The disappearance of Ray Gricar (Part 2)

[wijg]

On 5/29/2016 at 9:25 AM, lw-intuit said:

For those who have an interest in intuition----I came across something that seemed to pull all of the pieces I have collected together.   For all others not interested, just pass on by. 

I've been studying this case since RG disappeared, and have followed along with what I surmise as being  signs as to what caused RG's disappearance......I came across an article this morning, other signs that fit into what I already have put together as being part of what happened.  For me, this is simply more confirmation that RG's disappearance is related to the JS situation and particularly involving PSU football.  Until now, I have remained open to all possibilities, but  I tend to think the most likely reading, for me, of the signs all point toward the JS situation and SS involvement. 

My first sign was my car shaking and dying at the Susquehanna River in Williamsport, at a sign with a mother and son on it, stating that drugs taken by the mother could affect the child.  In looking back at the JS situation and the Second Mile organization, this is a possible reason young boys might have ended up in the organization, an addicted mother.    The next and most prevalent sign was the horse, which in reading just about any article about JS, the explanation by PSU officials was to describe his behavior as 'horsing' around.  The third sign was the Sodom Schoolhouse not far from where RG's car was found parked in the SOS parking lot.  (I consider the SOS to also be a sign of what was occurring at the time.) Pedophile at PSU, Sodom Schoolhouse.  Fourth sign was when I pulled up a map of Lewisburg, I was shown two men, at the crossroads just across the bridge from where RG's car was found, giving the impression of a Judas betrayal situation with RG and someone else.   I have studied those faces for a long time, and IMO, it is RG with SS. 

The fifth sign was the rock with I 'heart'(drawing) you' above Mill Hall, on the mountainside where my CD screamed, immediately followed by two gun shots in the woods on the mountainside.   Since JS was working at Mill Hall school at the time, where he was finally outed for being a pedophile, I thought the rock was likely to signify his untoward attraction in that area, but now in seeing the following group of symbols that pedophiles use, the heart symbol seemingly the most prevalent of all, I think it has double meaning.  Seeing this has sealed the signs for me as all pointing to the PSU/JS situation.  I thought the rock sign could be for route 80 travelers who might have drug connections in that area, but now I see that pedophiles use it, maybe it was a way to connect pedophiles instead.

http://www.aol.com/article/2016/04/25/these-are-the-pedophile-symbols-you-need-to-know-to-protect-your/21350592/#slide=3870843#fullscreen

The sixth sign was in a dream where I saw a pipeline being dug up, the result of a leak.  A man in a brown uniform (JP graduated from Brown) was communicating with someone at the courthouse, whose secretary was Sue, (that name was later verified by SS regarding the 'found dictaphone').   The Bellefonte 'guy' was directing the digging,  leading me to now think SS was possibly the leak between PSU and RG, (thus possible reason why RG was distraught in the weeks before disappearance, betrayal that he found out about.)    In the dream, JP seemed to be directed to divert attention away from where the leak actually occurred, and had the crew digging in an area that wasn't going to uncover the leak, but the leader was back in Bellefonte, directing the dig.   Both knew about the leak, and both worked to not uncover it.   There were numbers on the pipeline, and now in looking back at the 30--33K on down to 16-25K, I think this had to be money that was paid to keep the 'leak' from being uncovered.  When I pulled this area up on a map, I saw the 'horse', JP, and a small white football player, likely to symbolize the young football player JS was seasoning. 

The dream ended with SS being arrested and it being announced by CDT, local paper.  The arrest has since taken place for drugs but I think there is more, much more.  Has he been given a lie detector test and has his finances been audited?  If not, why not?  His involvement with the JS situation needs to be investigated thoroughly.  

All JMO.

Joe Paterno's involvement makes for a juicy story, but I just don't see it. I believe it was Posnanski who reported that when Jay was reading the GJ presentment to Joe in their living room, he actually asked "what's sodomy?". Sounds more likely he was someone that was perhaps ignorant of what was going on around him rather than some sort of 84 year old super-villain criminal mastermind.

[Regi]

I want to point out that the reason I think that the Sloane tape is an intriguing aspect is first- simply because it even exists.

Now I don't know the DA office protocol re: cassette tapes once they're transcribed- I'd expect that they'd be used to be dictated over and over again- and so it appears to me that it would have been up to Gricar as to whether to maintain such a record.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wijg]

I've been browsing through the online archives of some newspapers. Pretty much everything I've found confirms what we already know about Gricar. Very much by the book. Even prosecuted someone in his own party for corruption. An interesting anecdote: he was once invited to debate in an open forum on PSU's campus re: marijuana reform. To summarize his views, he basically said "I'm happy to be here and debate. But I'm not the right person to talk to really. It's my sworn duty to enforce the laws on the books. If you want to change the law, you should talk to your legislators". When pressed for his opinion, his response was essentially "My opinion on the matter isn't relevant. Nor should it be. My duty is to uphold the law. Whether or not I agree or disagree with a statute is irrelevant. Again, your state legislators are the people you should be talking to". So yeah, very much by the book, a real life Jack McCoy.

