Special Bonus Episode - The Murders Began - 1

[00:00:04] Welcome to season two of the murders began. This is your host, Blake Harden Tatum. When I started this blog and this podcast last year, I didn't have a plan. I'd been recently laid off from the plane dealer and was trying to figure out how I was going to fill my time without chasing down the ever dwindling number of journalism jobs. As a woman of a certain age, I didn't really have the luxury of selling my house and hopping around from one city to another for the sake of a career. That's a young woman's game. Even though I couldn't be employed at the newspaper, I didn't want to stop investigating crimes or stop telling stories. I didn't have any bigger goal than to tell the story of the prosecution of alleged pedophile priest Monsignor Gregory Quinn. Alleged because as you may remember, Quinn was convicted not of a sex crime, but of the murder of a witness of his alleged crimes. Anyway, what I wanted from this podcast was for my readers and listeners to get a more intimate and in depth experience mirroring what I know, what it's like to follow a crime story from beginning to end, not only know what happens in court, but hear interviews from the victims families. And luckily enough, last season, the defendant himself. [00:01:12] I really didn't think more than a few episodes ahead. Then that case took a huge turn. Quinn was a bigger mastermind than most priests out there. He committed his alleged abuses outside of Cuyoku county, the state of Ohio, and the United States. He carefully manipulated parents to sign permission slips and boys to do what he wanted. He did something most criminals don't think of. He insulated himself from prosecution. [00:01:37] He almost committed the perfect crimes and almost got away with them. The podcast took off, becoming one of the most popular crime podcasts of a year once the witnesses to Quinn's crimes started dying off during the investigation. [00:01:52] This year, we're doing something different. I want to pursue what happens to people on the fringes of the criminal justice system. [00:01:59] The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. At the end of 2008, one in 198 Americans were either in state or federal prison, for a total of 1,610,446, according to the US Department of Justice. That's only half the story, or 31% of the story. At the end of last year, there were 5,099,086 people under community control. Sanctions, probation, and parole. That's one in 45 Americans. I won't go into a debate here about how high that total number is or how that sets America apart from the rest of the civilized world. [00:02:39] What I want to talk about is what it's like being under control of the authorities. [00:02:44] I also want to talk about women in the system. Last year, 105 300 women were incarcerated and 828 804 were on parole or probation. For many reasons, physiological and sociological, I'm not going to delve into here. Men perpetuate the majority of crimes in this country. [00:03:05] Often women are in prison. As an ancillary to these men's crimes, prostitutes who work for pimps, women who yield drugs for their male bosses, and some who get caught up for merely being associated with a man's criminal behavior, like living in the apartment where he packages drugs or unknowingly driving a getaway car. I want to promise you now, this isn't going to be some liberal rant against criminal justice system. You can make your own decisions about crime, punishment and rehabilitation. There is no limit to articles, studies and white papers on the topic that could keep you reading for the next 50 years. Instead, I'm going to do what I do best, tell stories. In the next episode, I'm going to talk about Cynthia Wetzel. She has a compelling story that doesn't yet have a resolution. Maybe during this season we can see her finally leave the criminal justice system she's been fighting so hard to be free of.