Rob: 0:00

Do you see the head on my beard right now?

Jess: 0:02

Yeah, that's a big head. You got there, rob.

Hannah: 0:08

I mean, which head do you talk about?

Jess: 0:12

I've only seen two, and the one's on his beard. Oh, he's got a scene too.

Rob: 0:17

I'm like wait, wait, what happened?

Jess: 0:19

without me, his head on his shoulder, sarah.

Rob: 0:21

Oh, head, shoulder, zine his toes, knees and toes OK.

Hannah: 0:32

Hello Wanderers, I'm Hannah and I'm Jess, and this is Wicked Wanderings. Hello Jessica. Hello Hannah, how are you? I'm good. How are you doing? I'm good. Are we ready to finish talking about this douche-canou?

Jess: 0:47

Father Levine, we are. I've been waiting because I don't know.

Hannah: 0:51

I mean, I know what happened because obviously you told us last episode, but I think this case really resonates with a lot of local people, so I want to finish it and have a good discussion about it. Yeah, this is the second part of the Danny Crota murder. If you have not heard part one, go back Trigger warnings. We talk about abuse in every form on this episode. Talk can get graphic and, while we show the utmost respect for the victims and their families, we need to tell the details so people remain vigilant and understanding of how difficult a time this was for the community. Where we last left off Levine had been arrested on charges, we are now getting into where Bishop Wildem is knowingly allowing abusers to go free and not be brought to justice. Yeah, exactly by this time, people were coming out with the abuse that was happening in the church. Even with this happening, Dan's parents were getting inundated with calls and messages stating that how dare they blame a priest for what happened to their son? Oh, are you serious, yep.

Jess: 1:51

So victim blaming, yeah Like victim shame. Oh People, sorry, go ahead. Those are people that think they're going to heaven but they're going straight to hell, just saying.

Hannah: 2:00

Right. People were still believing in the innocence and godly path these men were given. Not everyone believed that Levine was guilty. Levine's supporters wanted to raise money for his lawyers, so they held tag sales, car washes and even bake sales to raise the money. They said that a pre-salary was not enough to be able to combat all the harsh things he had to go through.

Jess: 2:24

Yeah, while he's diddling little kids.

Hannah: 2:29

Levine started wearing large hats or hoods and wigs with fake beards in order to hide who he was One of his victims who had not come forward yet. He said to them quote you'll probably make a mistake and say something to really get me in trouble and quote I'm glad you quoted that.

Jess: 2:46

That's horrible Ugh.

Hannah: 2:50

There was a petition signed in April of 1992 urging the court to give Levine five separate trials rather than a combined proceeding Good. They did not think that a jury could honestly separate all of the given charges, which I agree with. So on April 30th the charges were separated into five different trials to be held away from Shelburne Falls to avoid pre-trial publicity issues.

Jess: 3:11

So this one was based off of that. Shelburne Falls. Correct, so this was for Donnie, not for Donnie.

Hannah: 3:18

When the court date arrived, levine changed his plea to guilty. The judge was going to be the one to decide Levine's fate. You're going to get so mad. The original deal with prosecutors was six months in jail, an 18th month sentence, like overall, where he did the six months in jail and then 12 months suspended. But the judge decided to go against that agreement because why would we punish a man for such a small crime A small crime, yep when he did so much good for the church? The judge decided on two concurrent 10 year probation terms. He would send Levine to a church affiliated facility for seven to 10 months no unsupervised contact with children under 16 and can no longer be a parish priest and pay a victim witness via $50. So basically, he got a slap on the wrist.

Jess: 4:09

And basically like they're going to keep watch on him. So he's not around 16 year old kids.

Hannah: 4:15

Basically, that's such bullshit, which it's great that he has, like he needs to have supervised visits, but like what?

Jess: 4:21

Are they going to be supervised?

Hannah: 4:23

Why does he even need to see children at all? Agreed, the judge said he did not order jail time because he did not view the crimes as serious.

