"The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story" by Pagan Kennedy
Reviewed by Jim Traxler

If I were simply browsing through a list of new books, looking for something of interest, I have to confess that a book with the title, "The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story," would not draw much attention for me. But since the book was provided to me for review by NetGalley, I waded into it. To my great surprise, it became a page-turner. Imagine a scenario where a social worker named Marty Goddard with no medical or forensic expertise was able to design a kit for medical workers to gather forensic evidence from someone who had been raped.

In her work with the poor people in Chicago, she had discovered that rapists were rarely caught and prosecuted. She couldn't understand why and barged into the Chicago police department to find out why. What she discovered was there was a general attitude among policemen at the time that no one actually rapes women, they just got what they deserved. So law enforcement regarded rape to not be a serious crime. Furthermore, there were no procedures in Emergency Rooms to gather evidence of rape, and the ER staff were often just too busy to take the time to do so.

Long (and very interesting) story short, she designed a kit and took it to a highly regarded Chicago police crime lab analyst named Louis Vitullo, who adopted and approved it, which became known as the "Vitullo Kit." So the female inventor of the kit got no credit for this ultimately life-changing invention. Why? Ms. Goddard allowed that to happen in order for the kit to be accepted by male-dominated police departments, since it had a respected male police officer's name on it.

The book is much more than the history of the rape kit. The author Pagan Kennedy, after learning of Goddard's role in the development of the kit, goes looking for her. After achieving success against all odds in getting hospitals and law enforcement to use the rape kits, Goddard disappears from view, and the story becomes one of tracing her down.

That story is just as interesting as the rape kit story. In the process of trying to find Goddard, Kennedy learns that Goddard herself had been the victim of sexual assault. Furthermore, we learn that Kennedy had also been a victim of sexual assault, both as a child and as an adult. So the search for Goddard became a personal memoir of the author's own struggles as a victim and survivor of rape.

These two interwoven stories are heart-wrenching tales of what women went through and the inability of society to recognize and reform itself. But thankfully, with the acceptance of the rape kit, paired later with the ability to use DNA samples to identify and arrest sexual predators, the current rate of unsolved rape cases is much lower. It also means that there is awareness that rapists are no longer likely to escape punishment. However, the stigma of reporting sexual assaults still remains today, even after the "me-too" movement. And pockets of misogyny still reside in police and sheriff departments everywhere.

This is a well-written saga, a real "true crime story." I recommend it to all for a better understanding of the woman who gave rape victims a chance for justice.

If you love history, you will love this book. If you love stories about strong women who made a difference in this world despite having to overcome barriers that no man would encounter, especially in times past, then you will love this book. Frances Perkins was the first female member of a President's cabinet, serving as Secretary of Labor under Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945. When I began to read the book, I knew all that. I quickly realized that I knew nothing about Perkins' life and the incredible extent of her accomplishments in that office.

The job of writing historical fiction about a larger-than-life character like Ms. Perkins and all the important people she had to push, cajole, and convince, requires not only extensive research but also the creativity to try to discern and write what plausibly could have been her thoughts and her conversations. Stephanie Dray did a masterful job of all the above. As she says in her Author's Notes, "Novelists can go where historians rightly fear to tread."

The prologue begins with a scene in FDR's office in 1933 where he is asking her to be his Secretary of Labor. For reasons we learn later, she has already decided she would not accept the appointment. She lays out what she would do if she had the position, assuming that her agenda was so radical that he wouldn't agree to it. To her amazement, FDR agreed to every jot and tittle of her agenda. How could she say no?

Chapter One takes us back in time to the summer of 1909 when Frances was getting a master's degree in economics. Upon graduation, she begins a career of fighting for worker's rights and improved working conditions. She observed the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which changed her life's mission into being an unstoppable force for safety in the workplace. This led to successes and the attention of Governor Al Smith and Theodore Roosevelt, as well as FDR.

The author delves into Perkins' personal life, a happy marriage that gradually disintegrated due to her husband's growing mental illness, which seemed to be genetically transmitted to their daughter as well. It was for this reason that she was reluctant to take the position offered by FDR. But she did, and brought about legislation which even today affects every citizen of the USA. Without Frances Perkins, there is some doubt that we would have ever had Social Security, minimum wage, unemployment insurance, child labor laws, and so many other safety net programs.

But the real story here is how she had to endure hatred, lies, death threats, scorn in the press, and sabotage by other members of the Cabinet; yet she maintained her dignity, pressing forward to get the programs she knew were needed by the American people. This is a book about history, but more importantly an inspiring story about courage and persistence in the face of seemingly impassable barriers. The author allows us to experience what might have been the anguish in Perkins' inner thoughts and feelings, which she never displayed to the outside world.