Written in that mix of personal memoir and journalistic expose´, Kennedy brings the reader into a story that could be salacious or boring, but manages instead to be engaging and personal. In this moment of social questioning and political wildness, it is good to remember that many of the truths we believe, especially when it comes to crime, investigations and police are not as they are depicted in popular media.

Kennedy humanizes the horrors of sexual assault and rape, not as individual acts, but the retruamatization of reporting and attempting to find justice. The timeline, while I knew it from my own background in feminist study, is crazy. Many of the advances only happened in my lifetime, and survivors all know that to come forward is a harrowing experience at best. For anyone that is unsure, pair this book on the procedural side of this issue with Chanel Miller’s Know My Name.

I devoured this book. The writing is crisp and direct. The connections to the author’s lived experiences are appropriately graphic without turning into trauma porn. The life of the actual woman who created the rape kit is well researched, and the connections and any extrapolations are clear. This book was in no way dry, but it also kept the reader pretty safe.

3.5 stars. This book was incredibly interesting, but the summary is misleading: the bulk of this story is not about Marty Goddard, who is instrumental in the creation of the modern day rape kit, but is instead about Kennedy’s journey through discovering its history and her obsession with Marty. And while there is a lot of good information presented here, the juxtaposition of Marty’s story, Kennedy’s story, and historical references & interludes is all over the place.

Overall I liked the history I learned - and Kennedy is a smart writer - but feel it needs some work to make the story flow better.

Thank you to NetGalley, Pagan Kennedy, and Vintage for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

A fascinating blend of biography and personal memoir, THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE RAPE KIT: A TRUE CRIME STORY introduces readers to Marty Goddard, a woman instrumental in the creation of the rape kit in 1971. While the invention of the rape kit is credited to a man, Goddard worked closely to bring advances in sexual assault care.

The aspects of the book that touched on the mishandling of evidence, the backlog of untested rape kits, and the ongoing barriers to women were most interesting to me.

Author Pagan Kennedy weaves her own story of childhood trauma into the narrative and offers her vulnerable perspective and personal connection to survivors of sexual assault. Through investigative journalism and interviews with experts in the field, Kennedy provides insights into the current state of forensic science and where the science is headed.

The audiobook narrated by Claire Danes is worthy of a listen.

READ THIS IF YOU:
-love to learn about unsung heroes from history
-have a heart for survivor stories
-are interested in women’s health care

RATING: 4/5

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

•The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story has been sitting on my NetGalley shelf for a few months. I knew it would be difficult to read and review, and I was correct.

•I initially requested this book from NetGalley because I wanted to learn about the history, like the title implies. However, it turned out to be a memoir, biography, and history all mixed into one.

•One minute I was reading about the Marty Goddard’s development of the rape kit, and the next I was reading a wildly graphic sexual assault scene. The transition between the author describing her own trauma and the history/ research was jarring.

•The author, Pagan Kennedy, also wrote about Marty Goddard’s sexual trauma in great detail. I understand Kennedy probably included that to explain why Goddard was adamant on creating these kits, but Goddard has been deceased for years, therefore not giving Kennedy consent to publicize her assault.

•Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage Books for this ARC. It will become available on January 14, 2025.

Pagan Kennedy details the life of Marty Goddard, the creator of the Rape Kit and her journey in the victim-survivor advocacy world. Goddard is to thank for many of the victim-survivor centered policies and procedures we use and rely on today. Goddard saw the neglect towards victim-survivors of all kinds and dedicated her life to change. Goddard was a selfless woman who often put others before her own well being, yet her name is largely unknown. Kennedy paints an engaging and informative timeline of Goddard's success and advocacy. Overall I really enjoyed my read of "The Secret History of the Rape Kit" as it was very reader friendly without becoming an info dump, I look forward to reading more from this author.