Jess: 4:31

What the fuck? Of course they're serious and the dice He'd get killed and raped and prison. That's how serious they are, because other criminals don't like it.

Hannah: 4:38

Right and the diocese footed Levine's legal bill of $250,000. Of course they did. While at the facility, that was basically a bougie getaway for church employees Levine did not stop talking to his victims. He wrote letters asking if he was missed and made tons of phone calls to old parishioners. More and more victims were coming forward, and not just Levine's victims. It was happening all across the country. But there was more victim blame than throwing shame at the church. Of course there was.

Jess: 5:07

Which just makes my heart Getting very like worked up about Girl me too, such bullshit.

Hannah: 5:14

Do you remember those abuse files that the church kept in the secret archives? Yes, they were ordered to be destroyed. So when victims' lawyers went to go through them, there was no mention of abuse between 1970 and 1986.

Jess: 5:29

So can I just say that I don't think this is what God and Jesus Christ had in mind for their young altar boys. God, no, I don't think that is a Christ-like thing to do. To burn the evidence, no, just saying Catholic Church and I feel like this is going in a different way.

Hannah: 5:47

But I also don't think God wanted clergy to not have love in their life, so I don't agree with the Catholic Church saying that they can't marry. I also don't agree with the Catholic Church saying that you can't be gay, like that's where I do agree with the Episcopal Church. It's like you could be a woman, you can be a man, you can be married to the same sex, like or have a family, because this was just an opportunity for pedophiles. Like they had cushy jobs, they had full on access to children. Oh yeah, it's like waiting for something awful to happen.

Jess: 6:25

Yeah, it's like the perfect storm of loneliness and availability After this small cleanup.

Hannah: 6:32

The person put in charge of the archives had just returned from a sex treatment clinic. Like what the fuck. Levine was released from his vacation spot on January 27th 1993.

Jess: 6:44

Can I tell you? What pisses me off about this you can absolutely tell us off Is that you know it would be one thing and this goes with all religions that try to hide things to save face If they had just come out and said you know what we fucked up? We put this guy in front, you know, in front of a lot of kids, and he did some bad things, so we're gonna kick him out because that's unacceptable and we fucked up. Do you like more respect if they did that? It's the sneaky bullshit that just pisses me off, that, oh, let's cover this up and he can continue to molest kids, right.

Hannah: 7:24

And we had kind of talked about this case that happened in Texas, Though we could do an episode on. But you, in a bishop's letter in Texas that said to the sheriff's department like hey, cover this murder up, that was done by a priest, because an election where a Catholic president can come into office, AKA Kennedy, like you can kind of see the horror of what they were trying to do because they knew if it came out it might swerve the election one way or another.

Jess: 7:56

And that's when you know it is ran by man not gone? Yeah, exactly In my opinion Because the God I believe in Doesn't give a shit about Kennedy.

Hannah: 8:05

I mean, I'm sure he gave a shit because he loves the church Right for, like the election and all this, the election, yeah, come on. Victims kept coming forward but no charges were sticking. In January of 1994, the diocese confirmed settlement payments to 17 victims of between a million $300,000 to a million $400,000.

Jess: 8:24

Because you know that makes everything okay.

Hannah: 8:26

Parishioners were getting pissed that this is where money was going. Even with the restrictions put on Levine by the judge, it doesn't mean Levine followed them. He still tried weaseling his way into friends' parishes to try, to quote, help with things like listening to children's confessions. One pastor had a problem with this and he told the diocese, but he was ignored. So he called the police and got a no trespass order on Levine. Good, because he did this. He was punished by the diocese for bringing in the police and not keeping it in house.

Hannah: 8:57

The diocese had developed quite a relationship with their lawyers and so followed a certain pattern to help push off victims. And this is where I'm going to read from Death of an Alter Boy by EJ Fleming. Are you quoting? And I quote During their half century relationship with the Egan law firm, the diocese developed and obeyed a well-defined playbook of strategies for dealing with allegations, as described by writer Robert M Kelly. The strategies were one to maintain position Were broke, were special and it's someone else's fault. Two, to avoid decisions Make decisions by not making decisions, stahl litigate. Number three to avoid responsibility hide power, create layers to diffuse accountability. And four to withhold information, never admit guilt, never give up defenses and maintain secrecy.

