The Murder of Kitty Genovese

On March 13, 1964, in New York's Queens borough, a young woman was killed in the very early hours in a crime that continues to reverberate to this day.

Catherine Susan Genovese, known as Kitty to her family and friends, was twenty-eight years old that March day in 1964.  She was the eldest of five children born into an Italian American family living in  the Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope. When she was a teen, her mother Rachel witnessed a murder and the family, minus Kitty, moved to the presumably safer New Canaan, Connecticut .  Kitty was engaged to be married and remained in New York with her grandparents.  She was known to be very self assured and possessing a sunny disposition.  She married in 1954 but the marriage was a brief one; the couple had separated and annulled the marriage by the end of the same year.

Kitty moved into her own apartment and paid her way with a variety of clerical jobs, which she disliked.  By the end of the decade, she was working as a bar manager at Ev's Eleventh Hour on Jamaica Avenue in Queens. In 1963, she met Mary Ann Zielonko who officially became her roommate; unofficially Mary Ann was her girlfriend.

On March 13, 1964 at 2:30 a.m., Kitty left her job at Ev's to drive home in her red Fiat.  While she was stopped at a traffic light on Hoover Avenue, she did not realize she was being watched by a man called Winston Moseley, who followed her to her Kew Gardens neighborhood. She parked her car roughly 100 feet from her apartment building and began to walk toward her home. Moseley too had parked his car and approached Kitty, armed with a hunting knife. Terrified, she ran from him to the front of her building, hoping to make it to the corner of Austin and Lefferts, a major intersection; she did not succeed. Moseley caught her and stabbed her twice in the back. Kitty screamed "Oh my God! He stabbed me!  Help me!"  One of her neighbors, Robert Mozer, heard her cry and yelled at Moseley from his window to leave the girl alone. Moseley ran off, leaving Kitty to stagger toward the rear entrance of her apartment building, taking her out of view of potential witnesses.

There is confusion as to exactly when the first call or calls for help went to the police. Several neighbors claim to have called for help but the police did not log any calls. There was also confusion as to what exactly had happened to Kitty; it appears that many believed that it was a domestic dispute or that she had been beaten up but had gotten up and was generally fine.

Moseley was more or less reliably said to have gotten back into his car after attacking Kitty and driven away but he returned roughly ten minutes later, in search of his victim. As he hunted around the parking lot and apartment building, he put on a wide brimmed hat in order to camouflage his face.  He found Kitty, barely conscious, lying in a hallway by a locked door that prevented her from entering the building.  Moseley stabbed her several more times; wounds in her hands suggested that she had put them up in an attempt to ward off the blows.  While she lay dying, Moseley raped her, stole $49 from her and fled.  The two attacks spanned half an hour.   Sophia Farrar, a neighbor and friends of Kitty's heard the screams and ran outside her own apartment to cradle Kitty as she died.  Karl Ross, minutes after the final attack, called the police who arrived in relatively short order.  Kitty was taken away from the building at 4:15 a.m. in an ambulance but it was too late.

A short article would appear documenting the fatal attack on Kitty Genovese but her murder was one of 636 in New York that year and it's likely that she would have been relegated to being one of many victims in the city were it not for the track the media ultimately decided to take.

Six days after the murder police apprehended the 29 year old Moseley during a house burglary.  A Queens resident, he had no criminal record and was married with three children. While in custody for the burglary, he confessed to some thirty to forty burglaries and three sexual assaults and murders, one of them being that of Kitty Genovese.  He stated that he preferred to kill women because they "were easier and didn't fight back."   He had no previous contact with Kitty before assaulting and killing her.  He had gotten up around 2 a.m. on the morning of March 13 and set off in search of a victim, coming upon Kitty purely by chance.  He detailed the attack and corroborated the physical evidence so absolutely that his later trial was more one of legal necessity than proving his guilt.  To wit, the trial began on June 8, 1964 and the jury delivered its verdict on June 11, 1964 after seven hours of deliberation.  On June 15, 1964 Moseley was sentenced to death.  He remained stoic with no emotion, while onlookers applauded and cheered.  In 1967 the New York Court of Appeals found that Moseley should have been able to argue that he was medically insane at the sentencing hearing and reduced his death sentence to that of life imprisonment.  That's where the case may have stood until Moseley's death but The New York Times came into play.

The article that started it all

Ten days after Kitty's murder, New York's then-police chief Michael Murphy was having lunch one day with A. M. Rosenthal, the Times' metro editor,  Murphy spent most of the lunch discussing how worried he was that the civil rights movement, then at its peak, would set off racial violence in New York.  The conversation then shifted to the recent murder of Kitty Genovese, one which according to Murphy involved thirty minutes of grisly stabbing while 38 eye and ear witnesses did nothing. Rosenthal immediately assigned reported Martin Gansberg to pursue the Genovese story from that angle.

The result would be the accepted as fact myth that nearly 40 persons had not only heard the attack and murder and neglected to take action, but they witnessed the initial stalking of Kitty and three separate assaults on her, leading to what was known as the "bystander effect" or "Kitty Genovese Syndrome."  The nation in 1964 was horrified by the painful indifference to suffering.  Studies were made to find out why the diffusion of responsibility happened, finding that people in crowds were less likely to step forward, believing that someone else would take responsibility.

The debate and erroneous information would flourish for decades.  The truth was far simpler.  Kitty Genovese was indeed attacked.  Some heard her cries and believed they were overhearing a domestic dispute or drunks quarreling, given the late hour and proximity to a bar.  Not a single witness saw the attack in its entirety.  Gansberg claimed that Kitty could have been saved if police had been called after the first of three attacks.  The truth was that the first stab had punctured her lung and would have been fatal; and there were not three attacks, but two.  There were not 38 uncaring witnesses, not even close.  And two people did call the police.

So why the embellishment and exaggeration?  Murphy's concern, in part, had to play a role. He was concerned about racial violence; Kitty Genovese, a white woman was killed by a black man.  Rather than the minority black population rioting against the white population, Genovese's murder might make the white population angry.  More importantly, selling the Genovese story as the Times did sold the rest of the nation on how unsafe urban areas were in general, especially for young women, and how apathetic city dwellers were.

Did Kitty's sexual orientation play a part?  Probably not and here's why.  In 1964, homosexuality was not as accepted as it is today.  It's very likely that the majority of, if not all, of Kitty's and Mary Ann's neighbors believed them to be platonic roommates.  Being lovers, they would have been considered unusual, unacceptable and living an abhorrent lifestyle.  Knowing how little homosexuality was understood in 1964, I believe that the Times, if they found out about Kitty's relationship, would have buried it or chosen another victim to focus on.  Because of her orientation, Kitty would not have been seen as a sympathetic victim, sadly.

The upside to the tragedy of Kitty Genovese is that her attack would lead to the implementation of the 9-1-1 system in 1968.  At the time she was killed, persons either had to dial "0" to connect with an operator and then ask for a specific police station rather than going directly to the police.  By late 1964 New York residents would be able to call an operator and immediately be patched through to police.  Within 5 more years, the 9-1-1 system would be implemented, saving more time.

And what of Winston Moseley, Kitty's killer?  On March 18, 1968, nearly four years into his life sentence, he escaped while being transported from a local hospital (where he was receiving treatment for self-inflicted injuries) back to prison. He stole the transporting officer's weapon and fled to a nearby vacant home. He stayed in the residence, undetected, for three days until the owners, a married couple, dropped by to check on the house and found Moseley. He held the couple hostage for more than an hour, tying up the husband and raping the wife, then taking the couple's car and fleeing once again.  On March 22, he broke into another house and took a mother and daughter hostage for two hours before releasing them unharmed and surrendering.   He was later given two fifteen year sentences to be tacked on to his life sentence.

