Here are a few newspaper articles about the recent suicide of an [alleged] pedophile who molested Boy Scouts in Pennsylvania, and also about the death by suicide of one of his [alleged] victims more than twenty years ago.
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Alleged molester commits suicide
Times Leader, The (Wilkes Barre, PA) - Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Author: TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER <tmorgan@timesleader.com>
SWOYERSVILLE - A Lancaster area man banned from the Boy Scouts of America based on allegations he molested three boys committed suicide last week - one day after his hometown newspaper reported allegations he had sexually assaulted a Wilkes-Barre boy in the mid 1980s.
Kenneth L. Eshleman , 63, of Lititz , died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on Dec. 31, Lancaster County Coroner Stephen Diamantoni confirmed Monday.
Eshleman had been the subject of a Dec. 30 article published in the Lancaster New Era and the Intelligencer Journal newspapers that detailed allegations made by Karen Martin of Swoyersville.
Diamantoni said Eshleman left a suicide note. He declined to discuss its contents out of respect for the privacy of Eshleman 's family.
The Lancaster articles followed a Dec. 9 article that appeared in The Times Leader in which Martin spoke about lingering anguish she felt over the 1991 suicide of her 19-year-old son, Joshua Smith.
Martin, 59, claims Eshleman molested Joshua starting when he was around age 9. She blamed Eshleman for contributing to mental-health problems that led Joshua to kill himself on Feb. 21, 1991.
Eshleman was never charged with any crime in connection with the alleged assaults on Joshua Smith. A criminal investigation had been started, but it was dropped after Joshua died, Martin said.
Martin said she had mixed emotions when she learned of Eshleman 's death.
His death, she said, brings a sense of closure for her, but also disappointment in knowing he escaped justice in that he was never charged in connection with her son's case.
"Justice would have been him doing time for what he did to my son," Martin said. "I would have liked to have looked him in the eye, knowing what he did to my son."
Eshleman was banned from the Boy Scouts in 1974 after three Scouts alleged he had fondled them, according to internal documents, known as a "confidential list," that were kept by the Boy Scouts. Neither the Boy Scouts nor the parents of the children involved reported the alleged assaults to police, according to the documents.
Eshleman 's inclusion on the confidential list prevented him from being a Scout master, but Martin said he continued to attend Scout outings based on his friendship with the former scoutmaster of Troop 33 that was based out of a Lutheran church in Wilkes-Barre. There is no indication anyone from the troop was aware Eshleman was banned from the scouts.
Martin said her anger toward Eshleman lingers even after his death.
"He took the childhood and the life of my son before he took his own life," she said.
At the same time, she said she feels compassion for his parents and a brother, who survive him.
"You have to have compassion for his family because they're also innocent victims," she said. "It's got to be hard for them. ... They're left with this god-awful legacy he left behind."
Kenneth L. Eshleman , 63, of Lititz , died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
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Ex-Boy Scout Leader, Named In Files, Takes His Own Life
Intelligencer Journal-Lancaster New Era (PA) - Friday, January 4, 2013
Author: Jack Brubaker, Staff Writer
Kenneth L. Eshleman , a former Lititz Boy Scout leader whose alleged sexual abuse of Scouts was revealed in a recent release of court records, has committed suicide, according to Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni.
Eshleman , 63, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in the backyard of his Warwick Township home at 7:55 p.m. Monday, Diamantoni said.
The coroner said Eshleman left a suicide note, but he declined to discuss the contents, saying he did not want to infringe on the privacy of the family.
A spokesman for the family had no comment.
"We don't want anything more in the paper,'' he said.
Eshleman and other local ex-Scout leaders named in the court files were the subject of stories in the Sunday News on Oct. 28 and Dec. 30.
Eshleman had been banned from Scouting because of his alleged sexual behavior with boys in a Lititz troop. Later he allegedly sexually abused a boy in a Scout troop in Wilkes-Barre. The boy later committed suicide.
