Geoghan's Death Is Described

Washington Post ^ | 8/25/03 | Jonathan Finer

[hole_n_one]

washingtonpost.com

Geoghan's Death Is Described
Fellow Inmate Jammed Cell Door During Attack

By Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 25, 2003; Page A01

BOSTON, Aug. 24 -- John J. Geoghan, the former priest and convicted child molester killed in a Massachusetts prison Saturday, was followed into his cell just after lunch by a fellow inmate who bound and gagged him before strangling him with a bed sheet, according to a union representative for prison guards.

The attacker, whom authorities identified as Joseph L. Druce, jammed the electronically operated cell door to prevent guards from opening it. He tied Geoghan's hands behind his back with a sheet and gagged him. He then repeatedly jumped from the bed in the cell onto Geoghan's motionless body and beat the defrocked priest with his fists.

Only one correction officer was on duty in the protective custody unit at the time, according to an account of the attack provided by Robert Brouillette, an executive of the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union, who interviewed correction officers for seven hours Saturday. State and county officials involved in the investigation would not comment on Brouillette's description.

Druce entered Geoghan's cell just before noon, Brouillette said, when the prisoners left their one-person concrete cells to return their lunch trays. The solid cell door has a chest-high window that guards can look through as they pass by. When the officer on duty heard noises coming from Geoghan's cell but could not open the cell door from the control panel at his station, other officers were summoned by walkie-talkie. It took several of them to pry open the door.

[PleaseNoMore]

How do you feel about the death of the Hussein boys? Hitler too.

I think it is a sad waste of life in both cases.

Thanks.

You're welcome.

No one said that justice should not be dealt. We have a system of justice and Geoghan was sentenced under that system. While it isn't a flawless system it is the one we have.

[ampat]

Must have been a state of the art door, bought and paid for by bigdig funds. And this was the protective custody block?

[StolarStorm]

"I actually felt pity for them. For all the horrors and atrocities that they committed, God would have forgiven them."

Feeling pity for such creatures? How callous toward their victims.

[PleaseNoMore]

(Just as an fyi, God of course can and will forgive those who are repentent, but not those like geoghan who lauged at the misery he caused right to his perverted end)

I don't know this to be absolutely accurate. I wasn't there when he took his last breath. Therefore, I am not going to say that he was not repentant.

[StolarStorm]

"I think it is a sad waste of life in both cases."

Please say that to someone who lost a loved one in the concentration camps.

[PleaseNoMore]

Oh please, twist it to look as if I feel nothing for the victims. Of course I do. But, if it makes you feel superior to say that I don't, then by all means do so.

[StolarStorm]

Saying that you feel pity for monsters, makes YOU feel righteous and holy. No one with a rational mind could feel pity for creatures that murdered millions (hitler).

[1smallVoice]

Did this animal ever apologize to his many victims? If not, he got his reward on earth and now God is dealing with him and yes, that might mean he has been turned over to satan.

[ampat]

While slightly off topic, the state of MA got exactly what it didn't want. I'm sure the liberals determined that the death penalty is considered cruel and unusual punishment. Accordingly, there are no executions. So what do they get? A very violent death, (in the protective custody block no less) which most would call cruel and unusual. While not funny, it demonstrates a pathetic truth about government.

[Consort]

Morbid curiosity.

[Joe Driscoll]

This ain't right.

It may not be right but it is justice.

Did this man deserve to die? If the answer is yes, than justice has been served. It may be vigilante justice, but it is still justice.

[ampat]

I'd say their protective custody procedures are "not effective".

[NCC-1701]

The first thing I thought after hearing this was maybe someone turned a blind eye to this and allowed it to happen. Maybe the same way Jeffry Dhamer met his end. Can't help but feel that way. If not, that's just one less inmate the people of Massachutses has to support.

[PleaseNoMore]

My grandfather lost one of his "sickly" younger brothers in a concentration or "work" camp in 1938. He was deemed too feeble to work and shipped from Dachau to Linz where he was murdered. My grandfather was several years older than his brother and was ( more than ) fortunate to leave Munich Germany by train in 1933 very shortly after Hitler came into power and almost immediately before Dachau was opened. He emigrated to America some years later. To the best of my knowledge, my grandfather never was bitter, hurt deeply and grieved but not bitter, and forgave his brother's persecutors before he died in 1988. Of course I never had the opportunity to ask him but my family attests to this.

[PleaseNoMore]

No, calling them "monsters" or "creatures" gives YOU the feeling of superiority and self righteousness. These were men. Humans. And you can't change that. Their acts did not transform them into something other than humans. It did not alter their DNA and create in them a sub species. Evil men? Yes, but men nonetheless.

[PleaseNoMore]

One thing that my grandfather told me in one of my rare visits to him was, "If a person or people can learn to devalue one, they can easily devalue a million. Or, six million." I don't know that his quote is an original or if it is borrowed but, since it has much meaning, I have lived with that in my mind and so it is a conscious decision that I make to never devalue a single person as I am not their ultimate judge.

[connectthedots]

I'd say their protective custody procedures are "not effective".

I'd say that they were a bit 'lax' in following their protective custody procedures on that day.

[F16Fighter]

"For all the horrors and atrocities that they committed, God would have forgiven them. Same with Goeghan, regardless of how many he abused God would have forgiven him as well."

I agree, but one needed to have asked for God's grace in His name -- or else...

As to the question of feeling sympathy for Geoghan -- You can't demand people fake feeling bad for an oppressively evil man who terrorized his victims. Easier said than done.

[F16Fighter]

"For all the horrors and atrocities that they committed, God would have forgiven them. Same with Goeghan, regardless of how many he abused God would have forgiven him as well. And He would have forgiven them all regardless of whether we "like" it or not."

True, and had Adolf Hilter repented and ask Jesus for forgiveness in His name, he as well would have been "forgiven."

However, to demand much sympathy for a terrorist of the satanic Geoghan is a bit unrealistic.

[PleaseNoMore]

I don't demand that anyone feel sympathy anymore than you demand that anyone rejoice at his death. I simply see him as a shell of a man, which is pitiful. How much good he could have done had he not given over to the lusts of his flesh will never be known. It is tragic when anyone wastes their lives on hurting, pillaging, raping, murdering or whatever. They were created with the potential to do so much more good than evil. They chose the evil.