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Dark Downeast
The Murder of James Cassidy, Part 2 (Maine)
00:36:18
Fifty years after James Cassidy’s death, there is still no simple explanation for his brutal murder. The evidence left behind in the Maine woods raised questions investigators have never fully answered. And the deeper the investigation went, the more complicated the picture became. A respected bank executive had vanished, federal authorities were preparing to arrest him, and a burned car was found far from home on a deserted logging road. But the paper trail and the witness accounts pointed in several directions at once – toward financial crimes, toward organized crime figures operating in New England, and toward the surprisingly valuable world of rare stamps. Somewhere among those threads may lie the explanation for what really happened all those years ago in April of 1976.
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- [00:00]
Pharmaceutical Advertiser
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- [00:48]
Narrator
Explore what's possible.
- [00:50]
Pharmaceutical Advertiser
Ask your doctor about tremphya today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit tremphfireradio.com
- [01:01]
Narrator
if you love stories where the truth hides just beneath the surface, then you need to listen to Chameleon. Hosted by journalist Josh Dean, Chameleon unravels unbelievable true stories about people who deceive, lie, and sometimes get away with it. From elaborate cons to flat out imposters, Chameleon pieces together the identities that were built and ultimately broken to uncover what's real and what's not. Listen to Chameleon wherever you get your podcasts. 50 years after James Cassidy's death, there is still no simple explanation for his brutal murder. The evidence left behind in the Maine woods raised questions investigators have never fully answered, and the deeper the investigation went, the more complicated the picture became. A respected bank executive had vanished, federal authorities were preparing to arrest him, and a burned car was found far from home on a deserted logging road. But the paper trail and the witness accounts pointed in several different directions at once. Toward financial crimes, toward organized crime figures operating in New England, and toward the surprisingly valuable world of rare stamps. Somewhere along those threads may lie the explanation for what really happened all those years ago in April of 1976. I'm Kylie Lowe and this is the Case of James Cassidy Part 2 on Dark Down East. On April 7, 1976, investigators in Eastern Maine received a call about a burned out station wagon hidden off a remote logging road near Debeck Pond. When they finally located the scene, they found the badly burned body of 43 year old James Jim Cassidy of Brookline, Massachusetts, a bank vice president and father of three. The fire had been extremely intense, destroying much of the evidence and Making it difficult to determine exactly what had happened. The autopsy ultimately concluded that Jim died from burning. Today, Jim's death is considered an unsolved homicide by Maine State Police. By the time the car was discovered, Jim had already been missing for several days. Federal authorities had also obtained a warrant for his arrest on embezzlement charges connected to his job at Brookline Trust allegations his sister in law, Evelyn Cassidy, still has a hard time believing.
- [03:52]
Evelyn Cassidy
We couldn't imagine Jim be involved in anything like that voluntarily. But see, that word voluntarily was in there. We don't know.
- [04:01]
Narrator
Investigators were left trying to reconcile the violent way Jim died with the life he had been living. What was Jim wrapped up in before his death? Was his death the result of risky dealings at the bank, or was it motivated by something much smaller, like stamps? According to reporting by Richard J. Connolly for the Boston Globe, Jim was believed to have been carrying approximately $350,000 worth of rare stamps when he left Massachusetts, and those stamps were unaccounted for at the scene. Rare stamps carry significant value even today, and the market for those collectibles has occasionally intersected with criminal activity. Because individual items can be worth large sums of money and are relatively easy to transport or resell, they became targets for theft or trafficking during Jim's era. In 1971, for example, members of Boston's Winter Hill gang stole a stamp collection worth about $500,000 from a Boston stamp business and later moved the stolen collectibles through other stamp dealers. Joseph McDonald was indicted in 1975 for his alleged part in the theft, but failed to appear for trial. So a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was placed on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list in April of 1976 and was classified as armed and extremely dangerous. This guy with a passion for high value stamp theft was on the lam the same month Jim was killed. And he wasn't the only one. That history raised another possibility in Jim's case. If he had encountered people operating in dark arenas, maybe stamps were the common denominator. Jim's philatelic passion, the formal term for stamp collecting and the study of stamps began in his childhood.
