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2:39

This episode contains discussion of sexual

2:41

violence. Please use discretion.

2:47

In 1972, a woman

2:50

named Martha Goddard, she went by Marty,

2:52

was working for a nonprofit foundation in

2:55

Chicago. She was 31. One

2:58

day, she was asked if she would join the

3:01

board of an organization that ran

3:03

a crisis hotline for young unhoused

3:05

people. And I joined their board

3:07

of directors, I was asked to do that. This

3:10

is an oral history recording of Marty Goddard

3:12

from 2003. Part

3:14

of being a board member was we had to do

3:16

phone, answer the phones and

3:19

be trained on that so we'd understand what our

3:21

staffs went through. She

3:23

started answering calls on the crisis hotline.

3:26

In the early 70s, people often

3:28

called kids and teenagers living on the streets,

3:31

runaways. But as

3:33

Marty talked to more and more of them on the

3:35

phone and got to hear their stories, she

3:38

realized that there was more going on than

3:40

most people assumed. That

3:42

gave me a great foundation for

3:45

finding out why were these kids

3:47

leaving? What was the problem? And

3:49

it was not just runaways, kids

3:52

who just weren't wanted by their families or

3:54

guardians, but so many of them

3:56

had to leave home because they were sexually abused.

3:58

And I... I was just

4:00

beside myself when I found the extent

4:04

of the problem. They

4:06

not run away to be hippies and,

4:09

you know, kind of join

4:11

the circus. They were fleeing unsafe

4:13

homes. Journalist

4:15

Pagan Kennedy has researched Marty Goddard's

4:17

life and work. The

4:20

general attitude of police departments was

4:22

that if somebody was sexually assaulted,

4:24

there was no point in investigating.

4:26

You could never prove it because

4:28

the victims were liars. It

4:32

was just completely the norm

4:35

to think that way. And

4:38

the way that we would now see

4:41

anybody under 18 as being a

4:44

victim of child abuse if

4:46

they were sexually exploited, that line

4:48

didn't exist. If those kids

4:51

were assaulted or they were fleeing from

4:53

an abuser, they would

4:55

be blamed. Pagan

4:57

Kennedy writes that in the early

5:00

1970s, people believed that

5:02

child sexual abuse was very rare. A

5:05

psychiatric textbook said that incest only

5:07

happened in one in every one

5:10

million families and that

5:12

when it happened, the children had often,

5:14

quote, initiated it. So

5:17

there was really this attitude that

5:19

these girls who were ending up

5:21

on the street, they were

5:25

a criminal element and they

5:27

would often be taken off the street

5:29

by cops. And then if

5:32

they ended up in the juvenile

5:34

detention center, they could be assaulted

5:36

again. And

5:38

Marty was just so upset

5:40

with how the

5:43

police were coping with this, where these

5:45

girls were sort of treated as

5:48

criminals and this complete unspoken world

5:50

of child abuse that was

5:52

going on. then

6:00

called anti-rape activists in

6:02

Chicago. She

6:04

met a woman named Cynthia Geary, who

6:07

at the time worked for the ACLU. Marty

6:10

was a person who got outraged

6:14

when she encountered injustice. Cynthia

6:17

Geary. And so she kind of

6:20

recruited me, I would say. Both

6:23

Marty and Cynthia often traveled for

6:25

work. Every city we went

6:27

to, we would walk in coal

6:29

to the local police department. And

6:32

we would say, we'd like to

6:34

know, we'd like to talk to someone who could tell

6:36

us what's happening in your city and state regarding

6:39

victims of rape. How are they

6:41

handled, da da da da. And back in

6:43

those days, the doors were open. So

6:47

we amassed information, then we'd take

6:49

it all down and we'd start writing things, well it

6:51

looks like it's, because of this or this or this

6:54

or this and here's what Iowa's doing and here's what

6:56

New York's doing and here's so forth. They

6:58

compared their findings from other states with

7:01

what was going on in Chicago. It

7:04

wasn't just the young people that Marty had been

7:06

talking to. The problem

7:08

was much broader and women all

7:10

over the city were reporting that they were afraid.

7:15

One activist wrote that sexual assault

7:17

in Chicago was quote, epidemic.

