Sandusky, Hellfire, and Lions

Jerry Sandusky was found guilty on 45 of 48 counts at 

the Centre County Court House in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania on June 22, 2012.

The Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal involves allegations made in 2011. The details of the incidents are horrific. Is a final act in sight? But, wait, was there a wider net that could have been thrown? I wrote earlier about whether there might be a large conspiracy here in "Does Sandusky Have Links To Hellfire Groups?" What reality is there to the hints of Sandusky scandal-linked suicides, which I discussed here?

Jerry Sandusky: "Jerry" = English, "holy spear warrior" + "Sandusky" = Wyandot Indian, "cold water."

The details of the case are well-known today, and concern charges against former Pennsylvania State University football assistant coach Jerry Sandusky and allegations of a university cover-up of those incidents. Sandusky, a longtime defensive coordinator under head coach Joe Paterno, retired in 1999 but retained access to Penn State's athletic facilities. A 2011 grand jury investigation reported that Mike McQueary, then a graduate assistant, told Paterno in 2002 that he had seen Sandusky performing a sex act on a 10-year-old boy in Penn State football's shower facilities. A holy spear in the cold water?

Paterno then reported the allegations to Penn State athletic director Tim Curley. In November 2011, Sandusky was arrested on 40 counts of molesting eight young boys over a 15-year period. By the time the trial started, the charges had reached over 50 counts.

Absolutely one of the best local Pennsylvania journalists to read (online and via Twitter) as the scandal and trial unfolded was Sara Ganim. The journalist best tracking this in the national media was Dan Wetzel. (Ah, just can't get too far from the Wetzel name game, I guess.)

In addition to the Sandusky-specific happenings, Curley and university Senior Vice President Gary Schultz resigned after being charged with failing to report the incident to police and lying to a grand jury regarding what they knew about the incident. Why the coverup? Is there a bigger picture that people are missing? Paterno and University President Graham Spanier were not charged, but both received criticism for their handling of the allegations. On November 9, Paterno announced he would retire at the end of the season, but hours later, he and Spanier were formally removed from their positions by the Penn State Board of Trustees. Paterno later died.

If you wish to read more of this history, see here, here, and here. If you wish to see how this scandal actually has now been dated back to, at least, 1995, see here. Regarding news that the victims were mostly young African-American males, for insights about that part of the story which has been ignored by the mainstrem media, see here. 

"The eyes are the window to the soul." ~ Ancient Proverb

Having worked as a psychiatric social worker, in the child protective and child welfare systems, I have been outraged by these events. Some of the testimony of the molested boys trying to be heard by adults who were supposed to have protected them has been the worst. Hopefully, good shall issue forth from these news stories in alerting people to how often such incidents do occur, and how we all need to protect our and other children from such predators.  

As I read of the scandal, the phrase "Nittany Lions" was used frequently. I wondered about the alleged origins of why the school picked this name for their mascot. The "Nittany Lions" are a modern urban legend that was reinforced via an article in the Philadephia Inquirer of January 24, 2006. The news item was about three new mountain lion cubs from South Dakota being placed at the Philadelphia Zoo. The story is only the most recent felid-linked source of the supposed alleged origin of “Nittany Lion” being due to the last puma killed on the mountain named Nittany (at the end of Nittany Valley). What do we really know about this tale?

  

 Is this the actual origin of the "Nittany Lion," 

the last mountain lion killed in Pennsylvania? 

First, why "Nittany"? “Nittany” was around before Penn State, but it certainly has been used by the school (and half of the local businesses within 20 miles) for years.

What is the etymology of the term? The origins of "Nittany" are a bit obscure, but most likely the word comes from a Native American term meaning, "single mountain." Since a number of Algonquian-speaking tribes inhabited central Pennsylvania, the term can’t be traced to one single group. The description applied to the mountain that separates what is today Penns Valley and Nittany Valley, with its western end overlooking the community of State College and Penn State's University Park campus. The first colonial settlers in the 1700s adopted this term, or a variation of it, in formally naming Nittany Mountain (see William Ames' famed photograph of this location, here). Thus by the time Penn State admitted its first students in 1859, the word "Nittany" was already in use.

Following the emergence of the Nittany Lion mascot in the early 1900s, Nittany gained even more public prominence. Today, the word helps to define a host of places, services, and other entities in the Nittany Valley.

   

 This is said to be the last Eastern cougar to have existed in Pennsylvania; it was killed in Pennsylvania in 1874 by Thomas Anson. The felid was formerly part of the collection of Henry Shoemaker. Photo: State Museum of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2006.

The standard line routinely goes something like this: "The Nittany Lion is the mascot of the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania, USA and its athletic teams. It refers to the mountain lions that once roamed near the school, and to Mount Nittany, a local landmark. There is also a fight song played during sporting events on campus entitled 'The Nittany Lion.'"

   

The Nittany Lion mascot pumps up the crowd 

at the 2005 football game versus Cincinnati at Beaver Stadium. 