In my browsing through some of these papers, I found one article from the Daily Collegian very interesting. This is dated 4/4/2006. See the attached image. I don't know what to make of it.

 

[lw-intuit]

On 6/1/2016 at 10:56 AM, wijg said:

I've been browsing through the online archives of some newspapers. Pretty much everything I've found confirms what we already know about Gricar. Very much by the book. Even prosecuted someone in his own party for corruption. An interesting anecdote: he was once invited to debate in an open forum on PSU's campus re: marijuana reform. To summarize his views, he basically said "I'm happy to be here and debate. But I'm not the right person to talk to really. It's my sworn duty to enforce the laws on the books. If you want to change the law, you should talk to your legislators". When pressed for his opinion, his response was essentially "My opinion on the matter isn't relevant. Nor should it be. My duty is to uphold the law. Whether or not I agree or disagree with a statute is irrelevant. Again, your state legislators are the people you should be talking to". So yeah, very much by the book, a real life Jack McCoy.

In my browsing through some of these papers, I found one article from the Daily Collegian very interesting. This is dated 4/4/2006. See the attached image. I don't know what to make of it.

 

That is indeed interesting since it is back in 2006, long before the JS story broke.   Wonder how this guy tied all of this together with RG?  Interesting also that he was from Mifflinburg, a town not far from Lewisburg where RG went missing.  I wonder what local government office he worked at. 

[lw-intuit]

On 5/31/2016 at 9:39 AM, wijg said:

Joe Paterno's involvement makes for a juicy story, but I just don't see it. I believe it was Posnanski who reported that when Jay was reading the GJ presentment to Joe in their living room, he actually asked "what's sodomy?". Sounds more likely he was someone that was perhaps ignorant of what was going on around him rather than some sort of 84 year old super-villain criminal mastermind.

I personally find Jay's story hard to believe.  JP was a staunch Catholic, obviously a catechism student when young for joining the church where one of the four major sins is the sin of Sodom.  To believe that JP attended catechism, then as a church member attended mass regularly and never knew what the sin of Sodom is, is unbelievable to me. 

[Regi]

Re: the 04/06 article, my take is that the man was mentally disturbed, delusional.

It's my understanding that Gricar had charged and/or prosecuted Penn State football players and I think that's the reason why- given that Gricar was missing a year by then- the man was "looking for Gricar, among several other missions", at the Lasch buiding.

Edited June 3, 2016 by regi

[lw-intuit]

Nothing new in this article but RG continues to make it in the news, as recently as yesterday. 

http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/article81850862.html

[lw-intuit]

In searching back through articles about RG's disappearance, I came across this particular one which I found interesting.  I was wondering how or if any of the disorganization was able to be organized by State Police.  Was 'evidence collecting dust' then followed up on?    It's another year passed since then and still we hear nothing.  Do any tips/leads continue to come in or is it all just a mystery now, likely never to be solved? 

In 2014, the state police took over, but that was nine years after Gricar went missing and two years after he had been declared legally dead.

Sources close to the investigation told CNN the case, as state police received it, was disorganized and porous. Evidence had been compromised in storage. Reports were missing. Evidence had been collecting dust in file cabinets. There was never a forensic audit of his finances.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/15/us/ray-gricar-missing-prosecutor/index.html

 

Edited June 20, 2016 by lw-intuit

[Regi]

State police were on board early on. Now I don't know the extent of their involvement or in what capacity, but it was reported that they'd conducted some of the interviews.

As for a 'forensic audit', I'm sure Gricar's finances were examined to some degree because it was reported that he'd used a credit card for bills and other expenses and withdrew hundreds at a time from the ATM, which authorities figured wasn't a significant amount, although I remember wondering- and I'm still curious to know- how and where he'd use those amounts of cash...

Buehner's never made any sense to me. I've just never understood his rationale...how he puts what together...

I'm with Rickard in that I also haven't lost hope that one day the data from the laptop hard drive can be recovered. (I highly doubt it'll be possible but I wouldn't think it's hopeless.)

Edited June 21, 2016 by regi

[MAV1962]

I read through both threads and got to the end and I can hear the crickets chirping. That's what I get for being gone so long. Hoping to revive this useful discussion. I found the discussion about PF very intriguing, especially in light of the timeline posted earlier, which highlights the gaps in what we know, e.g., what Ray did at home the night before he left, why he and Patty did not discuss dinner plans during the cell phone call. etc. I don't believe RG committed suicide or walked away for the same reasons most who share this opinion have come to reject those possibilities. The scent evidence at the site where the Mini Cooper was found is a central point to my thinking. So in my view, if RG drove the car to that point, which I doubt, someone else picked him up and took him to another site. If he didn't drive the Mini to that point, he was likely already dead. I like the McStay case comparison regarding the vehicles, but this is an old tactic common in murder cases, where the car is left in some evocative point (near the border in the McStay case, at the airport, at the mall, etc). 

