WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.639 --> 00:00:11.039 You are now listening to True Murder, The most shocking 2 00:00:11.160 --> 00:00:14.160 killers in true crime history and the authors that have 3 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:21.519 written about them. Gaesy, Bundy, Dahmer, The Nightstalker VTK. Every 4 00:00:21.559 --> 00:00:25.280 week another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and 5 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:29.559 infamous killers in true crime history. True Murder with your 6 00:00:29.559 --> 00:00:40.079 host journalist and author Dan Zufanski, Good Evening. 7 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:47.560 In September nineteen forty three, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, prominent citizen 8 00:00:47.759 --> 00:00:51.679 and attorney John Knoxon Junior was arrested for the murder 9 00:00:51.799 --> 00:00:57.560 of a six month old down syndrome baby Lawrence. Baby Lawrence, 10 00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:05.000 according to Knoxon, was axe evidently electrocuted. Authorities initially accepted 11 00:01:05.079 --> 00:01:09.599 Noxon's account, but grew suspicious when they discovered he had 12 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:15.840 burned evidence before police could examine it. District Attorney Charles 13 00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:20.120 Alberty and police Chief Sullivan brought a small army of 14 00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:23.840 scientists and medical experts to court to try to prove 15 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:28.519 the death was a premeditated murder, with the sentence for 16 00:01:28.680 --> 00:01:35.200 first degree murder being death by electric chair. The case 17 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:40.519 drew in newspaper readers from across America, and Lawrence's death 18 00:01:40.799 --> 00:01:45.239 was often characterized as a mercy killing at a time 19 00:01:45.359 --> 00:01:51.319 when euthanasia societies were publicly advocating for the selection out 20 00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:57.680 of mental defectives from American society. Despite the efforts of 21 00:01:57.719 --> 00:02:02.439 his talented defense team at the sena Sational trial, John 22 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:09.800 Knoxon Jr. Was sentenced to death. Afterwards, his dedicated attorneys 23 00:02:09.879 --> 00:02:14.759 continued fighting for a new trial, then a commutation of 24 00:02:14.840 --> 00:02:20.800 his sentence. The Electrocution of Baby Lawrence is also a 25 00:02:20.840 --> 00:02:25.439 story of how society once considered those born with Down 26 00:02:25.479 --> 00:02:30.800 syndrome and how John Knoxon Junior managed to get off 27 00:02:30.840 --> 00:02:36.479 death row and gain his freedom. The book that we're 28 00:02:36.479 --> 00:02:41.439 featuring this evening is The Electrocution of Baby Lawrence, a 29 00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:46.159 murder that shook a New England town, with my special guest, 30 00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:54.280 former courthouse reporter, writer and author James E. Overmyer. Welcome 31 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:56.879 to the program, and thank you very much for this interview. 32 00:02:57.560 --> 00:02:59.039 James E. Overmeyer. 33 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:02.919 It's a pleasure to be here. Dan, I'm very happy 34 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:04.159 to be on your show. 35 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:07.800 Thank you so much, and congratulations on this book, The 36 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:13.879 Electrocution of Baby Lawrence. Let's talk about the main characters introduced. 37 00:03:13.879 --> 00:03:17.159 The main characters in this story, and let's start with 38 00:03:17.319 --> 00:03:22.360 John Knoxon Junior, and a little bit about where this 39 00:03:22.479 --> 00:03:28.120 story emanates from, which is Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Can you tell 40 00:03:28.199 --> 00:03:32.159 us a little about the location of Pittsfield and its 41 00:03:32.280 --> 00:03:37.639 character and tell us about John Knoxon's background, Junior's background. 