The Men who Covered-up for Jerry Sandusky

By Victor Thorn

Why did so many individuals cover-up for serial pedophile Jerry Sandusky, including those within The Second Mile (TSM), the Pennsylvania State Attorney General’s office, and a leading official at Pennsylvania State University (PSU)? With recent revelations by Philadelphia school police officer Greg Bucceroni that a pedophile network operated out of TSM, consider these other factors:

• Although his name will not be provided at this point until further proof is obtained, evidence exists that an extremely high-ranking former TSM employee and his wife were involved in a “swingers club” operating out of a local State College, Pa. nightclub. This “swingers club” is an open secret among Happy Valley residents, with the meeting place in close proximity to TSM’s former headquarters.

• Speaking of swingers, former PSU President Graham Spanier once wrote an academic paper entitled Mate Swapping: Perceptions, Value Orientations, and Participation in a Midwestern Community. Its overview begins, “This article attempts to illuminate the understanding of swinging, or mate swapping, an increasingly common form of extramarital sexual activity. A theoretical formulation argues that swinging is a form of extramarital sexual activity which serves to define as good and acceptable a behavior that in other forms and in the past has been considered deviant or immoral.”

During his tenure at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), Spanier was described as a “long time friend and associate” of Ronald Roskens, the former chancellor and president of UNL. Roskens, in turn, served as a close advisor to a man named Lawrence King, who operated a massive pedophile network in Nebraska that came to be known as “The Franklin Scandal.”

Roskens received his termination notice after being photographed with young naked boys at his residence. Gary Caradori, a private investigator that delved into the Franklin Cover-up, wrote of the circumstances surrounding Rosken’s firing. “I was informed that Roskens was terminated by the state because of sexual activities reported to the Regents and verified by them. Roskens was reported to have had young men at his residence for sexual encounters.” [Sound familiar to Sandusky’s activities?]

On July 11, 1990, after obtaining pornographic-pedophile photographs that would have irreversibly exposed the Franklin Cover-Up, Caradori was murdered when his Piper aircraft exploded in mid-air, killing him and his eight-year-old son.

Of course, while serving as PSU President, two highly controversial events occurred on Spanier’s watch. In November 2000, one of these “happenings” was called CUNTFEST: a Declaration of Independence. To promote this brouhaha, huge banners with the words CUNTFEST were hoisted from campus buildings.

The second, held only months later in February, went by the name Sex Faire. Games at this gala included “Pin the Clitoris on the Vulva,” “Smut and other Great Literature,” plus “Orgasm Bingo.” In addition, a “Tent of Consent” allowed participants to engage in whatever type of consensual sexual activity they so desired.

When enraged legislators asked Spanier if he thought these two events were immoral, he responded, “It depends on what your definition of immoral is.”

Oddly enough, Spanier publicly pronounced that he sought to make PSU the most homosexual-friendly university in America. Moreover, while serving as Chancellor at the UNL, Spanier requested that all faculty post pink triangles on their office doors in order to show their support for gay and lesbian students.

Finally, it was none other than Spanier that granted pedophile Jerry Sandusky “emeritus” status at PSU, thus allowing Sandusky access to campus shower facilities, an office, parking pass, and a computer. Strangely, Sandusky was merely an assistant football coach. Why would Spanier, who had only been at PSU for three years up until that time, take it upon himself to personally grant such an esteemed title on this man?

Conversely, when a sports agent was caught buying a PSU football player $400 worth of clothing, Spanier banned the rep from campus. Spanier insisted, “[He] fooled around with the integrity of this university, and I won’t stand for that.”

Yet, Spanier bestowed emeritus status on Sandusky, who was none-too-subtly forced into “retirement” after his initial 1998 shower stall incident.

• Jerry Sandusky selected State College, Pa. attorney Joseph Amendola to represent him at his recent child sex abuse trial. This writer is by no means implying that Amendola had any involvement in a pedophile prostitution ring. However, Amendola did impregnate a 16-year-old girl that he represented as a client in 1996. This teenage girl gave birth to their child prior to turning 18.