In the 1970s, he participate in the Attica Prison riot and later on, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology.    He became eligible for parole in 1984 and was, thankfully, denied - - in part because he claimed that his notoriety made him a victim and a worse victim than someone like Kitty Genovese who was a victim for an hour or so but his victimization went on indefinitely.  He also claimed that he never intended to kill Kitty, despite what he had told investigators in 1964, and that the murder was simply a mugging that had gone bad.

On March 13, 2008, the 44th anniversary of Kitty's murder, Moseley again returned for a parole hearing.  Now 73 years old, he still had little remorse for Kitty's killing.  Parole was again denied, as it would be for a total of eighteen times.   His last parole hearing was in November 2015.  He died in prison on March 28, 2016, at the age of 81, having been one of the longest serving inmates in the New York State prison system.

Reporter Martin Gansberg, who article on the Genovese murder opened the can of worms, died in May of 1995 at the age of 74, due to complications from diabetes.

A. M. Rosenthal, editor of the New York Times, would remain there until 1999.  He won the presidential medal of freedom, the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting and wrote a book on the Genovese case called Thirty Eight Witnesses.  He died in 2006 in New York.

Kitty's lover, Mary Ann Zielonko, was still alive as of 2014 and spoke with Kevin Cook on his book about the murder.  She reminisced about Kitty, about Greenwich Village of the early 1960s, how homosexuality was illegal then and how both of them would take time off from work (both worked in bars) on Sundays and Mondays in order to spend time together.  Mary Ann alleges that police knew that Kitty was a lesbian and harassed Mary Ann, believing she was somehow connected to the murder.  After testifying at Moseley's trial (as Kitty's "roommate"), Mary Ann left Kew Gardens,never to return.  An artist, Mary Ann had begun a portrait of Kitty before her murder; she would finish it years later.

Kitty in life

The Tylenol Murders of 1982

Photo credit: websleuths.com

It's hard to imagine now for younger people out there but back in 1982, there was no such thing as a tamper proof bottle.  Drugs, like Extra Strength Tylenol, were sold off the shelf in the bottle with a cotton ball tucked under the lid.  No boxes glued shut and no protective foil seal across the lid.  What happened in Chicago in the autumn of 1982 led to a change in the pharmaceutical industry and the packaging industry.

Mary Kellerman was only 12, the youngest and the first victim of the poisonings.  She woke around 6:30 on the morning of Wednesday, September 29, 1982 feeling sick with a cold; her parents elected to keep her home from school.  She takes Tylenol to help ease her symptoms. Her father Dennis would tell the Chicago Tribune that he heard his daughter go into the bathroom, close the door and then heard something drop. He called out to her, asking if she was okay but got no response. After calling out again, he opened the door to find Mary, still in her pajamas, unconscious on the floor.

Paramedics arrived at the Kellerman home in Schaumburg and tried every drug they had to resuscitate her, with no success.  She is transported to the Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove, where she is pronounced dead at 9:56 a.m.

Because of her age, an autopsy is ordered.  It's noted that she took Tylenol that morning but nothing seems out of sorts . . . at least not yet.

Around noon on that same Wednesday, postal worker Adam Janus, 27 years old and from Arlington Heights, is at home, also under the weather. He was worried that he was coming down with a cold. He picked up his kids from preschool and stopped off at the store to pick up some Tylenol. After eating lunch with the children, he took two Tylenol and went to lie down. A few minutes later, he staggered into the kitchen and collapsed.

Adam was taken to Northwest Community Hospital, where the attending physician believed he had a cardiac arrest.  Despite efforts, like Mary Kellerman, his heart would not start beating again. He was pronounced dead around 3:15 p.m.

At 3:45 p.m., 27 year old Mary Lynn Reiner is at home in Winfield and not feeling well, as she had given birth to her fourth child a week earlier.  She takes some Tylenol and collapses. Her husband returned home to find her on the floor.  An ambulance rushes her to Central DuPage Hospital.

At 5 p.m., the family of victim Adam Janus is gathered together at his home to mourn and make funeral arrangements.  Adam's younger brother Stanley, suffering with chronic back pain, asked his wife Theresa to bring him some Tylenol.  She gave him two, which he took, and she took two herself.  Stanley fell first, followed by Theresa.

The Arlington Heights Fire Department responded to the emergency at the Janus home, where units had been less than five hours earlier.  Four men worked on Stanley; four men on Theresa.  They noted that each symptom or response that Stanley had, Theresa would likewise have a few moments later.

Dr. Thomas Kim, the Medical Director at Northwest Community Hospital, who had pronounced Adam Janus dead just over two hours earlier, was preparing to leave at 5:45 when he was told that the Janus family was returning.  Initially believing that Adam's parents may have been reacting to the stress of the death of their son, he was instead surprised to see that it was Adam's healthy younger brother and his wife.

This was the first time suspicions were raised that something was not right. Still not knowing what had killed one and felled two members of the Janus family, investigators began examining the home in Arlington Heights.

Meanwhile, at 6:30 p.m. in Lombard, 31 year old Mary McFarland is telling her co-workers at the Illinois Bell store that she has a terrible headache. She goes into the back room and takes at least one Tylenol. Within minutes, she's collapsed on the floor.  The suspicion was that she had ingested something bad.

Around 8 p.m., the bottle of Tylenol, with six capsules missing, is found at the Janus home.  It was rightly deduced that three victims taking two capsules each adds up to the six capsules.

At 8:15 p.m., Stanley Janus is pronounced dead.

At 9:30 p.m., following a flight from Las Vegas, Paula Prince, a 35 year old flight attendant with United Airlines, stops in at a Walgreens to purchase some Tylenol.

At 10 p.m., the Janus bottle of Tylenol is compared with the Kellerman bottle of Tylenol and it's noted that the control numbers are the same. Upon orders from the Medical Examiner, both bottles are opened and sniffed.  The investigator smelled almonds in both bottles, telling the Medical Examiner they were dealing with cyanide.

Blood is drawn from the bodies of the Janus victims and Mary Kellerman.

On Thursday, September 30 at 1 a.m., Dr. Kim received his lab reports.  Not only was there cyanide present in each body but between 100 and 1,000 times more cyanide than necessary to kill each person.

At 3:15 a.m., Mary McFarland is pronounced dead at Good Samaritans Hospital in Downers Grove.

At 9:30 a.m. Mary Lynn Reiner is pronounced dead at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield.

Some time around 10 a.m., an attorney for Johnson & Johnson, the parent company of Tylenol, showed up at the Medical Examiner's Office to hear firsthand the connection between Tylenol and the deaths.  A press conference was held immediately thereafter, suggesting that people not take Tylenol if they had any.  It was not suggested that the product be recalled.

By 3 p.m., however, Johnson &Johnson itself issued a recall of all Tylenol from lot number MC2880, the control number found on the Janus and Kellerman bottles.

On Friday, October 1 at 11 a.m., the state police and FBI are called in.

At 1:15 p.m, Theresa Janus is removed from life support at Northwest Community Hospital and pronounced dead.

At 5 p.m., police discover Paula Prince's body in her apartment on North LaSalle Street. Paula had been expected for dinner with her sister and when she didn't answer repeated telephone calls, her sister notified the police. She had also been due to work a flight out of O'Hare.  The Chicago PD had expected a routine "well person" check.  Instead, they found the Tylenol bottle open in her bathroom, not far from Paula's body in the doorway.  She had just enough time to take a step or two after taking the capsules before dying.

Walgreens had cameras located at their cash registers and police would find footage of Paula buying the pills that would kill her on Wednesday night.  Unfortunately, at the time there were no cameras located in the aisles of the store, making it impossible to see who may have tampered with the medication.

