Twist of Faith
State your name for the record.
Dennis Gray.
- Where were you born?
- Toledo, Ohio.
- What year?
- '48.
And where did you attend school?
Central Catholic high school.
And what did you do after graduating
from high school?
I went into seminary - St. Gregory, Cincinnati.
Why did you decide to go into the seminary?
I decided that it would be a good life
if I was a priest.
See that.
We just got back from a fire. It was fun.
Little attic fire. Wasn't much, but I'm filthy.
This is the infamous fire pole.
Every little kid's dream.
- Tony!
- Yeah?
Fire safety. Time to go!
Anyhow, time to go.
Any of you know what monsters look like?
- They're slimy.
- Are they slimy?
- Are they really big?
- They have 10,000 eyes.
A lot of eyes? They got blinking stuff on them?
What I want to show you is that
what you might think a monster looks like,
is a lot what a fireman looks like
when he comes to your house at night.
OK, more or less like a monster?
No!
If you put the neck on.
- What about now?
- Now!
What about now? Look. Am I a monster?
No!
This is me coming into my neighborhood
every day for the last six months.
This is a nice park - one of the big things
that attracted us to the neighborhood.
Right in there, there's a walking trail,
public grade school's way back in there.
It's like living in the forest.
Hi, honey. Your hair looks great.
Thanks!
Mitch. Hey, Sam.
You guys go in the family room.
What makes it all worth it, right there.
Hey, Daddy, I can do somersaults.
- You can?
- Yeah. Watch.
All right.
Salt of the earth.
Mitchel? You gotta go to bed.
Remember that secret
you were gonna tell Mommy?
Here, Mitchel.
Go. Go fast. She won't even see you.
- Tell me about Tony Comes.
- Just a friend.
A good friend?
He was a friend.
- And how did you know Tony?
- He was from school.
- What school?
- Central.
- As a student?
- Correct. And as a fireman.
You knew him when he was a child, right?
Teenager.
And you ever take him out to the cottage?
He would come up different times.
What kind of relationship did you
have with Tony?
More of a counselor.
He got us out of a lot of trouble.
He got me out of a lot of trouble.
You're late for class, you go to his office.
He did a lot of fun sh*t. He took you
to the racetrack, he took you to...
He took me out to eat.
In a family of seven kids, we didn't
eat out much. McDonald's was a big deal.
He'd pick on you.
His constant comment to me was,
"Comes, you're the only person I know
that would f*** up a wet dream."
At the time, it was, "Ha-ha, funny."
Now it's, OK, he mentions "wet dream."
And he said it all the time.
Was this part of some conditioning process?
It screws with you to the point where
you wonder, "How much was I manipulated,
"and at what point did I graduate
"to the 'Now it's appropriate
to f***ing try something with this kid'?"
Did the church ever provide you, or any
of the Catholic schools at which you taught,
any guidelines as to what conduct was
considered to be inappropriate with a minor?
No.
Did they ever advise you as to when, if at all,
- child abuse should be reported?
- No.
Did they ever advise you when, if at all,
sexual contact with a minor
should be reported or to whom?
Nope.
The place I was first molested
is the rectory at St. Joseph.
Every day I gotta go to my psychologist's
office, I gotta drive by this place.
An invitation to Denny Gray's cottage was...
That was where it was at.
You could smoke, you could drink,
rake a pile of leaves 12 foot high,
dump a half a can of gas on it and light it,
It was f***ing cool.
And once I started getting abused,
for one reason or another,
I convinced myself
that that was still the better option.
Which I don't quite get.
Did you ever put your penis
in the mouths of any students
- when you were at central Catholic?
- Objection. Fifth amendment. Do not answer.
Did you ever put the penises
of any of your students in your mouth...
- Same objection.
- ...while at Central Catholic?
Do not answer.
Did you ever put your penis in the anus
of any of your students...
- Continuing objection.
- ...while you were at Central Catholic?
Continuing objection. Do not answer.
If you can imagine laying there
as still as can be, just...
I was asleep and then, as I came to,
I was like, "Oh..."
Realized what was happening
and just kept my eyes closed
and waited for it to be done.
And by done, I mean done.
It's like there's a siren going off in your head
"this is not happening, this is not happening,"
yet, the reality that it is happening
and you're trying to figure out why
and what the hell do I do?
And being so confounded that you do nothing,
that you just f***ing freeze.
And then the shame, after,
or now, at 20, or you know, 33 years old,
that I didn't sit up and just f***ing punch him
square in the face.
You know?
- Your teeth hurt?
- Yes.
Yeah?
So what do I need to ask Grandma?
- To check my teeth.
To make it... to see if it's better?
- To see if it'll get better?
- Yeah.
What do you think is wrong?
When I was lying in bed, it started hurting.
When you were sleeping
it started hurting?
Does the cold water make it hurt more?
Open your mouth. OK.
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"Twist of Faith" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/twist_of_faith_22401>.
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