42 00:03:38.919 --> 00:03:43.240 Pittsfield is in the far west of Massachusetts, almost in 43 00:03:43.319 --> 00:03:45.919 New York State. It's about ten miles from the New 44 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:50.360 York state line, and at that time, before interstate highways, 45 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:55.120 it was kind of geographically isolated. It had so it 46 00:03:55.199 --> 00:04:00.719 had a lot of its own structure. It wasn't near Albany, 47 00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:05.479 New York or Springfield, mass and so it had its 48 00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:11.479 own infrastructure and social structure. In that social structure, John 49 00:04:11.560 --> 00:04:20.160 Knoxon Jr. Was one of the leading personalities of the city. 50 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:23.600 He was a corporate lawyer. He worked a lot for 51 00:04:23.639 --> 00:04:27.319 the General Electric Company. They had a major plant that 52 00:04:27.399 --> 00:04:32.040 employed twelve thousand people, the major driver of industry and 53 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:38.519 income in Pittsfield. His father had been a successful corporate lawyer. 54 00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:43.120 John was his associate till his father was crippled in 55 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:47.759 a terrible accident in nineteen twenty six. John took over 56 00:04:47.800 --> 00:04:52.639 the practice with a partner, and he was he sort 57 00:04:52.639 --> 00:04:58.160 of inherited his father and mother's connection, social connections and 58 00:04:58.199 --> 00:05:02.319 social prominence. Except it turned out that John Junior wasn't 59 00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:06.519 a very nice guy, right. He was known as a 60 00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:10.399 bully as a kid and sort of looked down on 61 00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:14.639 people as an adult and pushed them around if he could. 62 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:19.680 But he also had another aspect. He had been crippled 63 00:05:19.720 --> 00:05:23.800 with polio in his early twenties and one leg was 64 00:05:23.839 --> 00:05:27.040 completely stiffly encased in a brace and he walked with 65 00:05:27.120 --> 00:05:31.959 two canes. So and his father they took he and 66 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:34.279 his wife, Margaret, took care of his father for ten 67 00:05:34.399 --> 00:05:38.040 years because his father was an invalid after his accident 68 00:05:38.079 --> 00:05:42.519 which cost him both his legs. So there were aspects 69 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:46.120 to Oxen. He had a lot of woe in his 70 00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:51.120 family and literally and then, but he was also a 71 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:54.600 kind of guy who pushed people around and didn't seem 72 00:05:54.600 --> 00:05:58.920 to have a lot of regard for personal attachments. His 73 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:03.319 wife had the responsibility for taking care of that. And 74 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:08.399 then Lawrence comes along, born in nineteen forty three, sort 75 00:06:08.439 --> 00:06:13.279 of an unresponsive maybe. They have him examined by his 76 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:18.399 local pediatrician and by specialists in Boston, and the verdict 77 00:06:18.639 --> 00:06:22.319 is that Lawrence has what now we call down syndrome. 78 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:28.519 Term hadn't been invented yet, so everybody, including the medical specialists, 79 00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:33.160 referred to him as a mongoloid or a mongoloid idiot. 80 00:06:33.319 --> 00:06:38.319 There's a lot in this story about how retarded children 81 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:43.399 were looked down upon in that day. In addition to 82 00:06:43.439 --> 00:06:45.199 everything else going on here. 83 00:06:46.279 --> 00:06:50.160 You also talk about at the time that euthanasia was 84 00:06:50.240 --> 00:06:55.319 being discussed. Tell us about what this euthanasia, what people 85 00:06:55.319 --> 00:06:58.879 were included in this, and just tell us a little 86 00:06:58.879 --> 00:07:02.680 bit about the public opinion at that time. 87 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:07.959 The Youth in Asia Drive started, I guess you'd say, 88 00:07:08.079 --> 00:07:12.920 I guess it became publicly popular in the twenties, and 89 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:16.639 it was first aimed at what we would now call 90 00:07:16.759 --> 00:07:20.920 assisted suicide, people who were who had terminal cancer or 91 00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:25.199 other terminal painful diseases. But wouldn't it be a good 92 00:07:25.240 --> 00:07:28.879 idea if they could choose in their life? Of course, 93 00:07:29.639 --> 00:07:34.879 then there was absolutely no state or federal laws allowing 94 00:07:34.920 --> 00:07:39.639 that at all, But so that was how the drive started. 