At 11 p.m., Jane Byrne, then Mayor of Chicago, made an announcement about the death of Paula Prince, as well as assisting in the making of fliers in multiple languages warning about the tainted Tylenol.  It was also announced that Tylenol would be pulled from shelves in Chicago.

On Monday, October 4, the Chicago City Council passes an ordinance requiring tamper-resistant packaging for all drugs sold in stores.

On Tuesday, October 5 Johnson & Johnson recalled all Tylenol products nationwide, an estimated 31 million bottles at a cost of more than $100 million.

On Wednesday, October 6 an extortion letter arrives at Johnson & Johnson demanding $1 million to stop the killing. The police would trace the letter to a man in New York named James Lewis.  Despite a thorough investigation, Lewis could never be placed in Chicago at the right time to tie him to the murders. He was sentenced to 20 years for extortion and would serve 13 before being released and moving to the East Coast.

By Monday, October 25, the task force on the Tylenol murders would be reduced from 115 to 40 investigators.

And that's where the case stalled.  It's been 34 years since the crimes happened and the murders are still unsolved.  What happened?

Normal capsule on the left; tainted on the right
Photo:  Daily Kos

Back in 1982, video surveillance at all locations was not the norm.  Tamper resistant packaging was not the norm.  Worrying about products being tampered with was not the norm.

Was the perpetrator looking to kill one person and the others were collateral damage?  Or was he or she after the thrill of killing an untold amount of strangers?  And if so, did he or she act again?

If the perp was looking to kill a certain individual with others dying as a cover up to the actual target, it's likely that Mary Kellerman, Adam Janus and Paula Prince can be eliminated as potential targets. Mary's age eliminates her; both Adam and Paula purchased their Tylenol immediately before taking it.  That also eliminates Stanley and Theresa Janus, who were only at the Janus home because of Adam's death.  Nothing in their victimology suggests that Mary Lynn Reiner or Mary McFarland had someone determined to kill them. Of course it's also possible - - and extremely likely given the known victims - - that if this was the motivation behind the poisonings the intended target escaped harm, quite possibly because of the rash of other victims.

The widely accepted story is that whoever did this purchased the bottles of Tylenol, took them home, tainted capsules in each bottle, and then went around town, putting the bottles on shelves of various stores. There didn't seem to be anything special as to the locations.

One theory the investigators did not put much stock in was that the tainting happened within Johnson & Johnson's production or distribution channels.  While this theory may seem like a stretch at first it does give somewhat of a motive.  What if the person was angry with Johnson & Johnson, had some bone to pick?  The murders could have destroyed the company, not just by consumers refusing the products but also by lawsuits the company would be forced to pay out on.   Scott Bartz, a former Johnson & Johnson employee spent 3 1/2 years researching a book on the subject, which he released in 2011.   His book, The Tylenol Mafia, opens with two Kane County sheriff's deputies who, on the night of Tuesday, September 28, 1982 found two cardboard McNeil boxes filled with Extra Strength Tylenol capsules in an unincorporated area near Elgin. Both deputies became ill after examining them.  The book also calls note to a bottle of cyanide-laced Tylenol that was turned in some two weeks after the poisonings by a woman who identified herself as the wife of a DuPage County judge.  What's interesting about this?  The woman was not who she said she was. When police went back to talk to the judge's wife, she was not the woman who turned in the bottle.  The woman's identity, or her motive for turning the bottle in, has never been determined.

Infamous Unabomber Ted Kaczynski has also had the finger of suspicion pointed at him.  Kaczynski at one time lived in Evergreen Park and Lombard.

A man by the name of Roger Arnold was also investigated.  The investigation led to him having a nervous breakdown, due to the relentless media attention, even after he was cleared.  Arnold blamed a bar owner named Marty Sinclair for the media attention.  In the summer of 1983, Arnold shot and killed who he thought was Marty Sinclair but in actuality was John Stanisha, a man who had no connection to Arnold or Sinclair.  Arnold was convicted of second degree murder in 1984 and sentenced to 30 years.  He would serve 15 years and then die in 2008.

Laurie Dann, who went on a rampage in nearby Winnetka on May 20, 1988, setting fires, poisoning and shooting people, was also considered a suspect but there was no direct connection.

Copycat attacks began popping up after the Tylenol murders, many involving Tylenol.  In 1986 Excedrin capsules in Washington state were tampered with, resulting in the deaths of two persons, with the wife of one being the perpetrator. Also in 1986, Encaprin was recalled after a spiking hoax in Detroit and Chicago, leading to Encaprin being withdrawn from the market entirely after sales plummeted.

The poisonings led not only to the introduction of tamper resistant caps and seals but to the pharmaceutical industry moving away from capsules and to solid caplets.

What do I think?  I think all given scenarios have merit.  It's certainly within the realm of possibility that someone had a grudge against Johnson & Johnson; after all, the bottles all had the same control number and yet they were purchased from different stores in the Chicago area. An inside job would have made it easier.  My problem with that theory is that the bottles that were tampered with, at least the ones that were known, were in a relatively condensed area.

It's also possible that there was a set target and whoever the perp was did not want to be connected with the target and so poisoned a handful of bottles resulting in collateral victims. As I stated above, if that were the case it's almost certain that the intended victim did not become a victim after all.  At least not of the poisonings.

And let's not forget that maybe there was just a sick person in the Chicago area who wanted to hurt people but didn't find it necessary to do so up close and personal.  Was it Ted Kaczynski?  Maybe.  Maybe not.

Will the truth ever be known?  It's hard to say.  Barring a deathbed confession, it's likely no suspect will ever be charged with the murders.

The Murder for Hire of Gregg Smart

Gregg Smart, May 7, 1989: His wedding day, less than a year to live

You may not know it but the trial that got the Court TV-gavel-to-gavel-preempt-all-other-shows genre going was the Pamela Smart murder trial.

Pam was a trailblazer of sorts.  Not only did her trial set the stage for the Menendez brothers and O.J. Simpson but she also made headlines for the affair she'd been having with a fifteen year old student who attended the school she worked at.  In 1990 this was big news; it influenced pop culture in our society and continues to.

Pam's husband Gregg Smart, 24, was murdered on May 1, 1990, six days before their first anniversary, in the entryway of the couple's Derry, New Hampshire townhome.  The scene made it appear as though Gregg had walked in on a burglary and was shot in the process.  Detectives, though, were wary and with good reason.  Despite the disarray, very little of value was taken.  The townhome had the distinct appearance of being staged.  Gregg's widow certainly did her part to raise flags and eyebrows.  Immediately after coming home to find her husband's body in the foyer, Gregg's brother recalled that she expressed more concern over the whereabouts and safety of her dog than what befell Gregg.  The authorities also requested that Pam not speak to the media as they were working the case.  Within a week, Pam had contacted local media, donned a bright blue dress and sat down in her home to talk about the case.   It only got worse.

The father of a teenager who attended the high school where Pam was a media coordinator brought the local police a .38 caliber pistol he had found in his home, believing it might be the murder weapon.  It was.  The police were tipped off by an anonymous source that teenager Cecelia Pierce was involved in the plot to obliterate Gregg Smart and so the police went to Cecelia, who agreed to wear a wire.  The recorded conversations between the teenage girl, who idolized Pam Smart and knew an awful lot about her, became the basis for the Derry cops to arrest Pam on first degree murder charges in August of 1990.

She didn't go down alone.  Teenagers JR Lattime, Pete Randall, Raymond Fowler and Billy Flynn were also arrested and a sordid tale was released.  Pam, then 22, had been having an affair with the then 15 year old Billy.  According to Cecelia, Billy, Pete and JR, Pam was unhappy with her husband, claimed he physically abused her and wanted him dead.  Billy Flynn would later testify that she told him they could no longer be together unless Gregg was out of the picture.  If so, with those words, she turned a hormonally charged teenager, one that was experiencing sex for the first time, into a killer.

