CCLK: Clifford Charles (Karl) Lamberg-Karlovsky
CPD: Cambridge Police Department
DOC: Department of Corrections
MDAO: Middlesex District Attorney’s Office
MSP: Massachusetts State Police
RCMP: Royal Canadian Mounted Police
RMG: Richard Michael (Mike) Gramly
CPD-BB: Boyd Britton interview transcript, Jan. 16, 1969, time unclear (start listed as 4:37 p.m., end as 1:15 p.m.).
CPD-CCLK 1: Karl Lamberg-Karlovsky interview transcript, Jan. 7, 1969, unspecified time.
CPD-CCLK 2: Karl Lamberg-Karlovsky interview transcript, Jan. 15, 1969, 11:58 a.m.–1:05 p.m.
CPD-DM: Donald Mitchell interview transcript, Jan. 8, 1969, unspecified time.
CPD-IK: Ingrid Kirsch interview transcript, Jan. 16, 1969, 4:50–6:15 p.m.
CPD-JBB: J. Boyd Britton interview transcript, time and date not specified.
CPD-JC: Jane Chermayoff interview transcript, Jan. 14, 1969, unspecified time.
CPD-JH: James Humphries interview transcript, Jan. 7, 1969, 1:45 p.m.-unspecified end time.
CPD-JM 1: Jill Mitchell interview transcript, Jan. 8, 1969, unspecified start time-12:35 p.m.
CPD-JM 2: Jill Mitchell interview transcript, Jan. 15, 1969, 3:55–4:37 p.m.
CPD-LP 1: Lee Parsons interview transcript, Jan. 14, 1969, unspecified time.
CPD-LP 2: Lee Parsons interview transcript, Jan. 14, 1969, 2:37–3:38 p.m.
CPD-RM: Richard Meadow interview transcript, Jan. 14, 1969, unspecified start time-2:25 p.m.
CPD-SLI: Sarah Lee Irwin interview transcript, Jan. 13, 1969, 3:14–4:12 p.m.
CPD-SW: Stephen Williams interview transcript, Jan. 9, 1969, 11:37 a.m.–unspecified end time.
CPD-WR: William Rathje interview transcript, Jan. 14, 1969, 4:05 p.m.–unspecified end time.
CPD-WR & KD: William Rathje and Kent Day interview transcript, Jan. 7, 1969, 6:15 p.m.–unspecified end time.
Arthur Bankoff statement: Letter from Arthur Bankoff to Don and Jill Mitchell, Jan. 16, 1969; sent from Rome (CPD file); Arthur gave permission for it to double as his signed police statement. Andrea and Arthur wrote their letters separately “without discussion or cooperation to give as many separate points of view as we can” (p. 2).
Andrea Bankoff statement: Letter from Andrea Bankoff to Don and Jill Mitchell, Jan. 16, 1969 (CPD file).
Joint statement: Letter from Arthur and Andrea Bankoff to Don and Jill Mitchell, Jan. 19, 1969.
Dan Potts Yahya monograph: Dan Potts, Excavations at Tepe Yahya, Iran 1967–1975: The Third Millennium, American School of Prehistoric Research, Bulletin 45, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University (2001).
CCLK foreword: C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, “Excavations at Tepe Yahya: The Biography of a Project,” pp. XIX–XLI in Dan Potts, Excavations at Tepe Yahya, Iran 1967–1975: The Third Millennium, American School of Prehistoric Research, Bulletin 45, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University (2001).
Smithsonian Report: “Report to the Secretary: Abraham Internal Review Panel,” Smithsonian Institution, Mar. 8, 1977.
1 Gale warnings along the coast: “Weather: Heavy Rain—High Winds,” Boston Globe, Jan. 7, 1969.
2 black-and-white picture of a girl: Uncredited photo on p. 1 of Harvard Crimson, Jan. 7, 1969.
3 second day of reading period: Courses of Instruction Harvard and Radcliffe, Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1968–1969, Official Register of Harvard University, 65, no. 18 (1968): 7.
4 By 9 a.m.: Stephen Williams, “Written General Examinations” Memorandum to Harvard Anthropology graduate students, Dec. 6, 1968.
5 “terminal” master’s: “Temporary Supplement to the General Announcement,” regulations by the Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, May 1967, p. 2.
6 smelled like the mummies: Interviews with Stephen Loring and Bruce Bourque in 2017.
1 its own amnesty policy: “College Issues New Alcohol Amnesty Policy,” Harvard Magazine, Apr. 2, 2012.
2 Lothrop, a former Peabody Museum curator: Gordon R. Willey, Samuel Kirkland Lothrop 1892–1965 (Washington: National Academy of Sciences, 1976), p. 256.
3 convenient covers for espionage: “The Spies Who Came in from the Dig,” The Guardian, Sept. 3, 2003––an edited extract of David Price’s article which first appeared in Archaeology Magazine 56, no. 5 (2003).
1 The general exams finished just after noon: CPD-WR & KD, p. 12.
2 “Christ, the only reason”: CPD-IK, p. 36.
3 “The rumors of my death”: Interview with Bruce Bourque in 2017.
4 called her twice: CPD-JH, p. 14.
5 reserved to the point of brooding: CPD-SLI, p. 23.
6 face wasn’t expressive even at the best of times: Arthur Bankoff statement, p. 17.
7 The Gentleman: CPD-IK, p. 64.
8 helping girls with their coats: CPD-IK, p. 65.
9 writing thank-you notes: CPD-SLI, p. 49.
10 met in the spring of 1968: CPD-JH, p. 22.
11 a seminar to prepare: Interview with Richard Meadow in 2017.
12 Count Dracula: Interview with Francesco Pellizzi in 2017.
13 Boston Globe hailed Lamberg-Karlovsky: “Harvard Team Unearths Alexander’s Lost Citadel,” Boston Globe, Nov. 10, 1968.
14 “They had a chance”: “Find Ritual Clue in Co-Ed’s Papers,” New York Post, Jan. 11, 1969.
15 Church of the Unwarranted Assumption: Undated handwritten story by Jane about her imaginary marriage to Jim (CPD file).
16 Jane hadn’t answered either call: CPD-JH, p. 95.
17 students headed for lunch: CPD-WR & KD, p. 13.
18 across the road to call Jane: CPD-JH, p. 91.
19 The Craigie: Cambridge Architectural Inventory for 2-4-6 University Road, Summer 1967.
20 commissioned by Harvard: Chapman Arms pamphlet by the Homeowners Rehab Inc. & Cambridge Neighborhood Apartment Housing Services, Inc., Nov. 20, 2014, back page.
21 less expensive housing option: “The Craigie Dormitory,” Cambridge Chronicle, Oct. 2, 1897.
22 natural wood trim: Letter from Lawrence J. Sparrow, Project Manager, to Cynthia MacLeod of the National Park Service, Nov. 5, 1986.
23 fallen into disrepair: Bob Kuehn, “Craigie Arms” Memorandum to Interested Parties, Nov. 11, 1983.
24 parking lots…and an alley: Mo Lotman, Harvard Square: An Illustrated History since 1950 (New York: Stewart, Tabori, & Chang, 2009), p. 41.
25 Cronin’s, a watering hole with a small TV screen: Lotman, Harvard Square, pp. 40, 83; TV screen detail from interview with Mike Widmer in 2017.
26 $75 a month: Letter from Kenneth Babb, Property Manager for R. M. Bradley & Co., Inc, to Jane Britton, May 13, 1968 (CPD file).
27 Jane had secured her apartment: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
28 Mitchells always used their dead bolt: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
29 Jane almost never locked her door: Multiple, including CPD-JM 2, p. 5.
30 around 12:30 p.m.: CPD-JH, p. 91.
31 pushed in the front door…skylight: “Building ‘Looks like Slum’; Still No Lock on Front Door,” Boston Globe, Jan. 9, 1969; “Harvard Coed, 22, Found Brutally Slain,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 8, 1969.
32 “Maybe,” said Mrs. Kylie: “Harvard Coed, 22, Found Brutally Slain,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 8, 1969.
33 heat made the wood swell and the lock finicky: CPD-JM 2, p. 4.
34 Don and Jill Mitchell heard the noise: CPD-JM 1, p. 4; CPD-DM, p. 7.
35 walked into the hallway: Jim and Don’s memories differ slightly here. This is Jim’s recollection per his police transcript (CPD-JH, p. 8). Don remembers already being in the hallway, carrying out a piece of cardboard when he met Humphries (CPD-DM, p. 6).
36 “Is Jane home?” “I guess so.”: CPD-JH, p. 8.
37 “Well, she didn’t take her quiz”: CPD-DM, p. 7. Don told police he distinctly recalled Jim’s phrasing because the generals were too big an examination to be called a quiz.
38 Don’s face changed: CPD-JH, p. 64.
39 He encouraged Jim to go in and check: CPD-DM, p. 7.
40 Jim knocked…“Can I come in?”: CPD-JH, p. 65.
41 Don waited by the door: CPD-DM, p. 8.
42 Jim felt a cold gust of air coming from the kitchen: CPD-JH, p. 33.
43 the window was wide open: CPD-JH, p. 32.
44 certain it hadn’t been open the night before: CPD-JH, p. 31.
45 Jim reached his head back: CPD-DM, p. 66.
46 she thought there was a gas leak in her kitchen: CPD-JM 1, p. 23.
47 screen had long ago rotted off: CPD-JM 1, p. 23.
48 room was its usual homey mess: CPD crime scene photos; interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
49 A turtle tank: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
50 brandy bottles: Photo by Don Mitchell.
51 Ceramic owls: CPD-IK, p. 48.
52 painted cats, giraffes, and owls: “Cambridge Murder Victim Is Recalled as Intelligent and Witty,” New York Times, Jan. 19, 1969.
53 not until he fully walked into the apartment: CPD-JH, p. 69.
54 right leg: CPD-JH, p. 70 (at least one foot on the ground); CPD-DM, p. 9 (Don remembers right leg).
55 directly on the floor: “The Case of the Unlocked Door to Death,” Pictorial Living Coloroto Magazine, Apr. 13, 1969.
56 blue flannel nightgown: Susan Kelly, the author of The Boston Stranglers (New York: Pinnacle Books, 2002), researched, for a time, the Jane Britton case. In the late ’90s, she interviewed a number of people close to Jane. Some of her notes and letters became part of Jane’s police file. This detail is from Susan Kelly’s letter to John Fulkerson, July 25, 1996.
57 pulled up to her waist: CPD-JH, p. 70.
58 He didn’t try to shake her: CPD-JH, p. 9.
59 “a woman’s job”: CPD-JH, p. 93.
60 She needed to lie on her bed. She felt sick: CPD-JM 1, p. 11.
61 bolt of guilt: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
62 Above her waist: CPD-JH, p. 93; p. 36.
63 sheepskin rugs: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017; Elisabeth Handler confirmed that Jane had sheepskin rugs in a 2017 interview.
64 until he could see the back of her head: CPD-DM, p. 10.
65 He didn’t turn her over: CPD-DM, p. 10.
66 no question: CPD-DM, p. 11.
1 mention of a cigarette butt: “Police Examine Ochre Found Near Slaying Victim,” Boston Globe, Jan. 10, 1969.
2 vice president of administration at Radcliffe College: “Cambridge Murder Victim Is Recalled as Intelligent and Witty,” New York Times, Jan. 19, 1969; cross-checked in the Schlesinger Library Archives.
3 single mention of a grand jury hearing: “Grand Jury to Hear Britton Case,” Boston Globe, Jan. 29, 1969.
4 “I came here to be of whatever assistance”: “Harvard Girl Brutally Slain in Apartment,” Boston Globe, Jan. 8, 1969.
5 in the New York Times: Professor Lamberg-Karlovsky pacing: “Cambridge Murder Victim Is Recalled as Intelligent and Witty,” New York Times, Jan. 19, 1969. The lover of Bach detail is from this article, as well.
6 accomplished horseback rider: Here through “excelled at Dana Hall,” “Jane’s Home Town Not Used to This Kind of Thing,” Daily News, Jan. 11, 1969.
7 “Peculiar travel suggestions are like”: “Portrait of Jane Britton,” New York Post, Jan. 9, 1969, quoting Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle (New York: Dial Press Trade Paperback, 2010), p. 63.
8 favorite was from The Sirens of Titan: “Cambridge Murder Victim Is Recalled as Intelligent and Witty,” New York Times, Jan. 19, 1969.
9 “had a kind of insight”: “Cambridge Murder Victim Is Recalled as Intelligent and Witty,” New York Times, Jan. 19, 1969.
10 “If justice be cruel”: “Portrait of Jane Britton,” New York Post, Jan. 9, 1969.
11 “vulnerable person”…“hangers-on and acid heads”: “Cambridge Murder Victim Is Recalled as Intelligent and Witty,” New York Times, Jan. 19, 1969.
12 talk of a secret abortion: “Murder Quiz Finds Jane Had Abortion,” Daily News, Jan. 13, 1969.
13 “It is not possible to characterize”: “Cambridge Murder Victim Is Recalled as Intelligent and Witty,” New York Times, Jan. 19, 1969.
14 one of the Iranian expedition monographs: CCLK foreword, p. XXXI.
1 Detectives William Durette, Michael Giacoppo, and Fred Centrella: “Harvard Coed Viciously Slain in Cambridge,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 8, 1969. Detective Michael Giacoppo’s full name is Matthew Michael Giacoppo. I refer to him as M. Michael Giacoppo in these source notes to differentiate him from his son, Michael D. Giacoppo.
2 cat skittered out: “Harvard Coed, 23, Beaten to Death,” Daily News, Jan. 8, 1969.
3 Valuables…lay untouched: “Harvard Girl Brutally Slain in Apartment: Radcliffe Vice President’s Daughter,” Boston Globe, Jan. 8, 1969.
4 no signs of a struggle: “Police Seek Coed’s Killer,” Bridgeport Post, Jan. 8, 1969.
5 Two of Jane’s windows were open: “Harvard Coed, 23, Beaten to Death,” Daily News, Jan. 8, 1969.
6 eighteen-man Bureau of Criminal Investigations: “Harvard Coed, 23, Beaten to Death,” Daily News, Jan. 8, 1969.
7 acting chief of the homicide division: “Harvard Graduate Student Bludgeoned to Death,” Boston Herald Traveler, Jan. 8, 1969.
8 publicly dismiss the significance of these open windows: “Harvard Coed, 22, Found Slain: Daughter of Radcliffe Exec Beaten on Head,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 8, 1969.
9 [Photo]: Mel Finkelstein/New York Daily News.
10 “class of brass”: David Degou, Cambridge Police Department (Mount Pleasant: Arcadia Publishing, 2009), p. 84.
11 survived a hammer attack in her home…curlers that saved her: “Coed’s Friend Nixes Lie Test,” Daily News, Jan. 9, 1969.
12 Davenport himself had been assigned: “Harvard Coed, 22, Found Slain: Daughter of Radcliffe Exec Beaten on Head,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 8, 1969.
13 The case remains open: Kelly, The Boston Stranglers; interview with Sergeant William Doogan in 2020.
14 shortly after the detectives: “Harvard Girl Brutally Slain in Apartment,” Boston Globe, Jan. 8, 1969.
15 sitting in the Mitchells’ apartment: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
16 surveyed the room at the police’s request…“She was a good girl”: “Harvard Girl Brutally Slain in Apartment,” Boston Globe, Jan. 8, 1969.
17 Detective Giacoppo…dusted the apartment for fingerprints: Report to Daniel I. Murphy, Captain of Detectives by Det. Lt. Joyce of MSP, June 2, 1969; and Report of Lt. David Desmond re: Thumb Print on Ashtray May 29, 1969 (MSP file).
18 lying about his age to fight in World War II: Interview with Michael D. Giacoppo in 2018.
19 processing and crime scene photographing the next day: Report of Asst. Chemist Joseph Lanzetta, Apr. 1, 1969 (MSP file).
20 He did not find a weapon: Report of Asst. Chemist Joseph Lanzetta, Apr. 1, 1969 (MSP file). The list of items collected as evidence does not include a weapon.
21 superintendent’s seven-year-old daughter: Report by Det. Centrella (Priscilla Joyce interview), Jan. 7, 1969 (CPD file).
22 beer from her fridge: Report of Statement by Donald Mitchell, Jan. 7, 1969 (CPD file).
23 home at 12:15 a.m.: “Police Seeking Massachusetts Axe Murderer,” Pittsburgh Press, Jan. 8, 1969.
24 party with her on Saturday: “Neighbors Heard Nothing, Cat Upset,” Boston Herald Traveler, Jan. 8, 1969.
25 Stephen, a Harvard law school: “Harvard Coed Is Found Slain,” Kansas City Times, Jan. 8, 1969.
26 awake until two in the morning…ran a test: “Neighbors Heard Nothing, Cat Upset,” Boston Herald Traveler, Jan. 8, 1969.
27 built specifically to be soundproof: “The Cambridge Dormitory,” Cambridge Chronicle, Oct. 2, 1897.
28 “he was acting wild”: “Neighbors Heard Nothing, Cat Upset,” Boston Herald Traveler, Jan. 8, 1969.
29 between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m.: Report to Lt. Davenport by Officer James Lyons (overnight patrol car 6), Jan. 7, 1969; Report to Lt. Davenport by Officer Dennis McCarthy (night patrol car 6), Jan. 7, 1969 (CPD files).
30 A transit worker said he saw a man: Officer Richard Lyon Police Report re: Patrick Joyce, Jan. 8, 1969 (CPD file).
31 Ravi Rikhye, twenty-two: Rikhye details from “Police Seek Coed’s Killer,” Bridgeport Post, Jan. 8, 1969, and “Harvard Girl Brutally Slain in Apartment: Radcliffe Vice President’s Daughter,” Boston Globe, Jan. 8, 1969. When I spoke to Rikhye in 2018, he no longer remembered the night with the same detail.
32 Capello stood outside: Boston Record-American photo, uncredited, Jan. 8, 1969, p. 29.
33 art deco headquarters: Degou, Cambridge Police, p. 91.
34 Jane’s parents were among the first interviewed: “Harvard Graduate Student Bludgeoned to Death,” Boston Herald Traveler, Jan. 8, 1969.
35 J. Boyd Britton held his hat in one hand: “Harvard Coed, 22, Found Brutally Slain,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 8, 1969.
36 [Photo]: Dennis Brearley/Boston Record-American. Image courtesy Boston Herald.
37 examiner tested Don’s and Jill’s hands: Report of Asst. Chemist Joseph Lanzetta, Apr. 1, 1969 (MSP file).
38 “I—I was cutting up some meat”: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
39 furrowed into two dark streaks: As shown in the photo on page 24. Leo Tierney/Boston Record-American. Image courtesy Boston Herald.
40 [Photo]: Leo Tierney/Boston Record-American. Image courtesy Boston Herald.
1 anthropology professors at Buffalo State: Buffalo State website; interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
2 had withdrawn from Harvard: “The Case of the Ocher-Covered Corpse,” Boston Magazine, Sept. 1982.
3 Anthropology 1065: 2012–2013 Courses of Instruction, “Previous Course Offerings,” Registrar’s Office website, Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
1 No caution tape, no barriers: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
2 inside the University Road apartment: Here through “What good will an investigation do now?” from “Girls Afraid to Stay Alone,” Boston Herald-Traveler, Jan. 8, 1969.
3 [Photo]: Stan Forman/Boston Record-American. Image courtesy Boston Herald.
4 anxious to assist authorities: “Girl Slaying Gets National Attention,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 9, 1969.
5 “I suppose you’d say I was her boyfriend”: This section (until break) from CPD-JH police transcript.
6 Shortly before midnight: “Harvard Girl Brutally Slain in the Apartment,” Boston Globe, Jan. 8, 1969.
7 no visible blood except on the mattress and pillows: Notice of Death form completed by Officer Lyons, Jan. 7, 1969 (CPD file).
8 the coroner, Dr. Arthur McGovern: “Harvard Graduate Student Bludgeoned to Death,” Boston Herald Traveler, Jan. 8, 1969.
9 contusions and lacerations of the brain: Autopsy Report, Drs. George Katsas and Arthur McGovern, undated, but the autopsy was performed at 6:45 p.m. on Jan. 7, 1969 (MSP file).
10 a four-inch slash across her hairline and an inch-long wound: “Police Probe Vicious Slaying of College Official’s Daughter,” UPI, Jan. 9, 1969.
11 fatal hit: “Harvard Graduate Student Bludgeoned to Death,” Boston Herald Traveler, Jan. 8, 1969.
12 crack her skull: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
13 “She had been hit from”…blunt and sharp: “Hammer Sought in Coed Slaying,” Baltimore Sun, Jan. 9, 1969.
14 sharp rock, a hatchet or a cleaver…ball peen hammer: “Harvard Girl Brutally Slain in Apartment,” Boston Globe, Jan. 8, 1969.
15 not found any clear evidence of sexual assault: “Pretty Graduate Student Found Slain in Apartment,” The Day, Jan. 8, 1969.
16 pending a more in-depth autopsy: “Harvard Girl Brutally Slain in Apartment,” Boston Globe, Jan. 8, 1969.
17 compulsively thorough: “Dr. George G. Katsas, 79; Leading Forensic Pathologist,” Boston Globe, June 21, 2001.
18 for at least a week: “New Medical Tests on Slain Coed Fail,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 15, 1969.
19 “We have no firm suspects at this time”: “Harvard Graduate Student Bludgeoned to Death,” Boston Herald Traveler, Jan. 8, 1969.
20 Humphries had come voluntarily: “Harvard Graduate Student Bludgeoned to Death,” Boston Herald Traveler, Jan. 8, 1969.
21 “It was someone she knew”: “Quiz Harvard Men in Coed Slaying,” New York Post, Jan. 8, 1969.
1 at Harvard since 1965: CCLK curriculum vitae, available on CCLK’s page on Harvard’s Department of Anthropology website.
2 early newspaper reports: “Harvard Team Unearths Alexander’s Lost Citadel,” Boston Globe, Nov. 10, 1968; “Archaeological Unit From Harvard Unearths Lost Fortress in Persia,” Harvard Crimson, Nov. 12, 1968.
3 key trading stop…Proto-Elamite texts: Interview with Dan Potts in 2019; interview with CCLK in 2020.
4 directing archaeological surveys in Saudi Arabia…thirteen years: CCLK curriculum vitae.
5 nothing ever surpassed Yahya: CCLK did not dispute this on a 2020 phone call, but he said that he was most proud of having fostered the careers of his graduate students.
6 while Karl couldn’t dictate the use of funds, he had a major say: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.
7 the Crimson article: “On Hike, a Life Is Cut Short,” Harvard Crimson, Oct. 24, 2007.
1 Sirhan Sirhan’s trial: “Quiz Harvard Men in Coed Slaying,” New York Post, Jan. 8, 1969.
2 even Newsweek magazine: “The Riddle of the Red Dust,” Newsweek, Jan. 20, 1969, p. 17.
3 at home in Colorado…“every day across the country?”: Interview with Brenda Bass in 2016.
4 [Photo]: Boston Record-American, Jan. 8, 1969, p. 1. Image courtesy Boston Herald.
5 four reporters: Interviews with Joe Modzelewski (2014) and Mike McGovern (2016). “Four” includes the photographer in the count.
6 private plane: “Girl Slaying Gets National Headlines,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 9, 1969.
7 second-floor corridor: “The Cambridge Rambler: The Scene is Changed,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 11, 1969.
8 two men were being sought: “Police Seek Peru Hippie in Coed Slaying,” Fresno Bee, Jan. 8, 1969.
9 this man was a faculty member: “Murder Quiz Finds Jane Had Abortion,” Daily News, Jan. 13, 1969.
10 a gift from Don and Jill Mitchell: “‘Gift’ Rock May Be Cambridge Death Weapon,” Boston Globe, Jan. 9, 1969.
11 sent men to look: “Police Seek 2 for Quiz in Girl’s Brutal Killing,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 9, 1969.
12 “minor inconsistencies”: “‘Gift’ Rock May Be Cambridge Death Weapon,” Boston Globe, Jan. 9, 1969.
13 “peculiar and sinister”: Interview with Laurie Godfrey in 2018.
14 “swirling horror of interest and speculation”: Interview with Mel Konner in 2017.
15 what the department secretaries found: Interview with Liz Gude in 2017.
16 [Photo]: Photograph by Don Mitchell.
17 “There was a considerable amount of crime”: Interview with Francesco Pellizzi in 2017.
18 “I think everyone had a heightened sense”: Interview with Mel Konner in 2017.
19 Speaking at the time, Ingrid: “‘Gift’ Rock May Be Cambridge Death Weapon,” Boston Globe, Jan. 9, 1969.
20 Galligan, a square-faced man with a button nose: Degou, Cambridge Police, p. 27.
21 “we are leaving no stone”: “Girl Slaying Gets National Headlines,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 9, 1969.
22 Twenty-three people: “3 to Get Lie Test in Slaying,” Akron Beacon Journal, Jan. 8, 1969.
23 scheduled lie detector tests: “‘Gift’ Rock May Be Cambridge Death Weapon,” Boston Globe, Jan. 9, 1969.
24 whom he refused to name: “Police Seek Slayer of Harvard Coed,” Bennington Banner, Jan. 9, 1969.
25 What some know as iron oxide: For extensive reading on red ochre, see Kate Helwig, “Iron Oxide Pigments” chapter in Artists’ Pigments: A Handbook of their History and Characteristics Volume 4, edited by Barbara Berrie (New York: Archetype Publications, 2007), pp. 39–109.
26 ceiling and the wall where a headboard might have been: “Coed’s Slayer Went through Ancient Ritual,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 9, 1969; interview with Don Mitchell in 2017; CPD-SW p. 3.
27 “It was described to me”: Here until the end of this chapter is from “‘Gift’ Rock May Be Cambridge Death Weapon,” Boston Globe, Jan. 9, 1969.
1 friendship with the Taylors: Interview with Boyd Britton in 2016.
2 [Photo]: New York Daily News.
3 “the fact that apparently”: “Harvard Coed: Mystery Surrounds Slaying,” The Tech (MIT), Jan. 14, 1969.
4 Francesco Pellizzi later recalled: Interview with Francesco Pellizzi in 2017.
5 “I mean, who knows”: Interview with Paul Shankman in 2017.
6 liquid daubed: “Girl Slayer Performed Burial Rite,” Boston Herald Traveler, Jan. 9, 1969.
7 powder that had been strewn: “Coed’s Slayer Went through Ancient Ritual,” Boston Record-American (evening edition), Jan. 9, 1969.
8 It was red: “Coed’s Killer Held Weird Rite: Threw Red Powder over Body,” Daily News, Jan. 10, 1969.
9 mahogany or cocoa-colored: “‘Gift’ Rock May Be Cambridge Death Weapon,” Boston Globe, Jan. 9, 1969.
10 some articles called it ochre: “Coed’s Slayer Went through Ancient Ritual,” Boston Record-American (evening edition), Jan. 9, 1969.
11 others called it iodine oxide: “Girl Slayer Performed Burial Rite,” Boston Herald Traveler, Jan. 9, 1969.
12 according to the Boston Globe: “‘Gift’ Rock May Be Cambridge Death Weapon,” Boston Globe, Jan. 9, 1969.
13 only stable oxide of iodine: Interview with Narayan Khandekar in 2020.
14 was in Italy: Arthur Bankoff statement.
15 “People who said so”: Interview with Arthur Bankoff in 2016.
16 portion of a colonial gravestone: CPD-SW p. 3; colonial detail from source below; also interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
17 winged skull: Susan Kelly notes from interview with Paul Shankman, July 31, 1996 (police file).
