September 24, 2024 • 47 mins
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
Follow: @openinvestigation
Support: Patreon.com/OpenInvestigation
Based on the HBO Emmy award-winning documentary "Have You Seen Andy?" - haveyouseenandy.com | @haveyouseenandy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Melanie McLaughlin (00:00):
Please be advised this podcast deals with
crimes against children.
Please take care when listening.
Actor (00:07):
This is a story of a resistance by a group of
individuals who for too longhave been smeared by police,
preacher, district attorneys,popular prejudice and the press
as child molesters.
The resistance developed inresponse to a witch hunt against
homosexuals in general and boylovers in particular.
To a witch hunt againsthomosexuals in general and boy
lovers in particular.
The Boston Sex Scandal is, moreimportantly, also the story of
(00:30):
a resistance begun by a fewradical homosexuals which built
on the gay community so that,for the first time, the gay
movement embraced gay pedophilesand their cause and fought back
.
The Boston Sex Scandal is thehistory of a beginning.
Melanie McLaughlin (00:41):
What you just heard are direct quotes
from the book the Boston SexScandal by John Mitzel,
published by Glad Day Books 1980.
The book reads like a manifestofor pedophiles and it's one of
the most thorough documents onthe history of what was then
called child prostitution andnow known as human trafficking
of children in Massachusetts inthe 1970s.
(01:05):
This is Open Investigation, atrue crime podcast about the
search for answers to thedisappearance of my childhood
friend, Andy Puglisi, and theincredible story of dozens of
other missing children whodisappeared or were found
murdered around the same time.
Andy vanished, all while ahidden network of human
(01:26):
trafficking was thriving in ourcommunity.
I'm your host, Melanie PerkinsMcLaughlin.
Episode 3, the Other Boston SexScandal.
The stories in this episode areso complicated.
I've done so much research overthe years and the more research
I do, the more research thereis to be done.
(01:47):
I could honestly do an entireseries just on this episode, and
maybe I will in the future, butfor now let's stick to this
episode so that we can betterunderstand how it all relates to
Andy and the other missing andmurdered children, especially
given the context of the 1970s.
There's a lot of information inthis episode and a lot of names
.
There'll be characterdescriptions on our website
(02:09):
along with a detailed timelineso that you can follow along
when and if you have anyquestions.
You can reach me by emailopeninvestigationpod at gmailcom
.
Our website address isopeninvestigationpodcastcom.
This episode is dedicated toall the kids who came forward to
share their story and to thoseof you out there listening who
(02:30):
haven't shared yours yet.
Hopefully, by listening to theseries and to other survivors,
you'll understand that there'sempowerment in telling your
truth and being supported byyour community, and it's okay if
you're not ready yet.
Just know that there's acommunity of survivors and that
you're not alone.
We believe you.
(02:52):
The story begins inMassachusetts in the 1970s.
It is the modern history ofhuman trafficking of children.
In fact, it's the open to JohnMitzel's book the Boston Sex
Scandal.
He starts with a story of DickBavley, a supervisor in the
Roxbury Massachusetts Departmentof Public Welfare Social
Services Agency.
The agency is responsible forthe welfare of children and
families and for placing fosterchildren in foster homes.
Today it's called theDepartment of Children and
(03:14):
Families, but the name changesoften.
The author Mitzel portrays DickBavley as a martyr of sorts.
We think the record will showotherwise.
We've interviewed former fosterchildren and what was then
called child prostitutes.
Please be advised this episodedeals specifically with
trafficking of children.
Please take care.
(03:37):
Act One Dick Bavley.
In April of 1975, supervisor ofSocial Services, richard Dick
Bavley, was found dead whileunder investigation for
defrauding his employer, theDepartment of Public Welfare.
The state agency created forthe protection of children and
families, to carry firearms wasallegedly placing foster
children teenage boys, to bemore specific in homes with men
(04:12):
who at the time were referred toas known homosexual single men
and ultimately were known aspedophiles.
To be clear, homosexuality isnot confused with pedophilia.
But in the 70s the termpedophile was not part of the
lexicon and the sexualrevolution and the gay rights
movement was just starting totake off.
In fact, you'll learn,self-identified pedophile groups
were trying to attachthemselves to the legitimate gay
rights movement, claiming we'redenying children the right to
(04:35):
have a sexual identity, buttheir efforts were rejected by
the gay community.
According to the Boston DickBavley, was first implicated
when a 15-year-old boy, who wasa runaway from a psychiatric
hospital and a ward of the state, allegedly committed suicide
using Dick Bavley's gun.
When the police realized thegun belonged to Dick Bavley, a
(04:55):
social worker supervising fosterchildren.
They began asking questions,especially when they learned
Bavley had had placed a fosterchild with himself under what
was supposed to be an emergencycare and protection 24 to 48
hours at the most.
The boy was with Dick Bavelyfrom the time he was 13 until
the time he was 15, when thepolice showed up after the boy's
(05:16):
friend allegedly shot himselfwith Dick Bavley's gun.
I was able to find DickBavley's former foster son, and
this is the story he told me.
Bavley's Foster Son (05:24):
Well, first let me just say that I was a
foster child that lived withDick Bavley, former foster son,
and this is I was a runaway.
I had to do survival sex as akid.
I was like 12, 13 years oldwhen I hit the streets and what
(05:53):
happened is a kid that I knewthat I brought toBavl to because
I thought he could help him.
The kid wanted to go back tohis foster home and I met him
over another pedophile's houseor, and so I brought him over to
baverly's.
I figured we you know he wastalking to dick, I was tired, I
figured the kid would just sleepon the couch, you know what I
(06:14):
mean.
And then that's when I camedownstairs to use the, because
the bathroom was on, you know,at the foot of the stairs, and
as I was going to the bathroom Ilooked at, you know, baverly's
bedroom was to the left thereand the kid was in bed with him,
you know, and I said, oh geez.
Melanie McLaughlin (06:34):
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 theequivalent of $125,000 today.
Here's Dick Bavley's formerfoster son, who was asked that
we don't use his name forobvious reasons.
He was 15 years old when Bavelydied.
(06:55):
He's 63 years old today andit's still like it was yesterday
.
You'll hear a clicking noise inthe background.
It took a little while for meto figure it out.
The former foster son wasclicking his lighter out of
nervousness as he was talking.
Bavley's Foster Son (07:09):
He was stealing money from the state.
He stole that they know ofabout $20,000 at the time that
was a lot of money back in theearly 70s.
Checks would go to a MaryMcGrath post office box.
Dick was saying you know, gaykids with gay men.
I mean that was the thing youknow, but it really that was.
(07:31):
You know it sounded better thanputting runaways with
pedophiles.
I never even heard the termpedophile until later on in life
.
I mean that term was never.
We were chicken, young kidswere chicken and the pedophiles
were jawns.
You know, I mean I never heardthat term on the street, you
(07:55):
know.
Melanie McLaughlin (07:59):
So in other words, Supervisor of Social Work
, Dick Bavley for the Departmentof Public Welfare, the Child
Protection Agency inMassachusetts, was allegedly
embezzling money for the purposeof payment for caring for
foster children that heallegedly placed with what was
then called known singlehomosexual men, who were
actually pedophiles, whileclaiming the children were
placed with a woman, MaryMcGrath, who did not exist.
(08:20):
In the book the Boston SexScandal author John Mitzel
writes of rumors that DickBavley was running a gay
prostitution ring, traffickingteenage boys to pedophiles in
the name of what Mitzel and hiscolleagues call man-boy love.
In addition to being a socialworker, Dick Bavley volunteered
at one of the first ever homesfor runaway children, project
(08:42):
Place in Boston, Mass.
Lillian Jackson worked atProject Place with Dick Bavley.
Here's what she has to say.
Lillian Jackson (08:50):
Divinity students, five of them that
started Project Place to dealwith underserved people, and it
was mainly homeless people andrunaway kids.
So we were dealing with severeabuse and neglect and trying to
figure some of this stuff out,trying to protect some of these
kids, and so that's kind of howit all started.
I do remember Dick fairly wellAt the time.
He was a supervisor and we hadno reason not to trust him.
(09:13):
We were aware of people prayingthat this was a vulnerable
population, so we were reallycareful.
If people we didn't know came tothe runaway house for these
kids, we wouldn't let them in.
We did what we could.
We didn't know who came to therunaway house for these kids.
We wouldn't let them in.
We did what we could.
But we had no reason to doubtDick.
He really seemed to have arelationship with the kids.
When all that happened we hadno idea.
(09:34):
As I recall we found out by thenewspaper, I guess he had
access to other kids as well.
Melanie McLaughlin (09:45):
Did Dick Bavley ever abuse you?
Bavley's Foster Son (09:46):
Yeah, he'd say come here champ, come here
champ.
He used to call me champ, youknow.
We'd talk at night aroundbedtime and he said come on, lay
next to me.
So I did, you know, nothinghappened.
I felt, you know, I would fallasleep and in the middle of the
night I woke up because he wasfondling me, you know, and I
(10:09):
turned, I pulled away from him,you know, because it freaked me
out.
I just pretended that I wassleeping, you know, and I just
rolled over, you know, and gothis hand off me, you know, and
he would pretend that he wassleeping.
I mean, we, we would wrestle attimes and, you know, he kind of
grabbed my crotch, you know, Idon't know, but uh, that
(10:33):
happened a couple of times whereI slept, you know, we'd talk
and I just give him the benefitof the doubt that he was doing.
This was called taking placewhile he was sleeping, you know,
in his sleep, and he didn'tknow.
But you know, obviously I knewthat he knew and he knew that I
(10:53):
knew, but we didn't want eachother to know.
I don't know, this is a crazysituation, 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 minibikes.
He sent me to horseback ridingcamp.
Melanie McLaughlin (11:12):
On April 17th 1975, disgraced supervisor
of social work, dick Bavely,died by suicide, overdosing on
drugs, while under investigationfor the suspected trafficking
of foster children to pedophilesand the embezzlement of tens of
thousands of dollars from theCommonwealth of Massachusetts
Department of Public Welfare.
