WEBVTT 1 00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:50.000 In the early nineteen seventies, New York City was a 2 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:54.399 metropolis tetering between decline and defiance. The streets were grimy 3 00:00:54.439 --> 00:00:57.719 with neglect, the subway cars were covered in graffiti, and 4 00:00:57.799 --> 00:01:01.880 crime statistics were climbing towards record highs. Despite this, the 5 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:06.200 city remained electric with possibility. Eight million people compressed into 6 00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:09.239 five boroughs, each one convinced that they were living at 7 00:01:09.239 --> 00:01:12.640 the center of the universe, and in many ways they 8 00:01:12.680 --> 00:01:15.920 were right. This was still New York, after all, the 9 00:01:15.959 --> 00:01:19.319 city that never sleeps, but it did hold its breath. 10 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:23.079 Sometimes in the small hours between midnight and dawn, when 11 00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:25.959 the bars had emptied and the street lights hummed alone, 12 00:01:26.359 --> 00:01:30.280 even New York could feel fragile. West seventy Second Street 13 00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:33.879 cutstery Manhattan's upper west side, connecting the Hudson River to 14 00:01:33.959 --> 00:01:38.519 Zandral Park. At the intersection of seventy second the Broadway 15 00:01:38.920 --> 00:01:43.200 sat Sherman Square, a small triangular park that locals had 16 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:47.239 another name for Needle Park. By nineteen seventy three, the 17 00:01:47.319 --> 00:01:50.680 nickname had already become infamous, immortalized in a film just 18 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:54.640 two years earlier. Here, in plain daylight, heroin dealers worked 19 00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:59.079 the benches while attics knotted off against the trees. It 20 00:01:59.159 --> 00:02:02.680 was an open air drug market, brazen and desperate, the 21 00:02:02.799 --> 00:02:05.519 kind of place where discarded syringes glinted in the gutter 22 00:02:05.959 --> 00:02:09.199 and everybody learned to look away. On New Year's Eve 23 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:12.360 of nineteen seventy two, the city erupted in its annual 24 00:02:12.439 --> 00:02:15.400 ritual of noise and hope in Times Square. Half a 25 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:19.039 million people crushed together to watch the ball drop through 26 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:23.759 At Manhattan, apartment windows glowed with party lights, champagne corks, 27 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:28.520 ricochetted off sailings, strangers kissed at midnight. The year nineteen 28 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:31.520 seventy three arrived with fireworks and car horns and a 29 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:35.400 collective delusion that this time things could be different. By 30 00:02:35.439 --> 00:02:38.439 the first of January, the hangovers had seven The city 31 00:02:38.479 --> 00:02:42.919 woke slowly that Monday morning. Some businesses were closed, their 32 00:02:42.919 --> 00:02:46.840 owners granting themselves one more day of rest. Saint Joseph's 33 00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:50.039 School for the Deaf was one of them, its hallways empty, 34 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:54.240 its classroom stark. When it reopened the next day, Tuesday, 35 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:57.919 the second of January, students filtered back through its doors. 36 00:02:58.919 --> 00:03:02.360 Teachers arrived with coffe lesson plants, shaking off the last 37 00:03:02.400 --> 00:03:06.599 traces of holiday indulgence, the building came back to life, 38 00:03:07.240 --> 00:03:24.639 but one teacher was noticeably absent. Roseanne Quinn was born 39 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:27.319 in November of nineteen forty four into the kind of 40 00:03:27.360 --> 00:03:31.039 Catholic family where faith wasn't just practiced on Sundays, it 41 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:35.120 was woven into everything. Her parents, John and Roseanne Quinn, 42 00:03:35.400 --> 00:03:39.080 were Irish Americans, carrying with them the traditions and values 43 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:41.520 that had traveled across an ocean and settled into the 44 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:46.159 soil of their new country. They had three other children, John, Dennis, 45 