The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 17

After 25 years, Garfield is riding high in the comics world. LivingArts, B7 CityRegion News Bl-6, 12 Lottery B2 New England News Briefs B2 Deaths CIO Weather B12 IDCDDTI The Boston Globe Monday, June 9, 2003 Adrian Walker Ex-gang member speaks up for Drumgold A mother's long wait i it, By Dick Lehr GLOBE STAFF When Shawn Drumgold was tagged by police and prosecutors as a Castlegate gang member who tried to gun down a rival Humboldt Raider but killed young Darlene Tiffany Moore instead, no one found the notion more far-fetched than the Castlegate Boys themselves. It made no sense. Drumgold lived on Humboldt Avenue; his family lived nearby. It would have been improbable, even suicidal, for him to take up arms against Castlegate's archenemies, the Humboldts.

In recent years, some Castlegate members have privately shared their doubts with local and federal authorities. Now, in a remarkable turn, a former member of the gang has gone public on Drumgold's behalf. "Shawn Drumgold didnt have anything to do with Castlegate," former gang member True-See Allah formerly known as Troy Watson said in a Globe interview about the 1988 murder in Roxbury that rocked Boston. "Anybody labeled quote-unquote Castlegate knows firsthand, or from the other guys, Shawn Drumgold was not responsible for killing Tiffany Moore," he said. True-See is uniquely positioned to speak credibly about Castlegate's customs and practices.

Not only was he in the thick of gang life at the time of the murder, he has since renounced the street and works as a mentor to convicts coming out of prison. And as the case against Drumgold unravels with witness after witness recanting testimony and statements prosecutors used to convict Drumgold of first-degree murder in 1989 pressure grows to answer the ques-SLAYIN6, Page B6 Shawn Drumgold's daughter no longer visits him in prison. His mother, Juanda Drumgold, explains her granddaughter's absence matter-of-factly. But look closely and you can see the sorrow, the sadness of a family that GLOBE STAFF PHOTOSUZANNE KREITER True-See Allah (above) said it would have been improbable for Shawn Drumgold to take up arms against the Humboldts. llllllllllt1HIII1llllllllllllllllIMIIIlllllllllMlltlllllllllllllllfllfllllllllllllllllllll1llMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII1IIIIM(IIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIItllllll1llilltllll11 mmyc i 1 xaA 4 a wet mmm nnniTiiirimm iMititii iinni'im ii i i i i wmmmnmmmmmmmrm mmimmtmmmmmmmmMmmmiim mmmmmimmmmmtmmMtitL-Jm GLOBE STAFF PHOTOSTEVE ROSE The scandal at Osterville Baptist Church is spilling into the public's view.

candal in the pews has been fractured for years, Karen is 15, Juanda Drumgold explains, and has been visiting her father behind bars practically all her life. Now an adolescent, she's simply tired. She just doesn't want to spend any more time at a prison. I Shawn Drumgold, now in MCI Gardner, has been imprisoned since 1989 for the murder of 12-year-old Tiffany Moore in Roxbury. Recently, four witnesses whose testimony helped convict Drum-gold have recanted, saying in newspaper reports that their testimony was coerced.

A court hearing set for today in Suffolk Superior Court will set the ground rules for reexamining the evidence. After years of balking at taking another look at the case, the Suffolk district attorney's office has shown a newfound willingness to cooperate, naming its chief homicide prosecutor to guide its efforts. i For Juanda Drumgold, a longtime community stalwart, it truly is a case of justice delayed. I "I'm very excited," she said last week. "Shawn's very excited.

I'm saddened that this didn't happen 144 years ago. I can understand that they were young and tjhey were scared and some of them had records with the law that were held over their heads. I don't fault them. I do fault the Boston Police Department, because they just used young people." She had learned of Shawn's arrest from a television newscast. She raced from police station to police station before finally spotting him in an interrogation room at Area in Roxbury.

A veteran of community fights from urban renewal to school desegregation, she thought she could rally neighborhood support for her son's innocence. But the community, worn down by rampant gang violence and in an uproar over Moore's murder, kept its distance. Prominent politicians privately declared their sympathy but refused to help publicly. When she tried to organize a legal defense fund, only the late school committee member John D. O'Bryant came to her aid.

An attempt to hold a fund-raiser at Connolly's, a popular neighborhood nightspot, fizzled; it turned out to be a gathering of Shawn's relatives and a few friends. I 'These people in the South End know me because of what I've done," she said. 'They knew me and what I was all about tod what my family was all about. But when I needed help, they just weren't there. It's very hurtful." Drumgold readily admits that her son not perfect.

He was, in fact, a street-level drug dealer who was in court on an unrelated charge when he was arrested for Moore's murder. "Yes, he has admitted that he was tied to the drug scene, and he did do a little time," Juanda Drumgold said. "But that doesn't mean he should be in prison for a murder he did not commit." Juanda Drumgold, who is 69, spends rpuch of her time working on a volunteer basis with senior citizens in the South End. She counsels them on exercise and nutrition, and arranges cultural outings. She is raising a young grandchild.

