Fast Eddie Remembered

The Savitz Affair was one of Philadelphia's most sordid, which is saying something.

The boys called him Fast Eddie, or Uncle Eddie. The prosecutors called him a predator, a pedophile. Over a decade, he'd done unspeakable things with hundreds of boys in the two homes he'd kept in Center City.

Edward Savitz was an expert in pensions, a Penn grad, a man with a double life and a bad toupee. He died in prison of AIDS before trial. He was a public health menace, one sick puppy.

I remember running out to his old place on St. James Place when we learned he'd had another home in 1992. The trees were bare, except for boys underwear hanging from the branches like plastic bags.

When Greg Bucceroni e-mailed over the weekend, saying how the Penn State sex abuse scandal had dredged up memories of his own victimization by Savitz, I wanted to sit down with the voluble victims rights advocate and see what keeping a secret that long does to you. It's today's metro column.