Pedophile Priests

Podcast Show Notes

Title: Open Investigation – Episode 5: Pedophile Priests

Content Warning: This episode discusses crimes against children, including sexual abuse and trafficking. Some listeners may find the content distressing.

Episode Summary:

In this intense episode, host Melanie McLaughlin delves into the disturbing reality of child exploitation networks, clergy abuse, and the failures of the systems meant to protect the innocent. Melanie explores the case of her childhood friend, Andy Puglisi, and how his disappearance in 1976 intersects with a network of child trafficking. As more survivors come forward, connections among clergy abuse cases in Massachusetts reveal chilling patterns of organized abuse and cover-ups.

The episode includes testimonies from survivors, insights from investigative journalists, and commentary from legal experts such as Eric MacLeish. Listeners will hear about the groundbreaking case of Father James Porter of Revere, MA, the Catholic Church's history of systemic cover-ups, and revelations about how these predators operated with impunity.

Key Points:

• Frank Fitzpatrick’s Courage: How Fitzpatrick’s confrontation with Father Porter in 1991 sparked a wave of awareness and empowered other survivors to come forward.
• The Network of Abuse: Accounts from clergy abuse survivors, attorneys, and investigators who disclose the coordinated nature of these abuses and the connections among perpetrators across Massachusetts.
• Impact on Survivors: Melanie shares the stories of several victims, including a woman recounting childhood trauma and the lifelong impacts of abuse. These harrowing stories illustrate how systemic abuse continues to harm even decades later.
• Call for Change: Ann Barrett Doyle calls for a statewide grand jury investigation into the Catholic Church’s actions in Massachusetts to ensure accountability.

Quotes:

• Eric MacLeish on Church Accountability: "Law was too powerful. No one could believe that priests were molesting children."
• R.C. Stevens on Organized Crime: "They meet the criteria for RICO...transporting children across state lines for sex."

Guests

• Eric MacLeish: Attorney who represented many clergy abuse survivors.
• Ann Barrett Doyle: Founder of Bishop Accountability, advocating for comprehensive investigation into clergy abuse cases.
• R.C. Stevens: Former State Trooper and investigator of abuse networks.

Resources & Support:

• For Survivors:  RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) at 1-800-656-HOPE.
• Additional Information: Visit Bishop Accountability for detailed records of abuse cases.
• Support the Podcast: Visit Open Investigation Podcast for more details.

Closing Thoughts: If this episode has stirred memories or emotions, remember that support is available. By sharing these stories, we hope to empower others to seek healing and justice. Join us next time on Open Investigation as we continue to search for answers and uncover the truth behind these harrowing stories.

Follow: @openinvestigation
Support: Patreon.com/OpenInvestigation
Based on the HBO Emmy award-winning documentary "Have You Seen Andy?" - haveyouseenandy.com | @haveyouseenandy

Transcript

Ep 5 Pedophile Priests

[00:00:00] 

Melanie McLaughlin: 

First I want to start the episode with thanking you for listening. I know this material is difficult to listen to but as one listener wrote "It is hard to listen to. It is harder not to listen to." I appreciate you supporting survivors and our show. A special thank you to all of our Patreon [00:01:00] supporters. Your subscriptions go directly toward the production of this show. Thanks to our Investigators Lori, Kori, Tracey, Courtney, Chantell and Thea. Keep an eye out for additional material on our Patreon. We are working on it! For those interested in learning more go to our website openinvestigationpodcast.com

Peter Jennings: From ABC, this is World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. Good evening, we're going to begin tonight with one of those agonizing secrets which has increasingly become the subject of national debate. Today in Massachusetts, another priest who had unlimited unsupervised access to children was told what penalty he will pay for sexually abusing them.

Melanie McLaughlin: In 1991, a clergy abuse victim, Frank Fitzpatrick, confronted Father James Porter and recorded his admissions on tape. That tape led to the arrest of Porter and the revelation that the Catholic Church had covered up Porter's crimes dating back to the 1960s. 

Peter Jennings

James Porter [00:02:00] has left the priesthood now, but he admits to having abused as many as a hundred children before his crimes were revealed.

It's an important case because many people believe that when his accusers came forward, other victims in other cases worked up the courage to do so as well. 

Melanie McLaughlin

Eventually, more than a hundred victims came forward. The story was national news for a short time, and then it just died.