Dick Bavley's obituaryrequested expressions of
(11:34):
sympathy be donated in hismemory to Project Place.
It was the teenage boy thatDick Bavley had assigned to
himself as a foster son thatdiscovered Bavley's lifeless
body.
Bavley's Foster Son (11:45):
He knew the gig was up.
You know he was going to prisonand he knew it.
He was into his study writingfor a long time and I was kind
of a stupid kid in some ways, Ididn't really put it together
what he was doing.
And he came out and he asked me.
He says will you go to Texaswith me?
(12:06):
Asking me right.
And I said no, Bavley, I Idon'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 knewsomething happened.
I knew the kids told the gun.
But I found out later that thatBeverly was, You know he was
(12:28):
going to go to prison.
You know he goes into thebathroom.
Now he's in the bathroom for Idon't know a long time.
Then he comes out and I guesshe was going to bed, you know.
So I just stayed up watchingtelevision and then I went to
the bathroom and I hear himsnoring.
I mean like loud, I mean he wassnoring.
(12:49):
So I go in.
I said Dick, Dick, I'll go toTexas.
He goes.
Oh, sorry, no, no, like that.
Now I hear wake him up and Iturn on the light.
His lips are turning purpleright.
So I call the ambulance and Iguess he died at the hospital or
(13:11):
something.
That was the catalyst thatstarted what they called the
Boston sex scandal.
Melanie McLaughlin (13:25):
A month later, the Boston police, the
Massachusetts Attorney General'sOffice and the Mass State
Police created a task force toinvestigate Dick Bavley and any
others involved.
In 1975, the Boston Heraldpublished this headline Foster
Holmes Probe Launched Cases of5,500 Children to be Reviewed.
Bavley's Foster Son (13:44):
I'm walking down the common on the common
side, the Boston Comm - TremontStreet, these guys stop and
they get out of the car and theysaid come on.
I said, oh man, what's this allabout?
So I guess we went up to someoffice like the Attorney
General's offices I don't know.
They were working for theAttorney General at the time.
(14:05):
The state police, theplainclothes guys they look like
linebackers for the patriots.
You know that, these big guys.
So they're asking me a bunch ofquestions.
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 ofthe room in a chair.
I'll tell you the truth.
(14:26):
I don't know what it was allabout at the time, but evidently
they were investigating a wholebunch of people.
I don't know.
I guess some of them werewell-to-do, you know.
Melanie McLaughlin (14:36):
In January of 2022, I sent a Freedom of
Information Act request to theMass Attorney General's office.
I received an email saying thatthere was no information on
file regarding thisinterdepartmental state task
force investigating thetrafficking of foster children,
but I did get an incrediblydetailed report of a year-long
investigation by an exceptionalhomicide detective, which was
(14:57):
what led to the task forceinvestigation.
I asked Dick Bavley's co-worker, Lillian Jackson, if there was
anyone else working with DickBavley to supposedly help
runaway boys from Project Place.
That's when she told me aboutFather Paul Shanley.
Lillian Jackson (15:12):
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 priestwho came and people were
helping us because we didn'thave any money.
But he said, well, send them tome and I can get some summer
camp scholarships for these kidsand some clothes.
And we came across such a cooldude type guy.
Melanie McLaughlin (15:35):
Father Paul Shanley is a notorious pedophile
priest from the BostonArchdiocese.
He was considered a streetpriest 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 onthe priest and what was
happening in Boston in the 1970s.
Here again is Dick Bailey'sformer foster son.
Bavley's Foster Son (15:57):
See, there was this place on Charles Street
right.
It was the old South Church.
That's where Paul Shanley usedto be hanging out there.
That was the pedophile priestand he was a friend of Dick
Baverly, my guardian.
Dick Bavley used to talk aboutthe guy a lot and I knew him
myself because he used to comearound the bus station.
(16:20):
You know, talk to the kids.
Maybe family would bring himkids that you know.
I think they were kind ofnetworking.
Melanie McLaughlin (16:28):
There's another counselor from Project
Place who wasn't willing to berecorded for the podcast, but he
told me about his experiencewith Dick Bavley.
Here's what he said.
Several teenage boys fromProject Place confided in the
relatively inexperienced21-year-old counselor.
They told him that they hadbeen going to drug-fueled
parties at the mansion of alocal millionaire who lived in
(16:48):
Beverly Farms, mass.
The counselor confided in theexperienced social worker Dick
Bavley, convinced somethingneeded to be done to protect the
boys and Bavley would help.
Bavley suggested he and thecounselor drive from Boston to
the suburban home of themillionaire to approach him
directly about the boys' claims.
The counselor trusted Bavleyand was comforted by the fact
(17:10):
that he had a license to carry agun.
The young counselor said themillionaire greeted Bavley and
him at the door and brought theminto a large conference room
where Bavley instructed thecounselor to tell the
millionaire what the boys hadbeen telling him.
At one point the millionaireleft the room to take a call and
the counselor could overhearhim talking on the phone.
Whoever he was talking to, itwas clear they knew the
(17:31):
counselor and the conversationwas about him.
This scared the counselor andhe told Bavley he wanted to
leave immediately as the youngcounselor was expressing his
concern for the boys on the ridehome.
Dick Bavley suggested the youngcounselor should go undercover
at one of the drug-fueledparties, pretending to be a
teenage boy, to get moreinformation.
(17:52):
That's when the counselor saidhe realized Dick Bavley was
somehow involved in all of this.
When I asked the counselor if heremembered the name of the
wealthy millionaire whose househe and Bavley went to, he told
me he would never forget it.
The millionaire is a man namedRoger Spear.
When I heard that, it was oneof those moments when the
puzzles started to get filled in.
(18:12):
It was a huge piece.
I already knew the Roger Spear.
He had been mentioned to mepreviously by another child who
had been abused in the 70s, andRoger Spear was a Massachusetts
millionaire who would be one ofdozens of men arrested in 1977
in what was called a child sexring in Revere, Mass.
Just a few years after DickBavley and the counselor's visit
(18:34):
, Roger Spear would also beaccused 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 anoverdose.
The book the Boston Sex Scandalisn't just about Dick Bavley.
In fact, dick Bavley's story ismerely the introduction to a
much darker tale.
If you or someone you know is avictim of child sex abuse,
(19:01):
please reach out to the NationalSex 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.
(19:23):
Act Two All roads lead to Revere.
This is attorney Tom Peisch, whowas the prosecutor in one of
the most notorious and leasttalked about cases in Boston
history, a case referred to asthe Revere Boy Sex.
Former Atty Tom Peisch (19:31):
Ring I got a job as an assistant
district attorney in Boston.
I was assigned to a division ofthe DA's office called the
Suffolk County Investigation andProsecution Project, scip, that
specialized in organized crimeand white-collar cases.
After about a year at SCIP Iwas assigned to assist in the
(19:52):
investigation of a case whichlater became the celebrated
so-called Revere sex cases.
We put together an affidavitfor an application for a search
warrant.
The police went to theapartment and found a large
number of photographs of youngboys in compromising positions,
(20:14):
and the police then set about tofind these youngsters and were
told just an unbelievably sordidstory about what had gone on in
that apartment.
Most of these young boys wereso-called street kids, came from
broken homes, difficultbackgrounds.
The owner of the apartment, aman named Peluso, made it kind
(20:37):
of a hangout.
Peluso had a network of adultswho enjoyed the sexual and other
company of young boys.
But we put together theappropriate evidence, brought it
to a grand jury which returnedthe indictments and the rest was
, as they say, history.
Melanie McLaughlin (20:56):
I had the opportunity to interview a few
of the boys that had spent timeat Richard Peluso's house on
Montanab in Revere,Massachusetts.
One of the boys was DickBailey's former foster son, who
you heard from in Act I.
Bavley's Foster Son (21:08):
There was guys trying to have sex with
kids.
In fact, there were seasonedkids out there, you know, and
rather than have sex with theguy, they would bring a naive
kid like me up there so thatthey could get high and
everything without doinganything.
You know what I mean.
Melanie McLaughlin (21:27):
Dick Bavely's former foster son
explained to me that teenagejuvenile delinquents would
recruit prepubescent boys tobring them to pedophiles.
On Friday, december 9th 1977,the Boston Globe ran a front
page story with the headline 24Indicted in Boy Sex Ring Probe
and the subheading police sayOperation Revere-based.
(21:49):
The article reports that in thespring of 77, a school bus
driver, frank Damiano, wasarrested and sentenced to life
in prison for the rape ofmultiple children.
It was Damiano's arrest andanother suspected child
prostitution ring in the northend of Boston that led police to
an apartment in RevereMassachusetts in the north end
(22:10):
of Boston that led police to anapartment in Revere
Massachusetts.
According to the Boston Globequote, of the 24 men indicted,
17 were allegedly involved in aRevere-based operation in which
young boys were used forhomosexual acts and as models
for pornographic photographs.
Seven other men were allegedlyinvolved in similar crimes at
other sites in Suffolk County.
As many as 63 boys werebelieved to have been involved
(22:30):
in the Revere Massachusettsoperation.
End quote News reports indicatethe men traveled to Revere from
their homes in Washington DC,connecticut, florida and Georgia
, paying between $30 and $50 foreach visit.
The boys were paid between $5and $10 each.
Court records indicate boys asyoung as eight were included in
the ring, the Boston Globereported the children were from
(22:52):
Revere, lynn, saugus, chelseaand East Boston.
Among them were several statewards, also known as foster
children, at least one of whomwas assigned to the home of one
of the suspects according toinvestigators Sound familiar?
Remember this is just two yearsafter corrupt social worker
Dick Bavley died.
According to the paper, severalof the defendants were wealthy
(23:16):
men who had boys assigned tothem as an inducement to invest
in pornographic films.
