Perv Priest's body was pummeled

New York Daily News ^ | 8/25/03 | TRACY CONNOR

[kattracks]

After strangling pedophile priest John Geoghan, neo-Nazi Joseph Druce stomped and pummeled the defrocked clergyman's lifeless body, a prison union official said.

Druce followed Geoghan into his cell after the two returned their lunch trays Saturday and somehow jammed shut its electronic door, today's Washington Post reports.

Once inside, he bound and gagged the 68-year-old ex-priest before strangling him with a bed sheet, said Robert Brouillette, an executive of the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union.

Then, before correction officers could pry open the door, Druce, 37, repeatedly leapt from atop the bed in the cell onto Geoghan's body and struck it with his fists, he told the Post.

"It was pretty clear when they got in there that [Geoghan] wasn't going to wake up," said Brouillette.

Only one guard was on duty in the protective custody wing of the Souza-Baranowski prison in Shirley at the time, he said.

Druce, who is serving a life term for strangling and mutilating a gay bus driver who picked him up hitchhiking in 1988 harbors a searing hatred of homosexuals and was molested as a child, his family claims.

His estranged father, Dana Smiledge, said he had no problem with his son's actions. "I'm glad he did it," Smiledge told the Boston Herald. "[Geoghan] was an idiot."

But Smiledge did question why prison authorities allowed his son near Geoghan, who was serving a nine-year sentence for fondling a little boy. Druce grew up in a broken home and had been sexually abused by men as a young boy, Smiledge said. Geoghan was accused of molesting more than 130 children during his 35 years in the priesthood.

Smiledge said Druce, who changed his name in jail, no longer has contact with his family. "I did everything I could for years to help him," he told the Boston Globe. "He deserves to stay [in prison]."

Prosecutors plan to charge Druce after an autopsy on Geoghan today confirms strangulation as the cause of death.

Originally published on August 25, 2003

[FlyVet]

I will not rejoice in his death. But, child molesters, if they have any sense at all, should know they will not have a good time if they get caught and go to jail. They just don't like child molesters much in there. Probably because a lot of the cons experienced some of that torture in their own childhood. I can see how it would tend to mess up your head.

[NYer]

Only one guard was on duty in the protective custody wing of the Souza-Baranowski prison in Shirley at the time, he said.

To what extent are the guards themselves "complicit" in the death of Fr. Geoghan? It almost seems as if they set the stage, so to speak.

[zygoat]

Couldn't they let this guy go to a NAMBLA meeting? They could call it "work release" or something.

[thegreatbeast]

This is just sad.

[Diogenesis]

Could this be a coverup?

... of the $$$$ for child rape
scheme ignored by the AG of Massachusetts.

[hellinahandcart]

A huge dent could be put in the rate of prison murders and rapes simply by having all cells and common areas under constant and thorough video surveillance. Not as a substitute for human guards, but because it would ensure that no rape or murder could occur in secret and the guilty party's identity would always be known (and consequences immediate). But then I suppose the prisoners would complain about the lack of privacy to sharpen plastic sporks into deadly weapons, do drugs, and have consensual sex with one another, and plenty of influential liberal advocacy groups would be willing to take up their cause. It'll never happen.

It wouldn't have prevented this murder; Druce seems to have known very well he would be caught, and didn't have a lot to lose in any case. But it would certainly prevent a lot of rapes and gang-related murders in the general prison population. If you knew you would absolutely get caught, and lose your chance at parole, you'd be much more likely to behave yourself.

[Fzob]

Someone else said it best.

Monsters killing monsters.

[Caipirabob]

It may just be part of an understanding in prison culture.

It may have also involved the guard's very life if the local gang or "faction" leaders had directed the attack.

I'm sure a large number of cigarettes changing hands was involved. They still have that much freedom in prison.

[battlegearboat]

That sorry sack of sludge Geoghan!

What pisses me off is that he prolly never thought what he was doing was in the least bit wrong.

May a similiar fate await Cardinal Law.

[snodog]

To what extent are the guards themselves "complicit" in the death of Fr. Geoghan? It almost seems as if they set the stage, so to speak.

Placement with in a housing unit is not the responsibility of prison "guards", commonly known as correctional officers. Classification and placement of inmates is conducted by a board of senior correctional officials, based on a series of standards.

Placement in seperate housing, including, protective custody(PC), Administrative Segregation (Ad-Seg), or Maximum Control Units (MCU), generally requires approval of an executive level manager, i.e. Warden, Deputy Warden, or Associate Warden.

I'm always amazed by posters here that think correctional officers, police officers, fire fighters, fighter pilots, and soliders, have some kind of omnipresent intuition to forsee danger. They must walk through steel doors, shoot only the bad guys, rescue all of those traped, and kill only the enemy.

Next time you have to make a life or death decision on the job let me know.

[Bluntpoint]

Next time you have to make a life or death decision on the job let me know.

Yesterday, I walked into an office of smokers, I immediately had to decide: "Go in and end up with lung cancer in 40 or 50 years, or don't go in?" I did not go in.

[Jimmy Valentine]

"And they that rolleth a stone, it shall return upon them."

Regards,

[dpa5923]

You forgot, and shoot the badguy in the hand only thus making him drop his weapon but not killing him."

[snodog]

A huge dent could be put in the rate of prison murders and rapes simply by having all cells and common areas under constant and thorough video surveillance.

I think that would be a fine idea. Except...most prisons house so many inmates that the cost would be overwhelming. Consider Soledad Prison in California, with over 7,000 inmates housed in three seperate facilities. 3,000 inmates are housed in the central facility alone, mostly in two man cells. It would take well over 1500 cameras just to cover the cells in this one facility, not to mention the common areas, which at CTF Soledad can cover several acres within the perimiter fence, and hundreds of acres outside the fence.

CTF Soledad http://www.corr.ca.gov/InstitutionsDiv/INSTDIV/facilities/fac_prison_CTF.asp

[snodog]

Yesterday, I walked into an office of smokers, I immediately had to decide: "Go in and end up with lung cancer in 40 or 50 years, or don't go in?" I did not go in.

Unless you are in your teens I hate to be the one to tell you, but...you will die with in 40 or 50 years anyway.

Have a great day!

[D1X1E]

Yesterday, I walked into an office of smokers
This is off the subject but where are you that people still smoke in offices?

[hellinahandcart]

Yeah, well, lawsuits are pretty expensive too.

And it simply isn't right to allow people to be raped and murdered in prison.

But like a lot of people, I find myself with no sympathy for Geoghan. He was a monster. People are cheering vigilante justice because real justice is no longer being dispensed. That's the problem. If the law won't do it, others will step up to the plate. It's a shame, but it's also inevitable.

[D1X1E]

LOL A valid point