Great show. Really liked it, except for the last episode. I understand how they wanted to make it into a bigger thing and cause, which i can't knock, but it was a bit of a letdown.
What do you guys think happened?
It was excellent... if you go to the facebook pages... Gemma is still working on it... they are even more active because of the show. Who knows, with all the new crowd sourced information... maybe they will make a sequel. Fighting the church or even the government is like fighting to put the banking industry behind bars... it's a long thankless battle where you generally will lose but hope that if enough of a grassroots movement takes hold that you can find some occasional justice.
It looks like Maskell is guilty... but I wonder why Nugent was so suspicious of Koob... they seem like they didn't follow up on that part. Could be a situation where more than one thing is true... Maskell committed those atrocities... but one of the others killed Sister Cathy.
Why is Maskell guilty? Sister Cathy had nothing on him that could have ruined his career or got him arrested.
In 1970 a person making such accusations against a priest was viewed as negatively as the person accused of abuse. It would have been hard to get witnesses to come forward that would have made her accusations more credible.
Maskell had little to fear from one powerless nun(former nun) and former teacher at that school making accusations based on hearsay or second hand information. I do not see the motive for killing her.
I think Cathy knew what was happening with those girls and threatened to tell the police or the Archdiocese. I think Maskell had her killed as it would mean he'd be moved one more time after the assault on the boy in 1967. As for what happened in the last episode, how would you have wanted it to have ended? This is reality not "Law & Order" or "Columbo". Maskell is dead and most of the people involved are dead or dying. Unless someone is willing to come out and say what happened then I'm afraid life will be very anti-climactic for you. The series was excellent and could only have had the ending it did. The only ones with evidence is the Catholic Church and they will not cough up what they know. They refused to hand over any documents asked for when it came to the case in 1967. So this means a stone wall. There was no "making it into a bigger thing" because it was already big. Going up against the Catholic Church is like going up against Godzilla with a BB gun. So there won't be a "gotcha" moment.
shareActually the Baltimore PD had a piece of evidence (Cigarettes I think) with DNA on it - and the FBI had DNA and Fingerprints that they haven't even checked yet. So there is more work to be done, more clues and leads to follow. The problem is this is an OLD case and most of the suspects are dead - you would have to excavate their bodies to look into this...
So sad this investigation was cleared up long ago.
I agree the series was excellent!
If they suspect that even someone who is dead is the killer, they can at least exhume the body to gather DNA and then issue their report and close the case. I think Sister Cathy's family deserves that.
share"I think Sister Cathy's family deserves that..". Agreed!
If some Police Officer opened this case and looked at the DNA evidence, exhumed a body or two they could at least cross suspects off the list.
But then again a cigarette just lying on the ground near the body could belong to anyone not necessarily the killer. Perhaps that is why no one pursued it. It would be nice to see if some internet sleuths or a new witness comes forward to help solve this case.
They exhumed Maskell's body and there was no DNA link.
sharewith the advent of geneological dna matching, they can probably home in on the killer readily. i agree that maskell is the likely kingpin, because he was certainly capable of having it done, or doing it, also with a very strong motive.
the way the nun's priest boyfriend handled it the night she went missing was very curious, you wonder if he was perhaps intimidated or simply a coward, knowing who he was up against.
the series was extraordinary in digging up so much dirt on the characters around the school, the diocese, the rotten collusion between maskell & pd & assorted creeps he someone gathered to himself. how did these people find each other?
the church let in a generation of vipers, the cost of which has been the complete loss of trust people in general, at least, hold toward priests. the celibacy thing is no longer viewed as some form of special sacrifice of chastity, now seen more as a ruse or an excuse for closeted gays or something much darker.
happy hunting ladies!
When you say she "knew" to what extent was that? From things some of girls told her? They are more credible coming from the girls directly. She did not witness actual sex between the priest and girls. She could only assume it happened.
She did not have the power or capability to destroy this priest and most likely it is her credibility that would have been destroyed by the time the church got done with her.
She would tell the police? Maskell was a police Chaplin. They would not arrest him. She had no real evidence to share with them.
Threatened to tell the archdiocese? We know their history of doing nothing.
To this point there is no evidence that points toward Maskell. Just the sensational view that he was motivated to harm her based what she might say. It sounds sensational and emotional. Heroic nun murdered by dirt ball priest! Just no facts to back that up.
To this point we have nothing that points to Maskell and sexual abuse does not make him a murderer.
"""I think Cathy knew what was happening with those girls and threatened to tell the police or the Archdiocese.""
You have no reason to think that. You do not know what she knew or if she had any plans to tell somebody. Sounds good what a stirring story. Heroic nun executed by pos abusive priest! just not true.
You are also aware she left the order and her job at that school right? She was no longer sister Cathy and was teaching at as public school.
Nothing because the show was so boring, the evidence so flimsy and it goes nowhere so fast that one can't really form any conclusions about it.
shareDo you ever have anything positive to say?
shareIt is built around the stirring idea that a pos rapist priest murdered a heroic nun. There is no evidence of that so they have to string it along.
shareIt pisses me off that the police, the FBI and the church are still giving the victims the runaround by ignoring document requests, dumping evidence, offering paltry payouts as penance. They think they can ride this out because all the victims, witnesess, suspects, are aging, and hope the whole thing will just die away with these people. You can’t write off abuse, torture, murder and the systemic cover up of it all. It is still causing misery and heartache for the victims - and their families. I hope the victims’ children and grandchildren hound them until the end of days. I am glad this documentary revived this case and put a hot spotlight on them. The catholic church has not atoned for its great sin of protecting all of the evil, degenerate pedo priests who weaponized religion to abuse their victims. They should never be forgiven until they fully admit every last one of their wrongs and show full remorse for the immense amount of suffering they caused.
shareWhy do you assume murder when there is no evidence for this priest or the church being involved in it?
Why can't you knock it? It is almost a fraud. She was not a nun any longer and she no longer taught in that school. What investigation that was done produced no evidence this priest murdered her or even have a motive for doing so.
Maskell was a horrible person who used his station to engage in sex with under age girls at that school. That does not make him a murderer.
In short it is a likely coincidence that these people tried to sensationalize into a story. Congrats to them I guess. The sensational story of the heroic lesbian nun who gave her life standing up against the evil priest just does not add up with the facts. Sorry. It sounds good and it makes you want to watch and keeps you riveted but in the end you have nothing.
True.
share