FILE 301 / 16 July 2022 / 64 MIN / express

Intentional Accidents

Brownington, VermontListen

The town

N ↑Town centre (approximate places)
Static locations; no street basemap. Places and details. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

This is Brownington, Vermont. It is north, north, north Vermont, up near the Canadian border up there. about 0:03:46

History, in brief

Town note

Named after the Brown family; Daniel and Timothy Brown were among eight people named Brown living there, so the town was called Brownington.

about 0:04:29

1925

The Old Stone House Museum opened in 1925 and is a featured stop on Vermont's African American heritage trail.

about 0:08:03

Town note

The museum tells the story of Alexander Lucius Twilight, described as the first African American college graduate and state legislator in the United States, who built the Old Stone House.

about 0:08:11

Town note

The museum has 30 rooms and 75,000 objects, including furniture and paintings.

about 0:08:24
All 4 history facts

Town note

Named after the Brown family; Daniel and Timothy Brown were among eight people named Brown living there, so the town was called Brownington.

about 0:04:29

1925

The Old Stone House Museum opened in 1925 and is a featured stop on Vermont's African American heritage trail.

about 0:08:03

Town note

The museum tells the story of Alexander Lucius Twilight, described as the first African American college graduate and state legislator in the United States, who built the Old Stone House.

about 0:08:11

Town note

The museum has 30 rooms and 75,000 objects, including furniture and paintings.

about 0:08:24

The figures, as told

Money

Median home value$165,000
Median household incomeabout $43,000 a year
All figures and comparisons, as told in 2022

Median income

"about $43,000 a year"

Comparison: "lower than the national average". Direction: below.

As told in 2022 about 0:04:03

Median home cost

"$165,000"

No direction stated.

As told in 2022 about 0:04:03

The reviews

2.0 / 5 · average of 1

2 stars

“Grew up there and had an awesome childhood until about the age of 14, then realised how terrible the town is: people have no motivation to care for themselves or their property, every other house has junk, scrap cars and garbage in the front yard, and the roads are so bad a new car will not last a year. The Amish families are good neighbours and possibly the best part of the town, but it is stuck in the 60s, and other Vermont towns are just as cheap and desolate without being so backwards.”
about 0:04:53

In Vermont

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The story

Charlie had been legally blind since childhood, walked with a cane and could not drive, and had once worked as a used car salesman. The family had very little money and depended on Charlie's disability payments.

She treated it as a hobby and wanted him to earn money; he was convinced it would take him to mainstream television. She stopped smoking with the help of medication, was also taking antidepressants, and had begun using sleeping pills.

In September 2009 Charlie became co-host of a second public access show, It's News to Us, with Steve Merrill on NEK TV.

The weather was clear, the road dry, there were no skid marks and speed was not a factor. It was the only tree along that stretch of road for a mile in either direction. Charlie was not belted, his legs were crushed and he had to be freed with the jaws of life. He died of a tear in his aorta.

She said she was taking anti-smoking drugs, antidepressants and sleeping pills. Merrill later said he found her behaviour at the funeral strange and recalled that about a month before the crash she had listened to a story about a friend who drove a lemon into a tree to total it, and that he thought she was looking for a way to get Charlie out of her life.

They exchanged messages, spoke on the phone and, on their second call, she told him she had killed her husband on purpose. Leland recorded a later conversation without her knowledge. The police told him such a recording was inadmissible in Vermont. After about eight weeks the relationship broke down, she threatened to kill him if he recorded her and turned her in, and he went to the state police.

She eventually admitted she had not passed out, that Charlie had flipped out on her in the car, and that when she saw the tree she knew it would not move. She described the tree coming at her as the most beautiful thing she had ever seen and said she had thought they would both die.

She never proved her claims of abuse. Her seven-year minimum would have expired in 2018.

The case

Murder of Charlie Billis

Victims

Charlie Billis (57). legally blind former used car salesman and public access television host

Accused and outcomes

As told in the episode, on 16 July 2022.

Accused

Outcome

Other people

Steve Merrill. co-host of It's News to Us, who later replaced Charlie on the show
Pamela Hellenic. neighbour in whose front yard the crash happened; helped pull from the car
Marilyn. mother, also called Mary Ann in the episode
Paul. the girls' grandfather, who later took them from Kevin Leland's custody

The timeline

  1. 2004 Charlie and Billis move from Boston to Brownington, Vermont. (Billis house)about 0:11:30
  2. about six months after moving, 2004 Charlie starts a public access television show.about 0:13:11
  3. 2005 joins Charlie on the show, called Open Forum.about 0:13:39
  4. over the next five years Open Forum runs for five years with editing and producing.about 0:14:27
  5. 2009 is diagnosed with ovarian cancer and has a full hysterectomy.about 0:18:17
  6. 2009 She quits smoking with medication while also taking antidepressants, and starts using sleeping pills.about 0:18:45
  7. September 2009 Charlie becomes co-host of It's News to Us with Steve Merrill on NEK TV. (NEK TV studio)about 0:19:50
  8. September 22, 2009 The second episode of It's News to Us is taped in Newport with operating the camera. (NEK TV studio)about 0:24:53
  9. September 22, 2009 Driving home south on Vermont Route 5A, car hits a large pine tree near Line Farm Road. (crash site on Route 5A)about 0:28:11
  10. September 22, 2009 Charlie is freed with the jaws of life and taken to the emergency room, where he dies of a tear in his aorta.about 0:27:05

Places and phrases

N ↑Town centre (approximate places)
Static locations; no street basemap. Places and details. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

Places in the story

Public places are marked on the map.

Heard in this episode