The district attorney at thetime, Garrett Byrne, also
referred the case to Los Angelesdetectives because, it's
reported, at least one of thechildren had been brought to the
West Coast to appear in apornographic films.
Child Pornography.
You heard that right.
In addition, the Boston Globereported the investigation,
(24:05):
which led to seven separateindictments unrelated to the
activities at Peluso's apartment, reportedly uncovered sexual
acts with children at awaterfront apartment in Boston,
a street in the Back Bay, anapartment elsewhere in Revere
and a karate school end.
Quote here again is the formerfoster son of disgraced social
worker Dick Bavley.
The foster son was alsoultimately considered what was
(24:28):
then called a child prostituteand he spent time at Richard
Peluso's apartment in Revere.
Bavley's Foster Son (24:33):
Most of the Johns I was with.
They always took photographs.
These guys had tons of oldPolaroid, you know.
Oh man, they had tons ofpictures of kids and stuff.
A lot of these guys like totake pictures.
You know, I looked like alittle girl.
I had the long hair.
(24:55):
Everybody used to call me ohhe's a beauty, he's a beauty.
I got no chest hair, no leghair.
I never had they likedpedophiles like that.
It was a network.
(25:18):
You know what I mean.
Melanie McLaughlin (25:20):
Here again is former prosecutor Tom Peisch.
Former Atty Tom Peisch (25:23):
There were small amounts of money
exchanged, as I remember it.
There were payments made.
There were a lot of pictures Infact that's how we were able to
make the case, because theywere stashed in this apartment
underneath a heater, as Iremember it, and the police
found them when the searchwarrant was executed.
Some of them had gone back anumber of years Pictures of
(25:46):
these young boys in variouspositions, Not many of them nude
, but certainly suggestive, andsome completely benign.
But there was a huge trove ofthem, as I remember, several
hundred.
What happened to those?
It's a good question.
Some of them were marked asevidence before the grand jury
(26:08):
and I don't know what became ofthem.
There was never an appeal, sothere may not have been any
reason to keep them.
Melanie McLaughlin (26:15):
Richard Peluso, the owner of the Riviera
apartment, had actually oncelived with Frank Damiano, the
North End school bus driver.
Damiano ended up with over 40counts of child rape, but Peluso
agreed to testify against meninvolved in the ring.
Several supporters of the menallegedly involved in the child
trafficking ring quickly formeda group to begin fundraising for
their legal costs.
At first the group calledthemselves the Boston Boise
(26:38):
Committee, named after a similarscandal that occurred years
earlier in Boise, idaho.
The Boston Boise Committeewould eventually rename
themselves, becoming the firstpublicly identified organized
pedophile group in the UnitedStates, the North American
Man-Boy Love Association, nambla.
In 1977, the Boston Heraldprinted a photo of the men being
(27:00):
arrested, along with theirnames Dr Donald Allen, a child
psychologist affiliated withChildren's Hospital in Boston.
James P Dallman, a teacher atthe Private Fessenden School in
Newton, Mass.
Arthur Claridge, an assistantheadmaster at the Private
Fessenden School in Newton, Mass.
Roger E Spear, millionaire andinvestor.
The same Spear who we justheard about in Act I, involved
(27:22):
with Dick Bavley.
Edward Mede, karate instructorMark Davis, juvenile probation
officer Lou White, salesmanDavid instructor Mark Davis.
Juvenile probation officer LouWhite, salesman, David White
Security guard George DreifusHarvard-educated psychologist
with the Lindemann Mental HealthCenter, Frank Damiano school
bus driver, Henry Rideout,Donald Heres and Whitney Chase,
(27:43):
a lobbyist from Washington DC.
Interestingly, those whosupported the men who were
charged with sexually abusingdozens of boys, some as young as
eight at the time, claimed thepublic and media reaction to
their crimes amounted to a witchhunt and outright homophobia.
They were trying to attachpedophilia to the legitimate gay
(28:04):
rights movement, suggestingthat pedophiles had a right to
love who they wanted as well andthat were inhibiting children's
rights by not allowing them tohave sex with adults.
Here again is Tom Peisch, theSuffolk County prosecutor, who
worked directly on the case.
Former Atty Tom Peisch (28:19):
These events took place in the
aftermath of the pre-lovemovement that grew out of the
1960s, and there was a prettydeep division among the gay
community about these cases.
On the one hand, you hadestablishment-type gay people
like Elaine Noble, who was astate representative, a very
(28:39):
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 NorthAmerican Man-Boy Love
Association, nambla, whoadvocated very strongly in favor
of the defendants, attacked theproposition that the law did
(29:01):
not permit consent under acertain age and were quite
active and vocal in saying thatthis conduct should not have
been criminal, should not havebeen punished criminally.
Melanie McLaughlin (29:14):
The organization supporting the
defendants in the Revere case,which ultimately named
themselves NAMBLA, falselyclaimed there was no organized
pedophilia or child pornographyas part of the Revere case.
This despite hundreds of photosbeing seized and one of the
defendants at least being foundwith child pornographic films
and cameras.
They believed the civil rightsof men loving boys was being
(29:38):
violated.
They hosted an event at theArlington Street Church in
Boston where noted author andactivist, Gore Vidal, spoke on
behalf of what they calledthemselves boy lovers.
Here's part of the speech fromthat event, with an introduction
from none other than the authorof the Boston sex scandal, John
Mitzel.
John Mitzel (29:57):
I don't think it's inappropriate to characterize
what's coming down as nearly astate of siege against the gay
community and anyone interestedin civil liberties.
I think, though, that one ofthe best moments is tonight To
say that Gore Vidal is with ushere tonight, is standing with
us tonight and is supporting ustonight.
Ladies and gentlemen, GoreVidal, there's a newspaper here
(30:21):
called.
Gore Vidal (30:22):
What is it called, you know, the Boston Globe, a
newspaper which has had fits ofresponsibility in the past but
apparently lost its head whenthis thing began.
The headline was 24 in childporn case at the Boston Globe.
(30:46):
Well, there was no childpornography.
That's another code word, Imean that immediately sounds
like six-year-olds being raped.
Now, there was no childpornography involved in the
Revere Beach Capers.
Now, there was no childpornography involved in the
Revere Beach Capers.
The state really has no businessin regulating the morals of
consenting adults andadolescents.
(31:07):
Much complaint has been madeabout men and boys.
Well, the man is in a strongerposition.
The boy has a weak character orcan be modeled by the man.
This is not necessarily so.
Relationships are very subtle.
Who does the manipulation?
It's a quite delicate matterand it's a very delicate issue.
But I would think that whereverno coercion took place, where
(31:31):
two parties of whatever genderor age come together, that this
is no business of the state.
This is no business of grownpeople to fret about.
If parents are worried abouttheir children, well, they
should have done the work of thefamily and not suddenly find
themselves in the position ofhaving a witch hunt and
(31:52):
reinvoking the spirit of nearbySalem.
Yet when you think about it,should there be such a thing as
statutory rape?
That sounds to me like acontradiction.
We have here anotherfascinating thing that at this
moment there are a hundred menare now serving life or multiple
(32:15):
life sentences in Massachusettsfor nonviolent sex acts with
boys under 16.
A hundred men serving life forsomething that they entered into
of their own free will, arelationship which we cannot
judge.
No force was used.
The boy involved in the casewas, as far as we know, not
(32:37):
damaged and was perfectlywilling to go through with this.
This seems to me barbarous.
And there are boys 16 to 18 whohave been charged with sex with
boys between 12 and 15.
I mean, this is gettingtheological.
Melanie McLaughlin (32:57):
So, while noted author Gore Vidal was
making jokes about statutoryrape in children in order to
raise money for the defendants,tom Peisch was preparing to
prosecute them.
Former Atty Tom Peisch (33:07):
Here's Tom Peisch picking up the
newspaper the day after thisfundraiser and opening the
newspaper and seeing thefeatured speaker at the
fundraiser for these defendantswas Gore Vidal, a novelist, and
I remember opening the newspaperand seeing a picture of Gore
(33:29):
Vidal and then Superior CourtChief Justice Robert Bonin, who
had attended this fundraiserwith his wife, and I remember
thinking to myself gee, that's alittle weird.
This is the judge who's goingto be assigning the judge that
will actually hear these cases.
And while it turned out to be ahuge controversy, it led to
(33:52):
Judge Bonin's being the subjectof disciplinary proceedings and
ultimately resigning.
It was very important to methat our decision to prosecute
these cases was vindicated, andit was.
Melanie McLaughlin (34:06):
Andy Puglisi is one of dozens of children
who went missing or were foundmurdered in Massachusetts in the
1970s and whose cases remainunsolved.
If you have information aboutAndy or any of the unsolved
cases of missing or murderedchildren, please call
1-855-MASOLVE.
That's 1-855-MASOLVE.
(34:27):
That's the number for theUnresolved Case Unit for the
Massachusetts State Police.
You can always also contact theNational Center for Missing and
Exploited Children.
That number is 1-800-THE-LOSTand exploited children.
That number is 1-800-THE-LOST.
Act 3.
(34:51):
Boys to Men.
One of the men arrested in the1977 Revere sex ring was the
assistant headmaster of aprominent private school, the
Fessenden School in Newton, mass.
That man's name is ArthurClaridge.
Arthur Claridge ended upbecoming a witness for the
prosecution in the Revere caseand was not tried for his crimes
against children.
Here again is Tom Peisch.
Former Atty Tom Peisch (35:07):
Well I remember Claridge because he
testified for us as a governmentwitness.
He was the main procurer of theadult network.
He was the link between theadult network and the Peluso
apartment.
At the time he had a prettysignificant administrative job
(35:28):
at the Fessenden School in.
Melanie McLaughlin (35:29):
Newton In 1977, Arthur Claridge was
arrested with one of hiscolleagues from the same
Fessenden School, a teachernamed James Dahlman.
