This article contains content that is NSFW and of an indecent and inappropriate nature. We’re really sorry. We have hidden direct quotes behind spoiler tags that you’ll need to click on in order to read them.
This week, former Wheel of Fortune announcer Jim Thornton was fired from his role after being suspended from the show because an incident that happened on a plane in May went public. On this plane, according to TMZ, Thornton, dressed in a Wheel of Fortune staff jacket, visited a site called Lifeline, which according to its front page, is “a real-time support chat for people who are attracted to children.” Sequential screenshots appear to show that messages on the chat room screen’s text box were then posted into the chat room using the handle “NicholasB77,” and that handle had moderator-type abilities in this chat room.
According to TMZ, “The announcer claims he left the chatroom once he found out what it was, although from the timestamps it appears Thornton was in the room for at least 57 minutes.” A statement from Thornton’s attorney claims “my client never viewed, downloaded or consumed any child pornography whether on that commercial flight in May or at any other time”.
While doing a Google search for the screen name “NicholasB77”, a BuzzerBlog Discord member tipped us off to the below post, from a website called “boychat.org”, from a user also going by NicholasB77, promoting a podcast interview with someone named “Cowboy” on a radio station called “Wired PM.” It seems to have been facilitated by someone named “Dragonlover”.
You can see people complimenting his voice, saying “great radio voice” and another comparing NicholasB77’s voice to Casey Kasem.
On the radio station’s website, of which we’re posting an archive.ph link for posterity but by no means should you view it, a list of past archived audio exists. Dragonlover’s shows are archived, and there is only one show under Dragonlover’s section of the website with a date of August 23, 2024. We downloaded the whole podcast to review it. Even separated from the game show-linked controversy, what we found was shocking.
After Dragonlover’s introduction airs, the interview starts, and NicholasB77, who in this podcast self-identified as “Little Nicky”, introduces himself.
Oh, man. Can you smell that salt air? [waves crashing] Can you hear that ocean? How about that reggae music? Yeah, it’s me, Little Nicky at my beachfront condo, and it could only be one place, Jamaica!
BuzzerBlog cannot say for certain if that voice speaking is Jim Thornton, because we do not have any lawyers on retainer nor do we have any additional information about this podcast or who posted it. We are also not experts in forensic voice identification. We ran some of these clips through both Gemini and OpenAI watermark checkers, and both tools have indicated that there are no identifying watermarks, which implies that neither Gemini or OpenAI created these voice clips. We also ran some of these clips through ElevenLabs’ Audio Detector; ElevenLabs is one of the premiere AI voice generating platforms. ElevenLabs could not detect any watermarks generated by their software, and gives an “AI speech probability” score of 2.0% and states that “It’s very unlikely this audio was generated with ElevenLabs, or the audio was manipulated.” The clips were cut down from the originally downloaded MP3 of the radio show, and were not altered or manipulated in any way other than clipped from a larger source.
Skimming through the interview, there are some troubling things being said so casually between two self-admitted pedophiles. These clips are not easy to hear, and we recommend you do so under extreme caution and self-preservation. If you are sensitive to discussions of child abuse and pedophilia, please do not listen to these clips.
Every single boy lover has an interesting story to tell, just by virtue of the fact that, you know, we have this thing inside of us that is like, “Oh, surprise, you just won the lottery. I know you’re only, like, 7 years old but guess what? You can kinda probably tell you’re a little different from other little boys, right? Or other little girls.” But that’s what I’m all about, man. I want us to feel good about ourselves. We did not ask for this. I never want to encourage people to do anything illegal at all. I wanna find good ways that we can help each other to stay clean and just go out in the world and make yourself all that you can be, whatever that means for you. Enough preaching. Let’s get to talking! And there’s so much to talk about. You are a BL [presumably, boy lover], like me, and we’re gonna talk about your early [childhood].
Through this interview, “Little Nicky” interviews “Cowboy” about his traumatic sexual abuse at the hands of a priest and Boy Scout leaders, and their emotions and feelings toward being abused at a young age, and how their families dealt with finding out what happened. In this section, “Little Nicky” tries to explain to anyone listening that not all pedophiles are surreptitious:
I don’t know what lengths [“Cowboy”‘s abuser] went to hide it, but he must have been really good, you know. We boy lovers, you know, pedos, we’re good at, uh, you know, being friends with our family and everything. But it’s not always for an ulterior motive. I want people who are non-BLs listening right now to know this man is not who we are. Society wants to think all of us do this. We do not do this. So get that out of your heads. If you’re not a BL, you don’t understand exactly what I’m talking about but I wanna make it real clear. And I hope there are people who are non-BLs listening and they get a little insight from one of us what this was like.
As the interview continues, “Cowboy” admits that he spent a month in jail for possession of “twenty five hundred videos” of child pornography. “Little Nicky” then goes on a tirade, cautioning his audience to stay vigilant and careful.
