Blackhawks investigation: Kyle Beach speaks out as ‘John Doe’ in interview

Former Chicago Blackhawks left wing Kyle Beach has publicly identified himself as “John Doe” in the Blackhawks investigation released on Oct. 27.

The painful reality of surviving sexual assault is that survivors are often not believed.

For 11 years, it was a burden that a Chicago Blackhawks player formerly identified as “John Doe” was forced to bear as the Blackhawks denied his experience at every level of the organization.

When a Blackhawks investigation by law firm Jenner & Block was made public on Oct. 26, it validated what John Doe asserted for over a decade. The entire Jenner & Block report can be found here.

With the facts of the report emerging, the John Doe identified in the report has self-identified as Kyle Beach, a left wing for the Blackhawks when they won the Stanley Cup in 2010.

According to the report, “nothing was done” by senior leaders in Blackhawks’ coaching and management in 2010 after Beach reported that Brad Aldrich, the team’s video coach at the time, sexually assaulted and harassed him.

A Sports Illustrated article details how Blackhawks senior leadership met on May 23, 2010, to discuss Beach’s accusations.

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville, who has denied that he was at this particular meeting, had his attendance confirmed by the report. It was Quenneville who said that the team had worked hard to reach the postseason and “could not handle this right now”.

The group then concluded they would not alert human resources or outside legal counsel so as to not “disturb team chemistry.”

The report confirms that not only did the Blackhawks knowingly dismiss a player’s allegations that a Blackhawks staffer had sexually assaulted and harassed him, but they forced Beach to be surrounded by Aldrich for weeks on end.

Their dismissal of Beach, their leniency toward Aldrich, and the eleven years in which this incident went unpunished had lasting effects on Beach’s well-being.

Kyle Beach speaks about how the Blackhawks

For those who have survived sexual assault, denial by others only reinforces the trauma of the experience in a phenomenon called “secondary victimization.”

For Kyle Beach, the days after the assault took place were ones filled with fear.

“To be honest, I was scared, mostly,” Beach told Rick Westhead in a SportsCenter interview. “I was fearful. I had my career threatened. I felt alone, and dark.”

Beach’s voice broke as he reflected on those subsequent days. “I’m sorry, it’s tough to recall these moments,” he continued. “I think mostly, I felt like there was nothing I could do and nobody I could turn to for help.”

Beach said that he felt “sick to [his] stomach” watching Aldrich spend weeks with the team after the incident, even being affording the opportunity to bring the Cup to his Michigan hometown and accept his ring in-person from Blackhawks leadership.

“I reported this, and I was made aware that it made it all the way up the chain of command, and nothing happened.”

“It was like his life was the same as it was the day before, the same everyday.”

To see Aldrich paraded and uplifted by the Blackhawks, rather than investigated and condemned for his actions, made Beach “feel like nothing.”

“It made me feel that I didn’t exist,” Beach said. “It made me feel that… he was in the right, and I was in the wrong.”

“That’s also what Doc Gary told me, was that it was my fault because I put myself in that situation.”

James Gary, who Beach refers to as “Doc Gary”, was the mental skills coach for the Blackhawks at the time. Beach said that Gary made him feel responsible for the assault.

Gary left the organization at the end of the 2020-21 season.

For all the years that Beach suppressed his trauma, he said he “acted out” and “snapped”, doing things he had never imagined he would do. Beach described leaning on alcohol and drugs to cope with the assault and the subsequent suppression of it.

With the vindication that Beach now feels, the healing process has finally begun.

“I suppressed this memory and buried this memory to chase my dreams and pursue the career that I loved and the game that I love of hockey,” Beach said.

“The healing process is just beginning, and yesterday was a huge step in that process.”

Today, Beach is the one who is being uplifted, as the entire hockey world rallies around him in his unrelenting pursuit of justice.