Eshleman was never charged or investigated by police in any of the Scout cases, but he appears in the recently released Scouting "perversion files'' that a judge forced the national Scouting group to make public. His file and those of thousands of other adult Scout leaders were released to the public following a trial in Oregon.
Eshleman was banned from Scouting in the early 1970s, when he was 23 and leading a Lititz troop. He had fondled at least three boys in the troop, according to official documents and letters from victims in his Scout file.
In the mid-1980s, about a decade after he had been banned, Eshleman got back into Scouting through a friend who led a Wilkes-Barre troop. Eshleman worked as an unofficial volunteer and so did not have to register with Scouting officials, who would have known about the ban, according to Scout officials.
Eshleman befriended Josh Smith, a member of the Wilkes-Barre troop. Smith, a young man with mental health problems, was treated in the psychiatric unit of a hospital, where he told staff he had been molested by a Scout leader. In February 1991, Smith hanged himself.
In recent years, Eshleman had lived with his elderly father on the family farm off the 300 block of Owl Hill Road in Warwick Township.
Eshleman had worked as a truck driver until health problems intervened, according to a neighbor. He had been severely injured in an automobile accident and had been diagnosed with leukemia, the neighbor, who asked not to be named, told the Sunday News.
When contacted last week for a response to the Lititz and Wilkes-Barre allegations, Eshleman said, "Nothing ever happened.''
jbrubaker@lnpnews.com =====
Banned Scout Leader Here Volunteered In Wilkes-Barre - Lititz Man, Named In Scouting 'Perversion Files,' Befriended Boy Who Later Hanged Himself. After The Ban The Letters On The Farm
Sunday News (Lancaster, PA) - Sunday, December 30, 2012
Author: Cindy Stauffer, Staff Writer <cstauffer@lnpnews.com>
When the Boy Scouts banned a Lititz troop leader due to his sexual behavior with Scouts in the mid-1970s, the leader didn't leave the organization entirely.
He just went to a different county, became a volunteer there, and allegedly continued his sexual abuse.
This time, Ken Eshleman focused his attentions on a teenage boy who was a member of a troop located 100 miles north of here and led by a friend of Eshleman 's, according to the boy's mother.
The boy developed emotional problems and ended up in a psychiatric unit of a hospital. There, he revealed he had been molested by a Scout leader, even as Eshleman was sending letters to the boy's home, asking to see him, according to the correspondence that was kept by his mother.
Five months later, in February 1991, the boy, 17-year-old Josh Smith, hanged himself.
Eshleman , who is now 63 and lives on a family farm outside of Lititz , was never charged or investigated in any of the Scout cases. He has led a quiet life in recent years.
But parents of Scouts in his troops have not forgotten him.
Smith's mother, Karen Martin, did not know until recently that Eshleman had been banned from Scouting more than a decade before he ever met her son.
When she found Eshleman 's name online in the recently released Scouting "perversion files," she was stunned.
Stunned and disgusted that Eshleman was allowed to continue to allegedly victimize her son, whom he found through Scouting.
"I stared at it in shock," she said of seeing Eshleman 's name in the files of ousted leaders. "My stomach started doing flips. Literally, I was in shock. I just burst into tears.
"Those bastards. They knew all that time he was an abuser."
The father of a boy who was in the local troop said, "It really makes me cringe at the severity of what happened.
"The after-effects of abuse is much worse than what happened to these boys."
Eshleman was one of three local troop leaders named in the first round of Boy Scout "perversion files" that were released at the end of October.
He was ousted from the organization in 1974, when he was 23 and a leader in a Lititz troop.
Eshleman fondled at least three boys in the troop, according to the documents and letters from his victims in his Scout file.
The confidential file, and thousands of others, were recently made public after they had come to light in a 2010 trial, when an Oregon law firm used the documents to prove the Boy Scouts knew about, and concealed, an institutionwide problem with sexual abuse.
In their letters in Eshleman 's file, two of the Scouts said that Eshleman would start out by giving back rubs to boys at night as they slept in tents on campouts, and then proceed to fondle them.
