1
00:00:08,285 --> 00:00:14,565
Speaker 1: School of Humans. It was May tenth, two thousand and five,

2
00:00:15,005 --> 00:00:19,125
Speaker 1: when police in the tiny town of Ballymouth, Massachusetts, a sleepy,

3
00:00:19,245 --> 00:00:22,405
Speaker 1: picturesque little place on Cape Cod got this nine one

4
00:00:22,485 --> 00:00:27,885
Speaker 1: one calls record. Yeah, I think somebody down at six

5
00:00:28,005 --> 00:00:29,725
Speaker 1: fifty seventh Highways.

6
00:00:30,205 --> 00:00:31,765
Speaker 2: I think somebody shot Shirley.

7
00:00:32,405 --> 00:00:35,565
Speaker 1: Oh my God, Girland, God man, let me tell you it. Cotnia,

8
00:00:35,605 --> 00:00:38,925
Speaker 1: here we are. A man named Michael Dominguez had been

9
00:00:38,925 --> 00:00:41,005
Speaker 1: doing some work for a woman who lived in the

10
00:00:41,005 --> 00:00:44,805
Speaker 1: house at six fifty seven East Falmouth Highway, fifty one

11
00:00:44,845 --> 00:00:48,525
Speaker 1: year old Shirley Rainey. Michael showed up a little after

12
00:00:48,605 --> 00:00:52,205
Speaker 1: five am. He had two cups of dunkin Donuts coffee

13
00:00:52,205 --> 00:00:56,125
Speaker 1: with him, one for himself and one for Shirley, but

14
00:00:56,245 --> 00:01:00,285
Speaker 1: Shirley didn't answer the door, so Michael started looking around

15
00:01:00,325 --> 00:01:03,325
Speaker 1: the house outside. He peeked through one of the glass

16
00:01:03,365 --> 00:01:06,445
Speaker 1: panels in the garage and that's when he saw Shirley

17
00:01:06,925 --> 00:01:10,525
Speaker 1: slumped on the garage floor, half hanging out of her

18
00:01:10,605 --> 00:01:12,325
Speaker 1: Nissan Maxima in a.

19
00:01:12,245 --> 00:01:13,005
Speaker 3: Pool of blood.

20
00:01:14,045 --> 00:01:16,725
Speaker 2: Michael kicked the door down and he's the one who

21
00:01:16,725 --> 00:01:17,885
Speaker 2: made the nine one one call.

22
00:01:19,405 --> 00:01:22,165
Speaker 1: Police rushed to the scene, and they later said that

23
00:01:22,245 --> 00:01:25,645
Speaker 1: Shirley had been dead for a while, around eight hours.

24
00:01:26,605 --> 00:01:29,725
Speaker 1: She had been shot twice, once in the chest, and

25
00:01:29,765 --> 00:01:33,605
Speaker 1: then when she fell out of the car. Police believed

26
00:01:33,605 --> 00:01:36,045
Speaker 1: the killer stepped closer to her and shot her a

27
00:01:36,085 --> 00:01:40,005
Speaker 1: second time in the head. Then they picked up the

28
00:01:40,005 --> 00:01:43,765
Speaker 1: shell casings and left the scene. There was no sign

29
00:01:43,845 --> 00:01:46,525
Speaker 1: of forced entry, so it seemed that the killer had

30
00:01:46,565 --> 00:01:50,245
Speaker 1: been lying in wait for Shirley in that dark garage.

31
00:01:50,365 --> 00:01:55,125
Speaker 1: Shirley was a pretty wealthy woman, but nothing was stolen

32
00:01:55,165 --> 00:01:58,605
Speaker 1: from the house. So who would stalk and kill a

33
00:01:58,645 --> 00:02:03,765
Speaker 1: fifty something woman execution style in her garage and why?

34
00:02:03,845 --> 00:02:07,125
Speaker 1: It turned out that there were actually a lot of suspects.

35
00:02:07,965 --> 00:02:11,845
Speaker 1: Shirley had been married to Melvin Rainey, a convicted arsonist

36
00:02:11,885 --> 00:02:14,885
Speaker 1: who was nicknamed the Falm of Fox. He was given

37
00:02:14,885 --> 00:02:17,365
Speaker 1: that nickname back in the day by a judge who

38
00:02:17,445 --> 00:02:21,405
Speaker 1: described him as being sly like a fox. Melvin Rainey

39
00:02:21,445 --> 00:02:23,805
Speaker 1: had a lot of local enemies, and so did Shirley.

40
00:02:24,645 --> 00:02:28,365
Speaker 1: They included alleged mob connections, people who owed her money,

41
00:02:28,965 --> 00:02:32,965
Speaker 1: former lovers who she allegedly made sex tapes with, and

42
00:02:33,405 --> 00:02:36,845
Speaker 1: who may have been being blackmailed, family members of Melvin's

43
00:02:36,845 --> 00:02:40,125
Speaker 1: first wife, and even Shirley's own step sons, Todd and

44
00:02:40,165 --> 00:02:43,845
Speaker 1: Melvin Junior. They were fighting Shirley for control of their

45
00:02:43,885 --> 00:02:45,805
Speaker 1: family business, and they were due to go back to

46
00:02:45,845 --> 00:02:50,205
Speaker 1: court in just ten days. Shirley Rainey was a mysterious woman,

47
00:02:50,765 --> 00:02:53,405
Speaker 1: and this small town shooting was about to lead to

48
00:02:53,485 --> 00:02:57,125
Speaker 1: a trail of dead bodies and a lot more dark secrets.

49
00:02:58,165 --> 00:03:03,485
Speaker 1: I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. If

50
00:03:03,525 --> 00:03:05,285
Speaker 1: you have a case you'd like me and my team

51
00:03:05,285 --> 00:03:07,685
Speaker 1: to look into, you can reach out to us at

52
00:03:07,685 --> 00:03:10,525
Speaker 1: our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven

53
00:03:10,605 --> 00:04:00,365
Speaker 1: four four six one four five. I first heard about

54
00:04:00,365 --> 00:04:02,485
Speaker 1: this case when I took a trip to Cape Cod

55
00:04:02,565 --> 00:04:05,165
Speaker 1: last spring. I was talking to a friend who has

56
00:04:05,165 --> 00:04:08,365
Speaker 1: a house, and they said, you know, why don't you

57
00:04:08,365 --> 00:04:11,085
Speaker 1: ever take a break from trying to cover cold cases

58
00:04:11,125 --> 00:04:13,845
Speaker 1: and maybe hang out somewhere like this, this quiet little

59
00:04:13,885 --> 00:04:16,925
Speaker 1: town for a couple of weeks. And I distinctly remember

60
00:04:16,925 --> 00:04:19,325
Speaker 1: what I said. I said, if I didn't travel around

61
00:04:19,325 --> 00:04:22,645
Speaker 1: the country and cover cold cases, I would probably find

62
00:04:22,685 --> 00:04:25,325
Speaker 1: one near me, because every town has at least one

63
00:04:25,325 --> 00:04:29,085
Speaker 1: cold case. I was kind of kidding, but later that day,

64
00:04:29,405 --> 00:04:31,965
Speaker 1: of course, I did, in fact start talking to someone

65
00:04:32,005 --> 00:04:35,005
Speaker 1: at a local coffee shop, and they told me about

66
00:04:35,045 --> 00:04:38,005
Speaker 1: the case of the Famath Fox and his wife.

67
00:04:38,085 --> 00:04:38,885
Speaker 3: As I said.

68
00:04:38,645 --> 00:04:41,485
Speaker 1: Before, the Famath Fox was a local nickname for Shirley

69
00:04:41,565 --> 00:04:44,765
Speaker 1: Rainey's husband, Melvin Rainey. And that's when I found out

70
00:04:44,805 --> 00:04:46,805
Speaker 1: that I was sitting there in this sweet little town

71
00:04:46,885 --> 00:04:49,645
Speaker 1: that basically looked like the backdrop for murder, she wrote,

72
00:04:50,485 --> 00:04:52,765
Speaker 1: And yet I was on top of one of the

73
00:04:52,765 --> 00:04:57,725
Speaker 1: most notorious unsolved killings in New England. Shirley Rainey and

74
00:04:57,845 --> 00:05:01,285
Speaker 1: Melvin Rainey had been married for around twenty years, and

75
00:05:01,405 --> 00:05:03,485
Speaker 1: Shirley's home that she was living in at the time

76
00:05:03,525 --> 00:05:05,765
Speaker 1: of the shooting was in the middle of kind of

77
00:05:05,805 --> 00:05:10,045
Speaker 1: a compound owned by the Rainy family. Shirley and Melvin's

78
00:05:10,045 --> 00:05:13,085
Speaker 1: property was on hundreds of acres of land. Her brother

79
00:05:13,125 --> 00:05:15,445
Speaker 1: in law, John Rainey lived in the house next door.

80
00:05:16,365 --> 00:05:19,805
Speaker 1: Shirley's step son, Todd Rainey lived on a nearby property,

81
00:05:19,845 --> 00:05:22,645
Speaker 1: and so did his girlfriend, Joanne, who was the mother

82
00:05:22,765 --> 00:05:27,605
Speaker 1: of his two children. Melvin Senior ran a trash hauling business.

83
00:05:27,605 --> 00:05:30,445
Speaker 1: It was called Five Star Enterprises, and many of you

84
00:05:30,485 --> 00:05:33,325
Speaker 1: who have read anything about mob history and the history

85
00:05:33,325 --> 00:05:37,645
Speaker 1: of New England may know that especially during that era,

86
00:05:38,125 --> 00:05:42,085
Speaker 1: the phrase trash hauling was often shorthand for a business

87
00:05:42,085 --> 00:05:45,045
Speaker 1: that relied on mob connections and a lot of shady dealings,

88
00:05:45,405 --> 00:05:48,405
Speaker 1: and that was definitely the case with Five Star. For

89
00:05:48,485 --> 00:05:51,805
Speaker 1: a long time, Shirley's two step sons, Todd and Melvin Junior,

90
00:05:51,845 --> 00:05:55,005
Speaker 1: were in the family business, but Melvin Senior and his

91
00:05:55,085 --> 00:05:59,405
Speaker 1: sons had a falling out. Now why this started exactly

92
00:05:59,525 --> 00:06:02,285
Speaker 1: is a little bit of a mystery. It started sometime

93
00:06:02,325 --> 00:06:05,925
Speaker 1: in the mid nineties. Shirley told her lawyers that Melvin

94
00:06:05,925 --> 00:06:09,285
Speaker 1: got frustrated because his two sons just weren't working hard enough.

