The Gilded Rage: Ep. 1

Hi, the Real Killer listeners. I first want to say I am so grateful for those of you who are still listening to the podcast all the way back from season one. I love seeing the comments on Instagram and responding to those of you who reach out to me privately. Keep listening and keep writing. Okay, so I'm getting back on the mic today to tell you about two exciting new projects. First, I want to share that there is bombshell new evidence breaking in Keith Lamar's case. Keith, you will remember, is a subject of season two of The Real Killer. The story that's unfolding as we speak is far more complicated, revelatory, and hopeful than anyone could have imagined.

The investigation, the supporters, the relationships, the high-stakes legal battle, I'm covering it all in a new documentary film called Love is the Only Freedom. Go to loveistheonlyfreedom on Instagram to follow updates and learn more about the film. The other new project I want to tell you about just started dropping and it's called The Gilded Rage. It's executive produced by Elisa Rosen, the same executive producer of The Real Killer, and it's hosted by Lauren Malloy, the host of My Mom's Murder. The show is wild because it starts out as one story, then turns into another and then another and another, but they're all connected and the way it unfolds will keep you on the edge of your seat. The first two episodes are out now and

they'll be dropping weekly anywhere you get your podcasts. Also, Lauren and Elisa have a Patreon where you can binge the first nine of 10 episodes ad free right now. And there's tons of bonus content. They break down each episode weekly and there's lots of exclusive stuff. So I highly recommend subscribing to their Patreon, The Gilded Rage. I'll put all the links in the show's notes. I hope you love this first episode and follow The Gilded Rage to get more episodes. And I will definitely be talking to you again soon.

A warning.

This episode contains discussions of sexual assault and trauma, so listener discretion is advised. Support resources will be provided at the end of this episode.

Just going off the railing and then probably hitting this pipe and landing.

Where she was found in the final resting position.

Something else had.

To have happened before she ended there.

And I don't think she ended there, just.

Coming off the railing.

It's January of 2026, and I'm just outside Boulder, Colorado, with two detectives and my co-producer, standing on a small bridge looking at the scene where a college freshman died in 1985.

Falls backwards off the window ledge.

She hits her head on the curb. She gets up.

She's disoriented.

She starts moving.

She stumbles.

She falls.

And it's just kind of perfect storm.

I don't think she could have fallen accidentally over the railing.

But then there was also a laceration on the back of her skull, which we're trying to figure out.

Could she have fallen out the window accidentally?

How do I end up in the middle of the Rocky Mountains investigating the death of a college freshman girl more than 40 years later? It all starts two years earlier.

Dear Lauren, I am reaching out to you to seek your help with a crucial issue that I have been grappling with. Having explored all possible solutions, I have come to the realization that perhaps you could help me.

I'm almost four years into investigating my own mother's murder when I get an email out of the blue from a fellow Rhode Island resident. She's found my story on social media and knows I've had some success opening up my case in our state. She's making some bombshell allegations that catch me off guard.

On August 22nd, 1981, I endured a deeply traumatic incident in Narragansett, Rhode Island. where I was sexually assaulted by an individual named.

It's early March 2024, and Penelope McGee has blitzed out some version of this letter to about 25 people. Everyone from Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's accuser Christine Blasey Ford and her lawyers to California Governor Gavin Newsom's wife Jennifer to Lady Gaga. It's clear to me that Penelope is desperate to get someone to listen to her. And I can relate. I know what it feels like to beg people to listen to you, to believe your story, only to be met with unreturned emails, calls, letters.

Will Lori Lee Malloy finally get justice 30 years after her death? Her daughter hopes and believes so. On March 7th, 1993, 30 years ago just yesterday, Lori Lee Malloy was found dead by police on the bathroom floor of her Rhode Island apartment. Police began investigating as a homicide. Seemed to make sense. But then the chief medical examiner released his report.

The forensics equivalent of nothing to see here either.