Incredibly, despite two staffmembers being arrested for the
sexual abuse of children in whatbecame known as the Revere sex
ring, fessenden Schooladministrators insisted in the
Boston Globe that no childrenfrom the school had been
(35:52):
sexually abused at that time,but we learned through our
interview with Dick Beverly'sformer foster son that that was
the farthest from the truth.
Bavley's Foster Son (36:01):
Oh yeah, there was a guy named Arthur
Claridge we used to call himPress and he used to go over to
Richie Peluso's house too.
I used to see them cruise thebus station.
He brought me over to theFessenden School in Newton.
He brought me over to theFessenden School Because Arthur
(36:21):
Claridge had an apartment on thegrounds of that Fessenden
School and I could describe itto a T?
I you know.
I remember it like it wasyesterday.
Melanie McLaughlin (36:32):
So, according to Bavely's former
foster son, he was beingtrafficked from Revere,
Massachusetts, to Newton,Massachusetts, at a private
wealthy school, the FessendenSchool, by the assistant
headmaster of the school.
Yet according to Fessendenadministrators in 1977, nobody
was abused at their school.
Clearly, the 1977 investigationfell short and while the
(36:54):
assistant headmaster and teacherwere removed from the Fessenden
School, no one seemed tounderstand that students at the
school were also being sexuallyabused by Arthur Claridge and
James Dallman.
In 2016, the Boston Globepublished a spotlight team
investigation into pedophilia indozens of private schools in
(37:15):
New England, including theFessenden School in Newton.
The investigation was focusedprimarily on students of the
school dating back to the 1970sand earlier.
The Globe series made little tono connection to the Revere
ring that was happening at thesame time in the 70s, including
many of the same pedophiles, orthe fact that there were boys
from Revere that were brought tothe Fessenden School to be
(37:36):
abused there.
The Fessenden Schooladministration hid this
information for some time, butin 2011, they sent a letter to
alumni admitting that 16 formerstudents had come forward to
describe their abuse at thehands of at least five
individuals who were members ofthe community in the 60s and 70s
.
More than 40 years after theirabuse, Fessenden students John
Sweeney and Adrian Hooper cameforward for the first time.
(37:59):
They held a press conference toshare the horror of their
sexual abuse as children by men,including former Fessenden
assistant headmaster and Reveresex ring defendants Arthur
Claridge and teacher JamesDallman.
John Sweeney (38:11):
Good morning.
My name is John Sweeney, I'm 57years old and I was abused by
Arthur Claridge at the FessendenSchool.
To my left is Adrian Hooper.
What happens to all of us sexabuse victims?
I've got post-traumatic stressdisorder.
We bury this trauma.
It's severe and we bury itbecause of the shame.
Melanie McLaughlin (38:34):
Remarkably, Adrian Hooper had remembered
some of the abuse that occurredat the Fessenden School, but at
the press conference Adrian fellto his knees when he saw a
picture of Arthur Claridge forthe first time in decades and
memories that he had repressed,clinically described as
disassociative amnesia, cameflooding back.
This is a conversation I hadwith Adrian about that
experience.
Adrian Hooper (38:56):
I was 11 years old when I got sent there and a
lot of my memories had beenrepressed.
You know, I mean I kind ofalways knew bad stuff happened
there.
And it wasn't until the BostonGlobe story and me, you know,
(39:17):
doing the press conferences withJohn that I saw pictures of
Arthur Claridge and some otherteachers and then all of a
sudden my memories startedflooding back in and some other
teachers, and then all of asudden my memory started
flooding back in.
I got to tell you, the lastcouple of years I've been really
struggling with depression andanxiety.
It was Arthur Claridge andanother teacher it might have
been Dallman I don't know ifDallman was even there then, but
it was another teacher and theywere videoing me and some other
(39:40):
boys and they told us it was anancient Mayan ceremony.
You know they had us doingthings to each other that I'd
really rather not go into detail, but you know it was all of
sexual nature and they werefilming it.
Melanie McLaughlin (39:59):
The other Fessenden student, John Sweeney,
shared his abuse by ArthurClaridge, John Dallman and
another of the Revere defendants, the millionaire Roger Spear.
The same Roger Spear that wasidentified in Act One by the
Project Place counselor workingwith Dick Bavley.
Remember, Spear was amillionaire who hosted
drug-fueled parties thatincluded runaway and throwaway
boys and wealthy men.
(40:19):
Speer ultimately became asuspect in the murder of a man
described as a young hustler.
A few years later, All chargeswere dropped against the
millionaire Roger Spear,including those in Revere.
Here is former Fessendenstudent and victim, child sex
abuse survivor, John Sweeney.
John Sweeney (40:36):
I'm telling you and people think that I'm crazy,
okay, when I tell them thatthey hit only one house in
Revere, they only found outabout the one house.
At the same time they weredoing this stuff at Spears House
.
Okay, I told them all aboutSpears House in Wellesley.
(40:56):
And you know what's even moremessed up, these guys I'm
convinced of this right thatthey have got so much power
still in the media, becausenobody in the media wants to
cover that story.
I tried to get spotlight tolisten to that, right, I tried
to get spotlight to go back.
Okay, cause they said tell meabout the uh, you know, about,
you know Spear and all thisother shit you know.
(41:18):
So I told him.
I says listen, that place inRevere, okay, wasn't the half of
it?
Melanie McLaughlin (41:25):
I know this episode is a lot to process.
Believe me, it was a lot tofigure out.
But let me take a minute to putthings into context.
Supposedly, the breakup ofthese child sex rings in Revere
and Boston happened in 1977.
Of these child sex rings inRevere and Boston happened in
1977, but court records indicatethe Boston and Revere rings had
been operating as early as 1971, through 1977, which fits in
(41:47):
with Dick Bavley's abuse offoster children.
Remember the interdepartmentaltask force created to
investigate all of this in 1975?
Yet we're told there are norecords available from the
Attorney General's office.
We did find some comprehensivefiles from another department
and there'll be more of that tocome.
And ironically, when thelawsuits started to come from
the students at the FessendenSchool remember Dick Bavley's
(42:10):
foster son he tried to file alawsuit as well, but the
Fessenden administration saidthe statute of limitations had
passed and Fessendenadministrators said he wasn't
even a student here.
Basically, what do thesepedophile rings all have in
common?
They generally include wealthyprofessional men from around the
country trafficking boysconsidered throwaway children.
(42:30):
They include people inpositions of power priests,
police officers, attorneys,judges and they're almost always
abusing poor kids, poor kidswho may have already been abused
or neglected, kids who arerarely, if ever, believed, kids
that have little or no socialcapital, who don't get much
(42:51):
media coverage unless they'reprivate school students.
And even then, only 40 yearslater, 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 to1979, there are dozens of
unsolved cases of missing andmurdered children in
(43:13):
Massachusetts, some of whom weknow had direct contact with
some of the defendants in theRevere case and that were
certainly in the same proximityas the Revere case.
Several of the children havesimilar causes of death and fit
the profile of the type of boysthe men exploited Pre-pubescent
children and juveniledelinquents.
Boys who are attractive andcould be easily mistaken for
(43:34):
girls.
Here's a conversation I hadwith Andy's mother, faith, about
when she went to Revere,massachusetts back in 1977.
Remember we heard this in anearlier episode, but I want to
make sure you're making theconnection to this sex ring.
Faith Puglisi (43:47):
They had confiscated some children from
this apartment in Revere andthat's all I had to hear.
And I was like children, youknow, I want to, I want to see
and we'll see if my son's amongthem.
That's when I went to the FBIin Boston.
They were very selective inwhat pictures I could look at
and they had, like this cutoutwhere, you know, they'd only let
(44:09):
me see a portion of the pictureOne little boy that had the
framework of Andy, but his hairhad been dyed blonde and you
could tell that the hair hadbeen dyed.
It wasn't a natural blonde.
I don't know how Andy's casebecame this big.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Was he kidnapped for childtrafficking?
(44:30):
I don't know.
Melanie McLaughlin (44:32):
Incredibly.
I also came across a bookcalled Child Pornography and Sex
Rings by Ann Burgess, whichdocuments multiple child sex
rings in Massachusetts in the1970s and 1980s.
Join us in a bonus episode formy conversation with Ann Burgess
.
Were any of these men involvedin those cases of missing and
(44:53):
murdered children?
Who knows?
It's hard to tell.
Most of the separate policedistricts didn't communicate
with each other about thesecases.
Like I said, there's nodatabase of unresolved cases
from the 1970s.
No one in law enforcement haslooked at these cases
collectively as far as we know,and we know of at least one
pedophile priest inMassachusetts who was allegedly
(45:13):
part of an organized ring andwas named as the person
responsible for the murder ofone of the boys from the 1970s
whose case had remained unsolvedfor decades until we started
asking questions about it.
We'll talk about that morelater in the season Next time on
Open Investigation, episode 4,scope and Severity, learn how
(45:35):
organized networks and childpornography rings across the
United States were exposed inthe late 70s, culminating in
United States congressionalhearings on child exploitation
and creating new federal lawsthat helped form the National
Center for Missing and ExploitedChildren.
You find our investigationcompelling.
(45:56):
Please consider joining ourPatreon as a supporter, which
helps us continue the work.
This is an independent podcastand we're doing our best to
investigate and bring awarenessto these unsolved cases.
You can also help out byoffering a rating or commenting
on the show on Apple Podcast.
This helps us get morelisteners and may lead to more
information.
If you want to learn more aboutadditional research on
(46:18):
individual cases, check out ourwebsite and join us on Patreon.
If you have a tip or anyinformation on these unresolved
cases, please contact the MassState 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.
(46:40):
This episode was produced,written and hosted by me,
melanie Perkins McLaughlin.
Editing by Mike Goscia.
Original music and additionalediting by Drew O'Doherty.
Consulting producer AngelleWood.
Graphics and website design byCheryl Crawford Design and
Angelle Wood.
Research by Melissa Ellin andMaggie Schneider.
