This is about abuse, missing, and murdered children. Listen with care.
In preparation for Friday's new episode with Melanie Perkins McLaughlin, a replay of Andy Puglisi's case first released in June 2023, in two parts. There are many updates to this story, despite the decades-long mystery.
In part one, we explore the haunting case of 10-year-old Andy Puglisi, the boy who vanished from his neighborhood, spotlighting the societal attitudes towards missing children during that time. The discussion delves into the failed police response, media portrayal, and subsequent changes in child protection laws.
On Sunday, August 22, 1976, (we learn this is the actual date he was last seen), Andy Puglisi disappeared from a public pool in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Melanie Perkins McLaughlin, Andy's childhood friend and documentary filmmaker, spent years piecing together the events of that fateful day. Her decades-long investigation, highlighted in her documentary "Have You Seen Andy" and new podcast "Open Investigation," brings fresh perspectives to his case and others like his.
It doesn't stop with Andy's story. We delve into the broader narrative of missing and murdered children in the 1970s, an era marked by systemic child abuse within the Catholic Church. This period saw high-profile cases like Etan Patz and, later, Adam Walsh, which led to the creation of crucial resources like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
We learn about Springfield boy, Danny Croteau, and the powerful forces that shielded his alleged killer, Father Richard R. Lavigne, a notorious child abuser who would later be convicted of molesting boys across Western Massachusetts, and the investigative work of journalists such as Kristen Lombardi, of the Boston Phoenix, whose work played a critical role in unmasking these crime against children.
Crime of the Truest Kind - Episode 43 - What Happened To Andy Puglisi, Part One
Follow Instagram | Facebook | BlueSky | TikTok | Threads | YouTube
For show notes & source information at CrimeoftheTruestKind.com
Give the dogs a bone tip jar: buymeacoffee.com/truestkind
Become a patron: Patreon.com/crimeofthetruestkind
This podcast has minimal profanity but from time to time you get one or some curse words. This isn't for kids.
Music included in episodes from Joe "onlyone" Kowalski, Dug McCormack's Math Ghosts and Shredding by Andrew King
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Anngelle Wood (00:00):
Hello listeners, Anngelle here, back in the late
spring of 2023, I shared thestory of 10-year-old Andy
Puglisi, the little boy whodisappeared from the public pool
in Lawrence, massachusetts, inthe summer of 1976.
All thanks go to his childhoodfriend, melanie Perkins.
She spent decades researching,writing and producing the
(00:22):
documentary.
Have you Seen Andy streamingnow on Max?
In the decades that have passedsince Andy Puglisi disappeared,
what we have learned about thefate of missing and murdered
children, particularly aroundMassachusetts and New England in
the 1970s?
Well, it has been eye-opening.
I am resharing episode 43 and44 about Andy's case because on
(00:48):
Friday I will share an update onAndy's case and what we have
learned in the years since.
Friday's episode will featureMelanie Perkins McLaughlin,
creator of that documentary andwho released Open Investigation,
a brand new investigativepodcast that starts with Andy
(01:10):
Puglisi in a story that seems tohave no end.
Thank you for listening and,please, true crime is not for
children, yet these childrenneed these stories told.
Please listen with care.
Well, hello, my name is AngeleWood and this is Crime of the
(01:32):
Truest Kind.
Hey, everybody, it really feelslike summer in New England now,
(01:55):
doesn't it Just like that?
This is a true crime.
Local history and storytellingpodcast.
I write about crime.
Yes, I set the scene, I connectstory themes.
I talk about things thathappened here in Massachusetts
and New England.
(02:16):
This episode is about murderedand missing children.
One in particular it's aboutchild sexual abuse, the
attitudes among the public atlarge in regards to this topic
and the part that the CatholicChurch has played in the serial
abuse of children.
If this is something that willhurt you, impede your own
(02:39):
healing or offend you, it maynot be something you wish to
listen to, and this often goesunsaid, but this podcast it's
not for kids.
One more thing Ways I ask youto support this show.
Share it, tell your friends andfamily to listen.
Share it on social media toothers in your community who
(03:02):
would enjoy it.
Drop a rating and review.
Apple Podcasts is a platformwith this feature.
Spotify allows for ratings bygiving the dogs a bone in the
tip jar.
Dog treats are a hot commodityin my house and become a Patreon
patron.
I have four tiers, starting atone dollar, and I do have
(03:25):
patrons to thank later in thisepisode.
Drop by the merch store atcrimeofthechewestkindcom,
episode 43,.
We travel to the MerrimackValley with a stop in Lawrence,
massachusetts.
There is so much info aroundthis subject matter.
This will be part one of two.
(03:49):
Lawrence, massachusetts.
Located in Essex County, 25miles north of Boston and five
miles south of the New Hampshireline, it is a city of
immigrants and industry, amanufacturing city that produces
(04:12):
many products textiles,footwear, paper products,
computers and food.
The massive mill buildingslining the Merrimack River,
beautiful views of the GreatStone Dam and the clock and bell
towers are tributes to Lawrenceindustrial heritage channeling.
The strength of the MerrimackRiver and its systems of canals
(04:34):
fueled the Lawrence mills thatproduced textiles for American
and European markets by theearly 20th century.
With a population of nearly95,000, the city was a world
leader in the production ofcotton and woolen textiles in
those massive mills.
The very delicious Joseph'sHummus is made in Lawrence on
(04:55):
International Way.
I must also add that Cedar'sMediterranean Foods makers of
delicious hummus and dips ismade next door in the Ward Hill
area of Haverhill, bothdelicious, both from the same
area.
Malden Mills was based inLawrence, malden Mills who, in
(05:16):
1981, invented synthetic fleece,which we see in all sorts of
cold weather clothing.
Customers include the retailersLL Bean, timberlands and North
Face.
The factory burned down onDecember 11, 1995, when a boiler
exploded, destroying three ofthe factory's buildings and
(05:39):
damaging nearly half of theentire plant.
Ceo Aaron Feuerstein, grandsonof its founder, decided to
rebuild almost immediately andsupported his employees by
paying their salaries andbenefits while rebuilding.
I also know that during thattime Mr Feuerstein also had
(05:59):
provided funds for employees toseek out education.
One Malden Mills employee tookclasses at my college during
that time.
By September 1997, the factorywas rebuilt and Aaron Feuerstein
was celebrated for his uncommonbusiness practices.
One story called him the menschof Malden Mills for how he took
(06:19):
care of his people during thattime.
Lawrence has made the news overthe years A spate of arsons,
missing children, crime.
But there is one story inparticular that we will talk
about on today's episode.
It is that of a 10-year-old boy, andy Puglisi, who simply
(06:39):
disappeared in the summer of1976.
National Missing Children's Dayis May 25th.
It marks the date that EtanPace went missing and was
designated by President RonaldReagan on the fourth anniversary
of Etan's disappearance in 1983.
(07:01):
Etan Pace is the six-year-oldNew York City boy who
disappeared on his way to theschool bus in his Soho
neighborhood in 1979.
It was the one and only time hewas permitted to walk alone.
Back in the 1970s there were nosystems in place for local or
national law enforcement when achild went missing.
Etan's disappearance 44 yearsago helped to change that.
(07:24):
He was one of the first missingchildren ever to appear on the
milk carton, and Etan's casehelped to establish a national
hotline for missing children.
It made it easier for lawenforcement agencies to share
information about missing kids'cases.
More changed when Adam Walsh, asix-year-old boy, was abducted
(07:45):
from a Sears in the mall inHollywood, florida, on July 27,
1981.
His partial remains were foundtwo weeks later and 100 miles
away.
In 1984, the Walshes foundedthe National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children and in1988, john Walsh, adam's father,
(08:06):
started the show America's MostWanted.
That has since helped lawenforcement officials track down
hundreds of fugitives.
The National Center for Missingand Exploited Children has an
incredible amount of informationand resources.
The data about child abductionis staggering.
(08:28):
Resources to support familiesof missing children and child
exploitation the Cyber Tip Lineoffers public and online
electronic service providers aneasy way to quickly report
suspected incidents of sexualexploitation of children online.
I do share these links in theshow notes and at
crimeofthetruestkindcom.
(08:49):
Though the milk carton campaignwas probably the most visible
part of that movement.
By 1985, nearly half of thenation's 1,800 independent
dairies had adopted the practice.
Missing kids on milk cartons wasone way to offer resources in
those days.
Missing kids on milk cartonswas one way to offer resources
in those days, and dairies werenot alone in their advocacy.
(09:12):
The faces of missing kids wouldappear on everything from pizza
boxes to grocery bags, to thejunk mail we threw away, all
with the question have you seenme?
A few people told police theyrecognized a child seen on the
side of a milk bottle.
But there is no data on howmany children were saved by the
milk cartons or otherwise.
But in my opinion, something isbetter than nothing.
(09:37):
Organizations would holdfingerprinting events for
children and kits were createdfor parents to have at the ready
if their child went missing.
