The Tuxedo Killer - Cranston, Rhode Island

Summary

Small Town Murder — “The Tuxedo Killer, Cranston, Rhode Island”

Hosts: James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman
Release Date: August 6, 2026

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Main Theme Overview

James and Jimmie delve into the wild and tragic case dubbed “The Tuxedo Killer,” a shocking small-town murder in Cranston, Rhode Island. What begins as a detailed, often hilarious overview of Cranston culminates in the chilling account of domestic violence, mental health struggles, and murder after a family wedding. The hosts blend deep research, dark humor, and sharp observations to bring to life this little-known, media-ignored case.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: Cranston, Rhode Island

• [06:14–22:22]
  • Cranston described as "tiny and nice," with a vibrant Italian community, annual St. Mary’s Feast, varying town reviews, and strong “small-town” character despite its relative size.
  • Local color includes road rage stories, Italian-American culture, property values, and boisterous town events.
  • “It feels very small townie. It doesn’t feel city in this area.” (Jimmie, 10:40)

2. Cranston’s Crime Profile

• [19:59–21:41]
  • Despite colorful complaints and “rowdy” reputation, actual violent and property crime rates are below national averages.
  • “Thunderdome, basically, is what they’re talking about from that one review… All the children are in packs.” (James, 21:22)

3. Introduction to the Case: The 911 Call

• [22:45–27:46]
  • On September 19, 1999, just after midnight, neighbor Alma Miller calls 911 after witnessing a woman lying in the street following what appears to be a car incident.
  • Confusion as to whether the victim was run over, dragged, or what exactly transpired.

4. Victim & Suspect Backgrounds

• [27:46–41:56]
  • Victim: Jean Robinson, a charge nurse, beloved local, recently engaged, previously married to Wayne Robinson.
  • Suspect: Edwin “Brad” Edwards III (aka “Brad”), truck salesman, comes from a notable lineage (jazz musician grandfather, state rep father), multiple failed marriages, history of substance abuse and domestic violence, significant mental health and anger management issues.
  • “If you’re a car salesman… it’s because you have no other skills, right?” (James, 42:32)

5. Pattern of Abuse and Relationship Turmoil

• [44:24–56:02]
  • Chronic fights, incidents of Brad breaking down doors, angry and abusive phone messages, cycles of apologies and temporary reconciliations.
  • Jean attempts to help Brad seek psychiatric care; he sees multiple doctors over increasing anxiety, depression, anger, and medication issues.
  • “He leaves some—what he’ll call—apology messages after that. It’s about a series of ten phone calls where Brad repeatedly swears at Jean in very vulgar language, demeans her, hangs up, then calls back to do it again for ten times.” (James, 46:09)

6. Medication, Mental Health, and Substance Use Spiral

• [56:20–83:49]
  • Deep dive into Brad’s whirlwind of therapists/psychiatrists, SSRI and anti-anxiety drugs, attempts to adjust dosages/combinations, increasing instability leading up to the murder.
  • Records indicate, despite claims, no pharmacological reason for the extreme violent behavior—key later in trial.

7. The Wedding, the Build–Up, and Day of the Murder

• [106:50–125:16]
  • Wedding Day: Jean’s daughter gets married. Brad is moody, resentful, undermines Jean’s happiness, argues over trivialities (e.g., her medication, engagement ring, not wanting to meet her ex’s family).
  • Throughout the evening, Brad’s behavior escalates—sulking, arguments, detachment.
  • “He didn’t feel a part of Jean’s family, and he wanted to be with just Jean by herself... He seemed like he resented her joy that day. She’s so happy, it pisses him off.” (James, 108:23)

8. The Murder and Immediate Aftermath

• [128:38–154:17]
  • After the wedding, neighbor Alma Miller hears “help me” from outside. She witnesses Brad’s unusual, hesitant behavior as he leaves.
  • Police discover Jean dead in the street, evidence of blunt force trauma, strangulation, and having been run over—possibly three different methods of injury.
  • Crime scene inside shows extensive blood, smashed doors, bloody flashlight—the attack began indoors and concluded outside with the vehicle.

9. The Bridge, the Tuxedo, and Police Standoff

• [154:17–158:55]
  • Brad flees in his tuxedo, ditches his blood-soaked shirt, calls his sisters confessing (“I think I’m in trouble, I’ve killed Jean” – [142:28]), drives to the bridge, threatens suicide, swallows a bottle of pills (claims up to 35 Klonopin), and is talked down by a family friend/cop.
  • Memorable moment: “I can’t speak right now, I’m busy” (as he straddles the bridge’s I-beam), before throwing his phone in the water. (152:41)

10. Medical & Legal Proceedings

• [158:55–191:59]
  • Brad’s hospital and psychological evaluations show no evidence of Klonopin overdose.
  • At trial, Brad claims diminished capacity (blames medication—a defense the judge utterly rejects), recounts a sanitized version of events, and blames his behavior on mental health issues rather than intent.
  • Testimony and expert evidence thoroughly debunk his version—he is found guilty.

11. Sentencing

• [189:54–191:59]
  • Judge’s scathing rebuke: “Self-pity then set in and you became overwhelmed not by your brutal acts... but by what would happen to you next.”
  • Sentenced to life without parole; all appeals denied.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On municipal pride:
  “It’s always a good time to see people having a good time. That sentence. Roll that around in your fucking brain for a minute.”
  (James, 08:40)

• On classic New England fighting:
  “The groomsman showed up with a black eye because he got in a fight in traffic.”
  (Jimmy, 09:42)

• On upper middle class life:
  “Upper middle class garbage. So it’s going to be— you should collect that and keep it.”
  (James, 14:52)

• On the defendant’s temper:
  “He’d come back, break into the house through the locked breezeway door leading into the kitchen, kicks the fucking door off the hinges.”
  (James, 44:57)

• Brad’s apology technique:
  “It’s about a series of 10 phone calls where Brad repeatedly swears at Jean in very vulgar language, demeans her, hangs up, then calls back to do it again for 10 times.”
  (James, 46:10)

• On the murder confession:
  “He answers the phone and says, ‘I can’t speak right now. I’m busy.’... This is the most busy a human being has ever been. By the way, you’re so busy right now.”
  (James, 152:41)

• On the defense’s implausibility:
  “Through the sheer incredulity of his testimony, he has eliminated voluntary Klonopin intoxication as a defense to murder.”
  (Judge, 188:15)

• Closing reflection:
  “If you’re in an abusive relationship, get the fuck out. This is so cyclical and so ugly.”
  (Jimmy, 192:11)

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Key Timestamps

• [06:14] — Geographical and cultural intro to Cranston
• [21:41] — Transition into case details
• [22:45] — The 911 call and the discovery of the body
• [44:57] — First evidence of Brad’s physical violence
• [56:02] — Engagement and escalation, psychiatric records
• [106:50] — Wedding day timeline and tensions
• [128:38] — Alma Miller’s eyewitness account
• [134:07] — Arrival of police, crime scene processing
• [142:28] — Brad’s phone confession to his sister
• [152:41] — Iconic “I can’t speak right now, I’m busy” call
• [154:17] — Standoff on the bridge
• [189:54] — Guilty verdict and sentencing

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Tone & Style

James and Jimmy keep the show’s trademark mix of deeply researched storytelling, dark humor, empathetic reflection for the victim, and irreverent asides. Their comedic banter lightens the heavy narrative but never mocks the victim or her family. The hosts’ own backgrounds (“upper middle class— the way Jimmy likes it”) pepper the show with authenticity and relatable absurdity.

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Summary Takeaway

The episode is a deeply engaging look at a shocking but under-exposed “small town” murder, highlighting how toxic relationships, failed interventions, and untreated anger can escalate with devastating finality. The hosts provide both historical color and emotional resonance, consistently reminding the audience of the real-life pain behind the madness— “If you’re in an abusive relationship, get the fuck out.”

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For a blend of outrageous local flavor and chilling true crime, this episode delivers a compelling, even cinematic, telling of the “Tuxedo Killer” case— a uniquely Small Town Murder entry.

Transcript

[James Petregallo]

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[Jimmy Whisman]

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[Jimmy Whisman]

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[James Petregallo]

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[Jimmy Whisman]

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[James Petregallo]

This week in Cranston, Rhode Island, a man threatening to jump off a bridge while wearing a tuxedo leads to a disturbing crime scene with the victim seemingly killed in three different ways, all while a neighbor looks on in horror. Welcome to small town murder. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small town murder.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yay.

[James Petregallo]

Yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petregallo. I'm here with my co host.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'm Jimmy Whisman.

[James Petregallo]

Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another absolutely insane edition of small town Murder. This is wild stuff. This original started as an express episode and as I put it together, I'm like, oh, this is way too much for an express. This is just too much stuff and too much crazy going on that we need to hear about. It was like, I can cut this out. I'm like, but that's so good. No, I can't cut it out. It's happening. So we have a wild one for you today. Before we get to that, absolutely. Head over to shutupandgivememurder.com tickets for live shows, everybody.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Is that what it is?

[James Petregallo]

Can't wait for the live shows. You guys are going to love the live shows. Hilarious, a lot of fun and just have a good night. Leave with your cheeks hurt and it's going to be fun and hear a murder story. Next show's up on the docket here September 18th at the Pabst in Milwaukee. Not a lot of tickets left for that, so get them right this second. And then Minneapolis the next night, State Theater. We can't wait. That's going to be a great show. We love that theater and we love Minneapolis, so that's going to be fun. Then October 3rd in Dallas, October 16th in San Jose, the 17th in Sacramento. Then November 13th, Tarrytown, and the 14th in Boston. So get your tickets right now. Shut upandgivemerder.com is where you get all those. Also, you should listen to our other shows for sure. Check out crime and sports. I get it. You go. I don't really like sports. You don't have to like sports. We promise. Jimmy, promise them. We promise. See, we promise you. You do not have to like sports. You have to like comedy and idiots who fuck up when they don't have to. That's all you have to like. Great stories, great stuff. Then, yeah, it's just like this. Except an athlete who messes everything up and doesn't have to then listen to your stupid opinions because who doesn't want to hear people's reviews of places? You don't care. It's the greatest show in the world. So check those out. Get yourself patreon as well. Patreon.com CrimeInSports is where you get all the bonus material. All you have to be is $5 a month or above and you get everything we put out. That's everything. As soon as you subscribe about 400 back bonus episodes you've never heard before, you get those. Then you get two new ones every other week. One crime in sports, one small town murder and you get them all. Everybody this week for crime and sports. Death on skis, all sorts of crazy skiing acts. That's a deadly sport. We're going to talk about it then. For small town murder. Love after lockup time. Hello, it's back. Season six. We have been talking about this amongst ourselves. We've done about 12 episodes all by ourselves with nothing recording. So we can't wait to talk about that for you guys. We're very excited. Patreon.com CrimeInSports is where you get all of that and you get everything we put out. Crime and sports, your stupid opinions, boats, small town murders, all ad free with your Patreon. And on top of that, you get a shout out at the end of the show. You can't beat it. It's the best value going. So do that and hang out with us more. Disclaimer time. It's A comedy show, everybody. It's a comedy show. We're comedians. We are going to tell a story that absolutely has horrible murder in it, or else. Obviously, the title of the show would be pretty moot and pointless at that point, but, yeah, that's what's going to happen here. And you go, how do those two things go together? You'd be surprised how easily. See, the thing is, there's a lot to make fun of here. You can make fun of a small town because we're all from somewhere that deserves to be made fun of. Make fun of. If some police force lets a murderer go free for years so they can kill a bunch more, I think that deserves mockery. We make fun of murderers because what other recourse do we have? We're not going to go down there and take his commissary away. I can't do anything about it. So we can make fun of him, but that's how it works. But what we never do is we never make fun of the victims.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No.

[James Petregallo]

Or the victim's families.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Why, James?

[James Petregallo]

Because we're assholes.

[Jimmy Whisman]

But.

[James Petregallo]

But we're not scumbags. See, we feel like they've been through enough. So, you know, that's how this works here. Now, if you think that sounds great, you're gonna hear a wild show. If you think true crime and comedy should never, ever go together and you have no idea what the hell we're doing here. Well, I don't know why you clicked on it, but I think you'll like it. That's the thing. Check it out.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's why you click on it.

[James Petregallo]

Give it a chance. If you don't like it, I don't want to hear about it, though. No complaining later because you've been warned. That said, let's do this. I think it's time everybody to sit back. What do you say? Clear the lungs, arms to the sky. Let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody. Let's go on a trip, shall we? We're going to Rhode island this week.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's a nice place.

[James Petregallo]

It's tiny and nice. Yes, it is. It's not bad. There's some nice areas there. The beaches are nice. I like those rocky beaches.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Cranston's one of them. Cranston's beautiful.

