Open Secret: When the Monsters Rode Bicycles Past Our Schools
Open Secret: When the Monsters Rode Bicycles Past Our Schools
Evanston/Rogers Park IL in the 1970s
Evanston, 1974–1976: The Years the Town Looked Away
Evanston, Illinois, in the mid-1970s wasn’t yet the polished, progressive enclave it brands itself as today. Just north of Chicago, the town looked peaceful enough — tree-lined streets, Northwestern students crossing between campuses, and two elementary schools, Catholic and public, sitting a block apart in a family neighborhood. But beneath that surface, a darker reality thrived: a network of child exploitation that preyed mainly on boys, in an era when their pain was rarely believed, barely documented, and often dismissed as “boys being boys.”
While national headlines obsessed over Watergate and Patty Hearst, predators across the Midwest operated with impunity. Their networks were interconnected, mobile, and far larger than most people realize today. Evanston nor even neighboring Rogers Park wasn’t the epicenter, but it was absolutely in the slipstream. And for the children caught inside it, the trauma rippled for decades — long after the news articles vanished.
The Shadow That Drifted North: John David Norman
The most infamous figure tied to this era didn’t originate in Evanston nor Chicago at all.
He came from the south - Oklahoma to Texas. By 1973, after Dallas police raided the Odyssey Foundation — a mail-order child-exploitation service trafficking boys ages 11–18 — John David Norman fled north. He landed first in Homewood, a south suburb. That November he was arrested for molesting at least ten boys he lured with money, drugs, and “opportunities.” Polaroids were taken. Contact lists circulated. And then?
A $7,000 bond and he walked free. For nearly three years he lived in the Chicago area awaiting trial. Free to move. Free to recruit. Free to expand. In December 1976 he was finally convicted and sentenced to four years at Pontiac — yet paroled after only ten months. Official summaries pretend he stayed anchored in Homewood.
The archival gaps — those “lost” months — say otherwise. The Missing Years During his bond years, Norman moved between apartments in Chicago and the North Shore, posing as a “teacher,” counselor, or youth mentor. He often traveled by bicycle. From short jail stints and temporary housing he mailed the Delta Project — a sprawling national network offering “cadets” (underage boys), “dons” (adult abusers), “Delta Dorms” (child brothels), and thousands of client contacts. Hermes newsletters and Delta circulars reached 5,000+ subscribers. Later raids in Illinois and Texas seized over 100,000 index cards of clients — police, judges, military men, Scout leaders. The lists were forwarded to the State Department and the FBI.
They were “lost.” Twice. Paske, Gacy, and the Midwest Web Norman didn’t operate alone. His enforcer, Phillip Paske, drifted through multiple Chicago-area towns, including the North Shore. Paske simultaneously worked for John Wayne Gacy’s construction firm. Fired in 1977 from a fire-department pool job after his Delta ties surfaced, Paske lived as the connective tissue between rings. Gacy himself, in jailhouse conversations in 1980 and again in 1992, claimed Norman was part of snuff-film operations and shared victims — statements never charged. In Dallas, police found Norman’s lists overlapping with victims of Dean Corll, whose Houston murders left at least 28 boys dead by 1973.
In Michigan, the North Fox Island ring imported boys from Norman’s Delta rosters. This wasn’t local. It was interstate. A pipeline. Evanston’s Parallel Battle: Abuse in Plain Sight Central to Evanston’s own hidden history was Evanston Township High School theater teacher Bruce Siewerth, who allegedly abused dozens of male students starting in the late 1970s. Through grooming disguised as mentorship — private coaching, sleepovers, role assignments — he exploited vulnerable boys. By 2018 more than 35 men had come forward. The district settled for $100,000 in 2019, acknowledging systemic failures from that era. Siewerth wasn’t tied to Norman.
But the patterns were identical: trusted adult role, male victims, institutional silence, records missing, boys blamed or ignored. Illinois police later called the 1970s an “epidemic” of non-reported male abuse — thousands of cases surfacing only decades later. Why the North Shore Was a Target Three factors created a perfect storm:
He came from the south - Oklahoma to Texas. By 1973, after Dallas police raided the Odyssey Foundation — a mail-order child-exploitation service trafficking boys ages 11–18 — John David Norman fled north. He landed first in Homewood, a south suburb. That November he was arrested for molesting at least ten boys he lured with money, drugs, and “opportunities.” Polaroids were taken. Contact lists circulated. And then?
A $7,000 bond and he walked free. For nearly three years he lived in the Chicago area awaiting trial. Free to move. Free to recruit. Free to expand. In December 1976 he was finally convicted and sentenced to four years at Pontiac — yet paroled after only ten months. Official summaries pretend he stayed anchored in Homewood.
The archival gaps — those “lost” months — say otherwise. The Missing Years During his bond years, Norman moved between apartments in Chicago and the North Shore, posing as a “teacher,” counselor, or youth mentor. He often traveled by bicycle. From short jail stints and temporary housing he mailed the Delta Project — a sprawling national network offering “cadets” (underage boys), “dons” (adult abusers), “Delta Dorms” (child brothels), and thousands of client contacts. Hermes newsletters and Delta circulars reached 5,000+ subscribers. Later raids in Illinois and Texas seized over 100,000 index cards of clients — police, judges, military men, Scout leaders. The lists were forwarded to the State Department and the FBI.
