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Speaker 5: You are now listening to True Murder the most shocking
Speaker 5: killers in true crime history and the authors that have
Speaker 5: written about them.
Speaker 4: Gasey, Bundy, Dahmer, The Nightstalker DTK.
Speaker 5: Every week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking
Speaker 5: and infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with
Speaker 5: your host journalist and author Dan Zufanski, Good Evening. How
Speaker 5: does a high school valedictorian, former member of the famed
Speaker 5: one hundred and first Airborne, respected church, deacon, husband and
Speaker 5: father of three end up with a first remurder conviction
Speaker 5: and serving life without parole. Deacon's Crossbow is a bone
Speaker 5: chilling and compelling work of true crime about fate, fear, facts,
Speaker 5: and personality, especially that of convict Donald S.
Speaker 4: Graham. Donald and his wife were driving home from dance
Speaker 4: lessons when they happened upon two men on Interstate ninety
Speaker 4: five in Massachusetts. When Donald reached for his crossbow, all
Speaker 4: hell broke loose. The end result, the mail driver is
Speaker 4: dead and the deacon is in prison. For the rest
Speaker 4: of his life. He will follow a labyrinth of events
Speaker 4: from the incident all the way to the present. The
Speaker 4: story is unique because it includes mister Graham's views and
Speaker 4: sentiments from within the walls of incarceration, as well as
Speaker 4: perspectives from a freeman. The author was justice served or
Speaker 4: was the driver the aggressor and the deacon the victim.
Speaker 4: The book that were featuring this evening is Deacon's Crossbow,
Speaker 4: The True Story of a crossbow killing on Interstate ninety five,
Speaker 4: with my special guests, author David G. Brown. Welcome to
Speaker 4: the program, and thank you very much for agreeing to
Speaker 4: this interview. David G. Brown, Thank you, thanks a lot.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Dan, it's good to be here.
Speaker 4: Thank you very much for joining us. Let's talk right
Speaker 4: away with how you came to be the author of
Speaker 4: this your relationship to this story, and how you decided
Speaker 4: the decision to be the author of Deacon's Crossbow.
Speaker 3: Well, Dan, believe it or not, it started with a nightmare,
Speaker 3: and it started ten years after the road rage experience occurred.
Speaker 3: Event occurred, and it was I do mention this in
Speaker 3: the book. I had intended on starting the book telling
Speaker 3: how it was a nightmare, but I opted to go
Speaker 3: directly to the scene the incident. But I woke up
Speaker 3: in the middle of the night. We were living in
Speaker 3: California at the time. I was wearing a T shirt
Speaker 3: while I was sleeping, and my t shirt was all sweaty,
Speaker 3: and I had a dream of Donald Graham and we
Speaker 3: were in the desert and I'm walking along on the
Speaker 3: top of a mason and I heard someone shouting in
Speaker 3: the distance, and I came to the edge of a
Speaker 3: cliff and there was Done, holding on for dear life
Speaker 3: to a branch of a dead of a tree, and
Speaker 3: he's looking up at me and he's yelling, Hey, help me.
Speaker 3: I woke up the next morning and I shared the
Speaker 3: incident with my wife, and she said to me, you've
Speaker 3: got to write about this. You've always loved to write.
Speaker 3: You got yourself a heck of a story here, and
Speaker 3: lo and behold, about three years later I had I
Speaker 3: had a book published.
Speaker 2: UH.
Speaker 3: And that was in twenty twelve. So that's how that's
Speaker 3: how it came about. UH. I guess I'd also have
Speaker 3: to include the fact that I always had a lot
Speaker 3: of admiration for Dodd Graham from the minute I met him,
Speaker 3: uh and throughout the years that we developed, at first
Speaker 3: a business relationship, UH, we developed a strong friendship. UH.
Speaker 3: And once I had found out about the about this
Speaker 3: horrible incident that occurred, this road rage incident, occurred. It
Speaker 3: really stuck with me, and obviously it stuck with me
Speaker 3: long enough to have a very very bad nightmare and
Speaker 3: influenced me to write the book.
Speaker 4: Okay, now, you opened the book in mid October two
Speaker 4: thousand and six, and we're in Providence, Rhode Island, and
Speaker 4: you're going to Shirley, Massachusetts, and you arrive at the
Speaker 4: souths of Bereanowski Correctional Center the SBCC to visit Donald S. Graham,
Speaker 4: and you wanted to know some information. So tell us
Speaker 4: about it as you do what he imparts to you
Speaker 4: about what happened, because you say, what the hell happened?
Speaker 4: So you want to hear it all. So what did
Speaker 4: he say to you about this incident? So tell us
Speaker 4: as you do in the book.
Speaker 3: Well, I'll do my best at that. Keep in mind
Speaker 3: it was quite some time ago that I wrote the book,
Speaker 3: and I'm not going to read from the book, but actually,
Speaker 3: prior to that first meeting at Susan Bereanowski, we had
Speaker 3: shared several correspondents and essentially when I was sending what
Speaker 3: I was asking Don what could I do to help out?
Speaker 3: And that's how it led to first forty pages and
Speaker 3: then on and on until I had a page of
Speaker 3: close to two hundred and fifty pages and the book
Speaker 3: was completed. But he gave a very very thorough description
Speaker 3: to me as to everything happened happened that evening, that
Speaker 3: Sunday afternoon. And we're making reference to February twentieth, nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety four. Don and his wife Sandra had traveled to
Speaker 3: Boston to go to they took dance lessons, and they
Speaker 3: got done with their dance lessons and they were heading back.
Speaker 3: They were heading back to our hometown, not only Don
Speaker 3: and Sandras, but my hometown of Wood Socket, Rhode Island.
Speaker 3: Sander was sitting in the passenger in the front passenger
Speaker 3: sleep She was sleeping. Don was driving en Route ninety five.
Speaker 3: In case people don't realize that that's the major highway
Speaker 3: that goes from Maine all the way down to Florida.