I was really interested in reading about the history of the rape kit Unfortunately, this didn’t quite hit the mark. I wanted to know more about Martha Goddard. I think the lack of information on Martha left the author filling up space in the book for the sake of increasing the page count. I believe there were two stories being told within this book and though both are worthy of being told they just didn’t go well together. It felt disjointed much of the time.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this arc.

Pagan Kennedy's The Secret History of the Rape Kit was a revelation. From the very start, when she reminds readers that many runaway young women have been victims of sexual assault, often in their own families, to the very end, the book held me rapt. Kennedy's experience with true crime writing serves her well, for she makes what could have been a dry narrative come to life for the reader.

Pagan Kennedy has brought an unknown individual into the spotlight on a scale that is worth the investigative time and enegy behind it. The Secret History of the Rape Kit is more than just how it came to be, but who designed it, how it was funded, where it started, the issues it suffered from, and the newest updates and application from other individuals work is astonishing, to be honest. Even just the number of the backlog, from where it used to be to where it currently is, is just mindboggling. Pagan Kennedy has really pieced together the narrative of an individual worth knowing. Her fight, her struggle, her triumph, and her withdrawl from the spotlight is written so well that I can't begin to say how much we are better now because of it as a society. Marty will not be forgotten, the name rightly put where it belongs, and the future of this system will only benefit from Marty's hard work. Very well done!!! Highly recommend!

*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*

The Secret History Of The Rape Kit by Pagan Kennedy is a truly fascinating book that details the inception of the rape kit, as well as it's progression over the past few decades.

Rape and sexual assault is truly a horrific problem not just in the United States, but worldwide as well. Unfortunately, every 68 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted (according to RAAIN). Kennedy brings to light the work of Marty Goddard in 1970s Chicago, as the often times uncredited creator of the rape kit. (Louis R. Vitullo is frequently credited as the developer.) The book chronicles Goddard's research and proposal of the rape kit, through the implementation, and to the state of the kit today.

The shortfalls of the kit are well documented, such as the incredible backlog that has been slowly being worked through. But the book also pointed out other aspects that hadn't occurred to me before, specifically the obstacles that keep black women from reporting, as well as how the Covid19 pandemic effected the ability for survivors to have a kit done.

It's important to note Kennedy's book does not provide a birds eye view of the story, rather she inserts herself by talking about her efforts to track down information about Goddard, and shares details of her own experiences with sexual assault. I appreciate her candor and willingness to share and be vulnerable, as it's not an easy feat to do. However, i personally would have preferred more of a classic research style narrative. I think it would have lent a cleaner timeline and a clearer vision. But that is a matter of personal opinion, not to say the author's choice of stylized writing was wrong.

This was an absolutely eye opening story. For so long sexual assault was considered unprovable and not taken seriously. Marty devoted a huge portion of her life fighting for justice for sexual assault victims. She is the true mastermind behind the creation and implementation of the rape kit. Despite Marty creating the rape kit as we know it which completely changed how sexual assault cases are handled and investigated her contribution to the creation of the rape kit is still largely unknown. I enjoyed this story. It is about so much more than just sexual assault (i.e. the role race, racism, sexism, socioeconomic status play out in most things, police brutality/corruption, etc.,etc. as it all relates back to sexual violence). There is just so much to explore and added to the facts there are also some personal tidbits of the authors own personal experience as a sexual assault survivor throughout the novel. I feel there was so much information packed into this book. It was a bit all over the place and tough to follow at times. I highlighted so many things and will be referring back to the notes section for more information on those facts, cases, people, events I wanted to know more about because there may have been a mention in the book but not an actual exploration on the subject mentioned.

Enough cannot be said for Pagan Kennedy bringing this lost history of Martha "Marty" Goddard's impact to light first in The New York Times Sunday Review in 2020 and now in a full version trade paperback. As per usual with the patriarchy in science, inventions, and history, the rape kit was named after a man with medical credentials who had little to do with the creation—the Vitullo Evidence Collection Kit was Goddard's invention. Kennedy also shares the notable contributions of PRESERVEkit created by Jane Mason and Madison Campbell's MeToo Kit.