After talking to the boys and receiving their letters, a committee met with Eshleman and asked for his resignation. He initially denied the actions but later said he was seeking help and had agreed to counseling, according to the documents in his file.
However, about 10 years later, in about 1985, Eshleman found his way back into Scouting, through a friend who led a troop that met at a Lutheran church in Wilkes-Barre.
Thomas Lehmier, the Lancaster-Lebanon Council Scouting executive at the time of Eshleman 's ouster, said there was nothing the Scouts could have done about Eshleman if he was working as an unofficial volunteer in Wilkes-Barre. If he did not register, no one would have known that he had been banned, Lehmier said.
Josh Smith was a member of that Wilkes-Barre troop. His mother was divorced and her ex-husband had recently died from cancer. She thought Scouting would be good for Josh and his older brother, Sean.
"I wanted them to have a male figure in their lives," said Martin, 60, who now lives in Luzerne. "They had lost their father. It was very difficult for them. I thought it was best for them to be in an environment like Boy Scouts. Being a single mom, I didn't even know how to tie a tie."
Eshleman accompanied the troop on campouts. He took an interest in Josh, Martin said, and began buying him gifts and trying to visit with him outside of troop activities.
"He bought Josh a denim jacket," she said. "Josh was a huge Kiss fan. He bought him Kiss patches and memorabilia and that type of thing."
Josh's older brother, Sean Smith, now 42, of Wilkes-Barre, said he never personally saw Eshleman do anything inappropriate with his brother or with other Scouts.
Smith said, "That's not to say that nothing happened, just that it was done outside of my vision or somewhere I couldn't see it."
"He was just unusually nice," Sean Smith said of Eshleman . "That would be the best way to describe it. He gave out a lot of gifts to various members of the troop."
The Lititz man also wrote letters to Josh Smith, which Martin has kept. On the surface, they were jolly-sounding missives but also carried a note of pleading, as Eshleman asked the teen for contact as he mentioned the gifts he had bought for him or places he would like to take him.
In an October 1989 letter, Eshleman refers to the teen as "my Josh," and asks him to write him.
Eshleman wrote, "I could not believe how tall you are. You better stop growing soon, or I will be looking up at you. Of course, then I will kick you in the shins and make you bend over, then I will be taller again. Ha! Ha!"
Eshleman also tells Josh he would like to take him out for a steak dinner. "Maybe I am getting too old for you, and you don't want to be seen with such an old person. Ha! Ha!" he wrote.
Eshleman closed by telling Josh to decide what they will do and that Eshleman would "put you
1 on the list of things to do."
A year later, Eshleman wrote in another letter, "How is your job, or jobs going? What are you doing with all your money?
"Yes, I know that I should not ask you questions because you Never Write Back!!! Ha! Ha!"
In the letter, Eshleman asked Josh to come to a campout on the Labor Day holiday of that year.
"If you can pick a nite (or 2 or 3) and come out. ... It would be great to see and spend some time with my great friend again.
"Boy, is that ever buttering you up. Ha! Ha!"
Eshleman signed both letters with his name, followed by a nickname, "Big Esh."
But around that time, things had begun to unravel for Josh, who already had some complex emotional problems and was, in his mother's words, "an insecure, fragile individual."
"He became very sullen, very withdrawn," his mother said. "He started to become difficult."
Josh was impulsive, and didn't fit in with kids his age, who bullied him, she said. His mother discovered he was setting small fires in the attic of his Wilkes-Barre home. He began to embrace the occult and Satanic writings.
The downward spiral ended up with Josh being admitted to the psychiatric unit of a local hospital for first one and then another stay.
He was diagnosed with depression and an atypical psychosis. However, there is nothing in the records shared by his mother to indicate that health care professionals linked Josh's mental health problems to any abuse.
It was during his second hospital stay in September 1990, shortly after Eshleman wrote one of the letters, that Josh told the staff that he had been molested by a troop leader, according to his hospital records, of which his mother has a copy.
