What Haunts Us (2018) - full transcript

Hi, this is Paige.

Please leave a message.

Hey Paige, it's Mackie.

I just heard about
another suicide.

Another boy that
went to Porter-Gaud

when we were in school.

So, anyway, um,

it's just one after the next.

Call me when you have a chance.

Thanks, take care. Bye.

Every time my phone
rings and it's Charleston,



I'm afraid to pick it up.

My hometown is haunting me.

With each death, I'm 16 again,
back in high school,

trying to figure it all out.

We were really innocent.

We were really innocent.

I have really good memories.

I always liked school,
but more, it was our friends.

I started Porter-Gaud
in the fourth grade

and then I finished,
graduated, 1983.

I rode to school every day

with five of the guys
in my class.

That group of guys
was very tight.

I really felt like
I knew them inside out.



I started the first-ever
surf club at Porter-Gaud

and it became the most
popular club in the school.

During the yearbook photo,

there were about 60 people
and only about a third of them

ever had surfed.

It's like, when I
think of Porter-Gaud,

I see bright colors, you know?

Just happiness.

And then, I see like this
shroud over all the color.

And I still see that.

I just want it to be resolved.

It was resolved.

20 years ago.

But it won't go away.

You look back, you think,

"Gosh, there has been,
statistically more deaths

in the class of '79 than
just about any other class."

In the senior class,
there were one, two, three,

four, five, there are six
suicides out of 49 boys.

I mean, it's
like a 10th of the class.

That should be headlines today,

how many students at that school

that have committed suicide
in the last 40 years.

I started flipping through all

the other years, I'm like,
"Well I know of someone

"in the junior class
who killed themselves.

"And I know of someone
in the sophomore class

"who killed themselves.

"And I know someone
in the freshman class,

"in the eighth grade class,

"in the seventh grade class,
in the sixth grade class,

"and my friend committed
suicide later on in life."

It does make you want to cry.

It makes you wanna find out why,

and what really happened.

Total different--

But summer is.

This is the way I viewed it.

Porter-Gaud School.

Hi, this is Paige
Goldberg, now Tolmach.

I'm a former
Porter-Gaud student.

Yes, that's right.

So I wanted to just
call you again and

ask you another time
if you would consider

doing an on-camera
interview with me about

what happened at our school.

I know you weren't
there at the time.

You're the current
administration at Porter-Gaud,

but I just think it would be
really great to sit down

with you and chat about
what happened in the past

at our school.

The suicides are
still happening.

No one wants to talk
about it anymore.

School, when I was your
ninth grade teacher, I believe.

And when I got too old
I went to work and own

a tour business now.

Now I give tours of Charleston
which is a teaching,

taught me a little
bit about human nature

and that sort of thing.

It's been a teaching
experience for me

as well as my learning
things along the way.

Who is Eddie Fischer?
Tell me what you know about him.

Paige, I really don't want
to get into Eddie Fischer.

Let's don't do that.

My Polygon, my Porter-Gaud
yearbook from '81.

And it was dedicated
to Eddie Fischer.

So, here's the
school dedication,

Eddie Fischer, who looks
so charming and handsome and

charismatic, and he was
all of those things.

Eddie Fischer was
bigger than life.

He was the trainer

for the football team.

He was very handsome.

Very charismatic.

Blue eyes,

silver-gray hair,

a big smile and his bravado,

he looked like a movie star.

I thought he was
a good teacher, he was fun.

Because he was the cool teacher,

who let you drink or smoke

or experiment with drugs
at his house,

I naively asked him to be our
advisor for the surf club.

He would get us out of
speeding tickets sometimes,

and even out of trouble
with the school.

Somehow he fixed things.

He strutted around
like a peacock.

And he drove
this tiny little Porsche

with vanity plates.

He owned the school practically.

I don't think Eddie was
a scholar, not at all.

I think he's a con artist.

I mean, he's a BS-er.

He'd tell a lot of stories.

You wouldn't know what
to believe in the guy.

He embellished everything.

A couple of teachers
described him as somebody who

was completely incapable
of teaching properly

and questioned whether
the guy was even literate.

Another teacher
thought Eddie Fischer

was a confidence man,
he used those words.

Confidence man.

Parents loved him.

They trusted their
children with this guy.

He was just a charmer.

I can remember one
of our surf meetings

at Eddie Fischer's house.

Here's this old bachelor,
living by himself.

There's beer in the fridge
and we can drink.

Porn magazines around.

Porn videos, and he was saying,

"Oh yeah, pop one in
if you want."

At that point I was like,
"That's just weird.

"That's not cool."

It was more than weird.

It was actually criminal.

Now several
victims are taking civil action

against Porter-Gaud

and the Charleston County
school district.

Two top ranking
school officials,

Principal James Bishop
Alexander, and head master,

Berkeley Grimball, are
accused of putting students

at risk by protecting
Fischer and remaining silent.

Victim after
victim relived their past,

all the stories sounding
like the one before.

One victim said the worst
crime Fischer committed,

was taking away their innocence.

One day five years ago,

this box showed up at my door.

One of the survivors had sent
everything from the case.

