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Jan. 2023

Sept. 2022
PART 1
A celebrated surgeon, a trail of secrets and death
Dr. Yvon Baribeau set a record for malpractice settlements, and many colleagues tried desperately to stop him. But hospital executives let him go on and on.
How to find out if your doctor has a troubled history
Part 2 A crisis of conscience, with lives on the line
Alarmed doctors at Manchester's Catholic Medical Center tried to get a troubled colleague barred from surgery. But hospital leaders resisted. Then came the "summer of death."
Timeline: What the public didn’t know about Dr. Yvon Baribeau
Catholic Medical Center executives promoted Dr. Yvon Baribeau as a top cardiac surgeon. In reality, they knew for years that the doctor had a troubled work history.
N.H. licensing agency launches investigation into former administrators at Catholic Medical Center
Some doctors have already been subpoenaed to provide testimony about the hospital’s oversight of Dr. Yvon Baribeau’s surgery practice.
Brother of patient who died at New Hampshire hospital slams state regulators
After a Globe investigation into a celebrated surgeon’s track record of malpractice settlements and lawsuits, the state created a legislative subcommittee to investigate the Board of Medicine.
N.H. hospital promises review after revelations about doctor with 21 malpractice settlements
State legislators are also calling for an independent investigation.
Secrecy pervades medical malpractice settlements
Given how often doctors insist on secrecy, say national experts on malpractice claims, the public often never learns about allegations of wrongdoing.
New Hampshire keeps patients in the dark about their doctors’ malpractice, disciplinary records
Growing scrutiny of a quality standard that may influence end-of-life decisions for heart surgery patients ​
N.H. doctor allegedly misread mammograms, ultrasounds of two dozen women later diagnosed with breast cancer
Mar. 2022
Spotlight Team investigationUnfinished Justice
The state’s high court in 2017 struck down a murder law that had condemned men who never killed to die behind bars. But what about those already facing that dire penalty? They are waiting.
SPOTLIGHT FOLLOW-UPDAs favor new legislation to address possible felony murder injustices
The high court in 2017 abolished rules that caused some individuals who never killed anyone to be sentenced to life for felony murder — but did not make the changes retroactive.
VIDEOSentenced to 'forever,' a man who has never killed fights his felony-murder conviction
Joseph Jabir Pope has been incarcerated for more than half his life on felony-murder charges, despite playing no direct role in the killing.
Two families, two views of felony murder
A botched robbery at a McDonald’s in Walpole brings a tragic death and blame, but also allegations of an unfair murder charge.
SJC orders new trial in 1984 Dorchester felony-murder conviction but avoids ruling on broad retroactive review of similar cases
The state’s high court Tuesday ordered a new trial for Joseph Jabir Pope but bypassed the issue Pope and his supporters fervently wanted them to address: retroactively abolishing the felony murder rule that imprisons people who do not actually kill.
Suffolk DA won’t retry man convicted in 1984 Dorchester killing
The Supreme Judicial Court had ordered a new trial in June for Joseph Jabir Pope, who in 1986 was sentenced to life in prison without parole in connection with a murder in Dorchester. He was released in December while the court heard his case.
Dec. 2021
How Brigham Health helped create a Chinese hospital for elites — and almost nobody came
In a deal worth millions with Chinese developer Evergrande, a Harvard teaching hospital risked its reputation on what would become a near-empty shell.
SPOTLIGHT FOLLOW-UPEvergrande reneges on multimillion-dollar pledge to Harvard-led COVID project, another stumble in its ties to school
The company, which is now officially in default, has been in crisis, laboring to pay creditors as it grapples with more than $300 billion in liabilities.
Oct. 2021
Some Dana-Farber Cancer Institute trustees stood to profit from their philanthropic role
Access to trustee investments and market expertise can help the hospital. But this practice creates potential conflicts of interest at the highest level of an institution and worries about whether trustees’ financial interests can influence governance of the hospital.
Follow-up: Mass General Brigham resists the lead of hospitals banning or limiting trustee investments in its startups
Aug. 2021
The taking of Cell 15
A look at secrecy, assaults, and accountability inside Massachusetts’ maximum-security prison.
Follow-up: Legislators, advocates call for Mass. prison reforms after Spotlight investigation into excessive force allegations
Spotlight Follow-upOne correction officer, two excessive force allegations in less than two weeks
An ex-prisoner’s account focuses on an officer, with a dog, who was also cited in a Globe Spotlight report about an allegedly brutal lockdown in 2020.