My journey to find out what happened to my mother turned into a podcast called My Mom's Murder. But back to this story. Growing up in Rhode Island and dealing with some of the same players Penelope is now dealing with, I feel a connection. So I respond. In our first Zoom conversation, Penelope tells me to call her Penny because everyone does. Penny and I start talking and the layers of her story blow me away. it becomes clear really quickly that this story is way deeper, far more explosive, and much more nuanced than that first letter indicated.

When they found his car, he had the shoe and the sweater in it, and that's, I think, what led them to arrest him.

I have no idea what I'm getting myself into, but there's no turning back. I'm barreling headfirst into a rarefied world of money, power, and dark, dirty secrets— seemingly silenced by privilege. I'm Lauren Malloy, and this is The Gilded Rage, Episode 1, A Deeply Traumatic Incident. At the next stop sign, turn right.

Wow, these mansions are wild.

I'm driving with my producer Aliza in Newport, Rhode Island. It's a town overflowing with history, prestige, and tons of money. Very big circular driveway here. As we drive down the famed Bellevue Avenue, it's impossible to not be impressed by the line of mansions nestled behind extravagant raw iron gates.

It's the exact opposite of the Rhode Island neighborhood in Providence where I grew up. Despite my education and success, I know I'm still an outsider here.

You know, with trees banging from like the worst.

I wonder what the, did you check like what the wind gusts were?

I'm wondering like how many miles per hour. I don't know.

We had a high wind advisory though that I got on my phone as I was driving crazy. On this cold, stormy night in early April, Newport is.

A ghost town.

Most homeowners are probably still at their Palm Beach estates where they escaped the brutal New England winters. We turn onto a private road that ends with the ocean. the white surf crashing against the rocks.

Maybe we can pull in. If it's an open driveway, maybe we can pull in.

When we reach the last house on the left, we turn into its circular gravel driveway. A weathered stone lion statue snarls at us from the middle of the circle as if the mere sight of my humble Honda Civic is an insult to its domain. It turns out this house has some serious pedigree.

Edith Wharton's house.

Yeah, Edith Wharton's house.

This is the end of the cliff walk.

In a time of tradition. In a place of privilege. The Age of Innocence. The Martin Scorsese picture.

The 1993 movie The Age of Innocence was based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Edith Wharton. And she owned the very house we are now walking into. When Wharton bought it in 1893, she called it incurably ugly and spent a small fortune trying to make it her own, more welcoming, more homey, or as homey as an 11-bed, 10-bath mansion can be. Making our way through the large front doors of Wharton's estate, I think how ironic that her story is centered around an upper-class couple, scandal, and the morals, or lack thereof, of high society. so similar to the story we're chasing today.

Just while you're doing this, there's things that I haven't told anybody, including a therapist. I mean, I'm not holding anything back.

Penny's a tall, slim, 57-year-old woman dressed elegantly in a sweater and slacks, light makeup carefully applied, her auburn hair pulled back into a neat, stylish updo. The mansion is well-appointed, but the story we're here to learn is not. It's incurably ugly.

So, let's start from the beginning.

Penny McGee claims her age of innocence ends on Saturday, August 22nd, 1981. Can you take us back to when you were 15 and what happened at the Dunes Club leading up to that night?

There was a teen dance at my club, the Dunes Club in Narragansett. I was allowed to go because I was now 15. My sister was just turning 17. But she didn't have a car then, so a friend of ours, who didn't belong to the club, but we took as a guest, Claudia, drove us to the Dunes Club.

Today, Claudia confirms she drove Penny and her sister to the party that night.

My sister and Claudia were a little bit older, so they were sneaking beers in the bathhouse or by the cabanas. I got separated from them. So I was alone mingling. And then two of my guy friends that I've known since I was young said, oh, we're going to go pick up. And I can't remember the names of who was in the car. I remember it was his car and it was a black Jetta with a red stripe.

And I said, sure. He's at Pit and Patio, which is a pizza place, which is right behind the Narragansett police and two minutes from the club.

Penny says that's when the back door opens and a guy she's never seen before gets in. It's a 17-year-young man who we're calling Jay, as in initial Jay, throughout the series. Jay is also a member of the Dunes Club.

