Ending The Nittany Nightmare: Penn State Pre-Game Plea, An Open Letter To President Rodney Erickson
An Open Letter to Penn State University President Rodney Erickson
With much respect -Do what I say, and do it today.
Hire the best Public Relations firm in the country for PSU’s needs. I am redacting that recommendation for the publication of this open letter, but it is included in my email to you. Don’t spend the time or manpower to run through the approved vendor lists and bid it out- not that kind of gig. The Board of Trustees can WebEx if necessary and this is the kind of emergency proxy was invented for.
Once retained, have the agency facilitate meetings through their agents with Bill Parcells and Bill Cowher immediately. Specify no leaks to the press until after they occur and by mutual agreement. Cowher may be the low hanging fruit on this one, he is returning to CBS next year.
If neither is interested in a head coach commitment of an 8-1 Big Ten team, follow their recommendations about who to contact next and ask them; beg if necessary, if they would be willing to consider a consulting gig for the recruitment process. Urban Myer is a fine coach and leader, but regardless of who PSU ultimately chooses, efforts to rebuild the PSU brand must start with a nationally recognizable face of a trusted and respected winner, like yesterday.
Champions attract champions and without that, it is like asking collegiate coaching candidates to walk into the lion’s den (pun intended) wearing a raw steak necklace. You will not even get one to tour Lasche, trust me on this.
This strategy would likely also include a public facing spokesperson effort, and worth every penny if that is all you can get a commitment for from either coach.
Pay them to sit in the lobby. Pay them to ride the elevator a few times, but get them on grounds. Pay them to have a motivational meeting with the team.
If you have some strong players they could attach to quickly and produce an “I remember when I was a young fig on the tree” memory synapses, it couldn’t hurt.
Instruct all team members never to roll the eyes should the phrase “When I was your age we played ball with pads made of glass and never wore cleats in the snow”; if they told me that I would believe it.
This is the kind of benchmarking that will revitalize wilting spirits of a young athlete, and the parents with the trembling hand over the eject button.
Half the free world is digging old milk cartons out of the recyclables to see if they recognize any kids they may have seen with Sandusky or on the sidelines of a game- they need a new visual association.
As you already know, if you are lucky enough to get this far, they will advise you to release every staffer from the interim athletic director to the water boys that were ever part of Paterno’s camp or rolled up his pants before the game. Do it.
This might be a good time to allow a try before they buy scenario if either are willing, as “guest coaches” to finish the season.
While I am at it, I might suggest a reality miniseries of the process- I know some folks from HBO familiar with the Hard Knocks of football, I would be glad to make a connection.
Donate those proceeds to Coach Parcells or Coach Cowher’s disadvantaged children’s charity of choice which is vetted in advance by a specially appointed member chosen by the new Ethics officer.
Point is, you need immediate public support and that will require immediate damage control or your Titanic does not even have the measly lifeboat option.
The public perception is that there is more to this horror movie after the commercial, and the commercials are disappearing as well.
Your job is to employ the resources that can change the channel when the public is not looking, and forget what they were watching in favor of the new programming, which includes sponsors aligned with that audience.
It is about as transparent of a plan as I can offer- with hope and promise to the innocent victims of this tragedy.
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SNAP!!!!! I would so love to have B ask those questions knowing full well he’d answer with a smarmy smirk on his face. Does the interviewing chair require self control or would we need to install restraints?
Dead serious.
By the way…guilty by association, imho. In my books, you protect these monsters, you’re a carbon copy.
“You’re Art Sandusky, a man who lives in a kid’s world,…”
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=so1iAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vXcNAAAAIBAJ&pg=2878,2830549&dq=art-sandusky&hl=en
Great questions to send in as suggestions to the producers of Oprah of Barbara Walters — whatever venue Jerry + Dottie end up choosing.
(I agree – hope he keeps flapping his trap b/c he’s cooking his own goose every time he opens his big fat mouth)
I continue to be amazed that both Sandusky and Amendola keep putting themselves out there on the record and have this arrogant ‘tude of “can’t touch me” when looking down the barrel at 400+ years prison sentence.
There just has to be more to this that hasn’t been uncovered yet to make them feel this cocky.
Scary to think of how deep this does really go.
I’m afraid this is going to get much uglier and more disgusting in the weeks/months ahead.
To Blink and all those who continue to dig deep in this case … lizzy, erose, ATG, beejay, Ragdoll (and so many other great Blinksters I hate to leave any names out) … BRAVO !!
You’re all amazing people – and your dedication to getting the WHOLE TRUTH out is truly admirable.
IF we see Jer’s face in another interview, remember what he said about himself in his book Touched: that he laughs when he gets nervous.
Let’s assume his atty is not swift enough to coach him to not laugh. Or that he tries, but to no avail. Those habits are hard to break.
I continue to fixate on the origin of Mr. Sandusky’s attraction- pedophilia is highly cyclical.
B
Blink – Did you ever find Jerry Sandusky’s birth certificate?
I abandoned it due to time constraints, but to date, no. If you or anyone else has done any genealogy research on these folks I am guessing you share my head scratch.
B
Not posting that until we can confirm or exclude, but yes, that is my thinking.
B
Hmmm. Can’t get something to post. Will break it down into separate posts; maybe find a link that’s preventing it.
