"The Brand" is the solution to the Gosch mystery

[ck4829]

I hate posting this image, but I feel as though I must.



I've toiled for a while now, looking for what the brand means, and nothing has come up. Symbol dictionaries, search engines, all turn up nothing. The brand that Johnny has is a very unique symbol.

According to the Wikipedia entry on Johnny Gosch, the label "The Brand" and the line and circle pointing to it was on the photo itself, nobody knows who put it there, so this might be the biggest clue to happen in this mystery.

[MissWaverly]

1. it just looks like the confederate flag to me

This is also apparently a "biker" thing

[notadmblnd]

2. Damn these aging eyes. I can't make it out clearly.

Is that was it says? "The Brand"

on eidt: the closest I can make out is it looks like it could be "eat" "rat" "bad" or "bax." I have a book around here somewhere that wrote extensively about a satanic cult that crossed the country during the times when the "son of Sam" murders were taking place. Every time I read about this story, for some reason this book pops into my mind. If I could figure out what symbols that "brand" actually is, re-reading that book might be a place to start.

[ck4829]

4. Yes, it says that

I think it was put there by someone who wanted to point it out, maybe a person who wants to help bring closure to this mystery, I hope so anyway.

[dsc]

3. That poor kid

he must have been scared out of his mind. Whereever he is I hope he is at peace.

[magellan]

5. The letter X is an occult symbol

It represents the cross or Christ. It appears within a circle in ancient cultures like the Celts and Egyptians with various meanings: a symbol of heaven, or of both male and female, or of man within the envelope of his physical being.

I'm not saying it was intended this way. The same mark was used at Ellis Island. Immigrants who were suspected of having some disease had an 'X' in a circle put on the upper right shoulder.

[Sir Jeffrey]

6. I've spent some time researching this...

and I've been led (unwillingly I must say) into BDSM descriptions of human branding. Considering that Noreen says he was taken into the sex slave trade, and from what I have learned over time I thought that would make sense.

This gets a bit odd for me, but here we go. I think not only the symbol itself is screaming bloody murder to someone who knows much more than I about this type of shit, but the LOCATION does as well:

"Branding is usually done with a hot metal object to scar the body. It is sometimes seen as an ultimate act of submission and commitment, to slavery if not to the relationship. A brand will be with the slave for many years, and is likely to show a mark for the rest of the person's lifetime. Brands are normally placed high on the outer thigh, on the belly just above the crotch or on the breast."

more

"For some slaves and owners, branding is an intense desire, indicating total commitment and psychologically stamping the slave as property so the slave truly feels owned and wanted."

"Branding is not part of play; serious branding should not be considered as a 'scene' but should only be done by a knowledgeable practitioner."

http://www.londonfetishscene.com/wipi/index.php/Branding

So what does this mean? My take, based on the assumption that Noreen is telling the truth about the 1997 visit:

According to this site, the location of this type of brand would be UNIQUE in the world of BDSM/sex slavery. From the first paragraph I quoted, the outer thigh, belly, crotch and breast are very difficult to show off in a public setting in 21st century America. This type of brand could be shown off much easier in a public setting...I'm thinking of scenes from Eyes Wide Shut if you want a visual (you probably didn't).

If I were Noreen, I would be SCREAMING for Paul Bonacci to see if he recognized this brand or, better yet, if he had it himself. I think that would validate his entire story and lead us further into the rabbit hole.

[WinkyDink]

7. Looks like a pentagram to me.

[woodsprite]

8. OK, I've been poking around a bit tonight and found

this quote on Answers.com when I googled "human branding"

" as an extreme fraternity initiation in the (now minorized) tradition of painful hazing (otherwise mostly paddling); it has been widely reported (even in a BBC feature) that U.S. president George W. Bush, while president of the Delta Kappa Epsilon chapter at Yale, was involved in introducing a practice in which pledges has to strip to be branded on the buttocks with a hot coat hanger bent into the shape of a capital delta <1>, a surprising practice among the richest families' priviliged youth in an Ivy League college."

Kinda interesting.