Kennedy's narrative follows her diligent trail as she tried to track down Marty Goddard in order to write the first article and subsequently this book. Kennedy admits that finding Goddard became an obsession. She eschewed other work opportunities (and these were years when journalists and writers in general were taken for granted and being laid off or forced to strike).

There's a note from the book's editor (below) and a note from the author with some explanations about the subject matter and the terminology used. In our early years of the 21st century, someone who has been sexually assualted (and lived) is more often called a survivor; in the legal system, however, the word is victim which connotes an objectification rather than being seen as a human. It is historically accurate for victim to be the correct term. It also allows for a broader meaning since it can refer to someone who survived or did not. Kennedy chose a 21st century approach in her use of woman/women to include transwomen.

Chapter 1 slaps the reader wide awake as Kennedy reveals her own history as someone who was assaulted as a child by another, but older, child. She gets into graphic detail about this later in the book which nails down how truly oppressed girls and women have been. Her father was abusive and her mother was silent, more interested in presenting a "good public image" whenever other people were around. However, Kennedy had to see her assailant throughout her life because he was the son of her parents' friends. She changed his name which may leave some readers feeling jilted since this boy later became a Washington insider with influence.

To her credit, Kennedy often comes around to discussing the 2018 hearings of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when Dr. Christine Blasey Ford bravely exposed her story of sexual assault by a man about to be given one of the highest positions of power. Kennedy saw herself in that story and shared their common denominators: both were privileged; they were in similar social circles; they were past students of private schools. It emphasizes that while no one is truly safe from this kind of crime, white women of privilege have their stories in the press when others don't. Marty Goddard recognized that decades ago in her work as an activist in Chicago where the police force was notoriously corrupt and racist.

Stories like Kennedy's personal story and Dr. Blasey Ford's testimony shouldn't be needed to show the monumental neglect of law enforcement, the legal system, and family responsibility. Marty Goddard's history-making role took place in the 1970s-80s (when serial killers were sensationalized and given monikers by the press). Meanwhile, women were told to take self defense classes, never walk alone, don't leave your drink unattended, and of course, dress modestly lest you be asking for it. Those bits of advice are truly misogynistic, ableist, classist, and wildly distressing to put the onus on the population that was victimized rather than telling men, "Don't rape."

Before Kennedy began her quest for Marty Goddard, she knew about DNA evidence collected for sexual assault. It didn't cross her mind much until the Kavanaugh confirmation spectacle. In 2018, the true crime world was rocked by the long awaited identification of Joseph DeAngelo (first called the East Area Rapist then the Golden State Killer among multiple other mantles). Like Goddard, most of the work unraveling the connections leading to DeAngelo are credited to men in the FBI, consultants, and other law enforcement when it was the work of investigative writer, Michelle McNamara who actually blew the case open.

Pagan Kennedy describes how obsessive and compulsive she became in finding Goddard so that the credit of the rape kit invention could finally be given to the rightful owner. Kennedy's life must have been quite similar to McNamara's (as described by her husband after her death).

And, like Marty Goddard, it took men in power who were willing to listen to the plight of women in order to move the needle. Marty—to be blunt—worked herself to death. She became an alcoholic and after her time changing the country, she withered into a husk of a human. Kennedy's descriptions of Goddard came from members of the family who knew her best because the sad truth was that Kennedy's Moby Dick had already died.

It had to have felt impossible for an activist who was terrified of public speaking to travel around the country trying to train medical professionals and law enforcement officers who were reluctant to hear what Goddard had to say. As Kennedy describes the anxiety and panic Marty went through, it truly is nothing short of miraculous that men like Ray Wieboldt, Jr. (heir to a Chicago department store fortune) listened to her. Marty made such an impression that Wieboldt hired her as an executive at his family's foundation. She suddenly had money, but died in poverty.