Never laid eyes on him before, never was introduced to him, nothing. So he's about 5'10. He's Jewish, dark skin, dark hair. I would say a good-looking guy. I wouldn't say drop-dead gorgeous. So we drove to Pit and Patio, picked up whoever we picked up, which I can't remember. It's the only thing that I don't remember of this whole evening. And we drove back to the club. And we were getting out.

We got in the driver's seat. He said, oh, I'll drive you down to the other entrance. I said, no, I'm fine. He grabbed my hand and said, no, come, I'll drive you down there. He ended up driving to the tennis courts, which is at the far end of the parking lot, and it's dark. They didn't have lights down there, and obviously the tennis courts weren't lit at that time. I used to borrow clothes from my sister, and I was wearing her green and white cotton shirt sleeves and a pair of white jeans. It was fast.

He grabbed me and flipped me over so I was on the bottom in the front seat. My back was on the seats. My head's on the driver's side and he shoved my head in between the door and the seat. Pulled my pants down. Didn't touch me physically. Didn't kiss me. It wasn't like, let's make out. He was there to get what he wanted. He pulled my pants and my underwear, and he shoved his penis in my vagina. I was a virgin. I remember it was painful. I froze. And there's a lot of different ways that women react, as you know. They scream, they fight. I just froze. I didn't know what was going on. I had little experience with guys. I had buds for breasts. I didn't have my period yet. I wasn't menstruating yet. I don't think

he put a condom in. I can't remember. He pulled out and he says, I'm going back to the dance. He got out of the car and left. I was there, left alone in the dark by myself. I immediately pulled up my pants. I was bleeding a lot. I tried to gather myself together and look normal, right? And pulled my pants up, pulled my shirt down. And luckily it was dark, so if there was blood, you know, nobody could see. My sister, she saw me coming out of the car. Then that's when I tried to walk around.

And she's like, Penny, we got to go. I didn't go back into the dance, and Claudia drove us home. We had to tell our parents when we got home. We weren't allowed to stay out that late. It was, I don't know, maybe 9.30 or 10. I went into the bathroom. I wiped all the blood off, but my sister's white pants were bloodied, so I threw them under my bed, thinking I could wash them when she wasn't around.

We contacted Jay and invited him to participate in this podcast, including an opportunity to respond to 40 detailed questions and or provide a statement. His attorney responded with this statement, where we've changed her client's name to Jay. Jay emphatically denies any and all allegations of sexual misconduct related to the alleged victims you referenced, including Penelope McGee and anyone else.

At no time did Jay engage in non-consensual sexual contact with anyone, and any suggestion to the contrary is false and defamatory. Jay has never been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of rape or any form of sexual assault. Back to Penny and what she says happened the next day.

I woke up and I had a babysitting job, which actually was good because I didn't have to go to the club, right? I don't remember seeing him again there that summer. I don't know exactly when I knew he told people.

Penny claims she finds out through mutual friends that Jay was bragging about having sex with her.

So we would go to parties, and he would sort of look for me, you know, find me. He was very strange. He was gruff. You could tell he had a chip on his shoulder, but he always had a scowl on his face. We always had our jeans and a jean jacket on and a polo shirt. Drove a BMW. I think this is the night I've really found out that people knew. I was at a party. I don't know where he was at that point. He was probably with his friends. His brother was standing by himself drinking a beer. I just happened to walk by him, and under his breath, he went, Pig. enough for me to hear it. I was like, oh my God, he knows.

If he knows, everybody knows. And that's when I just was so ashamed. Reliving that night, what did I do wrong? Did I do something? I wasn't a precocious girl. I was still reading Nancy Drew books. That devastated me in a way. I was like, God, now I'm The slut.

The pig.

And that's what it turned out to be.

He would come up to me and ask me where my sister was at a party, so he knew where he was.

That's Jennifer, Penny's older and only sibling.

He was just really scary. I always kept a distance from him.

Jennifer says she remembers some of the details of the night Penny says she was assaulted.

I started hanging out with these girls from Bonnet Shores who went to my high school. And they used to tell me stories about him, about how evil he is and all these women that he slept with, the reputation he had and, you know, to stay away from him.

Let's talk about the night at the Dunes Club.

