Twelve Scary Hours

In November 1962 Westport, Connecticut, was a wealthy, leafy suburb on Long Island Sound. Pierre Sillan, a textile designer, lived at Stony Brook Road with his wife Isabel, 50, and their 14-year-old daughter Gale. Their older sons were away: Paul, 24, was in the army in Germany, and Pierre Jr., 20, was at college.

Monday 12 November 1962 was Veterans Day, so Gale was home from school, but Pierre left at about 7 a.m. for the commuter train to New York, going out through the kitchen door and not bothering to lock it. Isabel and Gale were asleep.

At about 8.45 a.m. Gale woke and went into the upstairs hallway to check the grandfather clock. A tall white man was standing there. She recognised him as a handyman who had worked in the house about two weeks earlier. He grabbed her by the neck, pulled her into her bedroom and choked her until she passed out. Her mother knocked and asked if everything was all right, but Gale could not answer. details of the account remain covered until revealed When Gale came round she went downstairs and found the man on top of her mother, choking her with a cord. He dragged both of them into the parents' bedroom, tied them with clothesline and choked them repeatedly. Asked why he was doing it, he said: 'You wouldn't understand.' He tied Gale hand and foot, made her change her nightgown, wrapped her in a quilt, carried her out and put her on the floor of the back seat of his car. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it He had not turned up for work that Monday, the first time he had ever missed a scheduled day. He drove around for hours. He put her in the trunk, drove on and eventually stopped at the Calypso Tavern, where he offered her a chicken sandwich. He then tied her by the hands to the rear door handle, went in to order food, came back, untied her, raped her and left her tied on the floor while he collected the sandwich. Gale tore the ropes off her hands, opened the door with her head and fell out face first. With her hands still tied and her nightgown soaked in blood, she ran to the nearest house, in Norwalk, and kicked the door until Mary Burgo opened it. It was about 6 p.m. At 6.30 p.m. Pierre came home to a dark house in disarray. He found Isabel in the bathroom, in her nightgown, posed sitting on the toilet with her head against the wall. She had been dead for hours, strangled with a rope or clothesline. Gale was taken to hospital and kept under guard. She slept through Tuesday, and not until Wednesday did her father tell her that her mother was dead. On Friday 16 November Isabel was buried in Terrytown; the police kept Gale in hospital and she missed the funeral.

this part of the story is covered for now He and Lucille, his common-law wife, left at about 9.30 the night after the killing and drove south. On 16 November word reached the sheriff that a turquoise and cream 1956 Mercury with Connecticut plates was at his mother's house outside Soperton, Georgia. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it In the car were a red bathrobe belt, clothing, blankets from the Sillan house and a narrow-brimmed hat of the kind Gale had described.

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed He also said: 'If everybody says I did it, then I must have,' and that he was sorry for what he had done to that woman.

The car had been searched in Georgia and again in Connecticut without a warrant. Hair identified as Gale's was found on the crank handle of the rear window and on the rear seat and floor, and blood of her type on the seat cover. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

this part of the story is covered for now Judge John M. Comley called the crime particularly revolting and atrocious but held that the evidence could not stand. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

Pierre took Gale on a long trip to Europe and then moved with her to an apartment in Manhattan. Gale studied at the New York School of Interior Design and worked for many years as an interior designer at Vital Enterprises in Vista, New York. details of the account remain covered until revealed The house was later valued at $4,651,000.