The Masonic connection is there, however. Well, at least, technically, although it is all about the name, not the Freemasons.

According to PSU sources, the mascot was the creation of Penn State senior H. D. "Joe" Mason in 1907. While on a 1904 trip to Princeton University, Mason had been embarrassed that Penn State did not have a mascot. Mason did not let that deter him: he fabricated the Nittany Lion on the spot and proclaimed that it would easily defeat the Princeton Bengal tiger. The Lion's primary means of attack against the Tiger would be its strong right arm, capable of slaying any foes (this is now traditionally exemplified through one-armed push-ups after the team scores a touchdown). Upon returning to campus, he set about making his invention a reality. In 1907, Mason wrote in the student publication The Lemon:

Every college the world over of any consequence has a college emblem of some kind—all but The Pennsylvania State College . . .. Why not select for ours the king of beasts—the Lion!! Dignified, courageous, magnificent, the Lion allegorically represents all that our College Spirit should be, so why not 'the Nittany Mountain Lion'? Why cannot State have a kingly, all-conquering Lion as the eternal sentinel?

These words later inspired the fight song known as "The Nittany Lion", which begins "Every college has a legend...".

Mountain lions had roamed on nearby Mount Nittany until the 1880s. The origin of the name "Mount Nittany" is obscure, the most commonly accepted explanation being that it is derived of Native American words (loosely pronounced as "neet-a-nee") named after the cougars that roamed the mountain or "single mountain" - a protective barrier against the elements. The name was readily accepted without a vote of the student body. In 1907, the first tangible lion symbols appeared with the placing of two alabaster African lion statues, left over from the Pennsylvania exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, atop the columns at the main campus entrance on College and Allen streets. They were affectionately dubbed by the student body as "Pa" and "Ma." In the 1920s, a pair of stuffed mountain lions was placed in the Recreation Building to watch over athletic events. One of these original lions is now located in Pattee Library on the Penn State campus. About that same time, the tradition was established of having a student dressed in furry-lion outfits appear at football games.

   

The Lion Shrine 

Given by the Class of 1940, the Lion Shrine is by sculptor Heinz Warnecke from a thirteen-ton block of limestone. The sculpture was formally unveiled on October 24, 1942.

In 1904, Joe Mason appears to have based the invention of the "Nittany Lion" on the African lion, not the mountain lions of Pennsylvania, but then, the urban legend around Penn State's "Lions" has a huge publicity relations machine behind it, even today. It will be working overtime as the verdict in the Sandusky trial comes in...

Does Sandusky Have Links To Hellfire Groups?

If you live under a rock or are outside the influence of American media manias, you may not be aware of the fact that there is a major sexual abuse/molestation scandal involving Penn State.

The details of the scandal incidents are horrific. The Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal involves allegations made in 2011 against former Pennsylvania State University football assistant coach Jerry Sandusky and allegations of a university cover-up of those incidents. Sandusky, a longtime defensive coordinator under head coach Joe Paterno, retired in 1999 but retained access to Penn State's athletic facilities. 

A 2011 grand jury investigation and other accounts have reported that Mike McQueary, then a graduate assistant, who found Sandusky raping a young male, stopped the interaction, allegedly talked to the police (via Penn State V.P. Gary Schultz, who oversaw the PSU police department) and told Paterno in 2002.

What McQueary said he reported to Paterno is that he had seen Sandusky performing a sex act on a 10-year-old boy in Penn State football's shower facilities. Paterno then reported the allegations to Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and Schultz was informed.  Reportedly, Curley and Schultz (both indicted for perjury) interviewed McQueary. 

In November 2011, Sandusky was arrested on 40 counts of molesting eight young boys over a 15-year period. (See 23-page transcript here; warning, the contents are graphic.)

These alleged sexual assaults may date back to, at least, 1995, see here, but could they really have begun in the late 1970s, when Jerry Sandusky created his Second Mile charity, which has allegedly been the recruiting grounds for his alleged youthful victims?

Is anyone trying to connect all the dots in the Penn State sex scandal?

The time has come to inquiry more deeply than some wish to go. 

Why are so few people talking about the questions surrounding the victims?

How many have vanished? How many have died by suicide? Been murdered? Are in prison?

Are all of Sandusky's alleged victims African Americans? Why is it only a few people (see here) in the African American community the only ones talking about Sandusky's alleged fetish for "black boys"? Was his choice of black young males because of Jerry Sandusky's sexual preferences or something more sinister?  Was part of Sandusky's possible master plan to keep his alleged sexual assaults as quiet as possible, by taking advantage of the underlying racial, power, and macho issues?

Eight victims are noted in the Grand Jury report. How many more are there? Ten, twenty, or the estimated average of 260, noted by professionals as the number per molester?

What happened to Ray Gricar (above) ~ murder, suicide, or a not-so-simple disappearance? And why? District Attorney Ray Gricar, 59, went missing on April 15, 2005, when he vanished under mysterious circumstances, after his car was left in a Lewisburg parking lot, not far from the Susquehanna River, and he could not be found. Did he kill himself, as his brother seems to have, by drowning, in May 1996? 