IDK if Centre County has their own foster care home recruiter or if they only have privatized/contracted out services. Maybe somebody wants to research that? I tentatively think that “FICS” might operate only the Family Reunification program aspect, on referral. But I’m not sure. The private corp that runs that program also offers many other mental health programs, on referral again.
One of the people who recruits foster care families to place Centre County foster kids in is Jordan Joyce (29 yr old female).
Jordan Joyce per Linked In:
Foster Home Recruiter at Family Intervention Crisis Services
Demographic info
State College, Pennsylvania Area • Individual & Family Services
(forgive me; i had to “join” linked-in to read it; just unjoined this a.m. Anyone can find it that way)
____________
Now, here’s what Family Intervention Crisis Services has to do with it (yes, rose, my typo is clarified here, lol), per this link:
http://www.fics1988.com/
Family Intervention Crisis Service, private corp, operating in 3 PA counties, including Centre.
So far so good. Here’s part two:
At the link below is the Centre Cty county’s staff and some program info:
http://www.fics1988.com/Centre.html
snip:
“Referrals for the FICS Reunification Program are received from Children and Youth Services (CYS) or Juvenile Probation Office (JPO). The Reunification Program works primarily with families whose children have been placed in the care and custody of CYS/JPO.”
Continuing…(yawn)
There’s a good explanation of how those interagency referrals work; + various staff names. From a PSU intern at one of the Centre Cty programs, at this link:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&gbv=2&q=cache:AdzgUZrPD3wJ:http://www.personal.psu.edu/jmb851/blogs/la_200_–_business_and_the_liberal_arts/Centre County Youth Services Bureau_CALLEN.doc+children+and+youth+services+CYS+centre+county+pennsylvania&ct=clnk
The above link is to a paper Callen wrote about her internship with that program. Paper titled:
CCYSB – Reunification Program
Brooke Callen
February 19, 2010
Uh-oh. Just found what wouldn’t post. Hmmm.
That Family Reunification Program, plus many other mental health services, is run by private corp Wardell and Associates (doing business as Family Intervention Crisis Services). W&Assoc is registered with PA Sec of State; pretty old corp.
There are 3-4 principals now, but Patrick Wardell, the founder, is not running it anymore. He says he’s still on the Board. Has 2 residences, 1 in Hawaii (where he has a real estate license) and 1 in Port____, PA (can’t remember). He was/still is(?) professor emeritus (social work) at LockHaven University in PA.
I’ll paraphrase, for copyright reasons.
From 1974 – 1988: Says he was an Asst Professor of Social Work (I think that was the LockHaven gig). Also that he taught practice classes and directed and coordinated field instruction. And I think that was at Penn State, the Univ Pk campus.
Indulge me in putting the troublesome-to-post links, documenting this, in my next 1-2 posts. So I can get the info up here.
OK. Those links will not post. One is Patrick Wardell’s LinkedIn.
You might have to join LinkedIn to read it. So, is it ok then for me to quote from it? Blink can squelch if not ok:
“Wardell and Associates is doing business as Family Intervention Crisis Services in three counties in Pa. working with high risk families.”
@beejay, from your posts, you may well realize this, but I thought it might help to clarify for all that the CCYSB is NOT a Centre County government program, but an independent nonprofit. (see the fine print at the bottom of their web page) One of THEIR programs is the Reunification Program. So I wouldn’t really call referrals to that program “interagency.” And they employ the interns, but I wouldn’t call it a Centre County program, just a program located in Centre County.
http://www.ccysb.com/
On the other hand, foster care is handled by the Centre County government Office of Family and Youth Services. They directly employ the foster care recruiters and specialists.
http://www.co.centre.pa.us/511.asp
The CCYSB is in State College, and the county government offices are in Bellefonte.
Hope that is helpful.
P.S. CCYSB does refer to itself as an agency, as in their last annual report linked below, and other places in their publications. I guess I tend to think of the term “agency” as applied to government agencies, not other nonprofits.
http://www.ccysb.com/newsletters/annualreports/YSB_2010_AR.pdf
The report includes both the 2010 and 2011 board of directors. Over 100 paid staff and 500 volunteers “touched the lives” of more than 9000 individuals in 2010, according to the CEO’s letter. The letter also mentions 761 “open case files” further blurring the public/private distinction for me.
I figured he opened the door to that question.
Sandusky interview with Bob Costas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xy0L8MUsOE
Wardell and Associates is listed as a Private Provider in the Independent Living program for foster children (Blair and Centre counties):
http://www.ilp.pitt.edu/files/countyPage/ILP_PrivateProviderDirectory5_01_08.pdf
______________
“This federally funded program offers grants to Pennsylvania undergraduate students aging out of foster care who are attending an eligible postsecondary institution.”
link:
http://www.pheaa.org/funding-opportunities/other-educational-aid/chafee-program.shtml
I’m going insane here. OK, this is from a media kit developed for Centre County CYS. Word-search the doc for “Joyce” (Jordan Joyce, mentioned previously). There’s “FICS” which is the dba for Wardell and Associates’ family crisis intervention svc
snips:
“Centre County Children and Youth Services is a branch of the
County government. Its goal is to provide social services….”