Speaker 3: They were traveling between Boston and Providence. Don had kind
Speaker 3: of a beat up automobile, as I recall, it was
Speaker 3: a Toyota and he was driving. He had was driving
Speaker 3: at fifty five miles an hour on the inside lane,
Speaker 3: and he couldn't help but notice that there was a
Speaker 3: car traveling in the outside the passing lane that was
Speaker 3: going slower than fifty five, probably about fifty miles an hour,
Speaker 3: which was unusual because I would say that at average
Speaker 3: speed in that passing lane was about seventy miles an hour.
Speaker 3: And then he notices he notices that this gal was
Speaker 3: also in the passing lane and almost bumped into him
Speaker 3: because it was going so slow. You could almost feel
Speaker 3: that she was very irritated. She put her bright lights
Speaker 3: on and then slipped into the middle lane, passed the
Speaker 3: drivers in the passing lane to get in front of
Speaker 3: it to continue on. At that point, the two fellows
Speaker 3: that were in the slow vehicle, they sped up and
Speaker 3: they started turning their bright lights on and off. Uh.
Speaker 3: Don started this.
Speaker 4: Uh he's.
Speaker 3: Later on I'll probably give you a thorough description of
Speaker 3: Don's personality, but but uh, he got very concerned about this,
Speaker 3: and and he immediately figured that these two guys were
Speaker 3: predators because they kept almost bumping into this gal's rear
Speaker 3: fender and turning their brights on and off. So Don
Speaker 3: made a decision. I'm not gonna say that this was
Speaker 3: the wisest decision of the world, but he made a decision,
Speaker 3: and he said that I'm going to show teach these
Speaker 3: guys a lesson. So he pulled out of the inside
Speaker 3: lane and got into into the passing lane behind these
Speaker 3: two guys, and he put there his bright lights on them.
Speaker 3: Then there were a series of unusual things that happened
Speaker 3: over the next few miles. The first thing I could
Speaker 3: tell you was that the girl disappeared. She got off.
Speaker 3: It was no longer a part of the scenario.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: Don is following these guys, and at one point they
Speaker 3: came to a complete stop. And it's almost impossible, maybe
Speaker 3: divided to mention that he didn't crash into them, or
Speaker 3: somehow someone didn't rearent him, because coming to such a
Speaker 3: short a quick stop, that could have been a very
Speaker 3: likely occurrence. They started up again. At one point these
Speaker 3: guys started throwing some things out the window at Don's car.
Speaker 3: They actually stopped the second time. They pulled a couple
Speaker 3: of other little tricks along the road that I thoroughly
Speaker 3: described in the book. And once they got past the
Speaker 3: Route four ninety five intersection, they slowed down and pulled
Speaker 3: off to the side of the road, and Don, thinking
Speaker 3: that at no point would it be wise for him
Speaker 3: to get in front of these guys, in other words,
Speaker 3: to accelerate and try to just shake these guys. He
Speaker 3: decided to pull off besides them. I guess another thing
Speaker 3: that went through his mind is is that had he
Speaker 3: pulled up adjacent to them, they actually might have pulled
Speaker 3: their car and tried to sideswipe him. This was not
Speaker 3: no longer a friendly summer drive. This was turning into
Speaker 3: something that was not good at all. Anyway. Now you
Speaker 3: have both cars that are pulled off the side of
Speaker 3: the road with all kinds of traffic that's coming. It
Speaker 3: wasn't exactly a roadside rest.
Speaker 4: But it was. It was.
Speaker 3: It was enough to get both cars well off the
Speaker 3: side to the side of the road.
Speaker 4: Uh No.
Speaker 3: Sooner, Don pulled up, maybe about as I recalled him
Speaker 3: telling me it was somewhere around one hundred feet to
Speaker 3: one hundred and twenty five feet behind the other car.
Speaker 3: I might as well tell you that the driver of
Speaker 3: the car was a fellow by the name of Michael
Speaker 3: Michael Michael Blodgett, and his the other fellow in the
Speaker 3: car was a fellow by the name of Stephen Austin.
Speaker 3: And they got out of their car and they started
Speaker 3: walking back towards Don's car, the driver lodge. It was
Speaker 3: walking in the road. Don noticed that he was carrying
Speaker 3: what's called a mag or a police flashlight, one of
Speaker 3: those long black flashlights in his hand. That light the
Speaker 3: flashlight was on uh and Aston got jumped over the
Speaker 3: guardrail and started coming back at him through the woods,
Speaker 3: probably maybe with intentions of getting up behind Donald. At
Speaker 3: any rate, Sandra was now awake. She was just sitting
Speaker 3: there horrified. And Donald immediately jumped out of his car,
Speaker 3: ran to the truck of his car, and pulled out
Speaker 3: a crossbow. Now he was not a hunter, but he
Speaker 3: was an expert target shooter, and he locked a bolt
Speaker 3: in its place and started telling these guys, you know this,
Speaker 3: this party is over. It's time for you to go
Speaker 3: back to your car and get on with your wife.
Speaker 3: And he said this a couple of times. But they
Speaker 3: were close because there was only about one hundred one
Speaker 3: hundred feet of separation between the two cars. So this
Speaker 3: all happened very very quickly. Brogett kept advancing and at
Speaker 3: one point, and at the critical point, he was so
Speaker 3: close to Don that he raised his hand to try
Speaker 3: to knock the crossbow out of Don's hand. And I'm
Speaker 3: not one hundred percent sure about this, and I've talked
Speaker 3: to Donald about this several times, but the way he
Speaker 3: tells it, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Bligett's
Speaker 3: hand didn't touch it didn't hit the crossbow. And at
Speaker 3: that point, uh Don either reflexively or deliberately pressed the trigger,
Speaker 3: and that's a key point. And a bolt went off
Speaker 3: they called they called the arrow a bolt, and the
Speaker 3: bullets went off. I don at first thought that it
Speaker 3: flew over Blodgets, over over Blodget's head, but it ended
Speaker 3: up hitting him in the right shoulder and it hit
Speaker 3: a vein, a vein, And I think rather than continue
Speaker 3: the story, I'll let you get back to other questions.
Speaker 3: But I could tell you that five and a half
Speaker 3: hours Michael Blodgett died.
