Ken Tipton is a serial entrepreneur, author, composer, screenwriter, award-winning filmmaker, and Air Force veteran whose life has taken him from building unconventional businesses and producing films to confronting a childhood history he kept largely buried for decades.
His memoir, Lost Valley – Lost Innocence, tells the true story of Tipton and his best friend, Greg Connor, who were groomed and sexually exploited as boys through a network connected to their experiences in Scouting during the 1960s. Told with candor, emotional honesty, and unexpected humor, the book examines childhood abuse, institutional betrayal, friendship, survival, and the consequences that can follow victims long after the abuse itself has ended.
Tipton has spent much of his life creating—building businesses, developing film and television projects, writing screenplays, and telling stories drawn from extraordinary experiences. In his seventies, he turned that storytelling toward the most difficult subject of all: his own past.
Through Lost Valley – Lost Innocence, Tipton hopes not only to document what happened, but also to give voice to survivors who spent years or decades believing that silence was their only option.
He lives in California with his wife, Darlene, and continues to write and develop new creative projects.
Ken’s latest book is Lost Valley – Lost Innocence.
Visit his website at https://lostvalleybook.com/.
Connect with him on social media at:
╰┈➤ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LostValleyFilm
╰┈➤ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lostvalleybook
╰┈➤ BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/ken-tipton
╰┈➤ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lostvalleybook
╰┈➤Substack: https://lostvalleybook.substack.com/
Can you tell us a little about yourself? Are you a full-time author?
I’m a writer, producer, director, composer, and entrepreneur, as well as an Air Force veteran. I live in Southern California, and storytelling has been part of my life for many years through screenwriting and filmmaking. At 74, I’m still working on stories I want to tell.
My work spans writing, filmmaking, and other projects. These days, much of my attention goes to Lost Valley — Lost Innocence and helping it reach readers. Telling this story meant confronting experiences I had carried since childhood, and I hope doing so helps other survivors feel less alone.
Can you tell us about your latest book, Lost Valley — Lost Innocence?
Lost Valley — Lost Innocence is my memoir about what happened to my best friend, Greg Connor, and me as boys. From 1964 to 1967, we were child prostitutes in an international pedophile ring run through the Boy Scouts of America.
The emotional center of the book is our friendship. There is humor, affection, and adventure alongside the horror, because those experiences existed together in our lives. I wanted readers to understand the boys we were and how adults used our trust against us. I still believe in Scouting’s ideals; I later became a Den Leader and Scoutmaster myself. The betrayal came from adults who abused children and those who failed to protect them.
Can you pick out a passage in your book to share with us?
Yes. This passage from the prologue captures something that can be difficult to understand: how a child could feel attached to a place where he was being harmed.
“Lost Valley gave me some of the happiest memories of my childhood. It also became the place where love and manipulation blurred until I could no longer tell one from the other. That is one reason survivors stay silent for so long. Abuse does not always arrive wearing a monster’s face. Sometimes it arrives as attention. Sometimes it feels like rescue. Sometimes it is wrapped in praise, secrecy, adventure, and the promise that you are special. I did not understand that when I was a boy. I only understood that I was lonely and unloved. I understood that Greg was my best friend. I understood that camp felt bigger and safer than home. I understood that I wanted to belong. And because I wanted that so badly, I did not know how to recognize the danger when it found me.”
How can people benefit from reading Lost Valley — Lost Innocence?
For survivors, I hope the book offers recognition and some relief from the shame so many of us have carried. It took me a long time to understand that the responsibility belonged to the adults who hurt us. If another survivor sees something of their own experience in mine, I hope they feel less alone.
For parents and other readers, the story shows how grooming can hide inside attention, rewards, and trusted relationships. It can also help people understand why a child might remain silent. I want readers to listen more carefully when a child or an adult survivor tries to tell them something painful.
Thank you so much for this interview, Ken. What’s next for you?
Thank you for helping me share the story. I’m working on the audiobook and continuing to get the book in front of readers through interviews and outreach. I’m also working toward adapting Lost Valley — Lost Innocence as a minimum eight-episode limited streaming series, with enough time to do justice to the friendship at its center.
My priority is for the book to be read and discussed. If readers believe it has merit, an honest review or a recommendation to someone who needs it can help the story reach further.
Inside the Book
Two best friends. One hidden network. A childhood stolen under the cover of Scouting.
From 1964 to 1967, Kenny Tipton and Greg Connor were barely teenagers when men they had been taught to trust groomed and sexually exploited them through Boy Scout camps, trips, and activities.
What began at Lost Valley Boy Scout Camp outside St. Louis grew into an organized network that carried the boys through more than twenty states and into the hands of businessmen, law-enforcement officers, politicians, priests, educators, and other powerful men.
To survive, Kenny and Greg depended on each other. They made rules, kept secret records, negotiated with predators, and used intelligence, loyalty, and dark humor to hold on to some measure of control. As the danger escalated, they became caught in blackmail, betrayal, violence, and crimes that would haunt Kenny for decades.
Lost Valley – Lost Innocence is Ken Tipton’s firsthand account of stolen childhoods, institutional failure, buried secrets, and the lifelong consequences of survival.
But at its heart is something the men who exploited them could not take away: the friendship between two boys who protected one another when the adults around them would not.
Decades later, Ken finally breaks the silence.
Told with brutal honesty and unexpected humor, this is a survivor memoir about friendship, resilience, guilt, and the courage required to confront the past.
Some stories are difficult to believe because they are too horrifying to imagine.
This one happened.
Lost Valley – Lost Innocence is available at Amazon.
╰┈➤Book Details
🏕 Title: Lost Valley – Lost Innocence
🏕 Author: Ken Tipton
🏕 Genre: Memoir
🏕 Sub-genre: Sexual Assault/True Crime
🏕 Language:English
🏕 Pages: 365
🏕 Paperback ISBN: 979-8234067685
🏕 Publisher: TBRIS Media, Inc.
🏕 Publication Date: June 22, 2026
🏕 Price: Hardcover $27.99, Paperback $18.99, Kindle $7.99, FREE with Kindle Unlimited
