Replay | EP43 | What Happened To Andy Puglisi? Lawrence, Mass & The Dark History of 1970s Child Abductions

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 its decades-long. The episode explores the haunting case of Andy Puglisi, a young boy who vanished from a public pool in 1976, spotlighting the societal attitudes towards missing children during that time. The discussion delves into the failed initial police response, media portrayal, and subsequent changes in child protection laws that emerged from this tragedy.

On Sunday, August 22, 1976, a boy named Andy Puglisi disappearance from a public pool in Lawrence, Massachusetts. With insights from Melanie Perkins McLaughlin, Andy's childhood friend and documentary filmmaker, we piece together the events of that fateful day and explore the societal norms that often hampered urgent action in missing child cases. Melanie's decades-long investigation, highlighted in her documentary "Have You Seen Andy" and her new podcast "Open Investigation," brings fresh perspectives to this haunting unsolved case.

Our journey 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 catalyzed significant societal changes and led to the creation of crucial resources like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. We talk about the tragic case of Danny Croteau and the powerful forces that shielded his alleged murderer, Father Richard Levine, for decades. The investigative work of journalists such as Kristen Lombardi played a critical role in unmasking these dark truths and pushing for justice.

Reflecting on the latchkey generation of the 70s and 80s, we confront the reality of children left to fend for themselves. It was how it went.

Crime of the Truest Kind - Episode 43 - What Happened To Andy Puglisi, Part One

Chapters

• 0:00 Child Abduction and Missing Children
• 15:14 Summer Disappearance of Andy Puglisi
• 25:45 Detective Work in a Troubled City
• 36:33 Unsolved Murder of Danny Croteau
• 46:15 Latchkey Generation and Safety Awareness

Transcript

Anngelle Wood: 0:00

Hello listeners, Anngelle here, back in the late spring of 2023, I shared the story of 10-year-old Andy Puglisi, the little boy who disappeared from the public pool in Lawrence, massachusetts, in the summer of 1976. All thanks go to his childhood friend, melanie Perkins. She spent decades researching, writing and producing the documentary. Have you Seen Andy streaming now on Max? In the decades that have passed since Andy Puglisi disappeared, what we have learned about the fate of missing and murdered children, particularly around Massachusetts and New England in the 1970s? Well, it has been eye-opening. I am resharing episode 43 and 44 about Andy's case because on Friday I will share an update on Andy's case and what we have learned in the years since.

Anngelle Wood: 0:56

Friday's episode will feature Melanie Perkins McLaughlin, creator of that documentary and who released Open Investigation, a brand new investigative podcast that starts with Andy Puglisi in a story that seems to have no end. Thank you for listening and, please, true crime is not for children, yet these children need these stories told. Please listen with care. Well, hello, my name is Angele Wood and this is Crime of the Truest Kind. Hey, everybody, it really feels like summer in New England now, doesn't it Just like that? This is a true crime. Local history and storytelling podcast. I write about crime. Yes, I set the scene, I connect story themes. I talk about things that happened here in Massachusetts and New England.

Anngelle Wood: 2:16

This episode is about murdered and missing children. One in particular it's about child sexual abuse, the attitudes among the public at large in regards to this topic and the part that the Catholic Church has played in the serial abuse of children. If this is something that will hurt you, impede your own healing or offend you, it may not be something you wish to listen to, and this often goes unsaid, but this podcast it's not for kids. One more thing Ways I ask you to support this show. Share it, tell your friends and family to listen. Share it on social media to others in your community who would enjoy it. Drop a rating and review. Apple Podcasts is a platform with this feature. Spotify allows for ratings by giving the dogs a bone in the tip jar. Dog treats are a hot commodity in my house and become a Patreon patron. I have four tiers, starting at one dollar, and I do have patrons to thank later in this episode. Drop by the merch store at crimeofthechewestkindcom, episode 43,.