Speaker 4: So well, let's let's go back to this. Let's go
Speaker 4: back to this sixteen inch bolt. Now you talk about
Speaker 4: an arrow and you talk about a crossbow. So I
Speaker 4: have some questions for you before we continue on. How again,
Speaker 4: at the time you write in the book that at
Speaker 4: the time Blodget with his partner, there were much bigger
Speaker 4: or bigger guys one six foot one's close to six
Speaker 4: foot and your friend dons about one hundred and fifty
Speaker 4: pounds but stocky. So the thing is is that these
Speaker 4: guys can't We're intimidating their their advance on the car.
Speaker 4: Sandra has woken up well before this, but she is,
Speaker 4: like you say, horrified, terrified, sitting in that car, wondering
Speaker 4: what they're going to do. When he is shot in
Speaker 4: the shoulder, not everybody even realizes, even his partner doesn't
Speaker 4: really his friend that he's a coworker. Robert Aston doesn't
Speaker 4: realize that he's a shot. He says, he says that
Speaker 4: he's been shot. He says, the motherfucker shot me. And
Speaker 4: so he pulls out, he pulls out this sixteen inch
Speaker 4: bolt out of his shoulder. And he's an emergency. He's
Speaker 4: an EMT worker and so is his partner. In this car,
Speaker 4: they're coming from work. So what does your friend Dawn
Speaker 4: do and his wife Sandra? Sandra's mad, you write, Sandra's mad?
Speaker 4: But what did they do? And this is important? What
Speaker 4: do they do after? What do they think has happened,
Speaker 4: how serious they think it is, and what do they
Speaker 4: do before we see what happens to Blagette and his
Speaker 4: partner Robert Aston and the police.
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Speaker 3: Right. Well, before I answer that question, let me just
Speaker 3: tell you it was not a wise move to pull
Speaker 3: that pull that arrow out of his shoulder. That was
Speaker 3: a good move. They they sat in their car in
Speaker 3: total amazement. I maybe shock would be a better better
Speaker 3: word to use. They were both virtually immobilized. They they
Speaker 3: obviously watched Logic pull the arrow out of his out
Speaker 3: of his should. Older. Uh, they watched blodget uh take
Speaker 3: that mag flashlight, by the way, when when Blodgett was
Speaker 3: advancing on Donald, he was shining that that flashlight right
Speaker 3: in Donald's eyes. And that's a big flashlight with with
Speaker 3: with with serious light. Uh. Right, But but they he
Speaker 3: he took that mag flashlight and he destroyed the rear
Speaker 3: left light in Donald's car, at which point he then
Speaker 3: watched the two of them work the way to the
Speaker 3: front of the car and start heading back to their car. Uh.
Speaker 3: As Donald was watching, he didn't think that the injury
Speaker 3: was that fatal. Uh, at the time. Uh, for all
Speaker 3: intentsive purposes. Eventually, what happened is is that he bled out. Uh.
Speaker 3: But they then went back to their car and they
Speaker 3: drove off. So want either Don said to Sandra or
Speaker 3: vice versa, what do we do now? And they said, well,
Speaker 3: we've got to report this to the police. And Sandra said, look,
Speaker 3: I am sick. Let's go home and we can proceed
Speaker 3: with all the things that we have to do once
Speaker 3: we get home. And kind of the odd thing that
Speaker 3: she said to Don that remains fresh in his mind,
Speaker 3: she says, I must get home and brush my teeth.
Speaker 3: Kind of an interesting reaction. But essentially that's what they
Speaker 3: saw and that's what they did, and they did return home.
Speaker 4: You talk now, you writing the book about the reason
Speaker 4: why you said he blew out. But again, an experienced
Speaker 4: person with a crossbow with the sixteen inch bolt, your
Speaker 4: friend Don knew very well if something he didn't think
Speaker 4: it was that serious that shot. Why was that shot
Speaker 4: so serious other than he pulled out this arrow? Is
Speaker 4: there other reasons that you've discovered for the read for
Speaker 4: his death, which was a surprise to most people.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't remember the exact name of the ottery.
Speaker 3: It's located in the shoulder. I know I wrote about
Speaker 3: I specified it in the book, but being both of
Speaker 3: these guys were empts, by the way, so there's the
Speaker 3: Sturdy Memorial Hospital is probably somewhere in the city of
Speaker 3: ten miles away from where the incident occurred. So they
Speaker 3: made a b line for the Sturdy Memorial Hospital. At
Speaker 3: which point, let's put it this way, we couldn't describe
Speaker 3: Sturdy Memorial as a five star hospital. It's a real
Speaker 3: small hospital located in Attleborough, Massachusetts. And when they got there,
Speaker 3: there's a lot of questions as to whether the doctors
Speaker 3: that took care of Logic did the right things, and
Speaker 3: I go into that in detail. I even made a
Speaker 3: point of doing some research with one of the top
Speaker 3: surgeons in Rhode Island, who I knew quite well, to
Speaker 3: get his opinion about it. And essentially what he said
Speaker 3: to me is that based on the amount of blood
Speaker 3: that Logic had lost, had he lived for sets of purposes,
Speaker 3: he would have been a vegetable. And the last thing
Speaker 3: that I could tell you is that after uh Blogic
Speaker 3: had been its Sturdy Memorial for several hours, he was
Speaker 3: then helicoptered out to mass General, which is a five
Speaker 3: star hospital, to the Western Massachusetts branch, and that's where
Speaker 3: he passed away.
Speaker 4: Right now. Meanwhile, while Don and and Sandra are contemplating
Speaker 4: their next move, police come to their door. What is
Speaker 4: Don and Sandra's reaction and what did the police do?
Speaker 4: And this is important in terms of what do they
Speaker 4: have in terms of warrants and how do they proceed?
Speaker 4: Tell us about that.
Speaker 3: Well, uh, in a million years, never did they expect
Speaker 3: that the p police would show up at the door
Speaker 3: less than ten minutes after they arrived at home Ashton.
