October 27, 2022 • 32 mins
The 1969 murder of Cathy Cesnik involves conspiracy, cover-up, and corruption in the Catholic Church and in law enforcement in Baltimore, Maryland. Rasha and Yvette look at this troubling case, and discuss the issue of abuse in the Catholic Church as a whole.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're listening to Facing Evil, a production of I Heart
Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in
this podcast are solely those of the individuals participating in
the show and do not represent those of I Heart
Radio or Tenderfoot TV. This podcast contains subject matter which
may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.
(00:27):
Hello everyone, welcome back to Facing Evil from Tenderfoot TV
and I Heart Radio. We are your hosts. I'm Rosha
Pecuerero and I am a vegentel A and as always
we are with our amazing producer, Mr Trevor Young. Hey, Hey,
how's it going? Hello? How Trevor Trevor so um. I
know we have a pretty interesting case coming up today.
(00:50):
Very important case has to do with the existence of,
you know, sexual assaults in the Catholic Church, which I
know can be a very touchy issue, and we're going
to get into a very I think powerful story that
illustrates some of those issues. But you know, in that vein,
I was thinking back as we were starting research for
(01:10):
this case about the movie Spotlight. I don't know if
you'll remember watching that. It had Michael Keaton, but it
was about some of the very real life events involving
a sexual misconduct in the Catholic church in Boston is
very good movie. I think at one best picture of
the year it came out. Yeah, I remember that that
movie very well. Um, you know me myself being Catholic
(01:33):
and um, you know, becoming a Catholic actually when I
got married to my husband, who was you know, born
and raised in the Catholic community. But for me, my
mom couldn't remember if she had been baptized or not,
and I just really wanted that blessing. Um if you
had been baptized or not, right, yeah, if I had
been baptized or not. But um, yeah, I I do
(01:57):
remember that movie and it's it's a very very ad movie.
But I also want to talk about The Keepers, and
we're going to get into that, you know, much later
in the episode. But my voice is a little horse
because I just had laryngitis. But while I was home,
I spent seven hours watching this particular documentary called The
(02:20):
Keepers and it was mind blowing. And we will talk
about that later. And Trevor, now will you take us
through today's case. I've talked to the hunter that found
Cathy and he said since the day that he found her.
(02:40):
The police have never talked to him except for that day.
They sought to do the same thing that senior church
leaders in the diocese we investigated have done for decades,
bury the sexual abuse by priests upon children and covered
up forever. And I can hear Cathy saying, I told
you I'd take care of this, and I said, I
didn't think you met twenty years later. Sister Katherine Sessnick
(03:05):
was a young teacher at a Catholic school in Baltimore, Maryland.
Early on the evening of November seventh, nineteen sixty nine,
she disappeared while outrunning errands in her neighborhood. The next morning,
two friends found Sister Kathy's car parked haphazardly nearby, but
weeks went by with no sign of Kathy. Finally, on
(03:26):
January third, nineteen seventy, the body of Sister Katherine Sessnick
was found in a remote area south of the city.
No one was ever charged with her murder, but some
of the investigators were suspicious of the community in the
Catholic school where she taught, especially one of the priests.
In the years that followed, more and more sinister events
(03:46):
came to light, painting a story of sexual abuse and
intimidation at the hands of a powerful diocese that controlled
everyone in its territory, including the police. And so what
happened to Kathy Sessnick, Why weren't the police able to
make a determination in her case? And what does the
story reveal about the dark secrets of the Catholic Church. Okay,
(04:13):
you guys, this is one that we really have to
buckle up for. I mean, this case just gets more
and more crazy, you know, as you go along the
stories that we've told this season, they've touched on some
major issues and today really is no different. But we're
looking at sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, which is
(04:36):
a huge, huge issue that is still very prevalent today. Yeah,
it's really just I think one of many. You know,
it seems like every year there's another story of how
this sort of wide scale abuse is allowed to go
on somewhere or it's just swept under the rug entirely right,
And you know, I think, no matter your personal faith,
(04:57):
this story especially illustrates the enormous power that a religious
group or institution can have over an entire city, a community,
in neighborhood and I think that's super dangerous. In the
story is a huge example of that. Yeah, I couldn't
agree more, Trevor. It's a very dangerous issue. I was
actually doing some research and the numbers don't lie. They
(05:20):
show that in the United States alone, more than eleven
thousand complaints have been documented by victims of abuse by priests.
Like that's a lot. Yeah, that's a lot, And you
have to remember to that's just those that have told
their stories, right, the documented cases, right, there are so
many other people that have not even come out yet.
(05:44):
So yeah, that number is shocking, but you know, there's
way more, way more, and there are numbers like that
for countries all over the world, not just the US.
So this story of sister Katherine says Nick just brings
issue down to a human scale. Right, It's just a
(06:04):
super insane, crazy story. But sister Kathy says Nick was
a human. Yes, So let's talk about Kathy Sysnick. Then.
She grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She had three siblings,
was supposedly very bright and by many accounts, just had
this very sparkling personality. She was also an achiever. She
(06:26):
was senior class president, a member of student council and
even may Queen at her school. But she was also
valedictorian of her high school. And then after that she
joined the school Sisters of Notre Dame. So she then
goes on to be a teacher at Archbishop Kio High
School in Baltimore, Maryland. It was an all girls school
and she taught English there as well as drama. And
(06:48):
everyone said that her students loved her. She was, you know,
everybody's favorite teacher. Yeah. So I read this Huffington's Post
article and it says that Sister Kathy says Nick was
a real life version of Maria like the Julie Andrews
character from the Sound of Music. I mean, she was
super exuberant, she sang, she played her guitar, and her
(07:11):
students would even drop by her apartment, you know, and
they would sing and dance. And you know, when I
hear that, I think of like Sister Act. You know
the character in in Sister Act, Sister Mary Robert, who
was always smiling and you know, happy to see her
(07:32):
students and so giving. Like she seemed exactly like that. Yeah, Um,
all of those beautiful things that you've just said about her, Vette,
I think it absolutely makes what happened next so heartbreaking.
