FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2019 The Boston Globe Metro B
tion himself, but some people
bring him mementos from their
travels, suchas portraits of
saints.He recalledoncereceiv-
inganentireportfolioofdocu-
ments on Australia’s Saint Mary
MacKillop, he said.
Baldassari begantakingan
interest in the saintsas a teen-
ager, when he started collecting
holy cards, which typically have
a picture of a sainton one side
and a prayer on the back. Then,
28 yearsago, he was struck by
the idea to create a shrine in the
neighborhood he’s lived in his
wholelife. Baldassaridoesn’t
own the alleyway, but he got the
landlord’s permission to use it.
It once was “a trash bin,” Bal-
dassari noted.
The shrine is typicallyopen
from1 to 2 p.m.every day and
between 9:30 a.m. and noon on
the weekends. He doesn’t sell
any mementosbut acceptsdo-
nations in a small mailbox. On
Tuesday, visitors donated $75.
Abovethe doorto All Saints
Way, a sign reads “Mock all and
sundry things, but leave the
saintsalone.” Decorating the
shrine is Baldassari’s pastime.
In the mornings, he works at
Union Oyster House as a receiv-
er of goods. He’s worked there
for just under 50 years.
Oneof Baldassari’s old
friends,Gene Kroner,said Bal-
dassarihelpedwelcomehim,a
Jew, into the tightknit Italian
North End community in the
’70s.
“One of the reasonsI sur-
vived that early venture was be-
cause of Peter’s wise counsel,”
Kroner said. “That’s what is tru-
ly special aboutPeter... he al-
ways treated his friends like
saintsand his saints like
friends.”
Nardoianni called Baldassa-
ri a “living memory of the North
End.”uSAINTS
ContinuedfromPageB“He knowseveryone,” he
said. “He’s also known by every-
one.”
Asked what will happento
All SaintsWay whenhe dies,
Baldassari dismissed the prem-
ise of the question.
“You know, there’s a gospel
song, ‘I’m gonna live forever.
I’m gonna die no never.’ ” His
mother is 100.
OutsideAll SaintsWay, he
shouts greetingsat passersby.
“Hey, Doc!”he yellsto the
formerdoctor of his wife,who
died five yearsago. A group of
youngwomenshout, “Hi, Pe-
ter!”as they walkby. He chats
witha construction worker on
the corner.
On Wednesday, the Polillos,
visitingfrom Canada, hadpausedto lookat the shrine
when “all of a suddenPeter
called us over,” Peter Polillo
said.
His wife, Maria, was taken
aback that Baldassari had wel-
comed themand struckup a
conversation.
“When does that happen
anymore?” she said. She was
impressed with his wealth of in-
formation, and his eagerness to
share it.
Baldassari is a storyteller,
andhis characters are the
saints.
“Each one, each one has a
story,” he said. “You know, they
suffereda lot in theircountries.
But they had the faith.Faith is
important.”
His audience? Whoever hap-
pensto stumbleacross his
shrine.
Two tourists from Maine cu-
riously approached the alley-
way. Baldassari greeted them
with a wave of the hand and a
modestnodofhishead.
“This is my shrine. Thanks
for finding it.”Lauren Fox canbe reachedat
[email protected]. Follow
heron Twitter @bylaurenfox.underdifficult conditions dur-
ing this crisis, but it needs rein-
forcements,” he wrote in March
1990, duringa yearof many
murdersin thoseneighbor-
hoods.He addedthat “if just
one shooting was prevented,
one youngster saved from being
maimedor killed,it wouldbe
worth the effort.”
Two years later, he spoke out
again, after a particularly brutal
murder in Uphams Corner.
“People in Roxbury, Dor-
chester, and Mattapandeserve
better than this,” Judge Outlaw
said fromthe benchduringa
suspect’s arraignmentin 1992.