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 stories of dozens of other missing children that had disappeared or found murdered around the same time Andy vanished. All While a hidden network of child trafficking was thriving in our community. I'm your host, Melanie Perkins McLaughlin.

This is Episode 5: Pedophile Priests

Act 1: Early Reporting

Eric MacLeish: By the mid 1990s, people started to contact me [00:03:00] who'd been molested by priests of the Boston Archdiocese. 

Melanie McLaughlin: Here's attorney Eric McLeish, who represented many of the clergy abuse survivors. 

Eric MacLeish: Cardinal Law, who was slated to be the first American Pope, and by far and away the most powerful person in Massachusetts, was up on the pulpit at Holy Cross Cathedral denying that there was any problem in the Boston Archdiocese, and attacking the porter victims of the Boston Globe for besmirching the good name of priests.

Well, in his own backyard, there were dozens of priests that had sexually abused children. People were still very reluctant to come forward at that time, anybody understood, on a massive scale. And how they kept it hidden. I knew that there was a big problem out there with Roman Catholic priests molesting children.

I didn't understand the scale of it. I didn't understand the interconnection of how these people all knew each other. 

Melanie McLaughlin: MacLeish decided to take action. 

And I [00:04:00] wrote the letter for the Archdiocese of Boston listing 25 priests that I had credible claims of abuse against, but my real reason was so I could send a copy of it to the Boston Globe.

And they were forced to publish it. They put it on page 46 of the Metro section. They just buried it. You know, I disclosed to the Boston Globe the names of all these priests in 1993 and the editor of the Boston Globe called me up and said, we're not going to do any more priest abuse stories. People didn't want to hear about this.

Melanie McLaughlin: MacLeish's efforts are a major plot line in the Oscar winning film spotlight. about the Boston Globe's groundbreaking investigation into the clergy abuse scandal. 

Eric MacLeish: So I was working largely with police and with prosecutors. I was trying to get therapy for the clients. I testified at the legislature a number of times on statute of limitations reform bills and told them about the scope of the problem as I understood it at that time, but no one was interested. You know, Law was [00:05:00] too powerful. No one could believe that priests were molesting children. 

Melanie McLaughlin: I'll never forget January 6, 2002. The Boston Globe published the first of a series of investigative reports that would fracture the Catholic Church. and shine a light on the darkest parts of humanity. The story was magnified around the world, and suddenly, previously secret records of the Catholic Church were open to the public.

Eric MacLeish: We went to the state supreme court to get records that were considered to be religious records that were all about sex abuse. The private, you know, religious records of the Archdiocese related to Scampo. And that's what really broke the whole thing open, because we got files on 170 priests. And there was just no denying that you couldn't look at these files.

I had no idea. These guys, for decades, had been admitting what they were doing to the Archdiocese. Because there was no consequence. 

Melanie McLaughlin: Eventually, hundreds of priests in the Boston Archdiocese and thousands more around the world [00:06:00] were credibly accused of raping children.

While investigating the 1976 disappearance of my 10 year old friend, Andy Puglisi, from a public swimming pool in Lawrence, Mass., I started to wonder if there were any pedophile priests in Lawrence at the time, and if there were any connections to Andy's case. I was baptized, made my first communion, and attended St. Patrick's Parish in South Lawrence. In May of 2017, the Eagle Tribune reported on clergy abuse at St. Patrick's. and at Central Catholic High School, also in Lawrence. In 2018 the Lawrence Eagle Tribune reported Father Gallagher’s 3 victims.  Then, in 2020, 11 victims settled with the Catholic Church for 1. 4 million for abuse at another school in Lawrence, St. Mary's School.

The victims at St. Mary's were [00:07:00] abused in the 1970s by Father John Gallagher. According to the Boston Herald, the victims were between 8 and 14 years old. 

Here's one of the survivors from St. Mary's, 

St. Marys Victim: I was in the fifth grade, this is 73. Father Gallagher was the coach of the swim team and the basketball team, and he sexually abused me and all my friends.

Turns out girls and boys, 5th grade, 6th grade, 7th grade, and he kind of normalized that behavior because he did it to everybody in view of everyone else. And he would, um, you know, finish with one girl and then say, Hey, go send out. So and so, like we were groomed and you know, he was a priest and we were kind of trapped in this behavior.