• During his grand jury testimony, TSM CEO Jack Raykovitz confessed that PSU athletic director Tim Curley informed him about the 2001 “shower incident” that Mike McQueary witnessed. In a July 16, 2012 article, Dave Marcheskie of Harrisburg, Pa.’s WHTM stated, “The report states that Raykovitz spoke with Sandusky soon after the meeting with Curley. Sandusky admitted to Raykovitz that he ‘showered with boys, but nothing more’ according to the report. Still, TSM took no action.”

Even after Sandusky was observed in compromising situations on at least three separate occasions, Matt Moore and Michael Rubinkam of the Associated Press wrote on May 25, 2012, “Longtime CEO Jack Raykovitz came under fire for failing to inform the charity’s board about 2001 and 2008 abuse allegations against the retired coach. Infuriated board members told AP in December that had they been kept in the loop, they could have taken steps to better protect children a decade ago.”

Why did Jack Raykovitz remain silent for so long?

• At Sandusky’s sexual abuse trial, prosecutor Joe McGettigan told jurors during his opening statement, “The Second Mile, no matter what it’s reported purpose, was a victim factory for the defendant, an assembly line for adolescent children to be abused, sodomized, and anally raped.”

• This writer—who sat inside a Bellefonte, Pa. courtroom on the trial’s opening day—observed McGettigan relate a horrifying tale. Sandusky had lists with the names of TSM boys on them. Some of these kids had asterisks beside their names. After investigating this matter, it became clear to prosecutors that Sandusky had placed asterisks alongside the boys who didn’t have a father in the home. Are we to believe that not a single person, especially licensed child psychologist Jack Raykovitz, knew anything of this abuse for over a decade?

• On November 28, 2011, veteran journalist William Keisling extended the cover-up all the way to current Pa. Governor Tom Corbett.

“On Labor Day weekend, 1996, a state senator from York, Pa., Dan Delp, enjoys a weekend of drinking and sex with a 19-year-old girl supplied through contacts with the York County, Pa. district attorney’s office.

When the pedophile sex scandal becomes public, the case is quickly referred to Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett. Corbett and his close allies would time and again obstruct and cover up the sex ring—for more than fifteen years.

Jim Sneddon was the editor and publisher of the York Dispatch. Sneddon recounts how the attorney for the daily newspaper, Niles Benn, secretly hired a private detective to uncover the truth about the ‘VIP’ sex ring. But then Sneddon was fired, and the newspaper and its lawyer concealed the work of their private eye.

York Police Commissioner Herbert Grofcsik says even he was powerless to expose the courthouse sex ring. Yet the truth slowly emerged.

As well, AG Tom Corbett’s political agenda and modus operandi began to emerge.

A prominent figure would be sacrificed, but the VIP sex and prostitution ring would be concealed and protected for years. This was done not only to protect Corbett’s political allies, but also to protect Corbett’s own political fortunes and ambitions.”

Similarly, in 2011, another prominent figure—Joe Paterno—would become one of Tom Corbett’s sacrificial lambs to divert attention away from pedophiles lurking within TSM.

Keisling continued, “Over the coming years, at every turn, [Grofcsik] and others would say the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office, and Tom Corbett, stood in the way of stopping VIPs from having sex with children. Later, court officers would openly boast of enjoying sex with children, and praise Corbett for protecting their illicit activities.”

During a June 15, 2012 interview with this writer, Keisling emphatically stated, “Corbett was the obstacle. These are the worst sorts of people doing the worst sorts of things. These are not good people. Tom Corbett got money from TSM, plus he gave money to them. What does it say that Corbett’s attorney general’s office had the case for three years and did nothing about it? It’s systemic corruption. These people are morally bankrupt.”

In the end, it’s not surprising that Sandusky was permitted to run rampant as a serial pedophile for three decades, especially considering the high-concentration of individuals listed above—who were all located in one geographic locale—that did nothing whatsoever to stop him.

• Victim Claims Sandusky Connected to Pa. Pedophile Network
• PSU Cover-up…Connecting the Dots
• The Far-Reaching Implications of the PSU Child Abuse Scandal
• The Baffling Case of DA Ray Gricar
• Louis Freeh…The Cover-up Goes National

Victor Thorn is a hard-hitting researcher, journalist and author of over 50 books.