Lattime stole his father's pistol and volunteered to be the getaway driver, ferrying Randall, Fowler and Flynn to the Smart home on the night of May 1, when Pam would have a solid alibi of being at a school meeting some 40 miles away.  While Lattime and Fowler waited in the car, Randall and Flynn waited inside the home for Gregg Smart; when he did arrive, they ambushed him. They forced him to his knees and demanded his wallet (which he turned over) and his wedding ring, which he declined to forfeit, saying his wife "would kill him." Randall, holding a knife to Gregg's throat, encouraged Flynn, holding the gun, to do away with Gregg.  While Randall held their victim down, Flynn said "God forgive me," and put a bullet in Gregg's head.  

With the Persian Gulf War winding down, the news media needed something to focus on and Pam Smart gave them a gift.  She was young, blonde, pretty and accused not only of first degree murder but of seducing a teen and engaging in sex with him at school, in her car and in her home.  For many people, the Smart trial was better than daytime soaps. Viewers tuned in to hear the salacious details of Pam Smart's secret life and to take note of what the photogenic defendant was wearing. The most effective and emotional witness was Billy Flynn who, like Lattime, Randall and Fowler, cut a deal with the state to testify against Pam. Looking very much like a young Paul McCartney, Billy cried as he recounted taking Gregg Smart's life. By comparison, Pam Smart appeared an ice queen.

In no surprise to anyone, after fourteen days of testimony, the jury found Pam guilty of being an accomplice to first degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and witness tampering (having to do with encouraging Cecelia to keep her mouth shut and not talk to authorities, which was recorded.)  On the same day, she was given a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Raymond Fowler, who provided the getaway car and waited in it during the killing, was sentenced to 30 years for conspiracy to commit murder and attempted burglary, with eligibility for parole after serving 15 years.  He was paroled in 2003 - - the first one to be granted parole - - with Gregg's father Bill giving his blessing to the release.  Unfortunately Fowler was sent back to prison in 2004 for violating his parole terms.  Exactly what happened seems a bit sketchy but it's been alleged that he had gotten himself a girlfriend, gotten her pregnant, they had broken up and then he had found her doing drugs with another man, leading him to get into a verbal altercation with both and letting air out of her tires.  Worse for him, he allegedly contacted his girlfriend's mother to have the mother persuade the girlfriend not to file a complaint.  Yeah, that's a felony, folks.  Witness tampering.  He was paroled again in June 2005.

Vince "JR" Lattime, who provided the murder weapon and drove the getaway car, was sentenced to life in prison as an accomplice to second degree murder with parole eligibility after 30 years, with 12 years suspended.  He was sent out of New Hampshire to serve his sentence. In 2005 his sentence was reduced by three years; he was paroled later that same year.

Patrick "Pete" Randall, the teen who allegedly wanted to be a hit man and who held Gregg Smart at knifepoint, was sentenced to life in prison for second degree murder with parole eligibility after 40 years with 12 years of the minimum sentence deferred if he maintained good behavior.  In March 2009 a judge reduced Randall's sentence by three years as it was reported that, like Flynn, he was a model prisoner.  He was granted parole and released on June 4, 2015 with lifetime parole.

Billy Flynn on the stand with the murder weapon

Billy Flynn, the alleged triggerman who killed Gregg Smart in order to continue his relationship with Pam, was sentenced to life in prison for second degree murder with parole eligibility after 40 years with 12 years of the minimum sentence deferred if he maintained good behavior.  He was incarcerated at the Maine State Prison where he would earn his GED, become a prison electrician and active in charity work.  In 2007 he sought a sentence reduction  after serving 16 years, stating that he had vowed not to do so until he had spent as many years behind bars as he had free.  He also apologized to Gregg Smart's family for killing him. The Smart family opposed the request, leading to a denial in 2008 although his earliest parole eligibility date was reduced by three years, which made him eligible for parole in 2015.  Also in 2008, a corrections officer said of Flynn that he "had grown from a confused teenager who made an egregious mistake into a responsible, caring individual that would be a positive addition to any community whether inside or outside a fence."  In 2014 he was moved to a minimum security facility and allowed to take part in a work release program.  He was granted parole in March of 2015 and released on June 4, 2015 with lifetime parole.  He married while in prison and lives in Maine with his wife. Gregg's cousin was unhappy with the decision to parole Flynn, believing he should have served his entire sentence.

Pam has not been as lucky. Originally sentenced to do her time in Goffstown, New Hampshire in 2007 she was transferred to Westchester County, New York to the same women's prison that also houses Carolyn Warmus, the mistress who decided to eliminate her married lover's wife. The reasoning behind the transfer seem murky but it's been detailed that Pam had discipline problems in New Hampshire, resulting in 22 disciplinary reports.  All but two of them were for minor offenses.  There was also the worry that the New Hampshire prison was simply not equipped to handle an inmate as infamous as Pam Smart.  Pam's family members maintain that they were never told of the plans to transfer or the actual transfer until after it had taken place.

In 1996 she was badly beaten by two other inmates who believed she was "snitching" on their personal relationship. The beating was so bad that a metal plate had to be inserted on the left side of her face. She says as a result of that attack, she suffers with chronic pain requiring medication.

In 2003 the National Enquirer published photos of a scantily dressed Pam, leading her to file a complaint against the publication.  That action led her to solitary confinement for two months. She sued, claiming the photos were taken by a prison guard who raped her. The lawsuit was dismissed but in 2004 Smart and the previously mentioned Carolyn Warmus sued the institution for sexual harassment and sexual assault.  In 2009 a U.S. District Court judge awarded her nearly $24,000.00 in damages.

In 2015 she named Pete Randall as the actual shooter of her husband, citing ballistics reports that Gregg was shot by a right handed individual.  Billy Flynn was left handed.

She continues to maintain her innocence, saying only that she regrets her relationship with Billy Flynn; if she had not gotten involved with him, Gregg would still be alive.  It's never been reported that she has apologized to the Smart family or taken accountability other than regretting the affair.  She has a solid group of supporters, some of whom are demanding her freedom.  Since all of her co-conspirators, and especially the person who actually pulled the trigger, have been paroled, many think it's unjust that Pam continues to be locked up while they are free.  Her mother, Linda, has been fighting for her daughter's innocence and freedom since 1990.  She continues to fight.

Gregg Smart's parents also fought to keep the memory of their son alive and the woman they believe orchestrated his murder in prison.  Gregg's mother Judy died from a neurological disease eight years after her son, in 1998.  Bill Smart remarried after Judy's death and had six happy years with his second wife before he himself lost a battle with pancreatic cancer in 2010.  Gregg's younger brother Dean, who was only 20 years old when his older brother was killed, has carried the family's torch, writing and releasing a book titled Skylights and Screen Doors, recounting the personal toll Gregg's murder took on the entire family.

Pam at the time of Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart

Without arguing Pam's guilt or innocence, I do understand why she received the harshest sentence.  She was found guilty of murder and she was the linchpin, at least according to the prosecution.  Without her, Gregg Smart would have lived. Without Pam masterminding the plot to kill Gregg, Billy Flynn never would have put a bullet in his head. In other words, Billy Flynn was nothing more than a messenger, doing Pam's dirty work.  It could have been anyone.

Is it possible that Pam Smart received a bum deal?  Well, sure.  It depends on who you choose to believe.  Is it possible that she told Billy Flynn she had no intention of leaving her husband and Billy, in a fit of jealousy, decided to kill Gregg in order to eliminate the competition and took his friends along for the ride?  Yes, it's possible.

