Talk Radio, You're on the Air

It’s 1:00 PM, Memorial Day, May 29, 2006 and I feel as though I have not left this word processor since I began 6 months, 12 days, 9 hours, ago. Now begins the process of fact checking and double checking and then editing the manuscript.

I started the project essentially for my Bride Helen and myself. Secondarily for our children, grandchildren, and our friends and colleagues over the years.

I’ve reviewed the book for content and will revisit the book with editing in mind.

Along the way many of our friends and listeners during the years have been sent chapters as I’ve gone along. Some have made suggestions which will be incorporated in the text during the editing.

The decision must now be made to decide whether to self-publish the book, seek our a publisher or keep it the way it was intended in the first place.

I had no idea so many things occurred during the more than a quarter of a century since I started in radio on WSAR in Fall River.

I’ve been blessed to meet some interesting people who have made a mark on our lives. We’ve covered issues and topics I had long ago forgotten about.

I can only conclude I’ve been lucky in two areas.

I’ve had a wonderful and understanding family, especially my wife and children. Their age spread places them in entirely different eras.

My radio days have allowed me to meet thousands of people on the telephone, the overwhelming majority of whom I have a fond feeling for. I’ve grown and learned more from our callers more than they have learned from me.

The thought has occurred to me, would I do it again? You bet I would.

Is there anything I would change? I doubt there is anyone who wouldn’t do some things differently. There’s not many of us who lead a perfect life. However, I would not want to dwell on those things I have no control over.

There are things which are yet unfinished. You’ll recall Chapter Seven and the so-called Satanic murders. Two men were charged and convicted of first degree murder. When the trials were conducted in 1981, I didn’t believe then nor do I now believe they did the murders.

One of the men, Andre Maltais was present at the murder he was convicted of committing. As a matter of fact he likely was present for two of the three murders. He was convicted of Killing Barbara Raposa. He was there. However, while it is likely he assisted in bringing Raposa to where she died and may well have assisted in subduing her. Barbara Raposa was murdered by Robin Marie Murphy, who testified against Maltais under a plea bargain agreement. There is ample evidence to indicate he was at the murder of Doreen Levesque, whose body was found at the Diman Regional Vocational High School football field, beneath the grandstand.

The murder he has never been publicly connected to is the murder of Mary Lou Arruda in the Freetown Forrest. There are coincidences which connect Maltais and Murphy to this murder as well. Of the four girls murdered in this three year period, Arruda is the only one not involved or connected to the Satanic sect. She was a totally innocent victim with no association whatsoever with the man convicted for her murder or any of the satanic activity which regularly occurred in the immediate section of the Freetown Forrest where she was murdered.

Carl Drew was convicted of the first degree murder of Karen Marsden. There is good reason to believe Drew was not present at the murder nor did he have any prior knowledge of the murder. Again, the murderer was Murphy. The only other person present was one Carol Fletcher, a local prostitute at the time who has changed her statement and now says Drew did not commit the Marsden murder. Robin Marie Murphy murdered Marsden on the roof of one of the buildings at the Harbor Terrace Housing Project in Fall River.
In testimony in Superior court at a hearing considering a retrial for Drew, she testified she had been coerced by the district attorney and prosecutor to not testify in behalf of Drew.

Drew, a pimp and worse then, was not a good person. Few would have shed tears for him. Nonetheless, he was convicted for a murder he did not commit and the perpetrator of the crime now lives in a halfway house and may some day be returned to society.

None that knew Murphy believe she won’t return to her previous ways should she be fully set free.

It is my hope to be able to tell the whole story about the murders and how they were done.
No sooner one book is finished another is begun.

The book on the murders will be done with the victims in mind. Also, special credit should go to a great cop, former detective sergeant Paul Carey of the Fall River Police Department who was lead investigator of the three Fall River murders. Since his retirement in 1999 he has been in the forefront of the attempt to achieve justice for all in the murder cases and free Drew who is in his twenty-fifth year of incarceration for a crime he did not commit.

Also, since the start of this book, Christy Mihos has placed his fate in the hands of the Massachusetts voters. He has announced for governor.

In the meantime, Mitt Romney, who came back home to run for governor to straighten out the mess in the big dig and get rid of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority chairman Matt Amarillo. He did neither.

Romney has run around the country scouting out the presidential trail. He’s pretending to be a conservative. He has about as much of a chance to persuade conservatives he is one of them as John Kerry would of convincing Swift Boat Vets he didn’t mean what he said when he called fellow Vietnam combatants murderers and rapists.

Normally an independent does not stand a chance in Massachusetts. Mihos may be the exception.

If he is I bet he will be a good governor.

Now, I must prepare for my next program.

See you on the air. Same time, same station.