Monday, December 3, 2007

Nobody wanted to listen then.......








When Dr George E Reardon was fighting the loss of his medical license in the early 1990's, his lawyers and hospital officials dismissed the accusations against him as meritless. Now that the thousands of photographs victims had claimed he took have been found, the West Hartford CT police have been flooded with calls from all over the nation.

Most of those who called and spoke to the detectives just want someone to believe them and listen to what nobody wanted to listen to or believe back then. Several of those who called stated that they had molested when Reardon took them to a cabin in New York. Investigators are now going to visit the cabin he had owned on Brant Lake in Horicon NY in hopes of talking to residents who knew or observed Readon when he brought the boys there.

Dennis Malanchuk, 90 and a neighbor of Readon then had stated that he remembers the boys that Readon brought up there. He added that there were never any women that came along either, no secretaries or nurses while Readon had the boys there fishing and boating. The cabin was sold for $91,000 by his estate after he died.

Reardon had never married and lived at his mother's home on Griswald Dr, that she had bough in the 1950's. After her death in 1982, Reardon took in two brothers and became their legal guardian. He dated their mother and gave her money to pay her bills and she died of a drug overdose in 1983.

One victim, Dr C, has spoken in length of the horror of his time with Reardon. Dr C, a father of four and a pharmaceutical researcher outside Boston, wonders when investigators will find the evidence of his shattered life in the thousands of photos that have been discovered. He still vividly remembers the terror of climbing into Reardon's Cadillac DeVille, Reardon's slicked back hair and the smell of the almost constant cigarettes he smoked on that Sunday 40 years ago.

Dr C managed to bury those memories until he was 30 and had his son and they then returned as nightmares. He had spent hours locked in Reardon's St Francis Hospital office while Reardon fondled his genitals until they hurt, wait for him to clean him off and then had him pose for hundreds of pictures. He remembers that Reardon acted like he had nothing to hide as he brought the then 12 year-old past security guards and up to his office. Twice he was there alone and the third time, Dr C stated that there were two other boys there and he posed them as if they were having sex with each other. Before he took him home, Reardon gave him a gift, of real laboratory equipment since he had been interested in science even then.

Dr C didn't trust his own memories nor did he trust many people through his adult life. He has battled depression without knowing why and he turned to drugs and alcohol to try and quiet the demons. His marriage fell apart but by 1992, he was sober and ready to take action. Today, he is remarried and while he still battles depression, he is reliving his childhood through his children. The one piece of his life that is still unresolved though is his mother's insistance that it had all been his fault.

His dream is that his parents accept what had happened and accept him as he is. A simple wish to soothe what has been lifetimes of doubt and pain........ all because of one man, George E Reardon.



For a related post, go here.


Photos of the cabin in NY & the Griswald Dr home in 1994.


Update: December 13

Just when the West Hartford Police may have thought they were getting a handle on the case of Dr Reardon, the case took another twist. One of his victims states that not only did Reardon photograph him but he also raped him from the time he was 10 until he was 13. He added that he had been raped at the hospital and at other locations..

The new lawsuit brings the total to 18 that claim that the hospital is also responsible for their abuse. They all tell similar stories and St Francis Hospital so far is claiming that they were under the impression that Reardon was conducting a legitimate study and they had no idea of any wrongdoing.

A few victims had received compensation from Reardon's estate but these new lawsuits are the first that name the hospital in connection with his wrongdoing.

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