John Charles Ware, the grandson of a former U.S. congressman who was facing federal charges involving allegations of sex tourism, died in custody Monday, reportedly taking his own life.
A spokesman for the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia where Ware was being held confirmed Ware had died but was unable to comment on the cause or manner of death. An autopsy will be performed later by the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office as part of the investigation into Ware’s death, spokesman Darren Howard said Monday.
Ware had been in custody since his arrest on the federal charges in February 2011. He had been scheduled to plead guilty to those charges in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia Monday afternoon before U.S. District Judge Mary McLaughlin. A spokesman for McLaughlin said that the proceedings had been canceled.
A release at the time of his arrest from U.S. Attorney Zane David Memenger stated that Ware, whose father was an Oxford Borough Council member and whose family is prominently known in southern Chester County, “exhibited a pattern of grooming minors in order to ultimately have sexual contact with each of them, including encouraging the boys to swim naked in his pool, being naked in front of the boys, giving the boys massages, and attempting to normalize sexual activity between him and his victims.”
The indictment said that in the summer of 2010, Ware pressed the mother of one of the minors to allow him to take the boy and another youth to “the more secluded areas of the Bahamas,” after the boy asked Ware to take him on a trip there.
“You can trust me,” Ware allegedly told the other boy’s parents, when telling them of the plans for the trip. He is alleged to have then molested the two boys at his home in East Nottingham before leaving on the trip.