On the evening of November seven, nineteen sixty nine, she
left her apartment, which she happened to share with another nun.
(07:55):
She left to go buy a gift for her sister's
engagement party. It was around seven thirty and night that
she left to go and go on this errand and
apparently she got into her car, stopped at the bank
to cash her paycheck, and then she went to a
local bakery and bought some bakery buns, and that was
the last time anyone ever saw her alive. We'll talk
(08:17):
about what happened after we take a quick break. So,
after sister Kathy Cessnick didn't return home, her roommate was
of course frantic, and she later told reporters quote, nuns
in their order didn't stay out late, and Kathy would
have called if she needed to run an additional errand
(08:40):
end quote. But now it was eleven o'clock at night
and she hadn't heard from her, so she called a
couple of priests who were their good friends. So these
particular priests came over immediately um and they had learned
what had happened. At four forty in the morning, the
priest decided to take a walk around the area. That's
when they on Cathy's car. It was parked carelessly across
(09:03):
the street from the apartment, even though she had her
own designated parking spot right behind the building, and it
didn't look good. They saw signs of a struggle, including
a broken umbrella in the back seat. They called the police,
who found that box of bakery buns she had purchased,
along with leaves and twigs. Branches had also been caught
(09:26):
in the cars antenna. Yeah, so a quick sidebar that
we should mention about one of the priests who comes
over to investigate. His name was Gerard Cube and he
was apparently totally like in love with Kathy Cessnick. And
that is the whole myriad of problems. You know, Evette,
you can probably chime in here, but my understanding is
(09:49):
that in the Catholic Church, you know, you're not supposed
to have any sort of romantic relationships, certainly not nuns,
but I don't think priests either, Is that correct? That
is very true. That is very true. You take you
take a vow, Yeah, so priests and nuns take vows
and nuns yes, right, right, So in fact, you know,
two years before this event happened, before either of them
(10:11):
had actually taken said vows, Kathy and Girard had spent
I guess a lot of time together. They had written
each other letters. He even asked her to marry him,
but she turned him down, I guess, wanting to you know,
maintain her job. And apparently three days before she disappeared,
he even called her one last time to tell her
that he loved her, and he told her he would
(10:32):
leave the priestsa to marry her if she leave the
nunhood to you know, for them to be together. And
I don't think she went for it. I'm not sure
what to think, you know, like was it romantic or
is it suspicious? I kind of always go back to Russia,
you know, when she says it's always the boyfriend or
you know, it's always the romantic, you know, the love interest. Um.
(10:54):
But you know, I do feel like this is how
rumors get started. Unrequited love leads to something. Yeah. I
think it's maybe possibly romantic in you know the case
of their not being a homicide involved, but the fact
that someone was killed, you know, I think makes it
very suspicious. You know, and even if there wasn't a
(11:16):
death involved in this, you know, there's something I think
kind of creepy about it. You know. It's not quite
to the level of, you know, say a stalker, which
we talked about on the previous episode, but somebody who's
just kind of so obsessed that they're willing to forego
certain boundaries that someone has put up in their life
always strikes me as problematic. You know. That's that's always
(11:36):
a bit of a red flag for me. Asking someone
to leave the nun hood to run off with them,
you know, and they've clearly said that they are like
uncomfortable with this before, right, Like I I think there's
probably something there to look at that's not what it
should be for sure. And in fact, police actually brought
Gerard Coup in for questioning, but he had an alibi
(11:59):
of having been and at the movies earlier that night,
so I guess that was that he had a solid
alibi for where he was, so it wasn't the unrequited
love interest got it. So there ends up being a
massive man hunt, with thirty five Baltimore officers and residents
of the area joining in sweeping a fourteen block area
(12:21):
of Southwest Baltimore, but they don't find anything, and more importantly,
Baltimore police tell the media they do not believe foul
play was involved. Yeah, I mean that, And that strikes
me as just that statement alone, when you you don't
really know, right, that's political agenda, I mean to me, right,
(12:43):
because there were sticks and branches that were found in
her car and other clear signs of a struggle. But
the police say that they don't think that there's foul play,
so that doesn't sit too well. Yeah. But finally, on
January three's body is found by a father and a
(13:03):
son out on a hunting trip in Lansdowne, which I
believe that's a remote area south of Baltimore. Yep, I've
actually driven through there you Anyways, the police said it
was likely that she had been either carried or forced
to walk down there, and an autopsy found a skull
fracture caused by a blow to her head with some
(13:24):
sort of blunt instrument, most likely a brick, they said,
and the pathologist noted that the quote disarray of clothing
suggested possible rape. But unfortunately that's about as far as
the police get with us. Investigators work on the case
up until ninety seven. But you know, honestly, they're unable
to make any real breakthrough, do they say, to the
(13:44):
lack of any physical evidence in the case, even though
we know there's quite a bit. So in ninety seven
they closed the case. But that is not the end
of the story. So fast forward to two former students
of Archbishop Kio that's the school where sister Cathy says
Nick taught, file a lawsuit against a priest in that
(14:06):
school whose name is Joseph Maskell. So the suit claims
he sexually abused them repeatedly when they were students there.
The women filing the suit are named Gene Wayner and
Teresa Lancaster. And apparently these are not the first accusations
Mascow has faced, by the way. In fact, back in
the nineteen sixties and seventies, Mascoll was widely feared in
(14:28):
the school because everyone, including the students and the staff,
knew he was a predator, but no one spoke up
about it. Right, So, you guys know how I love documentaries,
and I talked about this earlier um in the beginning
of our episode about this documentary The Keepers, and in it,
(14:50):
Teresa Lancaster says when you were called over the loud
speaker to report to Father Mascoll, a dead silence would
come over the last room, and other girls would look
at you with sad eyes, and the teacher would just
look down. They knew something was going on. Wow, and
(15:10):
then he gets accused of this. It's so so disgustingly awful,
and it's so shameful, right, Like, it's like this abuse
has been normalized, like that mom stood up for for
her son, but no one was standing up for these
girls at Kio. It's yeah, it's heartbreaking to me, right.
