Lethal Guardian (28 page)

“Tell me, Chris. What is it? I’m here for you,” Margaret said. She loved him. She wanted to comfort him. Oddly enough, despite Chris’s age, they had already discussed marriage.

“Remember the murder in Old Lyme a while ago?” Chris asked.

It was a small town. People talked. Margaret, of course, knew every detail about the murder. Who didn’t?

“What is it, Chris?”

“Remember the guy who got murdered on the Rock Neck connector?”

“Yes, Chris. What are you saying? What
is
it?”

“That was my father….”

“What?”

“I was there, too.”

“You were there? What do you mean, you were
there
?”

“I was
there.
I watched my dad kill that guy!”

Margaret was devastated. “Totally shocked,” she said later. “Mark had done nutty things, but I never dreamed he could have done that—and then to take Chris with him?”

For the next hour or so, they didn’t speak. Yet as the night wore on, fidgety and wired, Chris began getting anxious. He couldn’t sit still, wondering what was going to happen once the cops found out he was involved.

“Chris, come on, try to relax,” Margaret said at one point.

“He offered me the opportunity to commit the murder,” Chris admitted.

As if it couldn’t get any worse for Margaret.

Throughout the night, Chris told Margaret everything he could remember, as if purging himself of all the guilt he had stowed away.

When cops searched Jocelyn Johnson’s car, they found a .22-caliber handgun in the trunk. Apparently, Despres was armed, just as everyone had expected he might be.

Johnson was ultimately arrested for hindering prosecution and given a court date of November 11, 1995. After posting a $5,000 nonsecurity bond, she was released.

With Mark Despres and Joe Fremut in custody, the ED-MCS could get down to finding out who else was involved in Buzz Clinton’s murder.

Dee Clinton and her family had been waiting for nearly a year and a half for
some
answers—and by early Monday morning, October 30, 1995, they had been informed that two suspects were in custody.

When newspaper reporters located Dee and asked her what she had been hearing regarding the recent arrests, Dee said, “The police have been more than fair to me, and I have to honor their wishes,” she told the
Hartford Courant
. “I don’t want to make their job more difficult.”

With Mark Despres and Joe Fremut locked up, John Turner and Marty Graham began plotting their next move. Would Mark or Joe be forthcoming with what they knew? Would they give Turner and Graham the one thing they wanted more than anything at this point—more names? After all, Despres and Fremut didn’t know exactly what Catherine White had already confessed.

Joe Fremut was especially evasive during his first interview. He indicated he was waiting for his attorney, the highly touted F. Mac Buckley, a noted criminal defense attorney from Hartford. Buckley, who would himself later face charges of embezzlement and take off in a well-publicized flight from justice, told Marty Graham after meeting with Fremut that Fremut was reluctant to talk. He was going to ride it out. But Buckley, after meeting with Fremut a second time and explaining that he was facing a possible death sentence if convicted, convinced Fremut to begin talking. Buckley, according to Graham, told Fremut that the only way he could cut a deal for him later on was if he began cooperating now.

At first, Fremut downplayed his role. He said it was all Mark’s idea, and he never intended to help him.

“We knew damn well that Mark would never have killed Buzz if Fremut wasn’t involved,” one detective later noted. “Despres just wasn’t smart enough to do it himself. He needed Joey.”

Despres was stewing while in lockup. He was in his worst possible element. Having no contact with the outside, he began to think of ways to get out of the trouble he now found himself in.

At this point, Turner and Graham, based on a few off-the-record conversations they’d had with Despres, had a good indication that Haiman Clein and Beth Ann Carpenter were involved in the conspiracy, but there was nothing tangible yet linking them to the murder. At the same time, though, they knew Despres was that missing link.

Despres, however, indicated he wasn’t interested in talking about anything more than what he had said already—although he told them Clein was involved.

While Turner and Graham discussed how they were going to approach Despres a second time, they heard that Clein had driven down to the courthouse where Despres was being held. Acting as Mark’s attorney, Clein tried getting in to talk to him. Despres had already given Clein up in a preliminary interview Turner and Graham had conducted with him earlier that day. They knew Clein was trying to weasel his way in to see Despres so he could, most likely, warn him about talking.

By late afternoon on October 30, 1995, Turner and Graham got a judge’s order to keep Clein away from Despres. Since that time, Despres had given them a statement to his involvement in the murder, fingering both Clein and Beth Ann, but would say nothing more about the details of the crime.

Clandestinely watching Clein pace the hallway inside the courthouse, Turner and Graham enjoyed a moment of reprieve in what had been a long year and a half. They wanted Clein to sweat a little. Think about things. Maybe crack under the anxiety of not knowing what was going on or what Despres was saying.