(47:01):
Production assistance by DarrenSarah Ruemenapp, and Alexandra
Vega.
Our social media producer isCarla DiStefano, and special
thanks to George.
You know who you are.
Please be advised this podcast deals with
crimes against children.
Please take care when listening.
Actor (00:07):
This is a story of a resistance by a group of
individuals who for too longhave been smeared by police,
preacher, district attorneys,popular prejudice and the press
as child molesters.
The resistance developed inresponse to a witch hunt against
homosexuals in general and boylovers in particular.
To a witch hunt againsthomosexuals in general and boy
lovers in particular.
The Boston Sex Scandal is, moreimportantly, also the story of
(00:30):
a resistance begun by a fewradical homosexuals which built
on the gay community so that,for the first time, the gay
movement embraced gay pedophilesand their cause and fought back
.
The Boston Sex Scandal is thehistory of a beginning.
Melanie McLaughlin (00:41):
What you just heard are direct quotes
from the book the Boston SexScandal by John Mitzel,
published by Glad Day Books 1980.
The book reads like a manifestofor pedophiles and it's one of
the most thorough documents onthe history of what was then
called child prostitution andnow known as human trafficking
of children in Massachusetts inthe 1970s.
(01:05):
This is Open Investigation, atrue crime podcast about the
search for answers to thedisappearance of my childhood
friend, Andy Puglisi, and theincredible story of dozens of
other missing children whodisappeared or were found
murdered around the same time.
Andy vanished, all while ahidden network of human
(01:26):
trafficking was thriving in ourcommunity.
I'm your host, Melanie PerkinsMcLaughlin.
Episode 3, the Other Boston SexScandal.
The stories in this episode areso complicated.
I've done so much research overthe years and the more research
I do, the more research thereis to be done.
(01:47):
I could honestly do an entireseries just on this episode, and
maybe I will in the future, butfor now let's stick to this
episode so that we can betterunderstand how it all relates to
Andy and the other missing andmurdered children, especially
given the context of the 1970s.
There's a lot of information inthis episode and a lot of names
.
There'll be characterdescriptions on our website
(02:09):
along with a detailed timelineso that you can follow along
when and if you have anyquestions.
You can reach me by emailopeninvestigationpod at gmailcom
.
Our website address isopeninvestigationpodcastcom.
This episode is dedicated toall the kids who came forward to
share their story and to thoseof you out there listening who
(02:30):
haven't shared yours yet.
Hopefully, by listening to theseries and to other survivors,
you'll understand that there'sempowerment in telling your
truth and being supported byyour community, and it's okay if
you're not ready yet.
Just know that there's acommunity of survivors and that
you're not alone.
We believe you.
(02:52):
The story begins inMassachusetts in the 1970s.
It is the modern history ofhuman trafficking of children.
In fact, it's the open to JohnMitzel's book the Boston Sex
Scandal.
He starts with a story of DickBavley, a supervisor in the
Roxbury Massachusetts Departmentof Public Welfare Social
Services Agency.
The agency is responsible forthe welfare of children and
families and for placing fosterchildren in foster homes.
Today it's called theDepartment of Children and
(03:14):
Families, but the name changesoften.
The author Mitzel portrays DickBavley as a martyr of sorts.
We think the record will showotherwise.
We've interviewed former fosterchildren and what was then
called child prostitutes.
Please be advised this episodedeals specifically with
trafficking of children.
Please take care.
(03:37):
Act One Dick Bavley.
In April of 1975, supervisor ofSocial Services, richard Dick
Bavley, was found dead whileunder investigation for
defrauding his employer, theDepartment of Public Welfare.
The state agency created forthe protection of children and
families, to carry firearms wasallegedly placing foster
children teenage boys, to bemore specific in homes with men
(04:12):
who at the time were referred toas known homosexual single men
and ultimately were known aspedophiles.
To be clear, homosexuality isnot confused with pedophilia.
But in the 70s the termpedophile was not part of the
lexicon and the sexualrevolution and the gay rights
movement was just starting totake off.
In fact, you'll learn,self-identified pedophile groups
were trying to attachthemselves to the legitimate gay
rights movement, claiming we'redenying children the right to
(04:35):
have a sexual identity, buttheir efforts were rejected by
the gay community.
According to the Boston DickBavley, was first implicated
when a 15-year-old boy, who wasa runaway from a psychiatric
hospital and a ward of the state, allegedly committed suicide
using Dick Bavley's gun.
When the police realized thegun belonged to Dick Bavley, a
(04:55):
social worker supervising fosterchildren.
They began asking questions,especially when they learned
Bavley had had placed a fosterchild with himself under what
was supposed to be an emergencycare and protection 24 to 48
hours at the most.
The boy was with Dick Bavelyfrom the time he was 13 until
the time he was 15, when thepolice showed up after the boy's
(05:16):
friend allegedly shot himselfwith Dick Bavley's gun.
I was able to find DickBavley's former foster son, and
this is the story he told me.
Bavley's Foster Son (05:24):
Well, first let me just say that I was a
foster child that lived withDick Bavley, former foster son,
and this is I was a runaway.
I had to do survival sex as akid.
I was like 12, 13 years oldwhen I hit the streets and what
(05:53):
happened is a kid that I knewthat I brought toBavl to because
I thought he could help him.
The kid wanted to go back tohis foster home and I met him
over another pedophile's houseor, and so I brought him over to
baverly's.
I figured we you know he wastalking to dick, I was tired, I
figured the kid would just sleepon the couch, you know what I
(06:14):
mean.
And then that's when I camedownstairs to use the, because
the bathroom was on, you know,at the foot of the stairs, and
as I was going to the bathroom Ilooked at, you know, baverly's
bedroom was to the left thereand the kid was in bed with him,
you know, and I said, oh geez.
Melanie McLaughlin (06:34):
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 theequivalent of $125,000 today.
Here's Dick Bavley's formerfoster son, who was asked that
we don't use his name forobvious reasons.
He was 15 years old when Bavelydied.
(06:55):
He's 63 years old today andit's still like it was yesterday
.
You'll hear a clicking noise inthe background.
It took a little while for meto figure it out.
The former foster son wasclicking his lighter out of
nervousness as he was talking.
Bavley's Foster Son (07:09):
He was stealing money from the state.
He stole that they know ofabout $20,000 at the time that
was a lot of money back in theearly 70s.
Checks would go to a MaryMcGrath post office box.
Dick was saying you know, gaykids with gay men.
I mean that was the thing youknow, but it really that was.
(07:31):
You know it sounded better thanputting runaways with
pedophiles.
I never even heard the termpedophile until later on in life
.
I mean that term was never.
We were chicken, young kidswere chicken and the pedophiles
were jawns.
You know, I mean I never heardthat term on the street, you
(07:55):
know.
Melanie McLaughlin (07:59):
So in other words, Supervisor of Social Work
, Dick Bavley for the Departmentof Public Welfare, the Child
Protection Agency inMassachusetts, was allegedly
embezzling money for the purposeof payment for caring for
foster children that heallegedly placed with what was
then called known singlehomosexual men, who were
actually pedophiles, whileclaiming the children were
placed with a woman, MaryMcGrath, who did not exist.
(08:20):
In the book the Boston SexScandal author John Mitzel
writes of rumors that DickBavley was running a gay
prostitution ring, traffickingteenage boys to pedophiles in
the name of what Mitzel and hiscolleagues call man-boy love.
In addition to being a socialworker, Dick Bavley volunteered
at one of the first ever homesfor runaway children, project
(08:42):
Place in Boston, Mass.
Lillian Jackson worked atProject Place with Dick Bavley.
Here's what she has to say.
Lillian Jackson (08:50):
Divinity students, five of them that
started Project Place to dealwith underserved people, and it
was mainly homeless people andrunaway kids.
So we were dealing with severeabuse and neglect and trying to
figure some of this stuff out,trying to protect some of these
kids, and so that's kind of howit all started.
I do remember Dick fairly wellAt the time.
He was a supervisor and we hadno reason not to trust him.
(09:13):
We were aware of people prayingthat this was a vulnerable
population, so we were reallycareful.
If people we didn't know came tothe runaway house for these
kids, we wouldn't let them in.
We did what we could.
We didn't know who came to therunaway house for these kids.
We wouldn't let them in.
We did what we could.
But we had no reason to doubtDick.
He really seemed to have arelationship with the kids.
When all that happened we hadno idea.
(09:34):
As I recall we found out by thenewspaper, I guess he had
access to other kids as well.
Melanie McLaughlin (09:45):
Did Dick Bavley ever abuse you?
Bavley's Foster Son (09:46):
Yeah, he'd say come here champ, come here
champ.
He used to call me champ, youknow.
We'd talk at night aroundbedtime and he said come on, lay
next to me.
So I did, you know, nothinghappened.
I felt, you know, I would fallasleep and in the middle of the
night I woke up because he wasfondling me, you know, and I
(10:09):
turned, I pulled away from him,you know, because it freaked me
out.
I just pretended that I wassleeping, you know, and I just
rolled over, you know, and gothis hand off me, you know, and
he would pretend that he wassleeping.
I mean, we, we would wrestle attimes and, you know, he kind of
grabbed my crotch, you know, Idon't know, but uh, that
(10:33):
happened a couple of times whereI slept, you know, we'd talk
and I just give him the benefitof the doubt that he was doing.
This was called taking placewhile he was sleeping, you know,
in his sleep, and he didn'tknow.
But you know, obviously I knewthat he knew and he knew that I
(10:53):
knew, but we didn't want eachother to know.
I don't know, this is a crazysituation, 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 minibikes.
He sent me to horseback ridingcamp.
Melanie McLaughlin (11:12):
On April 17th 1975, disgraced supervisor
of social work, dick Bavely,died by suicide, overdosing on
drugs, while under investigationfor the suspected trafficking
of foster children to pedophilesand the embezzlement of tens of
thousands of dollars from theCommonwealth of Massachusetts
Department of Public Welfare.
