Open Investigation
Open Investigation, an investigative true crime podcast about unsolved cases of missing and murdered children; a follow-up to the Emmy Award-winning HBO documentary, "Have You Seen Andy?", hosted by Melanie Perkins McLaughlin.
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Open Investigation
The Other Boston Sex Scandal
The Other Boston Sex Scandal - Ep 3
What if the institutions you trust to protect the vulnerable were instead their worst predators? Join us on a harrowing journey through the Boston Sex Scandal of the 1970s, where systemic failures and nefarious networks allowed the exploitation and trafficking of children to flourish. We'll uncover the tragic story of Dick Bavley a social worker who betrayed his duty to protect, and explore John Mitzel's pro-pedophile book, "The Boston Sex Scandal," which reveals how the man/boy love movement attempted to attach itself to the legitimate gay rights movement.
Unearth the dark origins of the Revere boy sex ring and expose the involvement of influential figures like Father Paul Shanley and millionaire Roger Spear. Through firsthand accounts and detailed investigations, we shed light on the hidden network of abuse that permeated Boston during that era. Our episode underscores the importance of reporting child sex abuse and provides the National Sex Abuse Hotline for those in need, ensuring that the voices of victims are heard and supported.
We wrap up by examining the broader implications of these sordid revelations, highlighting the systemic failures and cover-ups that protected perpetrators. Hear the courageous story of John Sweeney, a survivor who shares his painful experiences, and learn about the unsolved cases of missing and murdered children linked to these dark networks. By supporting our podcast through Patreon, you help us continue to raise awareness and seek justice for the survivors. This episode is a solemn tribute to those who have come forward and a reminder to all survivors that they are not alone.
National Sexual Assault Hotline
Ex-Students File Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Against Newton Boarding School
Unholy Communion. Vanity Fair Article on Fr. Paul Shanley
Bishop Accountability - Database Tracking Clergy Abuse
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Based on the HBO Emmy award-winning documentary "Have You Seen Andy?" - haveyouseenandy.com | @haveyouseenandy
Please be advised this podcast deals with crimes against children. Please take care when listening.
Actor:This is a story of a resistance by a group of individuals who for too long have been smeared by police, preacher, district attorneys, popular prejudice and the press as child molesters. The resistance developed in response to a witch hunt against homosexuals in general and boy lovers in particular. To a witch hunt against homosexuals in general and boy lovers in particular. The Boston Sex Scandal is, more importantly, also the story of a resistance begun by a few radical homosexuals which built on the gay community so that, for the first time, the gay movement embraced gay pedophiles and their cause and fought back. The Boston Sex Scandal is the history of a beginning.
Melanie McLaughlin:What you just heard are direct quotes from the book the Boston Sex Scandal by John Mitzel, published by Glad Day Books 1980. The book reads like a manifesto for pedophiles and it's one of the most thorough documents on the history of what was then called child prostitution and now known as human trafficking of children in Massachusetts in the 1970s. This is Open Investigation, a true crime podcast about the search for answers to the disappearance of my childhood friend, Andy Puglisi, and the incredible story of dozens of other missing children who disappeared or were found murdered around the same time. Andy vanished, all while a hidden network of human trafficking was thriving in our community. I'm your host, Melanie Perkins McLaughlin.
Melanie McLaughlin:Episode 3, the Other Boston Sex Scandal. The stories in this episode are so complicated. I've done so much research over the years and the more research I do, the more research there is to be done. I could honestly do an entire series just on this episode, and maybe I will in the future, but for now let's stick to this episode so that we can better understand how it all relates to Andy and the other missing and murdered children, especially given the context of the 1970s. There's a lot of information in this episode and a lot of names. There'll be character descriptions on our website along with a detailed timeline so that you can follow along when and if you have any questions. You can reach me by email openinvestigationpod at gmailcom. Our website address is openinvestigationpodcastcom. This episode is dedicated to all the kids who came forward to share their story and to those of you out there listening who haven't shared yours yet. Hopefully, by listening to the series and to other survivors, you'll understand that there's empowerment in telling your truth and being supported by your community, and it's okay if you're not ready yet. Just know that there's a community of survivors and that you're not alone. We believe you.
Melanie McLaughlin:The story begins in Massachusetts in the 1970s. It is the modern history of human trafficking of children. In fact, it's the open to John Mitzel's book the Boston Sex Scandal. He starts with a story of Dick Bavley, a supervisor in the Roxbury Massachusetts Department of Public Welfare Social Services Agency. The agency is responsible for the welfare of children and families and for placing foster children in foster homes. Today it's called the Department of Children and Families, but the name changes often. The author Mitzel portrays Dick Bavley as a martyr of sorts. We think the record will show otherwise. We've interviewed former foster children and what was then called child prostitutes. Please be advised this episode deals specifically with trafficking of children. Please take care.