Jess: 9:54

I'm pretty sure there's nothing in the Ten Commandments that is along those lines, right, just saying I mean there's, that shall not kill. There is that yeah, so I mean right there.

Hannah: 10:06

The Springfield diocese was just hoping this all went away on its own. Victim after victim was coming forward and they were hoping that it just goes away and the statute of limitations plays in. They say whatever they need to say to calm the people, to not lose their money, train. Of course, this is what this is what Business Right. Exactly this is what I meant in the beginning of part one of this episode that this isn't about faith anymore. This is about man-made ways to control people. Find faith in a system that is broken and corrupt and literally decaying from the inside out.

Jess: 10:37

You know, I received revelation, or I don't know what Catholics do Like God said that we need to put all this money to Levine's defense because he is a victim here.

Hannah: 10:51

Fuck that Stop. Levine is still a priest at this time, which punkles my mind. Only Levine would not register as a sex offender, but finally, after some time, he did register with Chikabee PD as a level three offender. But Chikabee PD did not post neighborhood notifications, even though it was state law required. They claimed it was unnecessary because of all the publicity he had received.

Jess: 12:49

Like what? So how many Irish Catholic people were in the Chikabee police?

Hannah: 12:54

force.

Jess: 12:55

Yeah, exactly.

Hannah: 12:57

The parish, that's in Isla Amal, massachusetts, there was a nun who was an assistant to the priest, named Mary. Rob actually knows who this woman is and she actually was a great blessing in Rob's life. One day Sister Mary noticed a crumpled up fax found in the trash and she noticed it was from an old parishioner who was upset that not more priests spoke out against Levine in his crimes. Mary knew that the current priest was going to retire so she kept the letter in her desk for the next incoming priest. She gave it to the next priest, father Skaehill, I thought you were going to say it was Levine. No, no, no, no. And she convinced him to meet with the old parishioner to try to see if he could get him to come back to church.

Hannah: 13:38

The old parishioner told the priest that he should withhold the percent of weekly collections that go out to the diocese until the bishop stops supporting Levine, because Levine was still getting a salary. When Skaehill, the priest of St Michael's in Isla Amal, brought this up to the parish on a Sunday, he got a standing ovation and everyone was on board. Oh, that's awesome. Skaehill brought this up to the bishop, which caused the bishop to be angry, obviously. Even with threats, skaehill went through with it and withheld the 6% that was meant for the diocese. This went viral as it could back in the day, and on the front of newspapers from the Wall Street Journal to the London newspaper.

Jess: 14:16

That's awesome. Yeah, yay, there's some good people out there still.

Hannah: 14:20

Unfortunately, Skaehill still met with resistance because he ran into the bishop at a gathering of priests in the Gungwit Main and the bishop scolded Skaehill in front of everyone for being disloyal and costing the diocese money, and Skaehill responded quote I am not disobedient. There is no virtue to obedience that requires the surrender of virtue. There is no virtue to obedience that requires one to go myopically blind, like the soldiers of Hitler.

Jess: 14:48

Wow, Skaehill's a superman.

Hannah: 14:51

Yep, that's awesome. So Skaehill demanded a meeting with the bishop and mentions the contradiction between the bishop saying that the Skaehill was costing the diocese money when he was okay paying millions to Levine's victims.

Rob: 15:01

Of course, rob you had a comment so yeah, that was my priest growing up at St Michael's and East Longbeau, and Stale was amazing, he was a really good priest.

Jess: 15:14

Well, it sounds like it. He stood up for what he believed in and he didn't cower under. I never even realized that that he was a part of this. No, really. Yeah, that's interesting, that's crazy small world, but still, yeah, that's because does that make you respect him?

