WEBVTT - Hell and Gone Murder Line: Shirley Reine 0:00:08.285 --> 0:00:14.565 School of Humans. It was May tenth, two thousand and five, 0:00:15.005 --> 0:00:19.125 when police in the tiny town of Ballymouth, Massachusetts, a sleepy, 0:00:19.245 --> 0:00:22.405 picturesque little place on Cape Cod got this nine one 0:00:22.485 --> 0:00:27.885 one calls record. Yeah, I think somebody down at six 0:00:28.005 --> 0:00:29.725 fifty seventh Highways. 0:00:30.205 --> 0:00:31.765 I think somebody shot Shirley. 0:00:32.405 --> 0:00:35.565 Oh my God, Girland, God man, let me tell you it. Cotnia, 0:00:35.605 --> 0:00:38.925 here we are. A man named Michael Dominguez had been 0:00:38.925 --> 0:00:41.005 doing some work for a woman who lived in the 0:00:41.005 --> 0:00:44.805 house at six fifty seven East Falmouth Highway, fifty one 0:00:44.845 --> 0:00:48.525 year old Shirley Rainey. Michael showed up a little after 0:00:48.605 --> 0:00:52.205 five am. He had two cups of dunkin Donuts coffee 0:00:52.205 --> 0:00:56.125 with him, one for himself and one for Shirley, but 0:00:56.245 --> 0:01:00.285 Shirley didn't answer the door, so Michael started looking around 0:01:00.325 --> 0:01:03.325 the house outside. He peeked through one of the glass 0:01:03.365 --> 0:01:06.445 panels in the garage and that's when he saw Shirley 0:01:06.925 --> 0:01:10.525 slumped on the garage floor, half hanging out of her 0:01:10.605 --> 0:01:12.325 Nissan Maxima in a. 0:01:12.245 --> 0:01:13.005 Pool of blood. 0:01:14.045 --> 0:01:16.725 Michael kicked the door down and he's the one who 0:01:16.725 --> 0:01:17.885 made the nine one one call. 0:01:19.405 --> 0:01:22.165 Police rushed to the scene, and they later said that 0:01:22.245 --> 0:01:25.645 Shirley had been dead for a while, around eight hours. 0:01:26.605 --> 0:01:29.725 She had been shot twice, once in the chest, and 0:01:29.765 --> 0:01:33.605 then when she fell out of the car. Police believed 0:01:33.605 --> 0:01:36.045 the killer stepped closer to her and shot her a 0:01:36.085 --> 0:01:40.005 second time in the head. Then they picked up the 0:01:40.005 --> 0:01:43.765 shell casings and left the scene. There was no sign 0:01:43.845 --> 0:01:46.525 of forced entry, so it seemed that the killer had 0:01:46.565 --> 0:01:50.245 been lying in wait for Shirley in that dark garage. 0:01:50.365 --> 0:01:55.125 Shirley was a pretty wealthy woman, but nothing was stolen 0:01:55.165 --> 0:01:58.605 from the house. So who would stalk and kill a 0:01:58.645 --> 0:02:03.765 fifty something woman execution style in her garage and why? 0:02:03.845 --> 0:02:07.125 It turned out that there were actually a lot of suspects. 0:02:07.965 --> 0:02:11.845 Shirley had been married to Melvin Rainey, a convicted arsonist 0:02:11.885 --> 0:02:14.885 who was nicknamed the Falm of Fox. He was given 0:02:14.885 --> 0:02:17.365 that nickname back in the day by a judge who 0:02:17.445 --> 0:02:21.405 described him as being sly like a fox. Melvin Rainey 0:02:21.445 --> 0:02:23.805 had a lot of local enemies, and so did Shirley. 0:02:24.645 --> 0:02:28.365 They included alleged mob connections, people who owed her money, 0:02:28.965 --> 0:02:32.965 former lovers who she allegedly made sex tapes with, and 0:02:33.405 --> 0:02:36.845 who may have been being blackmailed, family members of Melvin's 0:02:36.845 --> 0:02:40.125 first wife, and even Shirley's own step sons, Todd and 0:02:40.165 --> 0:02:43.845 Melvin Junior. They were fighting Shirley for control of their 0:02:43.885 --> 0:02:45.805 family business, and they were due to go back to 0:02:45.845 --> 0:02:50.205 court in just ten days. Shirley Rainey was a mysterious woman, 0:02:50.765 --> 0:02:53.405 and this small town shooting was about to lead to 0:02:53.485 --> 0:02:57.125 a trail of dead bodies and a lot more dark secrets. 