And he knew that I was
trying to find out more.

What is
the age of the youngest boy

that you ever molested?

I think it was 12.

You
said you are not a pedophile.

These people we're
talking about were

as almost as large as me.

With a few exceptions.

Let me make sure I understand

what you're saying.

Aside from the age
and the fact that

you're a teacher, they were
just as cooperative as you were?

Absolutely.

A 12-year-old
and a 15-year-old child?

Yes, absolutely.

I'd run away several times.

I remember him saying this,

"Your mom and daddy
are good people.

"I know they love you,
but, you know

"I guess so many kids,
its just hard for him

"to look out for you.

"I'll always be there for you
if you ever need anything."

You tell that to a little kid
and then you treat him good,

you know, make him dependent
on you to an extent.

Perfect set up.

Because I felt like that nobody

on the fucking planet
would believe me.

Oh, without question.

I mean, I didn't see it
as a molestation, though.

I was in complete
and total denial

of the whole situation.

What brought it into focus
was the newspaper article

that came out.

I think it covered
the front page.

Guerry Glover was on TV,
and it hit the media.

Well I just could not grasp it.

Guerry Glover.

I remembered him
from high school.

He was the first person
to stand up and say

that he had been molested
by Eddie Fischer.

That this had happened to him.

To this day it baffles me
that it doesn't bother people.

I just kept thinking,
"Surely when the right person

"finds out, they
are going to care

"and they are going
to do something."

I think I was just
this sitting duck.

I mean,

looking back on

his predatory instincts.

I think when he
came to our family,

he just saw

a sense of vulnerability and he

thrived on attacking
the vulnerable.

Guerry lived way
out on Johns Island

and that's an important
part of his story

is that he lived
out on Johns Island,

very far from Porter-Gaud.

We lived out in the
country and I always felt

apart from, because we
lived out there, but,

there was these rye fields.

And the rye was like this tall.

It was such a different world.

I remember having
puppies and dogs.

All these people that
worked on the farm.

Guerry's father
was a humble farmer.

An incredibly decent man.

Everybody knew him
and he was well loved.

Just a nice tomato
farmer who just wants

his tomato rows to
be good and looks out

for the people
that work for him.

When he was nine-years-old,

Eddie Fischer came over to
his house on Johns Island.

He was helping with
the transportation

for one of Guerry's sisters,

and then Guerry told me about
how that was the beginning.

He was strictly out
to get what he wanted.

Purposefully, maliciously,
pick out little children

to twist and just cause pain.

How would you describe your

relationship with the Glovers?

It wasn't really
close but it was,

I don't know how to explain it.

We were friends but we
weren't real close friends.

Had you been to their house?

We know you've been there
one time.

- Yes.
- Other than that one time?

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

- On many occasions?
- Yes.

Did you become friends

with any of the other
Glover children?

Not to speak of,
just to know, yes.

You know, oh, I knew
the whole family.

And did
you molest that young man?

Yes.

It scares me that
I couldn't see Eddie Fischer

for what he was.

I only saw him as someone
I was supposed to look up to.

Someone I was supposed to trust.

My first memories
of Eddie Fischer

were summers
on Sullivan's Island.

I was five.

I always sat near the
water and did sand castles.

He would parade up
and down the beach

with a flock of boys.

And, he would call me Minnie.

I loved having a nickname.

And also, my brother
was at Porter-Gaud.

Wow. I just kind of
put that together, too.

I never really thought
about the fact that,

no wonder he was around lot.

To understand why
it happened here,

I think it's important to
understand the history.

Charleston has this
legacy of denial.

The city has a unique
history of trauma itself.

There was a horrendous Civil War

that left the city
completely decimated,

and then one hurricane
after another.

This town was destroyed
and rebuilt over and over.

At the same time, you also
had this fortress mentality

that had built up over time.

Refugees from
religious persecution,

people fleeing,
slave insurrections.

And they all came
here to Charleston

with all of this
internal wiring of fear.

You know, the school's
roots start with

Reverend Anthony Toomer Porter.

If you look at his
autobiography, it talks about

his son as having the
exceptional spiritual demeanor.

Somebody who just
radiated gentleness.

And then he lost his son.

He grieved for years.

He buried him
in Magnolia Cemetery.

One day he was in that cemetery,

completely beside
himself, sobbing.

And then hears a voice and
then the voice tells him

to get up and start doing
something for the living.

So he founds
an orphanage for boys

who were orphaned
during the Civil War.

He builds a small school.

So it was all boys
all those years.

When I was in third grade,
they started letting in girls.

And I thought I was gonna be
the first graduating class

of girls so I really
thought that was cool.

A major part of my
childhood was this school

and everything it stood for.

The motto on
the Porter-Gaud bell tower

was "Watch."

"Words."
"Actions."

"Thoughts."
"Character."

And "Habits."

We, all of us have
a tendency to wanna

put the responsibility
on the victim

for telling and bringing it out

and it's really not
their responsibility.

Children just do not tell
because adults believe adults.

If you have an adult come
into the room and say,

"The child threw that
vase on the floor."

