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Boy Scouts Releases Archives of “Perversion Files” Revealing Facts About Past Houston and National Abuse Cases

Posted byHoumanitarian
Tom Stewart poses for a photo with his old Scout uniform outside the Boy Scout Camp Kilworth in Federal Way, Washington.

(Terri Langford , Houston Chronicle)
The names of more than a dozen Houston-area residents appeared on a Boy Scouts of America list, known as the “perversion files,” released Thursday by an Oregon court.

The 14,500-page document details hundreds of people from across the United States who were declared ineligible volunteers between 1965 and 1985. The files also detail the reasons for their ineligible status.

At least three of the men from the Houston area were convicted of sex crimes involving children. Among those in the Boy Scouts of America’s files was that of Spring scoutmaster Don Williams. The oilfield equipment salesman was a troop leader for Unit 262 from Oct. 31, 1980, to Feb. 13, 1983. He resigned, according to the file, after he was indicted on three counts of sexual abuse with a minor.

The then-36-year-old was later convicted, according to Harris County court records.
The crime, according to the Boy Scouts’ file and court records, involved the abuse of three Scouts at his home. A Houston Post report in October 1983 reported that Williams lured two 12-year-old boys and one 13-year-old boy to his home to work on merit badges and then fondled them.

Williams, who received 10 years of probation after pleading guilty to three counts of injury to a child, received a sentence typical of defendants in the 1980s. Few ever made it to trial.Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos, who was the judge in Williams’ case, said few juries convicted anyone then of child abuse.

“Back then, juries were reluctant to believe that children had been molested. They were quite reluctant,” Lykos said. “As a general rule in those cases there were plea bargains.”

Today, there’s more awareness about child abuse. It’s easier for victims to report than it was decades ago. The Boy Scouts’ files show that Williams was added to the group’s internal list of ineligible volunteers.

“Thank you for the detailed information concerning the above Scouter,” Paul Ernst, director of the Scouts’ Registration Subscription & Statistical Service in 1984 to a scouting executive for the Sam Houston Area Council. “We have reviewed this case with our attorney and have now placed this man on the confidential file.”
(Read more of this story at the Houston Chronicle)

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