This letter, from Judith Malone, pictured above, from Palmer & Dodge, counsel for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, was sent in response to my letter to the Club asking that they clarify their intent. If I proved what had happened in 1963, would they be willing to help me? Or were they going to fight me regardless of evidence? In the following letter, they refused to state their intent, without even explaining their refusal, which meant they were going to fight. Turning over my medical records, which they could use to discredit me, as they eventually did, or the names of the perpetrators, whom they could have warned, which they also did, would not have helped me, to say the least.
June 25, 1997
Dear Mr. Chester:
This law firm represents the Boys & Girls Club of Boston and your letter of June 17 to Frances Moseley has been referred to me. Given your representation that you have dismissed Mr. Hardoon and that you do not have other counsel, I am writing to you directly. You have made very serious allegations concerning events that occurred almost thirty-five years ago. You are asking the Boys and Girls Club to pay you a substantial amount of money based upon your recitation of these events as you remember them. As yet, you have not provided the Club with the names of the alleged perpetrators or any other children who might have been involved. As the Club has previously indicated to you, both in writing and during your meeting with Mr. Gagne, the incidents that you recount are totally antithetical to the Club. However, in order to determine an appropriate response to your claim, it will be necessary for the Club to review the documentation concerning these events and the effect that they have had on you. When you met with Mr. Gagne, you had extensive documentation concerning your own personal history and your investigation into the incidents in question. We understand and appreciate your privacy concerns and we would be willing to discuss with you ways in which we can address those concerns. However, we need to be able to review this information in order to determine how to proceed. If you are willing to proceed along these lines, please contact me at your convenience.
Sincerely,
[signed]
Judith A. Malone
cc: Frances Moseley
I responded directly to Attorney Malone by telephone and offered to make disclosure. But, again, my fear of a whitewash was very strong. Given the Club’s rejection of my proposal for a cooperative investigation, I felt disinclined to cooperate with them and decided instead to obtain more corroboration. Subsequently, I contacted the two psychiatrists who had treated me, beginning with Dr. Wool, to ascertain what they knew about the crime as the result of any disclosures I made to them during treatment.
Jeffrey Jones was the managing partner of the Palmer and Dodge law firm, where Judith Malone was a partner. Later, after his handling of the matter with me, Mr. Jones became the chairman of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston board of directors. If a letter or a phone call requiring clout had to go out, Jones was the one behind it, as was the case with Boston Globe editor Matt Storin and Suffolk County DA Dan Conley.