Anthony Godby Johnson

Anthony Godby Johnson is the subject and supposed author of the 1993 memoir A Rock and a Hard Place: One Boy's Triumphant Story.

The book initially appeared as an autobiography, describing Johnson's survival of an abusive childhood at the hands of his parents and their friends, his adoption by a new family, and his subsequent contraction of HIV/AIDS.

[3] A Rock and a Hard Place claimed that Anthony's biological parents were arrested and tried for abusing him, and that his police officer father was killed in prison.

Also, in his book Anthony stated that his biological father was an ex-police officer in New York, and that he had been tried, convicted, and killed in prison.

[5] Paul Monette wrote a foreword for an edition of A Rock and a Hard Place, later defending the book's veracity.

The story was also adapted for a 2002 episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent entitled "Faith", with the child's sex being changed to female and the illness to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

In 2004, Zackheim was indicted for abusing child patients at a treatment center for troubled children in Indiana; his trial began in 2006 at the Marshall County courthouse.

Since the alleged death of Vicki Johnson, Anthony has seemingly vanished and has not been in contact with any of his previous supporters, lending credence to the assertion that he never existed.