1635
The town was settled in 1635.
about 0:07:44The story
Benjamin was an alcoholic and gambler who beat his sons, though never his younger daughter Lori. He hid in the bathroom from about the age of ten, started wearing Lori's clothes there, and later said it made him feel safe. At 14 he bought his own women's clothing. He drank, did badly at school and was picked on.
In 1972 Karen Hatfield, born October 3, 1955 in Mount Clemens, Michigan, moved to Shelton, Connecticut, and they went to the same high school. Her parents disliked him. She became pregnant, and on September 1, 1973 the pair married in secret. In the first week of marriage he hurled an alarm clock at her face. Karen worked two jobs to put him through engineering school and then medical school, and studied nursing herself. Their daughter Shannon was born in 1974. In 1983 he slammed ten-year-old Shannon's head against a bedframe and dragged her down the stairs. Shannon also said he took her underwear.
On April 26, 1991 he found Karen with another man, she asked for a divorce, and next morning he stabbed her in the forehead with a fork. He was committed and diagnosed with major depression and a personality disorder, but two days later Karen recanted after he warned that his licence and everything they had built would be lost. Shannon believed he later tried to poison her and Karen with syringed whipped cream and diet bars. Son Michael was born in 1992 and daughter Alexandra in 1995. He removed his body hair, took hormones and his wife's birth control pills, and had cosmetic surgery. He was banned from a bar, threw a drink at a reunion DJ and punched Karen's brother Jamie while naked.
In early 2000 his businesses were failing, competitors were suing him and the dot-com bubble had burst, so he moved almost three million dollars and the new Wenham house into Karen's name. When Shannon found duct tape and rubber hoses in his things, Karen feared for her life. In April she moved into the Wenham house and he moved receptionist Paula Hilts into their Gloucester home. Karen obtained an abuse prevention order, made indefinite on June 12, and the files were sealed.
On July 14, 2000 Karen enjoyed her first big night out with Jamie and his girlfriend while babysitter Christin Dormitzer minded the children. The babysitter hid the children in a bathroom, Jamie called 911, and police arrived minutes after the 11:45 dispatch. Karen died at Beverly Hospital around midnight. The rifle was never found.
The owner's son recognised him on the late news and his mother called police.