(15:31):
So obviously these claims against Father Mascholl are pretty egregious.
And Teresa Lancaster said that Father Maskell took her to
a gynecologist named Christian Richter who prescribed douches that the
priest then administered himself in his school office, and numerous
others after the step forward to say that he assaulted
them frequently in his office. This is not a one
(15:53):
time occurrence. And I think it's also important to note
here that these claims are in fact corroborated by court
records as well as interviews with up to eight other
Kio students, So there's clearly a pattern here right clearly,
and he wasn't stopped. Oh I'm so grossed out. Yeah.
So basically this was an open secret and this reign
(16:16):
of terror by a criminal man who used his power
as a priest and his power in the church as
an authoritative figure to literally intimidate everyone. But I feel
the most for these young girls who were students at
this school and they were completely trapped. They probably felt
(16:40):
like they had nowhere to go exactly, and no one
to tell, you know. But we also know that this
did not go unnoticed, and at least one person did
try to stop it from the inside, and that person
was sister Cathy, says Nick. Yes, and this gets into
(17:01):
a big conspiracy, and we will talk about that right
after we take another quick breaks. There was at least
one person who we know of who was fighting back
against father Joseph Maskell, and that person is the popular
young teacher, Sister Kathy, says Nick. Her students loved her
(17:23):
and many of them confided in her about the abuse
of Maskell and his colleagues, and she tried to stop
it by doing things like making excuses for girls when
he was calling them to his office, you know, like
saying things. Oh, they can't get there, they couldn't get away,
Sorry about that. In May of nineteen sixty nine, sister
Cathy had approached young Geen Wayner and just asked her
(17:46):
straight out whether the priests had been hurting her, and
Jean admitted that yes they had, and apparently Cathy promised
her that something would be done about it and basically
tells her to go off and just try enjoy her
summer because she was going to take care of it.
And apparently this is where things start to really take
(18:06):
a dark turn. So, as we know, Kathy Sessnick disappeared
in November of nineteen sixty nine and then was found
dead the following January. But after she went missing, Jean
Wayner says that Father Maskell took her Jean for a
car ride, which I guess was a common thing that
the priests would just take these young girls for trips places, right.
(18:28):
I guess at the time families really trusted these priests
like Joseph Maskull to do this um. But when Jean
and Father mask Will get out of the car after
they've driven somewhere, he walks her over to a field
where she says that she saw sister Cathy's body there
in the field. Some pretty graphic details here for anybody
who's sensitive to that. If you are, I recommend you
(18:49):
skip ahead a few seconds. So. According to the Huffington's
post quote, Cessnick was still clad in her awkwad colored
coat and maggots were crawling on her face and tried
to brush them off with her bare hands. Help me
get these off of her, she cried, turning to Maskell
in a panic. Instead, she says, the priest leaned down
behind her and whispered in her ear. You see what
(19:11):
happens when you say bad things about people. Shit, it
makes my skin crawl, my blood boil to think that
you know a priest who you look up to, supposedly trust,
and this is going on. You can't make this up.
(19:33):
This is like a movie, right but this is actually happening. Yeah,
I mean this is something you would expect to see
like in The Godfathers, right, Like it's just absolutely insane,
like too diabolical to you know, even be real. But
when gene Wayner finally builds up the courage to tell
the story, she describes details about Cathy Sestic's body that
(19:56):
were only known to investigators at the time, like the
blue coat exactly. And then there's Teresa Lancaster, the other
woman who filed suit along with gen Wayner. And it's
important to note here that both of these women were
actually anonymous at the time of the filing, and Teresa
at the time she also experienced retaliation for confiding in
(20:20):
sister Cathy. She claims that mask Will drove her out
to a wooded area where there were lots of police
milling around, and that two police officers raped her in
the back seat while Maskell stood outside of the police
car talking and laughing with the other cops. I mean,
(20:42):
this is just pure evil on every level possible. So
I think it's interesting here to realize that this is
now becoming a much bigger issue, right, this is no
longer just about abuse within the Catholic ures. Obviously that's
a huge part of it, but now all we're seeing
law enforcement get involved in a very dark way, a
(21:05):
very criminal way. Um. And so what we're seeing is
this balloon out, this picture of abuse and cover up
that involves an entire city and all of the forces
within a city, like law enforcement. Yeah, I mean this
explains a lot, you know, obviously about why the police
never solved this case because so many of them were
(21:28):
a part of it. You know. Um, it's it's just
it's really just corruption at every level. It's when you
talk about above the law, this is that and so
much more. Right, It's it's um different types of people,
but they're all taking advantage of authority and power in
very evil ways. Right. So this actually reminds me of
(21:52):
the corruption that was happening in l A. P D.
When our great grandfather George Hoddel was a key used
of killing Elizabeth Short also known as the Black Dhalia
because he had so much, so much dirt on the
police officers of the l A. P D. We all
believe that's one of the reasons that he was never convicted.
(22:16):
You know, like corruption to the nth level. And that's
it feels just like that right now. Yeah, this can
take place in Baltimore, l A. You know, nineteen forties,
nineteen sixties whenever. So moving forward, other victims also described
Mascoll as bringing them to places where police officers would
abuse them. So this is just keeps going on. It
(22:38):
turns out that Mascoll's brother was a police lieutenant, and
it seems he really had the entire police force in
the area under his complete control. So they're like one
family that has authority over this entire region. Feels very
much like the Godfather. So gross, and so that, as
you said earlier, this is probably a huge part of
(22:59):
the reason why again this case wasn't solved because the
police are in on this. So other media reports on
the story have pointed out that as late as there's
still really no justice, the court dismisses all the claims
against Maskell at that point because it's past the statute
of limitations. So in Maryland, victims of sexual abuse have
(23:22):
just three years from the time the abuse ends or
from when they discover it to file a civil suit,
which is not a long time. No, I mean three years.