If he was murdered, it was:  1) done by someone close to him, out of passion or something to gain (as is the case in most murders); 2) it was a random killing, the result of RG being in the wrong place at the wrong time; 3) or it had to do with RG's work or professional connections. I can pretty much eliminate #2 because that sort of murder looks a lot more disorganized than the facts of this case would indicate.  Either #1 or #3 could involve someone that RG met away from the vicinity of his home or office who had something to gain that we are not aware of. 

I am still pondering the comment someone made about the laptop. I wonder if the laptop was sort of a red herring--that perhaps someone came to see RG that morning or returned to the house with RG's keys, knowing PF wasn't home and took the laptop. Leaving the case was smart in 2 ways--it would have been one more thing to dispose of and if the case were there, perhaps it would delay the discovery that the laptop was missing. If I could know anything, I would want to know about all of the activity on RG's home computer and desktop at work, including files that were deleted, for, say, 10 days before and after he disappeared--as well as the contents of any portable disks or whatever was in use back then. The killer may not have known whether or not anything was on the laptop; that might have been the point of destroying the whole machine.  

I think the phone call story is full of holes and red flags, but they don't necessarily point to PF. I think there are several possibilities. LE and Patty might know very well that RG was in harm's way and they aren't telling the public. Another possibility is the RG and PF were going through a rough patch and RG was giving her a bit of the silent treatment by not going to work and taking a long drive without her.  If that were the case, she could be telling the full truth even though his Friday plans looked nothing like their usual weekend pattern. In that case, what RG was doing and the content of the calls are running on parallel tracks. Where he went and who he saw may have only involved PF insofar as the distance between them gave him an opportunity to be away for a day. A third possibility is that RG didn't make the call--or made the call in the presence of someone he could not speak normally in front of. 

So there are the pebbles I'm tossing in the pool. 

 

 

[docyabut2]

Quote

35 minutes ago, MAV1962 said:

I read through both threads and got to the end and I can hear the crickets chirping. That's what I get for being gone so long. Hoping to revive this useful discussion. I found the discussion about PF very intriguing, especially in light of the timeline posted earlier, which highlights the gaps in what we know, e.g., what Ray did at home the night before he left, why he and Patty did not discuss dinner plans during the cell phone call. etc. I don't believe RG committed suicide or walked away for the same reasons most who share this opinion have come to reject those possibilities. The scent evidence at the site where the Mini Cooper was found is a central point to my thinking. So in my view, if RG drove the car to that point, which I doubt, someone else picked him up and took him to another site. If he didn't drive the Mini to that point, he was likely already dead. I like the McStay case comparison regarding the vehicles, but this is an old tactic common in murder cases, where the car is left in some evocative point (near the border in the McStay case, at the airport, at the mall, etc). 

If he was murdered, it was:  1) done by someone close to him, out of passion or something to gain (as is the case in most murders); 2) it was a random killing, the result of RG being in the wrong place at the wrong time; 3) or it had to do with RG's work or professional connections. I can pretty much eliminate #2 because that sort of murder looks a lot more disorganized than the facts of this case would indicate.  Either #1 or #3 could involve someone that RG met away from the vicinity of his home or office who had something to gain that we are not aware of. 

I am still pondering the comment someone made about the laptop. I wonder if the laptop was sort of a red herring--that perhaps someone came to see RG that morning or returned to the house with RG's keys, knowing PF wasn't home and took the laptop. Leaving the case was smart in 2 ways--it would have been one more thing to dispose of and if the case were there, perhaps it would delay the discovery that the laptop was missing. If I could know anything, I would want to know about all of the activity on RG's home computer and desktop at work, including files that were deleted, for, say, 10 days before and after he disappeared--as well as the contents of any portable disks or whatever was in use back then. The killer may not have known whether or not anything was on the laptop; that might have been the point of destroying the whole machine.  

I think the phone call story is full of holes and red flags, but they don't necessarily point to PF. I think there are several possibilities. LE and Patty might know very well that RG was in harm's way and they aren't telling the public. Another possibility is the RG and PF were going through a rough patch and RG was giving her a bit of the silent treatment by not going to work and taking a long drive without her.  If that were the case, she could be telling the full truth even though his Friday plans looked nothing like their usual weekend pattern. In that case, what RG was doing and the content of the calls are running on parallel tracks. Where he went and who he saw may have only involved PF insofar as the distance between them gave him an opportunity to be away for a day. A third possibility is that RG didn't make the call--or made the call in the presence of someone he could not speak normally in front of. 

So there are the pebbles I'm tossing in the pool. 