“Jordan Joyce, Foster Home Recruiter for Centre County CYS
FICS
310 West Linn Street
Bellefonte, PA 16823
Phone: 814-355-3807 ext. 216
Fax: 814-353-3179″
link:
http://amberbosland.weebly.com/uploads/2/8/8/7/2887803/centre_county_cys_media_kit.pdf
______________
So, this doesn’t sound like the county making referrals. It sounds like a private corp providing the service/staff for the county thru a contractual arrangement. Yes?
Either Blink is holding a post from yesterday, because it’s too inflamatory! or, I forgot to hit ‘submit’(once again!). Putting some of it up again because it might clarify how states/counties get federal funding for increasing their number of foster kids. And, then the quasi-private groups rake in additional money for providing services for them.
Following are some snips from one public info. release, originally on her official letterhead, by a former GA State Senator.
From this link:
https://thehabershamo.wordpress.com/state-senator-nancy-schaefer/
snips:
-that the separation of families is growing as a business because local governments have grown accustomed to having taxpayer dollars to balance their ever-expanding budgets;
… Look who is being paid! There are state employees, lawyers, court investigators, court personnel, and judges. ..psychologists, and psychiatrists, counselors, caseworkers, therapists, foster parents, adoptive parents, and on and on. All are looking to the children in state custody to provide job security
• that The Adoption and the Safe Families Act, set in motion by President Bill Clinton, offered cash “bonuses” to the states for every child they adopted out of foster care…. Some counties are known to give a $4,000 bonus for each child adopted and an additional $2,000 for a “special needs” child.
• that there is double dipping. The funding continues as long as the child is out of the home. When a child in foster care is placed with a new family then “adoption bonus funds” are available. When a child is placed in a mental health facility and is on 16 drugs per day, like two children of a constituent of mine, more funds are involved….”
Unfortunately GA State Senator Nancy Schaefer and her husband were “murder-suicided” the weekend she was preparing some last-minute info for an upcoming release. She missed an important meeting in an adjacent state to do that work. You guys know I don’t go much for conspiracy theories or irrational raving. But no one who knows anything outside of the newspapers about her, or her work believes for one second that her husband used that out-of-state/untraceable handgun to shoot her in the back of the head and then shoot himself. The GBI’s short and sweet investigation was a joke.
I didn’t align with her politically, but she exposed and was working on more corruption of child protective services in GA. And people in other states have picked up on it and mourn her loss. CPS in GA routing kids into the foster care system; higher rates of sex abuse/physical abuse in foster homes than in families-or-origin. Looks like we have a problem—not just in GA.
Now I’ll be quiet.
Starting in 1969, they adopted E.J., Kara and Jon — all as infants. Then came Jeff, Ray and Matt — adopted at ages 8, 13 and 18, respectively.
Now, Kara has a little boy that the former coach can’t take his eyes off of.
http://www.collegian.psu.edu:8080/archive/2000/12/12-06-00tdc/12-06-00dsports-1.asp
This is my suggestion, FWIW, I would do a set of “Lombardi diagrams” of all the information to date. When these are done, the diagrams speak for themselves, and cannot be denied. You will see the relationships yourselves in a way that will shock even those know the bottom lines here. To make one of these, it’s art and a strict method, strict method and art. Create a timeline, establish entities on the timeline, and use arrows to show (and only show) money flows first. Then you do another one that shows the “child flows”. Then superimpose. Since there are so many facts to work with, start with placing each fact on a card as he did. PS I’ll warn ya ahead of time from personal exp. those who are trained to turn data points to litigation quality proof may want to think of extra life insurance.
beejay
Your link to the paper by Brooke Callen has some interesting statements about the types of abuse and how the children or young people relate to help in the various programs. One of the statements that stood out was the one about how young males are so reluctant to speak to anyone, even after some therapy, regarding sexual abuse. This would certainly explain reasons that those that JS abused did not speak out until the present.
The ADHD and alcohol problems are IMO related to poor diet and irregular eating habits in most cases. Many of the children are probably hypoglycemic (low blood sugar)and have problems with sugar levels. Alcohol and large amounts of pop drinks with large amounts of sugar and corn syrup are the likly culprits.
I appalude anyone who takes this type of work. It is emotionally hard.
Children who are abused or witness abuse, are subject to becoming an abuser themselves unless given the proper help.
I tried to get at the birth certificate of JS and his father Art. Have not been successful yet. Still trying.
Apparently Sandusky is an Americanization of a Polish sir name Sendecki. JS grandparents on the paternal side came to the USA from Poland probably during the large wave of Polish immigrants during the period of 1890 to 1915. They located to East Vandergrift, Penn..
Jerry, Gerald Arthur Sandusky was born in Washington, Pennsylvania on January 26, 1944. The only child of Evelyn Mae (Evie) and Arthur Sandusky. Arthur Sandusky was an athlete and played professional baseball for a St. Louis Cardinal farm club in Pennsylvania. He also played semipro ball for various teams in the area. This is probably how Art relocated to Washington.
Prior to WWII and immediately following there were hundreds of professional and semiprofessional baseball teams across the country. I can remember when the baseball standings would take up two pages in the newspaper.
Art and Evie were involved in boys sports activities at the Brownson House,in Washington, for over 30 years. Could this be the connection that tilted Jerry towards pedophelia?
It is reported by an article in the NYT that Jerry was very shy around girls and found his wife, Dottie Gross at a picnic in Washington. Was he shy around girls because he preferred boys? Maybe someday we will get the answer to that.