Speaker 3: Apparently he had gotten part of Donald's driver's license, his
Speaker 3: license plate number, and with that information they tracked down
Speaker 3: They very very quickly obviously tracked down Donald's address, and
Speaker 3: so there were two one Socket police members of the
Speaker 3: Wood Socket Police Force that showed up at his door.
Speaker 3: As matter of fact, Don said to them, I'm assuming
Speaker 3: that you're here because of the incident on Route ninety five,
Speaker 3: and they were a little bit surprised to hear that,
Speaker 3: but they said yes. Don told him his side of
Speaker 3: the story while they were standing outside of the house,
Speaker 3: and by that time Don had already taken the crossbow
Speaker 3: and brought it down into his basement and and put
Speaker 3: it with him with several other uh firearms and weapons
Speaker 3: that Don Don had uh and he said to the police,
Speaker 3: he says, would you like to see the weapon? And
Speaker 3: they said yes. So Don turned around and started walking
Speaker 3: into his house. A little did he know at that
Speaker 3: moment that they were standing behind him with guns drawn.
Speaker 3: And they followed Don into the house without a warrant.
Speaker 3: I might add uh from there on in uh Don's
Speaker 3: two kids were upstairs watching television. They came they they
Speaker 3: came down. Uh there was one of the uh uh
Speaker 3: private detectives from the One Socket force that showed up,
Speaker 3: a fellow by the name of Marzini, and they questioned
Speaker 3: Don and and and seeing and they then arrested both
Speaker 3: of them and brought them down to the to the
Speaker 3: Wood Socket Police department. And also while they were there,
Speaker 3: uh Massachusetts State Police showed up and they took uh
Speaker 3: uh they took a report of the incident.
Speaker 4: Also, did Don and Sandra say, listen, we're not going
Speaker 4: to be answering any questions. Will we opt to talk
Speaker 4: to an attorney first? What what did they do in
Speaker 4: that regard and what was the result of their decision.
Speaker 3: They at the time didn't feel like they were guilty
Speaker 3: of any say. Uh, as far as Don was concerned,
Speaker 3: his action was an action of self defense.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: I kind of put the whole incident into it's a
Speaker 3: three acts, the act one being the drive, act two
Speaker 3: being the road rage incident, and actually being the aftermath.
Speaker 3: So this would be the beginning of the aftermath. And
Speaker 3: they were very straightforward and honest with every and any
Speaker 3: question that both the local police and the Massachusetts State
Speaker 3: Police asked that at that time. I don't know if no,
Speaker 3: at that time there was no attorney discussion at all.
Speaker 3: That didn't happen till for several days after the incident.
Speaker 4: Well, that's that's the point. They made statements. They both
Speaker 4: made statements, and then they were charged, both of them.
Speaker 4: He charged with more serious charges, obviously and including first
Speaker 4: degree murder, which in in Massachusetts would net you life
Speaker 4: without the possibility of parole. She is charged for accessory
Speaker 4: after the fact, and soon after is released on a recognissance.
Speaker 4: But then there's an issue of bail. Does Donald get bail?
Speaker 4: And then right away you include really the incredible articles
Speaker 4: that occur in the media, and right away Da Prosecutor
Speaker 4: Liturno comes forward, and we've just heard the depiction from
Speaker 4: down and from your investigation. This da Liturno in the
Speaker 4: article portrays presents a much different perspective about what happened
Speaker 4: that day in February, doesn't He.
Speaker 3: He really did not describe Dot all of very complimentary terms.
Speaker 3: From the contrary, he almost described Donald as a ruthless, heartless,
Speaker 3: uh criminal. I was just aching to use that that
Speaker 3: crossbow at some time in his life, and that is
Speaker 3: just so untrue. Yea, I go ahead, yeah, let me
Speaker 3: let me, let me just share share this with you.
Speaker 3: I became I became friends with Don Graham the first
Speaker 3: day I met him.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 3: I just had had such interesting conversation with him. Uh.
Speaker 3: I found him to be so fascinating. He's a Canadian
Speaker 3: citizen number one. As a matter of fact, to this day,
Speaker 3: he still has maintained his Canadians Canadian citizenship. But he
Speaker 3: was also a member of the United States one hundred
Speaker 3: first Airborne Division, which is one of the more feigned
Speaker 3: divisions in all of American military.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: He's a brilliant man. He was valedictorian of his class.
Speaker 3: Extremely well read, uh terrific sportsman. By the way, of course,
Speaker 3: being from Canada, hockey is his first love. But he
Speaker 3: just loves sports, very very He's kind of quiet, low key,
Speaker 3: dry wit, uh, but extremely straightforward.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: He just calls the spade a spaate. You know that
Speaker 3: that that type of a person. Uh uh And maybe
Speaker 3: a little bit too straightforward to suit his own good,
Speaker 3: but that's his nature and I admire that, uh And
Speaker 3: I always found him to be what as honest as
Speaker 3: the day is long. And lastly, he was deacon of
Speaker 3: his church, which kind of made it relatively easy for
Speaker 3: me to draw the conclusion that the title of the
Speaker 3: book should be Deacon's Crossbow. Kind of has a twist
Speaker 3: in the name of it. But he was so good
Speaker 3: in that position that he helped form the very first
Speaker 3: soup kitchen for the poor in the city of wind Socket,
Speaker 3: which was domiciled in the basement of the first of
Speaker 3: the wind Socket first Baptist Church. So I hope that
Speaker 3: that gives you a good description as to what my
Speaker 3: friend was like. Hardly the description of the personality that
Speaker 3: Laturno created.
Speaker 4: But Dia Liturno has to put a narrative that will
Speaker 4: aid in the prosecution so other than you know, giving
Speaker 4: a thirst that he's a bad character bringing up his
Speaker 4: driving record of impaired driving in Rhode Island, tried to
Speaker 4: equate that with the criminality in general, and that this
Speaker 4: guy was a guardian of the highway and had a
Speaker 4: crossbowl ready to use it, and depicted some of the
Speaker 4: things that you have said in terms of not advancing,
Speaker 4: basically saying, well, sure they advanced on the car, but
Speaker 4: Donald Graham had every opportunity to leave, which is conflicts
Speaker 4: with what Donald has said and your investigation.
