Shark in the water
Molest bombshell rocks boys club
He was the “pool doctor” at the Madison Square Boys Club, volunteering to give physical exams to poor kids in the Lower East Side youth program. He often stood on the deck, watching them swim and frolic naked.
From 1942 through the ’60s, the late Dr. Reginald Archibald was “a fixture” at the club, which thrived on donations from New York City titans like the Astor family and on the patronage of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.
But the 135-year-old institution, which today serves boys and girls in The Bronx and Brooklyn and has a new clubhouse in Harlem under construction, is facing a crisis, The Post has learned.
Now senior citizens, many boys examined by Archibald have come forward to accuse him of sexually molesting and photographing them in his private office near the indoor swimming pool.
Archibald allegedly used the club to recruit boys for growth research at Rockefeller University. Lawyers contend he may have molested and taken nude photos of more than 1,000 children.
“We think he’s the most prolific pedophile in US history,” said Jennifer Freeman of Marsh Law Firm, which represents 150 accusers.
James Sullivan, a retired NYPD lieutenant, says he was violated and still suffers the emotional scars at age 72.
“The boys club was supposed to be a safe haven,” he said. “Archibald hid behind the mask of two esteemed institutions to do this.”
On Friday, Freeman sent the club a bombshell letter demanding it turn over medical files and nude or seminude images of clients. Her firm has not yet filed lawsuits but has called for a criminal probe of potentially thousands of pornographic images possessed by Rockefeller University.
Archibald was at the boys club most Saturdays, “often accompa- nied by well-dressed men in suits and ties,” the letter says. One client reported Archibald took photos of him at the club from age 6 to 14, “positioning and photographing his genitals.” Sullivan says he had just turned 13 in 1960 when he went in the pool and saw Archibald, whom the kids dubbed “Dr. Archie Balls,” standing with a man in a dark suit at the side of the pool. Boys had to swim naked, a common practice at the time believed to prevent the spread of bacteria on bathing suits. “He saw me swimming in the nude and targetargeted me,” Sullivanlivan theoriztheorized. Archibald got his mother’s phphone number, asking to bbring her son to RockefRockefeller Universitysity for a “ggrowth study.” Sullivan was ushered into an exam room and told to disrrobe while his mom sat in the waiting room. Without explanation, Archibald began touching Sullivan’s genitals. “It felt like hhe was fondldling me, not a medical exam,” Sullivan recalled.
Archibald then photographed Sullivan’s erect penis.
“I distinctly remember the camera. It was a rectangular box. The top flipped open. He looked into the camera and took pictures,” Sullivan said.
“I was confused. I’m with a guy in a white lab coat, an authority figure.”
Sullivan never told his mom, not wanting her to feel bad, but he fumes at the betrayal.
“He hoodwinked my mother to bring me up there,” he said. “It was all bogus.”
In 1967, Madison Square gave Archibald its American Medallion Award for his then 26 years as a volunteer. He died in 2007 at 97.
Last October, Sullivan, now a grandfather, got a letter from Rockefeller University Hospital saying he was possibly “a patient” of Archibald’s between 1948 and 1982. It gave a phone number to call “if you have information you would like to share.” He did.
“I felt numb, then overwhelmed emotionally,” he said. “It was always in the recesses of my mind. I never forgot.”
Madison Square told The Post that it was “deeply disturbed” by the allegations against Archibald and had hired a former federal prosecutor to do an independent investigation of his club activities.