00:03:46.199 --> 00:03:50.599 and Donna. The father, John was an executive with Bell Laboratories, 46 00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:54.280 and his career eventually pulled the family away from their roots, 47 00:03:54.639 --> 00:03:58.280 relocating them to suburban New Jersey. It was the kind 48 00:03:58.280 --> 00:04:00.639 of move that millions of American family were making in 49 00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:03.639 the post war years, trading city blogs for cul de 50 00:04:03.759 --> 00:04:07.240 sacs tenements for ranch houses with neat lawns and room 51 00:04:07.319 --> 00:04:12.439 to breathe. Roseanne's childhood unfolded in that suburban landscape, seemingly 52 00:04:12.599 --> 00:04:15.639 ordinary and safe, But it took another turn when she 53 00:04:15.719 --> 00:04:19.920 was thirteen years old. Polio struck what should have been 54 00:04:19.959 --> 00:04:23.639 a year of sleepovers in school, dances, of first crushes, 55 00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:28.279 and friendship bracelets became a year in a hospital bed. 56 00:04:28.519 --> 00:04:31.040 When she finally walked out of that hospital, it was 57 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:34.120 with a slight limp, a permanent reminder of what her 58 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:38.439 body had endured, what it had survived. Some kids might 59 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:42.360 have let that define them, but Roseanne didn't. She finished 60 00:04:42.360 --> 00:04:45.879 her studies at Morse Catholic High School in Denville, graduating 61 00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:49.680 in nineteen sixty two, and she kept going. She enrolled 62 00:04:49.720 --> 00:04:53.480 in Newark State College and graduated in nineteen sixty six 63 00:04:53.879 --> 00:04:56.720 with her degree in hand. But then she set her 64 00:04:56.720 --> 00:05:00.680 sights on somewhere bigger. In her early twenties, Roseanne made 65 00:05:00.680 --> 00:05:02.800 the move that so many young people from the suburbs 66 00:05:02.879 --> 00:05:05.720 dreamed about, the move that felt like stepping into the 67 00:05:05.720 --> 00:05:09.160 real beginning of her life. She came to New York City. 68 00:05:10.120 --> 00:05:13.480 She moved into a small apartment in the Bronx. Nothing fancy, 69 00:05:13.519 --> 00:05:16.480 but it was hers. And in New York City, Roseanne 70 00:05:16.519 --> 00:05:19.079 found work that felt like more than just a job. 71 00:05:20.199 --> 00:05:23.839 She became a special education teacher at Saint Joseph's School 72 00:05:23.879 --> 00:05:26.360 for the Deaf. At the time, it was a one 73 00:05:26.439 --> 00:05:30.160 hundred and two year old institution at one hundred Hutchinson 74 00:05:30.279 --> 00:05:35.079 River Parkway in the East Bronx. There were fifty teachers 75 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:38.360 for about one hundred and fifty students, and Roseanne was 76 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:41.759 assigned a class of eight year olds. Children at that 77 00:05:41.839 --> 00:05:45.199 tender age where the world was still taking shape, where 78 00:05:45.199 --> 00:05:48.839 a good teacher really could make all the difference, and 79 00:05:48.959 --> 00:05:52.920 Roseanne was a very dedicated teacher. She often steadiliate to 80 00:05:52.920 --> 00:05:56.600 help children who were struggling. Some morning, she even brought 81 00:05:56.639 --> 00:06:01.079 in breakfast Duke's boxes and muffins serreal in small containers. 82 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:04.120 She explained to her friend that some of her students 83 00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:06.519 had to get up early to catch the bus, so 84 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:09.800 they often skipped the first meal of the day. They 85 00:06:09.879 --> 00:06:14.199 arrived hungry, unable to focus, and Roseanne couldn't stand it. 86 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:17.600 Maybe it was her own experiences with adversity that drear 87 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:21.279 the children who face their own challenges. Maybe she understood 88 00:06:21.319 --> 00:06:23.759 what it felt like to be different, to navigate a 89 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:26.959 world that wasn't built with you in mind. Or maybe 90 00:06:27.040 --> 00:06:28.879 she just had a gift for seeing people who felt 91 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:33.120 them visible, for making them feel valued and heard even 92 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:36.680 when they couldn't hear it all. Either way, Roseanne threw 93 