18 Cambridge Police’s source: Stephen Williams never publicly admitted being the police’s source on the matter. This conclusion is drawn from multiple sources. Many newspaper reports cite a Harvard Anthropology professor as the source of the information about red ochre (e.g., “‘Gift’ Rock May Be Cambridge Death Weapon,” Boston Globe, Jan. 9, 1969). In a few, Williams is named as the police source/consultant: “Slain Harvard Student Buried—Police Film All at Service,” Boston Globe, Jan. 11, 1969; “Coed’s Killer Held Weird Rite,” Daily News, Jan. 10, 1969; “Harvard Coed: Mystery Surrounds Slaying,” The Tech (MIT), Jan. 14, 1969.” This reporting is corroborated by CPD-SW, in which Williams discusses the ritual element of red ochre and mentions that the police had already called him to discuss red ochre on the evening of Jan. 8, 1969, before the news broke.
1 This chapter is an excerpt of CPD-SW. This police transcript, as well as the others that appear later in the book, has been edited for concision and clarity. In places, I have made decisions about rearranging the sequencing within the interviews to reflect the way in which I discovered and pieced together the story from the investigatory materials. However, in all cases, these editing decisions were guided by the intent to keep the spirit and sense of the original preserved.
1 buried the dead under their houses: For more on burial customs at Ain Mallaha: François Valla, et al., “Eynan (Ain Mallaha),” in Quaternary of the Levant: Environments, Climate Change, and Humans, edited by Yehouda Enzel and Ofer Bar-Yosef (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), pp. 295–296.
1 Karl’s first day…PhD at UPenn: CCLK curriculum vitae; interview with CCLK in 2020.
2 hair down to his shoulders: This description from interviews with CCLK in 2017 and 2020. He also said, “I used to go into my class and take my helmet off, and the kids would cheer.”
3 ninety-ninth birthday: Peabody founded in 1866 per “Museum History,” Peabody Museum at Harvard University website.
4 Castle was only ten years old: Completed and opened to the public in Feb. 1855 per “Great Hall of Smithsonian Castle Opens to Public,” engraving, Feb. 8, 1855, W. W. Turner to J. R. Bartlett, Jan. 31, 1866, J. C. Brown Library, Brown University.
5 founded for another four years: AMNH founded in 1869, per “Museum History: A Timeline,” AMNH’s website.
6 codified program of teaching: Peabody became incorporated into Harvard University in 1897, Gérald Gaillard, The Routledge Dictionary of Anthropologists (London: Routledge, 2004), p. 56.
7 all fields of anthropology, including archaeology: The fact that archaeology is categorized as a subfield of anthropology is a quirk of American archaeology––the legacy of Franz Boas’s Four-Field approach. In Europe, archaeology is often a discipline in its own right, or it is taught under the umbrella of history or classics or Oriental studies. For more on this, and the tension it creates within the discipline in the US, see Bernard Wood, “Four-Field Anthropology: A Perfect Union or a Failed State?” Society 50, no. 2 (2013): 152–155.
8 “were made to hold powerful magic”: Interview with Barbara Allen in 2017.
9 Mexico’s sacred cenotes: “Envoy: From Deep to Dark,” Harvard Advocate, Commencement Issue, 2011.
10 feathers and spirit masks and saliva samples: Interview with Barbara Allen in 2017.
11 P. T. Barnum’s mermaid: Interview with Anne Kern in 2018.
12 network of secret passages: Interview with Alison Brooks in 2017.
13 Joe Johns: Interview with Joe Johns in 2017; interview with Richard Meadow in 2017.
14 Duke of Montrose: “Ian Graham, 93, Intrepid Investigator, Interpreter of Mayan Ruins,” Boston Globe, Aug. 3, 2017.
15 smoked like a chimney: Interview with Tom Patterson in 2017.
16 tiny one that flipped: Interview with David Freidel in 2017.
17 never gave her an official position: Interview with Michael Coe in 2017; interview with Richard Meadow in 2020.
18 only place to smoke…almost blue: Interview with Bruce Bourque in 2017.
19 academically uninspiring: Many of Williams’s students, however, were grateful for his support, like Bruce Bourque, who remembered Williams as a “really decent human being [who] took good care of his students.”
20 all-male faculty club: The club didn’t open to women until 1968 per “History,” Harvard Faculty Club website.
21 West End duck hunting club: Interview with Tom Patterson in 2017.
22 the only tenured woman: “The First Tenured Women Professors at Harvard University,” infographic developed by Harvard University’s Faculty Development & Diversity, Office of the Senior Vice Provost, 2011.
23 turned away from her: Interview with Alice Kehoe in 2017.
24 hair parted in the middle: Harvey Bricker, Hallam Leonard Movius Jr. (1907–1987): A Biographical Memoir (Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences, 2007), p. 2.
25 lieutenant colonel: Bricker, Hallam Leonard Movius Jr., p. 9.
26 egg timer…twelve-minute break: Interview with Alison Brooks in 2017.
27 one of his female graduate students: Source wishes to be unattributed.
28 “Hamilton, that’s a much better name”: Interview with Sally Shankman in 2017.
29 “All archaeology is the re-enactment”: CCLK foreword, p. XX, paraphrasing R. G. Collingwood by substituting “archaeology” for “history.”
30 people made fun: Interview with Liz Gude in 2017.
31 black-tie parties…rarely wore jackets: Interviews with CCLK in 2017 and 2020.
32 big impression on David Freidel: Interview with David Freidel in 2017.
33 spring of 1967: “Culture History of the Old World: Ethnography,” Record of Subjects and Grades in Jane Britton’s Radcliffe student file; cross-referenced with Courses of Instruction Harvard and Radcliffe, Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1966–1967, Official Register of Harvard University, 63, no. 17 (1968): 43.
34 committee for her undergraduate thesis: CPD-CCLK 1, p. 2 and CPD-JH, p. 10.
35 Karl had dangled: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 24, 1966.
36 third straight summer: Letters from Jane to her parents in summers 1965–1967.
37 “a pigheaded old bastard…fur fly”: Letter from Jane to her father, June 2, 1965.
38 space opening up in the department: Openings in Harvard department used to be calculated with something called the Graustein formula. See “Faculty Moves away from Power Politics,” Harvard Crimson, Nov. 10, 1988.
39 Movius suddenly announced: CPD-IK, p. 17.
40 Decades later, Francesco Pellizzi: Interview with Francesco Pellizzi in 2017.
1 Jim Humphries’s roommate: CPD-JH and CPD-RM.
2 his dissertation adviser: CCLK curriculum vitae.
3 director of the Peabody’s Zooarchaeology Laboratory: Interview with Richard Meadow in 2020.
1 deeply upsetting. Infuriating and misinformed—nasty even: Interviews with CCLK in 2017 and 2018.
2 “There were complaints”: “Cambridge Murder Victim Is Recalled as Intelligent and Witty,” New York Times, Jan. 19, 1969.
3 “completely ridiculous…burial ceremony”: “Profs, Cops Differ on Slaying,” New York Post, Jan. 10, 1969.
4 obliged when authorities: Interview with CCLK in 2017.
5 “total fabrication”: “Profs, Cops Differ on Slaying,” New York Post, Jan. 10, 1969.
6 “so-called Harvard”: “Indications Jane Knew Her Slayer,” Boston Herald Traveler, Jan. 11, 1969.
7 “I want to underline”: “Police Examine Ochre Found Near Slaying Victim,” Boston Globe, Jan. 10, 1969.
8 one of her pigments: “Britton Case News Blackout Ordered,” Tuscaloosa News, Jan. 10, 1969.
9 “If you ever do or say this again”: Interview with CCLK in 2018.
10 1010 Commonwealth Avenue: Don Mitchell interview transcript with Sergeant Sennott, July 17, 2017, p. 181 (MSP file).
11 each lasted about an hour: “Coed’s Killer Held Weird Rite,” Daily News, Jan. 10, 1969.
12 Don spoke to reporters: “Strange Clue in Coed Case,” New York Post, Jan. 9, 1969.
13 starched white button-down: Description from Daily News photo by Mel Finkelstein, Jan. 9, 1969.
14 presence of an attorney: “Coed’s Friend Nixes Lie Test,” Daily News, Jan. 9, 1969.
15 [Photo]: Mel Finkelstein/New York Daily News.
16 cigarette slowly enough: “Suspect Rite Performed Co-ed’s Killer,” Chicago Tribune, Jan. 10, 1969.
17 “If it wasn’t as serious”: “Jane’s Killer Enacted Ancient Rite over Her,” Daily News, Jan. 10, 1969.
18 Late that afternoon: “Police Examine Ochre,” Boston Globe, Jan. 10, 1969.
19 the first time since: “Cambridge Rambler: The Scene Is Changed,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 11, 1969.
20 thinning white hair: Uncredited photo in Daily News, Jan. 13, 1969.
21 since last summer: “Rapping with the Cambridge Cops,” Harvard Crimson, Mar. 23, 1970.
22 overseen a handful of murders: “Murder in Cambridge, 1959–1989,” compiled by the Cambridge Police Department’s Crime Analysis Unit.
23 “There will be no statements”: “Police Examine Ochre Found Near Slaying Victim,” Boston Globe, Jan. 10, 1969.
24 “Suddenly the chief”: Interview with Mike McGovern in 2016.
25 blackout felt like a cover-up: Interview with Joe Modzelewski in 2014.
26 “Around here, Harvard is thicker than water”: “Covering Harvard—A View from the Outside,” Harvard Crimson, June 12, 1969.
27 “We couldn’t get anybody…pretend like it didn’t happen”: Interview with Joe Modzelewski in 2014.
28 stone tool…had been located: “Police Examine Ochre,” Boston Globe, Jan. 10, 1969.
29 any further details: “Cambridge Police Declare Black-out On Britton Case,” Harvard Crimson, Jan. 10, 1969.
1 international drug smuggling: “Officials Jail Alumnus in 1500-lb Hash Bust,” Harvard Crimson, Feb. 21, 1970.
2 FBI informant: “Jessie Gill’s Story: Is It Fact or Fancy?” Harvard Crimson, Apr. 12, 1973.
3 another murder occurred: Multiple, including “Widow 2D Cambridge Victim of Bludgeoning in Month,” Boston Globe, Feb. 7, 1969.
4 covered with a blanket: Medical Examiner Report of Death by David Dow (CPD file).
5 looked much younger: “2 Murders in Cambridge Seen Similar,” Boston Herald Traveler, Feb. 7, 1969.
6 dark hair and hazel eyes: Medical Examiner Report of Death by David Dow (CPD file).
7 Of the four murders: “Murder in Cambridge, 1959–1989,” compiled by the Cambridge Police Department’s Crime Analysis Unit.
8 “Don’t do it”: Phone call with Alec Klein in 2014.
9 “Only people of a certain disposition”: Nick Hornby, High Fidelity (New York: Riverhead Books, 1995), p. 30.
10 the Mountain Cabin restaurant: This was our name for the Black Mountain Wine House (415 Union St.).
11 “You’ve changed”: “You’ve Changed,” written by Carl Fischer and Bill Carey, Melody Lane Productions, Inc. Copyright 1942.
1 Conversation with Don Mitchell took place on July 25, 2018.
1 like they had the plague: “Cambridge Rambler: News Blackout Hit,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 18, 1969.
2 banged on Ingrid Kirsch’s door: Here through “nose over a couple of feet,” from CPD-IK.
3 Christ Episcopal Church: “‘Gift’ Rock May Be Cambridge Death Weapon,” Boston Globe, Jan. 9, 1969.
4 it had been her church: Interview with Boyd Britton in 2019.
5 Giacoppo clutched his movie camera: Mel Finkelstein photo, “Cops & Cameras Study Crowd at Jane’s Rites,” Daily News, Jan. 11, 1969.
6 250 attendees: There is a slight discrepancy in the newspaper reports for this number. The Boston Globe, Boston Record-American, and Daily News estimated 400 attendees, but I went with the New York Times’s 250 because there were only about 200 signatures in Jane’s funeral book.
7 tell him who to film: “Cops & Cameras Study Crowd at Jane’s Rites,” Daily News, Jan. 11, 1969; interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
8 [Photo]: Mel Finkelstein/New York Daily News.
9 accompanied by his brother: CPD-RM, p. 50 and Cambridge Police photos from funeral (CPD file).
10 Richard Meadow’s father: CPD-RM, p. 25 and interview with Richard Meadow in 2018.
11 dean at Harvard med school: “Henry Coe Meadow: Memorial Minute,” Harvard Gazette, May 13, 2004.
12 set him up with: “3 Friends of Slain Co-Ed Take Lie Tests,” Boston Herald Traveler, Jan. 10, 1969.
13 paler and more sleep-deprived: CPD-RM, p. 49.
14 oversize pair of sunglasses: Mel Finkelstein photo, “Cops & Cameras Study Crowd at Jane’s Rites,” Daily News, Jan. 11, 1969.
15 Jane’s mother stooped over: Cambridge Police photos from funeral.
16 [Photo]: Jane Britton police file.
17 made their way from the parking lot: Cambridge Police photos from funeral.
18 shown up to help as a courtesy: Interview with Boyd Britton in 2016.
19 [Photo]: Jane Britton police file.
20 Richard Meadow walked alone: Cambridge Police photos from funeral.
21 donations to be made: “Slayer Performed Ancient Ritual over Victim,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 9, 1969. The Jane S. Britton Memorial Book Fund was started in her honor (“Britton Memorial Fund,” Peabody Museum Newsletter, winter 1969, p. 2).
22 Mary Bunting: Bunting does not appear in the Cambridge Police photos, but her signature appears in Jane’s funeral book, and her appearance was noted in “Slain Harvard Student Buried—Police Film All at Service,” Boston Globe, Jan. 11, 1969.
23 not so for J. O. Brew: Cambridge Police photos from funeral.
24 “My god. Has he got balls”: CPD-IK, p. 72.
25 Jane’s neighbors, the Pressers: Woodward photographed next to the Pressers in the CPD photos from funeral.
26 stained-glass cross glittered: Author visit to Needham Episcopal; confirmed with Boyd Britton in 2019.
27 Jim Humphries sat in front: Don Mitchell Websleuths (WS) post #492, July 1, 2014.
28 White roses: “Slain Harvard Student Buried—Police Film All at Service,” Boston Globe, Jan. 11, 1969.
29 Soft organ music: “Jane Britton Laid to Rest,” Boston Herald Traveler, Jan. 11, 1969.
30 Reverend Harold Chase: “Slain Harvard Student Buried—Police Film All at Service,” Boston Globe, Jan. 11, 1969.
31 “peace now and forever”…no eulogy: “Jane Britton Laid to Rest,” Boston Herald Traveler, Jan. 11, 1969.
32 “I remember being there”: Interview with Mel Konner in 2017.
33 dabbed their eyes: “Cops & Cameras Study Crowd at Jane’s Rites,” Daily News, Jan. 11, 1969.
34 a single sob: “Cops & Cameras Study Crowd at Jane’s Rites,” Daily News, Jan. 11, 1969. In a 2017 interview, Jane’s half brother Charlie Britton told me the sob was likely his.
35 less than thirty minutes: “Slain Harvard Student Buried—Police Film All at Service,” Boston Globe, Jan. 11, 1969.
36 “Get him”: “Cops & Cameras Study Crowd at Jane’s Rites,” Daily News, Jan. 11, 1969.
37 slipped out a side door: “Find Ritual Clue in Coed’s Papers,” New York Post, Jan. 11, 1969.
1 forty-thousand-year-old interment: “First Humans in Australia Dated to 50,000 Years Ago,” National Geographic News, Feb. 24, 2003.
2 Moorehead burial complex in Canada: Interview with Bruce Bourque in 2017.
3 stone coffin burials in southern Russia: Interview with Ruth Tringham in 2017.
4 Shanidar Cave in Iraq: Interview with Ed Wade in 2017.
5 Red Queen of Palenque: “Mystery Queen in the Maya Tomb,” National Geographic, Feb. 2, 2018. She is covered in a different red powder: cinnabar, otherwise known as the highly toxic mercury sulfide.
6 nineteen-thousand-year-old: “The Red Lady of El Mirón,” Archaeology, Sept.–Oct. 2015.
7 thirty-three-thousand-year-old: “The ‘Red Lady’ of Paviland,” Oxford Museum of Natural History’s website.
8 turned out to be a young man: “The Secrets of Paviland Cave,” The Guardian, Apr. 25, 2011.
9 earliest example of symbolic thought: “Cave Colours Reveal Mental Leap,” BBC News Online, Dec. 11, 2003.
10 Archaeologists speculated: Nicola Attard Montalto, “The Characterisation and Provenancing of Ancient Ochres,” PhD dissertation, Cranfield Health, Translational Medicine, Cranfield University, 2010, p. 21.
11 Greek for “blood-like”: Dictionary.com entry for the origin of “hematite,” based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary (New York: Random House, 2020).
12 history of Harvard’s school color: See R. Leopoldina Torres, “The Colorful History of Crimson at Harvard,” Harvard Art Museums website, Oct. 3, 2013. Reverend Gomes’s quote from “Harvard Explained: Why Is Crimson Harvard’s Official Color?” Fifteen Minutes, Apr. 11, 2002.
13 a couple of Neolithic sites: Sites include Ganj Dareh, Chogha Sefid, and Ali Kosh. See, e.g., Abbas Alizadeh, Chogha Mish II: The Development of a Prehistoric Regional Center in Lowland Susiana, Southwestern Iran, Final Report on the Last Six Seasons of Excavation, 1972–1978, Oriental Institute Publications 130 (Chicago: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, 2008).
14 forbade cremation and burials: For more on Zoroastrian burial practices see Daniel Potts, “Disposal of the Dead in Planquadrat U/V XVIII at Uruk: A Parthian Enigma?” Baghdader Mitteilungen 37 (2006): 270.
15 the Freshman Register: The Freshman Register: Radcliffe 1967, Radcliffe College, 1967.
16 All three hundred of them: “How to Pick 300 Effective Human Beings,” Radcliffe Quarterly, June 1969, p. 10.
17 different until 2000: “So Long, Radcliffe,” Harvard Crimson, Apr. 21, 1999.
18 an all-male college: The end date of Harvard being an all-male college is hard to say since the merger happened in stages (e.g., Radcliffe students started taking classes with Harvard men in 1943, but it isn’t until 1975 that a joint Harvard-Radcliffe Office of Admissions started admitting male and female undergraduates). Harvard and Radcliffe’s long, drawn-out merger is explored more in a later chapter, but for a detailed history of it, see “Our History,” Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Harvard University website.
19 “Hello?” she said: The rest of this chapter is from a 2014 interview with Susan Talbot.
20 it was still there: True as of the time of the conversation. In October 2019, after more than sixty years, Out of Town News closed.
1 chemist’s analysis: Details in section from Report of Asst. Chemist Joseph Lanzetta, Apr. 1, 1969 (MSP file), unless otherwise indicated.
2 those sperm cells were intact: Chronology of DNA Investigation, prepared by the MDAO, Oct. 29, 2018, p. 1 (MDAO file).
3 Officer Giacoppo also found: Report to Det. Lt. Davenport by Det. Ed Colleran re: crime scene, Jan. 8, 1969.
4 Dr. Katsas’s in-depth autopsy did not comment: Autopsy Report, Drs. George Katsas and Arthur McGovern, Jan. 7, 1969 (MSP file).
5 on her right arm: Autopsy Report, Drs. George Katsas and Arthur McGovern, Jan. 7, 1969 (MSP file).
6 Detective Lieutenant Davenport joked: CPD-JC, p. 17.
7 got the names and addresses: “Notes re: contact for James Humphries, Donald Mitchell, Lee Parsons, and Boyd Britton,” unsigned and undated (CPD file).
8 obtained a directory: Graduate Students Roster, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, fall term 1967.
9 her recent phone calls: “Notes of Names Linked to Series of Toll Calls,” unsigned and undated (CPD file).
10 phone book and diary: “Coed Phone List Fails to Give Clues,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 19, 1969.
11 three statements: Arthur Bankoff statement, Andrea Bankoff statement, joint statement.
12 US embassy in Rome: Letter to Lt. Davenport from US Vice Consul-Italy (encl. three letters), Jan. 17, 1969 (CPD file).
13 “Jane was not the type”: “The Case of the Ocher-Covered Corpse,” Boston Magazine, Sept. 1982.
14 “I think she’d kick him”: CPD-IK, p. 43.
15 Jill Mitchell told cops: This paragraph and the following are from CPD-JM 1, pp. 42–44.
16 “gentleman to the point”: CPD-LI, p. 49.
17 “I should think that”: CPD-IK, p. 13.
18 the chemist’s analysis revealed: This section is from Death Certificate by Dr. Arthur McGovern, Jan. 9, 1969 (MSP file). The maroon rugby sweater detail comes from Report by Sgt. Peter Sennott re: Jim Humphries, Oct. 12, 2017 (MSP file).
19 “What was the attraction?”: Exchange is from CPD-IK, p. 63.
1 could not be immediately dismissed: This a condensed version of my research that focused on Theodore (Ted) Wertime, the head of a metallurgical annex team, sponsored by the Smithsonian, that visited Tepe Yahya the same season that Jane was there. It is thanks to Wertime that the Yahya expedition secured US commissary privileges; he worked for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, did further intelligence work for the State Department from 1945 until 1955 (Washington Post obituary, Apr. 16, 1982), and was, for a time, the cultural attaché in Iran; but I ultimately found no evidence connecting his work at Yahya with any intelligence collection. For diligent scholarship on the connection between some anthropologists and the CIA, David Price’s work is excellent.
2 “I never worked for the US government”: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.
3 refused to either confirm or deny: Michael Lavergne, Executive Secretary of the Agency Release Panel, CIA, Mar. 18, 2016.
1 The spring before: Scene based on CPD-IK and CPD-SLI, who both describe this moment––including the dialogue––in their police interviews. Sarah Lee Irwin went by Lee, but I refer to her as Sarah Lee in the book to avoid confusion with another Lee who appears later.
1 original Harvard Crimson article: “Grad Student Killed,” Harvard Crimson, Jan. 8, 1969.
2 French genealogy website: Geneanet.org.
3 New York Times obituary: “Paid Notice: Deaths, de Saint Phalle, Virginia,” New York Times, Nov. 6, 2006.
4 She was eager to help: All following is from interview with Sat Siri Khalsa in 2014.
1 “Does it take a murder”: “Tenants Claim Harvard Ignored Building Code,” Harvard Crimson, Jan. 14, 1969. For more on the scrutiny of Harvard’s real estate policies, see “Harvard to Probe No Locks on Doors,” Boston Globe, Jan. 10, 1969; “Harvard Defends Housing,” Boston Globe, Jan. 12, 1969; “Harvard Panel Urges Improved Community Ties,” New York Times, Jan. 14, 1969.
2 bought the place in 1967: “University Wins Fight to Purchase Building,” Harvard Crimson, May 10, 1967.
3 residents should not expect renovations: “Booming Biz in Narcotics Jars Harvard,” Daily News, Jan. 12, 1969.
4 “We tried to request”: “Tenants Claim Harvard Ignored Building Code,” Harvard Crimson, Jan. 14, 1969.
5 $48.7 million fundraising drive: According to the Daily News, this is a $52 million fundraising drive (“A Shadow of Blight Settles on Hallowed Harvard,” Jan. 14, 1969), but this $48.7 million figure is taken from Peabody Museum Newsletter, summer 1968, p. 1.
6 young reporter pressed: “Covering Harvard—A View from the Outside,” Harvard Crimson, June 12, 1969. The reporter was Parker Donham.
7 “With all the problems that Harvard brings”: “Tenants Claim Harvard Ignored Building Code,” Harvard Crimson, Jan. 14, 1969.
8 real estate company that managed: “University Wins Fight to Purchase Building,” William Galeota, May 10, 1967.
9 “Due to the recent happenings”: “Front Door Locked at Jane’s Building,” Daily News, Jan. 11, 1969.
10 give residents the keys: “Slay Site Bldg Gets New Locks,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 11, 1969.
11 “They just wanted it to die down”: Interview with Joe Modzelewski in 2014.
12 frozen winter soil: “Slain Student Buried––People Film All at Service,” Boston Globe, Jan. 11, 1969.
13 A cloudless sky: “Cops & Cameras Study Crowd at Jane’s Rites,” Daily News, Jan. 11, 1969.
14 performed a brief graveside: “Slain Student Buried––People Film All at Service,” Boston Globe, Jan. 11, 1969.
15 only time Jane’s father showed emotion: Interviews with Boyd Britton in 2016 and Charlie Britton in 2017.
16 the sloping hill: “Cops & Cameras Study Crowd at Jane’s Rites,” Daily News, Jan. 11, 1969.
17 two workmen: “Cops & Cameras Study Crowd at Jane’s Rites,” Daily News, Jan. 11, 1969.
1 At the two-week mark: This chapter is from an interview with Elisabeth in 2014 unless otherwise noted.
2 “three feet on the ground at all times”: There was no parietal rule worded as such in the Redbook, but this is how students shorthanded it. See also “More as People than Dating Objects,” Harvard Magazine, Nov.-Dec. 2011.
3 mandatory skirts and stockings: Redbook: A Guide to Student Living at Radcliffe 1963–1964, edited by Karen Johnson, Radcliffe Government Association, p. 25.
4 It wasn’t until 1973: “’Cliffe to Yard Shuttle Buses Begin,” Harvard Crimson, Sept. 21, 1973.
1 That first week of freshman year: This chapter is from an interview with Elisabeth Handler in 2014 unless otherwise noted.
2 the more difficult of the two: Marcia G. Synnott, “The Changing ‘Harvard Student’: Ethnicity, Race, and Gender,” Yards and Gates: Gender in Harvard and Radcliffe History, edited by Laurel Ulrich (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), p. 297.
3 green and widely spaced: Susan Kelly notes from interview with Elisabeth Handler, May 24, 1996 (police file).
4 black it was almost blue: Interview with Brenda Bass in 2016.
5 built like a brick shithouse: Interview with Bruce Bourque in 2017.
6 she smoked: Interview with Lucy DuPertuis in 2018.
7 eschewed hair-sprayed updos: Interview with Irene (duPont) Light in 2016.
8 She had a low voice: Interview with Jennifer Fowler in 2016.
9 erupted spontaneously: Email from Cathy Ravinski, Aug. 1, 2017, 10:25 a.m.
10 cock her thin eyebrows: Interview with Jennifer Fowler in 2016.
11 Jane slept on the lower bunk: Details of Jane’s freshman-year room from interview with Lucy DuPertuis in 2018.
12 ironing board and iron: Here through “five hours a week of housework,” from Redbook, p. 19.
13 “be discreet when sunbathing”…“good taste demands”: Redbook, p. 25.
14 Smoking was allowed everywhere (except in bed): Redbook, p. 32.
15 alcohol was forbidden…exceptions were made for sherry: Redbook, p. 85.
16 the social rules: Redbook, p. 79.
17 needed to be signed in: Redbook, pp. 82–83.
18 “Man on!” to alert people: “’Cliffe Parietals Committee Meets for Action on Spring Referendum,” Harvard Crimson, Sept. 25, 1969.
19 the Harvard Annex in 1879…Harvard classes since 1943: “Radcliffe Timeline,” Harvard Crimson, Apr. 21, 1999.
20 Professors resented: Nancy Weiss Malkiel, “Keep the Damned Women Out”: The Struggle for Coeducation (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017), p. 37. This is an excellent book on the history of how elite universities in America and the UK went co-ed.
21 Harvard instructors’ experience of teaching co-ed classes: “The ’Cliffe Girl: An Instructor’s View,” Harvard Crimson, Apr. 18, 1953.
22 the June before Jane arrived: Malkiel, “Keep the Damned Women Out,” pp. 42–43.
23 second-class citizens: Interview with Ellen Hume in 2014.
24 same scholarship money and financial aid: Marie Hicks, “Integrating Women at Oxford and Harvard Universities, 1964–1977,” Yards and Gates, p. 363.
25 weren’t allowed to enter Lamont: “Lamont Will Open to Cliffies after Twenty Celibate Years,” Harvard Crimson, Dec. 8, 1966.
26 required to have escorts: Redbook, p. 86.
27 nine women’s bathrooms: Redbook, p. 118.
