For most of this week, the entire sporting news world has been consumed by the Jerry Sandusky sexual child abuse allegations. Not only the sporting news world, but the story has made national headlines as well. The story appalled me at first, and I admit I didn’t pay much attention to it. But today I heard some of the graphic details of what actually happened in that Penn State locker room and shower. I am now horrified after hearing what was described by more than one eyewitness. One eyewitness saw Sandusky in the shower with a 7 or 8 year old boy pinned up against the wall and he was performing oral sex on the boy. Another witness saw him having anal intercourse with a 10 or 11 year old boy. After hearing just these two examples via talk radio, I became downright angry!
So this creep is being indicted with 40 charges of sex crimes against boys because of the few times he got caught. What about all the times he didn’t get caught? It is frightening to imagine how long this went on and how many people were affected.
A rumor has already surfaced that Sandusky ‘Pimped Out Young Boys to Rich Donors.’ As if the original crime wasn’t horrifying enough, this would make it that much worse. Imagine, an underground child sex abuse ring disguised by a foundation that is supposedly set up to help ‘at risk’ children. Little do they know, they are ‘at risk’ by the founder.
Here is another very confusing twist to the story. A defense attorney named Ray Gricar was involved in a 1998 accusation against Jerry Sandusky, but never prosecuted him. He turned up missing in 2005 and his body has never been found! This is interesting because he was a guy that was known for being fiercely independent and hard on crime. Is it possible that he was bought off in 1998? If so, perhaps he later changed his mind after learning about developing allegations and was then killed. But who would have killed him? Maybe the “Rich Donors,” had him ‘taken care of’ in a mob-like fashion.
The timing of all of these allegations being made public is peculiar as well. Penn State’s storied football coach, Joe Paterno, just earned his record setting 409th win only the weekend before. The disgusting child abuse incidents happened almost a decade ago! Why does it come out the very week after Paterno gets this record? The whole thing stinks of a giant conspiracy.
Eyewitnesses reported what they saw, but never to the proper authorities. Everybody involved seemed to do only the minimum they were required in order to cover their own asses. Each reported what they knew, right up the chain of command, but law enforcement was never notified. Or were they? Perhaps even the police were bought off. As hard as that is to imagine, so was any of the rest of this story.
At this point, we don’t know who these rumored ‘Rich Donors,’ are, or if they even exist. If so, maybe they are so powerful and so intertwined within the entire system at Penn State that they actually have the means to accomplish all of these unthinkable allegations.
Think about how complicated and deep this investigation could get. Take each of these few stories that we know at this point and conspire about how they might tie together. Think about all the people who were affected in the past, but also who is going to be affected in the future because of all of this. Everybody is affected: the victims, the perpetrators, the families, the friends, the students, the athletes, the fans, the media and anybody else who is consumed by this story. To see how I feel about this story, see my conclusion on my blog @ RamblingFever.com
References:
Article by Sara Ganim, The Patriot News, Nov 4, 2011, via pennlive.com
Article by Tony Manfred, Nov 10, 2011, via businessinsider.com
Article by Teresa Masterson, Nov 10, 2011, via nbcphiladelphia.com
Article by The Associated Press, Oct 29, 2011, via newsday.com