- [06:00]
Evelyn Cassidy
I always thought it was really cool because he started this when he's really young. And I remember one time at the house, I live in a house now in Canada where he grew up. I found a thing in the attic and it was like maybe a three by three piece of wood. And anyway, it had little slots in it. And I remember my husband telling me that David said Jim had made that for stamps. So it would hold stamps so you could see them all.
- [06:27]
Narrator
Jim's son, Ken Cassidy, remembers his father's stamp business fondly. He even got to participate.
- [06:34]
Ken Cassidy
He was heavily into stamps. One of the things that I enjoyed the most was the fact that he would come home with envelopes from other people and countries and stuff. My job and he paid me. I don't know whether so much per stamp or like that is to soak them in water and then take the stamp and the stamp fell off the envelope. Just take them and put them on newspaper, put them on the side to dry and then obviously give them back to him later.
- [07:00]
Narrator
The self named business James A. Cassidy Inc. Had started modestly as a mail order stamp and rare coin company. Jim first ran it out of his home in Brookline, Massachusetts. But by 1973 he expanded into a Boylston street office in Newton. The move suggested growth. Reporting by Jeff Strout for the Bangor Daily News indicated Jim had even purchased a mini computer for the operation and employed several people to help run the business.
- [07:28]
Evelyn Cassidy
Jim never talked about having valuable stamps or anything like that. He said how he enjoyed getting them from different places and how some were rare and how they'd be worth more money. But he never mentioned anything about the value of them.
- [07:42]
Narrator
Yet they were extremely valuable. A single rare stamp could fetch thousands of dollars or more. According to reporting by David Bright and Jeff Strout for the Bangor Daily News. After Jim died, a friend of Jim's made a payment of more than 10 grand to Jim's stamp and coin business. That friend was reportedly the same man who told investigators he had seen and spoken with Jim at the Portland Jetport on April 5.
- [08:13]
Ken Cassidy
The last man to see my father alive was John Heddy. I remember that particular name.
- [08:18]
Narrator
Reporting in the Rumford falls times from December 1976 described someone named John Head as an internationally known stamp collector, according to an obituary I found for John B. Head from Bethel, Maine. After he returned from military service in Japan, John started a business dealing in the philately and postal history of the Far east, specializing in Japan and the Ryukyus. I wanted to learn more about John Head and just how well known he was in the stamp world. But I struggled to find any information about him in even the most obscure and super niche sources. I even spoke to the president of the Main Philotlic Society as part of my reporting for this episode and he remembers the name John Head, but wasn't sure if they ever met. But Evelyn believes she met John and his wife at least once. And the tone of that meeting has always struck her as odd. She recalled that she attended a dinner meeting with Jim sometime in the early 70s, maybe four or five years before his death, when she was staying with his family in Brookline one summer. At the time we spoke, she couldn't recall the names of the man and the woman at the table. But based on what she does remember, and after speaking with her nephew Ken, she now is fairly certain the meeting was with John Head.
- [09:46]
Evelyn Cassidy
One time, the summer in the early 70s when I visited Jim, he had to go to a meeting with someone at a restaurant and wanted me to come with him. He ate first and then very strange, uncharacteristic of Jim. He said, evelyn, you said, will you excuse us, we need to talk for a bit. So there was a lady with the other gentleman and she was Japanese, so her and I left the table. And that was not like Jim at all.
- [10:15]
Narrator
John Head's wife Fumiko was from Japan. They were married in 1960 at the embassy in Tokyo. It's this detail in particular that leads us to believe that the meeting was with John and his wife.
- [10:30]
Evelyn Cassidy
But that was just very unlike him. I'm like to myself, I never asked him, but what could you be talking about stamps that I couldn't hear? What would I care?
- [10:40]
Narrator
It could have been nothing at all. Just a slightly out of character moment for Jim asking his sister in law for a little space to hold a private conversation with a business contact. But she hasn't forgotten it more than 50 years later. And it keeps surfacing in her mind like it means something more to Jim's case than she can decipher without the full picture. John Head has never been identified as a suspect or person of interest in Jim Cassidy's case. He is believed to be one of the last known individuals to see him alive. And so no doubt he was a valuable witness. And he may have known much more about Jim's stamp dealings than has ever been publicly shared. John died in 2008 and Fumiko passed away in 2025. So I can't talk to either of them for clarity on any of this. For now, we'll leave John Head where he stands. But another thread keeps drawing me back. One that leads further into the peculiar obsessive world of stamps. The deeper it goes, the more it suggests that Jim's case may intersect with something much larger and far more dangerous.
