Read a personal account of Ed Darragh promoting pedopilia and trying to recruit victims and perpetrators at the Charlestown Boys Club at
AL v. Commonwealth
402 Mass. 234 (1988)
521 N.E.2d 1017
A.L. vs. COMMONWEALTH (and a companion case[1]).
Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.
October 7, 1987.
April 21, 1988.
Present: HENNESSEY, C.J., WILKINS, LIACOS, ABRAMS, NOLAN, LYNCH, & O’CONNOR, JJ.
*236 Francis G. Chase, Assistant Attorney General, for the Commonwealth.
Jeffrey W. Kobrick (Frank S. Ganak with him) for the plaintiffs.
ABRAMS, J.
At trial in the Superior Court, a jury found the Commonwealth liable under the Massachusetts Tort Claims Act, G.L.c. 258, § 2 (1986 ed.), for the negligent failure of Lawrence Tierney, a probation officer, to verify the place of employment of Edward Darragh, a probationer in Tierney’s charge. Darragh, a thrice-convicted child molester, was employed as a teacher in the Boston public schools in violation of the special conditions of his probation; during the term of his probation, Darragh sexually molested the plaintiffs, two of his students. The jury awarded A.L. and M.M. damages against the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth appeals. We granted the Commonwealth’s application for direct appellate review. We affirm.
Edward Darragh was convicted on January 5, 1978, in the Waltham District Court on nine counts of indecent assault and battery on children under the age of fourteen and contributing to the delinquency of minors. Prior to this conviction, Darragh had been convicted twice in 1966 in the Malden and Woburn District Courts for indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of fourteen and for two counts of unnatural acts with young boys between the ages of ten and thirteen. For his 1978 conviction, Darragh received an eighteen-month suspended sentence. As specific conditions of his probation, the sentencing judge directed that Darragh (1) refrain from teaching; (2) refrain from associating with young boys; (3) continue psychotherapy during probation; and (4) sign any releases needed for dissemination of probation information.
In 1984, Ed Darragh was sentenced to life in prison on two counts of rape of a child. Upon becoming old and frail, as evidenced by the mugshot below, he was released from prison and allowed to go home to die.
Ed Darragh's Mugshot Upon Release From MCI Gardner
Criminal Record of Edward A. Darragh, Jr.
Mr. Darragh had a difficult start in life. There is no doubt of that in my mind. His father was charged with theft and rape when he was a young man. Ed Darragh worked at the Charlestown Boys Club, which was also known as the Bunker Hill Boys Club, as early as January 1957. Eventually, he was put in charge of the Midget Division, which was comprised of the smallest and youngest boys at the Club and also included the “Bunker Hill Indians.” He was also put in charge of the swimming program. Between 1966 and 1984, he was charged with 33 counts of Indecent Assault and Battery on a Child, all except one under 14, including rape.
More than one person has told me that Darragh was known within the Charlestown Boys Club to be a pedophile. Mr. Moussally observed Darragh sexually touching children. And some Club members have told me that openly attempted to recruit children into his “secret club.”
His most disturbing behavior is evident in the Bunker Hill Indians, who were a part of the Midget Division, being posed in the nude, which the Charlestown Boys Club photographed and then published those photographs in the Charlestown Patriot local newspaper, which they owned. Thus, in my view, the Charlestown Boys Club and the Charlestown Patriot both committed the offense of posing a child in the nude, but good luck prosecuting them.
In addition, Darragh ran the swimming program. Moussally said he saw Darragh touching children inappropriately in the swimming pool. And Club members have said they saw pedophiles congregating around the pool. Thus, again, in my opinion, the Charlestown Boys Club was a cesspool of pedophilia, which the Club promoted in the newspaper.
This all came to an end in 1963. Darragh was kicked out and only then apprehended and stopped. In addition, the day camp did not re-open for the following 1964 season. And when it re-opened in 1965, they brought professional camp counselors from the John F. Kennedy Community Center. But it was too late for me.
Despite all that had happened and all that they knew, the Charlestown Boys Club and the Boys Clubs of Boston did nothing to help me when I was a boy. And when I came to them as a man and begged for their help, they made me grovel. And when that didn’t work, they set out to destroy me, all while portraying themselves as the saviors of Boston’s poor children.
Under Ed Darragh, pedophilia became rampant and flagrant, as indicated by the images below that show his effect on an Indian game (before and after) that the children would play amongst themselves.