"Josh revealed to staff tonight that he was molested by a male (involved with the Boy Scouts) from about the age of 12 to 15 years," according to notes from Josh's chart. "He said he received nice presents, such as a stereo, from this man in return for favors."
The chart also indicates that Josh's mother, who was not aware of the revelation at that time, had brought in letters the man had written her son.
"Letters invite Josh to meet this man," the chart notes.
Several days later, Josh's chart noted that he said of the abuse, "Although I had a lot of problems before this happened, I realize that it probably made me worse."
The chart also notes Josh was ambivalent about the Scout leader being punished but "did state that he wants to prevent this man from potentially hurting others."
Hospital personnel notified the Luzerne County Children and Youth Agency about Josh's allegations, according to the chart.
A month later, the state public welfare department sent a letter to Martin, noting that the report of abuse was "indicated," which "means that the agency determined that the child was abused," the letter states.
The letter does not specify the nature of the abuse or the name of the abuser. It also notes that a court had not determined the abuse had taken place.
Sean Smith said, though he never directly saw any inappropriate behavior, that he believes his brother was abused.
"My brother said it and I believe him," he said. "That's as much as I can say right now."
Martin said she was informed the abuser also would receive a letter, and that the findings would be turned over to law enforcement officials in Luzerne County.
By this time, Josh had been transferred to Eastern State School and Hospital in Trevose for treatment. Eshleman called the family home during that time and asked to talk to him, Martin said.
Martin asked Eshleman if he had received a letter from Children and Youth about the alleged abuse. She said Eshleman told her that he had, but that he didn't know what the letter was about, and that it mentioned someone else named, "Joshua White."
"I am not sure why he said that," she said. "He could have made it up. He could have been in denial."
He then ended the conversation. "He said, 'Sorry about Josh' and hung up," Martin said.
Martin said the Luzerne County District Attorney's office was responsible for investigating the abuse. Recent calls to the detective on the case were not returned.
In February 1991, while home on a weekend visit, her son hanged himself.
Without his testimony, Martin was told the case against his abuser could not proceed.
While the case ended, Martin's grief and guilt over what happened has not. Though she found Eshleman 's interest in her son unusual at the time, she could not find a reason to cut off contact from him, she said.
"That is my one regret," she said, "that I never stopped it."
Eshleman has lived a quiet life on his family farm off the 300 block of Owl Hill Road in Warwick Township, where he resides with his elderly father.
He has had health problems in recent years, said a neighbor, who asked not to be named.
Those health problems led him to quit his job as an oil truck driver. He later worked in maintenance or on the grounds crew of a local retirement community.
However, he was seriously injured in a vehicle accident in 2005. Shortly after that, he was diagnosed with leukemia, said the neighbor, who believes Eshleman no longer works.
He was an excellent golfer at one time - his family once had a small golf course on their farm. The neighbor said he believed that Eshleman volunteered to help coach the Warwick High School golf team in the 1980s. The school could not confirm that because it did not keep records of volunteer coaches during that time period, a spokeswoman said.
Eshleman stopped playing golf in recent years, due to his health problems.
He lives down a long farm lane, and neighbors said they rarely see him.
When contacted by phone for his response to the allegations regarding the Wilkes-Barre teen and the Lititz troop, Eshleman said, "Nothing ever happened," and then hung up.
Caption: Photo Courtesy Of Karen Martin Josh Smith Came To Know Ousted Boy Scout Leader Ken Eshleman Through A Troop In Wilkes-Barre.
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Grief and anger
Times Leader, The (Wilkes Barre, PA) - Sunday, December 9, 2012
Author: TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER <tmorgan@timesleader.com>
It's been 21 years since 18-year-old Joshua Smith hanged himself in his bedroom, but his mother, Karen Martin , still struggles with her loss.
A few months before his death, Joshua had confided to a counselor that he had been sexually abused by a man while on trips with the Boy Scouts of America in the mid-1980s, Martin said.