0:02:58.165 --> 0:03:03.485 I'm Catherine Townsend. This is Helen Gone Murder Line. If 0:03:03.525 --> 0:03:05.285 you have a case you'd like me and my team 0:03:05.285 --> 0:03:07.685 to look into, you can reach out to us at 0:03:07.685 --> 0:03:10.525 our Helen Gone Murder Line at six seven eight seven 0:03:10.605 --> 0:04:00.365 four four six one four five. I first heard about 0:04:00.365 --> 0:04:02.485 this case when I took a trip to Cape Cod 0:04:02.565 --> 0:04:05.165 last spring. I was talking to a friend who has 0:04:05.165 --> 0:04:08.365 a house, and they said, you know, why don't you 0:04:08.365 --> 0:04:11.085 ever take a break from trying to cover cold cases 0:04:11.125 --> 0:04:13.845 and maybe hang out somewhere like this, this quiet little 0:04:13.885 --> 0:04:16.925 town for a couple of weeks. And I distinctly remember 0:04:16.925 --> 0:04:19.325 what I said. I said, if I didn't travel around 0:04:19.325 --> 0:04:22.645 the country and cover cold cases, I would probably find 0:04:22.685 --> 0:04:25.325 one near me, because every town has at least one 0:04:25.325 --> 0:04:29.085 cold case. I was kind of kidding, but later that day, 0:04:29.405 --> 0:04:31.965 of course, I did, in fact start talking to someone 0:04:32.005 --> 0:04:35.005 at a local coffee shop, and they told me about 0:04:35.045 --> 0:04:38.005 the case of the Famath Fox and his wife. 0:04:38.085 --> 0:04:38.885 As I said. 0:04:38.645 --> 0:04:41.485 Before, the Famath Fox was a local nickname for Shirley 0:04:41.565 --> 0:04:44.765 Rainey's husband, Melvin Rainey. And that's when I found out 0:04:44.805 --> 0:04:46.805 that I was sitting there in this sweet little town 0:04:46.885 --> 0:04:49.645 that basically looked like the backdrop for murder, she wrote, 0:04:50.485 --> 0:04:52.765 And yet I was on top of one of the 0:04:52.765 --> 0:04:57.725 most notorious unsolved killings in New England. Shirley Rainey and 0:04:57.845 --> 0:05:01.285 Melvin Rainey had been married for around twenty years, and 0:05:01.405 --> 0:05:03.485 Shirley's home that she was living in at the time 0:05:03.525 --> 0:05:05.765 of the shooting was in the middle of kind of 0:05:05.805 --> 0:05:10.045 a compound owned by the Rainy family. Shirley and Melvin's 0:05:10.045 --> 0:05:13.085 property was on hundreds of acres of land. Her brother 0:05:13.125 --> 0:05:15.445 in law, John Rainey lived in the house next door. 0:05:16.365 --> 0:05:19.805 Shirley's step son, Todd Rainey lived on a nearby property, 0:05:19.845 --> 0:05:22.645 and so did his girlfriend, Joanne, who was the mother 0:05:22.765 --> 0:05:27.605 of his two children. Melvin Senior ran a trash hauling business. 0:05:27.605 --> 0:05:30.445 It was called Five Star Enterprises, and many of you 0:05:30.485 --> 0:05:33.325 who have read anything about mob history and the history 0:05:33.325 --> 0:05:37.645 of New England may know that especially during that era, 0:05:38.125 --> 0:05:42.085 the phrase trash hauling was often shorthand for a business 0:05:42.085 --> 0:05:45.045 that relied on mob connections and a lot of shady dealings, 0:05:45.405 --> 0:05:48.405 and that was definitely the case with Five Star. For 0:05:48.485 --> 0:05:51.805 a long time, Shirley's two step sons, Todd and Melvin Junior, 0:05:51.845 --> 0:05:55.005 were in the family business, but Melvin Senior and his 0:05:55.085 --> 0:05:59.405 sons had a falling out. Now why this started exactly 0:05:59.525 --> 0:06:02.285 is a little bit of a mystery. It started sometime 0:06:02.325 --> 0:06:05.925 in the mid nineties. Shirley told her lawyers that Melvin 0:06:05.925 --> 0:06:09.285 got frustrated because his two sons just weren't working hard enough. 0:06:09.925 --> 0:06:13.445 Now they would later allege that Shirley manipulated Melvin Senor, 0:06:14.085 --> 0:06:16.725 but either way, the end result was that Melvin and 0:06:16.765 --> 0:06:21.365 his two sons, Melvin Junior and Todd, were estranged. Melvin 0:06:21.485 --> 0:06:24.045 Junior and Todd ended up going to work for another company, 0:06:24.085 --> 0:06:28.205 a competitor. Over the years, Melvin was known as a 0:06:28.245 --> 0:06:29.165 notorious criminal. 