Do you want to know my biggest memory of that night? That spring, I was working part-time, and I finally lost all my baby fat, and I was skinny for the first time. Not that I was obese or anything, but you know how it is in high school. And I bought myself a pair of white Calvin Klein jeans. This was the days with Brooke Shields and the Calvins. That night, she wanted to borrow my jeans. And I was like, okay.

And I just remember a couple of days later, going in the laundry to get them, and they were full of blood. And I was furious. You know, I mean, those are my prized white jeans. I don't know when I found out what happened. I just, you know, of course I yelled at her, what did you do to my jeans? What happened? And so I fell, I don't remember what she said. I don't remember finding out what happened, how I found out that he had sexually assaulted her.

I mean, the word we used back then was rape. Just, you know, That's what it was. She just turned 15 years old.

And did she seem off?

Did anything stand out to you about her response? It was very common for my sister to keep things to herself, especially things like that.

So that's his house.

Yep.

So we're very close.

We're outside the Dunes Club with Penny, where she points out Jay's old house. It's so close to the club that we can see it from the parking lot.

And he can literally, like, his parents are right there.

Right there.

Yep.

So he got out of the car here, and I don't know which way he walked because I was still laying down in the car.

Wow.

And I waited for him to get out of sight. It was really dark. Yeah. Okay, really dark.

There was nobody in this parking lot. It was teenager parties, so parents were dropping kids off.

Okay.

One thing that I do remember and that I can never listen to and get out of my head is that by the time we turned around and got to there and the guys jumped out, Super Freak came.

On the radio. Very loud. Very loud. And it was Super Freak. And there's something really strange. The day I went to the police in Narragansett, Super Freak was on the radio line. Oh, my God. How weird is that?

Oh, that would have freaked me right out.

And you know what I did?

Did you sing along to it?

I listened to the whole goddamn song. Good for you. And I said, nope, I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm not going to turn it. I'm not going to turn it off.

Yeah.

Was it a sign? Yeah, I think I was like, you know what?

I'm not over this, but I'm going to do something about this.

While we're in the parking lot, I asked Penny where she saw her sister that night in 1981.

Where did you see your sister after? She saw me getting out of the car. I'm getting a little confused here. I don't know if you drove back in here.

More than 40 years later, the exact details can still be fuzzy. But what's crystal clear for Penny is the aftermath. I knelt down in my bed, beside my bed, every night and prayed.

Every night. The first was I prayed that I wasn't pregnant. Now, I didn't get my period until the following spring. And, I mean, look, we all had sex ed. I knew things. But I had never seen a penis. And I just prayed a lot. And I was ashamed because these rumors started. I didn't tell anybody in school. I didn't tell my parents.

Didn't tell my sister, but everybody knew. Or in my perception, everybody knew. People thought I had consensual sex.

So for the rest of her high school years, Penny says she just puts it behind her, pretending like it didn't happen. More than anything, she wants to be a normal teenager.

I made a lot of girlfriends. I was popular. So I kept that facade. That was the persona that I wanted to have. You know, fun and popular, go to the soccer games, do all this kind of stuff. Deep down inside, I was ashamed. I couldn't tell. I just couldn't tell anybody. And then I dated... And I went out with him for two and a half years. He was the love of my life. It's almost as if I had regained sort of some, not stature, but some sense of decency, right? I wasn't a slut anymore because I'm not spending the time sleeping with everybody. I have a boyfriend.

Penny goes on to Skidmore College, where she majors in American Studies and minors in English. Skidmore's a fancy private university in upstate New York with a reputation for spoiled rich kids getting housekeeping and laundry done for them. But for Penny, that environment is nothing new. Growing up, she was used to hobnobbing with wealthy people. Her family wasn't always flush with cash, but looking as if they were was what mattered.

My mother was very, you know, she loved the label conscious. So somehow she made it work that we got Christmas presents from Tiffany.

Right.

And that we did get to go to New York and stay at the plaza where I went for my 13th birthday, and she bought me a dress at Bergdorf's. We were always a financially unstable family. My father, we never made money. It was just inheriting it. His family were in parking garages. There was a lot of fighting and turmoil over the business. So my father eventually got kicked out and decided to sell cars. So he sold Cadillacs forever.