Anngelle Wood: 3:36

We travel to the Merrimack Valley with a stop in Lawrence, massachusetts. There is so much info around this subject matter. This will be part one of two. Lawrence, massachusetts. Located in Essex County, 25 miles north of Boston and five miles south of the New Hampshire line, it is a city of immigrants and industry, a manufacturing city that produces many products textiles, footwear, paper products, computers and food. The massive mill buildings lining the Merrimack River, beautiful views of the Great Stone Dam and the clock and bell towers are tributes to Lawrence industrial heritage channeling. The strength of the Merrimack River and its systems of canals fueled the Lawrence mills that produced textiles for American and European markets by the early 20th century. With a population of nearly 95,000, the city was a world leader in the production of cotton and woolen textiles in those massive mills. The very delicious Joseph's Hummus is made in Lawrence on International Way. I must also add that Cedar's Mediterranean Foods makers of delicious hummus and dips is made next door in the Ward Hill area of Haverhill, both delicious, both from the same area.

Anngelle Wood: 5:13

Malden Mills was based in Lawrence, malden Mills who, in 1981, invented synthetic fleece, which we see in all sorts of cold weather clothing. Customers include the retailers LL Bean, timberlands and North Face. The factory burned down on December 11, 1995, when a boiler exploded, destroying three of the factory's buildings and damaging nearly half of the entire plant. Ceo Aaron Feuerstein, grandson of its founder, decided to rebuild almost immediately and supported his employees by paying their salaries and benefits while rebuilding. I also know that during that time Mr Feuerstein also had provided funds for employees to seek out education. One Malden Mills employee took classes at my college during that time. By September 1997, the factory was rebuilt and Aaron Feuerstein was celebrated for his uncommon business practices. One story called him the mensch of Malden Mills for how he took care of his people during that time.

Anngelle Wood: 6:23

Lawrence has made the news over the years A spate of arsons, missing children, crime. But there is one story in particular that we will talk about on today's episode. It is that of a 10-year-old boy, andy Puglisi, who simply disappeared in the summer of 1976. National Missing Children's Day is May 25th. It marks the date that Etan Pace went missing and was designated by President Ronald Reagan on the fourth anniversary of Etan's disappearance in 1983.

Anngelle Wood: 7:01

Etan Pace is the six-year-old New York City boy who disappeared on his way to the school bus in his Soho neighborhood in 1979. It was the one and only time he was permitted to walk alone. Back in the 1970s there were no systems in place for local or national law enforcement when a child went missing. Etan's disappearance 44 years ago helped to change that. He was one of the first missing children ever to appear on the milk carton, and Etan's case helped to establish a national hotline for missing children. It made it easier for law enforcement agencies to share information about missing kids' cases. More changed when Adam Walsh, a six-year-old boy, was abducted from a Sears in the mall in Hollywood, florida, on July 27, 1981. His partial remains were found two weeks later and 100 miles away. In 1984, the Walshes founded the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and in 1988, john Walsh, adam's father, started the show America's Most Wanted. That has since helped law enforcement officials track down hundreds of fugitives.

Anngelle Wood: 8:19

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has an incredible amount of information and resources. The data about child abduction is staggering. Resources to support families of missing children and child exploitation the Cyber Tip Line offers public and online electronic service providers an easy way to quickly report suspected incidents of sexual exploitation of children online. I do share these links in the show notes and at crimeofthetruestkindcom. Though the milk carton campaign was probably the most visible part of that movement. By 1985, nearly half of the nation's 1,800 independent dairies had adopted the practice.

Anngelle Wood: 9:04

Missing kids on milk cartons was one way to offer resources in those days. Missing kids on milk cartons was one way to offer resources in those days, and dairies were not alone in their advocacy. The faces of missing kids would appear on everything from pizza boxes to grocery bags, to the junk mail we threw away, all with the question have you seen me? A few people told police they recognized a child seen on the side of a milk bottle. But there is no data on how many children were saved by the milk cartons or otherwise. But in my opinion, something is better than nothing. Organizations would hold fingerprinting events for children and kits were created for parents to have at the ready if their child went missing. Children were taught to ask for secret words and alternative names from a neighbor or a friend sent to pick them up if a parent had to run late or needed help. It all did help police departments be better at handling missing children's cases. So what happened to the practice of putting kids on milk? It ceased in the late 80s after Benjamin Spock. Dr Spock and Dr T Barry Brazelton, two of America's most celebrated pediatricians of the time and authors who revolutionized the understanding of babies and child development. They worried that the images could frighten children and cause unnecessary trauma. Now they were the foremost authorities on child rearing of that time and each of them have ties to New England, and each of them lived well into their 90s In a tool we use present day.

