Abusive Ex-Priest Is Killed in Prison
By DANIEL J. WAKIN and KATIE ZEZIMA
John J. Geoghan, the former priest whose abuse of children over decades opened the door for a scandal that shook the Roman Catholic Church, was strangled by another inmate in a Massachusetts state prison, officials said yesterday.
Mr. Geoghan, who was defrocked in 1998, was serving a sentence of 9 to 10 years at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, a medium-security state prison 40 miles northwest of Boston.
Another inmate, Joseph L. Druce, 37, will be charged with murder, John J. Conte, the Worcester County district attorney, said. An autopsy is to be conducted Monday, but "preliminary indications" showed that Mr. Geoghan, 68, had been strangled, Mr. Conte said.
In January 2002, Mr. Geoghan was convicted of groping a 10-year-old boy in a pool and given the maximum sentence. Other criminal charges were pending, as well as civil cases involving more than 130 people who said he had abused them.
