Who Took Johnny

I've watched this movie and I do not believe that the boy tied up in the photos is Johnny. Also I feel that there almost certainly has to be a connection with the two missing paperboys from the same area. The pattern of similarities in the cases is too compelling. Any FBI profiler would tell you that. Clearly (in my opinion) as with many small towns and small cities the local law enforcement was incompetent and not very interested in solving Johnny's case. One last thing: I am highly suspicious of Johnny's Mother. I do not believe her when she says she met her son at her front door in the 1990s when he was 27. Her story does not ring true. In any case I don't believe this case will ever be solved. Of course the same was said of the Etan Patz case but eventually, decades later, it was solved.

As a documentary Who Took Johnny is probably not the best made documentary but the story itself is just very interesting to watch. But not only interesting, also disturbing and mostly disgusting. Disturbing to know there are still pedophiles (I can't call them people) thinking what they're doing is normal behavior. And disgusting to know there are men of the law (if you can call them like that) that refuse to investigate the obvious. I've never had a high opinion of police (don't forget, to serve and protect is what you signed for, so at least do an attempt to do that) and this documentary won't help their case. I have respect for the mother, Noreen Gosch, who shows what it is to never give up. If it was my case I would probably already be dead or in jail. Just because you can't prove aything with this documentary, it's still obvious there is an "elite" that thinks they are above the law and can get away with the most disgusting behavior possible, think about Epstein (yeah, really nobody believes he hanged himself in prison) and his "best" friends (some made it even to president of the USA). America is sick, and there's nobody willing to cure it, because there's a cure and that's a guillotine in the town square. Who took Johnny is a sad story, with some truths, probably some lies too, but you can't just comprehend in what kind of sick society we're living.

This is a powerful piece of work from the RUMUR team of Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley. Anyone with and even probably without kids can identify with the abject terror of having your child disappear without a trace, so it is utterly wrenching to watch people to whom this has actually happened try to figure out how to come to terms with the most profound loss we can imagine. To compound the horror of it all, the film documents with a pretty high degree of confidence what most likely happened to Johnny Gosch: that he was swept up into human trafficking, which more or less means child prostitution and pornography. It ain't pretty, but that's why it is almost necessary viewing. As Gogol so famously said, we can't blame the mirror if our mug is crooked, and "Who Took Johnny" is a mirror that, sad to say, is much less distortive than we would all like for it to be. Watch it.

'Who Took Johnny?' Reveals how cases of missing children were handle 30 years ago. This film shades all its light on the disappearance of Johnny Gosch from Des Monies, Iowa. A 12 year-old paperboy, who disappears without a trace, yet was written off as a runaway. The case of Johnny Gosch is shrouded by the darkest side of humanity as it leads to a hidden world where children are targeted A world dragged into the light by the strength, love, and sacrifice of a mother who never stopped fighting for answers. It should be required for the world to watch. I watch it. My heart is still trembling over how this case was handled.

It must be very hard to make a documentary about subject matter as inconclusive as this. Missing kid, lot of assumptions but no resolution several decades later.

Summing it up it follows a boy who went missing during his paper round and a string of people who may or may not be connected and claims by the mother that understandably come into question.

Full of archive footage and interviews from as far back as the early 80's when the boy went missing the documentary is competently made but the whole thing is nothing but one big question mark.

Though a couple of mysteries regarding other children are solved this case has never and almost certainly will never be.

The most interesting thing to come away from this documentary and case are the stances of the police/FBI. Was there a cover up? If so why? Or was this just good old fashioned incompetence.

Not the most compelling viewing but watchable all the same if you go in knowing you won't really learn anything at all of the case.