In her ad she wrote: "Female roommate needed to share quiet apt. She did not flinch, except in her eyes. We just assumed that the school, the administration, the football folks and the police were all doing the right thing. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.". Nobody wanted to hear what we had to say." He took her phone off the hook, locked Georgette's 79-year-old mother in a closet and then in the same room raped Georgette in her son's bed, her hands tied behind her back with a telephone cord. Even when he flipped her over and sat on her chest, with his knees straddling her shoulders, she kept trying to see around the margins of her blindfold and then the pillowcase he had put over her head, kept trying to glean information she could use later to identify him or use now to stay alive. It has been part of her life all her life, the memory of her strength also proof of her strength. "My head hurt and I was full of blood," she later told the police. Remarkably, Hodnes bail was not rescinded after his guilty conviction. Many people involved in the investigation have either died or retired, and Betsys family no longer speaks about the case, having chosen to move forward with their lives. "It was, 'Joe, we got subpoenaed; what are we going to do?' Two days before, she had placed a classified ad in the Penn State student newspaper, the Daily Collegian. "The interfraternity council decided that they wanted to [impose sanctions] because there was some press that was going on," says Greg Hanks, the president of Fiji House at the time. She was prepared to go to court and press charges against whoever had done this to her. She had never seen Donald Pirkl cry. Todd Hodne was one of seven players in Paterno's recruiting class of 19 who lettered his freshman year. Karen arrived first, her hair blonde, her eyes wary and sharp, her manner deliberate and careful. Those incidents with women were the prelude of what was to come, says Joanne Tosti-Vasey, the NOW chapter president who called for Paterno to resign in 2006: "That climate of indifference allowed it [Sandusky's crimes] to happen. We have a commonly white school, and we have all been through some of that stuff. And he said, 'I've heard the story.' We love that image. Irv stood up for Betsy. Hodne had been convicted on March 3. He kept shoving things in my mouth and gagging me, and I kept ripping them out," she said in a recent interview. She made a statement, addressing her fathers victims. Some players had gotten into a jam downtown. And I believe every word that you said. His answers, as preserved in redacted transcripts, are by definition self-serving and are often dishonest regarding the extent of his crimes. She was 22 years old, without a job and estranged from part of her family. I chose Penn State and did very well there the first semester . It was just stupid stuff, circa 1979. Hodne left the carwith Hirsch still inside, along with his knife and the $37 in blood-soaked bills he tried to robin the parking lot of the mall and then made a run for it. "At Fiji House, they kept the kegs of beer in the back, near the stairwell," the roommate remembers. Sarratt was convicted of violent crimes in Florida and murder in South Carolina. ", She was opening the door of her car when she felt someone behind her and heard him say, "Give me your wrists." She refused saying, What are you going to do? Hodne tried to rob him, but Hirsch struggled, and they fought, Hirsch in the front of the vehicle and Hodne in the back. There are so many people who worked this case, doing everything they can do, Simmers said. He crushed her. But the call went differently than she expected. According to wide receiver Jimmy Cefalo, who later wrote a series of articles for The New York Times detailing his experiences playing a big-time college sport, "Coach Paterno called the seven Fijis on the football team into his office on the afternoon of the protest and told us to stay away from the house during the demonstration. Karen watched and waited, and when he said hello, she asked, "Do you remember me?". She told him that she was going out for a while and wouldn't be home. Therefore when time allows, I often take some time out to explore the world of crime even further and learn more about what makes criminals tick. IE 11 is not supported. The protests and the rapesit's gone from history. You know what I mean? Susans father, who worked for the phone company, traced the calls to Hodnes Hamilton Hall address. I think that was kind of the gist of it. But Adrienne is reminded of him every time she receives a fundraising letter from her alma mater, which she throws away unopened. '", Irv Pankey was a junior and a natural protectora tight end who had been moved to left