Joseph Druce and the Prison Killing of John Geoghan

Joseph Druce is a Massachusetts inmate serving two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for two separate murders, best known for strangling defrocked Catholic priest John J. Geoghan inside a maximum-security prison cell on August 23, 2003. Born Darrin E. Smiledge, he legally changed his name to Joseph L. Druce in 1999 while already serving life for a 1988 killing.¹ A Worcester jury rejected his insanity defense in 2006, and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the conviction in 2009.

Background and Abuse History

Druce’s father was Dana Smiledge and his mother was Donna Gauthier. At his 2006 murder trial, Druce testified his father beat him and his mother and introduced him to alcohol as a young boy and cocaine as a teenager. He said he was sexually abused by staff at a residential school for troubled children and sexually assaulted by an older male starting around age eleven.¹

A private investigator hired by his defense later stated Druce had been sexually abused by three separate adult men between the ages of eight and twelve: a neighbor, a supervisory figure at a church the family attended, and one unidentified man. Druce’s own father confirmed to reporters that his son had been a “longtime victim of sexual abuse by adult men.”²

Martin Gideonse, Druce’s attorney in his first murder case, said Druce had been under psychiatric treatment since the age of five or six, had been committed to numerous mental institutions, and was prescribed psychiatric medication until his mid-teens, at which point he became addicted to drugs. His father publicly disowned him, telling reporters Druce harbored hatred for minorities and had threatened his own family.³

The 1988 Murder of George Rollo

In 1988, Druce and a companion were hitchhiking in Gloucester, Massachusetts, when George Rollo, a 51-year-old bus driver, picked them up. According to trial testimony, Rollo touched Druce in the groin. Druce beat him, tied his hands and feet, and forced him into the trunk of the car. After stopping to buy beer, Druce drove to a parking lot near the North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly and strangled Rollo with a rope.⁴

Gideonse argued Druce was not criminally responsible, describing his client’s conduct as “delusional and episodically completely irrational.” In December 1989, a jury convicted Druce of first-degree murder by reason of extreme atrocity and cruelty, and he was sentenced to life without parole.⁵

How He Killed John Geoghan

By 2003, Druce was housed in the protective custody block at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, the state’s maximum-security prison. John Geoghan, 68, had been convicted in January 2002 of indecent assault and battery on a 10-year-old boy and was serving his sentence in the same block.⁶ Geoghan had been the initial focus of the Boston Globe Spotlight investigation into the Boston Archdiocese clergy sexual abuse scandal; more than 80 people eventually accused him of abuse, and the Church defrocked him in 1998.⁷

On the morning of August 23, 2003, at approximately 11:48 a.m., officers opened all 22 cells on the block so inmates could return their food trays. Druce slipped into Geoghan’s cell. By 11:52 a.m., the block was locked back down with Druce still inside.⁸

Druce had prepared for the attack. He jammed the upper track of the cell door with a portion of a paperback book and wedged a nail clipper and a toothbrush into the lower track. He had spent roughly two hours stretching socks to use as a ligature.⁹ Once inside, he bound Geoghan’s hands behind his back with a T-shirt, threw him to the floor, and strangled him with the socks, tightening the ligature with one of Geoghan’s shoes and wrapping a pillowcase around his neck. He also carried a razor he never used.⁸

Guards could not open the jammed door. Surveillance video later shown at trial captured officers pulling on it before retrieving tools to force it. Officials estimated Druce was inside the cell for about four minutes before being discovered, and that it took roughly nine more minutes to extract him.¹⁰ Geoghan was pronounced dead at 1:17 p.m. An autopsy found the cause of death was ligature strangulation and blunt chest trauma, including broken ribs and a punctured lung.⁸

Why He Said He Did It

Druce gave shifting but overlapping explanations. He told investigators he wanted to “put a stop to the pedophilia in the church” and claimed Geoghan had been coaching other inmates on how to molest children.¹¹ In a post-incident disciplinary report, he was recorded screaming at a prison nurse: “I saved your kids from being raped.”¹² He later wrote to the Catholic Free Press of Worcester identifying himself as a childhood sexual abuse victim, apologizing to Geoghan’s sister Catherine, and calling for an end to “violence toward children.”¹³

Prosecutors told a different story. Worcester District Attorney John Conte characterized the killing as premeditated over more than a month and called Druce a “conniving killer” who viewed Geoghan as “a prize” and committed the murder to raise his status in prison.⁸ Prosecutors described Druce as a reputed member of the Aryan Nations.

The 2006 Trial and Insanity Defense

Druce’s murder trial opened in Worcester Superior Court in January 2006, with Judge Francis R. Fecteau presiding, assistant district attorney Lawrence J. Murphy prosecuting, and John H. LaChance defending.¹⁴ The sole defense was lack of criminal responsibility.