Melanie McLaughlin:Act One Dick Bavley.
Melanie McLaughlin:In April of 1975, supervisor of Social Services, richard Dick Bavley, was found dead while under investigation for defrauding his employer, the Department of Public Welfare. The state agency created for the protection of children and families, to carry firearms was allegedly placing foster children teenage boys, to be more specific in homes with men who at the time were referred to as known homosexual single men and ultimately were known as pedophiles. To be clear, homosexuality is not confused with pedophilia. But in the 70s the term pedophile was not part of the lexicon and the sexual revolution and the gay rights movement was just starting to take off. In fact, you'll learn, self-identified pedophile groups were trying to attach themselves to the legitimate gay rights movement, claiming we're denying children the right to have a sexual identity, but their efforts were rejected by the gay community.
Melanie McLaughlin:According to the Boston Dick Bavley, was first implicated when a 15-year-old boy, who was a runaway from a psychiatric hospital and a ward of the state, allegedly committed suicide using Dick Bavley's gun. When the police realized the gun belonged to Dick Bavley, a social worker supervising foster children. They began asking questions, especially when they learned Bavley had had placed a foster child with himself under what was supposed to be an emergency care and protection 24 to 48 hours at the most. The boy was with Dick Bavely from the time he was 13 until the time he was 15, when the police showed up after the boy's friend allegedly shot himself with Dick Bavley's gun. I was able to find Dick Bavley's former foster son, and this is the story he told me.
Bavley's Foster Son:Well, first let me just say that I was a foster child that lived with Dick Bavley, former foster son, and this is I was a runaway. I had to do survival sex as a kid. I was like 12, 13 years old when I hit the streets and what happened is a kid that I knew that I brought toBavl to because I thought he could help him. The kid wanted to go back to his foster home and I met him over another pedophile's house or, and so I brought him over to baverly's. I figured we you know he was talking to dick, I was tired, I figured the kid would just sleep on the couch, you know what I mean. And then that's when I came downstairs to use the, because the bathroom was on, you know, at the foot of the stairs, and as I was going to the bathroom I looked at, you know, baverly's bedroom was to the left there and the kid was in bed with him, you know, and I said, oh geez.
Melanie McLaughlin:Police discovered that Dick Bavley authorized payments of more than $19,000 to a fictitious foster mother named Mary McGrath. $19,000 in 1973 is the equivalent of $125,000 today. Here's Dick Bavley's former foster son, who was asked that we don't use his name for obvious reasons. He was 15 years old when Bavely died. He's 63 years old today and it's still like it was yesterday. You'll hear a clicking noise in the background. It took a little while for me to figure it out. The former foster son was clicking his lighter out of nervousness as he was talking.
Bavley's Foster Son:He was stealing money from the state. He stole that they know of about $20,000 at the time that was a lot of money back in the early 70s. Checks would go to a Mary McGrath post office box. Dick was saying you know, gay kids with gay men. I mean that was the thing you know, but it really that was. You know it sounded better than putting runaways with pedophiles. I never even heard the term pedophile until later on in life. I mean that term was never. We were chicken, young kids were chicken and the pedophiles were jawns. You know, I mean I never heard that term on the street, you know.
Melanie McLaughlin:So in other words, Supervisor of Social Work, Dick Bavley for the Department of Public Welfare, the Child Protection Agency in Massachusetts, was allegedly embezzling money for the purpose of payment for caring for foster children that he allegedly placed with what was then called known single homosexual men, who were actually pedophiles, while claiming the children were placed with a woman, Mary McGrath, who did not exist. In the book the Boston Sex Scandal author John Mitzel writes of rumors that Dick Bavley was running a gay prostitution ring, trafficking teenage boys to pedophiles in the name of what Mitzel and his colleagues call man-boy love.
Melanie McLaughlin:In addition to being a social worker, Dick Bavley volunteered at one of the first ever homes for runaway children, project Place in Boston, Mass. Lillian Jackson worked at Project Place with Dick Bavley. Here's what she has to say.
Lillian Jackson:Divinity students, five of them that started Project Place to deal with underserved people, and it was mainly homeless people and runaway kids. So we were dealing with severe abuse and neglect and trying to figure some of this stuff out, trying to protect some of these kids, and so that's kind of how it all started. I do remember Dick fairly well At the time. He was a supervisor and we had no reason not to trust him. We were aware of people praying that this was a vulnerable population, so we were really careful.
Lillian Jackson:If people we didn't know came to the runaway house for these kids, we wouldn't let them in. We did what we could. We didn't know who came to the runaway house for these kids. We wouldn't let them in. We did what we could. But we had no reason to doubt Dick. He really seemed to have a relationship with the kids. When all that happened we had no idea. As I recall we found out by the newspaper, I guess he had access to other kids as well.