Children were taught to ask forsecret words and alternative
names from a neighbor or afriend sent to pick them up if a
parent had to run late orneeded help.
It all did help policedepartments be better at
handling missing children'scases.
(09:58):
So what happened to thepractice of putting kids on milk
?
It ceased in the late 80s afterBenjamin Spock.
Dr Spock and Dr T BarryBrazelton, two of America's most
celebrated pediatricians of thetime and authors who
revolutionized the understandingof babies and child development
(10:20):
.
They worried that the imagescould frighten children and
cause unnecessary trauma.
Now they were the foremostauthorities on child rearing of
that time and each of them haveties to New England, and each of
them lived well into their 90sIn a tool we use present day.
The Amber Alert came much later.
(10:41):
In 1996, 9-year-old AmberHagerman was abducted from her
Texas hometown.
There is a documentary abouther story.
There wasn't a system in placeto shoot any kind of emergency
information out to the public.
A neighbor who had witnessedher abduction called 911.
(11:04):
Four days after her abductionAmber's body was found.
She was less than five milesfrom where she was taken.
Amber's family would work to getthe Texas legislature to pass
stronger laws to protectchildren, but it was a Texas
resident.
A woman named Diana Simonethought that a more appropriate
(11:28):
child alert system would bebeneficial in helping find
children in the very importanthours following their
disappearances.
Radio stations would announcethe missing child.
Report Alerts were sent toradio stations, tv stations, law
enforcement agencies,newspapers and local
(11:50):
organizations.
Now AMBER is an acronym thatstands for America's Missing
Broadcast Emergency Response,but it is in tribute to Amber
Renee Hagerman and, as ofJanuary 2, 2023, there have been
(12:11):
1,127 children successfullyrecovered through the Amber
Alert System.
Children successfully recoveredthrough the Amber Alert System.
131 children were rescuedbecause of wireless emergency
alerts.
Sign up for them on yourtelephone.
While Amber's namesaketechnology does save kids,
(12:35):
amber's murder remains unsolved.
This one still hits hard.
I grew up 20 minutes away fromLawrence, massachusetts, and
hadn't heard the story until afew years ago, and I did reach
out a few times to the childhoodfriend who takes almost center
stage in this story.
(12:56):
Her name is Melanie Perkins andshe made the documentary have
you Seen Andy?
It's quite well done.
So I did reach out to her tospeak to her about this case and
we didn't get anywhere.
I suppose she didn't want totalk to me about it.
It happens.
Andy Puglisi was born AngeloJean Puglisi on September 2,
(13:19):
1965.
He was the first arrival ofmany kids for the Puglisi family
.
His parents, angelo Puglisi Srand Mom Faith were young just 19
and 15 when they married.
Sounds unreal today, but itwasn't so much then.
Faith wanted to get out of herhouse and away from her own
(13:42):
parents.
Baby Andy came soon after Morekids would come, before the
couple finally divorced in 1975.
Andy's family would land at theStadium Housing Project in South
Lawrence Every town had themwhere lots of kids did time in
one of the many apartmentprojects where divorced families
(14:03):
could find a haven of lowerrents for the trade-off of
little privacy and usuallycramped quarters.
What was comforting about theseneighborhoods, though, is that
everyone kept an eye out for oneanother.
Andy Puglisi was 10 years oldin August of 1976.
He moved that summer with hismom and siblings into an
(14:25):
apartment at the Projects thatwas across the street from the
Higgins Memorial Pool.
You can see the pool from EastAlton Street, the street where
they lived.
Another thing that was greatabout some of these high
concentrated complexes is theplaygrounds and the swimming
pools.
Places like that were an oasis,a safe place, so parents
(14:50):
thought it cost 15 cents to swimall day, and if the lifeguard
liked you, they'd often let youswim for free, or you could just
peel up the fence and scootunder when no one was looking,
and like most 70s neighborhoods,this one was alive, with kids
playing in the streets, usuallyuntil the lights came on.
(15:14):
It was a hazy, hot and humid NewEngland summer day, saturday,
august 21st.
Andy was a few weeks from his11th birthday and would be
starting 5th grade soon.
The kids would make the shortwalk to the city pool from their
complex.
Andy had a plan to meet hisfriend, melanie.
She was 9, full of freckles,hair and braids, and definitely
(15:36):
had a crush on him.
She too lived in the apartmentcomplex with her older siblings
at the time.
Melanie and Andy met up at thepool late in the morning and
spent the entire day playing.
She would later tell the BostonGlobe that it was the place to
hang out.
If he lived in the projects,she'd spend the rest of her days
(15:59):
asking and answering questionsabout her friend.
After hours in the hot sun,melanie, feeling hungry, wanted
to walk back home.
She asked Andy to come with her, but for some reason he didn't
want to leave.
I can't help but wonder was itsimply his child's innocence
(16:22):
squeezing every moment out ofthat summer day?
Was he afraid that maybe oncehe left he wouldn't be able to
return?
Did he just not want to go home?
It was a big family and his momhad told her boyfriend to leave
.
So family stress we might neverknow For reasons she couldn't
(16:45):
explain even as an adultMelanie's usual walk the 200 or
so yards back to her family'sapartment gave her a bad feeling
that day.
With Andy hanging back at thepool, melanie's older brother,
jeff, who was 11, walked herhome.
That would be the last time shesaw her friend Andy sitting in
(17:07):
the sun wearing his greenbathing suit.
Faith Puglisi has spoken manytimes about that day.
She recalled that Andy watchedtelevision that morning.
She recalled that Andy watchedtelevision that morning.
While some of the popularprimetime shows back in 1976
were the Bionic Woman, the SixMillion Dollar man and Happy
(17:28):
Days, classics like Scooby-Doo,land of the Lost and Fat Albert
were on during the day, I triedto imagine what he was watching
TV 38, channel 56, creatureDouble Feature.
Faith made Andy some soupbefore he left for the pool.
She recounts the last thing shesaid to him Remember to stay
(17:56):
with your brothers and sisters.
She specifically told Andy andhis siblings to stay together
and to come home by threeo'clock.
The siblings dispersed into thatsummer day and his mother was
busy with the work it took toraise five kids.
She was also dealing with alive-in boyfriend who she just
invited to go live somewhereelse.
When the kids piled home forlunch, andy was missing from the
(18:16):
headcount, though it is said inmany news articles that Andy
made a call home around 3 30 andhis brother, michael, answered,
and no one is sure why.
With Andy still not accountedfor, his mom told Michael tell
him to get his ass home.
Don't make me go over there.
Can you hear your mom's voicein your head?
(18:38):
After pouring through manystories about Andy's
disappearance and writing quitea lot about it, not all of the
facts lined up, so I wanted tohear his mother Faith's account.
So I went back and rewatchedhave you Seen Andy?
That documentary that hisfriend Melanie made and released
(18:58):
in 2006.
His mother makes no mention ofa phone call and Michael, his
younger brother, said he did goback to the pool after having
lunch to tell Andy that theirmom was pissed and he better
come home.
And whatever lifeguard Michaelquestioned at that time couldn't
answer.
When Andy was last seen, noneof them could be sure at that
(19:20):
time.
When he was last at the pool,the last known sighting,
according to one of thelifeguards questioned later, was
545.
That is when they claimed tohave seen him in the pool area.
That lifeguard confirmed thathe was wearing his green bathing
suit and sneakers with stars onthem.
If he had called home at 3.30and heard his mother's angry
(19:44):
order to come back, it shouldhave been enough for him to
leave the pool when Andy stillwasn't home.
At about five o'clock Faith wentout to comb the neighborhood of
row houses that line EastDalton Street, calling his name
and checking wherever she couldthink of.
Some of the kids thought hemight be at the stadium, so she
(20:04):
made her way to the playgroundthere.
No sign of him.
With the sun setting soon, sheworried more about his epilepsy
and if Andy had had a seizure,she asked family members for
help and contacted Andy's father, her ex-husband Angelo Sr.
Initially Faith Puglisi didn'twant to call the police.
(20:25):
She was sure he'd show up.
She knew Andy.
He just went to a friend'shouse, lost track of the time by
nightfall more family memberswere calling out to him Still no
Andy and she knew what she hadto do.
Faith Puglisi reported Andymissing to the Lawrence police
between 9 and 10 pm.
The police would ask thetypical questions but said that
(20:48):
he needed to be missing for 24hours.
He was 10, and this was 1976.
Society had a much differentview of this then, as evidenced
by some of the related stories Iwill share.
It is all horrifying andnightmare-inducing, quite
frankly.
Lawrence Police finally sent adetective to the Puglisi home at
(21:11):
3 o'clock in the morning.
When you look at the photos ofAndy Puglisi, he is all of a
sweet 10-year-old floppy-haired,brown-eyed boy with a big smile
and full cheeks.
How could he go missing from acrowded public pool and never be
seen or heard from again,whereabouts unknown?
