NOTE: The following information is based on a letter sent to the Ohio Parole Board by Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins. We have modified certain information in order to protect the confidentiality of the victims.

The purpose of this letter is to oppose parole for John Whisonant. Whisonant stands convicted of four (4) counts of Rape, in violation of former O.R.C. 2907.02(A)(3), and one (1) count of Gross Sexual Imposition, in violation of O.R.C. 2907.05. Whisonant was tried by a Jury in 1985 and convicted of raping his own children: three girls and one boy ranging in age from five-years-old to nine-years-old. During the course of the investigation, these children together with a younger sibling, age four, recounted years of molestation including being directed to perform oral sex on Whisonant; vaginal intercourse; anal intercourse and digital penetration. At trial, the Prosecutor's Office, upon motion by Assistant Prosecutor W. Wyatt McKay, dropped the rape charge involving the four-year- old to spare her the ordeal of testifying. The children were examined medically and three (3) of the girls were found to have healing lacerations and/or tears of the introitus.

Following the trial, Judge Mitchell F. Shaker sentenced Whisonant to seven (7) to twenty-five (25) years on each of the four (4) Rape counts and two (2) years on the Gross Sexual Imposition count The sentences on three (3) of the Rape counts were ordered to be served consecutively to each other with the remaining two (2) counts ordered to be served concurrently for an aggregate sentence of twenty-one (21) to seventy-five (75) years.

There were two (2) co-defendants indicted with Whisonant. One pleaded guilty to two (2) counts of Gross Sexual Imposition. He was sentenced to an aggregate sentence of three (3) years' incarceration. The other pleaded guilty to one (1) count of Gross Sexual Imposition and was sentenced to two (2) years' incarceration.

Whisonant's children stood up against their own father in open court and testified against him. The court, after hearing their testimony and considering the Defendant's prior criminal record, stood up for the children and imposed a twenty-one (21) to seventy-five (75) years sentence. Whisonant has served only twenty-four (24) years of that sentence. In our opinion, it would be unconscionable to release this vicious pedophile that repeatedly raped his own flesh and blood children after he has served less than one-third of his sentence. A man who can rape his daughters, age nine, seven, six and four, and, at the same time, rape his five-year-old son could rape any child. There is only one solution to protect other children- keep him locked up until he dies.

In closing, if we might add, we have enclosed copies of two (2) letters written by Whisonant to his children and their foster parents where he admits guilt to the molestation of his children. In the pertinent part of the letter to the foster parents he states "I have done wrong to them all and I have been forgiven by God and I will accept all punishment that I will receive because he is watching over me .... " [emphasis added] If he accepts all punishment that means seventy-five years. If he is in God's hands and in the prison's care, then this textbook pedophile will not rape a child again.