“We need more police out in
theseareas.Years ago, I asked
for morepolice. They laughed
at me whenI said, ‘Call out the
National Guard.’ ”
In an interview with the
Globeafterward,he said a
“plantation mentality” toward
blacks in Boston could be the
reasonwhy therewasn’t a
greater police presence, even af-
ter highly-publicized, violent
crimes. And he drew a contrast
between Boston’s predominant-
ly blackand predominantly
uOUTLAW
ContinuedfromPageB
white neighborhoods.
“You can bet your bottom dol-
lar that if it happenedin South
Boston or West Roxbury there
would be enough police to take
care of the problems,” he said.
Using everything at his dis-
posal,he also at times set bail be-
yonda defendant’s reach.He did
so memorably in October 1992,
the day after a new state law
took effect that gave judges dis-
cretion to consider the danger
defendantspose to the commu-
nity and to set bail accordingly
to keep them off the streets.
Duringa hearing for a man
charged with possessing a small
amountof crack cocaine, the
publicdefender — a third-year
Boston College Law School stu-
dent who hailed from Nebraska
— asked for bail to be set at
$200. Citing “the serious nature
of the crime,” the prosecutor
sought $10,000.
Judge Outlaw thenset bail
at a $1 million surety bondor
$100,000in cash.
The public defenderap-
pealedthe bail ruling, which
wenton to set a Massachusetts
precedentwhen the Supreme
JudicialCourt unanimouslyde-
cided a few monthslater thatchanges the state Legislature
had made to existing Massa-
chusetts bail laws ran afoul of
due processprotectionsunder
the US Constitution.
In the case beforeJudge
Outlaw, the defendant had no
priorcriminalconvictions.He
had been arrested after police
discoveredthe crack cocaine
and a strongbox with $44,
while searching his BlueHill
Avenue home.
“Underthe new bail law just
signedyesterday, this manis a
danger to the community,”
Judge Outlaw said whenhe set
the highbail.“He’s a dealer in
drugs— at least on the surface
he has all of the paraphernalia.”
An SJC justice subsequently
reduced the bail amount to
$10,000cash,pendingthe
court’s full review of the defen-
dant’s appeal, and he was able
to post bail while awaiting trial.
That case wasn’t Judge Out-
law’s only high-profile moment
on the bench,or the only time
he set a high bail.
He had drawn plaudits from
the Boston Police in April 1989
when he set bail at $1 million
for a Brooklyn,N.Y., manwho
was charged withdroppingabag containing $100,000 worth
of cocaine during a foot chase
in the Grove Hall neighbor-
hood.
Bornin Hyde Park on Nov.
28, 1923, Darrell L. Outlaw was
a son of a son of the Rev. Guy
and Louberria Outlaw. His fa-
ther had beena hospitalchap-
lain. From 1943 to 1946, during
World War II and immediately
afterward, Judge Outlaw served
in the Army Air Forces.
Accordingto his resume, he
graduated in 1949with a bach-
elor’s degree fromHoward Uni-
versity in Washington,D.C.,
and then attended Suffolk Uni-
versity, from which he received
a bachelor’s in governmentand
a master’s in education. In
1961, he graduated from Portia
Law School,which later was re-
named New EnglandSchoolof
Law, and then New England
Law Boston.
In later years, Judge Outlaw
was a longtimetrustee of his
law school, “andin 2007was
named its first African-Ameri-
can president,” New England
Law Boston said on a website.
His earlyjobs out of college
included working as a youth
counselor and as a Suffolk Supe-rior Court probation officer. Af-
ter passingthe bar exam, he was
in private practice for a few years
before serving as an assistant
corporation counsel for the City
of Boston fromthe late 1960s
through the end of the ’70s.
In the 1960s, he twice ran
for state representative in Rox-
bury, where amonghis cam-
paign issues was ending the ha-
rassment of blacks in public
housing projects. He also made
a Democratic primary bid for
lieutenant governor — all with-
out success.
Judge Outlaw was among a
handfulof blackleaders who
campaignedin 1978for Ed-
wardJ. King, who defeated
GovernorMichaelS. Dukakis
that fall in the Democratic pri-
mary and went on to become
governor.
In April 1980, Kingappoint-
ed Judge Outlaw to serve as
chairman of the Massachusetts
Commission Against Discrimi-
nation.