7:20

And that it was quote, not

7:23

a city you wanted to venture out into

7:25

after dark. There was suddenly this

7:27

kind of awakening in around 1974 where

7:30

a lot of female

7:33

activists were calling for something to

7:35

be done about the huge amount

7:38

of sexual assault in the

7:40

city at that time. So

7:42

Marty Goddard got involved

7:44

with that. In

7:47

1973, only about a tenth of

7:49

sexual assault cases in Chicago were

7:52

reported and only about a

7:54

tenth of those cases went to trial. Few

7:57

perpetrators ever ended up in prison. One

8:01

1973 police training manual

8:04

from Chicago read, quote, Many

8:07

rape complaints are not legitimate. It

8:10

is unfortunate that many women will claim

8:13

they have been raped in order to

8:15

get revenge against an unfaithful lover. Police

8:19

officers would routinely ask survivors of

8:21

an assault what they'd been wearing and

8:24

whether they might have provoked an attack. One

8:28

day a group of about 70 women marched

8:30

into the office of the state's attorney, a

8:33

man named Bernard Carey, to

8:35

protest the state's failure to prosecute

8:37

rapists. They posted messages

8:40

on the walls of his office. One

8:42

of them wrote, wanted Bernard

8:44

Carey for aiding and abetting

8:47

rapists. And

8:49

then Marty Goddard decided to

8:52

try to talk to the state's attorney

8:54

herself. I went cold into

8:56

the state's attorney's office and I asked to see

8:58

him and don't ask to this day how I

9:00

got in, but I did. And

9:03

he said, look, we've got a problem. I don't

9:05

know what the answer is, but how would you

9:07

like to kind of work with us to work

9:09

it out? I said, great, but we need

9:11

the cops in on this. So Marty Goddard

9:13

met with a police sergeant and

9:16

then with the president of the hospital council so

9:18

she could assemble a group to investigate. I

9:21

said, give me your best people, two of your

9:23

best people. The two best police

9:25

officers, the two best prosecutors and

9:27

the two best hospital people and

9:29

make it nurses. Thank you. So

9:33

they did and we tore

9:36

the issue apart. The

9:39

problem was we weren't able

9:41

to apprehend very many people. And when

9:43

you did get somebody in custody, you

9:45

couldn't prove your case. Marty

9:48

Goddard went to the crime lab of the

9:50

Chicago police department and asked to talk

9:52

to every single employee at

9:54

every level about rape cases. She

9:57

wanted to know what evidence they collected. and

10:00

said, what is it that you people need?

10:03

Well, nobody had ever come in

10:05

there and asked them before. We got

10:07

ever, in one day we were so

10:09

overloaded with information, we didn't have a

10:11

tape recorder, so we had to scramble

10:13

and take notes. And basically here's what

10:15

they told us. They said,

10:18

we don't get evidence. And this

10:21

really kicked everything off. Marty

10:23

Goddard was told that many of

10:25

the cases were so-called, he said,

10:27

she said situations. The

10:29

account of a victim wasn't enough. In

10:32

the old days, it was the

10:34

victim's fault, okay? Or it

10:37

was consensual, or, okay,

10:39

she may have been raped, but it wasn't me. And

10:42

then I thought, well, if

10:44

what I'm hearing is correct, you

10:47

all don't have any evidence, so how can

10:49

we prosecute successfully? Even if you

10:51

arrest somebody, so then what do

10:53

you do to solve that problem? Marty

10:56

Goddard had an idea. I'm

11:00

Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal. Marty

11:08

Goddard spent more time with the employees

11:10

at the Chicago Crime Lab, and

11:12

she also tried to find out what happened

11:15

when someone who had experienced a sexual

11:17

assault got to a hospital. What

11:20

she learned from all these different

11:23

interviews and conversations she had was

11:25

that when, and

11:28

I'm saying a woman because at the

11:30

time, there was very little awareness of

11:34

sexual assault that happens to men. So

11:37

if a woman was assaulted, generally

11:40

she would go into

11:42

the hospital or the police would take her

11:44

to the hospital, and

11:46

then she's taken in for

11:49

an examination. The

11:52

staff is very focused on just treating her and

11:55

not on collecting evidence. So they would

11:57

take off all her clothes. They

12:00

might cut open her clothes, and

12:03

so if there were stab marks or whatever,

12:05

they wouldn't capture any of that. They

12:07

would sort of make an

12:09

attempt to take some swabs,

12:12

but nobody had taught them how to

12:14

take swabs

12:16

in a way that would work for the

12:18

crime lab. So they might stick slides

12:20

together in a way that everything

12:22

would get sort of mushed together,

12:25

and evidence would be no good. So

12:28

the evidence that they collected, nobody had told

12:30

them how to do it the right way,

12:32

and so it usually would not be in

12:34

a state that was very usable

12:36

for the crime lab. Even

12:39

if the evidence was collected at the hospital, Pagan

12:42

Kennedy says police could still elect not

12:44

to look at it if

12:46

an officer didn't believe a victim. Ultimately,

12:49

the decision belongs to the police

12:51

officer or detective, and it's

12:53

this woman seems like she's—they

12:55

called it crying rape. If

12:58

she's just, you know, trying to get

13:00

back at her boyfriend, or she's a

13:03

prostitute, or she's whatever,

13:05

for any reason, you don't really have

13:07

to collect the evidence. And

13:10

that was very much the attitude. When

13:13

a survivor of a sexual assault was taken to

13:15

the hospital, there were very few

13:17

systems in place. If

13:19

your clothes were collected as evidence,

13:21

the hospital may not have any

13:23

others for you. Here's

13:26

Marty Goddard. If you don't have

13:28

replacement clothes, and you're going to

13:30

take the patient's underwear, and

13:33

jewelry, and shoes, and

13:35

nylons, and slip in their

13:37

dress and their coat in the

13:39

winter in Chicago, and put

13:41

them in bags, turn them

13:44

over to the crime lab—well, excuse

13:46

me, but what is she supposed to go home in? And

13:49

I'm telling you for sure, not only did I

13:51

see this, but I've heard too many horror stories

13:53

around the country. Victims

13:56

were sent home in those little paper slippers,

13:59

and they were sent home. home with a

14:02

paper or cloth, hopefully cloth gown,

14:05

one in the front facing front and the other

14:07

tying around the back. That's what

14:09

they got sent home in. And they

14:11

were put in marked cars like

14:13

the Chicago PD or the

14:15

Sheriff's Department or whatever and

14:18

driven home. Now, gee, don't you

14:20

think your neighbors are going to

14:22

wonder why you're in

14:24

a police car and why you're dressed in

14:27

paper slippers and two surgical

14:29

gowns? Well, of course. And

14:32

not everybody wanted to tell their

14:34

mom or their husband or their

14:36

roommate that they had just been raped.

