James Chester Writes About Rape to Boys and Girls Clubs’ Board of Directors

On June 11, 1999, the following letter went out to each of the members of the board of directors of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston and the board of directors of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, as listed below.

Members of the board of directors of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston

Mr. Michael Bronner
Bronner Slosberg Humphrey, Inc.
800 Boylston Street
Boston MA 02199

Mr. Jack Agnew
Agnew, Carter, McCarthy, Inc.
222 Berkeley Street STE 1650
Boston MA 02116-3747

Mr. William W. Bain, Jr.
Bain & Co.
2 Copley Place STE 600
Boston MA 02116-6597

Mr. Michael I. Carson
WHDH TV
7 Bulfinch Place
Boston MA 02114-2913

Mr. Ralph C. Martin, II
Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office
One Pemberton Square
Boston MA 02108

Mr. John M. Connors, Jr.
Hill, Holiday, Connors, Cosmopulous, Inc.
200 Clarendon Street
Boston MA 02116-5021

Mr. Brian J. Knez
Harcourt Brace & Co.
27 Boylston Street
P. O. Box 1000
Chestnut Hill MA 02467

Mr. Timothy Leland
Boston Globe Newspaper Co.
P. O. Box 2378
Boston MA 02107-2378

Ms. Helen Chin Schlichte
50 Main Street #33
Charlestown MA 02129-3787
Ms. Dola H. Stemberg
5 Louisberg Square
Boston MA 02108-1202

Mr. Richard A. Voke
197 8th Street
Charlestown MA 02129

Ms. Dusty S. Rhodes
Conventures, Inc.
1 Design Place STE 718
Boston MA 02210

Members of the board of directors of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America

Executive Officers

William J. Clinton
Honorary Chairman, Boys and Girls Club of America

Rick Goings
Chairman Emeritus, Boys and Girls Club of America
Chairman and CEO,
Tupperware Corporation
14901 S. Orange Blossom Trail
Orlando, FL 32837

Peter L. Haynes
Chairman of the Board, Boys and Girls Club of America
President and CEO,
Consumers Water Company
3 Canal Plaza
Portland, ME 04101

Arnold I. Burns Chairman-Elect, Boys & Girls Club of America

Ms. Roxanne Spillett
President, Boys and Girls Club of America

Board of Governors

Mr. Wayne Allen
Chairman and CEO,
Phillips Petroleum Company
Phillips Building
Bartlesville  OK  74003

Mr. John Antioco
Chairman & CEO,
Blockbuster Entertainment Grp
1201 Elm Street STE 3000
Dallas  TX  75270-2187

Mr. Gerald W. Blakeley, Jr.
President,
Blakely Investment Co.
60 State Street STE 3400
Boston  MA  02109

Mr. Anthony P. Conza
President and CEO,
Blimpie International, Inc.
740 Broadway
New York  NY  10003

Ms. Elizabeth G. Dolan
Dolan St. Clair, Inc.
5129 SW Burton Drive
Portland  OR  97221-2515

Mr. Gary J. Fernandes
Vice Chairman,
EDS Corporation
5400 Legacy Drive
Plano  TX  75024-3199

Mr. Donald G. Fisher
Chairman and Founder,
GAP, Inc.
1 Harrison Street
San Francisco  CA  94105-1602

Mr. Eugene Freedman
Chairman and CEO,
Enesco
225 Windsor Drive
Itasca  IL  60143-1225

Mr. Ken Griffey, Jr.
Seattle Mariners Baseball Club
83 S King Street STE 300
Seattle  WA  98104-2875

Mr. M. Douglas Ivester
Chairman and CEO,
Coca Cola
1 Coca Cola Plz NW
Atlanta  GA  30313-2499

Mr. James S. Kemper, Jr.
Corporate Consultant,
Kemper National Insurance Companies
1 Kemper Drive
Long Grove  IL  60049-0002

Mr. Ronald T. LeMay
President and COO,
Sprint Corporation
2330 Shawnee Mission Parkway
Shawnee Mission  KS  66205-2090

Mr. Edward M. Liddy
Chairman, President and CEO,
Allstate Insurance Company
2775 Sanders Road
Northbrook  IL  60062-6127

Rev. Edward A. Malloy
President,
University of Notre Dame
Main Building STE 301
Notre Dame  IN  46556

Mr. Dana G. Mead
Chairman and CEO,
Tenneco, Inc.
1275 King Street
Greenwich  CT  06831-2946

Ms. M. Anne Szostak
Senior Vice President,
Fleet Financial Group, Inc.
1 Federal Street
Boston  MA  02110

Mr. Gary C. Wendt
Chairman and CEO,
GE Capital Corp.
777 Long Ridge Road STE 2
Stamford  CT  06902-1250

June 11, 1999

Dear [board member]:

I am writing you because you are a member of the Board of Directors at the Boys & Girls Club of Boston. I am writing this same letter to every board member and to other individuals and organizations with influence within the Club organization.