95 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:44.600 But then it expanded, and wouldn't it be a good idea? 96 00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:50.720 I mean, the chief proponent of this in New York State, 97 00:07:51.199 --> 00:07:55.439 Reverend Charles Potter, went farther, he said, you know, the 98 00:07:55.439 --> 00:07:58.160 state of New York spends thirty million dollars a year 99 00:07:58.839 --> 00:08:04.199 housing and support mental defectives. Maybe they should be euthanized too. 100 00:08:04.439 --> 00:08:07.720 Of course, now we're getting right into the Lawrence knoxon territory, 101 00:08:08.800 --> 00:08:14.920 so it's very controversial. Doctors and other churches, particularly the 102 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:19.600 Catholic Church all the way up to Rome, are opposed 103 00:08:19.639 --> 00:08:23.680 to this. It's interesting. The Gallup Pole took a poll 104 00:08:23.720 --> 00:08:28.240 twice in the thirties and the question was do you 105 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:35.000 agree with euthanasia if it's monitored or administered by the state, 106 00:08:36.080 --> 00:08:39.399 And the majority of people did not agree, but it 107 00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:42.000 wasn't It was like in the mid fifty percent. So 108 00:08:42.039 --> 00:08:44.720 in the mid forty percent of the respondents of the 109 00:08:44.759 --> 00:08:48.440 Gallup Pole people said yeah, that would be all right. 110 00:08:49.759 --> 00:08:54.720 With that attitude prevalent in the public, tell us what 111 00:08:54.879 --> 00:08:58.519 this doctor Smith from Boston recommended when he spoke to 112 00:08:59.399 --> 00:09:03.000 John Knox and then his wife Margaret about Lawrence. 113 00:09:03.399 --> 00:09:10.320 Richard Smith, the specialist in Boston confirm the local pediatrician, 114 00:09:10.399 --> 00:09:16.519 doctor Hunt's diagnosis and said, well, you can do three things. 115 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:19.159 You can keep the child at home. We really don't 116 00:09:19.240 --> 00:09:22.440 recommend that, and there were That was really the recommendation 117 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:25.840 of all medical specialists at that point with Down syndrome 118 00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:29.720 children is just going to wreck your life, wreck your 119 00:09:29.799 --> 00:09:35.639 family life. Or you could institutionalize the kid. The institution 120 00:09:35.799 --> 00:09:41.039 in Massachusetts, a Belchertown State School, was pretty much a warehouse, 121 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:45.480 and even at that time and for somebody of the 122 00:09:45.559 --> 00:09:50.879 Noxons level, it certainly was inacceptable. Or you could find 123 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:54.679 a home, and there were people, you know, foster parents, basically, 124 00:09:54.879 --> 00:09:58.240 people ran group homes who would take these children in. 125 00:09:58.279 --> 00:10:01.440 And I can recommend at least one to you right 126 00:10:01.480 --> 00:10:04.240 now off the top of my head. And this is 127 00:10:04.240 --> 00:10:07.279 in August of nineteen forty three, late August. And then 128 00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:10.840 Knox said, we'll think about it, and they bundled up 129 00:10:10.879 --> 00:10:15.080 Lawrence from Boston and drove back down to Pittsfield. And 130 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:19.320 less than a month later, Lawrence is electrocuted in what 131 00:10:19.559 --> 00:10:22.000 was or was not a household accident. 132 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:26.919 It's interesting you also include that this doctor Smith also 133 00:10:27.279 --> 00:10:30.360 said that they had another child, John Knox, in the 134 00:10:30.399 --> 00:10:35.559 third and they said that this young child psychologically couldn't 135 00:10:35.639 --> 00:10:41.519 handle the disabled baby there and had some idea that 136 00:10:41.559 --> 00:10:45.600 there would be trouble, no doubt with the disabled child 137 00:10:45.720 --> 00:10:47.440 and the normal child. 