WEBVTT - Corruption in the Catholic Church | Cathy Cesnik 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:07.360 You're listening to Facing Evil, a production of iHeartRadio and 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:11.160 Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:14.080 are solely those of the individuals participating in the show 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:17.560 and do not represent those of iHeartRadio or Tenderfoot TV. 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:21.280 This podcast contains subject matter which may not be suitable 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:24.160 for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:31.880 Hello everyone, welcome back to Facing Evil from Tenderfoot TV 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:33.240 and iHeartRadio. 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:36.519 We are your hosts. I'm Rosha Pecquerrero. 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:39.800 And I am Evet Genteel and as always we are 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:42.600 with our amazing producer, mister Trevor Young. 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:44.120 Hey, Hey, how's it going. 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:45.880 Hello, ha Trevor Trevor. 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:49.160 So, I know we have a pretty interesting case coming 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:52.839 up today. A very important case has to do with 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:59.240 the existence of sexual assaults in the Catholic Church, which 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:02.240 I know can be a very touchy issue, and we're 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:04.080 going to get into a very I think powerful story 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:07.200 that illustrates some of those issues. But you know, in 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:10.399 that vein, I was thinking back as we were starting 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:13.720 research for this case about the movie Spotlight. I don't 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:15.680 know if y'all remember watching that. It had Michael Keaton, 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:18.480 but it was about some of the very real life 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:23.680 events involving sexual misconduct in the Catholic church in Boston 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:26.480 is very good movie. I think it won Best Picture 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:27.640 of the year it came out. 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:32.200 Yeah, I remember that movie very well. You know, me 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:36.800 myself being Catholic and you know, becoming a Catholic actually 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:39.720 when I got married to my husband, who was you know, 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:42.280 born and raised in the Catholic community. But for me, 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:46.320 my mom couldn't remember if she had been baptized or not. 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:50.280 And I just really wanted that blessing if you had 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:52.760 been baptized or not, right, yeah, if I had been 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:58.360 baptized or not. But yeah, I do remember that movie 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:02.760 and it's a very very movie. But I also want 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:05.680 to talk about The Keepers, and we're going to get 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:08.440 into that, you know, much later in the episode. But 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:11.760 my voice is a little hoarse because I had just 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:16.320 had laryngitis. But while I was home, I spent seven 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:22.440 hours watching this particular documentary called The Keepers, and it 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:27.760 was mind blowing. And we will talk about that later. 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:31.680 And Trevor, now will you take us through today's case. 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:38.160 I've talked to the hunter that found Kathy and he said, 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:41.120 since the day that he found her, the police have 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:43.680 never talked to him except for that day. 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:46.640 They sought to do the same thing that senior church 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:50.399 leaders in the diocese we investigated have done for decades. 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:54.160 Bury the sexual abuse by priests upon children and cover 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:54.880 it up forever. 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:57.880 And I can hear Kathy saying, I told you I'd 0:02:57.919 --> 0:02:59.560 take care of this, and I. 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:02.160 Said, I didn't think you meant Twenty years later. 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:06.920 Sister Catherine Sesenik was a young teacher at a Catholic 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:11.040 school in Baltimore, Maryland. Early on the evening of November seventh, 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:15.560 nineteen sixty nine, she disappeared while outrunning errands in her neighborhood. 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:20.079 The next morning, two friends found Sister Kathy's car parked 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:25.519 haphazardly nearby, but weeks went by with no sign of Kathy. Finally, 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:29.840 on January third, nineteen seventy, the body of Sister Catherine 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:32.800 Sesenik was found in a remote area south of the city. 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.040 No one was ever charged with her murder, but some 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:39.160 of the investigators were suspicious of the community in the 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:42.640 Catholic school where she taught, especially one of the priests. 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:46.080 In the years that followed, more and more sinister events 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:49.200 came to light. Painting a story of sexual abuse and 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:53.080 intimidation at the hands of a powerful diocese that controlled 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:58.160 everyone in its territory, including the police. And so what 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:01.920 happened to Kathy Sesnik, why weren't the police able to 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:05.080 make a determination in her case? And what does the 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:08.440 story reveal about the dark secrets of the Catholic Church. 