And the child says,
"No, daddy did it."

You're not going to
question who did it.

You're gonna believe.

And that's their
experience with life.

Why in the world would
any child ever tell? Ever.

Because there's so much
to lose and you don't know

if there's anything to gain.

Oh yeah.

He made it plain, "You can't
ever tell anybody this.

"You just can't tell
anybody about it."

He didn't give a big
list of reasons, just,

you know, couldn't
talk about it.

It just...

The way he fucked
with your mind.

Guerry had one of the
most chilling quotes.

He said, "You're dying
to tell someone about it,

"but you're scared to death
that anybody will find out."

I'm pretty confident
the large majority of the

victims in our town have
never come forward in any way.

They've never reported
to authorities.

They've never sought any type
of mental health treatment.

They may not have even
told their spouses

about what happened to them.

One of the biggest
reasons Eddie Fischer

was able to get away with
this for 40-some odd years,

is because of the very
victims that he chose.

The majority of his victims
are the rich and powerful.

The movers and shakers
in Downtown Charlestown.

Across every field: medical,
legal, political, business.

The whole gamut.
They're in there.

This is a culture where
you don't bring scandal

in the family name,

and the boys understood that.

There's a saying
in Charleston that

"We're too poor to paint,

but we're too proud
to whitewash."

So make sure the front
of the house looks good,

but we don't have
enough money to paint

the sides and the back so that
everything else around it

is peeling and falling apart.

Powerful families.

Reputations.

Having things on the surface
look beautiful or classical

in that Charleston sense
and you know, it was BS.

Let's just call it what it is:
sexual abuse.

The most difficult
thing that many victims

have to overcome
is the sense of shame

and stigmatization,
guilt, and self-blame.

There are a lot of guys
in Downtown Charleston today,

by outward appearances,
they're highly successful,

high functioning guys,
but they share this secret,

which is pretty sad.

I didn't understand
what I was getting into

when I got involved
in this case other than

I knew it was the rich
people in Charleston

and they harbored a pedophile.

That's all I needed to know.

Make a right on Gadsden.

This is the house right here.

Oh my god.

Yeah, on the corner.

A teacher had been arrested
on some sex charges.

Went straight to this house.

Out came an older guy
in his underwear.

And he said, "I don't know
much about these charges.

"All I know is that
sometimes in a life,

"things can change in a second.

"You don't know why."

People think pedophiles
are these surly guys

in trench coats lurking in
the shadows and offering kids

candy as they go by.

Those guys get caught early.

The ones who are
more accomplished,

if I could use that word,

are the Eddie Fischers.

They are educated.

They are warm.

They are funny.

They are engaging.

Eddie Fischer, you know,
he grew up in Charleston,

and I found his yearbook.

Eddie Fischer
was best bullshooter.

That was his superlative.

And then, in his 20s, he was
teaching in a Catholic school

called Sacred Heart,

and that's where he began
to molest children, there.

Early 60s.

Did the molestation occur

while you were employed
by Sacred Heart?

Yes.

- He was a Sacred Heart student?
- He was.

What was
his age when you molested him?

I have no idea.
I wanna say 12 or 13.

Okay.

Was he your first victim?

I would say yes, he was
my first victim, period.

Does anyone know about
the Sacred Heart molestations?

It's hard to say because
there are no records,

according to the diocese
of why he left.

How and why did he get from
Sacred Heart to Rivers?

That's an unanswered question.

Did you have any problems

while you were employed
at Rivers High School?

Not at all.

Why did
you leave Rivers High School?

Because they asked me
to come to Porter-Gaud.

Fischer volunteered
with the football team

at Porter-Gaud before he
was actually hired there,

for a year or two.

He knew Principal
James Bishop Alexander.

This guy was my principal.

Major James Bishop
Skipper Alexander.

He was a military guy
who had run the all boys

boarding school,
before it became Porter-Gaud.

We called him The Maj.

My brother had
gone to Porter-Gaud

when it was Porter Military.

And Maj, Major Alexander,
and my brother were very close.

When my brother got married,
Maj and Mr. Fischer went

to Chattanooga for
the wedding and, um,

they stayed together
in the same house.

They had a history together.

They had both gone
to The Citadel,

the military college
here in Charleston.

Eddie Fischer graduated
from The Citadel in 1950.

Skip Alexander was
in the same class.

The Maj gave Fischer
a job at Porter-Gaud.

Mr. Fischer, I want to go back

to exhibit number one,

and I've opened the exhibit
to page 111.

I'd like to direct
your attention to

line four where your attorney
was addressed in the court,

quote, "It's a real
tragedy that there

"were people in the past,
15, 18 years ago,

"that were aware that
Mr. Fischer had an illness,"

end quote.

Is he referring to the fact
that 15 or 18 years ago,

Skip Alexander

had learned of your
sexual tendencies

with regards to young boys?

No sir. Skip Alexander
had no idea at any time

of what had happened.

In his first semester there,

the fall of 1972,
Fischer approached a kid,

and Fischer was gonna meet him

at the South Windermere
shopping center at a drug store,

and said three things to him.

