Victims Recount Reform School Horrors

Early Show Exclusive: "White House Boys" Divulge Fla. School's Deep, Dark Secrets

(CBS)  Several former students at a reform school for boys in the Florida panhandle, now men in their 60s who attended the reform school decades ago, say its manicured gardens and winding paths hid a deep dark secret.

"It was beautiful and it looked like driving onto any college campus in America," said Roger Kiser, who was an orphan and around 12 years old when he was sent to the Florida School for Boys at Marianna.

"I thought nothing could be worse than the orphanage in Jacksonville, Fla., where I lived, Kiser said. "But little did I know that I was jumping out of the fire into the frying pan."

He is still haunted by a building at the school called "The White House," where he says students were beaten and abused.

"This was a concrete and steel building and when you walk in there it is like -- a dungeon," Kiser said. "They beat me so badly, when I came out of the white house and came to the main office, I was beaten so bloody they couldn't tell who I was."

Now 63, Kiser formed a group called "The White House Boys" and revealed another hidden memory of the school's past -- a cemetery.

"It's deep, way back in the Florida woods. Hidden far from public view, has been for many years," Kiser said. "You come up on 32 metal crosses stuck in the ground, no markers, no names, no nothing."

Kiser says a deadly fire took some of the students, while others died from influenza, but he wants to know exactly who is buried there and how they died.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has called for an inquiry into the claims of The White House Boys.

"If there is an opportunity to find out exactly what happened there," Crist said. "We have the duty to do so."

"Where are the records, why was there no names placed on these graves?" Kiser asked. "They were just forgotten."

Kiser and Dick Colon, another man who resided at the Florida School for Boys at Marianna, sat down for an emotional, exclusive interview on The Early Show with co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez. The two men recounted some of the horror stories from their stay in Marianna and urged others to come forward and visit the White House Boys Web site. Kiser and Colon's experiences are being made into a movie by SilverCreek Entertainment. See the interview below

[rltjr457]

Montanari Clinical School of Hialeah, Fl. was a pedophile oasis. I was 13 when I was sent there in 1970 or 1971. My father was going to Vietnam and my stepmonster was not about to have me living with her while he was away for a year in Vietnam. she had convinced my Father I was a problem child and needed help, I was a kid who wanted his parents back together and didnt like my stepmother. thats all. well my introduction to Montanari was a tour with my dad and stepmother little did I know they were going to leave me there. All I knew I was going to florida with my Dad. I felt he wasnt happy leaving me behind, he gave me his Tape player he bought that I liked and admired along with some cassettes out of guilt i guess. anyway I was put in a locked ward at a hospital nearby and fed thorazine 1000 mcg and valium and anything else that slowed you down all payed by the courtesy of the champus program provided by the government. I had tried several times to escape only to be caught and drugged up some more. I remember getting away once making it all the way up to my grandmothers house, begged her not to send me back, she called my Mom. My Mom called my Dad or stepmother who then called montanari , who then drove up and picked me up. I was to embarassed to tell them the truth as to what they were doing to some of us. it was then I figured I was trapped and had no choice to live with it. know one day it would end. so the sexual abuse kept going on and on and on. I remeber trying to report it once and was told How could I make such lies regarding prominent people. Monty as he was called drove around in this gray lincoln continental I can still picture him and there werekids living in a neighborhood all the doors painted in red (thats how you knew the houses) I remeber the rolling stones song paint it black. each time i hear that song it reminds me of that place. i was there for a few years even after my dad returned from Vietnam. I was abused and I felt used and degrades as well as other kids there. I would see them torment the retarded ones, the one i remember most was george, He loved cadilacs, especially fleetwood cadilacs and it would anger me seeing people go up to him and upset him for fun bashing the one thing he loved. the girls were molested along with the boys. I remember this .principle name Jim who would violantly slam kids into wals and upside the head. todays world these people would be in prison. this man monty would have been in federal prison for fraud of government funds. its been many years thats gone by. but I feel that One day I will get my revenge on each and every ******* who did and forced me to perform the sexual acts and abuse not only to myself bu to the hundreds of other children there, the state should also be responsible for allowing it to happen.