14:39

So a lot of people wouldn't call. She

14:42

had a very good idea of what

14:44

was going wrong, of the way evidence

14:47

was being thrown up out

14:49

or never collected at all, the

14:51

bias that the police departments had

14:53

against the victims, of the abuse

14:55

of victims and

14:57

of just the pure incompetence. Pagan

15:00

Kennedy. She was aware of

15:02

the whole range of problems that were preventing

15:06

sexual assault evidence from being collected

15:09

in a scientific manner. Marty

15:11

Goddard wanted to change the way that

15:13

evidence was collected in hospitals and

15:16

make it clear to police officers, hospital

15:18

workers and crime lab technicians

15:21

what they each needed to do. She

15:25

got to work creating what she called an evidence

15:27

collection kit. She

15:30

had a very clear idea of what would be in it,

15:32

and it would be swabs, it would be evidence

15:38

envelopes. This is

15:40

pre-DNA, so it's pretty

15:42

simple. It's not high tech by

15:44

any means. The rape

15:46

evidence collection kit would include things

15:49

like nail clippers, slides

15:51

and a comb for collecting hair. But

15:55

I think the most important idea

15:58

that the kit had in

16:00

it was that it would have a

16:03

place where the people

16:06

in the hospital who did the

16:08

forensic exam, they would sign off

16:10

on it. The kit would

16:13

include a sign-off sheet and even a

16:15

pencil. And then it would go to

16:17

the crime lab and whoever opened

16:19

the kit would sign off. And so the

16:21

kit would, at every stage,

16:24

there'd be somebody taking responsibility

16:26

for it. We'll

16:30

be right back. Support

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18:46

Marty Goddard was born in 1941

18:49

and grew up in a suburb near Detroit. When

18:52

she was young, she became passionate

18:54

about racial equality and women's rights.

18:58

Marty clashed with her father as a teenager

19:00

and tried to run away from home. Pagan

19:03

Kennedy says she thinks that's

19:05

what made Marty so concerned with family

19:08

violence. Marty

19:10

lived in New York City for a while, working

19:12

as a secretary, before

19:14

she moved to Chicago and started

19:16

her non-profit job. She

19:18

was a great storyteller and

19:21

she could bring the issues that

19:23

she was interested in to life. Cynthia

19:26

Geary. Marty did not have

19:28

a college degree. She

19:30

was surrounded, I mean, in the same day, she

19:32

worried. Everybody's got doctorates

19:34

and everything else. That's

19:37

why she needed a whole new approach. Her

19:40

approach was person to person. And

19:44

Marty was a kind of a

19:46

paradox in that she was so

19:49

effective socially, but

19:52

was terrified of any kind

19:54

of public speaking. And

19:56

that's why she recruited me. She

19:58

needed a person to to go

20:01

up to the microphone. That

20:03

wasn't her calling. Her

20:06

calling was to go and meet people

20:09

that were experiencing something, getting

20:12

to know them, and then sharing

20:14

their stories one on one. Marty

20:17

Goddard had been told that if she

20:19

wanted her evidence collection kit to become

20:21

a reality, she'd need the

20:23

support of a man named Louis Vitullo, the

20:26

head of Chicago Police Department's microscope

20:28

unit. My memory of

20:30

it is that she went in unannounced.

20:35

So she walks in with

20:37

her plan for a

20:39

rape kit. Now,

20:41

Louis Vitullo is kind

20:44

of a gruff person. He

20:48

does not think about what

20:50

he's saying. I'm sorry. He does it

20:52

often. Basically,

20:57

he kicked her out. Marty

21:00

called me after this

21:02

happened. I didn't even know she was going to

21:04

go try to do this. I probably would have

21:07

tried to dissuade her from trying. But

21:11

she'd called me and told me about it. I'm

21:14

trying to convey some of

21:17

her raw humor. She

21:19

was funny, wasn't she? Yeah, very funny. And

21:21

it was kind of like, oh,

21:24

she said, well, that didn't

21:26

go so well. But

21:31

one day, Louis Vitullo suddenly

21:33

called Marty Goddard and

21:36

said he had something to show her. So

21:38

she went to his office. It

21:41

turned out Vitullo had studied her

21:43

plans and had created a

21:46

prototype of Marty Goddard's rape kit. But

21:50

the city wasn't going to pay to produce these

21:52

kits. So Marty Goddard

21:54

cut back her hours at her day job

21:57

and started a nonprofit to try to make them her

21:59

city. She

22:02

needed money, but she says

22:04

prospective funders didn't want to go near it.