Did you feel like status was important growing up to your family?

My mother, yes.

Absolutely.

Not just monetary status, but having a prestigious job, as she used to say. I mean, she's the one that pushed me into a political career, which I didn't have a lot of a choice.

Penny's parents were Catholic, and her mother worshipped the Kennedys.

My mother was what they call a golden girl. You know, she worked for John F. Kennedy, you know, volunteered. I.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, do solemnly swear.

Huge into the Kennedys. She was at his inauguration and all that, and that was a big deal to her. She worked for Patrick Kennedy when he came here to run for office. Since we were in high school, it was Jennifer was going to marry a Kennedy, and I was going to marry a WASP.

After college, Penny moves to Boston and works in the fundraising department at the Harvard School of Business. She meets a guy who's starting a banking operation in Ukraine.

I flew over to Amsterdam, spent time there, went to Paris, and I was engaged with him in three months. He was really wonderful and charming until we got to Ukraine. He became horrible. I broke off the engagement. I gave him back the ring.

Penny says that's when she seeks help.

I started to see a therapist up in Boston, and... The reason I went was how could I, why am I getting abused by men? What am I doing? I said, but I feel as if I'm allowing it. I don't know why. What is it about me that I'm giving off that they think they can abuse me? And then I said, you know, I've never told anybody this, but I was raped when I was 15. And he was the first person who knew the story.

That confession comes just before Penny meets the man who will become her husband.

So there was a woman named Margo Howard. She was Ann Lander's daughter. She called me up one day. I'm at the office. She says, I have a guy for you. I just met him at a dinner party. I'm sitting next to him. He's too young for me. He said, he's older than you, Jewish guy. Can I give you a number?

Sure.

He calls me at the office, says, do you want to go meet for Indian food? So I tell Margo, I call Margo. I said, we're having my date tonight. And the last thing she says to me is good. She goes, don't wear heels. I'm like, he's short.

That blind date is Andy Savitz. He comes from a prominent and wealthy Jewish family in Boston. Not the wasp Penny's mother had hoped she'd marry. And even though Penny is Catholic and taller than Andy, they have other things in common.

He was a short, sort of nebbishy Jewish guy, but cute, you know, and he was hilarious. And he was smart. He's the type who read The New Yorker, and we both were avid readers.

Andy is a Rhodes Scholar, environmental consultant, and advised Michael Dukakis in his 1988 presidential campaign.

A son of Greek immigrants named Mike Dukakis declares his candidacy for the presidency of the United States.

After Penny and Andy date for a few months, she goes down to Naples to stay with his parents who live there for the winter.

Condo is being renovated, and I was in the guest house, so it was all kosher. I met them. And he had this tiny little Jewish mother, Adele. She was like 4'11, 90 pounds, you know, soaking wet, and a father. And they were just lovely.

Lovely.

Did they care that he weren't Jewish?

No, because Andy was 45 when he got married. He was the eldest. The three younger all got married before him.

After Penny and Andy get married in 1998, they go on to have three kids. We'll go more into Penny's family in the next episode, but for now, we're going to fast forward 25 years to the summer of 2023. At this point, Penny's been divorced from Andy for seven years. She moves from Brookline, a posh Boston suburb where she lived for two decades, back to Rhode Island where she grew up. Penny finds a house in Newport and gets a job working as a personal assistant to a prominent family in finance. the ones who own Edith Wharton's mansion on the water. The pay is low and the hours are long, but at this point, Penny's just happy to be working again. The years have been tough on her, and she's ready for some stability. One summer night, she's

asked for help. the Dunes Club talking with some old friends. And they were saying, wow, you moved back to Rhode Island. This one just moved back.

So a group of us, people that moved away to New York, California, Boston, started buying beach houses and coming in the summer, and some just moved back to Rhode Island. And I can't remember if it was Tim or Patrick, said, oh, bought a house in Newport.

The same man Penny alleges raped her when she was 15 years old.