28 freshman boy could invite: “More as People than Dating Objects,” Harvard Magazine, Nov.–Dec. 2011.
29 make the women as uncomfortable as possible: “More as People than Dating Objects,” Harvard Magazine, Nov.–Dec. 2011.
30 classes started a week later: According to Redbook, p. 5, freshman orientation lasted eight days that year.
31 met three times a week: Courses of Instruction Harvard and Radcliffe, Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1963–1964, Official Register of Harvard University, 60, no. 21 (1963): 37.
32 There was an old joke: Interview with Jonathan Friedlaender in 2018.
33 party at his house: Scene is from interviews with Elisabeth Handler (2014) and Peter Panchy (2017). Red wine with cloves detail from Susan Kelly notes from interview with Elisabeth Handler, May 24, 1996 (police file).
34 an Albanian immigrant: Interview with Peter Panchy in 2017.
35 mandatory abstinence lecture in Cabot Hall: Interview with Susan Talbot in 2014.
36 In October 1963, a scandal hit: “Parietal Rules,” Harvard Crimson, Oct. 1, 1963.
37 Students had been complaining: “Living Off-Campus,” Harvard Crimson, Mar. 21, 1963.
38 Two Harvard deans pushed back: “Parietal Rules,” Harvard Crimson, Oct. 1, 1963.
39 brought a television into…tolled every fifteen minutes: Interview with Lucy DuPertuis in 2018.
40 Sophomore year, Jane and Elisabeth: Jane Britton’s Radcliffe student file.
41 an old frame house: Interview with Elisabeth Handler in 2014.
42 1950s living room furniture…Jane was particularly fond: Interview with Karen Black in 2017.
43 Here we were, smelling like a stable: Letter from Jane Britton to her parents, June 12, 1964.
44 Drugs hit campus that year: Interview with Susan Talbot in 2014.
45 dodge water balloons: “The Whispers of a Movement,” Harvard Crimson, May 25, 2015.
46 rarely more than three Black students: Synnott, Yards and Gates, p. 301.
47 Susan Talbot only became aware: Interview with Susan Talbot in 2014.
48 remember the electricity of this moment: Interview with Carol Sternhell in 2014.
49 the hunter-gatherers: Interview with Karl Heider in 2017.
50 fasting for seventy-two hours: Susan Kelly notes from interview with Elisabeth Handler, May 24, 1996 (police file).
51 Jane came alive at night: Here through “cockeyed optimist,” Susan Kelly notes from interview with Elisabeth Handler, May 24, 1996 (police file).
52 a 1962 white convertible: Elisabeth remembers this as Jane’s car, but Boyd (2020) said the car was bought by their father for their mother.
53 Chez Jean, a sweet French bistro: Also appears in Susan Kelly notes from interview with Elisabeth Handler, May 24, 1996 (police file).
1 In early January 1969: Interviews with Elisabeth Handler (2014) and Peter Panchy (2017).
2 “I felt so guilty just for being alive”: Susan Kelly notes from interview with Elisabeth Handler, May 24, 1996 (police file).
3 Ed Franquemont had been a Harvard: Interview with Peter Rodman in 2017.
4 He and Jane dated for less than: Multiple CPD interviews, including CPD-IK, CPD-DM.
5 “cold as a slab of china”: CPD-IK, p. 29.
1 “She wasn’t murdered because”: Don Mitchell WS post #374, June 15, 2014.
2 “Now that I think about it”: CPD-JM 2, p. 46.
3 Ingrid echoed the Mitchells’ admission: CPD-IK, p. 41.
4 Jim was a total mystery to the Mitchells, too: Paragraph from CPD-DM, p. 61.
5 Bankoffs were in Europe: Arthur Bankoff statement.
6 Boyd had been deployed to Vietnam: Boyd Britton military records, National Personnel Records, Department of Defense.
7 moved to Norfolk, Virginia: Interview with Elisabeth Handler in 2020.
8 Cops pushed Ingrid to remember: Exchange from CPD-IK, pp. 35–36.
9 Growing up in Needham: Details here about Jane’s childhood are from interview with Karen John in 2017 unless otherwise noted.
10 [Photo]: Britton family file, courtesy Boyd Britton.
11 Jane’s father was often away: Karen and Boyd’s memories differ here. Karen doesn’t remember Jane’s father being away, but Boyd spoke of their father taking frequent business trips. I’ve gone with Boyd’s memory.
12 Emily Woodbury, another childhood friend: Interview with Emily Woodbury in 2017.
13 “Fit hit the Shan”: Letter from Jane Britton to her parents, July 7, 1966.
14 Her childhood drawings: Britton family file.
15 [Photo]: Britton family file, courtesy Boyd Britton.
16 spent a summer riding on the Cape: Interview with Boyd Britton in 2020.
17 foxhunt simulations: Per Boyd (2020), there were no foxes left in the region, so Jane’s neighbors filled bags with fox urine and dragged them along the trails for the hounds to later follow.
18 Don and Jill were used to seeing Jane every day: CPD-JM 2, p. 47.
19 disappear at eight in the morning: CPD-JM 2, p. 47.
20 Jane left in a rush at 10 p.m.: Here through “If she really had a date” from CPD-JM 2, p. 45.
21 “Do you know of anyone else”: Exchange from CPD-SLI, p. 34.
1 Drafts of a letter Jane wrote to Jim: “Collected Correspondence in Britton Apt,” various dates 1968, p. 6 (CPD file). The fact that these drafts were intended for Jim is inferred from the marmot reference in the letter. Jane often calls herself a marmot (e.g., Jane’s journal entry, June 14/15, 1968: “And all this time I thought you were just making the last days of the marmot a little (hell, infinitely) more blissful”).
1 Boyd’s first response…Boyd’s second response: Boyd Britton, as quoted in email from Elisabeth Handler, Feb. 17, 2014, 5:06 p.m.
2 Boyd wrote again: Email from Boyd Britton to Elisabeth Handler and me, Feb. 17, 2014, 6:23 p.m.
3 “Perhaps I watch too many detective shows”: Email from Boyd Britton, Feb. 18, 2014, 11:54 a.m.
1 A young Boyd dripped water: Interview with Boyd Britton in 2016.
2 In fourth grade, Jane sat uncomfortably: Interview with Emily Woodbury in 2017.
3 Jane and Boyd wandered into their parents’ room: Interview with Boyd Britton in 2017.
4 Jane and her roommate knit a scarf: Interview with Brenda Bass in 2016.
5 In the school production of Oklahoma!: Interview with Boyd Britton in 2016.
6 Cole Porter on the grand piano: Interview with Brenda Bass in 2016.
7 Jane told her friend Cathy: Email from Cathy Ravinski, July 28, 2017, 10:57 a.m.
8 a kind of electric force controlling people’s lives. CPD-JM 2, p. 52.
9 who was born in Prague: Interview with CCLK in 2017.
10 the “Canceled Czech”: Letter from Jane to Boyd, approx. June 17, 1968.
11 “Porcelain Ass”: CPD-IK, p. 79.
12 “I have dreams of waking up dead”: Interview with John Terrell in 2017.
1 All details in this chapter are taken from my 2014 interview with Boyd Britton unless otherwise noted.
2 had been over to her apartment: Boyd was not aware of this fact when we spoke. This detail comes from Peter Ganick’s CPD interview transcript with Detective Lieutenant Davenport, Jan. 8, 1969, 10:25–10:35 a.m.
1 On the night of January 7: Details in this section are from multiple interviews with Boyd Britton (2014–2020), unless otherwise indicated.
2 Vietnam for only a month: Boyd arrived on Dec. 6, 1968, per his military records, National Personnel Records, Department of Defense.
3 the 16th Public Information Detachment: CPD-BB; also letter from Boyd to Jane, undated (approx. Dec. 1968).
4 “Your sister Jane killed”: Telegram from Jane’s parents to Boyd, Jan. 8, 1969 (Britton family file).
5 [Photo]: Britton family file, courtesy Boyd Britton.
6 “Visiting her parents”: Susan Kelly notes from interview with Elisabeth Handler, May 24, 1996 (police file).
7 “gay exotic Needham”: Letter from Jane to Elisabeth Handler, July 27, 1968.
8 on Needham’s finance committee: “J. Boyd Britton; Was Chemist, Executive, Radcliffe Officer; 93,” Boston Globe, Oct. 29, 2002.
9 vice president of Cabot Corporation: “J. Boyd Britton; Was Chemist, Executive, Radcliffe Officer; 93,” Boston Globe, Oct. 29, 2002.
10 The Lowells speak only to Cabots: “Home of the Bean and the Cod,” The Telegraph, Dec. 22, 2002.
11 Cordon Bleu–certified cook: Susan Kelly notes from interview with Boyd Britton, Feb. 27, 1996 (police file).
12 the first Boeing 767: “Boeing 767: A Cautious Debut,” New York Times, Sept. 8, 1982.
13 two children from a previous marriage: Interviews with Boyd and Charlie Britton (2017).
14 PhD in history: Ruth Gertrude Reinert, “Genoese Trade with Provence, Languedoc, Spain, and the Balearics in the Twelfth Century,” PhD dissertation, History Department, University of Wisconsin, 1938.
15 Ruth didn’t discourage Jane: In a letter home to her parents (July 12, 1966), Jane asked her mother to pick up “some of that prescription; they’re really great those pills; keep my appetite down.”
16 she was class vice president: Dana Hall Yearbook, 1963.
17 “most intelligent”: Superlatives from Dana Hall Yearbook, 1963, p. 103.
18 only one in her grade to get into Radcliffe: “’63 at College,” Dana Hall Bulletin, Jan. 1963, p. 26.
19 before her father: Jane started Radcliffe in 1963. In a letter dated July 20, 1965, she congratulated her father on getting the job.
20 just somebody’s wife: Susan Kelly notes from interview with Elisabeth Handler, May 24, 1996 (police file).
21 left college three times: Boyd was asked to leave Princeton the first time because, he said, he flunked everything. After that, he went to Emerson, where he was on the dean’s list, but left on his own accord. Then he returned to Princeton and eventually dropped out.
22 “I only had dinner with her family once”: Interview with Karen John in 2017.
23 “Cats with the Syphilis”: There are a number of versions of this song, which is sung to the tune of “D’ye Ken John Peel?”
24 By noon: Boyd Britton military records, National Personnel Records, Department of Defense.
25 a syndicated UPI story: “Girl 22 Beaten to Death,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, Jan. 9, 1969.
26 The New York papers were still in town: Interviews with Joe Modzelewski (2014) and Mike McGovern (2016).
27 “Any information has to come from the chief”: “D.A. Droney Hints Coed Slay ‘Repeat,’” Boston Record-American, Jan. 14, 1969.
28 called Jane’s family and came to their door: Interview with Boyd Britton in 2016.
29 narcotics business in Harvard Square: “Booming Biz in Narcotics Jars Harvard,” Daily News, Jan. 12, 1969.
30 Mike had his photographer snap it: I could not cross-check this with Mike McGovern. He died before I had the chance.
31 A cover story: Daily News, Jan. 13, 1969, p. 1.
32 “It’s just not true!”: Interview with Boyd Britton in 2014.
33 “It is, Mom. It is”: Interview with Boyd Britton in 2014.
1 the Mitchells: CPD-DM, p. 47.
2 and Ingrid Kirsch knew: CPD-IK, p. 34.
3 “Nobody nobody nobody”: Interview with Elisabeth Handler in 2014.
4 the wrestling team: “Franquemont Wins, Loses in NCAA Wrestling Meet,” Harvard Crimson, Mar. 30, 1965.
5 Compact and practically bald: Here through “You didn’t want to be in the same room,” from Susan Kelly notes from interview with Elisabeth Handler, May 24, 1996 (police file).
6 [Photo]: Jane Britton police file.
7 Jane started dating Ed her senior year: CPD-IK, p. 31.
8 “perfectly capable”: CPD-SLI, p. 45.
9 sleep with a guy to get rid of him: Susan Kelly notes from interview with Elisabeth Handler, May 24, 1996 (police file).
10 “Or at least that’s how she portrayed it”: Interview with Elisabeth Handler in 2017.
11 But by the fall of 1967: These two paragraphs from CPD-JM 1 and CPD-IK.
12 he hit her: CPD-JM 1, p. 30.
13 “If she had, in fact”: CPD-SLI, p. 10.
14 Jane received a terrifying call: CPD-JM 1, pp. 37–40.
15 at the school for troubled kids: The Charles River School, per “Notes Phone Call with Ed Franquemont,” Jan. 9, 1969 (CPD file).
16 found him sweet and concerned: CPD-JM, p. 39.
17 speculate that this was the night that Jane got pregnant: CPD-DM, p. 48.
18 Through the Anthropology department grapevine: Section is from an interview with Sally Bates Shankman in 2017.
19 one of the founders: Email from Bentley Historical Library re: the Planned Parenthood of Mid-Michigan Records, Mar. 2, 2018, 3:05 p.m.
20 the last weekend of spring break: Receipt for her car rental in Michigan in the CPD file dated Apr. 7, 1968. According to Harvard’s academic calendar for 1967–1968, spring break ended on Apr. 7 that year.
21 it cost Jane $500: Jane’s letter to Brenda Bass, July 4, 1968. Also photo of a check made out to cash for $500, dated Apr. 5, 1968 (CPD file).
22 had started a collection: CPD-DM, p. 47; CPD-JM 2, p. 30.
23 police learned of Ed: CPD first ask about Ed in CPD-CCLK 1, dated Jan. 7, 1969.
24 moved off campus: Interviews with Merri Swid and Richard Rose (2017); CPD-IK, p. 34; CPD-CCLK 1, pp. 8–9.
25 had seen him in Cambridge: “Police Seek Peru Hippie in Coed Slaying,” Fresno Bee, Jan. 8, 1969.
26 But over the next few weeks: Part of the Jane Britton investigation lore is that cops “chased Franquemont down to Peru.” While this feels like an exaggeration, and there are no travel records or notes from 1969 in the police file from this alleged trip, I found one possible mention of it on p. 1 of “ADA Background Notes 2017” (MDAO file): “Report concerning information received from Lt. Frank Joyce by Billy Powers and/or Jimmy Connolly concerning…the trip to Peru with the polygraph person to interview Frankquemont [sic].”
27 came to police with a postcard: Richard Rose interview in 2017; the postcard is part of the CPD file.
28 Debbie Waroff, the best friend: This exchange taken from Deborah Waroff interview transcript with Detective Sergeant Galligan, Jan. 9, 1969, unspecified time (police file).
29 Her information checked out: I also spoke with Dave Browman (2017), a former anthropology graduate student, who said he was with Ed Franquemont in Peru on the night of Jane’s death.
30 [Photo]: Jane Britton police file.
31 Jill said she had liked Ed: CPD-JM 1, p. 35.
32 “sort of your standard straight guy”: CPD-IK, p. 30.
33 “colorless psychologically”: CPD-IK, p. 30.
34 “babe in the woods”: Interview with Brenda Bass in 2016.
35 “high school sweetheart”: CPD-IK, p. 28.
36 her boyfriend from the South: CPD-DM, pp. 16, 39.
37 “was making everything up”: Interview with Tess Beemer in 2016.
38 “seemed to be in some ways posing” Interview with John Terrell in 2017.
39 “may not have been completely truthful”: Susan Kelly notes from interview with Elisabeth Handler, May 24, 1996 (police file).
40 Jill doing research for her dissertation: Jill Nash, who did not agree to be interviewed for the book, did participate in the checking process. This detail comes from her response to the checking memo.
41 Jane had been the one who hit Ed: CPD-IK and CPD-SLI.
42 It was the spring of 1967: This scene is from CPD-IK.
43 “If there was a darkness”: Interview with Merri Swid in 2017.
1 “Radcliffe Night”: This event happened on Mar. 6, 2014.
2 took a call from Jane’s friend Ingrid: The rest of this chapter is from my interview with Ingrid Kirsch in 2014.
3 “I don’t mind you disappearing / ’Cause I know you can be found.”: “In Reverse,” Track #9 on Lost in the Dream, The War on Drugs, 2014.
1 Jesse Kornbluth (class of ’68): “Crimson Compass,” Harvard Alumni Database.
2 “admit a loneliness”: “Coming Together: Love in Cambridge,” Harvard Crimson, Jan. 8, 1969.
1started the thread in November 2012: “macoldcase” Websleuths post #1, Nov. 2, 2012.
2 antiquities smuggling ring: E.g., “December” Websleuths post #207, Sept. 15, 2013.
3 much was made of a missing table leg: E.g., “Robin Hood” Websleuths post #106, Jan. 1, 2013.
4 Pressers, had reported to the cops: “Report from M/M Stephen Presser (table leg),” Jan. 14, 1969 (CPD file).
5 noticed that it only had three legs: “Report from M/M Stephen Presser (table leg),” Jan. 14, 1969 (CPD file).
6 “Justice4Jane,” who first heard: “Justice4Jane” Websleuths post #160, Aug. 9, 2013.
7 “a descendent of the Habsburg family”: “Justice4Jane” Websleuths post #186 quoting from a College Confidential thread, Aug. 15, 2013.
8 “I am pretty sure they mean”: “Ausgirl” Websleuths post #188, Aug. 15, 2013.
9 Don Mitchell posted for the first time: Don Mitchell Websleuths post #374, June 16, 2014.
10 Three the next day: Don Mitchell Websleuths posts #377, #381, and #382, June 17, 2014.
11 six the one after that: Don Mitchell Websleuths posts #392, #393, #395, #396, #397, and #400, June 18, 2014.
12 “I have always believed”: Don Mitchell Websleuths post #381, June 17, 2014.
13 asked Don to photograph a fingerprint: Here through “may seem now like coverup” from Don Mitchell Websleuths post #374, June 16, 2014.
14 Cambridge cops had botched the job: Don Mitchell Websleuths post #381, June 17, 2014.
15 knock on Jane’s door the morning of: Here through “He’s come to get us,” from Don Mitchell Websleuths post #400, June 18, 2014.
16 ex-wife, he clarified: Don Mitchell Websleuths post #374, June 16, 2014.
17 saved the bloody rugs: Don Mitchell Websleuths post #381, June 17, 2014.
18 until last year when he moved…“ceremonial bonfire”: Don Mitchell interview in 2017.
19 “I put all my trust in Lt. Joyce”: Don Mitchell Websleuths post #492, July 1, 2014.
20 His main suspect: Don Mitchell Websleuths posts #396, June 18, 2014 and #453, June 28, 2014.
21 “something longishterm and secret”: Don Mitchell Websleuths post #395, June 18, 2014.
22 His suspect died in 1999: Don Mitchell Websleuths post #465, June 29, 2014.
23 reportedly confessed while drunk: Don Mitchell Websleuths post #479, June 30, 2014.
24 “I killed someone”…struck dead by lightning: Don Mitchell Websleuths posts #396, June 18, 2014, and #464, June 29, 2014.
1 On January 15, reporters caught wind: “Is Table Key to Britton Murder?” Boston Globe, Jan. 16, 1969.
2 “Harvard faculty member who was rejected”: “Murder Quiz Finds Jane Had Abortion,” Daily News, Jan. 13, 1969.
3 Reporters staked out: “Coed Case––Mystery Man,” New York Post, Jan. 16, 1969.
4 to an undisclosed location: “Quiz Mystery Man in Murder of Coed,” Boston Record-American, Jan. 16, 1969.
5 “You have to assume it’s a sex case”: “D.A. Droney Hints Coed Slay ‘Repeat,’” Boston Record-American, Jan. 14, 1969.
6 had not been strong enough to break the skin: “Harvard Faces Criminal Action,” Boston Globe, Jan. 14, 1969.
7 Jane’s father was similarly tight-lipped: Exchange is from CPD-JBB pp. 3–5.
1 But he died in the ’90s: Public death record for Lt. Frank Joyce.
2 “beat Yale” 29–29: “Harvard Beats Yale,” Harvard Magazine, Nov. 15, 2018.
3 establish an African American Studies department: “Rosovsky’s Report,” Harvard Crimson, Jan. 29, 1969, and “The Faculty Committee on African and Afro-American Studies Report,” Jan. 20, 1969, as reprinted in Blacks at Harvard: A Documentary History of African-American Experience at Harvard and Radcliffe (New York: New York University Press, 1993), edited by Werner Sollors, Caldwell Titcomb, and Thomas Underwood, pp. 401–402.
4 discontent with ROTC’s presence on campus: “The Strike as History,” Harvard Crimson, Apr. 23, 1979.
5 agitations of SDS and the Weathermen: “SDS and Weathermen Hold Separate Protests,” Harvard Crimson, Nov. 26, 1969.
6 ’CLIFFE FINALLY PROPOSES: “’Cliffe Finally Proposes Marriage to Ten Thousand Men of Harvard,” Harvard Crimson, Feb. 23, 1969.
7 identified as Harvard students more than Radcliffe: Multiple interviews, including with Carol Sternhell and Elisabeth Handler.
8 a few enjoyed the 1:4 ratio: Interview with Ellen Hume in 2014.
9 signature disappeared off the diplomas: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, now an emerita professor in Harvard’s History department, wrote a powerful essay on the erasure of women from Harvard’s history in 1999, six months before the Radcliffe signature disappeared: “Harvard’s Womanless History: Completing the University’s Self-Portrait,” Harvard Magazine, Nov. 1999. She writes: “There is no conspiracy here, just collective complacency and an ignorance compounded by separatism. Writers and publicists at Harvard have never considered Radcliffe their responsibility. Radcliffe has been too busy negotiating its own status to promote its history.”
10 none of the Courses of Instruction: Courses of Instruction Harvard and Radcliffe, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Official Register of Harvard University: six volumes consulted, 1964–1969.
11 Directories of Officers and Students: Directory of Officers and Students, Harvard University: six volumes consulted, 1964–1969.
12 Professor John Campbell Pelzel: David Browman and Stephen Williams, Anthropology at Harvard: A Biographical History, 1790–1940 (Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum Press, 2013), p. 454.
13 John Whiting, a professor of social anthropology: “John Wesley Mayhew Whiting: Memorial Minute,” Harvard Gazette, June 3, 2004.
14 known to have worked for the US Government: David Price, Anthropological Intelligence: The Deployment and Neglect of American Anthropology in the Second World War (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008), p. 92.
15 the dissertation of Richard Meadow: Richard Meadow, “Animal Exploitation in Prehistoric Southeastern Iran: Faunal Remains from Tepe Yahya and Tepe Gaz Tavila-R37, 5500–3000 B.C.,” PhD dissertation, Anthropology Department, Harvard University, 1986, p. 1.
16 quote from a Julian Barnes novel: Julian Barnes, Flaubert’s Parrot (New York: Vintage, 1990), p. 14.
17 It is clear that I have not caught: Meadow, “Animal Exploitation,” end of introduction.
18 Female / Aged 19: 998-27-40/14628.2, Hallam L. Movius Jr. papers, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University.
19 Dear Hal: / The enclosed: Letter from Stephen Williams to Hallam Movius, Jan. 8, 1969, found in 998-27-40/14628.2, Hallam L. Movius Jr. papers, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University.
20 “Investigation and speculation continue: Letter from Stephen Williams to Hallam Movius, Jan. 20, 1969, found in 998-27-40/14628.2, Hallam L. Movius Jr. papers, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University.
21 A letter from Professor Hugh Hencken: Letter from Hugh Hencken to Stephen Williams, Jan. 7, 1969, 995-18, Hugh O’Neill Hencken papers, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University.
1 This scene took place the evening of July 25, 2018.
1 promoted to full director: “New Director Appointed,” Peabody Museum Newsletter, winter 1969, p. 1.
2 “A number of people have described him”: Interview with Tom Patterson in 2017.
3 for a few months after Jane’s death: Feb. 1969 to summer 1969. End date per letter from Stephen Williams to CCLK, July 22, 1969.
4 nearly unprecedented: Donald Scott held both roles from 1947 to 1948, per the plaques at Harvard’s Peabody Museum.
5 million-dollar donation: Peabody Annual Report 1968–1969, Official Register of Harvard University, 67, no. 23 (Oct. 30, 1970): 445.
6 “Having gained your professorship during”: C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Personal Archive, 1957–2014, (Accession Number 2016.113), Box 6: Letterbox, correspondence A–Z 1965–1969, Folder X, Y, Z, Letter from Stephen Williams to CCLK, July 22, 1969. Reprinted with permission from Timothy Williams.
7 the material may have been lost in a flood: Phone call with CPD. Flood also referenced in “Murder in Cambridge, 1959–1989,” compiled by CPDs Crime Analysis Unit.
8 Good luck doing that if your name isn’t O’Sullivan: Interview with Richard Conti in 2017.
9 asked to meet while I was in town: Email from Jeffrey Quilter, Sept. 4, 2014, 1:01 p.m.
10 “I’m just going to tell you because I like you”: Interview with Jeffrey Quilter in 2014.
11 The door opened, and Arthur Bankoff: Interview with Arthur Bankoff in 2016.
12 reading something in the Harvard alumni magazine: Harvard Magazine, July 2010 capsule review of Jessica Stern’s Denial: A Memoir of Terror (New York: HarperCollins, 2010), a book about her unsolved rape that was eventually linked to the serial rapist Dennis Meggs.
13 [Bottom photo]: Courtesy Arthur Bankoff, with permission from Richard Meadow.
1 There’s a special kind of insanity: Description of Tepe Yahya is drawn from interviews with crew members during that season’s expedition (Phil Kohl, Arthur Bankoff, and Peter Dane), and later ones (including Tom Beale, Dan Potts, and Elizabeth Stone), as well as with David Stronach, who ran the British Institute of Persian Studies. CCLK’s foreword also offers an “ethnography” of life on the dig. Dialogue and other details also pulled from Jane’s letters home to family and friends, her journal entries, the field notebooks, the CPD interview transcripts, and Arthur and Andrea Bankoff’s police statements. (In their statements, the Bankoffs repeatedly ask the police to be aware of the distortions of perspective caused by trying circumstances, e.g., “Most of the annoying things we thought so vital over the summer have become forgotten what with our re-entry into places of good food, bathrooms and hot water.”) Where there are conflicting accounts, I’ve indicated below.
2 “Small-group situation tends to create”: Jane’s response to the Summer Questionnaire 1966, Jane Britton’s Radcliffe student file.
3 mid-June: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 17, 1968.
4 one of the graduation speeches: “Commencement Day Speakers,” Harvard University website.
5 honorary degree: “Shah of Iran, Miro, Wirtz, Whitney Young, Brennan, and Finley Get Honorary Degrees,” Harvard Crimson, June 13, 1968.
6 Coretta Scott King: “Coretta Scott King at Class Day,” Harvard Crimson, May 21, 2018.
7 which doubled as a plush hotel of sorts: Interview with David Stronach in 2018.
8 food from the US embassy commissary: Letter from Jane to Boyd, approx. June 17, 1968.
9 pickaxes, and plastic bags: Here through “cooling off poolside,” letter from Jane to her parents, June 17, 1968.
10 A few pinched her butt: Letter from Jane to Boyd, June 21, 1968.
11 traffic in Tehran in general made Jane swear: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 17, 1968.
12 catching the odd angle of light: Here through “a giant heart” from Jane’s journal entry, June 14/15, 1968.
13 She had almost missed her flight to Iran: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 17, 1968.
14 overwhelming desire to go out and chalk every sidewalk: Jane’s journal entry, June 14/15, 1968.
15 “There is something different about your chemistry”: Letter from Jane to Jim Humphries, June 4, 1968 (CPD file).
16 the lack of privacy: Letter from Jane to Boyd, June 21, 1968.
17 Jim because of how tall he was: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 17, 1968. The round sunglasses detail is also from this letter.
18 alone, finally, over a gin and tonic: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 21, 1968.
19 peck on the cheek after breakfast: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 17, 1968.
20 Jim kept trying to make elaborate plans: Jane’s journal entry, June 20, 1968.
21 longed for when they’d be peacefully settled: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 17, 1968.