(21:32):
In the search for Andy oranything that could be tied to
Andy, nothing would be found.
Not one clue left behind aboutwhat could have happened.
That a boy can vanish into thinair was a haunting reminder
that no child is safe Definitelynot in the 1970s.
(21:53):
As the late night investigationunfolded, the Puglisi family
discord became obvious.
A memo in the police fileincluded the line.
Accusations andcounter-accusations between the
mother and father have onlytended to muddy and already
unclear disappearance.
The strife led some detectivesto lean on the theory that each
(22:16):
parent could be hiding Andy toget back at the other.
That false theory would impedethe early stages of the
investigation.
As the search ramped up, policewould go to Melanie's house in
the early morning hours toquestion her and her brother
about when they last saw Andy.
Her worry at the time was thathe'd get in trouble for whatever
(22:38):
adventure he might be on thenext few days wiped any thought
of that from her mind.
Police swarmed the area,helicopters flew overhead,
truckers on CB radios made a lotof noise.
The National Guard and GreenBerets took over the
neighborhood.
Police dogs were brought in tocatch Andy's scent in the woods
(22:58):
and at the abandoned dump thatboarded the city pool.
Divers were searching thenearby Shawshank River that ran
alongside Route 495.
Given the unknown window ofwhen Andy was last seen and when
his family went to search forhim, it is possible he was
abducted and on the road in nextto no time at all.
Friends and neighbors came tohelp Say hi.
(23:20):
Frito, jeff and Bill Perkins,melanie's brothers and local
kids would show investigatorsaround the key areas of interest
where they would build fortsand dig tunnels in the woods,
the areas by the swamp and overto Den Rock Park.
More than 2,000 volunteers weresaid to have showed up for the
Puglisi's to search for theirmissing little boy.
(23:43):
Just six days after Andydisappeared, the cops called off
their search for him.
In a press conference, one ofthe detectives shared that it
was their belief that Andy wasalive and being helped by
someone and that this someonewould return him to his parents.
Due to conflicting stories byfamily members, the cops said
(24:05):
they sensed discord, at leastwith his parents, so the
investigators didn't feel theyshould even bother to look for
him.
I don't know how you got alongwith your ex or how your mother
got along with your ex or howyour mother got along with your
father, but the added trauma ofa missing kid doesn't sew up the
(24:26):
loose ends of a bad marriage.
It was tragic Andy was gone.
The likelihood that he wasalive six days later was not
very good.
You've all watched the first 48, right.
Why the authorities would dropa missing child's investigation
(24:47):
this way and the way hisdisappearance would show up in
news stories doesn't sit right.
I found many archive storiesfrom that time and it is
interesting what some of the oldnewspapers wrote about a
missing 10-year-old boy.
One headline sat above a shortparagraph in the Portsmouth
Herald dated August 25, 1976.
(25:09):
It simply read Epileptic StillMissing, angelo Puglisi, the
10-year-old boy still missing inLawrence, an epileptic who
needed hospital care if he had aseizure.
A variation of that sameparagraph would appear in a
number of area papers.
Society's attitudes towardmissing and abused children are
(25:32):
disturbing.
The cops actually told thepublic that they didn't think he
was really missing.
The cops actually told thepublic that they didn't think he
was really missing.
Faith Puglisi suffered through alot of blame and ridicule.
She was, after all, a divorcedmother with five kids at the
time, living with a black man inthe projects of Lawrence.
(25:57):
Even police officers said shehad something to do with it.
One off-duty cop read her theriot act, accusing her of
killing her own son and thentelling her she could call in an
anonymous tip on herself.
Then I guess that cop couldswoop right in and be the hero
(26:17):
of the day right.
Faith Puglisi told the Lowellson that the harassment was a
nightmare.
By late September, about a monthafter Andy disappeared, faith
Puglisi hired a privateinvestigator.
She did not tell the policethat investigator.
Edward A Orlando, turned upsome leads, only to be blocked
by the Lawrence police.
(26:38):
Orlando met with the chief anda detective at the time and was
refused information that couldaid in his investigation.
They did, however, get thego-ahead to perform lie detector
tests on the family membersclosest to Andy.
Eventually, investigators wouldease up on the Puglisi parents
(26:58):
as suspects in Andy'sdisappearance.
Faith Puglisi told investigatorsher story in detail, what they
did that morning, what she toldAndy and his siblings to do that
day.
They saw her struggling withhis disappearance.
They watched her care for herother children while trying to
(27:19):
quietly contain the panic ofhaving a missing 10-year-old boy
.
She would say she couldn't fallapart because there would be
nobody else to make them do whatthey needed to do to find her
son.
Mr Puglisi was working in Salem, new Hampshire, about seven
miles away, when Andydisappeared.
It became clear that he too wasnot involved in any plot to
(27:41):
steal his own son.
Investigators also had to ruleout Jerome Phillips, the man who
was living with Faith Puglisi.
Initially there was cause totake a closer look.
Faith had asked him to move out.
Maybe making her pay bykidnapping her oldest son would
change her mind or her emotionalstate would need him to stay.
(28:06):
People do strange things, don't?
We know Jerome was with Faiththat morning when Andy left to
go to the pool.
He also passed a lie detectortest.
Andy's case would get evenstranger.
In the years since Andy Puglisidisappeared his mother has said
(28:28):
she knew what happened, notbecause the police searched
beyond those five days, not byany evidence gathered or any
confession by the perpetrator.
Many years later, on the 30thanniversary of his disappearance
, andy's mother said shebelieves he was abducted and
(28:49):
murdered.
Andy was 10 when he wentmissing on that summer day in
1976.
He was last seen near theHiggins Pool in South Lawrence,
right across from the stadiumprojects where he lived with his
mom and his siblings at 31 EastDalton Street, about a
four-minute walk.
(29:10):
What we would come to learn isthat there were at least five
child predators in the area ofthe Lawrence Public Pool when
Andy Puglisi went missing.
I will come back to this.
In the 1970s in Boston and whenI say Boston I mean the region,
(29:31):
the greater Boston area it wasa place where kids ran almost
feral, barefoot, no bike helmets, we drank fructose corn syrup,
we stole penny candy, we smokedcigarettes, we snuck out of our
Nana's pocketbook, we shot BBguns, we trick-or-treated in
packs, often with our wintercoats under our plastic costumes
(29:54):
.
Sweat beating on our lips fromthose smelly masks and hardly a
parent in sight Sounds awful bytoday's parenting standards, but
it was how it was back in the70s and 80s and it was pretty
great.
I remember running around theneighborhood in my small
Massachusetts town.
(30:14):
Groveland was nothing likeLawrence, but the kids were all
kind of the same.
In the 70s and 80s.
Gen Xers are known for ourself-sufficiency.
The novel and subsequent filmMystic River starred Sean Penn,
tim Robbins, laura Linney, kevinBacon star-studded it was was
(30:36):
based on the fictional work ofDennis Lehane, a Boston native,
and while the story is said tobe inspired by experiences
Lehane had as a kid growing upin Dorchester, people I know
from places like South Bostonand Somerville will tell you
they remember stories of men incars driving around looking for
(30:57):
kids and the creepy priests,just like the scenes that played
out in mystic river.
At least watch the movie.
It lines up with how Boston wasrocked by the clergy sex
scandal.
Churches were riddled withpedophile priests who got
shuttled from town to town andthe church secretively and
(31:20):
criminally swept it under therug the one that the Boston
Globe spotlight team, whom themovie is named after and
received awards, accolades andcredit for the cat, was out of
the proverbial bag a year before, however, when journalist
(31:42):
Kristen Lombardi of the BostonPhoenix, the poorly funded,
badly run and now defunct AltWeekly, broke the story in 2001.
Maybe I should say this as amatter of full disclosure.
I worked at the company's radiostation and while there were
some despicable people around,of course nothing happens.
(32:04):
It is kind of funny to meseeing as though the Boston
Phoenix would be the paper toinvestigate itself with some
hard-hitting journalism.
The original story was CardinalSin sex abuse.
Victims of former priest JohnGagin charge that Cardinal
Bernard Law was told of Gagin'scriminal activity as early as
(32:28):
1984, but did nothing to stop it.
Now they want to know why.
By Kristen Lombardi for theBoston Phoenix, march 23, 2001.
Kristen Lombardi of the Phoenixpaved the entire way in 2001.
But even as she chipped away atCardinal Sin and seven
(32:49):
follow-ups, it was much biggerthan she could handle on her own
.
In a piece for Boston Magazinein 2015, kristen Lombardi is
quoted saying when I was doingit, I was aware that I couldn't
do it all.
I was aware there was a biggerstory that I couldn't tell
because I didn't have theresources.
I was working at a small,scrappy alternative newspaper.
(33:12):
I wasn't working at ametropolitan daily with a
gigantic staff.
I had four colleagues Enter theBoston Globe Spotlight team,
one with much better resourcesthan the Phoenix.