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:15.480 Okay, you guys, this is one that we really have 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:19.200 to buckle up for. I mean, this case just gets 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:23.960 more and more crazy. You know, as you go along 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:27.520 the stories that we've told this season, they've touched on 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:31.800 some major issues, and today really is no different. But 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:35.400 we're looking at sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, which 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:41.520 is a huge, huge issue that is still very prevalent today. 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:44.919 Yeah, it's really just I think one of many. You know, 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.800 it seems like every year there's another story of how 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:51.120 this sort of wide scale abuse is allowed to go 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:53.800 on somewhere or it's just swept under the rug entirely right, 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:56.760 And you know, I think no matter your personal faith, 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:02.240 this story especially illustrates the enormous power that a religious 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:06.160 group or institution can have over an entire city, a community, 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:09.960 and neighborhood. And I think that's super dangerous and the 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:11.719 story is a huge example of that. 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:15.880 Yeah, I couldn't agree more, Trevor. It's a very dangerous issue. 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:18.200 I was actually doing some research. 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:19.960 And the numbers don't lie. 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:23.440 They show that in the United States alone, more than 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:27.839 eleven thousand complaints have been documented by victims of abuse 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:29.120 by priests. 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:30.040 Like that's a lot. 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:32.600 Yeah, that's a lot. And you have to remember too, 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:35.920 that's just those that have told. 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:39.560 Their stories, right, right, the documented cases, right. 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.520 There are so many other people that have not even 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:47.520 come out yet. So, yeah, that number is shocking, but 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:49.200 you know there's way. 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:50.520 More, way more. 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:53.920 Yeah, And there are numbers like that for countries all 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:57.160 over the world, not just the US. So this story 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:01.800 of sister Catherine Seysnik just brings issue down to a 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:02.599 human scale. 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:02.880 Right. 0:06:03.400 --> 0:06:08.440 It's just a super insane, crazy story. But sister Kathy 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:10.800 Ssnick was a human. 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:14.880 Yeah, So let's talk about Kathy Sesnick. Then. She grew 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:19.039 up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She had three siblings, was supposedly 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:22.800 very bright, and by many accounts, just had this very 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:26.520 sparkling personality. She was also an achiever. She was senior 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:29.440 class president, a member of student council, and even may 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:32.880 queen at her school, but she was also valedictorian of 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:35.960 her high school. And then after that she joined the 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:39.159 school Sisters of Notre Dame. So she then goes on 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:43.600 to be a teacher at Archbishop Kio High School in Baltimore, Maryland. 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:46.640 It was an all girls school, and she taught English 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:50.080 there as well as drama, and everyone said that her 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:52.839 students loved her. She was everybody's favorite teacher. 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:57.680 Yeah. So I read this Huffington Post article and it 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:01.599 says that Sister Kathy Saysnick was a real life version 0:07:01.640 --> 0:07:05.120 of Maria, like the Julie Andrews character from the Sound 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:09.560 of Music. I mean, she was super exuberant, she sang, 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:13.160 she played her guitar, and her students would even drop 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:17.320 by her apartment, you know, and they would sing and dance. 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:20.200 And you know, when I hear that, I think of 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:26.360 like Sister Act. You know, the character in Sister Act, 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:31.160 Sister Mary Robert, who was like always smiling and you know, 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:34.040 happy to see her students and so giving. Like she 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:36.440 seemed exactly like that. 