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:47.319 herself into it. By nineteen seventy two, Roseanne was twenty 94 00:06:47.319 --> 00:06:51.000 eight and still hungry to grow, still reaching for more. 95 00:06:51.920 --> 00:06:55.079 She was taking night classes at Hunter College, giving away 96 00:06:55.120 --> 00:06:58.759 at a master degree in teaching the death. That same year, 97 00:06:58.839 --> 00:07:02.800 Roseanne moved to Manhattan's Upper west Side. She found herself 98 00:07:02.839 --> 00:07:05.879 a small studio apartment on the seventh floor of two 99 00:07:05.879 --> 00:07:09.639 five three West seventy second Street. The building was once 100 00:07:09.639 --> 00:07:13.839 a hotel, its bones remembering a more elegant era, but 101 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:16.600 now I had been converted into the west Over Apartments, 102 00:07:17.279 --> 00:07:19.439 studios and one bedrooms that were carved out of what 103 00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:23.439 used to be guest rooms and suites. Rosanne loved the building. 104 00:07:24.040 --> 00:07:26.000 It sat on a tree lined street where the sounds 105 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:31.279 of traffic mixed with distant laughter from Riverside Park. From 106 00:07:31.319 --> 00:07:34.480 Roseanne's seventh floor window, she could see slices of the city, 107 00:07:35.279 --> 00:07:39.160 the rooftops, the water tors, the endless sprawl of buildings 108 00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:42.480 reaching towards the sky. It felt like being part of 109 00:07:42.519 --> 00:07:46.399 something that was bigger than herself. But the apartment complex 110 00:07:46.439 --> 00:07:50.399 wasn't in a particularly desirable area. The Upper west Side 111 00:07:50.399 --> 00:07:53.800 in nineteen seventy two wasn't the gentrified neighborhood it would 112 00:07:53.839 --> 00:07:57.720 later become. It was still rough around the edges, still 113 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:02.759 finding its identity somewhere between elegance and decay, and Roseanne's 114 00:08:02.759 --> 00:08:05.439 building was within walking distance of one of the city's 115 00:08:05.439 --> 00:08:10.439 most notorious drug markets, Needle Park. Al Press owned a 116 00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:14.560 dry cleaning store nearby. He knew the neighborhood, saw the 117 00:08:14.639 --> 00:08:17.800 kind of people who drifted through. Years later he would 118 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:22.199 remember Rosanne. He said, we get some weird people around here, 119 00:08:22.279 --> 00:08:24.839 but this girl was different. She was very nice and 120 00:08:24.920 --> 00:08:27.879 quiet and shy. She wore skirts and blouses, not the 121 00:08:27.959 --> 00:08:31.399 hippie stuff. Roseanne stood out because she didn't fit the 122 00:08:31.439 --> 00:08:36.039 profile of the neighborhood's transient population, the attics, the dealers, 123 00:08:36.080 --> 00:08:40.000 the runaways, the lost souls who congregated in Sherman Square. 124 00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:44.960 Roseanne was clean cut and respectable, the kind of person 125 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:48.200 you'd expect to see teaching in a suburban school, not 126 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:52.799 living alone on West seventy second Street. But there she was. 127 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:06.200 New York City was winding down after New Year's Eve 128 00:09:06.240 --> 00:09:10.200 of nineteen seventy two. The Conferi still littered the straits 129 00:09:10.200 --> 00:09:14.279 of Times Square, ground into a pub by a million footsteps. 130 00:09:15.320 --> 00:09:18.799 Sanitation crews worked through the early morning hours, their trucks 131 00:09:18.840 --> 00:09:23.559 rumbling through intersections, collecting the debris of celebration. The city 132 00:09:23.600 --> 00:09:26.200 was in that strange liminal space between the old year 133 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:29.720 and the new where time feels elastic and nothing quite 134 00:09:29.720 --> 00:09:33.879 operates on schedule. For many New Yorkers, January first meant 135 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:37.960 sleeping off hangovers behind drawn curtains. Some ventured out for 136 00:09:38.039 --> 00:09:42.039 walks in Central Park, bundling against the cold, needing fresh 137 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:44.519 air and movement to shake off the previous night's success. 