Devil's Rooming House by M. William Phelps

Author:M. William Phelps
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780762762507
Publisher: Lyons Press
Published: 2014-10-31T04:00:00+00:00

Footnote

* Incidentally, this early idea of splitting the state up into jurisdictions and having a “unit” set up in each area has not changed in over 100 years. Today the State Police is split into (12) “Troops,” the letters A through K, and (3) “Districts,” Eastern, Western, and Central.

Chapter 27

MAY THE CURSE OF GOD COME DOWN ON YOU

HUGH ALCORN WAS FIRM: IT WAS ESSENTIAL that the Hartford Courant not publish any stories in the near future about the Archer Home. Alcorn had advised Clifton Sherman after being briefed about the allegations that Amy Archer-Gilligan could be a sadistic serial killer. Alcorn said he needed time to look into the matter himself with his investigators.

The managing editor was, of course, disappointed. He had a vested interest in the story. It was his newspaper, after all, that had broken the case.

Not to fear, Alcorn advised. The Courant would get the scoop once the State Police knew where the case was headed. On top of that, Alcorn had several questions he needed answers to before he would sign off on an indictment. Alcorn had heard of these “murder” rumors for years; however, he warned, just because they were persistent, it did not mean they were true. He asked everyone to be careful. A wrong move now could seriously damage a court case, if it came down to it. Truth be told, how did any of them know, Alcorn suggested, that there was not a “homicidal maniac” running wild inside the Archer Home and that Amy was innocent?

The woes of circumstantial evidence.

“Was some mentally unbalanced neighbor trying to get rid of the Home by murdering its inmates?” Alcorn asked rhetorically.

It was clear that a majority of the Windsor community was totally against Amy and her Home. Was it a case of sabotage? Hugh Alcorn had heard “things” about Amy from various neighbors in and around Windsor, he explained. The neighbors were fed up with getting no help from the law.

This discussion then led to one of the most important questions of the case thus far: How could such a high death rate inside the Home “fail to attract the notice of the [in-house] physician?” Was Dr. Howard King killing his patients?

It was not at all probable, Alcorn insisted, but still possible.

While Hugh Alcorn and the Connecticut State Police began working on how to further facilitate the investigation started by the Courant, Franklin Andrews’s sister, Nellie Pierce, was waging a war of her own against Amy. Nellie could not simply sit back and wait for the authorities to act and do something. Nellie didn’t need any more convincing: She was certain that Amy had murdered her brother, and would murder others. Now Nellie was going to do everything in her power to prove it.

Nellie had gone through more of Franklin’s records and found that an additional $500 in cash was missing from his bank account. Coupled with the loan of $1,000 that Franklin had apparently (willingly) given Amy, Nellie decided there was enough money involved to hire a lawyer and sue Amy to get it back.

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