1626
Colonists arrived in the area in 1626, mostly fishermen, led by Roger Conant.
about 0:07:27The story
Salem, Massachusetts, in Essex County, is a coastal town of islands and old money about 35 minutes from Boston. In July 1991 its Salem Willows neighbourhood was a close-knit, affluent strip of oceanfront houses, an amusement park and a pier, and it was there that Brian Brailsford came home after dark on Friday 12 July 1991 and found that his wife was not there. Martha Brailsford was 37, an interior designer, a strong swimmer and experienced sailor, and a direct descendant of Roger Conant, who had led the first settlers to the area in 1626. Brian was a cruise captain on the run between Boston and Provincetown. The lights were off, Martha's artwork was still outside where she had been working, and the dogs were home. He waited until one in the morning, then called the Salem police. They told him to stay by the telephone in case she called. He could not, and made two torch-lit searches of the neighbourhood, one that night and one at dawn.
He said he would never sail alone with another man's wife and invited Brian and Martha aboard some time. He would pray for her.
In fact he was on his fourth wife, Patricia, and none of his wives had died. He was a practised liar who falsified his CV, invented degrees and had business cards printed for jobs he never held. He had been laid off by Parker Brothers that month. She looked away until he brought her back. On 9 or 10 July he took Rosemary Farmer out on the pretext of discussing the purchase of her house, touched her repeatedly, anchored near Graves Island, put on a wetsuit and swam naked, then held her against him before letting her go. She told him that if he touched her again she would jump overboard and swim for it.
He repeated that he had not sailed with Martha. They gave him a Miranda warning, and the detective told him that people had seen Martha board the Counterpoint at Willows Pier and that he did not want to hear any more lies. A dentist, Dr Ronald Plotka, who had treated Martha's teeth for ten years, had been at that landing between noon and two and had seen nothing of her. The Salem police called in the state police.
He now said he had sailed with Martha as far as Gloucester. Coming back at sunset, he said, a rogue wave hit the boat, Martha's face struck the mast, she grabbed for the headsail, slipped and went overboard, and her handbag went with her. He said he froze, did not throw a life ring, did not call the coast guard, and simply sailed home. He marked the spot on a chart for the police, who did not believe him and did not search there.
On Thursday 18 July a lobsterman, William Hooper Goodwin, was hauling his traps near the south-east end of Children's Island when the last trap came up with an anchor tangled in it. A twelve-foot knotted rope led from the anchor to the ankle of a naked, badly scavenged body. A diver's weight belt was buckled around the waist. Dental records identified Martha. A post-mortem found a chip on the inner surface of a lower left molar and a loosened lower left front tooth, injuries consistent with separate blows below the jaw and to the chin, and several impacts to the head. The cause of death was drowning.
Police went to his flat and found him gone. The police did not need her. On Saturday 20 July neighbours in northern Maine, near the Canadian border, reported an unfamiliar silver 1987 Ford Taurus and wrote down the plate. He had left his wedding ring and a note saying how his wife could be reached.
The boat was searched. Nothing else of use was found. The judge refused a change of venue.
Joan Pinkham wrote a book, A Scream on the Water, in 1997, and A&E's City Confidential covered the case in 1998. A second book, Counterpoint: A Murder in Massachusetts, appeared that year. At his third hearing in October 2016 he blamed Martha, said the encounter had been an accident and that she was simply his crew for the day, and was called hostile, offensive and incapable of telling the truth. He was refused a third time.