S5 Ep18: Reckoning at Penn State: The Jerry Sandusky Scandal

Crimes of the Centuries

Amber Hunt and Audioboom

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jerry Sandusky was a legend at Penn State University. As the right hand of head football coach Joe Paterno, he was known not only as an exceptional coach but also as a big-hearted philanthropist and advocate for troubled youth. So when a 2011 grand jury report exposed decades of abuse, the fallout was immeasurable, bringing to light a story of power, silence, and the cost of looking the other way.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes on the Grab Bag Patreon page.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The weather. Tomorrow, expect a biting cold front. Hmm, how naughty. I wonder what I'll be
0:06.8	wearing or taking off. The night will be wild and untamed. Expect heavy, lashing rain
0:13.0	that'll soak you to the skin. By Monday, temperatures will rise slowly but surely reaching
0:18.7	their peak in the afternoon.
0:23.0	Not in the mood for miserable weather.
0:25.8	Fly cheaply to Turkey with Sun Express.
0:28.7	Sun Express, nonstop sunshine.
0:31.6	Before we begin, heads up.
0:36.7	This episode deals with child sexual abuse in the fallout from a high-profile case.
0:38.8	It doesn't get graphic, but the subject matter is heavy. Please take care. Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking. They change laws,
0:51.0	change society, or even earn the label, Crime of the Century.
0:56.2	But the stories that made headlines and decades past aren't necessarily remembered today.
1:02.8	I'm Amber Hunt, a journalist and author, and in each episode of this show, I'll examine a case
1:08.4	that's maybe lesser known today, but was huge when it happened.
1:14.1	This is Crimes of the Centuries.
1:26.9	When Joe Paterno took the head coaching job at Penn State University in 1966, the stadium the team played in held a few more than 46,000 fans.
1:39.1	Over the course of his 46-year-long career, the arena had to be expanded six times so that now, on football
1:47.3	Saturday in State College, Pennsylvania, 106,000 people can squeeze in to watch the
1:53.8	Nittany Lions play against their Big Ten rivals. That only comes with winning. And winning was good
2:00.6	for Penn State.
2:02.0	It brought a kind of prestige to the school, a bit of shine.
2:05.9	Life was so good in state college that it was nicknamed Happy Valley.
	...

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