January 22, 2025

REPLAY | EP43 | What Happened To Andy Puglisi? Lawrence, Mass & The Dark History of 1970s Child Abductions

48 minutes

This is about abuse, missing, and murdered children. Listen with care.

In preparation for Friday's new episode with Melanie Perkins McLaughlin, a replay of Andy Puglisi's case first released in June 2023, in two parts. There are many updates to this story, despite the decades-long mystery.

In part one, we explore the haunting case of 10-year-old Andy Puglisi, the boy who vanished from his neighborhood, spotlighting the societal attitudes towards missing children during that time. The discussion delves into the failed police response, media portrayal, and subsequent changes in child protection laws.

On Sunday, August 22, 1976, (we learn this is the actual date he was last seen), Andy Puglisi disappeared from a public pool in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Melanie Perkins McLaughlin, Andy's childhood friend and documentary filmmaker, spent years piecing together the events of that fateful day. Her decades-long investigation, highlighted in her documentary "Have You Seen Andy" and new podcast "Open Investigation," brings fresh perspectives to his case and others like his.

It doesn't stop with Andy's story. We delve into the broader narrative of missing and murdered children in the 1970s, an era marked by systemic child abuse within the Catholic Church. This period saw high-profile cases like Etan Patz and, later, Adam Walsh, which led to the creation of crucial resources like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

We learn about Springfield boy, Danny Croteau, and the powerful forces that shielded his alleged killer, Father Richard R. Lavigne, a notorious child abuser who would later be convicted of molesting boys across Western Massachusetts, and the investigative work of journalists such as Kristen Lombardi, of the Boston Phoenix, whose work played a critical role in unmasking these crime against children.
Crime of the Truest Kind - Episode 43 - What Happened To Andy Puglisi, Part One

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This podcast has minimal profanity but from time to time you get one or some curse words. This isn't for kids.

Music included in episodes from Joe "onlyone" Kowalski, Dug McCormack's Math Ghosts and Shredding by Andrew King