Ex-Boeing Worker Will Plead Guilty To Making Sex Calls

A fired Boeing systems analyst is pleading guilty to tormenting strangers by telephone, forcing victims to perform sexual acts by threatening the lives of loved ones he claimed he’d abducted.

John Francis Ambrose, 46, of Puyallup, “has accepted complete responsibility,” his attorney, Jim Roe of Seattle, said Tuesday.

“He is a man tortured by himself. I think he’s also somewhat relieved it’s out in the open. … He’s clearly sick.”

Ambrose has agreed to plead guilty to three counts of first-degree extortion in the case, which involved scores of calls between 1992 and 1995 from telephones at Boeing, said spokesman Dan Donohoe in the King County prosecutor’s office. For administrative reasons, the plea likely will be entered after arraignment, scheduled for Dec. 19.

Ambrose faces a sentence of 22 to 29 months under state sentencing guidelines, Donohoe said, though prosecutors will consider Roe’s suggestion that he instead undergo counseling for sexual deviancy.

Seattle police received 40 complaints about the calls from 1992 through Sept. 10.

At his desk at Boeing, authorities found telephone directories with markings by entries that listed both spouses’ names.

He would call and identify himself as a police officer, claiming the loved one had been in an accident and then been abducted by the driver of the other car.

Finally, the victim would receive a call from the “kidnapper,” who would force the victims to perform sexual acts by threatening the life and safety of the “abducted” loved one. The acts ranged from demands that the victims undress and masturbate with fruit or vegetables, have sex with children or other relatives, or shower and shave all over and prepare to “service” the kidnapper and his associates.

Some victims simply hung up, but others performed the acts demanded.