[James Petregallo]

It is. It's not bad. Yeah, Cranston's not exactly a tiny town, but you gotta understand in. Well, you know what it is. Everything in Rhode island is miniature. Let's just say that I consider anything But Providence, a small town in Rhode

[Jimmy Whisman]

island, pretty much it's like a little snow globe.

[James Petregallo]

It's what it is. Yeah, it's exactly right. So this is Cranston, Rhode island, southeastern Rhode island, about 15 minutes outside of Providence. So you're really close to good Italian food there on Federal Hill there. It's good stuff. 25 minutes to North Smithfield, not Springfield, Rhode island, which was our last Rhode island episode, which was episode 674, death party crime spree. That was a big party where people got together and it got out of hand and people died. So this is in Providence county, area code 4,01. A little bit of history on this town here. Now there's a debate over what the town, who the town was named after. Not Brian, I'm pretty sure it's not Bryan. But there was a governor, Samuel Cranston, who was the longest serving Rhode island governor, and his grandson, Thomas Cranston, who was serving as the speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives when the town was created. So they argued about who it was named after, but it really doesn't matter because they're the same family.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Same guy, same name.

[James Petregallo]

Your family is who we're naming it after rather than the guy. A lot of Italians in Cranston, by the way. Yeah, there's pockets of Rhode island that were prevalent in there and that's one of them. Apparently a lot of immigrants from Italy who settled in the Knightsville section of Cranston in the early 1900s. Therefore it is known for the St. Mary's Feast for the kids. The St. Mary's Feast, inspired by the feast of the Madonna della Civita, which is celebrated in Italy in the town that they're all from. Since 1905, the St. Mary's feast has been a week long festival in celebration in July. So we'll get to that and things to do. But reviews of this town. Let's find out what people think here. Here's five stars. Perfect. Couldn't be better. I like how the community gets together during the summer for a festival we call St. Mary's Feast.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right?

[James Petregallo]

It always. It is always a good time to see people having fun. That sentence. Roll that around in your fucking brain for a minute there. It's always a good time to see people having a good time. Excellent. Great.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I. I have the most fun watching others have fun.

[James Petregallo]

That's what I'm saying. That's like saying when I see people fuck, my dick gets hard. That's the equivalent of what they just said, is it not?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, that Is your visual porno for fun?

[James Petregallo]

For sure. This must be a. They're more into the visual aspect of it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You're the visual guy.

[James Petregallo]

A woman would be like, I like to hear people's emotions about how they, you know. I like to know their feelings about it. There's a guy who just wants to see tits and that's it. What? I would just want to see tits and cannolis. That's all I'm interested in here. What I would like to change is the amount of construction being done throughout the town. Well, then it's not. You're improving things when you're constructing. It causes a lot of traffic and unnecessary road rage. A lot of people screaming at each other in terrible Rhode island accents, which is hilarious.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This is where I went to a wedding and everybody was from Cranston. And the groomsman showed up with the black eye because he got in a fight in traffic.

[James Petregallo]

Yes. Yes. This is a bunch of crazy Italian guys with Rhode island accents. That is scary.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Got in a Rhode race fist fight in a school wedding.

[James Petregallo]

Peter Griffin is a real guy in Rhode Island. When they're trying to back the boat in and the guy's saying something, he goes, why don't you get back in the car with your wife? That's fucking Rhode island in a nutshell.

[Jimmy Whisman]

His face is all red from getting dotted.

[James Petregallo]

It's amazing.

[Jimmy Whisman]

His eye was black.

[James Petregallo]

That is awesome. I love it. He's like, you should see the other guy. Three stars. Cranston's a nice place to live if you like small towns. That's the thing, too. It feels very small townie. It doesn't feel city in this area, you know?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, it's a lot of. It's a lot of. You'll get to it. But it's a lot of, like, upper middle class people. And they're all just such great people. It's a great place.

[James Petregallo]

Jimmy's like, they're upper middle. I love them. They pay their bills. No pores is what Jimmy just said. They have no pores, and I love it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

None of those scumbags bringing down the property.

[James Petregallo]

None of these dirt bags out there in both crowds. Cranston and Oliver Island. Everybody knows everybody, which allows you a chance to make easy connections to get to know others. Yeah. There's malls in Phoenix that are bigger than the whole state. Here's two stars. Town is literally full of garbage. Like, you see people throwing garbage out of their cars onto the streets. People ride loud motorbikes around at all hours of the day and night. You can hear gunshots from shootings in South Providence. The children. The children roam in packs and graffiti public buildings whilst also destroying public parks.

[Jimmy Whisman]

All the children do that, huh?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, all the children. The police get annoyed if you call them and rarely follow up. That's because they're like, it's you again. It's her again.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Stop calling.

[James Petregallo]

She saw three kids walking down the street and is calling the cops because they're.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, it's like carrying baseball bats. They were on their way to T ball.

[James Petregallo]

They're all wearing. And I think it's a gang because they're all wearing the same thing. They're all wearing a shirt that says the same thing across the front. And they all have a hat on. And there's clicking when they walk. I don't know what their shoes are, but they're really.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Their shirts say Thrashers. They're going to thrash.

[James Petregallo]

They're doing something. Shirts say bombers on them. We need to really get them. They could be up to something, calling their shots, calling their shots and everything. Jesus. People in this town, currently 82,654. So still pretty. Not a huge town. And it had less people when this murder happened. More men than women here, which is rare for a large town. 50.3% men, which is strange. Usually it's the other way around. Median age here is 40, so it's just above the national average. It's about 47% married. Everything's pretty close to the national averages. Nothing's too far straying. Single with children, that kind of thing. Race in this town, 71.9% white, 5.1% black, 5.6% Asian, 13.9% Hispanic. Religion here, 54% of the people are religious, which is slightly above the national average.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Boy, oh, boy.

[James Petregallo]

I'll give you one guess what the overwhelming. Yeah, this is. 45% of the people here are Catholic, as we know. Catholics are the Baptists of the north, everybody of New England of the Northeast, for sure. And especially in a heavily Italian era, you're gonna get that. 1.2% Jewish. Holy shit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Get out of here.

[James Petregallo]

It's been so long. Let's sing it, baby. Havana Havagilah vah nagila Havana I don't know the words. Hey, hey. All right. There we go. 1.2%. So anyway, unemployment here is about average, by the way, We've been asked recently why we do that, because someone just started listening and they're like, why are you saying Hava na Gil? It's because we're out of like 100 towns, we'd have one town that would have more than 1% Jewish population. So when we hit more than 1%, we're like, holy shit. It's a. It's shocking. It's shocking. And we have to sing. Unemployment rates about average. Median household income here, 77,145, which is 7,8000 over the national average cost. Upper middle class, the way Jimmy likes it. Cost of living here, 100 being regular. Average here it's 108. So not too far off. Housing kind of fits into that. Median home cost here, $377,700. It's not so bad, which isn't so terrible considering other parts of the northeast that are very expensive. Now here we go. If we've convinced you, dammit, you need a feast and you don't care if people are throwing garbage out their windows. We have.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Is upper middle class your favorite?

[James Petregallo]

Well, it's upper middle class garbage. So it's going to be. You should collect that and keep it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's probably good something recyclable or biodegradable.

[James Petregallo]

It's probably worth something is what I'm getting at. Yeah. So we have for you the Cranston, Rhode island real estate report. Average two bedroom rental here is a little above the national average. Actually that was the high one. 1580 for a two bedroom rental, that's. That's pushing it. That's a lot. House number one outside does not look great. I'm gonna be honest with you. It is half painted. Yeah, it's the front of it. It's like a, like a bright blue, but it is literally half done. Like they ran out of paint halfway through and said we'll get to that tomorrow and never came back. It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen.

[Jimmy Whisman]

But they've been paid, so we'll wait.

[James Petregallo]

We'll wait. Inside. It's all wood. Wood floors, the wood panel walls, wood ceilings. It's like a hunting cabin in there. It's wild. Three bedroom, one bath, 1272 square feet. Not a big lot. 274,900 bucks for that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Jesus.

[James Petregallo]

And you're gonna need a couple more cans of blue paint to finish that front there. House number two is a three bedroom, two bath, 1554 square foot house. So not bad. It's your typical kind of little vinyl siding house. Not that little decent sized house. It's got a backyard fenced in where you can see your neighbor. Right there. It's right on top of it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

600 square feet is that what he said?

[James Petregallo]

1550? Yeah, not bad. Built in 1956, it's an older 399,900 bucks. That's kind of your average little family house there, then. Well, you've done very well for yourself. You've collected all the garbage and it's worth a lot. Here is a four bedroom, five bath, Tea bowl for each and every b hole, everybody. 4159 square feet. Big old house. It's only on half an acre, actually. Not that big of a lot. But it's a weird, modern looking house. That's the only way I can describe it. It's got weird lines and weird shapes, weird angles. It's a strange house. $1.7 million for that house.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Holy shit.

[James Petregallo]

It's apparently in a very exclusive neighborhood from what the listing says. You know where Jimmy goes? Only upper middle class. Very upper middle class.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Where are we upper middle class?

[James Petregallo]

And it just had a $100,000 price cut. So they're serious, all right. They ain't fucking lying.

[Jimmy Whisman]

100,000 price.

[James Petregallo]

100,000 price cut. They want to sell this thing. Things to do here. Here we go, everybody. The 121st St. Mary's Feast this year.

[Jimmy Whisman]

We've done this 120 times already.

[James Petregallo]

119 oh five is when it started. It runs from July 15th through the 19th. So it's over now, so good luck. But next year, plan for it. There will be religious services to honor the Madonna della Civita along with a road race. So that is one letter off from road rage along with the road rage. Now what they do, the prayer and the race, it's one event. So you got to say a certain amount of Hail Marys, but you got to do that and then you get to go run. So you got to pray quick, too. It's a quick pray and a quick go. Some people are left praying. They're left behind. You really got to get in there, get up to the line. It's like a decathlon. So there's that Saturday morning. There's live music at the park gazebo. There's food, games and a fireworks display on Sunday night. And this is like from like the public announcement of this. Like they sent out to all the local media.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Press release?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, their press release. And it says there's all this stuff. And then it says Cranston police said they'll have a strong visible presence throughout the feast, which includes plain clothes officers and technology to monitor the crowd. It's a bunch of guineas eating sausage and peppers. How Much fucking monitoring needs to be done here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

We're gonna fly some drones.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. So this was this year, okay, because it just happened. So then I found the day after the event, a big article. 20 arrested for fighting during the event. And I'm like, that sounds about right for the Northeast, though. Why even arrest people in the Northeast for fighting? It's gonna happen. Just separate them. Let them go their separate ways. Who cares?

[Jimmy Whisman]

They do it on the way to weddings. Why would they not do it?

[James Petregallo]

The amount of times growing up where it was like, yeah, I guess I'm fighting now. It's insane. It's fucking crazy. Everybody hears fighting constantly. So 20 people, the fights broke out following the fireworks.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, my.

[James Petregallo]

That was a good grand finale, eh? Hey, fuck you. That grand finale was terrible. And they're just going back and forth. That was a piece of shit finale. So here it says, quote, at one point, there was a disturbance on Green Avenue and Caldwell street. And it immediately grabbed the attention of our drone operator as he designated multiple officers to respond to that location where there was a large fight.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They actually were flying drones to monitor.

[James Petregallo]

To monitor the St Mary's feast. The fight. The police identified nine people as four 16 year olds, two 17 year olds, an 18 year old, a 19 year old, and then a complete dipshit 23 year olds for some reason, getting in the fucking mix there. That's the only person who should be arrested. You shouldn't have even been hanging out in this group. Get out of here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He was defending his brother. I'm sure of it.

[James Petregallo]

I was gonna say, I know there's a little brother involved or somebody grabbed his sister's ass or something. Authorities say the ages of those arrested range from 16 to 39. Out of the total, 20 people. And they're scrubbing through video now, expecting to charge more people with disorderly conduct.

[Jimmy Whisman]

We're gonna invest

[James Petregallo]

a disorderly conduct investigation. How much time and money do you people have to waste?

[Jimmy Whisman]

They're just pissing money away on a guy going, click, click, zoom in, play, stop, zoom in.

[James Petregallo]

Let's give that guy a $50 fine. Who cares?

[Jimmy Whisman]

See who threw punches.

[James Petregallo]

Crime rate in this area, actual crime, not teenagers fighting, which is what they do. Crime rate here, property crime, is about 20% under the national average. So of all this, it's horrible. It's this. It's a hellscape. 20% under the national average. Violent crime, murder, rape, robbery and assault. The Mount Rushmore of crime, about half the national average.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Incredibly safe.