Anngelle Wood: 10:39

The Amber Alert came much later. In 1996, 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was abducted from her Texas hometown. There is a documentary about her story. There wasn't a system in place to shoot any kind of emergency information out to the public. A neighbor who had witnessed her abduction called 911. Four days after her abduction Amber's body was found. She was less than five miles from where she was taken.

Anngelle Wood: 11:14

Amber's family would work to get the Texas legislature to pass stronger laws to protect children, but it was a Texas resident. A woman named Diana Simone thought that a more appropriate child alert system would be beneficial in helping find children in the very important hours following their disappearances. Radio stations would announce the missing child. Report Alerts were sent to radio stations, tv stations, law enforcement agencies, newspapers and local organizations. Now AMBER is an acronym that stands for America's Missing Broadcast Emergency Response, but it is in tribute to Amber Renee Hagerman and, as of January 2, 2023, there have been 1,127 children successfully recovered through the Amber Alert System. Children successfully recovered through the Amber Alert System. 131 children were rescued because of wireless emergency alerts. Sign up for them on your telephone. While Amber's namesake technology does save kids, amber's murder remains unsolved. This one still hits hard.

Anngelle Wood: 12:44

I grew up 20 minutes away from Lawrence, massachusetts, and hadn't heard the story until a few years ago, and I did reach out a few times to the childhood friend who takes almost center stage in this story. Her name is Melanie Perkins and she made the documentary have you Seen Andy? It's quite well done. So I did reach out to her to speak to her about this case and we didn't get anywhere. I suppose she didn't want to talk to me about it. It happens.

Anngelle Wood: 13:15

Andy Puglisi was born Angelo Jean Puglisi on September 2, 1965. He was the first arrival of many kids for the Puglisi family. His parents, angelo Puglisi Sr and Mom Faith were young just 19 and 15 when they married. Sounds unreal today, but it wasn't so much then. Faith wanted to get out of her house and away from her own parents. Baby Andy came soon after More kids would come, before the couple finally divorced in 1975.

Anngelle Wood: 13:51

Andy's family would land at the Stadium Housing Project in South Lawrence Every town had them where lots of kids did time in one of the many apartment projects where divorced families could find a haven of lower rents for the trade-off of little privacy and usually cramped quarters. What was comforting about these neighborhoods, though, is that everyone kept an eye out for one another. Andy Puglisi was 10 years old in August of 1976. He moved that summer with his mom and siblings into an apartment at the Projects that was across the street from the Higgins Memorial Pool. You can see the pool from East Alton Street, the street where they lived. Another thing that was great about some of these high concentrated complexes is the playgrounds and the swimming pools. Places like that were an oasis, a safe place, so parents thought it cost 15 cents to swim all day, and if the lifeguard liked you, they'd often let you swim for free, or you could just peel up the fence and scoot under when no one was looking, and like most 70s neighborhoods, this one was alive, with kids playing in the streets, usually until the lights came on.

Anngelle Wood: 15:14

It was a hazy, hot and humid New England summer day, saturday, august 21st. Andy was a few weeks from his 11th birthday and would be starting 5th grade soon. The kids would make the short walk to the city pool from their complex. Andy had a plan to meet his friend, melanie. She was 9, full of freckles, hair and braids, and definitely had a crush on him. She too lived in the apartment complex with her older siblings at the time. Melanie and Andy met up at the pool late in the morning and spent the entire day playing. She would later tell the Boston Globe that it was the place to hang out. If he lived in the projects, she'd spend the rest of her days asking and answering questions about her friend.