22:07

All they did was want to fund the no

22:09

offense to the groups, the YWCA,

22:11

and the Girl Scouts. And that's

22:13

it. That was the end of

22:15

their obligation for women's and girls' programs. Most

22:18

of the foundation and corporate people were male. And

22:22

they held the big money. So they

22:24

held the purse strings. And

22:26

it wasn't loosening up. They didn't

22:28

get it. They didn't understand, and

22:30

I understand, because that was my dad's

22:32

generation. So they didn't under—you

22:35

didn't say the word rape, okay?

22:37

Not in public and not in private. You

22:40

didn't talk about that stuff. So

22:42

the money wasn't going there. Nobody would give

22:44

me the components, the combs and the slides and the swabs

22:46

and the folders and

22:48

the paper bags and the printing materials and the

22:50

box and the evidence. They wouldn't give it

22:52

to me. And I didn't have any money.

22:55

Not enough to fund that upfront. They

22:57

didn't know what to do. So

23:00

she talked to a friend named Margaret Standish,

23:02

who worked for the Playboy Foundation. In

23:05

1965, Hugh Hefner created

23:08

the foundation to support causes that

23:10

he personally believed in. And

23:13

I said, Margaret, I'm in trouble here, and I can't

23:15

get this product manufactured. Nobody will send me anything. And

23:18

they gave me $10,000. And

23:22

I took a lot of flack from the women's movement. But

23:24

too bad. I got to tell you

23:27

what. I said if it was spent, I'll learn no. But

23:30

Playboy, please give me a break.

23:34

There was an enormous building in

23:36

the middle of Chicago with this

23:38

neon sign on it that said

23:40

Playboy. Playboy was making money hand

23:42

over fist. It had its clubs

23:44

with the bunnies and it had

23:46

magazines. It was this huge empire.

23:49

Hugh Hefner was very committed to giving

23:53

money to civil

23:55

liberty causes, especially free speech

23:58

causes. Hefner

24:00

really saw sexual assault

24:02

as an issue

24:05

related to sexual freedom because

24:07

if women were afraid

24:09

of being assaulted, of course, they couldn't

24:12

be sexually liberated and that meant men

24:14

couldn't be as sexually liberated. So he

24:16

was actually very interested

24:18

in helping victims of

24:20

assault and getting this to be a

24:23

conversation. Marty

24:26

Goddard now had the components to put together

24:28

10,000 rape kits that

24:30

she would distribute across Chicago as

24:32

part of a pilot program. But

24:36

she was short on staff that could

24:38

assemble the boxes. Her

24:40

friend at the Playboy Foundation, Margaret, had

24:42

an idea. She said, I've

24:45

got this great idea, Marty, you're not

24:47

going to believe this. I said, what

24:49

is it? She said, well, everybody just

24:51

loves Playboy Bunny and they just all

24:53

the, we have all these older women,

24:55

senior citizens, and they want to do something.

24:57

So we're going to provide the

24:59

sandwiches and the coffee and the juice

25:01

and we're going to invite them up

25:04

to the Playboy offices and we're going

25:06

to give you a huge room with

25:08

all these assembly tables, you know, folding

25:10

tables. We're going to have the

25:12

component ship to Playboy and we're going to set

25:14

everything out and you come in and decide how

25:16

you want it done, train them and they'll do

25:18

it. And that's what they did. Well

25:20

they were so excited. There were so many people up

25:23

there and the word got around, guess

25:25

where we got to go today and they give us

25:27

the stuff to eat and everything. And

25:29

well, everybody wanted to come downtown Chicago then

25:31

after they heard that. They

25:34

called the kits the Vitullo kit after

25:37

Sergeant Louis Vitullo from Chicago's

25:39

police department. The rape

25:42

kit was branded in

25:44

Vitullo's name for a long time.

25:46

You know how Marty felt about that? I

25:48

think she thought it was a

25:50

very smart thing to do. I

25:52

think she might have even done it. She

25:55

knew that his support

25:57

was critical and it wasn't just

25:59

a Just because he was a man, it was

26:01

because he directed the

26:04

forensics department. So

26:06

having his name on it made

26:09

it recognizable as something to

26:11

take seriously in the city

26:13

of Chicago. An

26:16

article in the Chicago Police Star

26:18

had mined Vittulo's rape evidence kit

26:20

is an aid to victims featured

26:22

a photo of Vittulo holding the kit.

26:26

On September 14, 1978,

26:30

Marty Goddard's rape kit became available in hospital

26:32

emergency rooms for the first time.

26:36

One newspaper article called the pilot

26:38

program she had designed in Chicago, quote,

26:41

the first of its type in the nation. The

26:46

kit included a checklist for medical examiners

26:49

and detailed instructions on how to

26:51

seal and secure the evidence they'd

26:53

collected. The medical

26:55

examiner was instructed to hand the

26:57

patient a card included in the box,

27:00

which had information about where to find

27:02

counseling. By

27:05

the end of 1978, staff

27:07

from 72 hospitals had participated

27:09

in a training seminar created

27:11

by Marty Goddard's nonprofit. The

27:15

seminar included presentations on

27:17

forensic science and victim trauma.