That's I mean, that's just ridiculous. That has to change, Yeah,
especially for sexual abuse. So it's basically saying it's too
late because your memory may not be reliable enough. Meanwhile,
(23:45):
all these other women are coming together and corroborating on
the same type of abuse, right that has happened to
to Jean and to Teresa. Um, what is that? Yes,
So the idea there with statute of limitations is that
after a certain number of years, your account as an
(24:07):
eyewitness is just not as reliable, like you said, because
of memory or whatever. But you know, I think if
you have enough detail and you have you know, enough
of a pattern of abuse, and especially like this kind
of abuse, like I don't think this is something that
you forget, Like I don't think your memory is just
going to fade about being raped by two police officers
after three years, Like that's something that is going to
(24:30):
stay with these women for the rest of their lives. Exactly, Trevor, Exactly,
you don't forget about that. These women fight every day too,
probably just walk through life because that is a memory
that is so deep embedded in their spirit. True, and
you know, the law is frequently unjust, and this is
(24:51):
why we have things like amendments to improve upon this um.
But it doesn't end there. A police detective talking anonymously
to the Fington Post said that he got a call
in nineteen four from a grave digger. The man said
that Maskell had ordered him to bury a bunch of
boxes in the graveyard. When police went and dug them up,
(25:12):
one of those boxes contained a bunch of nude photos
of underage girls. But then when all the boxes were
delivered to the evidence room, those containing the photos were
inexplicably missing. Other retired detectives have also come forward in
recent years and confirmed that they were quote pressured to
back off the Catholic priests during their investigations. Gross, it's
(25:33):
obvious that this was a cover up, you know, at
the highest level possible. Yes, so this goes from being
a conspiracy theory to a full blown conspiracy that can
be proven and corroborated and every detail of it tracked
down right. Unfortunately, none of this really leads to a
lot of consequences for Joseph Maskell. He was removed from
(25:57):
the ministry, but he fled to Ireland. Uh until his
death in two thousand one at age sixty two. He
worked as a psychologist and unfortunately supposedly continued his pattern
of abuse while working there. So basically nothing happened to him,
There were no consequences, and I'm sure he continued to
(26:18):
do it over and over and over again because he
got away with it. They let him. They let him
get away with it, right, that was his entire life.
He knew nothing else, and he had gotten away with
it for so long. But uh, it's not until sixteen
that the Archdiocese of Baltimore releases a list of seventy
(26:39):
one clergyman that had been accused of sexual abuse and
then back that up with credible evidence. And Maskell is
on that list. Of course he is, and I'm sure
he was at the top of the list, but conveniently
it was after he died, of course. And victims of
the listed clergy are off heard money. They got financial
(27:02):
settlements by the archdiocese for that abuse, and some victims
claimed that, considering the sheer horrific nous of these crimes,
that money was not enough. They wanted to see legal changes,
like you always tell us, Trevor, and they wanted to
see changes within the church, and they wanted to prevent
(27:25):
anything like this from happening again in the future. Yeah,
I mean money, money can't buy what they've been through.
I mean, I can't take that away. It's just I
can't even tell you, guys, like just spending seven hours
of watching this documentary and I had no voice, and
(27:46):
I was yelling like through my spirit of what these
victims had gone through. And then to offer them, you know,
it was something like dollars, Like that's not thing compared
to what they've been through. I do want to say this.
You know, one good thing we always look for, that
silver lining. That school Kio was torn down. It's no
(28:14):
longer there. And you know the fact that these women,
some of these women were there like when it came
down was you know, I want I don't want to
say um closure because you know they can never have
closure on you know, something so evil that happened to them.
But I think there was a part of them that
(28:35):
just the fact that this was no longer there helped
in some way. That's so beautiful to hear that that
school Keio was torn down. You know, we also have
some additional momentum going in the right direction. In recent years,
more and more people have joined the fight for justice
(28:56):
in this case. So a school alumni group that began
one person asking questions on Facebook has exploded and sparked
a brand new murder investigation into the murder of sister Kathy,
says Nick. It's officially an open case again. And this
quest for justice has brought all of these women together
(29:18):
and has helped so many of those abuse survivors find
healing and find support. And that brings us to this
week's Imoa. This week's message of hope and healing goes
(29:39):
out to Gene Wayner, Teresa Lancaster, and the thousands of
women and men like them who have come out about
abuse they have suffered at the hands of religious clergy.
It is for the founders of SNAP, the Grassroots Survivors
Network of those abused by priest. Back in n when
SNAP held listening sessions for survivors to tell their stories,
(30:01):
not a single Catholic bishop came out to hear them,
but the group persevered and grew. It is making noise
and sparking change. The stories of abuse are painful to hear,
but more painful still is to have lived them and
to have your voice silenced when you try to speak
your truth. Because so many have stepped forward and refused
(30:25):
to be ignored, people are now listening and calls for
changes such as the elimination of statutes of limitations for
reporting abuse are getting louder. To all the victims out there,
those who have come forward and those who have not,
we see you. We wish you justice, we wished you healing,
(30:48):
and most importantly, we wish you peace. Onward and upward, Emma,
that's our show for today. If you are a survivor
of clergy abuse, the advocacy group SNAP has resources that
(31:10):
you can turn to. Visit Snap network dot org, that
Snap Network all one word dot org. We'd love to
hear what you thought about today's discussion and if there's
a case you'd like for us to cover. Find us
on social media or email us at Facing Evil pod
at tenderfoot dot tv and one favor. If you haven't
(31:33):
done it already, please leave us a review and a
good rating. If you like what we do, your support
is always cherished until next time, ah Loja. Facing Evil
(31:56):
is a production of I Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV.
The show is hosted by Russia Peccarero and a Vetch Gentile.