 

Well here`s still my opinion, RG may have been murdered at his home or some where near his home. Someone drove his car  and set up the whole scene, throwing his lap top in the river  and even setting up a witness claiming  he was in the antique shop. The fact is the dogs pick up his scent in the car, but no scent  or trail  of him ever leaving  that car.     

 

 

[MAV1962]

I think that could have happened. It squares with someone stealing the laptop but deciding to leave the case. If RG had taken the laptop, he would have left it in the case. I don't use my briefcase style lap top case--I already have enough luggage to drag around with a purse, etc.--but I have a padded zippered case I use when I take it out of my office to protect it. I wouldn't take it OUT of any case to take it on a trip, especially if I might need cords, chargers, and perhaps a mouse at the time RG was working.

That would point to someone RG knew well enough to allow in the house.

Edited July 16, 2016 by MAV1962

[docyabut2]

37 minutes ago, MAV1962 said:

I think that could have happened. It squares with someone stealing the laptop but deciding to leave the case. If RG had taken the laptop, he would have left it in the case. I don't use my briefcase style lap top case--I already have enough luggage to drag around with a purse, etc.--but I have a padded zippered case I use when I take it out of my office to protect it. I wouldn't take it OUT of any case to take it on a trip, especially if I might need cords, chargers, and perhaps a mouse at the time RG was working.

That would point to someone RG knew well enough to allow in the house.

Also there were cigarette ashes in the car, when RG did not smoke.

[Regi]

1 hour ago, MAV1962 said:

I think that could have happened. It squares with someone stealing the laptop but deciding to leave the case. If RG had taken the laptop, he would have left it in the case. I don't use my briefcase style lap top case--I already have enough luggage to drag around with a purse, etc.--but I have a padded zippered case I use when I take it out of my office to protect it. I wouldn't take it OUT of any case to take it on a trip, especially if I might need cords, chargers, and perhaps a mouse at the time RG was working.

That would point to someone RG knew well enough to allow in the house.

I don't ever think what would I do...and the reason is because this or that person and I may not be of the same mind...so...

I don't think Gricar was concerned about accessories...it appears to me that his only concern was about the info on the laptop and that's why he took the laptop and left the rest.

It appears to me that it may have been later when he'd decided that removing the hard drive was even more sufficient to accomplish his original intent.

 

Edit: However it occurs, I think it's a good thing when an old thread is revived.

Edited July 17, 2016 by regi

[W H I T E]

Just now, regi said:

I don't ever think what would I do...and the reason is because this or that person and I may not be of the same mind...so...

I don't think Gricar was concerned about accessories...it appears to me that his only concern was about the info on the laptop and that's why he took the laptop and left the rest.

It appears to me that it may have been later when he'd decided that removing the hard drive was even more sufficient to accomplish his original intent.

 

Edit: However it occurs, I think it's a good thing when an old thread is revived.

Yeah, I agree.  Although I almost regret finding this section because there's just so much good reading I can't keep up!

[MAV1962]

I agree that people should not base analysis on personal habits or experience. However, it's reasonable to take not of what you never see:. people walking about with laptops out of their cases. I've been a starte worker, a university researcher, a high school teacher, and a college professor and thus have worked with thousands of people who use laptops. Never saw anyone carrying one around without a case or a backpack. Most people even have cases for phones and tablets. 

Your assumption is that RG intended to destroy the laptop? Because otherwise, why take it out of the case?

 

[SuperSmith]

For what it's worth, I recall a coworker indicate that RG would carry the laptop from his office to courtrooms, etc. w/o the case.  Of course that's quit a bit shorter of a trip than where it ended up. 

I still feel the Lewisburg scene was staged which includes the disposal of the laptop. I believe Gricar was setup and I have to date not been able to eliminate Fornicola as at least having a hand in it. 

Edited July 19, 2016 by SuperSmith

[MAV1962]

SuperSmith, that's good to know. It changes my thinking on the computer issue if he actually did that. I'd like to know who the co-worker was, though, because we are in agreement as to what likely happened. I don't know who did it, but I don't think he ever got to Lewisburg. And if he intended to be back to go to dinner with Patty as usual, would that trip even have been possible? So--either he died in his home or nearby or encountered a killer in some location and the car was moved---sleight of hand, look over here, not there...

 

In general, people are more likely to be murdered by someone they know.

[Regi]

On 7/16/2016 at 8:39 PM, MAV1962 said:

 Your assumption is that RG intended to destroy the laptop? Because otherwise, why take it out of the case?

Well it doesn't matter to me that just the laptop itself was taken, but yes, I think Gricar ditched the laptop and the main reason I think that is due to the circumstances surrounding the laptop prior to his disappearance.

Btw, I've never understood how those circumstances are reconciled otherwise, I mean, since the home computer searches were prior to his disappearance, what's the rationale behind the notion that anyone else could-or would have made such searches?

[MAV1962]

I don't understand "the circumstances surrounding the laptop prior to his disappearance"? Do you mean the search about clearing files off the hard drive?