Melanie McLaughlin:Did Dick Bavley ever abuse you?
Bavley's Foster Son:Yeah, he'd say come here champ, come here champ. He used to call me champ, you know. We'd talk at night around bedtime and he said come on, lay next to me. So I did, you know, nothing happened.
Bavley's Foster Son:I felt, you know, I would fall asleep and in the middle of the night I woke up because he was fondling me, you know, and I turned, I pulled away from him, you know, because it freaked me out. I just pretended that I was sleeping, you know, and I just rolled over, you know, and got his hand off me, you know, and he would pretend that he was sleeping. I mean, we, we would wrestle at times and, you know, he kind of grabbed my crotch, you know, I don't know, but uh, that happened a couple of times where I slept, you know, we'd talk and I just give him the benefit of the doubt that he was doing. This was called taking place while he was sleeping, you know, in his sleep, and he didn't know. But you know, obviously I knew that he knew and he knew that I knew, but we didn't want each other to know.
Bavley's Foster Son:I don't know, this is a crazy situation, but he treated me like a prince. I gotta tell you anything. I wanted I. He got me karate lessons. He bought me one of those mini bikes. He sent me to horseback riding camp.
Melanie McLaughlin:On April 17th 1975, disgraced supervisor of social work, dick Bavely, died by suicide, overdosing on drugs, while under investigation for the suspected trafficking of foster children to pedophiles and the embezzlement of tens of thousands of dollars from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Public Welfare. Dick Bavley's obituary requested expressions of sympathy be donated in his memory to Project Place. It was the teenage boy that Dick Bavley had assigned to himself as a foster son that discovered Bavley's lifeless body.
Bavley's Foster Son:He knew the gig was up. You know he was going to prison and he knew it. He was into his study writing for a long time and I was kind of a stupid kid in some ways, I didn't really put it together what he was doing. And he came out and he asked me. He says will you go to Texas with me? Asking me right. And I said no, Bavley, I I don't. What am I gonna go to texas for? See, I didn't appreciate how, the seriousness of what was going on. Uh, at the time I knew something happened. I knew the kids told the gun. But I found out later that that Beverly was, You know he was going to go to prison. You know he goes into the bathroom. Now he's in the bathroom for I don't know a long time. Then he comes out and I guess he was going to bed, you know. So I just stayed up watching television and then I went to the bathroom and I hear him snoring. I mean like loud, I mean he was snoring. So I go in. I said Dick, Dick, I'll go to Texas. He goes. Oh, sorry, no, no, like that. Now I hear wake him up and I turn on the light. His lips are turning purple right. So I call the ambulance and I guess he died at the hospital or something. That was the catalyst that started what they called the Boston sex scandal.
Melanie McLaughlin:A month later, the Boston police, the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office and the Mass State Police created a task force to investigate Dick Bavley and any others involved. In 1975, the Boston Herald published this headline Foster Holmes Probe Launched Cases of 5,500 Children to be Reviewed.
Bavley's Foster Son:I'm walking down the common on the common side, the Boston Comm - Tremont Street, these guys stop and they get out of the car and they said come on. I said, oh man, what's this all about? So I guess we went up to some office like the Attorney General's offices I don't know. They were working for the Attorney General at the time. The state police, the plainclothes guys they look like linebackers for the patriots. You know that, these big guys. So they're asking me a bunch of questions. They're showing me pictures. You know who's this, who's that, who's this? You know him, who's this? They got me in the middle of the room in a chair. I'll tell you the truth. I don't know what it was all about at the time, but evidently they were investigating a whole bunch of people. I don't know. I guess some of them were well-to-do, you know.
Melanie McLaughlin:In January of 2022, I sent a Freedom of Information Act request to the Mass Attorney General's office. I received an email saying that there was no information on file regarding this interdepartmental state task force investigating the trafficking of foster children, but I did get an incredibly detailed report of a year-long investigation by an exceptional homicide detective, which was what led to the task force investigation. I asked Dick Bavley's co-worker, Lillian Jackson, if there was anyone else working with Dick Bavley to supposedly help runaway boys from Project Place. That's when she told me about Father Paul Shanley.
Lillian Jackson:We also had Father Paul Shanley that we would send kids to for camp. And I was just appalled. We were just, we had no idea. He seemed like this nice priest who came and people were helping us because we didn't have any money. But he said, well, send them to me and I can get some summer camp scholarships for these kids and some clothes. And we came across such a cool dude type guy.
Melanie McLaughlin:Father Paul Shanley is a notorious pedophile priest from the Boston Archdiocese. He was considered a street priest who counseled runaway boys. Father Paul, as he was called, also publicly endorsed the benefits of man-boy love. We'll have a whole episode on the priest and what was happening in Boston in the 1970s. Here again is Dick Bailey's former foster son.