Speaker 3: You know, Dan, I'm the kind of person that pretty
Speaker 3: much I've got to see it to believe it, all right.
Speaker 3: Part two is when I tell you that I have
Speaker 3: always felt double Graham just to be the most honest person,
Speaker 3: I just have always felt whatever Donald said is the
Speaker 3: way is the is the way it happened. But I
Speaker 3: have to leave a little bit of a percentage out
Speaker 3: there that maybe the way he tells the story might
Speaker 3: not be one hundred percent. I think I think that,
Speaker 3: particularly with all of the the interviews that you do
Speaker 3: UH where you're dealing in similar type issues when you're
Speaker 3: in a critical traumatic state of mind, traumatized ah ah
Speaker 3: it makes sense that you don't remember whether you whether
Speaker 3: the bolt accidentally went off or whether he pressed that
Speaker 3: whether he pressed that trigger on purpose. He doesn't remember.
Speaker 3: That's why I earlier, earlier suggested that I of believe
Speaker 3: that that blodget hit that crossbow and that's what triggered
Speaker 3: the arrow going off, the bolts going off.
Speaker 4: Let me ask you this question. Let me ask this question.
Speaker 4: Did you ask? And I think the audience is asking too. Okay,
Speaker 4: he uses the crossbow for target passing practice, as you're right,
Speaker 4: doesn't use it for hunting. But why and you do
Speaker 4: tell in the book why would he have a crossbow?
Speaker 4: And I think this is important. It didn't come up
Speaker 4: into trouble. I think this is important. Why would he
Speaker 4: have a crossbow in his trunk? What for?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 4: In case of what? In New England?
Speaker 3: Good question, that's that's a good question. As I recall,
Speaker 3: Uh Darn had said to me that he always had
Speaker 3: concerned that maybe something really bad might happen, and maybe
Speaker 3: it was prophetic because something something bad did happen. He
Speaker 3: had also indicated to me that Ah that that Uh,
Speaker 3: there were a lot of raccoons. This might sound a
Speaker 3: little bit odd, but but you know, they are rodents.
Speaker 3: You can get rabies from raccoons, and that there had
Speaker 3: been some in his in his neighborhood and in his yard,
Speaker 3: so that he had he had he had that crossbow
Speaker 3: in there. But I think it was primarily because just
Speaker 3: as a defense mechanism, a defense tool, a firearm, that's
Speaker 3: not a crime.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 3: Maybe you and I wouldn't do that, and maybe the
Speaker 3: majority of people wouldn't do that, but he did. He did.
Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
Speaker 4: Well, I think it's I think it's reasonable for the
Speaker 4: first part of that answer, in terms of he recognized
Speaker 4: this as a viable weapon that he was quite good at.
Speaker 4: He was an expert, but he was quite adept at
Speaker 4: using this cross bowl. And so I don't know if
Speaker 4: that makes a huge difference, but I thought at least
Speaker 4: that question would come up, especially when given this literno,
Speaker 4: the DA's prosecution and how he depicts not only Donald
Speaker 4: but the turn of events that led to this fatality.
Speaker 4: We're going to use this as an opportunity, David, for
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Speaker 4: might as well get to the trial, because we have
Speaker 4: a long way to go in explaining this twisting and
Speaker 4: turning story. And you put not the blame but some
Speaker 4: of the reasons for things turning out the way they were,
Speaker 4: not only in as you described later on in the book,
Speaker 4: the choices that Donald made that night, that faithful night,
Speaker 4: but also his decisions in terms of statements he made,
Speaker 4: and we talk about him taking the witness stand Sandra
Speaker 4: being on the witness stand testifying. Tell us you weren't
Speaker 4: at there, but at the trial, but you describe the
Speaker 4: events in the book just if you were there. Tell
Speaker 4: us what happens in this incredible trial. Tell us a
Speaker 4: little bit about that.
Speaker 3: Well. I can't be like one hundred percent correct in
Speaker 3: all of my answers here, Dan, simply because I wrote
Speaker 3: the book from two thousand and nine to twenty twelve,
Speaker 3: so several years ago, and during that time I've also
Speaker 3: been writing, I published another book, and I'm in the
Speaker 3: process of a third book coming out, So all of
Speaker 3: that is not one hundred percent clear. The first thing
Speaker 3: that I want to tell you is that I thought
Speaker 3: it would really be a good idea to cover the
Speaker 3: trial primarily through newspaper articles from the newspapers in the area,
Speaker 3: mostly our local newspapers, the Wins I could call in
Speaker 3: the Providence Journal. As far as some of the specifics
Speaker 3: of the trial are concerned, I believe that virtually everything
Speaker 3: that Donald said during the trial was totally honest. Uh.
Speaker 3: And he created for himself and and kind of took
Speaker 3: charge of his attorneys and and kind of dictated the
Speaker 3: terms as to how he wanted the trial to go,
Speaker 3: which is very unusual and maybe maybe not the wisest
Speaker 3: thing in the world. But this is Donald's personality. As
Speaker 3: I said, He's a straight ahead kind of guy, and
Speaker 3: he felt that that self defense was the way to go.
Speaker 4: Uh. I know that his.
Speaker 3: Attorneys had suggested that that maybe he could have poleted
Speaker 3: a temporary insanity uh plea which which which could very
Speaker 3: well be possible. H Uh. In Donald's testimony, Uh, he
Speaker 3: was very again, very straightforward and very aggressive. Uh. And
Speaker 3: throughout the throughout the trial, Uh, malaternal just kept building
Speaker 3: a monster.
Speaker 1: And and.
Speaker 3: There's another underlying feature to the case. Uh, Michael Bligett's family. Uh.
Speaker 3: His father, if I'm not mistaken, was head of the
Speaker 3: civil defense program. Either in Massachusetts or in in the
Speaker 3: Attleborough area, and his brother was a local policeman. UH.
Speaker 3: And I mentioned that because so many of us as
Speaker 3: the trial was taking place, we felt that Don was
Speaker 3: kind of being rail roaded.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: Going back to the scene of the crime. Uh, it
Speaker 3: was never it was never cordoned off.