22 two separate cars: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 29, 1968.
23 the Persian antiquities representative: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 29, 1968.
24 named Bucephalus: Interview with Dan Potts in 2017.
25 When the car stalled: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 29, 1968.
26 Jane felt more in love with Jim than ever: Jane’s journal entry, June 26, 1968.
27 it was too late: Here through “They woke up freezing,” from letter from Jane to her parents, June 29, 1968.
28 Baghin, the tiny village: Letter from Jane to Brenda Bass, July 4, 1968.
29 seventy-five-hundred-year-old mound: “Tepe Yahya,” Encyclopædia Iranica.
30 no electricity: CCLK foreword, p. XXIII.
31 camped in tents close by: Dora Jane Hamblin, The First Cities (New York: Time-Life, 1973), p. 26.
32 a man on his bicycle: Interview with Peter Dane in 2014.
33 a driver on a donkey: CCLK foreword, p. XXVI.
34 little pension with a bidet: Letters from Jane to her parents, June 26 and July 7, 1966.
35 “animalcules”…hadn’t bothered checking: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 29, 1968.
36 arrived unceremoniously on the back of the truck: Interview with Phil Kohl in 2017. A version of this story also appears in CCLK foreword, but in CCLK’s version, Kohl arrives on the back of a melon truck.
37 Karl had warned the crew: Andrea Bankoff statement, p. 7.
38 As a first-time director of a full-scale dig: Joint statement, p. 4.
39 on whom he felt the success of and continued access…depended: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.
40 “no debate with the chief” policy: Joint statement, p. 4.
41 had misconstrued some laughter: Arthur Bankoff statement, p. 7.
42 stuck their faces in flour…local goats were stringy: Interview with Dan Potts in 2017.
43 ended up just using the bushes and ditches: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 4, 1968.
44 many got sick very quickly: CPD-CCLK 2, p. 18.
45 brought the crew closer together: Arthur Bankoff statement, p. 8.
46 “legs too short and has a droopy ass”: Joint statement, p. 3.
47 behave as if he were still at Dartmouth: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 17, 1968.
48 John the Baptist in Muslim tradition: John Renard, All the King’s Falcons: Rumi on Prophets and Revelation (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), p. 87.
49 qanats, or water wells: Qanat anecdote is from interview with Tom Beale in 2017.
50 Jim and the night sky: Letter from Jane to Elisabeth Handler, July 27, 1968.
51 “has been spectacular”: Here and rest of paragraph, letter from Jane to Brenda Bass July 4, 1968.
52 She and Jim slept together: Jane’s July 8, 1968 journal entry.
53 discreetly removed the bed railings: Rest of paragraph from Jane’s July 5, 1968 journal entry.
54 [Photo]: Jane Britton police file.
55 “Hey, if you’re not doing anything”: Letter from Jane to her parents, June (unspecified) 1968.
56 Jane had a dream: Jane’s journal entry, July 5, 1968.
57 lack of sanitation lowered the threshold: Arthur Bankoff statement, p. 6.
58 Jim, as the oldest student on the dig: Arthur Bankoff statement, pp. 2, 5.
59 “playing professional Central European barbarian”: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 29, 1968.
60 Jim ended up doing nine-tenths of the work: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 29, 1968.
61 ran the medical clinic…Jim became the one who patiently: CCLK foreword, p. XXVI.
62 “I’ve never seen you stagger”: Jane’s July 5, 1968 journal entry.
63 Jane felt a similar pressure: While Karl did not dispute that this may have been Jane’s perception, he wanted to make clear that it was not unheard of for students to switch dissertation topics: “We’ve had graduate students who started working in the Near East and ended up writing their dissertation on the Maya…Sometimes they would change it in their fourth or fifth year.”
64 “She felt everything academically depended”: Andrea Bankoff statement, p. 2.
65 bricks: Letter from Jane to parents, July 27, 1968.
66 rodent holes: Letter from Jane to parents, July 4, 1968.
67 Karl told Andrea Bankoff that he was pleased: Andrea Bankoff statement, p. 4.
68 Jim would climb into Jane’s trench: Arthur Bankoff statement, pp. 7–8.
69 grew too dim to see anything: Andrea Bankoff statement, p. 4.
70 Airmail stationery, their only connection: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 14, 1968.
71 can of tuna was to be split…peanut butter was supposed to last for two weeks: Arthur Bankoff statement, p. 10.
72 People hallucinated visions of gingerbread: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 27, 1968.
73 many fly bites…chicken walked into her tent, crapped: Letter from Jane to parents, July 4, 1968.
74 centipede crawled into her underwear: Jane’s July 5, 1968 journal entry.
75 other than Karl: Phone call with CCLK in 2020; CPD-RM, p. 11.
76 “bless his little antiseptic heart”: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 14, 1968.
77 Jim had pink eye: Letter from Jane to her parents, June (unspecified), 1968.
78 a case of hemorrhoids so severe…grumbling, dysenteric stomachs: Arthur Bankoff statement, p. 9.
79 “We are so frail, all of us,”: Jane’s July 3, 1968 journal entry.
80 even Richard got sick: CPD-RM, p. 10.
81 She told him about the dream: Jane’s July 7, 1968 journal entry.
82 It’s going to be just like the past, after all: Jane’s July 8, 1968 journal entry.
83 “I probably should have waited”: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 27, 1968.
84 “I think maybe I’d like to be dead”: Jane’s July 8, 1968 journal entry.
1 “If this were a mystery novel”: Interview with Arthur Bankoff in 2016.
2 Until 2005: This change was formally announced in William C. Kirby’s February 2005 annual letter to the faculty. See “The New Tenure Track,” Harvard Magazine, Sept.–Oct. 2010.
3 Karl was the last junior professor: Interviews with CCLK and Richard Meadow. The next junior professor of archaeology to be tenured was Rowan Flad, in 2012, confirmed with his curriculum vitae. The department’s director of administration and operations did not respond to my checker’s request to verify this statement.
4 Maybury-Lewis…assistant professor: “David Maybury-Lewis, eminent anthropologist and scholar, 78,” Harvard Gazette, Dec. 6, 2007.
5 Karl credited his rapid ascension: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.
6 Karl had come back contending: CCLK, “Excavations at Tepe Yahya,” 1968, p. 2.
7 in 1970, the Tepe Yahya progress report: CCLK, Excavations at Tepe Yahya, Iran: 1967–1969 (Progress Report I), American School of Prehistoric Research, Bulletin 27, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University (1970).
8 the Boston Globe celebrated: “Harvard Team Unearths Alexander’s Lost Citadel,” Boston Globe, Jan. 10, 1968.
9 supposed elephant teeth: “Archaeological Unit from Harvard Unearths Lost Fortress in Persia,” Harvard Crimson, Nov. 12, 1968. On the phone in 2020, Karl did not dispute saying this to the Crimson. He did not remember what animal the teeth turned out to have come from: “It could have been horse; it could have been donkey.”
10 an ancient Greek historian: “Harvard Team Unearths Alexander’s Lost Citadel,” Boston Globe, Jan. 10, 1968.
1 “this Lamberg-Karlovsky person”: CPD-DM, p. 28.
2 Jim recounted similar conversations: CPD-JH, p. 17.
3 Ingrid Kirsch said she knew more: CPD-IK, pp. 18–19.
4 “That one person could decide to pass”: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.
5 Stephen Williams tried to assure police: CPD-SW, p. 33.
6 The day that Jane had tracked Jim: CPD-SLI, p. 47.
7 terminal master’s in the spring of 1968: “Crimson Compass,” Harvard Alumni Database.
8 “fundamental misunderstanding”: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.
9 he was one of three people on the grading committee: CPD-CCLK 2, p. 32.
1 This chapter is an excerpt of CPD-IK.
1 “Everyone was so nice”: Interview with Barbara Westman in 2017.
2 Ed Wade, the museum’s assistant director: Interview with Ed Wade in 2017.
3 the former head of the Semitic Museum: Interview with Carney Gavin in 2014.
4 “I had no feelings of competition”: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.
5 “It takes energy and martinis”: Interview with CCLK in 2017.
6 remembered one class where he: Interview with John Terrell in 2017.
7 “We all tell stories about ourselves”: Interview with John Terrell in 2017.
8 recognized the role that luck played: Interview with Peter Dane in 2014.
9 “He would paint big, exotic pictures”: Interview with Phil Kohl in 2017.
10 people would come just to listen: Interview with Sadie Weber in 2017.
11 “Karl is a dying breed”: Interview with Ajita Patel in 2018.
12 Bruce Bourque recalled: Interview with Bruce Bourque in 2017.
13 Elizabeth Stone, had a similar story: Interview with Elizabeth Stone in 2018.
14 “He was,” she said: In 2020, CCLK responded that he thought Elizabeth left because she had been unable to do both ancient languages and archaeology at Harvard. And, regardless, funding and scholarship decisions aren’t in his hands but under the auspices of the financial aid office––a comment he also offered in response to Bruce Bourque’s account. When I took this comment back to Elizabeth, she replied that she had been studying both subjects at Harvard without problem, so it is untrue to say that that motivated her departure. Plus, she may not know exactly how funding works at Harvard, but she knows how it works at other universities where departments get to decide how to allocate their funding and scholarship positions. Therefore, though CCLK did not have sole power, she said, it is likely fair to say he would have had say.
1 This chapter is from interviews with Ruth Tringham in 2017 and 2018.
2 “Dear Karl,” it began: C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Personal Archive, 1957–2014, Accession Number 2016.113, Box 7: Temp box, Letters 1975/1976, Folder T/U/V, Oct. 16, 1975, Ruth Tringham to CCLK. Reprinted with permission from Ruth Tringham.
3 Decades later, Karl, too, would remember: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.
1 This chapter is drawn from CPD-RM.
1 Karl’s festschrift: “Ingenious Man, Inquisitive Soul: Essays in Iranian and Central Asian Archaeology for C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday by a Selection of His Students, Colleagues, and Friends,” Iranica Antiqua 37 (2002).
2 a strange academic tradition: “The Festschrift Is Dead. Long Live the Festschrift!” Chronicle of Higher Education, Apr. 13, 2001.
3 Dan Potts’s own essay: Dan Potts, “In Praise of Karl,” Iranica Antiqua 37 (2002): 2–6.
4 Dan was happy to reminisce: The rest of this chapter is from an interview with Dan Potts in 2017.
5 a letter from the NSF chastising Karl: Letter from Eloise Clark (Deputy Asst. Director, Biological and Social Sciences, National Science Foundation) to CCLK, Sept. 30, 1975.
6 later published in a journal: CCLK’s Albert Reckitt Archaeological Lecture of 1973 later published in Proceedings of the British Academy 59 (1974): 283–319.
7 “Please accept my sincerest apologies”: C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Personal Archive, 1957–2014, Accession Number 2016.113, Box 7: Temp box, Letters 1975/1976, Folder K/L, Oct. 6, 1975: CCLK to Jim Shaffer. Courtesy of the Harvard University Archives.
8 Shaffer accepted his apology: Email from Jim Shaffer, May 26, 2017, 9:32 p.m.
9 “There is a difference between convergence”: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.
10 later claim that Dan had been denied permission: Phone call with CCLK in 2020. Dan’s refutation is from a 2020 call with him.
1 This chapter is drawn from CPD-CCLK 1.
1 The two former graduate students at the beginning of the chapter did not want to be named as sources.
2 Peter Rodman remembered a similar story: Interview with Peter Rodman in 2017.
3 two of only three people: Per Rodman (2017), Ed Franquemont was the third.
4 rule on the books about professors having relationships with undergraduates: The 2015 policy also bans relationships between professors and graduate students, as well as graduate students and undergraduates, if they are teaching, supervising, or evaluating them. See “New Harvard Policy Bans Teacher-Student Relations,” New York Times, Feb. 5, 2015.
5 “I’ve had several other expeditions”: Interview with CCLK in 2018.
6 Jane wasn’t just any student: Interview with David Freidel in 2017.
7 he’d already gotten one from the University of Pittsburgh: Letter from David Landry to CCLK, Nov. 7, 1968.
8 “Harvarditis––a bad case of necessary attachment to the institution”: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.
1 This chapter is an excerpt of CPD-IK. It is interesting to note that Don Mitchell also told the CPD about a date Jane had with a French archaeologist, arranged through CCLK: “I don’t know his name, but he was an ex-colleague of Lamberg-Karlovsky, who’s––I think he was French. I think he was an archaeologist. And Karlovsky called up one day––actually they called me wondering where Jane was, if I knew. Then they got a hold of her and said well, this friend was in town and they wanted a date, get a date for him just to go out” (CPD-DM, p. 63).
1 Ed Wade…had been fired by Karl: Phone call with CCLK and interview with Garth Bowden in 2020.
2 “a very good professional”: Interview with Garth Bowden in 2020.
3 intense competition between Karl and Assistant Professor Tom Patterson: Multiple, including interview with David Browman in 2017.
4 didn’t remember anything of the sort: Interview with Tom Patterson in 2017.
5 Dan Potts’s dissertation: Daniel Potts, “Tradition and Transformation: Tepe Yahya and the Iranian Plateau During the Third Millennium B.C.,” PhD dissertation, Anthropology Department, Harvard University, 1980. Pages in question are pp. 539–544.
6 Karl’s afterword: Afterword to The Bronze Age Civilization of Central Asia: Recent Soviet Discoveries (Armonk, NY: Sharpe, 1981), edited by Philip Kohl, pp. 386–397.
7 included a footnote reference: The Bronze Age Civilization of Central Asia: Recent Soviet Discoveries, edited by Philip Kohl, p. 396 n. 5.
8 both been on the 1971 Tepe Yahya season: Figure F.9, CCLK foreword, p. XXXIV.
9 Someone else from that year: This person asked not to be named.
10 “You wanted to talk to Christine”: Interview with Christine Lesniak’s sister (name left out for privacy) in 2018.
11 a hit man for the Chinese Mafia: I haven’t been able to verify either family legend in newspaper reports.
1This chapter is from an interview with Phil Kohl in 2017.
1 “Hi, this is Becky Cooper”: Interview with Boyd Britton in 2016.
2 beginning of a two-year public records battle: My initial request to the MDAO dated July 18, 2016.
3 jurisdiction of the district attorney: “State DAs Decide Who Will Investigate Homicides,” The Enterprise, Jan. 7, 2016.
4 When I learned this fact: A very big thank-you to David Grann, who first alerted me to this.
5 though the Cambridge Police no longer had Jane’s records: Email from Maeve Ryan, Records Administrator, CPD, May 19, 2015, 3:34 p.m.
6 “Unfortunately, at this time”: Letter from Kerry Anne Kilcoyne (MDAO Assistant DA), July 28, 2016.
7 exemption (f): William Francis Galvin, “A Guide to Massachusetts Public Records Law,” Division of Public Records, Mar. 2020, p. 21.
8 didn’t start until the late ’80s: Celia Henry Arnaud, “Thirty Years of DNA Forensics: How DNA Has Revolutionized Criminal Investigations,” Chemical & Engineering News 95, no. 37 (Sept. 18, 2017): 16–20.
9 the email came through: Email from Boyd, Aug. 3, 2016, 10:51 a.m.
10 Sergeant Sennott gave me nothing: Phone call with Sergeant Sennott in 2016.
11 I had a bit more luck with Brian Branley: Phone call with Brian Branley in 2016.
12 John Fulkerson called me back: The rest of this chapter is from this 2016 interview with John Fulkerson. Note: Fulkerson did not participate in the checking phase of the book. All material concerning him is accurate to the best of my ability.
13 Frug case: E.g., “Mary Joe Frug’s Brutal Murder Stunned a Contentious Academic Community,” Boston Sunday Globe, Aug. 28, 2016.
1 This chapter is drawn from CPD-CCLK 2.
1 “What is at stake”: CCLK foreword, p. XIX.
2 Schliemann’s Troy was likely not Troy: Brian Rose interview on This American Life (Episode 689: “Digging Up the Bones”), Dec. 6, 2019.
3 “relentlessly self-promoting amateur archaeologist”: Susan Heuck Allen, Finding the Walls of Troy: Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann at Hisarlik (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), publisher’s description.
4 graduate student discovered: “The Case of Paul de Man,” New York Times, Aug. 28, 1988; see also “The de Man Case,” New Yorker, Mar. 24, 2014.
5 “a slippery Mr. Ripley”: Harper’s, Feb. 2014 review of Evelyn Barish, The Double Life of Paul de Man (New York: Liveright, 2014).
1 fifty-one years: CCLK curriculum vitae.
2 Karl Lamberg-Karlovsky retired: CCLK became a research professor, which is distinct from being emeritus. See “12. Retired Professors. Description: Professors Emeriti, Research Professor,” FAS Appointment and Promotion Handbook, Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Office for Faculty Affairs’ website.
3 a sheet that described: Chart of box contents in C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky personal archive, 1957–2014, Harvard University Archives, Accession Number 2016.113.
4 “petulant diatribe”: C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Personal Archive, 1957–2014, Accession Number 2016.113, Box 1: Letterbox 1996, Folder M, Nov. 28, 1998, Letter Victor Mair to CCLK. Reprinted with permission from Victor Mair.
5 “ecstatic appreciation” of two students: C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Personal Archive, 1957–2014, Accession Number 2016.113, Box 6: Letterbox, correspondence A-Z 1965–1969, Folder B, Sept. 26, 1967, J. O. Brew to CCLK. Reprinted with permission from Alan Brew.
6 draft of the textbook he co-wrote: This draft became C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky and Jeremy Sabloff, Ancient Civilizations: The Near East and Mesoamerica, 2nd ed. (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1995).
7 “does not indicate a disinterest in history”: C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Personal Archive, 1957–2014, Accession Number 2016.113, Box 4, Jerry Sabloff, and CCLK, “Chapter 1: Intellectual Background to the Study of Ancient Civilizations Ancient Views of the Past.” Courtesy of the Harvard University Archives.
8 “Field notebook: Site E, J.S.B.”: 2015.6.1, C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Tepe Yahya expedition records, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University.
9 “Tepe Yahya 1969 Site E Field Notebook. By: JSB / []”: 2015.6.1, C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Tepe Yahya expedition records, Box 3, Folder 3.7.
10 the 1968 Site E notebook: 2015.6.1, C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Tepe Yahya expedition records, Box 7, Folder 7.8.
11 “30 June 1968: Removed surface”: 2015.6.1, C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Tepe Yahya expedition records, Box 7, Folder 7.8, p. 1.
12 “traces of red ochre”: 2015.6.1, C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Tepe Yahya expedition records, Box 7, Folder 7.8, p. 10.
13 “First day of digging.”: 2015.6.1, C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Tepe Yahya expedition records, Box 2, Folder 2.6.
14 “Red ochre under and around bone”: 2015.6.1, C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky Tepe Yahya expedition records, Box 7, Folder 7.5.
15 “there are relics which show”: “Profs, Cops Differ on Slaying,” New York Post, Jan. 10, 1969.
16 In 1970, a body was discovered: Thomas Beale, Excavations at Tepe Yahya, Iran 1967–1975: The Early Periods, American School of Prehistoric Research, Bulletin 38, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University (1986), p. 133.
17 the ulna of one of the arms: Beale, Excavations at Tepe Yahya, p. 109.
18 Karl had been quoted as saying: “Profs, Cops Differ on Slaying,” New York Post, Jan. 10, 1969.
19 “In Period VII, Yahya inhabitants”: Beale, Tepe Yahya: The Early Periods, p. 263.
1 “Today’s the day Richard”: Jane’s journal entry, Aug. 1, 1968.
2 a single piece of chlorite: Beale, Tepe Yahya: The Early Periods, p. 109.
3 “prize example of primitive sculpture”: “Archaeological Unit from Harvard Unearths Lost Fortress in Persia,” Harvard Crimson, Nov. 12, 1968.
4 Martie Lamberg-Karlovsky’s second day: Letter from Jane to her parents, Aug. 2, 1968.
5 “food, news, and a new face”: Martha Lamberg-Karlovsky denied bringing food and medicine with her (2020). However, this version of events taken from three contemporaneous sources: Andrea Bankoff’s police statement (“We were all looking forward to Karl’s wife coming and bringing food, news, and a new face,” p. 4), Jane’s journal, and her Aug. 2, 1968, letter home to her parents.
6 Preparation H for Jim’s hemorrhoids: Letter from Jane to her parents, Aug. 2, 1968.
7 five-meter wall: Letter from CCLK to Hallam Movius, Sept. 7, 1968.
8 enough for a dissertation topic: Andrea Bankoff statement, p. 4.
9 too exhausted to eke it out: Letter from Jane to her parents, Aug. 2, 1968.
10 “Madame L-K, much as I like her”: Jane’s journal entry, Aug. 1, 1968.
11 Martie irritated the crew: In response to this section, CCLK said in 2020, “I’m not going to contest the trivial kind of things that they’re saying about my wife. That she wore clean clothes, that she did this, that she did that. I mean that is the gossip that takes place on an expedition.” In their joint statement, the Bankoffs acknowledged that getting irritated by this behavior was “petty.”
12 dressing to the nines: Arthur Bankoff police statement, p. 10; Jane’s journal entry, Aug. 5, 1968.
13 “I like her well enough but”: Letter from Jane to her parents, Aug. 2, 1968.
14 pet sparrow had made a giant mess: Anecdote from Andrea Bankoff statement, pp. 7–8.
15 Andrea to correct Martie…recounted the incident to Jane: Anecdote from Andrea Bankoff statement, p. 8.
16 “Everyone in heartily bad mood”: Jane’s journal entry, Aug. 5, 1968.
17 two-Coke ration…archaeology as a cute hobby: Joint statement, p. 8.
18 expected his authority to extend to her as well…One morning Jane woke up: Andrea Bankoff statement, p. 8.
18 resupply of peanut butter (“thank Christ”): Jane’s journal entry, Aug. 5, 1968.
19 One day, the son of the local khan: There are differing accounts of this story––whether it’s the khan (CCLK foreword) or the khan’s son (Arthur Bankoff statement; phone call with CCLK in 2020); whether it was a tax on the workers (Arthur Bankoff statement) or a land tax (CCLK foreword and call). I have narrated as closely as possible to CCLK’s version. E.g., the detail about the government representative calling in the local gendarmes comes from the CCLK foreword and the phone call. However, CCLK denies the pickax detail, calling it a “fairytale.” I have kept this detail in because both Peter Dane (2014 interview) and Arthur Bankoff’s statement describe it.
20 Phil Kohl and Peter Dane left early: Phil Kohl told me about getting sick in a 2017 interview. He denied it, however, during the checking process, saying he only got sick on the way home. I have kept this detail in because it appears in Jane’s letters home (July 27, 1968, and Aug. 13, 1968), the Andrea Bankoff statement (p. 5), and in the CCLK foreword (“Phil Kohl lost more than thirty pounds in his first field season,” p. XXVII).
21 Phil’s mother didn’t recognize her son: Interview with Phil Kohl in 2017.
22 thirty pounds that summer: CCLK foreword, p. XXVII.
23 the arrival of the visiting archaeologist Benno Rothenberg: Arthur Bankoff statement, p. 11.
24 “we-thought-they-thought mental construction”: Andrea Bankoff statement, p. 7.
25 only felt comfortable talking to Jim and Jane: Andrea Bankoff statement, p. 5.
26 “Defamation was by innuendo”: Joint statement, p. 10.
27 wouldn’t in fact be invited back: Joint statement, p. 9; CPD-CCLK, p. 14.
28 “It wasn’t a very human thing to do”: Interview with Arthur Bankoff in 2016.
29 “stupid, vicious, jealous bitch”: Joint statement, p. 9.
30 “Yes, Boss”-ing him: Interview with CCLK in 2018.
31 Karl found out that Jim had arranged for Arthur: Anecdote from Arthur Bankoff statement, pp. 3–4.
32 did not remember this incident: Phone call with CCLK in 2020.
33 Karl had bought an entire sheep: This scene is from Andrea Bankoff’s police statement (p. 9) and an interview with Arthur Bankoff in 2016. In a 2020 phone call, Martha Lamberg-Karlovsky denied being there for this dinner and CCLK refuted the notion that Jane Britton had anything to do with preparing the meal. Even so, I have used this version of events because the Bankoffs’ accounts independently corroborate each other. (“Independent” given the fact that Andrea’s statement had been prepared without consultation with Arthur, Arthur had not read the statement in almost fifty years, and they have been divorced for some time.)
1 This chapter is an excerpt of CPD-CCLK 2.
2 This scene is from interviews with CCLK in 2017 and 2020.
2 “He didn’t even ask me”: Interview with CCLK in 2017.
1 Could you sleep last night?: Email to Don Mitchell, July 26, 2018, 12:43 p.m.
2 since April, when he told me: Interview with John Fulkerson in 2018.
1“I think if you were to have called”: Interview with Iva Houston in 2016.
2 Gender Archaeology: For foundational texts on the subfield, see Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory, edited by Joan Gero and Margaret Conkey (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 1991), and Woman, Culture, and Society, edited by Michelle Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1974).
3 Probably not according to the latest evidence: “Early Men and Women Were Equal, Say Scientists,” The Guardian, May 14, 2015.
4 I spoke to David Mitten: Interview with David Mitten in 2018.
1 Nancy Hopkins delivered a speech: Nancy Hopkins, “Mirages of Gender Equality,” speech delivered to the fiftieth reunion of the Harvard-Radcliffe Class of 1964.
2 Cora Du Bois arrived: Susan Seymour, Cora Du Bois: Anthropologist, Diplomat, Agent (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015), p. 250.
3 only the second woman: “The First Tenured Women Professors at Harvard University,” infographic developed by Harvard University’s Faculty Development & Diversity, Office of the Senior Vice Provost, 2011. Professor Helen Maud Cam was the first.
4 take the side door: Seymour, Cora Du Bois, p. 264.
5 [Photo]: “Preliminary Report on the Status of Women at Harvard,” Women’s Faculty Group, Mar. 9, 1970, p. 2.
6 Jane’s roommate at Les Eyzies: Alison Brooks interview in 2017; Jane’s letters home to her parents in 1966.
7 “For a woman to be good enough for Harvard”: Interview with Alison Brooks in 2017.
8 When Sally Bates: Interview with Sally Shankman in 2017.
9 only two or three of the original women: “Two or three” is based on Sally Shankman (2017) and Arthur Bankoff’s (2016) memories. None—not even Alison Brooks (2020)––could remember who the other one or two women were in the cohort. It is possible, then, that Alison was the only woman in her cohort who managed to stay through the PhD. This was Paul Shankman’s memory (2017). My checker posed this question to Monique Rivera, the Anthropology department’s graduate program administrator, but never received a response.
10 “I’ve never given the PhD to a woman”: Interview with Alison Brooks in 2017. Brooks added that Movius eventually did give a PhD to a woman in 1974, but that student was “in a different category because she wasn’t really an American as far as Movius was concerned.”
11 It didn’t take long for Mary Pohl: Paragraphs per interview with Mary Pohl in 2017 and 2019.
12 When Elizabeth Stone: Paragraph per interview with Elizabeth Stone in 2018.
13 When Sally Falk Moore: Paragraphs per interview with Sally Falk Moore (2017) and email from her, Mar. 21, 2020, 6:10 p.m. “Sixteen” is per the 2017 interview, which is consistent with “Anthropology Moore Is Settling In,” Harvard Crimson, Dec. 9, 1981.
14 When Alison Brooks visited her daughter: Interview with Alison Brooks in 2017.
15 the pattern of gender discrimination in academia: Hopkins also measured lab space and found that female professors at MIT were given less space than their male counterparts. In 1995, Hopkins led a committee to analyze the status of women faculty in MIT’s School of Science, and she also worked on the groundbreaking Report on Women in Science in 1999. See MIT Faculty Newsletter 11, no. 4 (Mar. 1999). MIT’s president Charles Vest endorsed the report, acknowledging the systemic discrimination: “I have always believed that contemporary gender discrimination within universities is part reality and part perception. True, but I now understand that reality is by far the greater part of the balance” (“M.I.T. Admits Discrimination against Female Professors,” New York Times, Mar. 23, 1999). While MIT’s reaction to this report was, in many ways, a model for transformation, the changes were by no means guaranteed to be permanent. In 2019, Hopkins told me that Summers’s statements were so enraging because they threatened to undo the still fragile victories just six years after the report was released.
