•  CASE STUDIES
   by Leon Podles
• Philip Anthony Magaldi
• Peter Kramer
• Donald Matthew Osgood
• Canon N.
• Clive Lynn
• Edward Donelan
  
•  MURDER CASE STUDIES
   by Leon Podles
• Joseph J. Pilger
• Michael Mack
• John Patrick Kerrigan
• Alfred J. Kunz
• Reynaldo Rivera
• Irene Garza
• Patrick Ryan
• John J. Geoghan
• Ryan Erickson

The Murder of Rev. John J. Geoghan

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by Leon J. Podles

Published by the Crossland Foundation, November 8, 2008
© Copyright, Crossland Foundation, 2008

 

 

John J. Geoghan of Boston1Adopted from Leon J. Podles, Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church (Baltimore: Crossland Press. 2008) pp. 144-155.

 

John J. Geoghan’s childhood had a tragedy; his father died in 1940 when John was only five. But he remembered the funeral vividly as a happy event because his family was devout and had confidence that the father was in heaven.2Letter from Stephen Montana and Rhoda Ruttenberg to Most Rev Robert J. Banks, April 26, 1989. He became fascinated with the idea of heaven, and decided to become a priest. He had his mother’s brother, Msgr. Mark Keohane, a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston, as a substitute father.

 

Geoghan reported that his first sexual feelings were frightening, but that he thought of himself as a heterosexual and that he fantasized about women.3Letter from Stephen Montana and Rhoda Ruttenberg to Most Rev Robert J. Banks, April 26, 1989; Geoghan’s claims may be true; a strain of heterosexuality is not unusual for those pedophiles who are true pedophiles, that is, who are attracted only to pre-pubescent children, not adolescents or adult men. They are not sexually attracted by mature male sexual characteristics (as homosexuals are). Their attraction to children is often a variation of an attraction to the female, because very young boys lack strong secondary male sex characteristics. Geoghan abused mostly, but not only, boys and was therefore classified  as a “homosexual pedophile, non-exclusive type”  by the St. Luke Institute. He graduated from Holy Cross High School in 1952 and entered O’Connell Seminary. In 1954 the rector, Rev. John J. Murray, wrote: “Geoghan has given the faculty of this seminary cause for concern in the past two years...He has a very pronounced immaturity…a little feminine in his manner of speech and approach. Scholastically he is a problem…I still have serious doubts about his ability to do satisfactory work.”4Adopted from Leon J. Podles, Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church (Baltimore: Crossland Press. 2008) pp. 144-155. When Geoghan did not show up for summer seminary camp in summer 1955, the Rector of St. John’s Seminary was unhappy, and Msgr. Keohane had to intervene, explaining that Geoghan “has been treating with a physician since he left Brighton because of a nervous and depressed state.”5Letter from Mark Keohane to Monsignor Riley, July 9, 1955; Jules Crittenden, “Records Depict Lonely, Immature, and Self-deluded Priest,” Boston Herald, January 27, 2002. Geoghan left the seminary and went to Holy Cross College in Worcester, from which he graduated in 1957. Then he returned to St. John’s Seminary, where he met John McCormack, Paul Shanley, and Joseph Birmingham. He was ordained in 1962.

 

Thirty-Six Years of Pedophilia

 

From 1962 to 1966 Geoghan was stationed in Saugus, Massachusetts, at Blessed Sacrament Church, where his crimes began. In 1996 he admitted to abusing boys while he was in this parish.6Memo from Rev. Brian M. Flatly to File, August 28, 1996. His modus operandi continued to be the same through over 30 years: he sought out boys without fathers, or with absent fathers, and offered to be a father to them. He would take them out, get acquainted to them, put them to bed, masturbate them, and perform oral sex on them – usually boys, rarely girls.7While he was stationed at Blessed Sacrament Church in Saugus in 1963, he molested brothers and one sister in a Saugus family (Andrea Estes, “Dozens Come Forward to Accuse Priest of Rape,” Boston Herald, January 29, 1997); in 1975 he exposed himself and masturbated in front of two girls and abused their brothers (Michael Rezendes and Matt Carroll, “Accusers’ Accounts Tell of Abuse and Its Scars,” Boston Globe, January 26, 2002). Geoghan was diagnosed with “congenital right-hemisphere brain impairment”8Jules Crittenden, “Records Depict Lonely, Immature, and Self-deluded Priest,” Boston Herald, January 27, 2002. but this did not affect his ability to locate hurting families, to insinuate himself into them, and to manipulate people’s weaknesses.