Much better resources than thePhoenix.
(33:36):
They rolled out their series onJanuary 6, 2002.
It exposed the lengths theCatholic Church would go to to
cover up its decades of childabuse and to keep the lies,
manipulation and bribery asecret.
The story Church allowed abuseby priests for years.
Aware of Gagin's record,archdiocese still shuttled him
from parish to parish.
The Globe Spotlight team ofreporters Matt Carroll, sasha
(34:02):
Pfeiffer, michael Resendez andeditor Walter Robbie Robinson
there are a number of priestsnamed in this scandal.
Gagan is the former father JohnGagan, who, as this piece will
detail, saw more than 130 peoplecome forward with their stories
(34:23):
since the mid-1990s, a numberthat is about 150 today.
Their stories are of horrificchildhood trauma, of how a
former priest, no serial rapistabused them over a
(34:45):
three-decade-long run whilemoving through a half a dozen
greater Boston parishes.
Almost always his victims wereschool-age boys.
At least one of those childrenwas four years old.
Aware of Gagin's record andsome time away for quote-unquote
therapy.
(35:05):
The Archdiocese still moved himaround to different parishes.
Still moved him around todifferent parishes.
That is fact, not opinion,covered by the Globe Spotlight
team and Kristen Lombardi'sBoston Phoenix reporting,
published almost one full yearapart.
Anyone who dared issue awarning, like Father John
(35:30):
Michael Darcy, who wrote toCardinal Law in the mid-1980s
about Gagin's behavior.
These snitching priests wouldbe sent to someplace they wished
not to be.
Father Darcy landed in Indianafrom Boston for his trouble.
The clergy sex abuse scandalgoes back for decades and is
(35:53):
certainly not limited to Boston.
Maybe you've seen the KeepersAbout the murder of a nun in
Baltimore in 1969.
Must see viewing.
The problem is a globalphenomenon and the attitudes
toward child sex abuse overthese decades is dumbfounding.
(36:13):
These stories are infuriatingthe often silent suffering of
children, whether it was astranger lurking the streets,
the touchy uncle or a beloved byall leader in the church.
(36:33):
All of this horribleness bringsto mind the story of a little
boy named Danny Croteau.
He was 13 when his body wasfound floating face down in the
Chicopee River just a few milesfrom his home in Springfield,
massachusetts.
It was 1972.
It was bad enough losing theiryoungest son this way.
It haunted his parents untilthe day that they died.
(36:55):
The family believed thatRichard R Levine, who would
later be convicted of child sexabuse, murdered their son by
crushing his skull with a rockand dumping him in that river
and then coming to their aid asa friend and confidant.
Danny's parents figured it out,and just about every law
(37:18):
enforcement official who workedon the case believed Levine was
responsible for Danny's murder.
Levine, though, was FatherLevine, a Catholic priest who
got close to the family of fiveboys and two girls.
He presided over Danny'sfuneral mass at St Catherine's,
where Danny and his brotherswere altar boys.
(37:40):
While his family developed aclearer picture after his death,
danny's murder case remainedopen.
Police and prosecutors had acircumstantial case against
Levine, but the lack of physicalevidence and of witnesses
placing him with Danny the nightof the murder made authorities
(38:01):
reluctant to charge him.
The power of the church isstrong.
Levine would be laicized,that's, invited to leave the
church as a member of the clergy, stripped of his God badge in
2013.
He was removed from theministry after his arrest in
(38:21):
1991.
But the diocese didn't seekdefrocking because it was quote
a long and cumbersome process.
Levine would be classified bythe state as a sexual offender
with a high risk to offend again.
You won't be surprised to learnthat Levine avoided jail time,
(38:41):
instead receiving 10 yearsprobation in the Diocese of
Springfield, with a lot ofchecks to settle a lot of
lawsuits.
Lot of checks to settle a lotof lawsuits.
Two Springfield Catholic bishops, christopher Weldon, who died
in 1982, and Thomas Dupree, whodied in 2016,.
(39:03):
Both had credible accusationsof child molestation levied
against them and both of themcovered up abuse and murder of
Danny Croteau by Father Levine,who was in their charge.
But the question of who killedDanny Croteau would be answered.
It is important to add that theDiocese of Springfield knew
(39:26):
Levine was a suspect and knew ofsexual abuse complaints against
him, and yet allowed him accessas a priest to children for 20
years.
After the murder In 2021, dyingof COVID-19, a bedridden
80-year-old Richard Levineadmitted to state police
(39:49):
detectives that he was therewith Danny and was ultimately
responsible for his murder.
His admission was not thatupfront, honest or direct,
though.
Pedophile priest and childmurderer Richard Levine died
just as the Massachusetts StatePolice were preparing to arrest
him and charge him with the 1972murder of 13-year-old Danny
(40:14):
Croteau.
Danny Croteau's murder died theday he would be officially
charged with killing him.
Wow.
This is taken directly from theBoston Globe piece by Kevin
Cullen, who chased this storyfor years.
The Diocese of Springfield,whose bishops routinely covered
(40:36):
up for Levine and kept him onsalary even after he was
convicted of molesting children,eventually paid 17 of Levine's
victims $1.4 million in a 1994settlement in a 1994 settlement
and paid out an additional $7.7million to 46 victims in 2004.
(40:56):
After Danny Croteau was foundmurdered, the church was willing
to pay them off, not toinvestigate who did it.
Yet people laid down their livesfor this religion, dear God.
Indeed, levine is, for thosewho followed the sad and
traumatic clergy sex abusecrisis, symbolic of the colossal
(41:19):
failures of the church withinthe Springfield diocese, as John
Gagin was in the Boston diocese.
The defrocked priest John Gaginwould be sentenced in February
2002 to the maximum prison termof nine to ten years for
fondling a boy.
He put his hands down the pantsof a ten-year-old boy and
(41:43):
grabbed his bottom in a swimmingpool at the Waltham Boys and
Girls Club in 1991.
That is a ghastly level ofcomfort, or narcissism, or worse
, to behave like that.
At 66 years old, he would besent to prison as a convicted
felon.
(42:04):
Here comes the buzz kill.
In August 2003, john Gagan wasmurdered in his cell at Sousa
Baranowski Correctional Centerin Shirley, 30 miles northwest
of Boston.
He was being housed in theprotective custody unit because
of his high profile as a mainplayer in the explosive Boston
(42:24):
clergy sex abuse scandal.
His killer, some mightcelebrate, is no hero Joseph
Druce, the name his killer uses,was serving a life sentence for
strangling a Gloucester man todeath in 1988, claiming that
that man made sexual advanceswhen he picked him up
(42:44):
hitchhiking A gay panic defenseA defense that is banned in 17
states, by the way, but not inMassachusetts, though bills have
been introduced.
Joseph Drews, whose real nameis Darren Smilage, is also an
anti-Semite, a racist plus ahomophobe, and this is according
(43:08):
to his own father is.
According to his own father,his murder of Gagin was a prize
kill.
It was planning to get him formore than a month.
Other prisoners knew Save theheroics about how he had a duty
to rid the world of a pedophile.
Both men are deplorable equally.
All of these things go together.
(43:39):
A missing boy from lawrence,murdered children, the
sanctioned sexual abuse ofchildren.
Society has had anall-too-relaxed stance on child
abuse.
I'll be right back.
Thank you to our patreonpatrons and supporters Superstar
EPs, lisa McColgan, rhiannonHeather, new folks dropping a
tip, paula, thank you.
(44:00):
Patreon support resumes June5th.
I paused it as I took the monthoff for the rumble Patreoncom
slash crime of the truest kind.
You can give the dogs a bone,drop a tip in the tip jar at any
time.
My dogs are grateful for yoursupport.
(44:24):
Today, 47 years later,investigators are no closer to
solving Andy Poglisi's case andhis family still does not know
what happened to their littleboy, to those kids' big brother.
Andy has siblings he's nevermet and Melanie's sweetheart.
They have had decades to walkthrough their last moments with
(44:46):
him and to have awful scenariosroll around in their heads.
It's cruel.
The case is cold but reportedlyremains open.
Melanie, andy's little friendfrom the neighborhood, produced
a documentary.
Have you Seen Andy?
You can stream it now on HBOMax.
(45:07):
Now, just Max.
It seems like the initialinvestigation could have been
handled very differently.
Maybe they should have lookedfor him instead of fixating on
the parents.
It is incomprehensible thatpolice told parents that a
10-year-old needed to be gonefor 24 hours before they lift a
(45:27):
finger.
Angelo Puglisi Sr put up a goodfight to get them to start
looking sooner.
Because of the number of childpredators in the area, many
theories lean on Andy beinglured from the pool by one of
those known sexual abusers.
Several kids from theneighborhood spoke about a man
(45:47):
at the pool asking children tohelp him look for a dog.
Whether anyone actually saw adog that day is unknown and
incredibly unlikely predatorsplay games with unsuspecting
people.