Anngelle Wood: 16:04

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 it simply his child's innocence squeezing every moment out of that summer day? Was he afraid that maybe once he left he wouldn't be able to return? Did he just not want to go home? It was a big family and his mom had told her boyfriend to leave. So family stress we might never know For reasons she couldn't explain even as an adult Melanie's usual walk the 200 or so yards back to her family's apartment gave her a bad feeling that day. With Andy hanging back at the pool, melanie's older brother, jeff, who was 11, walked her home. That would be the last time she saw her friend Andy sitting in the sun wearing his green bathing suit.

Anngelle Wood: 17:11

Faith Puglisi has spoken many times about that day. She recalled that Andy watched television that morning. She recalled that Andy watched television that morning. While some of the popular primetime shows back in 1976 were the Bionic Woman, the Six Million Dollar man and Happy Days, classics like Scooby-Doo, land of the Lost and Fat Albert were on during the day, I tried to imagine what he was watching TV 38, channel 56, creature Double Feature. Faith made Andy some soup before he left for the pool. She recounts the last thing she said to him Remember to stay with your brothers and sisters. She specifically told Andy and his siblings to stay together and to come home by three o'clock.

Anngelle Wood: 18:00

The siblings dispersed into that summer day and his mother was busy with the work it took to raise five kids. She was also dealing with a live-in boyfriend who she just invited to go live somewhere else. When the kids piled home for lunch, andy was missing from the headcount, though it is said in many news articles that Andy made a call home around 3 30 and his brother, michael, answered, and no one is sure why. With Andy still not accounted for, his mom told Michael tell him to get his ass home. Don't make me go over there. Can you hear your mom's voice in your head? After pouring through many stories about Andy's disappearance and writing quite a lot about it, not all of the facts lined up, so I wanted to hear his mother Faith's account. So I went back and rewatched have you Seen Andy? That documentary that his friend Melanie made and released in 2006. His mother makes no mention of a phone call and Michael, his younger brother, said he did go back to the pool after having lunch to tell Andy that their mom was pissed and he better come home. And whatever lifeguard Michael questioned at that time couldn't answer. When Andy was last seen, none of them could be sure at that time. When he was last at the pool, the last known sighting, according to one of the lifeguards questioned later, was 545. That is when they claimed to have seen him in the pool area. That lifeguard confirmed that he was wearing his green bathing suit and sneakers with stars on them. If he had called home at 3.30 and heard his mother's angry order to come back, it should have been enough for him to leave the pool when Andy still wasn't home.

Anngelle Wood: 19:51

At about five o'clock Faith went out to comb the neighborhood of row houses that line East Dalton Street, calling his name and checking wherever she could think of. Some of the kids thought he might be at the stadium, so she made her way to the playground there. No sign of him. With the sun setting soon, she worried 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't want to call the police. She was sure he'd show up. She knew Andy. He just went to a friend's house, lost track of the time by nightfall more family members were calling out to him Still no Andy and she knew what she had to do.

Anngelle Wood: 20:39

Faith Puglisi reported Andy missing to the Lawrence police between 9 and 10 pm. The police would ask the typical questions but said that he needed to be missing for 24 hours. He was 10, and this was 1976. Society had a much different view of this then, as evidenced by some of the related stories I will share. It is all horrifying and nightmare-inducing, quite frankly. Lawrence Police finally sent a detective to the Puglisi home at 3 o'clock in the morning. When you look at the photos of Andy 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 a crowded public pool and never be seen or heard from again, whereabouts unknown? In the search for Andy or anything that could be tied to Andy, nothing would be found. Not one clue left behind about what could have happened. That a boy can vanish into thin air was a haunting reminder that no child is safe Definitely not in the 1970s.

Anngelle Wood: 21:53

As the late night investigation unfolded, the Puglisi family discord became obvious. A memo in the police file included the line. Accusations and counter-accusations between the mother and father have only tended to muddy and already unclear disappearance. The strife led some detectives to lean on the theory that each parent could be hiding Andy to get back at the other. That false theory would impede the early stages of the investigation.

