John J. Geoghan, 68, the pedophile ex-priest whose case opened the floodgates for a national clergy abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, was found beaten and strangled in his prison cell August 23, evidently murdered by another inmate, Joseph L. Druce, 37, who is serving a life sentence

Christian Century, Sept 20, 2003

John J. Geoghan, 68, the pedophile ex-priest whose case opened the floodgates for a national clergy abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, was found beaten and strangled in his prison cell August 23, evidently murdered by another inmate, Joseph L. Druce, 37, who is serving a life sentence. Geoghan was serving his second year of a nine-to-ten-year sentence For assault and battery on a child under age 14 at Souza Baranowski Correctional Center, a maximum-security facility in Shirley, Massachusetts.

In the pecking order of prison culture, inmates commonly target convicted pedophiles, such as Geoghan, who stood accused of molesting nearly 150 children over three decades as a parish priest in Massachusetts. Officials kept the ex-priest in a protective custody unit with 24 inmates, but the two guards were distracted and unable to rescue Geoghan in time, officials said.