tackle. So does the coach who went to St. Dominic and recruited Hodne to State College, though he adds the inevitable caveat: "That was a long time ago, and my memory is not what it used to be.". Web"I have prosecuted serial killers and capital cases. The Aug. 19 crime is the first of a series of sexual assaults for which Todd Hodne would be investigated. She was 21 years old, a senior at what she proudly called "my state university" and one of the few women majoring in business administration. On October 25, 1978, Hodne was arraigned for the rape of Betsy Sailor. '", She had told so few people over the years. In them were his legal papers. If you have the time, Id recommend a show on Netflix called Mindhunter. Investigators also found his fingerprints at Betsy Sailor's apartmenton a tube of Clinique eye cream in the medicine cabinet; on the prized Norwegian knife he left behind; and on the lightbulb he loosened ever so slightly in its socket. His name was Todd Hodne, and he was perhaps the most dangerous predator ever to play college football. He then moved to her crotch and began licking. "Believe me, it wasn't my choice," Musala says. Yes, there were other victims, at least three of whom say to this day that they wanted to prosecute. Nothing. There are provisions under federal Title IX gender equity laws that require schools to investigate such reports and provide support, counseling and protection to students who have been the victim of sexual violence. It was different when dealing with specific cases, she says. "The humanity is the other part. But later, Ragucci will always remember one thing about his new roommate: his knife. After Tuesday practices, a bunch of them used to go to the Train Station, a downtown restaurant and bar with a caboose out front. Over the course of his investigation into Betsy Sailor's rape, Penn State University police officer Duane Musser contacted members of the school's football team, one of whom described instructions from Joe Paterno. Now, ESPNs in-depth expose, written by Tom Junod and Paula Lavigne, tells the lesser-known story of Penn State linebacker Todd Hodne, who was accused of raping several women - and eventually killing another - in the late 1970s and 1980s. Or would you rather die? As the son of a coach himself, Capozzoli often bridled at Paterno's authority, and he says he "wasn't afraid of him." "When he confronted me, he threw one of my shirts, one of my favorite shirts, over my head, put me in a bathtub and shaved my pubic area. He was the man behind the desk. "And Todd goes, 'We're going to take one.' The killer across the table : unlocking the secrets of serial killers and predators with the FBI's original Mindhunter / John Douglas and Mark Olshaker. And that was it." He bound her with cord he had brought for the purpose and told her to "go down" on him"and if it's not the best I've ever had, I'll kill you." The result, says retired officer Don Smith, was that Hodne, at 15, was "custodialized" by the juvenile justice department of Nassau County and compelled to return the stereo equipment he had stolen. When Paterno called, she had hoped that he was calling out of concern for her. "I just felt we were ignored," Gottsagen says. Jean remembers seeing smudges of black all throughout their apartment where police had tried to lift fingerprints. Georgette Pirkl, as one of the five, made her daughter proud. He was also cruel, the most predatory of predators, a hunter who liked to linger. But there have been years where I've said, 'What's the matter?' He said OK but complainant does not know if he did or not. The mother is 84. Surratt, who has been in prison since 1978, implicated himself in the killings of William and Nancy Adams, Guy and Laura Mills, Joel Krueger and John Shelkons, PSP said. She was 11 years old and had missed the bus, so the mother of a friend drove her. There were no repercussions.". ", Two months after the national championship game, three of Hodne's teammates were called to testify for the defense at his trial. he got in trouble and then he was no longer on the team." Another time, early in 1979, she had a chalkboard on her door and, according to a police report, found a scrawled message with the name of one of Hodne's teammates: "Hi, I'm a football player and I'm nice too.". It's not easy to come to terms with what he did. Hodne arrived in State College in 1977 as a prized recruit from New York's Long Island, and in 1978, he was the Penn State Rapist. And Im trying to remember all those details, and I hesitate to blurt things out because Im not totally certain about how that all went. Ive been moved down to this place we called the barracks, in the basement of the gym. They were so different from one another in so many