[LilHwk49]

Yeah, I was there in 65-66. I read Sleepers a few years ago, and then saw the movie, and it reminded me hauntingly of Marianna, and then a couple of months ago, I saw the White House on CNN, and the crosses on the graves, and it just raised up goose bumps...it was the first I heard about all of this. In 1936, they hung a black guy from the corner of the County Courthouse, in Marianna. When they drug the body through town, the town children poked at it with sharp sticks - Troy Tidwell, the one we called The OneArmed Bandit, was about ten, at that time, and law enforcement was riddled with the Klan, in N. Fl.
Adn, you know, I never knew his first name was Troy, until I jumped on Google, after I saw that on CNN. I have done a lot of research, since then, and read the History of children's justice in Fl.
I am sure that sort of treatment, and abuse, was more prevalent Nationwide, than people realize. I 'went down' 14 times, because I pretty much was a 'Grub' the whole time I was there...

[barkwaytoo]

Why do all the weird, freaky, violent, sickening stories (and usually involving children) from the news always turn out to be happening in Florida? What is it with that state?

[vickivb2]

This is all true. Mys dad was there for 18 months in 1957 - 1958. He was beaten so badly that he had to go to the nurse to have his shredded clothes cut off of him and removed surgically. I hope that more people come forward but I know that it will be very difficult for them.

[runningralph]

susanjane7, If you know something, by all means, speak up! And I don''t mean online. Go to the cops, go to your county representative, newspaper reporter. Praying is good for the soul but it won''t stop that man. You must take action.

[harp1963]

I''m so tired of all the suffering in this world.

[rushlimpdrug]

Ok, move on, nothing to see here.

Just a bunch of dead children.

So what.

At lest they weren''t aborted.

Right?

This is sooo confusing.

Anyway, no one got in trouble so
no lesson to learn here.

Everyone back to ordering pizza.

[asor1-2009]

susanjane7 don''t you feel any obligation to those being abused? You MUST report this to the proper authorities NOW. For God''s sake, save a child while you still can.

[tweenhouse]

Montanari Clinical School of Hialeah, Fl. is another one of many such places that accepted problem children when state & federal monies were paying for their stay. Operating in the 70''s, I actually helped its leader, AJ Montanari load hundreds of files on many of the residents into the back and trunk of his car. Hiding the fact the he was only bilking tax dollars for his own use. Me, I was just there. More or less becoming a spy of sorts for the State, as I ratted them out to where the place was mysteriously closed. But not before more abuses to the children. Monty had pedophiles on board as clinicians. Kids got favors by dropping their pants to Ben V. G. & his friend Rick. Rick who followed me to the police station where soon I was ejected from being a resident there. I told of how in the art class house that all the windows and the front door was nailed shut, leaving the only exit and fire escape was the back kitchen door just two feet from the gas oven. Retarted children lived there, it was later made my duty to assist them to safety in case of an emergency. The files may have been destroyed as it appears that I never attended the place. A woman with elephantitis disease was beaten by the clinicians so severly that she later died.
The state I came from at the time had a law that if you were under 18 that if warranted they can send you to one of these places no matter what. It was changed in 1975 much to my delight.

[tbird6740]

I wasn''t talking about just Florida. I was referring to these type institutions being all over the United States. Mexico as well. Google "Casa by the Sea", run by a U.S. citizen (Mexico), and "New Bethany Home for Girls" or "New Bethany Home for Boys" (Louisiana and South Carolina). Also "Survivors of New Bethany".

[susanjane7]

That''s probably NOT all the milarky that go on in Florida schools--a leader in Florida charter schools has skeletons hidden in his closet and I pray he is eventually found out! He proclaims to be a Christian but I have seen the damage he has done and he intimidates people so they won''t talk to authorities. Shame on him!! I pray very often that he is found out soon before more children and adults are ruined by his antics!

[toolow2]

Sounds like the movie "Sleepers".

[tbird6740]

There are schools/homes like this ALL OVER THE UNITED STATES! Where has the media been since the closing of New Bethany Homes for Boys and Girls that operated from monetary donations from churches and private individuals for almost three decades? Google "Survivors of New Bethany" and "Mack Ford" and "L. D. Rapier" and "Olin King". Don''t fool yourselves into thinking this is an isolated incident.