Anngelle Wood: 22:30

As the search ramped up, police would go to Melanie's house in the early morning hours to question her and her brother about when they last saw Andy. Her worry at the time was that he'd get in trouble for whatever adventure he might be on the next few days wiped any thought of that from her mind. Police swarmed the area, helicopters flew overhead, truckers on CB radios made a lot of noise. The National Guard and Green Berets took over the neighborhood. Police dogs were brought in to catch Andy's scent in the woods and at the abandoned dump that boarded the city pool. Divers were searching the nearby Shawshank River that ran alongside Route 495. Given the unknown window of when Andy was last seen and when his family went to search for him, it is possible he was abducted and on the road in next to no time at all. Friends and neighbors came to help Say hi. Frito, jeff and Bill Perkins, melanie's brothers and local kids would show investigators around the key areas of interest where they would build forts and dig tunnels in the woods, the areas by the swamp and over to Den Rock Park. More than 2,000 volunteers were said to have showed up for the Puglisi's to search for their missing little boy.

Anngelle Wood: 23:43

Just six days after Andy disappeared, the cops called off their search for him. In a press conference, one of the detectives shared that it was their belief that Andy was alive and being helped by someone and that this someone would return him to his parents. Due to conflicting stories by family members, the cops said they sensed discord, at least with his parents, so the investigators didn't feel they should even bother to look for him. I don't know how you got along with your ex or how your mother got along with your ex or how your mother got along with your father, but the added trauma of a missing kid doesn't sew up the loose ends of a bad marriage. It was tragic Andy was gone. The likelihood that he was alive six days later was not very good. You've all watched the first 48, right. Why the authorities would drop a missing child's investigation this way and the way his disappearance would show up in news stories doesn't sit right.

Anngelle Wood: 24:53

I found many archive stories from that time and it is interesting what some of the old newspapers wrote about a missing 10-year-old boy. One headline sat above a short paragraph in the Portsmouth Herald dated August 25, 1976. It simply read Epileptic Still Missing, angelo Puglisi, the 10-year-old boy still missing in Lawrence, an epileptic who needed hospital care if he had a seizure. A variation of that same paragraph would appear in a number of area papers. Society's attitudes toward missing and abused children are disturbing. The cops actually told the public that they didn't think he was really missing. The cops actually told the public that they didn't think he was really missing.

Anngelle Wood: 25:45

Faith Puglisi suffered through a lot of blame and ridicule. She was, after all, a divorced mother with five kids at the time, living with a black man in the projects of Lawrence. Even police officers said she had something to do with it. One off-duty cop read her the riot act, accusing her of killing her own son and then telling her she could call in an anonymous tip on herself. Then I guess that cop could swoop right in and be the hero of the day right. Faith Puglisi told the Lowell son that the harassment was a nightmare.

Anngelle Wood: 26:21

By late September, about a month after Andy disappeared, faith Puglisi hired a private investigator. She did not tell the police that investigator. Edward A Orlando, turned up some leads, only to be blocked by the Lawrence police. Orlando met with the chief and a detective at the time and was refused information that could aid in his investigation. They did, however, get the go-ahead to perform lie detector tests on the family members closest to Andy. Eventually, investigators would ease up on the Puglisi parents as suspects in Andy's disappearance.

Anngelle Wood: 27:02

Faith Puglisi told investigators her story in detail, what they did that morning, what she told Andy and his siblings to do that day. They saw her struggling with his disappearance. They watched her care for her other children while trying to quietly contain the panic of having a missing 10-year-old boy. She would say she couldn't fall apart because there would be nobody else to make them do what they needed to do to find her son. Mr Puglisi was working in Salem, new Hampshire, about seven miles away, when Andy disappeared. It became clear that he too was not involved in any plot to steal his own son.