138 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:50.159 Yes, that was one of the It was one of 139 00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:55.200 doctor Smith's opinions. He was right in line with a 140 00:10:55.320 --> 00:10:58.639 director of the Mayo Clinic gave a speech, I don't know, 141 00:10:58.759 --> 00:11:02.080 late late forties, not too far after that, to a 142 00:11:02.200 --> 00:11:06.159 national convention. He said, a down syndrome maybe is born. 143 00:11:06.200 --> 00:11:08.840 It's even best if you can do it to take 144 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:12.559 the child away from the mother, tell him, tell her something, 145 00:11:13.240 --> 00:11:17.240 keep her at bay. The child needs extra care while 146 00:11:17.320 --> 00:11:22.000 the family and the doctors and everyone else scurries around 147 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:24.919 and finds a placement for the kid, so she'll never 148 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:28.080 see the child again. I mean, the whole idea was 149 00:11:28.120 --> 00:11:32.320 these children should be separated as soon as possible from 150 00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:35.399 the family. It's just going to call it to cause divorce. 151 00:11:35.519 --> 00:11:39.519 It's going to cause psychological problems for the other children, 152 00:11:39.559 --> 00:11:42.720 if there are any. I mean, it's just one hundred 153 00:11:42.720 --> 00:11:47.200 and eighty degree spin from the way society sees it today. 154 00:11:49.039 --> 00:11:54.159 Let's get to this fateful evening in September and the 155 00:11:54.200 --> 00:11:59.919 call from John Knox and Junior to a doctor George Hunt, 156 00:11:59.720 --> 00:12:01.399 the child's pediatrician. 157 00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:06.000 As George Hunt had been a pediatrician at that point 158 00:12:06.039 --> 00:12:11.679 for almost thirty years in Pittsfield and he gets a call. Well, 159 00:12:12.240 --> 00:12:14.919 Noxon has to call around and track him down. It's late, 160 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:18.720 it's about five point thirty in the afternoon. He said, 161 00:12:18.919 --> 00:12:21.639 come out to the house right away. Something has happened 162 00:12:21.720 --> 00:12:25.559 to Lawrence. And apparently that's what he said, and Hunt, 163 00:12:25.840 --> 00:12:29.519 in all of the further proceedings never made it more specific. 164 00:12:30.279 --> 00:12:32.519 So Hunt drives out there and Lawrence is on the 165 00:12:32.559 --> 00:12:36.120 floor of the house, the library of the house. This 166 00:12:36.200 --> 00:12:38.440 is a pretty well, the Oxen's had a lot of money. 167 00:12:38.440 --> 00:12:41.399 This was a pretty big and nice house. They called 168 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:43.799 it the bookroom. Lawrence is on the floor and he 169 00:12:43.960 --> 00:12:50.679 is clearly dead. And Hunt calls the medical examiner, who 170 00:12:50.759 --> 00:12:54.639 is sort of like the coroner in Massachusetts. They're pointed 171 00:12:54.639 --> 00:12:58.759 by the governor. They're not elected. There have to be mds. 172 00:12:58.879 --> 00:13:06.159 And Albert England foreigner comes out and confirms this and 173 00:13:06.519 --> 00:13:10.519 what happened, Well, I was working on a radio and 174 00:13:10.639 --> 00:13:13.000 by radios is nineteen forty three to radio is about 175 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:15.399 half as big as as a Volkswagen Beetle, you know, 176 00:13:16.159 --> 00:13:22.399 with tubes inside. And Lawrence got electrocuted. Well, Hunt and England, 177 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:28.480 this is a leading citizen of the city, kind of 178 00:13:28.519 --> 00:13:32.759 pushy too, and so they take his word for it 179 00:13:33.159 --> 00:13:35.200 and they leave. They call a funeral home, they leave, 180 00:13:35.279 --> 00:13:37.759 Some of them from the Wellington funeral Home comes around, 181 00:13:38.480 --> 00:13:41.799 collects the Lawrence's body and away they go. The police 182 00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:47.679 aren't called and for a few hours overnight that's it. 183 00:13:49.440 --> 00:13:53.759 What does John Noxon do? Later he explains why, But 184 00:13:53.840 --> 00:13:58.360 what does he do? Soon after Doctor England and doctor 185 00:13:58.440 --> 00:13:59.080 Hunt leave. 186 00:14:00.759 --> 00:14:04.320 There's an extension cord involved, which connected to a trouble light, 187 00:14:04.399 --> 00:14:06.840 which is a caged light bulb that usually used to 188 00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:11.159 work on cars, but Noxon had it out to peer 189 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:15.120 into the back of the radio. The trouble cord, according 190 00:14:15.159 --> 00:14:20.840 to Oxen, was the source of the electrocution. And after 191 00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:25.200 they leave, after the child is collected up by Wellington 192 00:14:25.240 --> 00:14:28.600 funeral home attendant, he throws the cord and the baby's 193 00:14:28.639 --> 00:14:32.679 clothes in the house's incinerator in the basement and burns them, 194 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:36.639 so the cord is basically reduced to a couple of 195 00:14:36.679 --> 00:14:40.399 strands of burned up of black copper wire with no 196 00:14:40.600 --> 00:14:44.440 evidentiary value at all. 197 00:14:44.679 --> 00:14:49.159 Now tell us about this, Chief Sullivan and Inspector McColgan 198 00:14:49.559 --> 00:14:51.399 and Captain Marcel. 