So I feel really guilty that I go into the girls room and say or whoever, um, Father Gallagher wants you. [00:08:00] I told in the spring of 1977, I told the nun, went home, told my mom, she called the pastor, we reported Father Gallagher at least nine different times and they didn't do anything. 

In 2018, there was an article in the Tribune about three of my classmates having come forward. and worked with Mitch Garabedian, and uh, that blew my world open. 

Melanie McLaughlin: Mitch Garabedian is a well-known attorney for clergy abuse victims. He also had a significant role in the Academy Award winning film, Spotlight. Mitch's character was played by the actor, Stanley Tucci. 

St. Marys Victim: So, I did the intake interview with Mitch, and one of the questions was, and I was like, I've got this, no problem, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, Mitch says, uh, marital status, single, ever married, no. When was the last time you had a date? 30 years ago. He's like, intimacy problems. I was like, no! Well, [00:09:00] okay, maybe. Um, And then he asked me if I had any tattoos or, or cuttings or had any of those kinds of behaviors. And I scoffed and I was like, no, you know, I'm too educated. I'm too self aware for any of that kind of thing. The next day I was sitting in my office at work and I ripped scab off my arm and I realized.

That I've been, I have scars on my body. That I've been ripped to small pieces of flesh of myself for years, decades. Um, and my whole universe shifted. I called Mitch back and I was like, I need the referral to the therapist. Because I don't have this.

Melanie McLaughlin: The victim began therapy and shared with us how, over time, she was able to recall additional memories. She [00:10:00] consulted with her therapist before sharing this story with us. She asked that we include it here because she wants the community to know exactly what happened to her and likely to multiple other children in Lawrence, MA and elsewhere.

St. Marys Victim: Father Gallagher, had been my swim coach, my basketball coach for several years. He abused me and my teammates and my friends and sometimes in front of me. And most of the time the abuse was outer course, where he would place a child on his lap facing him astride and grind his groin against the kid pet and kiss and murmur, um, directions.

You know, he told me once that if I didn't improve my technique, that the boys weren't going to like my French kissing. Um, and you know, this became very [00:11:00] normal.

Melanie McLaughlin: The victim shares how Father Gallagher would abuse children in front of each other to normalize the behavior. And he had frequent access to several children through swim meets, basketball practices and outings in MA and across state lines. He would often give the children small jobs and pay them for their work making them feel important. The summer before 6th grade Fr. Gallagher called the victim's home to see if she wanted to earn money being his golf caddie. 

 St. Marys Victim: So I was 11. I was like, still a little kid, ponytails. I had nothing better to do on this august day and he called the house and asked if I would caddy golf for him. And I said I would. I remember he came to the house and he beeped in the driveway and he picked me up and we went to the golf course in Methuen. 

 And then he took a route home through Salem, New Hampshire, rather than to my parents [00:12:00] house. And I couldn't understand why. And we ended up with the rectory at ST Mary's Church. And he explained to me that we had to go in to do something. And we went in from the parking lot behind the church and descended the stairs into the basement and went into his office and his office was, um, fairly empty. And it was weird because there wasn't a telephone or anything on the desk. 

 There was a big wooden desk with the chair, like under the, the like basement small window and the door had one of those glass, overhanging glass windows at the door. He sat down on the chair. And the chair was a wooden rolling chair with arms and, you know, I thought, Oh, well he's not going to put me on his lap because those arms will be in the way.

And he took me by the wrist and he told me that if I behaved, I would be okay. [00:13:00] And, you know, he, he, he brushed my hair. Um, and then, you know, up to this point. This is a memory I always had. What happened next were memories that I didn't recover until my late fifties, with the help of my therapist. But I knew that something very, very bad happened that day. But I, I couldn't remember what it was. 

Melanie McLaughlin: Please be advised what the victim is about to share is explicit CSA. We included the entire story in this episode at the victim's request and so listeners can truly understand the depravity and organized nature of the abuse. If you unable to listen you can scroll approximately three minutes. 