16 Hopkins walked out of the room: “Summers’ Remarks on Women Draw Fire,” Boston Globe, Jan. 17, 2005.
17 a conference about diversity and the sciences: “Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce: Women, Under-Represented Minorities, and Their S&E Careers,” A Conference of the Science and Engineering Workforce Project (SEWP) at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Jan. 14–15, 2005.
18 According to the Guardian: “Why Women Are Poor at Science, by Harvard President,” The Guardian, Jan. 18, 2005.
1 This chapter is from an interview with Sadie Weber in 2017, unless otherwise noted.
2 by a committee of academics: A Visiting Committee is appointed to “report on each school, department or administrative unit at the University. Each committee is typically chaired by an Overseer, and includes as members alumni active in the field and experts from outside Harvard,” “Visiting Committee,” Harvard Medical School website.
3 split from the Anthro department: “What is HEB?” Department of Human Evolutionary Biology website.
4 When I spoke to Noreen: Interview with Noreen Tuross in 2017.
1 This chapter is from interview with Richard Meadow in 2017, unless otherwise noted.
2 tenure track until 2005: William C. Kirby’s February 2005 annual letter to the faculty.
3 mandatory retirement age since 1994: The law was passed in 1986, but there was an exemption for tenured professors that expired at the end of 1993: Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 1986, Section 12(d). See also Ending Mandatory Retirement for Tenured Faculty: The Consequences for Higher Education, edited by P. Brett Hammond and Harriet Morgan (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1991).
4 the numbers were grim: “Though More Women Are on College Campuses, Climbing the Professional Ladder Remains a Challenge,” Brown Center Chalkboard of the Brookings Institute, Mar. 29, 2019.
5 A recent report produced by a junior member: Ari Caramanica, “Report from the Gender Imbalance in Academia Conversation Group,” Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, May 19, 2019. Caramanica, who produced the report as a College Fellow, said that the Anthropology faculty were very receptive to the suggestions in the report, but she is not sure what they have implemented as official policy. (She has since left Harvard, for reasons unrelated to the report.)
6 Women were disproportionately selected as head teaching fellows: Caramanica, “Gender Imbalance,” p. 1.
7 lower publication rates: Caramanica, “Gender Imbalance,” p. 2.
8 Other studies conducted nationally: These include Dana Bardolph, “A Critical Evaluation of Recent Gendered Publishing Trends in American Archaeology,” American Antiquity 79, no. 3 (2014): 522–540; Scott Hutson, “Institutional and Gender Effects on Academic Hiring Practices,” SAA Bulletin 16, no. 4 (1998): 19–21, 26; and “Gendered Citation Practices in American Antiquity and Other Archaeological Journals,” American Antiquity 67 (2002): 331–342.
9 took longer to complete their degrees: Caramanica, “Gender Imbalance,” p. 3.
10 first systematic study of sexual harassment and assault: Kathryn Clancy, et al., “Survey of Academic Field Experiences (SAFE): Trainees Report Harassment and Assault,” PLoS One 9, no. 7.
11 Other research has shown: M. Sandy Hershcovis and Julian Barling, “Towards a Multi-Foci Approach to Workplace Aggression: A Meta-Analytic Review of Outcomes from Different Perpetrators,” Journal of Organizational Behavior 31 (Dec. 2009): 24–44.
12 Statistically, the most effective way to decrease sexual harassment: Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev, “Training Programs and Reporting Systems Won’t End Sexual Harassment. Promoting More Women Will.” Harvard Business Review 15 (2017): 607–631.
13 first African American graduate student: James Gibbs per Seymour, Cora Du Bois, p. 264. Gibbs did not respond to my request for an interview.
14 current dynamics in academia: E.g., “Are We Commodities?” Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. 17, 2010.
15 “It’s hard to admit you belong”: Interview with Iva Houston in 2017.
1 Women After All: Mel Konner, Women After All: Sex, Evolution, and the End of Male Supremacy (New York: W. W. Norton, 2015).
2 “Irv the Perv”: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017; Jill Nash confirmed in 2020.
3 Sarah Hrdy, DeVore’s first female graduate student: Interviews with Sarah Hrdy in 2017 and 2020.
4 Kathryn Clancy…credited DeVore: Blog maintained by the Clancy Lab group, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, lee-anthro.blogspot.com, Apr. 26, 2010 post.
5 stopped short of saying that DeVore: Interview with Kathryn Clancy in 2020.
6 when we got on the phone: Interview with Mel Konner in 2017.
7 fictional story inspired by Jane’s murder: Melvin Konner, “Winter in Bolton,” manuscript, edited by John Gardner and L. M. Rosenberg, fall–winter 1981, pp. 1–33.
8 What animated their ‘vague’: Konner, “Winter in Bolton,” p. 9.
9 my way to Chris Boehm: Interview with Chris Boehm in 2017.
10 Jane’s murder as an example: Christopher Boehm, “Gossip and Reputation in Small-Scale Societies: A View from Evolutionary Anthropology,” in The Oxford Handbook of Gossip and Reputation, edited by Francesca Giardini and Rafael Wittek (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), pp. 253–275.
11 “But you don’t understand, Sergeant”: Konner, “Winter in Bolton,” p. 30.
1 grand jury convened for Jane’s case: Feb. 3, 1969, per the Grand Jury Summons, Jan. 29, 1969 (CPD file).
2 Conti, a twenty-nine-year-old: This chapter is from interviews with Richard Conti in 2017 unless otherwise noted.
3 His wife’s sister had been college roommates: Sally Shankman confirmed this in a 2020 interview.
4 Harvard exploded at nauseating speed: Harvard Crimson published an excellent day-by-day summary of 1968–1969 at Harvard: “That Memorable Year, 1968–69…,” Harvard Crimson, June 12, 1969.
5 In February, discussions for the Radcliffe-Harvard merger began: “That Memorable Year, 1968–69…,” see Feb. 22 entry.
6 talks about co-ed living arrangements: “That Memorable Year, 1968–69…,” see Feb. 5 entry.
7 degree-granting program in Afro-American Studies: Approved on Apr. 22, 1969, see “African and African American Studies at Harvard: Historical Sources,” Harvard Library website.
8 came to a head in early April: See, e.g., “Echoes of 1969,” Harvard Magazine, Mar.–Apr. 2019.
9 “We felt that we would be the equivalent of the good Germans”: Interview with Carol Sternhell in 2014.
10 mentioned in the fifth demand on that list: “Statements on Both Sides at Harvard: Pres. Pusey,” Boston Globe, Apr. 10, 1969.
11 noon on April 9, 1969: “On Campus,” Radcliffe Quarterly, June 1969, p. 16.
12 about seventy students: “Echoes of 1969,” Harvard Magazine, Mar.–Apr. 2019.
13 The next morning, at dawn: “On Campus,” Radcliffe Quarterly, June 1969, p. 17.
14 wore visored helmets and wielded batons: Jean Bennett, “Echoes of 1969,” Harvard Magazine, Mar.–Apr. 2019.
15 ten thousand galvanized people: Ten thousand is conservative. “Harvard Students Occupy University Hall” page of MassMoments website puts the number between ten thousand and twelve thousand.
16 attendance was less than 25 percent: Ely Kahn, Harvard: Through Change and Through Storm (New York: W. W. Norton, 1969), p. 27.
17 appointed themselves protectors of Widener Library: Faculty members included Archibald Cox, Donald Fleming, and Herschel Baker (“Shook the University…,” Harvard Crimson, June 12, 1969).
18 a month earlier informed Karl: Letter from Franklin Ford to CCLK, Mar. 20, 1969.
19 suffered a minor stroke: “Until the April Crisis…,” Harvard Crimson, June 12, 1969.
20 “In Winter I hoped for Spring”: Stephen Williams, “The Editor’s Scrapbasket,” Peabody Museum Newsletter, summer 1969, p. 5.
1 email from someone at the Boston Globe: Email from Todd Wallack, Apr. 4, 2017, 3:32 p.m.
2 Wallack had made his career on exposing: “Todd Wallack of the Boston Globe to Receive NEFAC’s 2018 Freedom of Information Award,” New England First Amendment Coalition, Jan. 25, 2018.
3 bottom in terms of government transparency: “Mass. Agencies Often Limit Access to Records,” Boston Globe, July 18, 2015.
4 only state that maintains: “Massachusetts Public Records Law among the Country’s Most Restrictive,” MuckRock, Oct. 18, 2018. This was even after the new public records law (H4333; the first since the state’s law was enacted in 1973) went into effect on Jan. 1, 2017.
5 quoted Thomas Fiedler: “Mass. Agencies Often Limit Access to Records,” Boston Globe, July 18, 2015.
6 Todd Wallack told me: Interview with Todd Wallack in 2017.
1 “bumping for Jane”: “Pink Panther” Websleuths post #684, Oct. 9, 2014; “Pink Panther” Websleuths post #707; Feb. 18, 2015; etc.
2 “I feel obliged as a priest”: Boyd Britton Websleuths post #741, Jan. 15, 2016.
3 “Unsolved crime threads on WS never die”: “Ausgirl” Websleuths post #701, Nov. 29, 2014.
4 “This all happened a very long time ago”: Don Mitchell Websleuths post #799, May 12, 2016.
5 Lee Parsons is due to leave: Letter from Stephen Williams to Hallam Movius, Jan. 20, 1969, found in 998-27-40/14628.2, Hallam L. Movius, Jr. papers, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University.
6 On the phone, Don sounded: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
1 reminded Don of a black walnut tree: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
2 Lee had joined the museum in the fall of 1968: CPD-LP 1, p. 5.
3 Handsome, but not overly so: Description of Parsons from Don Mitchell (2017) and Richard Rose photos.
4 “marginal somehow. Just off”: Interview with Bruce Bourque in 2017.
5 “You’re afraid if he smiled, his face would fall [off]”: CPD-IK, p. 52.
6 listen to records on his hi-fi set: Interview with Bruce Bourque in 2017.
7 Don had seen Lee at a few parties: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
8 first incident…November 1968: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017; CPD-DM; CPD-LP 1; CPD-JM 2.
9 finishing up their meal: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017; CPD-LP 1.
10 teaching one of Jane’s classes that fall: Jane Britton’s Radcliffe student file; CPD-LP 1.
11 Don drove everyone over: CPD-DM; CPD-LP 1.
12 wall-to-wall white shag: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017; Jill Nash response to checking memo (2020); she remembers it as white wool.
13 size of five or six cigarettes bunched together: Don Mitchell interview in 2017, which tracks with what Lee Parsons told police (CPD-LP 2, p. 20): “They’re about six or eight cylinders that they wrap up in a cornhusk, and you burn the insides.”
14 on an aluminum ashtray: Jill Nash response to checking memo (2020); CPD-LP 2, p. 37.
15 burned a hole: Don Mitchell (2017); Jill Nash response to checking memo (2020); CPD-LP 2, p. 36.
16 “As Richard Pryor would say”…This is too heavy: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
17 she wanted to stay: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017; CPD-LP 1, p. 5.
18 didn’t think that she would cheat on Jim: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
19 3 a.m. walk home: CPD-JM 2, p. 48; CPD-LP 1, p. 5. (Don thought they left around 4 or 4:30 in the morning: CPD-DM, p. 63.)
20 worried that Jane had realized, too late: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
1 a deluge of emails: Emails from Don Mitchell, Apr. 5, 2017, 9:25 p.m.; Apr. 6, 2017, 4:15 p.m.; Apr. 6, 2017, 7:45 p.m.; Apr. 6, 2017, 8:59 p.m.; etc.
2 “We can take you to 14,000′”: Email from Don Mitchell, Apr. 8, 2017, 7:30 p.m.
3 “It might cross your mind”: Email from Don Mitchell, Apr. 5, 2017, 9:25 p.m.
1 helped moderate a subreddit: reddit.com/r/UnsolvedMysteries.
2 Alyssa’s voice was warm: Interview with Alyssa Bertetto in 2017.
3 abruptly left Harvard in 1970: Lee Parsons obituary by Michael Coe.
4 moved to St. Louis, Missouri: Steven DeFillippo & Lee Parsons v. Lowell Nations D/B/A Nations Roofing Company, Cause No. 407153, Petition, Circuit Court of the County of St. Louis, Missouri, Apr. 10, 1978.
5 Lee and his wife had divorced: Interviews with Anne Moreau in 2017 and 2020.
6 he lived there with a man: DeFillippo & Parsons v. Lowell Nations.
7 ending up in Florida: Letter from Charles D. Barnard to Judge Zebedee Wright re: State of Florida v. Lee Allen Parsons, Oct. 18, 1991.
8 his last will and testament: Last Will and Testament of Lee Allen Parsons, Broward County Commission 33862, signed Dec. 30, 1992.
9 He was born in 1950: Public birth records.
10 Stephen was buried in Woburn, Massachusetts: Last Will and Testament of Lee Allen Parsons.
1 a few weeks after the Incense Night: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
2 Jim was in Cambridge, visiting…Jane had wanted him to see the artifacts: CPD-JM 2, p. 37.
3 Jane, Jill, and Don all knew there was only one person it could be: CPD-JM 2, p. 37.
4 once more after the Incense Night: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017; CPD-JM 2, p. 40; CPD-LP 2, p. 11.
5 talked to him through the door: CPD-JM 2, p. 40.
6 Don noticed that Jane’s face hardened into a quiet panic: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
7 What happened the night of the incense party, Don wondered: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
8 identified himself by yelling up the stairwell: CPD-JM 2, p. 40.
9 “I’ll take care of it,” Jane said: Through “turn off my typewriter,” CPD-JM 2, pp. 37–39.
10 She is putting on quite a show for Lee, Jill thought: CPD-JM 2, p. 20.
11 Jill peered out of her doorway…all dressed up: CPD-JM 2, p. 40.
12 Jill wanted to look out the window to be sure: Exchange from CPD-JM 2, p. 20.
1 I called Karl: This chapter is drawn from my interview with CCLK in 2017.
2 I wanted to believe him: I have not yet been able to corroborate that Truman Capote was interested in Jane Britton’s story.
3 one of Jane’s undergraduate mentors: Interview with Bill Simmons in 2017.
4 “my father was killed in Auschwitz”: Karl Othmar Von Lamberg, Identification Number 62376, Document Number 41205, Arrest Data from the Vienna Gestapo Reports, per the Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
5 the vampire’s cape of legend lifted: Recent graduate students were absolutely sure that CCLK used to walk around the Peabody in a cape, but after speaking to dozens of graduate students, whose collective tenure at Harvard spanned decades, I realized that no one ever actually saw him wear one at the museum. (In 2017, CCLK told me he owned one–-his father’s––but he doesn’t remember wearing it to work.)
1 In the early-morning hours: This chapter is from CPD-JM 2, unless otherwise noted. Looking back at what she said in 1969, Jill wrote in 2020, “This is all too much of a muchness. If Jane had not been murdered, I would never think this remarkable. The cops pressed us on stuff, and I really didn’t know what they wanted.”
2 hoping that the ring hadn’t stirred Jill: CPD-DM, p. 4.
3 as Don walked to the bathroom: CPD-DM, p. 4; Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
4 Well, Jane’s done it again, Don thought: CPD-DM, p. 5.
5 He hoped that it would work out all right: CPD-DM, p. 5.
6 Jill heard footsteps: From here to “muffled noises of two men talking,” CPD-JM 1, pp. 4–6.
7 a large mounting board kept falling off the wall: CPD-DM, p. 6.
8 Don waited outside: CPD-DM, p. 8.
9 Jill walked into Jane’s apartment: CPD-JH, p. 11.
10 call the health service: CPD-JM 1, p. 10.
11 Don took over: CPD-JM 1, p. 11.
12 no one could remember the Cambridge Police’s number: CPD-DM, p. 11.
13 9-1-1 didn’t yet exist in Cambridge: “Boston, Brookline to Dial 911 in Fall to Speed Police Calls,” Boston Globe, Sept. 4, 1972; Cambridge not included in list of communities that use 911: “Randolph, Quincy Using Emergency No.,” Boston Globe, Aug. 16, 1971.
14 Don took the book from him: CPD-DM, p. 11.
15 Don tried to reach Jane’s family: CPD-DM, pp. 13–14 and interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
16 Jim kept repeating, “You should call”: CPD-DM, p. 12.
17 “Maybe we should take her pulse”: CPD-JM 1, p. 12.
18 Don began to doubt himself: Here to “when the police were going to show up” from CPD-DM, pp. 12–13.
19 Don thought about how alive Jane had been: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
20 Don’s memory of Jim Humphries dropped out: Here to ”loosed with sorrow,” interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
21 I heard groans and heaves from grief: Don Mitchell, “Hill Training in Forest Lawn Cemetery,” unpublished.
22 For the first, and he thinks, only time: Interviews with Don Mitchell in 2017 and 2019. In her 2020 response to the checking memo, Jill Nash said she had no recollection of this: “Don was not demonstrative.”
1 Don Mitchell and I sat: This chapter is from interviews with Don Mitchell in 2017 unless otherwise noted.
2 movies in the Square: In her response to the checking memo, Jill Nash said she did not remember movies or buying records.
3 [Photo]: Photograph by Don Mitchell.
4 “If I die, you should marry Jane”: CPD-DM, p. 17.
5 Jill, I would later find out: Interview with Mary McCutcheon in 2017. In her response to the checking memo, Jill explained that she kept the largest of the three rugs until about three years ago, “when it was so worn in places, I thought it should be recycled.”
1 [Photo]: Letter from Det. Lt. Joyce to Jill and Don Mitchell, Jan. 8, 1979 (MSP file).
1 Don wasted very little time: Letter from Don Mitchell to Det. Lt. Joyce, Jan. 22, 1979 (MSP file).
2 letter in December 1969: Letter from Det. Lt. Joyce to Jill and Don Mitchell, Jan. 8, 1979.
3 difference between Joyce and the Cambridge cops: The rest of this chapter is from interviews with Don Mitchell in 2017 unless otherwise noted. Details concerning Jill were cross-checked in her 2020 checking memo. (Jill wrote that the cops also made her look at Jane’s autopsy photos.)
4 pick out the outfit she was to be buried in: Jill Nash wrote that she did not remember this.
5 a relic, some later speculated: Class taught by James Deetz, per Susan Kelly notes from interview with Paul Shankman, July 31, 1996 (police file). Jane was in a class taught by Professor Deetz (Anthropology 207) the fall of her junior year (Jane Britton’s Radcliffe student file).
6 Jane normally kept it by her coffee table: CPD-BB, p. 32.
7 certainly gave the Mitchells the impression: Don Mitchell Websleuths post #381, June 17, 2014.
8 police officer returned: Sennott also asked Don Mitchell about this on July 17, 2017 (transcript; MSP file).
9 Perhaps it was Detective Giacoppo: I emailed Don Mitchell eight photographs of CPD officers who were involved in Jane’s case to see if he could identify the officer who asked him to photograph the fingerprint (Mar. 8, 2020). None of the photos were labeled. Don picked out the photo of former Detective M. Michael Giacoppo as the only possible. (He also correctly identified the photo of Lt. Leo Davenport.)
10 According to the Boston Globe: “Mystery Fingerprints at Slaying Scene May Belong to Jane Britton’s Killer, Say Cambridge Police,” Boston Globe, Jan. 13, 1969.
11 Don took a number of photos: Don Mitchell’s Nikon F and tripod setup to try to capture the fingerprint on the window in question is visible on page 4 of “Color Slides of Crime Scene” (CPD file). The windowpane was removed from its frame and propped up in the kitchen to better capture the print. Don emailed me a recent photo of the same tripod, which is still in his possession (Mar. 8, 2020, 2:06 p.m.).
12 [Photo]: Photograph by Don Mitchell.
13 About a year or perhaps even two: Letter from Don Mitchell to Det. Lt. Joyce, Jan. 22, 1979 (MSP file).
14 He had died on expedition six months before: Peter Harrison and Phyllis Messenger, “Dennis Edward Puleston, 1940–1978,” American Antiquity 45, no. 2 (Apr. 1980): 272–276.
1 Back on Don’s couch: This chapter is from interviews with Don Mitchell in 2017 unless otherwise noted.
2 Bach’s Toccata in F Major: Particularly Michael Murray’s version, Track #2 on Bach and Franck Organ Works, 1979.
3 “She’s just sitting on top of everyone else”: Don later sent me a photo of Jane playing the piece at his wedding. His description tracks; her hair was also covered with a white cloth.
1 to talk to Michael Coe: Interview with Michael Coe in 2017.
2 “We simply repressed it or faked it”: “In and Out of the Closet at Harvard, 1653–1998,” Harvard Magazine, Jan.–Feb. 1998.
3 emailed me…with the news: Email from Dan Potts, June 4, 2017, 1:29 p.m.
4 I got off the train in San Jose: The rest of the chapter is from my interview with Elisabeth Handler in 2017.
1 Saturday 27 July 1968: Letter from Jane to Elisabeth Handler, July 27, 1968.
1 The doorbell of my cousins’ house: This chapter is from an interview with Boyd Britton in 2017 unless otherwise noted.
2 “Let all the poisons”: Robert Graves, I, Claudius (New York: Harrison Smith and Robert Haas, 1934).
3 getting sober: Boyd has been sober since early 2011.
4 “My sister really did not”: In 2020, Boyd added, “Jane never got the opportunity.”
5 fiftieth reunion for Radcliffe: The fiftieth reunion was May 21–25, 2017.
6 The thirtieth reunion students would join: The thirty-fifth, fortieth, and forty-fifth reunions were held in the fall that year: “Fall in with Classmates,” Harvard Magazine, May–June 2014.
1 After Jane died, Boyd tried: This chapter is drawn from interviews with Boyd (2014–2020) unless otherwise noted.
2 mention his own daughter in his replies: Records of the Radcliffe College Office of the Administrative Vice-President, 1959–1972 (inclusive), Radcliffe College, RG IIA, Series 1, Schlesinger Library Archives.
3 J. Boyd had grown up in St. Louis, Missouri: “J. Boyd Britton; Was Chemist, Executive, Radcliffe Officer; 93,” Boston Globe, Oct. 29, 2002.
4 banjo in dance bands on the river boats: “J. Boyd Britton; Was Chemist, Executive, Radcliffe Officer; 93,” Boston Globe, Oct. 29, 2002.
5 first in sales, then management: J. Boyd Britton curriculum vitae, Britton family file.
6 married a woman in Springfield, Illinois: Interview with Charlie Britton in 2017.
7 just three months later: Confirmed with Boyd Britton military records, National Personnel Records, Department of Defense.
8 “I had the feeling they would”: Susan Kelly notes from interview with Elisabeth Handler, May 24, 1996 (police file).
1 Boyd called me the morning: This chapter is from an interview with Boyd Britton in 2017 unless otherwise noted.
2 “Jane Britton Murder Files. Other Family Papers”: Britton family file.
3 [Photo]: Photograph by Becky Cooper.
1 “Can’t say I mind contemplating”: Letter from Jane to her father, July 20, 1965.
2 a guinea pig holding the French flag: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 20, 1965.
3 “Pew! Peppermint-flavored envelopes”: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 25, 1964.
4 “Greetings to the postman from Gay, Exotic Les Eyzies”: Letter from Jane to her parents, Aug. 7, 1965.
5, 6 [Photos]: Britton family file, courtesy Boyd Britton.
7 his cover letter that read: Letter from CCLK to J. Boyd Britton, Dec. 21, 1979.
8 save them for her for that reason: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 16, 1965.
9 Dearest Muddah, Dahlink Faddah: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 16, 1965.
10 I wouldn’t want to do anything if I: Letter from Jane to her father, July 22, 1964.
11 Did I ever tell you after that amazing dinner: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 14, 1968.
12 Had a letter from Bwad (pre-Cal): Letter from Jane to her parents, July 27, 1968.
13 was a reference to Jerry Roth: Letter from Jane to her parents, Feb. 11, 1965.
1 The lie detector machine: Description from “The Lie Detector Confirms His Story,” Life Magazine, May 15, 1964, and cross-checked with “Polygraph with Improved Cardiac Monitoring,” Lafayette Instrument Co., Inc, Patent Number 4940059, July 10, 1990. Leonard Harrelson, the expert in the Life article, administered the second round of tests in Jane’s case (“Grand Jury Hears Girl’s Slaying,” Boston Herald Traveler, Feb. 4, 1969).
2 “What was fun about the lie detector test”: The remainder of this chapter is from an interview with CCLK in 2017. As far as I have been able to determine, no records of the lie detector test questions or results exist.
1 I ran across Harvard Yard to Church Street: This chapter is from my interview with CCLK in 2017.
1 It was warm out: Scene from interviews with Peter Timms (2017), John Yellen (2017), and CCLK (2020). The memories differed slightly (over details like whether Karl climbed into the ring, who introduced him to the promoter, etc.). The scene as written sticks to as many details as possible consistent with all three sources. The key difference is that CCLK does not remember the top of his cane tumbling off.
2 smelled like popcorn and pizza and alcohol: “In City’s Wrestling Prime, No Holds Were Barred,” Boston Globe, Sept. 26, 2004.
3 “Wrestling presents human suffering”: Roland Barthes, Mythologies: The Complete Edition in a New Translation, translated by Richard Howard and Annette Lavers (New York: Hill and Wang, 2012), p. 8.
4 The good defeated the bad: “In City’s Wrestling Prime, No Holds Were Barred,” Boston Globe, Sept. 26, 2004.
1 The scene took place on July 30, 2018.
1 Todd Wallack’s Globe article: “A Cold Case, a Cold Reality: Records Are Closed,” Boston Globe, June 18, 2017.
2 last round of DNA testing…was in 2006: This refers to the last time any DNA was tested in relation to Jane’s case. The last time the crime scene sample itself was tested was 2004 (MSP Crime Lab report dated Aug. 18, 2004).
3 Karl wrote to say: Email from CCLK, June 18, 2017, 11:21 a.m.
4 Don Mitchell was rattled by readers’ comments: Email from Don Mitchell, July 11, 2017, 1:33 p.m.
5 A lawyer reached out to offer: LinkedIn message from Robert Bertsche, June 18, 2017, 3:41 a.m.
6 threaten escalating the matter: Letter from Robert Bertsche to Rebecca Murray, June 20, 2017.
7 Mike Widmer, it turned out: The rest of this chapter is from interviews with Mike Widmer in 2017.
8 UPI article, syndicated in Stars and Stripes: “Girl 22 Beaten to Death,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, Jan. 9, 1969.
9 twenty-four reprints to two: Roger Tatarian (then editor-in-chief at UPI), internal UPI document, Jan. 8, 1969.
1 archaeologist named Anne Abraham: Bill Fitzhugh, “Tribute to Explorer Lost in Labrador,” Smithsonian 7, no. 9 (Dec. 1976).
2 devolved into gossip about Gramly: See, e.g., Websleuths posts circa late Aug. 2014–Oct. 2014.
3 In 2016, Boyd mentioned: Interview with Boyd Britton in 2016.
4 written to Lieutenant Joyce: Letter from Don Mitchell to Det. Lt. Joyce, Jan. 22, 1979 (MSP file).
5 I spoke with Bill Fitzhugh: Interview with Bill Fitzhugh in 2017.
6 Over the phone, Gramly: Interview with RMG in 2017.
7 “Jane never got justice”: “A Cold Case, a Cold Reality: Records Are Closed,” Boston Globe, June 18, 2017.
8 email from Todd Wallack: Email from Todd Wallack, June 20, 2017, 3:54 p.m.