For years, she questioned herself: Why didn't she know? Could she have done more to protect her son?
The grief that haunts her today turned to anger a few weeks ago, when she learned the man Joshua accused of molesting him was among thousands of men who were banned from the Boy Scouts based on allegations of sexual abuse.
The man, from Lititz, Pa. was removed as a Scoutmaster of Troop 154 in Lititz in March 1974 after three Scouts alleged he had sexually abused them, according to internal Boy Scout documents released recently.
The man was never charged in connection with the 1974 accusations. Neither the Boy Scouts nor the parents of the boys involved reported the alleged abuse to police, the records show.
The "confidential list," as it was called by the Boy Scouts, ensured the man could not serve as a Scoutmaster. But that did not protect her son, Martin said.
Befriended ScoutmasterThat's because the man continued to attend Scout outings through his friendship with another Scoutmaster who headed Troop 33 based out of a Lutheran church in Wilkes-Barre, Martin said.
There is nothing to indicate whether anyone within the troop, which is now disbanded, had knowledge the man was on the Boy Scouts confidential list. The former troop leader at the time of the alleged abuse did not respond to several phone messages.
Martin, 59, of Swoyersville , said she never knew the man had previously been accused of abusing Scouts until several weeks ago, when she came across his name on a website set up by an Oregon law firm that identified the men contained in the so-called "perversion files" maintained by the Boy Scouts.
"I read the file and thought, `those bastards.' They knew he was doing this and they covered it up," Martin said.
The Times Leader is withholding the man's name because he was never charged in connection with the alleged abuse of Martin's son.
Martin said her son's case was investigated by Luzerne County Children and Youth Services, which determined the allegations were founded. A criminal investigation was also launched, but the case was dropped after Joshua's death, she said.
"Without him to offer testimony, there was nothing that could be done and the case was closed," she said.
Scouts under fireThe Boy Scouts organization has come under fire for how it handled cases of alleged sexual abuse. Attorneys who obtained files of the alleged abusers as part of several lawsuits claim the Scouts purposely kept allegations of abuse secret to protect the organization's reputation.
Thomas Lehmier, a former Boy Scout executive who investigated the 1974 allegations made against Joshua's alleged abuser, said he believes the Scouts are being unfairly demonized by the media and public.
"They're saying we were trying to protect the Boy Scouts. That's bull crap," Lehmier, now 89, said in a phone interview from his home in Lititz. "We were trying to protect those kids from predators. We don't care about the Boy Scouts. We care about kids."
Lehmier acknowledged police were not notified about the alleged abuse. That's because the parents, concerned for their children's privacy, chose not to contact authorities, he said.
"I said to the parents, `Do you want to carry this any further?' They said no," Lehmier said. "They decided to drop it. If you want to go to police, it's your son, not my son. What was I supposed to do?"
Today there are mandated reporting laws that require counselors, teachers and others who deal with children to report allegations of sexual or physical abuse. Those laws did not exist in the 1970s.
Organization respondsIn an email, Deron Smith, a spokesman for Boys Scouts of America, said the organization takes extensive steps to ensure children's safety, but it acknowledges mistakes had been made.
"Unfortunately, there have been instances in the past where people misused their positions in Scouting to abuse children, and in certain cases, our response to these incidents and our efforts to protect youth were plainly insufficient, inappropriate, or wrong," Smith said. "Today the BSA requires background checks, comprehensive training programs for volunteers, staff, youth and parents and mandates reporting to authorities of even suspected abuse."
The Boy Scouts also require two adults be present with Scouts, ensuring no children are left alone with an adult, he said.
It's not clear how thoroughly the Boy Scouts check the background of adult non-Scouts who take part in Scouting activities, however.
Smith did not respond to specific questions about whether background checks are performed on non-Scouts or if their names are checked against the confidential list. He said those decisions are made at the local troop level, but he did not provide details of what steps local troop leaders must take.