Cigarette ash and the smell of cigarette was found in Ray Gricar's red and white 2004 Mini Cooper, although he did not smoke and did not let anyone in his car who smoked. Who was in his car before he disappeared? Was he pressured to not charge Jerry Sandusky with sexual molestation when Gricar investigated the 1998 incidents? Could Gricar not live with himself about this? Or worse?


Did Gricar, who set up the sting against Sandusky, learn of a group of men who are rumored to have partaken of Jerry Sandusky's alleged pimping of African African youth for their sexual "Hellfire Club-like" pleasures?

Why, really, did Joe Paterno (right) force Jerry Sandusky (left) to retire in 1999, after the first hints of the sexual abuse was revealed to police in 1998? Why would no one hire Sandusky elsewhere?


With what kind of people does Jerry Sandusky surround himself? How about someone like Sandusky's lawyer who made a past major questionable judgement about sexual boundaries?

Joe Amendola (above), Jerry Sandusky’s attorney, impregnated a 16-year-old client and married her in 2003. They separated later. Amendola was around 49 when he met the girl. During the Bob Costa's interview, Amendola said he would leave his children with Sandusky. The children's mother was horrified to hear this.

What will further investigations of the Sandusky scandal discover about any links to the alleged nationwide groups of pedophiles using code words like "the hook" and "Peter Pan" (see here)? How far does the coverup reach?

+++

The New York Times posted an article ("Inquiry Grew Into Concerns of a Cover-Up" by Jo Becker) for their November 17, 2011 print edition, which has new information of some import. Here are some intriguing points.

The article appears to disagree with the probable African American profile of the rape victims. Becker writes: "Sandusky engaged in what experts on child predators call 'grooming' behavior, law enforcement officials asserted this month, making his first approach when children were 8 to 12 years old. He tended to choose white boys from homes where there was no father or some difficulty in the family, investigators said, and he drew them in with trips to games and expensive gifts like computers."


But did Sandusky publicly appear with "white boys" and yet allegedly have anal intercourse with "black boys"?


A lingering question remains, what caused Joe Paterno to hasten the 1999 exit of Jerry Sandusky from the Penn State football program by telling him in 1998 that he, Sandusky, was not to be the Nittany Lions' heir apparent? It does not take a genius to figure this one out. Anyone who has worked in an academic setting knows that information moves through the university halls quickly. Wasn't Paterno just possibly trying to save himself from a future problem by showing Sandusky the door, after it became clear that Sandusky's certain kind of likings were coming out in the open?


So, what happened in 1998? The record is clear, and Becker retraces this, with new details about how big the university investigation was and how large the file literally is.


Becker writes: "In 1998, an 11-year-old boy, now known as Victim 6, had come home with wet hair and told his mother he had showered with Sandusky at Penn State’s athletic complex. She immediately reported it to the university police, the grand jury report said.

"As investigators leafed through the old report — it ran close to 100 pages — they came to believe that the campus police officers had truly wanted to make a case against Sandusky, according to people with knowledge of the current investigation. The officers had gone so far as to set up a sting operation in which the boy’s mother called the coach, and, with the police listening in, confronted Sandusky.

"According to the grand jury report, he admitted to showering with her son and another boy, said he did not think that his private parts had touched her son, but acknowledged that what he did was wrong. 'I wish I were dead,' he said, according to the grand jury’s findings.

"Ultimately, the district attorney decided against taking the case to trial..."


Why? We already know that the recent judge who granted Sandusky bail was a volunteer and donator to the Sandusky's Second Mile charity. What other connections exist in this case?


Becker notes: "The district attorney in Centre County, where Sandusky was alleged to have molested the boy [Victim 1], passed the case on to the attorney general. The district attorney, Michael Madeira, said Wednesday [November 16, 2011] that his wife’s biological brother had been adopted by Sandusky years before."

Flash from the Past: Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira (right) and Bellefonte police Chief Shawn Weaver address the media about missing Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar. Madeira said investigators would take a fresh look at the case, but "I think the family has understood that this may never be solved. ... He may be alive. He may be dead." Barry L. Reeger/Tribune-Review

Are the foxes guarding the hen house?

Who actually knew what when and how many of this drama's players are linked into the Second Mile charity? And what was going on over there?

Why has it been difficult to identify the Second Mile-recruited victims? Well, because records have been made to disappear.


Becker discovered that "investigators served numerous subpoenas on the Second Mile, according to people with knowledge of the inquiry. Not only did they want the names of children who had been through the program, they also demanded all of Sandusky’s travel and expense records.

"Much of the older paperwork was stored at an off-site records facility. The travel and expense records, for instance, had been sent over several years earlier. But select members of the charity’s board of directors were alarmed to learn recently that when the records facility went to retrieve them, some of those records — from about 2000 to 2003 — were missing."


An old boy network, missing records, and a coverup. What else is being hidden?