[Regi]

^ I think the most significant circumstance is searches on his home computer, searches made at least a month prior to his disappearance, searches such as how to wreck a hard drive, and how to fry a hard drive, and water damage to a computer notebook...

 

 

 

 

[MAV1962]

I have a lot of skepticism about those searches. First, we don't know who made them or why.  RG might have had a number of professional reasons to try various search terms about computers. If he were going to disappear and trash the HD, it seems likely he would not have left this kind of evidence behind. He could just take the laptop and use it or ditch it somewhere. Or carried out the "erasing" and left the computer behind. The suicide scenario is just not plausible, given the location of the vehicle, the lack of scent track, and the fact that his body was never found. I think the information about the computer search term has been exaggerated by those who flog the "walkaway" scenario. It might be worth reading the second press release to see what 2-B is talking about. Myself, I'm willing to believe JKA that RG was scrupulous about taking care of county property. It might be that RG had it with him for some reason and the killer or killers didn't want to leave it with the car. This quotation is from 2-B's post,  #239  Aug. 28.  

Quote

I can't cut and paste from the document, but the language in what appears as the second press release is interesting re the computer searches--the paragraph which begins with how a search of Gricar's home turned up little information. the emphasis in that paragraph is on the known information: that Gricar had expressed interest in wanting to erase the hard drive on the laptop, that this seemed to be a preparatory step toward his eventual retirement, and that the history on the desktop showed searches for Window Washer 5.0 (listed first) plus the other more inflammatory terms.

As I read that paragraph, it was not the "bombshell" it became once it appeared in the media, which skewed toward "eliminates foul play," and emphasized the inflammatory search terms. The press release made it very easy to see a guy who wanted (pre-Blogger Dude's "obliterate the data" mantra) only to erase his hard drive before retirement, a prudent step anyone would take but especially a DA with sensitive case material on his computer. How easy would it be for him to sit there searching for Window Washer 5.0 and have Google suggest other search terms which he idly clicked on, perhaps.... That would be one very simple explanation for the linguistic anomalies.

We know that LE did not conduct the kind of investigation that should have been conducted into the disappearance of a prominent citizen, especially the chief elected law enforcement officer in a county. The house should have been searched for forensic clues. Luminol should have been used to check for blood. The people closest to the victim should have been polygraphed not about whether they had "heard" from him but about the disappearance, their statements about it, and their whereabouts. Had the house been treated like a crime scene and turned up clean, we could have more confidence in the notion that RG took and destroyed the computer. As it is, we have only PF's word that she talked to RG to support the notion that RG was alive on that day. Anyone could have taken the computer, driven the car and left it. Or RG might have been in the presence of his killer if he did call. How would LE know if they didn't treat the case as a crime from the beginning?  See JKA's internet statement for a thorough discussion of major discrepancies in what LE said about the cell phone, in the first 2 years. She worked with the guy every day and her first thoughts weren't suicide or walkaway. 

Edited July 27, 2016 by MAV1962

[MAV1962]

I also want to make a few points about RG's brother's suicide by drowning.

Here is SuperSmith, asking a question, post #481, Jan. 6

Quote

Tony said that his father feared water. I would love to know a percentage of suicide death that were done in a method the individual feared most. I imagine it's very minute.

Here is 2-B, in an earlier post, #281. Sept, 14, on RG's brother Roy's suicide:

Quote

It does sound odd on the face of things that someone afraid of water would commit suicide by jumping in a river. And I think that's probably true for the "normal" suicidal person.

But Roy had untreated (at that time) bi-polar disorder. From the reading I've done and from knowing a few folks who have struggled with this, I gather it's not unusual for sufferers to act out of character and to engage in high risk behavior they would never otherwise engage in. Whether that's enough to overcome phobias, I'm not sure, but I do know, for instance, that women who would never otherwise engage in risky sexual behavior have been involved in some very dangerous, promiscuous situations.

None of that means Ray didn't have reason to suspect or know something we don't. Just that Roy boy's fear of water isn't enough for me to say, "He never would have chosen a drowning death." I think an unmedicated bi-polar suicidal mind would operate differently than ours would and differently than the garden variety suicidal mind would.