"There are women in
Charleston, older women,

"who will pay you for sex.

"And what I need you to do
is not tell your parents.

"Don't masturbate
before you come,

"and you will go in a boy
and come out a man."

The boy then tells his brother,

and his brother says, "No good,"

and he tells his parents.
Did the right thing.

They go to the drug store
parking lot.

There's Fischer,
there's their son.

They get the son and say,
"Come home."

And the father went
to the school and told them.

I mean, there is no way you
can rehear that story and go,

"Maybe there was
a misunderstanding."

The father went to who?

Major Alexander
and Berkeley Grimball.

Dr. Berkeley Grimball.

He was our head master.

Corner office,
name plate on the desk.

So Berkeley Grimball
was ultimately the person

who was responsible
for the faculty and staff.

At that point,
according to Grimball,

Fischer sort of put on
some sort of informal probation.

There's no indication
of that whatsoever

that he ever did that.

He never told anybody else
at the school about it.

Grimball was
the first headmaster

Porter-Gaud ever had.

He'd been teaching
children since 1948.

And he was being
warned about Fischer

from the very beginning.

Within the first six months,

they knew what he was,
and they did nothing to stop it.

Once the story came out,
people said,

"Oh, we would have known."

Bullshit.

And this is just my anger.

Porter-Gaud knew, and
they didn't do anything.

Who are these people who
don't wanna get involved?

Who don't wanna speak up?
Who don't wanna know?

They are the people
who run the community.

My god, what would
happen to them?

They are the elite.

They have the most to lose.

They knew what was going on,
and they didn't do anything, so,

regardless of how I
cried out, or to whom,

it didn't matter 'cause
they already knew.

Let's go, shall we?

The more you know,

the more you see when you
look back at the past.

When I opened the box,

the past came pouring out.

I remember driving with this boy
who was in high school with me.

He was a little bit older.

He'd asked me out
on a tennis date.

It was so innocent.

I remember sitting in the car,
looking over at him.

I said, "Hey, what
are some things

"you like to do after school?"

He looked at me and said,

"I hang out a lot
at Coach Fischer's house."

"Wow, what do you do there?"

"Well we play games.

"We hang out at the beach.

"And sometimes
he shows me movies.

"He shows me sex movies."

"Sex movies?" I said.

"Yes," he replied.

"And sometimes he touches me.

"Coach Fischer says
it's good because

"one day when I'm with girls,

"I'll know what to do."

I heard this, and I did nothing

and never told a soul.

And now I'm ashamed.

And I'm embarrassed.

And I'm so sorry.

While you were at Porter-Gaud,

tell me all the various places
where you molested young men.

On the school grounds
in that little room,

in the dressing room,
that was it.

- In the training room?
- Training room.

Yeah, there it is.

That is the headmaster's office.

That's the principal's office.

That's Fischer standing.

You can see him standing
with his leg up,

touching a student.

I mean, he knew he couldn't
get in trouble.

Once he knew that the
administration had his back,

it was open field running,
and he molested dozens

and dozens of boys
at that school,

and he was confident that
nothing was gonna happen to him.

You also said earlier,

"None of this really hit
until I was at Porter-Gaud."

- That's right.
- Tell me what you mean by that.

I didn't get involved
in all this

until I got to Porter-Gaud.

To speak of, as a,
I call, an epidemic.

It was a minor epidemic.

And then I started,
I didn't really realize

what wrong I was doing
at that time.

Ignorance of it.

Now you, you said earlier,

you really couldn't tell me
how many victims there were

- at Porter-Gaud.
- No.

Was it more than 25?

I don't know.

- Could it be more than 50?
- No. I would say no.

How did he engage you?

He would speak to me in Spanish.

He'd say, "Hola? "Como esta?"

And I thought that
was great, you know.

But he would go out of
his way to be friendly.

And then, because we would talk,

he figured out what
was of interest to me.

So, early to mid-70s,
there were all these programs

and media published
about Bermuda Triangle.

The whole Erich Von Daniken
Chariot of the Gods,

you know, guys from outer space.

ESP. Kirlian photography.

All this really cool,
fascinating stuff.

So, the whole incident
gets set up with him

telling me he had
had a dream about me,

and it was very important.

He said it was so important

that he couldn't
talk about it at school.

So, it's like, "Whoa,
this must be significant.

"Something, we're talking,
life changing."

So we go for a walk
on the beach.

I'm thinking,
"Wow, this is cool.

"I'm hanging out with him.

"Wait till my friends
hear about this."

He finally said,
"I'll tell you about the dream.

"In my dream, you asked me
to teach you about sex."

I'm like, "What?"

You know, I am
completely disappointed.

I don't know,
I thought he was gonna say,

"Oh, I dreamed that
you are the chosen one

"for this epic thing."

And then he starts
revealing something

that I did not know.

According to him,
there's these older women

who wanna have sex
with kids like me.

I mean, wow.

I am blown away.

I can't even get a kiss
off a girl my age,

or even younger,
probably at that time.

And suddenly, here's
this guy telling me,

"Kissing's, you know, pffht.

"You're gonna be fucking
all these women."