138 00:09:45.639 --> 00:09:48.639 Other stain in pajamas all day, watching the Rose Parade 139 00:09:48.679 --> 00:09:53.440 on television, making resolutions they'd forget. By February, most of 140 00:09:53.480 --> 00:09:56.600 the city's bars and restaurants, which were usually buzzing with energy, 141 00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:00.399 were dark. On New Year's Day, the storefronts were sh uttered. 142 00:10:01.159 --> 00:10:03.440 By the second of January, life was supposed to return 143 00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:07.159 to normal. The machinery of the city was meant to restart. 144 00:10:08.120 --> 00:10:10.840 People were men to go back to work, back to school, 145 00:10:11.240 --> 00:10:14.879 back to routine. Roseanne was scheduled debate at school teaching 146 00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:18.159 on the second of January, but nine a m. Came 147 00:10:18.200 --> 00:10:21.799 and went, and Roseanne never shoot. It wasn't like her, 148 00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:27.200 The other teachers noticed immediately. Rosanne was punctual, always early, 149 00:10:27.240 --> 00:10:30.039 even she was usually the one aready in her classroom. 150 00:10:30.080 --> 00:10:34.759 When others arrived, so her absence was immediately noticed. When 151 00:10:34.840 --> 00:10:37.960 she failed to show, a substitute teacher stepped in, taking 152 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:41.159 over her classroom of eight year olds. But the same 153 00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:45.840 thing happened again the next morning, Wednesday, January third, Roseanne 154 00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:50.000 failed to show. Now it wasn't just unusual, it was alarming. 155 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:54.720 School authorities made the decision to act. They arranged for 156 00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:57.279 a colleague to make their way over to Rosanne's apartment 157 00:10:57.720 --> 00:11:01.639 on West seventy second Street. The colligue arrived at the 158 00:11:01.639 --> 00:11:05.200 West Over Apartments and explained the situation to the building superintendent, 159 00:11:05.720 --> 00:11:08.799 A Medio Guzzy. Something was wrong and he needed to 160 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:11.960 check on her. They went up to the seventh floor 161 00:11:11.960 --> 00:11:16.080 in the elevator, or Medio carried the spare cat. He 162 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:18.639 ll knocked the front door, turned the handle, and they 163 00:11:18.639 --> 00:11:22.039 stepped inside. It didn't take them long to see what 164 00:11:22.039 --> 00:11:26.159 had happened to Roseanne. The small studio apartment was spattered 165 00:11:26.200 --> 00:11:29.559 in blood. It was on the floor, on the walls. 166 00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:33.519 Blood was pulling on the bed, soaking into the sheets 167 00:11:33.559 --> 00:11:38.600 and the mattress, and in the middle lay Roseanne. She 168 00:11:38.679 --> 00:11:41.960 was nude and sprawled out on the bed. Stab wounds 169 00:11:41.960 --> 00:11:45.159 peppered her body. She been stabbed six times in the 170 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:49.159 stomach and twelve times in the neck. Her face had 171 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:53.120 also been beaten. There was also a large statuette lying 172 00:11:53.159 --> 00:11:56.639 on her face. It was an artistic pace crafted by 173 00:11:56.679 --> 00:12:01.200 a friend, meant to capture Rosanne's likeness in clemplaster. It 174 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:05.399 had been a gift, something personal and meaningful, but now 175 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:08.879 it was a weapon. It weighed about sixty five pounds 176 00:12:09.440 --> 00:12:11.919 and it was clear that somebody had lifted it, raised 177 00:12:11.919 --> 00:12:15.200 it above their head and smashed it down onto Roseanne's 178 00:12:15.240 --> 00:12:19.919 face with enough's force to shatter bone. The colleague had 179 00:12:19.960 --> 00:12:23.519 come to check on Roseanne stumbled backwards, hand over mouth. 180 00:12:24.799 --> 00:12:28.440 Medio stood frozen, his mind, trying to process what his 181 00:12:28.519 --> 00:12:40.080 eyes were saying. Detectives quickly arrived at the apartment. They 182 00:12:40.159 --> 00:12:43.440 coordined it off with crime scene tape. The hallway of 183 00:12:43.480 --> 00:12:48.679 the seventh floor became restricted. Uniformed officers stood guard while 184 00:12:48.679 --> 00:12:53.120 crime scene photographers arrived with their equipment. The medical examiner 185 00:12:53.159 --> 00:12:57.159 was called and they began their investigation. Roseanne's body was 186 00:12:57.200 --> 00:13:01.120 documented as it was found. Closer inspection, it could be 187 00:13:01.159 --> 00:13:04.480 seen that there were bite marks on her body. Detectives 188 00:13:04.480 --> 00:13:06.720 needed to figure out how the killer had gotten in sight. 