Marty Goddard's invention of the rape kit was also taken seriously by a business/brand that anyone guessing who gave her support would probably never figure out. It was Playboy. Yes, that Playboy, as in Hugh Hefner. This is support is explained in Chapter 5. Aside from making pin-up cheesecake glamourous and above ground, there was The Playboy Foundation—a non-profit created to fight censorship which grew to become a reputable charity for social changes, AIDS/HIV causes, and reproductive health and rights. The Playboy Foundation provided the ACLU's Women's Rights Project lead by Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the time. The Playboy Foundation gave Marty Goddard's organization $10,000 in grant money to get the rape kit created. Playboy artists volunteered their skills and did all the graphic design and packaging for the kit. This is an incredible enlightening chapter in Kennedy's quest to find Goddard and give her the credit she was owed.

While Marty hustled from one police department to another, she asked the questions that drove change. She found how many failures there were in the whole system. There hadn't been relationships between the police and medical staff. The nurses weren't forensic technicians therefore, Goddard's advice insisted that medical professionals have specialized training in how to collect evidence. Her point was that these victims deserved dignity and they were owed the ability to have evidence to back up their stories should they choose to come forward and file charges against abusers.

As to not overlook another person who aided in the "Vitullo" rape kit development, Pagan Kennedy identified that Marty Goddard's rape kit had another collaborator, an African-American police officer on the Rape Task Force, Rudy Nimocks. He was in the minority as a black man in the racist system of the Chicago police department. Nimocks was the "inside man" who was able to advise Goddard in how to approach anyone in the criminal justice system. He was the one who convinced her that she needed to get someone from the crime lab to be on board. Nimocks is the person who suggested she reach out to Sergeant Louis Vitullo, a powerful person who became famous for his work on the Richard Speck case.

Vitullo's initial response to Goddard's presentation was that he screamed at her, according to Cynthia Gehrie, a subject interviewed by Pagan Kennedy personally. Gehrie was often the woman to do the speaking engagements due to Goddard's debilitating stage fright. This story was backed up by others in Kennedy's research.

After dismissing Goddard ungraciously, Vitullo built a rape evidence collection kit just as described in Goddard's papers she gave him. The caveat was that he get full credit for this invention. Since Marty Goddard was not someone chasing the spotlight in the first place, all she wanted was the change to happen, she agreed.

Summary:
Kennedy's book on Marty Goddard, the rape kits (original and modern), and systemic patriarchy blocking justice is thoroughly researched and cited with 18% of the pages devoted to references. Her goal to track down her key subject may not have worked out as she hoped, but she found people who loved Marty Goddard and come across as grateful for Kennedy's article and book about the truth erased by history books.

Chapter 11 is the only place where I questioned Kennedy's bias as she tore down the FBI's Behavorial Analysis Unit and the psychology of serial offenders. At its launch, this unit was called the Behavioral Science Unit and, with the hard work of another woman often erased in history—Dr. Ann Wolpert Burgess—Kennedy refers to the metrics developed to create psychological profiles of victims and offenders, as unreliable junk science.

Another important factor Kennedy discussed is how various movements, activists, and changes that addressed the backlog of rape kits that hadn't been processed. The number unprocessed when this backlog hit headlines was, according to Kennedy, 400,000 untested kits. While she states that no one can confirm updated statistics on this, the estimate is down to around 50,000.

Also, because of Pagan Kennedy digging into this painful subject and interviewing those connected to Marty Goddard, one original "Vitullo" Evidence Collection Kit was found in a box in storage. Kennedy felt this kit belonged in a museum. The question arose, which museum? The ownership was transferred from Mary Sladek Dreiser to a joint acquisition by the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. The acquisition had its own internal battle perhaps because someone would find the need for such a kit objectionable or because The Smithsonian had its own human resources problem with rape, stalking, and other misconduct. The kit is featured in the online exhibit. The museums are still debating on how to sensitively name and describe the objects.