And I'm thinking
I've hit the jackpot.

This is the mother
of all jackpots.

Did you
ever tell any of these boys

that you could get them
sex with older women?

- No.
- And the women would pay them?

Isn't that one of the ways,
though, that you got

some of these victims, at
least, to come over your house?

Nothing was ever said about
sex until we got to the house.

A few things were said,
what were to be said,

but the sex never took place
until we got to the house.

Oh I understand that,
but I'm talking about how--

I'm talking about
the conversation.

...how you got some of these
young men to your house.

Did you ever tell them,
"I can arrange sex for you

"with older women and
they will pay you for it?"

I can't remember that,
I need to be frank.

We eventually get back.

And there he said,
"We need to shower."

And I thought,
"Well that's kind of odd.

"We didn't go swimming
or anything like that."

"Okay, he goes,
well we have sand."

And then we're both
showering together

and I think,
"This is really odd."

But I don't wanna be uncool,

so I'm going along with
it thinking, "Okay.

"I guess that's what you do."

After we get out of the
shower and we're drying,

he says, "Lie down on the bed."

So I lied down, just like,
"Well, this is weird."

And next thing I know,
he's on my back,

and pressing his body
against mine

and he's fondling me
and he's kissing my neck.

And I'm like, "Oh, you
know, this is kind of,

"no, I'm not into this.

"I'm not into this."

So he says, "But you
have to be trained

"for this job, Cah-los."

'Cause he always called me
like that, "Cah-los.

"Sex is just touch and feel.

"That's all it is,
just touch and feel."

"It's just touch and feel."

"It doesn't matter
who's on the other end."

"Does it feel good?

"That's all that matters,
nothing else.

"There's nothing else."

"And that's all sex is."

"It's nothing more than that."

My only sense of Mr. Fisher
has come through

speaking with the victims.

But, my feeling is,
he really had parents snowed.

Then there's that whole
other layer of it,

of everybody knowing.

When I first got
over there in '75.

So we went to Berkeley Grimball.

We thought that Fischer
might be a peeping Tom

or something like that,
you know.

He's hanging around the male
locker room all the time,

and he's always with young boys.

So, Dr. Grimball's reply was,

"You have no proof of anything,
except a gut feeling.

"You could get sued, and so
could we as a school get sued.

"And that's serious,
those allegations."

He impressed upon us how
serious those allegations were.

Among the things the
students called Eddie Fischer,

was Fast Eddie.

He was kind of
the school nurse in a way.

The joke was,
that, no matter what part

of your body you injured,
he would say,

- "Drop your drawers."
- "You gotta drop your drawers.

"I gotta check to see
if you've got a hernia."

And I was like, what?
I said, "It's my knee, coach."

You twisted your ankle,
you gotta drop your drawers.

- Sore throat, you gotta...
- Drop your drawers.

- The "Drop your drawers."
- "Drop your drawers."

For everything that happened.

If you hurt your leg or
pulled a muscle or whatever,

you would have to have
your genitals checked.

There was a school assembly
where somebody actually

performed a skit making fun
of Eddie Fischer

and his tendency to say,
"Drop your drawers."

It was that ingrained
in our vocabulary.

Everyone was involved.

Fellow students who would joke
about it in the hallways.

The teachers. The parents.
The school itself.

We were all complicit.

I mean, if a person
were blind, deaf, and dumb

he would've known.

I mean, the entire damn
student body knew.

How in the hell could
Skip Alexander not know?

How could the officials
not know?

How could some parents not know?

Did you ever drive up to school

with a young man in the car?

Oh, yes, oh yeah.

Did anybody
ever ask you about it?

Nobody ever asked me a word.

My boyfriend and I were going to

a leadership
training conference.

I picture the room.

Everybody was sitting on the
floor and there was a stage.

There was some faculty there
because there were advisors

and it was the student body
government.

We stood up

and we said, "You guys, c'mon.

"What is the deal?

"We wanna talk
about Eddie Fischer.

"What is going on?

"This 'Drop your drawers'
thing is not funny.

"Why are some of our friends
going over there at night?"

Even though there were people
there that knew it to be true,

nobody was walking up
to us afterwards

and saying, "Oh gosh,
thank you for finally

"bringing this up."

We had to have some kind
of faith in grown ups

that they were then gonna
pursue it and try to make

sense of what was going on.

There was none of that.

Hello.

Hi, it's Paige Tolmach
calling you.

I wanted to just call you again.

I know we spoke when I
first started working on

this project about our school,

and I wanted to see if
you would do an interview

with me on camera then,
and you did not want to.

And now I'm almost at
the end of my project

and I wanted to circle back
and see if you were interested

in talking now.

Maybe you'd want to talk
to me about what happened.

About Guerry.

Just about what went
down at our school.

Do you wanna do that?
Would you talk to me now?

I really don't really
care to be on camera on it.

I tried to forget most of it.

I was the vice president
of the student body.

With that came president
of the honor council.

My advisor comes in and says,

"We have to have
a meeting on Thursday.

"Guerry Glover
cheated on a project."