27:20

There was a lot that wasn't in

27:22

that cardboard box, the idea that the

27:24

hospital staff had to be trained, the police

27:28

department had to be trained. They

27:31

had to be brought together in training

27:33

sessions to work together. And

27:35

then the hospital staff, if they were

27:37

going to go to court, they

27:39

had to be trained to talk

27:41

about how they had collected

27:44

evidence before a jury. The

27:47

evidence collected from these new rape kits made

27:49

its way into courtrooms. What

27:52

really made the difference was

27:54

that they were getting a person

27:57

in a lab coat, whether it was a doctor or a

27:59

nurse, to stand

28:01

up in front of the jury

28:04

and say, here's exactly what

28:06

I did to collect

28:08

information from the

28:11

survivor, from this victim. Here's

28:14

the swabs. Here's the

28:16

photographs of her injuries. Here's what

28:18

I documented. And

28:21

instead of having the

28:24

victim herself speaking up,

28:28

you see a person in a lab coat

28:32

who has scientifically collected

28:35

evidence. It was a system

28:38

for collecting scientific evidence and making

28:40

sure that evidence was good. But

28:43

it was also a piece of theater because

28:45

in front of the jury, you have the person in

28:47

a lab coat. That

28:50

person in the white coat can tell

28:52

the story of this

28:55

woman who's assaulted and be

28:58

believed. It's a theater

29:00

of belief, whereas

29:03

juries might be very, very hostile

29:05

to, especially

29:08

if a woman's making an

29:11

accusation against a more powerful

29:13

man, she would

29:15

not be believed. And so if

29:17

you take that all and you put

29:19

that in a white coat and

29:22

you have a kit, it really takes

29:24

the burden of belief off

29:26

of the survivor herself. And

29:30

unfortunately, it was a workaround

29:32

for a very broken social

29:35

fabric of belief. In

29:39

1979, a 28-year-old man was sentenced to 60 years in prison

29:44

after abducting and raping a bus driver in

29:46

Chicago. Marty

29:49

Goddard's kit had been instrumental in

29:51

securing the conviction. Marty

29:55

Goddard said that in the early 1970s, the media

29:57

would hardly ever watch the video. write

30:00

about sexual assault. But that

30:03

gradually started changing. The

30:05

media now starts catching up. And

30:07

gee, it isn't so taboo. You can actually

30:10

write about this stuff. And

30:12

you had to educate them. They didn't know

30:14

anything. They didn't even know what the legal

30:16

definition in their state was for rape. She

30:18

says that one day she picked up a copy

30:20

of the Chicago Tribune. There was

30:23

this big article in it that said,

30:27

last night a blond-haired 23,

30:29

25-year-old waitress at

30:34

the blank who lived on

30:36

the block, 2300 block

30:38

of blank, got raped. I

30:42

nearly lost my mind. I called Cindy

30:45

and I said, we've got to meet with

30:47

these people. So we walked

30:50

into the Tribune. We wanted to meet with

30:52

the editor. And we did. He

30:54

had his whole staff in there. We

30:56

sat down and we were very calm. And we said,

30:58

this is why we're having a problem. Here's

31:00

what the article said. But we didn't say the name. I

31:04

said, listen to me,

31:06

23-year-old blond waitress.

31:10

And you named her place,

31:13

which was right around the corner from me. So

31:15

all I had to do was walk up to that restaurant. I'd

31:17

know what it was when she came to work. And

31:20

I said, it wouldn't matter if you gave her a name now. At

31:23

first they were very defensive. And I got to tell you, they

31:26

apologized and never did it again. Today

31:29

the names and details of survivors

31:31

of sexual assault are generally not

31:33

printed. One

31:35

by one, do you see how long this can take? One

31:38

incident by one incident

31:41

by one incident. It took

31:43

forever. She said that

31:45

one day a calling showed her a greeting

31:47

card she'd found in a store. And

31:50

it said, help stop rape

31:53

on the front of the cart. Open

31:55

it up. And it says, say

31:57

yes. I

32:01

just cannot tell you, these were in the

32:03

Hallmark stores, pardon me. So

32:06

I sat down and I

32:08

wrote a letter to the company and

32:11

I didn't threaten a lawsuit, I didn't

32:13

call names, I just said, look, this

32:15

is really offensive. And do

32:18

you, I'd like to meet with you, do you

32:20

understand what's happening? You guys, I'm sure, think

32:22

it's funny, but it's not funny. One

32:26

day, Cynthia Geary received a call

32:28

from Marty. She

32:31

knew Marty had been on vacation in Hawaii

32:33

and Cynthia remembers assuming Marty was

32:36

calling to tell her about it. And

32:39

I said, how was it? And

32:42

there was a silence. And

32:45

then she just said, I was raped. And

32:51

I was shocked. She

32:54

never talked to me about the

32:57

details. And

33:00

then she had to go back and talk

33:03

about sexual assault every day in her work.

33:07

Yes. I mean, that's, that

33:10

is all a mystery. She

33:12

was able to

33:14

not only lead training

33:17

classes, but to

33:19

do it on a

33:21

topic that most people

33:23

would fumble around,

33:27

trying to come up with the language.

33:29

And yet she kept her sense of

33:31

humor too. Well, she did it. I

33:35

don't know how she held it all together. Marty

33:39

Goddard kept working. She

33:42

wanted her rape kit in hospitals across the

33:44

country. And gradually,

33:46

that started happening. As

33:49

Chicago created this system

33:51

in the late 1970s and

33:53

early 80s, it was getting

33:55

national attention. And this idea

33:57

was really catching on. Marty

34:00

was constantly traveling to train people.

