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foreign [Music] [Applause] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man who bought his mother shotgun shells and cigarettes
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for her birthday he is the captain was Hoban should kill my siblings it's good to be seen and it's good to see you
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thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend [Music] this week we are very excited to be
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featuring tropical hazy by our good friends over at the zaftig Brewing Company this is very fittingly named as
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tropical hazy is a New England style IPA that is tropical because of the Exquisite fruit flavors garage grade 4
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and 3 4 bottle caps out of five so close to five out of five all right here's a cheers to this week's contributors first
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up cheers to Elizabeth an Appomattox Virginia and a big shout out to Donny in Lawndale North Carolina next up we have
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Dave in Edmonton Alberta Canada and a big we like your jib to Olivia in Wichita Kansas next Captain we have
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Tamara in Norristown Pennsylvania and last but certainly not least we have Ashley and Macon Georgia check out our
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blog and check out our show swag for purchase on the store Page both available at truecrime garage.com yeah
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and check out our old episodes for free on the Stitcher app and you can also check out our weekly show on Stitcher
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premium called off the Record and you can find all of that at truecrimegarage.com and that is enough
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of the business all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
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[Music] everywhere [Music] [Music] in 1995 criminologist and political scientist
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John delulio was invited to the White House to attend a working dinner on juvenile crime
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that same year de lulio wrote an article on the subject matter titled the coming
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of the super Predators he says the article is a much needed reality check on the incredibly frightening picture
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that emerges from recent academic research on youth crime and violence he says all of the Research indicates
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that Americans are sitting Atop A demographic crime bomb and all of those who are closest to the
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problem hear the bomb ticking he says big city prosecutors inundated him with war stories about the
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ever-growing numbers of hardened remorseless juveniles who are showing up in the system
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quote they kill or maim on impulse without any intelligible motive likewise a veteran police officer told delulio I
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never used to be scared now I say a quick Hail Mary every time I get a call at night involving juveniles
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I pray I go home in one piece to my own kids on a visit to a New Jersey Maximum Security Prison
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he spoke to a group of inmates one prisoner told him I was a badass Street Gladiator but
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these kids are Stone Cold Predators he goes on to cite a soaring rise in youth crimes of violence
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stating between 1985 and 1992 the rate at which males ages 14 to 17 commit murder dramatically increased and while
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most violent youth crime is committed by juveniles against juveniles of late young offenders have been committing
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more homicides robberies and other crimes against adults there's even some evidence that
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juveniles are doing homicidal violence in wolf packs citing a 1993 study that said juveniles committed about a
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third of all homicides against strangers often murdering their victim in groups of two or more
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moreover the crimes are becoming more violent and more serious for example aggravated assaults rather than simple
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assaults and attacks involving guns rather than weaponless violence according to the article the youth crime
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wave has reached horrific proportions 1994 in Los Angeles there were believed to be some 400 youth street gangs with
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known members alone committing 370 murders and over 3 300 felony assaults the criminologist goes on to say
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what is really frightening is what's just around the corner namely a sharp increase in the number of
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Super crime prone young males at the time nationally there were about 40 million children under the age of 10.