This book was a bit all over the place. The stuff on Marty Goddard and the rape kit was good and really engaging but the narrative structure was wonky and a bit confusing. What I really didn't care for in the book were the pieces of memoir that Kennedy added in about her own sexual abuse. It felt like a totally different book. The clarity of vision was not there. I also think because this book came from a successful piece in the NYT Kennedy just added to the book whatever fit instead of really fleshing out a strong book that added (personal or not) elements that were missing from the article. My sense, this could've just stayed an article.

I really enjoy true crime books and dont read as many as I’d like to. I used to read every single book the great Ann Rule put out and I will occasionally find a fantastic book in this genre, but many times they are dense or hard to follow.

The Secret History of the Rape Kit by Pagan Kennedy instantly appeared to me and from the opening pages, I was hooked. The history of the rape kit was not something I ever found myself thinking about but it was fascinating to read this and learn about the early days.

Synopsis:

In 1972, Martha “Marty” Goddard volunteered at a crisis hotline, counseling girls who had been molested by their fathers, their teachers, their uncles. Soon, Marty was on a mission to answer a question: Why were so many sexual predators getting away with these crimes? By the end of the decade, she had launched a campaign pushing hospitals and police departments to collect evidence of sexual assault and treat survivors with dignity. She designed a new kind of forensics tool — the rape kit — and new practices around evidence collection that spread across the country. Yet even as Marty fought for women’s rights, she allowed a man to take credit for her work.

When journalist Pagan Kennedy went looking for this forgotten pioneer, she discovered that even Marty Goddard’s closest friends had lost track of her. As Pagan followed a trail of clues to solve the mystery of Marty, she also delved into the problematic history of forensics in America. The Secret History of the Rape Kit chronicles one journalist’s mission to understand a crucial innovation in forensics and the woman who championed it. As Pagan Kennedy hunts for answers, she reflects on her own experiences with sexual assault and her own desire for justice.

The Secret History of the Rape Kit is an informative narrative nonfiction account of the life of Martha "Marty" Goddard. Marty was the inventor of the first sexual assault evidence collection kit. In the early 1970s, she volunteered at a crisis hotline. She was struck by the number of calls she received regarding sexual assaults of girls and women yet the perpetrators of these acts never seemed to be charged with crimes or received any punishment. This set her off on a mission to find a way to prosecute sexual assailants. Because of the time in which she developed the rape kit, a man received the credit for its inception. It is clear that the author put a lot of time and thought into telling Marty's story and giving her credit for creating such a powerful tool used to prosecute sex crimes.

Thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, Anchor, and NetGalley for a review copy of this book.

Fascinating!

This one hooked me from the start. It’s personal and intimate. It definitely does not read like most non-fiction. Part memoir, part exposé, it’s impossible to put down.

I found this book to be both utterly devastating and hopeful at the same time. Since there is such a limited record about Marty, the rape kit’s true creator, I felt as though the author did the very best she could have with the limited information that was available. That said, I really appreciated the author’s work around the rape kit as an invention, and I wish the book had leaned more heavily on that aspect. This book was about creativity, overcoming extremely challenging circumstances, and also trauma, what it does to our lives, our systems, and to our minds. It was compulsively readable and left me with many lingering questions. My only note is that the subtitle “A True Crime Story” seems disingenuous and not relevant to the content of the book.

An exploration of the evolution of the rape kit, a forensic instrument that has influenced both justice and injustice over the years. Kennedy outlines its journey from the 1970s to contemporary criminal investigations, showcasing the people who created and utilized the kit, as well as the wider social ramifications of its application.

Thank you Pagan Kennedy and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor Publishing for a NetGalley ARC copy of the Secret History of the Rape Kit!

Rating 2.5/5

While I thoroughly enjoyed learning about Marty Goddard and her contributions to the criminal justice system, I do find the Title of the book to be very misleading.