After twenty minutes of watching Clein rub his beard and wear a path in the floor tile, Turner and Graham emerged.

“We’d like to talk to you, Mr. Clein,” Turner said.

“I guess,” Clein said.

Sitting down, Turner said, “We need to talk to you about the murder of Buzz Clinton.”

Clein immediately began playing stupid, Turner later recalled. “I don’t know what you mean. I don’t know what to say to that.”

“You can start by telling us what you know about it, Mr. Clein. We know you know what’s going on here. We know you have information that can help us out.”

“Do you…” Clein began to say before stopping for a moment to rub his forehead. “Do you think…Are you looking at me as having had something to do with it?”

John Turner rarely smiled. His seriousness and stern facial features were, however, what made him one of the best interrogators the ED-MCS had on staff.

“Yes,” Turner said. He and Graham suspected Clein had had some type of involvement in Buzz’s murder. Then Turner added, “I don’t understand, please help me understand this. Why is a person of your social stature, Mr. Clein, hanging around with a guy like Mark Despres?”

Clein then went into a long diatribe regarding his rise and fall in the real estate market. As he spoke, Turner and Graham kept looking at each other, wondering what it all had to do with Buzz’s murder.

“I was on top of the world one day,” Clein ranted. “It all fell apart. You’re up; you’re down. That’s when you start representing different types of people.”

“We can understand that,” Graham said.

“People with shady backgrounds,” Clein continued.

“What are we talking about here, Mr. Clein?” Turner asked.

“Right! What the hell does this have to do with what we’re talking about?” Graham added.

“Well, to be honest,” Clein said, “eventually you become what you represent.”

“We knew we had him at that point,” Turner later recalled.

“I have known the Despres family,” Clein continued, “for nearly twenty years, and have become close friends with Mark over that time. Mark’s mother called me when he was arrested and asked for my help.”

“So that’s why you’re here?”

“Yes.”

Turner and Graham knew that Despres had been supplying Clein with cocaine, so Graham asked Clein if his connection to Despres was drug-related.

“I am insulted by that statement. But, on the other hand, I can understand where you’re coming from.”

“What’s your relationship with”—Graham, at this point, stopped for a moment and looked at a pad he had in front of him—“Beth Ann…Carpenter?”

“She works with me at my law firm. And I’m not about to bring my personal life into this conversation.”

“Again, you have no knowledge of Buzz Clinton’s murder either before or after it took place?”

“I’m really insulted now,” Clein said. “I’m really uncomfortable with talking about the case.”

“Why?”

“Well, anything I say can come back to bite either Mark or myself.”

“Tell us about your connection to Despres and the murder, Mr. Clein. We can talk about this here, right?”

“I’ll be damned if I do, damned if I don’t,” Clein said. “I’m done talking.”

Two days later, November 1, detectives set out to interview, as they now saw it, three key players: Bonnie Clein, Dick Carpenter and Beth Ann Carpenter.

At 7:50
A.M
., Reggie Wardell and Paul Killoran, also an ED-MCS detective, drove to Indiantown Road in Ledyard to see if they could find Beth Ann.

Cynthia Carpenter, getting ready for work, answered the door.

“About three weeks ago,” Cynthia said when Wardell asked if she knew where Beth Ann was, “Beth Ann went to work for a friend in London.” She gave them the address. “She’ll be back on December twentieth and return to England in January 1996 and stay there until March.”

Wardell and Killoran began asking Cynthia about Buzz. They wanted to know what she had heard about the murder.

“Only what I’ve read in the papers,” Cynthia said. “I read you arrested two men.”

“Have you ever heard of them?”

“No. Neither has Richard, my husband, or my son, Richard.”

“Have you spoken to your daughter Beth Ann recently?”

“I called her and told her about the arrests.”

Cynthia went on to say that she did send Beth Ann a few newspaper clippings, but she never told her the names of those arrested, nor had she asked. Instead, Beth Ann just wanted the newspaper clippings. Wardell then got a little bit more detectivelike with his questioning. He asked whom Beth Ann was working for at the time of Buzz’s murder. “Haiman Clein,” Cynthia said.

Then he asked if it was possible that Beth Ann and Clein were lovers.

“I don’t know that for sure,” Cynthia said.

“Could these men [Despres and Fremut] have been clients of your daughter’s?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Did Buzz ever take any money from you?”

“I don’t think so,” Cynthia said. “I think Beth did her banking with First Fidelity…. By the way, do you think that Beth and Haiman had anything to do with hiring those people who killed Buzz?”

“I’m surprised you would ask that question,” Wardell said. He was shocked by her candor. “We’ve never implied anytime during this interview that Beth, Haiman or any one in the Carpenter family could also be involved in the death of Buzz. Is it true,” Wardell continued, “that the Carpenter family wished Buzz’s death because of the pain he caused the family over the grandchildren?”