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the largest number in decades in a decade the then four to seven year olds will become 14 to 17 year olds
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to which he says it's simple more boys begets more bad boys this spike in the young male population
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means big trouble ahead he pointed to quote scientific Kitty crime literature study of ten thousand boys who lived in
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Philadelphia between their 10th and 18th birthdays over one-third had at least one recorded arrest
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most of the arrest occurred when the boys were ages 15 to 17. half of the boys who were arrested were
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arrested more than once but the most famous finding of the study was that six percent of the boys
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committed five or more crimes before they were 18. accounting for over half of all serious crimes and about
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two-thirds of all the violent crimes this six percent do 50 statistic was replicated in a series of studies in
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several cities it is on that basis that James Q Wilson and other leading crime doctors
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predicted that the additional 500 000 boys who will be 14 to 17 years old in the year 2000. will mean at least 30 000
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more murderers rapists and muggers on the streets according to delullio what was on the horizon
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was tens of thousands of severely morally impoverished juvenile super predators who were perfectly capable of committing
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the most heinous acts of physical violence for the most trivial reasons they fear neither the stigma of arrest
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nor the pain of imprisonment they live by the meanest code of the meanest streets
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a code that reinforces rather than restrains their violent hair trigger mentality
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in prison or out the things that super Predators get with criminal Behavior sex drugs money
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are immediate Rewards Nothing Else Matters to them so for as long as their youthful
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energies hold out they will do what comes naturally murder rape Rob assault burglarize deal
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deadly drugs and get high Mansfield B Frazier's book warned of a Sharp cataclysmic increase in youth
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crime and violence and what he called the coming Menace it is speeches articles and reports like
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delulios the cites flawed statistics and study results that led to the growing panic in the U.S of exaggerated
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inflation of Youth gang violence and a new political phrase the juvenile super predator
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[Music] Somerville Massachusetts a beautiful place located directly northwest of
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Boston the population at the time of our story is about 77 000 people now our day in question will
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be or should be a beautiful Sunday a summer's day in July this is July 23rd 1995. the kids are out of school but 15
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year old Eddie O'Brien is getting up early Eddie works a part-time job he's had this job for over a year Eddie is
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pretty much your ordinary average 15 year old kid in almost every way save but one
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Eddie is big and he's not just big for his age he is big for any age Eddie is six foot four inches tall and weighs
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about 250 pounds that's a lot of lbs for a 15 year old there captain now the best
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way to describe Eddie other than big I would say is baby-faced and the close-up photos from 1995 the headshots
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where you can't see his large frame his face looks kind and boyish looking younger than 15 in my opinion but as
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said Eddie is pretty much a normal kid he has lots of friends he's on the football team at school he's a big
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sports fan and I mean come on Boston is one of the great Sports towns in all of America so what does he play running
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back I think he might have been a lineman so of course his favorite team you know being in the Boston area is
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going to be the Pats and his favorite athlete is one of the all-time greats Mr Larry Joe bird on this Sunday Eddie has
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to be at work at 7 A.M this is to put together the Sunday papers he works at a carryout so the big sellers are things
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like newspapers magazines soda that kind of stuff it's important to note a couple of
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things the store where Eddie works is not very far from his home he could easily walk there and did often
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Eddie has several friends close friends in the neighborhood and they hang out all of the time and they are in and out
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of each other's houses all of the time kind of like our old white Road Keller farms connection for us back in the day
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now Eddie goes to the store where he works but he even goes there when he's not working so this is not
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just a workplace for him this is also somewhere that he frequents in his free time
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as we said he's a big sports fan so he likes to go there and read the magazines in the newspapers
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his friends from the neighborhood they like to go to this store there often as well Eddie spent the entire morning
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working he got a ride home from his older sister he brought home from the store two newspapers the Boston
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Globe and the Boston Herald and he also brought home some candy for his little sister
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the newspapers were for his parents and since we mentioned it Captain the Boston