199 00:14:52.279 --> 00:14:55.960 Doctor England, the medical examiner. Apparently. I don't know if 200 00:14:55.960 --> 00:14:58.120 he had a sleepless night, or at least he had 201 00:14:58.159 --> 00:15:01.279 second thoughts in the more. He drives back out to 202 00:15:01.320 --> 00:15:04.399 the house and says, you know, I'd like to take 203 00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:08.279 another look at that cord, which he didn't take with 204 00:15:08.399 --> 00:15:10.600 him the night before. You thought he might have, but 205 00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:14.759 he'd written his case off as an accidental deaths probably immersed. 206 00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:18.399 He said that before. It's kind of a good thing 207 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:25.039 this happened because down syndrome mongoloid kids had no future anyway. Wow, 208 00:15:25.799 --> 00:15:29.159 And well he didn't say that, but that's the he got. 209 00:15:29.159 --> 00:15:31.440 He said the first part, it's a good thing this happened, 210 00:15:31.480 --> 00:15:33.279 and that's why it was. He thought it was a 211 00:15:33.279 --> 00:15:36.240 good thing this happened. He goes back out, I'd like 212 00:15:36.320 --> 00:15:38.720 to take a look at that cord. Well, you know, 213 00:15:38.960 --> 00:15:42.360 I didn't want around the house disturbing Margaret and the 214 00:15:42.440 --> 00:15:44.799 baby's clothes, which had a little blood on him from 215 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:48.200 leading from the nose. And John is away, John the 216 00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:50.399 third is away at prep school, but he's going to 217 00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:53.279 come home, and he's a very he's a real tinkerer 218 00:15:53.399 --> 00:15:56.240 and experimenter, and I didn't want him near this cord. 219 00:15:56.320 --> 00:16:01.080 So he burned it. England, turns around, drive downtown, findes 220 00:16:01.159 --> 00:16:07.159 Chief Chief Sullivan tells him the story. Sullivan is disturbed, 221 00:16:07.720 --> 00:16:13.080 and he's disturbed at first primarily because a potential someone 222 00:16:13.159 --> 00:16:15.799 died in his city and he didn't know that, his 223 00:16:15.879 --> 00:16:20.440 police didn't know about it. I think his institutional pride 224 00:16:20.519 --> 00:16:24.240 is quite affected here. So he collects his two main men, 225 00:16:24.360 --> 00:16:28.960 Camille Marcel, who was a captain, who's really he doesn't 226 00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:32.679 have this role, he's really a deputy police chief, and 227 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:36.600 Daniel McColgan, Inspector McColgan, who's the head of the detective bureau, 228 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:40.679 and they drive out to the Oxen house and Sullivan 229 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:46.279 is a combination of sympathetic, I'm sorry this happened, though 230 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:50.039 I wish you'd called this, and a little because he's 231 00:16:50.279 --> 00:16:53.360 top and there's the death and he's a little suspicious. 232 00:16:54.159 --> 00:16:56.679 But they talk about it and Oxen tells him the story, 233 00:16:56.720 --> 00:17:00.679 and that's pretty much in and they're done. By late morning. 234 00:17:02.080 --> 00:17:05.599 Stullivan and mccaugun and car Marcel arrived down to the 235 00:17:05.599 --> 00:17:09.880 funeral home. State pathologists has been called, but naturally, the 236 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:11.839 Berkshire's being out in the moon means he's got to 237 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:14.079 drive out from Boston, and it takes a little while. 