Convicted child rapist, former Baltimore Catholic school teacher dies in prison

Associated Press

BALTIMORE (AP) — A convicted child rapist whose crimes were recently highlighted in a state report on sex abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore has died in prison. Maryland’s corrections agency says John Merzbacher died Friday of natural causes at the age of 81. Merzbacher was serving four life sentences for raping one of his students at a Catholic middle school in south Baltimore in the 1970s. He was accused of terrorizing dozens of students, including raping them at gunpoint. A yearslong investigation by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office found more than 150 priests and others associated with the Baltimore archdiocese sexually abused over 600 children for decades, often with impunity.