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Globe is by far and away one of the better one of the best resources actually for this case and if anyone has
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not seen the movie Spotlight which is about the Boston Globe it's a must see fifteen-year-old Eddie O'Brien he lives
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with his parents Patricia and Edward senior Okay so even though Eddie Jr is six foot four
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250 pounds his dad is known in his family and to the neighborhood as Big Ed okay so Eddie is the 15 year old big kid
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and Big Ed is Eddie's father there are five kids in Eddie's family and he's the only son it's also
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important to note that across the street from Eddie's house is his best friend's house
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this is Ryan Downing the Downing household consists of Ryan's mother Janet who is 42 years old and single and
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her four children around 5 PM Eddie leaves his house with his sister and Ryan downing's twin brother Paul
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they're going to go to the Catholic Church to attend the 5 30 Mass Eddie's sister Jeannie will be driving the group
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of teens as they get closer to the church Genie drops Eddie off at Union Square this is
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near his place of work he sees someone he wants to talk to at his work and he goes in there and he
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hangs out for a while he leaves there on foot heading in the direction of his house
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Eddie stops off at a park and sees his best friend Ryan Downing at this park they chat for a bit and decide to walk
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home with two other friends together now so all of them are going back to their neighborhood the group decides to go to
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Ryan's house okay Captain this is important as we are about to have several moving pieces here
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and I want to make sure this portion of the story comes out clear and that it is
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easy to follow because the events and the movements in regards to a a group or groups of teenagers will be very
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important to the rest of our story so to be clear we are now just after 6 30ish and we have four teenage boys all very
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good friends this is Eddie O'Brien Joey Dion Chris Ford and Ryan Downing they are all going to Ryan's house they have
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all been there I don't know a hundred times before they hung out there until almost 8 pm
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this is when the group is leaving to go swimming at a friend's house in the neighborhood Eddie is the only one in
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the group that does not want to go swimming yeah he's a bigger boy so right sometimes bigger boys don't want to go
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swimming well you're right you think back to when when you're a kid everyone knows someone
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for any number of reasons that was uncomfortable swimming in a group or with girls or with guys maybe or you had
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a friend that always had to swim with his shirt on yeah I had to swim with his shirt on but I preferred to swim without
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pants on well and it was actually known to his closer friends that Eddie was uncomfortable about his weight right so
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not only did he choose to not go swimming on this occasion I'm guessing that was probably a pretty regular thing
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for him well his his overall size as well I mean 6'4 you're a giant compared to your your friends you're you're
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bigger than most of your friend's parents so he's going to opt out on the swimming for the evening now again
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Eddie's house is right across the street so he just walks home the Edward O'Brien house did not have
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air conditioning so on a summer's day or night and this was pretty typical of the
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neighborhood in general his family they might hang out on their front porch for hours and hours so his father
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and Eddie and his little sister were all chilling on the porch some neighbors dropped by periodically
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to hang out and chat now just before 8 30 Eddie's sister Jeannie and Paul Downing came home
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they said they were going to go to the beach and swim Paul went to his house across the street
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to change and then was seen leaving the house around 8 30 P.M note that at this time just around 8 30
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p.m Paul is believed or was the only one seen going into the Downing house at this time right at 9 15 PM Eddie decides
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to go out for a little bit before the night is over here's his plan he's going to walk to the Burger King grab a snack
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and then walk to his friend his friend's name is Garvey he's going to walk to garvey's house
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this is at 9 15. okay so we're all on board so far we're going to move ahead in this timeline just a few minutes
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this is between the minutes of 9 45 to 10 p.m when the following takes place Ryan Downing returns home
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he finds his mother Janet Downing and a pool of blood on the dining room floor Ryan runs from the house to get help
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he runs across the street and gets Big Ed Big Ed goes running with Ryan back to his house
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just before they go inside big Ed yells to the neighbors this is Barry in Virginia reckley he yells for some kind
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of assistance from Barry so now entering the home all behind Big Ed we have the Reckless and Ryan during this time they
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call 9-1-1 to report what they saw from their own house correct on July 23rd 1995 Janet Downing age 42 and mother of
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four is found stabbed to death in her Somerville Home she was murdered sometime between 8 and