- [11:58]
Pharmaceutical Advertiser
For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms. Every choice matters. Tremphya offers self injection or intravenous infusion from the start Tremphya is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self inject Tremphya, proper training is required. Tremphya is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu like symptoms or if you need a vaccine.
- [12:46]
Narrator
Explore what's possible.
- [12:48]
Pharmaceutical Advertiser
Ask your doctor about tremphya today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit tremphyaradio.com.
- [13:05]
Narrator
Around the same time investigators were looking into the stamp business, they were also still trying to identify two men who had been seen in the Bangor area around the time of Jim's death. Though it's not explicitly stated in any of the source material I have access to for this case, it is reasonable to assume that the two men were the same individuals detailed in composite sketches shared with rental car companies during the initial investigation. While no identifying characteristics were shared in 1976, reporting by Richard Connolly for the Boston Globe in 1978 shed some light on who these people might have been. One of the men was identified in general terms as a former inmate of Walpole State Prison in Massachusetts. I'll refer to him by the fake name Adam to make this easier to follow, but I haven't been able to confirm his real name. According to reporting, Adam and the other man were stopped by an Ellsworth Main police officer during a routine highway check on the night of Jim Cassidy's disappearance. When asked what they were doing, the men reportedly said they were visiting a friend in Ellsworth, but they could not remember the friend's name. The men were also reportedly suspects in an unrelated arson case involving a cottage in Maine owned by a man from Revere, Massachusetts. Now I asked, but Ellsworth PD doesn't have any traffic stop records from 1976 anymore and I've tried to get more details on this arson case in an attempt to get my hands on records and names of the suspects. But to my intense frustration, I have come up empty handed. Retention schedules for records will never cease to bother me. I can only hope the originals are retained in the Maine State Police file for Jim's murder anyway. Richard J. Connolly for the Boston Globe reports that the Guy we're calling Adam and the other man were both friends of a guy named Ralph Daleo at the time. Daleo was identified as a bank robber who had escaped from prison in Massachusetts and who had known ties to organized crime in Boston. Daleo was eventually recaptured in 1978 while attempting to rob another bank in Columbus, Ohio. In an effort to gain favor with authorities. He provided information about a murder case in Columbus, even leading investigators to the murder weapon. DiLeo was also trying to avoid being returned to Massachusetts where he had escaped from. And during those negotiations while in custody, he was questioned about the Cassidy case by Massachusetts investigators due to his reported connections to the two men seen in the area at the time of Jim's death. Like I said, I've been unable to conclusively identify the two men that police were questioning Daleo about, but I do know who Ralph DiLeo was palling around with after Jim was killed. Ralph DiLeo was arrested on April 12, 1976, within days of Jim's murder, along with two other men, 32 year old Franklin M. Goldman and 36 year old Anthony J. Coyote. The trio had robbed a woman at gunpoint and attempted to kidnap her before being apprehended by Revere police. All three were sentenced for their part in that crime. Now here's where stamps come back into the timeline. According to reporting, the former Walpole inmate who we're calling Adam, the man believed to have been in the Bangor area around the time of Jim Cassidy's death and connected to Ralph DiLeo, he was known to be a stamp collector while incarcerated at Walpole State Prison. Yeah, so stamp collecting was reportedly common among inmates at Walpole. There was a club at the maximum security prison called the 906 stamp collectors dating back to 1956. For more than a decade during the late 1960s and into the 1970s, stamp collectors at the prison also organized an event known as the Inmate Philatelic Exhibition. The event invited collectors from outside the prison to loan valuable stamp collections which were displayed in locked cases inside the facility. Members of the public were even allowed to visit the prison to view the exhibits. But the prison stamp world became the target of a major theft. According to the Last Good Heist by Tim White, Randall Richard and Wayne wooster. When the 1971 exhibition opened, attendees, including several of the collectors who had sent their items in advance for display, noticed that things were missing from the cases. About $20,000 worth of stamps and collectibles valued at over $160,000 today, if adjusted for inflation. A prolific criminal named Robert Dassault, who was later linked to the 1975 Bonded Vault Heist in Providence, Rhode island, one of the largest heists in New England history. He was an inmate at Walpole at the time. After weaseling his way into the stamp club, he coordinated the heist of those stamps, secretly packing them into the crates of prison made license plates that were shipped out of the facility and later intercepted by an associate of his. They were never recovered. When you step back and look at all of this together with a red string from stamps to organized crime to gym and banking and beyond, the connections start to look strange. Jim Cassidy may have been carrying $350,000 worth of rare stamps. When he left Massachusetts, he ran a stamp and coin business. One of the last people known to see him alive