The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

You might call it True Detective for women, but Netflix's Unbelievable is far more compelling than any of the three seasons of that ill-fated show.   Part of the reason is that this detective story is indeed true, and provides a fascinating study in contrasts as to how rape cases are investigated.

For Marie Adler, who had just turned 18, reporting her rape turned into a nightmare.  Her confusion was misread, her story doubted and ultimately her case dropped as a false charge.  Not only did she lose trust in everyone around her, but the Lynnwood PD had the audacity to criminally charge her for the false claim she was coerced into signing.  Her foster parents weren't much better, providing her minimal support, and the halfway house where she was raped gave her little comfort.  For three years, Marie had to live with this infamy as a high school "friend" called her out on facebook so that she was inundated with hate mail.  If it wasn't for the tenacious work of two women detectives in Colorado, who were investigating similar cases three years later, it is doubtful Marie's story would have ever been believed.

We still struggle as a society to deal with rape.  I read recently that as many as 3 million women's first sexual experience is rape.  That's a staggering number, especially since only one-quarter to one-third of women report rape. 

In Marie's case, she was first raped when she was 7 in a foster home.  Something she had tried to bury, only to resurface in the most brutal way.  The sad part is that the Lynnwood male detectives had her case study and knew all this, yet they treated her like a basket case because of inconsistencies in her stories and that she didn't react the way they expected a rape victim to react.  It didn't help that her most recent foster parents shared their doubts with the police.

The reality is that very few women falsely report rape.  The national average is less than five percent, yet the burden of proof often falls on the victim, especially when their assailant is a stranger that can't readily identified.

The assailant was smart enough to know not to commit the same crime in the same police jurisdiction, stretching his "targets" over a three-year period in Washington and Colorado, becoming ever more careful in concealing his tracks so that no one would have been the wiser had not Detectives Galbraith's and Hendershot's paths overlapped.  They found consistencies in the twin attacks in Golden and Westminster.  They searched for more incidents, finding at least five similar cases around Denver.  Their dogged work eventually led to the arrest of Marc O'Leary, an Army veteran, who had apparently schooled himself on the fine art of rape from a police training manual.

O'Leary was meticulous, although he admitted he had badly botched his rape of Marie Adler and was surprised the police hadn't long before tracked him down.  All told, he took credit for 28 rapes, including several in the greater Seattle metropolitan area.  According to the dramatic series, the police were never able to crack one of his encrypted flash drives that would have probably revealed many more victims. 

He admitted to the crimes thinking he might get a reduced sentence, only to be handed 327 1/2 years in the state penitentiary.  Like many men, he had no idea the judge would take into account the trauma he had inflicted on these women.  To the show's credit, the director doesn't try to answer why O'Leary attacked such a broad range of women, ranging in age from 18 to 65.  My guess is that he thought no one would link them together, but the M.O. was virtually identical in each case, which proved to be his downfall.

Marie is given special attention because she had to live with all that doubt.  The other rape victims in this set of cases were all believed.  After it was finally discovered that O'Leary had began with Marie, she confronted the male detectives who had mercilessly grilled her and coerced her into signing an affidavit of making false claim.  She also sued the City of Lynnwood.  I was surprised she settled for only $150,000.

There was some contrition on the part of the Lynnwood PD to read the ProPublica story, first published in 2015, but not enough to satisfy Marie or other rape victims for that matter.  Lynnwood generally tended to dismiss rape charges, as it was a strain on their limited manpower and resources.

One would like to think the #MeToo movement is forcing us to reassess sexual assault, given some of the high profile accusations we have seen in recent years, but the burden of proof still largely remains on women, as we saw with the reaction to Christine Blasey Ford's testimony during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings.  More allegations against Justice Kavanaugh have since come out, but Ford remains considered an unreliable victim by many. 

I think one of the most basic problems here is that many men don't consider rape a big deal.  They have a hard time understanding the trauma women have as a result of these crimes against humanity.  This is why you see not only police, but judges so blithely dismiss such charges and give the perpetrators very lenient sentences, as was the case with Brock Turner.  His victim, Chanel Miller, is speaking out, and the judge in the case has since been recalled. 

For Marie, the powerful new television series represents a catharsis.   She has built a new life for herself in the wake of the horrific act, but seeing it honestly presented gives her some hope that the police won't be so quick to dismiss rape claims in the future.  This isn't like having your bicycle or cellphone stolen.  This is a part of you that is irretrievably lost, as it undermines your sense of trust in the people around you.  She considered Detectives Galbraith and Hendershot her guardian angels, helping to restore some of that lost trust.