any answer of this witness to the question propounded by Mr Henschey. First, he had not laid the proper ground for it. Second, Dr Petta is not

charged here in this hearing. The Foundation is the one that charge has been made against here and not Dr Petta. And we move further that at this time and make this motion that it appears that this charge is leveled against Dr Petta and not really the Foundation. We move that all charges be dismissed on the ground that this particular charge, I'd say would be dismissed on that ground.

That charge which Edwards is referring to, states that Anna Waki was in violation of the minimum requirements applicable to a child caring institution, in particular the clause that the executive shall in every instance be a person of stable sound judgment whose integrity is above reproach. In this case, that would be Lewis Petter reported to have had immoral and illicit relationships with one or more of the patients.

The fact that this was not an actual court trial, but a hearing means that objections could neither be sustained or overruled. Only noted. This would not stop Edwards from objecting at any chance he could. Hinch's questioning continued, Can you say whether or not you ever observed or participated in any acts of homosexuality while you were on the Anna Waki campus. Yes, sir, I did when I was first admitted to an awake. There are more objections by

Charles Edwards. They are noted as before. Please proceed. I participated in a homosexual relationship with Dr Petter for the reason stated that my problem was that I was suffering from homosexual fright. Who told you that Dr Petter I was afraid that I was a homosexual. Then several times I was under hypnosis and he said he was going to hypnotize me and this would make it easy for me to relate, and what I needed was a homosexual experience with him. Did he recommend any treatment for this

apparent problem, Yes, sir. He said that I should have a homosexual experience with him and therefore ease my tension and would no longer have a problem. Did you have such an experience, yes, sir, numerous times over a period of about three years. Were these homosexual acts that you refer to with Dr Petter voluntary on your part? Yes, sir, Sometimes they were and sometimes they were not so valid Darry I was persuaded that this was I felt a lot of guilt about it and didn't feel like it

was helping me. I don't know. I was persuaded that this was the thing, you know, just to try it, go all the way, loosen up, relax Who told you that Dr Petter? The reason that this wasn't doing me any good these experiences was because I wasn't relaxing. I was giving of myself. I wasn't, you know, going all

the way so to speak. That's what he said. I'm going to ask this question, and I'm subject to being overruled by the board, but I'm going to ask you, and I ask you to reserve your objection, Mr Edwards, to describe these homosexual acts which you have already testified that you have engaged in with Dr Petter, just so

that we can establish the fact that they were homosexual acts. Well, it involved Dr Petter masturbating me to the point of ejaculation and then with anal intercourse where he wanted me to have intercourse with him annally and oral intercourse. And you engaged in all of these acts with Dr Petter that you have just described. Yes, sir, can you stayed on approximately how many occasions? You know it was like

on an average of once a week? Was it over the entire period you were at an awaking, Yes, sir, Over the entire period that you were there once a week, yes, sir. On an average, you know there would be times where there wouldn't be any for two weeks, then sometimes twice a week. Did you engage in homosexual activities with anyone else other than Dr Petter while you were at an awaken No, sir. The patient from Anawaki described some of the ways in which Petter would use therapy to manipulate him.

I remember the suggestion that I was suffering from homosexual fright, and the suggestion that this was the reason for a lot of my anxieties and my self destructiveness was because of my homosexual fright and suggestions that certain ideas I had about sex related back to homosexuality. For instance, he asked me one time what I thought about when I masturbated.

I thought about women. He told me that this actually was my homosexuality coming out, but reversed because what I really wanted was a man, but because I couldn't admit it to myself, I was thinking about a woman. While reporting on an AWAKEI Albert Edgin saw more examples of

this type of manipulation through therapy. Petter had a way of targeting boys that he was going to eventually develop a sexual relationship with, and it seemed to be consistent, and it would begin with somehow denigrating the boy's father. He would give this child in a therapy session a reason to believe that his father had not been an adequate father figure, and that definition of father figure quote unquote father figure was fluid. Petter worked it to his advantage.