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10 p.m that Sunday night this July 23rd this 8 P.M to 10 pm marker comes from Margot Nash's fantastic book the
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politics of murder the Boston Globe says she was killed between 8 30 and 9 15 p.m I'm guessing
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other outlets probably reported similar times likely more to the 8 30 to 9 15 pm
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time frame I say that because we have Paul Downing who entered the home sometime around 8 15 and left just
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before 8 30. shortly after 10 pm Eddie calls police from the midnight convenience store where he works and he
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says he was attacked by two men with a knife he tells them he was mugged and had cuts
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to his right hand police speak with Eddie briefly at the store they go there and speak with him
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they take down the report and the paramedics are there too they examine his Cuts I wonder if these actually look
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like defensive wounds because we know that somebody trying to use a knife the knife could become slippery and cause
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wounds to their hands but it also didn't seem like he was covered in blood right so what we have
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go down here at the midnight convenience store Captain the police speak with him
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they take down his report the paramedics examine his cuts at the at this time the
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paramedics don't believe that he needs much medical attention and like you said he's clearly not covered
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in blood or the police are going to have a different reaction to the the sight of
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this young man but we also have to go through what Eddie told the police but this is not at
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the midnight convenience store this is later that same night when Eddie was treated at the hospital for these same
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injuries the cuts to his right hand and also some minor abrasions to Eddie's Shins
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one of the officers that participated in the safety sweep at the Downing house this is the murder scene the crime scene
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at the Downing house was later dispatched to go to the Somerville Hospital he was dispatched
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or so we're told this to interview a boy about an incident that took place earlier that day the boy Eddie who said
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he was mugged and injured during that crime so two officers arrived at the hospital
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around midnight they spoke to Eddie for a while his father and his uncle were present
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Eddie was photographed during this meeting he was wearing a white Above the Rim t-shirt which was turned inside out
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Eddie was also wearing green shorts and black tennis shoes police took blood swabs from Eddie's
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Shins they found a small drop of blood on one of Eddie's shins and later this would be
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tested we should keep in mind that the O'Briens believe that Eddie is being talked to because he was mugged
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earlier that day the evidence that is being collected at this time is Eddie's clothes
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fingerprints blood they're taking photographs of the young boy and such and again they believe this is necessary
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for the mugging incident Eddie and his father filled out and signed the consent forms for collection
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of this evidence after collecting the evidence and the photographs were taken it was time for
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the officers to have a nice long chat with all the parties so they went to the Somerville police station
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foreign [Music] [Music] cheers mates cheers to you there Mr Captain cheers to everybody out there there we go we just
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covered everybody yeah everybody in the world at the Somerville police station so on our timeline it is now just after
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2 A.M the officers have Eddie sign a Miranda waivers form this is protocol at the time in
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Massachusetts for persons over the age of 14 but under the age of 17. this is not typically done when you are about to
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interview a victim so this is where Captain us on the outside looking in can see that the
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officers here do not fully consider the 15 year old boy to be a victim they think of him in such a manner that
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requires them it requires the consent form before questioning Eddie's father went with one of the
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officers into another room for questioning of his own and then Eddie and his uncle and now we have Eddie's
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mother present as well remained in this room during the questioning and several officers are questioning Eddie at this
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time so I don't I want everybody to be clear this this boy this 15 year old boy was
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not left alone with officers yes he has no attorney present with him but he has his mother and his uncle in this room
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with him so he's got parental supervision or you know the the backing of his family Eddie was asked to recall
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his day and he said when he arrived at his best friend's house Ryan's house that the groceries were already in the
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house this is because Janet the mother went to the grocery store just prior to Eddie arriving
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he said he did not help bring them in because there was no need to do so he and a boy named Joey Dion went into
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the den this with the intent to play video games but Ryan's mother was asleep in that room so they went into the