I know of at least one person who was deathly afraid of water, and particularly someone close to her drowning, but who herself committed suicide by drowning. She wouldn't even send her kids to the local pool, supervised by lifeguards, without a babysitter because of her fear. Back in those days, the rest of the mothers sent kids to the well-supervised pool without a second thought.  This woman was long thought to have some mental "issues" but back in the day there was either no diagnosis or no treatment. As I look back, she may well have been bi-polar but we had no terms for that or really any other mental health problem in those days. People were just crazy or "mental." So based on this very "minute" sample of mine, I can't say someone afraid of water wouldn't commit suicide that way. The big difference between RG and his brother, however, is that he did not have untreated bi-polar disorder at the time he disappeared. And we know that his "sleeping more" was an argument used to crack confidentiality rules to see his medical records, so any kind of long-term depression deep enough for suicide seems unlikely. Finally, we know RG did not believe his brother committed suicide. As someone with a close relationship to a suicide, I can tell you that the pain and uncertainly of suicide never ends--even for friends of the deceased and the family. I can't see a man of RG's temperament, general good health, and nearness to retirement doing that to his daughter. That's the reason RG believed so strongly that his brother wouldn't kill himself--he believed his brother wouldn't do that to his kids. Speaks volumes of a man's awareness of the impact of suicide on close family members. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SuperSmith]

http://www.spreaker.com/user/oppermanreport/ray-blehar-second-mile-sandusky-scandal

A must hear and read. Gricar meeting his demise due to Sandusky and the shadows behind him are becoming a very real reality. 