St. Marys Victim: Um, So what happened What ended up happening, um, [00:14:00] a teenage boy came in and, um, I'm not sure how much detail to go in here. Um, and I was made to undress, and he orally raped me, and he ejaculated on my face, and at some point, I was blindfolded, and, um, another adult man came into the room. And, um, I was anally penetrated, and while being blindfolded, I perceived flashes of light. Um, [00:15:00] and I now believe that this was a gang rape photoshoot. Um, Father Gallagher, told me, um, that, you know, if I behaved, I would be okay. And not to make it difficult on myself. And when it was over, I was allowed to leave and I walked home. Um, I took a shower and put my clothes in the laundry and grabbed a Nancy Drew book and climbed a tree to hide out, pretending to read. I didn't think it was just sheer, raw, survival terror. I, I was, plus, you know, Father Gallagher had been abusing me for years, and, you [00:16:00] know, and kind of the dissociation, um, skill kicked in, you know. So, I remember, you know, when I decided to engage. Mitch Garabedian and go into, um, mediation with the church on this. I went and drove over to St. Mary's and I peered into from the glass doors to the gym. And I'm like, I remember, you know, the audacity, this guy on a folding chair, just in the dark inside and, you know, my friends in the girls room. And, um, you know, kind of beaming up, like, the out of body experience of it. Just, like, looking up at a particular block on a cinder block wall [00:17:00] and thinking, you know, that I was Tinkerbell floating up there. I wasn't this little doll being bounced on this priest's balls. 

Melanie McLaughlin: I believe there are many more kids from the Lawrence area who are survivors of clergy abuse, organized pedophilia. and human trafficking who haven't yet come forward or are unable to either because they died by suicide, are in the throes of addiction, weren't believed when they did tell or they are missing or murdered. 

Act II Organized Abuse

 According to the Bishop Accountability website in 2021. There were at least 463 credibly accused priests in Massachusetts, 300 in the Boston Diocese, 59 in Fall River, 67 [00:18:00] in Springfield, and 43 in Worcester. And the abuse spans all levels of clergy members. 

Ann Barrett Doyle: It is indisputable now that Bishop Weldon Was a pedophile and that he organized other pedophiles, 

Melanie McLaughlin: Ann Barrett Doyle, one of the founders of the Bishop Accountability website.

Ann Barrett Doyle: It was back in 2005, a victim came forward to say I was abused by Bishop Weldon, by Timothy Harrington, who went on to become Bishop of Worcester and by seven other priests, including my own uncle. On Senior Raymond Page, there had been another allegation against him. This victim recalls being pulled into a room by Bishop Weldon who had orchestrated a gang rape.

This is in the Springfield Diocese. It never got [00:19:00] any traction whatsoever because number one, who's abused by seven or eight priests? That sounds ridiculous. Accusing two bishops, really? And this guy was in a Texas prison for murder. None of that contradicts, in fact, it all can be seen also as evidence of a victim, but it never got traction until later.

2018 and 2019, this very credible victim comes forward and accuses Bishop Weldon. Now confers credibility on that 2005 victim, which in turn suggests that Worcester also for 10 years, from 1983 to 1994, was run by a bishop who was a child abuser.

But even today, not all clergy who are accused are included on lists provided by the Catholic Church. Ever [00:20:00] since Cardinal O'Malley took over 18 years ago, everything has been quiet. He has such credibility with the press and with prosecutors that there is an assumption. that we know everything we need to know.

No new files have been released since 2003, you know? We don't know anything about the dozens and dozens of priests who've been credibly accused since then. 

Melanie McLaughlin: Anne Barrett Doyle advocates for a statewide grand jury investigation of the Catholic Church in Massachusetts, something that has been done in multiple other states, but not Massachusetts, which we know was the epicenter of the clergy abuse crisis in America.

Ann Barrett Doyle: I mean, the Springfield Diocese is a case study calling the Attorney General to do a statewide grand jury investigation of abuse in the Catholic Church and why this is needed. Nobody [00:21:00] is putting this together and saying, what does this mean for Massachusetts? 

Melanie McLaughlin: While I was researching the history of clergy abuse in Massachusetts, I discovered a 2005 article in the Springfield Republican about a pedophile ring involving priests and the murder of a 13 year old altar boy named Danny Crotto.

In the article, former Massachusetts State Trooper, now private detective, R. C. Stevens, says, quote, These priests formed their own internet before any internet existed. It allowed them to exchange information. and strategies, share children, and rid themselves of them, end quote. This was the first time I saw reports, in print, of pedophile rings involving priests sharing and trafficking children.

Here's R. C. Stevens. 

RC Stevens: Well, my background comes from the Department of State Police. I [00:22:00] was approached by the Springfield Republican, the editor at the time, and naturally he was interested in trying to bring the case back to life and asked if we would be interested in developing an investigation to reopen the case.

