Who kidnapped Johnny Gosch?

Stop me if I've told you already, but I used to be a paperboy. The Hammond Times, Illinois edition. An afternoon paper. My customers on the route were workers, mostly in the steel factories in the early to mid 80s, wanting closer business coverage than the Trib or Sun Times offered. So it wasn't every house, more like in the low 30s for my neighborhood. I biked it, even in winter unless it was way icy. Bag across the chest on my ten-speed, 2 trips on Sunday.

I liked the monotony. Riding, thinking, throwing papers. Every now and then, I'd have to backtrack -- did I deliver that house? can't recall... But sure enough, the paper was always there out of unconscious routine. You just don't remember every throw when you're dissecting the day's events in your head, or some other cerebral exertion.

I had the route through high school, and would just deliver a bit later after swim/track practice. I don't recall reading about Johnny Gosch when it happened (ask me about the unfolding of the Gacy case, by contrast. Crawlspace -- it's not just for Christmas ornaments anymore.) But the subsequent coverage about his disappearance -- if you lived in the 80s, you heard the name.

Now our newspapers were dropped in front of the house (my sister delivered too, though in a different part of the subdivision). And in my town, I had no fear. The paperboy knew the comings and goings, the change in town daily, and you could ride down the center line of Chicago Road on Sunday morning. Then, geographic proximity was all you had to worry about.

Now, we see more of what might have happened to John Gosch. Conspiracy theories probably can never add up to equal the horrors of truth -- that's the evil thing 9-11 reminds some of us. Still, like a mother maybe gone round a bend, we need to know, -- or want to know, more...