They were “lost.” Twice. Paske, Gacy, and the Midwest Web Norman didn’t operate alone. His enforcer, Phillip Paske, drifted through multiple Chicago-area towns, including the North Shore. Paske simultaneously worked for John Wayne Gacy’s construction firm. Fired in 1977 from a fire-department pool job after his Delta ties surfaced, Paske lived as the connective tissue between rings. Gacy himself, in jailhouse conversations in 1980 and again in 1992, claimed Norman was part of snuff-film operations and shared victims — statements never charged. In Dallas, police found Norman’s lists overlapping with victims of Dean Corll, whose Houston murders left at least 28 boys dead by 1973.
In Michigan, the North Fox Island ring imported boys from Norman’s Delta rosters. This wasn’t local. It was interstate. A pipeline. Evanston’s Parallel Battle: Abuse in Plain Sight Central to Evanston’s own hidden history was Evanston Township High School theater teacher Bruce Siewerth, who allegedly abused dozens of male students starting in the late 1970s. Through grooming disguised as mentorship — private coaching, sleepovers, role assignments — he exploited vulnerable boys. By 2018 more than 35 men had come forward. The district settled for $100,000 in 2019, acknowledging systemic failures from that era. Siewerth wasn’t tied to Norman.
But the patterns were identical: trusted adult role, male victims, institutional silence, records missing, boys blamed or ignored. Illinois police later called the 1970s an “epidemic” of non-reported male abuse — thousands of cases surfacing only decades later. Why the North Shore Was a Target Three factors created a perfect storm:
- Proximity to Chicago runaways — kids flowed between city and suburb.
- Weak sentencing & 2–4-year trial delays in Cook County — predators stayed free.
- Silence around male victimization — boys were expected to “tough it out.”
Why do I believe he was in Evanston, hiding his preversion in open sight - I am a survivor from his exploits and I am a woman, then I was just a little girl.
A German Shepherd named Kelly.
A Great Dane named Duke.
Weed on the roof.
A downstairs kid obsessed with his pretend camera.
A next-door “Mike” who crossed every boundary.
A “John” on a bicycle calling himself a teacher. These details aren’t mythology or hysteria — they’re memory. Memories that have been documented over the years,right here on the pages of this blog.
They’re mine. I lived one block from those schools.
A Great Dane named Duke.
Weed on the roof.
A downstairs kid obsessed with his pretend camera.
A next-door “Mike” who crossed every boundary.
A “John” on a bicycle calling himself a teacher. These details aren’t mythology or hysteria — they’re memory. Memories that have been documented over the years,right here on the pages of this blog.
They’re mine. I lived one block from those schools.
I lived right next door, same building.
I lived inside the silence.
I was collateral in the chain.
My abuse happened amid the same patterns, the same gaps, the same era that let Norman roam free in the North Shore. Why This History Matters Records fade. Microfiche crumbles. FOIA offices shrug.
When victims are boys, anger whispers, never shouts. But the truth remains:
In the mid-1970s, Evanston was not untouched. It was a corridor. A catchment. A place where these networks passed through and found opportunity. This isn’t about sensationalism.
It’s about acknowledgement. Because the dominoes fell on all of us.
I lived inside the silence.
I was collateral in the chain.
My abuse happened amid the same patterns, the same gaps, the same era that let Norman roam free in the North Shore. Why This History Matters Records fade. Microfiche crumbles. FOIA offices shrug.
When victims are boys, anger whispers, never shouts. But the truth remains:
In the mid-1970s, Evanston was not untouched. It was a corridor. A catchment. A place where these networks passed through and found opportunity. This isn’t about sensationalism.
It’s about acknowledgement. Because the dominoes fell on all of us.
Personal Footnote : I've been looking -researching -for decades in trying to pinpoint who Mike and John were, my childhood predator neighbors - What threw me off was Evanston is barely listed alongside Norman, and mainly from his Northwestern Days. Then when searching for articles on pedophiles in Evanston at that time, I would pull up Norman articles but skipped them because it said his only victims were boys and young men. It was only recently I was able to find more clues, including a photo of Mike, which I am not publishing yet as he has never been mentioned other than an obscure AKA supposedly used by John, Mike VanBuskirk - Van (or Von..I've seen both) Buskirk. AI dug that out along with supposedly VanBuskirk is on his official records. That's still up in the air for me-but it no doubt brought everything together, my well documented memories of being molested by my neighbors -not getting the image of John out of my head, ever, on that bike. And, then Mike walking Kelly and Duke, always around the time us kids were playing in the courtyard of the building.
There are more victims out there, like me, who skipped over him not realizing just how far and wide the depravity spread.
This matters - and more will unfold over the next days.
So many children lost their childhood in an instant and it never returned - some lashed in and then the others lashed out, some a inner darkness was switched - think about all the times we tell women with autoimmune conditions and other health issues, how it was ignited by abuse, usually in their childhood. Well, how do we think rapists and serial killers are made? It's in front of us. I'm sitting here wondering if Mike was a true predator out loose, or was he a plant from an alphabet agency. They usually plant people with a like glitch in their personality, they have to be able to stomach what's before them. Were children sacrifical lambs for political leverage and dirt? Intel? Like with Epstein? Our neglect to recognize the pain in males from CSA is deadly, society was too busy going ewwwwww....to see the child, the human, the pain.
*I am a disabled writer with chronic illness who uses assistive technology to accommodate my needs as I create. #zebralife
*Please leave a comment if you notice anything that needs a correction.
Comments