Listen and Hear

This is the season finale of Open Investigation, Advocacy and Call to Action:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/advocacy-and-call-to-action/id1757196345?i=1000674830485

I can’t say it or wrap it up any better than these folks did. I will only highlight the following.

What happens when your community doesn’t want to hear the truth? They are organizational structures that often don’t want to deal with the ugly truth of the epidemic of child sexual abuse and the trafficking and murder of children. It’s too dark and ugly. These communities are in the same category of those silent bystanders who look the other way. It somehow insults them rather than moving people to stand up, talk about and handle this. [28.01]

In the beginning the story about child predators in Massachusetts (and, frankly everywhere) in the late 1970s would all seem too incredible to be true, but hopefully with all of the evidence Melanie Perkins McLaughlin presented in her podcast, you recognize it is true. [44.01]. It is impossible not to.

“We tried so hard to get people and organizations to pick up this podcast and help us get it distributed. As of this writing, no one has. We decided to publish independently and you all showed up to listen. We can’t thank you enough. At the suggestion of others, we wrote press releases to over 30 local media outlets and remarkably, to this day, not one has reached out for more information. I’m not sure why or what it all means, but I know you stuck with this podcast and listened throughout and I know it sure as hell wasn’t easy. But I’d like to think you did it for the survivors. The kids. Because you care. But honestly, what good is caring and telling these stories if nothing changes?” [44.18]

And this is a phenomenal podcast by an established documentarian, who won a 2008 Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism. So many communities do not want to hear the truth or assist in its dissemination.

I feel this every day in the OCCK case. The horror surrounding my brother’s abduction, captivity and murder means no one wants to go near it. It is the ultimate irony–the most horrifying serial murders of four kids is too awful to warrant the close examination that could solve the cases. The passage of time is a very convenient excuse for the Michigan state lab. No one seems to want answers and they are laden with every excuse in the cold case book.

Guarded By Jackals (https://www.amazon.com/Guarded-Jackals-Predators-Officials-Resolution/dp/B0D9WFQV85/ref=sr_1_1?crid=LUQ0LDCSQ7GA&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.AkeCS0c5djkiIniEQvFigdko56Tx8BAei1kTsfmd_ug.alrm59JXWwozS_gMts-am4MaPSIYOjIcMdL954ne6i8&dib_tag=se&keywords=guarded+by+jackals&qid=1730242823&sprefix=guarded+by+jack,aps,290&sr=8-1 ) was likewise self-published and not one press contact has picked up on it. GBJ tells a story that seems at first impossible, about how prosecutors can tilt the scales of justice and betray child victims and entire communities. And it also provides the meticulous documenting of the truth of this assertion. You wish it was impossible. But it’s true. I dare you to look away.