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Fourteen – Epilogue
From your
Chillicothe Special Correspondent
Philip Marks
Jeremy 1
Cleveland, Ohio
August 9, 2027 – 10:00 p.m. CDT
“Serial Killers in Ohio – Ten Years After”
WEWS Five Alive News
logo and music – slow fade out
Dark set, ASHLEY HILLMAN foreground, illuminated
FADE IN close
Hello, I”m Ashley Hillman for Five Alive News.
Pull back to ¾ profile
Tonight we preempt our regular programming for a special report, a very special story; about an evil hard to contemplate, and about those it affected the most. We caution viewers the subject material is not suitable for children.
Pull back to show backdrop images
Partially lit faces of CANNON and HUNTER
Almost ten years ago two men, John Cannon and Patrick Hunter, were killed in a Northern Pennsylvania motel in an alleged murder-suicide standoff with the FBI.
Cut to FBI footage
AH VOICE-OVER
They were wanted in connection with the kidnapping of a teenager, a fourteen-year-old boy from our own Ohio; but as it developed there was a much darker story. John Cannon allegedly shot Patrick Hunter and later challenged the FBI by pointing his pistol at them; before that final act, Cannon left a document detailing the duo”s chilling abduction, abuse, and serial murder of eight other teenagers across the nation.
Cut to clip: montage of victims you heard from the FBI agent who led the search for Jeremy. We”ve told you how Jeremy spent the next year traveling incognito; hiding in the Arizona desert; and eventually took passage as crew on a sailboat headed for the Caribbean. You”ve met some of the people he encountered on this journey.
Jeremy agreed to a limited interview with us. We agreed not to ask about the actual kidnapping nor the four days of terror he endured with the pair, a much longer time than the other victims. He would only agree to talk in general terms about the rest of that year; he calls it “too personal” to share.
He was however, willing to talk to us about the life he has built for himself in the aftermath, and to offer solace, encouragement, and advice to others who have been traumatized.
AH VOICEOVER
Dissolve to clip: steel drum band…slow music fade out
Dissolve to long shot of Antigua
Dissolve to harbor with sailboats in the foreground
When we set out to do this interview, I don”t know what I expected to find in the sole survivor of that long, brutal killing spree; but it certainly wasn”t the personable, easygoing, confident young father and businessman we met on the island of Antigua in the Caribbean.
Dissolve to exterior of Nuff Respect restaurant
We sat down with Jeremy one week ago at the place he is most identified with among the people of Antigua, Nuff Respect, a casual bar and restaurant that is very popular with the local community and with a large and mixed tourist crowd during the season. The place has also been a de facto center for the LGBTQ community and advocates say its staff and some of its clientele organized, and were a factor in Antigua finally legalizing same-sex marriage last year.
Dissolve to rooftop lanai shot
with AH and JEREMY GATES
foreground seated on stools
Continue VOICEOVER
This picture-postcard rooftop lanai has become a venue of choice for local and tourist-destination weddings alike.
AH: Jeremy, it is such a pleasure to meet you in person. I”ve been reporting on your story since it began ten years ago.
JG: Ashley, thanks.
AH: Jeremy, we”ve agreed to limit our interview with you to talk about how you have ended up as you are, what you have been doing for the past eight or nine years. You told me you want to send a message to others who have suffered trauma that most of us can never imagine.
JG: Ashley that is the reason I agreed to be interviewed. Many have had to live with PTSD more severe than mine; I”ve been fortunate. I have had a fair amount of therapy over the last ten years. Like anyone, I’ve struggled to cope with the effects of what I lived through. I want to be humble about it, but I”m speaking out partly because I want people to have hope that it”s possible to recover and regain their lives. I wish, I hope, my story will speak to people who are suffering.
AH: So Jeremy here we are in Nuff Respect, and we learn that you own this restaurant, and at just 24 you”re the head chef. How did that come to be?
Dissolve to long shot of JG and THEO CLARKE
holding DARWIN GATES-CLARKE”S hands and
walking a beach in the surf
JG: (VOICE-OVER) Well, I”m not the sole owner. Theo Clarke who has been my partner in business and in life for nearly all of the past decade is co-owner. We own several businesses together. I first met him in Antigua. I was just shy of 16 and he was 17; we needed a way to make a living and unemployment among teenagers was – and still is – very high here. We scrambled to find ways to make money in those days and one of them was a food cart we hooked up with an old truck. We started serving people mostly Caribbean-style lunches and dinners. Okay, it was a fusion of many things. My mom started me out, and I learned a bit of commercial cooking and found it was something I was pretty good at. Street food, plus some American-type offerings, especially hot dogs; a chili dog with onions and cheese cebeci escort goes over with almost anyone.
Dissolve to still of food truck, JG at 16
wearing an apron in the foreground with menu board
AH: All this from a food cart?
JG: Well pretty much. Another thing we were doing was construction work, and we got to be good enough at that to eventually undertake some real projects. When COVID ravaged the tourist industry the previous place went under. It was vacant for several years as everyone coped with the waves. My parents agreed to give us a loan to buy it at auction; we set up an investor”s kickstart fund to cover the costs of renovation and were able to pay back both in time.
Dissolve to still of Nuff Respect in renovation, TC in hard hat.
JG: We opened Nuff Respect to start with a local clientele, to focus on the local working people; the sort who”d been buying from our food truck; at that time it was also a lot of the LGBTQ folks we knew by word of mouth. Eventually the tourists came and added to the base we”d built; it’s still a process, still new. We’re prospering. I owe a lot of that to Theo who makes people feel so welcome here. And we make it a point to hire teenagers when we can, to help with the lack of employment opportunities in this neighborhood.
AH: Jeremy what is the significance of the name, Nuff Respect?
JG: In local patois it means “great respect” or “utmost respect” which of course is what I wanted people to feel about the restaurant, and because it has been a rallying place for the LGBTQ community, I thought it was a reflection of the concept of Pride.
AH: Jeremy did you identify as LGBTQ before you came to Antigua?
JG: Yes. I had recognized I was gay back in Chillicothe when I was about twelve, but I had not yet come out to anyone, I was working up my courage to do it before I– before I left. During the year of the typhoon, which is what I sometimes call that period, despite the chaos of my life that year, I still managed to deal with it.
I want to add that my encounter with Cannon and Hunter had nothing to do with my sexuality. They didn”t care at all who I was. They didn”t pick me for it, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
AH: I don”t mean to pry but I think viewers will wonder how that fits with your children and how their mother came to be involved in your life. Do you consider yourself bisexual?
JG: I met my kids” biological mom in my travels, she helped me find a live-aboard situation where I could learn to crew a sailboat, which is ultimately how I got to Antigua. And during that time, we got an accidental pregnancy started; one of the happiest accidents of my life in fact. It came in a moment where I desperately needed someone to just hold on to. I was deeply hurt. Sophie stepped into my life at just that moment.
And it”s a thought I often revisit; whatever horrible things came about, some truly wonderful ones came as well. As bad and evil as some people could be there were always so many who were decent and caring and ready to share their love.
From all that my daughter Sky was born; my parents are her legal guardians and have effectively adopted Sky. Later, and intentionally we decided it would be good to give Sky a sibling, and Theo and I had wanted to become parents, so my son Darwin came to be. So Sky is almost nine and “Win will be five years old. Both kids spend part of each summer in Chillicothe and part here in Antigua so they have time to be brother and sister. They do understand the somewhat complicated modern family constellation we have; grandparents for parents to a sister who doesn”t live with her brother, a bio-dad to both, parent to one and brother to the other. Complicated, not uncommon. As kids will, they take it in stride.
Their bio-mom also comes to visit when she can, right now she”s sailing Africa but she”ll be back for Christmas. I see her as my big sister really, even though we aren”t related and we”re biological parents to both kids. She”s a really wonderful person and I hope one day she”ll decide to be a full-time parent for herself; but she feels pretty comfortable with letting my parents and Theo and me take that role for now. She drops in and spoils them rotten.
Oh and no, I don”t think of myself as bisexual though I have had some sexual encounters with women, I”m a gay man and quite happily so.
AH: Jeremy, what do you want to say to the parents of the other boys?
JG: (long pause; speaking quietly) There”s nothing I can say that will make them whole. I”m not sure I have anything really worthwhile to offer them. I would tell them I”m sorry for their loss. In my worst moments I thought of how much I loved my parents, how sorry I was they”d be hurt, so – I”d tell them, ”Remember the love your sons had for you; that love will always be with you, it”s in you, always.”
AH: Jeremy, I”m pretty sure we all would like to understand how you escaped their fate.
JG: I can”t tell you. It was nothing I did, Those guys needed money and Levi was willing to pay them for me, otherwise I am sure I”d be dead.
AH: This was Dr. Levi Fisher, the surgeon from Boston who died a few months later?
JG: Yes. I know people speculate about my time with Levi, talk him down. Levi was a man who tried very hard to do good and succeeded at it far better than I think even he understood. Saving my life was a part of that. If you want to know about Levi, ask his patients, ask their families; there are thousands who are alive because of him; go read the citation that came with his Navy Cross. It will tell you who he was. A brave man who saved lives without regard for his own.
We flew to Vietnam, Theo and I, as tourists a few years ago, to see the temple where Levi died. I gave him my love and paid my respects there and it felt right. I have a little Vietnamese-inspired memorial in the courtyard at my apartment.
AH: He left you a substantial trust fund here in Antigua.
JG: It”s true and it”s really irrelevant. çeşme escort It was Levi”s gift to me – one he didn”t even tell me about before he died; the FBI told me about it months and months later. I appreciate it but it has had relatively little to do with my life to this point. My father has run the Trust most of the past ten years, the Trust contracted us for some construction work, we scouted out some properties to add to it, did some renovations to them, but other than wages we”ve taken almost nothing from it.
I will take over managing the Trust in February when I turn twenty-five. That may be transforming for me, we”ll see.
AH: I think people will want to know how your abduction has affected you as a parent, and a very young parent at that. Fifteen when your daughter was born and only nineteen when your son was born.
Long-shot footage of a group of children snorkeling about a reef
— locals and Jeremy”s mixed together.
JG: I”m not sure I have insight into that; my first child was really part of that typhoon year. I was not equipped to be a parent, and I knew it. I was struggling just to figure out who and what I was at that age. Fortunately my parents really were ready to have a second child in their lives so it worked out well for all of us.
As for the rest… I have to admit that while I feel my kids are safe where they are – I”ve taken precautions – I probably worry more about it than I expect most parents do. I try not to limit them by my fears. I have not shared much of the story with them, they are too young.
AH: I guess one of the things I find so interesting is the way in which you have built a life here, there”s the restaurant and you have already referred to construction and I understand you”ve actually got a construction company.
JG: Fourteen Gates Contracting Limited became licensed contractors doing renovations on the island. Theo got an estate-agent license – in American terms a realtor license – and we made some money buying and flipping properties of our own once we had enough capital. For a few years the construction business was our main income.
AH: What else?
Run clip of Gulf Star 60 Hidden Gem
JG: We run sail charters for groups and families, that”s not been very lucrative but it held us over in the lean years and lets me indulge my love of sailing. We have two boats, Gravity is small; the other, Hidden Gem, is big enough for a month-long charter for a family of six and crew of two. We bought it from a friend who was retiring, took over his business; it”s older but very solid. We get a lot of charter work in season: families, business groups, gay groups. I don”t have the time to lead the charters so much these days so we”ve hired a local skipper and crew to run them for us.
Cut to lanai
AH: So that”s three different businesses, you have been busy!
JG: We struggled in those early days and I learned not to rely on just one source of income, COVID showed me it can just disappear and we only had construction to rely on during that time. Also I think it”s in my nature to be busy and constructive, I also acknowledge some of it is by way of compensating for the abduction. Being busy helps. And I don”t want to miss a moment of life.
AH: You”ve spoken of Theo several times. What can you tell us about him?
JG: Theo is…. no I can”t really. He”s been a huge part of my life, but Theo and I have separated for a while; we keep talking and we don”t know whether this ends up in one place or a very different one. When we met, as I said, we were very young. I suppose it happens with many couples. We have different goals at the moment. He”s a wonderful person and dad to Darwin and that”s what counts.
I”m going to focus on the construction business and the running of the property trust. Theo will run the bar and restaurant and he”s going to hire a new head chef so I can step back from that. In the meantime we are Darwin”s dads and we keep that point clear with everyone, especially Sky and Darwin. Whatever happens we are here for them.
AH: Jeremy, have you traveled to Chillicothe regularly in the past nine years?
JG: Mostly for holidays and for the kids to visit with each other in summer and winter. The kids and I sail when they”re here, just a little island hopping, when we can get time free. My folks come down about once a year and I go there once or twice. The last few years we have gone to Chillicothe to enjoy the Christmas cold weather, but those are short trips because that”s the high season here.
AH: Have you reconnected with anyone there other than your parents?
JG: Well, I attended what would have been my Chillicothe High School graduation, as a spectator, and was happy to see my friends graduate. But I didn”t return to Chillicothe for a reason back when I was fifteen. I could not fit the person I had become by that time into the world of a teenager in Chillicothe. I couldn”t see going to high school and participating in the sorts of, I don”t know – stuff, you expect from a normal high school experience. Sorry I don”t mean to make light of it, just – it didn”t fit who I had become.
My abductors stole that from me. For a time I was angry about it, but in fact I think I became stronger because I ended up relying on myself a lot. But over time, I learned there were great people around me and my trust in people was restored.
The things that mattered to me were just different and I was a father at fifteen. Talk about a bad fit!
I was happy when I saw my friends graduate, they were good and loyal supporters even before I resurfaced. I might not fit in but it wasn”t their fault, and just knowing that they wanted me to come back was healing. And one brought his bride to Antigua just this year for their honeymoon. Now that we”re adults it”s easier to reconnect.
For anyone who has been traumatized it can be difficult, and for their friends and family. They suffered from this too; everyone I knew paid a price. Survivor”s guilt, or just feeling cim cif yapan escort you let someone down, can hit hard. But they let me know they cared and that mattered to me. It made a difference.
Oh and I did finish my education at a different pace, online mostly, I just earned my Associate”s Degree in Business. Some people I met along the way are cheering I expect. Not sure people thought I”d ever get it done but I did. I should mention Rita Clement, a wonderful teacher from Chillicothe who helped me out.
AH: Jeremy, your parents declined to participate in our documentary. Is there anything you want to say to them or about them?
JG: To them, no, we talk all the time. About them… only that I have the best parents a man could ever pray for. It was their strength and values that helped me overcome this and come out so much the better. I hope the other boys” parents won”t interpret that as if they did something wrong. I survived abduction by luck and happenstance. Hunter, Cannon, they were as reasonable as a typhoon. I could have done nothing to affect those outcomes. It”s after I got away from them that my parents” upbringing kicked in and helped keep me going. The resilience and values they gave me served me well.
AH: Jeremy what is in your future, what are your goals?
JG: Being a father is my first and highest priority. Seeing “Win and Sky get the kind of chance in life they deserve is first. And then I have to admit my first love, in terms of chronology, not priority, is sailing. I hope when they are grown enough but not too much we can all take a long sail, maybe around the world. Maybe their bio-mom will come too. I”d like that. I”m sure it would be a growing, learning experience for us all.
And, well, you see I like business, I like building things, literally, taking something and making it better, more valuable, good for people. I want to do a lot of that. I”m thinking the Trust may give me that opportunity in new ways.
AH: Jeremy do you have any final thoughts to share with our viewers?
JG: I realize in a way I”ve wanted to draw a line under it all, to say it really is over. I”m taking control of the very last of it. All this we have been talking about was before, the rest of my life, the after, comes now, and it”s all mine.
My pop idol when I was a kid was Shawn Mendes; He said, “Be the author of your own life,” though he might have been quoting someone else; anyway in my view that means your life is what you make it. Giving love, getting love, those are the things that really make life matter.
And… I want to say that while your life is yours, it”s your own voyage; you should look for good shipmates. I”ve had, and still do have the best.
Cut to studio, close-up on AH
In our preliminary talks with Jeremy he told me he felt as if he had left himself behind, that somehow Jeremy Gates was left lying on the pavement by his home in Chillicothe that fateful night. He became someone else to survive the ordeal. He said he has spent the last ten years trying to pick up what he left behind. After we wrapped up our interview he said that he felt he finally has been able to pick up the last piece. He is restored. “I”m home,” he said.
And so our story ends — but we are reminded it really doesn”t.
What happened to those boys and their families and indeed to everyone who knew the boys, will have repercussions, will keep echoing as long as any of them live. Like ripples on a pond that keep radiating, intersecting and radiating again. To everyone who has been part of the story, it continues, they carry it with them. There”s no one who wasn”t hurt.
It is hard to fathom how anyone could cause such pain.
But rather than leave you with that sad thought, I can”t think of a better outcome from such a terrible tale than that a young man emerge, declare himself restored and offer a message of love, strength, and hope for us all.
“…whatever horrible things came about, some truly wonderful ones came as well. As bad and evil as some people could be there were always so many who were decent and caring and ready to share their love.”
If there must be an echo from all this, let it be that.
For Five Alive News, this is Ashley Hillman, saying good night.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped tow’rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
William Shakespeare
from The Tempest, Act IV, scene i
Only– Our revels are not quite ended. Between Christmas and this interview lie ten long years. Give me a chance to spin a few more stories of Jeremy Gates’ life. I promise you a Chapter 71 to guide you to my next story (when I’ve finished it).
Thanks so much to Philip Marks for his contributions and the background conversations that bring the story onto the page. I also want to add a shout-out to Mischief Night who answered my call for a proofreader and editor.
Dear lord, seventy chapters. Thanks to those who keep Philip and me updated on your interest and insights.
Regards,
Eliot Moore
Nifty Stories
by PHILIP MARKS
A Father”s Love
Young Will is headed for trouble until he meets Paul on his way. (download pdf)
https://www.//gay/adult-youth/a-fathers-love.pdf
I Can See Clearly Now
First Love is a heady mix (download pdf)
https://www.//gay/adult-youth/i-can-see-clearly-now.pdf
Stories In The Human Calculus
A series of short stories about a boy figuring out his life and those who help him along the way. (Read from “The Friday Feeling” to “Breakfast in Heaven” in that fty//gay/adult-youth/stories-in-the-human-calculus/
Brief, Anonymous Survey:
Readers are often too busy or reluctant to reach out to authors. I appreciate hearing from you all. Please take my Fourteen Survey (Again). It is a quick Google Form where you can comment on this last section.
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