by Dreams End » Wed Sep 28, 2005 7:05 pm
Pan,<br><br>Not to belabor the unproveable, but this is all I found about Gannon's early life in that article. No dates at all up until 1989 and the childhood stuff simply contains two quotes from "childhood friends". Not even a mention why they didn't give their names. That, and his famous quote that his life "hasn't exactly been linear" still leave me open to the possibility that something weird (besides the very obvious weirdness of his unexplained access) is going on:<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr> Gannon was raised in Cochranton, Pennsylvania, a small town in the northwestern corner of the state, by a family of union-oriented, Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy Democrats. When James was in high school, the Guckerts moved to Conneaut Lake, a resort town 17 miles to the northwest. His classmates remember him as intelligent, charismatic, self-centered, manipulative. He was voted student-council president and best dancer, played football, and edited the school paper and yearbook; he wore his hair long in the style of that era, like the sixth member of the Dave Clark Five. He was a favorite with girls, even though there were rumors he wasn't interested in them. "He just brought kind of a level of sexuality to our class that was not there until he got there," says one student.<br><br>For college he went diagonally across Pennsylvania to West Chester State College, near Philadelphia, where he joined a fraternity and wrote on sports for the school newspaper. He had free weights in his room, which his friends came to call "J.D.'s Gym." Some surmised he was gay, but he wasn't conspicuous about it. "There was a little bit of a mysterious side to him," recalls one. "He would take off and go to Philly by himself and stuff like that." He received a bachelor of science in education, and he taught for an unhappy year in a public school. He then spent several years working for a prominent local landscaper and horticulturist, who in 1989 arranged flowers for one of George H. W. Bush's inaugural balls. Politically, he drifted rightward. But at that point, at least, he didn't attempt to hide his sexual orientation, even playing right field for a Philadelphia gay bar in the City of Brotherly Love Softball League.<br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br> <br>1989 is the first date mentioned. Admittedly, Gosch would have been only about 17 or 18 then, so the dates wouldn't work out. So, if the second paragraph has actually been verified (other than simply taking Gannon's word) it would seem to rule out Gosch. <p></p><i></i>