BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News [Buffalo NY]
February 2, 2023
By Dan Herbeck and Lou Michel
Who killed the monsignor?
This is the 13th installment in an 18-part serial on the unsolved 1966 murder of Buffalo Diocese Monsignor Francis J. O’Connor. Read the rest of the series.
BEMUS POINT – In 1966, Buffalo priests who were accused of sexually abusing children did not have to worry about being arrested.
Instead, some were sent for a time out in the lap of luxury – a stately mansion in this beautiful vacation community, on a property with lush, rolling lawns, tennis courts and a gorgeous view of Chautauqua Lake, a Buffalo News investigation has revealed.
The mansion served as the Buffalo Diocese’s secret place of confinement for at least two molester priests in the 1960s.
Police records show that the Rev. John D. Lewandowski and three other troubled priests were living at the Bemus Point mansion when homicide detectives questioned and fingerprinted Lewandowski as a suspect in the murder of Monsignor Francis J. O’Connor in March 1966.
Officially, the Buffalo Catholic Diocese called the mansion Notre Dame Du Lac Retreat House. A spokesman for the diocese told The Buffalo News that he would not call it a diocese house for priests accused of being molesters.
“Based on our records, Bemus Point functioned as a retreat house for priests who needed to spend time away from ministry and reconsider their role in the church,” spokesman Joseph Martone said in November. “I would characterize it as a true retreat house and not as a penal facility for priests accused of molesting.”
In a Buffalo Police Department report on the 1966 murder of O’Connor, a detective described the mansion as “a penal house for wayward priests.”
In another report, Homicide Chief Leo J. Donovan said the four troubled priests he spoke to at the Bemus Point mansion were not allowed to have cars or money, and were not allowed to leave the building without special permission from the retreat house director.
Lewandowski and other troubled priests at Bemus Point were “under lockdown” without access to cars or money, Martone confirmed.
Two of the priests mentioned in Donovan’s report – Lewandowski and Howard Slack – were later named as child molesters in Child Victims Act lawsuits, and the diocese itself now calls Lewandowski and Slack “credibly accused” child molesters.
Lewandowski was sent there in early 1966, the Donovan report states, after his pastor complained to the bishop’s office about Lewandowski’s conduct with a teenage boy.
In the 1960s, the problem of priests molesting children was a tightly held secret in Buffalo. Accusers never went public and the issue was never reported on in the news media. The Buffalo Diocese for decades afterward denied there was any problem.
But more than a half-century later, in 2018, as a clergy abuse scandal erupted in Buffalo, the diocese would identify 78 priests, including Lewandowski, as “credibly accused” molesters of children, and seven Child Victims Act lawsuits were later filed accusing him of sexual abuse.
The use of a lush English Tudor style mansion in Bemus Point to house some molester priests irks some of the men who say they were sexually abused by priests in the 1960s.
“These guys should have been in jail, not in a waterfront mansion with tennis courts,” said Michael P. McKeating, 77, who told The News he filed a complaint in 2019 with the Buffalo Catholic Diocese, alleging that a priest tried to molest him when he was a teenager.
McKeating, who also filed a claim against the diocese in its ongoing bankruptcy case, said the priest who tried to molest him was Slack, who is described in police reports as living in the Bemus Point mansion when detectives went there to interview Lewandowski. Slack died in 1976.
“It disgusts me that the priest who tried to molest me was living in luxury down there, when other people accused of doing the same thing would be sent to prison,” said McKeating, a former Catholic deacon.
The small village of Bemus Point is a sparkling vacation spot on the eastern shore of Chautauqua Lake, 70 miles southwest of downtown Buffalo.
During a recent visit there, a News reporter found plenty of people who were familiar with the mansion, located on prime waterfront property on Lincoln Road, about a half-mile from the village park and many of the village’s popular tourist attractions.
Most of the Bemus Point residents who spoke to The News said they never heard that the mansion was used to house molester priests.
“I heard it was owned by the Buffalo Diocese at one time, but you’re the first to tell me it was used for that purpose,” Mayor Bryan P. Dahlberg, a Bemus Point resident since 1971, told The News.
Rev. Todd Remick recently left Bemus Point for another church assignment after spending 12 years as pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, next door to the mansion.
“I know they had seminarians living there during the Vietnam War,” Remick said. “No one ever told me that it was ever used as a punishment or rehabilitation center.”
Martone confirmed that Lewandowski was at Bemus Point for “treatment” at the time of the O’Connor murder.
Buffalo News reporters Dan Herbeck and Lou Michel talk about their investigation into the death of Monsignor Francis O’Connor, a beloved priest who was murdered in 1966.
According to Martone, diocese records show that the Rev. James P. Cahill, who was the diocese’s director of Notre Dame Du Lac Retreat House in 1966, was sending the bishop’s office “regular updates” on how Lewandowski was progressing at Bemus Point.
But there are no records indicating that Cahill ever told the bishop’s office that Lewandowski had become a suspect in the murder of a fellow priest, Martone said.
If Cahill was sending the bishop regular updates on Lewandowski, why would he not mention that police had traveled to the mansion to question Lewandowski about O’Connor’s slaying?
“I can’t comment. I don’t know,” Martone said.
Martone said he could not tell from diocese records how many accused molester priests were sent to Bemus Point.
Was a luxurious mansion the right place to send priests accused of sexually abusing kids?
“I cannot comment,” Martone said.
History of the mansion
The mansion – now a private home – has an interesting history.
It was built in 1921 by James Selden, a wealthy businessman from Pittsburgh who came to Bemus Point to build the Casino, the vacation spot’s most famous entertainment venue, which hosted stars like Tommy Dorsey, Frank Sinatra and, more recently, 10,000 Maniacs.
The Buffalo Catholic Diocese owned the three-story mansion from 1954 to 1971, property records show. It was situated on 10 acres with addresses on Main Street and Lincoln Road, along with a large swath of land that rolled up to the lake.
Diocese records from the 1950s show that it was once used as a seminary. In 1957, it was used as the “summer house of studies” for men preparing for priesthood, with 123 students and seven faculty, the diocese records indicate.
“It was a very pretty property,” said Rev. Roy Herberger, 80, who spent time at the mansion as a seminarian. “I remember some of us sneaking out at night to have beers at a nearby bar.”
Police reports say Cahill was in charge of Notre Dame Du Lac when homicide detectives went there to question Lewandowski after the O’Connor slaying. Cahill died in 1983. Cahill’s name, address and phone number were listed in O’Connor’s personal telephone directory, which is still stored in the Homicide Squad’s case file.
Over the years, news reports indicate that Notre Dame Du Lac hosted wedding receptions, couples retreats and other events.
In a lakeside village filled with vacation properties worth millions of dollars, the estate on Lincoln Road still stands out as one of the prettiest.
Today, the mansion is privately owned by Elizabeth Flower, who said she is proud of her home and unaware of it ever being used as a penal house for molester priests.
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Coming Friday: Suddenly, the murder investigation ends