I was like, fuck. So immediately I go home and I Google, and he's on Street. Four million dollar house. It's a mile down the road from me. My ex-fiancee from Ukraine, you know, we've had talk. And If he moved down the street from me, I wouldn't have a problem. But this just brought everything back. My stomach was lurching.

It was shaking. And I start Googling him. And then go, I'm being verified, and I find his phone number. And I texted him. I went on chat GBT, and I started looking up, what's the prison sentence for first-degree sexual assault? Is there a Statute of Limitations in Rhode Island on first-degree sexual assault.

No.

And texted him, I copied the chap GBT, first-degree sexual assault, prison term, and then I texted, I hope you have a good lawyer.

Penny says her first instinct is to get a restraining order against Jay.

I went to the court. Has he tried to be in touch with you? Has he contacted you?

No.

Well, we're not giving you no contact. Then I went back to the police and I said to the woman at the desk, I need to speak to a detective or an officer because a man that raped me is living a mile down the street from me. And I waited and waited for like 20 minutes and he finally came down and I was shaking. I said, officer, This is what happened. I said, he moved down a mile down the street. He says, well, you know, we can't put any contacts order. But he saw how shaken I was.

And he said, look, ma'am, I will go to the house. He went to the house right away. And he called me. And he said, I went to his house. And the people that were there didn't know him. I looked it up, and his house is registered as a bed and breakfast. And I think they were renters. I didn't know this at the time. So I couldn't get a restraint order.

I couldn't get a no-contact order. I picked up, I grabbed my purse, got in my car, drove over to the Narragansett police. I said, I'm here to report a rape. And she looks at me and says, your daughter? And I said, no, me.

In late June of 2023, Penny sits down with a detective and tells him her story, which becomes an official incident report.

I gave them names of people to call. They spoke to my sister. They talked to the guy that owned the car.

When Narragansett police call the brother of the alleged car owner, he confirms his parents always had Volkswagens. That's consistent with Penny's earlier description of the Black Jetta.

Everybody was cooperative, but nobody can give them some solid information that they remember anything. which, you know, it was 42 years later.

The detectives call Jay. They hear back from his attorney who asks if the female is reporting first-degree or third-degree sexual assault. The detective says first-degree. To be clear, in Rhode Island, first-degree sexual assault involves sexual penetration with force or coercion, and third-degree sexual assault is statutory rape. Meeting an adult over 18 has sexual penetration with someone over 14 but under 16. In Penny's witness statement, she calls it a statutory rape, but that's not accurate since Jay was 17 years old at the time. Also, in 1981, the same year Penny claims her assault happened, Rhode Island updates its rape laws. So those definitions I just read of first degree and third degree are exactly what applied

at the time. Jay's attorney says he'll be speaking to his client to find out if he will provide a statement. A month later, in August of 2023, Penny goes back to the Narragansett Police Department. She meets with a detective and head of the criminal division.

So they were taking this very seriously. They sat down and they said, we just don't have enough. We believe you. Because I said to them, you don't believe me? He said, we believe you. We just don't have enough probable cause to send this up to the AG's office. And I said, what about if I got more women? And they said to me, well, that could be probable cause. So that's what I knew I needed to do. I needed to go out and find the other women, and I knew they were out there.

And that's when Penny remembers another incident she had heard about through the grapevine when she was in college, but she.

Didn't know the details. Sherry Clark kept on coming back to my mind. Because I never knew of somebody. It was always an incident that involved a girl in a car. That's all I knew.

She died when she fell 15 feet off a footbridge in a park where she was attending a party with friends.

A freshman named Sherry Clark at the University of Colorado in Boulder had mysteriously died under a bridge after an off-campus sorority party in 1985.

The victim was a pledge here at the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority on the CU campus. Boulder County Sheriff's investigators tell us it was at a sorority party Friday night that the victim was last seen.

The last person to see her? Jay.

I then did my research. I said, I want to know about this girl. I could not find anything with his name on it. Searched and searched and searched. I locked myself in my house for a weekend in my pajamas. One pizza, Diet Coke and cigarettes. That's all I did for a weekend. And I finally found the article on Sherry Clark.