Bavley's Foster Son:See, there was this place on Charles Street right. It was the old South Church. That's where Paul Shanley used to be hanging out there. That was the pedophile priest and he was a friend of Dick Baverly, my guardian. Dick Bavley used to talk about the guy a lot and I knew him myself because he used to come around the bus station. You know, talk to the kids. Maybe family would bring him kids that you know. I think they were kind of networking.
Melanie McLaughlin:There's another counselor from Project Place who wasn't willing to be recorded for the podcast, but he told me about his experience with Dick Bavley. Here's what he said. Several teenage boys from Project Place confided in the relatively inexperienced 21-year-old counselor. They told him that they had been going to drug-fueled parties at the mansion of a local millionaire who lived in Beverly Farms, mass. The counselor confided in the experienced social worker Dick Bavley, convinced something needed to be done to protect the boys and Bavley would help. Bavley suggested he and the counselor drive from Boston to the suburban home of the millionaire to approach him directly about the boys' claims. The counselor trusted Bavley and was comforted by the fact that he had a license to carry a gun. The young counselor said the millionaire greeted Bavley and him at the door and brought them into a large conference room where Bavley instructed the counselor to tell the millionaire what the boys had been telling him. At one point the millionaire left the room to take a call and the counselor could overhear him talking on the phone. Whoever he was talking to, it was clear they knew the counselor and the conversation was about him. This scared the counselor and he told Bavley he wanted to leave immediately as the young counselor was expressing his concern for the boys on the ride home. Dick Bavley suggested the young counselor should go undercover at one of the drug-fueled parties, pretending to be a teenage boy, to get more information. That's when the counselor said he realized Dick Bavley was somehow involved in all of this.
Melanie McLaughlin:When I asked the counselor if he remembered the name of the wealthy millionaire whose house he and Bavley went to, he told me he would never forget it. The millionaire is a man named Roger Spear. When I heard that, it was one of those moments when the puzzles started to get filled in. It was a huge piece. I already knew the Roger Spear . He had been mentioned to me previously by another child who had been abused in the 70s, and Roger Spear was a Massachusetts millionaire who would be one of dozens of men arrested in 1977 in what was called a child sex ring in Revere, Mass. Just a few years after Dick Bavley and the counselor's visit, Roger Spear would also be accused of murder involving a young hustler, as he was called, and another young man was found dead in Speer's home. He was said to have died of an overdose.
Melanie McLaughlin:The book the Boston Sex Scandal isn't just about Dick Bavley. In fact, dick Bavley's story is merely the introduction to a much darker tale. If you or someone you know is a victim of child sex abuse, please reach out to the National Sex Abuse Hotline. It's available 24-7 for free. The number is 1-800-656-HOPE. That's 1-800-656-HOPE. That's 1-800-656-4673.
Melanie McLaughlin:Act Two All roads lead to Revere.
Melanie McLaughlin:This is attorney Tom Peisch, who was the prosecutor in one of the most notorious and least talked about cases in Boston history, a case referred to as the Revere Boy Sex.
Former Atty Tom Peisch:Ring I got a job as an assistant district attorney in Boston. I was assigned to a division of the DA's office called the Suffolk County Investigation and Prosecution Project, scip, that specialized in organized crime and white-collar cases. After about a year at SCIP I was assigned to assist in the investigation of a case which later became the celebrated so-called Revere sex cases. We put together an affidavit for an application for a search warrant. The police went to the apartment and found a large number of photographs of young boys in compromising positions, and the police then set about to find these youngsters and were told just an unbelievably sordid story about what had gone on in that apartment. Most of these young boys were so-called street kids, came from broken homes, difficult backgrounds. The owner of the apartment, a man named Peluso, made it kind of a hangout. Peluso had a network of adults who enjoyed the sexual and other company of young boys. But we put together the appropriate evidence, brought it to a grand jury which returned the indictments and the rest was, as they say, history.
Melanie McLaughlin:I had the opportunity to interview a few of the boys that had spent time at Richard Peluso's house on Montanab in Revere, Massachusetts. One of the boys was Dick Bailey's former foster son, who you heard from in Act I.
Bavley's Foster Son:There was guys trying to have sex with kids. In fact, there were seasoned kids out there, you know, and rather than have sex with the guy, they would bring a naive kid like me up there so that they could get high and everything without doing anything. You know what I mean.