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kitchen instead they did this so they would not wake her up there in the kitchen were other the
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other boys hanging out soon everyone left all at the same time and Eddie went home
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later Eddie said he was on his front porch when he saw Paul Downing go into his home and then saw Paul leave after
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he says 10 maybe 15 minutes and Paul leaves with three girls they get in a vehicle they drive off right then Eddie
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said he walked down the street and went to Burger King this is I I had to laugh about this Captain because we just spoke
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a few weeks ago about how McDonald's always seems to weasel its way into 60 or so of our cases well now we have
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Burger King trying to step in on old Mickey D's action right the Whopper that's right so Eddie says he walks to
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the Burger King and he said that the the restaurant was quite busy and then the food that he ate
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there upset his stomach a bit so he decided to leave so not a good showing out of Burger King right but do we have
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a receipt for this visit that's that's interesting that you say that I don't we don't have a receipt for this what's
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interesting is the Burger King thing does not so much come into question because of other information that will
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later come out he says after this experience at the old BK that he decided to walk down to Union
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Square to this area because he wanted to go to a place called Jimmy's this was like another
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food establishment on his way there is when he said he got mugged he was mugged he said when he walked down Somerville
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street after this he went to his work which was nearby remember this would be a safe place for Eddie right he's just
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been mugged where are you going to go you ain't gonna go to Jimmy's now and get something to eat in fact the people
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that mugged you stole all of your money so you're going to go to your work you're injured and he said that he said
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he never returned to the Downing home after he left with the group when he said he was going home because they were
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going swimming and he didn't want to go swimming right what's interesting here we say that
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they're questioning this boy but really all they do is ask him to recall his day
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he's not being asked specific questions even about the mugging or specific questions so much about Janet Downing
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who was murdered who lived across the street from him he's just being asked to record his day recall his day and really
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it appears to me that the majority of this visit seems more about photographing him right
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and taking his fingerprints and taking his blood getting that stuff getting collecting evidence from him
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well two days later on July 25th 1995 15 year old Eddie O'Brien he is arrested and charged with the
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murder of his best friend's mother who lives almost directly across the street from the O'Brien home
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one month later on the 25th of August a grand jury indicts Eddie for first degree murder
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so what the hell happened police said they didn't believe Eddie's story they believed that the cuts to his hand
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was not from the knife attack during the mugging incident that Eddie said took place
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but that the cuts were from his knife attack that he committed on Janet Downing and he had either injured himself while
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killing his best friend's mother or when she fought and tried to fight for her own life causing the cuts to his hand
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right also police said that they had physical evidence that Eddie committed the crime
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police said they matched a bloody fingerprint from a beam in downing's seller to Eddie O'Brien
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the prosecutor said they had Eddie's blood and fingerprints at the crime scene and Eddie had blood consistent with that
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of Janet Downing on his shin this was a small drop they also said that they had three
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eyewitnesses that saw Eddie fleeing the murder scene their claim is that Eddie fabricated the mugging story as an alibi
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for the cuts suffered during the commission of the murder right and some of his family members were out on the
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porch you would have think they would have noticed him going in and out of the neighbor's house yeah this story doesn't
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really heat up and get really interesting and into the nitty-gritty of the details
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until the whole thing gets to trial this is what's coming out in the papers at the time the police and the
00:31:02
prosecutors saying this is what we have against this this 15 year old boy we're going to arrest him we're going to
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charge him with first degree murder and it looks on the surface from what they're putting
00:31:15
in the papers to be what could amount to a mountain of evidence against this boy
00:31:21
yeah like I said if if he used a knife and there was that many stab wounds that there would be a lot of blood that knife
00:31:28
becomes slippery the handle becomes slippery they normally can injure themselves by attacking somebody else
00:31:35
so Eddie O'Brien is arrested and charged as we said Janet Downing was laid to rest
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Eddie's parents were invited by neighbors to attend the funeral and the mass for the services for Janet Downing
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the neighbors said that they did not want this tragedy to tear the neighborhood split right down the middle