They manipulate their emotions.
What better way to get achild's attention than to talk
about a doggy?
(46:08):
Right?
If a windowless van pulls upand says bulldog kisses, I would
be so fucked.
I make jokes to add a little bitof levity to a hideous story.
The truth of it is this thiswas any one of us in the 70s and
80s.
We were the latchkey generation.
We ran the streets, we were thestreets, and if I sound like I
(46:32):
wear sort of a badge of honor, Ido.
I would have likely preferredto have many of the things some
of the other kids had attentiveparents, that sort of thing but
I turned out decent, all limbsintact, with a compassionate
soul.
There are stories of vilepedophile rings, men driving
(46:54):
around plucking kids off thestreet, approaching children at
the city pool, hanging aroundlocker rooms and one child's
account of being with Andy inthe woods behind the city pool
and seeing other men there.
We will get to all of that inpart two.
(47:14):
Thank you for listening.
Take care of yourself, go for awalk, put your face in the sun,
hug a dog For real, it'shealing.
And please lock your goddamndoors.
Hello listeners, Anngelle here, back in the late
spring of 2023, I shared thestory of 10-year-old Andy
Puglisi, the little boy whodisappeared from the public pool
in Lawrence, massachusetts, inthe summer of 1976.
All thanks go to his childhoodfriend, melanie Perkins.
She spent decades researching,writing and producing the
(00:22):
documentary.
Have you Seen Andy streamingnow on Max?
In the decades that have passedsince Andy Puglisi disappeared,
what we have learned about thefate of missing and murdered
children, particularly aroundMassachusetts and New England in
the 1970s?
Well, it has been eye-opening.
I am resharing episode 43 and44 about Andy's case because on
(00:48):
Friday I will share an update onAndy's case and what we have
learned in the years since.
Friday's episode will featureMelanie Perkins McLaughlin,
creator of that documentary andwho released Open Investigation,
a brand new investigativepodcast that starts with Andy
(01:10):
Puglisi in a story that seems tohave no end.
Thank you for listening and,please, true crime is not for
children, yet these childrenneed these stories told.
Please listen with care.
Well, hello, my name is AngeleWood and this is Crime of the
(01:32):
Truest Kind.
Hey, everybody, it really feelslike summer in New England now,
(01:55):
doesn't it Just like that?
This is a true crime.
Local history and storytellingpodcast.
I write about crime.
Yes, I set the scene, I connectstory themes.
I talk about things thathappened here in Massachusetts
and New England.
(02:16):
This episode is about murderedand missing children.
One in particular it's aboutchild sexual abuse, the
attitudes among the public atlarge in regards to this topic
and the part that the CatholicChurch has played in the serial
abuse of children.
If this is something that willhurt you, impede your own
(02:39):
healing or offend you, it maynot be something you wish to
listen to, and this often goesunsaid, but this podcast it's
not for kids.
One more thing Ways I ask youto support this show.
Share it, tell your friends andfamily to listen.
Share it on social media toothers in your community who
(03:02):
would enjoy it.
Drop a rating and review.
Apple Podcasts is a platformwith this feature.
Spotify allows for ratings bygiving the dogs a bone in the
tip jar.
Dog treats are a hot commodityin my house and become a Patreon
patron.
I have four tiers, starting atone dollar, and I do have
(03:25):
patrons to thank later in thisepisode.
Drop by the merch store atcrimeofthechewestkindcom,
episode 43,.
We travel to the MerrimackValley with a stop in Lawrence,
massachusetts.
There is so much info aroundthis subject matter.
This will be part one of two.
(03:49):
Lawrence, massachusetts.
Located in Essex County, 25miles north of Boston and five
miles south of the New Hampshireline, it is a city of
immigrants and industry, amanufacturing city that produces
(04:12):
many products textiles,footwear, paper products,
computers and food.
The massive mill buildingslining the Merrimack River,
beautiful views of the GreatStone Dam and the clock and bell
towers are tributes to Lawrenceindustrial heritage channeling.
The strength of the MerrimackRiver and its systems of canals
(04:34):
fueled the Lawrence mills thatproduced textiles for American
and European markets by theearly 20th century.
With a population of nearly95,000, the city was a world
leader in the production ofcotton and woolen textiles in
those massive mills.
The very delicious Joseph'sHummus is made in Lawrence on
(04:55):
International Way.
I must also add that Cedar'sMediterranean Foods makers of
delicious hummus and dips ismade next door in the Ward Hill
area of Haverhill, bothdelicious, both from the same
area.
Malden Mills was based inLawrence, malden Mills who, in
(05:16):
1981, invented synthetic fleece,which we see in all sorts of
cold weather clothing.
Customers include the retailersLL Bean, timberlands and North
Face.
The factory burned down onDecember 11, 1995, when a boiler
exploded, destroying three ofthe factory's buildings and
(05:39):
damaging nearly half of theentire plant.
Ceo Aaron Feuerstein, grandsonof its founder, decided to
rebuild almost immediately andsupported his employees by
paying their salaries andbenefits while rebuilding.
I also know that during thattime Mr Feuerstein also had
(05:59):
provided funds for employees toseek out education.
One Malden Mills employee tookclasses at my college during
that time.
By September 1997, the factorywas rebuilt and Aaron Feuerstein
was celebrated for his uncommonbusiness practices.
One story called him the menschof Malden Mills for how he took
(06:19):
care of his people during thattime.
Lawrence has made the news overthe years A spate of arsons,
missing children, crime.
But there is one story inparticular that we will talk
about on today's episode.
It is that of a 10-year-old boy, andy Puglisi, who simply
(06:39):
disappeared in the summer of1976.
National Missing Children's Dayis May 25th.
It marks the date that EtanPace went missing and was
designated by President RonaldReagan on the fourth anniversary
of Etan's disappearance in 1983.
(07:01):
Etan Pace is the six-year-oldNew York City boy who
disappeared on his way to theschool bus in his Soho
neighborhood in 1979.
It was the one and only time hewas permitted to walk alone.
Back in the 1970s there were nosystems in place for local or
national law enforcement when achild went missing.
Etan's disappearance 44 yearsago helped to change that.
(07:24):
He was one of the first missingchildren ever to appear on the
milk carton, and Etan's casehelped to establish a national
hotline for missing children.
It made it easier for lawenforcement agencies to share
information about missing kids'cases.
More changed when Adam Walsh, asix-year-old boy, was abducted
(07:45):
from a Sears in the mall inHollywood, florida, on July 27,
1981.
His partial remains were foundtwo weeks later and 100 miles
away.
In 1984, the Walshes foundedthe National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children and in1988, john Walsh, adam's father,
(08:06):
started the show America's MostWanted.
That has since helped lawenforcement officials track down
hundreds of fugitives.
The National Center for Missingand Exploited Children has an
incredible amount of informationand resources.
The data about child abductionis staggering.
(08:28):
Resources to support familiesof missing children and child
exploitation the Cyber Tip Lineoffers public and online
electronic service providers aneasy way to quickly report
suspected incidents of sexualexploitation of children online.
I do share these links in theshow notes and at
crimeofthetruestkindcom.
(08:49):
Though the milk carton campaignwas probably the most visible
part of that movement.
By 1985, nearly half of thenation's 1,800 independent
dairies had adopted the practice.
Missing kids on milk cartons wasone way to offer resources in
those days.
Missing kids on milk cartonswas one way to offer resources
in those days, and dairies werenot alone in their advocacy.
(09:12):
The faces of missing kids wouldappear on everything from pizza
boxes to grocery bags, to thejunk mail we threw away, all
with the question have you seenme?
A few people told police theyrecognized a child seen on the
side of a milk bottle.
But there is no data on howmany children were saved by the
milk cartons or otherwise.
But in my opinion, something isbetter than nothing.
(09:37):
Organizations would holdfingerprinting events for
children and kits were createdfor parents to have at the ready
if their child went missing.
Children were taught to ask forsecret words and alternative
names from a neighbor or afriend sent to pick them up if a
parent had to run late orneeded help.
It all did help policedepartments be better at
handling missing children'scases.
(09:58):
So what happened to thepractice of putting kids on milk
?
It ceased in the late 80s afterBenjamin Spock.
Dr Spock and Dr T BarryBrazelton, two of America's most
celebrated pediatricians of thetime and authors who
revolutionized the understandingof babies and child development
(10:20):
.
They worried that the imagescould frighten children and
cause unnecessary trauma.
Now they were the foremostauthorities on child rearing of
that time and each of them haveties to New England, and each of
them lived well into their 90sIn a tool we use present day.
The Amber Alert came much later.
(10:41):
In 1996, 9-year-old AmberHagerman was abducted from her
Texas hometown.
There is a documentary abouther story.
There wasn't a system in placeto shoot any kind of emergency
information out to the public.
A neighbor who had witnessedher abduction called 911.
(11:04):
Four days after her abductionAmber's body was found.