34:03

She once joked that she didn't know how her

34:05

cat survived those years. She

34:07

was always on the road. And

34:11

then, in 1983, Marty

34:13

Goddard felt that the rape kit was

34:15

so widely used that her

34:17

organization's work was done. Imagine

34:20

how many years it took us

34:23

to go state's attorney to

34:25

state's attorney to cop, to

34:27

detective, to deputy,

34:31

to doctor, to pediatrician,

34:33

to nurse, to nurse

34:35

practitioner. It took

34:38

forever. But

34:40

I felt driven. I felt that

34:42

after seeing all the kids and

34:45

the adults and other

34:48

experiences in my life, I

34:51

felt absolutely driven. I

34:54

felt I had to save the world, and

34:56

I was going to start with Chicago. In

34:59

1983, a medical company took

35:01

over production of the kits. And

35:04

by 1987, almost a

35:07

dozen companies were producing them for

35:09

hospitals all over the country. We'll

35:16

be right back. Hey

35:29

there, beautiful people. I'm journalist and

35:32

author Treville Anderson, and I'm hosting

35:34

the official Rustin podcast. We're diving

35:36

into the man, the moment, and

35:38

the movement at the center of

35:41

the Netflix film. When the states

35:43

were so severe, people were getting killed from

35:45

registering people to vote. He was

35:47

a pioneer in the sense that he really

35:49

was a true radical. You are

35:51

absolutely going to want to listen. I promise you

35:53

that. Subscribe now wherever

35:55

you get SlayWorthy podcasts. brought

36:00

to you by Zelle. Saying

36:02

no to anyone is hard. When

36:05

that person's a family member or

36:07

one of your closest friends, it's

36:09

practically impossible. Even when they

36:11

ask things like, Hey, it's your uncle Walt.

36:13

Listen, I'm locked out of my bank account

36:15

and I need 50 bucks stat. Can you help

36:18

me out? It can

36:20

feel really overwhelming when family asks

36:22

to borrow money. I think our first instinct is

36:24

always to help our family. And so we're willing

36:26

to do whatever it takes to make sure that

36:28

they get what they need. Dr.

36:31

Marty Dilema studies financial fraud. When

36:33

you get a call from a family member, maybe

36:35

it seems out of the blue, the first thing

36:37

to do is pause like how urgent is this?

36:40

And then always ask that

36:42

person a question only

36:45

that family member would know the answer to.

36:48

Hello. Hey, don't forget about your

36:50

uncle Walt. Oh yeah. What did

36:52

we have for dinner together last

36:54

week? Gotta go. Goodbye.

36:57

Brought to you by Zelle. Who'd like to remind

37:00

you to only send money to those you know

37:02

and trust. Zelle is available to

37:04

United States bank account holders only in terms

37:06

and conditions applied. In

37:12

2009, prosecutors entered a warehouse

37:15

in Detroit. The local

37:17

police department used it as a storage

37:19

facility. At the

37:21

warehouse, they discovered more than 10,000 rape kits, which

37:25

had been collected but never tested.

37:28

Some of the untested kits dated back

37:30

to the mid 1980s, back

37:32

when Marty's idea for the kit was

37:34

finally catching on. They just

37:37

put them in this abandoned falling

37:40

down warehouse. Dr.

37:42

Julie Valentine is a forensic nurse

37:44

and a professor who studies sexual

37:47

violence. So then it

37:49

was like, wait, if

37:51

they found all of

37:53

these rape kits that were

37:55

just being stored in Detroit, what

37:57

about other areas of the country? It

38:01

turned out lots of other cities and

38:03

states had big backlogs of rape kits.

38:06

There were hundreds of thousands of them. The

38:09

state I live in, in Utah, when I started working

38:11

in 2006, I started asking, so

38:14

what happens with all these rape kits we collect?

38:18

And the answer I got from everyone

38:20

was, we don't know. And

38:22

when you think about it, I mean, is

38:24

that insane that we

38:27

weren't tracking this? You're an old ICU nurse,

38:29

and ICU, you track everything about your patients.

38:31

And here we're collecting evidence

38:33

from these violent crimes from people

38:35

and not tracking what happens with

38:37

this evidence. So

38:40

nationally, there was a big

38:43

push on, let's find

38:45

out all across the country what

38:48

the backlog is. There

38:51

have been a lot of explanations offered over

38:53

the years, including that

38:55

some police departments don't prioritize

38:58

sexual assault cases, either

39:00

because of bias or lack of training.

39:04

Often the problem is attributed to a,

39:06

quote, lack of resources. Testing

39:08

a rape kit typically costs between $1,000 and $1,500.

39:15

Pagan Kennedy writes that funding has

39:17

always been a problem ever

39:19

since Marty Goddard had to fundraise to get

39:22

the kits produced. Sometimes

39:25

survivors of sexual assault have paid to

39:27

have their own rape kits tested, and

39:31

nonprofit organizations have raised millions

39:33

of dollars to test kits.