Anngelle Wood: 27:45

Investigators also had to rule out Jerome Phillips, the man who was living with Faith Puglisi. Initially there was cause to take a closer look. Faith had asked him to move out. Maybe making her pay by kidnapping her oldest son would change her mind or her emotional state would need him to stay. People do strange things, don't? We know Jerome was with Faith that morning when Andy left to go to the pool. He also passed a lie detector test. Andy's case would get even stranger. In the years since Andy Puglisi disappeared his mother has said she knew what happened, not because the police searched beyond those five days, not by any evidence gathered or any confession by the perpetrator. Many years later, on the 30th anniversary of his disappearance, andy's mother said she believes he was abducted and murdered. Andy was 10 when he went missing on that summer day in 1976. He was last seen near the Higgins Pool in South Lawrence, right across from the stadium projects where he lived with his mom and his siblings at 31 East Dalton Street, about a four-minute walk. What we would come to learn is that there were at least five child predators in the area of the Lawrence Public Pool when Andy Puglisi went missing.

Anngelle Wood: 29:21

I will come back to this. In the 1970s in Boston and when I say Boston I mean the region, the greater Boston area it was a place where kids ran almost feral, barefoot, no bike helmets, we drank fructose corn syrup, we stole penny candy, we smoked cigarettes, we snuck out of our Nana's pocketbook, we shot BB guns, we trick-or-treated in packs, often with our winter coats under our plastic costumes. Sweat beating on our lips from those smelly masks and hardly a parent in sight Sounds awful by today's parenting standards, but it was how it was back in the 70s and 80s and it was pretty great. I remember running around the neighborhood in my small Massachusetts town. Groveland was nothing like Lawrence, but the kids were all kind of the same. In the 70s and 80s. Gen Xers are known for our self-sufficiency.

Anngelle Wood: 30:26

The novel and subsequent film Mystic River starred Sean Penn, tim Robbins, laura Linney, kevin Bacon star-studded it was was based on the fictional work of Dennis Lehane, a Boston native, and while the story is said to be inspired by experiences Lehane had as a kid growing up in Dorchester, people I know from places like South Boston and Somerville will tell you they remember stories of men in cars driving around looking for 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 was rocked by the clergy sex scandal. Churches were riddled with pedophile priests who got shuttled from town to town and the church secretively and criminally swept it under the rug the one that the Boston Globe spotlight team, whom the movie is named after and received awards, accolades and credit for the cat, was out of the proverbial bag a year before, however, when journalist Kristen Lombardi of the Boston Phoenix, the poorly funded, badly run and now defunct Alt Weekly, broke the story in 2001. Maybe I should say this as a matter of full disclosure. I worked at the company's radio station and while there were some despicable people around, of course nothing happens. It is kind of funny to me seeing as though the Boston Phoenix would be the paper to investigate itself with some hard-hitting journalism.

Anngelle Wood: 32:15

The original story was Cardinal Sin sex abuse. Victims of former priest John Gagin charge that Cardinal Bernard Law was told of Gagin's criminal activity as early as 1984, but did nothing to stop it. Now they want to know why. By Kristen Lombardi for the Boston Phoenix, march 23, 2001. Kristen Lombardi of the Phoenix paved the entire way in 2001. But even as she chipped away at Cardinal Sin and seven follow-ups, it was much bigger than she could handle on her own. In a piece for Boston Magazine in 2015, kristen Lombardi is quoted saying when I was doing it, I was aware that I couldn't do it all. I was aware there was a bigger story that I couldn't tell because I didn't have the resources. I was working at a small, scrappy alternative newspaper. I wasn't working at a metropolitan daily with a gigantic staff. I had four colleagues Enter the Boston Globe Spotlight team, one with much better resources than the Phoenix. Much better resources than the Phoenix. They rolled out their series on January 6, 2002.