 

Geoghan later explained that he “avoided girls” and that “I picked the boys because in some way they were the safest, the girls and the mothers would have been more dangerous.”9Michael Rezendes and Globe Staff, “Church Allowed Abuse by Priest for Years,” Boston Globe, January 6, 2002. Was Geoghan implying that parents would be less outraged at the abuse of boys? In all probability Geoghan had a homosexual preference for boys and did not want to admit it even to himself. Perhaps in his mind homosexuality was worse than pedophilia.

 

When Geoghan was stationed in Saugus, he was young, handsome, and interested in sports.  He became close to the Sacco family and molested their children. The boys were thirteen and younger. Geoghan told one boy he was teaching him about “the birds and the bees” by masturbating him; Geoghan gave a small boy oral sex and masturbated another boy to show “how nature works.” Geoghan also molested a girl.10Memo to Rev. Brian Flatley from Sister Rita V. McCarthy, September 10,1996. The Archdiocese in 1992 received reports that Geoghan had molested two boys in another family and had also tried to contact one of these now grown boys, who said “he’d kill him [Geoghan] if he called again,” but the Rev. Brian M. Flatley dismissed this as “hearsay and vague.”11“Rev. John Geoghan, 1962,” prepared by Brian M. Flatley, August 22, 1994; Memo to John B. McCormack, Secretary, Ministerial Personnel, from Fr. Fred Ryan, July 5, 1992. In fact the victim had been molested, and the archdiocese made a settlement with him.12Leary v. Geoghan, Deposition of (L-------), November 9, 2000. L------- indicated that he had been molested by Geoghan (p. 18, ll. 11-13) but the attorney who represented the archdiocese would not allow L------- to answer any further questions about the molestation and said the archdiocese would enforce the confidentiality agreement.

 

Rev. Anthony Benzevich was also stationed at Blessed Sacrament Church in Saugus in the early 1960’s. In 1999 he told newspapers that he had noticed that “Geoghan often took young boys up to his rectory room in the rectory and closed the door”13Jessica Heslam, “Ex-priest Will Face Sex Charges,” The Patriot Ledger, December 2, 1999. and that the boys “would come out in various states of undress.”14Colin C. Haley, “Accused Priest Once Regarded as Role Model,” Patriot Ledger, June 4, 1998. Benzevich reported Geoghan’s behavior to “church superiors” and was therefore branded a “troublemaker”15Jessica Heslam, “Ex-priest Will Face Sex Charges,” The Patriot Ledger, December 2, 1999.; church officials “hinted he could be sent to do missionary work in Peru if he persisted.”16Colin C. Haley, “Accused Priest Once Regarded as Role Model,” Patriot Ledger, June 4, 1998. But after he consulted with Wilson Rogers III, the son of Cardinal Law’s attorney, Benzevich said that he had not told this information to the archdiocese17Michael Rezendes and Globe Staff, “Church Allowed Abuse by Priest for Years,” Boston Globe, January 6, 2002. and in fact had never told the reporters that he had notified archdiocesan officials. The reporters testified under oath that Benzevich had told them the information that they reported, but Benzevich said of the sworn testimony of the reporters, “That’s a lie.”18Francis Leary et al. v. Father John J. Geoghan et al, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Superior Court, Civil Action No. 99-0371 [All Cases] (henceforth Leary v. Geoghan), Deposition of Anthony Benzevich, April 11, 2001. Benzevich said that “Wilson Rogers 3rd approached him, told him the church was trying to protect him from being named a defendant, and offered to represent him” (Michael Rezendes and Globe Staff, “Church Allowed Abuse by Priest for Years,” Boston Globe, January 6, 2002).

 

After an abbreviated seven month stay at St. Bernard’s in Concord, Geoghan was next stationed at St. Paul’s Church in Hingham, Massachusetts, from 1967 to 1974 and soon abused someone. This abuse came to the notice of the archdiocese, and Geoghan, sometime in 1968, was sent to Seton Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which treated priests and religious with psychiatric disorders.19Michael Rezendes and Matt Carroll, “Accusers’ Accounts Tell of Abuse and Its Scars,” Boston Globe, January 26, 2002. Cardinal Cushing supervised the first part of Geoghan’s career until 1970, when Cushing died and Cardinal Medeiros, who as chancellor in Fall River had enabled James Porter to move from parish to parish molesting children each time, took over the governance of the Archdiocese of Boston.