The book as a whole comes off more as a memoir of the author's past traumas mixed with largely speculative history tidbits, leaving it feeling muddled and unfinished. Though there's no disagreeing that Goddard is an important female historical icon to be admired, the author's commentary on the imaginary relationship between herself and Goddard came across uncomfortable at best. Additionally, while I believe, her writings into what Goddard's life may have been like was supposed to make the story more immersive, it left me with an overwhelming feeling of how little the author actually knew about Goddard and her day to day life.

Unfortunately, I found the author's commentary to be under informed and severely biased which overshadowed Marty Goddard and her accomplishments.

⭐️: 4/5

I’m not normally a nonfiction reader, but at the time I requested this, I was at the point where I was reading books that seemed particularly interesting or relevant to topics I’m interested in. I’ve since taken a step back from reading almost all nonfiction books, but since this was an ARC I was approved for, and seemed like such an important piece of previously unknown history, I was still excited to pick it up.

This was a pretty quick and short read, which you can tell based on the length, but what I didn’t realize is that the (already short) length is artificially inflated by pages and pages of sources in the form of notes at the end of the book. I think that the length worked to the subject matter’s favor though, since there’s only so much that could be said about this topic without either getting entirely too dark, or feeling repetitive. Even so, the book did feel a little repetitive at times, and a little unfocused at times also, but also, as I said, I haven’t been reading much nonfiction recently, so maybe that’s the norm. I think that there was an opportunity to tell the story a little differently, like potentially relating the solving of unsolved cases back to developments and stepping stones in the trajectory of making the rape kit more commonplace, instead of relying on the author’s parasocial relationship with and musings about Marty Goddard.

The topic of this book is really interesting, and so enlightening and important to learn about the ways that the patriarchy has been used to keep women from being able to take credit for their intellectual property and profit from it. When I read books about topics such as these, it reinforces just how much men are the worst, and makes me want to fight to burn down the patriarchy. Overall, this was a pretty interesting look into a piece of history that has been overlooked and looked down upon for decades.

Thank you to @netgalley and @aaknopf for this eARC for my honest review!!

A book that is part investigative journalism, part intimate biography, and part memoir, The Secret History of the Rape Kit by Pagan Kennedy tells the story of Marty Goddard, a Chicago nonprofit worker who created and championed the use of the first rape kits beginning in the 1970s. A tireless advocate for sexual assault survivors and legal reform, Marty Goddard was a nationwide fixture as she toured the country informing people about the use of the rape kit as a tool for sexual assault convictions until she abruptly disappeared from public life in 1998.

The first rape kits were officially and publicly named the “Vitullo Evidence Collection Kit” after Chicago police sergeant Louis Vitullo to imply involvement and leadership from a high-powered male police officer in an effort to persuade other officers to take rape kits seriously and use them as the powerful tools they were capable of being. This naming choice led Marty Goddard’s fingerprint to be forgotten, crediting a man who had little to no involvement in the project with her decades of labor and invention.

In The Secret History of the Rape Kit, author Pagan Kennedy seeks to rewind this story to the beginning, bringing Marty Goddard back to the center. Kennedy works tirelessly and to the point of obsession to rediscover Marty’s story and in doing so, finds the words to tell her own. As much as this book is an investigation and a biography, it is also about the author’s experiences and research and writing processes.

Kennedy’s deep dive into Marty’s story calls to mind the podcast “Finding Richard Simmons” in that they both make the reader/listener question who has the right to tell which stories. Did Marty want the world to know what is revealed about her? I don’t know. But I do know she deserves credit for her work history denied her.

Some of the facts presented in this book truly wowed me and I found myself sharing the information I learned with anyone who was around to listen. The beginning of the book especially captivated me and the best part of the story was seeing how others had taken the idea of the rape kit and kept working on it to design a process that empowers the survivor. This evolution gives me hope.

Overall, I would highly recommend The Secret History of the Rape kit to anyone interested in history, law, biography, or investigative journalism. The book was propulsive and interesting throughout, with information to share and a message not soon forgotten.