Publication Date February 25, 2025

James Renner is a journalist  and former reporter for the Cleveland Scene. Known for his work on the Maura Murray case (he wrote True Crime Addict: How I Lost Myself in the Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray). His thorough research and investigation has resulted in a boatload of work on that puzzling mysterious disappearance, which is available at the Special Collections Archive in the Kent State University Library. I have found his work to be thorough, well-written, and free from the gratuitous violence that occasionally creeps into the true crime genre…

So I perk up when I hear mention of Renner’s work. I confess I am a true crime fan, sometimes to an embarrassing degree. And the title of his latest, Scout Camp, hinted at possibly the telling of some event or incident involving young males…but holy crap, I was not prepared for THIS book. Far beyond an expose of AN event or incident, this searing and unblinking look at several aspects of Renner’s life experience is both shocking and unsettling (possibly more so as the grandmother to an amazing former Eagle Scout who was deeply involved in…who knows what). I realized that  this book definitely made me fairly certain that my uneasiness about my grandson’s Scouting experience had been spot on.

I am not a Scout hater, and for many of those involved there are many positive things about scouting, but things were so bad that BSA eventually declared bankruptcy as a result of the lawsuits brought against them. And it was massive: compared to the scandals involving the Catholic Church, with its 11,000 known cases of abuse, 82,000 suits have been filed against BSA. EIGHTY-TWO THOUSAND. Yikes. This is huge. 

Renner lays out his own story, including the abuse he suffered as a child from his stepmother and how he used Boy Scouts as a means of escaping his unsafe environment – only to learn that his choice of the Scouts was not any safer. Renner gives information about the Boy Scouts going back to the founding, up to and including the abuse scandals, including the racism and appropriation of Native American culture, particularly in the Scouts’ ceremonies.

As Renner grew into adulthood, he struggled with both addiction and depression, both stemming directly from the horrors he experienced as a boy.  But (possibly because I wanted so much for it to be so) there is also a look at the positive experiences and learning that occurred. It’s not for the squeamish, and is sometimes very painful to read, but it is an important topic and can only be covered well (IMO) by someone who truly  knows the facts firsthand. Four stars.