The following January, King
nominated him to becomea
Dorchester District Court
judge.
Judge Outlaw married Mat-
tie B. Paschal in 1988.“He was a very intelligent
man, a man of very few words,”
she said.“He listened,and ev-
erything had to be precise. He
gave it a lot of thought whenev-
er he had to make any kindof
decision. He also had a fabulous
sense of humor.”
In additionto his wife, Mat-
tie, Judge Outlaw leaves three
daughters, Penny, Kathy, and
Karen;Mattie’s son, Alto Spen-
cer; and Alto’s three children.
A service has beenheld and
burialwas in Wildwood Ceme-
tery in Winchester.
Despite setting highbail in
some cases, Judge Outlaw tried
to find ways to help thosewho
mightbenefit from something
other thana jail term. On that
day in 1985 when he com-
plained aboutthe prevalenceof
guns,he told one of the defen-
dants that “everyone who
knowsme knowsI try to give a
persona break,” even though
that case resulted in him impos-
ing a prisonsentence.
“He wouldalways say of
himself, ‘I’m firm,but I am fair,’
” his wife recalled.Marquard canbe reachedat
[email protected].Judge Darrell L. Outlaw, who derided prevalence of guns, at 95
ByWilson Ring
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A report released Thursday
by Vermont’s Roman Catholic
Church found there were
“credible and substantiated”
allegationsof the sexual abuse
of minors against 40 priests in
the state since1950.
All but one of those allega-
tionsoccurredpriorto 2000,
and none of the priests are still
in ministry, the report said.
Most of the priests whowere
namedin the report are now
dead.
“While most of these allega-
tions tookplace at least a gen-
eration ago, the numbersare
still staggering,” said Bishop
ChristopherCoyne, who leads
the RomanCatholic Diocese of
Burlington, whichcoversthe
entire state.
Coyne commissionedthe
report last fall after the Ver-
montattorney general’s office
launchedits own investigation
into allegationsof abuseat the
now-shuttered St. Joseph’s Or-
phanage in Burlington and
amid mounting pressure on
the church to respond to abuse
claims.
Coynesaiduntilthenames
werereleasedThursday the
scopeof abusewithinthe dio-
cese“has been our familyse-
cret.” He said he hopes the re-
port can continue a process of
healing for the victims while
the churchworksto regainits
credibility as a sourceof moral
authority.
“Family secrets can be tox-
ic,” Coyne said during a news
conference at the diocese’s
SouthBurlington headquar-
ters. “Harmfulpast experienc-
es, unspoken, unaddressed,
and knownonlyby a few, fes-
ter like neglected wounds.”
The release by the Vermont
diocese comes as the Catholic
Churchacrossthe country and
worldwidecomes to terms
witha legacy of the sexual
abuse of minors. Last month,
the Diocese of Manchester,
which covers New Hampshire,
posted a list of that included
the namesof 73 priests.
The Vermontdiocese has
beengrappling withpriest sex
abuse cases for decades and
many of the priests who were
namedThursday have been
namedpubliclyin the past.
The diocese has spent tens of
millions of dollars to settle cas-
es, a move that has forced the
diocese to liquidate someof its
assets to pay those claims.
The diocese is still in dis-
cussions witha handful of ad-
ditionalvictims, Coyne said.
The Vermont report re-
leased Thursday was conduct-
ed by a seven-member com-
mittee that worked indepen-
dentlyfromthe diocese.The
panelincluded one victim of
abuse and one non-Catholic.
Vt. diocese
releases
sex abuse
report
nal moments.
Carmansaidhis mother
never asked himwhat was
wrong as he gathered the safety
gear at the bow of the boat and
didn’t knowif she knew the
bilge pump had flooded.
“You didn’t hand her a life
jacket?” Farrell asked.
“Nor did I put one on my-
self,” Carman said.
Carman, who is under inves-
tigation for the death of his
motherand the fatal shooting
of his grandfather in 2013,is
scheduled to resumetestimony
on Friday. In court filings, the
insurers alleged that Carman
deliberately sabotaged the boat
to kill his mother and previous-
ly killed his grandfather as part
of a plot to collect a multimil-
lion-dollar inheritance.