Melanie McLaughlin:Dick Bavely's former foster son explained to me that teenage juvenile delinquents would recruit prepubescent boys to bring them to pedophiles. On Friday, december 9th 1977, the Boston Globe ran a front page story with the headline 24 Indicted in Boy Sex Ring Probe and the subheading police say Operation Revere-based. The article reports that in the spring of 77, a school bus driver, frank Damiano, was arrested and sentenced to life in prison for the rape of multiple children. It was Damiano's arrest and another suspected child prostitution ring in the north end of Boston that led police to an apartment in Revere Massachusetts in the north end of Boston that led police to an apartment in Revere Massachusetts. According to the Boston Globe quote, of the 24 men indicted, 17 were allegedly involved in a Revere-based operation in which young boys were used for homosexual acts and as models for pornographic photographs. Seven other men were allegedly involved in similar crimes at other sites in Suffolk County. As many as 63 boys were believed to have been involved in the Revere Massachusetts operation. End quote News reports indicate the men traveled to Revere from their homes in Washington DC, connecticut, florida and Georgia, paying between $30 and $50 for each visit. The boys were paid between $5 and $10 each. Court records indicate boys as young as eight were included in the ring, the Boston Globe reported the children were from Revere, lynn, saugus, chelsea and East Boston.
Melanie McLaughlin:Among them were several state wards, also known as foster children, at least one of whom was assigned to the home of one of the suspects according to investigators Sound familiar? Remember this is just two years after corrupt social worker Dick Bavley died. According to the paper, several of the defendants were wealthy men who had boys assigned to them as an inducement to invest in pornographic films. The district attorney at the time, Garrett Byrne, also referred the case to Los Angeles detectives because, it's reported, at least one of the children had been brought to the West Coast to appear in a pornographic films. Child Pornography. You heard that right. In addition, the Boston Globe reported the investigation, which led to seven separate indictments unrelated to the activities at Peluso's apartment, reportedly uncovered sexual acts with children at a waterfront apartment in Boston, a street in the Back Bay, an apartment elsewhere in Revere and a karate school end. Quote here again is the former foster son of disgraced social worker Dick Bavley. The foster son was also ultimately considered what was then called a child prostitute and he spent time at Richard Peluso's apartment in Revere.
Bavley's Foster Son:Most of the Johns I was with. They always took photographs. These guys had tons of old Polaroid, you know. Oh man, they had tons of pictures of kids and stuff. A lot of these guys like to take pictures. You know, I looked like a little girl. I had the long hair. Everybody used to call me oh he's a beauty, he's a beauty. I got no chest hair, no leg hair. I never had they liked pedophiles like that. It was a network. You know what I mean.
Melanie McLaughlin:Here again is former prosecutor Tom Peisch.
Former Atty Tom Peisch:There were small amounts of money exchanged, as I remember it. There were payments made. There were a lot of pictures In fact that's how we were able to make the case, because they were stashed in this apartment underneath a heater, as I remember it, and the police found them when the search warrant was executed. Some of them had gone back a number of years Pictures of these young boys in various positions, Not many of them nude, but certainly suggestive, and some completely benign. But there was a huge trove of them, as I remember, several hundred. What happened to those? It's a good question. Some of them were marked as evidence before the grand jury and I don't know what became of them. There was never an appeal, so there may not have been any reason to keep them.
Melanie McLaughlin:Richard Peluso, the owner of the Riviera apartment, had actually once lived with Frank Damiano, the North End school bus driver. Damiano ended up with over 40 counts of child rape, but Peluso agreed to testify against men involved in the ring. Several supporters of the men allegedly involved in the child trafficking ring quickly formed a group to begin fundraising for their legal costs. At first the group called themselves the Boston Boise Committee, named after a similar scandal that occurred years earlier in Boise, idaho. The Boston Boise Committee would eventually rename themselves, becoming the first publicly identified organized pedophile group in the United States, the North American Man-Boy Love Association, nambla.
Melanie McLaughlin:In 1977, the Boston Herald printed a photo of the men being arrested, along with their names Dr Donald Allen, a child psychologist affiliated with Children's Hospital in Boston. James P Dallman, a teacher at the Private Fessenden School in Newton, Mass. Arthur Claridge, an assistant headmaster at the Private Fessenden School in Newton, Mass. Roger E Spear, millionaire and investor. The same Spear who we just heard about in Act I, involved with Dick Bavley. Edward Mede, karate instructor Mark Davis, juvenile probation officer Lou White, salesman David instructor Mark Davis. Juvenile probation officer Lou White, salesman, David White Security guard George Dreifus Harvard-educated psychologist with the Lindemann Mental Health Center, Frank Damiano school bus driver, Henry Rideout, Donald Heres and Whitney Chase, a lobbyist from Washington DC.
Melanie McLaughlin:Interestingly, those who supported the men who were charged with sexually abusing dozens of boys, some as young as eight at the time, claimed the public and media reaction to their crimes amounted to a witch hunt and outright homophobia. They were trying to attach pedophilia to the legitimate gay rights movement, suggesting that pedophiles had a right to love who they wanted as well and that were inhibiting children's rights by not allowing them to have sex with adults. Here again is Tom Peisch, the Suffolk County prosecutor, who worked directly on the case.
