Read more at www.CharlestownBoysClub.org
The Equipment Room at the Charlestown Boys Club. In 1963, when the crime took place, the windows you see in the picture on both sides of the doorway did not exist. They were installed afterward, as a result of what happened. Originally, the only windows were half-moon windows at the very top, like decorative windows. There was a specific reason for two windows. The equipment room was partially divided. Looking through one window did not show the other side of the room. Sometime later, for reasons unknown, the Club removed the window on the side where the assault happened, as shown below. Why was that window removed?
The pool at the Charlestown Boys Club, circa 1960s.
In the ’60s, the Charlestown Boys Club had a serious problem with pedophilia.
Beginning as early as 1952, Ed Darragh was the supervisor of the Midget Division, which grouped together the smallest and youngest boys, and then he became director of the swimming program, where boys were required to swim in the nude.
Ed Darragh was a serial child rapist who was eventually sentenced to MCI Gardner for life, but that didn’t happen until he was kicked out of the Club, after the crime in 1963. While he was working at the Charlestown Boys Club, he acted out flagrantly and with impunity, according to more than one account. Most importantly, he tried to promote pedophilia at the Charlestown Boys Club, according to an eye witness, which you can read here.
Within the Midget Division, there was a subgroup called the Bunker Hill Indians. They would dress up as “Indians” and act out short skits on stage in the Game Room.
But under Darragh’s supervision, things got wildly out of hand.
It is hard to believe that the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston was unaware of what happened in the ’50s and ’60s, given that people who were there knew and given that the above photographs were published in the local newspaper, which they owned. Nonetheless, when I came to them and told them what happened to me, they chose to fight me, and they fought with the utmost adversity. The individuals shown below are the senior board members who provide major donations for the Club’s operating expenses annually. And they are the individuals who fought me.
John Fish, Chairman and CEO of Suffolk Construction
John Fish, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Suffolk Construction Company, Inc. When the Boys Club engineered the demise of my small computer repair business (by hacking into my home phone, my cell phone, my PC, and my website, umpteen times), my landlord started an eviction against me. I didn’t know it at the time, but a listening device had been placed in my apartment (with Comcast’s help), and they were listening to everything. When I contacted the local free legal clinic for help with the eviction, the Boys Club people knew. When I filed discovery against my landlord, they arranged for someone at the Lawrence housing court to waylay my papers, which I sent by certified mail, of course. The receipt was returned to me unsigned and my papers were stamped “late” upon receipt, thereby cancelling my right to discovery and expediting my eviction. The Boys Club people always wanted me to know when they had stuck it to me, so they had someone at the courthouse visit my website, thereby logging their visit, which I traced, of course, directly to the courthouse. And, most importantly, someone at Suffolk Construction called my phone but said nothing when I answered. But I saw the name “Suffolk Constru” on my caller ID, and I knew it was John Fish himself telling me that the “late” papers was not an accident. Here’s a screenshot below of my caller ID.
Other Affiliations:
Boston College
Bowdoin College
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Inc.
Wentworth Institute of Technology
Initiative for a Competitive Inner CityHere’s
Please notice that he called twice and that I ignored the second call.
William W. Bain., Jr. (1937-2018)
Founder of Bain and Co. and Bain Capital; Consultant and Member of Advisory Board, Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation
Mr. Bain lived up to his reputation for “not knowing when to stop” and for wanting to be “at the edge of the state of the art.” Thanks to Bill Bain’s donations and power within the Club organization, I was involuntarily elevated into an elite club alomgside just one other person, Ernest Saunders of Guinness. Read more
Other Affiliations: Vanderbilt University; Notorious for “not knowing when to stop,” but it made him wealthy.
Bill Bain with Mitt Romney at Bain and Company, Boston
Palling around at Harvard Business School
Ann Bain, Mrs. William W. Bain, Jr.
John (Jack) Connors
John Connors passed away July 23, 2024.
Read about Mr. Connors at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and at Boston Magazine
Jack Connors, Co-Founder & Chairman, Camp Harbor View; Director, Mallinckrodt LLC; Founded Hill Holiday in Boston; Reputed to be John Fish’s mentor.
Previously, Bill Bain called the shots on the board of directors. When he died in January 2018. Jack Connors became the leader of the board. Although, he is also mentoring John Fish as his successor. Jack Connors spearheaded Cardinal Bernard Law’s exile from Boston society when he publicly disowned him just before attorney Eric MacLeish sued the Archdiocese of Boston.
Other Affiliations:
Lycos, Inc.
Navic Systems, Inc.
John Hancock Financial Services, Inc.
Saucony, LLC
Vinification Ventures Inc.
John Hancock Life Insurance Company, Inc.
Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, Inc.
Boston College
Brandeis University
Partners HealthCare System, Inc.
Prospectiv Direct, Inc.
Skyword Inc.
ACP Strategic Opportunities Fund II, LLC
ACP Funds Trust
Covidien plc
Michael Bronner (Gone, in 2021)
Michael Bronner, Founder, Digitas and Upromise, Inc.; Co-Founder of Bronner, Slosberg, Humphrey. Mr. Bronner started his marketing career selling coupon books to students at Boston University and hit it big when he helped launch American Express’ Membership Rewards program.
Matt Monkiewicz President & CEO, Kayem Foods, Inc.
Mr. Monkiewicz persuaded the guy who produced his TV ads to pose as a documentary producer who wanted to make a film about me, provided I go along with his request that “I’ll need to see everything you have.” Pretty sneaky, huh. Oh, yeah, the Boys Club was really good at being sneaky.
Ed Ansin, (Gone)
Ed Ansin and his brother Ron donated a couple million dollars to the Charlestown Boys Club, where I allege the kidnapping happened. Coincidentally, the Charlestown Boys Club used his donation to restore the Jordan Gym, which is the old church that Globe-founder Eben Jordan purchased for the Club back in the nineteenth century. The Jordan Gym subsequently became known as the Ansin Center. After that major donation, Mr. Ansin stayed on the board as one of the four most senior members, each of whom made an annual donation for the Boys and Girls Clubs operating expenses.
Mr. Ansin was the only board member, Linda Whitlock excluded, who showed me any compassion. I believe Mr. Ansin sent me an anonymous message once, urging me to be patient. And I believe he fell out with board’s decision to go after me, as they did. Twenty years later, Mr. Ansin, a TV broadcasting maverick, lost his license to broadcast in Boston. I believe that loss went straight back to his leaving the Club’s board, and I believe Bill Bain personally orchestrated that loss.
In my opinion, Ed Ansin was a good guy.
Counsel to William W. Bain and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston
Peter L. Ebb, Counsel to the board of directors of the Boys and Girls Club of Boston