238 00:17:15.799 --> 00:17:19.200 So he looks at the body and the body has 239 00:17:19.640 --> 00:17:21.680 some burns on it, as you might expect, it has 240 00:17:21.720 --> 00:17:26.720 a particularly deep burn on the left forearm, and knox 241 00:17:26.839 --> 00:17:30.200 In maintained all along. It's the trouble court caused it. 242 00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:34.160 The trouble court, as Hunt and the two doctors Hunt 243 00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:38.839 in England observed, it only had a couple of brakes 244 00:17:38.839 --> 00:17:41.960 in it. The biggest one was about three quarters of 245 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:43.759 an inch long. And here you have a burn that's 246 00:17:44.480 --> 00:17:47.200 two inches by in one direction and an inch and 247 00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:49.480 in three quarters in the other on a baby's arm. 248 00:17:49.559 --> 00:17:52.680 That's a lot of burn. And they turn around and 249 00:17:52.720 --> 00:17:55.720 they go back out to the house and Stullivan's attitude 250 00:17:55.759 --> 00:18:00.119 has completely changed. He now has in his mind a 251 00:18:00.160 --> 00:18:04.559 homicide case and he's gonna, with his assistance of his 252 00:18:04.680 --> 00:18:06.680 two aides, is going to get to the bottom of it. 253 00:18:06.920 --> 00:18:12.960 And the tough questioning starts. It gets pretty far that day, 254 00:18:13.039 --> 00:18:15.799 that's the twenty third, that's a Friday. On the twenty fourth, 255 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:21.119 Noxen and Missus Knoxon are summoned to the police station 256 00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:26.519 where John L. Sullivan, who never had a fistfight with anybody, 257 00:18:26.559 --> 00:18:30.119 but he kind of policed, like the priest fighter fors 258 00:18:30.119 --> 00:18:35.480 his fights and an assistant district attorney almore code sit 259 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:38.400 down for a long interview with an actions. 260 00:18:40.359 --> 00:18:42.480 Let's use this as an opportunity to stop to hear 261 00:18:42.519 --> 00:18:47.759 these messages. Now, let's get to this official story on 262 00:18:47.960 --> 00:18:53.640 how this most unlikely thing could have happened, and also 263 00:18:53.680 --> 00:19:00.640 that Margaret wasn't really, ever, really seriously questioned. However, John k. 264 00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:05.640 Noxon has his official story on about how the child 265 00:19:05.960 --> 00:19:10.799 was electrocuted? What do Sullivan and McColgan, what do they 266 00:19:10.839 --> 00:19:16.000 hear is the official story. 267 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:16.839 He tells them. They start to question him, and he 268 00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:21.279 sort of takes over. I mean, this is classic John Knoxon, 269 00:19:21.480 --> 00:19:26.960 a trial lawyer who's also an aggressive, domineering guy, and 270 00:19:27.039 --> 00:19:30.720 Kote lets him the assistant DA. The DA is out 271 00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:33.519 of town trying a case in another city, so codey 272 00:19:33.559 --> 00:19:36.039 is in charge in Pittsfield and he lets him, which 273 00:19:36.119 --> 00:19:40.519 isn't necessarily a bad thing in this case, because Noxon 274 00:19:40.880 --> 00:19:44.880 says a few things that sort of trip them up. Later, 275 00:19:45.559 --> 00:19:47.680 he was going to fix the radio. We hadn't been 276 00:19:47.720 --> 00:19:50.799 working right. He pulls it out away from the wall. 277 00:19:50.920 --> 00:19:54.680 He gets this extension chord and the trouble light, and 278 00:19:54.720 --> 00:19:57.640 the whole thing becomes known as the trouble cord. In 279 00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:00.240 the enduring it has its own it gets it's its 280 00:20:00.279 --> 00:20:04.039 own terminology. It's called the trouble Cord throughout the rest 281 00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:07.119 of the trial in the case, So he lays all 282 00:20:07.160 --> 00:20:10.279 this out and Margaret says, I want to go out 283 00:20:10.759 --> 00:20:12.839 in the garden at a victory garden. This is World 284 00:20:12.880 --> 00:20:16.440 War two. Pick some corn for dinner. Would you look 285 00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:18.960 after the baby? And she puts them on a big 286 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:23.839 chair with big arms, a wing chair. Says okay, fine, 287 00:20:23.960 --> 00:20:28.200 So he starts to work on the radio. He realizes 288 00:20:28.319 --> 00:20:30.880 he needs to pop over to the garage. You attach garage, 289 00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:33.680 you get a couple of tools, and he doesn't want 290 00:20:33.680 --> 00:20:35.799 the baby on the chair, so he wants to put 291 00:20:35.839 --> 00:20:37.680 him on the floor. Well, the baby's got a wet 292 00:20:37.720 --> 00:20:42.000 diaper and the floor has a sort of American knockof 293 00:20:42.039 --> 00:20:45.480 oriental carpet on it. So he goes to the pantry 294 00:20:45.519 --> 00:20:48.000 and he gets a metal tray. He puts the baby 295 00:20:48.039 --> 00:20:50.759 on the tray so the diaper won't soil the rug, 296 00:20:51.200 --> 00:20:52.960 and he goes out to the garage and he says, 297 00:20:53.000 --> 00:20:56.880 I was gone for about three or four minutes comes 298 00:20:56.920 --> 00:21:01.960 back in. Lawrence has gotten himself entangled in the antenna 299 00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:05.559 antenna wire which runs up to the roof ordinarily excepted. 