[James Petregallo]

You know, fucking. It's Thunderdome. Is Basically, what they're talking here from that one review, all the children are in packs. They're roving in packs. And if you call, the cops will get annoyed. With you, I bet. With you, because you're specifically always calling, stop.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Leave the kids alone.

[James Petregallo]

That said, let's talk about some murder, shall we? Let's get into this. Okay? Like I said, this started off as an express because I don't know if we've ever covered an episode that had zero media coverage. I mean, I don't know if we have zero. I could not find a fucking article about this. I couldn't find a newspaper. And I have three different newspaper archives. I have all the. Could not find one goddamn single solitary article. The public just completely didn't care about this. And it's the craziest case ever. I don't know if it was, like, kept hidden or something for a while. It's all I can think.

[Jimmy Whisman]

To a governor or something.

[James Petregallo]

Not a governor, but there's a relation. But not to anybody in power of any kind. It's very weird. So I don't understand it. But luckily, Rhode Island. Thank you, Rhode island has about the most extensive court documents in the country, where whoever sits down to write those, the clerk, they're like, I'm gonna stop my novel for tonight and pick up on this. And it's awesome. So thank you, Rhode Island.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Only write this.

[James Petregallo]

And I'm gonna write this, but I'm gonna make it good. I mean, it's good. So that said, Here we go. September 19th, 1999. Now, it's barely September 19th because it's just after midnight here. There's a 911 call coming from a lady named Alma Miller. Now, Alma Miller says, there's some shit going on that I'm seeing in my neighborhood here. She said on the tape, she's crying hysterically. Not crying, but yelling and screaming and sometimes talking into the phone. And then he's talking over here and then back in the phone.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, she's yelling at other things, doing that.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. She's not focused, not present. Yeah. She puts the phone down and yells shit into the phone that's not near the phone. It's very unfocused. She said there's a person lying in the middle of the street in front of their house, and she thinks someone ran them over. Oh, so that's a big deal. Now, the police asked her if a car hit the person. Did you see a car hit them? She said that she couldn't explain. I don't know. She said Someone was backing out of their driveway, and someone was lying in the street maybe, and maybe they got run over by this car that was backing out of the driveway. But why was the person lying in the street? She's like, I don't know what happened. I just know it looks like somebody got ran over because they're in the street. And I think I saw somebody and they're laying down. They're laying down and someone backed out, and I think I saw them. She said, the car that hit the person is gone. And she said, I saw it actually happen. I saw the person get run over, but I don't know why or how it happened. So the cop said, did the car just come flying down the street and hit the person, then take off? And she said, quote, no, no, no, no, no. The guy was backing out of his driveway, and I don't know, I heard someone yell, help. There was a wedding. I don't know if the guy was drunk. I don't know. Okay, this is a confusing call. What the hell are you talking about? There was a wedding. What? Where did a wedding come into this almost flustered? Did any of the groomsmen have black eyes? That's what I'd like to know. That's the only thing I'm wondering about this wedding. They're asking her, was the punch thrown, any punches thrown? She said the guy. She thinks the guy dragged them down the street. Whoever's in the road, she thinks they got dragged. And she said it was the black car driven by the guy who sort of lives across the street. She doesn't know if it was him in the car, but she knows it was his car. Okay, okay. So they're like, okay, well, who the fuck lives at this house that we're talking about and backing out of? Let's start there and let's try to figure this whole thing out. Well, at the house, there's a couple of people. One person who lives there full time and the other person. Person who lives there, like, 80% of the time. One of those relationships where one person has another apartment but lives with the other person most of the time and then goes back once a week to get closed.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's fairly new.

[James Petregallo]

Still, it's one of those. Well, not really, as we'll talk about.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No.

[James Petregallo]

This is Gene Robinson.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Just keep another place.

[James Petregallo]

Just keep another place. Yeah, for a while. Gene Robinson. G E A N N E. Jean Jean Robinson here is one of the people who lives across the street here. She's in her early 40s and she's living across the street from Alma Miller. Little background on her very quickly. She'd been married once before to Wayne Robinson. That's how she got her name. I believe her maiden name is Gerard. G I R A R D Gerard. She's married to Wayne Robinson at this point in 1999. She has two adult children from that marriage that are grown and out of the house and everything. They're not in anywhere in this mess here. She works as a charge nurse, so she's got a. You know, it's a stressful job and has a lot of shit going on in her. Hard worker, you know, thinks a lot.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Her home is on Fiat Avenue in Cranston. And she has a boyfriend who is the guy who owns that black car that they talked about. They had met in August of 1996 at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet. Rhodes on the Pawtuxet, which is a historic recreational complex at Rhodes beach on the Pawtuxet river in Cranston, Rhode Island. Originally consisting of a series of buildings including a stateroom, pavilion and waterfront facilities, Today only a ballroom and gazebo survive. So someplace to go hang out near the shore, I guess, the two of them, that's where they met. And they started dating August of 96. So that's interesting here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, so they've been dating three years now.

[James Petregallo]

They've been dating three years. That's what I mean. It's a little long to ride the fence here. Either move in or don't. You know what I mean? Either you live in one place, she lives in the other, or if you're there most of the time, just go get the rest of your shit. What are you doing?

[Jimmy Whisman]

I don't know. That sounds fucking awesome.

[James Petregallo]

That doesn't sound terrible, but I don't

[Jimmy Whisman]

know whose idea it is, but who's who.

[James Petregallo]

Well, when you hear about he, it's hers. Because there's some stuff going on here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh,

[James Petregallo]

hey, everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show by telling you a better way to feed your dog. The best way. Ollie.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ollie O L L I E dot com.

[James Petregallo]

Absolutely. August is National Dog Poop Month.

[Jimmy Whisman]

How about it?

[James Petregallo]

That is actually a thing. Yes. And there's a holiday for everything. And we've all had these digestive issues with your dog.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

They walk in and they're in their kennel. And behind them is a Jackson Pollock that they've put on the wall in pure liquid. And you're like, oh, my God, how am I ever. I have to move. Set a ma, light a match Ritz, you gotta go, that's it. I don't know how to fix this. That's really, really difficult. And you know, if anyone gets being this invested in the quality of your dog's food and your dog's poop, because food makes poop. That's the thing. So unless you want to figure out what that mosaic is, get yourself some Ollie because you get better poops with that. Ollie gets it. They understand this. They deliver fresh human grade food that is gently cooked to maximize your dog's nutrition. They'll make your dog's poops. It's gonna be a 10 out of 10, just a plus poops every single time. And as a pup parent, I can tell you that's a game changer, especially if you have to pick it up. You want to do that here. Ollie's fresh recipes are developed by real chefs with gut friendly ingredients that support better digestion, energy, skin, health and better poops. With flavors like fresh beef and sweet potatoes or fresh turkey and blueberries. That sounds pretty good. You'd notice the difference. And you're going to notice the difference fast, smaller, firmer, less stinky poops and a much happier belly experience for your dogs completely. From the moment you start your subscription, everything is tailored to your pup. Perfectly portioned meals, a puptainer for scooping and storage and service. And really cool. A smooth food transition guide to keep their digestion on track. And keep those poops nice. Keep them at a 10 out of 10. Here. And there's the Ollie health tracking as well. They have free on demand vet support that helps you diagnose your pup's weird poops, upset stomach and more. And also personalized feeding guides where vets will calculate the exact calories your pup needs based on all their factors. Age, weight, breed, all that thing. And Ollie calculates a custom score that tracks your pup's health over time so you can see the difference the food is making. I've noticed it with my dogs, all three of them. Shiny coats, wagon tails, way better poops. Which is nice because one of my dogs is 150 pounds. Those get rough, so I love that you can do it too. And your dog's poops can get much better. This summer, treat your pup to better food food and perfect poops. Head to ollie.com stm and tell them about your dog. And use the code STM to get 70% off your welcome kit when you subscribe today. It's super easy and risk free with their obsession guarantee. That's O L L I E.com STM. Enter code STM to get 70% off your first box. Ollie, feed the obsession.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petregallo]

Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show and tell you how to get more out of your workouts with Ladder.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ladder fit.

[James Petregallo]

Absolutely. Imagine having a workout plan from an expert coach that's new each week and could be done anywhere that is Ladder. Consider it your own personal trainer without the exorbitant cost and inconvenient scheduling and also awkward small talk. Who wants that? Not me.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Me.

[James Petregallo]

But with the same expert guidance and structured workouts, it is great. Ladder is awesome. They will give you these workouts. You can do them anywhere from any place. That's the thing. Access them anywhere. Because you go to the gym. Like, I don't know what to do at the gym.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No.

[James Petregallo]

Unless you're a worker guy. I don't know what to do, where to go, how the machines work, how the weights work, how anything works. And you can. I don't want to do, like, work. I don't know what's good on YouTube. I don't know what's. I don't know if it's wrong. I don't know this person or who they are. Ladder gives you a real plan from an expert coach. And I'm telling you, it's really great because it guides you where you can go in there, you want to grow your glutes, your biceps, whatever you got to do. Ladder helps you get there with this expert guidance. And this is going to beat random workouts just here and there. You need a plan. You got to get a plan going here. And if you don't know how to do that, which most of us don't, let's be honest here. Ladder is the thing, and they're gonna help you here. And, yeah, you can wander around the gym with no plan or no progress or no anything or, you know, or. If you told me an app could replace my personal trainer, I wouldn't think that would probably be possible. But Ladder is the closest thing you're gonna find. You get a new plan every week from a real coach, and it takes you through every rep. It's expert strength training plans. It's not a content library. These aren't influences, influencer workouts, or stupid challenges. It's real progressive programming designed by certified coaches. This is serious stuff here. This isn't silly. This is. You're gonna get in there and do your stuff here. It works for any strength training style. You prefer Pilates, bodybuilding at home, dumbbell only Hybrid strength, whatever you want, you can focus it on that. That's the other thing. It's not things you don't want, it's everything that you want. Your team has a group chat where you can coach. Your coach answers questions and members motivate each other. And it costs less than a dollar a day. Try that with a personal trainer. This elite level personal training for a fraction of what you'd pay in person. And it includes nutrition tracking now at no extra cost. AI powered food logging and macro insights integrated with your training plan. Telling you this is a plan. This is amazing. Less than a dollar a day. What are you waiting for? You walking around the gym not knowing what to do. Stop doing that. Remove the guesswork with ladder and get a real coach in your ear telling you exactly what to do for every workout. No thinking, everything planned for you. If you have an iPhone, head to ladder fit Small town murder and take a quick quiz to find your perfect ladder plan. Use our link and get a free 7 day trial with no credit card and $10 off your first month if you join.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petregallo]

Now, the guy who she's in a relationship with is Edwin Edwards. First of all. Is that right you named your kid Ed Edwards, number one.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Why'd you do that?

[James Petregallo]

Edwin Branford Edwards iii. Actually, that's why. And his background is very interesting. Now, by the way, this is a nightmare because Edwin Edwards, there is a serial killer named Ed Edwards from the 70s. Then there's also a goddamn governor of Louisiana who was insanely corrupt in the fucking 80s who had all sorts of trials and shit. So his name was Edwin Edwards. So I found everything on every other Edwin Edwards on earth except for this one. But I have plenty of time.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Nobody should have done that, ever. And three people at least. At least. And they are. Two of them have prominent issues.

[James Petregallo]

It's fucking crazy. Now apparently some people say he goes by Brad, which makes no sense because Brad is nowhere in his name.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Bradford is the middle name.

[James Petregallo]

Branford Branford. Now other people say he goes by Bran, but who the fuck goes by Bran? It's weird. It's awful. So all the court documents have him as Brad, so he must be going as Brad. That's all I can imagine. So we're gonna call him Brad because that's what the state of Rhode island calls him. So that's where we're going.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's not his name.

[James Petregallo]

It's not his name at all. We should just call him Ed because he has two EDS in his name. But be easier let's call him Ed. Fuck Brad. You're Ed now, Brad.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Second week in a row. We got an. We had Edwina last week.