Thirty-five years ago, in the summer of 1963, I attended the Stay-At-Home day camp at the Charlestown Boys Club with sixty-four other boys. Every morning, for two weeks, we assembled on the front porch of the clubhouse and then boarded a school bus which took us on a field trip. We visited amusement parks, beaches, park reservations, and museums, and we all had a good time. On Thursdays and rainy days, however, we remained at the clubhouse and played games in the Game Room and sports in the gym. One afternoon, while I was playing basketball with a group of boys, something happened which caused me to suffer a massive psychological injury. The incident was so horrific that it has taken me all this time just to begin speaking of it, despite my having spent many years in intensive “talking therapy.” I have had to come a long way in order to find my way back from the devastation which this incident caused me, and I have had to overcome an entire series of seemingly insurmountable obstacles along the way. Presently, I am faced with my last obstacle, the Boys & Girls Club itself, and I am writing you today with the hope that you might help me, given your influential association with the Club. If you will allow me, I would like to tell you what happened, the effect it had upon me, and what you can do to help, if you become inclined to do so after reading my letter.

Please be warned that what follows is an account of an assault upon a child.

Two individuals, one of whom regularly accompanied us on our field trips and was either a counselor or a counselor-in-training, forced all of us boys away from our game and into a room at the edge of the gym floor. I tried to escape, but I was chased down and dragged into the room. Once inside, we were forced to disrobe and then sing songs in front of these two individuals who ridiculed and humiliated us. Some boys were crying and others were too frightened to cry. Afterwards, I was subjected to an assault that was so brutal and so sadistic that it left me senseless and unable to speak afterwards. The horror so totally consumed me that I could not focus on anything but what was happening to me directly and at that moment. Therefore, I am unable to say whether other boys were assaulted. I can only say that other boys were hazed, and I can say it unequivocally because I was there and I saw it happen.

I apologize if I have offended your sensibilities with this account, but there is no way I can convey the gravity of the matter about which I am writing you without including it. Please understand that it is much more difficult for me to speak of it than it is for you to hear it. I have had to summon courage that was very difficult to find in order to come forward with this, to say nothing of the courage I have had to find in order to face it within myself.

As a result of this incident, my life became very painful and extremely unmanageable, beginning very early on. The devastating emotions which this assault caused me to feel took on a life all their own, recurring uncontrollably in an endless variety of personal situations. Afterwards, moments of simple embarrassment were followed by days of overwhelming humiliation. Awkward and unfamiliar situations became unbearably frightening ones, to be avoided at all cost. And simple disappointments snowballed into excessive self-loathing, through which I cast aside all my hopes and ambitions, like worthless trash. The demons which this assault implanted in me made my life extremely difficult and, once, not worth living. But through it all, I struggled to find my way back.

I spent many difficult years in psychotherapy, starting when I was just seventeen. In 1969, I was diagnosed at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center with Borderline Personality Disorder, a psychological disorder which is thought to be caused by traumatic sexual abuse at an early age. Though most psychiatrists are unwilling to treat BPD because of the difficulties that inhere in its treatment, and though I had no money, having come from a very poor family, I was very lucky to find a specialist in adolescent psychiatry to take my case. Dr. Bruno Scherz treated me every week for three years, constantly prodding me to articulate my feelings relating to every personal situation about which I spoke to him. The therapy was very painful because it was so difficult for me to say what I felt about even the simplest things. But I kept at it, and the work paid off. In May of 1972, when I was twenty, I succeeded in restoring my sense of feeling, something which had been obliterated in the assault. But the restoration immediately put me in touch with my demons and that was something I could not yet handle. As a result, I became psychotic, imagining myself in a small room with an older threatening male and fearing that I was about to lose my mind, and I had to be hospitalized for one month at Massachusetts General Hospital with what my records indicate was a “transient psychotic episode.” During my hospital stay, I tried with all my might to speak about what had happened to me at the Charlestown Boys Club, but I could not do it. My torment was truly unspeakable, and it would remain so for another ten years.