Cecelia Pearce testifies, 1991

But there are quite a few problems with that theory.

First, Billy's friends supported his story of Pam recruiting him and telling him that Gregg was abusive (something Gregg's friends and family hotly deny.)  Now even if Billy lied to them about this, wouldn't they turn on each other at some point?  Wouldn't they turn on Billy?  They never did.

Secondly, according to Cecelia Pearce, she overheard conversations between Pam and Billy in which Pam plotted Gregg's murder.  Not only was she well aware that the teen boys were involved in this plan and organized it but she also wanted to get rid of Gregg because she didn't want to divorce and believed that he would get everything, from the car to the furniture to the dog.

Thirdly, the recordings that were done via Cecelia's wire tell a story directly opposite to this. If Pam had nothing to do with the murder, why would she tell Cecelia to keep her mouth shut?  Why would she say if they all kept their mouths shut, nothing would happen?

Lastly, if Billy was so hell bent on destroying Gregg, why take his friends along?  He could have done it himself, without dragging others down with him.

The Smart townhome, May 1990

Look, I've never been a teenage boy but I would think a 15 year old couldn't care less if a 22 year old woman was going to leave her husband or not so long as he continued to get laid.  And if that 22 year old woman cut off the gravy train, as it were, he might very well be willing to believe anything she said and do nearly anything to get it back. Billy Flynn's belief in what Pam told him doesn't surprise me. His agreement to kill Gregg Smart doesn't surprise me but it saddens me.

I think the biggest surprise is that Lattime, Fowler and Randall would willingly go along with this harebrained scheme for any reason but especially with very little reward to them. I think they were promised a small financial payout once Pam received Gregg's life insurance proceeds and the right to keep whatever they burgled from the home.   Even at trial and in direct opposition to Billy Flynn, these boys showed no emotion, no remorse, no care for the lives they ruined.

This circles me back around to Pam's claim last year that Billy Flynn was not the actual shooter.  At first glance, it does seem suspiciously timed.  Pete Randall was granted parole in 2015.  HBO was a year away from releasing its documentary on Pam and her case, Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart.  My first instinct was to dismiss this outright but then I read an accompanying article on the theory.  In May of 1990, Pete Randall was 17 years old. He could have been charged as an adult.  Billy Flynn was 15 years old.  And far away a more sympathetic appearing witness.  Just compare the two on the stand.  Randall was indifferent, unemotional, almost tired of the entire thing while Flynn cried often.  Randall allegedly had a long criminal record, even by the age of 17, and his goal in life was reportedly to be a hit man.

Even more importantly, forensic evidence suggests that the gun was fired by a right handed person.  Randall is right handed; Flynn is left handed.

Why is this important?  It impacts the motive/suggested motive for Gregg's murder.  Prosecutors contend that Pam encouraged Billy to kill her husband for her and he certainly would have had a reason to.

If Randall, who Pam had never met at the time of the murder, and whom she could therefore not manipulate, was the shooter it could destroy the theory that Pam was involved in the conspiracy.

Could this have happened?  Could Billy Flynn have taken the rap for Pete Randall?  Sure.  Their sentences were essentially the same and both men were released in the same year.  We may never know the absolute truth as Billy Flynn has refused all interview requests and does not want to speak of what he did (or didn't do) that night in 1990.

If the prosecution had it right, why would Pam Smart want to have her husband killed?  Why did Scott Peterson elect to kill his wife Laci versus divorcing?  Narcissism?  Feeling that murder is a more palatable choice than divorce?

I do think that by 1990, Pam wanted a different lifestyle than what she had.  When they met and got engaged, Gregg Smart had long hair and was more of a rocker type, something she was greatly attracted to. Gregg realized that he needed to settle down, cut his hair and began working in insurance as his father and brother did. He and Pam married, moved into the town home in Derry and led a very average life until May 1, 1990.

I don't think Pam wanted average. I also think she was holding on to her teenage years, evidenced by becoming friends with Cecelia Pearce and Billy Flynn. If Pam had the emotional makeup of an actual adult, she would have realized that it would have been inappropriate for her to have personal relationships with any of the students at the high school, much less invite them over to her home and hang out with them as if she were a teen herself. I think she was attracted to the long haired Flynn who was clearly dazzled by Pam.

Gregg in life

Their sexual affair is not in question. How far it went beyond that is anyone's guess. Only Pam and Billy know for certain.  Cecelia Pearce was tainted as a witness for some when she accepted $10,000 in exchange for her story. Wanting to be a reporter pre-Pam, after being chased by reporters once the story broke, Cecelia turned her back on that dream and instead became a nurse and animal rescuer. She says today she wishes she had never met Pam Smart. Cecelia was present in the Smart home the first time Pam and Billy were intimate; left watching a movie downstairs, she retreated upstairs to check on her hostess and found her in flagrante with her own classmate. Cecelia also claims to have overheard discussions between Pam and Billy in which Gregg's murder was being planned and plotted. Pam denies this.

Gregg in death

Here are the facts for me.  Pam's behavior immediately after the murder wasn't right. Going to the media within a week, after being instructed not to by detectives, wasn't right.  Referring to her husband as "the body" or "it" in her initial interview with homicide detectives wasn't right.  Her conversations with Cecelia Pearce weren't right.  None of these things absolutely point toward guilt but they certainly don't look good.

If Pam did mastermind Gregg's murder, beyond the obvious, what was she thinking?  I can buy that she might believe the cops are stupid and would fall for the "interrupted burglary" angle, as overused as it is and rarely accurate.  But why on earth would she assume that a teenage boy would not only keep his lips sealed over their physical relationship (which Billy did not) but that he and his friends would remain quiet over a janky murder for hire plot?   Why did she go to the media and put more attention on herself?   Was she more like Nicole Kidman's character in To Die For (a character that author Joyce Maynard based off Pam) than anyone thought?  


Pam's story has been covered in numerous articles, books, television movies, documentaries and the aforementioned To Die For, which is based upon the Smart case.  In each of the books and movies, Pam is presented as guilty of the charges to which she's been convicted.

What do you think?  Did Pam recruit teens to get rid of her husband, to save herself the expense and possible embarrassment and disgrace of a divorce (as well as the $140,000 life insurance policy) or was Pam unfairly convicted for murder when she was "only" guilty of sleeping with a student?  Has she served her time or should she never be released?

Manson Family Update: Bobby Beausoleil Denied Parole; Tex Watson Up Next

Beausoleil; Denied

As I predicted, Governor Jerry Brown's decision to deny Leslie Van Houten parole, after it was recommended by the parole board, did not bode well for fellow inmate and fellow Manson Family perp Bobby Beausoleil.

Bobby, now 68, came up for parole on Friday, October 14 and the board decided that the Family member formerly known as "Cupid" had not yet paid his debt to society for the murder of musician Gary Hinman on July 27, 1969 - - a week before the infamous Tate-LaBianca homicides.

Given that Beausoleil was initially given the death penalty, which was commuted to a life sentence (as were the death penalty sentences of the other Manson family killers), I can't be too upset about him not getting parole.  Last I checked, Gary Hinman, an innocent victim, will never get parole.

Beausoleil claimed to have been a musician and kinda-sorta actor before fucking all that up by joining Charles Manson's merry band of craziness.  If you're into that sort of thing, he has written and recorded music while behind bars.  It was reported that he was denied parole, in part, because he has been selling his music without permission of the California authorities.  He had permission from Oregon authorities, where he had been serving his sentence until last year.  (He had requested and was granted a move to Oregon in 1994 after he married a clearly unhinged Oregon woman, whom he went on to have four children with.  He was transferred back to California after his wife died and he had an infraction - - what a surprise - - in Oregon. )  He also sold suggestive drawings of children to pedophiles back in the 1980s - - nice guy.  I'm guessing he didn't exactly have permission for that.