Martin was alarmed to learn the organization continues to permit adults who are non-Scouts to take part in Scouting activities.
"That was Josh's case exactly," Martin said. "It should be mandatory that anyone not associated with the organization who goes on trips be vetted to ensure there is no history of abuse."
Male role model soughtMartin said she's worked hard over the past two decades to overcome her grief. The revelations about her son's alleged abuser have brought back many painful memories.
She thought she was doing the right thing when she signed Joshua and his brother, Sean, up for Boy Scouts. The boys' father died in 1982, when Josh was 9 and Sean, 12, and she wanted a male figure in their lives.
Martin said the man befriended Joshua, frequently traveling from his home in Lititz to take him on trips and buying him gifts. At the time, she thought he was just a nice man reaching out to a boy in need. Now she sees his actions as classic signs of "grooming."
"He was the perfect candidate for a pedophile," Martin said. "He had issues with his father being gone. He was vulnerable and fragile."
As a child, Joshua was happy-go-lucky, a certified "goofball" who used to amuse family and friends with his impression of the "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" TV host Robin Leach.
As he entered his teenage years, his personality took a drastic turn as mental illness took over his life, she said.
The once talkative child became sullen and dark. He withdrew from society and began engaging in bizarre behavior, including setting small fires in the attic of the family's Carlisle Street home in Wilkes-Barre, she said.
Most disturbing, Martin said, he became fascinated with the occult. She said he created writings and drawings of a satanic or bizarre nature, and amassed a large cache of weapons in the home, including knives, guns and machetes.
Martin said she tried desperately to find help for Joshua. She phoned and wrote to experts all across the United States, but was frustrated by the lack of services.
In August 1990, she had Joshua committed to a psychiatric hospital. That's where he finally revealed his secret.
"They thought he might have been abused. They kept on Josh and worked with him until finally he came out and told them what happened," she said.
On Feb. 21, 1991, Joshua was set to return to the psychiatric center after a weekend visit home. His brother found him hanging in his room that morning.
"I ran to the bedroom and dropped to my knees and screamed `not yet, not yet,'" Martin said.
Mom: Abuse hurt JoshuaMartin acknowledges Joshua was a troubled teen who suffered from mental illness. She does not blame the Boy Scouts for all his troubles, but is convinced the alleged sexual abuse played a role in his deepening psychological issues and ultimately led him to take his life.
"One thing he said to me, he knew he had been abused and he didn't want to grow up to be an abuser. He was terrified," she said.
She said she decided to come forward with her story now because she wants to ensure the Boy Scouts are held accountable, if not in the court system, in the public eye.
"I long ago accepted my son's death by his own hands and believe that he is at peace with himself. But for those same years, I have been haunted with the fact that the pedophile who sexually abused my son was never brought to justice and was never stopped from hurting another child," she said. "Without a doubt I think it's criminal negligence on the Boy Scouts' part ..."My son did not have to die."
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Files Tell Stories Of Abused Scouts Here - Scouting Records, Opened By A Judge, Show That Three Local Leaders Were Quietly Forced Out In 1970S And '80S For Inappropriate Behavior.
Sunday News (Lancaster, PA) - Sunday, October 28, 2012
By Cindy Stauffer and Dan Nephin, Staff Writers
The Boy Scout "perversion files" include the names of three local troop leaders who were banned from Scouting for actions that included fondling young troop members, sleeping in sleeping bags with them, and engaging in other inappropriate sexual behavior, according to the recently released records.
The reports were made from 1972 to 1983 in three troops - in Lititz , Leola and Bainbridge - according to the files. The incidents happened on trips to Camp Mack, at a local Scout house, and on other camping trips.
The local files consist of letters and memos from local and national Scout executives, letters from local Scouts and a parent detailing what Scouts said happened to them, and newspaper clippings about charges later filed against one of the leaders in unrelated sex abuse cases.
The files are part of 14,500 pages of previously confidential documents recently released by an Oregon law firm.