Second Mile Sandusky Sex Scandal

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Summary of My Opperman Interview Posted: 29 Jul 2016 09:23 PM PDT Summarizing a two hour show isn't easy.   I'll begin by getting to the BOTTOM LINE of interview and then highlighting the evidence, including new information (or lesser reported information) that should make for an interesting read for those of you who don't have two hours to listen.     But after you read this, you'll want to listen.   SUMMARY (starts at 100:48) The evidence in the Sandusky case supports that former officials of the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General (OAG)  - since at least 1998 - have been involved in protecting wealthy individuals with political/financial ties to Republican Party, The Second Mile (TSM) charity and to Penn State University (PSU).    PSU and Louis Freeh were complicit in ensuring these individuals were not touched by the scandal (pun intended).  Among the individuals who meet the description above are former Second Mile Board Members Bruce Heim, Robert Poole, Lance Shaner, and Richard (Ric) Struthers.  These individual's ties to PSU and TSM were ignored by the Harrisburg Patriot News and by Louis Freeh.    Because of the protection scheme, it is highly likely that the Sandusky investigation would ended without a trial had it not been for a political vendetta that former PA Governor Tom Corbett had against former  PSU President Graham Spanier.   In order to exact the vendetta, Corbett had his AG office make a case against Spanier while making every attempt to not implicate TSM or entities of the Pennsylvania government (i.e., child protective services and the police).   There is also a very good possibility that government officials and others made use of TSM as a child sex trafficking operation -- and that this was the prominent reason for the foot dragging on the  investigation of Sandusky.   Finally, the porngate case revealed that some government officials were trading inappropriate and/or pornographic emails instead of investigating the Sandusky case.   SUPPORTING EVIDENCE DISCUSSED ON SHOW   The clearing of Sandusky in 1998 and the foot-dragging on the Sandusky case and the avoidance of investigating TSM in 2008 to 2011 point to Tom Corbett and his AG's office colluding to protect individuals with ties to the charity, the GOP, and Penn State.   Corbett recommended Freeh to conduct the PSU investigation of Sandusky.  Freeh's investigation did not discuss any of the business relationships you will read here, but instead mimicked the biased media reports on the  insignificant ties between PSU alumni, PSU sports and TSM.   One of those who went unreported was Robert Poole, as the Chairman of the Board of Directors at TSM who held parties at his mansion that were attended by TSM children. He is a distinguished alumnus and key donor/fundraiser for Penn State University also hosted a fund raiser for former Governor Tom Corbett.  Poole owns a construction business and had many contracts worth millions of dollars with PSU.    Ric Struthers cut a $30 million dollar deal with PSU for MBNA to be the official credit card of the Penn State Alumni Association.  Struthers had a connection to Louis Freeh through his job at MBNA.  According to one alleged victim, he visited Struthers' MBNA Suite in Beaver Stadium. Local State College businessman Bruce Heim is involved in real estate and owns The Apartment Store - the official sponsor of the (PSU) Beaver Stadium Student Section.   Heim also is a member of the ownership group of the Hilton Garden Hotel that was used by Sandusky as a private location to molest children.  Heim was involved in TSM's Friend Fitness program -- the very program Sandusky used to get his victims alone for one-on-one workouts and showering. Heim set up a similar program in the Philadelphia area at the Upper Main Line YMCA. Lance Shaner had the unfortunate circumstance to be associated with TSM and the Hole in the Wall Gang (in Connecticut) that were both rocked by sex scandals.  GOP headquarters in Harrisburg is named for Shaner, who also is the CEO of Rex Energy (natural gas) and Shaner Hotels.  Shaner co-owns a plane with Heim, in a partnership called Charlie Brown Air.    There were reports of a plane occasionally flying from State College to the Cayman's. Perhaps some of this money made it onto Charlie Brown Air and then to the Cayman's (off-shore accounts).   A less well known individual from the Philadelphia area owned a very successful corporation and also was the sponsor of a grant giving charity.  This individual donated at least $75,000 to TSM and was named an Honorary Director at one time.     This person attended Girard College for boys in Philadelphia - a school that has had its share of sex scandals.  According to one Philadelphia writer, he had more sex as a boy at Girard than he did in college.     All this money flowing around the charity's board members and donors, yet none of the people involved were mentioned by any major news media, while the blame was all directed at Paterno and Penn State. Why is that? Ed Opperman's Response:  "Now that's starting to make sense.  If I've got an operation where I've got little kids and I'm handing them over to people, now you can blackmail or they're going along with it because they know you have pictures of them with little kids. Now you start getting all these contracts and building contracts.  Now, the crap hits the fan and its not coming out of my pocket cause we can take it out of Penn State.  Am I onto something?" Me:  "Yes. Because actually in the settlements, they said -- Penn State wrote a provision in the settlements that the claimants couldn't turn around and sue Second Mile....these guys are covering themselves and they're covering their buddies."   JERRY'S M.O. & OTHER POSSIBLE PEDOPHILES   Jerry Sandusky would identify potential victims during The Second Mile's (TSM) Summer Challenge Camp.  According to FBI expert, Ken Lanning, pedophiles may eventually develop an expertise at identifying the most vulnerable children. Sandusky would introduce himself and obtain their names, putting those names on a list.   As the founder and face of TSM, Jerry did whatever he wanted to do at the charity -- which likely included reviewing the participant records to get background information on the boys over the course of the year.  Using his research, he would narrow down and select his targets for victimization, marking those names with an asterisk and approach them at their second year of attending camp.    After the camp was over, he reached out to them for one-on-one activities and then use a screening process based on the degree to which a child would go before rebuffing his advances.  Those who rebuffed early would still be kept around, however, Sandusky would eventually find boys who didn't resist.  Those boys ended up in long term -- almost boyfriend-girlfriend type - relationships with Sandusky until they turned about 15.  At that point they would break off relations.  Sandusky typically did not take the break ups very well and in one instance made over 60 calls to one child.  He would also write them letter to try to get them back.     Ed Opperman:  "You mentioned how he operated.  That stuff. It's fascinating. I've never heard this before, One year he would pick the ones he wanted, do research on them, then start working on them the next year,   Me:  That's Correct.   Ed:  How did we know that.  How did that come out?   Me: Well, I'm the person that put it out, okay. But and if you read the grand jury presentment and you fill in the gaps the investigators didn't fill in -- because they weren't very good -- they put a narcotics investigator in charge of a child sex abuse investigation.     Ed: When I listen to you talk, I have my head in my hands when I listen to this.  It's amazing.   The guy, he had, he set up like a business where he could lure them in -- a huge number of them -- and whittle them down, funnel them down to the ones he wanted to victimize.   Ed: Was there any indications that he could have been sharing these kids with other pedophiles because they do have a tendency to do that right?   