“However, on one occasion I gave a sleeping pill to a student and then masturbated him while he slept.” – Father Allen Tarlton
Tarlton’s full autobiography is available as a PDF… Here
[Webmaster’s Note: Father Allen Tarlton is one of Collegeville’s most notorious offenders. Tarlton wasn’t pulled from public service until a protest was announced in 2002 [ Link ]. Before 2002, Father Allen Tarlton’s misconduct had been reported on numerous occasions, and to numerous individuals, including Abbot Eidenschink, Abbot Theisen, Father Tom Andert and Abbot John Klassen.]Father Allen Tarlton – Autobiography Excerpt #1
I spent the summer of my ordination year [1955] assisting in a parish in Fargo, North Dakota. When I returned to the abbey at the end of August 1955, I was told that I would teach English the coming school year in our boarding school, but also be a prefect (faculty resident) in one of our college dormitories. I was the first Black monk at Saint John’s be a college prefect. (In those days all the faculty residents in the college dorms were monks; even today most of them still are.) I was in the college dorms for three years, and my sexual acting out with college students began my first year I had the job.
My [sic] of it was just looking at students in various forms of undress. But one afternoon I was working with a college freshman on a paper in my room. I was attracted to him and he seemed especially vulnerable. As we worked on the paper, I began to feel his thigh, and eventually worked my hand to his genitals, which I manipulated through his trousers. He didn’t resist, but neither did he assist my efforts. I finally released his penis from the trousers, and fellated and masturbated him. He acted surprised, but he never resisted. When I finished, he walked out of the room without saying anything. On several other occasions I went to his room when his roommate was gone for the weekend and fellated and masturbated him. He never indicated that he liked it, but neither did he ever resist. He did not return to Saint John’s following year.
On another occasion I got into bed with a sophomore–he was wearing boxer shorts, and I was wearing pajamas. We talked and I rubbed his bare chest, but did nothing more. It was during my first year as a prefect that I, during the Christmas vacation, invited one of my high school seniors to my room in the dorm. I used some excuse that I was studying nude art and wanted to study his body. He came to my room on several occasions and lay nude on my bed, while I pretended to be studying some art books that were lying open on my desk. On one occasion I gave him some wine, but he become sick and threw up. While he was lying on the bed, I would stroke his body. This happened about three times. At the end of the year he graduated and returned to [Redacted]. I was not involved with other any other high school student until many years later.
From 1955 until about 1964 I acted out sexually with about ten college students in the college dorms. The acting out usually involved going into a student’s room while he was sleeping and fondling his genitals. However, on one occasion I gave a sleeping pill to a student and then masturbated him while he slept. On another occasion I allowed a student to take a shower in my room and then masturbated him on my bed. Three times I was reported to my superiors; once to the subprior, who asked me if I was guilty and I said yes. He thanked me for admitting it and gave me a little talk. Two of the students reported me to the abbot, with the result that I was removed from the dormitory as a prefect, but continued teaching; by this time I was teaching in the college. It was during this time that my alcoholism came to the fore.
[Webmaster’s Note: The sub prior between 1947 and 1969 was future Abbot John Albert Eidenschink, OSB.] [Note: Current Abbot John Klassen had access to Tarlton’s “autobiography” and was aware of Tarlton’s multiple offenses when he assigned Father Allen Tarlton to work with college students after 2000. ] [ Link ]