Speaker 1: UH.
Speaker 3: There was never anything brought up from the prosecution. UH
Speaker 3: that that they found glass on the on the road
Speaker 3: from where Brogeic had broken had broken the light. UH
Speaker 3: when they had uh asked and testify.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: He said that that at no time did Donald give
Speaker 3: them any warning, whereas Don said on two distinct, two
Speaker 3: distinct moments, he did tell them to stop and go back.
Speaker 3: Asking totally denied that as being true. So it's a
Speaker 3: little bit difficult for me Dan to recreate all those
Speaker 3: moments that I wrote about in the book. I will
Speaker 3: defend myself on that comment by saying, if you read
Speaker 3: the book, you could see that I dotted all my
Speaker 3: eyes and I crossed all my teas encovering it. So
Speaker 3: if you wanted to ask a couple of more specific
Speaker 3: questions related to the trial, probably I can remember. So
Speaker 3: I reacted to it all as it was taking place.
Speaker 4: Well, needless to say, it's interesting too when you were
Speaker 4: faced with Donald taking the stand. But he's not, for
Speaker 4: various reasons, a sympathetic figure. There are statements originally that
Speaker 4: he made where he's asked if he's sorry and he says,
Speaker 4: I'm you know, I'm so. He doesn't have that remorseful,
Speaker 4: empathetic and emphatic, emphatic persona that he can present at trial.
Speaker 4: But also exact wife Sandra, His wife Sandra is really
Speaker 4: of no value because she didn't really witness anything. So
Speaker 4: the testimony that's real valuable is this Robert Aston and
Speaker 4: they're co workers, not necessarily friends as you try to investigate.
Speaker 4: But that testimony was very strong, and the prosecutor's case
Speaker 4: in theory was pretty strong and presented pretty well. At
Speaker 4: this trial Don's defense again, Don is somewhat combative or
Speaker 4: trying controlling with his attorneys David Cooper and Scott Loots,
Speaker 4: but they're failed at basic lease defending the idea that
Speaker 4: it was self defense because Don makes some honest statements, again,
Speaker 4: very honest statements, not very calculating as a criminal. So
Speaker 4: I understand what you're saying. He just said, well, I'm
Speaker 4: not sure if it was intentional or if it was
Speaker 4: an accidental You know, he makes statements like that that
Speaker 4: didn't help him, didn't help him, a trial didn't help
Speaker 4: him before. What is the result like this?
Speaker 3: I agree with I agree with that. I agree with
Speaker 3: that there. I agree with that. I think that it
Speaker 3: would have been wise for uh LUTs and Cooper to
Speaker 3: have brought some character witnesses, UH, people that could make
Speaker 3: statements about Don so that so that the jury would
Speaker 3: get a softer sense of this man's character. Uh that
Speaker 3: that never took place. Uh, there's a number of things
Speaker 3: that I questioned in the book, UH of issues that
Speaker 3: that that uh Don's attorneys did not bring up right,
Speaker 3: So well, I would have to agree with you, mhm.
Speaker 3: Go ahead.
Speaker 4: Now, the idea is that Don has his day, and
Speaker 4: you talk about an interesting national media attention, tell us
Speaker 4: when Dan Rather and CBS twenty twenty comes into the picture,
Speaker 4: and what Don's hopes are with this interview, and then
Speaker 4: tell us what happens in that interview.
Speaker 3: Basically, Well, the event took on some national consequences. It's
Speaker 3: like Don became like the poster boy for road rage,
Speaker 3: not exactly the most enviable position to hold a reputation
Speaker 3: to have. But Dan rather yes, he did a program, sorry,
Speaker 3: the twenty four Hours. I think that was the name
Speaker 3: of the show, and I know I devote a chapter
Speaker 3: to that. But he did a really good job of
Speaker 3: earning Donald's trust in the interviews that he conducted prior
Speaker 3: to the television program, and Don felt that Ratheric could
Speaker 3: possibly be helpful in setting him free as opposed to
Speaker 3: the life of out parole setencing. As it turns out,
Speaker 3: the program was really seted on road rage, not only
Speaker 3: Donald's case, but several other cases at the time time
Speaker 3: during around nineteen ninety four when the incident took place,
Speaker 3: So the program was pretty much designed to encourage people
Speaker 3: to take it easy. We all experience moments of road rage,
Speaker 3: but don't let what happened to Donald Graham happened to you.
Speaker 3: So I wasn't exactly overwhelmed or satisfied with the program,
Speaker 3: And as it turned out, it was not helpful for
Speaker 3: Donald's cause.
Speaker 4: And Donald was was very angry at the portrayal overall disappointed,
Speaker 4: wasn't he.
Speaker 3: Yes he was, yes, he was. Yeah, he did not.
Speaker 3: Let's put it this way, he could have made a
Speaker 3: better witness, But he's this is his style, this is
Speaker 3: his way, and he felt that in no way, shape
Speaker 3: or form should he have been chock judge with first
Speaker 3: degree or life without And from that standpoint, Dan I
Speaker 3: fully agree with him.
Speaker 4: Oh certainly.
Speaker 3: Well, when I think of so many other cases that
Speaker 3: I've uh, that I've read about, or movies that I've seen,
Speaker 3: that some of these that like Hanson manson some of
Speaker 3: these cases, I mean, these people deserve first degree life
Speaker 3: without parole. Donald Graham I think should have been manslaughter
Speaker 3: to manslaughter or manslaughter too, I think would have been
Speaker 3: the correct the correct sentence.
Speaker 4: Well, let's talk about what he does post conviction. You
Speaker 4: get involved ten years after the trial, and so your
Speaker 4: your goal is to help out as much as you can.
Speaker 4: You put a team together of people a reverend Francis
Speaker 4: vic Blank. You put a team of people that have
Speaker 4: different skills and you want to have the same goal.
Speaker 4: Try to do try to get to the issues. You
Speaker 4: find out all the facts, you've got all the information.
