The way they continued to communicate with him right up to almost the very end. The cheerfulness they still had in their voice after several years when they answered phone calls from him, "Hi B!", just odd.

However, I do believe it was an era where basically people were more trusting of others in general. There was very much of a "Well, he/she would never do something like that" towards anyone who seemed "normal" or "nice". Even the FBI guy, how he talked about the fact that they didn't even know what the word "pedophile" meant. It wasn't a term they used. Parents kept less tabs on their kids than they do now and were a lot less fearful that someone would do something bad to them. They just thought if they lived in a "nice" neighborhood and their kids were somewhere in the neighborhood, everything was good. All the neighbors seem to be nice people.

Scam artists tend to target older generations. Yes, some of that is due to just taking advantage of old age and the deterioration of the mind, but I believe some of that is the current population of the older generation. They didn't grow up as "on guard" and as cynical as the generations that came after them. They have a harder time believing that there are people in the world that can be so devious and untrustworthy.