Well hot damn ATG-
I would only add that I DID find Art’s birth certificate, and that of his siblings. His Dad and Uncle were WWII veterans- enlisted men.
His mothers maiden name is Lee, she had 6 brothers. Blink biscuits for anyone that could connect her and the Lee family to the other Boals Lee’s- I could not after extensive research.
Although admittedly, I am not the genealogy guru of the team, lol.
B
Although CYS states they had little to do with TSM, TSM Professional of the Month articles say otherwise. There are other “partners” who are probably good people, having nightmares right now about the kids they sent Sandusky’s way.
—————————————————————-
Agencies around the state that work with disadvantaged children reported having little or no interaction with The Second Mile.
Officials of children and youth services agencies in nine counties where The Second Mile said it was most active told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette they did not contract with the organization and had little or nothing to do with it.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11331/1192859-143.stm#ixzz1i15VNqHG
——————————————————————-
Second Mile Professional Partners of the Month
Lisa Bednarchik works as a Caseworker in the placement unit for Centre County Children and Youth Services.
http://www.thesecondmile.org/news/ProfPartner/2009/February.php
“Karla is a wonderful partner to The Second Mile and a very important part of our work in Berks County. Not only is she our partner at Berks County Children and Youth Services, but she is also an active part of our Berks County Chapter of volunteers. At events, she comes early, stays late, and always has a smile on.”
Karla Sanders currently serves as a Placement Supervisor at Berks County Children and Youth Services (CYS).
Melissa Mogle, Program Director, The Second Mile
http://www.thesecondmile.org/news/ProfPartner/2009/May.php
As hard as Joan works for youth, she takes pleasure keeping after her three adopted Korean babies, now teenagers, and in gardening, entertaining friends, working with high school bands (her husband is a school superintendent), and spending time with their golden retriever.
The fact that Joan does so much under The Second Mile umbrella is especially remarkable when one considers her other “outside commitments.” She also works with the American Red Cross, American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, St. Isaac Jogues Roman Catholic Church (Family Life Committee),
Chester County Department of CYS (Children, Youth and Families)
Advisory Board, and Valley Forge Elementary/Middle Schools Partnership with Valley Forge National Historical Park (Chair).
http://www.thesecondmile.org/news/ProfPartner/2009/August.php
Jessica Moon and Deborah Hamilton are currently employed through Dickinson Mental Health Center in Potter County–
http://www.thesecondmile.org/news/ProfPartner/2009/March.php
Kate McGrail-Peasley is an elementary school counselor with the Bald Eagle Area School District (Centre County),
http://www.thesecondmile.org/news/ProfPartner/2009/April.php
Matt Ishler decided to leave his career as an accountant to enter the world of Career Development because he wanted to work more closely with young individuals. He has been part of Penn State’s Bank of America Career Services Center for nine years.
Dr. Jennifer Ishler teaches at Penn State University. She began her teaching career in the College of Education and transitioned into a position in the College of Health and Human Development focusing on Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS).
http://www.thesecondmile.org/news/profPartner.php
Mr. Aboud’s primary responsibility is to serve as the high school’s Community Service Coordinator,
http://www.thesecondmile.org/news/ProfPartner/2009/January.php
Linda Thompson works assiduously to serve children, families, and colleagues at Peters Elementary School in the Northern Lehigh School District, where she has served as a school counselor since 1990. Prior to her work at Peters, Mrs. Thompson taught elementary school and also worked as a family counselor
http://www.thesecondmile.org/news/ProfPartner/2008/February.php
Jean Runge, a guidance counselor at Lewistown Middle School, has been selected as “Professional Partner of the Month” by The Second Mile.
http://www.mcsdk12.org/honors/0708/oct_07/default.htm
Miss PA ’06 camp counselor (page 5)
$50,000 camp donation list (page 6)
http://www.thesecondmile.org/pdf/MilestonesFall06.pdf
Blink, I failed to link up the Lees in Boalsburg with her, too. But it seems like such a natural.
Is everyone remembering that in the 1940s people often raised other people’s children in informal arrangements? Can I say that much Blink? If not, just don’t post this.
Very common, especially in large families. I have not been able to support my theory on the issue, so I want to be clear that a lack of birth cert is not “evidence” of anything.
B
Interesting info ATG. My grandfather would be about the same age as Art and also played in those pro/semi-pro baseball leagues, probably around the same time frame. He was from Indiana but played mainly in the South – pitched for the Clarksdale (MS) Red Sox in the Cotton States League, the Montgomery Rebels on the Southeastern League and both the Hopkinsville Hoppers and the Bowling Green Barons from the Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League (all from 1939-1941). Oddly enough, his last name is Lee – but no relation to the Lees referenced by Blink I am sure. Your post just sent me on a trip down memory lane!! And you are right – baseball was huge at that time. Art probably would have been something of a celebrity in his hometown. Thanks to you and everyone here who are ferreting out this information about Sandusky – and let’s hope that 2012 finally brings the truth to light and justice for the victims!
What about girl victims? Not Jer, but through The Second Mile. I’m looking for blackmail possibilities, with “payments” made by furnishing a child of gender-preference different from Jer’s “alleged” preference.