Californians can breathe easier knowing that the man who made the statement "You'd better hope I never get out!" will not be eligible for parole again for another three years.  Here's hoping that parole attempt number 19 will be equally unsuccessful.

Watson:   He's soooo sowwwwwwy

In my search on upcoming information on Tex Watson, whose next parole hearing is scheduled for end of this month, I found an article from The Boston Tribune that claims that Manson's self-professed right hand man will be granted parole at this hearing due to his "clear and sustained rehabilitation" and a recently diagnosed health issue.

First, I can tell you his health issue. He's an asshole.  And worse, a murdering asshole.  Second, are they serious?  Watson has had a series of infractions over the years of his lengthy stay as a guest of the State of California.  Let's not forget his prison scam, where he was claiming to be a born again Christian, and minister of his ministry, which allowed his then-wife to collect monies received for said ministry in order to support herself and the four children California allowed him to spawn (yes, after he personally butchered a pregnant woman.)   Not only did he have that going on but he also had fellow inmate and fellow Mansonite Bruce Davis "working" alongside him in the prison ministry - - an absolute no no.   Perhaps the worst offense are the books Watson has written while in prison, "literary" attempts to convince the public of his Christianity and how it was all Manson's fault. Sure.  He was just some misguided kid who thought butchering absolute strangers for shits and giggles made perfect sense.  (And if he did, he was a moron and I still don't want him in my neighborhood.)

So. I'm not exactly sure how The Boston Tribune seems in the know about Watson's impending release but I'm with Debra Tate on this one.  Her older sister Sharon, over eight months pregnant with a baby boy at the time, was killed at Watson's hands. He was personally involved in the murders of at least nine people that we know of, including Sharon's unborn baby.  I'm fairly certain that I don't want to run into him at Ralph's picking up groceries so I did my part and signed Debra's petition requesting denial of  Watson's parole.  Please do the same.

Even if you buy that he's been rehabilitated -  which is a questionable prospect at best; even if you buy that he's ill and rapidly declining - - Susan Atkins was terminally ill, given very few months to live and was rightly denied, dying in prison where all Manson Family members should die; I ask that you remember this.  He's been incarcerated since 1971.  That's a total of 45 years.  Sure, that's a lot.  But if you divide that by the nine human beings he slaughtered, that's only FIVE YEARS PER VICTIM.  How is five years, for shooting, bludgeoning, hanging and viciously stabbing a living and breathing person enough time?  It's not in my world and it shouldn't be in any sane person's. Furthermore, he's had 47 years to live that he denied all of his victims.  One did not even have the opportunity to take his first breath.

Debra Tate's petition can be found here.

Injustice for Dominique Dunne

Dominique Dunne was twenty-one years old in 1981 when she met John Sweeney at a party.  Sweeney was seven years her senior and the attraction was instant.  Sadly, rather than leading to love and marriage, it led to love and death.

The petite Dominique, daughter of writer and movie producer Dominick Dunne, sister to actor Griffin Dunne and niece to authors Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, seemed destined to make it in the celebrity soaked world of Los Angeles.  By comparison, the athletic Sweeney grew up in a Pennsylvania coal town, son of an alcoholic who frequently watched his father beat his mother.

Both were creative types; Dominique was an actress with a handful of roles under her belt while John was chief assistant to Wolfgang Puck at the trendy and glamorous Ma Maison restaurant.  On the surface, they made a good match.  Both loved Europe, animals (Dominique was very much an animal rescuer) and cooking.  Her diminutive size contrasted nicely to his just over six foot frame.  Both were ambitious.  Sweeney however desperately wanted to fit into the elegant world of L.A. and Hollywood he saw nightly at Ma Maison.  Dominique gave him entry into that world.

Dominique's last home and where she was strangled

The two moved into a rented house together within weeks of meeting.  What should have been an exciting and romantic time would quickly begin to turn ugly for Dominique.  She found out that Sweeney was no Prince Charming; he began to display controlling and jealous behavior.  They would fight and Dominique would leave their shared home to return to her mother's home to escape Sweeney and his abuse.  Unfortunately, after a few days apart, she would inevitably return.

On August 27, 1982, after a particularly bitter argument, Sweeney grabbed her long, dark hair and yanked her so viciously that handfuls of it came out in clumps.  A frightened Dominique ran to her mother's house, where Sweeney followed.  He banged on the doors and windows, demanding to be let in.   Lenny threatened to call the police.  Sweeney returned to their West Hollywood home to wait out Dominique; she returned a few days later.

Barely a month later, on September 26, 1982, another argument ensued and Sweeney grabbed Dominique by the throat, threw her on the floor and began strangling her.  A friend who was staying with the couple at the time heard the assault and ran into the room where the actress was being attacked.  Dominique told her friend Sweeney had tried to kill her; like any classic abuser, he denied it and suggested that she come back to bed.  She pretended to comply but instead snuck out the bathroom window.  When he heard her car engine start up, he threw himself on the hood of her car and only jumped off when Dominique briefly stopped.  She escaped again to her mother's and also to friends' homes, where she would call Sweeney and end their relationship.  He moved out; she moved back in and changed the locks.

Dominique on Hill Street Blues, no makeup necessary

Despite the volatile nature of her personal life, Dominique's career was steaming full speed ahead.  Her first role had been in a movie of the week in 1979 and by 1981, when she met John Sweeney, she had added several other television movies and some popular television programs of the day, including Lou Grant, CHiPs, Fame and Hart to Hart.    In 1981 she was cast in her first, and what would be only, theatrical film - - Steven Spielberg's classic ghost tale, Poltergeist, which would be released four months before her death.  She also had a memorable guest role on Hill Street Blues in which she played a teen girl abused by her mother.  The day before Dominique arrived to shoot her scenes, Sweeney gave her a beating that resulted in bruises.  Showing up on set with a bruised face, Sweeney's act gave the makeup department a break that day.  No work was needed for Dominique; the bruises seen on her face in the episode are real.

By the time she finally broke off the relationship with Sweeney, Dominique had gotten a role in the upcoming miniseries V, about an alien invasion.  On the evening of October 30, 1982, she was rehearsing scenes for V with actor David Packer when Sweeney showed up uninvited and unexpectedly.  He demanded that she speak with him and after hesitating, she stepped outside to the front yard with Sweeney, leaving Packer inside.     Packer offered to leave but she requested that he stay.  Dominique and Sweeney almost immediately began to argue; Packer later said he heard slapping sounds, two screams and then a thud.  Frightened, he called the police only to be told that Dominique's home was out of their jurisdiction.  He then called a friend and told him if he was found dead, John Sweeney had done it.  Packer then left the home through a back door and found Sweeney near the driveway, kneeling over Dominique.  Spotting Packer, Sweeney told him to call the police.  When the police arrived, Sweeney put his hands in the air and informed them that he had killed his girlfriend and had attempted to kill himself with pills.

While Sweeney was hustled off to jail, Dominique was rushed to Cedars Sinai and placed on life support after her heart stopped.  Her father Dominick would later recall seeing his daughter in the hospital after doctors had screwed a bolt into her skull to relieve pressure on her brain caused by the strangulation.  Her long beautiful hair - - the same hair that Sweeney had grabbed in his fist to pull out - - had been shaved off for the procedure; her eyes were open and grotesquely enlarged from the assault; tubes were everywhere but the marks of John Sweeney's hands were still visible on her purpled and bruised neck.

Dominique would remain in a coma for the next five days, never regaining consciousness.  Once the family realized there was no hope, they had the life support machines that were keeping her heart beating turned off.  It was November 4, 1982 - - nineteen days before her twenty-third birthday. Even in death, Dominique would be kind and giving; her kidneys were given to two patients at Cedars Sinai awaiting transplant and her heart was sent to a hospital in San Francisco.