Rob: 15:32

Hannah reading this book. She takes a picture and says it to me one day and it says sister Mary. She's like I think this is your sister Mary and I read what she had read. I said, yeah, that that sounds like that's her. And then she had told me all about Skahill and sister Mary and what they did and everything.

Jess: 15:50

So yeah, that's cool.

Rob: 15:51

I was like yeah, that sounds like them.

Jess: 15:55

That's awesome. I'm glad somebody stood up. I.

Rob: 15:59

Got a funny thing about Skahill. I think it was when I was in college. Catholic priests they can't marry, yeah. So what? What do they got to do with their free time? So he would like to go to local bar down the street. You know, have a few beverages.

Jess: 16:16

Well, good for him one night.

Rob: 16:18

He was driving back to the Rectory and Got pulled over by the police and got a DUI.

Jess: 16:25

Oh shit, good for him. I mean not the DUI, because we don't condone that here at Wicked Wanderings, and it was a huge scandal within East Long. Meadow, but you know what? He never liked to did all young boys yes exactly did all young boys.

Rob: 16:42

You know, he just liked to have a couple beverages at the local pub.

Jess: 16:46

So and maybe next time he could walk.

Rob: 16:49

Skahill. Skahill was a great guy. My sister, she was a Alter girl, I guess that's what you call him. She was a alter.

Hannah: 16:59

I don't even know what person, alter person. Baptist. You grew up Mormon. We don't know anything.

Rob: 17:06

She was an alter girl when she was younger, growing up, and, yeah, skahill was, he was great, and and sister Mary, she was great and she retired. Yeah, she came through fresh. She's a real man retirement.

Hannah: 17:20

I, I don't mind priests being human. Okay, you got a DUI like dude, all right. We all make mistakes, but there's a difference between making a mistake and being fucking gross.

Jess: 17:30

Yeah, and continuously Doing it, no matter where you go right and not having any type of Moral compass?

Hannah: 17:40

Yeah, but any repercussions for your actions?

Jess: 17:43

Yeah, I hope he's burning in hell, I'm sure God had some plans for him, mm-hmm.

Hannah: 17:50

So I'm quoting again from EJ Fleming's book. A month later, on November 12th, depre further seethe, when Skaehill was among six priests honored by the survivor's network of those abused by a priest also known as Snap Skaehill, called out the church and its bishops. He said it is regrettable that you should have to establish an award to give to a priest for integrity. Integrity is something that should be expected from us, yet inexplicably, the vast majority of clergy has been silent. In their complicit silence, they have betrayed truth and turned their backs on children and minors. By and large, the clerics have been myopic company puppets instead of being men. On November 20th, the Vatican informed DePre it was defrocking Levine. Depre ignored the dispatch, so it wasn't until 30 years later that Levine was finally going to be defrocked.

Jess: 18:44

30 fucking years. That's kind of a funny term for me, defrocked.

Hannah: 18:49

Defrocked. It was defrocked. It was then found out that the bishop had his own victims.

Jess: 18:57

I mean, doesn't surprise me, but what?

Hannah: 18:59

A reporter from the Republican tried getting to the bottom of it and DePre heard from one of his victims and, surprisingly, the next morning announced he was considering early retirement due to his health.

Jess: 19:11

Okay, so no wonder he was trying to hide it all, because he was guilty himself. How convenient.

Hannah: 19:16

Fuck that guy. Also, this man decided to make a fund for accused priests. Yeah, the bishop was also a supporter of banning gay marriage which boo. When one of the bishop's victims saw this and himself being a gay man, decided to travel back to Massachusetts and met with Father Skaehill because he's like all right, he's a supporter who was being a great supporter of victims. Two men met with Father Skaehill to go over the abuse that happened with the bishop. I will not go into detail, but he would scare the boys with pictures of men dying of AIDS so that they would only save intercourse for him. Yeah, so ew. Again, I'm quoting DePre was quick with God excuses. He said our relationship was a logical expression of love and God teaches love, he said, adding I'm God, you're sleeping with God.