9 a Copper Age site: The dig, run by Kaman and Yavor Boyadziev, was part of the Balkan Heritage Field School.
10 Ted’s letter to the Cambridge Police: Letter from Ted Abraham to Sgt. Nagle, Aug. 23, 1996 (CPD file).
11 fought unsuccessfully to sue: “In the Matter of George Abraham, Claiming as Father of Anne Abraham, Deceased, and Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.,” Docket No. 84–108, Hearing Sept. 14, 1984, Issued Oct. 30, 1984, United States Department of Labor.
12 I got an email from Ted: Email from Ted Abraham, June 20, 2017, 5:34 p.m.
13 in the Smithsonian article by Bill Fitzhugh: Fitzhugh, “Tribute to Explorer Lost in Labrador.”
14 [Photo]: Courtesy Bill and Lynne Fitzhugh.
15 he did, in fact, know Jane Britton: Interview with RMG in 2017.
1 It was Gramly’s first semester: This chapter is from my interviews with RMG in 2017, unless otherwise noted.
2 six foot one: License details for RMG (MDAO file).
3 A year younger than Jane: Public birth records.
4 certificate listed “violence”: Aug. 6, 1957, divorce certificate, Jefferson County, Alabama Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. When I spoke with RMG in 2020, he said he wasn’t aware that his father had hit his mother, but he wouldn’t be surprised. “My father was a wonderful person,” Gramly shared, but his father had hit him, too.
5 As a child, Mickey: This section from interviews with people who knew Gramly from the neighborhood. Names left out by request.
6 Ritchie sent a cohort of young men: Ritchie details from interview with Bruce Bourque in 2017. In 2020, Gramly agreed and added, “Ritchie’s idea of heaven was being elbow-deep in red ochre.”
7 The Hunting Peoples: Carleton Coon, The Hunting Peoples (Gretna, LA: Pelican, 1971).
8 she was drawing for Coon: Coon also wrote that Jane drew artifacts for him in his CPD “Report of Statement,” Jan. 10, 1969 (CPD file).
1 Scrutin-eyes laid out a damning case: “Scrutin-eyes” first posted on Aug. 14, 2014 (Websleuths post #598). “Scrutin-eyes” never replied to my request for an interview.
2 “macabre handling of human remains”: “Scrutin-eyes” Websleuths post #604, Aug. 15, 2014.
3 Gramly had gone rogue: “Scrutin-eyes” Websleuths post #645, Aug. 20, 2014.
4 He had been forbidden from digging: “Scrutin-eyes” Websleuths post #598, Aug. 14, 2014.
5 “often flew off the handle”: “Scrutin-eyes” Websleuths post #604, Aug. 15, 2014.
6 let his membership in the Society for American Archaeology lapse: RMG confirmed in a 2020 interview. He also said he renewed it for a time, but is not currently a member.
7 “it says quite clearly in the By-Laws of the Society”: Cheryl Ann Munson, Marjorie Melvin Jones, and Robert Fry, “The GE Mound: An ARPA Case Study,” American Antiquity 60, no. 1 (Jan. 1995): 138. In an April 12, 2020, letter to me, Gramly wanted to make clear that he “cannot think of any time that [he] sold, exchanged, or ‘transacted’ artifacts discovered on his digs for personal gain,” and he “never paid for labor (my own or anyone else’s) by giving away scientific specimens.”
8 compilation of questionnaires: “The Amateur Archaeologist,” American Society for Amateur Archaeology 1, no. 1 (fall 1994): 21.
9 Gramly––and Canisius College…had indeed been sued: State of New York, et al. v. Gramly, et al., US District Court, Western District of New York (Buffalo), 1:99-cv-01045-WMS-HKS. Case filed Dec. 28, 1999. Settled July 7, 2000.
10 NAGPRA, the 1990 federal law: Julia Cryne, “NAGPRA Revisited: A Twenty-Year Review of Repatriation Efforts,” American Indian Law Review 34, no. 1 (2009–2010): 99–122.
11 “violated common decency”: “Landmark Settlement Protects Native Burial Site,” NY State Office of the AG press release, July 18, 2000.
12 Gramly argued that the cardboard storage: Interview with RMG in 2020.
13 Jason Neralich was an amateur archaeologist: Neralich did not reply to a request to comment.
14 mischaracterization of site protocol: Interview with RMG in 2020; letter from RMG, Apr. 12, 2020. In “Return to Olive Branch: Excavations 2002–2005,” American Society for Amateur Archaeology 13, nos. 1–2 (Jan. 2008): 61, RMG refers to the bifaces as “The Neralich Cache.”
15 One young academic: Interview with “young academic” in 2018.
16 The user, macoldcase, feared: Interview with “MCC” in 2018.
17 Scrutin-eyes summed up the case against Gramly: “Scrutin-eyes” Websleuths post #608, Aug. 16, 2014.
1 I got a call from an unknown number: This chapter is from an interview with Stephen Loring in 2017.
1 a text from Don Mitchell: Text from Don Mitchell, June 28, 2017, 3:55 a.m. (Bulgaria time).
2 segment on public television: “Cold Case: The Murder of Jane Sanders Britton, 48 Years Later,” Greater Boston, WGBH, June 28, 2017.
3 national database known as CODIS: To be very precise, CODIS is the software that searches the database.
4 that was started in 1990: “Combined DNA Index System (CODIS),” Laboratory Services, FBI website.
1 I called Mary McCutcheon: Interview with Mary McCutcheon in 2017.
2 Mary told me she met Gramly: In 2020, RMG confirmed many of the details in Mary’s account. He also sent me a copy of his unpublished Diary of a Young Man (June 1, 1968–Sept. 1, 1971), though the section he sent me covers only June 1–29, 1968. He wrote that he began “this ‘project’ 10–12 years ago and dropped it.” In the following chapter, I indicate anywhere that RMG’s memory differs from McCutcheon’s.
3 [Photo]: Courtesy Mary McCutcheon.
1 Mick packed the bones in the trunk of the car: RMG wrote that this was his plan more than a week before the trip. “Will give up my sub-lease on the 12th—the day we drive down to Laredo and catch the train to Mexico City.…The trunk and the back seat will have to be crammed with stuff––including the human skeletal remains and artifacts from the Boys School site” (June 2, 1968 entry in Diary of a Young Man).
2 agent asked them to pop the trunk: RMG confirmed in a 2020 interview. He did not write about the incident in Diary, but noted that when he crossed the border on his return, “One of the US border guards remembered who I was and spoke up for me during the inspection.”
3 A fer-de-lance: RMG’s Diary states that they stayed at Palenque (June 14–16, 1968), but he makes no mention of being perched atop the temple during the storm. Instead, he writes that “we were comfortable and dry within the temple.” He also writes that the fer-de-lance crossed his path in the morning, not theirs.
4 Mary at her family home: RMG wrote about this visit in his June 27 and 28, 1968, entries in Diary.
5 continued corresponding with him: RMG wrote about their summer correspondence in Diary, but by his account he had already made peace with the fact that he and McCutcheon were not meant to be: “Such a long-distance relationship could never be practical. But it did not mean we had no deep feelings for each other.…For me no relationship with Mary could just be fun and casual. If it could not be total, then better none at all.” His entries, however, do not continue into the fall.
1 Through the years: This chapter is from multiple interviews with Mary McCutcheon in 2017.
2 Patricia had given over a den in her house: Author’s visit.
3 Mary and Patricia met with the DA’s office: Adrienne Lynch, “Additional Notes ADA on Investigation 2017,” undated (MDAO file).
4 the “Golden Girls”: Adrienne Lynch, “Additional Notes ADA on Investigation 2017,” undated (MDAO file).
1 Stretching away into the interior: Anne’s diary entry from July 21, 1976. (As I wrote in the book, Anne only sporadically dated her entries, and she tended to write about multiple days in one sitting, so pegging her entries to calendar days was challenging. Based on her changing from present to past tense mid-Aug. 1 entry, I believe she started an entry on Aug. 1, and continued it on Aug. 5, the same evening she wrote about Aug. 2–4. According to this timeline, her last entry is dated Aug. 6, which corresponds to the date of her disappearance in the Smithsonian Report. Where the date of the entry is unclear below, I’ve pegged it to the beginning of the paragraph instead. Also, if my description or timeline varies from the one set out in the Smithsonian Report, I have indicated why and how in subsequent source notes.)
2 Tongait, or “place of spirits”: Anne’s diary entry from July 21, 1976.
3 it was Anne’s sixth season in Labrador: Smithsonian Report, Part 2, p. 23.
4 Bill as a teaching assistant: Interview with Ted Abraham in 2017.
5 Anne impressed everyone: Description of Anne from Lynne Fitzhugh (2017) unless otherwise noted.
6 On one of her last mornings: Anne’s diary entry from July 25, 1976.
7 “the land God gave to Cain”: As quoted in Fitzhugh, “Tribute to Explorer Lost in Labrador,” p. 112.
8 “pure, grandiose country, stark”: As quoted in Fitzhugh, “Tribute to Explorer Lost in Labrador,” p. 112.
9 “Labrador’s…most lethal climates”: Lynne Fitzhugh, The Labradorians: Voices from the Land of Cain (St. John’s, NF: Breakwater, 1999), p. 17.
10 the mythic Ramah chert quarries: Interview with Bill Fitzhugh in 2017.
11 Chert, a kind of quartz: “Quartz, Chert, and Flint,” Department of Geology and Planetary Science’s website, University of Pittsburgh.
12 Gramly, an assistant professor of geology at Stony Brook: Smithsonian Report, Appendix 3.
13 met only once before: Smithsonian Report, Part 1, p. 2.
14 175 miles away: Smithsonian Report, Part 1, p. 3.
15 held each other until the morning: Anne’s diary entry from July 25, 1976.
16 last time Lynne Fitzhugh saw Anne: Interview with Lynne Fitzhugh in 2017.
17 Thalia Point where Anne loaded in: Smithsonian Report, Part 1, p. 3.
18 camp in the footsteps of an old Moravian mission: Smithsonian Report, Part 1, p. 3.
19 landscape was marshier: Anne’s diary entry, paragraph starting “West of the mission.”
20 Dog’s Nose, a big basalt cliff: Interview with Lynne Fitzhugh in 2017.
21 sound traveled so clearly: Interview with Stephen Loring in 2017.
22 Anne could hear the waterfall: Anne’s diary entry, paragraph starting “Moist, misty morning.”
23 “My ears are tired of his voice”: Anne’s diary entry, paragraph starting “The next day I got up.”
24 tell Anne about his time in Africa: Anne’s diary entry, paragraph starting “Mike told me about mambas.”
25 “I went up a chimney and the shale”: Here through “Anne had found a Ramah chert quarry,” Anne’s diary entry, paragraph starting “We started for a short hike.”
26 [Photo]: Photograph by RMG.
27 one-quarter of a mile long: Fitzhugh, “Tribute to Explorer Lost in Labrador.”
28 “’Twas a sacrifice to the mountains”: Anne’s diary entry, paragraph starting “Mike fixed supper.”
29 “Time went unrecognized”: Anne’s diary entry, paragraph starting “The time went unrecognized.” Red ochre detail also appears in “Brother Tells of His Labrador Search for D.C. Woman,” Washington Post, Aug. 16, 1976.
30 Mike signaled to Anne: Description from Anne’s diary entry, paragraph starting “My period started and I felt grubby.”
31 The following day was overcast: Anne’s diary entry, paragraph starting “The next day (I am confused as to days).”
32 the one after wasn’t much better: Anne’s diary entry, paragraph starting “The next day I got up.”
33 Anne put on her waders and tried: Anne’s diary entry, paragraph starting “Today I tried.” Anne’s attempt to find another route to the quarry this day––as well as the goose detail––also in Smithsonian Report, Part 1, p. 6.
34 so still it felt strange: Anne’s diary entry, paragraph starting “The most unusual thing”; Smithsonian Report, Part 1, p. 7.
35 hacking at a caribou antler…the radio: Anne’s diary entry, paragraph starting “The most unusual thing.”
36 About twenty-four hours later: Smithsonian Report, Part 1, p. 10; Report by Cst. W.W. MacDonald, Corner Brook. Sub-Division of the RCMP, Oct. 18, 1976, p. 2; Transcript of Interview between Cst. W.W. MacDonald & RMG, Nain, Labrador, Aug. 11, 1976, p. 7.
1 “When you’re in a remote tent camp”: This chapter is from an interview with RMG in 2017 unless otherwise noted.
2 the first set of mastodon remains: RMG, Archaeological Recovery of the Bowser Road Mastodon: Orange County, New York (New York: ASAA/Persimmon Press Monographs in Archaeology, 2017).
3 collection at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology: Interview with RMG in 2020; “MCZ Receives 13,000 Year Old Mastodon,” News, Museum of Comparative Zoology’s website, Nov. 27, 2017.
4 he met the news with composure and resignation: Interview with RMG in 2020.
5 “a sea-change in how archaeology is being done”: Interview with Bruce Bourque in 2020.
6 Gramly had told the Royal Canadian Mounted Police: Transcript of Interview between Cst. W. W. MacDonald & RMG, Nain, Labrador, Aug. 11, 1976, pp. 1–4.
7 up a stream, across knife-edge ridges: Smithsonian Report, Part 2, p. 12. “Knife-edge” from interview with RMG in 2020.
8 a slope of rock that spilled: Here through “around 11 a.m.” from Smithsonian Report, Part 1, pp. 7–9.
9 Gramly attempted to go around the point: Gramly describes this moment in transcript of interview between Cst. W. W. MacDonald & RMG, Nain, Labrador, Aug. 11, 1976, p. 2.
10 jumped back onto the beach to avoid a fall: Smithsonian Report, Part 1, p. 9.
11 Anne tried, too, and got about thirty feet up: Smithsonian Report, Part 1, p. 9; report notes that Gramly said both ten feet and thirty feet up.
12 “I don’t like the risk”: RMG statement to RCMP, “Sequence of Events at Ramah, Labrador: July 30–Aug. 8, 1976,” Aug. 12, 1976, p. 1.
13 “No, I think Gramly got fired”: Interview with Ted Abraham in 2017.
14 Hilda’s Creek in honor of: Interviews with RMG and Alice Abraham in 2017.
15 checked with Stephen and with Anne’s siblings: Interviews with Stephen Loring in 2019; Ted and Alice Abraham in 2020.
1 radio in once a day at 7 a.m.: Smithsonian Report, Part 2, p. 6.
2 Fitzhugh was worried: “He viewed the silence from Ramah as ominous,” Smithsonian Report, Part 2, p. 7.
3 On August 8, Ted Abraham’s phone rang: Interview with Ted Abraham in 2017; “Brother Tells of His Labrador Search for D.C. Woman,” Washington Post, Aug. 16, 1976.
4 6:45 a.m., a search-and-rescue helicopter: Report by F. A. McCully, Happy Valley Goose Bay Detachment of the RCMP, Oct. 8, 1976, p. 3. Fitzhugh thought the helicopter would be able to take his search crew as well, but, loaded with extra fuel, it was already at capacity. Per the Smithsonian Report, Stephen Loring was only allowed on after insisting that the pilot offload two hundred pounds of equipment (Part 2, p. 21).
5 the diesel fumes…were nauseating: Interview with Ted Abraham in 2017.
6 They were on Saglek: The Smithsonian Report leaves this stop in Saglek out of their timeline, but I feel confident that it happened. Ted Abraham first mentioned it to me in 2017, and it’s corroborated in the RCMP files: “Arrived Saglek 11:40am and arrived Ramah Bay 12:30pm” (Report by F. A. McCully, Happy Valley Goose Bay Detachment of the RCMP, Oct. 8, 1976, p. 3). RMG did not dispute this encounter.
7 They never made eye contact: In response, RMG said in 2020, “I should have gone back, maybe, but I thought everyone knew where I was and everything. And I just didn’t think that––well I just didn’t want to––there wasn’t anything I could do to bring her back.”
8 herd of caribou: Interview with Ted Abraham in 2020. The Smithsonian Report also lists a polar bear sighting from this day, but that was after they dropped off the search party (Smithsonian Report, Part 1, p. 13).
9 dropped the three men off: Report by F. A. McCully, Happy Valley Goose Bay Detachment of the RCMP, Oct. 8, 1976, p. 3.
10 men set up camp: Interview with Ted Abraham in 2017.
11 no trouble reaching the Fitzhughs by radio: Interviews with Ted Abraham in 2017 and Bill Fitzhugh in 2020.
12 Gee, you shouldn’t have come: “Brother Tells of His Labrador Search for D.C. Woman,” Washington Post, Aug. 16, 1976.
13 tried to retrace Anne’s final hours: Description from Ted Abraham’s recollections (2017).
14 water was too noisy…concentrating hard on his footing: Transcript of interview between Cst. W. W. MacDonald & RMG, Nain, Labrador, Aug. 11, 1976, p. 11.
15 Ted thought he saw someone: Anecdote about floating orange object from interviews with Ted Abraham (2017, 2020). Per the Smithsonian Report, Anne’s raincoat was orange (Smithsonian Report, Part 1, p. 8).
16 Fitzhugh was angry that the search party: Through “no scent of Anne,” Smithsonian Report, Part 1, pp. 12–13.
17 “There is no proper grief”: Interview with Ted Abraham in 2017.
18 watched as the candles they lit: Interview with Ted Abraham in 2017; Stephen Loring did not remember this.
19 “Time’s up. You gotta get out”: Interview with Ted Abraham in 2017; this tracks with Fitzhugh’s experience. He felt “under intense pressure from the RCMP” to terminate the search for Anne (Smithsonian Report, Part 2, p. 16).
20 Gramly had passed “with flying colors”: Bill Fitzhugh, “A Brief Chronology of Events: Ramah,” Appendix 13, Smithsonian Report, p. 3.
21 a final search of the sea caves: Through end of paragraph, Smithsonian Report, Part 1, p. 16.
22 sea was swarming with sea lice: Report by F.A. McCully, Happy Valley Goose Bay Detachment of the RCMP, Oct. 8, 1976, p. 6.
23 Newfoundland Department of Justice announced: Letter from Asst. C.I.B. Officer, A. E. Vaughan to the Deputy Minister of Justice, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Oct. 29, 1976.
24 Smithsonian…own internal review: Memorandum from George S. Robinson (Assistant General Counsel of the Smithsonian Institution) to Mr. S. Dillon Ripley (Secretary), Subject: Internal Review Panel relating to the disappearance of Anne Abraham in Labrador, Oct. 21, 1976.
25 without access to the Canadian police files: Letter from John G. Kelly (Director of Public Prosecutions, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Department of Justice) to George S. Robinson, Dec. 17, 1976.
26 In March 1977: Memorandum from John Motheral, John Eisenberg, and David Pawson to S. Dillon Ripley (Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution), Subject: Report of the Panel established to review the disappearance of Ms. Anne Abraham, Mar. 8, 1977.
27 fifteen-page partial transcript: RMG statement to RCMP, “Sequence of Events at Ramah, Labrador: July 30–August 8, 1976,” Aug. 12, 1976. The rest of this chapter is drawn from this source.
1 “All you got to do is brush your gums”: This chapter is from an interview with Don Mitchell in 2017 and the Don Mitchell interview transcript with Sergeant Sennott, July 17, 2017 (MSP file).
2 six feet tall: Sgt. Sennott’s response to his checking memo.
1 someone at the Harvard Archives wrote me: Latest email from the Harvard University Archives, Apr. 5, 2019, 1:32 p.m. When I told Gramly that the archives had no record of the class, he assured me that he and Jane had taken the course. He said he had taken it for credit and would try to get his transcript from Harvard to show me. As of the time of publication, I have not yet seen his transcript.
2 “In fact,” he had told me: Interview with RMG in 2017. He reconfirmed in 2020.
1 ordered an in camera inspection: Letter from Rebecca Murray to Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth May re: SPR17/820, June 30, 2017.
2 Alice Abraham, Anne’s sister, wrote me: Email from Alice Abraham, Sept. 9, 2017, 12:22 p.m.
3 Alice was a big woman: The rest of this chapter is from an interview with Alice in 2017 unless otherwise noted.
4 married for thirty-five years: “Loring, Stephen” entry in Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, edited by Claire Smith (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2014).
5 one of the founders of Gender Archaeology: See, e.g., her work with Margaret Conkey to organize the “Women and Production in Prehistory” Conference, Apr. 5–9, 1988, Wedge Plantation, South Carolina.
6 Stephen had helped her with: In a 2019 interview with Stephen Loring, he wanted to make clear that Alice should get all the credit for the trip; he had been happy to help the family.
7 touch the rocks that Anne had loved: Description of this trip drawn from recordings that appear in “A Long Journey North to Say Goodbye,” The World, PRI Radio, Dec. 26, 2006.
8 Come out of the dark earth: May Sarton, “Invocation.”
9 “Most people react to death with sorrow”: Undated. Anne, it seems, got an A on the paper.
1 Cambridge Police officer John Fulkerson: Interviews with Fulkerson in 2016 and 2018.
2 Susan had gotten to know: Kelly, Boston Stranglers, preface.
3 letter arrived from a Dr. Richard M. Gramly: Letter from RMG to CPD Keeper of the Records, Aug. 31, 1995 (CPD file).
4 Jane’s case file—about four boxes: Interview with Fulkerson in 2018.
5 No record of what additional physical evidence: This squares with interoffice correspondence from Deputy Superintendent Thomas F. O’Connor (Commander of Detectives) to Commissioner Watson, Subject: “Cold Case” Homicides, Nov. 4, 1996 (CPD file).
6 The officer felt like he was digging for information: Interview with Fulkerson in 2018.
7 changed his mind and sent a package: Deputy O’Connor, “Cold Case” Homicides, Nov. 4, 1996 (CPD file).
8 a cover letter: Letter from RMG to John Fulkerson, Oct. 26, 1995.
9 never saw a roster of the Putnam Lab caretakers: Interview with RMG in 2020.
10 Fulkerson contacted Susan Kelly: Fax from John Fulkerson to Susan Kelly, Nov. 14, 1995.
11 felt sure they had their guy: Interview with Fulkerson in 2018.
12 fingerprints from the FBI: RMG fingerprints saved alongside FBI, US Department of Justice envelope (undated, no postmark) (CPD file).
13 By November 1996: Deputy O’Connor, “Cold Case” Homicides, Nov. 4, 1996 (CPD file).
14 In January 1997: “Det. Notes by unsigned re. Gramly,” Jan. 14, 1997 (MSP file).
15 The day after the meeting, Sennott contacted: Letter from Trooper Peter Sennott to Lt. Kathy Stefani, Crime Lab, Jan. 15, 1997 (MSP file).
16 there was no plan to reopen: “Det. Notes by unsigned re. Gramly,” Dec. 30, 1997 (MSP file).
17 On February 20, 1998, Dr. Katsas: Letter from George Katsas to John McEvoy (Office of the District Attorney), Feb. 20, 1988 (MDAO file).
18 Sennott sent the slides to the crime laboratory: Request for the Examination of Physical Evidence, delivered by Peter Sennott to the State Police Crime Laboratory in Sudbury, MA, Feb. 25, 1998 (MDAO file).
19 Corporal Langille got in touch: Fax from Cpl. Langille to Peter Sennott, June 11, 1998 (MSP file).
20 “In short,” Sennott wrote: Letter from Peter Sennott to John McEvoy, July 12, 1998 (MSP file).
21 In September of the same year: Report of Laboratory Examination, Cellmark Diagnostics, Sept. 17, 1998, using the GenePrint STR Multiplex System and the GenePrint Sex Determination System (Amelogenin).
22 Labs across the country: At the time, Massachusetts had neither a DNA unit nor a CODIS database (ADA Lynch’s reply to checking memo).
23 people in Alabama: Letter from Sue Rogers (Alabama’s CODIS administrator) to Mary McGilvray, Dec. 14, 1998.
24 and Florida: Fax from Mary McGilvray to Peter Sennott, Nov. 24, 1998, which contains letter from Tara Hockenberry at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office to Mary McGilvray, Nov. 4, 1998.
25 One of the people had been five years old: Chronology of DNA Investigation, Oct. 29, 2018 (MDAO file).
26 Again, they used a differential extraction procedure: DNA-STR Report, MSP Crime Laboratory (Sudbury, MA), Aug. 18, 2004. Due to the limited sample, only AmpFISTR Profiler Plus was used to test the sample.
27 a result that could help identify a suspect at any of the locations: The only result above threshold was the Amelogenin consistent with the X chromosome in the non-sperm fraction––to be expected since this was Jane’s (female) DNA.
28 MSP found Gramly’s license details: Mass RMV re: Richard Gramly, June 8, 2004 (MDAO file).
29 details about his family members: Mass RMV re: Gramly, same address, June 8, 2005 (MDAO file).
30 printout of the residential property record card: Property Record, same address, June 8, 2006 (MDAO file).
31 the day in November 2005: Consent for Saliva Sample signed by RMG, MSP form, Nov. 9, 2005.
32 sent the sample: Letter from Lynne Sarty (MSP Crime Lab) to Bode Technology Group, Jan. 10, 2006.
33 Bode sent its Forensic Case Report: Forensic Case Report, Bode Technology Group, Inc., Feb. 6, 2006.
1 Conversation with Don Mitchell took place on July 31, 2018.
1 When I reached Stephen Loring again: Interview with Stephen Loring in 2017.
1 Stephen Loring had done well enough: This chapter is primarily from interviews with Stephen Loring in 2017, but also the Monte Alto field photos and notebooks (Edwin Shook, the field director, was an astonishingly thorough note taker) in the Peabody Archives and “Archaeological Research in Western Guatemala,” Peabody Museum Newsletter, p. 4.
2 Stephan de Borhegyi, had died: “Dr. Stephan F. de Borheygi,” Milwaukee Public Museum website.
3 the ocean-blue International Travelall: Interview with Gene Paull in 2018.
4 where the volcanoes are up so high: Interview with Gene Paull in 2018.
5 Monte Alto had been part of the early development: Interview with Richard Rose in 2017.
6 [Photo]: Photograph by Lee Parsons, courtesy Richard Rose.
7 Much of the two hours back: Ed Shook’s 1969–1970 field notebook, 969-48-00/1, Monte Alto Expedition Records 1969–1971, Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University.
1 “I mean he didn’t say he did it”: This chapter is from interviews with Stephen Loring in 2017.
2 If true, this would mean: Again, I have not found any evidence that the lie detector test questions or results still exist, so I have not been able to verify this statement.
1 “I’ve been concerned about something”: CPD-JC, pp. 3–4.
2 Lee Parsons’s Primitive Art class: Tracks with CPD-LP 1 and Jane Britton’s Radcliffe student file.
3 Boston Globe ran a cover story: “‘Gift’ Rock May Be Cambridge Death Weapon,” Boston Globe, Jan. 9, 1969.
4 On January 13, the Daily News: “Murder Quiz Finds Jane Had Abortion,” Daily News, Jan. 13, 1969.
5 like graduate student Frances Nitzberg: Frances Nitzberg interview transcript, Jan. 12, 1969, 3:15–4:25 p.m. (CPD file).
6 wandering the streets of Cambridge drunk: CPD-JC, p. 13.
7 Karl Lamberg-Karlovsky said: CPD-CCLK 2, p. 21.
8 Richard Meadow told police when he was pressed: CPD-RM, p. 41.
9 “[One of the Peabody secretaries] told me”: Letter from Sally Nash to Don and Jill Mitchell, Oct. 17, 1969.
10 she shook in her chair: Philippa Shaplin CPD interview transcript, Jan. 14, 1969, 12:47–5:00 p.m., p. 17.
1 Noah Savett, the other: I have since located Noah Savett, but he hasn’t responded to a request for comment.
2 The road trip down to Guatemala: Per Monte Alto photos and field notebooks in the Peabody Archive.
3 Lee had been contacted by the Cambridge Police: Ed Shook wrote that they drove into Guatemala City so Lee could phone the Cambridge police on Mar. 10, 1969 (Ed Shook’s 1968–1969 field notebook, p. 83).