We had collaborated with one of the foremost experts in Massachusetts with respect to pedophiles and with his help and our research it painted the picture that way. There had to be some coordinated effort for individuals to communicate even back in the late 60s early 70s. And what we were getting was an understanding that In seminary, there was an ability to identify certain aspects of individuals.

Were they straight? Were they gay? Were they pedophiles? Our understanding was there was actually almost a separation of those individuals in seminary. Once out of the seminary, they weren't communicating. There was a group called the Holy Eleven. And the [00:23:00] Holy Eleven, There were 11 priests, many of whom are listed as abusers today, that were members of this group.

They had to be able to communicate. As they do today, they communicate with the internet. They communicate with social media. Late 60s, early 70s, they didn't have that ability, so they had to meet. They met in groups, and they were pretty close to each other in those groups. There was a kind of a passing of children.

Melanie McLaughlin:The organized piece of it is really what I'm interested in. When we were talking on the phone earlier, you said a cell really, you know, like what we would imagine as a terror cell, a cell of organized pedophilia. Well, I had always wondered why they didn't use the RICO's organized crime statute to take this on a federal level.

They meet the criteria for RICO, racketeering influenced organized crime. They meet the criteria by transporting children across state lines for means of sex, prostitution. They meet it. Why aren't the feds starting a grand jury and starting a RICO case on this stuff? [00:24:00] There doesn't seem to be any consequences for the church and I think that's the problem.

There are none. Do you think Danny's case is ever going to be solved? I think it could be. There's still a few people alive here. Well that's the thing is they're dying though, you know, by the day. 

Melanie McLaughlin: As it turned out, Father Lavigne did die just one day before the Hampton County District Attorney set out to arrest him for the murder of 13 year old Danny Croteau

almost 50 years after the crime. Here's the Hampden County District Attorney's Press Conference from May of 2021. 

DA Gulluni: The following is only a small compilation of his incriminating admissions, but I suggest the following provides a clear picture even 49 years later, that Danny Croteau died at the hands of Richard LeLavigne here are his own words.[00:25:00] 

Father Richard Lavigne: I've been mentally thinking about Danny Croteau for two days now. He was a, he was a strange, interesting kid. You know, not too bright. Always trying to make jokes about things. And if you didn't answer, he'd, he'd increase his voice. And then you'd turn around and feel like saying, will you shut up? 

State Trooper: Explain to me how you came across the body.

Father Richard Lavigne: I just saw it floating. 

State Trooper: You saw it floating? And how did you know it was Danny? 

Father Richard Lavigne: The way, the way he was dressed. 

State Trooper: And what did you do after you saw the body in the water? 

Father Richard Lavigne: I don't remember what I did. 

State Trooper: Did you tell the police? 

Father Richard Lavigne: I don't believe I did. 

State Trooper: I don't believe you did either. 

DA Gulluni: Lavigne at times was cagey and evasive [00:26:00] continuing his long running attempts to mislead and distract investigators. He made several statements to indicate that he was the last person to see Danny Croteau alive, that he brought him to the river bank on April 14, 1972, that he physically assaulted him there. And after leaving Danny there, in his words, and returning a short time later, he saw Danny floating face down in the river.

Based on the accumulation of evidence, and in particular, those admissions, as a prosecutor, I believe that I was fulfilling my ethical duties by moving for The charge of murder against Richard Lavigne.

Melanie McLaughlin: It felt like a huge turning point. For the first time in the history of the clergy abuse crisis, a priest was named as having murdered a 13 year old altar boy. But what you didn't hear [00:27:00] was that the Danny Croteau case would be closed because Father Richard Lavigne was dead. 

No one would look into the Holy Eleven or the organized nature of clergy abuse that R. C. Stevens reported on.

You can read more about the murder of Danny Croteau in a book titled, Death of an Altar Boy: The Unsolved Murder of Danny Croteau and the Culture of Abuse in the Catholic Church by E.J. Fleming.

Andy Puglisi is one of dozens of children who went missing or were found murdered in Massachusetts. If you have information about Andy or any of the other children please call 1-855-MA-SOLVE that’t the number for the unresolved case unit for the Mass State Police. You can also call the National Center for Missing Children. That number is 1-800-THE-LOST.