[James Petregallo]

Edwina. We had an Edwina.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So he has a brother named Gary and two sisters named Debbie and Cindy. Debbie with an I and Cindy with a Y. I don't know how they decided that. Okay, all right. No E on the Debbie, but just an I. Now, his grandpa is an interesting cat. Very interesting. I did some research and found out his grandpa, who died in 1963, is named Eddie Big dad or Eddie Daddy Edwards. That's his nickname. Daddy. Because he is a very famous pioneering jazz trombonist from New Orleans. Yeah, we're talking 1910 era, like when that shit first started going on.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Cool shit.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. He's a big. He looks like Frank Perdue, basically. If you remember Frank Perdue, the chicken guy. He looks like an old white guy with jowls, basically. Some jowls hanging. But he was a pioneering trombonist, a New Orleans jazz musician. One of the originators of the old Dixieland Jazz Band.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Fuck, yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Original Dixieland Jazz Band. He was like the main trombone guy. He left New Orleans for Chicago. I guess he started playing better gigs, and that was kind of the way it went down there. If you were a jazz musician or anything like that, you'd start out in Mississippi and New Orleans and places like that. And then you'd go to Chicago, because that was where. That was kind of.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's where all the big stuff was,

[James Petregallo]

where the money was. Yeah, you could make some money and play the big clubs. Yeah, exactly. So he did that. Yeah. He was in the French quarter for over 50 years, too. He'd performed there. He, I guess, helped write the music for Tiger Rag, which is a jazz classic in 1917. It's like a standard jazz.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Do you know that?

[James Petregallo]

You probably know it if you heard. It's one of those. The beats. I don't know if it's got words or whatever. His New Orleans jazz band won national recognition and at one time was the highest paid band going that existed in America. He spent most of his life in New York, playing at all the theaters there and that sort of thing. So that's why Ed's dad was born in New York, but lived in Rhode island for a lot of time. And that's where they ended up, in Rhode Island, Ed and his brother.

[Jimmy Whisman]

A little more affordable, spread out a little bit.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. And they had no musical talent. Also, it seems like, oh, well, that's bright. This is like, it's receding musical talent as it goes. It's just kind of diluting the original guy's a legend. And then his dad, Edward Branford Edwards Jr. Was a civil servant for 30 years. Worked for the Newport Underwater System center, but also was a World War II radar man for three years in the Pacific Theater and also a Rhode island state representative and Portsmouth Town Council president.

[Jimmy Whisman]

There you go.

[James Petregallo]

And he was also a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and the Songwriters Guild of America.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So he could write them, just couldn't play them or sing them?

[James Petregallo]

Apparently not. He also was a 32nd degree Mason and a member of the Scottish Rite Valley of Providence.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So that's busy.

[James Petregallo]

It's got a lot going on. That guy now, Brad. We'll just give in and call him Brad. Fuck it. That's what I have written down. So Brad here, the son, that's where he comes from. Grandpa's a legend. You're named after him. You know, Dad's a little less of a legend, but still a very well known local guy, very well connected. Now, Brad had been married twice before.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Before, you know, before he started dating.

[James Petregallo]

Before he started. Yeah, before he started dating Gene. So he's married twice before and they didn't go so well. His first marriage was to Suzanne Murray. His second marriage to Cynthia Edwards, who took his last name. The other one did practice runs, good practice. He had no children with them, which is probably for the best.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, that's a great practice run.

[James Petregallo]

That's for the best. Now, we'll give you a little bit about his background here and then we will talk more about his marriages as this comes up up in pertinence to the story. Now, he eventually told a psychiatrist that he drank heavily in his 20s and 30s, Brad did here. But that he never drank to the point of sickness or blackouts. Just a. He's got good tolerance, that's all. Drinking under the table, which sounds like a lie. He said he had concerns about his drinking in the past. This is a great fucking line to tell. Tell a therapist this, okay? I had some concerns about my drinking in the past. But then I thought about it and no one else except my first wife ever seemed to be troubled by it. Only my wife told me I was an alcoholic. Everybody else was fine with it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Only the very closest person to me told me there was a problem.

[James Petregallo]

Who would be their responsibility to be honest with you and tell you that sort of thing? But you know, with my friends, they didn't think I was an alcoholic when we were drinking at the bar. They thought. I thought I was great.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The one person who's very clearly gonna be annoyed by you if you're a problem.

[James Petregallo]

Wow. He had previous suicidal thoughts once when he faced financial problems due to his. What? He put his second wife's embezzling from him. Okay. And another time after an argument with Gene that caused them to break up briefly. These are the two times he's had suicidal thoughts. Both times he thought of jumping off bridges. That was his way of going out. They asked him, how would you have killed yourself? He goes jumping off the bridge. That was the way I was doing it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That doesn't seem fast enough.

[James Petregallo]

It seems terrifying. I would like the last moments of my life to be absolutely terrifying. Who the f. Why would you do that? Let's not give people ideas on how to kill themselves more efficiently. But that ain't the way to do it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No. That seems also horrible because it doesn't work every. And there's a. The GW in New York. The rumor is that when people jump off it, they hit the bed and it's just mud. Your feet stick and then you drown.

[James Petregallo]

I don't know if that's true or not, but it sounds horrible.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's what I've heard.

[James Petregallo]

I've heard that. That's a bunch of times. That's like the old wives tale since we were little. But it might be true. We don't know.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I don't want to find out.

[James Petregallo]

We don't know.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Like if I'm dead set on dying. That's not. I don't want to drown.

[James Petregallo]

No. And I'm not jumping off.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Jumping off this.

[James Petregallo]

I'm jumping off of nothing. I hate heights. So that's not the way I'm doing it. Number one, not working.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I don't do it either.

[James Petregallo]

Now at this point in the 90s, he's working as a truck salesman for Colony Ford. So think about the dilution of the Gene pool here. Famous musician, civil servant, very important to the area. Asshole who sells trucks at the Ford dealership. That's the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. And when you only sell trucks, are you selling like fleet trucks? Like the worst trucks?

[James Petregallo]

Maybe. Who knows? That's. Possibly. He's a truck salesman. Only trucks.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That would be a horrible job.

[James Petregallo]

I only do f.150s, bub. I ain't doing nothing else.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'm gonna do the standard bottom of the line truck. Plastic interior.

[James Petregallo]

That's all I do, babe. So I don't know what his deal is there. But if you're. If you're a car Salesman. And take no offense to this car salesman. You know, this is why you got the job. It's because you have no other skills, right? So you're doing that. Anyone with a good rap of bullshit can sell cars. And you don't really need that. There's no college education for car salesmen. If you're full of shit enough, you can do it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Now.

[James Petregallo]

It's just any sales.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, but car sales now is just numbers. Because the first question is what payment

[James Petregallo]

you want to be. That's it. How do I get you to that payment?

[Jimmy Whisman]

What are you talking about? I don't know.

[James Petregallo]

The whole thing is any salespeople. Anybody who wants to sell someone something is a flawed person. If you want to try to force things on it, I feel like you're flawed. I don't know what it is. If you hate creating a salesman, you're fine.

[Jimmy Whisman]

An unbelievable miracle product.

[James Petregallo]

Well, then you're not doing sales. Yeah, that's. The product sells itself. And you're just making it available.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You know, when you have to be the vehicle that gets the sale done. That's fucked.

[James Petregallo]

It's like Deadwood when you're saying, I feel weird going out and pitching it. And Saul Starr tells him, we've got goods. These people need these goods. We have them available at a fair markup. There's nothing wrong. This isn't sales. This is just filling a need.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Product sells itself.

[James Petregallo]

That's different. Yeah, but if you have to sell it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

If you gotta be the guy wandering tent to tent, saying, the guy said there'd be a prize inside this zone. Fuck that guy.

[James Petregallo]

Got this soap. Won $5 out of it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Look at that.

[James Petregallo]

So Brad had a nearby apartment in Cranston. Where he lived by himself when he wasn't living with Gene. So he's there most of the time, though.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So he's the one that's keeping a place.

[James Petregallo]

Yes, that's what I mean. He's keeping a place. He's an interesting guy. Now, Saturday, March 8, 1997. So a couple years before the 911 call. Gene and Brad are experiencing a particularly volatile time in their relationship here. They have an argument. Brad comes back to Gene's house after the argument. They had a big argument. She goes home. He goes home. He comes back to the house and breaks into the house through the locked breezeway door leading into the kitchen. Kicks the fucking door off the hinges.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Kicks the door off the hinges of the mudroom.

[James Petregallo]

Not good. So Jean was home at the time. But it's not clear whether Brad knew That or not. Whether she was home or not. She was terrified that he'd come back. So she called her friend Josie with two E's. We'll talk about her that night to tell her how scared she was that Brad might come back and come after her. Okay. She told Josie that she'd also call her father, Albert Gerard Sr. And get her father to help, too. So she talked to Josie the next day and said her father came over and stayed with her that night in case Brad came back. So you're obviously scared of this guy. If you call reinforcements in, that means you're scared, Right? He's scaring her at this point. So, Gerard, Albert Gerard Sr. Her dad said that he recalled this incident and he fixed the door. And he also advised Jean not to see Brad anymore.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Probably for the best.

[James Petregallo]

Let's go ahead and back off of Brad, why don't we? Here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Don't make me do any more framing in this fucking house.

[James Petregallo]

No. Now, he leaves some. What he'll call apology messages after that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

It's about a series of 10 phone calls where Brad repeatedly swears at Jean in very vulgar language, demeans her, hangs up, then calls back to do it again for 10 times.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Is this a New England thing? Because that's.

[James Petregallo]

Apologies.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Karen Reed, bitch do that shit, too.

[James Petregallo]

I think she. Yeah, well, yeah. She called him to yell at him while he was dead in a. In a front lawn.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Pervert. While he's laying on a gun.

[James Petregallo]

You're a pervert. Yeah. So we won't get into the Karen Reed case there. Yeah, that's. There's a lot of people that would despise. Despise Jimmy if he knew his vehemence against Karen Reed. Because she's got a lot of support, which is crazy because.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, she does? I thought you said that.

[James Petregallo]

No, no, she does. Jimmy's got a lot of support, which is crazy. You should all hate him on our show that you listen to. No, they should like you. They should like us. Her. I don't even. I don't care if she killed him or not. She seems horrible to me. Seems like a horrible person. And he was bad, too. Those two together were a nightmare.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Volatile. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Volatile. Yeah. So anyway, he first basically yelling at her, saying he said, you said I was wrong about something, and yelling about that. Then he's yelling that she's not picking up the phone, cursing. Then he calls back saying he wants his clothes that are at the house. So he said. Also, another message. He suggested, as the court document put it, that she go Back to her old boyfriends. I like how the court documents. That's funny to me. He suggested she go back to her old boyfriends, which is. You fucking whore. Why don't you go fuck your old boyfriends, huh? Why don't you fuck.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Let's go suck his cock.

[James Petregallo]

Why don't you fuck Johnny with the big dick, huh? What's wrong with that? Yeah, the one that made your asshole hurt when he banged you there. Remember that? You told me about it. Why you can't do it anymore back there? Cause he ripped it all up.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Why don't you talk to Johnny, huh?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Why'd you call the guy that you told me major pussy sore.

[James Petregallo]

That's the real fucking message. Betty's leaving. And he said there was no one in the world who could satisfy it. Not even Johnny can satisfy you. I'm telling you, this broad is all over the place.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Maybe go back to Johnny. He's the one that made you numb down. Ah.

[James Petregallo]

Even Johnny and his ass wrecking hammer can't fucking do nothing with you. All right, fine. Oh, man. He also.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'm sure these phone calls were amazing.

[James Petregallo]

I wish we had the audio, honestly. So he also, quote, suggested that's why her husband left her. It's more than a suggestion. Even your husband didn't want you because you fucking. You're all worn out from Johnny and his big hammer. He.

[Jimmy Whisman]

At least the transcripts.

[James Petregallo]

God damn it. Oh, man. He said he chided her over and over. That everybody's wrong but you all the time. Huh? Look at Gene, always right. And everybody else is wrong. All right?

[Jimmy Whisman]

These people that leave messages.

[James Petregallo]

Amazing. Why?

[Jimmy Whisman]

What the fuck is wrong with you?

[James Petregallo]

Well, because there was no. There was no frantic texting back then. That's why. This would have been a series of 700 text messages if this was now.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Her phone constantly dinging and vibrating.

[James Petregallo]

This was done on an actual piece of audio tape. A little tiny one.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This little mini.

[James Petregallo]

Little tiny. He then said. He then accused her of fooling around with other people. And you're a whore. You're a hoa. On top of it all, he accused her. Exactly.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That is funny. They have to filter it for legal,

[James Petregallo]

but if you read enough of them, you get the.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You know what he said?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, you get the euphemism of it. He accused her of fooling around with someone else. Who? You fucking whore. That's what he said. He said he was sorry he fell in love with her in the first place.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, wow.

[James Petregallo]

Yep. Now in all of these are lots of cursing. There's fucks and everything else. Calling her a C word and fucking and this and that. With him repeatedly calling Jean a, quote, son of a bitch or worse in every call.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Son of a bitch.

[James Petregallo]

That's a weird thing to call your girlfriend, you son of a bitch. It's a very weird thing to call your girlfriend.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Don't you answer this phone, you son of a bitch. She's a gal.