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:40.120 Yeah, all of those beautiful things that you've just said 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:45.080 about her, Vet, I think it absolutely makes what happened 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:50.200 next so heartbreaking. On the evening of November seventh, nineteen 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:53.680 sixty nine, she left her apartment, which she happened to 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.280 share with another nun. She left to go buy a 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.280 gift for her sister's engagement party. It was around seven 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.560 thirty at night that she left to go go on 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:05.840 this errand, and apparently she got into her car, stopped 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:07.800 at the bank to cash her paycheck, and then she 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:11.320 went to a local bakery and bought some bakery buns, 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:16.360 and that was the last time anyone ever saw her alive. 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:19.880 We'll talk about what happened after we take a quick break. 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:29.880 So after sister Kathy Sessnik didn't return home, her roommate was, 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:34.480 of course frantic, and she later told reporters quote, nuns 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:37.120 in their order didn't stay out late, and Kathy would 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:39.640 have called if she needed to run an additional errand 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:43.160 end quote. But now it was eleven o'clock at night 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:45.600 and she hadn't heard from her, so she called a 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:48.960 couple of priests who wear their good friends. So these 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:52.840 particular priests came over immediately and they had learned what 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:56.040 had happened. At four point forty in the morning, the 0:08:56.080 --> 0:08:59.440 priest decided to take a walk around the area. That's 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:03.679 when they found Kathy's car. It was parked carelessly across 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:06.679 the street from the apartment, even though she had her 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:10.560 own designated parking spot right behind the building, and it 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:14.080 didn't look good. They saw signs of a struggle, including 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:17.720 a broken umbrella in the back seat. They called the police, 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:21.120 who found that box of bakery buns she had purchased, 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:26.640 along with leaves and twigs. Branches had also been caught 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:28.360 in the cars antenna. 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:31.880 Yeah, so a quick sidebar that we should mention about 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.480 one of the priests who comes over to investigate. His 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:39.480 name was Gerard Coob, and he was apparently totally like 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:43.520 in love with Kathy Sessnik. And that is a whole 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:47.480 myriad of problems, right. You know, Yvette, you can probably 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:50.160 chime in here, but my understanding is that in the 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:52.840 Catholic Church, you know, you're not supposed to have any 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:55.280 sort of romantic relationship, certainly not nuns, but I don't 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:56.679 think pres either. Is that correct? 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.760 That is very true, That is very true. You take 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:03.360 you take a vow, Yeah, so priests and nuns take 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:05.000 vows and nuns. 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:08.280 Yes, right right, So, in fact, you know, two years 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:11.880 before this event happened before either of them had actually 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:15.840 taken said vows. Kathy and Gerard had spent I guess 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:18.479 a lot of time together. They had written each other letters. 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:21.280 He even asked her to marry him, but she turned 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:23.960 him down, I guess, wanting to you know, maintain her job. 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:28.320 And apparently, three days before she disappeared, he even called 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:30.480 her one last time to tell her that he loved her, 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:33.040 and he told her he would leave the priesthood to 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:36.160 marry her if she'd leave the nun hood to you know, 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:38.800 for them to be together. And I don't think she 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:39.400 went for it. 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:42.880 I'm not sure what to think, you know, like, was 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:45.640 it romantic or is it suspicious. I kind of always 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:48.520 go back to Russia, you know, when she says it's 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:51.800 always the boyfriend or you know, it's always the romantic, 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:56.800 you know, the love interest. But you know, I do 0:10:56.880 --> 0:10:59.800 feel like this is how rumors get started. 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.480 Unrequited love leads to something. Yeah. 