Dick Bavley's obituaryrequested expressions of
(11:34):
sympathy be donated in hismemory to Project Place.
It was the teenage boy thatDick Bavley had assigned to
himself as a foster son thatdiscovered Bavley's lifeless
body.
Bavley's Foster Son (11:45):
He knew the gig was up.
You know he was going to prisonand he knew it.
He was into his study writingfor a long time and I was kind
of a stupid kid in some ways, Ididn't really put it together
what he was doing.
And he came out and he asked me.
He says will you go to Texaswith me?
(12:06):
Asking me right.
And I said no, Bavley, I Idon'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 knewsomething happened.
I knew the kids told the gun.
But I found out later that thatBeverly was, You know he was
(12:28):
going to go to prison.
You know he goes into thebathroom.
Now he's in the bathroom for Idon't know a long time.
Then he comes out and I guesshe was going to bed, you know.
So I just stayed up watchingtelevision and then I went to
the bathroom and I hear himsnoring.
I mean like loud, I mean he wassnoring.
(12:49):
So I go in.
I said Dick, Dick, I'll go toTexas.
He goes.
Oh, sorry, no, no, like that.
Now I hear wake him up and Iturn on the light.
His lips are turning purpleright.
So I call the ambulance and Iguess he died at the hospital or
(13:11):
something.
That was the catalyst thatstarted what they called the
Boston sex scandal.
Melanie McLaughlin (13:25):
A month later, the Boston police, the
Massachusetts Attorney General'sOffice and the Mass State
Police created a task force toinvestigate Dick Bavley and any
others involved.
In 1975, the Boston Heraldpublished this headline Foster
Holmes Probe Launched Cases of5,500 Children to be Reviewed.
Bavley's Foster Son (13:44):
I'm walking down the common on the common
side, the Boston Comm - TremontStreet, these guys stop and
they get out of the car and theysaid come on.
I said, oh man, what's this allabout?
So I guess we went up to someoffice like the Attorney
General's offices I don't know.
They were working for theAttorney General at the time.
(14:05):
The state police, theplainclothes guys they look like
linebackers for the patriots.
You know that, these big guys.
So they're asking me a bunch ofquestions.
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 ofthe room in a chair.
I'll tell you the truth.
(14:26):
I don't know what it was allabout at the time, but evidently
they were investigating a wholebunch of people.
I don't know.
I guess some of them werewell-to-do, you know.
Melanie McLaughlin (14:36):
In January of 2022, I sent a Freedom of
Information Act request to theMass Attorney General's office.
I received an email saying thatthere was no information on
file regarding thisinterdepartmental state task
force investigating thetrafficking of foster children,
but I did get an incrediblydetailed report of a year-long
investigation by an exceptionalhomicide detective, which was
(14:57):
what led to the task forceinvestigation.
I asked Dick Bavley's co-worker, Lillian Jackson, if there was
anyone else working with DickBavley to supposedly help
runaway boys from Project Place.
That's when she told me aboutFather Paul Shanley.
Lillian Jackson (15:12):
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 priestwho came and people were
helping us because we didn'thave any money.
But he said, well, send them tome and I can get some summer
camp scholarships for these kidsand some clothes.
And we came across such a cooldude type guy.
Melanie McLaughlin (15:35):
Father Paul Shanley is a notorious pedophile
priest from the BostonArchdiocese.
He was considered a streetpriest 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 onthe priest and what was
happening in Boston in the 1970s.
Here again is Dick Bailey'sformer foster son.
Bavley's Foster Son (15:57):
See, there was this place on Charles Street
right.
It was the old South Church.
That's where Paul Shanley usedto be hanging out there.
That was the pedophile priestand he was a friend of Dick
Baverly, my guardian.
Dick Bavley used to talk aboutthe guy a lot and I knew him
myself because he used to comearound the bus station.
(16:20):
You know, talk to the kids.
Maybe family would bring himkids that you know.
I think they were kind ofnetworking.
Melanie McLaughlin (16:28):
There's another counselor from Project
Place who wasn't willing to berecorded for the podcast, but he
told me about his experiencewith Dick Bavley.
Here's what he said.
Several teenage boys fromProject Place confided in the
relatively inexperienced21-year-old counselor.
They told him that they hadbeen going to drug-fueled
parties at the mansion of alocal millionaire who lived in
(16:48):
Beverly Farms, mass.
The counselor confided in theexperienced social worker Dick
Bavley, convinced somethingneeded to be done to protect the
boys and Bavley would help.
Bavley suggested he and thecounselor drive from Boston to
the suburban home of themillionaire to approach him
directly about the boys' claims.
The counselor trusted Bavleyand was comforted by the fact
(17:10):
that he had a license to carry agun.
The young counselor said themillionaire greeted Bavley and
him at the door and brought theminto a large conference room
where Bavley instructed thecounselor to tell the
millionaire what the boys hadbeen telling him.
At one point the millionaireleft the room to take a call and
the counselor could overhearhim talking on the phone.
Whoever he was talking to, itwas clear they knew the
(17:31):
counselor and the conversationwas about him.
This scared the counselor andhe told Bavley he wanted to
leave immediately as the youngcounselor was expressing his
concern for the boys on the ridehome.
Dick Bavley suggested the youngcounselor should go undercover
at one of the drug-fueledparties, pretending to be a
teenage boy, to get moreinformation.
(17:52):
That's when the counselor saidhe realized Dick Bavley was
somehow involved in all of this.
When I asked the counselor if heremembered the name of the
wealthy millionaire whose househe and Bavley went to, he told
me he would never forget it.
The millionaire is a man namedRoger Spear.
When I heard that, it was oneof those moments when the
puzzles started to get filled in.
(18:12):
It was a huge piece.
I already knew the Roger Spear.
He had been mentioned to mepreviously by another child who
had been abused in the 70s, andRoger Spear was a Massachusetts
millionaire who would be one ofdozens of men arrested in 1977
in what was called a child sexring in Revere, Mass.
Just a few years after DickBavley and the counselor's visit
(18:34):
, Roger Spear would also beaccused 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 anoverdose.
The book the Boston Sex Scandalisn't just about Dick Bavley.
In fact, dick Bavley's story ismerely the introduction to a
much darker tale.
If you or someone you know is avictim of child sex abuse,
(19:01):
please reach out to the NationalSex 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.
(19:23):
Act Two All roads lead to Revere.
This is attorney Tom Peisch, whowas the prosecutor in one of
the most notorious and leasttalked about cases in Boston
history, a case referred to asthe Revere Boy Sex.
Former Atty Tom Peisch (19:31):
Ring I got a job as an assistant
district attorney in Boston.
I was assigned to a division ofthe DA's office called the
Suffolk County Investigation andProsecution Project, scip, that
specialized in organized crimeand white-collar cases.
After about a year at SCIP Iwas assigned to assist in the
(19:52):
investigation of a case whichlater became the celebrated
so-called Revere sex cases.
We put together an affidavitfor an application for a search
warrant.
The police went to theapartment and found a large
number of photographs of youngboys in compromising positions,
(20:14):
and the police then set about tofind these youngsters and were
told just an unbelievably sordidstory about what had gone on in
that apartment.
Most of these young boys wereso-called street kids, came from
broken homes, difficultbackgrounds.
The owner of the apartment, aman named Peluso, made it kind
(20:37):
of a hangout.
Peluso had a network of adultswho enjoyed the sexual and other
company of young boys.
But we put together theappropriate evidence, brought it
to a grand jury which returnedthe indictments and the rest was
, as they say, history.
Melanie McLaughlin (20:56):
I had the opportunity to interview a few
of the boys that had spent timeat Richard Peluso's house on
Montanab in Revere,Massachusetts.
One of the boys was DickBailey's former foster son, who
you heard from in Act I.
Bavley's Foster Son (21:08):
There was guys trying to have sex with
kids.
In fact, there were seasonedkids out there, you know, and
rather than have sex with theguy, they would bring a naive
kid like me up there so thatthey could get high and
everything without doinganything.
You know what I mean.
Melanie McLaughlin (21:27):
Dick Bavely's former foster son
explained to me that teenagejuvenile delinquents would
recruit prepubescent boys tobring them to pedophiles.
On Friday, december 9th 1977,the Boston Globe ran a front
page story with the headline 24Indicted in Boy Sex Ring Probe
and the subheading police sayOperation Revere-based.
(21:49):
The article reports that in thespring of 77, a school bus
driver, frank Damiano, wasarrested and sentenced to life
in prison for the rape ofmultiple children.
It was Damiano's arrest andanother suspected child
prostitution ring in the northend of Boston that led police to
an apartment in RevereMassachusetts in the north end
(22:10):
of Boston that led police to anapartment in Revere
Massachusetts.
According to the Boston Globequote, of the 24 men indicted,
17 were allegedly involved in aRevere-based operation in which
young boys were used forhomosexual acts and as models
for pornographic photographs.
Seven other men were allegedlyinvolved in similar crimes at
other sites in Suffolk County.
As many as 63 boys werebelieved to have been involved
(22:30):
in the Revere Massachusettsoperation.
End quote News reports indicatethe men traveled to Revere from
their homes in Washington DC,connecticut, florida and Georgia
, paying between $30 and $50 foreach visit.
The boys were paid between $5and $10 each.
Court records indicate boys asyoung as eight were included in
the ring, the Boston Globereported the children were from
(22:52):
Revere, lynn, saugus, chelseaand East Boston.
Among them were several statewards, also known as foster
children, at least one of whomwas assigned to the home of one
of the suspects according toinvestigators Sound familiar?
Remember this is just two yearsafter corrupt social worker
Dick Bavley died.
According to the paper, severalof the defendants were wealthy
(23:16):
men who had boys assigned tothem as an inducement to invest
in pornographic films.
The district attorney at thetime, Garrett Byrne, also
referred the case to Los Angelesdetectives because, it's
reported, at least one of thechildren had been brought to the
West Coast to appear in apornographic films.