300 00:21:05.640 --> 00:21:09.680 She's been detached from the radio and the trouble cord 301 00:21:09.839 --> 00:21:14.519 and he's touched the bare spots and he's electrocuted himself. 302 00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:20.640 And I pulled the cord off and he's not responsive. 303 00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:23.160 So I go to the phone and I'm making calls 304 00:21:23.160 --> 00:21:25.680 to the hospital and doctor England's home, and I finally 305 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:28.480 track him down and he comes out to the house. 306 00:21:29.880 --> 00:21:35.799 That's his story. Margaret says that she had basically confirmed this. 307 00:21:36.039 --> 00:21:38.599 She had brought the she wanted to. She went out 308 00:21:38.680 --> 00:21:40.920 to the outside the house to the garden. She brought 309 00:21:40.920 --> 00:21:46.079 the baby into John and she got the baby's food 310 00:21:46.119 --> 00:21:48.759 ready and took them upstairs, and the baby wasn't there. 311 00:21:48.839 --> 00:21:52.519 And she came down and there's this whole scene in 312 00:21:52.599 --> 00:21:58.079 the bookroom and she collapses on the sofa. She did 313 00:21:58.079 --> 00:22:01.359 not she said she was not there when it happened. 314 00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:05.440 I think she probably wasn't. But the question was the 315 00:22:05.519 --> 00:22:09.039 question that kept arising was well, where was she and 316 00:22:09.079 --> 00:22:12.680 what did she know? And no one ever asked her 317 00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:17.880 that it's funny because I mean under Massachusetts law and 318 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:21.279 I think probably all other jurisdictions, a spouse can't be 319 00:22:21.359 --> 00:22:26.279 forced to testify against his or her spouse. But of 320 00:22:26.319 --> 00:22:29.960 course you can ask them questions before that, and they 321 00:22:29.960 --> 00:22:32.200 can refuse to answer them, or they could say something. 322 00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:35.920 It might be no one everybody left her alone, and 323 00:22:35.960 --> 00:22:38.359 it's kind of funny. It's of course, this is a 324 00:22:38.559 --> 00:22:45.480 very genteel level of Fitsfield society, which wasn't very violent 325 00:22:45.720 --> 00:22:49.799 or disrupted to begin with. It's a small city. She 326 00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:57.400 was never seriously questioned. She didn't testify in her husband's behalf. 327 00:22:57.759 --> 00:23:00.240 She had she could even cross examined by the eight 328 00:23:01.680 --> 00:23:05.880 and that never happened. She's just separated from the case, 329 00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:09.880 and whether and what she might have known or suspected 330 00:23:10.160 --> 00:23:15.039 is lost the history. I will say that throughout the 331 00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:17.920 trial and all the things that happened after the trial, 332 00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:21.799 she never wavered. She stood by her husband's side, she 333 00:23:21.960 --> 00:23:26.279 supported him, she did everything she could to get him 334 00:23:26.319 --> 00:23:30.240 out of prison. Afterwards, her story is a bit mysterious 335 00:23:30.279 --> 00:23:30.880 in my mind. 336 00:23:32.160 --> 00:23:37.319 Let's get back to Chief Sullivan and this aggressive questioning 337 00:23:38.039 --> 00:23:43.839 of this pretty experienced defendant. Sullivan had two main questions 338 00:23:44.079 --> 00:23:47.440 for NOx On, why did he think it was sufficient 339 00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:52.599 to only call doctor Hunt? And two why destroy evidence 340 00:23:53.279 --> 00:23:57.319 that you know, as a lawyer, would be evidence. And 341 00:23:57.400 --> 00:23:59.279 what was his response to that? 342 00:24:01.240 --> 00:24:05.920 Knoxton said, this, just having this wire around was very disturbing. 343 00:24:06.279 --> 00:24:09.400 It was an accident, after all. So I threw doctor Hunt. 344 00:24:09.440 --> 00:24:13.000 Didn't take it with him doctor England. I mean he 345 00:24:13.039 --> 00:24:16.319 should have maybe, but I threw it in the incinerator. 