And she spends a lot of time thinking about the day the fifth of her six children will be home from prison. As crime inches upward, she also worries about this generation of teenagers, especially those on a collision course with the justice system. She says her son wants to counsel kids if he is released. He wants to use his life as a cautionary tale, and tells his mother that if he can help one child he would be fulfilled. i "I would not wish this on anybody, the ell the Drumgold family has been through the past 14 years," she said.

We're strong, and well continue to be strong. If not for our friends who come forward and hug us and tell us they love us and believe in us, I dont know what would happen." Colleges plan hike in health care costs Extra fee a burden to many students By Marcella Bombardieri GLOBE STAFF The cost of health insurance for students is scheduled to jump significantly on college campuses across Massachusetts next fall, hitting students with up to $540 in additional costs not included in their tuition. After several years of steady prices, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology plans to charge students $1,440 for health care, 60 percent more than last year's $900. Harvard University's insurance will increase 59 percent, and Boston College's 39 percent. The University of Massachusetts campuses are anticipating 10 percent to 14 percent increases.

For many students, this adds to the already steep price of a college education, since Massachusetts is the only state that requires all full-time students to have health insurance. "At this point in your career, a couple hundred dollars is a big deal," said Jennifer Hock, 30, a doctoral student in architecture and urban planning at Harvard. Stung by the spiraling cost of health care, some administrators are struggling to pay for their plans without driv-INSURANCE, Page B6 Deep forests frustrated hunt for Bish By Peter DeMarco GLOBE CORRESPONDENT WARREN If there is one word that describes this small, rural town nestled in the Quaboag Hills region of Central Massachusetts, it is the word green. Drive along curvy Route 67, or Route 19, or the narrow West Warren Road, which traverses the hill where human bones and a bathing suit possibly belonging to missing lifeguard Molly Bish have been recovered, and lush swaths of deciduous and pine forest buttress the pavement in every direction. In many spots, tree limbs form thick canopies over the roads, nearly blocking out the sun.

That Warren is so thickly forested more than 75 percent of the town's 27 square miles are classified as woods, according to a state-commissioned study helps explain why authorities searching for Bish didnt concentrate their efforts on Whiskey Hill in the first place. The hill, where an ongoing search effort for more evidence resumes today, is about 4.5 miles from the Comins Pond lifeguard station where Bish was last seen nearly three years ago. With so much forest to search after she vanished about 7 square miles eventually were canvassed in a massive effort Whiskey Hill was simply not a priority. BISH, Page B5 II I IL mat LA Feud over disputed kiss divides Osterville church By Kathleen Burge GLOBE STAFF BARNSTABLE The trouble at Osterville Baptist Church began with a single disputed kiss between a Sunday School leader and the pastor. But the turmoil ended up churning the congregation of the white-clapboard church, disrupting Bible studies, and dividing prayer partners.

At the height of the controversy, a former Bible teacher planted herself outside the church that overlooks the village's pricey and picturesque center, wearing a custom-designed pink sweatshirt that read, "Tell the truth." A deacon hid inside a closet to eavesdrop on a meeting between the woman and the pastor. Church leaders took out restraining orders against the woman and two former church members. Along the way, the church expelled Cynthia Hinckley, the woman who said the pastor kissed her. She sued, alleging church leaders defamed her by suggesting she was an emotionally needy woman who pursued the minister against his will and tried to seduce him with miniskirts. "A lot of people got into a feverish pitch over this thing," Hinckley said in a recent interview.

"They just went into a frenzy of, 'Shut her up, get her out of here, save the GLOBE STAFF PHOTOTOM HERDE Cynthia Hinckley said church leaders ruined her reputation by saying she pursued the former pastor. After Hinckley sued, the pastor and his wife counter-sued. The case could go to trial this summer. Such public scandals are rare in Osterville, a village of Barnstable, where a 20-room mansion complete with three-hole golf course set a record this spring when it went on sale for $26 million. But church disputes spilling into public view are increasingly common.

Last year, the state Supreme Judicial Court considered a CHURCH, Page B4 'It's the most frightening thing that ever happened to me. I'll carry it with me forever. Lesley Kent, 1953 Worcester Tornado survivor Memories, nightmares of '53 twister still sharp By Peter Schworm GLOBE STAFF On a stifling June day exactly 50 years ago, a merciless black funnel of wind unleashed its wrath without warning on Mary Grilli's Worcester neighborhood, killing her parents and 18 of her neighbors. She survived unscathed, huddled with her husband in the cellar as violent gusts wrenched her home from its fieldstone foundation. The memory of what Grilli and other survivors of the Worcester Tornado saw next dazed, desperate searches for family through wreckage, entire blocks of leveled houses lingers with them still, like a scar.

For Grilli, now 88, the memory of that day, of the most powerful and destructive tornado ever to strike New England, holds a piercing clarity, like the deep shade of blue that washed across the sky after the storm passed through. STORM, Page Btt 1953 AP PHOTO Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He be reached at walkerglobe.com. Nuns cared for their injured colleagues at Assumption College in Worcester, where three of the storm's 94 victims were killed..