John Sweeney now graduated from an attempted murder charge to first degree murder. He plead not guilty (no surprise) and was also charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm resulting from the September 26 incident.  He denied assaulting Dominique, claiming that he had been trying to prevent her from leaving their home. (Because we all strangle someone in order to keep them from leaving . . . at least in John Sweeney's household.)

Sweeney's murder trial began in August of 1983, presided over by Judge Burton S. Katz, a man perhaps best known for being the Los Angeles' Deputy District Attorney that successfully prosecuted Charles Manson, Bruce Davis and Steve Grogan in 1971 for the 1969 murders of musician Gary Hinman and ranch hand Donald "Shorty" Shea.  Katz's involvement in this trial would add grievous insult to injury for the Dunne family.

The prosecution called a former girlfriend of Sweeney's, Lillian Pierce, in order to establish a history of his violent behavior.  She and Sweeney had dated from 1977 until 1980.  During the course of their relationship, she stated that she was assaulted by him on ten occasions and was hospitalized twice for injuries from his assaults.  One hospitalization was for four days; another was for six.  During one of these assaults, she suffered a perforated eardrum and a collapsed lung.  Later she would sustain a broken nose from him.  She recounted how Sweeney would foam at the mouth when he lost control. She had seen him smash furniture and pictures.  He had even thrown rocks at her when she tried to leave him.

Sweeney's attorney Michael Adelson went after Pierce as if she were the guilty party.  He accused her of being a drunk and an addict, even suggesting that she had brought such violence upon herself and deserved what she got.  It was shameful and it was a tact he followed when he attempted to besmirch Dominique's character.

Pierce testified out of the presence of the jury while Katz deliberated over whether to allow her as a witness; while she spoke, Sweeney became enraged, jumping to his feet and toward the door leading to the judge's chambers.  He was restrained by two bailiffs and four armed guards and cried when returned to his chair, where he was handcuffed. He apologized to Katz and Katz not only accepted his apology but did so with "We know what strain you are under, Mr. Sweeney."  Katz, who appeared to have little sympathy for the victim and her family, who ever continuously mispronounced Dominique's name, apparently was empathetic with the man who had killed her.

A reporter from a local paper was in attendance and wrote about the incident.  At Adelson's bequest, Katz would admonish this reporter for exaggerating the incident and issue a gag order to all parties.  This would be the first incident of Katz bending over backwards for the defense.  He would continuously prove to be far more solicitous of a murderer than the victim and her family.

Katz wasn't alone.  Adelson had a particular bone to pick with the Dunne family.  Lenny, suffering with multiple sclerosis, was in a wheelchair.  Adelson felt that her presence in the courtroom with her wheelchair would illicit sympathy from the jury and wanted her banned.  Katz, surprisingly, did not agree.  Adelson did request, and was granted by Katz, an order that any emotional outburst by the Dunne family, including crying, eye rolling and/or making any type of exclamation, would result in their being ejected from the courtroom.  He tried to have Dominique's brother removed one day for having tears in his eyes.  When the brothers changed seats while Sweeney was testifying in order to be in his line of sight, Adelson pissily tried to get the brothers tossed from the courtroom.  He was denied but not for long.

Adelson, requested that Katz rule Pierce's testimony inadmissible as it was "prejudicial" and Katz granted the request.  Katz' action, which was in error in my opinion, meant the jury would not hear of John Sweeney's violent history and outbursts until after the trial.  Katz also refused to allow Dominique's mother Lenny and Dominique's friends to testify about the abuse Dominique suffered at Sweeney's hands and the fear she was in, ruling that their statements were "hearsay."  Worse was to come.

On August 29, Adelson requested that Katz rule that there was insufficient evidence to try Sweeney on the charge of first degree murder as there was no evidence of predetermination or deliberation.  Katz, ever obliging of Sweeney and the defense, granted the motion, taking the first degree murder charge off the table and allowing the jury to deliberate only on manslaughter or second-degree.  This decision, along with not allowing Lillian Pierce, Lenny Dunne or Dominique's friends to testify, effectively dismantled the prosecution's case.

The killer in court

Sweeney took the stand in his own defense, claiming that he and Dominique had reconciled and he had meant her no harm on October 30, 1982.  He stated the two planned on moving back in together and had discussed getting married and having children.  According to Sweeney, Dominique had suddenly changed her mind and told him that she had lied to him about reconciling and had intentionally led him on.  He "just exploded and lunged toward her" but claimed to have no recollection of attacking her until he was on top of her with his hands around her neck and she was not breathing.  He stated he attempted to revive her by walking her around but she fell.  An attempt at CPR was made, which he says made Dominique vomit, causing him to vomit.  At that point he ran into the house and consumed two bottles of pills in an attempt to kill himself.  (Clearly a less than successful venture.)  He then lay in the driveway next to Dominique, after pulling her tongue out of her throat, something he claimed to have done for his epileptic father.  Adelson claimed these actions proved that Sweeney did not act with malice and had in fact acted in the heat of passion, provoked by Dominique.

Dominique's family and friends were rightfully outraged.  They disputed that the couple had reconciled and said that Sweeney had gone to her home on October 30 in an attempt to get her to change her mind because she had firmly told him their break up was permanent.

The police also disputed Sweeney's version of events as there was no evidence he had consumed any pills and they found him to be calm and collected.  The first officer at the scene recalled Sweeney telling him "Man, I blew it. I killed her. I didn't think I choked her that hard but I don't know, I just kept on choking her. I just lost my temper and blew it again."

To further dispute John Sweeney's testimony and in direct contradiction to his claim of "heat of passion," the medical examiner testified that Dominique had been strangled for between four and six minutes.  More than enough time for Sweeney to regain himself and control.  And also plenty of time for him to look into her eyes as he killed her.

Yet despite this, Katz had determined there was not sufficient evidence to try John Sweeney for first degree murder.  My brain still boggles with this information.  If this wasn't first degree murder, what is?

The jury deliberated for eight days, returning with a verdict on September 21, 1983.  John Sweeney was acquitted of second-degree murder and found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, a much lesser charge.  He was also convicted of misdemeanor assault for the September 26, 1982 attack on Dominique.  It mattered little to the Dunne family whose wounds were reopened with the verdict.

Adelson, ever the professional, was gleeful at the verdict.  In an act of supreme grossness, he even began calling for Sweeney to get probation.  Thankfully, Katz did not grant it but the damage had been done - - to his own character, to Dominique's loved ones and to justice.

Outrage extended beyond the Dunnes and the courtroom.  A victims' rights group called Victims for Victims, established by actress Theresa Saldano, protested the verdict by staging a march outside the courthouse.  Media outlets debated the outcome of the trial, directing harsh criticism toward Katz.

On November 7, 1983 John Sweeney was sentenced to the maximum - - a whopping six years in prison for murdering Dominique Dunne, plus an additional six months for the misdemeanor assault charge.  Unbelievably, during the sentencing Katz, in a mind altering act of back pedaling, criticized the jury for handing down a sentencing he basically gift wrapped for them, stating that Dominique's death was "a case, pure and simple, of murder. Murder with malice."  (Such a statement does make you wonder if that was the case, how he could have tossed first degree murder out in good conscience.)  The jury foreman would say that Katz' comment was a cheap shot and that if the jury had heard all the evidence (i.e., the evidence that Katz himself would not permit to be heard), they would have convicted Sweeney of murder. Not manslaughter, murder.  The foreman would also later say that the judge's instructions to the jury were incomprehensible.  Four times while deliberating the jury asked for clarification on the instructions and the judge would only say the answers to their questions were in the instructions.  At the time the jury was deadlocked.