And I had to tell Guerry

that he was kicked out
of Porter-Gaud.

I was trying as hard as I could.

I mean, I had gotten in trouble
and gotten in trouble,

and it was so I could
get expelled

so I could get away
from Fischer.

I didn't know that he had
cheated on the project

to get kicked out
of Porter-Gaud.

That was his way of
trying to get away.

- From Eddie Fischer.
- From Eddie Fischer.

Coach Fischer left
Porter-Gaud that year, 1982,

because of a boy I knew.
One of my friends.

But I didn't know what
happened to my friend

until after his suicide.

The only student who
ever told his parents

was the 1982 student.

And his parents
acted appropriately.

They went to the
school and said,

"Either you do something about
this guy or we're going to."

And the school assured them they
were gonna do everything right.

They were gonna protect kids.

They were gonna make sure
Eddie never taught again.

They were gonna
do all this stuff.

The parents complained
to Skip Alexander.

Berkeley Grimball claims
that he told Alexander,

"Just fire the guy."

And that's when Eddie Fischer
left that school.

But he wasn't fired.

He was allowed to resign.

They decided that they
would just let me coast

in a week or two weeks and
then at the end of school,

when nobody's around,

and I would be--
I would go.

When I asked Grimball,
"Why didn't you fire him?"

Grimball said,
"Well I didn't wanna ruin

"the guy's career."

Did you mean his
career as a teacher,

or his career
as a serial pedophile?

'Cause he certainly didn't
ruin either one of 'em.

In fact, he advanced
both of those careers.

Berkeley Grimball
writes, "Dear Eddie.

"I was genuinely sorry
that your career

"with the school
ended the way it did.

"For you certainly deserve..."

"...credit
for accomplishing

"many positive things

"for the good of the
school and the students

"throughout the years
you were on the faculty

"at Porter-Gaud.

"It is my hope that
something good will come out

"of this experience and you
will take positive steps

"to ensure that nothing like it
will ever happen..."

"...in your life again.

"Let me know if I can ever
be of any help in anything.

"Sincerely, Berkeley Grimball,
Headmaster."

Eddie Fisher
got a job at College Prep,

the same school
Guerry transferred to.

So the abuse continued,

because Berkeley Grimball
never let the new school know

that they were
hiring a pedophile.

While you were at College Prep

how many young men did you
have sexual contact with?

About three.

At East
Cooper how many students--

None, nobody.

At James
Island High School, how many?

I'd say four.

Now, during any of this time,

how many young men have
you had sexual contact with

who were not students of yours?

I don't know.
Well, as we go down the list,

not many did I actually
have in the classroom,

but some, yes.

How can Major Alexander
have let this happen?

How could Dr. Grimball?

How could they have a conscience
and let this happen?

It was your thought at the time

that Porter-Gaud,
not wanting any problems,

would result in them writing
you a farewell recommendation.

I do think you're correct.

Can I make myself disappear?

If people knew,
what would they think of you?

I mean, you knew there was
something wrong with you.

I knew there was
something wrong with me

that caused that.

As I'm driving home,
I'm thinking,

"I'm this disgusting creature."

I'm thinking there's,

"I'm not gonna
laugh again ever."

There's sewage that's
entered into my body.

My body has become defiled.

It's not who I am.

I've been transformed
into something else.

You drink lots of Jack Daniel's,

you smoke lots of pot.

You wreck cars, you sit in cars
with the exhaust coming in

in the ninth grade.

I remember that.

Goodbye.

I wrote the note and everything.

You have all that
going on in your head.

I was trying so hard to...

keep it all okay and look
like it was all okay and,

all that.

What would you say,
if you could,

to your younger self right now,
at Porter-Gaud?

If your older self could
talk to your younger self,

what would you say?

Go get 10 gallons of gasoline
and a match.

It was my senior year
in college.

I saw Fischer in his car with
this little kid in the car.

So, I went to his house.

We ended up just
screaming at each other.

When I went there and said,
"I know what's up,"

it was from a real
different place.

And he knew that.

This thing happened
in full agreement,

but here they are with
wives and all now,

they have to make me
look like the villain

and they look like
the little saint.

'Cause I was so angry.

Because it had very much been,
"Guerry's the problem.

"Guerry got kicked
out of Porter-Gaud.

"Guerry did this,
Guerry did that,"

while all these other people
were the good children

and Porter-Gaud was
the wonderful school.

I said, "You know, I'm
going to Porter-Gaud."

He went to
three different attorneys

until one agreed
to take his case.

Guerry called me
one morning in May of 1997.

He had been frustrated
by his third attempt

to go to Porter-Gaud
and get them to help him

get Fischer out of teaching.

They had rebuffed him
for the third time.

I wrote a letter
to the superintendent

of the public schools.

And the letter explained to him,

"You've got to find
out what happened

"because if it's true, you've
got to protect the children

"and if it's false, you've
got to protect the teacher."

So you've got to do some
kind of investigation.

And the moment those inquiries
began to be made,

Eddie Fischer elected to retire.

Shortly thereafter,
Gregg called and said

"I was talking to
Porter-Gaud's lawyer

"and they were like,
'What do you want?'