189 00:13:07.919 --> 00:13:10.960 They examined the door, the lock, the frame, but there 190 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:13.879 was no sign of forced entry. The door hadn't been 191 00:13:13.960 --> 00:13:17.799 kicked in, the lock hadn't been jimmied or picked, and 192 00:13:17.879 --> 00:13:22.559 the apartment hadn't been rifled through. Roseanne's belongings were largely undisturbed, 193 00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:26.360 and nothing was obviously missing. It was apparent that this 194 00:13:26.519 --> 00:13:30.840 wasn't a burglary that had escalated. Roseann's apartment faced a 195 00:13:30.879 --> 00:13:34.720 door to the stairwell just across the narrow hallway. It 196 00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:36.320 was one of the first things you'd see if he 197 00:13:36.360 --> 00:13:40.000 came up those stairs instead of taking the elevator. One 198 00:13:40.039 --> 00:13:42.759 theory detectives were considering was that the killer had climbed 199 00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:46.840 the stairs, perhaps avoiding the elevator, deliberately knocked on the 200 00:13:46.879 --> 00:13:50.279 first door he saw, and then barged his way inside 201 00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:54.480 when it opened, a crime of opportunity. Either that or 202 00:13:54.519 --> 00:13:57.879 there was another possibility, one that felt more likely given 203 00:13:57.919 --> 00:14:02.360 the evidence. Rose I knew her killer and she welcomed 204 00:14:02.360 --> 00:14:06.799 them inside. She'd opened the door willingly and let her 205 00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:11.440 killer into the apartment. The news of Roseanne's murder spread 206 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:15.960 through New York City rapidly, carried by newspapers and television broadcasts. 207 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:21.759 It absolutely terrified women, in particular those living alone. Single 208 00:14:21.759 --> 00:14:25.759 women in studio apartments all over Manhattan suddenly felt exposed 209 00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:30.559 and vulnerable. They checked their locks obsessively. They stopped answering 210 00:14:30.600 --> 00:14:34.360 the door after dark. Barbara Mer lived in an apartment 211 00:14:34.440 --> 00:14:37.879 below Roseanne's, just one floored on in the same building. 212 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:41.639 She probably passed Rosanne in the lobby in the elevator 213 00:14:41.840 --> 00:14:46.080 on the street. Maybe they had exchanged pleasantries, the small 214 00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:49.399 talk of neighbors. Now she gave an interview with the 215 00:14:49.480 --> 00:14:53.960 Daily News and said, we're having an extra lock installed tomorrow. 216 00:14:54.440 --> 00:14:57.440 I know the killer might have been invited upstairs, but 217 00:14:57.480 --> 00:15:00.720 I'm scared all the same. He admitted. She would have 218 00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:03.600 preferred to live over on East Side, where it was safer, 219 00:15:04.440 --> 00:15:06.919 or at least where people told themselves it was safer, 220 00:15:07.840 --> 00:15:11.039 But rent there was much more expansive, often double what 221 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:14.320 you'd pay on the Upper west Side. Barbara was paying 222 00:15:14.320 --> 00:15:16.720 one hundred and eighty five dollars a month for her apartment. 223 00:15:17.799 --> 00:15:20.159 For many young women trying to make it in New York, 224 00:15:20.519 --> 00:15:24.320 the Upper west Side was what they could afford. Safety 225 00:15:24.399 --> 00:15:27.840 was a luxury, priced out of reach, and indeed the 226 00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:32.120 area wasn't that safe. Rosanne herself had filed a complaint 227 00:15:32.120 --> 00:15:34.799 against a man the year before for punching her in 228 00:15:34.840 --> 00:15:38.600 the face after she rejected him. It was an unprovoked, 229 00:15:38.679 --> 00:15:42.399 violent encounter, the kind that leaves you looking over your shoulder. 230 00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:47.000 He was the first person detectives looked into, pulling its file, 231 00:15:47.080 --> 00:15:50.480 tracking him down for questioning, but he was quickly rolled out. 232 00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:55.000 His alibi was solid. He wasn't their man. At the time, 233 00:15:55.039 --> 00:15:57.399 there was a new rape analysis unit operating within the 234 00:15:57.519 --> 00:16:01.799 NYP day a cutting edge approach to investigating sexual crimes. 