Five minutes before handing down his sentence to Sweeney, Katz sentenced a man who had committed a nonviolent robbery at a flower shop to five years.

John Sweeney was sent to a medium security prison in California to serve out his joke of a sentence.  In September of 1986, after serving three years of his six year sentence, Sweeney was paroled.  Three months later he was hired as head chef at the upscale The Chronicle in Santa Monica.  Upon finding out where he was working, Dominique's brother Griffin and her mother Lenny handed out flyers to the restaurant's patrons that said simply "The food you will eat tonight was cooked by the hands that killed Dominique Dunne."  The flyers had the desired effect; Sweeney tired of the pressure and protests and quit, moving away from L.A.

In the mid-1990s, Dominick Dunne was contacted by a Florida doctor who, after reading Dunne's article on his daughter's murder in Vanity Fair, worried that his own daughter was engaged to Dominique's killer.  His name also was John Sweeney, he was also a chef and he was the same man who murdered Dominick's daughter.  Griffin Dunne would contact the woman to try and convince her to call off her engagement and get away from Sweeney; Sweeney accused the Dunnes of harassment and changed his name to John Maura.  It was rumored he relocated for a time to the Pacific Northwest before returning to California.  Most recently there are reports online that a John Patrick Maura lives in California and works for a retirement association.

Dominick Dunne hired private investigator Anthony Pellicano to have Sweeney/Maura followed for a time.  After he learned that the man had relocated to the Pacific Northwest he decided that he did not want to devote his life and energies to the man who killed his daughter.

You do not love me.  You are obsessed with me.
Dominique's letter to John Sweeney, 1982

And so life went on for the principal players, all except for Dominique.

After the virulent opinions on how he handled the Sweeney case and being voted the fourth worst judge to sit on the bench in Los Angeles, Burton S. Katz transferred to Juvenile Court in Sylmar.  He would write a book on the problems with the justice system as well as become a commentator and writer for MSNBC and Time Warner.  As of this date, he is retired from the bench but provides private arbitration and mediation services.

The two prosecutors and two defense attorneys continued on with their legal careers after the Dunne/Sweeney trial.

Detective Harold Johnston, the man who had had driven to Lenny's house to notify her that Dominique was at Cedars Sinai and near death and who had tracked down Sweeney's former girlfriend Lillian Pierce, a veteran law enforcement officer of over twenty-five years, told Dominick Dunne that he had fervently believed in the justice system his entire career . . . until Dominique's case.  That had caused him to lose faith in the system.

Dominique's older brother Griffin would carve out a successful career for himself in Hollywood, acting in television and film, before branching out into producing and directing.  He was nominated for an Academy Award in 2005 for his short film Duke of Groove.  His daughter Hannah, like her father and her aunt, is an actress.

Ellen "Lenny" Dunne founded Justice for Homicide Victims, a victims' rights organization.  Her work on behalf of victims' rights was honored by President George Bush at the White House in 1989.  She would fight a long battle with multiple sclerosis and would succumb to the disease on January 9, 1997 at her home in Arizona.  Justice for Homicide Victims remains active today.

Dominick Dunne would return to New York after the trial.  While in L.A. and attending the trial, he drove around town in his daughter's electric blue convertible VW bug.  He would later recall keeping a pair of her sunglasses in his pocket during the trial to give him strength.  Once the trial was over, he continued his writing career.  He wrote a heartbreaking piece for Vanity Fair, describing the emotional stranglehold his daughter's murder and resulting trial put on his family; he also wrote multiple bestselling novels, some based in part on what happened to Dominique, the 1975 Martha Moxley murder in Greenwich, Connecticut and the O.J. Simpson case in L.A.  Despite his many accomplishments before 1995, he would perhaps become best known to the general public for his constant presence by the sides of the Brown and Goldman families in the courtroom during the murder trial of O.J. Simpson.  He would write (sometimes scathing) observances on the trial and was never reticent about voicing his opinion on the guilt of Simpson or that the Brown and Goldman families were attending the last business of their loved one's life and should be in attendance daily (something the Goldmans appear to have taken very much to heart.)  He most of all knew what it felt like to watch a loved one's killer walk out of the courtroom a free man. He remained very much the investigative journalist until the end, which came on August 26, 2009 from bladder cancer.  He was 83.

The largest tragedy of this story and case is of course the death of Dominique Dunne.  Only twenty-two, she had her entire life ahead of her and it promised to be a golden one. Having only pursued an acting career for three years, and having gotten her first role three weeks after making the decision, Dominique's professional options seemed limitless.  John Sweeney robbed her and robbed the industry of her talent.  He robbed her family of their daughter and sister; in killing her, he killed future generations.

Almost as great a tragedy was the painful and blunt injustice to Dominique and her family. John Sweeney murdered her, he choked the life from her for at least four full minutes and he got the legal equivalent of a slap on the wrist.  It is worth noting that it has not appeared in any form that Sweeney apologized to her family for killing Dominique or expressed remorse for doing so.  As the first officer on the scene recounted, his focus was on his screwing up again, not concern for his former girlfriend deprived of oxygen.  To this day, John Sweeney should still be in prison, paying for stealing the life from this lovely young girl instead of having been free for thirty years.  That's thirty years he's had that she hasn't.  He's been able to work, have other relationships, have family.  She hasn't.  There is no limit as to how grievous this is.

John Sweeney is responsible for Dominique's death but Burton S. Katz is responsible for Sweeney getting away with it.  Despite all of his criticisms aimed at the jury, he gave them the ability to find Sweeney guilty only of manslaughter.  It was Katz' decision to take first degree murder off the table.  It was Katz' decision to not allow Sweeney's ex-girlfriend Lillian Pierce testify.  It was Katz' decision to not allow Dominique's mother and friends -- all witnesses to Sweeney's violent behavior and the injuries Dominique suffered - - to testify.  Katz would been the densest person in that courtroom not to realize what effect his rulings would have.  It was an error that simply could not be overcome by the prosecution, who were desperately fighting on behalf of Dominique.  How Katz could have thought that Sweeney's prior history, his violent outbursts and explosions of temper against the women he claimed to love - - his M.O. of escalating control - - weren't relevant, I cannot fathom.  Sweeney was allowed to present his side of the relationship with Dominique; Dominique was no longer available to present her side.  But her family and friends could.  They knew that Dominique had not reconciled with Sweeney, nor did she plan to.  They knew his temper and they knew she had feared him in those last weeks of her life.  Someone close to her needed to speak for Dominique in that courtroom and Katz gagged every attempt for someone to do so.

When I think about Dominique and this case, I am sad for her.  She fell in love with the wrong person and paid for it with her life.  To say that's unfair is an understatement of epic proportions.  No amount of prison sentence could bring her back but the sentence John Sweeney was handed might as well have been a reward rather than a punishment.  I remember that it took six adult men to restrain Sweeney in the courtroom after his outburst.  Six men.  What chance did the petite Dominique have on her own against the burly Sweeney?

Dominique's funeral had been held on November 6, 1982 at The Good Shepherd Church in Beverly Hills.  A friend of hers would later say that it appeared as if a casting call had gone out, there were so many in attendance.  Not the media and not gawkers; all people that Dominique had touched who mourned her loss.  She was buried at Westwood Memorial Park, not far from the grave of family friend Natalie Wood, who had been placed to rest there a year earlier.  Six years after Dominique was laid to rest, her Poltergeist co-star Heather O'Rourke would also find Westwood as her final home.

Dominique's grave marker, with her name, the years of her birth and death, have the notations "Beloved Daughter and Sister" and "Loved By All."  An extremely fitting epitaph.

Dominique's grave, photo taken by me during a visit to Westwood Memorial Park