[James Petregallo]

And then she called him a crazy broad and it went back and forth.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Crazy bitch.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. So the tape was super angry. He's very angry, very mean spirited. Everyone is just meant to demean and to attack her and doesn't sound intoxicated, though, in any way. Doesn't sound like he didn't, like, drink a bottle and was like, I'm gonna fucking fix. He didn't do that. Now, March 11th, 1997, he writes Jean two letters of apology.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, yeah.

[James Petregallo]

He's like, do it in a written

[Jimmy Whisman]

medium cycle and all.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, exactly. In the first letter, postmarked March 11, he apologized for what he'd said to her and blamed it on being drunk and out of his mind. And that was Hammond. You know how it is.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I went to the Clam. What do you want?

[James Petregallo]

What do you want? Yeah, oyster.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What was it? Is it the clam?

[James Petregallo]

The clam? The Clam, Yeah, the fucking. The clam there. Yeah. So, yeah, me and Quagmire and fucking Cleveland tied a few on there.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, we were tying it on.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. So he apologized for what he had put her through over the preceding couple of weeks and for the fact that he failed to trust her and he should have trusted her. And he offered to pay for the damage to her door that he caused as well. That's right.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Bledsoe's playing like shit right now.

[James Petregallo]

I can't do it. They might get another guy in a couple years, but I can't tell for right now.

[Jimmy Whisman]

We need to save you.

[James Petregallo]

We need to save you. I'll tell you what, I've been watching Michigan football, hoping for one. Maybe it'll pop out. So he said he wanted to get his clothes back. Also, he keeps reiterating that he said he didn't know if she would ever speak to him again, but that it was, quote, real nice knowing her while they. While she did.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You son of a bitch.

[James Petregallo]

He then said that she was so good to him when she wasn't fooling around with Johnny and his big hammer.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Keeping my good pea coat in your closet.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, man, I need it. It's getting winter. It's getting winter out what are you talking about? So, March 14, 1997. A couple days later, there's a second letter of apology, postmark the 14th. That said he was so sorry for what he did to her. He said that he knew she left Jack, her other husband, close to Johnny, for hollering and fighting. And then he turned around and did the same thing. Probably even worse than he did.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Probably.

[James Petregallo]

Probably worse. I don't know about if Jack ever kicked her door in or not.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So probably or called her a son of a bitch.

[James Petregallo]

Called her a son of a bitch. He told her he would always loved her. He'll always love her and always has loved her and wishes that things could have been different. He enclosed a hundred dollar check to pay for the damage he did to the door there. I forgot about the damage. He wrote, thanks for the memories in fucking the memo section.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I miss you so much. Here's $100.

[James Petregallo]

Here's a hundred. I don't know. He thanked her for putting his clothes out in the hallway so he could get them. Okay. He said he got a message from. From Diane. We'll get into all that. That they were out, but that they had not gotten around to picking them up yet. So you got a message from someone he knows that they were out, but he didn't get them. But thanks for putting them out for him. Basically he wrote, quote, you don't have to be afraid of Meek because I would never lay a hand on you. That's his quote. He told her he guessed that the worst of him came out when he drank. He said, you know, that's probably what happened. He said he didn't. He didn't mean the things on her answering machine.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

I was hurt. I drink. I'm from New England. That's how we operate.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The abuse is so crazy.

[James Petregallo]

We drink, we call you a cunt, and we move on. That's how it works in Rhode Island.

[Jimmy Whisman]

We go to confessional on Sunday, we figure it out.

[James Petregallo]

We figure it all out. Father told me this. He acknowledged that Jean had told Diane to tell him that it was over between the two of them and that she didn't want to see him again, but that he said that he still would like to talk to her. Look, I know you said you don't want to talk to me, but I'd love to just get this worked out between us. He pleaded with her, you don't have to talk.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'll talk.

[James Petregallo]

I'll do all the talking. You can. Just listen. He pleaded with her, please call me. And then again thanked her for all the good times, somehow in this mix, they ended up back together.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

They end up back together somehow. Don't know how.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sometimes a gal or a guy, they just want attention. And sometimes that attention is apologies.

[James Petregallo]

And some people like chaos. They need it. They thrive on it. If it's not there, they're bored. And they can't help it. It's not a character flaw. It's just how they were raised. And they can't help it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He yells at me, but he doesn't hit me.

[James Petregallo]

He doesn't hit me.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, he calls me a son of a bitch. I call him a salty little client.

[James Petregallo]

Look at Love After Lockup. Perfect example. There's a little plug for Patreon. But love after lockup, look at Brooke and jk. Yeah, she needs chaos. She needs him to be mean to her. And he. She found the perfect asshole to feed into all of her shit because he's an asshole. When that thing in the car, when they're fighting outside the car, she's going ranting and raving until he shoves her. Then she's totally. Then she is on board 100%. And it's like, what is happening with you two? You two are talking about gaslight each other. Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The amount of gaslighting is. So if you don't understand that phrase, watch that show. That's what it is.

[James Petregallo]

That's what it is. It actually is. We'll talk about that more.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Creating fights for no reason other than to have the fight.

[James Petregallo]

And they can tell. They can find those people across a fucking crowded room. They could tell the person that's going to give them the chaos they need or whatever. So late 1998, by the time we get to that, Gene and Brad are now engaged.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Get the fuck out of here.

[James Petregallo]

We went from, please, can I just have my clothes back to, we're getting married. Everything's. Take my name, take my name. So he gave her over a $9,000 diamond ring, which in 1999 is a massively expensive diamond ring.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's a third of your salary.

[James Petregallo]

That's a lot.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

That is more than two months salary. Or else he's doing real well selling trucks down there at the Ford dealers. They didn't have plans, didn't have a wedding date set, but they didn't want to set a date because Gene's daughter, Gendra. Gendra.

[Jimmy Whisman]

All right.

[James Petregallo]

Kendra with a J. Was set to be married on September 18, 1999. So Jean was helping her out with wedding plans for the next year. The whole next year. Is going to be just this wedding. You don't want to steal their thunder, basically. So you wait till afterwards. That's so June of 1999. Here we'll fast forward. Gene gets Brad to see Dr. Severetti, a Dr. Lyons, a Dr. Medwin, and a Dr. Fixman about his temper. That is four psychiatrists.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She found a Dr. Fixman.

[James Petregallo]

Fixman. Thank you for noticing that. Because I was like, Dr. Fixman is amazing. I'm gonna fix you, man.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's the best therapist name of all time.

[James Petregallo]

It absolutely.

[Jimmy Whisman]

When I was going to the Fix

[James Petregallo]

Man, I was putting that in there. I'm like, Doctor. Dr. Fixman. If you were looking through doctors, I'd be like, that's the guy I would pick. If you're all these different names, I would be.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Why would I go to anybody else?

[James Petregallo]

I'd go to Fixman first. That should be a slogan, by the way. Try Fixman first. I'll fix you, man. So it was about the time he sees Dr. Severetti in June 1999. That's when he says he stopped drinking. The doctor convinced him that that would be good for him, this psychiatrist, to quit drinking.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The other three didn't say a word about it.

[James Petregallo]

No. Dr. Fixman's like, yeah, can I pour you? He's like, this is the wrong doctor.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So, August, the Fix is booze.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, I could fix you up real good. August 1999, they had another conversation about his temper, and Gene gave him the ring back. So now they're not engaged anymore. Okay. As a result of that, that's when he went to see Dr. Fixman. So he didn't go to Fixman first. He went to Fixman like, second, fix this man. When he was confronted with a note that Dr. Fixman wrote in the summer of 1999 that he, quote, gets angry easily and kicked doors in again. So that's not. He did that again. He denies that he kicked the door in more than once. Later on, we'll talk about this.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I only did it once.

[James Petregallo]

Once. Even though he told the doctor and the doctor put in his notes more than once. The note also said that he, quote, hit the screen again, but he said that it was a different time than kicking the door and that that was after they'd been dating for quite a while. So there's a different thing. He said that they'd been arguing and he'd been drinking, and he said they argued frequently. When asked by the doctor what they argued about, he said, well, Gene goes to the casino with Josie, and they don't take me with them.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She does girls nights, and he gets upset about it.

[James Petregallo]

She hangs out with a friend. How dare she hang out with her friend? I was like, okay, and. And then what

[Jimmy Whisman]

part that got you mad?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, in Vegas or Foxwoods? What are we talking about here? So he said he would always call her a few times a night when she was away from him having fun. He denied it was. Why? Why? Yeah, you got a quiet night. What the fuck are you calling for?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, my God.

[James Petregallo]

So he denied it was to check on her. He just had stuff to tell her all the time. He also said they argued about her children because Jean said that he had to accept them along with her. And he admitted he didn't want to accept them because they weren't my kids.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'm not in love with them.

[James Petregallo]

I don't know these kids. I don't care about these kids. When asked what else they would argue about other than kids in the casino, he said, well, there was an argument before her daughter got married about her taking medication. He said that she did not want to take the medication so she could enjoy the wedding, but was adamant that it was not an excuse because she needed her medication. So he's saying she had to take her medication. I was trying to get her to take it, and she said, I don't want to take it because it'll make her enjoy the wedding less. She probably couldn't drink with her medication, I bet, right?

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's it.

[James Petregallo]

When asked again what they argued about, he said, that was about it. So nothing is what you argue about, except you're a drunk.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This is the easiest relationship.

[James Petregallo]

Stop drinking.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Next.

[James Petregallo]

Let's go. Hey, fixed, man. All right? Look at me.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You're the problem, bud.

[James Petregallo]

That's it. So he then said, okay, fine. Yeah, they also. We also argue about my temper, too. So I gotta have a bit of a temper. So, hey, everybody, just gonna take a quick break from the show to tell you how to get a great deal in a really fun way with whatnot.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, download that app and whatnot.

[James Petregallo]

Absolutely.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

You see people bargain hunting and family members that are always going on, garage sales and thrift stores. And you're like, what are they doing? What's the thing with that? And then you end up getting in something like this, getting into whatnot. And you go, oh, I like this, too. I like hunting for things. And that's what it is. It's the hunt. And then on top of that, it's fun because it's like these live things going on. So they're selling stuff live and it's just a lot of fun. It feels like you're moving and you're shaking and you're finding really cool stuff that you want. Like the designer bags. You're gonna get them for, like half price on there. It's really great stuff here. We really like whatnot. It's the number one live shopping app in the US where shopping happens in real time with real people. You can have real conversations and get incredible deals. It's like if someone was right in front of you with stuff and you're like, yeah, I'll take that. It's really, really cool. I like it a lot, too. On Whatnot, you're connecting with sellers and other shoppers. It's like hanging out with a group that gets what you're doing because they're doing it too. This is a fun way to shop. This is really awesome. And you're almost never going to pay full price. That's the thing here, too. Shop name brands across. Makeup, perfume, clothes, handbags, jewelry, and more, all without the retail sticker shock. This is the best place to find great deals on products you love. It's a great way to find new brands because sellers don't gatekeep. It's awesome. I really like it. I looked on and I was looking a lot at the sports stuff stuff, the memorabilia, the cards. But I also really dig. I got a cool watch on there. I got a Movado.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

That I really dug. That was from a little bit ago and it's really nice. I got it for like 200 bucks, which is way less than those go for. So I was super jacked about that and I really like it. You should get in there too. Find yourself a deal and do it the fun way. Download Whatnot today and get $20 off your first purchase. Search whatnot. Wha. In the App store, sign up and start finding the best deals on the products you love with $20 off your first purchase.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petregallo]

Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show and tell you a lot more about rocket Money.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Rocket money dot com.

[James Petregallo]

Ah, we love Rocket Money. Absolutely love rocket Money because I, number one, am not good with financial stuff and I don't keep track of everything. And I found that I was paying for something that I never used for more than four years.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's crazy.

[James Petregallo]

And it made me angry. You know what I mean? But I was also very thankful for Rocket Money because they're saving me money and I really love it. I'm telling you I really enjoy it. Rocket Money is great. You can track subscriptions and you have the ability to cancel unwanted ones right within the app. That's the thing. Only takes a few taps. It's excellent. You give you gives you an easy way to stop paying for things you don't use. Like I was doing there, you know. And also you can set budgets and goals, get personalized insights and regular reports, and receive real time alerts for large transactions, upcoming bills, refunds, low balances. You can create a financial goal with Rocket Money and you're going to see meaningful savings momentum within your first month. This is the way to get your financial ship in order right here. I'm telling you, Rocket Money is the way to do it. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. [e-mail] SmallTown Murder that's RocketMoney.com SmallTown Murder RocketMoney.com Small Town Murder now back to the show. Hey everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you the best place to shop for clothes. It's quints everybody.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Quints.com Q U I N C E.com it's the best.