“…I began my tenure with the organization
as a volunteer. In 1983, The Second Mile had
two programs and neither served girls, so Board
Member and fellow school counselor John
Sheridan asked if I would recruit female College
Friends and talk with area counselors about the
availability of the Friend Program for female
students. Soon, The Second Mile Friend Program
was mentoring girls as well as boys….”
link:
http://www.thesecondmile.org/pdf/MilestonesFall09.pdf
_________
So, girls have been served by the program since mid-80s or so.
We don’t generally post innocent names here. But there are names of folks who, acc to Jer in his book, he has had contact with. (Open an acct at amazon, sign in, and you can word-search or browse much of his book.)
Also, schools, athletic programs, etc., where there’s a possible blackmailer. Looking back historically–not just now. IDK exactly why, but I’m just stuck on this possibility.
______________
@lizzy: TY for trying to clarify the foster care system for me. Still not sure I get it. I’ll go read your annual report link.
Beejay – my grandfather (baseball player I referenced above) was from a large family and grew up in just such an informal arrangement. His biological family could not afford to feed all of their children (I believe there were 6) so they found other arrangements for the boys and kept their only daughter. This would have been in the late 20′s, early 30′s. Hard times called for hard choices, but my grandfather never complained. He was one of the finest people one could ever hope to meet. I’ve often wondered about his siblings and what became of them. It really was a different era!
If anyone’s interested in knowing who was Jer’s roommate (sharing hotel rooms, I guess) on trips for many years, it’s all in his own words; page 114 of Touched. Plus, many more names for your personal research purposes. I can’t recommend it enough. Assuming it’s close to the truth.
link:
http://www.amazon.com/Touched-Jerry-Sandusky-Story/dp/1582613575#reader_1582613575
You might have to create/use your amazon acct rather than go directly in thru my link.
This is interesting reading. An FBI profiler, who was a whistleblower (caught a fellow agent inappropriately touching a boy at an FBI firing range) and caught non-FBIers (mostly) up to nasty stuff with kids. She talks about her own experience and makes comments about how she sees McQueary’s reaction the day of the shower assault, and later.
Oh, and here’s what happened when she reported FBI agents:
“In Turner’s case, when her superiors disregarded her claims about her colleagues, she took them higher and higher up the FBI ladder, all the way to then-director Louis Freeh.
…Turner was fired from the FBI in 2003 and four years later won a $1.4 million settlement against the bureau that included back pay and her lawyer’s fees.”
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&gbv=2&gs_sm=c&gs_upl=868l7070l0l10225l24l23l0l4l4l0l203l2490l7.11.1l19l0&q=cache:DfwHcuSSbCEJ:http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/7237700/in-penn-state-child-sexual-abuse-scandal-there-no-easy-answers-assistant-mike-mcqueary+kerry+collins+penn+state+scandal&ct=clnk
_____________
Freeh, uh, isn’t he the guy that’s going to get to the bottom of al this? Yeah, I thought so.
@ A Texas Grandfather says:
December 29, 2011 at 10:17 pm
Your mind is awesome!
I’m smacking myself upside the forehead for not thinking of it myself. Polish, Romanian, (etc etc) last names tend to have variations on spelling.
I’ve been researching my grandfather for the past 10 years. His name was John (in Canada). It never occured to me to consider looking for a ‘Johann’, which he went by while growing up in Romania. I also didn’t know that in countries like Poland and Romania (for example) there are different variations on spelling (depends on lineage and which counties/villages the families lived. Sometimes, different spelling was a form of distinguishing one line from another). If you don’t know the languages, it’s terribly difficult to look up these variations. If you want to know variations of JS’s last name, a good start would be to contact some Polish registries. My research took me to Romania where a wealth of info became available. I just didn’t know how to expose it.
I hope this helps a little. Thank you ATG for bringing up the connection! Learning about his family and family lineage could help us see why it came to this. I’m still trying to determine why my g/f told his family he was Polish, not Romanian. They are very oppressed countries and ‘running’ wasn’t uncommon when my g/f came to Canada in the late 20′s. From the previous posts, I see similarities wrt the way my father was raised. They were dirt poor but fortunately, never broken up. However, my g/f was violently abusive. I wanted to know more about his upbringing to understand why he was the was he was.
JS may have grew up in such an environment too.
I hope this helps with your research ATG. I’d be more than happy to dig, too.
@TallyHo: I know. Even growing up in the 50s it wasn’t that unusual.
If I’ve got this right, Jer’s uncle on his mother’s side (her brother) was born less than 7 years before Jer was. So, it wasn’t that uncommon for grandmothers and their daughters to be raising small children at the same time.
“Kenneth E. LEE, 66, of Prosperity, died unexpectedly Monday, November 1, 2004, in the Canonsburg General Hospital emergency department.
He was born November 24, 1937, in Washington, a son of Earl Ray and Blanche A. ESPEY LEE.
Mr. LEE was a graduate of Trinity High School Class of 1957
Also surviving are…a sister, Evelyn Lee SANDUSKY of State College…”
http://www.pa-roots.org/data/read.php?820,374826
Let’s see…Evelyn was born in a small coal-mining town, but by the time her last brother, Kenneth, was born, their parents had moved to Washington PA. In Touched, Jer said Grammie (Evelyn’s mom) raised 7 children in a house with a dirt basement and an outhouse; she had a hard life.
