There’s one proven fact in regards to the occasions of the night time of Could 8, 1981: Alice Sebold, who had earlier that day simply accomplished her freshman 12 months at Syracuse College, was brutally raped whereas strolling house by way of a park.
Anthony Broadwater was arrested a number of months later and subsequently convicted of the assault. He’d spend 16 years in jail, repeatedly being denied parole as a result of he refused to confess guilt. Upon his launch in 1998, he was required to register as a intercourse offender.
Sebold would go on to jot down and communicate in regards to the assault, culminating within the publication of “Fortunate,” a memoir in regards to the rape. The guide would change into a bestseller after the success of Sebold’s first novel, “The Pretty Bones.”
However 40 years after the assault, a court docket vacated Broadwater’s conviction after the Syracuse district lawyer joined a movement to clear him and mentioned in court docket that Broadwater ought to by no means have been prosecuted. Whereas the exoneration made headlines all over the world, we puzzled what number of different victims in Syracuse had been left behind and what else the police might need missed.
What we found: No a part of the system in Syracuse on the time could possibly be relied on. Police disregarded rapes. Prosecutors bungled confessions or have been defeated at trial. Judges missed irregularities. And Syracuse College appeared extra fascinated about suppressing information of a rape epidemic than fixing it.
Listed below are a few of the key findings from our yearslong investigation into what went flawed after that night time in Could 1981. You may learn the complete story of how ProPublica reporter Joaquin Sapien reinvestigated the infamous case — and rapes surrounding it — many years after the actual fact right here.
As Rape Circumstances Piled Up in Syracuse, Police Didn’t Examine
On the time of Sebold’s rape within the spring of 1981, Syracuse was experiencing a rash of sexual assaults. Hers was the third such assault within the metropolis’s Thornden Park in about seven months. A fourth had occurred a block away. Just like the police report in Sebold’s assault, these instances had additionally been shortly consigned to the inactive file.
Past the park, ladies in Syracuse have been being sexually assaulted of their dorm rooms and houses. A nursing scholar was later attacked on the similar spot as Sebold, on the identical day that her roommate was raped of their shared condo. A freshman was raped in a sorority home by a person who broke in by way of a window. The descriptions of the perpetrators, a lot of whom carried a knife, have been usually eerily related; a number of have been roughly the identical top, weight and race.
And but there have been no obvious indicators of urgency from regulation enforcement.
Syracuse College Quashed Media Protection of Rape and Different Crimes
Along with Syracuse police showing to deprioritize rape instances within the early Eighties — a time when few survivors reported their assaults — paperwork and testimony point out that the town’s namesake college actively quashed media protection of those assaults.
If a police report was labeled “NO PRESS,” a former detective within the Sebold case defined in a 2025 deposition, it meant that the college “put their foot down and mentioned no press for any type of rape, theft, housebreaking that’s anyplace within the space of Syracuse College.” He testified that seeing this designation on police studies on the time was commonplace.
A spokesperson for Syracuse College mentioned in an electronic mail that “we aren’t ready to talk to the actions or choices of prior administrations,” however the college is now outfitted with “complete insurance policies, a steadfast dedication to stopping sexual and relationship violence and strong assist buildings to assist each survivor that comes ahead.”
Police and Prosecutors Botched the Lineup and Rushed the Case to Indictment
It was not police work or media protection that led authorities to Broadwater. His arrest solely occurred after Sebold noticed him on the road months after the assault and believed he was her rapist. Police arrested the 20-year-old, and he agreed to look in a lineup.
However on the lineup, Sebold didn’t establish Broadwater as her attacker. As a substitute, she chosen a person standing to his left.
Police had no different proof linking Broadwater to the assault except for a pubic hair pattern he had volunteered for comparability to 1 discovered on Sebold, which, in a world earlier than DNA testing, might basically inform investigators solely that each Broadwater and the rapist have been Black.
The present DA says the case ought to have ended then and there. “Case is over,” he advised ProPublica. “Cease.”
However fairly than launch Broadwater and proceed gathering proof, an assistant district lawyer, Gail Uebelhoer, requested Sebold to draft an affidavit on the spot, explaining what had occurred. Sebold wrote within the affidavit that she had picked the person within the No. 5 place as a result of he had been taking a look at her.
In “Fortunate,” her bestselling memoir in regards to the rape, Sebold mentioned Uebelhoer tried to allay issues about selecting the flawed man by claiming that the person she picked and Broadwater have been “useless ringers” for one another and implied that the 2 males coordinated their look within the lineup to confuse Sebold. Each males have adamantly denied ever showing in one other lineup collectively.
Hours after the lineup, Uebelhoer introduced the case towards Broadwater to a grand jury. In a 2025 deposition, she mentioned she couldn’t keep in mind most of the key particulars in Sebold’s case however asserted that she had carried out her job by presenting it to a grand jury with out hiding its flaws.
Broadwater’s Resolution to Forgo a Jury Trial Backfired
When his case moved ahead, Broadwater and his lawyer hoped he’d be higher off by choosing a bench trial, by which a choose, not a jury, would determine his destiny.
However the choose appeared to have a smooth spot for Sebold. In her memoir, she recollects how the choose spoke privately to her throughout a break within the proceedings, expressing concern about how she was holding up and asking about her household. If a juror had requested such questions of a witness, they’d probably have been kicked off the jury and a mistrial would possibly’ve been declared.