She was less than five milesfrom where she was taken.
Amber's family would work to getthe Texas legislature to pass
stronger laws to protectchildren, but it was a Texas
resident.
A woman named Diana Simonethought that a more appropriate
(11:28):
child alert system would bebeneficial in helping find
children in the very importanthours following their
disappearances.
Radio stations would announcethe missing child.
Report Alerts were sent toradio stations, tv stations, law
enforcement agencies,newspapers and local
(11:50):
organizations.
Now AMBER is an acronym thatstands for America's Missing
Broadcast Emergency Response,but it is in tribute to Amber
Renee Hagerman and, as ofJanuary 2, 2023, there have been
(12:11):
1,127 children successfullyrecovered through the Amber
Alert System.
Children successfully recoveredthrough the Amber Alert System.
131 children were rescuedbecause of wireless emergency
alerts.
Sign up for them on yourtelephone.
While Amber's namesaketechnology does save kids,
(12:35):
amber's murder remains unsolved.
This one still hits hard.
I grew up 20 minutes away fromLawrence, massachusetts, and
hadn't heard the story until afew years ago, and I did reach
out a few times to the childhoodfriend who takes almost center
stage in this story.
(12:56):
Her name is Melanie Perkins andshe made the documentary have
you Seen Andy?
It's quite well done.
So I did reach out to her tospeak to her about this case and
we didn't get anywhere.
I suppose she didn't want totalk to me about it.
It happens.
Andy Puglisi was born AngeloJean Puglisi on September 2,
(13:19):
1965.
He was the first arrival ofmany kids for the Puglisi family
.
His parents, angelo Puglisi Srand Mom Faith were young just 19
and 15 when they married.
Sounds unreal today, but itwasn't so much then.
Faith wanted to get out of herhouse and away from her own
(13:42):
parents.
Baby Andy came soon after Morekids would come, before the
couple finally divorced in 1975.
Andy's family would land at theStadium Housing Project in South
Lawrence Every town had themwhere lots of kids did time in
one of the many apartmentprojects where divorced families
(14:03):
could find a haven of lowerrents for the trade-off of
little privacy and usuallycramped quarters.
What was comforting about theseneighborhoods, though, is that
everyone kept an eye out for oneanother.
Andy Puglisi was 10 years oldin August of 1976.
He moved that summer with hismom and siblings into an
(14:25):
apartment at the Projects thatwas across the street from the
Higgins Memorial Pool.
You can see the pool from EastAlton Street, the street where
they lived.
Another thing that was greatabout some of these high
concentrated complexes is theplaygrounds and the swimming
pools.
Places like that were an oasis,a safe place, so parents
(14:50):
thought it cost 15 cents to swimall day, and if the lifeguard
liked you, they'd often let youswim for free, or you could just
peel up the fence and scootunder when no one was looking,
and like most 70s neighborhoods,this one was alive, with kids
playing in the streets, usuallyuntil the lights came on.
(15:14):
It was a hazy, hot and humid NewEngland summer day, saturday,
august 21st.
Andy was a few weeks from his11th birthday and would be
starting 5th grade soon.
The kids would make the shortwalk to the city pool from their
complex.
Andy had a plan to meet hisfriend, melanie.
She was 9, full of freckles,hair and braids, and definitely
(15:36):
had a crush on him.
She too lived in the apartmentcomplex with her older siblings
at the time.
Melanie and Andy met up at thepool late in the morning and
spent the entire day playing.
She would later tell the BostonGlobe that it was the place to
hang out.
If he lived in the projects,she'd spend the rest of her days
(15:59):
asking and answering questionsabout her friend.
After hours in the hot sun,melanie, feeling hungry, wanted
to walk back home.
She asked Andy to come with her, but for some reason he didn't
want to leave.
I can't help but wonder was itsimply his child's innocence
(16:22):
squeezing every moment out ofthat summer day?
Was he afraid that maybe oncehe left he wouldn't be able to
return?
Did he just not want to go home?
It was a big family and his momhad told her boyfriend to leave
.
So family stress we might neverknow For reasons she couldn't
(16:45):
explain even as an adultMelanie's usual walk the 200 or
so yards back to her family'sapartment gave her a bad feeling
that day.
With Andy hanging back at thepool, melanie's older brother,
jeff, who was 11, walked herhome.
That would be the last time shesaw her friend Andy sitting in
(17:07):
the sun wearing his greenbathing suit.
Faith Puglisi has spoken manytimes about that day.
She recalled that Andy watchedtelevision that morning.
She recalled that Andy watchedtelevision that morning.
While some of the popularprimetime shows back in 1976
were the Bionic Woman, the SixMillion Dollar man and Happy
(17:28):
Days, classics like Scooby-Doo,land of the Lost and Fat Albert
were on during the day, I triedto imagine what he was watching
TV 38, channel 56, creatureDouble Feature.
Faith made Andy some soupbefore he left for the pool.
She recounts the last thing shesaid to him Remember to stay
(17:56):
with your brothers and sisters.
She specifically told Andy andhis siblings to stay together
and to come home by threeo'clock.
The siblings dispersed into thatsummer day and his mother was
busy with the work it took toraise five kids.
She was also dealing with alive-in boyfriend who she just
invited to go live somewhereelse.
When the kids piled home forlunch, andy was missing from the
(18:16):
headcount, though it is said inmany news articles that Andy
made a call home around 3 30 andhis brother, michael, answered,
and no one is sure why.
With Andy still not accountedfor, his mom told Michael tell
him to get his ass home.
Don't make me go over there.
Can you hear your mom's voicein your head?
(18:38):
After pouring through manystories about Andy's
disappearance and writing quitea lot about it, not all of the
facts lined up, so I wanted tohear his mother Faith's account.
So I went back and rewatchedhave you Seen Andy?
That documentary that hisfriend Melanie made and released
(18:58):
in 2006.
His mother makes no mention ofa phone call and Michael, his
younger brother, said he did goback to the pool after having
lunch to tell Andy that theirmom was pissed and he better
come home.
And whatever lifeguard Michaelquestioned at that time couldn't
answer.
When Andy was last seen, noneof them could be sure at that
(19:20):
time.
When he was last at the pool,the last known sighting,
according to one of thelifeguards questioned later, was
545.
That is when they claimed tohave seen him in the pool area.
That lifeguard confirmed thathe was wearing his green bathing
suit and sneakers with stars onthem.
If he had called home at 3.30and heard his mother's angry
(19:44):
order to come back, it shouldhave been enough for him to
leave the pool when Andy stillwasn't home.
At about five o'clock Faith wentout to comb the neighborhood of
row houses that line EastDalton Street, calling his name
and checking wherever she couldthink of.
Some of the kids thought hemight be at the stadium, so she
(20:04):
made her way to the playgroundthere.
No sign of him.
With the sun setting soon, sheworried more about his epilepsy
and if Andy had had a seizure,she asked family members for
help and contacted Andy's father, her ex-husband Angelo Sr.
Initially Faith Puglisi didn'twant to call the police.
(20:25):
She was sure he'd show up.
She knew Andy.
He just went to a friend'shouse, lost track of the time by
nightfall more family memberswere calling out to him Still no
Andy and she knew what she hadto do.
Faith Puglisi reported Andymissing to the Lawrence police
between 9 and 10 pm.
The police would ask thetypical questions but said that
(20:48):
he needed to be missing for 24hours.
He was 10, and this was 1976.
Society had a much differentview of this then, as evidenced
by some of the related stories Iwill share.
It is all horrifying andnightmare-inducing, quite
frankly.
Lawrence Police finally sent adetective to the Puglisi home at
(21:11):
3 o'clock in the morning.
When you look at the photos ofAndy Puglisi, he is all of a
sweet 10-year-old floppy-haired,brown-eyed boy with a big smile
and full cheeks.
How could he go missing from acrowded public pool and never be
seen or heard from again,whereabouts unknown?
(21:32):
In the search for Andy oranything that could be tied to
Andy, nothing would be found.
Not one clue left behind aboutwhat could have happened.
That a boy can vanish into thinair was a haunting reminder
that no child is safe Definitelynot in the 1970s.
(21:53):
As the late night investigationunfolded, the Puglisi family
discord became obvious.
A memo in the police fileincluded the line.
Accusations andcounter-accusations between the
mother and father have onlytended to muddy and already
unclear disappearance.
The strife led some detectivesto lean on the theory that each
(22:16):
parent could be hiding Andy toget back at the other.
That false theory would impedethe early stages of the
investigation.
As the search ramped up, policewould go to Melanie's house in
the early morning hours toquestion her and her brother
about when they last saw Andy.
Her worry at the time was thathe'd get in trouble for whatever
(22:38):
adventure he might be on thenext few days wiped any thought
of that from her mind.
Police swarmed the area,helicopters flew overhead,
truckers on CB radios made a lotof noise.
The National Guard and GreenBerets took over the
neighborhood.