May 2021
Failure of command: The inside story of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home outbreak
Governor Charlie Baker and a top deputy played key roles in events leading up to the devastating COVID-19 outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, but publicly faulted others. A Globe investigation examines the decisions that left the home all but leaderless when the coronavirus stormed in.
Follow-up: Questions raised about independence of Holyoke Soldiers’ Home COVID-19 probe
April 2021
Boston’s hospital chiefs moonlight on corporate boards at rates far beyond the national level
Hospital chiefs and trustees defend this as boosting public-private partnerships, but critics say these board positions — some paying millions of dollars — raise troubling issues of conflict of interest and hospital priorities.
Follow-up: A group of doctors, medical students seeks to prohibit Boston’s hospital chiefs from working on corporate boards Follow-up: In less than a year, the number of Boston hospital chiefs on corporate boards is down by half
2020
Last Words
This three-part series exposes the inequities that follow people in Massachusetts to their very last breaths. It is a deep examination into the uncomfortable topic of death, and confronts the state’s failure to protect its most vulnerable in the early days of a historic pandemic.
Part 1Is death the great equalizer?
Quite the contrary, a Spotlight investigation shows. Death exposes in high relief the layers of inequities, in race and income, care and opportunity, that shape life down to its final hours. It is a truth the pandemic has only underscored — one hard to see, because it is so much easier to look away.
Death in Massachusetts, by the numbersRace, education, gender may influence some divergent views about death in Mass., poll shows11 takeaways from our ‘Last Words’ series
Part 2
A home to die in
They were the most vulnerable to COVID-19 — thousands of elders in nursing homes across the state. Yet for Governor Baker’s administration, praised for its overall pandemic response, they were for too long a secondary priority. The result was calamity — 1 in 7 dead, among the highest rates in the land.
Part 3
Homey, coveted, costly — and crushed by the pandemic
Families, especially those with means, sought to place their frail elders in Belmont Manor, a five-star nursing home. It was a safe refuge for the twilight years, until suddenly it became something else entirely: a case study in the coronavirus's indiscriminate power.
See the full project ⟶
2019
Seeing Red
We endure some of the nation’s worst rush hour traffic. Our aging transit system is maddeningly unreliable. It is a crisis — a very slow moving crisis — that puts our region’s economic prosperity at risk. Who is to blame? Can anything be done?
Part 1Epic traffic paralyzes the region as gridlock grips the halls of power
Can Greater Boston continue to thrive — or even function — without fundamentally rethinking its relationship to the car?
Big numbers from Boston’s traffic crisis10 takeaways from ‘Seeing Red’
Part 2Top companies bemoan traffic, yet many effectively entice employees to make it worse
We’re hooked on cars, despite the gridlock. Only powerful incentives will change that, but major employers make it too easy to drive.
Part 3Ride-hailing, deliveries add traffic to Boston’s crowded streets
The get-it-now age of Uber and Amazon has delivered something unexpected to Boston’s doorstep — new traffic that worsens our soul-crushing snarl.
Video
Anatomy of a traffic jam
Boston has been cursed with some of the nation’s worst traffic. There are plenty of pinch points. But the Southeast Expressway seems like another level of hell.
See the full project ⟶

2019

The hidden titans of pot
Massachusetts legalized the sale of recreational marijuana with the ambition to be different - and better. Its law was the first in the nation to promote social justice goals, including ways to promote small and minority entrepreneurs. Other parts of the law made it clear: Big national companies weren't supposed to monopolize here. But two years since the law went into effect, troubling signs loom. This three-part series, "Hidden Titans of Pot," uncovers stealth moves by large investors poised to dominate this nascent industry and outmaneuver regulators.
part 1You can’t own more than 3 pot shops, but these companies test the limits — and brag about it
No firm is allowed to own or control more than three recreational marijuana stores. But two companies — Sea Hunter and Acreage — are testing the limits.
Mass. marijuana industry is mostly corporate and white. Inside one Boston battle to change that
The race to open Mattapan Square’s first pot shop raises questions about trust and who gets to cash in.
For sale in the pot industry: political influence
Marijuana may be the hot, new retail business in town, but it largely plays by the old political rules.
Eight takeaways from the Spotlight series on the state’s burgeoning marijuana industry
Here are eight takeaways from The Boston Globe Spotlight Team’s three-part series on the state’s new marijuana industry.
See the full project ⟶
Spotlight: 50 years of groundbreaking investigative journalism
A look back at 15 Spotlight Team projects that changed Boston and beyond. Plus, Globe journalists share the stories behind the stories.