The files were at the center of a 2010 trial in which the law firm proved the Boy Scouts knew that it had, and concealed from the public, an institutionwide problem with sexual abuse, The Associated Press reported.
The files were given to the jury to review in the case, but the Boy Scouts fought the public release of the documents. The Oregon Supreme Court ruled that they should be disclosed, the AP reported.
The Oregon law firm, O'Donnell Clark and Crew, noted when it released the files that they contained allegations of sexual abuse, some that were later substantiated in court proceedings.
However, in a great many cases, no such substantiation ever occurred, the firm noted. The firm said it was not suggesting that every allegation was true, but that the records serve as notice to the Boy Scouts of potential child abuse.
In the local cases, the Boy Scouts removed the men from Scouting but did not report any of them to the police.
At least one of the men still lives in Lancaster County.
The files include these details about the removal of the three local leaders:
n In 1983, Kristofer J. "Kip" Embly was a 19-year-old assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 62 in Bainbridge when he was asked to leave Scouting.
Scout executives learned that on a sleep-out at a troop Scout house, Embly rectally took the temperature of four boys, according to a letter sent to a district Scouting office.
"Some boys said, 'it was for winter survival,' and other boys said it was a 'boy Scout initiation,' '' the letter said. "We confronted Kip, and he said that he did it only on that one occasion."
But leaders later learned that, on another camp-out, Embly took the rectal temperature of three boys, two of whom had previously undergone the practice, the letter said.
"Kip began a pattern of activity that was unauthorized and we believe unfitting of a Scout leader," the 1983 letter said.
Embly began to sleep out at the Scout house with a few of the boys between regularly scheduled events, the letter said. On at least one occasion, he slept out with only one of the boys. The Scoutmaster and the committee did not know of these sleep-outs, according to the letter.
The troop recommended Embly not be allowed to represent Scouting unless he sought and obtained professional help to avoid a recurrence of these acts, and that any unit he might be associated with in the future be provided a complete history of his conduct, the Scout leaders said in the letter.
Another letter in his file noted that a letter about the recommendation was hand-delivered to Embly, in the presence of his mother. The family indicated that they would contact their attorney, but no contact had been made as of May 1983, according to the letter.
Embly resigned, the letter said.
Embly is now 49, works as a truck driver and lives in Elizabethtown.
In an interview this week, Embly said he was abused as a child. He said he later received counseling.
"It's way in the past for me," he said of the incidents.
Embly was uncomfortable about his name being made public.
"This is going to damage me because everybody is going to look at me as some bad person, when this happened 20 or 30 years ago.
"I got away from this stuff. I went and got help."
n In 1974, Kenneth Lamar Eshleman was a 23-year-old Scout leader in Lititz when he was flagged for his behavior with boys in Troop 154, which met at the Lititz Church of the Brethren.
Eshleman fondled at least three boys in his troop, according to the documents on file.
Two of the boys gave statements, letters written in their own handwriting, that outlined what they said Eshleman did to them. One of their fathers wrote a letter, also included in the file.
In their letters, the boys noted that Eshleman would start out by giving back rubs to boys at night as they slept in tents, and then proceed to fondle them.
"We were stunned," one of the boys said in the letter, of the first experience he and his friends had.
Eshleman repeated the behavior when he was alone with boys, even during the day - "We got to hate it," the boy said - and sometimes even during meetings.
On his last camp-out, the boy said in his letter, he slept as far away from Eshleman as he could.
"I pitied the person who was right next to Ken, and I was right (the boy) did get the worst," the boy wrote.
The boy writing the letter said he later quit Scouting, along with other boys in his troop, to get away from Eshleman .
"I'm glad it is out in the open now," he said in his letter.
"I would have talked about it sooner but it is not the kind of thing you talk about every day. But almost everybody in the Scout troop knows and ... I hope that he is made to resign and is helped with his problem."
Another boy's letter notes that he was fondled by his leader on "my first camp-out in Scouts, it was at Camp Mack."