Judge John J. McConnellJr.,
who is presiding over the bench
trial, denied the companies’ re-
quest to present evidence relat-
ed to the slayingof Carman’s
grandfather, John Chakalos, a
wealthy real estate developer
who left a $44 million estate to
his four daughters, including
Carman’s mother.
Chakalos, 87, was shot to
death in his Windsor, Conn.,
homein December 2013.Car-
man hasn’t been charged crimi-
nally in either case and has ada-
mantly denied wrongdoing.
Carman said the sinking was
an accident, but the National
Liability & Fire Insurance Co.
and Boat Owners Association of
the United States suedhim,al-
leging he made suspicious alter-
ations to the boat that caused it
to sink.
On Thursday, Carmanac-
knowledged that he removed
trimtabs fromthe rear of the
boat hours before he and his
mother left Point Judith,R.I.,
around 11 p.m.on a fishing
trip.He said the removal left
four holes,eachabouthalf the
size of a silver dollar, whichhe
filled with putty.
Carmandenied drilling
holesin the boat to removethe
trimtabs,althoughhe said he
may have used a saw or drill
while making the modification.
“Let me be clear: I did not
bore a hole in my boat, period,”
Carman said.
He said he removedthe trimuCARMAN
ContinuedfromPageBtabs, which had beeninstalled
by the boat’s previousowner,
because he thoughtthey were
causing the vessel to drag.
“Removingthe trim tabs
was somethingI planned to
do,” Carmansaid.“It was a way
to fill my free day” before the
trip.
Carman testified that he and
his motherfishedin an area
near Block Island, then traveled
some80 milesto an area off
Long Island knownas Block
Canyon, wherethe boat sank.A
week later, he was rescued by a
passingfreighterabout 115
miles off Martha’s Vineyard.
Pressedon howhe could
have endedup there,basedon
drift currents,Carmansaid he
didn’t know precisely where the
boat sank.
Lawyers for the insurers
asked Carman why he didn’t
trigger an emergency beacon
that would have alerted the
Coast Guard and broadcast his
location. Carman said he didn’t
realizethe boat was going to
sink until it was too late.
“I actually have a very strong
aversiontopressingabutton
that is going to result in a heli-
copter coming out,” he said.He
said he knew it was “highly un-
usual”for the boat to be taking
on so muchwater but still
thoughthe couldfix the prob-
lem himself.
Farrell,the insurance law-
yer, noted that Carman didn’t
hesitate to radio the Coast
Guard in April 2016 when his
boat engineoverheated near
land. Carman said he called for
a tow because he was aboutto
run aground on a jetty just out-
side the Point Judith harbor.
After that incident, the in-
surance company paid him
$33,000to replacethe engine.
Six months later, the boat sank.
Carman testified that he had
packed enough food to last two
people for two weeks, and had a
bag of dry clothes. As he floated
in the raft waiting to be rescued
he “was cold, but I wasn’t hypo-
thermic,” he said.
He said he hadworried
aboutbeing strandedat sea af-
ter reading “In The Heart of the
Sea,” a bookaboutthe sinking
of a whaling ship in 1820.ShelleyMurphy canbe reached
at [email protected].PHOTOS BY JESSICA RINALDI/GLOBE STAFF
PeterBaldassariinsidetheworkshopwherehemakes thecollagepiecesforAllSaintsWay.
Baldassari,75,knowswhereevery saintis in thealley, becauseheputthemthere.North End man tends ashrine to Catholic saintsBaldassarigatheredmost of thecollectionin AllSaintsWay
himself, butsomepeoplebringhimtravel mementos.‘Therearemoresaintstherethanin paradise.’THEREV. ANTONIO
NARDOIANNI
of St.Leonard’s Church,
referringto AllSaintsWayCarman says boatsank suddenlyNIC ANTAYA FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
NathanCarmanignoredquestionsfromthemediaas he
arrivedat court onWednesday.