0:06:29.165 --> 0:06:30.365 There's just no other way to put it. 0:06:31.005 --> 0:06:34.525 He was also an arsonist, and a lot of people 0:06:34.565 --> 0:06:37.725 who've commented on the case say that Melvin was a 0:06:37.805 --> 0:06:41.925 psychopath and that he truly enjoyed and maybe even got 0:06:42.005 --> 0:06:46.765 sexual pleasure out of setting fires. His family's trash hauling 0:06:46.805 --> 0:06:50.005 business definitely had a monopoly on the area. But in 0:06:50.005 --> 0:06:54.525 the late nineties, Melvin Senior's mental health started to decline. 0:06:54.605 --> 0:06:57.645 He seemed to be developing dementia and eventually he went 0:06:57.685 --> 0:07:00.045 to stay long term at a psychiatric hospital. 0:07:01.085 --> 0:07:02.245 So by the. 0:07:02.205 --> 0:07:05.805 Time of Shirley's shooting, Shirley was running the family business 0:07:05.885 --> 0:07:09.765 by herself. There is so much going on with this 0:07:09.885 --> 0:07:14.485 case and so much history, and good investigative reporting really 0:07:14.525 --> 0:07:17.685 can change the game in these cases because it's all 0:07:17.725 --> 0:07:21.645 about reading between the lines. In this case, reporter Michelle 0:07:21.725 --> 0:07:25.085 McPhee did a great story for Boston Magazine, and that 0:07:25.245 --> 0:07:28.325 story had a lot of details that many shows like 0:07:28.445 --> 0:07:33.085 the CNN Special left out, like the fact that Michael, 0:07:33.285 --> 0:07:36.845 the guy who found Shirley, wasn't just a coworker of Shirley's. 0:07:37.365 --> 0:07:40.805 He was married, but allegedly he was Shirley's lover, which 0:07:40.805 --> 0:07:43.005 is why he showed up so early at that hour 0:07:43.045 --> 0:07:46.765 of the morning, and how he knew how Shirley took 0:07:46.765 --> 0:07:50.205 her coffee. This was something that Michael never admitted, by 0:07:50.205 --> 0:07:52.405 the way, so at first it's hard to know if 0:07:52.405 --> 0:07:55.765 it's just local rumor or something more. But it was 0:07:55.845 --> 0:07:59.165 an early indication that in this case, nothing is what 0:07:59.205 --> 0:08:02.365 it appears to be on the surface. It reminds me 0:08:02.485 --> 0:08:04.365 a lot of some of the cases I've covered in 0:08:04.485 --> 0:08:09.325 Arkansas and other places, small towns, where each person is 0:08:09.365 --> 0:08:12.645 connected to multiple people in the case in various different ways. 0:08:13.165 --> 0:08:15.925 For example, you'll have someone who is a witness and 0:08:16.045 --> 0:08:18.765 also rented someone a house, and they're the cousin of 0:08:18.765 --> 0:08:19.525 the prosecutor. 0:08:20.005 --> 0:08:21.685 This is just the way it is in small towns. 0:08:21.725 --> 0:08:24.045 But I have to say the entanglements in the Rainy 0:08:24.085 --> 0:08:26.605 case are some of the most complicated I've ever seen. 0:08:27.525 --> 0:08:31.525 Shirley was very close to one family member, her sister, Loretta. 0:08:32.045 --> 0:08:35.645 Loretta told CNN that from the beginning she suspected that 0:08:35.685 --> 0:08:38.725 someone in Shirley's husband's family had something to do with 0:08:38.765 --> 0:08:42.525 the shooting. Now, remember, at this time, Shirley was running 0:08:42.565 --> 0:08:46.245 her husband, Melvin Senior's business. Loretta did work for the 0:08:46.245 --> 0:08:49.565 family business as well. Not only did Shirley and Loretta 0:08:49.645 --> 0:08:52.445 work together, but they were together almost every night after 0:08:52.485 --> 0:08:57.205 work too, including on May ninth. After work on May night, 0:08:57.725 --> 0:09:00.245 Shirley drove to Loretta's house and had dinner with her. 0:09:00.725 --> 0:09:04.365 Loretta told investigators that was at around six pm. Loretta 0:09:04.485 --> 0:09:07.405 said Shirley left for her home sometime between eight thirty 0:09:07.405 --> 0:09:10.845 and eight forty five pm. Police theorized that, based on 0:09:10.885 --> 0:09:14.205 the crime scene, Shirley pulled into her garage, her killer 0:09:14.245 --> 0:09:17.205 stepped out of the darkness with a nine millimeter handgun, 0:09:17.485 --> 0:09:20.845 which was found to be the weapon used, shot Shirley twice, 0:09:21.005 --> 0:09:24.645 and left the scene. Police suspected that this could have 0:09:24.645 --> 0:09:28.205 been a