"They're not gonna pay you,
he's met with the full board,

"they're not intimidated by you.
What do you want?"

He wanted them to fix it.

He didn't want Fischer
running rampant

and unrestrained and unfettered.

He wanted the man
to be held accountable

and he wanted the school
to change the way it worked.

And so that was when
I wrote the letter.

Sat down.

Seven page letter.

All the gory details.

23 copies.

Certified mail to each
member of the board.

The school board was made up

of people of the community.

Many of them were former
students at Porter-Gaud.

They owned businesses,
worked as doctors and lawyers.

And most of them were parents.

"Dear board member,

"What I have wanted
from the beginning

"was for someone to help me

"appropriately address
this problem.

"I want to,
with a clear conscience,

"know that I have done
all that I can do,

"and then move on with my life.

"I want you to work with me
to address the painful

"and prevalent problem
of childhood sexual abuse."

He wasn't after
any kind of vindication or,

you know, targeting people.

He just wanted it to stop.

And I really kept thinking,
if they understood,

they would respond
appropriately.

But they just didn't care.

They were so resistant
to even the suggestion

that maybe they had
done something wrong.

"But we're Porter-Gaud.
"We don't do anything wrong.

"And so you have
to just go away."

They still haven't
reacted to the letter.

- Hello?
- This is Paige Tolmach.

I'm a former Charlestonian.

I'm working on a project
about Porter-Gaud,

which is where I went to
school back in the 80s.

Guerry, when he was trying
to sort of get justice,

did a lot of things.

One of the things he
did was send a letter

to the board members
at the time.

You were one of them,
as a big board.

And, um, and he
didn't get responses,

and I just wanted
to know what it was.

I'm a mom and on the board
of my son's school.

I wanted to talk to you.

You say,
"Why didn't you respond?"

I'd say I don't know,

'cause I don't remember
the date of the letter.

I assume we all just
might have turned

those letters over to the
attorney for Porter-Gaud.

So if you don't remember
receiving the letter,

then what did you
talk about as a board?

Were you like, "Oh my god, this
horrible thing has happened.

"We have to do something?"

I don't ever remember
it being discussed

in the board meeting.

Edward Fischer,
the former Lowe Country teacher

accused of molesting
possibly over 50 students

didn't have much to say.

The worst crime Fischer
committed

was taking away their innocence.

Guerry set in motion
two different legal battles.

The first one was the criminal
case against Eddie Fischer.

I am very ready to
get on with my life.

By the time we got to court,

Eddie Fischer was not
the man that he had been.

He was sick.

I think a lot of it was
exaggerated, perhaps,

but he was sick.

He had emphysema,
if I'm not mistaken.

He was sitting
right in front me.

Towards the end,
I'm just looking at him

and he's just completely vacant.

There's nobody there.

The second battle
was a civil case

against Porter-Gaud.

When I got to tell my father,
it was very much

"Fischer molested me"
and dah dah dah

and Maj knew and he went,

"Maj knew this
and didn't do anything?"

I mean...

And he never moved beyond that.

From...

How do you know

and not do
what you're supposed to do?

I mean, that just...

Guerry had me meet Harold,
his dad, on Saturday.

Harold Glover said if he'd known
the first thing about this,

he would have settled the
problem with a baseball bat.

Now that's very
uncharacteristic of Harold.

He was not a hot head.

I mean, he was just...

the salt of the Earth
kind of guy

and really a man possessed
of enormous dignity.

What I heard from Harold

was just the incredible
disappointment he had

in the people at the school
that he thought so highly of.

And what they didn't do
for his son

when they knew
his son was in trouble.

And Harold had said, "What
can I do to help these boys?"

And that was when Gregg
first started thinking about

a parent's claim.

Attorneys say the
lawsuit could be a milestone.

That to their knowledge, it's
the first class action lawsuit

filed in a molestation case.

But what's also unusual is
that it's being spearheaded

by a victim's father.

There's an old saying in the law

about the lion tamer.

Don't sue the lion,
I'd sue the lion tamer

because it's his job,

especially if
the lion tamer knows

that that lion is a vicious
lion and not a calm lion.

Because they knew
what Fisher was.

Good afternoon
ladies and gentlemen.

We represent first and
foremost, Porter-Gaud school,

and I ask you to
reserve your judgment

until you have heard
all of the evidence.

Berkeley Grimball,
most arrogant human being

I've ever met in my life.

And probably will
be unsurpassed.

His deposition testimony
caused gasps from the jury

when we read it.

And particularly the question
of, "Well, Mr., Grimball,

"if there was a pedophile
in your son's school,

"wouldn't you want to know?"

And the answer was, "Not unless
he was bothering my children."

They had a responsibility

to provide a safe environment
to children,

and their lawyers
actually argued

that Porter-Gaud School
had no legal duty

to provide a safe environment
for children.

Eddie Fischer's life

was completely and
totally incubated,

cultivated, and facilitated
by Skip Alexander.

It's the only way he could
have done what he did.

We wanted to take
Alexander's deposition

as one of the first
things we did.

