Most of the info in the first three episodes of Unholy Fathers was based upon my deep dives into court records, contemporaneous news accounts and various interviews to formulate the narrative that illustrated the heinous nature of the vicious murder of 13-year-old Danny Croteau by his abuser, Father Richard Lavigne — and the subsequent cover-up by the Diocese of Springfield and the DA’s office.
(I highly recommend my colleague Hell’s Acres blog, here, about the sordid side of Springfield and surrounds, including his own reporting on Danny’s murder.)
But then, when we got to Chapter 4 on Father Charles Sullivan, the tale turned personal. That drunkard of a priest was a real asshole, to be sure. But never during his lifetime, (at least according to the Diocese of Springfield) had he been accused of sex crimes. Later this fall, I’m publishing a new episode about that former pastor of St. Matthew’s, which includes an exclusive account of sexual abuse of a child, this time a seventh grade girl, at the hands of Sullivan. You’ll hear a brave woman’s sad story of Sullivan’s mistreatment of her at St. Matthew’s School. And you’ll listen in on our conversation about how one priest’s actions changed her life forever.
Then, a couple weeks ago, we got to Father X. Despite his and my “friendship” and personal history, I got most of the details about his crimes and sins in E 5 and E 6 from never-before-published court documents and a handful of news stories from western Massachusetts. Other stories came from a secretly-recorded drinking session with the now-dead priest.
Chapters 7 and 8 revolve around that interview, for which I drove 250 miles from western Maine to an unnamed New England city, where I tracked down and door-knocked Father X in a bed-bug infested subsidized apartment. After getting the old man drunk on hundred proof bourbon, he confessed — to me — his sins. Then he revealed his family’s darkest secrets.