Anngelle Wood: 33:38

It exposed the lengths the Catholic Church would go to to cover up its decades of child abuse and to keep the lies, manipulation and bribery a secret. The story Church allowed abuse by priests for years. Aware of Gagin's record, archdiocese still shuttled him from parish to parish. The Globe Spotlight team of reporters Matt Carroll, sasha Pfeiffer, michael Resendez and editor Walter Robbie Robinson there are a number of priests named in this scandal. Gagan is the former father John Gagan, who, as this piece will detail, saw more than 130 people come forward with their stories since the mid-1990s, a number that is about 150 today. Their stories are of horrific childhood trauma, of how a former priest, no serial rapist abused them over a three-decade-long run while moving through a half a dozen greater Boston parishes. Almost always his victims were school-age boys. At least one of those children was four years old. Aware of Gagin's record and some time away for quote-unquote therapy. The Archdiocese still moved him around to different parishes. Still moved him around to different parishes. That is fact, not opinion, covered by the Globe Spotlight team and Kristen Lombardi's Boston Phoenix reporting, published almost one full year apart. Anyone who dared issue a warning, like Father John Michael Darcy, who wrote to Cardinal Law in the mid-1980s about Gagin's behavior. These snitching priests would be sent to someplace they wished not to be. Father Darcy landed in Indiana from Boston for his trouble.

Anngelle Wood: 35:48

The clergy sex abuse scandal goes back for decades and is certainly not limited to Boston. Maybe you've seen the Keepers About the murder of a nun in Baltimore in 1969. Must see viewing. The problem is a global phenomenon and the attitudes toward child sex abuse over these decades is dumbfounding. These stories are infuriating the often silent suffering of children, whether it was a stranger lurking the streets, the touchy uncle or a beloved by all leader in the church.

Anngelle Wood: 36:33

All of this horribleness brings to mind the story of a little boy named Danny Croteau. He was 13 when his body was found floating face down in the Chicopee River just a few miles from his home in Springfield, massachusetts. It was 1972. It was bad enough losing their youngest son this way. It haunted his parents until the day that they died. The family believed that Richard R Levine, who would later be convicted of child sex abuse, murdered their son by crushing his skull with a rock and dumping him in that river and then coming to their aid as a friend and confidant. Danny's parents figured it out, and just about every law enforcement official who worked on the case believed Levine was responsible for Danny's murder. Levine, though, was Father Levine, a Catholic priest who got close to the family of five boys and two girls. He presided over Danny's funeral mass at St Catherine's, where Danny and his brothers were altar boys. While his family developed a clearer picture after his death, danny's murder case remained open. Police and prosecutors had a circumstantial case against Levine, but the lack of physical evidence and of witnesses placing him with Danny the night of the murder made authorities reluctant to charge him.

Anngelle Wood: 38:03

The power of the church is strong. 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 the ministry after his arrest in 1991. But the diocese didn't seek defrocking because it was quote a long and cumbersome process. Levine would be classified by the state as a sexual offender with a high risk to offend again. You won't be surprised to learn that Levine avoided jail time, instead receiving 10 years probation in the Diocese of Springfield, with a lot of checks to settle a lot of lawsuits. Lot of checks to settle a lot of lawsuits.

Anngelle Wood: 38:59

Two Springfield Catholic bishops, christopher Weldon, who died in 1982, and Thomas Dupree, who died in 2016,. Both had credible accusations of child molestation levied against them and both of them covered up abuse and murder of Danny Croteau by Father Levine, who was in their charge. But the question of who killed Danny Croteau would be answered. It is important to add that the Diocese of Springfield knew Levine was a suspect and knew of sexual abuse complaints against him, and yet allowed him access as a priest to children for 20 years. After the murder In 2021, dying of COVID-19, a bedridden 80-year-old Richard Levine admitted to state police detectives that he was there with Danny and was ultimately responsible for his murder.

Anngelle Wood: 39:57

His admission was not that upfront, honest or direct, though. Pedophile priest and child murderer Richard Levine died just as the Massachusetts State Police were preparing to arrest him and charge him with the 1972 murder of 13-year-old Danny Croteau. Danny Croteau's murder died the day he would be officially charged with killing him. Wow. This is taken directly from the Boston Globe piece by Kevin Cullen, who chased this story for years. The Diocese of Springfield, whose bishops routinely covered up for Levine and kept him on salary even after he was convicted of molesting children, eventually paid 17 of Levine's victims $1.4 million in a 1994 settlement in a 1994 settlement and paid out an additional $7.7 million to 46 victims in 2004. After Danny Croteau was found murdered, the church was willing to pay them off, not to investigate who did it.