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as one neighbor put it though Brian's not only believed their son's story and believed that he was innocent of the
00:32:07
charges they were very vocal about this belief they did interviews with the globe
00:32:14
and on August 2nd 1995 just a a little more than a week after the murder the O'Briens announced a five thousand
00:32:24
dollar reward for information leading to the men they believe mugged their son now two days later and I
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I believe that this should give everyone some insight into the character of this
00:32:39
boy of Eddie O'Brien or what those around him thought about him at the time even though this kid's been charged with
00:32:45
murder the owner of the store where Eddie worked he added ten thousand dollars to
00:32:52
the reward offered by The O'Briens then you don't do that if you think this kid is scumbag
00:32:58
well that's the thing he's you know I I know this term is well overused and it is say it it's tired but he's he's
00:33:07
described as a gentle giant or a big teddy bear well like you said his face makes him
00:33:13
look younger than he actually is he's got a kind face and I I hate that phrase too but really when I saw pictures of
00:33:20
him that's that's what I think of he's he's got boyish looks he's got a baby face
00:33:25
and people said that he was not an aggressive person he didn't argue with people he didn't get angry he didn't you
00:33:32
know fly into fits or anything like that in fact his parents and some of the coaching staff on his football team
00:33:41
would get angry and upset with him because he wasn't aggressive enough on the football field
00:33:48
he even told his father according to Big Ed anyway that he was worried that he would hurt the kids he didn't want to
00:33:56
hurt the kids because he was so much bigger than most of them right so he kind of hold back when he'd play against
00:34:03
people yeah so we have Eddie who says I was mugged we have his parents and now his employer
00:34:10
who are looking for the people that mugged him but see Eddie's got a secret and it's a really big secret and it's
00:34:19
about to come out two weeks after Eddie O'Brien was arrested and charged with murder he gave
00:34:27
his attorney a note that said he was at the crime scene the night that Janet Janet Downing was murdered
00:34:36
Eddie says the following is the real story let's remind everyone of Eddie O'Brien's
00:34:46
plans for that night he's going to walk to the Burger King grab a snack and then
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walk to his friend garvey's house but before doing this this is the part that is new to everybody but before
00:34:59
doing this at the last minute he said he decides he's going to go across the street to see if his best friend Ryan
00:35:07
had returned from swimming and if so he wants to see if Ryan wants to tag along with him for that night
00:35:16
and I really want to hit home this time stamp of 9 15 p.m right at 9 15 p.m three Witnesses
00:35:26
Place Eddie O'Brien at his house this is his father this is his sister and this is also the grandfather Eddie O'Brien's
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grandfather was living with them at the time they would later say we all were aware
00:35:41
that he was there at 9 15 because we heard him yell to Big Ed hey I'm going out I'm going down to the I'm leaving
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the house to go to Burger King so this was not just him going to his father and asking this is him kind of yelling it at
00:35:57
the house and asking for permission but announcing it at the same time so Eddie says he went across the street
00:36:04
to the Downing house he knocked on the window which was typical he says he noticed that the front door
00:36:12
was unlocked so he went inside he said most of the lights in the house were off he said he saw blood and places as he
00:36:22
made his way through the house he noticed the bathroom door was closed he says he saw Janet Downing laying on
00:36:31
the living room floor she's lying it on her side he says he ran over to her to see if she
00:36:39
was all right he put his hand on her and he said Janet was not conscious and Eddie said that there was blood all over
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the floor he says he didn't understand what had happened to this woman he turned her over so now she is on her
00:36:57
back he says that he saw all the cuts to her neck Janet was covered in blood and she
00:37:04
wasn't breathing Eddie wanted to get help so he said he started to go back to the front door
00:37:12
he says before he got to the door someone grabbed him from behind he described this person as a tall man
00:37:19
with dark hair the man was wearing a nylon stocking over his face in some kind of what Eddie
00:37:26
called latex gloves as tall as Eddie or as he's shorter than Eddie there was no height description given in the
00:37:34
information that I found the man put a knife to Eddie's throat and told him if you tell anyone about
00:37:43
this I will kill you and I will kill your family and I will have plenty of time to do it before the cops can catch
00:37:50
me right then Eddie said he heard something and he believes it was a knock at the door
00:37:56
the man then told Eddie to get out of there so Eddie ran to the seller and out the
00:38:04
Cellar Door so he's he doesn't run out the front door he runs to the seller down the steps to
00:38:11
the seller and out the Cellar Door he said when he got to this portion of the house that the Cellar Door was already
00:38:18
open so he's just running outside once outside he stumbled and fell into some bushes if you look at a map of the
00:38:27
the neighborhood you will see that there is a large amount of bushes or what even
00:38:33
some were calling a wooded area that is described to be I would describe it as behind the Downing home I have seen some
00:38:43
reports that say it's beside the Downing home so I mean I don't want to whatever words people want to use go for
00:38:51
now do we have a map that we can put on the website or Instagram uh we might um check our Instagram because we might
00:39:00
have I'm looking at one right here I do want to point out something too before we move on that I found this to be
00:39:06
interesting and it is somewhat part of the case but it should be noted the the home the Downing home is a duplex
00:39:16
so they share a wall with somebody else right the Downing family purchased this home in the late 70s her Janet Downing
00:39:25
and her ex-husband purchased this duplex in the late 70s and they lived in one side and rented out the other side
00:39:33
so at the time in 1995 Janet who is now single divorced she's living there with her four kids on one side and they've
00:39:41
rented out the other side the people living at the other side are The Reckless the ones that follow Big Ed
00:39:47
into the crime scene right The Reckless had rented from Janet Downing for like five years and they
00:39:55
didn't hear anything they heard some things and we can get into that during the trial but some of the things they
00:40:01
heard I personally I questioned them um there's been a lot made of what they might have heard at 8 15.
