Page 55 - Malcolm Gladwell - Talking to Strangers

McQueary: Slow, very subtle movement, but hardly any.
P: OK. But slow, subtle movement that you saw, what kind of movement was it? What was
moving?
McQueary: It was Jerry behind the boy, right up against him.
P: Skin to skin?
McQueary: Yes, absolutely.
P: Stomach to back?
McQueary: Yes.

The “Jerry” McQueary was referring to was Jerry Sandusky, who had then just retired as
defensive coordinator of the Penn State football team. Sandusky was a beloved figure at football-
obsessed Penn State. McQueary had known him for years.

McQueary ran upstairs to his office and called his parents. “He’s tall and he’s a pretty strapping
guy, and he’s not a scaredy-cat. But he was shaken,” McQueary’s father told the court after his son
finished his testimony. “He was clearly shaken. His voice wasn’t right. Enough that his mom picked
it up on the phone without ever seeing him. She said, ‘There’s something wrong, John.’”
After McQueary saw Sandusky in the shower in February 2001, he went to see his boss, Joe
Paterno, the legendary head coach of the Penn State football team.
P: Did you explain to him that Jerry Sandusky was naked in the shower?
McQueary: Yes, absolutely.
P: Did you explain to him that there was skin-on-skin contact with the boy?
McQueary: I believe so, yes, ma’am.
P: And did you explain to him you heard these slapping sounds?

McQueary: Yes.
P: Okay. What was—I’m not asking you what he said. What was his reaction? What was his
demeanor?
McQueary: Saddened. He kind of slumped back in his chair and put his hand up on his face, and
his eyes just kind of went sad.
Paterno told his boss, the athletic director at Penn State, Tim Curley. Curley told another senior
administrator at the university, Gary Schultz. Curley and Schultz then told the school’s president,
Graham Spanier. An investigation followed. In due course, Sandusky was arrested, and at his trial
an extraordinary story emerged. Eight young men testified that Sandusky had abused them hundreds
of times over the years, in hotel rooms and locker-room showers, and even in the basement of his
home while his wife was upstairs. Sandusky was convicted of forty-five counts of child molestation.
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Penn State paid over $100 million in settlements to his victims. He became—as the title of one
book about the case reads—“the most hated man in America.”
The most sensational fact about the Sandusky case, however, was that phrase “in due course.”
McQueary saw Sandusky in the shower in 2001. The investigation into Sandusky’s behavior did not
start until nearly a decade later, and Sandusky wasn’t arrested until November 2011. Why did it take
so long? After Sandusky was put behind bars, the spotlight fell on the leadership of Penn State
University. Joe Paterno, the school’s football coach, resigned in disgrace and died shortly thereafter.
A statue of him that had been erected just a few years before was taken down. Tim Curley and Gary
Schultz, the two senior university administrators McQueary had met with, were charged with
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conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and failure to report a case of child abuse. Both went to jail. And
in the scandal’s final, devastating conclusion, prosecutors turned their attention to the university’s
president, Graham Spanier. He had led the school for sixteen years and had transformed its
academic reputation. He was beloved. In November 2011, he was fired. Six years later, he was
convicted of child endangerment. 3
At the height of the controversy, Sandusky gave an interview to NBC sports anchor Bob Costas.

Costas: You say you’re not a pedophile.