Speaker 4: Now you're trying to reinterview people. You're trying to get
Speaker 4: to people to see what they might know that will
Speaker 4: help you build a case. Tell us in what you do,
Speaker 4: who do you have to approach and what is the
Speaker 4: approach in terms of retrial approaching a governor? What is
Speaker 4: it exactly you do right?
Speaker 3: Well, step number one is that we interviewed a couple
Speaker 3: of different lawyers. We came up with a fellow by
Speaker 3: the name of Tom Dickinson who was a prosecutor. As
Speaker 3: a matter of fact, he worked for a number of
Speaker 3: the Rhode Island attorney generals. And after talking with Tom
Speaker 3: on several occasions, we then reported back Vick and I
Speaker 3: reported back uh to Don and suggesting that we thought
Speaker 3: it would be a good idea to hire Tom. Now,
Speaker 3: now what I could tell you in Massachusetts, Uh, you
Speaker 3: get to two opportunities to appeal.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: And by the time we brought Tom Dickinson in, uh,
Speaker 3: Donald had already exercised his second appeal and had been
Speaker 3: turned down. So one of the things that that that
Speaker 3: that Dickenson shared with us, he says, you know, he said,
Speaker 3: because of that, our chances are not very good. Uh
Speaker 3: And and UH we kind of came to the conclusion,
Speaker 3: uh that the only way that his case could be
Speaker 3: brought up again for trial is there would have to
Speaker 3: be what's referred to as new news an E. W.
Speaker 3: A e w any ws something extraordinary related to the
Speaker 3: case that warranted reopening the case and having a new trial.
Speaker 3: And I believe that that Tom did the best he
Speaker 3: could to try to find something to that extent, I
Speaker 3: write thoroughly about the variety of things that Tom.
Speaker 4: Did do.
Speaker 3: To no avail. I might add, but one of the
Speaker 3: other things was to see if we couldn't pursue a
Speaker 3: pardon from the governor or the positive ability of done
Speaker 3: being transferred to Canada. And in my very last conversation
Speaker 3: with Don, he told me that that is still a possibility.
Speaker 3: And I believe that if that were to happen, there's
Speaker 3: a good chance if he become a free man, because
Speaker 3: the maximum sentence for any crime in Canada is fifteen years.
Speaker 3: I hope that helps.
Speaker 4: Sure. The thing is very interesting too, is all through this,
Speaker 4: you know, you do include the incarceration of your friend,
Speaker 4: you know, a deacon, Yes, now in prison with killers.
Speaker 4: This person that has to make his way. Sandra has
Speaker 4: to divorce him because of civil suit actions. So that's understanding.
Speaker 4: So he says alcoholism, you know, his marriage survived or
Speaker 4: alcohol his merriage of I have the alcoholism, but his
Speaker 4: you know, but his uh, but his pardon me, his
Speaker 4: marriage survived the alcoholism, but they ended up divorced anyway
Speaker 4: out of this.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yeah. If not now with this, sand would
Speaker 3: have lost her home because because the Prodge of Family
Speaker 3: brought brought a suit against against Donald, a civil suit.
Speaker 4: Just now with this is with this Don's Don's personality
Speaker 4: prevails with this as well, and he knows this case
Speaker 4: better than anyone, he believes, and so through you and
Speaker 4: through Vic he is talking talking to Dickinson and any
Speaker 4: attorney after this as well, because there are more attorneys
Speaker 4: after this, and that he thinks that there's two key issues,
Speaker 4: two key issues, and he thinks the most important issue
Speaker 4: is that the misconduct by Judge McHugh denying his constitutional
Speaker 4: right to an open public trial in that they did
Speaker 4: close chambers in the first day of this trial. So
Speaker 4: Tom Dickison would disagree with that. With that in terms
Speaker 4: of the best idea to move forward or the best
Speaker 4: motion to move forward with and have the best success with,
Speaker 4: potentially he thought that it would be better to look
Speaker 4: at this in terms of ineffective counsel. But Tom was
Speaker 4: very adamant about that. Now, regardless of what Don wanted.
Speaker 4: They did try to do this the way Tom Dickinson tried,
Speaker 4: had had envisioned, and like you say, it didn't work out,
Speaker 4: did it?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: Correct, You've done your homework very well. Damn, because I'm
Speaker 3: really happy that you brought up the fact about ineffective counsel.
Speaker 3: Interestingly enough, there are two other lawyers that I had
Speaker 3: thoroughly discussed the case with and they also felt that
Speaker 3: that would have been the better move of any possible
Speaker 3: move to see if he could have gotten a retrial.
Speaker 3: Never came to be. Never came to be.
Speaker 4: It's fascinating in the book to you take the reader
Speaker 4: through the journey of the close calls, the twists and turns,
Speaker 4: the doors that have to be basically broken down. But
Speaker 4: then there is so much hope and optimism, even from
Speaker 4: people that are veterans in the legal community like Dickinson,
Speaker 4: to say, you know, I think we can do this.
Speaker 4: There's long there's odds, but I still think essentially, But unfortunately,
Speaker 4: there is no happy ending in this. Do you say
Speaker 4: that even the Canadian angle, that he would be able
Speaker 4: to be transferred to a Canadian risen That's not as
Speaker 4: easy as it sounds, is it exactly.
Speaker 3: No, you're exactly right about that. And as far as
Speaker 3: maybe getting a different council at the time or ten
Speaker 3: years later when I started writing my book, you gotta
Speaker 3: pay a lot of money for these big time lawyers,
Speaker 3: big big books, and that wasn't exactly Donald's situation. So
Speaker 3: unless he could find a top notch lawyer that was
Speaker 3: gained to participate pro bodo, he wasn't going to get
Speaker 3: one of the country's top lawyers to defend him. And
Speaker 3: I think that you struck on a good point there
Speaker 3: because possibly if he did have that type of a lawyer,
Speaker 3: he'd be a freeman today.
Speaker 4: So the thing is is it's hard to unwind convictions.