Child Pornography.
You heard that right.
In addition, the Boston Globereported the investigation,
(24:05):
which led to seven separateindictments unrelated to the
activities at Peluso's apartment, reportedly uncovered sexual
acts with children at awaterfront apartment in Boston,
a street in the Back Bay, anapartment elsewhere in Revere
and a karate school end.
Quote here again is the formerfoster son of disgraced social
worker Dick Bavley.
The foster son was alsoultimately considered what was
(24:28):
then called a child prostituteand he spent time at Richard
Peluso's apartment in Revere.
Bavley's Foster Son (24:33):
Most of the Johns I was with.
They always took photographs.
These guys had tons of oldPolaroid, you know.
Oh man, they had tons ofpictures of kids and stuff.
A lot of these guys like totake pictures.
You know, I looked like alittle girl.
I had the long hair.
(24:55):
Everybody used to call me ohhe's a beauty, he's a beauty.
I got no chest hair, no leghair.
I never had they likedpedophiles like that.
It was a network.
(25:18):
You know what I mean.
Melanie McLaughlin (25:20):
Here again is former prosecutor Tom Peisch.
Former Atty Tom Peisch (25:23):
There were small amounts of money
exchanged, as I remember it.
There were payments made.
There were a lot of pictures Infact that's how we were able to
make the case, because theywere stashed in this apartment
underneath a heater, as Iremember it, and the police
found them when the searchwarrant was executed.
Some of them had gone back anumber of years Pictures of
(25:46):
these young boys in variouspositions, Not many of them nude
, but certainly suggestive, andsome completely benign.
But there was a huge trove ofthem, as I remember, several
hundred.
What happened to those?
It's a good question.
Some of them were marked asevidence before the grand jury
(26:08):
and I don't know what became ofthem.
There was never an appeal, sothere may not have been any
reason to keep them.
Melanie McLaughlin (26:15):
Richard Peluso, the owner of the Riviera
apartment, had actually oncelived with Frank Damiano, the
North End school bus driver.
Damiano ended up with over 40counts of child rape, but Peluso
agreed to testify against meninvolved in the ring.
Several supporters of the menallegedly involved in the child
trafficking ring quickly formeda group to begin fundraising for
their legal costs.
At first the group calledthemselves the Boston Boise
(26:38):
Committee, named after a similarscandal that occurred years
earlier in Boise, idaho.
The Boston Boise Committeewould eventually rename
themselves, becoming the firstpublicly identified organized
pedophile group in the UnitedStates, the North American
Man-Boy Love Association, nambla.
In 1977, the Boston Heraldprinted a photo of the men being
(27:00):
arrested, along with theirnames Dr Donald Allen, a child
psychologist affiliated withChildren's Hospital in Boston.
James P Dallman, a teacher atthe Private Fessenden School in
Newton, Mass.
Arthur Claridge, an assistantheadmaster at the Private
Fessenden School in Newton, Mass.
Roger E Spear, millionaire andinvestor.
The same Spear who we justheard about in Act I, involved
(27:22):
with Dick Bavley.
Edward Mede, karate instructorMark Davis, juvenile probation
officer Lou White, salesmanDavid instructor Mark Davis.
Juvenile probation officer LouWhite, salesman, David White
Security guard George DreifusHarvard-educated psychologist
with the Lindemann Mental HealthCenter, Frank Damiano school
bus driver, Henry Rideout,Donald Heres and Whitney Chase,
(27:43):
a lobbyist from Washington DC.
Interestingly, those whosupported the men who were
charged with sexually abusingdozens of boys, some as young as
eight at the time, claimed thepublic and media reaction to
their crimes amounted to a witchhunt and outright homophobia.
They were trying to attachpedophilia to the legitimate gay
(28:04):
rights movement, suggestingthat pedophiles had a right to
love who they wanted as well andthat were inhibiting children's
rights by not allowing them tohave sex with adults.
Here again is Tom Peisch, theSuffolk County prosecutor, who
worked directly on the case.
Former Atty Tom Peisch (28:19):
These events took place in the
aftermath of the pre-lovemovement that grew out of the
1960s, and there was a prettydeep division among the gay
community about these cases.
On the one hand, you hadestablishment-type gay people
like Elaine Noble, who was astate representative, a very
(28:39):
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 NorthAmerican Man-Boy Love
Association, nambla, whoadvocated very strongly in favor
of the defendants, attacked theproposition that the law did
(29:01):
not permit consent under acertain age and were quite
active and vocal in saying thatthis conduct should not have
been criminal, should not havebeen punished criminally.
Melanie McLaughlin (29:14):
The organization supporting the
defendants in the Revere case,which ultimately named
themselves NAMBLA, falselyclaimed there was no organized
pedophilia or child pornographyas part of the Revere case.
This despite hundreds of photosbeing seized and one of the
defendants at least being foundwith child pornographic films
and cameras.
They believed the civil rightsof men loving boys was being
(29:38):
violated.
They hosted an event at theArlington Street Church in
Boston where noted author andactivist, Gore Vidal, spoke on
behalf of what they calledthemselves boy lovers.
Here's part of the speech fromthat event, with an introduction
from none other than the authorof the Boston sex scandal, John
Mitzel.
John Mitzel (29:57):
I don't think it's inappropriate to characterize
what's coming down as nearly astate of siege against the gay
community and anyone interestedin civil liberties.
I think, though, that one ofthe best moments is tonight To
say that Gore Vidal is with ushere tonight, is standing with
us tonight and is supporting ustonight.
Ladies and gentlemen, GoreVidal, there's a newspaper here
(30:21):
called.
Gore Vidal (30:22):
What is it called, you know, the Boston Globe, a
newspaper which has had fits ofresponsibility in the past but
apparently lost its head whenthis thing began.
The headline was 24 in childporn case at the Boston Globe.
(30:46):
Well, there was no childpornography.
That's another code word, Imean that immediately sounds
like six-year-olds being raped.
Now, there was no childpornography involved in the
Revere Beach Capers.
Now, there was no childpornography involved in the
Revere Beach Capers.
The state really has no businessin regulating the morals of
consenting adults andadolescents.
(31:07):
Much complaint has been madeabout men and boys.
Well, the man is in a strongerposition.
The boy has a weak character orcan be modeled by the man.
This is not necessarily so.
Relationships are very subtle.
Who does the manipulation?
It's a quite delicate matterand it's a very delicate issue.
But I would think that whereverno coercion took place, where
(31:31):
two parties of whatever genderor age come together, that this
is no business of the state.
This is no business of grownpeople to fret about.
If parents are worried abouttheir children, well, they
should have done the work of thefamily and not suddenly find
themselves in the position ofhaving a witch hunt and
(31:52):
reinvoking the spirit of nearbySalem.
Yet when you think about it,should there be such a thing as
statutory rape?
That sounds to me like acontradiction.
We have here anotherfascinating thing that at this
moment there are a hundred menare now serving life or multiple
(32:15):
life sentences in Massachusettsfor nonviolent sex acts with
boys under 16.
A hundred men serving life forsomething that they entered into
of their own free will, arelationship which we cannot
judge.
No force was used.
The boy involved in the casewas, as far as we know, not
(32:37):
damaged and was perfectlywilling to go through with this.
This seems to me barbarous.
And there are boys 16 to 18 whohave been charged with sex with
boys between 12 and 15.
I mean, this is gettingtheological.
Melanie McLaughlin (32:57):
So, while noted author Gore Vidal was
making jokes about statutoryrape in children in order to
raise money for the defendants,tom Peisch was preparing to
prosecute them.
Former Atty Tom Peisch (33:07):
Here's Tom Peisch picking up the
newspaper the day after thisfundraiser and opening the
newspaper and seeing thefeatured speaker at the
fundraiser for these defendantswas Gore Vidal, a novelist, and
I remember opening the newspaperand seeing a picture of Gore
(33:29):
Vidal and then Superior CourtChief Justice Robert Bonin, who
had attended this fundraiserwith his wife, and I remember
thinking to myself gee, that's alittle weird.
This is the judge who's goingto be assigning the judge that
will actually hear these cases.
And while it turned out to be ahuge controversy, it led to
(33:52):
Judge Bonin's being the subjectof disciplinary proceedings and
ultimately resigning.
It was very important to methat our decision to prosecute
these cases was vindicated, andit was.
Melanie McLaughlin (34:06):
Andy Puglisi is one of dozens of children
who went missing or were foundmurdered in Massachusetts in the
1970s and whose cases remainunsolved.
If you have information aboutAndy or any of the unsolved
cases of missing or murderedchildren, please call
1-855-MASOLVE.
That's 1-855-MASOLVE.
(34:27):
That's the number for theUnresolved Case Unit for the
Massachusetts State Police.
You can always also contact theNational Center for Missing and
Exploited Children.
That number is 1-800-THE-LOSTand exploited children.
That number is 1-800-THE-LOST.
Act 3.
(34:51):
Boys to Men.
One of the men arrested in the1977 Revere sex ring was the
assistant headmaster of aprominent private school, the
Fessenden School in Newton, mass.
That man's name is ArthurClaridge.
Arthur Claridge ended upbecoming a witness for the
prosecution in the Revere caseand was not tried for his crimes
against children.
Here again is Tom Peisch.
Former Atty Tom Peisch (35:07):
Well I remember Claridge because he
testified for us as a governmentwitness.
He was the main procurer of theadult network.
He was the link between theadult network and the Peluso
apartment.
At the time he had a prettysignificant administrative job
(35:28):
at the Fessenden School in.
Melanie McLaughlin (35:29):
Newton In 1977, Arthur Claridge was
arrested with one of hiscolleagues from the same
Fessenden School, a teachernamed James Dahlman.
Incredibly, despite two staffmembers being arrested for the
sexual abuse of children in whatbecame known as the Revere sex
ring, fessenden Schooladministrators insisted in the
Boston Globe that no childrenfrom the school had been
(35:52):
sexually abused at that time,but we learned through our
interview with Dick Beverly'sformer foster son that that was
the farthest from the truth.