[James Petregallo]

We get all our clothes from Quints. Quints is amazing and August is the perfect time to hit reset before the autumn rush begins. And honestly, we can't think of a better place to start than our closets. That's why we both love shopping at Quint's and everybody in our houses too. Sarah's always shopping at Quints. We love it. Quince is all about fewer better pieces. That's what you're looking for. The good stuff. Their clothes are made with premium materials, built to last and designed to become the ones you reach for day after day. Great stuff. Quince specializes in everyday staples that work harder like their ultra soft organic tees and premium Mongols and cashmere sweaters. It's awesome. They're versatile, timeless and transition seamlessly from a casual work day to dinner out. You can do it if you're still hanging on to the same worn out basics. Quince is going to make it easy for you to upgrade. They have premium denim and tailored chinos from just $60 with the kind of perfect fit structure and high quality fabrics you'd expect from a luxury designer brand. Everything at quintessential is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. That's not for lack of Quality. It's actually for lack of paying someone who doesn't need this. It's no middleman. That's what it's all about. They cut out that middleman and work directly with ethical factories. So you're paying for high quality, not brand markup. We love Quints. I buy all sorts of stuff from quints. Jimmy's got the linen pants and everything like that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Love them.

[James Petregallo]

I have a bunch of shirts and I mean I buy everything from Quint's Pants, shirts. We love it. That's my first and usually last stop for clothes is Quint's. And it's not just clothing. Quince has become our go to from everything from hotel quality bedding and bath essentials to premium cookware and our travel must haves. Upgrade your everyday. Download the Quints app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com smalltown merchant. Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. That's quince.com smalltownmurder now back to the show. Here's his full mental history. All right, here we go. Wow. Now. Oh, that's gonna be later. Okay. So apparently he. Wow. His mental health records indicate he started seeing a therapist for anxiety and depression in the fall of 98. So that's before the June 99 when Gene made him go. Before he got engaged to Gene, he was treated by the Dr. Severetti in September 1998 for depression with anxiety and was prescribed Paxil and Xanax at that point. So that's a comet on down now cocktail.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's a calm it down and a happy pill.

[James Petregallo]

Let's take you from a 9 to 5 to a very content 2. What do you say? We're going to be real calm now.

[Jimmy Whisman]

When Paxil isn't enough, you got to

[James Petregallo]

couple it with also anti anxiety medication of xanax. Yeah. In October 98 the doctor indicated that Brad said he felt much better and that there was room for much improvement. So they increased the dosage of the Paxil and continued to prescribe Lorazepam. Now, November 1998, Brad indicated to the doctor that the Paxil had adversely affected his sex life because a lot of those SSRIs will make your dick not work. So that then the doctor and this is what they would do back then, they'd add Wellbutrin to it to make your dick work. And he said the Wellbutrin wasn't helping. So they try to find the right combination that Makes you not want to kill yourself and also have your dick work, which is a tough.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sometimes it takes c. Hours.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, you never know. So that's what he said. And he said he was advised to continue the Wellbutrin and Xanax, drop the Paxil and add Eleville into the mix.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What's that?

[James Petregallo]

That one I don't know a lot about.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I've never heard of it.

[James Petregallo]

The other ones I know about a ton about from listening to Loveline in the late 90s because this is the exact time Dr. Drew was telling these people all about about these. So I know all about. Yeah, add this, take that away. Try this one. This one doesn't cause fucking sexual side effects from back then. So in December 98 he tells Dr. Severetti that the Elavil made him feel dopey and dizzy, so he only took it for a few days and that Xanax alone was not controlling his anxiety.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Really?

[James Petregallo]

Yes. So now the doctor discontinues the Xanax in Elaville and says here's some Wellbutrin, Remeron, which is another one that doesn'tis supposed to not cause sexual side effects. And Klonopin.

[Jimmy Whisman]

God.

[James Petregallo]

So we'll replace the Xanax with Klonopin and we'll mix the Remron and Wellbutrin instead of the Paxil and Wellbutrin and see if that combination makes your dick work and you won't have anxiety. So this is a lot.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This is why mental health in this country is so fucked up. Because we're all so different. And the time that it takes to balance and find what the chemicals are that get you to a baseline, it takes so much time. Listen to that. The amount of time you gotta come off one to be put on another. And it takes a while for that one to start working.

[James Petregallo]

It depends because some of them are short acting and some of them are more of a long acting and they take longer. Some of them are out of your system pretty quick. Depends on the drop. Yeah, it could be complicated to get the cycle right.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's so.

[James Petregallo]

Well, talk to any woman who's been on birth control pills for 20 years. She has found she's probably taken eight different ones before they found the one that worked right didn't make them this way. That way periods weren't weird. You know, they have to figure it out.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So she may have had to skip a pill and get a. Some other thing, some IUD.

[James Petregallo]

IUD, yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I mix that up with IED all

[James Petregallo]

the time I mix it up with IOU, which it prevents. It prevents IOUs. And that's good.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So he advised Brad to continue therapy with his psychologist and to keep his appointment with his psychiatrist, Dr. Susan Damasi, which he said he had scheduled for January of 1999. Now, the Dr. Severetti's office notes indicate that Brad canceled his appointment for January 6, 1999, per his fiance, and did not want to reschedule. So Gene called and canceled and. And they didn't reschedule. Later in January, he told Dr. Severetti that when he saw Dr. Damasi, that he did see Dr. Damasi and that she had stopped all the medications and put him on Serozone, which is another one of the SSRIs. That's not. I don't know if it's one of those antidepressants that's not supposed to make your dick soft, which he said seemed to be working great. He said he didn't wanna go back to Dr. Damasi because the office would not give him a refill and would not call him back. So Dr. Savoredti prescribed Serazone, and there you go. So he's got the Serozone. Now. He saw Dr. Severetti again February 1999, had no complaints. He was continued on Serazone for depression and anxiety. He missed his March 1999 appointment. Around the same time that he failed to show up for the March 1999 appointment with Dr. Severetti, he went to see a psychotherapist, Dr. David Lyon. Now, Lyon's notes reveal that Gene had strongly encouraged him to seek therapy to manage his anger. So he's in a mess here. I don't know how the fuck all these drugs don't manage your anger.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

I mean, especially if you've Xanax and Klonopin and all this shit. How do you get angry when you're on Klonopin? You're just.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, but if you've got a short temper in the first place and you get frustrated easily, and the fact that

[James Petregallo]

I don't think about it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. And the size of the dosage, too, matters. And if it's not enough and the frustration level comes up, and then he's just got a short temper in the first place, the rage is just gonna go nuts.

[James Petregallo]

I've never been on. I hate pills. Like, I don't take any. They're horrible. I don't like anything. If I take a pill, it makes me feel. I had my wisdom teeth pulled. I took the codeine for, like, fucking a minute. And I was like, this works for shit. And I didn't take it anymore. It was awful.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It doesn't work.

[James Petregallo]

Don't like it. I don't like the way it makes me feel. So Dr. Lyon held a joint session with Gene and Brad, at which it was determined that Brad's loud and intense behavior displayed at the session is the thing. During the session, he was loud, which is actually good because the doctor got to actually see what goes on. So Dr. Lyon decided he basically diagnosed the relationship with him as the problem. Well, I've sat here for an hour, and you're the one yelling and screaming for no reason. I'm gonna go ahead and go out on a limb here and say you're the asshole. Just to, you know, hey, I'm gonna

[Jimmy Whisman]

say this is a toxic relationship, and the toxic part is you. Every relationship you're gonna be in is gonna be like this.

[James Petregallo]

Fuck, yeah. Now, he denied any alcohol dependency, and none was diagnosed by Dr. Lyon. He saw Dr. Lyon for five sessions between March and May 99, including the one joint session with Gene. Now, he commented, brad did that the behavioral management strategies, anger management strategies that Dr. Lyon taught him were working. And in June 99, he saw Dr. Severetti again and reported increased anxiety. At his request, Dr. Severetti increased his serozone. He never returned to Dr. Lyon, and he missed his scheduled appointment with him for mid July. On July 21, 1999, though, rather than seeing Dr. Lyon, he saw Dr. Joel Medwin. I have not been to this many doctors in my life, by the way. Literally, in my entire life, I haven't been to this many doctors and this

[Jimmy Whisman]

many psychological doctors, mental health professionals.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Good on him for trying this hard.

[James Petregallo]

I mean, at least he's saying, wow,

[Jimmy Whisman]

many is a flag that you can't. You can't find one of these that gives you any guidance.

[James Petregallo]

No, I think they tell him he's a problem, and then he finds somebody

[Jimmy Whisman]

else, and he's frustrated by that.

[James Petregallo]

That's what it seems like. Yeah. This Dr. Medwin talked to him about his conflicts with Jean and the stress from her children. He said he didn't like to be alone on weekends. He said he had a history of drug treatment for. Drug treatment for anxiety and was currently taking Serizone. Dr. Medwin referred him to Dr. Laura Fixman, a psychiatrist. Now we're getting with the Fixman fix.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Man is a lady.

[James Petregallo]

Fixman is a lady. Absolutely. On July 22, 1999. The following day, he returned to Dr. Medwin for an urgent visit. He went back the Next day connected with an alleged exacerbation of anxiety. Brad was anxious for a psychological evaluation that had been scheduled for July 28th. So he's anxious about something six days from now. Dr. Medwin urged him to call his primary care physician, Dr. Savoredtti, to get temporary medication. But Brad refused, saying that Savary had already prescribed several medications with no benefit. Brad presented as very angry and anxious. Okay. The following day, he went to see Dr. Savary and told him that he'd been very anxious and depressed for the past several weeks. Now, for the first time, Dr. Severetti not only diagnoses him with anxiety and depression, but also panic and anger, which it doesn't take a doctor to diagnose anger. I can tell you whether you're angry or not. Yeah, I'm an idiot.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Panic is pretty, pretty easy too.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. How do you feel? That sounds panicky to me. Fuck, I don't know.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Does everything feel like it's urgent?

[James Petregallo]

Uh oh. Uh oh. That's panic. Dr. Savaretti advised him to take his prescribed amount of Serozone and as he was supposed to be taking it, and added Elavil and Klonopin. He told him to keep his scheduled appointment with Dr. Fixman. Dr. Severetti prescribed the Klonopin at a dosage of 1 to 2 tablets of 5 milligrams twice a day as needed for anxiety. He filled the prescription that day for 60 tablets.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay. That's a good size.

[James Petregallo]

That's not bad. 7-23-99, Brad saw Dr. Fixman, the psychiatrist, for the first time, and told her that he was taking Klonopin and Serozone. She reported that although he reported that his mind was racing and that he was apprehensive, there was no clear stressor and he was not depressed. So Sarazon must be working.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No clear stressor. It's just something internal.

[James Petregallo]

It's a roiling fucking hellscape in there. It's bad. It's like he. He fucking ate a gallon of chili and had a pony keg of beer and just fucking.

[Jimmy Whisman]

And it's just going.

[James Petregallo]

It's just causing a swirl right now. Yeah. He again talked about an up and down relationship with his fiance. Said it was too stormy for them to even set a wedding date. He said he didn't like to spend weekends alone. And he says he gets angry easily and kicked in the door again while he was drinking. So that's another doctor. He admitted that too. He called Gene's children leeches. That's great.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's generally what they are. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Little, was it? Juvenile encumbrances. The one person, one show called them.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They're little cash suckers, that's what they are.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, yeah. And said that Jean was more financially involved with them than he would like her to be. So she gives her own kids money from her own money that she makes. Whose business is that? None of yours, dickhead.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She takes care of her children and it's very upsetting.

[James Petregallo]

I have two kids. If I want to give them money, I'll give them fucking money because they're my kids. He said he hit the screen again after three drinks and that he kicked the door in once when drunk. He said he drank socially three to four times per week and that his last drink. He last drank three drinks about two days ago. He said he drank as much as four drinks on weekend nights, which means 10, I would say. Dr. Fixman noted that he had a generalized anxiety disorder and that she wanted to rule out alcohol abuse. She noted that he spoke about temper problems with alcohol and thought he might be minimizing his alcohol use. She has the same thought we do. She continued him on Klonopin and Sarazone and wanted to consider prescribing Remeron or Buspar instead of Serozone. Buspar? Is that how you say that? B U S P A R Buspar? I think.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I don't know.

[James Petregallo]

She advised him not to drink because you can't really make a diagnosis on someone when they're in the midst of a substance because that's gonna cloud everything. You don't know what's actually in there.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Well, also, if he's on antidepressants and he's drinking while. That's not good.

[James Petregallo]

No, it's not good either. 7-28-99, he saw Dr. Medwin and told him that he was feeling calmer but that he was concerned about feeling drugged. Didn't like to feel that way. He was hopeful. Yeah, no one wants to feel all doped out. He was hopeful he could balance the extremes and rebuild the relationship with his girlfriend. He's like, I'd like to get set. The same day he saw Dr. Fixman again. He has no time to sell trucks. He is at the shrink every day. That's unbelievable. He sees Dr. Fixman again and could not walk straight and appear drugged is what the doctor noted. Dr. Medwin made no such notations when he was in that person's office. Right before that, he told Dr. Fixman he'd been weaving Friday night and was sleepy all weekend. Weaving? Like on the road, maybe. That's all I could think of. Or he was making rugs sitting down. Yeah, I'm doing the fucking. Whatever this is with the fucking stick. I don't know. He said he was in a deep hole. He said he'd been taking his Klonopin and Serizone and that he had no alcohol. He insisted that he'd been taking the serozone for 10 months. She decreased his Serozone and Klonopin.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

Jesus Christ. What a fucking mess. This is a lot, man. I'm telling you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's just a lot of medications, and it's a lot of balancing, and it takes time, and you've got to have patience. And when you're in a. When you're a panic episode, patience is the last thing you have a lot of.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, very little. 8-4-99, he sees Dr. Medwin. By the way, you're like, why are we going through this? Trust me, this is all gonna matter in a minute here. Sees Dr. Medwin again and reported stability with no significant verbal aggressiveness. That's nice. Your patient didn't yell at you today.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's working.

[James Petregallo]

And decrease time anxiety. That same day, he saw Dr. Fixman and reported that he'd taken the Serozone for four or five days, but it was no good. I got a bum batch. It's a hot load here. I don't like it. He said that he had not taken any Klonopin over the past two days, since he got a head buzz the day before, as he described it, and he consumed no alcohol. He said he now felt tense. She discontinued the serozone, prescribed Buspar 15 milligrams two times per day and suggested Klonopin 1 to 3 tablets of 0.5 milligrams per day as needed. She wrote him a script for the Buspar 60 tablets. One refill, he filled the prescription that day. August 6th, Brad sees Dr. Severetti and reports that he was feeling much better. He said he had seen Dr. Fixman and that she had changed his medications. And the doctor Severetti advised him to continue the boost bar at the dosage of 15 milligrams twice a day and to take Klonopin two times a day as needed, per Dr. Fixman. He noted that Brad was no longer taking Serozone or Elavil. In his weekly appointments with Dr. Medwin during the balance of August of 1999, he reported that he was more stable, less anxious, and pleased by his progress. He said he's so pleased because not only does he feel better? His relationship with Gene has improved a lot, you know, because he hasn't kicked in any doors recently or insulted her children to their faces, fucking raged at her while in a drunken haze here. So he said he's feeling much better. He said during his appointment with Dr. Fixman on August 18, he said he was taking Buspar two times a day and Klonopin and was calmer with no flare ups. He occasionally got a fuzzy feeling in his head and felt better if he ate with the medication.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

He thought the medications were working and his girlfriend was seeing him as being a lot calmer. Now. Okay. Now in September, we don't have any records of any medical visits in September, so this all ends in August. It's unclear whether he had any appointments scheduled or any canceled them or whatever here. We don't know. Now we know. He filled his prescriptions, too. He filled his prescriptions at CVS Pharmacy on Atwood Avenue in Cranston, Rhode Island. His prescription records show that he filled prescriptions for Serozone Zestril, which is a blood pressure medication, on a monthly basis in 1999. He filled his last prescription for Serozone on July 18, 120 tablets as prescribed by Dr. Savoredy. Then Dr. Fixman advised him to discontinue that in August. The records also show that he filled his first prescription for Buspar 30 tablets on August, August 4, and renewed it 30 more tablets on August 19. So if he took it as prescribed, he would have been out of it by mid September, and that becomes important. He filled his first prescription for Klonopin on July 23, 1999, 60 tablets. He renewed the prescription on August 13 for another 60 tablets. Pharmacy records for that renewal carry a dosage of. Of one to two tablets twice a day as needed. At the rate of two tablets per day, he should have been out of the Klonopin by mid September as well, because he didn't get any more. So he should have no drugs by mid September. Okay? If he took it as he was supposed to now, last week of August, this is three weeks until the big wedding day for Gene's daughter. So there's a big flare up now in the relationship between Gene and Brad. Jean discovers now, right now, while they're about to plan a wedding, that Brad has been married twice before. He never told her that he was married twice before, ever.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What?

[James Petregallo]

How does that not come up on the first fucking day you meet? Unless he lied about it. But that's cr. Why would you lie?

[Jimmy Whisman]

About that, he must have said, I've never been married.

[James Petregallo]

Had to have been, because, you know, she asked. Because she's been married. She said, you ever been married before? I'm sure he didn't say, you know, oh, what's that over there? And then they never came up again. I'm sure they. You know what I mean? I'm sure they probably discussed it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Every time she brings it up, a mariachi band gets it.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, it's 1999. She brings it up. He's like, hey, that Britney Spears is really tearing it up, isn't she? Like, he just changes the subject.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I heard she did it again.

[James Petregallo]

I think she did. So that's what's going on. She didn't know that. And she also didn't know. And this part is probably the part that really got her. First of all, I don't know why you would lie about that. He probably just thought he could get away with it because he didn't have any kids.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Well, and if you don't have any kids and you've been married twice and they were both failures, perhaps he feels some shame about it.

[James Petregallo]

That's possible, too. Well, there's something he should have felt shame about that he didn't tell her about. Not only was he married twice, for the first year of their relationship, he was still legally married to the second wife. They weren't divorced until late 1997. Wow. Which is well into their relationship.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He didn't tell her about court dates and paperwork, filings, nothing.

[James Petregallo]

She said she felt deceived by him and told him, I don't want to see you anymore. You're a fucking liar.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right?

[James Petregallo]

She didn't even know he had a first wife. And he's. You were still married while we were going out. Oh, that's not. You should hear about the first wife. Speaking of his.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That was my second marriage.

[James Petregallo]

That was my second. Speaking of his previous marriages, let's find out how they ended, shall we?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, I can imagine.

[James Petregallo]

Okay. He said his first marriage dissolved due to irreconcilable differences. That's his quote.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. He wanted to yell. She didn't want him to.

[James Petregallo]

Pretty much. This is the one where everybody thinks I'm fine. My drinking's fine, except for my wife. Yeah. He said his first wife, quote, could not get along with my drinking. Like, it's the third person in the room. There's me, my wife, and my drinking. That's who we're all hanging out tonight.

[Jimmy Whisman]

My throuple ended because of my.

[James Petregallo]

Wow. He said that Drinking would make him behave erratically and out of control and angrily. And he said that his second marriage lasted for 18 years because he was drinking a lot less. His first marriage was pretty quick. Quick. Second marriage lasted a long fucking time. From, like, his early 20s. Yeah. Till his early 40s. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's weird. When asked later if he hid his first wife ever, he said he gave her a backhand.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petregallo]

That means. Yes. Horribly is what that means. He denied choking her, and when asked if he, quote, drove her to a bridge, threatening to throw her off of it, he said he couldn't recall that, but he wouldn't deny it. Sounds like something I'd do. That sounds like me.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I've been so. He said that he's never blacked out before.

[James Petregallo]

No.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Nor gotten to a place where he got sick. So how do you have an event like that where you drive a woman to a bridge and not. Not remember it?

[James Petregallo]

I was doing so much at that point in time. I don't know. I. I had work that day, and.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

You know, was busy at the office. And Christmas was coming up.

[Jimmy Whisman]

A playoffs run.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Yeah. This. It's a. Pats were in the playoffs. You know, the Sox were good that year. What am I supposed to do? So we had.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Move on. What do you want?

[James Petregallo]

What do you want? Guys hitting.330 lost that batting title to Bernie Williams. It drove us all crazy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So rotator cuff, and he's out.

[James Petregallo]

He denied choking her, but he did do that. And he said, I can't deny that it happened, though. Sounds like me. When pressed as to whether he was now saying he didn't recall driving her to the bridge, he said, quote, I'm not sure what I'm saying now. Let's get that straight. Hold on. I'm not sure what I'm saying here. He denied.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I don't know what I did. I don't know what I'm saying.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. He denied that. She was really injured in their fight, though. This is his first wife. He admitted taking her to the hospital, but would not concede that she was so injured that she had to go there. She's just real bored and wanted to stop by the hospital for a while, see what they had down in the cafeteria. What the fuck are you talking about? She's not hurt. She would have said, I don't need to go to the hospital.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I assume it hurts, what you did to me. Oh, we'll go to the fucking hospital.

[James Petregallo]

The hospital. She's got to go. Gotta see a doctor. He admitted calling her a, quote, lying son of a bitch. Such a weird way.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's his thing.

[James Petregallo]

That's what he calls women. When he spoke about her to psychiatrists, but he denied it was a term he used frequently. He was just letting it out.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This is the second woman I've heard of.

[James Petregallo]

Exactly. That's why I put that there. Cause it's like, what are you talking about, dude? That's what he says about his first marriage. Ah. You know, a backhand maybe. I don't know. Know. Let's find out what Suzanne, his first wife, has to say about his first marriage, because we have plenty of her input here. She said talked about an incident on their wedding day, which those two were. Incident and wedding day shouldn't go together. When he, after only a few drinks, got intensely angry at her and drove erratically when she told him that she'd forgotten her house key. Yeah. She testified later that in another incident that caused her to move back in with her parents for the first time, he didn't like a meal she made any ending to this is crazy. By the way. Anybody who makes you a meal be thrilled with it. Who cares? They did it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Shut the fuck up.

[James Petregallo]

Who cares if it sucks? You didn't have to make it. So be happy they were nice enough to make it it for you. He flung a plate against the wall.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He did that.

[James Petregallo]

He did that move. If you're writing a movie and you're like, all right, there's a guy and he's kind of, like, domestically abusive, and he's this and that. You'd be like, he throws the plate. You go, that's too much.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You'd say, that's too tropey.

[James Petregallo]

It's tropey. It's over the top. Nobody would actually do it. There's, like, spaghetti clung to the wall and falling off of it. No one would do that. This is the guy who does that. So, yeah, he flung a plate against the wall, was verbally irate, and then shoved and slapped her. And she said over a meal he didn't like. There wasn't glass in. Wasn't poisoned.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. You didn't order and have to pay for this.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, she made a meal and he didn't like it. She said that he wasn't drinking at all that day.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's a sober guy.

[James Petregallo]

This is natural. This is. He needs a drink. Maybe. Suzanne next said that another violent episode when he had not been drinking. He was intensely angry because her carpool ride was late and he had to wait for her.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What to Lock the door. What?

[James Petregallo]

I guess ride to the carpool. And he had to wait for her at a carpool place.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Sat to wait for her to ride or some shit.

[James Petregallo]

The ride was late in a car she wasn't driving, by the way. After he picked her up, he peeled out of the driveway and hit her with his fist and his arm in her chest. He started punching her in the car because the person, whoever from the office, got off 10 minutes late. This incident prompted her to move back in for the second time with her parents. She said that Brad frequently hit her when he was not drinking. If she cried, that would make him more angry because he was afraid people would hear her. Here's a solution. Don't hit her. Guess what? There you go.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. She won't cry loud enough for people to hear her.

[James Petregallo]

And. Yeah. And then this is all, by the way, in the first year of marriage. The marriage didn't last a whole year. It was under a year. Wow. Then finally she describes the incident that made her leave for good. Those things weren't enough. He was very drunk and got jealous when they were in a restaurant. Okay. A man she knew came over their table to congratulate her on their marriage. Not to say, I heard your ass is looking good lately. I heard you got married. This must be the lucky guy. Congratulations, you guys.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

He got jealous about. About that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Now he's got questions. Did you fuck that guy? All the. All that stuff, all of that. Who cares?

[James Petregallo]

Who cares? It was just that this guy wanted to come talk to her to talk about you, you fucking idiot. That's the problem. He swore at her, called her a son of a bitch. That's his line. And made her leave the restaurant. Oh, my God. On the ride home, he insisted on driving even though he was very drunk and she was sober and drove like an asshole. Of course she asked him to let her drive or let her out. He refused and sped off. She opened the car door to get out. At one point he did. Of course, this is for her safety, obviously, you know, to guide her back into the car. All he could get ahold of was her hair. He pulled her back inside by her hair, swore at her, and punched her in the face before she managed to get the door open again. He slammed the door, slammed her wrist in the door she was trying to get out, and then choked her until she couldn't breathe. This is because a man said, congratulations, you two.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This is a fucking lunatic, this event. He's drinking, but he's done a lower version of this as a Sober man.

[James Petregallo]

He's hitting her, so it doesn't matter. Like, he's just an asshole. The alcohol may make him two minutes quicker to the fuse is all it is.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Why is he like this?