Upon discharge, I was placed into group therapy, but the situation proved just too difficult for me, and I quit. Six years later, I returned to MGH, seeking a resumption of individual therapy. After an evaluation, I was specifically and intentionally placed with a woman, Dr. Carol Wool, who is presently director of Primary Care Psychiatry at MGH, and she treated me for four years, twice weekly during the last two years. Again, the therapy was painful, but, for the first time ever, I began to speak about what had happened at the Charlestown Boys Club. At some point during the therapy, I spoke to Dr. Wool about the hazing which had preceded the assault, and Dr. Wool has corroborated this disclosure in a letter to the Boys Club. Then, four years into therapy, after approximately three hundred sessions, one day I suddenly began having thoughts that I had been assaulted when I was a boy, and Dr. Wool was sitting directly across from me when I uttered my first words of those thoughts about that assault. Regrettably, at that time, I did not know where those thoughts were coming from or why I was having them, and in the next few months, therapy became increasingly more difficult for me. Despite the administration of anti-psychotic medication, I could not go on, and I terminated the therapy. Before I left, Dr. Wool advised me that my reason for leaving was my inability to face the demons which she and I were approaching in therapy, but I left nonetheless. Following that failure, I abandoned therapy forever. However, I continued on my own with my efforts to resolve my torment.

My big break came in 1989 when I realized that my only hope for recovery was to stop repressing the feelings of fear, humiliation, and self-loathing which had been haunting me all my life. With that, I set out to learn how to let them up and how to let myself be moved by them, and it took me six years to do so. I made my way incrementally, and I endured considerable poverty in order to make the time to take just those small steps. But those small steps together brought me to a point in 1996 at which I was ready and prepared to take the grand plunge, a full frontal confrontation with my demons. All I needed was funding, and I obtained that funding in January of that year.

Everyday, three or four times a day, for six months, I worked my way. (I documented the entire ordeal, and I have provided the Club with a copy of the document.) It did not happen all at once, but as I allowed myself to be overtaken by my feelings, those same feelings took me back into the situation from whence they first arose. And the more deeply I plumbed my feelings, the further I entered into that situation, until there came a point in which I found myself re-living the assault, as if it was happening anew. That is how I learned what had happened to me; I followed the emotions, without having any idea wheresoever they would take me. I was not hypnotized, nor did anyone suggest anything to me. When I set out in January 1996, I was working all alone, and the Boys Club was not even remotely on my mind.

When my funds ran out, I wrote to Mrs. Moseley and asked for help from the Boys & Girls Club. I recounted for the Club what had happened in 1963, the terrible effect it had upon me, the long ordeal I had undertaken to overcome the incident, and the success which I had finally begun to achieve. I also explained that the last leg of my recovery would require an intensive effort which might last two years, and I asked the Club for a weekly allowance which would afford me the opportunity to undertake the effort. Mrs. Moseley not only refused my request for help, she also refused to investigate my allegations, saying too much time had elapsed and the Club’s records from that time were no longer available. (In a later correspondence, the Club made reference to the existence of staff records, but, in this earlier instance, the Club stated unambiguously that no records existed.) In very short time, I obtained the names of many campers and counselors, and I wrote to the Club again. I asked Mrs. Moseley if the Club would be willing to help me if I proved that the assault had actually happened. Mrs. Moseley did not respond to my offer, but she requested a meeting between myself and a Club officer, Terrence Gagne, CFO. At the meeting, which took place in Mr. Gagne’s office in April of 1997, I showed Mr. Gagne excerpts from the above-mentioned documents which substantiate my claims that I underwent extensive medical treatment, that I had obtained the names of many individuals who were at the Charlestown Boys Club in 1963, that I had undertaken an intensive recovery effort in 1996, and that the effort had led directly to my allegations. It seemed to me that Mr. Gagne’s overriding concern during our meeting was for the Club’s reputation, though, admittedly, he also showed a genuine concern for my ability to truly rid myself of the demons which this incident left in me. In any case, all Mr. Gagne wanted to know was the exact amount of compensation I was demanding from the Club. When I explained that my primary concern was for weekly support lasting two years, Mr. Gagne became visibly relieved and verbose.

Three days later, I spoke by telephone with Mr. Gagne. He stated that he had consulted with the four most senior members of the board of directors and they were demanding that I turn over all documents pertaining to my allegations, including the names of the other boys who had been victimized and the names of the alleged perpetrators. Sensing the presence of attorneys and fearing treachery, I refused to make any disclosures.