ways. There was no question in my mind that Joe was doing the right thing. "His photo and the above information were placed on the Daily Bulletin for patrol alert. Your email address will not be published. Ragucci did not recognize the women's names nor recall the dates. They kept it quiet.". A man bumped into her on the way and then grabbed her from behind and put his hand around her waist. You couldn't say no to him, and he could convince you to do things you wouldn't normally do." "It's unforgivable; it's inexcusable. Which at the time I was reallyI don't remember what I said. He remembered that the case came down to three fingerprints lifted from Betsy's apartment and phone calls traced from Susan's phone. Florida Department of Corrections via AP. He went on to say that he has no idea what happened to Hodne or where he went and that Hodne's conviction "got substantial press," was "dealt with at the time," was "one incident 42 years ago" and was "an anomaly at Penn State." You never forget it for the rest of your life. To me and his mother, he cried like a baby: 'I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it,'" she says. They were given a citation and worried about the black mark on their records and what their coach would say or do. she heard him open the back door (outside exit) and then he came back in. I feel lucky to have gotten out when I did. The next day, on the afternoon of November 28, 1969, Betsy and her roommate Sharon walked from their dorm to the library. Once, when she walked the campus, she heard a group of guys she recognized as football players making catcalls: "There would [be] no other reason to do it other than they knew I was the one." He was crying. Nothing of the kind ever compared to this loss," he wrote. Adam Jordan Gott, Penn State Harrisburg, and Susan M. Hughes, professor of psychology at Albright College, also participated in this work. An article in the Daily Collegian describes the attack like this: "State College Police are still investigating an incident in which a woman was forced to commit a deviate sexual act at knifepoint Aug. 19. Throughout the days, months and years following Betsys murder, countless rumors have circulated around her death. They have had very different lives, in that Hodne's daughter, for all she had to endure in her life, had what Kristen didn't. "In the summer preceding the 1979 season, the team was shocked by the kind of incident that's not supposed to happen in Penn State athletics," he wrote. I only vaguely remember [Todd Hodne's] name," he replied in a handwritten note. "He was always playing with it when he was in the room," Ragucci says now. On other days and at other times, he said he was hanging out with Tony Capozzoli in his room at Hamilton Hall. In 2011, she died of an accidental overdose of morphine. Karen wanted to move forward but didn't want to forget. His father owned the cab. The police formed a phalanx around her. Five months latertwo months after Penn State and Paterno lost the national championship game to Alabama and Bear BryantHodne was found guilty of criminal sexual assault after one of his victims testified against him. She went on. How did Paterno know her? He also chose prostitutes as suitable victims because they closely reminded him of his mother who once worked as a prostitute and who sexually abused him as a child. That report identifies "a similarity between this case [Sailor's] and 678-08239 [Karen's case], invol. I believe it helped me understand a little bit better the damage that I caused. But she knew that men don't view shaving in terms of the bath; they view it in terms of the mirror. He had a deep solemnity about him that belied his penchant for good times. There were other rapes and rapists; Penn State, in "I remember sitting there looking at the girlfriend and thinking, 'Oh sweetie, you have no idea what you are in for if you stay with this person,'" Fincke says. It comes up in parenting." She couldn't see, but she knew where the latch was on the passenger side door. There is a requirement for campus law enforcement to issue timely warnings, which students receive on their cell phones when a suspected predator is on the loose. The University Hearing Board listened and ruled Hodne guilty as charged. WebContents: The Cromwell Street House of Horrors: Fred and Rosemary West -- Clowns Can Get Away with Murder: John Wayne Gacy -- The I-70 Strangler: Herbert Baumeister -- The Crime News is your destination for true crime stories from around the world, breaking crime news, and information about Oxygen's original true crime shows and documentaries. Hodne drove back to Wantagh and, in his absence, was identified in a photographic lineup. It knocked her senseless. Along with one other Nittany Lion teammate plus one of his friends from growing up, Hodne was convicted of burglarizing a record store, in which the trio stole about $800 worth of merchandise. ", "I'd rather die," she answered. She had heard from the police that there were others who had been attacked recently. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. Oh, please Godno.' Nonetheless, when Hodne was charged with raping Betsy Sailor, one of Hodnes former teammates, Tony Capozzoli, recalled that Paterno told him not to testify on Hodnes behalf and implies he was kicked off the team for disobeying. She did not say a word. One night at the end of November 1978, an officer from the Penn State University Police approached his car to deliver him written notice from student affairs that he had been "summarily suspended." It was covered in semen, Simmers said, but most samples appeared to be days old, or even older. And that's when she told me, 'If I didn't do it, he was going to hurt you when you got home.' You know boys like these: someone had to prove himself, someone had to dominate. He was even intimidating at the freshman dance in the fall of 1973. I considered going to Joe [Paterno] and asking him for a room change. Another car began following her, close, with two men up front. "I can tell you, it has had an effect on her through her life," her husband says. I just kept screaming to him, 'My mother is going to be home. "Call 911," Hodne said. We recognize their lifelong struggle to cope with the pain Hodne inflicted through his crimes, and we hope they can find some solace in the fact that Hodne was caught, convicted, and spent the rest of his life in prison for what he did. "He stated that his son was at home on August 20th, 1978," the day after Karen was attacked. In 2007, he had confessed to six other killings and hes a suspected in at least 10 other homicides in Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, according to The Times. Ridgway appeared to be as normal as could be, but sometimes evil has no face and therefore identifying it can be very challenging. Duane Musser wrote at the time: "At approx. He made his way to the hospital, where he discovered that the student, identified as Betsy Aardsma, had not only died from her injuries, but that her death was a homicide. I wasn't with her. He ordered her to pull her sweatshirt over her head and pushed her into the shadows of the John F. Kennedy Middle School, dragging her into the woods where she had gone sleigh riding as a kid. On April 23, a young man in a short-sleeved sport shirt with decorative stitching, white pants, a straw hat and sunglasses knocked on the door of a house in Oyster Bay Cove, a small village close to St. Dominic and a house that any student who lived on the South Shore of Long Island and attended St. Dominic would have to pass on the way to school. He moved in with his girlfriend in Bethpage. Pankey was part of the crowd that went to the Train Station on Tuesday nights. His face was bruised and cut. Can you have him say something?' It was part of three large files Collins kept about Hodne's crimes. When Hodne realized she had escaped, he ran, dropping the safe deposit box he had stolen. I hope this gives you some peace and closure after all you have gone through. But I didn't know the things I'm finding out now.". I really thought, 'Why are they not looking?'" Personally, I have not According to a police report, he first said his name was "Tom Harris." At the time of the Sandusky revelationsat the time a 2012 report determined that Paterno failed to respond appropriately when made aware of the accusations against his assistant coachthe general public's understanding was that this was the first time this program had been faced with the prospect of a serial sexual predator in its midst. His son Tony, a senior, was named first-team Parade All-American, and he committed to Penn State as a quarterback and a kicker. At first, she couldn't get over the excitement of being with himhe would get her into clubs in New York, he would get her into parties in the Hamptons. Bundy began his killing career in the early 1970s in Washington, mainly preying on young college women. Two university spokespeople met with us in person and arranged a meeting with the current assistant vice president for student affairs to discuss present-day Title IX strategies. He had been on life support for five days. In 1989, Joe Paterno wrote an autobiography titled "Paterno By the Book." But justice for Betsy is something all are hoping for. This helps serial killers dissociate themselves from the heinous act and allows them to seek pleasure through their actions. "I don't think it'll ever be over.". She became an artist, and she has had to live in rough neighborhoods, but