Pictured above: “Father X”
I didn’t know what to
expect when Crash Barry (pictured below), an editor-at-large and an investigative journalist for
an alternative monthly print magazine and website in Portland, Maine called Mainer
News, first contacted me in 2017 about my blog series on the Danny Croteau
murder. Crash grew up in Indian Orchard, attended St. Matthew’s in The Orchard,
and Cathedral High School—five years after I graduated from CHS. I knew his
brother, who was in my class, but not him.
He wanted to know
more about a man he called Father X, a pedophile priest I had mentioned
in my blog. When Crash was a teenager, he knew him fairly well, because then
man was St. Matthew’s pastor and Crash’s family was very involved with the
parish—Crash was a lector for the Saturday evening late Mass and was the
church’s master of ceremonies. He even “babysat” (slept in) the rectory (the building next to St. Matthew’s below) for
Father X while he vacationed in Barbados.
I wished I had more
information to give Crash about Father X. I didn’t really know much, other than assorted rumors and the fact that he gave me my first communion (pictured below). The scuttlebutt over the years was that Father X had
been abused by a relative as a child and may have fathered a kid with his
niece. Crash was beginning to work on an investigative podcast on Father X, but I had little to offer on the priest back then.
A year later, Crash
emailed me informed me that had driven 250 miles to the nondescript New England
city where Father X lives. He was armed with a bottle of 100-proof bourbon for
truth serum to get him to confess his sins. The defrocked priest (pictured by Crash below) did spill the
beans, to some extent—and Crash secretly recorded the whole dang thing! Father
X downplayed his crimes, but he did, after a few drinks, finally get to the roots
of his perversion: his father had molested him from age four to 14. The bastard
had also sexually abused Father X’s two sisters, and eight out of 10 of his own
grandchildren—both boys and girls.
But Father X’s dad received
some instant karma one night in 1987, when one of his granddaughter victims
called him ranting and raving and saying she was going to the district
attorney. So he went out to his yard and put a bullet in his head.
The climax of this
conversation is one of 13 podcast episodes of Crash’s Devils and Dirtbags series on the Springfield Diocese clergy abuse
scandal. As for the niece impregnation
rumor, at the time Crash thought that if it were true, it seemed as if Father
X’s sex addict dad must have been the one who knocked her up, because the
ex-priest claimed he is “as gay as a three-dollar bill.”
But then, on the web,
I happened to find this weird connection between one of Father X’s late nieces and a priest Crash calls Father
Zee—a notorious pedophile and a member of the Springfield clergy sex abuse
ring. I told Crash about what I had stumbled
upon, he did a little digging, made a few calls, and sure enough it was Zee who
was the father of the love child.
By the way, Crash
credits me for “editorial assistance” on the podcasts. It’s too kind of a term,
because it was Crash who did the heavy lifting, superb writing narrating, and
producing, and had the balls to visit and interview not only Father X, but also
the chief suspect in Danny’s murder, Richard Lavigne.
Richard Lavigne's latest mandated sex offender photo
Crash’s plan of
attack was to tell Lavigne that he was writing an investigative piece on FATHER
X and to ask him if he knew anything about him.
“Would you like to
come in?” Lavigne asked.
Were you friends with
Father X?” Crash asked him in his living room.
“We weren’t friends,”
said Lavigne, frowning. “More like acquaintances.”
Crash explained
Father X’s background to Lavigne because a recently published true crime book (one
I had also given editorial assistance to) had briefly hypothesized that if
Lavigne hadn’t killed Danny, then perhaps Father X did. There’s zero proof
behind this conspiracy theory, but Crash wanted to know if Lavigne thought
Father X could have been a killer.
When Crash earlier
had asked Father X if he knew Danny, he said no—that the boy went to school at
OLSH, but was a parishioner at St. Catherine, not OLSH, the church where Father
X was stationed. Father X said he didn’t really know Lavigne (they were
acquaintances) but nonetheless doesn’t think that the man killed Danny.