235 00:16:02.679 --> 00:16:06.200 Detectives called in their assistance, hoping the unit's resources might 236 00:16:06.240 --> 00:16:10.399 crack the case open. They used computers to detect patterns 237 00:16:10.399 --> 00:16:14.960 and crimes against women, massive machines that filled entire rooms, 238 00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:20.120 fed with punch cards and magnetic tape. Records of attempted 239 00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:23.039 rapes in the area and names of neighborhood residents with 240 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:27.360 records for violence were fed into the computers. The machines 241 00:16:27.399 --> 00:16:32.600 processed the data searching for connections. However, no suspicious patterns emerged, 242 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:37.240 but it wouldn't be long until detectives received their first 243 00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:51.039 lucrative tip. Rosanne was a familiar face in the bars 244 00:16:51.080 --> 00:16:54.720 that surrounded her apartment. According to some friends, she had 245 00:16:54.759 --> 00:16:58.080 a habit of dating, not in the traditional sense of 246 00:16:58.120 --> 00:17:03.480 dinner reservations, something more spontaneous. Roseanne liked to sit by 247 00:17:03.480 --> 00:17:06.079 herself and read in the bars on the West Side, 248 00:17:06.519 --> 00:17:10.240 nursing a drink while turning pages content in her own company. 249 00:17:11.440 --> 00:17:14.039 But she also liked to strike up conversations with men. 250 00:17:15.079 --> 00:17:18.880 She was friendly and approachable. They often brought her drinks, 251 00:17:19.039 --> 00:17:23.039 and the conversation would flow about books about the city, 252 00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:27.519 about nothing in particular. Sometimes Roseanne invited these men back 253 00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:30.599 to her apartment. It was a pattern that her friends 254 00:17:30.680 --> 00:17:35.400 knew about, but perhaps they didn't fully understand. This was 255 00:17:35.480 --> 00:17:38.200 Rosanne the teacher who stead lay it to help her 256 00:17:38.240 --> 00:17:41.799 students and brought them breakfast. But it was also Roseanne, 257 00:17:41.839 --> 00:17:45.599 the single woman in her late twenties living alone in Manhattan, 258 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:49.960 looking for connection in whatever form it took. And on 259 00:17:50.079 --> 00:17:53.839 New Year's Day, Roseanne was seen at a bar named W. M. Tweets. 260 00:17:54.960 --> 00:17:57.359 It was close to where she lived, just a short 261 00:17:57.400 --> 00:18:01.920 walk from the West Over apartments. Three witnesses told detectives 262 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:04.640 they had seen her there, sitting at the bar with 263 00:18:04.759 --> 00:18:10.240 two men. The trio seemed relaxed. Conversational drinks were ordered 264 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:13.519 and consumed. At around eleven p m. One of the 265 00:18:13.519 --> 00:18:16.920 men left, gathering his coat and heading out into the 266 00:18:16.920 --> 00:18:21.279 winter night, leaving Roseanne alone with the other. Then, some 267 00:18:21.400 --> 00:18:24.039 time later, she and the other man left the bar together. 268 00:18:25.119 --> 00:18:28.559 They walked out into the darkness, perhaps headed towards her 269 00:18:28.599 --> 00:18:32.359 apartment just blocks away. It was the last time anybody 270 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:36.799 reported seeing Roseanne Quinn alive. She was killed just stars later. 271 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:40.200 Detectives announced that they were seeking either of these men. 272 00:18:40.960 --> 00:18:42.799 They would have been the last people to see her. 273 00:18:43.759 --> 00:18:47.200 The witnesses at w N Tweede's had provided descriptions, and 274 00:18:47.319 --> 00:18:51.480 investigators worked with a sketch artists to create a composite. 275 00:18:51.759 --> 00:18:54.079 They held a press conference, standing before a room full 276 00:18:54.119 --> 00:18:57.880 of reporters with no pads and cameras. The composite sketch 277 00:18:57.960 --> 00:19:02.000 was released, distributed to newspapers across the city, posted in 278 00:19:02.039 --> 00:19:06.160 police stations, and shown on the evening news. It showed 279 00:19:06.200 --> 00:19:10.160 a young man with distinctive features. They stressed that he 280 00:19:10.279 --> 00:19:13.039 was in a suspect, just a person of interest who 281 00:19:13.039 --> 00:19:17.039 could offer assistance in the search for Rosanne's killer. They 282 00:19:17.079 --> 00:19:20.079 needed him to come forward. They needed to know what 283 00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:23.039 he knew. He was described as about one hundred and 284 00:19:23.079 --> 00:19:26.359 sixty five pawns, twenty eight to thirty years old, and 285 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:29.720 around six feet tall. He had light brown hair that 286 00:19:29.799 --> 00:19:33.160 was described as having a wet look, styled slicked back 287 00:19:33.319 --> 00:19:36.920 and not long. He was of slight build and fair complexion, 288 00:19:37.559 --> 00:19:42.240 more Nordic than Latin. One detective noted, Deputy Inspector Richard 289 00:19:42.319 --> 00:19:46.160 Nicastro addressed the cameras directly, we would like for him 290 00:19:46.200 --> 00:19:49.039 to come forward. He might possibly be of some assistance 291 00:19:49.079 --> 00:19:52.720 to us in solving this crime. The implication was clear, 292 00:19:52.839 --> 00:19:58.319 even if unstated, come forward voluntarily in you're helping stay hidden, 293 00:19:58.599 --> 00:20:02.279 and you become something else. In. As the search for 294 00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:05.039 the man and the bar pressed on, Rosanne was led 295 00:20:05.079 --> 00:20:09.000 to rest. Around three hundred people gathered at Saint Mary's 296 00:20:09.079 --> 00:20:12.960 Roman Catholic Church in Wharton, the community where Roseanne had 297 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:17.079 grown up and where her family still lived. The pews 298 00:20:17.119 --> 00:20:21.319 filled with relatives, colleagues from Saint Joseph's school, former classmates, 299 00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:24.759 neighbors who remembered her as just a girl. The service 300 00:20:24.839 --> 00:20:29.519 was presided over by Roseanne's cousin, Reverend John Waldron. He 301 00:20:29.559 --> 00:20:33.200 spoke of her dedication, her kindness, her commitment to children 302 00:20:33.240 --> 00:20:36.960 who needed her most. Afterwards, Rosanne was buried in the 303 00:20:37.039 --> 00:20:41.640 church cemetery. Her parents stood at the gravesite, John and 304 00:20:41.720 --> 00:20:45.400 Roseanne Quinn, watching as their daughter was lured into the earth. 305 00:20:46.920 --> 00:20:48.960 The days continued to pass, and the man seen on 306 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:52.720 a date with Roseanne failed to come forward. This led 307 00:20:52.720 --> 00:20:56.319 to alarm bells ringing with the investigators. If he was innocent, 308 00:20:56.359 --> 00:21:00.480 why hadn't he come forward, Detectives wondered, fear was in 309 00:21:00.519 --> 00:21:05.119 every newspaper, the composite was on television. Someone who had 310 00:21:05.160 --> 00:21:08.839 nothing to hide would have called by nou. His silence 311 00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:13.400 suggested guilt. Detectives began to theorize that Rosanne had invited 312 00:21:13.400 --> 00:21:16.200 the man back to her apartment and he killed her. 313 00:21:17.160 --> 00:21:20.000 Either that or he had followed her back uninvited and 314 00:21:20.039 --> 00:21:23.359 then forced his way inside. In an effort to track 315 00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:27.920 him down, detectives approached Rosanne's neighbors with the composite, knocking 316 00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:31.640 on doors throughout the west Over apartments, asking if anybody 317 00:21:31.640 --> 00:21:34.839 had seen him. Had anyone noticed a stranger on New 318 00:21:34.920 --> 00:21:38.759 Year's Day or the early morning ours of January two, 319 00:21:39.880 --> 00:21:42.079 It wouldn't be long before the man in the composite 320 00:21:42.119 --> 00:21:48.319 sketch was identified, but he was identified by somebody very uninspected. 321 00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:02.839 Gary Gah stared at the composite sketch in the newspaper. 322 00:22:03.880 --> 00:22:07.640 His blood ran cold, his hands trembled slightly as he 323 00:22:07.640 --> 00:22:11.920 held the page. He knew that the composite sketch was him. 324 00:22:12.200 --> 00:22:14.960 The wet look hair, the Nordic features, the slight build. 325 00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:18.119 It was unmistakably his own face staring back at him 326 00:22:18.119 --> 00:22:21.559 from the newspaper. On New Year's Day, he had been 327 00:22:21.640 --> 00:22:24.000 drinking at W. N. Twade's with his twenty two year 328 00:22:24.039 --> 00:22:28.000 old friend, John Wayne Wilson. They had struck up a 329 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:31.079 conversation with a woman there who said her name was 330 00:22:31.160 --> 00:22:35.599 Roseanne Quinn. She was friendly, intelligent, easy to talk to. 331 00:22:36.680 --> 00:22:39.480 The three of them sat at the bar together, drinks accumulating. 332 00:22:40.079 --> 00:22:42.279 So I'm passing in the loose way it does in 333 00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:46.680 bars where nobody has anywhere urgent to be. Gary left 334 00:22:46.720 --> 00:22:48.799 at eleven pm that night because he had worked the 335 00:22:48.839 --> 00:22:53.359 next morning he needed sleep. His friend John said that 336 00:22:53.400 --> 00:22:56.880 he was going to stay out later. He waved Gary off, 337 00:22:57.160 --> 00:23:01.119 turning back to his conversation with Roseanne. The two men 338 00:23:01.160 --> 00:23:03.240 had lived together in an apartment on the West Side 339 00:23:03.240 --> 00:23:07.119 for a round seven months. But John Willam Wilson wasn't 340 00:23:07.200 --> 00:23:09.839 just another young man trying to make it in New York. 341 00:23:10.839 --> 00:23:13.039 He'd come to the city after escaping from jail in 342 00:23:13.119 --> 00:23:16.680 Miami in July the previous year. He was awaiting trial 343 00:23:16.720 --> 00:23:20.079 for breaking and entering when he'd simply walked away, vanishing 344 00:23:20.119 --> 00:23:23.440 into the anonymous sprawl of another city. John had been 345 00:23:23.440 --> 00:23:26.400 born and raised in Indianapolis, and he was the oldest 346 00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:29.880 of four children. His father was a crane operator, and 347 00:23:29.960 --> 00:23:32.079 his mother steed at home to raise John and his 348 00:23:32.119 --> 00:23:36.160 three siblings. She was said to be domineering, and his 349 00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:41.759 father rarely entered family conversations. John's emotional trouble began in 350 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:44.480 nineteen sixty when he was struck by a car and 351 00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:48.519 knocked unconscious as he left school. He started suffering from 352 00:23:48.519 --> 00:23:53.279 blackout spells and migraines. He struggled to sleep. He started 353 00:23:53.359 --> 00:23:56.799 running away from home when he was just eleven. When 354 00:23:56.839 --> 00:23:58.799 he was fifteen, he woke up with deep gashes on 355 00:23:58.839 --> 00:24:02.480 his arm. He torn out his skin while he was asleep. 356 00:24:03.519 --> 00:24:06.359 This was only the first in a long list of instances. 357 00:24:07.559 --> 00:24:09.720 He told friends that he felt there were two sides 358 00:24:09.759 --> 00:24:13.119 to his personality. He said he was afraid that the 359 00:24:13.200 --> 00:24:17.119 bad might try to do away with the good. John 360 00:24:17.160 --> 00:24:20.480 was committed to the Madison State Mental Hospital for eighteen months, 361 00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:24.599 and then he headed to Miami. By nineteen seventy two, 362 00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:27.200 he was married to a woman named Candy and they 363 00:24:27.240 --> 00:24:31.039 were expecting a baby together. His family were in Miami 364 00:24:31.079 --> 00:24:34.279 while he laid low in New York City, living under 365 00:24:34.319 --> 00:24:39.440 the radar, avoiding anything that might draw attention. He was 366 00:24:39.519 --> 00:24:43.400 drinking a quart of whiskey a day. According to some sources, 367 00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:47.039 he sold sex to men to get by. It was 368 00:24:47.079 --> 00:24:50.319 income that came with no paper trail, no tax forms, 369 00:24:50.680 --> 00:24:55.279 no questions asked. It kept him fed and housed while 370 00:24:55.319 --> 00:25:05.319 he waited for whatever came next. When Gary woke up 371 00:25:05.319 --> 00:25:08.240 on the morning of January two, he found that John 372 00:25:08.400 --> 00:25:12.359 hadn't returned home that night. The apartment was quiet and 373 00:25:12.440 --> 00:25:17.559 John's bed was empty. That wasn't entirely unusual. Sometimes John 374 00:25:17.640 --> 00:25:21.160 stared out, crashed with other people, lived his life in 375 00:25:21.240 --> 00:25:24.799 ways that Gary didn't ask too many questions about. John 376 00:25:24.839 --> 00:25:30.839 was something of a drifter. Did you know that Americans 377 00:25:30.839 --> 00:25:33.720 spend roughly ninety percent of their time indoors, and the 378 00:25:33.759 --> 00:25:36.079 air inside their home can actually be up to one 379 00:25:36.160 --> 00:25:39.519 hundred times more polluted than the air outside. 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Gary 400 00:26:50.039 --> 00:26:52.079 went to work and when he arrived back home later 401 00:26:52.160 --> 00:26:56.680