Matt Frederick and Alex Williams our executive producers on behalf
of I Heart Radio, with producers Trevor Young and Jesse Funk,
Donald albright In Payne Lindsay our executive producers on behalf
of Tenderfoot TV, alongside producer Tracy Kaplan. Our researcher is
(32:20):
Claudia Dafrico. Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Find
us on social media or email us at Facing Evil
pot at tenderfoot dot tv. For more podcasts from I
Heart Radio or tenderfoot Tv, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
You're listening to Facing Evil, a production of I Heart
Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in
this podcast are solely those of the individuals participating in
the show and do not represent those of I Heart
Radio or Tenderfoot TV. This podcast contains subject matter which
may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised.
(00:27):
Hello everyone, welcome back to Facing Evil from Tenderfoot TV
and I Heart Radio. We are your hosts. I'm Rosha
Pecuerero and I am a vegentel A and as always
we are with our amazing producer, Mr Trevor Young. Hey, Hey,
how's it going? Hello? How Trevor Trevor so um. I
know we have a pretty interesting case coming up today.
(00:50):
Very important case has to do with the existence of,
you know, sexual assaults in the Catholic Church, which I
know can be a very touchy issue, and we're going
to get into a very I think powerful story that
illustrates some of those issues. But you know, in that vein,
I was thinking back as we were starting research for
(01:10):
this case about the movie Spotlight. I don't know if
you'll remember watching that. It had Michael Keaton, but it
was about some of the very real life events involving
a sexual misconduct in the Catholic church in Boston is
very good movie. I think at one best picture of
the year it came out. Yeah, I remember that that
movie very well. Um, you know me myself being Catholic
(01:33):
and um, you know, becoming a Catholic actually when I
got married to my husband, who was you know, born
and raised in the Catholic community. But for me, my
mom couldn't remember if she had been baptized or not,
and I just really wanted that blessing. Um if you
had been baptized or not, right, yeah, if I had
been baptized or not. But um, yeah, I I do
(01:57):
remember that movie and it's it's a very very ad movie.
But I also want to talk about The Keepers, and
we're going to get into that, you know, much later
in the episode. But my voice is a little horse
because I just had laryngitis. But while I was home,
I spent seven hours watching this particular documentary called The
(02:20):
Keepers and it was mind blowing. And we will talk
about that later. And Trevor, now will you take us
through today's case. I've talked to the hunter that found
Cathy and he said since the day that he found her.
(02:40):
The police have never talked to him except for that day.
They sought to do the same thing that senior church
leaders in the diocese we investigated have done for decades,
bury the sexual abuse by priests upon children and covered
up forever. And I can hear Cathy saying, I told
you I'd take care of this, and I said, I
didn't think you met twenty years later. Sister Katherine Sessnick
(03:05):
was a young teacher at a Catholic school in Baltimore, Maryland.
Early on the evening of November seventh, nineteen sixty nine,
she disappeared while outrunning errands in her neighborhood. The next morning,
two friends found Sister Kathy's car parked haphazardly nearby, but
weeks went by with no sign of Kathy. Finally, on
(03:26):
January third, nineteen seventy, the body of Sister Katherine Sessnick
was found in a remote area south of the city.
No one was ever charged with her murder, but some
of the investigators were suspicious of the community in the
Catholic school where she taught, especially one of the priests.
In the years that followed, more and more sinister events
(03:46):
came to light, painting a story of sexual abuse and
intimidation at the hands of a powerful diocese that controlled
everyone in its territory, including the police. And so what
happened to Kathy Sessnick, Why weren't the police able to
make a determination in her case? And what does the
story reveal about the dark secrets of the Catholic Church. Okay,
(04:13):
you guys, this is one that we really have to
buckle up for. I mean, this case just gets more
and more crazy, you know, as you go along the
stories that we've told this season, they've touched on some
major issues and today really is no different. But we're
looking at sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, which is
(04:36):
a huge, huge issue that is still very prevalent today. Yeah,
it's really just I think one of many. You know,
it seems like every year there's another story of how
this sort of wide scale abuse is allowed to go
on somewhere or it's just swept under the rug entirely right,
And you know, I think, no matter your personal faith,
(04:57):
this story especially illustrates the enormous power that a religious
group or institution can have over an entire city, a community,
in neighborhood and I think that's super dangerous. In the
story is a huge example of that. Yeah, I couldn't
agree more, Trevor. It's a very dangerous issue. I was
actually doing some research and the numbers don't lie. They
(05:20):
show that in the United States alone, more than eleven
thousand complaints have been documented by victims of abuse by priests.
Like that's a lot. Yeah, that's a lot, And you
have to remember to that's just those that have told
their stories, right, the documented cases, right, there are so
many other people that have not even come out yet.
(05:44):
So yeah, that number is shocking, but you know, there's
way more, way more, and there are numbers like that
for countries all over the world, not just the US.
So this story of sister Katherine says Nick just brings
issue down to a human scale. Right, It's just a
(06:04):
super insane, crazy story. But sister Kathy says Nick was
a human. Yes, So let's talk about Kathy Sysnick. Then.
She grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She had three siblings,
was supposedly very bright and by many accounts, just had
this very sparkling personality. She was also an achiever. She
(06:26):
was senior class president, a member of student council and
even may Queen at her school. But she was also
valedictorian of her high school. And then after that she
joined the school Sisters of Notre Dame. So she then
goes on to be a teacher at Archbishop Kio High
School in Baltimore, Maryland. It was an all girls school
and she taught English there as well as drama. And
(06:48):
everyone said that her students loved her. She was, you know,
everybody's favorite teacher. Yeah. So I read this Huffington's Post
article and it says that Sister Kathy says Nick was
a real life version of Maria like the Julie Andrews
character from the Sound of Music. I mean, she was
super exuberant, she sang, she played her guitar, and her
(07:11):
students would even drop by her apartment, you know, and
they would sing and dance. And you know, when I
hear that, I think of like Sister Act. You know
the character in in Sister Act, Sister Mary Robert, who
was always smiling and you know, happy to see her
(07:32):
students and so giving. Like she seemed exactly like that. Yeah, Um,
all of those beautiful things that you've just said about her, Vette,
I think it absolutely makes what happened next so heartbreaking.
On the evening of November seven, nineteen sixty nine, she
left her apartment, which she happened to share with another nun.