Act III Priests and Others

I started investigating Andy Puglisi's disappearance in 1998. I was 32 years old. A short time after I started working on the documentary, Have You Seen Andy?, a Boston Globe reporter named Judith Gaines followed me for months. She wrote a series of stories about the project, and in July of 1999, they were published on the cover of the Boston Globe's Metro section, every day, for a week.

A woman named Paula [00:28:00] Erickson contacted The Globe, asking to be put in touch with me. I sometimes think of Paula as an original whistleblower. But people didn't listen, either because the whistle was too loud or went on too long.

Paula had been a therapist at the Bridgewater Treatment Center for the Sexually Dangerous, a medium security facility in Massachusetts, housing men convicted of sex crimes and deemed too dangerous for release. This is an interview with Paula from 2000. 

Paula Erickson: The place was rampant with drugs and violence.

There was child pornography. There was adult pornography. Um, there were members of Nambla. Uh, Nambla was a big part of their life there. They received information from Nambla. And they sent information. NAMBLA, the North American Man Boy Love Association, is an international organization of men who advocate for the right to have sex with boys.

[00:29:00] There was a man in there by the name of Richard Peluso who was brought in with a man named Frank Damiano who were card carrying members of what became NAMBLA. Richard Peluso openly signed up many, many people at the treatment center. Paula Erickson claimed the Bridgewater Treatment Center.

Melanie McLaughlin: You might recall Richard Peluso and Frank Damiano from our episode The Boston Sex Scandal detailing organized child prostitution rings in Revere and Boston, MA. The same treatement center that held these sex offenders also held

Wayne W. Chapman, a convicted serial pedophile with a penchant for child pornography, and the main suspect in the abduction of my childhood friend, Andy Puglisi. 

Paula Erickson: Chapman was what we call a fixated, regressed pedophile. That means that their main interest [00:30:00] in sexual partners is children. It means that it is compulsory. Impulsive. It, it means that there is a fixated, uh, rape or molestation fantasy that goes on almost all the time. The average fixated regressed pedophile has between four and five hundred different victims. 

Melanie McLaughlin: And if that wasn't enough, Paula also claimed Catholic priests were part of these organized networks of pedophiles. To be clear, Paula Erickson made these allegations before the Boston Globe Spotlight team broke the story of clergy abuse in 2002! 

This is from a civil action in Boston, Suffolk County, quote, John Doe two was walking his dog and ENC encountered Thomas Reeves, who later became one of the outspoken founders for the North American Man Boy Love Association Nala. At the time, John Doe two was a 15-year-old high school [00:31:00] student. Mr. Reeves referred John Doe two to Father Paul Shanley. Father Shanley promptly resumed his sexual abuse. of John Doe 2 and began sending him out to have sex with other men, end quote. 

Eric MacLeish: I had maybe 50 cases involving Paul Shanley. 

Melanie McLaughlin: Attorney Eric McLeish.

Eric MacLeish: He was a street priest. He was affiliated with an organization called Bridge Over Troubled Waters, which gave him some credentials. 

Melanie McLaughlin: Father Paul Shanley was characterized as a charismatic street priest, a pied piper of sorts, who worked with social service agencies under the pretense of helping boys, referred to as throwaway kids.

Eric MacLeish: And he would hang around at the bus station with others, I don't know who they were, others, and kids would be, you know, typically running away from home. Because his families had largely rejected them. All boys would be, you know, taken by him. He had a collar on. [00:32:00] And he wouldn't rape them immediately. He was a very clever guy.

He would groom them. He would praise them. Then the sex would start. And it would start with fondling. And then it would go into full scale. Other people there, not necessarily priests. 

Melanie McLaughlin: Shanley was involved with a camp for disabled children in New Hampshire, where it was alleged he sexually abused and shared many children with adults.

In one of many affidavits, a child describes a camera lens mounted into the ceiling over Shanley's bed. Another one of Shanley's victims delivered envelopes on a weekly basis. between Lowell and Revere, Massachusetts. In 1977, NAMBLA was founded in Revere and it was reported that Father Shanley gave a lecture at one of NAMBLA's first national conferences.

Despite all they knew about Shanley's history and association with NAMBLA, the church did not put any restrictions on Shanley's access to [00:33:00] children and simply reassigned him to other parishes where he continued to rape boys. 