“Yes. But I did call Dee Clinton and offer our condolences when I heard Buzz was killed.”

The interview was obviously wearing Cynthia down some. It was running long. They were an hour into it already. As Wardell pressed, though, Cynthia kept hammering her points home. No, there wasn’t a person in her family involved in Buzz’s murder. No, she had no knowledge that Haiman Clein took it upon himself to carry out some wish of the Carpenter family. In fact, concerning Clein, Cynthia said, he wasn’t capable of doing such a thing. He had offered the Carpenters his condolences. He had been to the house at least three times since Buzz’s death and never once mentioned it. He had even brought his children over to the house to play Scrabble.

“Has Beth Ann spoken to Mr. Clein recently?”

“Before she left, she called him,” Cynthia said. Then, “I told Beth that I hoped it was over between her and Haiman when she left for England.”

Wardell and Killoran knew right then that Cynthia wasn’t being totally truthful, because earlier she had said she didn’t know for sure Haiman and Beth Ann were an item.

“Then there
was
a social relationship between Beth and Haiman, even though he is married?”

“I suspected it, but Beth never talked about it.”

The phone rang at about 9:00
A.M
. It was Dick. He told Cynthia he was being interviewed down the road at Colonial Tire, a local hangout he went to each morning for coffee.

After Cynthia hung up, she said she would take a polygraph to convince them that she had no knowledge of the people who planned Buzz’s murder.

Before they left, Wardell gave her his business card, wrote “Kevin Kane,” the New London state’s attorney, across it and told her to call the state’s attorney’s office if she had anything more to offer.

Shortly after nine, Wardell and Killoran left. As they drove away, though, Wardell looked over at Killoran and said, “Let’s wait a bit and go back and hit her with one more question.”

“It was my
Columbo
move,” Wardell, laughing, said later.

At 9:45
A.M
., Wardell and Killoran returned. “I have one more question,” Wardell said while standing at the doorstep.

“Come in,” Cynthia said. “I just got off the phone with Beth and Kim. I told them that you guys thought we’re involved and that Haiman has been arrested—”

“We never said Haiman Clein had been arrested.”

“You said he was in custody.”

“We said that other detectives were interviewing him.”

“What was your other question?” Cynthia asked.

“Are you sure that Mr. Clein never mentioned anything about how or why Buzz was murdered?”

“No. The whole family thinks it was over drugs.”

“Thanks.”

Detective John Szamocki and a colleague had sneaked up on Dick Carpenter while he was having his morning coffee at Colonial Tire, and Dick agreed to an interview in Szamocki’s vehicle in the parking lot.

They talked first about Despres and Fremut. Dick said he’d heard of the arrests—but he didn’t know either man.

“How are things going?” Szamocki wondered.

“Pretty good,” Dick said. “Kim is now living in Niantic with her three children. She had a ‘falling-out’ with Dee. I don’t know what it was all about. I think Kim is going with Rob Ferguson now.”

Dick then explained that Beth Ann had gone to London to work with a “friend.” He said she’d be returning in December. When Szamocki asked if she’d called since she left, Dick said no. He then talked about Clein and said he didn’t know if Beth Ann and Clein were intimately involved.

“Tell us about Buzz. You guys were having problems with him, true?”

“Yeah, there were problems,” Dick said. He then explained that a couple of years back, Kim had been dating a sailor from Virginia who was stationed at the sub base in Groton. They were planning on getting married, but she met Buzz around the same time and called the wedding off. Dick said when he, Rebecca and Cynthia went to Hampton Beach, in New Hampshire, one weekend, Buzz, Kim and the sailor broke into his house and stole “several items,” but he never reported the burglary to the cops.

Over the next hour, Dick told detectives about the custody fight that had erupted as Buzz became more of a presence in Kim’s life. He went into great detail explaining just about every problem the Carpenters had had with Buzz regarding Rebecca. He made a point to say that Dee Clinton had once accused his son, Richard, and Joseph Jebran of sexually abusing Rebecca, yet DCYS concluded that it was unsubstantiated.

Dick, however, never mentioned that the Carpenters were routinely accusing Buzz of the same thing. Instead, he said he suspected Buzz of abusing
Kim,
having seen bruises on her “the size of a half-dollar.” He thought Buzz was abusing drugs, too, but never saw it firsthand.

Then John Gaul’s name came up. Before Dick spoke of Gaul, though, he talked about how Rebecca would call Buzz “Daddy,” but he wasn’t her biological father. According to Dick, Rebecca would say on occasion, “Daddy hit me.” After explaining the entire John Gaul situation, Dick said Gaul dropped the idea of gaining custody of Rebecca only after Buzz threatened Tricia.