Police dogs were brought in tocatch Andy's scent in the woods
(22:58):
and at the abandoned dump thatboarded the city pool.
Divers were searching thenearby Shawshank River that ran
alongside Route 495.
Given the unknown window ofwhen Andy was last seen and when
his family went to search forhim, it is possible he was
abducted and on the road in nextto no time at all.
Friends and neighbors came tohelp Say hi.
(23:20):
Frito, jeff and Bill Perkins,melanie's brothers and local
kids would show investigatorsaround the key areas of interest
where they would build fortsand dig tunnels in the woods,
the areas by the swamp and overto Den Rock Park.
More than 2,000 volunteers weresaid to have showed up for the
Puglisi's to search for theirmissing little boy.
(23:43):
Just six days after Andydisappeared, the cops called off
their search for him.
In a press conference, one ofthe detectives shared that it
was their belief that Andy wasalive and being helped by
someone and that this someonewould return him to his parents.
Due to conflicting stories byfamily members, the cops said
(24:05):
they sensed discord, at leastwith his parents, so the
investigators didn't feel theyshould even bother to look for
him.
I don't know how you got alongwith your ex or how your mother
got along with your ex or howyour mother got along with your
father, but the added trauma ofa missing kid doesn't sew up the
(24:26):
loose ends of a bad marriage.
It was tragic Andy was gone.
The likelihood that he wasalive six days later was not
very good.
You've all watched the first 48, right.
Why the authorities would dropa missing child's investigation
(24:47):
this way and the way hisdisappearance would show up in
news stories doesn't sit right.
I found many archive storiesfrom that time and it is
interesting what some of the oldnewspapers wrote about a
missing 10-year-old boy.
One headline sat above a shortparagraph in the Portsmouth
Herald dated August 25, 1976.
(25:09):
It simply read Epileptic StillMissing, angelo Puglisi, the
10-year-old boy still missing inLawrence, an epileptic who
needed hospital care if he had aseizure.
A variation of that sameparagraph would appear in a
number of area papers.
Society's attitudes towardmissing and abused children are
(25:32):
disturbing.
The cops actually told thepublic that they didn't think he
was really missing.
The cops actually told thepublic that they didn't think he
was really missing.
Faith Puglisi suffered through alot of blame and ridicule.
She was, after all, a divorcedmother with five kids at the
time, living with a black man inthe projects of Lawrence.
(25:57):
Even police officers said shehad something to do with it.
One off-duty cop read her theriot act, accusing her of
killing her own son and thentelling her she could call in an
anonymous tip on herself.
Then I guess that cop couldswoop right in and be the hero
(26:17):
of the day right.
Faith Puglisi told the Lowellson that the harassment was a
nightmare.
By late September, about a monthafter Andy disappeared, faith
Puglisi hired a privateinvestigator.
She did not tell the policethat investigator.
Edward A Orlando, turned upsome leads, only to be blocked
by the Lawrence police.
(26:38):
Orlando met with the chief anda detective at the time and was
refused information that couldaid in his investigation.
They did, however, get thego-ahead to perform lie detector
tests on the family membersclosest to Andy.
Eventually, investigators wouldease up on the Puglisi parents
(26:58):
as suspects in Andy'sdisappearance.
Faith Puglisi told investigatorsher story in detail, what they
did that morning, what she toldAndy and his siblings to do that
day.
They saw her struggling withhis disappearance.
They watched her care for herother children while trying to
(27:19):
quietly contain the panic ofhaving a missing 10-year-old boy
.
She would say she couldn't fallapart because there would be
nobody else to make them do whatthey needed to do to find her
son.
Mr Puglisi was working in Salem, new Hampshire, about seven
miles away, when Andydisappeared.
It became clear that he too wasnot involved in any plot to
(27:41):
steal his own son.
Investigators also had to ruleout Jerome Phillips, the man who
was living with Faith Puglisi.
Initially there was cause totake a closer look.
Faith had asked him to move out.
Maybe making her pay bykidnapping her oldest son would
change her mind or her emotionalstate would need him to stay.
(28:06):
People do strange things, don't?
We know Jerome was with Faiththat morning when Andy left to
go to the pool.
He also passed a lie detectortest.
Andy's case would get evenstranger.
In the years since Andy Puglisidisappeared his mother has said
(28:28):
she knew what happened, notbecause the police searched
beyond those five days, not byany evidence gathered or any
confession by the perpetrator.
Many years later, on the 30thanniversary of his disappearance
, andy's mother said shebelieves he was abducted and
(28:49):
murdered.
Andy was 10 when he wentmissing on that summer day in
1976.
He was last seen near theHiggins Pool in South Lawrence,
right across from the stadiumprojects where he lived with his
mom and his siblings at 31 EastDalton Street, about a
four-minute walk.
(29:10):
What we would come to learn isthat there were at least five
child predators in the area ofthe Lawrence Public Pool when
Andy Puglisi went missing.
I will come back to this.
In the 1970s in Boston and whenI say Boston I mean the region,
(29:31):
the greater Boston area it wasa place where kids ran almost
feral, barefoot, no bike helmets, we drank fructose corn syrup,
we stole penny candy, we smokedcigarettes, we snuck out of our
Nana's pocketbook, we shot BBguns, we trick-or-treated in
packs, often with our wintercoats under our plastic costumes
(29:54):
.
Sweat beating on our lips fromthose smelly masks and hardly a
parent in sight Sounds awful bytoday's parenting standards, but
it was how it was back in the70s and 80s and it was pretty
great.
I remember running around theneighborhood in my small
Massachusetts town.
(30:14):
Groveland was nothing likeLawrence, but the kids were all
kind of the same.
In the 70s and 80s.
Gen Xers are known for ourself-sufficiency.
The novel and subsequent filmMystic River starred Sean Penn,
tim Robbins, laura Linney, kevinBacon star-studded it was was
(30:36):
based on the fictional work ofDennis Lehane, a Boston native,
and while the story is said tobe inspired by experiences
Lehane had as a kid growing upin Dorchester, people I know
from places like South Bostonand Somerville will tell you
they remember stories of men incars driving around looking for
(30:57):
kids and the creepy priests,just like the scenes that played
out in mystic river.
At least watch the movie.
It lines up with how Boston wasrocked by the clergy sex
scandal.
Churches were riddled withpedophile priests who got
shuttled from town to town andthe church secretively and
(31:20):
criminally swept it under therug the one that the Boston
Globe spotlight team, whom themovie is named after and
received awards, accolades andcredit for the cat, was out of
the proverbial bag a year before, however, when journalist
(31:42):
Kristen Lombardi of the BostonPhoenix, the poorly funded,
badly run and now defunct AltWeekly, broke the story in 2001.
Maybe I should say this as amatter of full disclosure.
I worked at the company's radiostation and while there were
some despicable people around,of course nothing happens.
(32:04):
It is kind of funny to meseeing as though the Boston
Phoenix would be the paper toinvestigate itself with some
hard-hitting journalism.
The original story was CardinalSin sex abuse.
Victims of former priest JohnGagin charge that Cardinal
Bernard Law was told of Gagin'scriminal activity as early as
(32:28):
1984, but did nothing to stop it.
Now they want to know why.
By Kristen Lombardi for theBoston Phoenix, march 23, 2001.
Kristen Lombardi of the Phoenixpaved the entire way in 2001.
But even as she chipped away atCardinal Sin and seven
(32:49):
follow-ups, it was much biggerthan she could handle on her own
.
In a piece for Boston Magazinein 2015, kristen Lombardi is
quoted saying when I was doingit, I was aware that I couldn't
do it all.
I was aware there was a biggerstory that I couldn't tell
because I didn't have theresources.
I was working at a small,scrappy alternative newspaper.
(33:12):
I wasn't working at ametropolitan daily with a
gigantic staff.
I had four colleagues Enter theBoston Globe Spotlight team,
one with much better resourcesthan the Phoenix.
Much better resources than thePhoenix.
(33:36):
They rolled out their series onJanuary 6, 2002.
It exposed the lengths theCatholic Church would go to to
cover up its decades of childabuse and to keep the lies,
manipulation and bribery asecret.
The story Church allowed abuseby priests for years.
Aware of Gagin's record,archdiocese still shuttled him
from parish to parish.
The Globe Spotlight team ofreporters Matt Carroll, sasha
(34:02):
Pfeiffer, michael Resendez andeditor Walter Robbie Robinson
there are a number of priestsnamed in this scandal.
Gagan is the former father JohnGagan, who, as this piece will
detail, saw more than 130 peoplecome forward with their stories
(34:23):
since the mid-1990s, a numberthat is about 150 today.
Their stories are of horrificchildhood trauma, of how a
former priest, no serial rapistabused them over a
(34:45):
three-decade-long run whilemoving through a half a dozen
greater Boston parishes.
Almost always his victims wereschool-age boys.
At least one of those childrenwas four years old.