Former Atty Tom Peisch:These events took place in the aftermath of the pre-love movement that grew out of the 1960s, and there was a pretty deep division among the gay community about these cases. On the one hand, you had establishment-type gay people like Elaine Noble, who was a state representative, a very prominent, very thoughtful woman, who immediately denounced the conduct of these defendants. And then, on the other hand, you had the organization that ultimately became the North American Man-Boy Love Association, nambla, who advocated very strongly in favor of the defendants, attacked the proposition that the law did not permit consent under a certain age and were quite active and vocal in saying that this conduct should not have been criminal, should not have been punished criminally.
Melanie McLaughlin:The organization supporting the defendants in the Revere case, which ultimately named themselves NAMBLA, falsely claimed there was no organized pedophilia or child pornography as part of the Revere case. This despite hundreds of photos being seized and one of the defendants at least being found with child pornographic films and cameras. They believed the civil rights of men loving boys was being violated. They hosted an event at the Arlington Street Church in Boston where noted author and activist, Gore Vidal, spoke on behalf of what they called themselves boy lovers. Here's part of the speech from that event, with an introduction from none other than the author of the Boston sex scandal, John Mitzel.
John Mitzel:I don't think it's inappropriate to characterize what's coming down as nearly a state of siege against the gay community and anyone interested in civil liberties. I think, though, that one of the best moments is tonight To say that Gore Vidal is with us here tonight, is standing with us tonight and is supporting us tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, Gore Vidal, there's a newspaper here called.
Gore Vidal:What is it called, you know, the Boston Globe, a newspaper which has had fits of responsibility in the past but apparently lost its head when this thing began. The headline was 24 in child porn case at the Boston Globe. Well, there was no child pornography. That's another code word, I mean that immediately sounds like six-year-olds being raped. Now, there was no child pornography involved in the Revere Beach Capers. Now, there was no child pornography involved in the Revere Beach Capers.
Gore Vidal:The state really has no business in regulating the morals of consenting adults and adolescents. Much complaint has been made about men and boys. Well, the man is in a stronger position. The boy has a weak character or can be modeled by the man. This is not necessarily so. Relationships are very subtle. Who does the manipulation? It's a quite delicate matter and it's a very delicate issue. But I would think that wherever no coercion took place, where two parties of whatever gender or age come together, that this is no business of the state. This is no business of grown people to fret about. If parents are worried about their children, well, they should have done the work of the family and not suddenly find themselves in the position of having a witch hunt and reinvoking the spirit of nearby Salem.
Gore Vidal:Yet when you think about it, should there be such a thing as statutory rape? That sounds to me like a contradiction. We have here another fascinating thing that at this moment there are a hundred men are now serving life or multiple life sentences in Massachusetts for nonviolent sex acts with boys under 16. A hundred men serving life for something that they entered into of their own free will, a relationship which we cannot judge. No force was used. The boy involved in the case was, as far as we know, not damaged and was perfectly willing to go through with this. This seems to me barbarous. And there are boys 16 to 18 who have been charged with sex with boys between 12 and 15. I mean, this is getting theological.
Melanie McLaughlin:So, while noted author Gore Vidal was making jokes about statutory rape in children in order to raise money for the defendants, tom Peisch was preparing to prosecute them.
Former Atty Tom Peisch:Here's Tom Peisch picking up the newspaper the day after this fundraiser and opening the newspaper and seeing the featured speaker at the fundraiser for these defendants was Gore Vidal, a novelist, and I remember opening the newspaper and seeing a picture of Gore Vidal and then Superior Court Chief Justice Robert Bonin, who had attended this fundraiser with his wife, and I remember thinking to myself gee, that's a little weird. This is the judge who's going to be assigning the judge that will actually hear these cases. And while it turned out to be a huge controversy, it led to Judge Bonin's being the subject of disciplinary proceedings and ultimately resigning. It was very important to me that our decision to prosecute these cases was vindicated, and it was.
Melanie McLaughlin:Andy Puglisi is one of dozens of children who went missing or were found murdered in Massachusetts in the 1970s and whose cases remain unsolved. If you have information about Andy or any of the unsolved cases of missing or murdered children, please call 1-855-MASOLVE. That's 1-855-MASOLVE. That's the number for the Unresolved Case Unit for the Massachusetts State Police. You can always also contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. That number is 1-800-THE-LOST and exploited children. That number is 1-800-THE-LOST. Act 3. Boys to Men. One of the men arrested in the 1977 Revere sex ring was the assistant headmaster of a prominent private school, the Fessenden School in Newton, mass. That man's name is Arthur Claridge. Arthur Claridge ended up becoming a witness for the prosecution in the Revere case and was not tried for his crimes against children. Here again is Tom Peisch.