professional hit, or at least it was done 0:09:28.245 --> 0:09:31.685 by someone with insider knowledge, someone who was intimately familiar 0:09:31.765 --> 0:09:35.805 with Shirley's schedule. Plus, there was no sign of forced entry, 0:09:36.325 --> 0:09:38.885 so it might have been someone who had a key 0:09:39.005 --> 0:09:41.125 or knew about another way to get inside that house, 0:09:41.885 --> 0:09:46.085 someone who made a plan and targeted Shirley. So who 0:09:46.085 --> 0:09:48.285 could that have been? Who would have wanted Shirley dead? 0:09:49.085 --> 0:09:52.845 Police talked to Michael Dominguez, who remember was not only 0:09:53.125 --> 0:09:57.605 Shirley's employee, but also potentially her alleged lover, and then 0:09:57.725 --> 0:10:00.965 later it came out in the Cape Cod Times that 0:10:01.285 --> 0:10:07.485 Michael Dominguez was also rumored to be mel Child, a 0:10:07.605 --> 0:10:10.005 child that Melvin Senior had had out of wedlock from 0:10:10.005 --> 0:10:14.645 another relationship. So technically he would be Shirley's illegitimate step 0:10:14.685 --> 0:10:17.845 son as well. But Michael had an alibi for the 0:10:17.925 --> 0:10:20.645 night before he was with his wife, Plus he and 0:10:20.725 --> 0:10:23.365 Shirley were getting along, so there was really no reason 0:10:23.365 --> 0:10:26.005 to suspect that he would have heard her. And then 0:10:26.205 --> 0:10:30.765 there were Shirley's stepsons. Because it turned out not only 0:10:31.005 --> 0:10:35.765 were Shirley's stepsons angry about the family business, they believed 0:10:35.885 --> 0:10:38.525 that she had their dad locked away and that she 0:10:38.605 --> 0:10:41.445 had been responsible for them being cut out of his will, 0:10:42.325 --> 0:10:46.245 but they also believed that Shirley may have been partially 0:10:46.325 --> 0:10:52.725 responsible for killing their mother. Cape Cod is known as 0:10:52.765 --> 0:10:55.805 being a safe, sleepy, little area, but there were a 0:10:55.845 --> 0:10:58.445 couple of very high profile murders in the years before 0:10:58.485 --> 0:11:03.045 Shirley was shot. Both of them were women, but both 0:11:03.085 --> 0:11:05.245 of these women could kind of be described as out 0:11:05.245 --> 0:11:08.845 of ten people who were renting in the area for locals. 0:11:08.885 --> 0:11:12.165 This case was different. Shirley Rainey was a local girl. 0:11:12.565 --> 0:11:15.045 She grew up in the area and it seemed like 0:11:15.125 --> 0:11:17.645 everyone knew her, or at least knew of her and 0:11:17.685 --> 0:11:18.565 her husband's family. 0:11:19.725 --> 0:11:22.685 Police asked Michael Dominguez who he thought did it. 0:11:23.445 --> 0:11:26.645 He immediately said Todd and Melvin Junior, Shirley step son's. 0:11:28.005 --> 0:11:32.125 Shirley's lawyer, William Enright told Boston Magazine quote she was 0:11:32.165 --> 0:11:36.325 afraid of her step son's end quote. There was also 0:11:36.365 --> 0:11:39.525 the question of where Todd was on the night of 0:11:39.565 --> 0:11:43.805 the shooting. His girlfriend, Joanne, said that he had been 0:11:43.925 --> 0:11:46.565 at their house, which was right down from Shirley's house. 0:11:48.325 --> 0:11:52.005 She later testified that Todd had been at her house 0:11:52.045 --> 0:11:55.045 on the night when Shirley was killed, but the timeline 0:11:55.085 --> 0:11:58.125 seemed pretty vague. Joanne said that she went out to 0:11:58.165 --> 0:12:00.885 run an errand and that when she came back, Todd 0:12:00.925 --> 0:12:07.325 was gone. Shirley's sister, Loretta also so asked police why 0:12:07.365 --> 0:12:13.125 no one heard anything, because remember, several family members lived nearby, 0:12:13.325 --> 0:12:17.325 and yet no one had heard any gunshots. Police also 0:12:17.445 --> 0:12:20.525 wondered why Todd and his girlfriend Joanne would not let 0:12:20.525 --> 0:12:24.845 their two children talk to investigators. Jo Anne later told police, 0:12:24.925 --> 0:12:26.885 according to the Cape Cod Times, that it was a 0:12:26.965 --> 0:12:31.525 joint decision. So now that we know