{"id":122777,"date":"2021-10-06T15:47:20","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T13:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/?p=122777"},"modified":"2021-10-06T15:47:55","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T13:47:55","slug":"teen-charged-with-drowning-his-dad-while-exorcising-demons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/10\/teen-charged-with-drowning-his-dad-while-exorcising-demons\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen charged with drowning his dad while exorcising demons"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><strong>IN a\u00a0 bid to rid his father of demons \u2013 one called \u201cDirty Dan\u201d \u2013 19-year-old Jack Callahan allegedly killed his father by drowning him in a pond.<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_122780\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-122780\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-122780 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1122\/2021\/10\/drowned.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"377\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-122780\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image via YouTube (CBS Boston) &amp; McNamara-Sparrell Funeral Home<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Callahan, above, from Massachusetts, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/boston\/2021\/09\/jack-callahan-accused-of-submerging-his-father-underwater-in-duxbury-indicted-for-murder-da-says.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\" decorated-link\">indicted for murder by a Plymouth County Grand Jury late last month<\/a> in connection with the death of Scott Callahan, inset, in June.<\/p>\n<p>Police described the drowning as a \u201cfatal water incident\u201d, saying they received a call of a missing man. First responders found the victim, 57, submerged in a pond, and he was later pronounced dead despite attempts to save his life.<\/p>\n<p>The medical examiner has yet to official determine the cause and manner of death, but Jack Callahan, at his initial court appearance,\u00a0 pleaded not guilty to murder.<\/p>\n<p>Scott\u00a0 Callahan suffered from water-logged lungs, petechiae (broken blood vessels) in the eyes, and an abrasion on the head, according to a statement from the office of the Plymouth District Attorney.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/lawandcrime.com\/crime\/teen-allegedly-drowned-father-claiming-to-baptize-him-to-exorcise-demon-named-dirty-dan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\" decorated-link\">this report<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong> The story is that Jack Callahan went to a bar in Boston to get his father, who should not have been drinking, according to CBS affiliate WBZ. The men took an Uber to Island Creek Pond in the town of Duxbury where they lived. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>The father is alleged to have struck the son, and the altercation progressed to the pond, the younger Callahan allegedly said. Further allegations complicate things beyond a mere attempt to claim self defense. Defendant Callahan allegedly said he thought he was baptizing his father to exorcise demons. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>One of them was named \u201cDirty Dan,\u201d prosecutor Shanan Buckingham told the court, according to a report by independent television station WHDH.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Buckinghan added:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>He described that he was holding his father in the pond on his back like a baby, that he continually dunked the father\u2019s head in the water about four to eight times, that when the father started to cough and choke, he would lift his head up, and then when the father started to fight and strike him, he pushed the head back down into the water.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>He did so until his father was no longer struggling and floating.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Callahan reportedly said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>I left him there to decide, you can come to heaven with me or hell. I think he chose hell.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonherald.com\/2021\/06\/29\/duxbury-teen-who-allegedly-drowned-his-possessed-dad-told-police-he-was-baptizing-his-father-in-order-to-exorcise-these-demons\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\" decorated-link\"><em>The Boston Herald<\/em><\/a> added that Jack\u2019s mother \u2013 who was Scott\u2019s ex-wife \u2013 called police around 2 am Monday when her son arrived home and was \u201chaving a mental breakdown.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Police arrived on scene and saw that Jack was hyperventilating and said he wanted his father \u201cdead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Defence attorney Kevin Reddington asked the judge to transfer Jack to Bridgewater State Hospital to be evaluated for any mental health issues. Reddington said Jack has \u201cno record whatsoever\u201d and is \u201ca very nice young man.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The judge denied a transfer to the hospital and Callahan has been held without bail since his arraignment.