Former Atty Tom Peisch:Well I remember Claridge because he testified for us as a government witness. He was the main procurer of the adult network. He was the link between the adult network and the Peluso apartment. At the time he had a pretty significant administrative job at the Fessenden School in.
Melanie McLaughlin:Newton In 1977, Arthur Claridge was arrested with one of his colleagues from the same Fessenden School, a teacher named James Dahlman. Incredibly, despite two staff members being arrested for the sexual abuse of children in what became known as the Revere sex ring, fessenden School administrators insisted in the Boston Globe that no children from the school had been sexually abused at that time, but we learned through our interview with Dick Beverly's former foster son that that was the farthest from the truth.
Bavley's Foster Son:Oh yeah, there was a guy named Arthur Claridge we used to call him Press and he used to go over to Richie Peluso's house too. I used to see them cruise the bus station. He brought me over to the Fessenden School in Newton. He brought me over to the Fessenden School Because Arthur Claridge had an apartment on the grounds of that Fessenden School and I could describe it to a T? I you know. I remember it like it was yesterday.
Melanie McLaughlin:So, according to Bavely's former foster son, he was being trafficked from Revere, Massachusetts, to Newton, Massachusetts, at a private wealthy school, the Fessenden School, by the assistant headmaster of the school. Yet according to Fessenden administrators in 1977, nobody was abused at their school. Clearly, the 1977 investigation fell short and while the assistant headmaster and teacher were removed from the Fessenden School, no one seemed to understand that students at the school were also being sexually abused by Arthur Claridge and James Dallman. In 2016, the Boston Globe published a spotlight team investigation into pedophilia in dozens of private schools in New England, including the Fessenden School in Newton.
Melanie McLaughlin:The investigation was focused primarily on students of the school dating back to the 1970s and earlier. The Globe series made little to no connection to the Revere ring that was happening at the same time in the 70s, including many of the same pedophiles, or the fact that there were boys from Revere that were brought to the Fessenden School to be abused there. The Fessenden School administration hid this information for some time, but in 2011, they sent a letter to alumni admitting that 16 former students had come forward to describe their abuse at the hands of at least five individuals who were members of the community in the 60s and 70s. More than 40 years after their abuse, Fessenden students John Sweeney and Adrian Hooper came forward for the first time. They held a press conference to share the horror of their sexual abuse as children by men, including former Fessenden assistant headmaster and Revere sex ring defendants Arthur Claridge and teacher James Dallman.
John Sweeney:Good morning. My name is John Sweeney, I'm 57 years old and I was abused by Arthur Claridge at the Fessenden School. To my left is Adrian Hooper. What happens to all of us sex abuse victims? I've got post-traumatic stress disorder. We bury this trauma. It's severe and we bury it because of the shame.
Melanie McLaughlin:Remarkably, Adrian Hooper had remembered some of the abuse that occurred at the Fessenden School, but at the press conference Adrian fell to his knees when he saw a picture of Arthur Claridge for the first time in decades and memories that he had repressed, clinically described as disassociative amnesia, came flooding back. This is a conversation I had with Adrian about that experience.
Adrian Hooper:I was 11 years old when I got sent there and a lot of my memories had been repressed. You know, I mean I kind of always knew bad stuff happened there. And it wasn't until the Boston Globe story and me, you know, doing the press conferences with John that I saw pictures of Arthur Claridge and some other teachers and then all of a sudden my memories started flooding back in and some other teachers, and then all of a sudden my memory started flooding back in. I got to tell you, the last couple of years I've been really struggling with depression and anxiety. It was Arthur Claridge and another teacher it might have been Dallman I don't know if Dallman was even there then, but it was another teacher and they were videoing me and some other boys and they told us it was an ancient Mayan ceremony. You know they had us doing things to each other that I'd really rather not go into detail, but you know it was all of sexual nature and they were filming it.
Melanie McLaughlin:The other Fessenden student, John Sweeney, shared his abuse by Arthur Claridge, John Dallman and another of the Revere defendants, the millionaire Roger Spear. The same Roger Spear that was identified in Act One by the Project Place counselor working with Dick Bavley. Remember, Spear was a millionaire who hosted drug-fueled parties that included runaway and throwaway boys and wealthy men. Speer ultimately became a suspect in the murder of a man described as a young hustler. A few years later, All charges were dropped against the millionaire Roger Spear, including those in Revere. Here is former Fessenden student and victim, child sex abuse survivor, John Sweeney.
John Sweeney:I'm telling you and people think that I'm crazy, okay, when I tell them that they hit only one house in Revere, they only found out about the one house. At the same time they were doing this stuff at Spears House. Okay, I told them all about Spears House in Wellesley. And you know what's even more messed up, these guys I'm convinced of this right that they have got so much power still in the media, because nobody in the media wants to cover that story. I tried to get spotlight to listen to that, right, I tried to get spotlight to go back. Okay, cause they said tell me about the uh, you know, about, you know Spear and all this other shit you know. So I told him. I says listen, that place in Revere, okay, wasn't the half of it?