Negotiations continued for more than a year, up until July of 1998. I repeatedly asked for some assurance that, if I turned over my documents, the Club would do the right thing and make a genuine attempt to determine the truth. And, repeatedly, the Club refused to make any assurances whatsoever. Finally, in May of 1998, I relented and turned over my documents.

Though I was disappointed, I was not surprised when the Club again refused my request for help. However, I was surprised that the Club chose not to speak with the MGH psychiatrist who had come forward with knowledge of the hazing incident. In a letter to the Club, Dr. Wool corroborated my disclosure to her at least seventeen years ago — quite apart from matters in this instance — that I had been hazed at the Charlestown Boys Club. The Club not only declined to speak with Dr. Wool about what she knew, they summarily dismissed her letter, saying “she really doesn’t know what happened.” In fact, Dr. Wool knows far more than what she indicated in her letter, but she is having considerable difficulty coming forward with it. Nonetheless, she did come forward to say she knew something, and the Club turned a deaf ear to her. Given the atrocity which I allege and the possibility that a whole group of boys were hurt, the Club’s disregard seems to me unconscionable.

The correspondence which the Boys & Girls Club and I exchanged up until a year ago bears out the fact that the Club does not want to investigate this incident themselves, nor do they want to cooperate with my own investigation. In the beginning, in Mrs. Moseley’s response to my first letter, the Club refused outright to conduct an investigation. However, prior to my making disclosure, in a conversation with an attorney who is helping me with correspondence and inquiry, the Club’s attorney asked for all my documentation so that they themselves could conduct an investigation. But that’s not what the Club did. In May of 1998, when I finally turned over my documents, they did nothing with the many leads that are contained within those documents. Again, given the atrocity which I allege, I think the Club’s duplicity is abhorrent and condemnable.

I appreciate the Club’s concern for its reputation, and they probably appreciate my concern for recovery. But there is a third concern which must also be considered: a concern for the other boys who were hazed alongside of me in that room at the edge of the gym floor. When I spoke with Mr. Gagne by telephone just a few days after our only meeting, he cited that same concern as justification for his demand that I provide “the four most senior members of the board of directors” with all the names of anyone who may have been involved in the incident. Specifically, during that conversation, Mr. Gagne said that the Club’s “responsibility goes beyond [me] to the other boys” who were in the room.

I have disclosed deeply personal and embarrassing information in this letter for just one purpose, which I now present to you. Are the other boys who were hazed right alongside of me, before my very eyes, by the same individuals who moments later perpetrated a savage and vicious assault upon a child — just moments later, and in the same room; are those boys not entitled to some measure of concern? And, if they are entitled, what measure of concern are they entitled to be given? It seems to me that the smallest measure to which they are entitled is being asked directly what effect, if any, this incident had upon them — each of them.

I am writing you today to plead with you to call upon the Boston Club’s officers for their cooperation in this investigation. An allegation of rape and torture upon a child — by itself — should warrant an investigation. However, beyond that, I have also substantiated my allegations with detailed medical and personal documentation and with sworn corroboration , and, yet, the Boys & Girls Club has not given me one iota of information that might help me to find the other boys who were in that room or the perpetrators themselves. As a board member, you have a voice with which to call for their cooperation, and I implore you to join me in these recovery efforts.

In making your decision, please consider everything which I have described to you in this letter. Please consider the horror that played out in that room, the unspeakable anguish it caused me, and the torturous years trying to talk about it. Please consider the panic I experienced when it almost came out and the miracle of recovery. Above all else, please consider the possibility that it happened, and, so that you do, I am enclosing an affidavit which corroborates my allegations.

If just one other individual is living the same horror which I have lived for the past thirty years, who is willing to turn their back to him? It is highly unlikely that he will ever find his way back alone. I am an exception.

I apologize for the burden which this correspondence surely places upon you. But I have had to carry a far heavier burden, and the time has come for me to ask for help. Otherwise, it is possible that I may not make it. Accordingly, given the stakes, I have gone public with my allegations and with this letter.

Thank you for listening to me.

Sincerely,

[signed]

James Chester

Roxanne Spillett, President of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, responded to this letter and told me that the national organization had no authority over any of the regional organizations.

Attorneys for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston also responded and moved to settle with me. However, my patience had run out and, when they failed to contact me at the time they indicated, I contacted the Boston Globe newspaper. Subsequently, the Club moved to fight my allegations and to discredit me.

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