2018
Inside the secret courts of Massachusetts
We delve into the darkest corner of the Massachusetts criminal justice system, where the quality of justice can depend on where you live and who you know.
Inside our ‘secret courts’
In these private hearings, who you are — and who you know — may be just as important as right and wrong.
How the Spotlight Team got inside Massachusetts’ secret court system
Follow-ups
State leaders call for transparency in closed-door criminal hearings
Governor Baker and legislative leaders called for greater transparency within the state’s closed-door clerk magistrate system.
Panel is charged with reviewing state’s ‘secret courts’
A top court official has appointed a committee to evaluate potential changes to the state’s confidential clerk magistrate hearings.
Charges against Boston officer disappear after private court hearing
Private citizens sometimes seek charges against their accusers in secret courts
Clerk magistrates who oversee court filings have paperwork problems of their own
Lawmakers file bills to make controversial court hearings less secret
See the full project ⟶
2018
Gladiator
How can a Super Bowl starting lineman become a convicted murderer in only a few years? We look at the crisis facing football through the lens of Aaron Hernandez’s life and terrible crimes. Brain injuries, toxic masculinity, willful ignorance, and more are examined, and newly uncovered documents, audio, and interviews are uncovered as the real story of what happened to Aaron Hernandez is revealed.
Listen to the podcast
Part 1 | BristolAaron Hernandez hid secrets behind his smile
The future football star grew up to respect — and fear — his father. And to keep much about his life to himself.
Part 2 | FloridaHow college helped fuel Aaron Hernandez’s rise, and accelerated his fall
New evidence underscores how the coldly corporatized world of big-time college football indulged and exacerbated the very traits in Hernandez that would one day destroy his life and end others.
Part 3 | FoxboroughIn New England, Aaron Hernandez ran for glory, and for his life
Hernandez was known within the Patriots as a top star who was beyond odd. Some teammates found him full of “red flag” behavior.
Part 4 | MurderWhen Aaron Hernandez became a murderer
With Hernandez, the Patriots became the only NFL team with an active player accused in three murders.
Part 5 | PrisonAaron Hernandez seemed oddly comfortable in jail
Hernandez found a mixture of anguish and solace behind bars, until he chose to end it all.
Part 6 | CTE The NFL, brain damage, and Aaron Hernandez
Hernandez’s most lasting legacy in football may be one of his organs: his brain. It would show why football, through history, has generated controversy.
See the full project ⟶
Have a tip about wrongdoing or injustice for the Globe’s Spotlight Team? We want to hear from you
2017
Boston. Racism. Image. Reality.
In a series that can only scratch the surface of this complex topic, we tried to answer a question so critical to the city's identity and future: Does Boston still deserve its reputation as a place unwelcoming to Black people? If so, why — and how — can the situation be improved?
Part 1: Image & RealityDoes Boston still deserve its racist reputation?
While the city has made much progress, look at income, employment, segregation, and politics — and reevaluate how far we’ve really come.
Part 2: Seaport
A brand new Boston, even whiter than the old
Part 3: Hospitals
Color line persists, in sickness as in health
Part 4: Colleges
Lost on campus, as colleges look abroad
Part 5: Sports
The bigot in the stands, and other stories
Part 6: Power
For Black people in Boston, a power outage
Part 7: Solutions
A better Boston? The choice is ours
More:
Join the ‘Discussing Race in Boston’ Facebook GroupThat was not a typo: The median net worth of Black Bostonians really is $8
See the full project ⟶
2017
Secrets in the Sky
Part 1Secrets in the sky
The United States remains an easy mark for drug dealers, terrorists, and others who prize anonymity when registering aircraft or getting licensed to fly. So much for the lessons of 9/11.
Part 2Flight plan for failure
The FAA was warned in 2009 that people with terrorist ties were licensed to fly and repair aircraft. Eight years later, it is, incredibly, still the case.
The king of Swaziland’s ‘gift’ showcases the lure of American plane registration to foreign leaders
The king’s ministers said it was a birthday gift, a luxury jet registered to a bank in the United States. But the donor was a mystery.
Modeling’s glamour hides web of abuse
The fashion industry is built on glamour and allure, but many models, especially the very young, know it for something else: sexual exploitation and abuse.
Out of ‘Spotlight,’ the movie, comes the Spotlight Fellowship
The producers of “Spotlight” had just won the 2016 Academy Award for best picture, but they wanted to go further: they wanted to support new investigative journalism.