Melanie McLaughlin:I know this episode is a lot to process. Believe me, it was a lot to figure out. But let me take a minute to put things into context. Supposedly, the breakup of these child sex rings in Revere and Boston happened in 1977. Of these child sex rings in Revere and Boston happened in 1977, but court records indicate the Boston and Revere rings had been operating as early as 1971, through 1977, which fits in with Dick Bavley's abuse of foster children. Remember the interdepartmental task force created to investigate all of this in 1975? Yet we're told there are no records available from the Attorney General's office. We did find some comprehensive files from another department and there'll be more of that to come. And ironically, when the lawsuits started to come from the students at the Fessenden School remember Dick Bavley's foster son he tried to file a lawsuit as well, but the Fessenden administration said the statute of limitations had passed and Fessenden administrators said he wasn't even a student here.
Melanie McLaughlin:Basically, what do these pedophile rings all have in common?
Melanie McLaughlin:They generally include wealthy professional men from around the country trafficking boys considered throwaway children. They include people in positions of power priests, police officers, attorneys, judges and they're almost always abusing poor kids, poor kids who may have already been abused or neglected, kids who are rarely, if ever, believed, kids that have little or no social capital, who don't get much media coverage unless they're private school students. And even then, only 40 years later, the Revere investigation extended to Los Angeles, California, with defendants from Michigan, Connecticut, Washington DC and around the country. And at the same time, 1970 to 1979, there are dozens of unsolved cases of missing and murdered children in Massachusetts, some of whom we know had direct contact with some of the defendants in the Revere case and that were certainly in the same proximity as the Revere case. Several of the children have similar causes of death and fit the profile of the type of boys the men exploited Pre-pubescent children and juvenile delinquents.
Melanie McLaughlin:Boys who are attractive and could be easily mistaken for girls. Here's a conversation I had with Andy's mother, faith, about when she went to Revere, massachusetts back in 1977. Remember we heard this in an earlier episode, but I want to make sure you're making the connection to this sex ring.
Faith Puglisi:They had confiscated some children from this apartment in Revere and that's all I had to hear. And I was like children, you know, I want to, I want to see and we'll see if my son's among them. That's when I went to the FBI in Boston. They were very selective in what pictures I could look at and they had, like this cutout where, you know, they'd only let me see a portion of the picture One little boy that had the framework of Andy, but his hair had been dyed blonde and you could tell that the hair had been dyed. It wasn't a natural blonde. I don't know how Andy's case became this big. I don't know. I don't know. Was he kidnapped for child trafficking? I don't know.
Melanie McLaughlin:Incredibly. I also came across a book called Child Pornography and Sex Rings by Ann Burgess, which documents multiple child sex rings in Massachusetts in the 1970s and 1980s. Join us in a bonus episode for my conversation with Ann Burgess. Were any of these men involved in those cases of missing and murdered children? Who knows? It's hard to tell. Most of the separate police districts didn't communicate with each other about these cases. Like I said, there's no database of unresolved cases from the 1970s. No one in law enforcement has looked at these cases collectively as far as we know, and we know of at least one pedophile priest in Massachusetts who was allegedly part of an organized ring and was named as the person responsible for the murder of one of the boys from the 1970s whose case had remained unsolved for decades until we started asking questions about it. We'll talk about that more later in the season Next time on Open Investigation, episode 4, scope and Severity, learn how organized networks and child pornography rings across the United States were exposed in the late 70s, culminating in United States congressional hearings on child exploitation and creating new federal laws that helped form the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. You find our investigation compelling. Please consider joining our Patreon as a supporter, which helps us continue the work. This is an independent podcast and we're doing our best to investigate and bring awareness to these unsolved cases. You can also help out by offering a rating or commenting on the show on Apple Podcast. This helps us get more listeners and may lead to more information. If you want to learn more about additional research on individual cases, check out our website and join us on Patreon. If you have a tip or any information on these unresolved cases, please contact the Mass State Police Unresolved Case Unit at 1-855-MA-SOLVE. If you want to reach out to me, you can email me at openinvestigationpod at gmailcom.
Melanie McLaughlin:This episode was produced, written and hosted by me, melanie Perkins McLaughlin. Editing by Mike Goscia. Original music and additional editing by Drew O'Doherty. Consulting producer Angelle Wood. Graphics and website design by Cheryl Crawford Design and Angelle Wood. Research by Melissa Ellin and Maggie Schneider. Production assistance by Darren Sarah Ruemenapp, and Alexandra Vega. Our social media producer is Carla DiStefano, and special thanks to George. You know who you are.