 

In the early 1970s Joanne McLean (later Joanne Mueller), a single mother, was introduced to Geoghan. Geoghan began visiting the MacLean family visiting and babysat the small boys (4, 7, 10, and 12), took them out for ice cream, and helped with their baths. The children started saying that they did not want Geoghan coming, and one night in 1974 the smallest boy started crying and complained that Geoghan was “touching my wee-wee.”20Leary v. Geoghan, Deposition of Joanne Mueller, August 17, 2000, p. 13, l. 10. The older ones confirmed this accusation and said Geoghan had told them not to tell their mother, “because Father said it was confessional.”21Leary v. Geoghan, Deposition of Joanne Mueller, August 17, 2000, p. 15, l. 17;“The Geoghan Papers,” Boston Herald, January 25, 2002. The other boys started pouring out the stories of abuse; their mother was afraid Geoghan would show up that night. She bundled them all into the car and drove to St. Mary’s Church in Melrose, because she knew the Rev. Paul Miceli, who supervised the altar boys, including her two older sons, and regarded him as a friend.

 

The McLean family arrived at the rectory; the mother pounded on the door until someone answered. She was let in and asked to see Miceli; she and the boys were all crying. They were ushered into a parlor and Miceli came down; the boys began describing even worse things that Geoghan had done.

 

Geoghan engaged in mutual masturbation, oral sex, and anal sex with the boys. He made one boy watch while he and the other boy had sex; then he had them engage in group sex: It “wasn’t one-on-one. It was two, three.”22Leary v. Geoghan, Deposition of Joanne Mueller, August 17, 2000, p. 111, l. 14. Geoghan told the boys that “you’re growing up and this is part of growing up to do this.”23Leary v. Geoghan, Deposition of Joanne Mueller, August 17, 2000, p. 101, ll. 20-21. He convinced the boys “this was a normal thing for men and boys to do, doing a mouth to male organ.”24Leary v. Geoghan, Deposition of Joanne Mueller, August 17, 2000, p. 101, ll. 20-21. The boys thought their mother knew what was going on and permitted it.25Leary v. Geoghan, Deposition of Joanne Mueller, August 17, 2000, p. 114, ll. 4-5.

 

Miceli oozed compassion and understanding. Miceli said it was terrible, a disgrace, that Geoghan would be put in a facility, that Geoghan would “never be a priest again and he’ll never hurt you again.”26Leary v. Geoghan, Deposition of Joanne Mueller, August 17, 2000, p. 83, 20-21. Miceli calmed the family down and told them “never tell anyone.”27Leary v. Geoghan, Deposition of Joanne Mueller, August 17, 2000, p. 83, l. 18.  Later McLean saw Miceli and he reassured her that Geoghan was in a facility;28Leary v. Geoghan, Deposition of Joanne Mueller, August 17, 2000, p. 82, ll. 16-22. in fact McLean got a letter from Geoghan from the hospital in which he asked her to pray for him.29Leary v. Geoghan, Deposition of Joanne Mueller, August 17, 2000, p. 89, ll. 15-20. There is no record of Geoghan’s stay in this facility in archdiocesan records.

 

Miceli’s recollections as recounted under oath were quite different. He said he had “no memory of meeting with a mother and four boys.”30Leary v. Geoghan, Deposition of Paul Miceli, September 20, 2000, p. 27, ll. 3-4. He remembered getting a calm, ordinary phone call from a person who may have been named Mrs. McLean. She told Miceli “that she was concerned that he [Geoghan] was overly present to her family, He was there different hours of the day and I guess you could say he was becoming an annoyance and she felt he might need some help and that she did not want him to visit her family any longer and that’s basic what I remember of the message is substantially the message I gave to him [Geoghan].”31Leary v. Geoghan, Deposition of Paul Miceli, September 20, 2000, p. 39, ll. 5-12. After telling Geoghan of the woman’s concern, Miceli dropped the matter.

 

At the end of his assignment to St. Paul’s Geoghan disappeared for about eight months. This absence and his whereabouts are missing from archdiocesan records.32Stephen Kurkjian and Sacha Pfeiffer, “Police Probed Priest on Sex Abuse as Early as 1986,” Boston Globe, January 25, 2002. This article also mentions a possible complaint about sexual abuse to the archdiocese and a hospital stay in the late 1960s. In 1974 Cardinal Medeiros wrote to Geoghan about his transfer from St Paul’s, affirming that “I am confident that you will render fine priestly service to the people of God in St. Andrew parish.”33Letter from Humberto Cardinal Medeiros to Rev. John J. Geoghan, May 30, 1974; Sacha Pfeiffer, “Letters Exhibit Gentle Approach Toward Priest,” Boston Globe, January 24, 2002.

 

 

 

 

Footnotes

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