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:07.680 I think it's maybe possibly romantic in you know, the 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:10.920 case of their not being a homicide involved, but the 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:13.120 fact that someone was killed, you know, I think makes 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:15.760 it very suspicious. You know, and even if there wasn't 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:18.240 a death involved, in this. You know, there's something I 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:21.520 think kind of creepy about it. You know. It's not 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:23.959 quite to the level of, you know, say a stalker, 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:27.320 which we talked about on the previous episode, but somebody 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:29.680 who's just kind of so obsessed that they're willing to 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:33.439 forego certain boundaries that someone has put up in their 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:36.719 life always strikes me as problematic. You know. That's that's 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:39.200 always a bit of a red flag for me. Asking 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:42.720 someone to leave the nun hood to run off with them, 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:45.320 you know, and they've clearly said that they are like 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:49.120 uncomfortable with this before, right, Like, I think there's probably 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:51.720 something there to look at that's not what it should 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:56.320 be for sure. And in fact, police actually brought Gerard 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:59.480 Coup in for questioning, but he had an alibi of 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:02.800 having been at the movies earlier that night, so I 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:04.959 guess that was that he had a solid alibi for 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:05.520 where he. 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:09.760 Was, so it wasn't the unrequited love interest got it. 0:12:10.120 --> 0:12:14.440 So there ends up being a massive man hunt, with 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:18.120 thirty five Baltimore officers and residents of the area joining 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:23.080 in sweeping a fourteen block area of Southwest Baltimore. But 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:28.000 they don't find anything and more importantly, Baltimore police tell 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:32.240 the media they do not believe foul play was involved. 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:35.800 Yeah, I mean that, and that strikes me as just 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:39.600 that statement alone, when you don't really know, right, that's 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:43.960 political agenda, I mean to me, right, because there were 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:46.800 sticks and branches that were found in her car and 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:50.440 other clear signs of a struggle. But the police say 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:54.280 that they don't think that there's foul play, so that 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:55.839 doesn't sit too well. 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:57.280 Yeah. 0:12:57.320 --> 0:13:02.400 But finally, on January third, Mathie's body is found by 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:05.040 a father and a son out on a hunting trip 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:09.720 in Lansdowne, which I believe that's a remote area south 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:10.440 of Baltimore. 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:14.120 Yep, I've actually driven through there, have you. Anyways, the 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:16.600 police said it was likely that she had been either 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:20.599 carried or forced to walk down there, and an autopsy 0:13:20.800 --> 0:13:23.679 found a skull fracture caused by a blow to her 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:26.520 head with some sort of blunt instrument, most likely a brick, 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:29.800 they said, and the pathologist noted that the quote disarray 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:33.600 of clothing suggested possible rape. But unfortunately that's about as 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:36.560 far as the police get with us. Investigators work on 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:40.840 the case up until nineteen seventy seven. But you know. Honestly, 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:44.240 they're unable to make any real breakthrough, do they say, 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:46.480 to the lack of any physical evidence in the case, 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:49.040 even though we know there's quite a bit. So in 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:51.480 nineteen seventy seven they closed the case. 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:54.760 But that is not the end of the story. So 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:58.680 fast forward to nineteen ninety four, two former students of 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:02.800 Archbishop Keio that's the school where Sister Cathy says Nick taught, 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:07.199 file a lawsuit against a priest in that school whose 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:11.319 name is Joseph Maskell. So the suit claims he sexually 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:15.199 abused them repeatedly when they were students there. The women 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:19.000 filing the suit are named Gene Wayner and Teresa Lancaster. 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.960 And apparently these are not the first accusations Maskal has faced, 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:25.880 by the way. In fact, back in the nineteen sixties 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:30.600 and seventies, Maskeal was widely feared in the school because everyone, 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:35.240 including the students and the staff, knew he was a predator, 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:37.520 but no one spoke up about it. 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:41.360 Right, So, you guys know how I love documentaries, and 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:45.080 I talked about this earlier in the beginning of our 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:50.960 episode about this documentary The Keepers, and in it, Teresa 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:55.240 Lancaster says, when you were called over the loud speaker 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:59.520 to report to Father Maskell, a dead silence would come 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:02.440 over the c room and other girls would look at 0:15:02.440 --> 0:15:06.080 you with sad eyes, and the teacher would just look down. 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:08.720 They knew something was going on. 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:12.040 Wow, and then he gets accused of this. 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:18.600 It's so so disgustingly awful, and it's so shameful, right, Like, 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:22.120 it's like this abuse has been normalized, like that mom 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:24.920 stood up for her son, but no one was standing 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:26.480 up for these girls at Kio. 