A Denver Post article from October of 1985 reports that investigators initially treat Sherry Clark's death as a homicide. It says a 21-year-old fraternity member, Jay, leaves the party with Clark but returns alone, and police say he's the last person to see her alive. But the articles say Clark's injuries are consistent with a fall from the bridge, and Jay's account matches other witnesses. In her letter, Jay's attorney tells us, quote, Jay has consistently and unequivocally denied any role in the death of Ms. Clark, which was a tragic accident unrelated to his actions. She says he also, quote, emphatically denies any and all allegations of sexual misconduct related to the alleged victims, including Sherry Clark.

I knew this now had turned into something different. It wasn't just about me anymore. It was about this girl who I have no idea how she died, but I wanted to know.

Penny does some digging and finds contact info for Sherry's brother, Jason, who still lives in the Boulder area. She cold calls him. So as soon as I said, you don't know me, I'm Penny McGee, please don't hang up on me.

Do you know the name? Oh my God, I haven't heard that name in 20 years. He raped me when I was 15. He said, how can I help you? What can I do? And we spent three hours on the phone and he told me all about the Sherry case.

Jason sends Penny thousands of pages of police interviews, crime scene photos, transcripts, and more.

It was just a love fest between the two of us. He says, well, I want to help you. And I said, but I want to help you.

So Jason and Penny decide to pair up and start their own investigation. Jason wants Boulder Law Enforcement to reopen his sister's case because he believes they never properly looked at Jay's possible involvement. Penny hopes that if that happens, it will help her rape claim against Jay that happened four years earlier.

We had realized after several conversations, probably very quickly, that Sherry's case and my case were inextricably linked, right? My case could get in prison. And that was our ultimate joint goal. We were going to get this bastard out.

They put together a monster spreadsheet of anyone who might have gone to high school or college with Jay, family members, friends of Sherry's, and more. They send out a slew of emails, including the one I got from Penny that included this line.

During my own personal investigation, I've uncovered a distressing pattern of Mr. * * * * * *' s involvement in numerous sexual assaults spanning over 40 years across Rhode Island.

And Colorado. Although it's important to know.

But just months after Penny starts this crusade, she gets a devastating phone call from the Rhode Island Attorney General's office about her criminal complaint.

I didn't pick up soon enough, so he left a voicemail.

Ms.

Savage, I wanted to... give you the news over the phone that we concluded our in-house review, and we've come to the same conclusion as the Narragansett police, that the prosecution would not be successful in this matter. I just wanted to.

The assistant AG refers to Penny as Ms. Savitz, her married name, but she filed her complaint as Penelope McGee, her maiden name, which she's been using for over a decade.

I called him right back, and I went ballistic. I said, what are you talking about? I said, how could you not connect the dots? And what have you been doing for four months? Reviewing my case? I said, this is absolute bullshit. With all due respect, Ms. McGee, now at this point he was calling Ms. McGee.

And that's when Penny says the light bulb goes off. The assistant AG had Googled Penny, and that's why he was calling her Ms.

Savitz.

I said, they're not prosecuting this because they don't think I'll be a credible witness because of my criminal case. Once again, it was like this criminal case is ruining my life. It's often said.

That there are no perfect victims, especially when it comes to sexual assault. And in this case, Penny is far from a perfect victim. She's a recovering alcoholic, she's been institutionalized for mental illness, and even had a full-blown affair with a married man which led to her divorce. But what I haven't told you yet about Penny McGee is that when I meet her in April 2024, she's just months away from going on trial in a case so explosive it makes it onto court TV. A prominent Massachusetts mother, Penelope Penny McGee, is facing manslaughter charges in the death of her ex-husband, Andrew Savitz, five years ago. Buckle up, because the deeper we dig into this story, the more unbelievable it becomes. When we first started, we thought this

story would mostly focus on Penny McGee as both a victim of alleged sexual assault and and a defendant accused of the death of her ex-husband. It turns out that was just the tip of the iceberg. The deeper we dig, the clearer it becomes. This case is far bigger, more wide-reaching, and much more disturbing than we ever imagined. Coming up this season on The Gilded Rage.