BTW, rumor has it that there’s a history of inappropriately close relationships among the faculty and students at Trinity High School, in Washington PA. FWIW
2005 obit for Sandusky’s maternal (Lee) uncle.
Kenneth E Lee
He was born November 24, 1937, in Washington, a son of Earl Ray and Blanche A. ESPEY LEE.
Also surviving are three sons, Kenneth A. LEE of Atlanta, Keith E. LEE of Burlington, Wis., and Kevin E. LEE of Washington; two daughters, Katrina L. LEE of Claysville and Kimberly A. LEE, residing at home;
a sister, Evelyn Lee SANDUSKY of State College;
10 grandchildren, Joseph and Jessica GREGG, Nicole LEE, Lauren LEE and Keith E. LEE Jr., Cherish, Danielle and Selina LEE and Cassie and Brian LEE.
Deceased are five brothers, Rodney L., Elmer E., Wendell W., Alvin W. and Robert E. LEE.
http://www.pa-roots.org/data/read.php?820,374826
Ragdoll
Your grandfather probably did not reveal his Romanian heritage because of the Romanian “Gipsys”. These were people who traveled in small bands both in Europe and the USA. Their reputation was not good. They would beg door to door to “case” properties and then watch when the owners were not home and steal anything that was not attached to the buildings.
I can remember a band of gypsies locating near our home on a tract of land in 1939. My little grandmother was living with us at the time. She made us aware of their propensity for theft and alerted everyone around to keep anything of value out of sight until they were made to move.
It was quite common for Eastern and Western European families to shorten or change the spelling of the last name when they came to America. As you point out, the original spelling often represented the differences of various levels of society in which they lived in Europe.
While doing some research on the orgins of brass musical instruments and their designers and makers, I came across the background for Vincent Bach. He was a virtuoso trumpet player who was also an engineer. His place of birth was Austria. The family name was Slattenbach. He immigrated to America during WWI. When he began to make instruments, he applied to the courts in NYC to change his name to Bach. This was somewhat of a marketing move to gain recognition with the name of the famous German musical family of Bach.
Ragdoll- don’t feel bad, lol, I daresay most of our heritages contain a gypsy family of sorts, I know mine did from the stories I used to eavesdrop
B
Tally-ho
Yes I remember the Cotton States league. It was just one of the class B professional leagues found in the newspapers. The leagues were the Major leagues of National and American. These were followed by AAA leagues, then AA, A and on down to the class D leagues that were the beginner leagues.
I was taught the proper way to throw and field a baseball by none other than Travis Jackson who played for the New York Giants in the late 1920′s and early thirtys. He was managing a class D team from Southern Arkansas at the time.
beejay
Your comment about families taking in children of others during the first half of the 20th century is so true. There were no government programs in that time. If a family got in “dire straits” the other families in the area usually helped in making certain that children had clothing,food and shelter. The church was important in this area as well.
Your post about Trinity High School is concerning. Although you state that it is at this point a rumor, there is the possibility of it being factual. If it was never investigated, it could be that those involved managed to keep it under cover.
@ beejay says:
December 30, 2011 at 5:52 pm
Very true. My father’s uncle was 7 month’s older than himself. I also remember some of my grandmother’s younger sisters living with her and my grandfather while she raised her own children.
The back and forth thing may have been common but it certainly made it more possible for children and teens to be exposed to different types of abuse. No doubt JS was abused or exposed on some level.
Well, I don’t know at this point what a Blink biscuit is like. I am a biscuit lover. Used to help my grandmother make them from scratch when I was a littel guy. She used buttermilk to make them. They would melt in your mouth.
We probably need some additional software tools to do the linkage to the various families. My youngest daughter is the genealogy guru of our family. Her husband bought her special software to help in the research. I got her started by giving her copies of handwritten family history that her great,great grandmother had written on a Big Chief tablet in 1884.
There were few birth records in rural areas of the country during the first part of the 20th century. The census is most likly one of the sources. The family bible was the place many families kept birth and death records. Most large family bibles had a center section that divided the old and new testiments where family births and deaths were recorded.
There was quite a bit of genealogy kept by women only as transmitted verbally. I used to listen to my mother and her adult family members discuss things. This was always very confusing because they often used nicknames instead of the real names.
I’m still trying for the Blink biscuit. LOL
lol, I do not think they are related, or at least I could not “get there”. The Boals Lee family tree is pretty available, as is the Evelyn Lee Sandusky.
Jerry bears a striking resemblance to Art, or I would be of the opinion that his bio parentage was in question based on my findings. That is not the only discrepancy in birth records for the family, either.
However, as you know, my Poppa and my Great Uncle (his brother) were both WWII vets.
I came to learn about 10 years ago that his and his brothers names are transposed in many of his military records.
When we are dealing with scans, or a persons data entry when trying to read someone else’s handwriting, there are going to be numerous errors. Very common, the older the record.
As an example, Sandusky’s Dad’s birth name is spelled incorrectly on the 1920 census, I caught it from a poster that submitted a note, lol.
There are excellent resources for genealogy study, if compared to verifiable contemporary sources, like SS#, and other proprietary databases for investigative research purposes.
Last year, I found my great grandfather’s orchestra ad, and an image of an advertisement for where they were playing. Needless to say it thrilled my Mother, and we learned to constantly update the research as it gets added to all the time.
