Michael McQueary Character Analysis in Talking to Strangers

Michael McQueary is the former assistant coach for the Penn State football team. He was a key witness in the Penn State child sex abuse scandal after reportedly seeing Jerry Sandusky molesting an underaged boy in the locker room showers in February 2001. McQueary reported the incident to his immediate family, as well as his boss, head coach Joe Paterno. He was later criticized for his failure to intervene in the assault and report the incident to police.

Michael McQueary Character Timeline in Talking to Strangers

The timeline below shows where the character Michael McQueary appears in Talking to Strangers. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...Chapter Five opens with a March 21, 2017 trial transcript between the prosecution and Michael McQueary, a former quarterback who in 2001 served as assistant coach for the Pennsylvania State University... (full context)

When McQueary confided in his boss, head coach Joe Paterno, about what he saw, Paterno seemed sad... (full context)

The most egregious element of the Sandusky case was that while McQueary witnessed the abuse in 2001, the investigation into Sandusky’s behavior didn’t begin until 2011. The... (full context)

...changed in November 2010, when an anonymous email advised the prosecutor’s office to talk to McQueary, who had supposedly witnessed an incident between Sandusky and a child. In McQueary, the prosecution... (full context)

3. Michael McQueary was 27 years old and 225 pounds at the time he claims he witnessed a... (full context)

Furthermore, there were inconsistencies in McQueary’s story regarding the exact date he witnessed the shower incident that compromised his reliability as... (full context)

...child and that nothing sexual had occurred between them. Furthermore, after reading the details of McQueary’s account, he affirmed that he was the boy in the story. According to Curtis Everhart,... (full context)

6. Gladwell wonders about the doubts Curley and Schultz must have had about McQueary’s initial accusation. After all, if what McQueary saw was so damning, why hadn’t he gone... (full context)