And, I think we were to
depose him on a Tuesday

and over that weekend,
he got in his car,

he drove to Southern
North Carolina.

Parked himself on a rural road.

Wrote a note out.

Covered himself with a blanket

and shot himself.

He knew that all of these issues

were going to come out
of his involvement,

and he started making plans.

Of course
he's committed suicide.

Because he didn't
have the nerve to come

and sit in a witness chair
and tell the truth

about what he knew and when
he knew it and what he did.

What the evidence
and the testimony revealed

after Maj's death,

was that he also liked
young boys.

There was always a pound
of flesh that had to be paid.

You couldn't go into
Skipper's house without

his wanting to get in
the shower naked with you,

or give you a massage
or stroke you in some way.

Or give you a head massage
or cut your hair,

or shave all the hair
off your body, or,

whatever the hell
he wanted to do.

But then again,
I wasn't the only one.

He was the kingpin.
He thought he was God Almighty.

But God wouldn't
do such a thing.

James Bishop Alexander
should have gone to prison.

I think he should have
been criminally charged

before he cowardly
committed suicide.

But he wasn't charged,

and no one ever
thought about him.

I will always say
what Porter-Gaud did

was so much worse
than what Fischer did.

I believe that
to the core of my being.

Today jurors spoke
volumes about what happened,

presenting damages
of $45 million

against each man's estate,

saying this should
send a message

to school administrators
everywhere.

Most of the jurors are
parents and we had sort of

to put ourselves in that
category of being a parent

and have this
happen to our child

as far as how we
really felt about it.

Porter-Gaud,
Major Alexander,

and Berkeley Grimball,
were all found negligent.

The jury's verdict of
$105 million was the most ever

in the Charleston County
Court of common pleas.

While a dozen or so looked on,

Porter-Gaud officials
tried to make peace.

And we're profoundly sorry
for the pain of all

who have been affected
by these terrible events.

A public apology to victims hurt

by former teacher,
Eddie Fischer,

but the apology was not made
directly to the victims,

instead a public statement
to open ears.

Porter-Gaud publicly
apologized in such a way

that they only told
a few media people

and didn't tell any of us.

So we found out after the fact.

I would have liked
to have been there

and to have heard them.

If you actually
mean the apology,

why couldn't you
look at us, right?

And they didn't.

It wasn't just Porter-Gaud
letting the kids down.

It's the community
rallying behind the school.

At every turn,
there was somebody

who could have
done the right thing and didn't.

Wouldn't do it. Wouldn't do it.

They could have done it,
and they wouldn't do it.

A couple of years
after I opened the box,

I got a call about
my high school reunion.

It had been 30 years since
my last day at Porter-Gaud.

I looked around the room at
all my former classmates,

who are doctors,
lawyers, business people.

And most of us are parents.

Just like
the Porter-Gaud board members

who got Guerry's letter in 1997.

But that is where I go to get
so angry all over again

because yes, they want to say,
"Oh that was a long time ago,

"that was a couple of
troublemakers 40 years ago,"

but, no it wasn't and...

look at the people
from Porter-Gaud who have died.

I did this story years ago.
It's an old story.

You know, you do a story
and it disappears.

I think it's
an important story because,

it's still happening.

The death toll keeps on rising,

so it still haunts
a lot of people,

and until we bring this
fully out into the open,

you know,
it's still always there.

It's the same story.

We hear it again and again.

The coach, the teacher,
the kids, the cover up.

What's the common denominator?

Us.

There's a monster
inside each of us

that stops us from
doing what's right.

I think we all want our children

to have the perfect childhood.

And we don't wanna
bring up bad stuff.

My son was good friends
with a little boy

whose father
killed himself over this.

Why should I not share
with them what happened

so that it won't happen again?

So here's the truth.

Eddie Fischer
is not what haunts us.

And here we are, sir,

at the end of a long day.

We've discussed a lot of
victims, a lot of years,

a lot of parents that you
knew, a lot of schools.

Would you agree with me
that it's rather

dis-believable that your
associates did not know

what was going on?

When I think about it now,
I can agree with you, yes.

And if they did,
they didn't say anything.

I think the things
we try to keep in the dark

haunt us in the daylight.

We can box them up,

but they never really go away,

until we embrace them

and set ourselves free.

Guerry's a great liberator.

He liberated Charleston
from this one pedophile,

but he liberated all of us
that were involved

from this evil
that we carried within.

But just like every liberator,

it's not enough
for the liberator to act.

People have to then avail
themselves of that liberation

to become free.

Because some of us
have killed ourselves.

I told Guerry,
"I'm so proud of what you did

"and how much courage it took
for you to do that.

Uncovered all these
ghosts from the past

and that was part of it,
like, revealing...

these things that
we had kept hidden,

and that have haunted us
for so long.

But this freedom is not just
something that you just consume.

It's something that
you have to act with,

dance with, to make it real.

And that's what Guerry did.

He invited us
to become free again.

And that's an awesome gift.

There are lots of people that
spend their lives being angry,

and I just wasn't gonna do that.

It's not like an amazing virtue.

It was just...

this was so much bigger than me.