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.
Did the righteous wheelchair bound former drug addict opine on the priest's death? Will the Muslims take revenge for the killing of a man of faith by the Arayans? I need to know these things.
I guess you don't know the poster to whom I made that comment? If you think he's not a taliban type who dreams about a radical, violent theocracy you need to read a few more of his posts.
What you have here is the product of decades of a class of people who operated outside the law by molesting children. You then had an organized effort from within this class of people which precluded them being held to the same justice system we the people are held to.
I agree but of course it has nothing whatsoever to do with the comment that I responded to, namely that murder by one criminal of another is a good thing. A lot of anger is yet to come.
Really? So Christ cannot show grace to whomever he wants? What bible have you been reading?
What are you, the Taliban?
Oh the irony!
Sometimes you need to just let a sleeping dog lay.
Someone just got the brilliant idea to turn over all molester priests for prosecution, incarceration, murder, then financial settlement to the church so they can pay out all those damages to victims of said abuse.
That's brilliant! Simple!
A financial cash cow and a final solution!(That is unless you are a taxpayer)
Nope, but KC is. Maybe you are part of the "WE" he used in his post?
lol...that shouldn't be too hard...that describes about 90% of all prisons except Fed minimum camps. And you can leave out the Neo-Nazi stuff, they'll hate him well enough for simply being White.
Well, that could be okay too.
Save your tears of anguish for Geoghan's victims - boys who were 11 and 12 years old from broken and troubled homes, who needed spiritual guidance. Geogan was much older and larger, wearing a cloak of authority and holiness, coming to them with the trust and respect of his office, into their homes, their schools and the small confined spaces of the confessional.
FR has matured me a bit(arguably a very little bit)
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