Don, what's going on?

My parents!

Stop!

You guys, they could stop!

I don't think I'll ever be able to handle a trial. I honestly would rather kill myself than go on trial.

That was nothing out of the ordinary.

Well, there was one thing out of the ordinary. Somebody ended up dead.

I remember hearing her dad scream.

I'll never forget it. His initial reaction was, oh my God, she's been beaten.

And I still can hear him yelling that through the door.

I've never had a murder suspect or anybody be as relaxed and as forthcoming as this guy was.

I've always suspected him. He drove up the thing and had sex with her, and he just leaves her there. What kind of a person does that? Are you saying a large number of people feel that this was foul play?

Yeah, the people that know him.

What haunts you the most about this particular case? That it, in fact, is a homicide.

He basically just got on top of me and did what he wanted orally.

And it was quick.

It was just vile and not consensual at all.

I would find him lying in wait for me in these, you know, like just.

Literally waiting around a corner from where I would get out of class. And he'd sort of push me against the wall.

He pushed me against the wall.

He slapped me on the face.

And then he was like, oh, fuck it.

You know, you're just a bitch.

Get out of here.

I can go find somebody else.

He, like, threw me onto the bed. And, like, at this point, he was, like, completely naked. And he, like, shoved my head down to, like, you know, to his area or whatever. And, I mean, that just completely repulsed me because that was, I mean, that's, like, the only time that it ever happened to me.

It impacted the rest of my life. Having that feeling that a man.

Could overpower me, force me to do things I didn't want to do.

Is it typical for you to ask to have records expunged within, you know, two or three days of a suspect being released from custody?

We were very much by the book.

That's why I'm surprised by what you told me.

And that really upsets me because some of that evidence is gone.

It just didn't make sense to us how quickly it all wrapped up.

Right.

I don't know how to defend that, actually. But that didn't raise a flag, him having a.

Club in his... I would have thought so.

And it was logged as a weapon.

She'd be unconscious, not moving.

She's not crawling around.

So how does she get in that face-down position with the legs crossed?

On the other hand, if you throw her over the bridge.

It's different.

You just said throw her over the bridge.

I don't know.

I assume that's what happened.

I'm really concerned now that it wasn't an accident.

What happened? I don't know. Someone, she was placed down there potentially. I don't know.

I don't like it. I don't know.

Do you think he's still a threat to women? He's a predator. He is a sexual predator. And he needs to be punished.

I have no words. I never wanted people to get away with something like this.

Nothing was resolved. Justice was never served. And they deserve justice. Ms. McGee, would you stand, please? On manslaughter, we've got it on the theory of blunt and reckless conduct.

If you want to hear the next episode, you're not going to hear it here. You need to search The Gilded Rage wherever you get your podcasts. Or go to Patreon and search The Gilded Rage.

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault before, Confidential help is available through the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE or online at rainn.org. If you want to go deeper into this story, join our Patreon, The Gilded Rage. There, you'll be able to binge episodes without waiting week to week, get behind-the-scenes details from our investigation, extra information, interviews, and documents from our files that only members get access to.

Go to patreon.com forward slash thegildedrage or click on the link in the show notes for access. Thank you so much for listening. Please follow The Gilded Rage on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Leaving a review and five-star rating helps others find this show, and we appreciate your support. If you'd like to reach out to us, either direct message us on Instagram at thegildedragepodcast or email us at thegildedragepod at gmail.com. The Gilded Rage is a production of AYR Media hosted by me, Lauren Malloy. Executive producers, Lauren Malloy and Aliza Rosen for AYR Media. Written by Aliza Rosen and Lauren Malloy. Editing by Tristan Bankston, Kenny Kusiak, and George Drabing-Hicks. Consulting producer, Sasha Alpert. Law enforcement consultant,

James Kohler. Law enforcement support, Ed Pelletier. Coordinator for AYR Media, Andy Levine. Archival Support, Nolan Peacock. Mixed by Kenny Kusiak and George Drabing-Hicks. Mastered by Cameron Tagge. Audio Engineer, Justin Longerbeam.

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