Our Lady of the
Sacred Heart Church
Lavigne said he
didn’t know Father X was still alive or had gotten into trouble and had been
laicized. Either he didn’t read the papers or he was feigning ignorance.
“How do you remember
[Father X]?” Crash asked. “When you hear the name [Father X], what do you think
of?
“A person I really
wasn’t fond of,” he said. “I always found him to be kind of prissy. We were
never friends.”
“How much contact
would you have with him? Were there gatherings of priests?”
“That’s it. You know,
when you have a big lunch with the Diocese and I might be sitting across from
him. And that’s really the only contact with him,”
“Did you ever have
any argument with him?”
“No.”
“What about this
theory of him being a murderer?” Crash asked. “Any thoughts on that?”
Lavigne stared at
Crash blankly. Crash again mentioned the true crime book he had just told him
about minutes earlier, and explained the conspiracy theory that Father X could
have been Danny’s murderer.
“Really?” he said,
sounding surprised.
Crash babbled a
little more about the book and how the author also pondered the possibility of
Danny’s Boy Scout leaders or other men might have murdered Danny.
“So,” Crash said, “do
you remember [Father X], at all, as a violent man?”
“No,” Lavigne said.
“You called him
prissy. That’s sort of opposite of violent.”
“Yeah, right. I was
uncomfortable with him,” Lavigne paused. “I found him like I said: prissy.”
“Did you know he was
gay?”
“No,” Lavigne said.
“Though I assumed that he was.”
In Crash’s riveting podcast, Lavigne went on to
give an account—for the first time to a journalist—of his side of the story in
his 1991 molestation conviction, as well has his opinion of the dozens of sex
abuse allegations against him over the years.
In another exclusive,
Lavigne explained to Crash why he showed up at the murder scene (pictured below)
a day after Croteau’s body was found—an act that ultimately led police to
consider him the prime suspect.
Lavigne also
described peeking through the window of a fellow priest in the act of molesting
boys, and telling Bishop Christopher Weldon about it…but the Bishop covered it
up. Yes, Lavigne names the priest, who had been unaccused. Until now.
I’m not going to
reveal any more here! Listen to Crash Barry's podcast series yourself!
Becky Miller Snider, who is Richard Lavigne’s cousin, sent Hell’s Acres the above photo of Lavigne, in the psychedelic frock, marrying her parents in 1971, and the photo of him below at her christening party in 1973.
She first wrote a comment at the end of this blog post in March of 2021. She followed that comment with family lore of Lavigne's mother often walking around the house topless, and Lavigne having younger friends over his house playing poker—as his mother served them food and alcohol.
It’s not the first revelation of his mother’s strange behavior. A true crime book about the Croteau murder details a description by Lavigne’s friend of her topless and sunbathing with Lavigne, his hand on his mother’s breast. He also used to grab her breasts through her clothing and ask, in front of his friends, “Are these real?” She was sexually provocative in the presence of Lavigne’s friends, often wearing skimpy bikinis.
Snider fears that Lavigne may have also gotten “too close” to one of her relatives.
Read the entire series:
24 comments:
Welcome back!
Thanks! It’s good to be back!
Your series has been riveting, I am very glad too see you are back!
Hi Missy,
Thanks for checking the blog!
Welcome back sir!
Thank you, sir!
Glad your blog series is back. Thanks for all the great content!
Thanks, M Lefebvre!
Glad to see you're back. I think the blog is great.
Great job.
'Chaug Guy
Hey ‘Chaug Guy! Thanks.
Patiently awaiting the 10 part oral history of CHS food fights
Jim C lol that would be great. I wonder when the food fights began and when they ended.
Remember, the nuns ruled with an iron fist in the '60s (including maintaining student silence in the hallways between classes) but began losing their authoritarian grip around '68 or '69. My guess it was around then that the food fights started. Or was it earlier?