The choose additionally allowed Uebelhoer — then visibly pregnant and not dealing with the case — to take the stand as a witness for the prosecution, the place she appeared to suggest that Broadwater was chargeable for Sebold’s botched identification on the lineup.
Instantly after the prosecutor completed his closing argument, the choose discovered Broadwater responsible with out leaving the bench to deliberate.
The Rapes Continued After Broadwater’s Conviction and a Potential Suspect Emerged
Broadwater’s conviction didn’t finish the rash of sexual assaults in Syracuse. Solely 4 months after the trial, a excessive schooler named Thomas Weakfall admitted raping 5 ladies, 4 of them inside a mile of Thornden Park. He advised police his spree had begun in late 1981.
Whereas there’s no proof that Weakfall attacked Sebold, he did match key components of the outline she gave of her rapist: Black, 16 to 18 years of age, about 5’7” and 150 kilos. Weakfall was Black, 16 years outdated, 5’9” and 140 kilos, based on police studies. Broadwater was 20, stood 5’6” and weighed about 175 kilos.
However the rape case towards Weakfall collapsed as a result of his confession was deemed inadmissible. Officers had taken his assertion and not using a protection lawyer current, unaware that Weakfall was already represented by an lawyer on an unrelated housebreaking cost. He finally pleaded responsible to second-degree housebreaking, received 5 years probation and was launched.
Weakfall Confesses Once more, however To not the Sebold Rape
Information present police arrested Weakfall for an tried rape of a lady inside her automobile in October 1983. He was launched from custody for 4 months, earlier than pleading responsible to a lesser cost of tried sexual misconduct. He acquired a sentence of 1 12 months.
Throughout those self same 4 months, Sebold’s roommate was raped of their condo. She was one among 5 ladies attacked in the identical cluster of blocks over a five-month interval, based on modern information accounts. Police suspected that one man had dedicated the crimes.
Whereas police studies in these assaults recommend an older, taller attacker, components of the crimes — burglarized houses; ladies raped at knifepoint and crushed; some sure and gagged — matched Weakfall’s strategies.
Sebold’s roommate additionally advised police that, after the assault, she tried to get her assailant to go away by yelling out that her roommate was coming house. He replied: “I do know her, we had a factor, we had a deal up to now.”
In 1985, after being noticed utilizing a stolen ATM card, Weakfall confessed to extra rapes, saying he’d assaulted a minimum of three ladies in the last few months. This time, his confession caught and he finally served 12 years of an 18-year sentence.
Whereas Weakfall did confess to committing rapes that occurred indoors, he has denied assaulting anybody outdoor. In interviews with ProPublica, he admitted “violating” ladies but additionally mentioned he didn’t commit all of the assaults he’d confessed to.
Producers Making an attempt to Make a Movie About “Fortunate” Sparked the Unraveling of Broadwater’s Conviction
In 2013, a film producer tasked with writing a screenplay based mostly on “Fortunate” contacted Paul Clapper, a retired detective who had performed a tangential however essential function within the Sebold case. In accordance with the producer, he replied, noting that there have been numerous questions within the case: Was the fitting individual arrested? Was Sebold a superb witness? If DNA testing had been obtainable, would there have been the identical end result? Nevertheless, the producer mentioned Clapper by no means elaborated on this record, and finally this try to movie “Fortunate” fell by the wayside.
Years later, a second producer endeavored to make a film of Sebold’s memoir. His issues in regards to the story have been such that he employed a personal investigator to dig deeper. The investigator, Dan Myers, met with Clapper and got here away with the impression that Clapper believed Broadwater was harmless of the crime and Weakfall was responsible. Myers introduced his issues to a pair of Syracuse legal professionals, who filed a movement to vacate Broadwater’s conviction in 2021. Greater than 40 years after the rape, and after greater than 20 years of dwelling as a registered intercourse offender, Broadwater was exonerated.
The Aftermath: “I’ll By no means Write Something Good Sufficient”
5 years after the court docket vacated Broadwater’s conviction, Sebold has little question he’s harmless and advised ProPublica she now questions her determination to report her rape to the police: “None of this might have occurred.”
Regardless of his exoneration, Broadwater mentioned the stigma of being a convicted rapist was nonetheless arduous to shake, even together with his file cleared and a multimillion-dollar settlement from New York state. “I’m nonetheless embarrassed that I used to be convicted and despatched to jail for rape for 16 and a half years,” he mentioned. The town of Syracuse and county of Onondaga are contesting Broadwater’s claims. He defined that his life “nonetheless ain’t regular. Ain’t by no means gonna be regular. How might it’s regular?”
Sebold and Broadwater have mentioned by way of intermediaries the potential of assembly in individual. However their shared reluctance to journey has made plans tough.
Sebold mentioned she did not too long ago write a letter to Broadwater by which she takes accountability for her function in his wrongful conviction. The letter describes, she mentioned, “the deep sorrow I maintain for what occurred.”
“I’ll by no means write something adequate,” Sebold mentioned in regards to the three pages that took 4 years to compose. It’s “most likely, in my thoughts, an important factor I’ll ever write.”