was an internationally known stamp collector. At the same time, investigators were looking for two men who they later determined were likely associates of a Boston organized crime figure, one of whom had been a stamp collector inside Walpole State Prison. And inside that same prison, stamps themselves had become valuable enough at one time to steal. In a coordinated heist involving someone later connected to organized crime, Anthony Chiodi served time at Walpole in the 70s. Is he Adam, the stamp collector friend of Daleo's who was possibly seen in the Bangor area at the time of Jim's death, who was arrested with Ralph Daleo within days of Jim's death for an unrelated robbery and attempted kidnapping? I can't say for sure. Anthony Chiody and Franklin Goldman have never been identified as suspects or persons of interest in Jim's case and they have not been charged with any crimes relating to his death. None of this proves that Jim Cassidy's death had anything to do with stamps or organized crime. But it does show something important. The world Jim was operating in was a lot more complicated than it might appear at first glance. And if Jim really was carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars in stamps the night he disappeared, who knew he had them? And where are they now? The details of Jim Cassidy's life don't seem to line up with the way he died. Family, friends and colleagues described him as a steady, community minded person. He was involved with his church, volunteered as a Boy Scout, so leader and by most accounts lived what people who knew him described as a perfectly normal life. Nothing in his background seemed to clearly explain the two things investigators were now trying to reconcile. The violent way he died and the federal embezzlement charges filed against him shortly before his body was discovered.
- [21:14]
Evelyn Cassidy
Plus, he had like a good standing in Brookline running For town council. If I had a plan to rob a bank or embezzle money, I wouldn't be running for town council. Everybody know me, I'd be keeping a low profile.
- [21:29]
Narrator
As the months and years passed, the investigation into his murder appeared to lose momentum. Attention on Jim's case largely disappeared after the 1978 reporting about the questioning of Ralph DeLeo. There were no major updates, no arrests, and no clear answers about who killed him or. Or why. The case went cold and the Cassidy family was left behind, missing the man they loved. The empty space he left was filled with endless wondering what the truth could be. Among all the theories, none of it
- [22:03]
Evelyn Cassidy
made sense, just did not make sense. So say he was the Mafia, did approach him and all that. That's the last place he would have tried to escape to would be us. I mean, he would have went the opposite direction, away from his family, not towards them.
- [22:16]
Narrator
When Ken spoke with now retired Maine State Police Detective jay pelletier in 2020, he walked away thinking the investigation was primarily focused on the organized crime angle.
- [22:29]
Ken Cassidy
But as far as, as far as him, what I really think, and then listening to the. The officer rambling off about nine different Italian names, I believe this might have been that he was forced to do what he did.
- [22:43]
Narrator
But why, why Jim? Why was he subjected to such a horrendous death? Could it have been a calling card of sorts?
- [22:54]
Evelyn Cassidy
They also say too, like when the Mafia is involved, they always like, leave a statement, right? Who would you be leaving a statement to and what was the statement? Confusion. It was all confusion. That doesn't make any sense to me. None of it made sense.
- [23:11]
Narrator
April of 2026 marks the 50 year anniversary of Jim's death. Half a century has passed without answers. But some of the people whose names surfaced around the investigation are still alive today. One of them is Ralph DiLeo. Over the years, he has become a major figure in organized crime. Federal authorities later described him as a street boss of the Colombo crime family, one of the five Mafia families that historically controlled organized crime in New York. But Dalleo largely operated out of New England, including Massachusetts. His criminal history stretches back decades. Notably, in 2012, he pleaded guilty to racketeering and firearms charges tied to a criminal enterprise that prosecutors said was involved in crimes like extortion, loan sharking and drug trafficking. After serving about 15 years in federal prison, Daleo was released in 2024. But in May of 2025, federal agents arrested him again. According to Erin Katurski's reporting for ABC News, prosecutors alleged that Daleo had been plotting revenge against the federal agents involved in his earlier conviction. Investigators say he was gathering personal information about them and their families, compiling files on their home addresses, and had even assembled a burglary kit and notes referencing disguises. So Daleo is alive and back in custody. If there were questions left unanswered back when investigators spoke with him about his friends and the death of Jim Cassidy back in 1978, this might be their last chance to ask him. Over the years, small details have lingered, these strange moments and unexplained discoveries that were never fully resolved on their own, Any one of them might seem insignificant. Together, they form a collection of loose threads. One of those moments came the night of Jim's funeral. After the service, Evelyn and the rest of the family gathered at Jim's house to comfort his wife Alice, and their three sons. Later that evening, Evelyn and her husband returned to Jim's brother Arthur's house, where they had been staying. When they pulled into the driveway, something immediately caught their attention.
- [25:36]
Evelyn Cassidy
We looked, we could see all the lights were on our husband. I said, well, David and I must have hit some switches by accident or something, you know. So we sat in the car and talked for a bit. You know, what we thought, what happened, right?
- [25:47]
Narrator
As they talked about Jim and the circumstances of his death, they eventually stepped out of the car and headed towards the house.
- [25:55]
Evelyn Cassidy
And we did go in the house, and the door was open, but it was the back door that was open. And we came in the front door. The house had definitely been broken into, and it looked like they just left when we came, probably when our car came in.
- [26:08]
Narrator
Arthur took stock of the place. It was clear someone had been inside looking for something.
- [26:15]
Evelyn Cassidy
I remember, like, papers were strewn around. So they had looked through the files.
- [26:21]
Narrator
Arthur had brought some of Jim's paperwork home with him. Those documents were among the items that had been disturbed.
- [26:29]
Evelyn Cassidy
And they went in the dining room and went through his. Arthur's attache case. Papers gone through there, you could tell. And they even went into her Jerry's bedroom, you know, and you could tell. And they'd just gotten maybe half the house done, and you could tell. Well, they went up this dresser over here and then stopped right here, like they didn't finish the job.
- [26:51]
Narrator
Evelyn remembers Arthur calling police to report the break in, but she can't recall whether an officer came to the house or if anything was officially documented. I requested records from the police department that would have responded to the call, but those records no longer exist due to retention schedules. Arthur has since passed away. So there's no way to ask him what may have been taken or what he believed someone might have been looking for. Although the specifics have been lost to time, Evelyn remembers exactly how it felt.
- [27:23]
Evelyn Cassidy
I'll tell you, we were all scared to death.
- [27:32]
Narrator
My husband walked into the house yesterday carrying yet another package from Quince and suggested that Quince just set up a shop in our backyard. That was actually one of his better ideas because yeah, I think I have just about one of everything at this point. The package in question was a pair of the cropped patch pocket wide leg jeans in the perfect 24 inch inseam for a short person like me. And a pair of the most incredible Italian leather block heel boots. You know, the ones like the boot everyone is wearing. But these ones from Quint are half the cost of that four letter name brand. Quince nailed it. Once again, these are high quality materials that will make the boots and and the jeans. Two more staples in my closet because Quint's makes beautiful everyday clothing and accessories using premium materials like 100% European linen, organic cotton, Italian leather and super soft denim with styles starting around $50. Refresh your spring wardrobe with Quince. Go to quinte.com downeast for free shipping and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. Go to quince.com downeast for free shipping AND 365 day returns. Quint.com downeast. Was the break in connected to Jim's death? Who was there rifling through his brother's home and what were they looking for? Add those to the pile of questions that have stacked up over the last five decades. And the confusion doesn't end there. Some of the items reportedly found near the burned car in Maine still puzzle Jim's family to this day. Investigators recovered a metal arch at the scene similar to one Jim owned. The device was meant to correct a slight difference in leg length caused by a childhood case of polio. But according to Evelyn, Jim never used it.
- [29:30]
Evelyn Cassidy
Jim had bought them, tried them, didn't like it, so he never used it. He just walked on his toe on that short leg. He never had a limp, so you never know it until you unless you specifically look for it. So he never had it with him. It was who knows where it was in the closet somewhere or I don't know, but he never used it.
- [29:48]
Narrator
How did that metal arch end up at the crime scene if Jim never wore it? A watch was also found at the scene, believed to be Jim's watch as far as Evelyn was told. But that same watch was found at home by his wife sometime later, untouched by fire. If Jim's watch was still in the house, then whose watch had been found along that remote logging road?
- [30:11]
Evelyn Cassidy
Like his watch was there. It burned. And his lift for his shoe, which he never used. He wouldn't have had it with him unless he packed it. Didn't make any sense. What? Why were all these odd things happening?
- [30:27]
Narrator
The location of Jim's car itself deserves a little more discussion here, too, because the remoteness matters. The burned station wagon wasn't sitting along the shoulder of Route 9 where a passing driver might easily notice it. According to reporting at the time, the vehicle was located about 600ft off a discontinued section of Route 9 near Debeck Pine. It was hidden far enough from the road that it couldn't be seen by anyone simply driving by. When the anonymous caller first reported the burning car on the morning of April 7, deputies began searching the area almost immediately. They spent the better part of the day combing Route 9 and nearby roads, looking for smoke or wreckage, but they didn't find anything. It wasn't until the caller phoned back the next day and gave more precise directions that investigators were able to locate the car. In other words, the person who called knew exactly where the vehicle was. The caller told dispatchers he had been heading out to go fishing beyond Parks Pond when he came across the scene. That very well may be true. But I wonder, how did a passerby notice a car hidden hundreds of feet down a discontinued road when trained deputies searching the area couldn't find it? After hours of intense searching, the identity of that caller has never been publicly confirmed. At the time, dispatchers reportedly described the man as sounding calm and possibly elderly, though later comments from a Penobscot county lieutenant suggested the caller may have actually been a man in his 40s. Whether he simply was a witness who happened upon a terrible discovery and didn't want to get any more involved, or he was someone who knew more about what happened on that remote stretch of road remains another unanswered piece of Jim Cassidy's story. Jim probably didn't drive himself to that location. He was seen in the Bangor brewer area, roughly 20 miles away, sometime on April 5, and investigators were trying to identify two men who had been in that same area around the same time. Evelyn recalls hearing that Jim was actually seen in a vehicle with two men that day. If that sighting is accurate, that he was in a car with the guys, she wants to know why he wasn't fighting them. Did he know the people he was
- [32:50]
Evelyn Cassidy
with somebody, saw him in a car in the backseat, in the between two people, and they were buying gas and putting it in a can. He wasn't a big, rugged man, but they had me in the backseat of a car, and I knew they were gonna what they were doing. You wouldn't have kept me in the backseat. I'd have got out. Or I've been screaming, hauling and scratching, digging, and I wouldn't be sitting there, just calm.
- [33:11]
Narrator
If Jim was really seen at a gas station in Brewer that day, as both reporting and family recollections suggest, maybe in the company of two men. Is it possible Jim ran out of gas on his road trip to Canada, and these men presented themselves as helpful strangers only to reveal their true intentions later? It's a stretch. Given everything we know about the circumstances of this case, this doesn't feel like a crime committed by strangers on a whim. And besides, Jim was always prepared.
- [33:43]
Evelyn Cassidy
Certain people don't run out of gas. He was one of them.
- [33:48]
Narrator
Each of these details sits somewhere between coincidence and clue. Individually, they might be red herrings, or they might be pieces of a larger puzzle that investigators are still assembling. Without the full picture, it's impossible to know which is which. That uncertainty is exactly what has kept Jim Cassidy's story unresolved. And for half a century, Jim had a natural curiosity and a knack for figuring things out. He was a man of many talents.
- [34:21]
Ken Cassidy
He's just one of those guys that doesn't even have to pick up a book. He could just figure things out and whatnot. He's just very good at what he did, whether it be mechanical things or wooden things and. And whatnot.
- [34:31]
Evelyn Cassidy
Well, Jim, he used to play the guitar, and he had a little bracket or something where he could play the moh organ at the same time. And he would go all around the country playing for dances and this. Yeah. And he used this money so he could go to teachers college.
- [34:46]
Narrator
The people closest to him say Jim never carried himself like he was above anybody else. He was a calm, steady presence, content to be in the background, but who could also bring a group together.
- [34:58]
Evelyn Cassidy
He had a great characteristic about him that everybody was equal. They'd come to Canada, he'd bring his boys. His three boys. And his wife had family in a town nearby, so sometimes he'd drop her off. But the boys, you know, sons, always came to the farm. And nobody was the big shot with Jim. Right. I was just as important or my daughter as his father. Like everybody, just. He could do that somehow.
- [35:25]
Narrator
After Jim died, life for his family changed in ways that can't really be
- [35:29]
Ken Cassidy
measured because we had a mom that did the best she can do to raise three boys on her own and raise a household and keep a roof over our head and keep food in our stomachs and whatnot.
- [35:41]
Narrator
Ken went to live in Canada for some time after his dad's death. Being there gave him the gift of connecting with his father through the legacy of their family farm.
- [35:51]
Ken Cassidy
To actually sit there and do the work that my father and my uncles did when they were younger. Washing the cows down, putting the milkers on them, and then within an hour or so, I'd have to go back in the house, get cleaned up, and then go outside, wait for the school bus to go to Hampton. So I have the experience and some of the knowledge that was actually passed on from living the life that my father did when he was younger.
- [36:15]
Narrator
He plans to retire there on a plot of land overlooking the interval, land his father once worked.
- [36:22]
Ken Cassidy
And my family tells me, your home is here. I like it up there so much that I bought a piece of property back in 2019, and it's a five acre lot. It's only two miles from the farm, but I can actually oversee the farm from where I'm at.
- [36:36]
Narrator
The questions about what happened to his father have never really gone away. There are quiet moments when Ken's mind drifts back to the mystery that has followed his family for decades.
- [36:48]
Ken Cassidy
I've got my own tractor and I got my own field and I cut my field and I look around in wonder. Your mind wanders at time. And I'm an over the road truck driver too, so when I'm on the road, I have a lot of time to think. And just early morning is when you wake up and that starts to roam in your head. Different things.
- [37:07]
Narrator
And like many families connected to unsolved cases, what they want most isn't necessarily punishment, it's answers.
- [37:15]
Ken Cassidy
You wonder, you know, if it would make a difference or not. Maybe it would. And I could be proud knowing that my father had really nothing to do with this and he was forced to do it. So I would probably feel better knowing that somebody else forced him to do it than he did this on his own.
- [37:31]
Evelyn Cassidy
Mostly I'd like to know what happened and be able to say, and maybe publicly even, you know, this is what happened. Jim didn't do it. I knew he didn't do it then, and now I, now I can prove it. Right. That would be amazing. Justice is another thing that doesn't bring much joy right.
- [37:49]
Narrator
The joy remains in their memories of when their family was whole.
- [37:53]
Evelyn Cassidy
I stayed down in Boston one summer with Jim and Arthur, back and forth and Jim at night he did work a lot, but like in the day he let me have his car. I'd go all around Brookline and, you know, little country punkin driving around Brookline. And always on Sunday we would go for a drive and then we'd go for ice cream at night. You know, I thought he was great.
- [38:15]
Ken Cassidy
We had a great life together. I remember the time at nighttime I couldn't wait to kiss my father and to say good night to go to bed. All three of us did. It was just one of those. We loved our father to death.
- [38:26]
Narrator
If you have information about this case, no matter how small it may seem, please contact the Maine State Police Major Crimes Unit north at 207-973-3750 or use their toll free line at 1-800-432-7381. You can also submit information anonymously by using the form linked in the description of this episode. Crime Junkie Fan Club members got to hear both parts of James Cassidy's story ad free in the app. And starting next week, you can get all the episodes of Dark down east in the Crime Junkie Fan Club app ad free the very same day they go live everywhere else. Find it in the App Store and in the show description for this episode. Thank you for listening to Dark Down East. You can find all source material for this case@darkdowneast.com Be sure to follow the show on Instagram arkdowneast. This platform is for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time. I'm Kylie Lowe and this is Dark Down East. Dark down east is a production of Kylie Media and Audio. Chuck. I think Chuck would approve. When Joan Webster's mom hadn't heard from her daughter in four days, she had a really bad feeling. Then her worst fear was confirmed. Joan was missing. The police were quick to connect Joan's disappearance to the case of Marie Iannuzzi, a woman murdered in the same area of Massachusetts two years before. But something doesn't sit quite right about how these investigations unfolded and begs the question, who really committed these crimes? You can listen to Joan Webster and Marie Iannuzzi's story on Crime Junkie wherever you get your podcasts.