how Shirley's life 0:12:31.645 --> 0:12:34.845 ended violently, we need to take a step back and 0:12:35.005 --> 0:12:38.125 find out how her relationship with Melvin started, how she 0:12:38.165 --> 0:12:42.765 got sucked into all this. Melvin Senior was born in 0:12:42.845 --> 0:12:44.725 nineteen thirty nine, and he grew up in the area. 0:12:45.405 --> 0:12:48.045 Very early on he started to get into the family 0:12:48.125 --> 0:12:51.965 trashouling business. He started being involved in criminal activity at 0:12:51.965 --> 0:12:55.565 a young age as well. Melvin's first wife, the mom 0:12:55.725 --> 0:12:58.645 of Todd and Melvin Junior, was a local girl named 0:12:58.645 --> 0:13:02.645 Wanda Maderos. Apparently, Wanda was a very serious, kind of 0:13:02.685 --> 0:13:06.485 studious and shy young woman, and her family did not 0:13:06.725 --> 0:13:08.325 like Melvin when they started going out. 0:13:09.125 --> 0:13:09.845 He was this kind of. 0:13:09.845 --> 0:13:13.045 Squirrely older guy who was hanging around their teenage daughter. 0:13:13.365 --> 0:13:16.565 And at this point Melvin was already in his mid twenties. 0:13:17.205 --> 0:13:19.245 But Wanda was in love with him, even though he 0:13:19.285 --> 0:13:22.725 had a reputation as a gangster, and so right after 0:13:22.765 --> 0:13:26.045 she turned eighteen, they got married on October twenty sixth, 0:13:26.125 --> 0:13:30.645 nineteen sixty four. They had two children, Melvin Junior and Todd. 0:13:31.525 --> 0:13:34.645 As we said before, Melvin was already involved in the 0:13:34.685 --> 0:13:38.165 family trash hauling business, he was also involved in a 0:13:38.205 --> 0:13:41.445 lot of arson. Melvin was arrested for arson a few 0:13:41.485 --> 0:13:44.365 years later. In nineteen sixty eight. He and a younger 0:13:44.405 --> 0:13:46.645 guy he was working with, who was actually a teenager 0:13:46.645 --> 0:13:49.845 at the time, set fire to a bunch of houses 0:13:49.885 --> 0:13:54.165 and a hotel in Cape cod From reading through descriptions 0:13:54.165 --> 0:13:57.045 of what happened, it looks like the police were able 0:13:57.085 --> 0:13:59.365 to talk to Melvin's younger accomplice and kind of get 0:13:59.445 --> 0:14:02.685 him to flip on Melvin. As a result, Melvin was 0:14:02.685 --> 0:14:06.165 convicted of seven counts of arson. That same year, Melvin 0:14:06.245 --> 0:14:08.805 was sentenced to five to eight years in state prison. 0:14:09.765 --> 0:14:12.685 And while Melvin was in prison, he seemed to learn 0:14:12.685 --> 0:14:16.205 a lesson from this. Unfortunately, the lesson wasn't that he 0:14:16.205 --> 0:14:19.485 shouldn't commit crime and burn down houses. The lesson he 0:14:19.645 --> 0:14:22.045 learned was that in future he was going to make 0:14:22.085 --> 0:14:26.885 sure nobody ever flipped on him again. Melvin was released 0:14:26.925 --> 0:14:30.165 after eighteen months. When he got back to town, everyone 0:14:30.325 --> 0:14:34.445 said he was not rehabilitated. In fact, just the opposite. 0:14:34.645 --> 0:14:38.565 He seemed to have no fear. He was bold both 0:14:38.605 --> 0:14:41.525 in his criminal activities and in his private life because, 0:14:41.525 --> 0:14:44.485 according to pretty much everyone who knew him, Melvin was 0:14:44.525 --> 0:14:47.725 not an attractive man. He was five feet eight inches tall, 0:14:47.845 --> 0:14:50.085 he weighed around one hundred and sixty pounds, so was 0:14:50.085 --> 0:14:53.485 pretty skinny, and he had this kind of unkempt pompadour 0:14:53.845 --> 0:14:57.325 slick back hairstyle. But The main thing that people found 0:14:57.405 --> 0:15:02.005 disturbing about Melvin's appearance was his eyes. A lot of 0:15:02.005 --> 0:15:04.965 people talked about how he had this weird, distant stare, 0:15:06.005 --> 0:15:09.525 this really weird, unsettling smile that was kind of a 0:15:09.565 --> 0:15:12.965 creepy leer, but that didn't stop him from being a 0:15:13.005 --> 0:15:17.325 local player. According to rumors, he dated lots of young women, 0:15:17.365 --> 0:15:20.805 and I do mean young women, as we've seen in 0:15:20.885 --> 0:15:25.845 so many cases with narcissistic, controlling, sort of predatory type men, 0:15:26.725 --> 0:15:30.085 they get older, but they continue to date teenage girls. 