Town note
Several American Revolutionary figures were held prisoner in the town, including Benjamin Franklin's son.
about 0:07:44The story
Bantam is a small borough inside the town of Litchfield, in Litchfield County, north-western Connecticut. James describes it as the least populous borough in the state, a place of about 725 people, farms, large old houses and a town green, and the episode spends its first hour on the town's history, reviews, demographics, religion, property prices and the Ripley Waterfowl Conservancy before turning to two murders that the hosts believe are connected.
The first case is the murder of Barbara Gibbons. She had been seen with $100 in cash that day, but only 16 cents was found on her body. Many people saw him there. He left at about 9.30 p.m., drove his friend Jean Sachaki home and headed for his own house. Dr. Lavallo spoke to Barbara by telephone between 9.35 and 9.40 p.m. and later described her as agitated and aggressive. He passed the intersection of Bragg and Railroad Streets in the centre of Canaan at about 9.39 p.m. and reached home between 9.43 and 9.49 p.m., probably about 9.45 p.m. A neighbour arrived at 10.03 p.m. The autopsy found that Barbara died from exsanguination caused by multiple wounds to her neck. The medical examiner said the cuts to her throat and the severed arteries would have killed her within about six minutes, and that she could have bled out within 60 seconds. She also had a deep abdominal wound, deep wounds in the lower back and lacerations of the vagina. Those wounds had not bled, so they were inflicted after death. Her thighs were broken, and there was a defensive puncture wound on her right hand. Head hairs were clutched in her bloody right hand, and the analysis suggested she had pulled them from someone's head. Her blood alcohol content was 0.22 and the alcohol level in her stomach was 0.81%.
The murder weapon was a kitchen knife with a broken tip. Investigators thought it might have been used as a screwdriver to remove the licence plates from the Corvette. There were fresh abrasions on the underside of the car's muffler, cloth impressions that matched the weave of the jeans found at Barbara's feet, and hand impressions in the road film on the wheel well. A nine-year-old neighbour said they had argued about it on the afternoon of the murder.
The second case is the murder of Barbara McKittis. In May 1979 the 53-year-old was recently separated and living alone in her 13-room family house in Bantam, selling the house and its contents. He returned with his wife Lillian and their daughter on May 5th and bought a tailgate. On May 7th he came back with his wife, daughter and daughter-in-law and bought a gas stove and a washing machine. He and Barbara agreed that he would clear scrap metal out of her garage, sell it and split the money. On May 8th he spent most of the day at her house and drove a truckload of scrap metal to his home in Morris.
He met George Pierce in Oakville at about 7.30 a.m.; they unloaded radiators and rims, picked up some sinks and made a second trip. He was home by about 9.30 or 9.45 a.m. and left again at 10.15. Between 10 and 10.30 a.m. he bought an eight-pack of eight-ounce Budweiser cans and a bottle of Canada Dry club soda at the South Farms package store in Morris. The truck left between 11.15 and 11.30 a.m. and he was home between 11.45 a.m. and noon. His wife said he was wearing the same grey work trousers he had left in and that he seemed normal. A road foreman who lived on the same road saw him come and go and also put his return at 11.45 a.m. or noon.
Barbara was last seen driving through the centre of Bantam that day. Helen Miller saw her parking near the Bantam Pharmacy at 9 a.m.; the pharmacist said she bought a quart of liquor at about 9.15 a.m.; two employees at the Big Value supermarket saw her in the store that morning. At about 3.45 p.m. a newspaper carrier arrived, threw pebbles at her window and, when she did not respond, looked in and saw her lying on the bedroom floor. He ran home and told his mother, Margaret. She looked in the window, called an ambulance and the ambulance called the state police. When they arrived they could not get into the bedroom because Barbara's dog, Rocky, was guarding the doorway. A trooper coaxed the dog away. Inside, the police smelled gas and found both stove knobs turned on full; a trooper turned them off.
Barbara had been badly beaten. There were five chop wounds on her skull, consistent with an axe or hatchet, and stab and slash wounds on her head, neck and legs. There were penetration wounds to her genitalia, inflicted before death. She was lying on her left side near the bed, her jeans around her ankles and her pants around her knees. A bloodstained white rock about two and a half inches in diameter was on the bedroom floor, a butcher knife was under her and an eight-ounce Budweiser can lay about 18 inches away. The medical examiner said she died closer to the morning than the afternoon and that her blood alcohol content was 0.21. A neighbour's report put a woman carrying a cigar box in the street that morning, but the witness was unsure whether it was the day of the murder or the day before.
He was arraigned and remanded on a $100,000 bond, then a judge reduced the bond to $500. His bond was raised, then reduced to $50,000 with 10%, and he spent that night at home.
He had served less than six years. Barbara's family campaigned against the death penalty, and Elizabeth said she had come to believe that killing for her mother's sake would dishonour her.