Me: Yeah, they do   Two other TSM donors -- who were pictured in Sandusky's book Touched -- also were involved in highly questionable activities.     (16:40) One man pictured in Sandusky's book (Person A) grew up fatherless in Washington, Pennsylvania -- Sandusky's home town. He was not a big donor to TSM, however Sandusky's appeal revealed that he allegedly provided a used pick-up truck to victim A.M.   Person  A owns a business in New Jersey.   A.M. also was involved in an unusual transaction that included TSM's Executive Director, Dr. Jack Raykovitz giving him a grant of $1,600 (sic).   Sandusky then set up a checking account for A.M. to deposit the money.  A.M. then wrote a check to Raykovitz for $1600 (sic) for the purchase of a used Toyota Camry.  Kind of looks like money laundering.   A federal agent jokingly referred to the TSM investigation as the "Cars For Kids" case.    Another individual (Person provided grants of $500 to a Sandusky victim (A.M.)  in 2001 and 2002, identical $500 grants in the same year to another TSM participant (F.P), and a grant of $290 to another victim in 2000.    The victim who allegedly received the $290 stated he was unaware of the grant.  Moreover, A.M. stated that Sandusky showed him a stock account worth $500 and that Person B was someone Sandusky relied upon for stock advice.     Additional investigation revealed the Sandusky served on the Compensation, Stock Option, and Audit Committee of Person B's charity.  It seems that those who believed Sandusky was no master-mind may have it wrong.  Jerry was a lot more intelligent than anyone knew.   I worked with a team of accountants and a fraud expert to determine that at least $1 million dollars per year was missing from the charity's revenues each year over a several year period.    Without subpoena power or the ability to get search warrants, I have no idea where the money went.  It's up to law enforcement to figure it out.   Ed:  "How far have you traced it?"   Me:  "Well, as I said, you go to his book, and the one person running a charity in Philadelphia is connected to this.  The other person who has a business in New Jersey is connected to this and donating money.  Then you have political people -- judges and a senator who are all involved in the charity.  And you have two years of foot dragging by the Pennsylvania government in not investigating The Second Mile."    CORRECTION: THE 2001 INCIDENT   (33:54) Ed: "Wasn't there a witness who saw him having *spam filter* with a little boy?   Me: Uh, no.   Ed:  Then what was that incident?   Me:  "Well, that was what was reported in the grand jury presentment.  As it turned out, at the trial he was acquitted of that charge because the witness said no, I really didn't see that.  The witness, Mike McQueary, has changed his story several times on what he actually saw."   (47:25) CLARIFICATION: JOE PATERNO's KNOWLEDGE    Ed: "Now there's a lot of people who think Paterno had to have known. What other instances was Paterno aware of these accusations and stuff?"   Me: Well, he's been accused of a lot of stuff, but there's only evidence of him being told one time in 2001.   Ed: "That's the only incident when Paterno was ever told about his?"   Me: "That's the only one you can corroborate."   Ed: "Give us an idea of what the other ones are like."   Me: "In 1998, that was the first investigation of Sandusky on Penn State's campus...this one's in the Freeh Report.  There are emails between Tim Curley, Gary Schultz, and the chief of police. Paterno is not on any of the emails.  There's no reference to Paterno anywhere in 1998....then you have these more recent allegations coming out of these insurance settlements.  There are not credible allegations whatsoever...they don't fit Sandusky's m.o. as an acquaintance offender who did this stuff in private....Even the insurance company said these claims don't look like the were vetted....I've read through all these depositions and I can pick out the authentic ones from the phonies immediately.  It was that easy."   (63:51) INSURANCE CASE/SETTLEMENTS    Ed: "If it's your analysis of this that these 32 cases or allegations were just people trying to get money and stuff -- am I correct in that's what you think?"   Me: "No.  No, there's actual victims -- as I said, I can go through and pick out the real ones from the fake ones pretty easy.  So I would say probably the majority are authentic victims but you just have a handful of charlatans, who, you know, showed up for a payday and they weren't weeded out. And then you have some actual victims who came in and embellished their stories to get more money.  Kind of a different class of fraud....civil suit didn't match up with what was given at the trial and anyone in the world could have looked up, especially Feinberg and Rozen who were these crack attorneys from (Washington) D.C. and they didn't figure it out.  Feinberg and Rozen...said they were just mediating financial settlements in a fair and equitable manner.  There was no vetting of these claims -- it was just a bargaining deal."   Ed: "So what's your take on this?"   (65:57) PENN STATE IS HIDING SOMETHING WORSE   Me: "Penn State, when this grand jury presentment came out, they basically get rid of Spanier and Paterno...they knew this was coming for at least six months, but they acted like they were panicked.  There's high powered lawyers on the Board of Trustees at the time they are removing Spanier and Paterno.  One of the guys names is Ken Frazier, who is the CEO of Merck and who was the General Counsel of Merck when they fought the Vioxx lawsuits.  And he fought all those individually so that they could lower out the payouts.  You have that brilliant lawyer sitting there and they fire Paterno and Spanier.  They throw the other two guys -- Curley and Schultz -- under the bus.  And according to a fair reading of the laws, these guys hadn't broken any laws.     When they asked the head of the Board, the Vice-Chairman, who took over in a coup at the time, John Surma, what they read or how they deliberated this, he basically said they just read newspaper reports and what was in the presentment....    ...so from that day forward, it was we fired these guys and now we're going to do everything in our power to make sure the public believes that we fired them for the right reasons.    Ed: "And that was worth $93 million to them?"   Me: "It's more than that. It's like $200 million when you consider all the legal costs involved.  They paid the NCAA $60 million that they didn't have to pay them because they knew there were no NCAA violations in January of 2012.  I actually have personal notes of then-President Rod Erickson.  There's a page of his notes that says they haven't found any NCAA violations. None were ever found....If you read the emails back and forth at the NCAA, they're saying we got nothing.  These are outside the statute of limitations to fine Penn State.   But low and behold, what did Penn State say?  ...fine us $60 million...and what's this based on?  The Freeh Report which also doesn't say anything.   So there's this series of events -- and all of these decisions -- the firing of Paterno, the removal of Spanier, the acceptance of the Freeh Report, the acceptance of the NCAA Consent Decree, taking down Paterno's statue -- none of these things were done by a vote of the Board.  These were all unilateral decisions made by one person or a small group of people.   Ed: "What is your reason for that?  Because I can only see a couple of reasons for that.  One would be extreme incompetence."   Me: "Rule that one out."   Ed: "The other would be to cover-up.  They want to cover up something bigger."   Me:  "That's correct.  I believe your on to something there, Ed."    (go to 70:24 to listen to the rest, where we talk about the 1998 incident, DA Ray Gricar, the recent arrest of Christopher Lee on pornography charges, and the financial relationships between PSU Alumni, U.S. Steel, Merck, and The Second Mile).

 

Edited July 31, 2016 by SuperSmith

[SuperSmith]

Really gets good around the 80 mark