B
B
The “goal” here is to see if Earl Ray Lee (maternal grandfather of Sandusky) is related to Christopher Lee.
Blair Lee III
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_family
Blair Lee died in 1985, and their son Pierre B. Lee died in 1973. Survivors include seven children, Blair Lee IV of Silver Spring, Joseph W. Lee of Old Fields, W.Va, Christopher G. Lee of Boalsburg, Pa., Erica B. Lee of Corvallis, Mont., Philip L. Lee of Potomac, John F. Lee of Brookeville and Jenny Sataloff of Baltimore; a sister; 19 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/mimi-lee-wife-of-former-maryland-governor-blair-lee-iii-dies-at-91/2011/08/11/gIQAuzlU9I_story.html
I meant that as a question.
The “goal” here is to see if Earl Ray Lee (maternal grandfather of Sandusky) is related to Christopher Lee?
@Ragdoll: Go to amazon and read Jer’s book; huge portions of it are there, including what he was told about the Sandusky name. It corroborates what ATG said.
____________
A panoply of psychopathology. I awoke with that phrase in my head today. Had been reading more of Jer’s book last night.
Considering the source, of course, Jer described his dad as a prankster in his adult years. One prank was Art and his buddies rigged a low clothesline across a field area, called the town police and sent them running across that space. Police were tripped by the clothesline and sent flying. Got mad, but they all made up later.
That’s the upstanding citizen, excellent role model dad who raised Jer.
I don’t want to understand Jer. I want the luxury of just hating him, but old habits die hard. Just a little behavioral quirk of his that sticks with me is his participation in what we called “AV”, the students who ran the film projectors, etc, for teachers. There was even an “AV Club” at our schools.
No offense to any AV folks here, but these kids were looked upon as nerd losers. No football player would be caught dead in AV. So why Jer? Maybe just an energetic guy who wanted out of sitting still in study hall for one class period (well, other energetic football players managed).
Why else? To be free to roam around the halls with other AVers, maybe cutting up or playing pranks? And suffer the stigma of hanging out with the AVers?
A special interest in film? A close friend in AV?
IDK. Just another oddity that sticks with me about this teenager variously remembered by fellow students as handsome and popular, and a studious loner.
_________________
BTW, the rumor about Trinity High School came up when I started looking into nearby pony league athletics. Jer had said after he finally backed off on his Second Mile activities, that yes, he was thinking of getting involved with pony league sports. (IIRC, this was in an interview around the time of TSM finally telling him to stay away from the kids).
There’s some old history about a traditional Trinity HS-Washington HS annual football game, pony league, and how supposedly on-again-off-again Trinity coach/AD Ed Dalton removed that profit-making game from the Brownson House. Not that that has anything to do with Jer’s charges. Just reading for history and context.
While I understand the sentiment, I want to know every morsel about Sandusky et al.
And I intend to.
From a 30,000 ft perspective there are two very paramount issues that need exploration to provide education to stop this from happening again.
1. Origin of Sandusky’s pedophilia (environment stimulus, cycle, prior abuse patterns)
2. Co-conspirators and enablers.
This occurs over a 30 year period without any effective intervention, and is supplied by a multi-million dollar charity, at a time money and power covered up thousands of these crimes across the country.
If we do not take the time to analyze this with laser implements, this happens again and again and again.
If anyone remembers nothing else I ever said, lol, pedophiles will never stop offending outside of death, castration or incarceration. That means there are hundreds of victims, likely to create other victims.
In no way trying to be glib, but I think convicted pedos should also be legally barred from any scripts for ED. Are there other ways to get it? Of course, but then do we need to develop blood tests to include in probation and parole?
B
I’m confused. Is this a new accusation, or just more details on one we already know about? There are interesting details. Civil suit only; no criminal complaint filed it says, yet Atty Gen is investigating.
If true, it’s disgusting. Giving his alledged victim memorabilia after he rapes him.
Per the boy’s lawyer: “Schmidt said Sandusky gave the boy a football championship commemorative bottle and a hockey puck, and that both items have recently been turned over to police.”
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/30/teen-accuses-ex-penn-state-coach-sandusky-raping-him-on-campus/
@erose: This is per Blink:
I would only add that I DID find Art’s birth certificate, and that of his siblings. His Dad and Uncle were WWII veterans- enlisted men.
His mothers maiden name is Lee, she had 6 brothers. Blink biscuits for anyone that could connect her and the Lee family to the other Boals Lee’s- I could not after extensive research.
Although admittedly, I am not the genealogy guru of the team, lol.
B
The second of Blanche A Espey Lee’s children to die (in 1985) was Rodney L Lee, Sr. Born in Jacobs Creek in 1915. Jacobs Creek (Westmoreland county) is where Jer said his maternal grandparents were married. Later they moved to Washington PA.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2519&dat=19851029&id=0bFdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mF0NAAAAIBAJ&pg=1076,4136129
Here’s a starting point for anyone who’s working for Blink biscuits. And wants to work starting with the father of Christopher Lee (Chris, current CEO of Boalsburg Museum & convicted pedophile who got that alternative sentence in lieu of prison).
http://www.nndb.com/people/632/000168128/
Tangential comment: i love children, but don’t know how these women survived a child every year or so. And Chris’ mom, Mimi, topped it off with twins! Eight children in 12 years. (boy, that chemistry degree from Bryn Mawr helped, didn’t it? i know, another era. Or ERA.) And had to survive the suicide of one child. Jeez. And outlived her husband.