(07:55):
She left to go buy a gift for her sister's
engagement party. It was around seven thirty and night that
she left to go and go on this errand and
apparently she got into her car, stopped at the bank
to cash her paycheck, and then she went to a
local bakery and bought some bakery buns, and that was
the last time anyone ever saw her alive. We'll talk
(08:17):
about what happened after we take a quick break. So,
after sister Kathy Cessnick didn't return home, her roommate was
of course frantic, and she later told reporters quote, nuns
in their order didn't stay out late, and Kathy would
have called if she needed to run an additional errand
(08:40):
end quote. But now it was eleven o'clock at night
and she hadn't heard from her, so she called a
couple of priests who were their good friends. So these
particular priests came over immediately um and they had learned
what had happened. At four forty in the morning, the
priest decided to take a walk around the area. That's
when they on Cathy's car. It was parked carelessly across
(09:03):
the street from the apartment, even though she had her
own designated parking spot right behind the building, and it
didn't look good. They saw signs of a struggle, including
a broken umbrella in the back seat. They called the police,
who found that box of bakery buns she had purchased,
along with leaves and twigs. Branches had also been caught
(09:26):
in the cars antenna. Yeah, so a quick sidebar that
we should mention about one of the priests who comes
over to investigate. His name was Gerard Cube and he
was apparently totally like in love with Kathy Cessnick. And
that is the whole myriad of problems. You know, Evette,
you can probably chime in here, but my understanding is
(09:49):
that in the Catholic Church, you know, you're not supposed
to have any sort of romantic relationships, certainly not nuns,
but I don't think priests either, Is that correct? That
is very true. That is very true. You take you
take a vow, Yeah, so priests and nuns take vows
and nuns yes, right, right, So in fact, you know,
two years before this event happened, before either of them
(10:11):
had actually taken said vows, Kathy and Girard had spent
I guess a lot of time together. They had written
each other letters. He even asked her to marry him,
but she turned him down, I guess, wanting to you know,
maintain her job. And apparently three days before she disappeared,
he even called her one last time to tell her
that he loved her, and he told her he would
(10:32):
leave the priestsa to marry her if she leave the
nunhood to you know, for them to be together. And
I don't think she went for it. I'm not sure
what to think, you know, like was it romantic or
is it suspicious? I kind of always go back to Russia,
you know, when she says it's always the boyfriend or
you know, it's always the romantic, you know, the love interest. Um.
(10:54):
But you know, I do feel like this is how
rumors get started. Unrequited love leads to something. Yeah. I
think it's maybe possibly romantic in you know the case
of their not being a homicide involved, but the fact
that someone was killed, you know, I think makes it
very suspicious. You know, and even if there wasn't a
(11:16):
death involved in this, you know, there's something I think
kind of creepy about it. You know. It's not quite
to the level of, you know, say a stalker, which
we talked about on the previous episode, but somebody who's
just kind of so obsessed that they're willing to forego
certain boundaries that someone has put up in their life
always strikes me as problematic. You know. That's that's always
(11:36):
a bit of a red flag for me. Asking someone
to leave the nun hood to run off with them,
you know, and they've clearly said that they are like
uncomfortable with this before, right, Like I I think there's
probably something there to look at that's not what it
should be for sure. And in fact, police actually brought
Gerard Coup in for questioning, but he had an alibi
(11:59):
of having been and at the movies earlier that night,
so I guess that was that he had a solid
alibi for where he was, so it wasn't the unrequited
love interest got it. So there ends up being a
massive man hunt, with thirty five Baltimore officers and residents
of the area joining in sweeping a fourteen block area
(12:21):
of Southwest Baltimore, but they don't find anything, and more importantly,
Baltimore police tell the media they do not believe foul
play was involved. Yeah, I mean that, And that strikes
me as just that statement alone, when you you don't
really know, right, that's political agenda, I mean to me, right,
(12:43):
because there were sticks and branches that were found in
her car and other clear signs of a struggle. But
the police say that they don't think that there's foul play,
so that doesn't sit too well. Yeah. But finally, on
January three's body is found by a father and a
(13:03):
son out on a hunting trip in Lansdowne, which I
believe that's a remote area south of Baltimore. Yep, I've
actually driven through there you Anyways, the police said it
was likely that she had been either carried or forced
to walk down there, and an autopsy found a skull
fracture caused by a blow to her head with some
(13:24):
sort of blunt instrument, most likely a brick, they said,
and the pathologist noted that the quote disarray of clothing
suggested possible rape. But unfortunately that's about as far as
the police get with us. Investigators work on the case
up until ninety seven. But you know, honestly, they're unable
to make any real breakthrough, do they say, to the
(13:44):
lack of any physical evidence in the case, even though
we know there's quite a bit. So in ninety seven
they closed the case. But that is not the end
of the story. So fast forward to two former students
of Archbishop Kio that's the school where sister Cathy says
Nick taught, file a lawsuit against a priest in that
(14:06):
school whose name is Joseph Maskell. So the suit claims
he sexually abused them repeatedly when they were students there.
The women filing the suit are named Gene Wayner and
Teresa Lancaster. And apparently these are not the first accusations
Mascow has faced, by the way. In fact, back in
the nineteen sixties and seventies, Mascoll was widely feared in
(14:28):
the school because everyone, including the students and the staff,
knew he was a predator, but no one spoke up
about it. Right, So, you guys know how I love documentaries,
and I talked about this earlier um in the beginning
of our episode about this documentary The Keepers, and in it,
(14:50):
Teresa Lancaster says when you were called over the loud
speaker to report to Father Mascoll, a dead silence would
come over the last room, and other girls would look
at you with sad eyes, and the teacher would just
look down. They knew something was going on. Wow, and
(15:10):
then he gets accused of this. It's so so disgustingly awful,
and it's so shameful, right, Like, it's like this abuse
has been normalized, like that mom stood up for for
her son, but no one was standing up for these
girls at Kio. It's yeah, it's heartbreaking to me, right.