4 gaps in his attendance on the site: Ed Shook’s 1968–1969 field notebook. Parsons’s notebook is not in the Peabody Archive.
5 track down a copy of Lee’s lie detector test: The administrator of the second round of lie detector tests, Leonard Harrelson, had passed away, but I tracked down Terry Ball (of Ball & Gillespie Polygraph) who now owns some of Harrelson’s equipment; Ball and Harrelson had been friends. I asked Ball if he had inherited any of Harrelson’s old tests, and he replied that it was too expensive for lie detector administrators to keep records beyond the required window, which used to be five years. Now, it’s three.
6 Conti…said he remembered Lee Parsons’s name: Email from Richard Conti, May 3, 2017, 4:54 p.m.
7 she was born in 1932: Public birth records.
8 discovered cosmic radio waves: “Karl Jansky and the Discovery of Cosmic Radio Waves,” National Radio Astronomy Observatory website.
9 I caught her as she: The rest of this chapter is from my interview with Anne Moreau in 2017.
1 [Photo]: Last Will and Testament of Lee Allen Parsons: Broward County Comm. 33862, signed Dec. 30, 1992.
1 I had written Jill Nash: Letter to Jill Nash, May 26, 2017.
2 in the final email she sent me: Email from Jill Nash, June 2, 2017, 1:11 p.m.
3 Once I emailed Olga: Email to Olga Stavrakis, June 5, 2017, 8:44 a.m.
4 we were on the phone together: The rest of this chapter is from this 2017 interview unless otherwise noted.
5 I contacted Joyce Marcus immediately: Email to Joyce Marcus, June 5, 2017, 11:05 a.m.
6 graduated from Harvard with a PhD in 1974: “Crimson Compass,” Harvard Alumni Database.
7 an archaeologist at the University of Michigan: Joyce Marcus page on the University of Michigan’s Department of Anthropology website.
8 “rumors and even weird drunken confessions”: Email from Joyce Marcus, June 5, 2017, 6:23 p.m. When my checker reached out to confirm this statement, Professor Marcus sought to clarify her quote. She wrote that “the rumors I heard in the 1970s came from a few people who knew Jane, i.e. they were NOT confessions from a few people.” However, Olga Stravrakis was not the only person to tell me that Lee had confessed to Joyce Marcus; David Freidel also told me this in a 2017 interview.
1 When Jill saw Jane the afternoon after the Incense Night: In Jill’s 2020 response to her checking memo, she wrote, “I didn’t know Jane took diet pills.” However, in 1969, she had told police, “She’d also had these diet pills that she had gotten so she wouldn’t get fat again after she came back from Iran, and I think she had been taking one because she was very, you know, sparkling sort of” (CPD-JM 2, p. 49).
2 Jane told Jill that after she and Don had left: CPD-JM 2, p. 49.
3 Jim had been away for most of the semester: CPD-JH; CPD-RM.
4 “how odd and strange”: CPD-JM 2, p. 49.
5 when Lee visited a married couple: CPD-JM 2, p. 42.
6 something else had happened that night that Jane: CPD-JM, p. 50.
1 “I don’t think of Lee as an evil person”: Interview with Stephen Loring in 2017.
2 Bank of America…Elsie’s: “Spicy Variety of Restaurants Flavors Tour,” Wellesley News, May 4, 1967.
3 the wurst of all possible houses…Jane’s “ankle biters”: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
4 “The sleepwalkers are coming awake”: Adrienne Rich, “When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision,” College English 32, no. 1, Women, Writing, and Teaching (Oct. 1972): 18–30.
5 one of the few all-women’s ones: In 2017, the Harvard Corporation approved social group sanctions, barring members of single-gender final clubs and Greek organizations from leadership positions, prestigious fellowships, and varsity captaincies. In 2018, the last of the all-female final clubs announced their plan to go co-ed: “Harvard Is without All-Female Social Groups after Last Three Holdouts Agree to Go Co-Ed,” Harvard Crimson, Aug. 24, 2018. While some of the all-male clubs have voted to go co-ed as well, others filed state and federal lawsuits. On June 29, 2020, following the Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Harvard University president Bacow announced that the university would drop its social group sanctions.
1 The next morning, I wrote down Jim’s name: This scene took place on Sept. 14, 2017.
1 yank hard to open her door: Per CPD-JM 2, p. 9, Jane locked her door when she went home for Thanksgiving, and per CPD-JM 1, p. 22, closing it required a “monumental effort,” so presumably the same applied to opening it.
2 The wood had swollen and warped: CPD-JM 2, p. 9.
3 Sincerely Yours: Jane’s journal entry, Aug. 1, 1968.
4 “Maybe you could compromise”: Jane’s journal entry, Aug. 1, 1968.
5 Dear Jane, Jim’s letter began: Letter from Jim Humphries to Jane, Nov. 27, 1968; date from Bill Rathje’s police transcript, when he says that he visited Jim in Toronto the Monday before Thanksgiving, and stayed at his house for two nights (CPD-WR, p. 10).
6 sweeping her off the street: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 14, 1968.
7 He had bought her flowers at 5:30: Letter from Jane to Elisabeth Handler, July 27, 1968.
8 “Should have been my old wary self”: Letter from Jane to Jim Humphries, June 4, 1968 (CPD file).
9 taken a day trip to Oxford: Scene from letter from Jane to her parents, June 12, 1968; letter from Jane to Boyd, June 21, 1968; letter from Jane to Brenda Bass, July 4, 1968; letter from Jane to her parents, July 14, 1968; and Jane’s journal entries.
10 “Ah to be in London + in love”: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 12, 1968.
11 a piece of tarnished silver that had just gotten polished: Jane’s journal entry, June 14/15, 1968.
12 “The thing about this one is that he’s real”: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 12, 1968.
13 “God, this drivel I’m pouring out!”: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 12, 1968.
14 “And all this time”: Here to end of paragraph, Jane’s journal entry, June 14/15, 1968.
15 He had said he didn’t want to be alone anymore: Letter from Jane to Brenda Bass, July 4, 1968.
16 He had said he really loved her: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 12, 1968.
17 felt like the girl bunny in Pogo: Here to end of paragraph, Jane’s journal entry, June 14/15, 1968.
1 figure silhouetted by the window: Jim Humphries did not participate in the fact-checking process of the book.
1 since just after Christmas: Jim was back in time to go to a New Year’s party with Jane (CPD-JH, p. 44).
2 Bill Rathje, who had been with Jim: Description from CPD-WR, pp. 12–13.
3 when Jane dropped by her friend Ingrid’s place: CPD-IK, p. 49.
4 Even Sarah Lee Irwin: CPD-SLI, p. 24.
5 Jim arranged dinner at the Acropolis: CPD-WR & KD, p. 3, p. 6.
6 Richard Meadow, Kent Day, and Bill Rathje: CPD-WR & KD, CPD-RM.
7 in a coat and tie and the maroon rugby sweater: CPD-JH, p. 43.
8 he wore when he skated: CPD-RM, p. 14.
9 Jim left his skates by the cigarette machine: CPD-RM, p. 54.
10 Rathje had agreed to pick up Kent and Jane: CPD-WR & KD, p. 7.
11 yelled down at him from the stairwell: CPD-WR, p. 5; CPD-JM 2, p. 35; CPD-DM p. 24.
12 She had been napping: CPD-DM p. 23.
13 get some London broil: CPD-DM p. 23. London broil detail is from interview with Don Mitchell in 2017.
14 she hated that buzzer: CPD-DM pp. 23–24.
15 went out of his apartment to talk to Jane: Here to “offer any more details” from CPD-DM, p. 24.
16 “Here I am. Let’s go,” Jane said: CPD-WR, p. 5.
17 wearing a skirt and her auburn fur coat: CPD-WR, p. 8; CPD-JH, p. 43.
18 Her mood eased over the course of dinner: CPD-WR, p. 5; CPD-WR & KD, p. 10.
19 split a bottle of retsina: CPD-JH, p. 75; CPD-WR & KD, p. 3.
20 made a point to avoid talking about Generals: CPD-WR, p. 6.
21 Jane looked happiest, Rathje noticed: CPD-WR & KD, p. 10.
22 when they split off at 7:30 p.m.: CPD-WR & KD, p. 4.
23 Richard to his girlfriend’s place: CPD-RM, pp. 47–48.
24 Rathje and Kent home to watch TV: CPD-WR & KD, p. 4.
25 Jim and Jane to walk by themselves: CPD-RM, p. 47.
26 Jim checked to make sure Jane still felt like skating: CPD-JH, p. 42.
27 could change out of her skirt and grab her skates: CPD-JH, p. 43.
28 Jim waited in the kitchen: CPD-JH, p. 44.
29 thought to himself, At least she’ll be okay for tomorrow: CPD-JH, p. 32.
30 blue ski parka instead: CPD-JH, p. 87.
31 It wasn’t a cold night: CPD-JH, p. 43.
32 They only skated for twenty minutes: CPD-JH, p. 18.
33 A pint of beer sounded like a better idea: CPD-JH, p. 85.
34 around 10:30 p.m., a little sleet was coming down: CPD-JH, pp. 18, 57.
35 she made hot cocoa while Jim kept her company in the kitchen: CPD-JH, p. 34.
36 Then they sat on her bed: CPD-JH, p. 35.
37 metal enamel mugs: CPD-JH, p. 31.
38 to smoke four cigarettes: CPD-JH, p. 89.
39 had clouded back over: CPD-JH, p. 85.
40 “She would get very depressed”: CPD-IK, p. 53.
41 about the exams and about Iran: CPD-JH, p. 16.
42 Jane said she would drive him home: CPD-JH, p. 24.
43 Jim liked the cold air after: CPD-JH, p. 56.
44 Jane said she wanted to start her car anyway: CPD-JH, pp. 56–57.
45 He kissed Jane good night: CPD-JH, p. 85.
46 lugging his skates in the pouring rain: CPD-JH, pp. 32, 94.
47 still in her slacks and sweater: CPD-DM, p. 26.
48 “Have you got my cat?”: CPD-DM, p. 25.
49 Jane sat on the floor, and Don poured her a small glass of sherry: CPD-DM, p. 26.
50 Richard Meadow heard Jim walk in: CPD-RM, p. 20.
51 hoping that Jim would be back by that time: CPD-RM, p 20.
52 about eight inches apart: CPD-RM, p. 22.
53 Jim slept on the one near the window: CPD-RM, p. 22.
54 Jim took off his coat and hung it in the closet: Here to “walked into the bedroom,” CPD-RM, p. 31.
55 Meadow was in bed reading: CPD-RM, p. 20.
56 Jim was soaked: CPD-RM, p. 31.
57 “Where have you been?” Richard asked: CPD-JH, p. 90.
58 “Over cheering up Jane”: CPD-JH, p. 90.
59 “It is a rather thankless task, isn’t it?”: CPD-RM, p. 32.
60 Jim didn’t answer: CPD-RM, p. 32.
61 He dried himself off and changed into his pajamas: CPD-JH, p. 13.
62 Jane didn’t appear to be in a hurry: CPD-DM, p. 31.
63 she was vague about who she’d been out with: CPD-DM, p. 27.
64 Don didn’t press: CPD-DM, p. 28.
65 When she finished her glass: Here through “I think I’ll go to bed,” CPD-DM, p. 31.
66 Jane took her cat, and Don saw her to the door: CPD-DM, p. 28.
67 Jill wished her good luck and said she’d see her tomorrow: CPD-JM 1, p. 20.
68 “If I don’t remember tomorrow”: Exchange from CPD-RM, p. 22.
1 “a guy whose last name was Rose”: Interview with Parker Donham in 2014.
2 heartfelt thank-you email: Email from Parker Donham, Oct. 29, 2016, 3:17 p.m.
3 I’d called Merri Swid: Interview with Merri Swid in 2017.
4 a detective had come out: “Added Information Re: Jane Britton Murder Case,” prepared by Steven A. Obartuck of the MSP is consistent with Merri’s memory: Det. Lts. John Burns and Obartuck spoke with Richard Rose and Merri Swid in Bolton on May 21, 1969 (MSP file).
5 Richard, indeed, was alive: Interview with Richard Rose in 2017.
6 When I first arrived at the Roses’ house: This scene took place on Sept. 29, 2017.
7 dozens of cigarette butts: Don Mitchell interview transcript with Sgt. Sennott, July 17, 2017, p. 181 (MSP file).
8 According to Elisabeth Handler, Jane loved her Gauloises: Interview with Elisabeth Handler in 2017.
9 The next day we clicked through slides: The last two scenes took place on Sept. 30, 2017.
10 [Photo]: Photograph by Richard Rose.
1 This scene took place on Aug. 9, 2017.
2 “to make the world safe for human differences”: It is common, but somewhat controversial, to attribute this quote to Ruth Benedict, as it doesn’t turn up in her collected writings. She did, however, write upon the death of her mentor, Franz Boas, that, “He believed the world must be made safe for differences” Charles King, Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century (New York: Doubleday, 2019).
1 This chapter comprises excerpts of CPD-LP 1 and CPD-LP 2, which have been merged in places for clarity and concision. As always, the edits were made with the goal to preserve the spirit of the original.
1 I got an email from Alice Kehoe: Email from Alice Kehoe, Sept. 22, 2017, 6:30 p.m.
2 She’s a delight, he’d said: Interview with Stephen Loring in 2017.
3 On the phone, she asked: The rest of this chapter is from this 2017 interview with Alice Kehoe unless otherwise noted.
4 Anne, begged him to get a contract: In 2020, Anne Moreau said that she did not remember that Lee had not signed a contract. What she remembered more clearly was that the Kehoes had warned Lee Parsons about Stephen Williams: They’d said that he should not be trusted.
1 Excerpt of CPD-LP 2.
1 There’s an email from him: Email from Don Mitchell, July 31, 2018, 2:08 a.m.
1 The press conference, Don tells me: Section from a series of phone calls with Don Mitchell in 2018.
2 I call Boyd back as soon as I can: Phone call with Boyd in 2018.
1 An echo of the worst of Boston: For a thorough examination of racism in Boston, see the Boston Globe’s series “Boston. Racism. Image. Reality,” Dec. 10, 2017.
2 And it masks the truth: According to the FBI’s “Uniform Crime Reports,” homicide was least likely to be committed by a stranger (only 18 percent of cases): Arthur Kellerman and James Mercy, “Men, Women, and Murder: Gender-Specific Differences in Rates of Fatal Violence and Victimization,” Journal of Trauma 33, no. 1 (July 1992): 1–5.
3 nearly half of all murdered women: 44 percent of female murder victims killed by intimate family; 9.6 percent by a stranger. Table 3 of Emma Fridel and James Fox, “Gender Differences in Patterns and Trends in U.S. Homicide, 1976–2017,” Violence and Gender 6, no. 1 (2019): 32.
4 2010 piece in the Boston Globe: “DNA Links Convict to ’72 Killing of Woman,” Boston Globe, Feb. 18, 2010.
5 She was from St. Paul, Minnesota: Details from “Family of Former St. Paul Woman Killed in Boston in 1972 Finally Has Some Answers,” Pioneer Press, Feb. 18, 2010. All facts cross-checked with Ellen’s sister Cori.
6 found her lying on her back on the living room floor: Interview with Sgt. William Doogan in 2020.
7 On December 12, 1973, Mary McClain: “DNA Links Dead Man to Second Cold-Case Murder,” Press Release from DA Daniel F. Conley of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, Oct. 18, 2012. All details cross-checked with Mary’s sister Kathy. The news reports at the time call her Mary Lee McClain; this is an error. Her middle name, according to her sister, was Lea, but she just went by Mary.
8 They heard her whimpering in her room: Interview with Sgt. William Doogan in 2018.
9 In 2005, Ellen Rutchick’s siblings: “Family of Former St. Paul Woman,” Pioneer Press.
10 “It’s not a case of how much is it going to cost if we do it”: Interview with William Doogan in 2018. Four months after Jane’s case was solved, the Middlesex DA announced the formation of a cold case unit. In October, the MSP and Suffolk County followed suit.
11 but in the 1970s, evidence was affixed to the lab slides: “Family of Former St. Paul Woman,” Pioneer Press.
12 It took four years, but in September 2009: “Family of Former St. Paul Woman.”
13 BPD, in conjunction with Suffolk County prosecutors, announced: “Suspect, Now Deceased, Identified in ’72 Murder,” Press Release from DA Daniel F. Conley of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, Feb. 17, 2010.
14 Sumpter had been dead for almost nine years: Michael Sumpter Death Certificate, transmitted June 2, 2005 (MSP file).
15 a heart attack and prostate cancer: Michael Sumpter Death Certificate. Sumpter at the time was in hospice care, on parole.
16 serving time for a 1975 rape: “Family of Former St. Paul Woman,” Pioneer Press, which tracks with Sumpter’s incarceration records.
17 “It’s been 40 years”: “DA: 1973 Rape, Murder Solved,” Boston Herald, Oct. 19, 2012.
18 DA Daniel Conley made the news public: “DNA Links Dead Man to Second Cold-Case Murder,” Press Release from DA Daniel F. Conley of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, Oct. 18, 2012.
19 escaped from the first furlough: Michael Sumpter DOC file 3 of 4, p. 25. (All four files are from the MDAO.)
20 Sumpter escaped…on the lam for a year and a half: Sumpter DOC 2, p. 72.
21 discovered he had raped a woman in Back Bay: “Family of Former St. Paul Woman,” Pioneer Press.
22 “Do you think that’s all he’s ever done?”: “DA: 1973 Rape, Murder Solved,” Boston Herald, Oct. 19, 2012.
1 Just a few days after I’d talked with Alice: My interview with Alice Kehoe was on Oct. 4, 2017. The New York Times published Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s “Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades,” on Oct. 5, 2017. The New Yorker published Ronan Farrow’s “From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Tell Their Stories,” on Oct. 10, 2017.
2 The Chronicle of Higher Education published: “She Left Harvard. He Got to Stay,” Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 27, 2018. Details cross-checked with Terry Karl.
3 stalked her and made her feel physically threatened: Here through “she had no choice,” from Terry Karl, 2020 response to checking memo.
4 knew that she wasn’t alone: Paragraph from “Harvard Cannot Investigate Itself,” Harvard Crimson, Apr. 9, 2018.
5 Karl was given three semesters of paid leave: “She Left Harvard,” Chronicle.
6 the Crimson and the Boston Globe: “Harvard Disciplines Professor for Sexual Harassment,” Harvard Crimson, Sept. 28, 1983; “Harvard Faculty Council Hears Report on Sexual Harassment,” Boston Globe, Oct. 27, 1983.
7 “There are a lot of us who feel”: “Harvard Disciplines Professor for Sexual Harassment,” Harvard Crimson, Sept. 28, 1983.
8 university was not taking the matter seriously enough: “She Left Harvard,” Chronicle.
9 no clear grievance procedure for faculty members: “She Left Harvard,” Chronicle. While there were some formal procedures being instituted for students to report harassment by faculty, there were none for faculty members being harassed by faculty members.
10 “It was specifically not our intention”: “She Left Harvard,” Chronicle.
11 “pits a person against an institution”: “Why Women Stick Around,” Boston Globe, Oct. 12, 1991.
12 tenure from Stanford: Terry Karl curriculum vitae.
13 to keep this period of sexual harassment from defining her: When she settled with the university in 1985, Professor Karl prioritized two outcomes: She wanted to be a professor when it was done, and she wanted Harvard to adopt grievance procedures for victims of sexual harassment and an ombudsperson’s office to handle complaints. As part of the settlement, Harvard agreed to distribute a definition of sexual harassment to all employees and students for five years (“Sexual Harassment: A Victim Advises Others on How to Win,” Stanford University News Service, Oct. 25, 1991).
14 Domínguez kept getting promoted at Harvard: “She Left Harvard,” Chronicle; Domínguez’s personal website.
15 Professor Karl got a call: “She Left Harvard,” Chronicle.
16 Eventually fifteen other women: “Harvard Prof. Dominguez Stripped of Emeritus Status Following Conclusion of Title IX Investigation,” Harvard Crimson, May 9, 2019.
17 Alan Garber…emailed: Email from Alan Garber to members of the Harvard community, Mar. 2, 2018, 4:34 p.m.
18 Harvard president Faust also reaffirmed: Drew Faust, Remarks at FAS Faculty Meeting, Mar. 6, 2018.
19 conclusion of the Title IX investigation: “Harvard Prof. Dominguez Stripped of Emeritus Status Following Conclusion of Title IX Investigation,” Harvard Crimson, May 9, 2019.
20 banned him from campus: “Harvard Bans Former Scholar, Citing ‘Unwelcome Sexual Conduct’ over Decades,” Chronicle of Higher Education, May 9, 2019.
21 she does not see this moment as a reckoning: Terry Karl, 2020 response to checking memo.
1 I check in with the Boston Globe’s Todd Wallack: Email to Todd Wallack, Aug. 18, 2018, 10:28 a.m.
2 when Wallack tries his own luck: Email from Todd Wallack, August 18, 2018, 4:42 p.m.
3 I tell Boyd that I can’t get a straight answer: Phone call with Boyd in 2018.
1 Don, who was diagnosed: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2018.
2 Richard Conti, who had served as foreman: “Richard Conti, 1940–2018,” Boston Globe, Sept. 27, 2018.
3 Elisabeth gets in touch with me: Facebook Messenger, Sept. 8, 2018, 9:18 a.m.
4 she would have accepted: The rest of this chapter is from an interview with Elisabeth Handler in 2018.
5 Ryan’s reelection campaign: “Middlesex DA Ryan Re-Elected in Close Race,” Lowell Sun, Sept. 4, 2018.
1 a Crimson story caught my eye: “Court Dismisses Gender Discrimination Lawsuit against Harvard,” Harvard Crimson, Mar. 26, 2018.
2 complained about the disparate treatment: Most of the details in this chapter are drawn from two documents, the “2018 ruling” (Theidon v. Harvard University and the President and Fellows of Harvard College, Redacted Order on Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment, Civ. A. No. 15-cv-10809-LTS, Feb. 28, 2018) and the “2020 ruling” (Theidon v. Harvard University and the President and Fellows of Harvard College, Appeal from the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, No. 18-1279, Redacted Opinion, Jan. 31, 2020). Unless otherwise noted, the details I used are from the sections of the documents described as the “undisputed facts” (2018 ruling) or the “Factual Bearings” (2020 ruling). This detail is from the 2018 ruling, pp. 6–7.
3 when she started at Harvard, there was only one tenured woman: 2018 ruling, p. 4; 2020 ruling, p. 8.
4 She blogged and tweeted…allowed a student to distribute leaflets: 2018 ruling, p. 10.
5 group dedicated to “dismantling the rape culture on campus”: “Our Harvard Can Do Better” website.
6 “There was never a moment when”: “Professor Files Charge Alleging University Violated Title IX in Denying Her Tenure,” Harvard Crimson, Apr. 18, 2014.
7 promoted to associate professor: 2018 ruling, p. 5.
8 an “honor richly deserved”: 2020 ruling, p. 7.
9 Anthropology department voted in favor: 2018 ruling, p. 13.
10 Crimson published an article: “Sexual Assault at Harvard,” Harvard Crimson, Mar. 7, 2013.
11 Harvard’s lagging sexual assault policy: Per this article, Harvard lags behind peer institutions in its hesitance to adopt an affirmative consent policy and its adjudication of cases on a “sufficiently persuaded” standard vs. “preponderance of evidence” basis, which Princeton and Harvard are alone among the Ivies for insisting on.
12 Theidon knew that “Julie” had read the comments: “Professor Files Charge Alleging University Violated Title IX in Denying Her Tenure,” Harvard Crimson, Apr. 18, 2014.
13 former graduate student: 2020 ruling, p. 33.
14 who now worked for the department: 2018 ruling, p. 16.
15 inappropriate behavior: 2018 ruling, p. 16.
16 by a senior male Anthropology professor: Here through “I can take care of this,” from 2020 ruling, p. 33.
17 Harvard convened Theidon’s ad hoc committee: 2020 ruling, p. 27. Details of who was on her committee from 2018 ruling, pp. 18–19.
18 Harvard’s elaborate eight-step process: 2018 ruling pp. 2–3; 2020 ruling, starting on p. 10.
19 behind closed doors: 2018 ruling, p. 3 notes that the ad hoc committee discussion is “strictly confidential.”
20 “is an invitation to abuse”: “Tenured Women Battle to Make It Less Lonely at the Top,” Science, n.s., 286, no. 5443 (Nov. 12, 1999): 1272–1278.
21 Singer did take notes: 2020 ruling, p. 27.
22 “unenthusiastic tenor”: 2020 ruling, p. 27.
23 letters solicited from external reviewers: For more detail on this, see 2018 ruling, pp. 2–3.
24 Even the most positive of these letters came with commentary: Per 2020 ruling, p. 17, “External scholars described Theidon as a ‘first-rate, brilliant and original scholar,’ ‘whose name came to the top of the list of young scholars who will soon be shaping the field.’ Notwithstanding the encomium, even the most positive reviews came with commentary on Theidon’s productivity.”
25 not been sent copies of Theidon’s articles about Colombia: The 2020 ruling notes that though physical copies of the Colombia articles were not included in the material distributed to external scholars, Theidon’s website did contain links to PDFs of three of them (p. 17).
26 A Harvard dean, who had read previous drafts of the statement…“major mistake”: 2020 ruling, pp. 23–25. Dean Marsden felt that the “reservations about Theidon’s scholarly productivity would have been reduced or eliminated if [the external scholars] had received copies of Theidon’s Colombia related research article.
27 simply the result of “miscommunication”: 2020 ruling, p. 24 n. 22.
28 some reason, still unknown: 2018 ruling, p. 18.
29 less favorable penultimate draft: While this is true, it should be noted that the penultimate draft did include text responsive to Marsden’s concerns (2018 ruling, p. 15).
30 ad hoc committee recommended against: 2020 ruling, p. 29.
31 President Drew Faust agreed with that recommendation: 2018 ruling, p. 21.
32 Theidon set up a meeting with Judith Singer: Note: this paragraph is not taken from the “Factual Bearings” section of the 2020 court ruling. It is in the section assessing Theidon’s retaliation claims: p. 66 n. 41.
33 “This is about silencing a problem”: “Professor Files Charge Alleging University Violated Title IX in Denying Her Tenure,” Harvard Crimson, Apr. 18, 2014.
34 “The University would never”: “Professor Files Charge.”
35 granted tenure at Tufts in 2015: “Former Professor Suing University Granted Tenure at Tufts,” Harvard Crimson, Apr. 3, 2015.
36 Theidon had lost her suit: In both the 2018 and 2020 rulings, the courts considered evidence of general discrimination against women in the Anthropology department, but concluded that such evidence, even if indicative of general bias, was insufficient to prove discriminatory intent in Theidon’s specific case. The distribution of the wrong draft of her case statement and the omission of her Colombia articles was, at most, an “administrative error” (2020 ruling, p. 46). In terms of retaliation, while a member of Theidon’s tenure review committee had been alerted about Theidon’s Crimson comments (2018 ruling, p. 16), there was no evidence that her “activities” were discussed during the ad hoc committee (2018 ruling, p. 37), or that President Faust was aware of them when she made the final decision (2020 ruling, p. 55). Temporal proximity, they ruled, was not enough to establish motive (2018 ruling, p. 37).
37 When I tried to reach Professor Theidon for comment: Email to Kimberly Theidon, Mar. 26, 2018, 1:32 p.m.
38 On college campuses nation-wide: “Statement: Update on My Title IX Lawsuit,” Kimberly Theidon’s website, Jan. 31, 2020.
39 in May 2020, the Crimson published: “Protected by Decades-Old Power Structures, Three Renowned Harvard Anthropologists Face Allegations of Sexual Harassment,” Harvard Crimson, May 29, 2020.
