I happened into a volunteer "historian" position in a small western US village with a very unique history. I have no training and no experience - just an interest in history and computer skills. I'm the only person around who can catalog the items and information in the museum software we purchased. That's the value I add to the project. Nobody else has any training or experience either, so they come to me asking how everything should be dealt with.
There are just a handful of old-timers left who remember first-hand when the town was company-run. I'm told that life was "difficult" for women during that time. That was said to me in a way that left it very open to interpretation.
One of the volunteers, who is both an old-timer who grew up here, and female (she is well into her 80's) said that someone very important in the town sexually assaulted her and it took everything she had to come back here decades later. The more I learn the more I realize she wasn't the only victim. Although it may have been rumored around the town at the time, none of this ever made it into a newspaper or other printed form that I have happened upon.
From my perspective I have three options:
I realize that a lot of historical figures were also not very nice people. On one hand I feel that writing them out of history would be doing an injustice to history itself, but on the other hand could there be a sweeter revenge than to wipe away their legacy? If I have that ability then I have too much power, perhaps? I am dealing with relatively unknown figures here. They're important locally, not at a national, state, or even county level in most instances.
Please remember that this is all new to me. I'm asking historians for some perspective on how to view this situation, and others like it when they come up. Because of the rough-and-tumble town that it was I have no doubt I will come across this again while researching other lives. I expect I may be volunteered to write the local history book. I really need to establish my mindset correctly from the beginning.
I'm a little confused as to how exactly this story came up - it sounds like it might be in conversation with a fellow volunteer? Because otherwise the volunteer work you're doing is entering items into the museum software catalogue?
I'll give this perspective: if you were collecting oral histories, then frankly it would be borderline unethical to take down someone's oral history and then edit/alter the transcript based on your personal feelings. I am seeing some comments here and there about your needing to corroborate the story - that's not actually your duty, if you're taking down an oral history. It might be something another historian would do if they were conducting research on local history, but of course if you already were altering or not recording that part of the oral history, they would not even be able to do this based on the record you recorded.
"On one hand I feel that writing them out of history would be doing an injustice to history itself, but on the other hand could there be a sweeter revenge than to wipe away their legacy?"
This would be a flat-out no. If someone was already "very important in the town", then leaving out documentation of sexual assaults they have committed doesn't wipe them out of history. If anything it gives their crimes the cover of oblivion. People generally do bad things with the desire or expectation that those bad things will remain unknown or forgotten.
I would very much come down on the duty being to pursue option two, although again without specifics I'm not entirely sure what position of "recording" the OP is actually in.
A final note: this is not a criminal investigation, as the VIP in question is presumably long dead, and there are generally statutes of limitations for prosecuting such crimes. If you're recording an old woman's testimony about things from the town's past, it is absolutely fine to include whatever she wants to mention about these assaults and leave it at that.