You got to stay clean people! Stay away from CP. To me, this is war. And every time one of us gets arrested for whatever it is, and certainly every time we go to prison and get convicted, all that, the other side, they, they are so self righteous, like it could never be them, could never be their father or their brother or their son or their cousin or whatever. They don’t understand us and they don’t want to understand us. They don’t wanna know we exist. But we do, and that’s why we have to help each other because nobody’s gonna help us. So I’m so glad that we have Cowboy to share his story with us, talking about his childhood just a bit ago and how he was actually groomed and then yes, molested and raped by his priest. Later on, Cowboy had his own issues with the law, and we’re talking about that as well. And I hope you’re getting a lot of wisdom and insight from what he has to say to ya. Speaking of the generosity of sharing your story, you know, one thing I wish that we would hear more of in the BL community in general is what gets guys caught? We need to know this. Not so we can go out and break the law, but just so we cannot do it, not go to those websites and those, use those apps. I’m talking about places like Kik and Discord that I’ve heard of, and there are others, maybe websites, whatever.
Time and time again in this interview, “Little Nicky” gives a sympathetic voice to what he acts as misunderstood pedophiles. When discussing “Cowboy”‘s state-mandated therapy, “Cowboy” explains that his therapist relayed to him, “You can’t help who you love.” To which “Little Nicky” preaches another message to his fellow pedophiles:
From a woman therapist like that, uh, you know, that’s great. Uh, there should be more people like that. I mean, that said, I don’t think that anybody who’s not, um, a pedophile can really understand what it’s like to be us, so we didn’t ask for this. We, you know, didn’t put it on our plates, and we are given it whether we want it or not at the earliest possible age, like 3, 4, 5 years of age.
The conversation continues on, where “Little Nicky” and “Cowboy” discuss coping mechanisms to try to stay clean and not view child pornography, and that’s when this whole thing goes full circle. “Little Nicky” explains the support that pedophiles who are attempting to not commit crimes can get from Lifeline, the website that Wheel of Fortune announcer Jim Thornton was caught using in public via a Tor browser, according to screenshots acquired by TMZ.
I guess I’m kinda asking a rhetorical question, but [chuckling] how do you do that? How do you keep yourself from looking at any of it?
Cowboy: Well, for one part, I go on, um, Lifeline, and there we can talk and shoot the shit and, you know…
Anybody listening right now, go. Go to lifeline.chat. It’s a great place. You’re right, we shoot the shit a lot. Just kick things round. But we’re there also ostensibly to help other boy lovers and girl lovers and maybe friends of them. We don’t get too many of those, but people curious about it, I guess, anybody’s welcome. You know, we just chat right there on the computer screen, and it’s real basic, real simple. There are no fancy pictures unless we send a link or something like that, but it’s all legal and safe and, and very closely watched and moderated. And, um, people who are in need of some help because you don’t get it. There’s no therapy out there before you offend.
Again, per the screenshots acquired by TMZ, one of the moderators of the Lifeline chat room seems to be NicholasB77 himself, based on the fact that NicholasB77 was able to approve a news link another user sent into the chat room while WoF Announcer Jim Thornton had the chat room up on his computer screen. In addition, the below screenshot was taken from a different post on “boychat.org” in which NicholasB77 explains that the Lifeline chat is “now open”. It is unclear what the context of the body of the post means.
Later in the podcast’s conversation, “Little Nicky” asks “Cowboy” what his “AOA” is. Apparently, “AOA” is an acronym used in the pedophile community to mean “Age of Attraction”. “Cowboy” admits his AOA is between 8 and 14 years of age, and “Little Nicky” asks him to clarify if it’s “boys exclusively” before admitting that his AOA is far more inclusive. This clip is troubling to listen to, and I’ve only provided the transcript of what “Little Nicky” says at the end of the clip.
I’m like 4 to 14 but hey, you know what? As I get older I see some of these college age kids, I think, “He’s cute!” You know?
It’s evident that “Little Nicky” is working to change hearts and minds about pedophilia. He wants the world to know that being a pedophile isn’t something he chose, and wants other pedophiles to know that there are safe spaces online for these people to talk about their urges, their predilections, their fantasies, and their struggles. The tone of the interview dances between serious Public Service Announcement and playful, casual flippancy. Both “Cowboy” and “Little Nicky” acknowledge that abuse played a part in awakening “Cowboy”‘s pedophilia, but never seem to take a step further in discussing things like the inability for children to legally consent or the psychological damage that sexually abusing children takes on children who are still mentally developing. As far as I’ve been able to understand, “Little Nicky” does not detail any explicit details as to any abuse he experienced in youth, nor does “Little Nicky” admit to any illegal activities explicitly in the podcast.
TMZ has reported shortly after this article was initially published that Sony have fired Jim Thornton from his role on the show. Sony has started removing Jim Thornton appearances from syndicated reruns of Wheel of Fortune and are likely going to re-dub his voice lines with a different actor. Sony is still investigating the allegations stemming from the incident on the plane. There is no conclusive evidence that we can find that definitely identifies Jim Thornton as “Little Nicky” or NicholasB77.