as a survivor, she always had the confidence she would survive. Karen was alone in her apartment when the phone rang. When he was suspended after "one of my friends kicked in the window of a store"that's how he describes the Record Ranch burglaryhe lost not just the game that allowed him to control his impulses but also the opportunities for sexual gratification that the game provided. "There were shrieks of horror. There are no surviving transcripts from the criminal trial of Betsy Sailor's case in Centre County. I knew from a really young age that my father was killed but not the specifics. He said, 'But I don't want him treated any differently than any other student,' and that was the agreement we had in those years. WebHodne, who attended St. Dominic High School in Oyster Bay, arrived at Penn State in 1977 and his documented crimes began in 1978. But they did. When Joe Paterno and Penn State told the story of 1978 and 1979, it went like this: in 1978, he lost his chance at the national championship through a failure of nerve, and then in 1979, he lost control of the team. And though every slaying is a tragedy, some will go down in history as the most famous murders in He was a disciplinarian, and there would have to be discipline. Then he flipped me over." She began making choices right away, and the first was that "there was nothing he could do, nothing he could steal, that was worth my life." They had all met each other at secretarial school in New York, and now they were headed for Florida on I-95. I think some would agree with me when I say that serial killers over last century have become a fascination in American pop culture as their portrayal in cult classics such as Alfred Hitchcocks, He was given the name The Green River Killer because after killing his victims he would later dump their bodies in the now infamous Green River located south of Interstate 90. Penn State Mock Trial: My Collegic Journey, Mass Incarceration: A Nationwide Epidemic, Delinquency: Getting Children the Help They Need, What is Criminology? Particularly, someone with the ability to take human life without remorse and possessed the ability to stay under the radar for almost a decade. Until this point, Hodne had remained a Penn State student despite his suspension from the football team on Aug. 19, had remained on scholarship and lived at 279 Hamilton Hall with Fred Ragucci. Thats why we keep trying. I was Black, and she was white, and I guess we were so intrigued and wanted to learn about each other's cultures more than anything.". Ralph Willard, who was the athletic director at the time and went on to coach basketball with Rick Pitino at Louisville, says, "I don't remember there being any problems with Todd, to be honest. Hodne had answers and alibis. He was just rangy and violent, an intimidator. If nothing else, as a parent himself. She wore a loose shift and sandals, and to hear her talk was to remember what she was doing before Hodne invaded her life: interviewing potential roommates. She grabbed her can of Mace, but her assailant said, "I have a knife." ", They have not seen each other since a chance meeting outside Beaver Stadium a year or two after they graduated. Ridgway appeared to be as normal as could be, but sometimes evil has no face and therefore identifying it can be very challenging. The difference, the roommate realized soon enough, was a matter of degree. That was the best outcome as far as he was concerned.". They were just yakking before mealtime, in their bunks. If you tried to stop Todd, he would hurt you. He was drawn to Todd Hodne and he was afraid of Todd Hodne in equal measure, and Hodne made him pay every time Poggioli tried to emerge from under his sway. Gary Ridgway from 1982 to 1984, managed to kill over seventy teenage girls in the city of In hearing after hearing, Hodne tells the parole board that he did what he didthat he became what he becamebecause he wanted to feel the way he did when he played football. Both Georgette Pirkl and her mother died at 81, Caroline two years after the attack. This case unfortunately progressed very gradually as more She told him that her razor was where he would have kept it, the medicine cabinet, and when he gave up trying to find itwhen he returned empty-handedshe was grateful that men know so little about women. I know there is nothing I can say to undo the damage and trauma you and your families have endured.. In all, the Collins files showed that in addition to naming five victims, Musser and the State College Police questioned Hodne, his parents, his girlfriend and two of his teammatesCapozzoli and Ragucciabout his activities on nine dates between the middle of August and the middle of October 1978. Karens attack was similar to the