When did they end? Around the mid-1980s?
Good to have you back. Figured you had some involvement with the book. Keep it going!!
Welcome back, Hells! Just for laughs I went to the site today and was surprised to see your new post. I've missed your writing these past years.
Thanks for the podcast recommendations. I've bookmarked it, and can't wait to start listening.
My grandparents knew Lavigne, who used to pick up my uncle (their son) and some other neighborhood kids and bring them to do some odd jobs and weird stuff like that. My uncle quit the job without warning and my grandma was upset with him and called him lazy etc. He finally told her that the Father had made him "uncomfortable" and that was that. Later on, all that other stuff went down. Man... I'm going to listen to Devils and Dirtbags. I sent it to my 98 year old grandfather too who's a retired MA State cop and has been in the area all his life. He'll love it, and love this blog too.
Wow, I think your uncle’s instincts were sound enough to dodge a bullet on that one! I’d be interested to hear what your grandfather thinks.
Glad to see more on Danny C. I lived in East Springfield when it happened and new Father Dirt Bag. I now live in S Cal have read Fleming book. Being a retired Wilb PD officer have for many years followed the case. enjoy this site
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I just scanned a little of this. I felt I had to comment before I read it all. Richard Lavigne makes me want to go back to my hometown of Chicopee and confront him with questions which would never be answered. This twisted evil person is my cousin. I have never met him. I only found out about him in 2005 when my grandmother asked me to tape 60 minutes for her. I did and then watched in horror, disgust and sadness at the story and how this was so obviously covered up. These poor boys and men. Then to find out I am related to this sicko....omg... this piece of crap baptized my sister and I think married my parents. How is he still alive? I feel so horrible for all these victims. I cannot express my disgust that I am related to him. I think he is my third cousin. Thank you for doing these to help others. Becky L. Snider
Hi Becky,
From Barry’s visit with Lavigne in Chicopee we know he denies ALL molestation allegations and in the past there has been one accusation by a female relative of his, so consider yourself lucky you were never alone with him when you were a kid.
I was born in 1973 in Chicopee, Massachusetts and moved away to Florida when I was 2 years old. Richard Lavigne, known as "Dick from my Aunt, doesn't know who I am. I have read this podcast in its entirety. I have some more work to do. Research. I have heard stories about Dick, my cousin, over the years. I heard stories about his mother, whom had no moral compass whatsoever. At her house she used to have her son and his friends over for card games. Poker, I think. These men were younger than Dick. His mother served them food and alcohol during these games. Shocker! She walked around with no top on, breasts exposed which also reveals the sickness and depravity involved in this family. I am going through pictures and other items more closely now to see what more I can find. I have a feeling most of our family moved away because they were disgusted by Dick, the other priests and knew more. All I can say is I am sorry to all the survivors, victims, families of all boys, girls, who had their innocence taken away by a man and other men they trusted. I was raised Catholic but it never fit right for me. These horrible men used, manipulated, threatened any involved. Becky Miller Snider
Yes, please feel free to do some research and leave comments. It’s interesting and revealing to read family accounts. I had heard (never confirmed) that Dick had a twin who died at childbirth or in utero. Depending on which study you read, this affects the surviving twin psychologically. It’s no excuse, but I wonder if family members can confirm this about Lavigne.
I am wondering how to post a picture on here. It is of Dick marrying my parents. I don't think I would have been his type.... which I am so grateful for beyond words. This evil monster did marry my parents in 1971. I have proof, unfortunately, since it ruins everything I was told to believe in. I do have the photo but I do not see an option of picture upload. Please advise. Thank you, Becky M Snider
Hi Becky,
Feel free to email me the photo at hellsacres@gmail.com and I’ll publish it at the bottom of the post and refer to your comments.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9613857/Prosecutor-Late-former-priest-killed-altar-boy-1972.html Found this today!
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