Bavley's Foster Son (36:01):
Oh yeah, there was a guy named Arthur
Claridge we used to call himPress and he used to go over to
Richie Peluso's house too.
I used to see them cruise thebus station.
He brought me over to theFessenden School in Newton.
He brought me over to theFessenden School Because Arthur
(36:21):
Claridge had an apartment on thegrounds of that Fessenden
School and I could describe itto a T?
I you know.
I remember it like it wasyesterday.
Melanie McLaughlin (36:32):
So, according to Bavely's former
foster son, he was beingtrafficked from Revere,
Massachusetts, to Newton,Massachusetts, at a private
wealthy school, the FessendenSchool, by the assistant
headmaster of the school.
Yet according to Fessendenadministrators in 1977, nobody
was abused at their school.
Clearly, the 1977 investigationfell short and while the
(36:54):
assistant headmaster and teacherwere removed from the Fessenden
School, no one seemed tounderstand that students at the
school were also being sexuallyabused by Arthur Claridge and
James Dallman.
In 2016, the Boston Globepublished a spotlight team
investigation into pedophilia indozens of private schools in
(37:15):
New England, including theFessenden School in Newton.
The investigation was focusedprimarily on students of the
school dating back to the 1970sand earlier.
The Globe series made little tono connection to the Revere
ring that was happening at thesame time in the 70s, including
many of the same pedophiles, orthe fact that there were boys
from Revere that were brought tothe Fessenden School to be
(37:36):
abused there.
The Fessenden Schooladministration hid this
information for some time, butin 2011, they sent a letter to
alumni admitting that 16 formerstudents had come forward to
describe their abuse at thehands of at least five
individuals who were members ofthe community in the 60s and 70s
.
More than 40 years after theirabuse, Fessenden students John
Sweeney and Adrian Hooper cameforward for the first time.
(37:59):
They held a press conference toshare the horror of their
sexual abuse as children by men,including former Fessenden
assistant headmaster and Reveresex ring defendants Arthur
Claridge and teacher JamesDallman.
John Sweeney (38:11):
Good morning.
My name is John Sweeney, I'm 57years old and I was abused by
Arthur Claridge at the FessendenSchool.
To my left is Adrian Hooper.
What happens to all of us sexabuse victims?
I've got post-traumatic stressdisorder.
We bury this trauma.
It's severe and we bury itbecause of the shame.
Melanie McLaughlin (38:34):
Remarkably, Adrian Hooper had remembered
some of the abuse that occurredat the Fessenden School, but at
the press conference Adrian fellto his knees when he saw a
picture of Arthur Claridge forthe first time in decades and
memories that he had repressed,clinically described as
disassociative amnesia, cameflooding back.
This is a conversation I hadwith Adrian about that
experience.
Adrian Hooper (38:56):
I was 11 years old when I got sent there and a
lot of my memories had beenrepressed.
You know, I mean I kind ofalways knew bad stuff happened
there.
And it wasn't until the BostonGlobe story and me, you know,
(39:17):
doing the press conferences withJohn that I saw pictures of
Arthur Claridge and some otherteachers and then all of a
sudden my memories startedflooding back in and some other
teachers, and then all of asudden my memory started
flooding back in.
I got to tell you, the lastcouple of years I've been really
struggling with depression andanxiety.
It was Arthur Claridge andanother teacher it might have
been Dallman I don't know ifDallman was even there then, but
it was another teacher and theywere videoing me and some other
(39:40):
boys and they told us it was anancient Mayan ceremony.
You know they had us doingthings to each other that I'd
really rather not go into detail, but you know it was all of
sexual nature and they werefilming it.
Melanie McLaughlin (39:59):
The other Fessenden student, John Sweeney,
shared his abuse by ArthurClaridge, John Dallman and
another of the Revere defendants, the millionaire Roger Spear.
The same Roger Spear that wasidentified in Act One by the
Project Place counselor workingwith Dick Bavley.
Remember, Spear was amillionaire who hosted
drug-fueled parties thatincluded runaway and throwaway
boys and wealthy men.
(40:19):
Speer ultimately became asuspect in the murder of a man
described as a young hustler.
A few years later, All chargeswere dropped against the
millionaire Roger Spear,including those in Revere.
Here is former Fessendenstudent and victim, child sex
abuse survivor, John Sweeney.
John Sweeney (40:36):
I'm telling you and people think that I'm crazy,
okay, when I tell them thatthey hit only one house in
Revere, they only found outabout the one house.
At the same time they weredoing this stuff at Spears House
.
Okay, I told them all aboutSpears House in Wellesley.
(40:56):
And you know what's even moremessed up, these guys I'm
convinced of this right thatthey have got so much power
still in the media, becausenobody in the media wants to
cover that story.
I tried to get spotlight tolisten to that, right, I tried
to get spotlight to go back.
Okay, cause they said tell meabout the uh, you know, about,
you know Spear and all thisother shit you know.
(41:18):
So I told him.
I says listen, that place inRevere, okay, wasn't the half of
it?
Melanie McLaughlin (41:25):
I know this episode is a lot to process.
Believe me, it was a lot tofigure out.
But let me take a minute to putthings into context.
Supposedly, the breakup ofthese child sex rings in Revere
and Boston happened in 1977.
Of these child sex rings inRevere and Boston happened in
1977, but court records indicatethe Boston and Revere rings had
been operating as early as 1971, through 1977, which fits in
(41:47):
with Dick Bavley's abuse offoster children.
Remember the interdepartmentaltask force created to
investigate all of this in 1975?
Yet we're told there are norecords available from the
Attorney General's office.
We did find some comprehensivefiles from another department
and there'll be more of that tocome.
And ironically, when thelawsuits started to come from
the students at the FessendenSchool remember Dick Bavley's
(42:10):
foster son he tried to file alawsuit as well, but the
Fessenden administration saidthe statute of limitations had
passed and Fessendenadministrators said he wasn't
even a student here.
Basically, what do thesepedophile rings all have in
common?
They generally include wealthyprofessional men from around the
country trafficking boysconsidered throwaway children.
(42:30):
They include people inpositions of power priests,
police officers, attorneys,judges and they're almost always
abusing poor kids, poor kidswho may have already been abused
or neglected, kids who arerarely, if ever, believed, kids
that have little or no socialcapital, who don't get much
(42:51):
media coverage unless they'reprivate school students.
And even then, only 40 yearslater, 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 to1979, there are dozens of
unsolved cases of missing andmurdered children in
(43:13):
Massachusetts, some of whom weknow had direct contact with
some of the defendants in theRevere case and that were
certainly in the same proximityas the Revere case.
Several of the children havesimilar causes of death and fit
the profile of the type of boysthe men exploited Pre-pubescent
children and juveniledelinquents.
Boys who are attractive andcould be easily mistaken for
(43:34):
girls.
Here's a conversation I hadwith Andy's mother, faith, about
when she went to Revere,massachusetts back in 1977.
Remember we heard this in anearlier episode, but I want to
make sure you're making theconnection to this sex ring.
Faith Puglisi (43:47):
They had confiscated some children from
this apartment in Revere andthat's all I had to hear.
And I was like children, youknow, I want to, I want to see
and we'll see if my son's amongthem.
That's when I went to the FBIin Boston.
They were very selective inwhat pictures I could look at
and they had, like this cutoutwhere, you know, they'd only let
(44:09):
me see a portion of the pictureOne little boy that had the
framework of Andy, but his hairhad been dyed blonde and you
could tell that the hair hadbeen dyed.
It wasn't a natural blonde.
I don't know how Andy's casebecame this big.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Was he kidnapped for childtrafficking?
(44:30):
I don't know.
Melanie McLaughlin (44:32):
Incredibly.
I also came across a bookcalled Child Pornography and Sex
Rings by Ann Burgess, whichdocuments multiple child sex
rings in Massachusetts in the1970s and 1980s.
Join us in a bonus episode formy conversation with Ann Burgess
.
Were any of these men involvedin those cases of missing and
(44:53):
murdered children?
Who knows?
It's hard to tell.
Most of the separate policedistricts didn't communicate
with each other about thesecases.
Like I said, there's nodatabase of unresolved cases
from the 1970s.
No one in law enforcement haslooked at these cases
collectively as far as we know,and we know of at least one
pedophile priest inMassachusetts who was allegedly
(45:13):
part of an organized ring andwas named as the person
responsible for the murder ofone of the boys from the 1970s
whose case had remained unsolvedfor decades until we started
asking questions about it.
We'll talk about that morelater in the season Next time on
Open Investigation, episode 4,scope and Severity, learn how
(45:35):
organized networks and childpornography rings across the
United States were exposed inthe late 70s, culminating in
United States congressionalhearings on child exploitation
and creating new federal lawsthat helped form the National
Center for Missing and ExploitedChildren.
You find our investigationcompelling.
(45:56):
Please consider joining ourPatreon as a supporter, which
helps us continue the work.
This is an independent podcastand we're doing our best to
investigate and bring awarenessto these unsolved cases.
You can also help out byoffering a rating or commenting
on the show on Apple Podcast.
This helps us get morelisteners and may lead to more
information.
If you want to learn more aboutadditional research on
(46:18):
individual cases, check out ourwebsite and join us on Patreon.
If you have a tip or anyinformation on these unresolved
cases, please contact the MassState 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.
(46:40):
This episode was produced,written and hosted by me,
melanie Perkins McLaughlin.
Editing by Mike Goscia.
Original music and additionalediting by Drew O'Doherty.
Consulting producer AngelleWood.
Graphics and website design byCheryl Crawford Design and
Angelle Wood.
Research by Melissa Ellin andMaggie Schneider.
(47:01):
Production assistance by DarrenSarah Ruemenapp, and Alexandra
Vega.
Our social media producer isCarla DiStefano, and special
thanks to George.
You know who you are.
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