<\/p>\n<p>He will be arraigned in Plymouth Superior Court at a later date, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>Scott Callahan\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legacy.com\/us\/obituaries\/bostonglobe\/name\/scott-callahan-obituary?pid=199313223\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\" decorated-link\">obituary<\/a> described him as being the \u201cloving father of Charlie, Will and Jack\u201d and that he:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Received a Bachelor\u2019s degree from Colorado State University. He was Sr. Vice President of Texas Capital Bank, and had an extensive career in finance. Scott loved skiing and mountain biking with his boys and playing with his dog, Max.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>\u2022 Please report any typos\/errors to barry@freethinker.co.uk<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3>If you\u2019d like to buy me a cup of coffee \u2013 and boy, do I get through a <em>LOT<\/em> of coffee keeping this site active \u2013 please click the link below.<\/h3>\n<p><a class=\"bmc-button decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.buymeacoffee.com\/freethinker1881\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.buymeacoffee.com\/buttons\/bmc-new-btn-logo.svg\" alt=\"I'd love a cup of coffee\" data-pagespeed-url-hash=\"4191136019\">I\u2019d love a cup of coffee<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IN a\u00a0 bid to rid his father of demons \u2013 one called \u201cDirty Dan\u201d \u2013 19-year-old Jack Callahan allegedly killed his father by drowning him in a pond. Callahan, above, from Massachusetts, was indicted for murder by a Plymouth County Grand Jury late last month in connection with the death of Scott Callahan, inset, in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3705,"featured_media":122782,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[129,156,9523,7975,9526],"class_list":["post-122777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-crime","tag-exorcism","tag-jack-callahan","tag-massachusetts","tag-scott-callahan"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Teen charged with drowning his dad while exorcising demons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"IN a\u00a0 bid to rid his father of demons \u2013 one called &quot;Dirty Dan&quot; \u2013 19-year-old Jack Callahan allegedly killed his father by drowning him in a pond.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/10\/teen-charged-with-drowning-his-dad-while-exorcising-demons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Teen charged with drowning his dad while exorcising demons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"IN a\u00a0 bid to rid his father of demons \u2013 one called &quot;Dirty Dan&quot; \u2013 19-year-old Jack Callahan allegedly killed his father by drowning him in a pond.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/10\/teen-charged-with-drowning-his-dad-while-exorcising-demons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Freethinker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-10-06T13:47:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-10-06T13:47:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1122\/2021\/10\/header-5.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"549\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"377\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Barry Duke\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Barry Duke\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/10\/teen-charged-with-drowning-his-dad-while-exorcising-demons\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/10\/teen-charged-with-drowning-his-dad-while-exorcising-demons\/\",\"name\":\"Teen charged with drowning his dad while exorcising demons\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-06T13:47:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-06T13:47:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#\/schema\/person\/cd033742bce3811ee2ad4547fe4aa8a7\"},\"description\":\"IN a\u00a0 bid to rid his father of demons \u2013 one called \\\"Dirty Dan\\\" \u2013 19-year-old Jack Callahan allegedly killed his father by drowning him in a pond.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/10\/teen-charged-with-drowning-his-dad-while-exorcising-demons\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/10\/teen-charged-with-drowning-his-dad-while-exorcising-demons\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/10\/teen-charged-with-drowning-his-dad-while-exorcising-demons\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Teen charged with drowning his dad while exorcising demons\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/\",\"name\":\"The Freethinker\",\"description\":\"The voice of atheism since 1881\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#\/schema\/person\/cd033742bce3811ee2ad4547fe4aa8a7\",\"name\":\"Barry Duke\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3bd9356d7b912a4c736c341b4b5ca0fe?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3bd9356d7b912a4c736c341b4b5ca0fe?