BOSTON (MA)
Marblehead Current [Marblehead MA]
December 13, 2023
By Leigh Blander
A former Marblehead Episcopal priest, Boy Scout leader and assistant headmaster at Tower School is set to go on trial this summer for allegedly raping a 12-year-old Marblehead boy whom he took across state lines to a Boy Scout camp in New Hampshire in 1976.
On Aug. 18, a New Hampshire grand jury indicted Richard Losch, 89, on a charge of aggravated felonious assault. His alleged victim, who asked to be identified as Jack to protect his and his family’s privacy, spoke to the Current recently.
“I am coming forward in order to give Losch’s other victims the opportunity to seek justice and healing,” Jack said.
Losch now lives in Livingston, Alabama, where he has worked at two churches for years.
Contacted by the Current, Losch said, “On the advice of my attorney, I have no comment to make other than that the charge is totally false, and I deny all allegations of wrongdoing.”
St. Michael’s
Losch was a priest at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Marblehead from 1969 to 1986, where Jack often attended services with a friend in the ‘70s.
Losch is the second known priest at St. Michael’s accused of sexually assaulting a young boy.
In 2014, Franklin Huntress pleaded guilty to assaulting a 14-year-old boy in New Hampshire in the 1980s. Huntress was also arrested in London in 1994 and charged with sexual abuse of a child.
Huntress, who lives in Marblehead, retired as a priest in 1995, but served until 2001 at St. Michael’s, according to a report in Marblehead Patch.
Asked about the allegations against Losch, St. Michael’s Rev. Tom Ortung, who started working in Marblehead last month, said, “My main concern is that we be as supportive as we can be in this community, and for me that means creating a safe space to be able to voice their concerns.”
Ortung added that there are parishioners at St. Michael’s who remember Losch.
Grooming accusations
Losch was also Jack’s Boy Scout leader of a troop based out of St. Stephen’s Church, and he was Jack’s math teacher at the Tower School, where he also served as assistant headmaster. Losch was at Tower from 1969 to 1983.
Tower declined to comment for this article.
Jack said Losch groomed young boys at Tower and the Boy Scouts — first by telling inappropriate stories.
In what he calls his “survivor statement,” Jack wrote, “We were told how FL [Father Losch] and his younger brother did not own bathing suits when they were children. FL, his brother and all of their friends swam naked because it was ‘more fun.’ This supposed fact of increased fun was apparently magnified further when practiced in the Scouts. Naked swimming (a.k.a. skinny dipping) on an overnight camping trip was, according to FL, an incredible experience. We heard many stories exhorting the undefinable amazingness of skinny dipping in the Scouts.”
Losch also told stories about taking pictures of naked boys, according to Jack.
“FL told us that, on a past Scout overnight, he took pictures of the boys when they were swimming naked,” Jack wrote. “When he worked at Scout camp, FL told us that he typically showered with the boys because ‘It’s more fun to shower with the Scouts.’”
In the summer of 1976, Losch took Jack and three other boys to the Indian Pond Boy Scout Reservation in Piermont, New Hampshire. They were the only people there, according to Jack.
“At some point before the overnight, I realized that I was ‘supposed to’ skinny dip when we went swimming,” Jack wrote. “I had been ‘successfully groomed.’”
Three of the four boys did take off their bathing suits while Losch watched them swim at the camp, Jack said.
That night, Jack discovered there were only four beds for the four boys and Losch. Losch allegedly told Jack to share his bed. Later that night, Jack said Losch fondled him, put his hand over his mouth and then violently raped him.
‘Pure evil’
“What FL did to me was pure evil. Evil that forever changed who I was and who I would become. It instantly ended my childhood. It permanently changed the physical structure of my brain. It shattered my little boy’s soul,” Jack wrote.
Jack continued, “I often feel afraid. I am claustrophobic. I have night terrors. I have flashbacks. I am terrified of suffocation. When emotions overwhelm me, I disassociate. For a significant periods of my life, I abused ETOH [alcohol] and/or other substances.
Jack added, “I was betrayed by my teacher, my Scout leader and my chaplain, a priest. Much later, I would realize that I was also betrayed by the church, my school and the Scouts.”
Jack said he didn’t tell anyone about what happened at the Scout camp for years and finally confided in his brother.
The Boy Scouts of America sent a statement to the Current. “Father Richard Losch’s registration in Scouting ended in 2014. In 2020, a proof of claim was filed alleging sexual abuse of a Scout by Father Losch. The BSA added him to its Volunteer Screening Database, precluding him from future registration in Scouting.”
Moving south
In 1986, Losch left the area and moved south. He worked as a principal and math teacher at two schools in North Carolina and became a rector at St. James Episcopal Church in Livingston, Alabama.
The Episcopal Church in Alabama tells the Current it has launched what is called a Title IV investigation into Losch.
“The Diocese instituted its Title IV process under Episcopal Church Canons on learning of certain allegations against Richard Losch. This process is ongoing and confidential,” Debbie Donaldson, missioner of communications for the Alabama Diocese, wrote in an email. She declined to say when that investigation started.
“He is no longer serving as a priest in our diocese, but we cannot comment further on this matter due to the confidential nature of the ongoing Title IV investigation,” she added.
MPD gets involved
Jack and a Marblehead clergy member went to the Marblehead Police in November 2021 to file a report about the alleged abuse. The report led to the New Hampshire grand jury’s indictment.
Marblehead Sgt. Sean Brady spoke with Jack and then contacted the other boys, now adults, on the 1976 camping trip. The men said they could not remember much about the trip, according to Brady’s police report.
“To my knowledge, we have had nobody else come forward, and I wouldn’t state there is a concern that there are other victims,” said Police Chief Dennis King. “But I would encourage any victim of sexual abuse to come forward and would not rule out there being other victims based on the type of crime that allegedly was committed.”
King added, “Our job is to create a feeling of safety, non-judgment and show sincere interest to help someone that may have been sexually abused come forward.”
Losch’s final pre-trial conference is scheduled for May 20, with jury selection beginning on June 3.
SNAP, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the largest support network for people abused by clergy. For more information, visit snapnetwork.org.
Leigh Blander
Editor Leigh Blander is an experienced TV, radio and print journalist who has written hundreds of stories for local newspapers, including the Marblehead Reporter.