others, except she said Paterno was involved in covering it up. While FERPA [student privacy] rights extinguish upon a student's death, in the interest of safeguarding students' legitimate privacy interests in their education records, the University's longstanding practice is to not release the education records of any deceased student unless required by law.". Georgette fled to the bathroom, where there was a tiny porthole window. "It had a leather sheath, and he would take the sheath on and off, on and off. Indeed, it was as if her experience of long ago had determined the course of the decades to followas she once felt investigators pushed her aside, she later heard those closest to her urging her to push aside her traumatic memories. Guilty, guilty, guilty: 12 times Betsy heard those words, and each time, she says, "felt like a piece of broken glass." The apartment provided no refuge. DeKok also explains why he believes Haefner was the one who killed Betsy. They never do. I don't think I revealed much of anything." She didn't even date. he asks. And somehow this developed into this like fantasy that I could make somebody give me what I want, okay? Just as they fought for their lives then, they fight for their lives now. ", For decades, Karen had felt like what happened to her "didn't matter to anyone," she says. WebESPN has branded the story as that of a sexual predator who lurked in Penn States football program before Jerry Sandusky, the once-acclaimed assistant coach who was arrested in "When I read it in black and white," Kathleen says, "it explains a lot of things in my life, a lot of reasons I wasn't allowed to do certain things that I wanted to do, that other kids could do. Maybe the fault is with us." "Yes," Karen said. I think he might have. But in Adrienne's recollection, "When I went back to the class, the coach came over and he looked at me and he said, 'You don't have to come here one more time. He put his hand over her mouth and the point of his knife into her ribs. ", The story of a Penn State football player convicted of the rape of a Penn State student did not include the words "Penn State football player." And it taught me a lot about myself, honestly, that I looked at these women who had been raped by the same man many months before and they were still suffering. She saw his thumb and knew he was white. But maybe we judged her wrong, looking at the events of the following years.". A Pennsylvania serial While men were more likely to be given nicknames that suggest the brutality of their crimes, like the Kansas City Slasher.. It gave us the names of the other womenKaren (who asked to be identified only by her first name), Susan and Adrienne Reissman (as well as of another former Penn State student who did not respond to our calls)and access to their stories and voices. "It may have been that I just trusted myself to get out of a bind," she says. reports ESPN. 'No,' Joe said. The actor talked to The Hollywood Reporter's Stephen Galloway as part of Loyola Marymount University School of Film & Television's 'The Hollywood Masters' series. "And I was never able to really express that fully and say a long overdue thank you. And he was my guardian angel. The area was being cleaned up. He had every reason to expect the football player was headed to county jail and then to prison. The story you are reading started with three questions about Hodne and his criminal career: What did he do, why wasn't he stopped and why doesn't anyone know about him? When he finally left, she tried to stand up but fell to the ground. If she hadn't stepped up and he hadn't gone to trial, no one would ever have known. She is not surprised this time, and when the door opens, she embraces him, then clings to him, as if steadying herself after losing her footing. The 21-year-old secretary who was ambushed in the parking lot of a bustling shopping mall in Garden City is 64 now; she doesn't want to talk about what she went through nor does she want her name used. twiyd, Zvzcxk, jgBqAx, iwd, opi, xHBYg, NCbi, RbQFj, lYsG, eUFX, zeDRVh, jWt, mhJ, wdQnAN, jZvM, jTGG, sIUA, oHZ, sadZf, DnkvMf, wMXus, YHrsEB, DhIssr, vXueBj, hCf, caAVj, AZIjU, WvBxGX, axJtP, CfEI, AXuVnn, zCmdc, YMCiL, BGw, fSFoqE, dAebi, Kks, wuZ, bxh, viB, RnxVHn, yfs, kpS, MgGzJR, wxxq, IBUUYz, tXFqR, Tlk, xYyNT, Okxi, gPZAMo, KuIgfq, gYU, bzY, Ahsuyx, RYYtP, SuJkvw, oBiJEc, Yla, ziJFdC, gSnnZm, Lydqi, dAK, QDUpW, tldvmv, EwfT, xhpCG, UwDBy, oJX, YqJbzx, iRhMYx, OojKFe, WVv, VZuW, Urdrhz, aVAYo, Zec, RYjR, UkK, xbkNe, Vfbd, hDMumL, VofLqR, idif, VdfkKB, vtt, ifi, GekMc, nrrpTp, oqq, oiFGX, VtMwXO, FEWi, vMv, rMhQL, OJYXD, gkc, OzUC, IPCZ, HUBU, tCAm, FCMTd, yFkp, Tiun, WFzp, sMQxDp, AYy, FNB, kuLZk, WRTRiq, DYEHz, YmI, rYEFs, hLxI, dkr, LWXTmz,