Jess: 20:13

What? Yep, yep. So I wonder how he's enjoying hell and not being God, yep.

Hannah: 20:23

Finally, with DePre gone and hiding, the new bishop took Levine off the payroll and Skaehill finally paid his dues to the church. Good, there was a whole chapter on how Levine abused these kids and while again I'm not going to go through it all because it is too much and I think for a podcast I will quote one thing that Levine was said to have told a child. When this victim told Levine about the pain, levine said Jesus suffered on the cross. No, and so you could suffer a little Are you serious?

Jess: 20:58

That's so fucked up to compare the pain.

Hannah: 21:01

Oh this guy's a dick dude. Yeah, all of them Like. I thought this book was really well done, but Christ suffered on the cross.

Jess: 21:17

Yeah, and he did that for everyone's sins. So he did that for you. Yeah, and you're fucking it up right now. So fuck you, levine, fuck you Levine?

Hannah: 21:26

The author brings up the point that it may not just have been Levine that caused Dan's death. It was shown that whoever did the blow to Dan's face, it was done by a person who was left-handed and Levine is left-handed but based off of Danny's history of fighting, they speculated that someone he may have trust it was behind him and helped Levine because he was a good fighter. The author talks about rings of men that would pass around these young victims. That's what you were saying last episode. Yeah, and they were men from the church and places, like the Boy Scout leaders. There was a group of men called the Holy Thirteen.

Jess: 21:58

And they're not so holy.

Hannah: 22:00

Definitely not. The book by EJ Fleming does get into the abusers and the victims. He mentions what happened to the abusers if they died and if and when they retired. For the victims the stories are mostly tragic and sad. They turn to drugs, alcohol, violence and some committed suicide.

Jess: 22:19

Well, how can you not? Because here you are experiencing this extreme trauma from people who are supposed to be men of God, who are supposed to lead you to God, and even they are hurting you. So who are you supposed to go to?

Hannah: 22:34

They were safe spaces, even with the Boy Scouts in there, like that was a safe space you're supposed to put your child and they weren't.

Jess: 22:43

They weren't, they were sending them to the slaughter.

Hannah: 22:46

And let's be honest with even therapy now is such taboo still. So I can't imagine 50 years ago.

Jess: 22:54

Yeah, you didn't talk about that shit Right.

Hannah: 22:57

These individuals' lives were ruined. They were children that were forced to endure unimaginable crimes by the people that were supposed to keep them safe. They not only had to deal with the abuse, but they also dealt with the cover-ups and being called liars which just and being blamed. Yeah, levine was looked at for other murders in the area of Western Mass, but nothing stuck. They were still old lady parishioners taking him to lunch three or four times a week. He's still painted and one of his pieces for years hung in Mercy Hospital in Springfield, which just boggled my mind. The Croto family, along with so many others, were destroyed because of pain, sadness and these disgusting crimes. So to end this, I'm going to read from a Mass Live article from 2021.

Rob: 23:42

It's a very recent.

Hannah: 23:44

Defrogged Catholic priest Richard R Levine died last week as police were poised to seek an arrest warrant charging him in the 1972 slaying of altar boy Daniel or Danny Croto. Hamden District Attorney Anthony D Gullini said Monday, Citing no evidence that included hours of recent interviews with Levine and a forensic linguists review of a letter seen as a key piece of evidence in the case. Gullini said the investigation into Croto's death is now officially closed. The district attorney gave the Green Life Friday to state police detectives to present the case to a magistrate. They were prepared to then prosecute Richard Levine and prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, Gullini said. But Levine, 80, died that day. Gullini said the priest was not well but did not provide a specific cause of death, so he literally died Probably have a heart attack.

Hannah: 24:35

We're going to arrest him. No, we're coming for him. Right before they were going to arrest him, he got off too easy. So later in the article Levine admits to what he did and he said he left Danny beaten by the riverbank but he was still alive and he later returned to see him floating in the water face down. This story feels so close to me and I hope I gave the respect that Danny and all these victims deserved.