Anngelle Wood: 41:05

Yet people laid down their lives for this religion, dear God. Indeed, levine is, for those who followed the sad and traumatic clergy sex abuse crisis, symbolic of the colossal failures of the church within the Springfield diocese, as John Gagin was in the Boston diocese. The defrocked priest John Gagin would be sentenced in February 2002 to the maximum prison term of nine to ten years for fondling a boy. He put his hands down the pants of a ten-year-old boy and grabbed his bottom in a swimming pool at the Waltham Boys and Girls Club in 1991. That is a ghastly level of comfort, or narcissism, or worse, to behave like that. At 66 years old, he would be sent to prison as a convicted felon.

Anngelle Wood: 42:04

Here comes the buzz kill. In August 2003, john Gagan was murdered in his cell at Sousa Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, 30 miles northwest of Boston. He was being housed in the protective custody unit because of his high profile as a main player in the explosive Boston clergy sex abuse scandal. His killer, some might celebrate, is no hero Joseph Druce, the name his killer uses, was serving a life sentence for strangling a Gloucester man to death in 1988, claiming that that man made sexual advances when he picked him up hitchhiking A gay panic defense A defense that is banned in 17 states, by the way, but not in Massachusetts, though bills have been introduced. Joseph Drews, whose real name is Darren Smilage, is also an anti-Semite, a racist plus a homophobe, and this is according to his own father is. According to his own father, his murder of Gagin was a prize kill. It was planning to get him for more than a month. Other prisoners knew Save the heroics about how he had a duty to rid the world of a pedophile.

Anngelle Wood: 43:25

Both men are deplorable equally. All of these things go together. A missing boy from lawrence, murdered children, the sanctioned sexual abuse of children. Society has had an all-too-relaxed stance on child abuse. I'll be right back. Thank you to our patreon patrons and supporters Superstar EPs, lisa McColgan, rhiannon Heather, new folks dropping a tip, paula, thank you. Patreon support resumes June 5th. I paused it as I took the month off 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 your support.

Anngelle Wood: 44:24

Today, 47 years later, investigators are no closer to solving Andy Poglisi's case and his family still does not know what happened to their little boy, to those kids' big brother. Andy has siblings he's never met and Melanie's sweetheart. They have had decades to walk through their last moments with him and to have awful scenarios roll around in their heads. It's cruel. The case is cold but reportedly remains open. Melanie, andy's little friend from the neighborhood, produced a documentary. Have you Seen Andy? You can stream it now on HBO Max. Now, just Max. It seems like the initial investigation could have been handled very differently. Maybe they should have looked for him instead of fixating on the parents. It is incomprehensible that police told parents that a 10-year-old needed to be gone for 24 hours before they lift a finger. Angelo Puglisi Sr put up a good fight to get them to start looking sooner.

Anngelle Wood: 45:36

Because of the number of child predators in the area, many theories lean on Andy being lured from the pool by one of those known sexual abusers. Several kids from the neighborhood spoke about a man at the pool asking children to help him look for a dog. Whether anyone actually saw a dog that day is unknown and incredibly unlikely Predators play games with unsuspecting people. They manipulate their emotions. What better way to get a child's attention than to talk about a doggy? Right? If a Wendellist fan pulls up and says bulldog kisses, I would be so fucked.

Anngelle Wood: 46:15

I make jokes to add a little bit of levity to a hideous story. The truth of it is this this was any one of us in the 70s and 80s. We were the latchkey generation. We ran the streets, we were the streets, and if I sound like I wear sort of a badge of honor, I do. I would have likely preferred to have many of the things some of the other kids had Attentive parents, that sort of thing but I turned out decent, all limbs intact, with a compassionate soul. There are stories of vile pedophile rings, men driving around plucking kids off the street, approaching children at the city pool, hanging around locker rooms and one child's account of being with Andy in the woods behind the city pool and seeing other men there. We will get to all of that in part two. Thank you for listening. Take care of yourself, go for a walk, put your face in the sun, hug a dog For real, it's healing. And please lock your goddamn doors. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time.