00:40:10
which is difficult because we have Paul who's in and out of the house at 8 15. back to uh Eddie's story okay so he runs
00:40:20
out the Cellar Door says the Cellar Door was already open when he got to that point of the house once outside he said
00:40:26
he stumbled and fell into those bushes that I am saying are directly behind the house
00:40:31
he says he doesn't remember getting scratched or injured during this fall he said then he went to the sidewalk and
00:40:38
started walking away from the house he believes that he heard someone or maybe some people calling out to him but
00:40:48
he says he just kept going so now he is fleeing from the house and he's running down if you're looking at a map he's
00:40:56
running down Hamlet Street toward Highland Avenue away from the Downing home he said he then walked to the Burger
00:41:05
King and he went into the bathroom washed his face and some of his body because he
00:41:13
says he was sweating profusely by this time not only is it summer and it's probably hot out right but if his story
00:41:20
is truthful he's probably scared to death and he's been moving quite quickly through the neighborhood to get down to
00:41:27
the Burger King and he said he didn't know what to do he said he wanted to go home
00:41:33
that's your natural thought I guess but he said he was afraid to remember social
00:41:38
right across the street right across the street and taking a very long detour yeah
00:41:44
so well no he he says he it wasn't until he got to the Burger King that he could
00:41:50
kind of clear his mind my my guess is that when he's running from the Downing house he's just running from the Downing
00:41:57
house once at the Burger King he's that's where he's saying once there I didn't know what to do I wanted to go
00:42:05
home but because it was right across the street from where the man threatened my
00:42:09
life and my family's life he didn't feel like he could go home he says he left the Burger King
00:42:16
and it was then that he was approached by what he describes as two boys most of the newspaper articles say two men but
00:42:23
his description was that of two boys and he said one of them had a knife these two boys were the ones who he claims
00:42:31
mugged him he said that he gave them all of the money that he had which was seventeen
00:42:37
dollars he said one of the boys threatened him and told him that he was going to cut him
00:42:43
and this kid was coming at Eddie and Eddie says he kind of sidestepped him you know steps back and he stuck out his
00:42:51
hand in his arm to try to Shield himself with his hand he doesn't remember getting cut at this time but he put his
00:42:58
hand out to block the knife from there he decides to go to his work the midnight convenience store
00:43:07
there he told one of his co-workers that he had just been jumped the worker picked up the phone and
00:43:14
dialed 9-1-1 and handed Eddie the phone and that is when police and EMTs arrived
00:43:19
at the midnight convenient store about 15 minutes later right and that's where they're going to check his person and
00:43:26
and the injuries take him to the hospital and that's kind of where the conversation between him and
00:43:33
please start happening yeah so here's what they observe at the midnight convenience store there is a cut on
00:43:41
Eddie's pinky finger there is a larger cut on the palm of his hand and a cut going down his thumb all three of these
00:43:50
Cuts were to Eddie's right hand right so after the EMTs were done with Eddie the
00:43:57
Somerville police who responded to the call they drove Eddie home now once he was home
00:44:04
his grandfather is recommending hey you should probably go to the hospital and get a tetanus shot
00:44:11
[Music] and get this hand examined one more time remember the EMTs when they examined in
00:44:18
his hand they didn't really they didn't do anything they just kind of you know cleaned it up
00:44:22
well and like we said and I think I've brought up twice already if he is using a knife himself
00:44:30
thinking about what would happen if a knife slipped through your hands you're going to be cut possibly on your thumb
00:44:37
your index finger your your palm so it doesn't those wounds don't have to be multiple stab wounds it could be one
00:44:47
injury for one slippage of of a knife that you're in control of yes it was a cut a cut to his thumb a cut to the palm
00:44:56
and a cut to his pinky finger now they decide that that his family decides that Eddie probably should have
00:45:05
got stitches they think he should get a tetanus shot they take him to the hospital and then that is where we know
00:45:13
that police really first started questioning Eddie because think about this for a situation now yeah there's 77
00:45:21
roughly 77 000 people living in this area but you get a call at just before or right around 10 o'clock
00:45:31
that a woman's been stabbed to death in her home and then uh shortly after 10 o'clock you
00:45:39
get a call that a boy 15 year old boy and depending on which route you take which is her neighbor yeah depending on
00:45:48
which route you take it's 0.4 to point five so less than a half a mile away this kid
00:45:56
is involved in a knife attack so not only proximity in far as location but proximity in time as well two knife
00:46:08
attacks take place or at least the finding of one victim and then the reporting of another victim yeah friends