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Barry Duke\"},\"description\":\"Barry Duke began to comprehend the despicable nature of Christianity when he was in his pre-teens. He could not fathom why races in South Africa, where he born in 1947, were prevented by draconian laws from interacting. These laws blighted the lives of millions of \u201cnon-whites\u201d over many years. It was explained to him that racial separation was mandated by the Bible and that apartheid was necessary to maintain \u201cracial purity\u201d. The architects of apartheid were white Christian fanatics who, in the main, admired the Nazis and were viciously anti-Semitic. As he grew older he began actively opposing the racist policies of the apartheid regime and there was a very real danger that his activities would lead to detention or imprisonment. In 1973 he fled the country, and applied for, and was granted, asylum in the UK as a fully-fledged atheist and a proponent of racial equality \u2013 as well as a proud openly gay man. He then became deeply involved with the National Secular Society (NSS) and various LGBT+ organisations, and in 2017 he was handed a Lifetime Achievement award by the NSS for his \u201cspirited opposition to religious intolerance and irrationality\u201d in his roles as a champion of free speech and his work as editor of the Freethinker and The Pink Humanist magazine. In 2017 he was married to his partner of 20 years, Marcus Robinson, in Gibraltar.\",\"sameAs\":[\"brandygrenier\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/author\/bduke\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Teen charged with drowning his dad while exorcising demons","description":"IN a\u00a0 bid to rid his father of demons \u2013 one called \"Dirty Dan\" \u2013 19-year-old Jack Callahan allegedly killed his father by drowning him in a pond.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/10\/teen-charged-with-drowning-his-dad-while-exorcising-demons\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Teen charged with drowning his dad while exorcising demons","og_description":"IN a\u00a0 bid to rid his father of demons \u2013 one called \"Dirty Dan\" \u2013 19-year-old Jack Callahan allegedly killed his father by drowning him in a pond.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/10\/teen-charged-with-drowning-his-dad-while-exorcising-demons\/","og_site_name":"The Freethinker","article_published_time":"2021-10-06T13:47:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-10-06T13:47:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":549,"height":377,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1122\/2021\/10\/header-5.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Barry Duke","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Barry Duke","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/10\/teen-charged-with-drowning-his-dad-while-exorcising-demons\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/10\/teen-charged-with-drowning-his-dad-while-exorcising-demons\/","name":"Teen charged with drowning his dad while exorcising demons","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-10-06T13:47:20+00:00","dateModified":"2021-10-06T13:47:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#\/schema\/person\/cd033742bce3811ee2ad4547fe4aa8a7"},"description":"IN a\u00a0 bid to rid his father of demons \u2013 one called \"Dirty Dan\" \u2013 19-year-old Jack Callahan allegedly killed his father by drowning him in a pond.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/10\/teen-charged-with-drowning-his-dad-while-exorcising-demons\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/10\/teen-charged-with-drowning-his-dad-while-exorcising-demons\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/10\/teen-charged-with-drowning-his-dad-while-exorcising-demons\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Teen charged with drowning his dad while exorcising demons"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/","name":"The Freethinker","description":"The voice of atheism since 1881","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#\/schema\/person\/cd033742bce3811ee2ad4547fe4aa8a7","name":"Barry Duke","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3bd9356d7b912a4c736c341b4b5ca0fe?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3bd9356d7b912a4c736c341b4b5ca0fe?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Barry Duke"},"description":"Barry Duke began to comprehend the despicable nature of Christianity when he was in his pre-teens. He could not fathom why races in South Africa, where he born in 1947, were prevented by draconian laws from interacting. These laws blighted the lives of millions of \u201cnon-whites\u201d over many years. It was explained to him that racial separation was mandated by the Bible and that apartheid was necessary to maintain \u201cracial purity\u201d. The architects of apartheid were white Christian fanatics who, in the main, admired the Nazis and were viciously anti-Semitic. As he grew older he began actively opposing the racist policies of the apartheid regime and there was a very real danger that his activities would lead to detention or imprisonment. In 1973 he fled the country, and applied for, and was granted, asylum in the UK as a fully-fledged atheist and a proponent of racial equality \u2013 as well as a proud openly gay man. He then became deeply involved with the National Secular Society (NSS) and various LGBT+ organisations, and in 2017 he was handed a Lifetime Achievement award by the NSS for his \u201cspirited opposition to religious intolerance and irrationality\u201d in his roles as a champion of free speech and his work as editor of the Freethinker and The Pink Humanist magazine. In 2017 he was married to his partner of 20 years, Marcus Robinson, in Gibraltar.","sameAs":["brandygrenier"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/author\/bduke\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3705"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}