2017
Catholic priests and their children
Part 1Children of Catholic priests live with secrets and sorrow
A Globe review finds the children are often denied love and support and pressured to keep the scandal secret. And the church has done absolutely nothing to help.
Part 2 | Father, my Father
A priest’s son takes his case directly to the Pope
He thought he was alone, being the child of a Catholic priest. He was wrong.
An invisible legion of suffering: the stories of children of priests
They can be found wherever the Catholic church has a presence, children whose fathers broke are priests who broke their vows of celibacy — and often their children’s hearts.
2017
Subpar care at N.H. veterans’ hospital
At a four-star veterans’ hospital: Care gets ‘worse and worse’
The only hospital for military veterans in N.H. has become ground zero for an extraordinary rebellion led by doctors who say care for their patients is deteriorating fast.
Follow-ups
Top 2 officials out at Manchester VA hospital
The action came after a Spotlight Team report detailed what several doctors and other staffers say is dangerously substandard care.
Veterans Affairs secretary promises ‘brand new’ review of Manchester hospital
Federal investigators looking into allegations of substandard care at the Manchester veterans’ hospital will disregard an internal report that found no serious problems.
VA Secretary ousts third official at troubled N.H. hospital
VA Secretary David Shulkin said he was responding to allegations of dangerously substandard care made by medical staff in a Boston Globe report last month.
VA hospitals flooded with complaints about care
Alleged lapses in patient care and dangerous conditions have been identified by Veterans Administration employees, who have been turning against their employer in record numbers.
2015
Clash in the name of care
Clash in the name of care
It was a battle pitting a star surgeon against a great hospital, MGH. The question: Is it right or safe for surgeons to run two operations at once? Is it right that their patients may have no idea? The conflict went on for years.
Wach the documentaryEmails offer a rare glimpse at the heated battle inside MGH
Follow-ups
Concurrent surgeries come under new scrutiny
Following controversy at MGH, the world’s largest surgeons’ group is considering new guidelines for overlapping surgery.
State acts on simultaneous surgeries
The move comes in the wake of a series of reports by the Globe Spotlight Team about double-booked operations.
Star surgeon is scrutinized on concurrent procedures
New York authorities are probing how a famed prostate specialist manages his vast patient load.
Mass. General pays $14.6 million to settle whistle-blower suit over concurrent surgeries
Anesthesiologist Lisa Wollman alleged that at least five orthopedic surgeons regularly kept patients under anesthesia longer than medically necessary because the doctors were juggling two operations at once.
See the full project ⟶
2002
Sexual abuse in the Catholic Church
The story behind the “Spotlight” movie.
Jan. 6, 2002 | Part 1Church allowed abuse by priest for years
Why did it take a succession of three cardinals and many bishops 34 years to place children out of John J. Geoghan’s reach?
Jan. 7, 2002 | Part 2Geoghan preferred preying on poorer children
Psychiatric documents offer added insights into the Rev. John J. Geoghan’s troubled mind and the motivations behind his aberrant actions.

Follow-ups

JAN. 31, 2002Scores of priests involved in sex abuse cases
Under an extraordinary cloak of secrecy, the Archdiocese of Boston in the last 10 years has quietly settled child molestation claims against at least 70 priests.
FEB. 24, 2002Church cloaked in culture of silence
Catholic priests were committing crimes so unspeakable that the Archdiocese of Boston went to extraordinary — and expensive — lengths to cover up the scandal.
MARCH 14, 2002Ex-Mass. bishop accused of ignoring abuse in NYC
The Most Rev. Thomas V. Daily is accused of brushing aside sexual abuse allegations.
MAY 12, 2002Scandal erodes traditional deference to church
Prosecutors, judges, and politicians who once looked the other way when it came to the church’s dirty laundry are now holding church leaders to a higher standard.
AUG. 20, 2002Ariz. abuse case names bishop, 2 priests
Documents show that the three had sex during the late 1970s and early 1980s with a Tucson teenager who was later given a chancery job to ensure his silence.
DEC. 1, 2002Archdiocese weighs bankruptcy filing
The Archdiocese of Boston prepared to take the extraordinary step of filing for bankruptcy, as hopes faded for a settlement with alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse.
DEC. 4, 2002More clergy abuse, secrecy cases
The Archdiocese of Boston for years dealt in secret with allegations against rogue priests, church records show.
DEC. 14, 2002A church seeks healing
Pope John Paul II accepted the resignation of longtime Roman Catholic archbishop Cardinal Bernard F. Law.
Read more about the series and the ‘Spotlight’ movie ⟶