00:46:14
with her kids knows the victim the neighbor of the victim was in the victim's house earlier that
00:46:21
day many times it seems like kids frequent that address um what I wonder though is
00:46:34
what was he wearing before he went home instead of going swimming before going home
00:46:42
and not hanging out with his friends what was he wearing well see that is where a big problem happens for they're
00:46:50
the big problem the police and for later the prosecutor okay there are there there's like a dozen witnesses that say
00:46:59
Eddie O'Brien was wearing the same thing that morning that afternoon that evening
00:47:07
before and after the murder and then he's photographed by police right twice [Music]
00:47:14
white shirt white shirt it's Above the Rim shirt remember people from the 90s will remember the Above the Rim
00:47:22
uh brand I don't know if they're still around everything's below the rim now uh very sad but uh he had a white Above the
00:47:32
Rim t-shirt on which was turned inside out and he was in again this was not uncommon and it's not like he was
00:47:39
wearing the shirt right side out and then later it's inside out no every person says he was
00:47:45
wearing an Above the Rim shirt that morning that afternoon that evening that night he was wearing green shorts
00:47:53
and he was wearing his black tennis shoes now you point out something that's very interesting it's the yes if if this
00:48:01
giant of a boy was using a knife to to murder this woman and stab her repeatedly it very easily could have
00:48:10
slipped and he could have cut himself during that attack or she's fighting him off and he loses control of the knife
00:48:16
and cuts himself but then you have a problem where this woman was brutally attacked and yeah
00:48:23
he's got cuts to his hand well let's stay at the crime scene but where's the blood on his on his body or on his
00:48:29
clothing yeah because how many stab stab wounds do we have oh man this was see that's the other thing too this was a
00:48:37
horrible horrible so what's the motive for this kid uh because because he thought she was a
00:48:45
attractive well so then when the motivation be sexual in nature do we have any sexual
00:48:51
assault that happened no sexual assault she was stabbed believed to be 98 times 98 times 98 times and that's not the
00:49:01
extent of her injuries we can get into that during the trial portions of this story but I mean you're talking 98 times
00:49:07
that's a brutal attack the the general thought was that she that Eddie O'Brien became
00:49:15
obsessed with this woman and that he was some kind of sexual sadist and he decided to attack and kill her
00:49:23
and he went in there with the knife and stabbed her 98 times and then he fled the scene made up this whole story of oh
00:49:30
I was attacked I mean did he stab her like really slowly to make sure that he didn't get any blood on his shirt well
00:49:39
see that's the part of the story that there's all these question marks happen Captain Captain there's there's a ton of
00:49:45
what's Happening cabin um his new name is cabin there's all these question marks there are things that
00:49:56
make this young man appear to be guilty but there are also things that you go well if he did in fact kill her why are
00:50:05
we not seeing this type of evidence well people will go well he went to the Burger King he said by his own
00:50:11
his own admission that he went to the Burger King and he washed his face he washed his hands and he washed portions
00:50:17
of his body well yeah good luck getting that amount of blood off of you and how did he get the blood off of his clothes
00:50:24
right the one thing I don't like about his story though Captain is that it's not that Eddie called 9-1-1 it's that he
00:50:32
gets to the store and it's it's the uh the the store clerk working at the time that goes
00:50:41
what the hell happened to you oh I was jumped that store clerk dials 9-1-1 hands him the phone it's almost like he
00:50:48
was forced to do it he was forced on the spot to come up with an excuse for why he was cut
00:50:54
right and maybe boom that's his his Alibi maybe he wasn't intending on going home for several hours after he killed
00:51:01
him though the problem you have is you have a store clerk that knows him that doesn't tell you he's covered in
00:51:07
blood so unless you can find a bloody shirt somewhere that he changed out of and like you said there's multiply
00:51:15
eyewitnesses saying he wore the same shirt that's not to say he lives right across the street well I'll just take
00:51:23
this uh shirt I'm going to pull this one off I'll wear this shirt I go in commit
00:51:28
the crime I got blood all over me I have to discard the the shirt now I put back
00:51:33
on my old shirt again a big bloody mess and you're going to put on a white shirt
00:51:39
a lot of other colors you could go with that that just doesn't make a lot of sense to me 98 times
00:51:48
like if I was wearing a white shirt and I was eating spaghetti I took 98 bites I'm going to get more spaghetti sauce on
00:51:57
me than this kid that supposedly just stabbed this lady 98 times violently because he was so obsessed with her got
00:52:03
any blood on his shirt [Music] so much more to get to make sure you stick around join us again tomorrow in
00:52:17
the garage until then be good be kind and don't let her foreign