Speaker 4: It's much harder. Unfortunately, it's easy to say you should
Speaker 4: have done this. He should have been a better witness,
Speaker 4: Sandra could have been more prepared the defense if it
Speaker 4: was ineffective. Ineffective, but who knows how limited they were
Speaker 4: in terms of experience, in terms of the judge's assistance
Speaker 4: as well. Again, you know Don talks about Tom Dickinson. First,
Speaker 4: I thought it was just typical revenge at the judge
Speaker 4: that sentenced me, but he did have a different vision
Speaker 4: or version of events. Once he saw a report from
Speaker 4: your friend the or associate, the school ron report which
Speaker 4: outlined everything earlier on. Yes, yes, very very interesting. How
Speaker 4: important that was report that report was.
Speaker 3: Through all of this, John Scarren did an amazing job
Speaker 3: at detailing all of the all of the flaws and
Speaker 3: the errors related to the trial.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: And and you're right. Because of that, I was encouraged.
Speaker 3: I had a lot of drive and a lot of
Speaker 3: impetus uh and thinking that that we're going to win
Speaker 3: this thing. Uh. And you know most people when they're reading,
Speaker 3: when they're reading a book, dan, uh, they prefer that
Speaker 3: it be a comedic ending, a comedy as opposed to
Speaker 3: a tragic ending. And I thought about that that is,
Speaker 3: as far as this book being extremely attractive to the public, well,
Speaker 3: maybe it won't be because it is this difficult ending.
Speaker 3: And then I received an email from a lady from
Speaker 3: the Netherlands that had read the book, and she said
Speaker 3: something in her email to me that really struck home
Speaker 3: to me and was a bit comforting to me.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: And she says, your book is a book of conscience.
Speaker 3: And I never even thought of it that way as
Speaker 3: I was writing the book, or even after, until I
Speaker 3: heard that comment, and I think she's right, because I
Speaker 3: think as you read the book, you can't help but
Speaker 3: put yourself in the shoes of the of the players, obviously,
Speaker 3: the two major players being Michael Blodgett, and and and
Speaker 3: uh and Donald Graham. Uh. There's one o the things
Speaker 3: that's that's really very unusual here is that. Uh. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm not happy with what Donald did. I wish she
Speaker 3: just kept driving and and and had he had a
Speaker 3: cell phone back in nineteen, I mean ninety four, he
Speaker 3: could have called the police and says, hey, there's a
Speaker 3: nut bag out on the road. You probably want to
Speaker 3: get out here if you can, as quickly as possible,
Speaker 3: as quickly as possible to see it. But it wasn't
Speaker 3: meant to be. And here we are with a book
Speaker 3: of conscience, with what I think is an absolutely fascinating
Speaker 3: story and one I'm going to have a very very
Speaker 3: difficult time ever forget it. You know, it's gonna haunt
Speaker 3: me for the rest of my life.
Speaker 4: It's interesting too, in the discovery as you lead the
Speaker 4: reader through this, because obviously now we know what this
Speaker 4: outcome is, but along the way you have this optimism
Speaker 4: that this book will make a difference that this team
Speaker 4: will make a difference. That these lawyers attorneys that you
Speaker 4: had to it was hard to find that these people.
Speaker 4: Once you can vincedent and you hounded these people. You
Speaker 4: Don was was adamant, and you were, I think even more,
Speaker 4: and Vic Blank and Reverend Francis. It's a it's an
Speaker 4: interesting team, all with the same goal. Very honorable, very
Speaker 4: honorable goal. But there's so many close calls. There's so
Speaker 4: many you tried to contact Robert Aston, you thought there
Speaker 4: has to be some other maybe just possibly. So there's
Speaker 4: so many things that you keep the reader on the
Speaker 4: edge of their seat thinking that yes, he's close, that
Speaker 4: this makes sense, that this man certainly made a mistake
Speaker 4: but doesn't deserve life without parole, and certainly there has
Speaker 4: to be one valid way after all this time, that
Speaker 4: this can happen, and yet not. But it was incredible journey,
Speaker 4: very honorable, honorable ambition.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 4: I want to thank you very much David G. Brown
Speaker 4: for coming on and talking about Deacon's Crossbow, the true
Speaker 4: story of a crossbow killing on Interstate ninety five. Is
Speaker 4: there a website or a Facebook page for Deacon's Crossbow?
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, there is before I give you that, Dave Zupansky,
Speaker 3: I want to thank you for having me. I possibly
Speaker 3: could have been possibly could have been a little bit better,
Speaker 3: a better interview if we're a little bit closer to
Speaker 3: the time, and I think I hope you can understand
Speaker 3: that it's difficult to remember all of the details, but
Speaker 3: trust me, they are in the book. The book can
Speaker 3: easily be purchased on Amazon just by going to Amazon.
Speaker 3: I've also got I've also got a website. It's Brave
Speaker 3: Down Books b R a v E. Do own books
Speaker 3: dot com. That's all one word, and if folks so desire,
Speaker 3: you can go to that website. You can read an
Speaker 3: excerpt and you can also read an excerpt from the
Speaker 3: more recent book that I just wrote called Shadowing Dizzy Gillespie.
Speaker 3: And on Facebook there's a Deacons Crossbow page. We've got
Speaker 3: a couple of hundred folks that follow it. I'd be
Speaker 3: delighted for people to check it out, get on board periodically.
Speaker 3: I put some information in there. It's amazing Dan to
Speaker 3: think that this event happens twenty five years ago. So
Speaker 3: you know, is there a chance that you can get out? Sure,
Speaker 3: there's a chance that he can get out whether the
Speaker 3: odds are in his favor, well, maybe they're not. But
Speaker 3: it is what it is, and for me it will
Speaker 3: always be an amazing, haunting experience. And I hope that
Speaker 3: people feel that I did a good job of writing
Speaker 3: the book.
Speaker 4: Absolutely. I want to thank you very much. You've been
Speaker 4: a great friend to Don and you wrote an exemplary
Speaker 4: book here. Thank you very much about Deacon's Crossbow, the
Speaker 4: true story of a crossbow killing on Interstate ninety five.
Speaker 4: Thank you very much, David G. Brown, have a great night.
Speaker 4: Good night.
Speaker 3: Thank you to you two. Good night, good night.