Friday July 18, 2008 at 23:38
Kennesaw magician charged with child molestation | ajc.com
While the new project I’m involved in is in the works, I have decided I’ll post the odd true crime item here.
Like the AJC story linked above, about “Magic Jeff,” the allegedly touchy magician from Kennesaw, GA. You can see him doing “Mindreading” in the video at the top of this post.
Jeffrey Alan Wasley, who calls himself “Magic Jeff” when he does his comedy/magician thing, was arrested in Kennesaw on Thursday and accused of approaching two little boys in a department store bathroom. Wasley allegedly watched one kid take a whizz and has also been accused of yanking down the boy’s athletic shorts. He may have taken photographs of the boys, including pics of the youngest kid (age 4) at the urinal.
This is an Archive.org link to Magic Jeff’s website: MagicJeff.com. Here’s how it appeared in 2004, when Wasley called himself “Mr. Jeff,” and his show was all about “magical birthdays and more!” Wasley also promised “over 30 minutes of pure excitement!”
The less said about any of that, the better. Especially the “pure excitement” part.
Wasley, of course, was involved at one time with the youth at a local church. Naturally, if you’re in a business that tends to bring you into contact with kids on a regular basis, what’s more logical than spending lots of time with kids when you’re not working, too? Seems to make sense for a man who loves both kids and balloon knots.
When the AJC tried to reach pastors at Calvary Jesus Church in Kennesaw about the arrest of their leader of childrens’ worship for kindergarten through 5th grade, they received no response. I imagine the clergy there at Calvary Jesus is just too busy praying the whole thing away.
Of course, “Magic Jeff” Wasley had a MySpace too:
http://www.myspace.com/wowmagicjeff.
That led to his YouTube account:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MagicJeff.
The YouTube account notes that “Magic Jeff” was once associated with Six Flags/American Adventures Theme Park. Wasley was no longer employed there by October, 2007, according to the AJC.
At one time, Wasley also ran a magic shop in Kennesaw — a business that likely had a younger-than-average, male clientele.
It is certainly true that Wasley may be innocent. This is a case where the report published in the Atlanta paper leaves room to think so — the witnesses/victims were young, and their accounts might be skewed, confused.
But if “Magic Jeff” is one day found guilty of the charges, I have to wonder — did he choose his career in part based on a need he couldn’t express, something he didn’t understand? Such psychology doesn’t apply to every career choice, of course; but often when a man (and in recent years, plenty of women) is arrested for molestation, he seems to have constructed a good deal of his life around pursuits that keep him in contact with children.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again — there really aren’t words to express just how rotten that particular pattern of behavior on the part of proven sexual predators truly is. I don’t like kids much outside my own children, but I still believe that there are men out there who genuinely just want to teach, mentor, even provide a father figure to kids, and that there’s nothing sick about it. But the sexual predators are ruining their lives as well, because it’s getting to the point where plenty of men will say they wouldn’t talk to a child in a mall who appeared stranded and upset for fear of being branded a perv.
And let’s put the blame where it belongs on that score — not on reactionary parents, not entirely on the media, but squarely on the shoulders of the perverts.
