Case name: The Boy in The Box
Victim name: Anthony Saul Gibbons
Event type: Death, Child Abuse
Event date: 3 August 1993
Event place: Los Angeles, California, United States
Birth date: 19 Apr 1963
Birthplace: California
Gender: Male
Mother’s name: Buchanan
Long-Sought Box Boy's Dad Arrested Here
James Herbert Gibbons, 39, who had been sought by authorities for two years in the notorious “boy in the box” child abuse case, was arrested at about 9 a.m. today in Palm Springs. Gibbons, whose most recent employer was reported to be Haigazian College, Beruit, Lebanon, surrendered himself to deputy sheriffs at the Smoke Tree parking lot. His attorney had notified deputies prior to the arrest that Gibbons would give himself up. He was charged with willful charge abuse, a deputy said. Bail was set at $25,000 in Indio. Gibbons, the boy's mother, Beverly Gibbons, and 10 other persons were accused of imprisoning Anthony Saul Gibbons, age 6, in a wooden box in the open desert near Blythe for 56 days in the summer of 1968, as punishment for setting fire to a building at a commune at which the group was living. Mrs. Gibbons and six others of the accused were convicted; four on felony charges and three on misdemeanors, and three others were acquitted.
'Box Boy' Tells Tale From Witness Stand
INDIO (U P I) -Anthony Saul Gibbons, 6, sitting on a pillow on the witness stand so he could be seen, testified Wednesday he was burned with matches and imprisoned in a packing crate at a desert commune for starting a fire. The small boy was barely audible as he related the events that led to his being chained inside the sweltering box for 56 days during the summer on the farm-commune operated by a cult called Ordi Templar Orientalis. Eleven members of the commune, including the child’s mother, are on trial for felony child abuse. Anthony, now a ward of the court, said his fingers were burned with matches after he started the fire which destroyed a house and injured a group of goats June 20. He testinied he was placed in the packing crate with his legs chained and let oat only to do his “chores.” The boy was questioned repeatedly before he took the oath as defense attorney Keith Blazer attempted to establish if the boy knew what a lie was. The boy said he understood that he would be punished if he told a lie. After Anthony testified the prosecution rested its case.