346 00:24:17.480 --> 00:24:20.759 And Sullivan said, why don't you call the police? He says, 347 00:24:20.920 --> 00:24:23.000 I'm not a criminal lawyer. You know there's a law. 348 00:24:23.240 --> 00:24:25.880 There's a law that requires people to call the police 349 00:24:25.880 --> 00:24:28.640 in the case of the death, which there apparently wasn't 350 00:24:28.680 --> 00:24:32.359 I'm sure in John O'Sullivan's mind, probably in the US Constitution, 351 00:24:32.559 --> 00:24:35.480 but it turns out there was no such law. And 352 00:24:36.039 --> 00:24:39.119 at any rate, not to say, hey, I'm a civil lawyer. 353 00:24:39.519 --> 00:24:42.519 I never did criminal law. I didn't know that. The 354 00:24:42.640 --> 00:24:45.839 Sullivan by the time, because you've seen the baby, and 355 00:24:45.839 --> 00:24:49.039 he comes back out. He is rare to go, he says. 356 00:24:50.119 --> 00:24:52.039 When he leaves in the morning, he says, well, the 357 00:24:52.079 --> 00:24:54.240 worst I can say, John is you are very very 358 00:24:54.480 --> 00:24:57.039 best I can say, John, as you were very very careless. 359 00:24:57.799 --> 00:25:00.720 He comes back in the afternoon he said, I know 360 00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:05.480 you killed your son. Noxon denies it. Of course, Sullivan's 361 00:25:05.640 --> 00:25:09.319 completely flipped his attitude and now he's he's on a 362 00:25:09.400 --> 00:25:13.960 hunt to get a confession or enough evidence for a 363 00:25:14.039 --> 00:25:15.319 conviction or whatever. 364 00:25:16.599 --> 00:25:21.119 Let's talk about that investigation and the arrest and how 365 00:25:21.160 --> 00:25:21.839 it came to be. 366 00:25:23.160 --> 00:25:26.039 You have two kinds of evidence. There's direct evidence, which 367 00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:30.960 is a confession, or eyewitnesses that there's circumstantial evidence. Well, 368 00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:36.440 there's no direct evidence. Noxon never confessed even came close 369 00:25:36.480 --> 00:25:41.079 to it. And the evidence when an incinerator, this is 370 00:25:41.119 --> 00:25:45.200 a Charles Alberti was the district attorney, and he and 371 00:25:45.319 --> 00:25:51.720 Sullivan and assistant DA's and Marcel and McColgan, they really 372 00:25:51.759 --> 00:25:56.599 put together a fantastic case. They went to the factory 373 00:25:57.160 --> 00:26:00.880 in Connecticut, a GE factory, needless to say, that had 374 00:26:00.920 --> 00:26:06.279 manufactured this extension cord and got fifty feet of it 375 00:26:07.480 --> 00:26:11.279 and then took it to divided it up into twelve 376 00:26:11.279 --> 00:26:13.880 foot lengths, which is the length of the cord originally 377 00:26:14.079 --> 00:26:16.799 was when it was sold in the store. Took it 378 00:26:16.839 --> 00:26:20.920 to the GE subsidiary in Rhode Island that attached the sockets. 379 00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:24.680 The socket, the flug socket and the receptacle socket on 380 00:26:24.680 --> 00:26:28.119 the other end and had them do that. So now 381 00:26:28.119 --> 00:26:32.640 they've got these cords and they interview England and Hunt 382 00:26:32.680 --> 00:26:36.519 to say, well, where were these cuts and what did 383 00:26:36.519 --> 00:26:43.519 they look like? And they replicated. So they replicated the evidence, 384 00:26:44.279 --> 00:26:47.000 and they have two eyewitnesses. The two doctors say, yeah, 385 00:26:47.039 --> 00:26:50.839 that's that's what it looked like. And they entered those 386 00:26:50.880 --> 00:26:56.519 into evidence and they got the state pathologist was a 387 00:26:56.559 --> 00:27:00.559 Harvard Medical School factory faculty member who had spent his 388 00:27:00.599 --> 00:27:06.480 whole career in forensic medicine. So he testifies about all 389 00:27:06.559 --> 00:27:10.400 of this, and he testifies to the extent he knows 390 00:27:11.240 --> 00:27:16.160 about electricity, the effects of electricity. He thinks. He says, 391 00:27:16.240 --> 00:27:19.440 if that cord was used the electric cute to cause 392 00:27:19.480 --> 00:27:22.200 those burns, it would have been about fifteen minutes and 393 00:27:22.240 --> 00:27:26.880 it had to be held onto the body, which of 394 00:27:26.920 --> 00:27:29.599 course Notaxen said, I was gone for maybe five minutes 395 00:27:29.640 --> 00:27:31.720 at the most, and I didn't even see it happened. 396 00:27:32.920 --> 00:27:36.599 They've got the state chemist, the State Laboratory chemist, the 397 00:27:36.599 --> 00:27:40.559 guy who founded the State Laboratory, who's got a PhD. Chemistry, 398 00:27:41.960 --> 00:27:46.799 and he does all of these tests on skin from 399 00:27:46.839 --> 00:27:51.559 the baby and other things and finds there's copper in 400 00:27:51.640 --> 00:27:55.039 these skin cell not on the surface, but down inside 401 00:27:56.359 --> 00:28:01.640