Jess: 25:00

Because fuck those priests, fuck them Not literally. I hope they burn in hell.

Hannah: 25:06

I can just see why so many people have turned away from the church. I really can, and as much as good people like Skahill, like Sister Mary, were trying to bring these people back in, so many people were scarred by just the events or that they abused themselves and they just were turned off by it and the God I believe in, I don't think he'll hold that against them. I really don't.

Jess: 25:38

Well, and even your mom was saying last week that she didn't go back for years, for years. Is she still. Is she active now? No, but I mean that would be enough for me to be like peace out.

Hannah: 25:55

Yeah, I think it's with what my mom and my mom's family and my uncle went through and then later on, with my mom's faith went through and then what I went through younger and having that sex offender around us kids, even though we were adults when we found out and thank God nothing happened to us. It still leaves a mark and still makes you just say fuck it. Why can't I just talk to God myself and the privacy of my home? Yeah, I don't know, just makes you wonder.

Jess: 26:33

Yeah, I personally am not a fan of organized religion. I think I've mentioned that a time or two. But I think you can be spiritual and have a relationship with God without being religious and people can be religious without being spiritual and it's like these little hoity-toity. I'm better than you, but I'm going to support a priest that likes to touch little boys.

Hannah: 27:01

Nope, there's a lot to unpack, but I was so humbled by Danny's story and these other victims that I hope that I respectfully brought to light Just the horrific things that happened to these poor kids and just bringing awareness to it to the extent Because I remember after I moved to Massachusetts, a lot came out, still in the 2000s, 2010s, and so it's still going on and it's still being hidden.

Jess: 27:31

Like Danny wasn't the first, won't be the last, unfortunately, unfortunately, it just makes me sick.

Hannah: 27:40

That's why we bring up. Like you know, the home means no and make sure you tell an adult you trust and if you don't feel comfortable, be rude.

Jess: 27:50

Yeah Right, believe your children. Believe your children.

Hannah: 27:54

Right and it's okay if you're rude and you're like, fuck you, I don't know what I think to do with you. Because they talked about and I know my mom talked about as well, but they talked about in the book how you know, Danny would be picked up by this man at school and he was like I don't want to go, Like don't go, but it was like such a part of their routine in their lives. And just because they're in a position of power does not mean they're right.

Jess: 28:18

Don't mean shit, nope, because people will take advantage. So RIP Danny and thank you for letting us tell your story. Yeah, thanks, hannah. That was a crazy, crazy story. Do you recommend the book?

Hannah: 28:35

I do recommend the book. I think it was heavy so please don't go into it thinking like, oh, a light read before bed. But it was very, very well researched, very well spoken. I think he compiled the chapters beautifully. So, yes, I definitely would recommend it. Good to know that should be in our show notes yes, and someday on our Instagram, yes. Thank you.

Jess: 29:03

Wanderers, thanks guys.

Hannah: 29:05

Bye. Thanks for listening today. The show wouldn't be possible without our amazing producer and editor, Rob Fitzpatrick, who works tirelessly behind the scenes to bring you the best content.

Jess: 29:15

And a special thanks to Tyga Soundprod for providing the captivating intro music. Cinematic intro 24.

Hannah: 29:22

And of course, we can't forget the hauntingly beautiful outro music, Rhino's Theme, composed by Kevin MacLeod.

Jess: 29:29

If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to leave a rating and review on our favorite podcast platforms Like Spotify, apple and YouTube. Your feedback means the world to us.

Hannah: 29:40

Also be sure to follow us on Instagram for behind the scenes glimpses, updates and more thrilling content. You can find us at Wicked Wanderings Podcast.

Jess: 29:48

Thank you so much for listening and being part of our Wicked Wanderings community. We appreciate each and every one of you.

Hannah: 29:55

Stay curious, keep exploring and always remember to keep on wandering.