Posted on 08/25/2003 9:01:10 AM PDT by Rodney King
Prison Guards Describe Pedophile Priest's Death
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss BOSTON (Reuters) - Prison officers on Monday described how defrocked priest and convicted child molester John Geoghan was bound, strangled and beaten to death while the door of his cell was jammed shut and guards were distracted.
Officials said Joseph Druce, 37, a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi said to hate homosexuals, strangled Geoghan with a bed sheet and beat him in one of Massachusetts' most secure prisons on Saturday.
Geoghan was a central character in a sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church. Last year, the church paid $10 million to settle cases with 86 of his victims.
His prosecution uncovered a string of pedophile cases among the clergy that ultimately forced Cardinal Bernard Law, the head of Boston's archdiocese to resign last year.
Worcester County District Attorney John Conte said Druce will face murder charges in Geoghan's death. An autopsy is planned to determine the exact cause of death.
The Boston Herald and The Boston Globe reported prison guards said Druce trailed Geoghan into his cell after lunch, jammed the electronically operated door shut and tied the 68-year-old former priest's hands behind his back.
Druce used a shoe to tighten the sheet around Geoghan's neck and then repeatedly jumped onto him from the bed, according to the guards' account.
"An officer heard a noise, went over to the cell, and he saw Geoghan on the floor, gagged and tied," Robert Brouillette, an executive of the 5,000-member correctional officers' union, told the Globe after speaking with the guards.
The Boston Herald reported that Geoghan, a high-profile prisoner segregated from the main prison population in a protective custody unit at the time of his death, told Leslie Walker, executive director of Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, he "was terrified the whole time he was in prison."
"In the prison population, men who have killed or abused children are at the bottom of the totem poll," said Dr Jay Feierman, a psychiatry professor at the University of New Mexico's medical school, who served as psychiatric medical director for the state's prisons.
"The sociopaths somehow have this hierarchy about who is beneath them and child molesters are at great risk."
Geoghan was one year into serving a sentence for fondling a young boy while they were swimming. At least 130 people accused him of abusing them while he served in various Boston area parishes.
Prison spokeswoman Kelly Nantel confirmed Geoghan was being held in protective custody and said the district attorney's office is conducting an investigation.
Some of Geoghan's victims expressed sadness and frustration that their tormentor had been killed, bringing a premature end to their search for justice.
"I had a moment of thinking 'He got what he deserved'," said Michael Linscott, 45, who was molested by Geoghan when he was an altar boy 37 years ago.
"As victims we will live in our own prison forever, but Geoghan got off easy. He is never going to hurt anyone again, but he still had a lot of penance to do on earth," Linscott said on Sunday.
Even if he is bailed out the next day, he will be at risk of rape and death by staying in jail overnight.
The jails and prisons, especially in major metropolitan areas, are full of prisoners who routinely abuse and kill other prisoners while the guards look the other way.
A white male who is sent to jail in South Florida, for example, will soon find out that the blacks stick together, the Hispanics stick together and the whites stick together.
Since white man are often the minority in a jail section, (for example, a 50-man section wil have 25 blacks, 20 Hispanics and 5 whites), guess which prisoners are used and abused in these jails?
As much as I fail to shed any tears for this pedophile, I'm also aware that these guards are complicit in the prison "justice." Furthermore, these guards are the same types who fail to protect people who are sent to jail unjustly or for minor crimes and are forced to become either victims or victimizers of other prisoners.
Perhaps now we know why the church worked with such devotion to hide their behavior. Had they not, there would be a whole lot more prison justice having been carried out.
Much like the argument for capital punishment, perhaps if child molestation had been prosecuted from day one within the church it would have been the deterent factor that we the people operate under?
It'll be yanked soon.
At least you admit that you approve of murder. Most of the creeps on this site never admit it.
In fact, I think the judge should have ordered the bailiff to shoot him on the spot.
Ahhh, more conservative tenets. I'll bet the real conservatives on this site are thrilled to death that you count yourself among them.
Really? Most of us are very fortunate that life is not fair. Few of us get what we really deserve.
I think that WE should just chain you to the neo-nazi homo murderer so you can comiserate with him as a soulmate.
The issue is what the church deserves and how do you balance that with the needs of the parishes for the continued operation of their church?
A lot of anger is yet to come.
Let him go a prison where the majority of people are not white and hate neo-Nazis.
He'll last as long as snowball in hell
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