39:38

In 2016, the Justice

39:40

Department announced a new $45 million program to

39:44

reduce the number of untested rape kits in the

39:46

U.S. and improve police training.

39:49

The next step then was to say, hey,

39:51

we can't let this happen anymore. So

39:54

many areas of the country,

39:56

many states have now passed laws.

40:00

dating the submission and testing of

40:02

all sexual assault kits. Dr.

40:05

Julie Valentine says systems have been

40:07

developed to track each kit. In

40:10

a study published in 2016, Dr. Valentine sampled testing

40:15

sites in Utah and found

40:17

that only 38% of

40:19

kits were submitted for testing. Now

40:22

we've gone from 38% to 99%, which is awesome. There's now a specialized

40:25

field of nurses who

40:31

care for patients who've experienced trauma.

40:34

Forensic nurse examiners. They

40:37

will care for patients

40:39

through a sexual assault

40:41

medical forensic examination with

40:44

always the first focus being

40:46

on the patient, holistic

40:49

care of the patient

40:51

to hopefully begin their

40:53

recovery. Secondary

40:55

is collecting evidence in

40:58

a sexual assault kit.

41:01

And so it was really

41:03

the nursing influence along with

41:05

the kit that

41:07

created the changes that we

41:09

have today. Dr. Julie Valentine

41:12

says forensic nursing has existed since

41:14

the 1990s when

41:16

a group of nurses across different states were

41:19

unhappy with how sexual assault victims were

41:22

treated in emergency rooms. And they

41:24

said, what if

41:26

we developed a new

41:28

field of nursing

41:32

where we provided guidelines

41:34

on how to care

41:37

for victims of rape and

41:39

domestic violence? When

41:41

a survivor reports a sexual

41:44

assault, we have

41:46

national protocols that guide

41:48

the examination. First

41:50

of all, immediately

41:53

they should have their trauma acknowledged.

41:56

They should be able to be

41:58

placed in a private room, an

42:02

advocate should be

42:04

called to respond, and

42:06

along with that, then a forensic

42:09

nursing team will be

42:11

notified if there is

42:14

a forensic nursing team in that area.

42:17

If there's no forensic nursing team, Dr.

42:20

Julie Valentine says the exam will be

42:22

done by an emergency room physician or

42:24

nurse. The

42:26

examination should

42:28

be completely the

42:30

patient's choice. I'm going to switch

42:33

now to the term of patient rather

42:35

than survivor because in my world,

42:38

they are my patients. And

42:41

sexual assault and

42:43

rape completely take away an

42:47

individual's autonomy and

42:50

control. And one of

42:52

the first things that we do when we

42:54

go in to see a patient is try

42:56

to restore that. And

42:59

so we give patients

43:01

choices. The choices

43:03

range from receiving

43:05

resources, receiving medication

43:07

to prevent sexually transmitted

43:09

infections and pregnancy, and

43:12

that's it. Or they

43:15

can receive all those resources

43:17

and also have evidence

43:19

collected if they

43:21

report within the timeframe of

43:24

that jurisdiction, which should be

43:26

at least up to

43:28

five days after the sexual assault.

43:31

And with this evidence collection, they

43:34

can choose to have something

43:36

called a restricted kit or

43:39

a non-restricted kit. So

43:43

a restricted kit means

43:45

that they do not want to talk

43:47

to law enforcement right now. It

43:50

means that that sexual assault kit

43:52

is held, and the national guidelines

43:54

are that it should be held for up to

43:56

20 years because so

43:59

many times after trauma, patients

44:02

just aren't quite sure what they want

44:04

to do. Remember that most sexual assaults

44:06

are committed by someone they know. And

44:09

so giving them

44:11

choices, letting them decide

44:14

if they want certain parts of

44:16

evidence collected, not certain parts. If

44:18

they want photos taken, not

44:20

photos, that's a really, really important

44:23

part of the sexual assault medical

44:25

forensic examination. The

44:28

Marty Goddard original rape kit

44:30

was kind of a small cardboard box

44:32

that had a comb and slides.

44:35

How has the actual rape kit

44:38

changed and evolved over time? The

44:41

sexual assault kit in some ways

44:43

has changed a lot. The

44:47

outcomes in some ways have

44:49

not changed. Now

44:52

we collect evidence with

44:55

the focus on obtaining

44:58

DNA. Our

45:01

abilities to develop

45:03

meaningful DNA data

45:06

have gone from when the

45:09

DNA first started, you really

45:11

needed about a quarter size

45:14

of bodily fluids

45:16

to now helpful

45:19

DNA profiles can be developed

45:21

from just a few cells.

45:23

So that then

45:25

brings up the additional

45:28

challenge since the DNA

45:30

testing and interpretation is

45:32

so much better that

45:34

we have to be very cautious

45:37

about making sure

45:39

that we have a very

45:41

clean environment and do not

45:44

introduce any extra DNA. So

45:47

examiners should be wearing masks now.

45:49

Obviously we're going to be wearing

45:51

gloves when we collect. But

45:54

now the kit consists of

45:57

swabs with the focus.

46:00

of finding DNA that is

46:02

not the patients or victims.

46:05

There is now also a suspect

46:07

evidence collection kit, where

46:09

DNA can be collected from a suspect

46:11

in a sexual assault case. And

46:15

today, medical examiners can even collect

46:17

what is called touch DNA. Dr.