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:31.040 It's yeah, it's heartbreaking to me, right. 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:35.080 So obviously these claims against Father Mascal are pretty egregious, 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:38.960 and Teresa Lancaster said that Father Maskal took her to 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:43.200 a gynecologist named Christian Richter, who prescribed douches that the 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:47.960 priest then administered himself in his school office, and numerous 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:50.600 others after this stepped forward to say that he assaulted 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.040 them frequently in his office. This is not a one 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:56.200 time occurrence. And I think it's also important to note 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:59.160 here that these claims are in fact corroborated by court 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:02.200 records as well as interviews with up to eight other 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:06.680 Kio students, So there's clearly a pattern here right. 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:12.120 Clearly, and he wasn't stopped. Oh I'm so grossed out. Yeah. 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:16.920 So basically this was an open secret and this reign 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:20.320 of terror by a criminal man who used his power 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:23.640 as a priest and his power in the church as 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:29.440 an authoritative figure to literally intimidate everyone. But I feel 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:34.320 the most for these young girls who were students at 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:39.400 this school and they were completely trapped. 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:41.160 They probably felt like they had nowhere. 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:44.600 To go exactly, and no one to tell, you know. 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:48.720 But we also know that this did not go unnoticed, 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:52.600 and at least one person did try to stop it 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:58.640 from the inside, and that person was sister Kathy, says Nick. 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:03.240 Yes, and this gets into a big conspiracy, and we 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:05.960 will talk about that right after we take another quick break. 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.760 There was at least one person who we know of 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:17.960 who was fighting back against Father Joseph Maskell, and that 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:23.040 person is the popular young teacher, Sister Kathy Sesnick. Her 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.680 students loved her, and many of them confided in her 0:17:25.840 --> 0:17:29.320 about the abuse of Maskal and his colleagues, and she 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:33.080 tried to stop it by doing things like making excuses 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:35.560 for girls when he was calling them to his office, 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:37.880 you know, like saying things oh, they can't get there. 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:41.000 They couldn't get away, Sorry about that. In May of 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:44.800 nineteen sixty nine, sister Kathy had approached young Jeen Wayner 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:48.359 and just asked her straight out whether the priest had 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:52.560 been hurting her, and Jean admitted that yes they had, 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:56.720 and apparently Kathy promised her that something would be done 0:17:56.760 --> 0:17:59.520 about it and basically tells her to go off and 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:02.239 just try to enjoy her summer because she was going 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:03.040 to take care of it. 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:06.480 And apparently this is where things start to really take 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:10.240 a dark turn. So as we know, Kathy Sesnick disappeared 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:13.720 in November of nineteen sixty nine and then was found 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:17.560 dead the following January. But after she went missing, Geene 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:21.000 Wayner says that Father Maskell took her Gene for a 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:23.919 car ride, which I guess was a common thing that 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:27.680 the priests would just take these young girls for trips places, right. 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:31.160 I guess at the time families really trusted these priests 0:18:31.240 --> 0:18:35.800 like Joseph Maskull to do this. But when Jean and 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.680 Father Maskeal get out of the car after they've driven somewhere, 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:41.639 he walks her over to a field where she says 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:45.120 that she saw sister Kathy's body there in the field. 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:47.960 Some pretty graphic details here for anybody who's sensitive to that. 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:50.360 If you are, I recommend you skip ahead a few seconds. 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:51.840 So. 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:55.600 According to the Huffington Post quote, Sesnick was still clad 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:58.919 in her aqua colored coat and maggots were crawling on 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:01.439 her face. Yer tried to brush them off with her 0:19:01.480 --> 0:19:04.480 bare hands. Help me get these off of her, she cried, 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:08.280 turning to Maskell in a panic. Instead, she says, the 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:10.760 priest leaned down behind her and whispered in her ear. 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:13.840 You see what happens when you say bad things about people. 