WHDH
July 6, 2007
http://www3.whdh.com:80/news/articles/local/BO56629/
Boston — A security video of prison guards ferociously tugging at the wedged-shut door of the cell where a convicted killed was strangling and beating defrocked pedophile priest John Geoghan has shown up on the Internet, prompting an investigation by Massachusetts prisons officials.
The video posted last month was brought to the attention of the Boston Herald, apparently by Joseph Druce, the man convicted of killing Geoghan inside a cell at Souza-Baranowski maximum security prison in August 2003.
"The truth about officer involvement in John Geogan's (sic) death," a handwritten note sent to the Herald and signed "Joseph Lee Druce" says.
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The note then has the address www.youtube.com/JosephDruce in parentheses, followed by "The truth about officers allowing J.G. to die through their neglect. Let the truth be know (sic)."
The 10-minute video shows up to five guards at a time tugging at the door Druce had wedged shut with a paperback, while other guards stand at the ready to enter the cell as soon as it's opened.
Inmates do not have access to the Internet and state Department of Correction officials are investigating how the video made it to the Web, department spokeswoman Diane Wiffin said.
"We have no idea where he got it from. We don't know where the tape came from or how it got on the Internet," Wiffin told the Herald on Thursday night. "It is under investigation."
The president of the guards union said the state should "immediately use any legal remedy available" to get the video off the Web.
"We are deeply concerned that an internal security video was posted by an inmate or an inmate's family," said Steve Kenneway, president of the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union. "It's absolutely a public safety issue, posting emergency response actions of correction officers on the Web."
Druce was already serving a life sentence for murder when he killed Geoghan, 68, a central figure in Boston's clergy sex abuse scandal. Geoghan was serving a nine- to 10-year sentence for groping a 10-year-old boy, but had been accused of molesting as many as 150 boys.
Druce claimed he was chosen by God to kill pedophiles and unsuccessfully used an insanity defense at his trial.
In August 2005, the Herald obtained a video that showed Druce re-enacting the slaying in which he strangled Geoghan with a pair of socks, tightening them with Geoghan's own sneaker. Druce then climbed on his cot and jumped off repeatedly to show how he crushed the convicted molester's body.
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