0:15:30.565 --> 0:15:34.165 I find it really sad reading about Wanda, Melvin's first wife, 0:15:34.365 --> 0:15:37.085 because it seems like after she married Melvin, she realized 0:15:37.125 --> 0:15:38.965 pretty quickly she made a big mistake. 0:15:39.765 --> 0:15:42.325 She really loved him, but his. 0:15:42.405 --> 0:15:45.685 Job, combined with him staying out all hours, and her 0:15:45.725 --> 0:15:48.885 hearing rumors about him pursuing other women, really seemed to 0:15:48.925 --> 0:15:52.925 cause her to lose all of her confidence. Her mom, Mary, 0:15:52.965 --> 0:15:55.885 who Wanda was very close to, made a comment to 0:15:55.965 --> 0:16:00.285 a reporter years later. She said Wanda seemed depressed. She 0:16:00.405 --> 0:16:02.885 was only twenty five years old, but she seemed older 0:16:02.885 --> 0:16:06.485 than her years. Mary said Wanda's expected that her husband 0:16:06.565 --> 0:16:09.765 was cheating on her, and Wanda was right, because Melvin 0:16:09.805 --> 0:16:12.445 did have a wandering eye, and he already had that 0:16:12.485 --> 0:16:15.845 wandering eyes set on someone else, a sixteen year old 0:16:15.885 --> 0:16:19.005 named Shirley Susa who lived across the street, who would 0:16:19.085 --> 0:16:23.605 later become his second wife. Melvin and Wanda actually hired 0:16:23.645 --> 0:16:27.485 Shirley as a living babysitter, which is a little weird 0:16:27.965 --> 0:16:30.125 because Wanda was a stay at home mom and she 0:16:30.165 --> 0:16:32.885 didn't go out that much, so it's not clear why 0:16:32.925 --> 0:16:36.645 they would need full time childcare help, especially a living 0:16:36.725 --> 0:16:41.125 babysitter who was gorgeous. Back then, Shirley was tall, she 0:16:41.205 --> 0:16:44.365 had long black hair, and this very bucksome figure. It 0:16:44.485 --> 0:16:48.765 was obvious that Melvin was interested in her. So now 0:16:48.805 --> 0:16:52.205 this brings us up to the early seventies. Wanda is 0:16:52.245 --> 0:16:55.045 twenty five years old, She's depressed, she's sure that her 0:16:55.085 --> 0:16:57.565 husband is cheating, and Melvin has his eye on the 0:16:57.565 --> 0:17:02.005 babysitter from across the street. On March thirteenth, nineteen seventy one, 0:17:02.645 --> 0:17:05.325 Wanda's mother, Mary called the house looking for her daughter. 0:17:06.045 --> 0:17:08.925 She talked to one of her grandsons and they told 0:17:09.005 --> 0:17:11.885 her that Wanda had gone to visit her grandma Mary. 0:17:12.405 --> 0:17:13.365 Well, Mary knew. 0:17:13.245 --> 0:17:16.845 This wasn't true. Finally she talked to Melvin. He said 0:17:17.005 --> 0:17:20.285 that the kids had it wrong. What really happened was 0:17:20.285 --> 0:17:22.645 that Wanda had gone to visit a cousin who lived 0:17:22.645 --> 0:17:25.965 in a town called Whaream, which was nearby. He mentioned 0:17:26.005 --> 0:17:28.045 that he and Wanda got into an argument before she 0:17:28.165 --> 0:17:31.205 left the house, he said, over a small amount of money. 0:17:32.205 --> 0:17:35.205 Melvin waited five days to report his wife and the 0:17:35.205 --> 0:17:38.605 mother of his two children officially missing, and when people 0:17:38.685 --> 0:17:42.365 asked Melvin what happened, apparently he told them Wanda might 0:17:42.365 --> 0:17:44.605 have been having an affair and left him for a lover. 0:17:45.725 --> 0:17:49.245 Her mother, Mary, said this was absolutely ridiculous. First of all, 0:17:49.285 --> 0:17:51.725 she said, Wanda would never have had an affair. This 0:17:51.765 --> 0:17:53.725 was a woman who was still devoted to her husband, 0:17:54.125 --> 0:17:57.125 her confidence had been shattered, and also she loved her children. 