Photo credit: thefamouspeople.com

Patch Adams was more than a character from a feel-good movie starring Robin Williams. The real life Patch Adams was, surprisingly enough, a close friend of Marion Pettie, the central figure behind The Finders. The Finders were a cult discovered in the late 80's in Florida. When two members were discovered with 6 small children. The nude children were described as extremely dirty and had been living in the van with the two men from the Finders.

Once the two Finders cult members were arrested an investigation began that uncovered a documents related to procuring children (from purchasing them outright to kidnapping and trading), evading authorities by multiple means (including moving from jurisdiction to jurisdiction). U.S. Customs was called in relation to nude pictures of some of the children. The children were described as dirty and feral. They told investigators they were only given food as "reward" for good behavior. When the police apprehended the two men, one produced a business card that stated that "the bearer knew his constitutional rights to remain silent and that he intended to do so."

Despite evidence of potential child trafficking, telex messages related to "the purchase of two children in Hong Kong" and another telex involving "bank secrecy" the investigation was closed out and the children returned to their abusers when the CIA decided to make it the Finders case an internal investigation.

From the Tallahassee Police Department's investigation notes:

<blockquote>On Thursday, February 5, 1987, Senior Special Agent Harrold and I assisted the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) with two search warrants involving the possible sexual exploitation of children. During the course of the search warrants, numerous documents were discovered which appeared to be concerned with international trafficking in children, high tech transfer to the United Kingdom, and international transfer of currency.</blockquote>

But what does all this have to do with Patch Adams? Hunter "Patch" Adams, as it turns out is closely related to Marion Pettie and the Finders. Patch Adams, as it turns out, was a close friend of Marion Petties and had been a tangential member and even seen members as the group's "personal physician." According to Adams, there was no instance of child abuse among the Finders and no pedophiles amongst the members who were by and large "over-educated" eccentrics.

Adams spoke with the Rappahannock News in defense of the Finders cult: "I'm embarrassed for the news media . They really made a mistake here. I can see a giant legal case coming out of this."

Of course, no such "giant legal case" ever came out, but the Finders were freed to continue whatever it is they were working on. At least one of the small children showed signs of sexual abuse, Adams' explanation:

"I just can't imagine the Finders tolerating sexual abuse. If it should turn out that a child has been abused, it's a private problem with a member of the organization with the organization unaware of that problem."

As for <a href="https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg00271.html">Marion Pettie himself and the Finders as a whole</a>, Patch had this to say:

"Marion Pettie [is a] very intelligent, extremely well-read, a perceptive thinker who gathered around him over-educated people who find current society, as I do, not very interesting. They dropped out of whatever it was they were doing to play games under Pettie's direction. The anthropological, psychological, sociological game of life with each other. Never to my knowledge have they done drugs of any kind. They like playing games, more in their heads than in their hearts. This is not Scientology. I know lots of Finders who have left. We get together. We laugh and joke about it. They're probably laughing about all this right now. Marion Pettie is not an angel. He's not a devil. He's a regular person, unless a regular person is someone who is bored with his job, his life and is dissatisfied with his life. If that's the definition, then I guess he's not a regular person."

Considering this close connection to a group many feel was involved in weaponizing child exploitation for the national security state perhaps those rumors about Camp Gesundheit near Mt. Droop and Hollywood producer Jon Robberson's claim that Robin Williams was blackmailed into making the movie Patch Adams seem a bit more probable.