Aware of Gagin's record andsome time away for quote-unquote
therapy.
(35:05):
The Archdiocese still moved himaround to different parishes.
Still moved him around todifferent parishes.
That is fact, not opinion,covered by the Globe Spotlight
team and Kristen Lombardi'sBoston Phoenix reporting,
published almost one full yearapart.
Anyone who dared issue awarning, like Father John
(35:30):
Michael Darcy, who wrote toCardinal Law in the mid-1980s
about Gagin's behavior.
These snitching priests wouldbe sent to someplace they wished
not to be.
Father Darcy landed in Indianafrom Boston for his trouble.
The clergy sex abuse scandalgoes back for decades and is
(35:53):
certainly not limited to Boston.
Maybe you've seen the KeepersAbout the murder of a nun in
Baltimore in 1969.
Must see viewing.
The problem is a globalphenomenon and the attitudes
toward child sex abuse overthese decades is dumbfounding.
(36:13):
These stories are infuriatingthe often silent suffering of
children, whether it was astranger lurking the streets,
the touchy uncle or a beloved byall leader in the church.
(36:33):
All of this horribleness bringsto mind the story of a little
boy named Danny Croteau.
He was 13 when his body wasfound floating face down in the
Chicopee River just a few milesfrom his home in Springfield,
massachusetts.
It was 1972.
It was bad enough losing theiryoungest son this way.
It haunted his parents untilthe day that they died.
(36:55):
The family believed thatRichard R Levine, who would
later be convicted of child sexabuse, murdered their son by
crushing his skull with a rockand dumping him in that river
and then coming to their aid asa friend and confidant.
Danny's parents figured it out,and just about every law
(37:18):
enforcement official who workedon the case believed Levine was
responsible for Danny's murder.
Levine, though, was FatherLevine, a Catholic priest who
got close to the family of fiveboys and two girls.
He presided over Danny'sfuneral mass at St Catherine's,
where Danny and his brotherswere altar boys.
(37:40):
While his family developed aclearer picture after his death,
danny's murder case remainedopen.
Police and prosecutors had acircumstantial case against
Levine, but the lack of physicalevidence and of witnesses
placing him with Danny the nightof the murder made authorities
(38:01):
reluctant to charge him.
The power of the church isstrong.
Levine would be laicized,that's, invited to leave the
church as a member of the clergy, stripped of his God badge in
2013.
He was removed from theministry after his arrest in
(38:21):
1991.
But the diocese didn't seekdefrocking because it was quote
a long and cumbersome process.
Levine would be classified bythe state as a sexual offender
with a high risk to offend again.
You won't be surprised to learnthat Levine avoided jail time,
(38:41):
instead receiving 10 yearsprobation in the Diocese of
Springfield, with a lot ofchecks to settle a lot of
lawsuits.
Lot of checks to settle a lotof lawsuits.
Two Springfield Catholic bishops, christopher Weldon, who died
in 1982, and Thomas Dupree, whodied in 2016,.
(39:03):
Both had credible accusationsof child molestation levied
against them and both of themcovered up abuse and murder of
Danny Croteau by Father Levine,who was in their charge.
But the question of who killedDanny Croteau would be answered.
It is important to add that theDiocese of Springfield knew
(39:26):
Levine was a suspect and knew ofsexual abuse complaints against
him, and yet allowed him accessas a priest to children for 20
years.
After the murder In 2021, dyingof COVID-19, a bedridden
80-year-old Richard Levineadmitted to state police
(39:49):
detectives that he was therewith Danny and was ultimately
responsible for his murder.
His admission was not thatupfront, honest or direct,
though.
Pedophile priest and childmurderer Richard Levine died
just as the Massachusetts StatePolice were preparing to arrest
him and charge him with the 1972murder of 13-year-old Danny
(40:14):
Croteau.
Danny Croteau's murder died theday he would be officially
charged with killing him.
Wow.
This is taken directly from theBoston Globe piece by Kevin
Cullen, who chased this storyfor years.
The Diocese of Springfield,whose bishops routinely covered
(40:36):
up for Levine and kept him onsalary even after he was
convicted of molesting children,eventually paid 17 of Levine's
victims $1.4 million in a 1994settlement in a 1994 settlement
and paid out an additional $7.7million to 46 victims in 2004.
(40:56):
After Danny Croteau was foundmurdered, the church was willing
to pay them off, not toinvestigate who did it.
Yet people laid down their livesfor this religion, dear God.
Indeed, levine is, for thosewho followed the sad and
traumatic clergy sex abusecrisis, symbolic of the colossal
(41:19):
failures of the church withinthe Springfield diocese, as John
Gagin was in the Boston diocese.
The defrocked priest John Gaginwould be sentenced in February
2002 to the maximum prison termof nine to ten years for
fondling a boy.
He put his hands down the pantsof a ten-year-old boy and
(41:43):
grabbed his bottom in a swimmingpool at the Waltham Boys and
Girls Club in 1991.
That is a ghastly level ofcomfort, or narcissism, or worse
, to behave like that.
At 66 years old, he would besent to prison as a convicted
felon.
(42:04):
Here comes the buzz kill.
In August 2003, john Gagan wasmurdered in his cell at Sousa
Baranowski Correctional Centerin Shirley, 30 miles northwest
of Boston.
He was being housed in theprotective custody unit because
of his high profile as a mainplayer in the explosive Boston
(42:24):
clergy sex abuse scandal.
His killer, some mightcelebrate, is no hero Joseph
Druce, the name his killer uses,was serving a life sentence for
strangling a Gloucester man todeath in 1988, claiming that
that man made sexual advanceswhen he picked him up
(42:44):
hitchhiking A gay panic defenseA defense that is banned in 17
states, by the way, but not inMassachusetts, though bills have
been introduced.
Joseph Drews, whose real nameis Darren Smilage, is also an
anti-Semite, a racist plus ahomophobe, and this is according
(43:08):
to his own father is.
According to his own father,his murder of Gagin was a prize
kill.
It was planning to get him formore than a month.
Other prisoners knew Save theheroics about how he had a duty
to rid the world of a pedophile.
Both men are deplorable equally.
All of these things go together.
(43:39):
A missing boy from lawrence,murdered children, the
sanctioned sexual abuse ofchildren.
Society has had anall-too-relaxed stance on child
abuse.
I'll be right back.
Thank you to our patreonpatrons and supporters Superstar
EPs, lisa McColgan, rhiannonHeather, new folks dropping a
tip, paula, thank you.
(44:00):
Patreon support resumes June5th.
I paused it as I took the monthoff for the rumble Patreoncom
slash crime of the truest kind.
You can give the dogs a bone,drop a tip in the tip jar at any
time.
My dogs are grateful for yoursupport.
(44:24):
Today, 47 years later,investigators are no closer to
solving Andy Poglisi's case andhis family still does not know
what happened to their littleboy, to those kids' big brother.
Andy has siblings he's nevermet and Melanie's sweetheart.
They have had decades to walkthrough their last moments with
(44:46):
him and to have awful scenariosroll around in their heads.
It's cruel.
The case is cold but reportedlyremains open.
Melanie, andy's little friendfrom the neighborhood, produced
a documentary.
Have you Seen Andy?
You can stream it now on HBOMax.
(45:07):
Now, just Max.
It seems like the initialinvestigation could have been
handled very differently.
Maybe they should have lookedfor him instead of fixating on
the parents.
It is incomprehensible thatpolice told parents that a
10-year-old needed to be gonefor 24 hours before they lift a
(45:27):
finger.
Angelo Puglisi Sr put up a goodfight to get them to start
looking sooner.
Because of the number of childpredators in the area, many
theories lean on Andy beinglured from the pool by one of
those known sexual abusers.
Several kids from theneighborhood spoke about a man
(45:47):
at the pool asking children tohelp him look for a dog.
Whether anyone actually saw adog that day is unknown and
incredibly unlikely predatorsplay games with unsuspecting
people.
They manipulate their emotions.
What better way to get achild's attention than to talk
about a doggy?
(46:08):
Right?
If a windowless van pulls upand says bulldog kisses, I would
be so fucked.
I make jokes to add a little bitof levity to a hideous story.
The truth of it is this thiswas any one of us in the 70s and
80s.
We were the latchkey generation.
We ran the streets, we were thestreets, and if I sound like I
(46:32):
wear sort of a badge of honor, Ido.
I would have likely preferredto have many of the things some
of the other kids had attentiveparents, that sort of thing but
I turned out decent, all limbsintact, with a compassionate
soul.
There are stories of vilepedophile rings, men driving
(46:54):
around plucking kids off thestreet, approaching children at
the city pool, hanging aroundlocker rooms and one child's
account of being with Andy inthe woods behind the city pool
and seeing other men there.
We will get to all of that inpart two.
(47:14):
Thank you for listening.
Take care of yourself, go for awalk, put your face in the sun,
hug a dog For real, it'shealing.
And please lock your goddamndoors.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com