A Long Investigative Journey to Solve a Half Century Mystery in Historic Hannibal, MO.

I’ve spent years on the Hannibal missing boys story. It’s generated two books that have been embraced by readers. I experienced the drama in May 1967 as the race-against-time cave search unfolded in south Hannibal. In fact, it was this event that led me to become a television journalist and, later, a writer and author.
As a thirteen-year-old I watched, not fully able to fathom the tragedy in its full measure. Suddenly friends had vanished. The woods and hills that were our playgrounds suddenly turned ominous and foreboding.
This has been a difficult story given the dark and deadly facts. I want to thank some folks for helping along the way with expertise, insight and knowledge. FBI-trained Gina Bradshaw, Former LA Police Officer Steve Sederwall, Missouri Deputy State Geologist and expert caver Jerry Vineyard, now deceased. Dozens of cavers and speleohistorians were helpful and encouraging as I pursued the first book, Lost Boys of Hannibal.
My latest book, Souls Speak, brought three psychics into the investigative fold and they saw astonishing things, much of which was later confirmed by John Wayne Gacy’s confession on May 9, 1994, just hours before he was executed by lethal injection. And thanks to Shawn Jackson for stepping forward and revealing Gacy’s stunning deathbed confession, he heard.
We know the lost boys’ shared fate, and with that we can have a measure of closure on this decades-old mystery.
Many thanks to the readers for your support, encouragement and prayers.
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The Genesis of Souls Speak, an Astonishing Paranormal, True-Crime Bestseller

The genesis of Souls Speak…

On July 15, 2018, I called Lynnie, the oldest sister of the two missing Hoag boys. Her first words were, “John! Gacy killed them! They were his first kills!”

With that startling and chilling statement, the conversation launched me on a year-long odyssey that points to serial killer John Wayne Gacy as the man who abducted, tortured, and strangled three Hannibal boys, then buried them in a single hastily dug grave. The location, preserved with GPS coordinates, is only a few miles from where Joey and Billy Hoag, and their friend Edwin Dowell, were last seen on the early evening of May 10, 1967.

My latest book, Souls Speak: missing children reveal their serial killer from beyond is the product of the year-long probe, conducted with three experienced clairvoyants who peered across the boundary between this world and the heavenlies and connected with the etheric spiritual energy of the boys and Gacy himself.

The Hoag boys were friends of mine, and over these past five decades their families and many friends have grieved them.

Writing about the missing boys incident has brought its challenges. A relative of Edwin Dowell has sent threatening messages promising harm to me and my family. The relative, only a little boy when the three Hannibal boys went missing, is still engaging in juvenile behavior born of trauma. My team’s sole goal is to find the boys so they may be put to rest.

#soulsspeak #johnwingate #missingchildren #hannibal #serialkillers #johnwaynegacy #lostboysofhannibal

New “Killer Clown” Mystery. Troubling, Squared.

Gary Reagen, former WRAU-TV News Director

A former TV news colleague has written an inciteful review about my new book – Souls Speak – the most astonishing true story you will ever read.

Here’s former WRAU-TV News Director Gary Reagen’s review:

“I was a journalist working in TV news in the years when that monster, John Wayne Gacy, the so-called “Killer Clown”, was so often headline news. Many people in the justice system and elsewhere reportedly believed that Gacy was never held to account for all his crimes; there were so many unanswered questions.

When I read John Wingate’s first book, “Lost Boys of Hannibal”, I was fascinated by the heroic efforts of so many would-be rescuers but also troubled by the unanswered questions “Lost Boys” raised – including the possibility that they were victims of a criminal, not a cave in.

Wingate’s follow-up book, “Souls Speak,” is a chiller. It is troubling squared. Count me a skeptic when it comes to psychics and mediums. Count me a skeptic, too, of anyone who claims we know the full truth about Gacy’s full list of horrors. But after reading this book … well, best have an open mind about whether this is a long-cold case or whether it offers new and accessible evidence. Highly recommended.”