LaChance argued Druce lived in a “fantasy world” and genuinely believed God had chosen him to kill Geoghan as a “savior of children.”¹⁵ Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow testified Druce suffered from severe attention deficit disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, a personality disorder with paranoid and antisocial features, and a dissociative disorder, and told the jury Druce “lacked a substantial capacity to tell right from wrong and to conform his conduct to the law.” Ablow called Druce the most ill person he had ever evaluated, while conceding Druce was capable of planning the killing.¹⁶ Druce testified about his home life and abuse, telling jurors that hearing Geoghan discuss abusing children made him relive his own past and take on the role of an “avenger.”¹

Prosecutors pointed to weeks of preparation, the jammed cell door, the hours spent fashioning the ligature, and friendly visits Druce paid to Geoghan’s cell beforehand to lower his guard.⁹ Their rebuttal expert, Dr. Martin Kelly, acknowledged an antisocial personality disorder but concluded Druce was criminally responsible, citing his deliberate choice of target, his careful preparation, and his waiting for the right moment. Kelly also testified that Druce’s medications would not have interfered with his ability to conform his conduct to the law.¹⁷ Psychologist Dr. Joseph A. Grillo, who examined Druce shortly after the killing, testified that Druce denied hallucinations and said he wanted everyone to know Geoghan “was planning to hurt more children,” that he had “sacrificed himself,” and that he wanted a trial so the public would learn “priests are not safe in prison.”¹⁶

A jury of seven men and five women deliberated for about seven hours over two days before convicting Druce of first-degree murder. Jury foreman Thomas Wiegand later said the panel agreed Druce suffered from mental illness but concluded he “willfully committed murder.”¹⁵ Judge Fecteau imposed the mandatory sentence of life without parole, to be served consecutively to the life sentence Druce was already serving for the Rollo murder.¹⁴

The Appeal

In Commonwealth v. Druce, 453 Mass. 686 (2009), the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the conviction and the denial of all post-trial motions. Druce argued the Department of Correction had interfered with his attorney-client relationship and attempted to coerce a guilty plea, that his Miranda waiver was involuntary because of mental illness, that ongoing harassment and inadequate medication during trial required a mistrial, and that his trial lawyer had been ineffective. The Court found his statements to investigators were spontaneous and voluntary, that the trial judge had actively monitored his medication and security, and that the defense had been given wide latitude to present psychiatric evidence. It also declined to use its extraordinary power under Massachusetts law to reduce the verdict or order a new trial, concluding the jury was fully warranted in rejecting the insanity defense on the conflicting expert testimony.¹⁶

The Security Failures That Let It Happen

Governor Mitt Romney appointed a three-member panel on September 4, 2003, through Secretary of Public Safety Edward A. Flynn, to investigate how Geoghan’s death occurred inside a maximum-security prison.¹⁸

The panel found guards had filed “overzealous and unwarranted” disciplinary reports against Geoghan driven by “personal animus,” and that those reports led to his being classified as one of the state’s most dangerous prisoners. An internal classification board at MCI-Concord had recommended Geoghan remain at that lower-security facility, but a deputy superintendent overruled the recommendation, raised Geoghan’s classification to the highest security level, and transferred him to Souza-Baranowski, where he was housed near inmates like Druce.¹⁹

The panel also found that cell doors at Souza-Baranowski were vulnerable to being jammed by inmates and that two officers in the special housing unit at the time of the killing had “swapped” posts in a way that may have placed them in roles for which they were not trained.¹⁸ Commissioner Michael T. Maloney, a 29-year veteran who had led the Department of Correction for seven years, took medical leave after the murder and did not return. Kathleen M. Dennehy was named acting commissioner and later removed the superintendent of MCI-Concord, Michael Grant, in January 2004.²⁰

The 2007 Leaked Prison Video

In June 2007, the Boston Herald received a handwritten note purportedly from Druce directing the paper to a YouTube account under the name “JosephDruce.” The account hosted the ten-minute prison surveillance video of guards struggling to open the jammed cell door during the killing. The note claimed the footage showed “the truth about officer involvement” in the murder.²¹ The video reportedly drew over 90,000 views. The Department of Correction opened an investigation into how it reached the internet, noting that inmates do not have web access, and called the posting a public safety concern because it identified a correctional officer by name.²²

1
Telegram & Gazette. Druce Testifies About Abused Past
2
The Boston Globe. Druce Investigator Details Abuse History
3
Seacoastonline. Geoghan’s Killer Troubled, Vicious
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The Boston Globe. Suspect in Geoghan’s Death Had Troubled Past
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The Sydney Morning Herald. Court Records Paint a Frightening Picture of Killer
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CNN. Geoghan Found Guilty of Indecent Assault
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EBSCO. Boston Globe Reports Child Sexual Abuse by Roman Catholic Priests
8
CNN. Details Emerge on Geoghan Death
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CBS News. Jury Weighs Priest’s Prison Murder
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NBC News. Prison Video Played at Druce Trial
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NBC News. Inmate Convicted of Murdering Defrocked Priest
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The Boston Globe. Druce’s Stated Motives Emerge
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The New York Times. Letter to Paper Apologizes for Killing of Ex-Priest
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Telegram & Gazette. Druce Found Guilty
15
The New York Times. Inmate Convicted of Murdering Defrocked Priest
16
Findlaw. Commonwealth v. Druce, 453 Mass. 686
17
Telegram & Gazette. Druce Tells Jury Inner Torment
18
Criminal Justice Policy Coalition. Geoghan Panel Report
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The Washington Post. Report Calls Housing Ex-Priest With Dangerous Inmates an Error
20
Seacoastonline. Concord Prison Boss Removed
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Bishop Accountability. Prison Officials Investigate Leaked Video
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Boston Herald. New Prison Video Posted Under Priest Killer’s Name