95
00:06:09,925 --> 00:06:13,445
Speaker 1: Now they would later allege that Shirley manipulated Melvin Senor,

96
00:06:14,085 --> 00:06:16,725
Speaker 1: but either way, the end result was that Melvin and

97
00:06:16,765 --> 00:06:21,365
Speaker 1: his two sons, Melvin Junior and Todd, were estranged. Melvin

98
00:06:21,485 --> 00:06:24,045
Speaker 1: Junior and Todd ended up going to work for another company,

99
00:06:24,085 --> 00:06:28,205
Speaker 1: a competitor. Over the years, Melvin was known as a

100
00:06:28,245 --> 00:06:29,165
Speaker 1: notorious criminal.

101
00:06:29,165 --> 00:06:30,365
Speaker 3: There's just no other way to put it.

102
00:06:31,005 --> 00:06:34,525
Speaker 1: He was also an arsonist, and a lot of people

103
00:06:34,565 --> 00:06:37,725
Speaker 1: who've commented on the case say that Melvin was a

104
00:06:37,805 --> 00:06:41,925
Speaker 1: psychopath and that he truly enjoyed and maybe even got

105
00:06:42,005 --> 00:06:46,765
Speaker 1: sexual pleasure out of setting fires. His family's trash hauling

106
00:06:46,805 --> 00:06:50,005
Speaker 1: business definitely had a monopoly on the area. But in

107
00:06:50,005 --> 00:06:54,525
Speaker 1: the late nineties, Melvin Senior's mental health started to decline.

108
00:06:54,605 --> 00:06:57,645
Speaker 1: He seemed to be developing dementia and eventually he went

109
00:06:57,685 --> 00:07:00,045
Speaker 1: to stay long term at a psychiatric hospital.

110
00:07:01,085 --> 00:07:02,245
Speaker 3: So by the.

111
00:07:02,205 --> 00:07:05,805
Speaker 1: Time of Shirley's shooting, Shirley was running the family business

112
00:07:05,885 --> 00:07:09,765
Speaker 1: by herself. There is so much going on with this

113
00:07:09,885 --> 00:07:14,485
Speaker 1: case and so much history, and good investigative reporting really

114
00:07:14,525 --> 00:07:17,685
Speaker 1: can change the game in these cases because it's all

115
00:07:17,725 --> 00:07:21,645
Speaker 1: about reading between the lines. In this case, reporter Michelle

116
00:07:21,725 --> 00:07:25,085
Speaker 1: McPhee did a great story for Boston Magazine, and that

117
00:07:25,245 --> 00:07:28,325
Speaker 1: story had a lot of details that many shows like

118
00:07:28,445 --> 00:07:33,085
Speaker 1: the CNN Special left out, like the fact that Michael,

119
00:07:33,285 --> 00:07:36,845
Speaker 1: the guy who found Shirley, wasn't just a coworker of Shirley's.

120
00:07:37,365 --> 00:07:40,805
Speaker 1: He was married, but allegedly he was Shirley's lover, which

121
00:07:40,805 --> 00:07:43,005
Speaker 1: is why he showed up so early at that hour

122
00:07:43,045 --> 00:07:46,765
Speaker 1: of the morning, and how he knew how Shirley took

123
00:07:46,765 --> 00:07:50,205
Speaker 1: her coffee. This was something that Michael never admitted, by

124
00:07:50,205 --> 00:07:52,405
Speaker 1: the way, so at first it's hard to know if

125
00:07:52,405 --> 00:07:55,765
Speaker 1: it's just local rumor or something more. But it was

126
00:07:55,845 --> 00:07:59,165
Speaker 1: an early indication that in this case, nothing is what

127
00:07:59,205 --> 00:08:02,365
Speaker 1: it appears to be on the surface. It reminds me

128
00:08:02,485 --> 00:08:04,365
Speaker 1: a lot of some of the cases I've covered in

129
00:08:04,485 --> 00:08:09,325
Speaker 1: Arkansas and other places, small towns, where each person is

130
00:08:09,365 --> 00:08:12,645
Speaker 1: connected to multiple people in the case in various different ways.

131
00:08:13,165 --> 00:08:15,925
Speaker 1: For example, you'll have someone who is a witness and

132
00:08:16,045 --> 00:08:18,765
Speaker 1: also rented someone a house, and they're the cousin of

133
00:08:18,765 --> 00:08:19,525
Speaker 1: the prosecutor.

134
00:08:20,005 --> 00:08:21,685
Speaker 3: This is just the way it is in small towns.

135
00:08:21,725 --> 00:08:24,045
Speaker 1: But I have to say the entanglements in the Rainy

136
00:08:24,085 --> 00:08:26,605
Speaker 1: case are some of the most complicated I've ever seen.

137
00:08:27,525 --> 00:08:31,525
Speaker 1: Shirley was very close to one family member, her sister, Loretta.

138
00:08:32,045 --> 00:08:35,645
Speaker 1: Loretta told CNN that from the beginning she suspected that

139
00:08:35,685 --> 00:08:38,725
Speaker 1: someone in Shirley's husband's family had something to do with

140
00:08:38,765 --> 00:08:42,525
Speaker 1: the shooting. Now, remember, at this time, Shirley was running

141
00:08:42,565 --> 00:08:46,245
Speaker 1: her husband, Melvin Senior's business. Loretta did work for the

142
00:08:46,245 --> 00:08:49,565
Speaker 1: family business as well. Not only did Shirley and Loretta

143
00:08:49,645 --> 00:08:52,445
Speaker 1: work together, but they were together almost every night after

144
00:08:52,485 --> 00:08:57,205
Speaker 1: work too, including on May ninth. After work on May night,

145
00:08:57,725 --> 00:09:00,245
Speaker 1: Shirley drove to Loretta's house and had dinner with her.

146
00:09:00,725 --> 00:09:04,365
Speaker 1: Loretta told investigators that was at around six pm. Loretta

147
00:09:04,485 --> 00:09:07,405
Speaker 1: said Shirley left for her home sometime between eight thirty

148
00:09:07,405 --> 00:09:10,845
Speaker 1: and eight forty five pm. Police theorized that, based on

149
00:09:10,885 --> 00:09:14,205
Speaker 1: the crime scene, Shirley pulled into her garage, her killer

150
00:09:14,245 --> 00:09:17,205
Speaker 1: stepped out of the darkness with a nine millimeter handgun,

151
00:09:17,485 --> 00:09:20,845
Speaker 1: which was found to be the weapon used, shot Shirley twice,

152
00:09:21,005 --> 00:09:24,645
Speaker 1: and left the scene. Police suspected that this could have

153
00:09:24,645 --> 00:09:28,205
Speaker 1: been a professional hit, or at least it was done

154
00:09:28,245 --> 00:09:31,685
Speaker 1: by someone with insider knowledge, someone who was intimately familiar

155
00:09:31,765 --> 00:09:35,805
Speaker 1: with Shirley's schedule. Plus, there was no sign of forced entry,

156
00:09:36,325 --> 00:09:38,885
Speaker 1: so it might have been someone who had a key

157
00:09:39,005 --> 00:09:41,125
Speaker 1: or knew about another way to get inside that house,

158
00:09:41,885 --> 00:09:46,085
Speaker 1: someone who made a plan and targeted Shirley. So who

159
00:09:46,085 --> 00:09:48,285
Speaker 1: could that have been? Who would have wanted Shirley dead?

160
00:09:49,085 --> 00:09:52,845
Speaker 1: Police talked to Michael Dominguez, who remember was not only

161
00:09:53,125 --> 00:09:57,605
Speaker 1: Shirley's employee, but also potentially her alleged lover, and then

162
00:09:57,725 --> 00:10:00,965
Speaker 1: later it came out in the Cape Cod Times that

163
00:10:01,285 --> 00:10:07,485
Speaker 1: Michael Dominguez was also rumored to be mel Child, a

164
00:10:07,605 --> 00:10:10,005
Speaker 1: child that Melvin Senior had had out of wedlock from

165
00:10:10,005 --> 00:10:14,645
Speaker 1: another relationship. So technically he would be Shirley's illegitimate step

166
00:10:14,685 --> 00:10:17,845
Speaker 1: son as well. But Michael had an alibi for the

167
00:10:17,925 --> 00:10:20,645
Speaker 1: night before he was with his wife, Plus he and

168
00:10:20,725 --> 00:10:23,365
Speaker 1: Shirley were getting along, so there was really no reason

169
00:10:23,365 --> 00:10:26,005
Speaker 1: to suspect that he would have heard her. And then

170
00:10:26,205 --> 00:10:30,765
Speaker 1: there were Shirley's stepsons. Because it turned out not only

171
00:10:31,005 --> 00:10:35,765
Speaker 1: were Shirley's stepsons angry about the family business, they believed

172
00:10:35,885 --> 00:10:38,525
Speaker 1: that she had their dad locked away and that she

173
00:10:38,605 --> 00:10:41,445
Speaker 1: had been responsible for them being cut out of his will,

174
00:10:42,325 --> 00:10:46,245
Speaker 1: but they also believed that Shirley may have been partially

175
00:10:46,325 --> 00:10:52,725
Speaker 1: responsible for killing their mother. Cape Cod is known as

176
00:10:52,765 --> 00:10:55,805
Speaker 1: being a safe, sleepy, little area, but there were a

177
00:10:55,845 --> 00:10:58,445
Speaker 1: couple of very high profile murders in the years before

178
00:10:58,485 --> 00:11:03,045
Speaker 1: Shirley was shot. Both of them were women, but both

179
00:11:03,085 --> 00:11:05,245
Speaker 1: of these women could kind of be described as out

180
00:11:05,245 --> 00:11:08,845
Speaker 1: of ten people who were renting in the area for locals.

181
00:11:08,885 --> 00:11:12,165
Speaker 1: This case was different. Shirley Rainey was a local girl.

182
00:11:12,565 --> 00:11:15,045
Speaker 1: She grew up in the area and it seemed like

183
00:11:15,125 --> 00:11:17,645
Speaker 1: everyone knew her, or at least knew of her and

184
00:11:17,685 --> 00:11:18,565
Speaker 1: her husband's family.

185
00:11:19,725 --> 00:11:22,685
Speaker 2: Police asked Michael Dominguez who he thought did it.

186
00:11:23,445 --> 00:11:26,645
Speaker 1: He immediately said Todd and Melvin Junior, Shirley step son's.

187
00:11:28,005 --> 00:11:32,125
Speaker 1: Shirley's lawyer, William Enright told Boston Magazine quote she was

188
00:11:32,165 --> 00:11:36,325
Speaker 1: afraid of her step son's end quote. There was also

189
00:11:36,365 --> 00:11:39,525
Speaker 1: the question of where Todd was on the night of

190
00:11:39,565 --> 00:11:43,805
Speaker 1: the shooting. His girlfriend, Joanne, said that he had been

191
00:11:43,925 --> 00:11:46,565
Speaker 1: at their house, which was right down from Shirley's house.

192
00:11:48,325 --> 00:11:52,005
Speaker 2: She later testified that Todd had been at her house

193
00:11:52,045 --> 00:11:55,045
Speaker 2: on the night when Shirley was killed, but the timeline

194
00:11:55,085 --> 00:11:58,125
Speaker 2: seemed pretty vague. Joanne said that she went out to

195
00:11:58,165 --> 00:12:00,885
Speaker 2: run an errand and that when she came back, Todd

196
00:12:00,925 --> 00:12:07,325
Speaker 2: was gone. Shirley's sister, Loretta also so asked police why

197
00:12:07,365 --> 00:12:13,125
Speaker 2: no one heard anything, because remember, several family members lived nearby,

198
00:12:13,325 --> 00:12:17,325
Speaker 2: and yet no one had heard any gunshots. Police also

199
00:12:17,445 --> 00:12:20,525
Speaker 2: wondered why Todd and his girlfriend Joanne would not let

200
00:12:20,525 --> 00:12:24,845
Speaker 2: their two children talk to investigators. Jo Anne later told police,

201
00:12:24,925 --> 00:12:26,885
Speaker 2: according to the Cape Cod Times, that it was a

202
00:12:26,965 --> 00:12:31,525
Speaker 2: joint decision. So now that we know how Shirley's life

203
00:12:31,645 --> 00:12:34,845
Speaker 2: ended violently, we need to take a step back and

204
00:12:35,005 --> 00:12:38,125
Speaker 2: find out how her relationship with Melvin started, how she

205
00:12:38,165 --> 00:12:42,765
Speaker 2: got sucked into all this. Melvin Senior was born in

206
00:12:42,845 --> 00:12:44,725
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty nine, and he grew up in the area.

207
00:12:45,405 --> 00:12:48,045
Speaker 2: Very early on he started to get into the family

208
00:12:48,125 --> 00:12:51,965
Speaker 2: trashouling business. He started being involved in criminal activity at

209
00:12:51,965 --> 00:12:55,565
Speaker 2: a young age as well. Melvin's first wife, the mom

210
00:12:55,725 --> 00:12:58,645
Speaker 2: of Todd and Melvin Junior, was a local girl named

211
00:12:58,645 --> 00:13:02,645
Speaker 2: Wanda Maderos. Apparently, Wanda was a very serious, kind of

212
00:13:02,685 --> 00:13:06,485
Speaker 2: studious and shy young woman, and her family did not

213
00:13:06,725 --> 00:13:08,325
Speaker 2: like Melvin when they started going out.

214
00:13:09,125 --> 00:13:09,845
Speaker 3: He was this kind of.

215
00:13:09,845 --> 00:13:13,045
Speaker 1: Squirrely older guy who was hanging around their teenage daughter.

216
00:13:13,365 --> 00:13:16,565
Speaker 1: And at this point Melvin was already in his mid twenties.

217
00:13:17,205 --> 00:13:19,245
Speaker 1: But Wanda was in love with him, even though he

218
00:13:19,285 --> 00:13:22,725
Speaker 1: had a reputation as a gangster, and so right after

219
00:13:22,765 --> 00:13:26,045
Speaker 1: she turned eighteen, they got married on October twenty sixth,

220
00:13:26,125 --> 00:13:30,645
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty four. They had two children, Melvin Junior and Todd.

221
00:13:31,525 --> 00:13:34,645
Speaker 1: As we said before, Melvin was already involved in the

222
00:13:34,685 --> 00:13:38,165
Speaker 1: family trash hauling business, he was also involved in a

223
00:13:38,205 --> 00:13:41,445
Speaker 1: lot of arson. Melvin was arrested for arson a few

224
00:13:41,485 --> 00:13:44,365
Speaker 1: years later. In nineteen sixty eight. He and a younger

225
00:13:44,405 --> 00:13:46,645
Speaker 1: guy he was working with, who was actually a teenager

226
00:13:46,645 --> 00:13:49,845
Speaker 1: at the time, set fire to a bunch of houses

227
00:13:49,885 --> 00:13:54,165
Speaker 1: and a hotel in Cape cod From reading through descriptions

228
00:13:54,165 --> 00:13:57,045
Speaker 1: of what happened, it looks like the police were able

229
00:13:57,085 --> 00:13:59,365
Speaker 1: to talk to Melvin's younger accomplice and kind of get

230
00:13:59,445 --> 00:14:02,685
Speaker 1: him to flip on Melvin. As a result, Melvin was

231
00:14:02,685 --> 00:14:06,165
Speaker 1: convicted of seven counts of arson. That same year, Melvin

232
00:14:06,245 --> 00:14:08,805
Speaker 1: was sentenced to five to eight years in state prison.

233
00:14:09,765 --> 00:14:12,685
Speaker 1: And while Melvin was in prison, he seemed to learn

234
00:14:12,685 --> 00:14:16,205
Speaker 1: a lesson from this. Unfortunately, the lesson wasn't that he

235
00:14:16,205 --> 00:14:19,485
Speaker 1: shouldn't commit crime and burn down houses. The lesson he

236
00:14:19,645 --> 00:14:22,045
Speaker 1: learned was that in future he was going to make

237
00:14:22,085 --> 00:14:26,885
Speaker 1: sure nobody ever flipped on him again. Melvin was released

238
00:14:26,925 --> 00:14:30,165
Speaker 1: after eighteen months. When he got back to town, everyone

239
00:14:30,325 --> 00:14:34,445
Speaker 1: said he was not rehabilitated. In fact, just the opposite.

240
00:14:34,645 --> 00:14:38,565
Speaker 1: He seemed to have no fear. He was bold both

241
00:14:38,605 --> 00:14:41,525
Speaker 1: in his criminal activities and in his private life because,

242
00:14:41,525 --> 00:14:44,485
Speaker 1: according to pretty much everyone who knew him, Melvin was

243
00:14:44,525 --> 00:14:47,725
Speaker 1: not an attractive man. He was five feet eight inches tall,

244
00:14:47,845 --> 00:14:50,085
Speaker 1: he weighed around one hundred and sixty pounds, so was

245
00:14:50,085 --> 00:14:53,485
Speaker 1: pretty skinny, and he had this kind of unkempt pompadour

246
00:14:53,845 --> 00:14:57,325
Speaker 1: slick back hairstyle. But The main thing that people found

247
00:14:57,405 --> 00:15:02,005
Speaker 1: disturbing about Melvin's appearance was his eyes. A lot of

248
00:15:02,005 --> 00:15:04,965
Speaker 1: people talked about how he had this weird, distant stare,

249
00:15:06,005 --> 00:15:09,525
Speaker 1: this really weird, unsettling smile that was kind of a

250
00:15:09,565 --> 00:15:12,965
Speaker 1: creepy leer, but that didn't stop him from being a

251
00:15:13,005 --> 00:15:17,325
Speaker 1: local player. According to rumors, he dated lots of young women,

252
00:15:17,365 --> 00:15:20,805
Speaker 1: and I do mean young women, as we've seen in

253
00:15:20,885 --> 00:15:25,845
Speaker 1: so many cases with narcissistic, controlling, sort of predatory type men,

254
00:15:26,725 --> 00:15:30,085
Speaker 1: they get older, but they continue to date teenage girls.

255
00:15:30,565 --> 00:15:34,165
Speaker 1: I find it really sad reading about Wanda, Melvin's first wife,

256
00:15:34,365 --> 00:15:37,085
Speaker 1: because it seems like after she married Melvin, she realized

257
00:15:37,125 --> 00:15:38,965
Speaker 1: pretty quickly she made a big mistake.

258
00:15:39,765 --> 00:15:42,325
Speaker 3: She really loved him, but his.

259
00:15:42,405 --> 00:15:45,685
Speaker 1: Job, combined with him staying out all hours, and her

260
00:15:45,725 --> 00:15:48,885
Speaker 1: hearing rumors about him pursuing other women, really seemed to

261
00:15:48,925 --> 00:15:52,925
Speaker 1: cause her to lose all of her confidence. Her mom, Mary,

262
00:15:52,965 --> 00:15:55,885
Speaker 1: who Wanda was very close to, made a comment to

263
00:15:55,965 --> 00:16:00,285
Speaker 1: a reporter years later. She said Wanda seemed depressed. She

264
00:16:00,405 --> 00:16:02,885
Speaker 1: was only twenty five years old, but she seemed older

265
00:16:02,885 --> 00:16:06,485
Speaker 1: than her years. Mary said Wanda's expected that her husband

266
00:16:06,565 --> 00:16:09,765
Speaker 1: was cheating on her, and Wanda was right, because Melvin

267
00:16:09,805 --> 00:16:12,445
Speaker 1: did have a wandering eye, and he already had that

268
00:16:12,485 --> 00:16:15,845
Speaker 1: wandering eyes set on someone else, a sixteen year old

269
00:16:15,885 --> 00:16:19,005
Speaker 1: named Shirley Susa who lived across the street, who would

270
00:16:19,085 --> 00:16:23,605
Speaker 1: later become his second wife. Melvin and Wanda actually hired

271
00:16:23,645 --> 00:16:27,485
Speaker 1: Shirley as a living babysitter, which is a little weird

272
00:16:27,965 --> 00:16:30,125
Speaker 1: because Wanda was a stay at home mom and she

273
00:16:30,165 --> 00:16:32,885
Speaker 1: didn't go out that much, so it's not clear why

274
00:16:32,925 --> 00:16:36,645
Speaker 1: they would need full time childcare help, especially a living

275
00:16:36,725 --> 00:16:41,125
Speaker 1: babysitter who was gorgeous. Back then, Shirley was tall, she

276
00:16:41,205 --> 00:16:44,365
Speaker 1: had long black hair, and this very bucksome figure. It

277
00:16:44,485 --> 00:16:48,765
Speaker 1: was obvious that Melvin was interested in her. So now

278
00:16:48,805 --> 00:16:52,205
Speaker 1: this brings us up to the early seventies. Wanda is

279
00:16:52,245 --> 00:16:55,045
Speaker 1: twenty five years old, She's depressed, she's sure that her

280
00:16:55,085 --> 00:16:57,565
Speaker 1: husband is cheating, and Melvin has his eye on the

281
00:16:57,565 --> 00:17:02,005
Speaker 1: babysitter from across the street. On March thirteenth, nineteen seventy one,

282
00:17:02,645 --> 00:17:05,325
Speaker 1: Wanda's mother, Mary called the house looking for her daughter.

283
00:17:06,045 --> 00:17:08,925
Speaker 1: She talked to one of her grandsons and they told

284
00:17:09,005 --> 00:17:11,885
Speaker 1: her that Wanda had gone to visit her grandma Mary.

285
00:17:12,405 --> 00:17:13,365
Speaker 3: Well, Mary knew.

286
00:17:13,245 --> 00:17:16,845
Speaker 1: This wasn't true. Finally she talked to Melvin. He said

287
00:17:17,005 --> 00:17:20,285
Speaker 1: that the kids had it wrong. What really happened was

288
00:17:20,285 --> 00:17:22,645
Speaker 1: that Wanda had gone to visit a cousin who lived

289
00:17:22,645 --> 00:17:25,965
Speaker 1: in a town called Whaream, which was nearby. He mentioned

290
00:17:26,005 --> 00:17:28,045
Speaker 1: that he and Wanda got into an argument before she

291
00:17:28,165 --> 00:17:31,205
Speaker 1: left the house, he said, over a small amount of money.

292
00:17:32,205 --> 00:17:35,205
Speaker 1: Melvin waited five days to report his wife and the

293
00:17:35,205 --> 00:17:38,605
Speaker 1: mother of his two children officially missing, and when people

294
00:17:38,685 --> 00:17:42,365
Speaker 1: asked Melvin what happened, apparently he told them Wanda might

295
00:17:42,365 --> 00:17:44,605
Speaker 1: have been having an affair and left him for a lover.

296
00:17:45,725 --> 00:17:49,245
Speaker 1: Her mother, Mary, said this was absolutely ridiculous. First of all,

297
00:17:49,285 --> 00:17:51,725
Speaker 1: she said, Wanda would never have had an affair. This

298
00:17:51,765 --> 00:17:53,725
Speaker 1: was a woman who was still devoted to her husband,

299
00:17:54,125 --> 00:17:57,125
Speaker 1: her confidence had been shattered, and also she loved her children.

300
00:17:57,205 --> 00:18:01,925
Speaker 1: She did everything for them. She would never leave her sons. Secondly,

301
00:18:01,965 --> 00:18:05,165
Speaker 1: the cousin whom Melvin had referred to no longer even

302
00:18:05,245 --> 00:18:08,405
Speaker 1: lived wear them, and once Melvin talked to police, it

303
00:18:08,485 --> 00:18:11,205
Speaker 1: turned out that the bus depot that he had supposedly

304
00:18:11,285 --> 00:18:13,045
Speaker 1: taken one to two to put her on a bus

305
00:18:13,085 --> 00:18:15,685
Speaker 1: to visit that cousin didn't even go to war them,

306
00:18:16,205 --> 00:18:19,925
Speaker 1: so none of the story made any sense. Mary and

307
00:18:20,005 --> 00:18:22,445
Speaker 1: a lot of other people who knew Wanda believed that

308
00:18:22,485 --> 00:18:25,245
Speaker 1: Melvin had done something to her, that he'd killed her

309
00:18:25,445 --> 00:18:28,485
Speaker 1: and gotten rid of her body. They pointed out that

310
00:18:28,565 --> 00:18:31,125
Speaker 1: it certainly would have been within his area of expertise.

311
00:18:32,205 --> 00:18:34,965
Speaker 1: Not only was he in the business of trash removal,

312
00:18:35,365 --> 00:18:37,885
Speaker 1: but apparently Melvin had a brother in law who was

313
00:18:37,885 --> 00:18:38,565
Speaker 1: a grave digger.

314
00:18:41,485 --> 00:18:44,925
Speaker 2: Police did search his home. They looked in a few areas,

315
00:18:44,965 --> 00:18:48,925
Speaker 2: including a garage where fresh cement had been poured, and

316
00:18:49,085 --> 00:18:52,205
Speaker 2: a septic tank, but you have to remember this is

317
00:18:52,245 --> 00:18:56,045
Speaker 2: a massive compound with a lot of potential hiding places.

318
00:18:56,645 --> 00:19:00,005
Speaker 2: In the end, police left without finding anything.

319
00:19:03,565 --> 00:19:06,645
Speaker 1: Over the years, Mary has had to hear a lot

320
00:19:06,645 --> 00:19:10,605
Speaker 1: of local rumors about how Melvin supposedly got rid of Wandah.

321
00:19:11,005 --> 00:19:14,285
Speaker 1: Some people believe that since part of his business involved

322
00:19:14,285 --> 00:19:17,365
Speaker 1: picking up animal fats from local butcher shops and then

323
00:19:17,445 --> 00:19:19,765
Speaker 1: taking them to a factory so they could be processed

324
00:19:19,765 --> 00:19:22,565
Speaker 1: into soap, that maybe that's what he did with Wanda.

325
00:19:22,725 --> 00:19:26,565
Speaker 1: Maybe he turned Wanda into hand soap. I cannot imagine

326
00:19:26,565 --> 00:19:29,205
Speaker 1: how painful it must have been for Mary to hear

327
00:19:29,405 --> 00:19:32,005
Speaker 1: all of these rumors and consider all of these horrific

328
00:19:32,045 --> 00:19:36,125
Speaker 1: possibilities and to never find her daughter. Wanda's family was

329
00:19:36,205 --> 00:19:38,725
Speaker 1: very suspicious, but the bottom line is with no body

330
00:19:38,725 --> 00:19:41,805
Speaker 1: and with Melvin not talking, they couldn't really do anything,

331
00:19:42,565 --> 00:19:47,365
Speaker 1: so the case went cold. After Wanda disappeared, Shirley, the

332
00:19:47,405 --> 00:19:51,645
Speaker 1: teenage babysitter, moved in permanently. But there was another problem

333
00:19:51,925 --> 00:19:55,485
Speaker 1: because Shirley already had a boyfriend, or at least a

334
00:19:55,565 --> 00:19:58,845
Speaker 1: local guy who liked her, a seventeen year old named

335
00:19:58,885 --> 00:20:04,885
Speaker 1: Charles Jeffrey Flanagan. In October of nineteen seventy two, Shirley

336
00:20:04,965 --> 00:20:07,045
Speaker 1: was one of the last last people seen hanging out

337
00:20:07,085 --> 00:20:12,285
Speaker 1: with Jeff and then he disappeared. He was last seen

338
00:20:12,445 --> 00:20:15,445
Speaker 1: going out to a movie with some friends, and then

339
00:20:15,485 --> 00:20:18,925
Speaker 1: those friends told police that Shirley and Melvin pulled up

340
00:20:18,965 --> 00:20:22,325
Speaker 1: in Melvin's Cadillac and offered Jeff a ride home, then

341
00:20:22,685 --> 00:20:27,685
Speaker 1: he disappeared. Later, the authorities found Jeff's body. He had

342
00:20:27,685 --> 00:20:30,045
Speaker 1: been shot in the face with a twenty gage shotgun.

343
00:20:30,805 --> 00:20:33,445
Speaker 1: The bullet went out his upper back, severing his spinal cord.

344
00:20:34,845 --> 00:20:38,125
Speaker 1: He was found in a Cranberry bog right across from

345
00:20:38,165 --> 00:20:41,645
Speaker 1: Melvin's house on East Falmouth Highway, the same house where

346
00:20:41,685 --> 00:20:46,045
Speaker 1: Shirley's body would be found years later. There were a

347
00:20:46,085 --> 00:20:49,085
Speaker 1: lot of suspicions, but again Melvin was never charged in

348
00:20:49,085 --> 00:20:52,565
Speaker 1: connection with his crime. John Busby, a police officer who

349
00:20:52,685 --> 00:20:56,005
Speaker 1: was shot in the face after he offended Melvin, said

350
00:20:56,045 --> 00:20:58,325
Speaker 1: in a book that he wrote about the case that

351
00:20:58,485 --> 00:21:01,405
Speaker 1: on the day that Jeff's body was found, Shirley was

352
00:21:01,405 --> 00:21:06,085
Speaker 1: seen scrubbing down Melvin's Cadillac, but Shirley always dined any

353
00:21:06,125 --> 00:21:10,485
Speaker 1: wrongdoing in connection with any crime. Over the years, Melvin

354
00:21:10,565 --> 00:21:13,165
Speaker 1: Senior was also linked to the disappearance and murder of

355
00:21:13,205 --> 00:21:18,285
Speaker 1: several more people. In nineteen seventy seven, Paul Alwert was

356
00:21:18,325 --> 00:21:21,005
Speaker 1: seventeen years old and he worked for Five Star Enterprises,

357
00:21:21,045 --> 00:21:24,765
Speaker 1: Melvin's trash business. He was the suspect in an arson

358
00:21:25,165 --> 00:21:29,845
Speaker 1: that supposedly was arranged and masterminded by Melvin. In a way,

359
00:21:29,925 --> 00:21:32,685
Speaker 1: it was a replay of the charges that Melvin had

360
00:21:32,725 --> 00:21:35,405
Speaker 1: faced a few years earlier when he committed arson with

361
00:21:35,445 --> 00:21:40,605
Speaker 1: a teenage accomplice. Police convinced Paul to testify against Melvin.

362
00:21:41,565 --> 00:21:46,005
Speaker 1: Paul said he was terrified. Police convinced him they could

363
00:21:46,045 --> 00:21:49,365
Speaker 1: protect him. They put him on a ferry to Martha's vineyard.

364
00:21:49,845 --> 00:21:53,445
Speaker 1: He was supposed to testify the next day. The police

365
00:21:53,525 --> 00:21:55,925
Speaker 1: watched him board the fairy, and then the fairy pulled

366
00:21:55,965 --> 00:21:59,125
Speaker 1: away and vanished. When it docked on the other side,

367
00:21:59,325 --> 00:22:02,805
Speaker 1: Paul was gone. No one has seen any trace of

368
00:22:02,885 --> 00:22:07,645
Speaker 1: him since. There is very little information about Paul online.

369
00:22:08,085 --> 00:22:10,605
Speaker 1: Just an old pixelated photo of a little boy with

370
00:22:10,645 --> 00:22:13,005
Speaker 1: shiny brown hair and two front teeth with a really

371
00:22:13,045 --> 00:22:17,165
Speaker 1: cute smile looking up at the camera. It's absolutely heartbreaking.

372
00:22:18,205 --> 00:22:22,045
Speaker 1: Some news reports have said that Paul had a troubled childhood,

373
00:22:22,325 --> 00:22:24,525
Speaker 1: that he was a ward of the Massachusetts Department of

374
00:22:24,565 --> 00:22:27,085
Speaker 1: Youth Services. So I don't know if he had any

375
00:22:27,125 --> 00:22:29,805
Speaker 1: family or friends to even report him missing or to

376
00:22:29,845 --> 00:22:34,725
Speaker 1: do public appeals. He was just gone. Police never identified

377
00:22:34,765 --> 00:22:38,285
Speaker 1: a suspect in that case. It is still unsolved. Just

378
00:22:38,325 --> 00:22:41,685
Speaker 1: another disappearance that Melvin Senior was suspected of being involved

379
00:22:41,685 --> 00:22:46,725
Speaker 1: in that was never proven. Over the years, Melvin Senior's

380
00:22:46,765 --> 00:22:49,805
Speaker 1: trash hauling company got more and more powerful. They developed

381
00:22:49,965 --> 00:22:53,965
Speaker 1: kind of a local monopoly, and Melvin continued to openly

382
00:22:54,005 --> 00:22:58,245
Speaker 1: threaten people, even police. In August of nineteen seventy nine,

383
00:22:58,365 --> 00:23:02,325
Speaker 1: John Busby, the Foulmouth Police officer we mentioned earlier found

384
00:23:02,325 --> 00:23:05,445
Speaker 1: out the hard way what happened when you cross Melvin Senior.

385
00:23:06,565 --> 00:23:09,285
Speaker 1: John Busby was on patrol when he gave a guy

386
00:23:09,325 --> 00:23:13,245
Speaker 1: a traffic ticket. The guy was with Melvin, and Melvin

387
00:23:13,285 --> 00:23:16,285
Speaker 1: said something like, don't you know who I am? John

388
00:23:16,325 --> 00:23:19,645
Speaker 1: Busby basically refused to be intimidated and just told Melvin

389
00:23:19,765 --> 00:23:23,485
Speaker 1: and his accomplice to pay the ticket. Well, apparently this

390
00:23:23,765 --> 00:23:27,645
Speaker 1: enraged Melvin. He said, I smell smoke, which was something

391
00:23:27,645 --> 00:23:30,005
Speaker 1: that he said to a lot of people to intimidate

392
00:23:30,085 --> 00:23:32,605
Speaker 1: them and threaten them, make them feel like he was

393
00:23:32,645 --> 00:23:35,965
Speaker 1: going to start a fire. John Busby said that Melvin

394
00:23:36,045 --> 00:23:37,845
Speaker 1: kind of puffed his chest out, but he just tried

395
00:23:37,845 --> 00:23:41,165
Speaker 1: to ignore him. On August thirty first of that year,

396
00:23:41,645 --> 00:23:44,845
Speaker 1: John Busby was on patrol. A car pulled up next

397
00:23:44,845 --> 00:23:47,645
Speaker 1: to him. Someone put a shotgun out of one of

398
00:23:47,685 --> 00:23:50,565
Speaker 1: the windows and shot him at point blank range in

399
00:23:50,645 --> 00:23:54,485
Speaker 1: the face. The bullets shattered his jaw and severed part

400
00:23:54,485 --> 00:23:57,965
Speaker 1: of his tongue, and somehow, with half of his face

401
00:23:58,045 --> 00:24:01,245
Speaker 1: hanging off, John Busby managed to get to a nearby

402
00:24:01,285 --> 00:24:04,325
Speaker 1: house to get help. He was very close to death,

403
00:24:04,365 --> 00:24:09,005
Speaker 1: but he survived. However, he did suffer permanent injuries. His

404
00:24:09,125 --> 00:24:12,125
Speaker 1: speech continues to be affected. He had to have eighteen

405
00:24:12,245 --> 00:24:16,045
Speaker 1: years of reconstructive surgeries. His life and his career as

406
00:24:16,085 --> 00:24:19,405
Speaker 1: he had known it were over. In his book, which

407
00:24:19,445 --> 00:24:22,405
Speaker 1: was actually written by John Busby and his daughter, called

408
00:24:22,445 --> 00:24:25,445
Speaker 1: The Year We Disappeared, they talked about how after he

409
00:24:25,485 --> 00:24:28,245
Speaker 1: got shot, the family had to go into hiding, they

410
00:24:28,285 --> 00:24:30,725
Speaker 1: had to lead their entire lives behind all because they

411
00:24:30,725 --> 00:24:35,125
Speaker 1: were terrorized by Melvin. No charges were ever filed in

412
00:24:35,125 --> 00:24:39,325
Speaker 1: connection with that shooting either, and John Busby was described

413
00:24:39,365 --> 00:24:42,005
Speaker 1: by everyone who knew him as a good, honest cop,

414
00:24:42,085 --> 00:24:45,325
Speaker 1: someone who did the right thing. And look what happened

415
00:24:45,365 --> 00:24:46,965
Speaker 1: to the guy who tried to do the right thing.

416
00:24:47,845 --> 00:24:51,325
Speaker 1: He ended up permanently disfigured, while the guy who masterminded

417
00:24:51,365 --> 00:24:57,205
Speaker 1: his shooting was allowed to go on unchallenged. Melvin's company

418
00:24:57,205 --> 00:25:00,205
Speaker 1: did get into some trouble over the years. In nineteen

419
00:25:00,205 --> 00:25:04,125
Speaker 1: eighty five, Five Star Enterprises actually had their contract terminated

420
00:25:04,165 --> 00:25:07,965
Speaker 1: by the town. Melvin was accused of fraud. He was

421
00:25:08,005 --> 00:25:11,125
Speaker 1: accused of collaborating with other companies so that the bid

422
00:25:11,165 --> 00:25:14,085
Speaker 1: for the trash hauling services would always go to him. Basically,

423
00:25:14,125 --> 00:25:17,885
Speaker 1: he was accused of rigging the system. But Melvin, like

424
00:25:17,925 --> 00:25:20,725
Speaker 1: a lot of underworld figures in small towns, had a

425
00:25:20,725 --> 00:25:24,325
Speaker 1: lot of friends in powerful positions. He was even friends

426
00:25:24,325 --> 00:25:28,925
Speaker 1: with several police officers. Melvin was acquitted of those charges,

427
00:25:29,365 --> 00:25:32,045
Speaker 1: which shocked a lot of people, but after that he

428
00:25:32,085 --> 00:25:35,005
Speaker 1: seemed to become more and more bold. He probably thought

429
00:25:35,005 --> 00:25:38,165
Speaker 1: he was untouchable, and at that point, the sad thing

430
00:25:38,325 --> 00:25:42,725
Speaker 1: is he was probably right. Meanwhile, on the home front,

431
00:25:43,165 --> 00:25:48,725
Speaker 1: Melvin's personal life had always been rather complicated. After Wanda disappeared,

432
00:25:49,005 --> 00:25:53,085
Speaker 1: Shirley moved in and they were together after that. Later

433
00:25:53,165 --> 00:25:56,525
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety seven, Melvin filed for divorce from Wanda

434
00:25:56,845 --> 00:26:00,005
Speaker 1: on the grounds that she deserted him, which again must

435
00:26:00,005 --> 00:26:02,605
Speaker 1: have been so painful for her family and her children

436
00:26:02,965 --> 00:26:06,645
Speaker 1: to consider that possibility and to know it wasn't true.

437
00:26:06,725 --> 00:26:09,525
Speaker 1: Melvin and Shirley finally got married in nineteen ninety nine.

438
00:26:10,245 --> 00:26:13,565
Speaker 1: They never had children of their own, but according to

439
00:26:13,605 --> 00:26:17,245
Speaker 1: a lot of people, including people from the family, Shirley

440
00:26:17,485 --> 00:26:21,325
Speaker 1: and Melvin's sons got along really well in the beginning.

441
00:26:21,365 --> 00:26:24,285
Speaker 1: She treated them like they were her own. She was

442
00:26:24,365 --> 00:26:26,205
Speaker 1: living with them in the home from the time they

443
00:26:26,205 --> 00:26:29,085
Speaker 1: were very young. In the seventies, they grew up together

444
00:26:29,165 --> 00:26:33,645
Speaker 1: as this sort of strange, blended family. Of course, at first,

445
00:26:33,725 --> 00:26:37,205
Speaker 1: because the boys were young, they probably had no idea

446
00:26:37,205 --> 00:26:40,765
Speaker 1: what was going on. They probably believed whatever Melvin and

447
00:26:40,805 --> 00:26:44,445
Speaker 1: Shirley told them about their mother leaving and not coming back.

448
00:26:45,205 --> 00:26:48,645
Speaker 1: But over the years, it seems like the boys began

449
00:26:48,725 --> 00:26:51,285
Speaker 1: to get suspicious about what had really happened to their mother,

450
00:26:51,685 --> 00:26:54,405
Speaker 1: and that must have been a really strange household to

451
00:26:54,445 --> 00:26:57,725
Speaker 1: live in. To love your stepmother and your father, but

452
00:26:57,765 --> 00:26:59,885
Speaker 1: also to kind of suspect they might have had something

453
00:26:59,925 --> 00:27:05,405
Speaker 1: to do with killing your mother. Over the years, Melvin

454
00:27:05,645 --> 00:27:10,605
Speaker 1: Antics became more and more notorious, but law enforcement just

455
00:27:10,645 --> 00:27:13,885
Speaker 1: seemed to look the other way, even when Melvin once

456
00:27:13,925 --> 00:27:16,085
Speaker 1: set fire to a car that was sitting in the

457
00:27:16,085 --> 00:27:20,725
Speaker 1: police chief's driveway according to CNN, and all those years

458
00:27:20,845 --> 00:27:24,805
Speaker 1: Shirley worked for Melvin. Her sister Loretta did the bookkeeping,

459
00:27:24,925 --> 00:27:29,645
Speaker 1: and Shirley was the financial controller. Finally, in the mid nineties,

460
00:27:30,365 --> 00:27:33,885
Speaker 1: there was the rift between Melvin and his sons. Again,

461
00:27:34,085 --> 00:27:36,565
Speaker 1: what exactly went down really depends on who you ask.

462
00:27:37,525 --> 00:27:41,405
Speaker 1: Shirley's family and her lawyer blame the boys for their

463
00:27:41,445 --> 00:27:44,725
Speaker 1: bad work ethic. The boys have not really talked about

464
00:27:44,765 --> 00:27:47,405
Speaker 1: their reasons for disliking Shirley, but I'm sure they must

465
00:27:47,405 --> 00:27:51,165
Speaker 1: have been suspicious about what happened to their mother. After

466
00:27:51,285 --> 00:27:54,605
Speaker 1: Todd and Melvin Junior became estrange from their father and

467
00:27:54,645 --> 00:27:58,325
Speaker 1: started working for the rival company, Melvin started telling people

468
00:27:58,365 --> 00:28:04,765
Speaker 1: he missed his sons. Loretta, Shirley's sister, later described Melvin

469
00:28:04,845 --> 00:28:08,245
Speaker 1: as being like two different people. He was a psychopath

470
00:28:08,325 --> 00:28:11,645
Speaker 1: who loved to start fires and who terrorized a lot

471
00:28:11,685 --> 00:28:13,485
Speaker 1: of people in town. But on the other hand, he

472
00:28:13,485 --> 00:28:16,405
Speaker 1: could be a great neighbor. He loaned people money, and

473
00:28:16,445 --> 00:28:20,205
Speaker 1: he could be really sweet at home. Melvin's behavior started

474
00:28:20,205 --> 00:28:24,125
Speaker 1: to become more and more erratic, his mental health was declining.

475
00:28:25,405 --> 00:28:28,085
Speaker 1: In October of two thousand and one, things came to

476
00:28:28,165 --> 00:28:31,365
Speaker 1: a head when Melvin attacked a woman in public in

477
00:28:31,485 --> 00:28:34,685
Speaker 1: East Balmouth in a parking lot. He threatened to shoot her.

478
00:28:35,485 --> 00:28:37,645
Speaker 1: He was charged with attempted murder this time, and it

479
00:28:37,685 --> 00:28:39,285
Speaker 1: was something he couldn't talk his way out of.

480
00:28:40,365 --> 00:28:41,285
Speaker 3: The court put.

481
00:28:41,125 --> 00:28:45,525
Speaker 1: Melvin in a psychiatric hospital after that happened, Shirley was

482
00:28:45,565 --> 00:28:48,405
Speaker 1: in charge of the money and the business. And there's

483
00:28:48,445 --> 00:28:51,845
Speaker 1: something else that her stepson's thought was weird, they said.

484
00:28:51,965 --> 00:28:55,205
Speaker 1: Just before Melvin went away to that hospital, when presumably

485
00:28:55,285 --> 00:28:58,205
Speaker 1: his mental state was in question, Melvin made a new

486
00:28:58,285 --> 00:28:59,685
Speaker 1: will again.

487
00:28:59,805 --> 00:29:00,885
Speaker 3: This was just two.

488
00:29:00,685 --> 00:29:03,685
Speaker 1: Weeks before Melvin went into the mental hospital, and in

489
00:29:03,725 --> 00:29:07,645
Speaker 1: that will it specified that neither son would receive anything.

490
00:29:08,645 --> 00:29:12,245
Speaker 1: Todd and Melvin Junior were enraged. They believed that their

491
00:29:12,245 --> 00:29:15,245
Speaker 1: father was not in his right mind. They believed Shirley

492
00:29:15,365 --> 00:29:18,085
Speaker 1: had masterminded this turn of events and gotten their father

493
00:29:18,165 --> 00:29:22,005
Speaker 1: to change that will. Also, on a side note, when

494
00:29:22,005 --> 00:29:24,645
Speaker 1: Melvin Senior got admitted to the mental hospital right after

495
00:29:24,685 --> 00:29:27,885
Speaker 1: he got charged with a violent crime, I imagine it

496
00:29:27,925 --> 00:29:30,245
Speaker 1: could have been one of those things where people were thinking,

497
00:29:30,725 --> 00:29:34,805
Speaker 1: is he really mentally incapacitated, or is this like the

498
00:29:34,845 --> 00:29:37,605
Speaker 1: scene in Goodfellas and Casino and New Jack City and

499
00:29:37,685 --> 00:29:40,325
Speaker 1: every other mob movie where the mobsters pretend to be

500
00:29:40,365 --> 00:29:43,765
Speaker 1: super feeble, they're all in oxygen in wheelchairs, and then

501
00:29:43,765 --> 00:29:46,525
Speaker 1: they roll outside, get up and start walking around and

502
00:29:46,565 --> 00:29:51,525
Speaker 1: are actually fine. But time passed and Melvin did seem

503
00:29:51,565 --> 00:29:54,485
Speaker 1: to be having a break with reality. He was committed

504
00:29:54,485 --> 00:29:57,645
Speaker 1: to Taunton State Hospital. Later it was revealed he had

505
00:29:57,685 --> 00:30:00,085
Speaker 1: something called Pick's disease, which is kind of similar to

506
00:30:00,125 --> 00:30:04,085
Speaker 1: Alzheimer's but less common with Picks disease, the front and

507
00:30:04,125 --> 00:30:07,965
Speaker 1: temporal lobes of the are damaged, and those are the

508
00:30:07,965 --> 00:30:10,725
Speaker 1: parts of the brain that control behavior, personality, and speech.

509
00:30:11,765 --> 00:30:14,805
Speaker 1: So it's a form of dementia and it was not

510
00:30:14,845 --> 00:30:15,645
Speaker 1: going to get any better.

511
00:30:17,045 --> 00:30:17,365
Speaker 3: Now.

512
00:30:17,405 --> 00:30:20,845
Speaker 1: Around this time, Melvin Junior and Todd's relationship with Shirley

513
00:30:20,885 --> 00:30:25,445
Speaker 1: completely broke down. They seemed to blame everything, including the estrangement,

514
00:30:25,485 --> 00:30:28,965
Speaker 1: on Shirley. In two thousand and two, Todd and Melvin

515
00:30:29,045 --> 00:30:31,765
Speaker 1: Junior seemed to hatch a plan. They went to the

516
00:30:31,805 --> 00:30:35,205
Speaker 1: police and they said Shirley had stolen some things from them.

517
00:30:35,765 --> 00:30:37,965
Speaker 1: They said Shirley had one of their guns at three

518
00:30:38,005 --> 00:30:40,605
Speaker 1: fifty seven magnum and a truck they had taken from her.

519
00:30:41,405 --> 00:30:43,925
Speaker 1: So the police went in and executed a search warrant

520
00:30:43,965 --> 00:30:46,925
Speaker 1: on Shirley's property. They found the truck and the gun,

521
00:30:46,965 --> 00:30:49,845
Speaker 1: and they arrested Shirley, but no charges were ever pressed

522
00:30:49,885 --> 00:30:52,565
Speaker 1: against her. Now, this is where the story gets a

523
00:30:52,565 --> 00:30:56,725
Speaker 1: little bit complicated because later it was alleged that Todd

524
00:30:56,965 --> 00:30:59,405
Speaker 1: had friends who were high up in the police department.

525
00:31:00,325 --> 00:31:02,445
Speaker 1: We know he had a relative who was a detective

526
00:31:03,045 --> 00:31:05,485
Speaker 1: and he was an informant for the foulm of police

527
00:31:05,565 --> 00:31:08,405
Speaker 1: at one point, and in court what came out was

528
00:31:08,445 --> 00:31:11,445
Speaker 1: that while the police were at Shirley's residence, they opened

529
00:31:11,485 --> 00:31:15,925
Speaker 1: up her safe. Inside were financial documents that were related

530
00:31:15,965 --> 00:31:17,165
Speaker 1: to Melvin Senior's will.

531
00:31:18,045 --> 00:31:19,765
Speaker 3: Todd allegedly taught.

532
00:31:19,525 --> 00:31:21,925
Speaker 1: To his buddies in the police department about what they

533
00:31:22,005 --> 00:31:25,605
Speaker 1: found in Shirley's safe. Now they completely denied that, But

534
00:31:26,285 --> 00:31:29,125
Speaker 1: according to a guy named John Rams, who was one

535
00:31:29,165 --> 00:31:31,325
Speaker 1: of Todd's associates who had worked with him in the past,

536
00:31:32,365 --> 00:31:35,645
Speaker 1: Todd approached him and asked him to break into Shirley's house.

537
00:31:37,085 --> 00:31:39,525
Speaker 1: John Rams had a criminal background, and some of it

538
00:31:39,605 --> 00:31:42,445
Speaker 1: was violent. In nineteen ninety two, when he was nineteen

539
00:31:42,525 --> 00:31:44,725
Speaker 1: years old, he got into a fight with a guy

540
00:31:44,805 --> 00:31:47,925
Speaker 1: and stabbed him. He ended up being convicted of manslaughter

541
00:31:48,045 --> 00:31:50,645
Speaker 1: and was sent to prison for seven years. Now his

542
00:31:50,765 --> 00:31:54,165
Speaker 1: dad told a newspaper that John was just defending himself

543
00:31:54,485 --> 00:31:57,405
Speaker 1: and that a group of guys were attacking him. But

544
00:31:57,485 --> 00:32:00,805
Speaker 1: John Rams had also been arrested for other crimes, at

545
00:32:00,805 --> 00:32:05,205
Speaker 1: one point for allegedly assaulting an ex girlfriend. Much later,

546
00:32:05,245 --> 00:32:09,285
Speaker 1: John Rams told CNN that he owed Todd Rainey a favor.

547
00:32:10,165 --> 00:32:13,205
Speaker 1: Todd told him he wanted Shirley and Melvin's will and

548
00:32:13,245 --> 00:32:15,965
Speaker 1: trust documents, the ones that were in that safe that

549
00:32:16,005 --> 00:32:19,565
Speaker 1: the police had seen. He also wanted some VHS tapes,

550
00:32:19,725 --> 00:32:22,965
Speaker 1: which he said were sex tapes. Todd believed some of

551
00:32:22,965 --> 00:32:27,725
Speaker 1: those videotapes showed Shirley having sexual encounters with prominent men

552
00:32:27,765 --> 00:32:30,485
Speaker 1: in town and believed he could use them to blackmail her.

553
00:32:31,645 --> 00:32:33,965
Speaker 1: John Rams said Todd also told him there was ten

554
00:32:34,005 --> 00:32:37,205
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in cash in a safe inside Shirley's house

555
00:32:37,485 --> 00:32:41,125
Speaker 1: that he could grab while he was there. So John

556
00:32:41,245 --> 00:32:44,645
Speaker 1: Rams told police he did what Todd wanted. He broke

557
00:32:44,685 --> 00:32:47,765
Speaker 1: into Shirley's house, he stole those documents, and he stole

558
00:32:47,805 --> 00:32:50,365
Speaker 1: the sex tapes. By the way, John Rams said there

559
00:32:50,405 --> 00:32:53,245
Speaker 1: was no cash in there, but it's pretty much impossible

560
00:32:53,285 --> 00:32:57,165
Speaker 1: to verify that. The next year, in two thousand and three,

561
00:32:57,845 --> 00:33:03,125
Speaker 1: Todd Rainey filed a lawsuit against Shirley in Barnstable Superior Court.

562
00:33:03,325 --> 00:33:06,685
Speaker 1: The lawsuit alleged that Melvin was not in his right

563
00:33:06,725 --> 00:33:08,605
Speaker 1: mind when he wrote that will, and that Shirley had

564
00:33:08,605 --> 00:33:11,685
Speaker 1: influenced him. And this is when Todd and his brother

565
00:33:11,765 --> 00:33:14,085
Speaker 1: did something that, in my opinion, was really brazen. And

566
00:33:14,125 --> 00:33:17,005
Speaker 1: just kind of shows how much confidence they had that

567
00:33:17,045 --> 00:33:19,605
Speaker 1: they were going to get away with anything they had.

568
00:33:19,645 --> 00:33:23,085
Speaker 1: The financial documents that had been stolen from Shirley's house

569
00:33:23,645 --> 00:33:28,045
Speaker 1: entered into evidence. So later police questioned Todd about this,

570
00:33:28,245 --> 00:33:30,765
Speaker 1: and it's a long and weird story, but Todd told

571
00:33:30,805 --> 00:33:34,005
Speaker 1: police that a random black man had given him those documents,

572
00:33:34,365 --> 00:33:37,205
Speaker 1: which of course was a lie because he had arranged

573
00:33:37,365 --> 00:33:40,645
Speaker 1: that break in at Shirley's house. So now police knew

574
00:33:40,765 --> 00:33:43,605
Speaker 1: Todd had been responsible for the break in at Shirley's place,

575
00:33:43,645 --> 00:33:46,485
Speaker 1: and they arrested him for it. Now, as a result

576
00:33:46,565 --> 00:33:50,365
Speaker 1: of this, Melvin Junior and Todd ended up talking to police.

577
00:33:50,925 --> 00:33:54,645
Speaker 1: They admitted that their dad, Melvin Sr. Had shot John Busby,

578
00:33:54,685 --> 00:33:57,525
Speaker 1: the police officer. He had been the one who disfigured him.

579
00:33:57,885 --> 00:34:00,805
Speaker 1: They also said their uncle, John Rainey, who lived next

580
00:34:00,805 --> 00:34:03,325
Speaker 1: door to their dad, Anne Shirley, were in the car

581
00:34:03,365 --> 00:34:05,925
Speaker 1: at the time when the policeman was shot. So the

582
00:34:05,925 --> 00:34:10,325
Speaker 1: police talked to John Rainey. He also confessed. He told police, yes,

583
00:34:10,445 --> 00:34:13,085
Speaker 1: he was driving the car the night John Busby was shot,

584
00:34:13,685 --> 00:34:16,205
Speaker 1: but he said Melvin Senior, his brother, was the one

585
00:34:16,205 --> 00:34:19,645
Speaker 1: who pulled the trigger. He also claimed that Shirley was

586
00:34:19,685 --> 00:34:22,205
Speaker 1: in the car with them, and just to show how

587
00:34:22,205 --> 00:34:25,485
Speaker 1: potentially corrupt this system was, it later came out that

588
00:34:25,565 --> 00:34:28,805
Speaker 1: Melvin Senior was friends with a local police officer and

589
00:34:28,885 --> 00:34:32,765
Speaker 1: he actually bought the getaway car from him. So now

590
00:34:32,805 --> 00:34:35,205
Speaker 1: the police had a confession. They knew who had shot

591
00:34:35,285 --> 00:34:38,965
Speaker 1: John Busby and permanently disfigured him. I really can't believe

592
00:34:39,005 --> 00:34:42,605
Speaker 1: what happened. Next, the statute of limitations had run out,

593
00:34:42,685 --> 00:34:45,245
Speaker 1: so no one was charged in the attempt on John

594
00:34:45,245 --> 00:34:48,965
Speaker 1: Busby's life. It became just one more crime that Melvin

595
00:34:49,005 --> 00:34:52,725
Speaker 1: Senior had masterminded and then walked away from totally unscathed.

596
00:34:53,805 --> 00:34:57,085
Speaker 1: So now a lot of people were wondering what did

597
00:34:57,125 --> 00:34:59,165
Speaker 1: Shirley know and when did she know it.

598
00:35:00,045 --> 00:35:00,645
Speaker 3: One thing to.

599
00:35:00,605 --> 00:35:02,765
Speaker 1: Point out here is that by all accounts, it really

600
00:35:02,805 --> 00:35:06,525
Speaker 1: does seem like Shirley loved Melvin, but not much as

601
00:35:06,565 --> 00:35:08,845
Speaker 1: known about her inner life. She did not have many

602
00:35:08,885 --> 00:35:13,085
Speaker 1: people to confide in except her sister, Loretta. Loretta, when

603
00:35:13,085 --> 00:35:16,765
Speaker 1: she talked to CNN, insisted that Shirley loved her husband,

604
00:35:17,045 --> 00:35:19,765
Speaker 1: but she said Shirley had zero knowledge of how bad

605
00:35:19,845 --> 00:35:23,845
Speaker 1: Melvin's criminal dealings were. But honestly, it's hard to believe

606
00:35:23,845 --> 00:35:26,485
Speaker 1: that Shirley could have lived there all those years and

607
00:35:26,565 --> 00:35:29,485
Speaker 1: not at least suspect that something was going on. A

608
00:35:29,525 --> 00:35:31,645
Speaker 1: lot of people think she was in deep on several

609
00:35:31,645 --> 00:35:34,405
Speaker 1: of the crimes. I don't want to sound like I'm

610
00:35:34,405 --> 00:35:37,125
Speaker 1: blaming the victim here. I'm just trying to understand the

611
00:35:37,205 --> 00:35:40,085
Speaker 1: dynamics of what was going on inside that house. We

612
00:35:40,205 --> 00:35:42,245
Speaker 1: know that Shirley was very young when she got involved

613
00:35:42,245 --> 00:35:46,645
Speaker 1: with Melvin. He was extremely manipulative and cruel, But at

614
00:35:46,645 --> 00:35:49,645
Speaker 1: the same time, she was involved in pretty much every

615
00:35:49,725 --> 00:35:53,525
Speaker 1: aspect of his business for years. It's very hard to

616
00:35:53,565 --> 00:35:57,805
Speaker 1: believe that she lived with him all those years, worked

617
00:35:57,805 --> 00:36:02,125
Speaker 1: with him, and knew nothing. Remember, Shirley was supposedly in

618
00:36:02,165 --> 00:36:06,205
Speaker 1: the car when Melvin Senior shot John Busby. Then of

619
00:36:06,245 --> 00:36:08,125
Speaker 1: course there's the fact she was one of the last

620
00:36:08,165 --> 00:36:12,925
Speaker 1: people seen with Jeff, her former boyfriend, who disappeared, and

621
00:36:12,965 --> 00:36:16,725
Speaker 1: then she was supposedly seen washing Melvin Senior's Cadillac on

622
00:36:16,765 --> 00:36:19,965
Speaker 1: the day Jeff's body was found in a field right

623
00:36:20,005 --> 00:36:27,045
Speaker 1: across from their home. Shirley's family said that she didn't

624
00:36:27,045 --> 00:36:30,765
Speaker 1: know anything. They said that Melvin's family and people connected

625
00:36:30,765 --> 00:36:33,405
Speaker 1: to them are just trying to blame the victim, to

626
00:36:33,405 --> 00:36:35,725
Speaker 1: blame Shirley because she can't defend herself.

627
00:36:36,325 --> 00:36:37,805
Speaker 3: They say that Shirley was a.

628
00:36:37,845 --> 00:36:41,165
Speaker 2: Victim of Melvin and not an accomplice, but it's clear

629
00:36:41,485 --> 00:36:44,605
Speaker 2: that over the years, not only did Shirley witness a

630
00:36:44,645 --> 00:36:48,525
Speaker 2: lot of Melvin shady dealings, but that she also developed

631
00:36:48,525 --> 00:36:53,085
Speaker 2: some enemies of her own, including potentially Todd's girlfriend, Joanne.

632
00:36:53,805 --> 00:36:56,725
Speaker 2: Jo Anne had been living rent free on the family compound,

633
00:36:57,485 --> 00:37:00,965
Speaker 2: but according to the Cape Cod Times, after Melvin Senior

634
00:37:01,085 --> 00:37:04,245
Speaker 2: was sent to the hospital, Shirley had started asking joe

635
00:37:04,245 --> 00:37:07,205
Speaker 2: Anne to sign a rental agree, which apparently did not

636
00:37:07,325 --> 00:37:11,365
Speaker 2: go down well. Also, a lot of people wondered who

637
00:37:11,445 --> 00:37:16,245
Speaker 2: were the people allegedly on those sex tapes with Shirley.

638
00:37:16,845 --> 00:37:21,645
Speaker 1: In twenty fourteen, police finally charged someone with Shirley Rainey's murder,

639
00:37:22,525 --> 00:37:25,045
Speaker 1: but to everyone in town's shock, it wasn't Todd or

640
00:37:25,125 --> 00:37:32,085
Speaker 1: anyone in Melvin's family. It was John Rams. When John

641
00:37:32,205 --> 00:37:35,005
Speaker 1: was arrested for Shirley's murder, he was given a polygraph.

642
00:37:35,405 --> 00:37:38,085
Speaker 1: And this really is one of those little side notes

643
00:37:38,205 --> 00:37:41,405
Speaker 1: just to show you how often there are like zero

644
00:37:41,525 --> 00:37:45,085
Speaker 1: degrees of separations between people in small towns. Because The

645
00:37:45,165 --> 00:37:49,245
Speaker 1: officer who gave John Rams a polygraph task was Lieutenant Dominguez,

646
00:37:49,685 --> 00:37:53,245
Speaker 1: the father of Michael Dominguez, Shirley's alleged lover, and the

647
00:37:53,285 --> 00:37:55,885
Speaker 1: guy who found her body.

648
00:37:56,085 --> 00:37:57,845
Speaker 3: Everyone was related to everyone.

649
00:37:58,085 --> 00:38:01,445
Speaker 1: Everyone was tied to multiple people in multiple ways, and

650
00:38:01,565 --> 00:38:06,165
Speaker 1: just understanding the relationships in this small town got really good, complicated,

651
00:38:06,205 --> 00:38:10,845
Speaker 1: really fast. John Rams completely denied having anything to do

652
00:38:10,885 --> 00:38:14,725
Speaker 1: with Shirley's murder. He said Todd told him after the

653
00:38:14,765 --> 00:38:17,845
Speaker 1: break in that he wanted to kill Shirley, that Todd

654
00:38:17,925 --> 00:38:20,365
Speaker 1: tried to get John Rams to do it, and that

655
00:38:20,405 --> 00:38:22,325
Speaker 1: Todd told him that he wanted it to look like

656
00:38:22,365 --> 00:38:25,565
Speaker 1: a mob hit. But John Rams insisted that he always

657
00:38:25,565 --> 00:38:29,325
Speaker 1: refused to do that. Not only that, John Rams later

658
00:38:29,365 --> 00:38:33,325
Speaker 1: told CNN that he warned federal and local authorities that

659
00:38:33,405 --> 00:38:36,405
Speaker 1: Shirley's life was in danger when they questioned him about

660
00:38:36,405 --> 00:38:38,885
Speaker 1: the break in years before she was killed.

661
00:38:40,005 --> 00:38:41,445
Speaker 3: He said that he tried to.

662
00:38:41,405 --> 00:38:44,845
Speaker 1: Warn them and they just ignored him. Now, the authorities

663
00:38:44,885 --> 00:38:47,685
Speaker 1: deny this, but when CNN was doing the story, they

664
00:38:47,725 --> 00:38:51,325
Speaker 1: also talked to John Ram's lawyer. He confirmed what John said.

665
00:38:52,125 --> 00:38:55,045
Speaker 1: The lawyer also said he told the authorities about the

666
00:38:55,045 --> 00:38:58,645
Speaker 1: alleged threats to Shirley's life, but at the time police

667
00:38:58,685 --> 00:39:02,525
Speaker 1: denied that John tipped off the authorities. They said that

668
00:39:02,605 --> 00:39:05,845
Speaker 1: any information he allegedly gave about danger to show Barley's

669
00:39:05,885 --> 00:39:10,245
Speaker 1: life is not included in any official report. In two

670
00:39:10,325 --> 00:39:13,845
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, Todd Rainey was arrested for the break

671
00:39:13,845 --> 00:39:17,005
Speaker 1: in at Shirley's house. He was convicted and given five

672
00:39:17,085 --> 00:39:20,605
Speaker 1: years in prison. It seems like authorities were trying to

673
00:39:20,725 --> 00:39:23,485
Speaker 1: build the case against Todd while he was in jail,

674
00:39:24,165 --> 00:39:26,685
Speaker 1: but apparently they didn't have enough to charge Todd in

675
00:39:26,685 --> 00:39:30,965
Speaker 1: connection with Shirley's murder. So Todd served his sentence and

676
00:39:31,125 --> 00:39:35,805
Speaker 1: was released, and in twenty ten, the lawsuit that Todd

677
00:39:35,925 --> 00:39:39,085
Speaker 1: and his brother Melvin had filed against Shirley was settled.

678
00:39:40,085 --> 00:39:43,485
Speaker 1: The business, Five Star Enterprises, was later sold, and that

679
00:39:43,645 --> 00:39:45,165
Speaker 1: was it. That was pretty much the end of the

680
00:39:45,245 --> 00:39:50,805
Speaker 1: Rainy Empire. In November of twenty thirteen, Melvin Rainey Senior

681
00:39:51,165 --> 00:39:53,965
Speaker 1: died at a hospital in Taunton. He was seventy four

682
00:39:54,045 --> 00:39:58,125
Speaker 1: years old. The Cape Cod Times called John Busby the

683
00:39:58,165 --> 00:40:00,445
Speaker 1: officer who was shot in the face by Melvin Senior

684
00:40:01,085 --> 00:40:03,685
Speaker 1: and then been forced along with his family to flee town.

685
00:40:04,245 --> 00:40:07,525
Speaker 1: He had this to say, quote I outlived the bastard.

686
00:40:07,565 --> 00:40:10,885
Speaker 1: Thank goodness. The devil has a playmate or maybe even

687
00:40:10,925 --> 00:40:14,005
Speaker 1: a boss or co conspirator. He was hell on earth

688
00:40:14,245 --> 00:40:19,405
Speaker 1: end quote. John Rams murder trial finally started in twenty fourteen,

689
00:40:19,645 --> 00:40:22,965
Speaker 1: and a lot of people really surprised that Todd Rainey

690
00:40:23,005 --> 00:40:27,165
Speaker 1: wasn't charged. The whole trial was actually really much more

691
00:40:27,245 --> 00:40:31,325
Speaker 1: about Todd Rainey than John Rams. The prosecutors were saying

692
00:40:31,405 --> 00:40:35,005
Speaker 1: that Todd had hired John Rams to kill Shirley. They

693
00:40:35,045 --> 00:40:37,685
Speaker 1: had no evidence, They had no physical evidence, None of

694
00:40:37,765 --> 00:40:40,845
Speaker 1: John rams DNA was inside the house. They'd only found

695
00:40:40,925 --> 00:40:43,605
Speaker 1: one fingerprint at the scene, and it wasn't a match

696
00:40:43,605 --> 00:40:46,045
Speaker 1: to John Rams or anyone else they had in the database.

697
00:40:47,365 --> 00:40:55,485
Speaker 1: In fact, they never successfully matched that fingerprint. Todd and

698
00:40:55,525 --> 00:40:58,365
Speaker 1: Melvin Junior were called to testify, but they took the

699
00:40:58,405 --> 00:41:02,245
Speaker 1: fifth and the defense pointed out Shirley Rainey had had

700
00:41:02,285 --> 00:41:04,685
Speaker 1: other enemies, like the people who allegedly appeared in those

701
00:41:04,685 --> 00:41:08,525
Speaker 1: sex tapes, people who may have been blackmailed. But that

702
00:41:08,525 --> 00:41:10,485
Speaker 1: didn't seem to make a lot of sense because the

703
00:41:10,565 --> 00:41:14,085
Speaker 1: sex tapes had already been stolen, and if that was true,

704
00:41:14,565 --> 00:41:18,965
Speaker 1: why would someone come back and kill Shirley. Afterwards, in court,

705
00:41:19,085 --> 00:41:23,005
Speaker 1: John Ram's attorney said Todd was the mastermind behind Shirley's murder,

706
00:41:23,725 --> 00:41:26,565
Speaker 1: and it seemed like everyone focused on Todd as the

707
00:41:26,605 --> 00:41:30,565
Speaker 1: alternative suspect. They tried to keep the focus on Todd,

708
00:41:30,645 --> 00:41:33,205
Speaker 1: and in the end that seemed to work, because in

709
00:41:33,245 --> 00:41:36,405
Speaker 1: April of twenty fourteen, John Rams was found not guilty.

710
00:41:36,885 --> 00:41:38,485
Speaker 3: He walked out of court a freeman.

711
00:41:39,605 --> 00:41:42,525
Speaker 1: Shirley's family was devastated and some of them have said

712
00:41:42,565 --> 00:41:46,085
Speaker 1: they still have suspicions about John Rams. There's no way

713
00:41:46,125 --> 00:41:48,365
Speaker 1: of knowing for sure if he's guilty or innocent. Obviously

714
00:41:48,445 --> 00:41:50,885
Speaker 1: he now can't be tried again because of double jeopardy.

715
00:41:51,205 --> 00:41:53,125
Speaker 1: But I will say over the years he has not

716
00:41:53,285 --> 00:41:56,245
Speaker 1: been shy about talking to the media. He did an

717
00:41:56,325 --> 00:41:59,565
Speaker 1: interview with CNN and he insists he's innocent. He says

718
00:41:59,645 --> 00:42:04,245
Speaker 1: he did not kill Shirley Rainey. Shirley's family have no answers,

719
00:42:04,325 --> 00:42:07,765
Speaker 1: no justice, and when the jury failed to convict John Rams,

720
00:42:07,765 --> 00:42:10,365
Speaker 1: they probably felt like they lost any hope of getting

721
00:42:10,365 --> 00:42:15,045
Speaker 1: any information on anyone else in the Rainy family. Since

722
00:42:15,085 --> 00:42:17,125
Speaker 1: he walked out of court, John Rams has had more

723
00:42:17,165 --> 00:42:20,725
Speaker 1: brushes with law in twenty fifteen, he allegedly struck a

724
00:42:20,765 --> 00:42:23,085
Speaker 1: woman in the face with his hand and pulled a

725
00:42:23,165 --> 00:42:25,725
Speaker 1: knife on her. He was back in jail for a

726
00:42:25,725 --> 00:42:29,285
Speaker 1: few months, then released again. A lot of people continue

727
00:42:29,285 --> 00:42:32,885
Speaker 1: to wonder why Todd Rainey was never charged. Even if

728
00:42:32,885 --> 00:42:36,405
Speaker 1: the prosecutors believed John Rams was the trigger man, it

729
00:42:36,485 --> 00:42:39,085
Speaker 1: seems like they would have filed charges against the person

730
00:42:39,125 --> 00:42:43,285
Speaker 1: they believed was the mastermind, but they never did so officially.

731
00:42:43,925 --> 00:42:49,245
Speaker 1: Shirley Rainey's murder is still unsolved. Wanda's body has never

732
00:42:49,285 --> 00:42:52,125
Speaker 1: been found. It was reported in local news stories that

733
00:42:52,205 --> 00:42:55,925
Speaker 1: over the years, Melvin Senior would make comments comments that

734
00:42:55,925 --> 00:42:59,525
Speaker 1: were kind of tawning. He would allegedly say things like, quote,

735
00:42:59,965 --> 00:43:02,805
Speaker 1: the police drive by Wanda every day, you just don't

736
00:43:02,805 --> 00:43:03,245
Speaker 1: see her.

737
00:43:03,645 --> 00:43:04,445
Speaker 3: End quote.

738
00:43:05,845 --> 00:43:09,485
Speaker 1: Maybe hiding in plain sight, buried somewhere on that family compound,

739
00:43:09,965 --> 00:43:13,645
Speaker 1: right across from where Jeff's body another victim connected to

740
00:43:13,645 --> 00:43:17,485
Speaker 1: Melvin Senior was found. So in the end, Melvin Junior

741
00:43:17,605 --> 00:43:21,205
Speaker 1: and Todd did get control of their family property. They

742
00:43:21,205 --> 00:43:23,245
Speaker 1: were able to move back into the house where their

743
00:43:23,325 --> 00:43:26,845
Speaker 1: dad lived and where they grew up. But Loretta, Shirley's sister,

744
00:43:27,205 --> 00:43:30,125
Speaker 1: told Boston Magazine back in two thousand and six that

745
00:43:30,245 --> 00:43:32,805
Speaker 1: she has zero interest in that house. She said, Basically,

746
00:43:32,845 --> 00:43:36,725
Speaker 1: she feels like it's cursed ground. She said, quote my

747
00:43:36,845 --> 00:43:40,685
Speaker 1: sister died for that property. It's evil land. My sister's

748
00:43:40,765 --> 00:43:43,525
Speaker 1: murder is showing people that Foulmouth is not the sweet

749
00:43:43,565 --> 00:43:45,165
Speaker 1: little town everyone thinks it is.

750
00:43:45,885 --> 00:43:48,605
Speaker 3: End quote. I'm Catherine Townsend.

751
00:43:49,165 --> 00:44:03,525
Speaker 1: This is Helen Gone Murder Line. Helen Gone Murder Line

752
00:44:03,525 --> 00:44:05,445
Speaker 1: is a production of School of Humans and I Heartpop.

753
00:44:06,365 --> 00:44:09,325
Speaker 1: It's written and hosted by me Catherine Townsend and produced

754
00:44:09,365 --> 00:44:13,365
Speaker 1: by Gabby Watts. Music contributed by Ben Sale and this

755
00:44:13,485 --> 00:44:18,085
Speaker 1: episode was scored and mixed by Miranda Hawkins. Executive producers

756
00:44:18,125 --> 00:44:21,765
Speaker 1: of Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, and Elsie Crowley.

757
00:44:21,845 --> 00:44:23,085
Speaker 3: If you have a case.

758
00:44:22,845 --> 00:44:25,165
Speaker 1: You'd like me and my team to look into, you

759
00:44:25,205 --> 00:44:27,565
Speaker 1: can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder Line.

760
00:44:27,605 --> 00:44:31,045
Speaker 1: It's six seven eight seven four four six one four five.

761
00:44:31,485 --> 00:44:35,445
Speaker 1: That's six seven eight seven four four six one four five.

762
00:44:36,365 --> 00:44:39,765
Speaker 1: Please subscribe and leave us a review wherever you listen

763
00:44:39,765 --> 00:44:40,605
Speaker 1: to your podcasts.

764
00:44:47,765 --> 00:44:48,685
Speaker 3: School of Humans