0:17:57.205 --> 0:18:01.925 She did everything for them. She would never leave her sons. Secondly, 0:18:01.965 --> 0:18:05.165 the cousin whom Melvin had referred to no longer even 0:18:05.245 --> 0:18:08.405 lived wear them, and once Melvin talked to police, it 0:18:08.485 --> 0:18:11.205 turned out that the bus depot that he had supposedly 0:18:11.285 --> 0:18:13.045 taken one to two to put her on a bus 0:18:13.085 --> 0:18:15.685 to visit that cousin didn't even go to war them, 0:18:16.205 --> 0:18:19.925 so none of the story made any sense. Mary and 0:18:20.005 --> 0:18:22.445 a lot of other people who knew Wanda believed that 0:18:22.485 --> 0:18:25.245 Melvin had done something to her, that he'd killed her 0:18:25.445 --> 0:18:28.485 and gotten rid of her body. They pointed out that 0:18:28.565 --> 0:18:31.125 it certainly would have been within his area of expertise. 0:18:32.205 --> 0:18:34.965 Not only was he in the business of trash removal, 0:18:35.365 --> 0:18:37.885 but apparently Melvin had a brother in law who was 0:18:37.885 --> 0:18:38.565 a grave digger. 0:18:41.485 --> 0:18:44.925 Police did search his home. They looked in a few areas, 0:18:44.965 --> 0:18:48.925 including a garage where fresh cement had been poured, and 0:18:49.085 --> 0:18:52.205 a septic tank, but you have to remember this is 0:18:52.245 --> 0:18:56.045 a massive compound with a lot of potential hiding places. 0:18:56.645 --> 0:19:00.005 In the end, police left without finding anything. 0:19:03.565 --> 0:19:06.645 Over the years, Mary has had to hear a lot 0:19:06.645 --> 0:19:10.605 of local rumors about how Melvin supposedly got rid of Wandah. 0:19:11.005 --> 0:19:14.285 Some people believe that since part of his business involved 0:19:14.285 --> 0:19:17.365 picking up animal fats from local butcher shops and then 0:19:17.445 --> 0:19:19.765 taking them to a factory so they could be processed 0:19:19.765 --> 0:19:22.565 into soap, that maybe that's what he did with Wanda. 0:19:22.725 --> 0:19:26.565 Maybe he turned Wanda into hand soap. I cannot imagine 0:19:26.565 --> 0:19:29.205 how painful it must have been for Mary to hear 0:19:29.405 --> 0:19:32.005 all of these rumors and consider all of these horrific 0:19:32.045 --> 0:19:36.125 possibilities and to never find her daughter. Wanda's family was 0:19:36.205 --> 0:19:38.725 very suspicious, but the bottom line is with no body 0:19:38.725 --> 0:19:41.805 and with Melvin not talking, they couldn't really do anything, 0:19:42.565 --> 0:19:47.365 so the case went cold. After Wanda disappeared, Shirley, the 0:19:47.405 --> 0:19:51.645 teenage babysitter, moved in permanently. But there was another problem 0:19:51.925 --> 0:19:55.485 because Shirley already had a boyfriend, or at least a 0:19:55.565 --> 0:19:58.845 local guy who liked her, a seventeen year old named 0:19:58.885 --> 0:20:04.885 Charles Jeffrey Flanagan. In October of nineteen seventy two, Shirley 0:20:04.965 --> 0:20:07.045 was one of the last last people seen hanging out 0:20:07.085 --> 0:20:12.285 with Jeff and then he disappeared. He was last seen 0:20:12.445 --> 0:20:15.445 going out to a movie with some friends, and then 0:20:15.485 --> 0:20:18.925 those friends told police that Shirley and Melvin pulled up 0:20:18.965 --> 0:20:22.325 in Melvin's Cadillac and offered Jeff a ride home, then 0:20:22.685 --> 0:20:27.685 he disappeared. Later, the authorities found Jeff's body. He had 0:20:27.685 --> 0:20:30.045 been shot in the face with a twenty gage shotgun. 0:20:30.805 --> 0:20:33.445 The bullet went out his upper back, severing his spinal cord. 0:20:34.845 --> 0:20:38.125 He was found in a Cranberry bog right across from 0:20:38.165 --> 0:20:41.645 Melvin's house on East Falmouth Highway, the same house where 0:20:41.685 --> 0:20:46.045 Shirley's body would be found years later. There were a 0:20:46.085 --> 0:20:49.085 lot of suspicions, but again Melvin was never charged in 0:20:49.085 --> 0:20:52.565 connection with his crime. John Busby, a police officer who 0:20:52.685 --> 0:20:56.005 was shot in the face after he offended Melvin, said 0:20:56.045 --> 0:20:58.325 in a book that he wrote about the case that 0:20:58.485 --> 0:21:01.405 on the day that Jeff's body was found, Shirley was 0:21:01.405 --> 0:21:06.085 seen scrubbing