Eric MacLeish: Shanley was part of the St. John's Seminary class, I believe it was 1962, which had such well known predators as Joseph Birmingham, Bernard Lane. They were among the most hardcore pedophiles that I've ever run across still to this day. These priests were raping children. How could you have that many people? involved in sexual misconduct with children and not have some organization supporting them. To say that they weren't organized justifies, to me, all sense of logic.

Melanie McLaughlin: Here's another affidavit claiming Father Paul Shanley raped children with other priests. Quote, in September of 1970, the weekend prior to my 14th birthday, Father Curran took me to the Twin Donut Shop. There, Father Curran introduced[00:34:00] 

Imagine my shock when I discovered that the Father Curran mentioned in the affidavit is Father Tom Curran from Lawrence, Massachusetts. His sister lived across the street from the pool where Andy disappeared and was the mother of a large and prominent Irish Catholic family. I knew her. Father Curran is the uncle of several of my childhood friends from Lawrence, and he still lives in the area.

So in 2021, I decided to find Father Tom Curran. He lives in a small, two family house next door to an Episcopal church. To my surprise, he invited me in, and we spoke for an hour. It was a bright sunny day, but the shades were drawn tightly. [00:35:00] It was dark, and everything smelled of cigarettes. There was a large cross mounted on the wall.

with a Bible laid open. I told Father Curran Andy's story, which he claimed to have never heard before. Then, he nonchalantly responded that Andy was dead and that I would never find him. He insisted he knew this because he had been a prison chaplain and, according to him, that's what happens to kidnap children.

He also said they sell children for child pornography and once they get too old, They kill them. When I asked who they are, he responded, you know, people who have sex slaves, and smiled. Earlier in our conversation, Father Curran mentioned he had been accused of groping an altar boy. On my way out the door, I asked if he had ever been accused [00:36:00] more than once.

He said, only that one time. However, Father Tom Curran had been accused at least twice, once in 2002 and again in 2010. Father Curran was placed on administrative leave from 2002 until 2007, when the Archdiocese deemed the first accusation unsubstantiated. But when the second accusation was made in 2010, Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley released a statement to the press, quote, It is with great sadness that we announce these additional allegations of sexual abuse.

End quote. And Father Kern's ministry was restricted. Father Curran told me he was on disability leave. 

A national association of men advocating for the right to have sex with boys, a local ring of child prostitution and child pornography, and [00:37:00] organized systemic clergy abuse, all related to Lawrence Mass, all somehow connected to the last person seen walking away from the pool with Andy, Wayne W. Chapman. It's easier to dismiss these stories than to believe them. They're just so painful. But if we don't believe the survivors, how can we ever change the system? I hope by hearing some of these stories of child abuse, others will come forward, either to their therapist or families, even law enforcement, so that they might find healing and realize they're not alone.

We will close this episode with another story of a boy from the Lawrence area. A boy abused by a priest who is still practicing in Merrimack Valley. The boy, now man, filed [00:38:00] a police report. But because of the statute of limitations and the refusal of the priests order to look into the matter the priest has never formally been investigated by the Archdiocese. We expect we'll tell you more about this case in the future. Here's what the man has to say today....

It's just the secret. It's the secret you carry, it's like, it's, it's like, Like we share a secret, I mean, he probably knows a lot that I'm not going to say anything and obviously, I mean, who would want to say anything, you know what I mean? And I know it's not my fault as much as everyone says that, but it's one of the hardest things I carry to be honest with you, you know?

I've never been a weak person and it makes me feel weak, but then again, it's just stuff that I continue to work on in therapy, but um, just, just hard to put together on why he chose [00:39:00] me.

Next time on Open Investigation we’ll learn about trauma, the effect of trauma on our body and minds and how childhood trauma and memory is affected and in some cases, recovered. 

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If you have a tip or any information on these unresolved cases, please contact the Massachusetts unresolved case unit at 1-800-MA-SOLVE.

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Credits

This episode was produced, written and hosted by me, Melanie Perkins McLaughlin

Editing by Mike Gioscia

Original Music and Additional Editing by Drew O’Doherty

Sound Design and Additional Editing by Kenny Kusiak and George Drabing Hicks

Consulting Producer Anngelle Wood from Crimes of the Truest Kind

Graphics and Website by Cheryl Crawford Design and Jason Strasburg

Research by Melissa Ellin and Maggie Schneider

Production Assistance by Darren McFadden, Sarah Ruemenapp and Alexandra Vega

Our social media producer is Carla DiStefano 

And special thanks to George. You know who you are.