For example, there was one boy who had that I remember well, who had a physically abusive, alcoholic father who had specifically said things that came out during therapy sessions. Petter would then take that information and discuss it with the boy and then gradually say, you know, you need, basically what the message was, you need a father figure like me. It was in sidious, and he had these cockamami ways of describing the evolution of somebody's sexual being.

But it was not a consistent philosophy. It was a manipulative system that he used based on what he knew about that particular boy's problems and pathologies. It was as manipulative as it could be, and it's as close to human evil as as I can imagine Charles Edwards following cross examination shows just how low in a week he was willing to go to cover for themselves and discredit the former inawaky patient. Now, you had a good bit of trouble with your mother, didn't you. I've always had

trouble with my mother. You've always had troubles with your mother. Now, do you have improper relations with your mother? No, sir, what are you talking about? Improper relations? Did you have any set your relations with your mother? No? Sir. You have told people that your mother tried to have sexual relations with you, haven't you. Well, it's hard to say. What do you mean tried to have sexual relations with me?

Do you mean my mother tried to seduce me? No, you never told anybody that or that any sexual relations of any kind with your mother. I lived with my mother ever since my mother and father were separated. My mother would occasionally walk through the house without any clothes on, and other words, just a nightgown and just things that would happen just living with somebody. Did that upset you? Sometimes? It would upset me to see your mother without clothes on, Yes, sir.

Did you have an erection? Then? No, sir, now, then, did you see your mother do anything else other than walk through the house without her clothes on, No, sir, not that I can remember. Did you ever discuss sex with her? No, sir. Did you have all anyone that she tried to break down the door to get into your room? Yes, sir, she's done. That was that because she was trying to have relations with you? No, sir, that was because she wanted to see what I was doing.

A former patient had spelled out how Petter groomed him for his own pleasure, only to be made out to be some type of incestual sexual deviant. How could an Awaki's counsel have known about this background of the patient? By reading between the lines of this interrogation, we can see how Annawaki would use a patient's own medical history against them. The boys who were identified as victims of the abuse had been treated in an Awake, Anawaki had

access to their psychiatric records. The defense lawyers for Annawaki for the accused used information about their pathology to discredit them, to question their credibility, and to humiliate them. Charles Edwards scathing cross examination continued. Do you remember telling anyone that you had had homosexual experience with others when you were up at the Special School before you came to an Awake. You remember that, don't you. We didn't have I don't

know what you call homosexuals. We had some experience with animals. You had sexual experience with animals, Yes, sir, you do say that you had sexual relations with animals prior to going to an Awake, Yes, sir. An Awake's lawyer had been primed with questions that related to the patient's former therapy.

How else would Edwards have known to ask questions such as these, to outright ask a boy if he had participated in best reality, knowing full well he had in some form Doctor patient confidentiality meant nothing if it was something that could help Petter and in Awake, there were more witnesses who would speak up, and others who were too scared too. Da Gastino and Brin had come this far to try and take Petter down, But would their

efforts be in vain next time? On Camp Hell in Awake, Mr Petter told me not to discourage their sexual behavior, but to tell them they shouldn't be promiscuous about it. To encourage this relationship you've heard the charges. Damn lie, you know you have a homosexual problem that you need to work through. The only way you can work through

this is having one masculine image around you all the time. Well, I would think that Louis Petter goes further in his efforts to help people than most anybody in the business I know. So he said they were going to try to wreck his home, his family, and anna wake itself. There have been hundreds of children and families brought back together and helped. That is the best damn program to rehabilitate character disorders of any place in the United States.

Camp Hell Anawaki was created and hosted by Josh Thane, with producer Miranda Hawkins and executive producers Alex Williams and Matt Frederick. The soundtrack was written and performed by Josh Thane and Adrian Berry. This episode featured the voices Mike Perkins, Robin Bludworth, and Michael Weaver. Archival footage provided by WSB and CBS News. Find us on Instagram at Camp Hell pod.

That's c A M p h E L l p O. D educate yourself about the issue of child abuse and things that you should look for At the Darkness to Light website D two well dot org. That's d the number two l dot org camp hell Ana Waki is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts