Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 27, 1993 TAG: 9305270016
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: MITCHELL LANDSBERG ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Long
Too extraordinary?
Newsweek magazine suggested as much this week. A story in its May 31 issue claims that Tony's heart-rending story of severe sexual and physical abuse - abuse that he says has given him AIDS - may have been a hoax.
And the magazine went further, suggesting that Tony himself may not exist.
The fact is, until Tuesday night, when an Associated Press reporter was allowed to see and speak to the boy, his physical presence was little more than an article of faith for nearly everyone associated with him and the publication of his book.
With the exception of his adoptive mother, virtually no one - not his editor, nor his publisher, nor his agent, nor his closest adult friends, nor the journalists who had interviewed him, nor the Make-A-Wish Foundation which gave him a computer - had ever seen Tony. All of them knew Tony only by telephone.
Even Jack Godby, the AIDS counselor whom Tony has come to call "Dad," has never laid eyes on the boy he considers his son.
But if Newsweek's skepticism may have been understandable, its conclusion outraged Tony's far-flung circle of adult admirers, who include award-winning author Paul Monette and children's television host Fred Rogers.
"It is the most scurrilous, most mean-spirited, ugliest piece I have ever read," Monette said.
Crown Publishers, which published "A Rock and a Hard Place," issued a letter to booksellers saying it stands behind the book "absolutely and without reservation."
Newsweek defended its story, but promised to acknowledge any mistakes it may have made.
"Certainly, we're glad to see new evidence emerging to satisfy some of our questions," said Sarah Crichton, the assistant managing editor who oversaw the story. "It was never our intention to harm anyone."
Crichton said Newsweek simply was trying to get to the bottom of a perplexing mystery. And Tony's story - coupled with his shadowy existence - is certainly unusual.
Tony's book recounts a childhood of brutal abuse at the hands of his biological parents and their friends, one of whom apparently gave him the AIDS virus during unprotected sex.
Tony and his new protectors say the abusive parents have been convicted and sent to prison. Because no one will reveal the parents' names, this cannot be confirmed. Newsweek said no one in the Manhattan district attorney's office could recall the case. But it could have been tried elsewhere.
For reasons she won't discuss in detail, Tony's adoptive mother, who asked to be referred to only as Mrs. Johnson, said she is terrified that someone will come after him.
The two are in hiding somewhere in the New York metropolitan area. They say that not even people they trust can see Tony because they might carry germs that could deliver the fatal blow to his faltering immune system.
This fear appears, to an outsider, to spill over into paranoia. "You know why Tony can't be public?" Mrs. Johnson said. "Because I don't trust that kind of lifestyle - those people out there."
She made an exception this week, however, in allowing Leslie Dreyfous, an AP writer who profiled Tony in an article last month, to see him and speak to him on condition that she not describe where he lives. Dreyfous has spoken by phone to Tony many times, both before and after she wrote about him.
After her visit with Mrs. Johnson and Tony, who wore glasses on his swollen face and a Yankee cap on his head, Dreyfous said, "The voice is the same as the one I've spoken to over the weeks."
But did Tony write the book that carries his name?
This is more difficult to prove. But the adults who know him all say they are certain he was the author. Among other things, they say that Tony speaks in a voice that is remarkably similar to the one used in the book.
"He's an incredible boy with insights and abilities well beyond his years," screenwriter Darryl Poniscan said from Seattle, where he is working on a screenplay of Tony's book.
Newsweek, too, wrote about Tony's having abilities well beyond his years - one reason the magazine hypothesized that the book might have been written by the 47-year-old Monette, whose novels include "Halfway Home," and whose nonfiction work "Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story" won a National Book Award last year.
Monette, who wrote the introduction to "A Rock and a Hard Place," has at least one thing in common with Tony - both are seriously ill from AIDS. But beyond that, little in his background suggests that he might be a Tony impostor.
Newsweek buttresses its argument with assertions that include the claim that both Tony and Monette "know baseball and books."
"I loathe baseball," Monette fumed in an interview, "and `Halfway Home' is about a character who loathes baseball. I have never watched a baseball game in my life."
Tony himself, in a tearful telephone interview, said the Newsweek story had made him even more frightened and distrustful than he already was. He insisted that his need for privacy was reasonable.
"I didn't sell the rights to my life because I put my thoughts on paper," he said.
by CNB