(15:31):
So obviously these claims against Father Mascholl are pretty egregious.
And Teresa Lancaster said that Father Maskell took her to
a gynecologist named Christian Richter who prescribed douches that the
priest then administered himself in his school office, and numerous
others after the step forward to say that he assaulted
them frequently in his office. This is not a one
(15:53):
time occurrence. And I think it's also important to note
here that these claims are in fact corroborated by court
records as well as interviews with up to eight other
Kio students, So there's clearly a pattern here right clearly,
and he wasn't stopped. Oh I'm so grossed out. Yeah.
So basically this was an open secret and this reign
(16:16):
of terror by a criminal man who used his power
as a priest and his power in the church as
an authoritative figure to literally intimidate everyone. But I feel
the most for these young girls who were students at
this school and they were completely trapped. They probably felt
(16:40):
like they had nowhere to go exactly, and no one
to tell, you know. But we also know that this
did not go unnoticed, and at least one person did
try to stop it from the inside, and that person
was sister Cathy, says Nick. Yes, and this gets into
(17:01):
a big conspiracy, and we will talk about that right
after we take another quick breaks. There was at least
one person who we know of who was fighting back
against father Joseph Maskell, and that person is the popular
young teacher, Sister Kathy, says Nick. Her students loved her
(17:23):
and many of them confided in her about the abuse
of Maskell and his colleagues, and she tried to stop
it by doing things like making excuses for girls when
he was calling them to his office, you know, like
saying things. Oh, they can't get there, they couldn't get away,
Sorry about that. In May of nineteen sixty nine, sister
Cathy had approached young Geen Wayner and just asked her
(17:46):
straight out whether the priests had been hurting her, and
Jean admitted that yes they had, and apparently Cathy promised
her that something would be done about it and basically
tells her to go off and just try enjoy her
summer because she was going to take care of it.
And apparently this is where things start to really take
(18:06):
a dark turn. So, as we know, Kathy Sessnick disappeared
in November of nineteen sixty nine and then was found
dead the following January. But after she went missing, Jean
Wayner says that Father Maskell took her Jean for a
car ride, which I guess was a common thing that
the priests would just take these young girls for trips places, right.
(18:28):
I guess at the time families really trusted these priests
like Joseph Maskull to do this um. But when Jean
and Father mask Will get out of the car after
they've driven somewhere, he walks her over to a field
where she says that she saw sister Cathy's body there
in the field. Some pretty graphic details here for anybody
who's sensitive to that. If you are, I recommend you
(18:49):
skip ahead a few seconds. So. According to the Huffington's
post quote, Cessnick was still clad in her awkwad colored
coat and maggots were crawling on her face and tried
to brush them off with her bare hands. Help me
get these off of her, she cried, turning to Maskell
in a panic. Instead, she says, the priest leaned down
behind her and whispered in her ear. You see what
(19:11):
happens when you say bad things about people. Shit, it
makes my skin crawl, my blood boil to think that
you know a priest who you look up to, supposedly trust,
and this is going on. You can't make this up.
(19:33):
This is like a movie, right but this is actually happening. Yeah,
I mean this is something you would expect to see
like in The Godfathers, right, Like it's just absolutely insane,
like too diabolical to you know, even be real. But
when gene Wayner finally builds up the courage to tell
the story, she describes details about Cathy Sestic's body that
(19:56):
were only known to investigators at the time, like the
blue coat exactly. And then there's Teresa Lancaster, the other
woman who filed suit along with gen Wayner. And it's
important to note here that both of these women were
actually anonymous at the time of the filing, and Teresa
at the time she also experienced retaliation for confiding in
(20:20):
sister Cathy. She claims that mask Will drove her out
to a wooded area where there were lots of police
milling around, and that two police officers raped her in
the back seat while Maskell stood outside of the police
car talking and laughing with the other cops. I mean,
(20:42):
this is just pure evil on every level possible. So
I think it's interesting here to realize that this is
now becoming a much bigger issue, right, this is no
longer just about abuse within the Catholic ures. Obviously that's
a huge part of it, but now all we're seeing
law enforcement get involved in a very dark way, a
(21:05):
very criminal way. Um. And so what we're seeing is
this balloon out, this picture of abuse and cover up
that involves an entire city and all of the forces
within a city, like law enforcement. Yeah, I mean this
explains a lot, you know, obviously about why the police
never solved this case because so many of them were
(21:28):
a part of it. You know. Um, it's it's just
it's really just corruption at every level. It's when you
talk about above the law, this is that and so
much more. Right, It's it's um different types of people,
but they're all taking advantage of authority and power in
very evil ways. Right. So this actually reminds me of
(21:52):
the corruption that was happening in l A. P D.
When our great grandfather George Hoddel was a key used
of killing Elizabeth Short also known as the Black Dhalia
because he had so much, so much dirt on the
police officers of the l A. P D. We all
believe that's one of the reasons that he was never convicted.
(22:16):
You know, like corruption to the nth level. And that's
it feels just like that right now. Yeah, this can
take place in Baltimore, l A. You know, nineteen forties,
nineteen sixties whenever. So moving forward, other victims also described
Mascoll as bringing them to places where police officers would
abuse them. So this is just keeps going on. It
(22:38):
turns out that Mascoll's brother was a police lieutenant, and
it seems he really had the entire police force in
the area under his complete control. So they're like one
family that has authority over this entire region. Feels very
much like the Godfather. So gross, and so that, as
you said earlier, this is probably a huge part of
(22:59):
the reason why again this case wasn't solved because the
police are in on this. So other media reports on
the story have pointed out that as late as there's
still really no justice, the court dismisses all the claims
against Maskell at that point because it's past the statute
of limitations. So in Maryland, victims of sexual abuse have
(23:22):
just three years from the time the abuse ends or
from when they discover it to file a civil suit,
which is not a long time. No, I mean three years.