The boy wrote that Eshleman first scratched his back and then started fondling him. The boy pushed him away and then tried to pretend he was asleep, so Eshleman would stop.
Eshleman told him not to tell anyone what happened, but the boy said he told his best friends, so they would know to stay away from Eshleman .
Eshleman also took the boys' hands and put them down his own pants, the boys said.
In the parent's letter, a father describes how his son no longer wanted to participate in Scouting due to what happened to him, and he added that he hoped something would be done to take Eshleman out of his position and secure help for his problem.
After talking to the boys and receiving their letters, a committee met with Eshleman and asked for his resignation.
He complied but denied "any blame for these matters," according to a letter in the files. A few days later, the letter noted that Eshleman had met with a pastor and the committee, and he was "seeking help" and had agreed to counseling.
After Eshleman resigned, the district Scouting leaders filled out a "confidential record sheet," which the national office noted would help with identification purposes, should Eshleman ever try to register in Scouting again.
Efforts to locate Eshleman were not successful. He was a native of Lititz and a 1967 Warwick High School graduate according to his file, and would be 61 or 62 years old today.
( Eshleman 's name is spelled "Eshelman" on one page of his file, which also spells Lititz as "Littitz." The rest of his file spells his name as Eshleman .)
n James Randolph Morrison was the 20-year-old acting Scoutmaster of Troop 96 in Leola in 1972, when he was asked to leave Scouting.
More than a decade later, Morrison was charged after four subsequent incidents involving the sexual abuse of, or inappropriate contact with boys.
According to a letter, marked "PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL" written to national Scouting executives in 1972, three boys in his troop told a local Scout executive that Morrison had fondled them on camping trips.
One boy told the Scout official that he was told at a camp-out that it was his "turn to sleep with Randy. The kids all laughed, and I felt funny, but wasn't quite sure why."
In a story repeated by the other two boys, the first boy said he went to sleep but awoke to find Morrison fondling him, the letter said. The boy pushed Morrison away, but he persisted until the boy told him to stop.
The boys also said that Morrison insisted boys sleep in their underwear at camp-outs, the letter said. The boys said they learned to sleep on their stomachs to try to avoid his advances.
When confronted with the accusations, Morrison initially agreed to resign, according to a letter from a scout executive.
Two days later, the letter said, Morrison said he had changed his mind and wanted to know the specific charges.
Morrison backed off after another Scout leader told him to "cool it," noting at least three Scouts were willing to go to court, if necessary with their parents, the letter said.
Morrison resigned, and nobody ever went to court about him in the Scouting case.
But 14 years later, Morrison ended up in court, and eventually in prison, for the first of four cases involving sexual assault or corruption of minors.
Morrison faced charges of statutory rape and other charges for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy between 1982 and 1985, according to court records.
While awaiting sentencing in that case and free pending an appeal, Morrison was arrested again for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy and charged with indecent assault and corruption of minors, court and newspaper records show.
He was sentenced to two concurrent five-to-10-year sentences in state prison for those two cases, beginning his jail term in 1987.
Paroled in 1992, Morrison landed back in prison from 1994 to 1997 for violating that parole by having unsupervised contact with minors, among other matters, according to county court records.
In 2004, Morrison ended up back in prison once again, for sexually assaulting a teen he met while working at a video game store at Park City, according to newspaper records. He completed that sentence in 2008.
In February 2010, he ended up in prison again for corruption of minors, according to court records. He completed that sentence in February of this year, serving at the state prison in Fayette in southwestern Pennsylvania.
The whereabouts of Morrison are not known. He is 61 and has lived in Leola, Reamstown, Stevens and Akron at different times; he attended Conestoga Valley High School. He is not under court supervision.
Caption: The On Oct. 16, Portland, Ore., Attorney Kelly Clark Examines Some Of The 14,500 Pages Of Previously Confidential Documents Created By The Boy Scouts Of America Concerning Child Sexual Abuse Within The Organization. The Boy Scouts Of America Fought To Keep Those Files Confidential.
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