Beejay,
I believe this is more information about the boy who was given alcohol in the office–a lot more information; so much that I am sick. The boy is still within statute to make a criminal complaint, so I’m not sure why he’s going for the civil suit first. Anyone?
Sweetie P.I., if you can do a Lombardi drawing for this case, it would be amazing. I think very few are that skilled or have software for same. tia.
Blink, I applaud your idea for denial of ED meds for sex offenders.
They’ll just have to be more creative in their heinous crimes and less likely to be spontaneous about them.
As Blink advocates, we need to take very seriously our responsibility for mandatory reporting. No, not to a police officer’s hat or dog: to the police department itself, as well as to the local district attorney. And yes, follow up.
FWIW, I believe Jer was molested during his years at Brownson House. All signs of his desire to be with children point to a rupture in his normal emotional, spiritual, social, sexual maturity.
More on this later.
Wishing all Blinkers a truly *New* Year.
WG
@ A Texas Grandfather says:
December 30, 2011 at 7:33 pm
@ ATG and Blink….
I always thought it would be ‘interesting’ to have a Roma heritage. I was able to rule that possibility out. They lived in a small village which still exists today, just different spelling. I ‘think’ it had more to do with serving the Russian Army and abandoning his post, so to speak. I think his motives were fear based and to protect his family. All I can say is that he refused to talk about his family. You just didn’t go ‘there’. Further, I didn’t want to stray off topic and abuse my posting privileges with my family history and background. It was more of an attempt (LOL) to share how common it is for spelling of family names to evolve from generation to generation. If I had known the tricks and common mistakes made when researching ‘old country’ names, I’d have saved myself ‘years’…but the journey was fun. Epilogue: the answers could be found in registered Polish archives.
@ beejay…
No doubt…no one wants to understand a monster but I so agree with Blink. What’s important is exposing every fiber to determine WHY it came to this. How did it start for JS? Was it nature vs. nurture? What frightens me even more is HOW abuse like this, breeds itself. There are, imho, other abusers in his family. He is not the only one. There’s a right of passage within this evil behaviour that latches onto it’s victims. For some victims, their trauma can lead them to become abusers themselves. Maybe understanding isn’t the appropriate word. Education. Remember that saying….knowledge is power? School House Rock on Saturdays! Good times.
OT….Stevie Nicks made gypsy look cool to me
Happy New Year all! My very best to each of you with prayers of ultra blessings throughout 2012 <3
@ATG, if Blink knew you were a biscuit lover, I’m sure your contributions would have earned you many by now. I made homemade crackers to go with some fresh chowder the other night, and I think my family’s going to vote for those over biscuits for a while now.
So, while I can’t hand out Blink biscuits, how about some lizzy crackers for ATG?
Ragdoll
I hope you didn’t take what I said about the possible reason as to why your grandfather did not give his Romanian hertage info to many as indicating he was one of the gypsy bands. I was just explaining a possible reason for him to not call himself a Romanian.
Yes Blink, I know about records keeping by the census and the military. Often they made mistakes in getting the names correct. You would not be suprised to learn how many ways people have mispelled my sir name.
I know about scanning technology and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and the difficulties in getting it accurate. In 1988 a company that I was involved with attemped to push the envelope and develop scanners for high resolution to scan x-rays for bones and teeth. We spent a lot of money, but the level of speed and fineness of grain of the CCDs (charge coupled devices)were a decade and a half away. Last January I visited my dentist and there it was on a flat screen. It blew he and his technicans mind that I read the dental x-ray and understood what the equipment consisted of and how it worked.
I knew there was a musical background in your family. Glad for you and your mom to have found the old advertisement of the orchestra.
I agree that we as a society need to find all the ways that tip off a pedophiles activities so that we may put a stop to it in the future. It may take a long time to accomplish, but it is so very important to try. And maybe, step-by-step, over time there will be success.
Happy New Year to All
beejay
Thanks for the heads up on the Lee connection. I will spend some time researching.
Some women are really strong and can have a large number of children. Size doesn’t seem to matter. My little five foot, 100 lb. grandmother had thirteen children over a twenty-six year period with two sets of twins. None were born in a hospital. She outlived all but her first born and her last. She lost both sets of twins before they reached school age. The flu and pneumonia took their toll. Medicine was so primitive in the 19th century.
beejay, one of my grandmothers had 15 or 16 babies, although a few died shortly after birth. The other side of my family is just slightly smaller. Some of those aunts and uncles have double-digit kids of their own, and some cousins are at least close to that. I PROMISE that I have first cousins that I could not track down. (I know of two illegitimate cousins, one adopted out and not acknowledged until a few years ago, and another accepted as if the affair had not happened.) Which is discouraging when it comes to trying to follow the familial relationships of others, especially when you suspect that some of those relationships may have been either denied or other than represented (such as a grandson being treated as a son). Or atypical family relationships, such as brothers from one family marrying sisters from another.
That said, I have seen some documented family portraits (from just one small branch of my family) back to the 1600s . . . so there is always hope, lol. A little infamy now and again through the generations helps.