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:21.440 H shit, it makes my skin crawl, my blood boil 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:27.240 to think that you know a priest who you look 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:32.480 up to, supposedly trust, and this is going on. You 0:19:32.560 --> 0:19:35.040 can't make this up. This is like a movie, right, 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:37.960 but this is actually happening. 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:39.960 Yeah, I mean this is something you would expect to see, 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.359 like in The Godfathers rights right, Like it's just absolutely insane, 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:48.119 like too diabolical to you know, even be real. But 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:51.000 when Jean Wayner finally builds up the courage to tell 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:54.640 the story in nineteen ninety four, she describes details about 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:58.560 Kathy Sestek's body that were only known to investigators at 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:01.280 the time, like the blue coat exactly. 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:05.399 And then there's Teresa Lancaster, the other woman who filed 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:07.960 the nineteen ninety four suit along with Gene Wayner. And 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:10.960 it's important to note here that both of these women 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:15.200 were actually anonymous at the time of the filing, and 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:19.920 Teresa at the time she also experienced retaliation for confiding 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:24.360 in sister Kathy. She claims that Maskal drove her out 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:26.960 to a wooded area where there were lots of police 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:31.879 milling around, and that two police officers raped her in 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:37.080 the back seat while Maskell stood outside of the police 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:41.840 car talking and laughing with the other cops. 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:47.960 I mean, this is just pure evil on every level possible. 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.800 So I think it's interesting here to realize that this 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:54.560 is now becoming a much bigger issue, right, this is 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:58.200 no longer just about abuse within the catholictures. Obviously that's 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:00.679 a huge part of it. But now all we're seeing 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:05.760 law enforcement get involved in a very dark way, a 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:09.119 very criminal way. And so what we're seeing is this 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:14.000 balloon out, this picture of abuse and cover up that 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:18.280 involves an entire city and all of the forces within 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:19.520 a city, like law enforcement. 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:24.679 Yeah, I mean, this explains a lot obviously about why 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:28.560 the police never saw this case because so many of 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:32.560 them were a part of it. You know. It's just 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:37.119 it's really just corruption at every level. It's when you 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:41.520 talk about above the law, this is that and so 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:42.120 much more. 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:46.639 Right. It's different types of people, but they're all taking 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:50.520 advantage of authority and power in very evil ways. Right. 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:53.919 So this actually reminds me of the corruption that was 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:59.639 happening in LAPD when our great grandfather George Hodell was 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:03.080 a cue used of killing Elizabeth Short, also known as 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:06.680 the Black Dahlia. Because he had so much, so much 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:10.960 dirt on the police officers of the LAPD. We all 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:15.600 believe that's one of the reasons that he was never convicted. 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:19.720 You know, like corruption to the nth level. And that's 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:21.520 it feels just like that right now. 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:24.239 Yeah, this can take place in Baltimore, LA, you know, 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:31.520 nineteen forties, nineteen sixties whenever. So moving forward, other victims 0:22:31.760 --> 0:22:34.760 also described Maskell as bringing them to places where police 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:38.159 officers would abuse them. So this is just keeps going on. 0:22:38.800 --> 0:22:42.400 It turns out that Maskell's brother was a police lieutenant, 0:22:42.680 --> 0:22:45.760 and it seems he really had the entire police force 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:48.960 in the area under his complete control. So they're like 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:53.159 one family that has authority over this entire region. 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:54.879 Feels very much like the Godfather. 0:22:55.600 --> 0:22:58.679 So gross, and so as you said earlier, this is 0:22:58.720 --> 0:23:01.919 probably a huge part of the reason why, again this 0:23:02.040 --> 0:23:04.359 case wasn't solved because the police are in on this. 0:23:05.280 --> 0:23:08.640 So other media reports on the story have pointed out 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:11.920 that as late as nineteen ninety four, there is still 0:23:12.119 --> 0:23:15.639 really no justice. The court dismisses all the claims against 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:19.280 Mascal at that point because it's past the statute of limitations. 0:23:19.680 --> 0:23:23.080 So in Maryland, victims of sexual abuse have just three 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:26.320 years from the time the abuse ends or from when 0:23:26.320 --> 0:23:28.760 they discover it to file a civil suit, which is 0:23:28.840 --> 0:23:29.760 not a long time. 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:33.960 No, I mean three years. That's I mean, that's just ridiculous. 0:23:34.000 --> 0:23:34.720 That has to. 0:23:34.760 --> 0:23:37.399