down Melvin's Cadillac, but Shirley always dined any 0:21:06.125 --> 0:21:10.485 wrongdoing in connection with any crime. Over the years, Melvin 0:21:10.565 --> 0:21:13.165 Senior was also linked to the disappearance and murder of 0:21:13.205 --> 0:21:18.285 several more people. In nineteen seventy seven, Paul Alwert was 0:21:18.325 --> 0:21:21.005 seventeen years old and he worked for Five Star Enterprises, 0:21:21.045 --> 0:21:24.765 Melvin's trash business. He was the suspect in an arson 0:21:25.165 --> 0:21:29.845 that supposedly was arranged and masterminded by Melvin. In a way, 0:21:29.925 --> 0:21:32.685 it was a replay of the charges that Melvin had 0:21:32.725 --> 0:21:35.405 faced a few years earlier when he committed arson with 0:21:35.445 --> 0:21:40.605 a teenage accomplice. Police convinced Paul to testify against Melvin. 0:21:41.565 --> 0:21:46.005 Paul said he was terrified. Police convinced him they could 0:21:46.045 --> 0:21:49.365 protect him. They put him on a ferry to Martha's vineyard. 0:21:49.845 --> 0:21:53.445 He was supposed to testify the next day. The police 0:21:53.525 --> 0:21:55.925 watched him board the fairy, and then the fairy pulled 0:21:55.965 --> 0:21:59.125 away and vanished. When it docked on the other side, 0:21:59.325 --> 0:22:02.805 Paul was gone. No one has seen any trace of 0:22:02.885 --> 0:22:07.645 him since. There is very little information about Paul online. 0:22:08.085 --> 0:22:10.605 Just an old pixelated photo of a little boy with 0:22:10.645 --> 0:22:13.005 shiny brown hair and two front teeth with a really 0:22:13.045 --> 0:22:17.165 cute smile looking up at the camera. It's absolutely heartbreaking. 0:22:18.205 --> 0:22:22.045 Some news reports have said that Paul had a troubled childhood, 0:22:22.325 --> 0:22:24.525 that he was a ward of the Massachusetts Department of 0:22:24.565 --> 0:22:27.085 Youth Services. So I don't know if he had any 0:22:27.125 --> 0:22:29.805 family or friends to even report him missing or to 0:22:29.845 --> 0:22:34.725 do public appeals. He was just gone. Police never identified 0:22:34.765 --> 0:22:38.285 a suspect in that case. It is still unsolved. Just 0:22:38.325 --> 0:22:41.685 another disappearance that Melvin Senior was suspected of being involved 0:22:41.685 --> 0:22:46.725 in that was never proven. Over the years, Melvin Senior's 0:22:46.765 --> 0:22:49.805 trash hauling company got more and more powerful. They developed 0:22:49.965 --> 0:22:53.965 kind of a local monopoly, and Melvin continued to openly 0:22:54.005 --> 0:22:58.245 threaten people, even police. In August of nineteen seventy nine, 0:22:58.365 --> 0:23:02.325 John Busby, the Foulmouth Police officer we mentioned earlier found 0:23:02.325 --> 0:23:05.445 out the hard way what happened when you cross Melvin Senior. 0:23:06.565 --> 0:23:09.285 John Busby was on patrol when he gave a guy 0:23:09.325 --> 0:23:13.245 a traffic ticket. The guy was with Melvin, and Melvin 0:23:13.285 --> 0:23:16.285 said something like, don't you know who I am? John 0:23:16.325 --> 0:23:19.645 Busby basically refused to be intimidated and just told Melvin 0:23:19.765 --> 0:23:23.485 and his accomplice to pay the ticket. Well, apparently this 0:23:23.765 --> 0:23:27.645 enraged Melvin. He said, I smell smoke, which was something 0:23:27.645 --> 0:23:30.005 that he said to a lot of people to intimidate 0:23:30.085 --> 0:23:32.605 them and threaten them, make them feel like he was 0:23:32.645 --> 0:23:35.965 going to start a fire. John Busby said that Melvin 0:23:36.045 --> 0:23:37.845 kind of puffed his chest out, but he just tried 0:23:37.845 --> 0:23:41.165 to ignore him. On August thirty first of that year, 0:23:41.645 --> 0:23:44.845 John Busby was on patrol. A car pulled up next 0:23:44.845 --> 0:23:47.645 to him. Someone put a shotgun out of one of 0:23:47.685 --> 0:23:50.565 the windows and shot him at point blank range in 0:23:50.645 --> 0:23:54.485 the face. The bullets shattered his jaw and severed part 0:23:54.485 --> 0:23:57.965 of his tongue, and somehow, with half of his face 0:23:58.045 --> 0:24:01.245