Omg, is anybody watching The Keepers documentary on Netflix?

[octoberlib]

It's one of the most disturbing docs I've seen.


From Vox:


Updated by Alex [e-mail] May 22, 2017, 8:56am EDT

Netflix’s new true crime doc, The Keepers, isn’t Making a Murderer. It’s far more haunting. The primary mystery is the murder of a nun. But it’s what she knew that will devastate you.

The Keepers, in spite of how it’s been marketed by Netflix, isn’t really about the unsolved 1969 murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik; instead, the seven-episode series finds its deeply affecting narrative in the events that took place before and after her death. The murder itself is like a corner piece in a jigsaw puzzle — a very important component, but in the end, just a fragment of a bigger picture.

And what makes that bigger picture so maddeningly compelling is the way The Keepers explores a pathology of abuse and its effect on victims, chronicles the strange inescapability of trauma, reflects on how society treats the word of women, and reveals the shattering reality that justice can feel so empty.

The Keepers is a story about survival, systemic abuse, and the failure of the justice system, all wrapped in a murder mystery.
Minutes into The Keepers’ first episode, the series unveils its flashy, tantalizing mystery: the question of who killed one Sister Catherine “Cathy” Cesnik. Cesnik was a nun who taught English and drama at the all-girls Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, Maryland. She shared an apartment with a colleague, Sister Mary Russell, and on November 7, 1969, she left to buy an engagement present for her sister and did not return. Cesnik’s body was discovered on January 3, 1970 — two months after she disappeared — and her killer was never found.

What filmmaker Ryan White does with The Keepers’ next six episodes is investigate why Cesnik was killed, not who killed her. He traces a web of relationships and a system of abuse that Cesnik was tethered to at Archbishop Keough by interviewing her former students, the people who were part of her life, and the authorities who seem to have dropped the ball in investigating her death. https://www.vox.com/2017/5/20/15643380/the-keepers-netflix-sister-cathy-cesnik-murder-mystery-review


Father Maskell didn't just abuse these girls himself , he invited Baltimore cops, politicians and doctors into his office at Archbishop Keough High School to partake in the abuse, as well. I highly recommend watching if you have Netflix.

[Squinch]

1. Yes.

You hear the stories from the 80's about these vast pedophilia networks and for me, at least, they have an element of the satanic abuse hysteria of the time.

This series, though, has a lot of credible witnesses speaking out about exactly that kind of a network, and proof of its existence, and one where only a few of its members have been identified. The rest are still out there and the organization around them has never been cracked.

It was really disturbing, and heartbreaking.

[octoberlib]

4. The Catholic church could have nipped this in the bud from the get-go

instead when a parent at an all boys complains to the archdiocese that Maskell is abusing her son , the church's response is to move the priest to an all girls school where he continues the abuse. It's maddening.

[Squinch]

5. But could they? Yes they could have stopped Maskell, but

the thing I find most disturbing is the fact that others, from outside the church, were involved. It sounds like there was a very connected and very diverse group of men involved in this. The church was definitely part of it, but it was not the whole thing.

[octoberlib]

7. I found that disturbing as well. Obviously, the cops involved made sure to stymie

any investigation . I'm sure politicians were involved in protecting him, too.

[MountCleaners]

2. Thanks for the review!

I added it to my list. I like true crime, and it's hard to wade through all of the offerings on Netflix.

[HughBeaumont]

3. It's time to shut this institution DOWN.

Seriously. ALL of it, from the Pope on DOWN.

"Nadir Fallacy" me all you want . . . when sexual abuse of children becomes far too rampant, systemic and long-standing a problem and no one seems to be even one bit interested to stop it (in fact, HEY, let's get cops and politicians in on the fun), then you're nothing but a safe house for felon predators hiding behind a Bible.

No secret that a lion's share of reliable Republican votes come from single-issue enablers in the Catholic Church.

[octoberlib]

6. The Maryland legislature has been trying to extend the statute of limitations on child abuse

for years but the church keeps shutting it down. The doc goes into this.

[Squinch]

8. That woman - was she the AG for the state? - with the glasses creeped me out.

So reasonable, so corrupt.

[octoberlib]

11. Yes, she was. Creeped me out too.

And Scannell, he was police chief of Baltimore county, I think? He said there were no maggots on Cesnik's body when found ,directly contradicting the coroners report and Jane Doe's recollection. He was creepy, too. The corruption in the power structure of Baltimore runs very deep, it seems.

[HughBeaumont]

9. Unbelievable. Mythology belongs in libraries, not government.

Utterly silly that we give religion all the power it has.

[justiceischeap]

10. It should come with a Trigger Warning, that's for sure

I watched it on Saturday and it is exceptionally good television but for anyone easily triggered, they may want to skip it.

[octoberlib]

12. Agree. I have never suffered abuse of this type and found it devastating.

[SticksnStones]

13. It got really hard to watch after 3 episodes

The bravery and the sense of self, the way they could be gentle with themselves through all that pain..witnessing these women telling their stories...it was deeply moving.

I can't imagine how Jane Doe got to the other side of her childhood. But she did. What strength ~

[katmondoo]

14. I watched 6 episodes Sunday and the last one Monday

As a Catholic (Lapsed) I was appalled as a mother and a Grandmother I was shocked beyond words. That these young girls were being used as sex slaves openly here in America is unbelievable. This was the most upsetting murder and sexual abuse by the church that I have ever heard.

[beachbum bob]

15. I consider myself fortunate I was not born catholic. Many of my friends were and back in the 60's

when we were in junior high, quiet rumblings of altar boys and priests were whispered.