1 Don tells me that he’s decided: This chapter is from phone call with Don Mitchell in 2018.
2 prominently in Hawaiian mythology: “The Cultural Significance of ‘Ōhi‘a Lehua,” Hawai’i Magazine, Apr. 11, 2016.
3 sends the video to me: Email from Don Mitchell, Sept. 10, 2018, 10:36 p.m.
4 [Photo]: Photograph by Don Mitchell.
1 In February 2018, for the first time in months: Phone call with Fulkerson, Feb. 13, 2018.
2 he calls me back: Phone call with Fulkerson, Oct. 24, 2018.
3 We meet at a café: The rest of this chapter is from this 2018 interview with Fulkerson unless otherwise noted.
4 [Photo]: Photograph by Becky Cooper.
5 The crime scene had seemed staged: This tracks with Deputy O’Connor, “Cold Case” Homicides, Nov. 4, 1996 (CPD file): “There were several aspects of the crime scene that appeared to be staged.”
6 Fred Centrella, who hadn’t wanted to speak: Interview with Fidele Centrella in 2018.
7 when I spoke to the younger Giacoppo: Interview with Michael D. Giacoppo in 2018.
8 I email the son for advice: Email to Michael D. Giacoppo, Oct. 30, 2018, 3:52 p.m.
9 Mike replies the next day: Email from Michael D. Giacoppo, Oct. 31, 2018, 9:26 a.m.
10 I send Mike four questions: Email to Michael D. Giacoppo, Oct. 31, 2018, 10:17 a.m.
1 an email from the DA’s communications director: Email from Meghan Kelly, Nov. 15, 2018, 6:33 p.m.
2 bother feigning surprise when we speak: Phone call with Meghan Kelly in 2018.
1 All phone calls in 2018, unless otherwise noted.
2 He writes a gentle email to Alice: Email from Stephen Loring to Alice Abraham, Nov. 19, 2018, 12:33 p.m.
3 Alice writes instantly to Patricia: Interview with Alice Abraham in 2020.
4 I also get an email from Mary McCutcheon: Email from Mary McCutcheon, Nov. 19, 2018, 6:01 p.m.
5 “The overactive pattern-recognition part”: Email from Mary McCutcheon, Feb. 26, 2020, 9:12 p.m.
6 Ted Abraham, Anne’s brother, writes: Email from Ted Abraham, Nov. 20, 2018, 7:31 p.m.
1 statement’s already been released: “Statement from Boyd Britton, Released by Request on His Behalf by the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office,” posted on MDAO website Nov. 20, 2018.
2 [Photo]: Jane Britton police file.
3 attended first grade in the area: Per Sumpter DOC 4, p. 113, he also attended kindergarten in the area.
4 He had run-ins with the Cambridge cops as a juvenile: Michael Sumpter CORI, p. 6 (MDAO file).
5 girlfriend in the late ’60s lived in the neighborhood: I have not been able to find a document that corroborates this. In a November 2019 interview, ADA Lynch added that it was the same woman whose name he had tattooed on his arm (“Regina” and “R.M.,” per Sumpter DOC 4, p. 250). While “Regina” did live in Cambridge, I believe he was dating a different woman at the time (Sumpter DOC 3, p. 108).
6 an establishment on Arrow Street: Matheson Higgins Die-Cutting Company, 12 Arrow Street. In 2018, Don Mitchell said he wasn’t familiar with the shop, and wasn’t aware that Jane had ever gone there.
7 at the Harvard Square T stop: Sumpter DOC 4, p. 175.
8 he was 170 pounds, six foot one: During the press conference, DA Ryan cited his height and weight from a 1972 arrest report: five foot eleven, 185 pounds. I substituted these measurements for ones closer from a January 12, 1970 arrest report.
9 witness was seven years old: Report by Det. Centrella (Priscilla Joyce interview), Jan. 7, 1969 (CPD file).
10 Don Mitchell had entered: Report of Statement by Donald Mitchell, Jan. 7, 1969 (CPD file).
11 writes to the Abraham family: Email from Adrienne Lynch to Ted and Alice Abraham, Nov. 20, 2018, 5:47 p.m.
12 [Photo]: Photograph by Becky Cooper.
13 helped drive the investigation to this conclusion: Mike Widmer’s initial public records request to the MDAO was Nov. 5, 2015; mine was July 18, 2016. In her checking response (2020), ADA Lynch wrote that she became involved in reviewing the Britton file in 2016. That said, of course, ADA Lynch’s tireless dedication, as well as Sgt. Sennott’s detective work and the MSP Crime Lab’s analyses, deserve a huge amount of credit.
14 [Photo]: Photograph by Becky Cooper.
1 The autopsy: Autopsy Report, Drs. George Katsas and Arthur McGovern (MSP file).
2 letter that Gramly wrote: Letter from RMG to CPD Keeper of the Records, Aug. 31, 1995 (CPD file).
3 Photos of the crime scene: “Color Slides of Crime Scene” (CPD file).
4 The original Cambridge cops’ notes: E.g., Report to Lt. Davenport by Officer James Lyons, Jan. 7, 1969; and Report to Lt. Davenport by Officer Dennis McCarthy, Jan. 7, 1969 (CPD files).
5 Lieutenant Joyce’s investigation: E.g., Report to Daniel I. Murphy, Captain of Detectives by Det. Lt. Joyce of MSP, June 2, 1969.
6 the chemist’s report: Report of Asst. Chemist Joseph Lanzetta, Apr. 1, 1969 (MSP file).
7 the trail of renewed interest in the case: E.g., Adrienne Lynch, “Additional Notes ADA on Investigation 2017,” undated (MDAO file).
8 The pictures from the funeral: Cambridge Police photos from funeral (CPD file).
9 RCMP report on Anne Abraham’s disappearance: E.g., Transcript of Interview between Cst. W.W. MacDonald & RMG, Nain, Labrador, Aug. 11, 1976.
10 sent to her high school friend Irene duPont: Letter from Jane to Irene (duPont) Light, Jan. 4, 1969; forwarded to the Cambridge Police on Jan. 16, 1969 (CPD file); interview with Irene Light in 2016.
11 Don, Boyd, Jim Humphries, Karl Lamberg-Karlovsky, and…Peter Ganick: Respectively, Report to Det. Lt. Sullivan by Sgt. Sennott re: Donald Mitchell, July 18, 2017; Report cover sheet to Det. Lt. Sullivan by Sgt. Sennott re: Boyd Britton, July 18, 2017; Report by Sgt. Sennott re: Jim Humphries, Oct. 12, 2017; Report by Sgt. Sennott re: CCLK, Jan. 8, 2018; Report by Sgt. Sennott re: Peter Ganick, Oct. 3, 2017 (MSP file).
12 excluded as possible sources: Boyd, Don Mitchell, and RMG excluded in Report 4, MSP Crime Lab, Oct. 3, 2017; Peter Ganick, Jim Humphries, and CCLK excluded in Report 5, MSP Crime Lab, Feb. 12, 2018 (MDAO file).
13 Lee Parsons could not be excluded: Here, to end of paragraph, from ADA Lynch response to checking memo (2020). Since all males in a paternal line are expected to have the same Y chromosome DNA, if Parsons had a full male relative, authorities could have tested that relative’s Y-DNA and compared it to the profile developed from the crime scene sample. If the relative’s Y chromosome did not match, then Parsons could have been excluded as a contributor. Lee had no sons, however, and his brother was deceased. Another option considered was testing his ex-wife and daughter’s autosomal DNA and comparing it to the three-loci profile from 1998, but this would have required comparing DNA tested using different kits/instrumentation, which Bode Labs was unable to do. A specialist familiar with both kits would be needed to perform this kind of “legacy analysis.”
14 autopsy slides in 1998: Dr. Katsas: Letter from George Katsas to John McEvoy (Office of the District Attorney), Feb. 20, 1988 (MDAO file).
15 CODIS link with Michael Sumpter in July 2018: Letter to Sgt. Sennott from Dorothea Sidney Collins (MSP Crime Lab), July 16, 2018.
16 brother was eliminated as a possible source of the DNA: The CODIS link to Michael Sumpter in July was the result of a manual comparison between the Y profile from the crime scene and the Y profile of the available CODIS reference sample for Michael Sumpter (2020 checking memo response from Darina Griffin, MSP’s legal counsel). But by Massachusetts law (MGL c. 22E), the CODIS sample could only be used for investigatory purposes. For further adjudication, investigators needed to get a non-CODIS sample. Because Michael was already dead and cremated, the only way to get a comparable Y chromosome sample was to test that of a full male relative. Using “a variety of databases including Ancestry.com” (2020 Adrienne Lynch checking response), Sgt. Sennott was able to track down Michael’s brother Nathaniel and obtain a DNA sample with his consent. As expected with full brothers, Nathaniel and Michael’s Y profiles matched. To disambiguate the brothers, authorities looked at Nathaniel’s autosomal DNA and compared it to the 1998 profile with the help of Charlotte Word, who performed the legacy analysis (Report of Dr. Charlotte Word, Sept. 3, 2018 [MSP file]). Unlike Michael’s, Nathaniel’s did not match the 1998 profile, therefore, Nathaniel could be eliminated as a contributor to the crime scene DNA. (Note: the police files do not include the original electropherograms, so I have been unable to verify this for myself or to get a second opinion from a forensic expert. My public records request was denied on Mar. 25, 2020. I am still pushing.)
17 DNA testing reports starting in 2017: DNA Testing Report 1, July 18, 2017; DNA Testing Report 2, July 31, 2017; DNA Testing Report 3, Oct. 3, 2017; DNA Testing Report 4, Feb. 12, 2018; DNA Testing Report 5, July 23, 2018. All MSP Crime Lab (MDAO file).
18 Mass State Police analyst named Cailin Drugan: Drugan did not receive permission from her supervisors to speak with me. Instead, David Procopio, the MSP press secretary, responded, “We are going to decline to make anyone from our lab available to discuss the Cambridge homicide. The ultimate decision here was in keeping with our position (and that of the scientific community generally) is to let the work speak for itself” (email, Jan. 10, 2020, 3:42 p.m.). The MSP crime lab did, however, participate in the checking phase of the project, responding through Darina Griffin, the MSP’s legal counsel.
19 desire to continue being assigned to Jane’s case: Per the MSP legal counsel’s response, Drugan “did not have a stake in being assigned the case, or in the resulting work.” The legal counsel wanted me to understand that it is common for the same analyst to perform multiple rounds of testing. This pushback notwithstanding, I have kept in this detail because I am quoting two emails in the MDAO file: Email from Sharon Convery to Brian Cunningham, July 19, 2017, 6:51 a.m.: “FYI––Cailin said she would be available to take this” and email from Brian Cunningham to Lynn Schneeweis, July 20, 2017, 10:29 a.m.: “I know Cailin was hoping to perform the testing on this case.” ADA Lynch also wrote in her checking response: “Cailin (Drugan) wanted to do round 2 testing in this batch.”
20 skin cells on the test tube: Nov. 2019 interview with ADA Lynch. The MSP’s legal counsel underlined that Drugan’s identification of additional testing is “a standard determination that analysts address as part of any case” (2020 checking memo response).
21 the DNA profile in October 2017: DNA Testing Report 3, Oct. 3, 2017 (MDAO file). It should be noted that the result obtained in this lab report was consistent with both a major and a minor contributor. Michael Sumpter’s DNA matched the major contributor. Boyd, Don, Jim, Peter Ganick, RMG, and CCLK were all ruled out as contributors—i.e., they were neither the major nor minor contributor. To date, the minor contributor has not been identified. In a November 2019 interview, ADA Lynch stated that it was likely contamination from the medical examiner, since standards were different back then (forensic DNA testing wouldn’t become standard for two decades). It is also possible that the minor contributor was an artifact of analysis, or DNA from someone else Jane had been in contact with before she died. Y profiles cannot be searched in CODIS. Even after talking to many DNA experts, I don’t have enough information to explain the significance (or the lack thereof) of the minor contributor. Sgt. William Doogan confirmed that there was no second male contributor in either Rutchick’s or McClain’s cases.
22 helped bring ADA Lynch’s attention: 2020 Lynch checking response; Chronology of DNA collection, Oct. 22, 2018 (MDAO file).
23 keyboard search: This, as well as “verbally informed” from Chronology of DNA Investigation, Oct. 29, 2018 (MDAO file). I asked the MSP Crime Lab if there were other “soft hits” in 2004, since the keyboard search was of the three-loci 1998 profile. The legal counsel responded, “The documentation associated with the case speaks for itself. We cannot comment further other than what is documented in the file.”
24 requests for police records: E.g., Fax re: Michael Sumpter history with Brookline PD, Feb. 27, 2004 (MSP file).
25 tried, unsuccessfully, to locate Michael’s brother: 2005 Crim. History report re: Nathaniel Sumpter for Tpr Sennott (MSP file). Confirmed in November 2019 interview with ADA Lynch.
26 In a summary of the case, Lynch admits: “Adrienne Lynch, Additional Notes ADA on Investigation 2017,” undated (MDAO file). As ADA Lynch elaborated in her 2020 checking response, “Y-STR testing was validated for forensic work by 2003, therefore, it ‘arguably’ could have been done. That being said the kits used in DNA testing in 200[4] versus 2018 tested less loci and the instrumentation was not as refined as instrumentation used in 2018 when the profile from the vaginal swab extract was obtained. We sometimes forego immediate testing anticipating advances in the science in the future. Doing so here was a benefit.”
27 his police records: Sumpter DOC 1 through 4.
28 Sumpter was born in Boston: Michael Sumpter death certificate (MSP file).
29 the middle child of three: MDAO profile on Michael Sumpter, Oct 2, 2018 (MSP file).
30 divorced when he was six: Sumpter DOC 3, p. 116.
31 in and out of mental institutions: Nathaniel Sumpter DOC, p. 5.
32 their maternal grandparents: Sumpter DOC 3, p. 116.
33 Old Harbor Housing Project: Sumpter DOC 4, p. 155.
34 where Whitey Bulger: “Whitey Bulger’s Death Marks the End of an Era in South Boston,” Business Insider, Nov. 1, 2018.
35 age of fifteen in 1963 for larceny: Sumpter DOC 4, p. 114.
36 two months after his eighteenth birthday: Sumpter DOC 4, p. 157.
37 “He appears [to be] quite impulse-ridden”: Sumpter DOC 4, p. 162.
38 worked in Harvard Square: Here through “stolen credit card,” from Nathaniel Sumpter DOC, p. 30.
39 “things will be different this time”: Sumpter DOC 4, p. 114.
40 live with his brother in Boston: Sumpter DOC 4, p. 240.
41 Massachusetts law went further than most: “Most States Allow Furloughs from Prison,” Washington Post, June 24, 1988. See also “Willie Horton Revisited,” The Marshall Project, May 13, 2015.
42 “beyond reproach”: Sumpter DOC 3, p. 106.
43 “always a gentleman”: Sumpter DOC 4, p. 30.
44 “should lock him up”: Details and dialogue from Sumpter DOC 4, p. 97.
45 released as scheduled: Sumpter DOC 4, p. 96. Disciplinary report issued Dec. 2, 1971. Sumpter released Dec. 17, 1971.
46 Sumpter attacked the woman: Jan. 24, 1972, per Sumpter DOC 4, p. 175.
47 granted a twelve-hour furlough: Sumpter DOC 3, p. 55.
48 robbery and attempted assault: Sumpter DOC 3, p. 7.
49 On August 2, instead of showing up to work: Sumpter DOC 3, p. 55.
50 In 1985, he walked away from his first day: Sumpter DOC 2, p. 249.
51 Hal Ross, Jane’s tutor sophomore year: CPD-IK, p. 26.
52 “circle line…which is run”: CPD-SW, p. 3.
53 “Mixture of black and red iron salts”: Report of Asst. Chemist Joseph Lanzetta, Apr. 1, 1969 (MSP file).
54 ochre is an oxide, not a salt: Helwig chapter in Berrie’s Artists’ Pigments, pp. 39–109; interview with Narayan Khandekar in 2020.
55 According to Lee, they never even kissed: CPD-LK 2, p. 13.
56 it was a child’s construction set: CPD-LK 2, pp. 19–20.
57 women’s underwear found in Jane’s bathroom: Report of Asst. Chemist Joseph Lanzetta, Apr. 1, 1969, pp. 3–4 (MSP file).
58 the underwear was lost: Email from Cailin Drugan to Sharon Convery and Lynn Scheeweis, “Other than the slides, no other items of evidence (ie. pillow, nightgown), exist,” July 18, 2017, 2:28 p.m. (MDAO file).
59 three weeks before she died: Dec. 17, 1968 per Adrienne Lynch, “Additional Notes ADA on Investigation 2017,” undated (MDAO file).
60 fingerprint that Don had taken a picture of: See earlier note in section 4 re: photo of fingerprint and Don’s tripod.
61 transcript from Sergeant Sennott’s conversation: Don Mitchell interview transcript with Sergeant Sennott, July 17, 2017, p. 181 (MSP file).
62 threaded throughout the files: CPD-SLI pp. 53–54; CPD-IK, p. 37; CPD-LP 1, p. 14; letter from Jane to Jim Humphries, June 4, 1968 (CPD file); Jane’s journal entries from June 6, June 7, June 14/15, and June 28, 1968.
63 “It’s very difficult to get caught”: Letter from Jane to Jim Humphries, June 4, 1968 (CPD file).
64 Jane’s parents mentioning an illness: Jane’s parents report that she was not under treatment by a physician (Report to Lt. Davenport by Officer James Lyons, Jan. 7, 1969).
65 When I ask Boyd and Elisabeth Handler: Interviews with Boyd and Elisabeth Handler in 2019.
66 Don says it “rings some distant bell”: Interview with Don Mitchell in 2019.
67 Ingrid Kirsch, who relayed to police: CPD-IK, p. 37.
68 Robert Skenderian, a compounding pharmacist: Interview with Robert Skenderian in 2020.
69 has been in the area for three generations: “About Us,” Skenderian Apothecary website.
1 Excerpt of CPD-LP 1.
1 Iva Houston questions the timing: Interview with Iva Houston in 2018.
2 “I heard that the ‘killer’”: Email from RMG, Jan. 2, 2019, 9:19 a.m.
3 “I just think there’s something strange here”: Interview with RMG in 2019.
4 “You don’t just have piles of powder”: Interview with Narayan Khandekar in 2020.
5 a fiftieth the width of a human hair: Dave Kleiman, The Official CHFI Study Guide (Exam 312-49) for Computer Hacking Forensics Investigators (Burlington, MA: Syngress Publishing, 2007), p. 67.
6 “Circle line which is run just across her back”: CPD-SW, p. 3.
7 John Fulkerson joins the chorus of doubt: Interview with Fulkerson in 2018.
8 small note on the October 2017: DNA Testing Report 3, Oct. 3, 2017 (MDAO file).
9 all excluded as possibilities: RMG, Boyd, and Don Mitchell excluded in DNA Testing Report 3, Oct. 3, 2017; CCLK, Peter Ganick, and Jim excluded in DNA Testing Report 4, Feb. 13, 2018 (MDAO files).
10 According to the Middlesex district attorney’s office: Nov. 2019 interview with DA Marian Ryan, ADA Adrienne Lynch, and Sgt. Sennott.
11 Sgt. Doogan confirms: Interview with Sgt. William Doogan in 2019.
12 Massachusetts State Police deny my request: Letter from Darina Griffin of the MSP Crime Laboratory, March 25, 2020.
13 told that I would not be allowed to speak with: Email from David Procopio (MSP director of media communication), January 10, 2020, 3:42 p.m.
14 anyone else in the MSP crime lab: It should be noted that the MSP crime laboratory did participate in the checking process for the book, responding through its legal counsel, Darina Griffin.
15 Boyd had told me on the call: Interview with Boyd in 2018.
1 On May 27, 1969, Lieutenant Frank Joyce: All details in this chapter, including dialogue, are drawn from Report to Daniel I. Murphy, Captain of Detectives by Det. Lt. Joyce of MSP, June 2, 1969 (MSP file), unless otherwise noted.
2 anonymous tip implicating someone named Dr. Paul Rhudick: Here through end of following paragraph from Report of Det. Lt. Charles Byrne of MSP re: James Powers, May 23, 1969 (MSP file).
3 Dover police received a call: Paragraph from Report of Dover Officer George Michel re: Cecelia Powers call, May 5, 1969 (MSP file).
4 Four days later, Cecelia called: Report of Dover Officer (unnamed) re: Search for James Powers, May 11, 1969 (MSP file).
5 Cambridge police got permission to fingerprint: Report of Det. Lt. Charles Byrne of MSP re: James Powers, May 23, 1969, p. 3 (MSP file). Permission received from Medical Examiner Dr. Joseph King.
6 May 15, Massachusetts State Police confirmed: Report of Det. Lt. Charles Byrne of MSP re: James Powers, May 23, 1969, p. 3 (MSP file).
7 matched the left thumbprint of the late veterinarian: Report of Lt. David Desmond re: thumb print on ashtray, May 29, 1969 (MSP file).
8 [Photo]: Jane Britton police file.
9 However, the day that Lieutenant Joyce: Paragraph, including “strongly suspected” and “planted” from Report to Daniel I. Murphy, Captain of Detectives by Det. Lt. Joyce of MSP, June 2, 1969 (MSP file).
10 interviewed Cecelia Powers at her home: Report of Det. Lt. Joyce re: Antigua travel, May 23, 1969 (MSP file).
11 Officers had obtained a search warrant: Report of Dover Sgt. Carl Sheridan re: Search Powers, May 16, 1969.
12 check…to Travel Services Bureau: Report of Det. Lt. Joyce re: Antigua travel, May 23, 1969 (MSP file).
13 evening connecting flight to Boston: Report of Det. Lt. Joyce re: Antigua travel, May 23, 1969 (MSP file).
14 run by Frank Powers’s sister: Report re: silver plated ashtray by Det. Lt. Joyce, May 23, 1969 (MSP file).
15 including with steel wool: Report re: silver plated ashtray by Det. Lt. Joyce, May 23, 1969 (MSP file).
16 fingerprinted Powers…Needham funeral home: Report of Det. Lt. Charles Byrne of MSP re: James Powers, May 23, 1969 (MSP file).
17 expert failed to find Powers’s fingerprints: Report of Lt. David Desmond re: thumb print on ashtray, May 29, 1969 (MSP file).
18 a lot of people had handled the ashtray: Exchange from Report of Lt. David Desmond re: thumb print on ashtray, May 29, 1969 (MSP file).
19 “CONCLUSION: The blackish impression”: Report of Asst. Chemist Melvin Topjian re: ashtray, May 30, 1969 (MSP file).
20 convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt: Letter from Det. Lt. Joyce to Cecelia Powers, Dec. 3, 1969 (MSP file).
1 Lieutenant Joyce issued his report: Report to Daniel I. Murphy, Captain of Detectives by Det. Lt. Joyce of MSP, June 2, 1969 (MSP file).
2 “an unwaiverable conflict of interest”: Letter from DA Martha Coakley to Commissioner Ronnie Watson (CPD), Aug. 23, 2005 (MDAO file).
3 Fulkerson, who says he was kept in the dark: Interview with Fulkerson in 2018.
4 Connolly’s notes: Notes of Det. Lt. Connolly re: M. Michael Giacoppo, Oct. 4, 2005 (MSP file).
5 Four years ago, Boyd told me: Interview with Boyd Britton in 2014.
6 Adrienne Lynch herself spelled out: “Additional Notes ADA on Investigation 2017,” undated (MDAO file).
7 our 2018 phone call: Interview with Michael D. Giacoppo in 2018.
8 responsible for overseeing the investigations and records units: CPD Annual Crime Reports for 2004 to 2006 lists Michael D. Giacoppo as the Superintendent of Support Services for all three years; the CPD website breaks down the responsibilities of this superintendent.
9 “two-generation commitment”: Interview with Mary McCutcheon in 2017.
10 Any evidence that Giacoppo was even suspended: I spoke to Philip Cronin in 2019, Cambridge city solicitor at the time, who said he was never consulted about the alleged misconduct even though Chief Reagan said as much in Joyce’s report. Cronin was more comfortable concluding the report was wrong about Reagan’s actions than the possibility that he misremembered fifty years later. Therefore, I do not feel comfortable taking Reagan’s word in Joyce’s report about Giacoppo’s suspension without corroboration.
11 president of the Massachusetts Association of Italian American Police Officers: E.g., “Welcome to the 45th Annual Massachusetts Italian American Police Officers Association Awards Banquet,” Oct. 19, 2013, p. 6.
12 leadership of the Middlesex County Deputy Sheriff’s Association: The Guardian: A Publication of the Middlesex Deputy Sheriff’s Association, Jan. 2010, lists M. Michael Giacoppo as president, p. 2.
13 teach a fingerprinting course: The Guardian: A Publication, p. 18.
14 lifetime achievement award: “Mass Association of Italian American Police Officers Lifetime Achievement Awarded to Mike Giacoppo,” Somerville News Weekly, Dec. 8, 2018.
1 I got an email from Brian Wood: Email from Brian Wood, Aug. 3, 2018, 4:23 p.m.
1 Karl and I walk gingerly: This chapter is from an interview with CCLK (Dec. 6, 2018) unless otherwise noted.
2 Reich’s work…is controversial: “Is Ancient DNA Research Revealing New Truths—or Falling into Old Traps?” New York Times Magazine, Jan. 17, 2019.
1 “If the identity of the suspect”: Email from Boyd Britton to Peter Sennott, Aug. 13, 2018, 6:59 a.m.
2 cellar door…still unlocked: “Harvard Defends Housing,” Boston Globe, Jan. 12, 1969. Per article, this door led to the back staircase.
3 the candles in Jane’s candelabrum: Report of Asst. Chemist Joseph Lanzetta, Apr. 1, 1969 (MSP file).
4 climbed the back stairwell: Per Arthur Bankoff’s statement, p. 19, “Jane surprised me once…by walking along the fire escape to my window. Anyone could have come in that way, via the back stairs to the fire escape door behind our apartment and thence to Jane’s.”
5 As described in a police report: “Report from M/M Stephen Presser (table leg),” Jan. 14, 1969 (CPD file).
6 That door opened into Jane’s kitchen: Scene scale diagram, Det. Edward Colleran, Jan. 8, 1969 (CPD file).
7 trace of grease on her right hand: This and “twist of wool” from Report of Asst. Chemist Joseph Lanzetta, Apr. 1, 1969 (MSP file).
8 contusion on her right arm: Autopsy Report, Drs. George Katsas and Arthur McGovern (MSP file).
9 the greasy frying pan and the kitchen sink: Report of Asst. Chemist Joseph Lanzetta, Apr. 1, 1969 (MSP file).
10 [Photo]: Jane Britton police file.
1 what would have been Jane’s seventy-third birthday: May 17, 2018.
2 Boyd asked for a picture of the grave: Email from Boyd, May 11, 2018, 1:37 p.m.
3 Don asked me to read a note to her: Email from Don Mitchell, May 11, 2018, 2:58 p.m.
4 VIGIL HOPES TO HEAL: “Vigil Hopes to Heal after Hate Incident,” Needham Times, May 17, 2018.
5 “You’ll find her eventually”: Dan Bear, in 2017.
6 Elisabeth had emailed: Email from Elisabeth Handler, May 17, 2018, 12:05 p.m.
7 [Photo]: Photograph by Becky Cooper.
8 When I had spoken to Iva Houston: Interview with Iva Houston in 2017.
9 restorative justice, restorative methodology: For restorative justice from an anthropological perspective, see Ann Kingsolver, “Everyday Reconciliation,” American Anthropologist 115, no. 4 (Dec. 2013): 663–666.
10 I’m down to my very last MSP file in the stack: This scene took place on Dec. 29, 2018.
11 “Book 1 1968. J.S. Britton. British Inst of Persian Studies Box 2167. Tehran IRAN”: MSP file.
12 “Jim,” it begins: From here to end, Jane’s journal entry, June 6, 1968.
13 [Photo]: Jane Britton police file.