Latest Review for Souls Speak

“John Wingate is a potent storyteller. John’s strong journalistic ethic is the main asset to “Souls Speak”. It is a compelling mass murder story with unlikely heroes. The research is as solid as a rock and his prose makes it an all night read.” Jerry Giesler, KPAX-TV

Here’s an excerpt from Souls Speak!

“Eternity it seems does not start at death; we have been in eternity for our entire lives, this continuum of earthly life to death to eternal life into which we are born. The Bible speaks of us as merely a vapor. Indeed, life on earth, for those blessed with the gift of many decades, is but a nanosecond compared to the eternity of life beyond.


During her preternatural experiences, Mary has seen angels and guardian angels who specifically protect us and chilling demonic forces like Gacy seeking to destroy us. She has frequent contact with what she calls intelligent spirits, the immaterial energetic beings who can respond to questions, provide detailed information and physically move objects in our three-dimensional world. She believes that souls eternally located in Heaven are able to energetically connect with our world with the help of attentive mediums. In this place of higher energetic frequency, she says, a whole series of unique dramas can play out.


Sometimes, we can see only one side of these dramas from our limited worldly perspective, as the following example I relate to Mary dramatically illustrates. A family friend, Charles,now retired as a professor of biblical history, once related to me an incident his physician father experienced during his work in northern Minnesota.


Doc, now deceased, was a long-time country doctor and a devout Christian. Doc had a patient, Frank, an avowed dyed-in-the-wool atheist who rejected any belief in God. Frank refused to hear any Christian witnessing despite the doctor’s best efforts during the span of many years.


One winter when Frank grew gravely ill, Doc tended him and even sat overnight with the patient in his rural Minnesota home. This was in the 1940s when physicians made house calls and did such things.


The winter night was subzero and quiet until about 3:00 a.m. when Frank suddenly cried out, “Doc, Doc!” The doctor raced up the stairs and into the bedroom to find the sick man sitting bolt upright in bed, his eyes wide open in terror, as he lamented, “The fire, the flames, it’s so hot!”


And once the moment of high drama passed, Frank fell back onto the pillow dead. Doc had seen many miracles in his decades of medical practice, but this supernatural moment was the most soul-chilling ever, as he grieved for Frank’s soul….”



5-Star reviews for Souls Speak

I’m so grateful for the strong reviews coming in for my new book. It’s currently the #1 new release in Kindle’s ‘History of the Midwest” category. Here’s one of the latest reviews from Amazon and Goodreads:

“I can’t stop thinking about Souls Speak. This proved to be a uniquely compelling read that I just couldn’t put down! John Wingate’s loyalty to his childhood friends, Joel, Billy, and Craig, who disappeared in Hannibal, Missouri on May 10, 1967, is pretty straight forward and admirable. The most common belief has been that they had disappeared into the cave system and that’s probably where they still were, which is detailed in Wingate’s first book, The Lost Boys of Hannibal.

Then, along came these three psychics, who totally rocked his world with the news that John Wayne Gacy abducted and murdered the boys. That’s where the author’s faith struggle begins. As he journeys through the investigation unraveling the psychic mysteries behind the Hoag and Dowell boys’ disappearances, the author runs a parallel exploration of Christian principles in his personal search for a faith comfort zone in handling this new information. As with his first book, Wingate’s research is impeccable.

I adore Wingate’s writing style. He takes you with him as he travels through Hannibal separately with each of the three psychics. His descriptions bring pictures to mind, the sentences flow and are written conversationally, with intelligence — the vocabulary choices are masterful! He conveys tender compassion for the boys and their families, respect for the psychics, and disdain for Gacy and his evil. It’s such a pleasurable read — albeit a shocking addendum to his first book!

This excerpt from Chapter 10 really strikes a chord:

“Eternity it seems does not start at death; we have been in eternity for our entire lives, this continuum of earthly life to death to eternal life into which we are born. The Bible speaks of us as merely a vapor. Indeed, life on Earth, for those blessed with the gift of many decades, is but a nano second compared to the eternity of life beyond.”

This an amazing true story written by an extremely talented writer who brings every page to life for the reader. I highly recommend Souls Speak!”