February 17th, 1997. On his namesake talk show Geraldo Rivera sheds light on the case of ‘Girl X’, a 9 year old victim who was sexually assaulted where she lived. JonBenet Ramsey’s case enraptures the nation but little is known of Girl X outside Chicago.
“Well, first of all I think that the tragedy happened long before the tragedy happened with Girl X. The tragedy is that whenever you have a group of people that are on low-income, no-income, who don’t have enough money…you can’t expect a whole lot…”
Reverend Maxine Walker sheds light on how the tragedy is more broad than this incident, and cramming many who are poorly educated and without jobs on top of each other is bound to fail. Ms. Walker responds to the question of why one 9 year old’s death grabs the attention of the nation, and the other’s seems to pass unnoticed. We also hear from Beverly Reed, a journalist covering the story of Girl X, organizing rallies and more to get public attention.
Girl X survived, but was brutally injured. Patrick Sykes was sentenced to a total of 120 years for crimes related to her assault in 2003.
This day, Geraldo’s television history.