The Boy Scouts of America hid hundreds of pedophiles and child molesters in its ranks, according to thousands of pages of files released to the public Thursday.

6 News spent the day combing though the so-called "perversion files" and found 10 local cases. There were three each in Blair and Cambria counties and one each in Centre, Indiana, Jefferson and Somerset counties.

Two cases in the city of Johnstown though, stood out.

Internal documents suggest former Cambria County judges worked to keep their connections to the Boy Scouts a secret. Two men, both former scout leaders, pleaded guilty to child sex abuse charges and were convicted in 1962, but their involvement with the Boy Scouts was kept from the media.

According to the documents, released Thursday, Robert Updyke and Harry Holtzman, both scoutmasters with Troop 186 in Johnstown, were forced to resign from their positions in 1962.

6 News obtained a newspaper article from the Tribune Democrat dated Aug. 7, 1962, the day both men pleaded guilty in Cambria County court to serious morals charges.

6 News reporter Maria Miller went to the courthouse Friday to do some digging and found those records. Both men were charged with sodomy. Updyke faced several counts. But the newspaper article never mentioned the men's involvement with the Boy Scouts.

Included in the released files was an internal memo from the director of the local BSA chapter informing the national council of the charges. But it said there would be no mention of scouting in the media because two of the three presiding judges were members of the local executive board and were able to keep it quiet.

Both of those judges are now deceased. As for Updyke and Holtzman, their names were added to the BDA Ineligible Volunteer Files so they could never be involved with the Boy Scouts again.

6 News reached out to the local chapter of the BSA Friday. They couldn't speak on the release of those files or any previous cases, but said they take safety very seriously and said the first thing scouts are taught when they join is how to protect themselves.

"Literally the first experience a scout and a new parent would have in our program is to learn about our strategies to protect children," said Michale Surbaugh of the BSA Laurel Highlands Chapter. "Also ways to have good conversation and communication with their kids on how to recognize, resist and report any child abuse."

Surbaugh said that all leaders are required to have a background screening before they begin and all volunteers must attend a youth protection training program that they're required to renew every two years.