46:20

Julie Valentine says touch DNA can make

46:23

it possible to collect evidence in, for

46:26

example, groping assault cases. In

46:30

the United States, the FBI manages a

46:32

DNA database, CODIS, where

46:35

DNA profiles of perpetrators and people

46:37

who have been arrested are stored.

46:41

Then you have the capabilities of

46:44

linking cases. That

46:47

is huge. So that has

46:50

helped substantially. But I

46:52

think what hasn't sadly

46:56

changed as much as we need it to is when

46:59

Marty started out and developed these kits, the

47:03

focus was to improve

47:05

the outcomes for these

47:07

victims, to improve the prosecution

47:10

of these cases. And

47:13

that's where we still see

47:15

a huge lag. Scientifically,

47:18

forensically, wow, we

47:21

have made huge strides. But

47:24

when we look at what's

47:26

the outcome, are we truly

47:28

making a difference? What's happening

47:30

in these cases? And

47:33

sadly, we still see very

47:35

low prosecution. I mean, why?

47:38

Just sorry to interrupt. Yeah.

47:40

I mean, the evidence is there. What

47:43

is the problem? So

47:46

there's several problems on

47:48

this low prosecution. I

47:51

think we still have

47:54

a very prevalent rape myth

47:57

that there's a lot of false reporting in

47:59

rape. And when people

48:01

think like that, then what

48:03

ends up happening is

48:05

you have a victim who doesn't report

48:07

because they feel like no

48:10

one's going to believe me. I'm going

48:12

to be questioned. I'm going to be seen

48:15

as, well, what's wrong with her? Oh,

48:17

was she, you know, there's still a

48:19

lot of victim blaming. Oh, she was

48:21

with that guy. Oh, she was out

48:23

till two in the morning. Oh, she

48:25

invited them to her apartment. What did

48:27

she expect? And

48:29

when people think like

48:31

that and assign

48:34

blame to the victim

48:36

for this and then

48:38

question the victim's motivation,

48:40

we have very low reporting rates.

48:43

But then that also affects how

48:46

law enforcement handles these cases

48:48

in many instances, not all,

48:51

how prosecution handles these cases,

48:53

and what a jury decides.

48:56

Many victims will have a sexual

48:58

assault kit collected. They'll

49:00

want to talk to law enforcement.

49:03

But when they talk to law enforcement,

49:06

if they are met

49:09

with any questions

49:11

that imply that,

49:13

hey, you had something to do with

49:15

this, or you share some blame in

49:17

this, or, hey, you

49:19

need to know this is going to be really hard

49:22

and you're going to be dragged through the mud, are

49:25

you sure you really want to do that? We

49:27

found that a high percentage of victims say, you

49:29

know what, I'm done. I

49:31

don't want to do this. That

49:34

is an area that is really,

49:37

in my opinion, the next frontier that

49:39

we need to address. Battling

49:42

it just like Marty was battling it. Absolutely.

49:47

We need everyone. We truly

49:49

need everyone, men and women. This

49:51

is not a women's issue, right? When

49:54

we say it's a women's issue, we

49:56

diminish the impact. We also diminish the

49:58

many men that are impacted. by

50:00

sexual violence. This is a societal

50:02

issue and I

50:04

see firsthand the effects.

50:08

Rape is shattering. The

50:11

development of sexual assault kits

50:14

is an important first step

50:17

in bringing perpetrators to justice. But

50:21

we need the buy-in of everyone

50:23

to actually make

50:26

that happen. In

50:29

2022, the Smithsonian acquired one of Marty

50:33

Goddard's original kits for

50:35

its permanent collections. In

50:38

a statement about the acquisition, the

50:40

museum wrote that the kit, quote, continues

50:43

to stand as an enduring

50:45

and powerful innovation today as

50:48

a sexual assault is attempted every

50:50

68 seconds in the United States.

51:05

Criminal is created by Lauren Sporr and

51:07

me. Nydia Wilson is our

51:10

senior producer. Katie Bishop is our

51:12

supervising producer. Our producers

51:14

are Susanna Robertson, Jackie Sajico,

51:16

Lily Clark, Lena Sillison, Sam

51:18

Kim, and Megan Kinane. This

51:21

episode was mixed by Emma Munger. Engineering

51:24

by Ross Henry. Fact-checking by

51:26

Michelle Harris. Jillian

51:28

Alexander makes original illustrations for each

51:30

episode of Criminal. You can

51:33

see them at thisiscriminal.com. Thanks

51:36

to the oral history of the crime

51:38

victims field video

51:40

and audio archive at the

51:42

University of Akron archives for

51:44

letting us use Marty Goddard's oral history interview.

51:47

You can watch the full interview with Marty

51:49

on the university's website and on YouTube. We're

51:53

on Facebook and Twitter at Criminal Show

51:55

and Instagram at criminal underscore podcast.

51:58

We're also on YouTube at youtube.com/criminal

52:01

podcast. Criminal

52:03

is recorded in the studios of North

52:05

Carolina Public Radio, WUNC. We're

52:08

part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Discover

52:11

more great shows at

52:13

podcast.voxmedia.com. I'm

52:16

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