That's I mean, that's just ridiculous. That has to change, Yeah,
especially for sexual abuse. So it's basically saying it's too
late because your memory may not be reliable enough. Meanwhile,
(23:45):
all these other women are coming together and corroborating on
the same type of abuse, right that has happened to
to Jean and to Teresa. Um, what is that? Yes,
So the idea there with statute of limitations is that
after a certain number of years, your account as an
(24:07):
eyewitness is just not as reliable, like you said, because
of memory or whatever. But you know, I think if
you have enough detail and you have you know, enough
of a pattern of abuse, and especially like this kind
of abuse, like I don't think this is something that
you forget, Like I don't think your memory is just
going to fade about being raped by two police officers
after three years, Like that's something that is going to
(24:30):
stay with these women for the rest of their lives. Exactly, Trevor, Exactly,
you don't forget about that. These women fight every day too,
probably just walk through life because that is a memory
that is so deep embedded in their spirit. True, and
you know, the law is frequently unjust, and this is
(24:51):
why we have things like amendments to improve upon this um.
But it doesn't end there. A police detective talking anonymously
to the Fington Post said that he got a call
in nineteen four from a grave digger. The man said
that Maskell had ordered him to bury a bunch of
boxes in the graveyard. When police went and dug them up,
(25:12):
one of those boxes contained a bunch of nude photos
of underage girls. But then when all the boxes were
delivered to the evidence room, those containing the photos were
inexplicably missing. Other retired detectives have also come forward in
recent years and confirmed that they were quote pressured to
back off the Catholic priests during their investigations. Gross, it's
(25:33):
obvious that this was a cover up, you know, at
the highest level possible. Yes, so this goes from being
a conspiracy theory to a full blown conspiracy that can
be proven and corroborated and every detail of it tracked
down right. Unfortunately, none of this really leads to a
lot of consequences for Joseph Maskell. He was removed from
(25:57):
the ministry, but he fled to Ireland. Uh until his
death in two thousand one at age sixty two. He
worked as a psychologist and unfortunately supposedly continued his pattern
of abuse while working there. So basically nothing happened to him,
There were no consequences, and I'm sure he continued to
(26:18):
do it over and over and over again because he
got away with it. They let him. They let him
get away with it, right, that was his entire life.
He knew nothing else, and he had gotten away with
it for so long. But uh, it's not until sixteen
that the Archdiocese of Baltimore releases a list of seventy
(26:39):
one clergyman that had been accused of sexual abuse and
then back that up with credible evidence. And Maskell is
on that list. Of course he is, and I'm sure
he was at the top of the list, but conveniently
it was after he died, of course. And victims of
the listed clergy are off heard money. They got financial
(27:02):
settlements by the archdiocese for that abuse, and some victims
claimed that, considering the sheer horrific nous of these crimes,
that money was not enough. They wanted to see legal changes,
like you always tell us, Trevor, and they wanted to
see changes within the church, and they wanted to prevent
(27:25):
anything like this from happening again in the future. Yeah,
I mean money, money can't buy what they've been through.
I mean, I can't take that away. It's just I
can't even tell you, guys, like just spending seven hours
of watching this documentary and I had no voice, and
(27:46):
I was yelling like through my spirit of what these
victims had gone through. And then to offer them, you know,
it was something like dollars, Like that's not thing compared
to what they've been through. I do want to say this.
You know, one good thing we always look for, that
silver lining. That school Kio was torn down. It's no
(28:14):
longer there. And you know the fact that these women,
some of these women were there like when it came
down was you know, I want I don't want to
say um closure because you know they can never have
closure on you know, something so evil that happened to them.
But I think there was a part of them that
(28:35):
just the fact that this was no longer there helped
in some way. That's so beautiful to hear that that
school Keio was torn down. You know, we also have
some additional momentum going in the right direction. In recent years,
more and more people have joined the fight for justice
(28:56):
in this case. So a school alumni group that began
one person asking questions on Facebook has exploded and sparked
a brand new murder investigation into the murder of sister Kathy,
says Nick. It's officially an open case again. And this
quest for justice has brought all of these women together
(29:18):
and has helped so many of those abuse survivors find
healing and find support. And that brings us to this
week's Imoa. This week's message of hope and healing goes
(29:39):
out to Gene Wayner, Teresa Lancaster, and the thousands of
women and men like them who have come out about
abuse they have suffered at the hands of religious clergy.
It is for the founders of SNAP, the Grassroots Survivors
Network of those abused by priest. Back in n when
SNAP held listening sessions for survivors to tell their stories,
(30:01):
not a single Catholic bishop came out to hear them,
but the group persevered and grew. It is making noise
and sparking change. The stories of abuse are painful to hear,
but more painful still is to have lived them and
to have your voice silenced when you try to speak
your truth. Because so many have stepped forward and refused
(30:25):
to be ignored, people are now listening and calls for
changes such as the elimination of statutes of limitations for
reporting abuse are getting louder. To all the victims out there,
those who have come forward and those who have not,
we see you. We wish you justice, we wished you healing,
(30:48):
and most importantly, we wish you peace. Onward and upward, Emma,
that's our show for today. If you are a survivor
of clergy abuse, the advocacy group SNAP has resources that
(31:10):
you can turn to. Visit Snap network dot org, that
Snap Network all one word dot org. We'd love to
hear what you thought about today's discussion and if there's
a case you'd like for us to cover. Find us
on social media or email us at Facing Evil pod
at tenderfoot dot tv and one favor. If you haven't
(31:33):
done it already, please leave us a review and a
good rating. If you like what we do, your support
is always cherished until next time, ah Loja. Facing Evil
(31:56):
is a production of I Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV.
The show is hosted by Russia Peccarero and a Vetch Gentile.
Matt Frederick and Alex Williams our executive producers on behalf
of I Heart Radio, with producers Trevor Young and Jesse Funk,
Donald albright In Payne Lindsay our executive producers on behalf
of Tenderfoot TV, alongside producer Tracy Kaplan. Our researcher is
(32:20):
Claudia Dafrico. Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Find
us on social media or email us at Facing Evil
pot at tenderfoot dot tv. For more podcasts from I
Heart Radio or tenderfoot Tv, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.