[James Petregallo]

She went limp and pretended to be dead because he thought she would. She thought he would kill her otherwise. He kept trying to wake her up. And then he said, quote. This is what he heard her say. This is terrifying. Okay, Quote. Cause she just pretended to be dead. Oh, my God, I've killed her. Do you think he would sob or. Oh, my God. He said, now what am I gonna do with the body? Ah, that's what he said. He was gonna dump her in a fucking ditch somewhere, like, bury her in a field. Now what am I gonna do with the body? Not. Not even her name.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The body.

[James Petregallo]

She is the body.

[Jimmy Whisman]

In two seconds, imagine you're playing dead, and then you hear a circular song.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. Oh, shit. That's almost as bad as hearing your family pick out a coffin. We'll take the one with the satin lining. Like, what the fuck is going on? I'm alive, assholes. It's just as scary.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What am I gonna do with the body?

[James Petregallo]

What am I gonna do with the body? He drove to the top of the Mount Hope Bridge. I think we know what he was gonna do with her body. At which point she opened her eyes, and he said he was relieved she was okay and told her he would take care of her. So he drove her to the hospital and said that he didn't mean to hurt her and that he just loved her so much.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I love so hard.

[James Petregallo]

I loved so hard that I was gonna throw your body off a bridge. Wow. She filed for divorce, but he still pursued her. She warned his second wife about his drinking problem and violence while drinking, but did not talk about his violence when he was sober to this woman. Just said, watch out when he drinks. He's gonna beat the fuck out of you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Stay off the Mount Hope Bridge.

[James Petregallo]

I'm sure it was at a bar somewhere. He's like, you marrying him. Watch out when he drinks. He'll give you the back of his hand. Now, back to the present timeline here. Okay? Brad is very upset about her breaking up with him. Now, Gene broke up with him in August, so he leaves repeated messages about wanting to get his things from her house. Very worried about his things. His reaction made Jean fear for her life. She was just scared of him. Now she doesn't know about all the history with the first two wives because she didn't even know he was fucking married until this incident. So Jean called her sister, Patricia McGowan and, crying, told her that she was afraid to go to bed that night. In speaking to her sister, Jean made reference to the prior incident In March of 97, when he broke into the house. So she's like, I'm scared. She says, patty, if anything happens to me, Brad did it. Oh, okay. Now, Patty advises Gene, why don't you call the police and try to get a restraining order? But Gene said, don't want to do it. She suggested, why don't you leave the house and tell Brad he can come get his things and you're not there. Sheen said she was afraid to do anything, including leaving the home. She didn't even want to leave.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I didn't want to leave the house.

[James Petregallo]

He might be in the yard. I don't know. So later, Jean had told Patty that she had talked to Brad and that he had agreed to get help for himself. But this is August. He's been getting help. How many doctors has he been to? He's had 47 doctor's appointments in the last eight months. So that's interesting. Now Brad, during this time, Brad is trying to get Gene back and trying to get any people on his side that he can. He calls Gene's father, the guy who came over to stay with her when he kicked the door in two years ago, to enlist in his help in getting Gene back.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Now if you're the father, you'd be like, I've been waiting for her to leave you for fucking years. I'm not helping you with shit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Stay the fuck away from my daughter.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. But instead he talks him into it, kind of. Here. Brad explains to Mr. Gerard that he. We broke up. Gene had a right to be upset. He's not like, your daughter's a bitch. He said, she's not a son of a bitch. Jean, he said, I didn't tell her about my first marriage because I really loved her and I didn't want her to think I was a loser because I couldn't make a marriage work.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's got shame.

[James Petregallo]

He's got shame. Yep. So Brad said he was afraid now that he's not even going to get invited. He's not going to be able to go to Gene's daughter's wedding. That leech. I want to go to her wedding so I can leech a fucking. I can leech a dried out chicken breast off of her. At least some hors d'. Oeuvres, maybe some.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Well, he's got to feel like a failure in everything. In his life. Being that grandfather was so successful. His dad was pretty successful at everything he did. Yeah. And then he is a truck salesman.

[James Petregallo]

His father and grandfather were well known all around. He's only well known in the medical community around here. That's it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

In the psychiatric community is well known. Other than that, nobody knows who the fuck he is. Or if you drive an F150, you're also. So Brad explained all that and he said he was afraid that he's not going to get invited to the wedding now. So, Mr. Gerard, Gene's dad then goes to Gene and counsels Gene. You should give Brad a chance and invite him to the wedding. Okay. Now Brad, who wanted so desperately to go to the wedding, is very pissed off that he has to go to the wedding now. He gets him. This guy's an asshole, man. They said okay. He said he was super pissed off because he's gonna have to be in the company of Gene's ex husband, Wayne.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And Wayne's family because it's his daughter getting married and all.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He is the father of the bride.

[James Petregallo]

Yep. Brad was jealous of the close relationship that Gene still maintains with them because they weren't at each other's throats. They were just normally just cordial. I'm cordial with my ex wife and I talk to her mom when I go over there. I'm friends with her family. Her brother was just at my house. You know what I mean? It's fine, Brad. Basically, Brad tells Gendra the daughter that he would not attend the wedding if he had to be photographed with that bastard Wayne Robinson. You know your dad. If I have to take a picture with your dad, then I'm not coming.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The good news is you don't have to take any fucking pictures.

[James Petregallo]

You don't matter. You're not involved in the family. No, the family pictures are gonna be the daughter and her mom and dad. Which you're not involved in. You're not even a stepdad. You're the guy the mom started going out with while she was already an adult. That's it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You're the guy my mom's going out with. And barely, maybe not soon.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. You're not even really together right now.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No.

[James Petregallo]

This is a new chance just to go to the wedding. That's the chance you're getting. So anyway, later, Brad sent Gendra a letter to apologize for being so immature about that and reassuring her. Look, I really love you and your mother and your whole family. And I was just having a day, basically.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'm sure you're having a lot of emotions about the biggest day of your life. And I'm planning for four years, threw a bunch of shit on top of it because I'm an insecure schmuck piece

[James Petregallo]

of shit son of a bitch will

[Jimmy Whisman]

go with, I'm a real son of a bitch.

[James Petregallo]

Son of a bitch. He told her that I know I'm not always the easiest person to deal with because I don't really show my emotions, which he seems to show them too much is the problem.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You show all of them.

[James Petregallo]

And he said, a lot of times, I know I seem hard and cold, which. No, no, you seem like a. Like a. Like a crazy old lady who's swinging a broom around with children, that's for sure.

[Jimmy Whisman]

But cold is not it. You sound like a pain in the ass.

[James Petregallo]

He assured her that he did not mean to come off that way. That was not what he was going for. So September 18, 1999. Wedding day is here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Big day.

[James Petregallo]

We gotta break this day down into little sections. Now this is hours before the wedding. Hey, everybody, just gonna take a quick break from the show and tell you what better way to shut with Thrive Market.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Thrive Market.com.

[James Petregallo]

oh, you know it. What are you gonna do? You're going through the grocery store frantically reading labels. What's in this? What's in that? Does this have gluten? Does this have soy? Does this. You don't need all of that. That's the thing. You don't need it. You don't need any of that aggravation because you have Thrive Market available to you where they take care of all that for you. They have the great inactive. My favorite thing is the scanner where you can scan anything and it'll find you a better, healthier option than that. It's amazing. This will replace. You know, you're gonna go on a Whole Foods run, stuff like that. This will replace that. This is great stuff. Thrive Market. You are going to love it. Think of Thrive Market. You know, it's, it's. It's an ingredient detective is what they are. They do all the work. That's the thing. They restrict 1,000 plus ingredients. Whole Foods only restricts 300. So they have a lot there. Thrive Market actually curates their selection so you know that you're always seeing the best items on the market. They even have 200 plus vetted snack packs, making back to school lunchbox packing a breeze. No red 40, no synthetic dyes, no high fructose corn syrup, none of that stuff. 90 plus diet and allergy and Lifestyle filters to find find exactly what fits your family from dye free to allergen friendly to high protein. That's like we do it with the gluten free stuff, right? And it's really great to be able to find snacks and cookies and things like that that are gluten free because they have that a lot. I know you're nuts for these oats.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh God, these seven day oats, seven Sunday oats.

[James Petregallo]

You're in love with oats and I know that. And that's the thing we talk about a lot because you rave about these oats and you know. In 2026, USA Today named Thrive Market one of the most trusted brands by parents. Thrive Market is the first online only grocer to accept Snap EBT online and every membership sponsors one for a low income family. This exclusive member pricing, weekly sales, the free gifts, the price matching and free delivery on qualifying orders makes the $5 a month membership. It's a no brainer everybody. You're going to want to get that Thrive Market box at your door. It's excellent stuff. We love Thrive Market. Buy all the stuff there. I'm addicted to their sea salt tortilla chips so I have to have it here. Use our link thrivemarket.com smalltownmurder to get $30 off your first two orders plus an extra 25% off during the back to school blowout sale that's running August 2nd through August 9th. These offers stack so you're getting the sale and our exclusive discount. You cannot get this deal on the website. It's only through our link sign up before this offer ends.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Now back to the show.

[James Petregallo]

Okay. Gendra is marrying Alec Jarnigan. It's a big day. On that day, Gene and Brad were in different places mentally. Let's just say Gene was very excited. Her daughter, she's the mother of the bride. Super excited. She's very close to Gendra. It's her only daughter. And you know she's gonna be surrounded by her close family members and her friends and her dad and her aunts and uncles and all this shit. It's gonna be one of the happiest days of Jean's life. She's thrilled for this. This is the big party. Brad doesn't want to go to the wedding.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He hates this.

[James Petregallo]

He didn't want to meet the fam. He didn't want to meet Wayne's family. You don't have to meet Wayne's family. Shake Wayne's hand. Hey, congratulations. And then don't talk to him the rest of the night you don't have to talk to his cousin. Who cares if you're.

[Jimmy Whisman]

If you're the mom of the bride's boyfriend? You can go sit at the table and not worry about any of this.

[James Petregallo]

No, go find someone to talk. There's always someone to talk to at a wedding. Yeah, so find some asshole to talk to.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Find some wacky aunt's boyfriend.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, go talk to him.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Listen to his conspiracy theories and brought it.

[James Petregallo]

Someone's got alien conspiracy theories. Talk to that guy. He'll be interesting. For a couple hours, he didn't feel a part of Jean's family, and he wanted to be with just Jean by herself. And people around it said he seemed like he resented her joy that day. She's so happy, it pisses him off. In the early afternoon.

[Jimmy Whisman]

How did she find it?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. In the early afternoon of the wedding day, the bride and the bridesmaids gathered at Jean's house to get ready for the wedding. They were all happy, excited. They're getting dressed, they're doing their hair, they're taking pictures. What chicks do before weddings. Brad stayed out of the way and was gone from the house or not observed by those that were there for periods of time during the day before the wedding too. So he's been kind of in and out when Brad was around. Everyone said there seemed to be tension between he and Gene. At one point, they got in an argument over Gene's medication, which we talked about, which Jean's niece Kelly witnessed. Jean had recently experienced a kidney problem that required her to take medication. This is. This is serious. Brad was insistent she take her medication on the day of the wedding. Jean resisted because she wanted to enjoy the day and have a drink, and it probably didn't work. Champagne, at least something.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Kidney meds. When you're.

[James Petregallo]

Who gotta take kidney meds. When you gotta take kidney meds. Brad angrily responded, quote, if I have to take my medication, so do you. He's such a child, this guy. Wow. If you don't take.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She's taking Klonopin. She's taking a supplement for her fucking kidney.

[James Petregallo]

Kidneys. He said, if you. You won't take your medication, I won't go to the wedding. Which she should have said, great. Win, win, See you around. I'll take my medication and you won't be there to fuck the whole day up for me. He then stormed out of the house, as he does later, calling Gene twice in quick succession, trying to smooth things over and assure her that he would go to the wedding.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, another apology period.

[James Petregallo]

Whenever he has a thought, he should wait an hour to express it because he'll feel much differently by then. Yeah, he should have a watch that just. You press one button and it sets a 60 minute timer. 60 minutes on that. Okay. Yeah, I want to talk to that shit.

[Jimmy Whisman]

When you have anger issues. That old count to 10 bullshit. But

[James Petregallo]

he needs to count to an hour.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. His is so extreme.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, it is. Now while Brad is gone, Gene kept seeking reassurances from the niece Kelly that her hair looked good for the wedding. My hair look okay. Gotta take a lot of pictures. I don't wanna look like shit, you know. It was important to Gene that she looked beautiful for the special day. Jean told Kelly that Brad had really done a number on her self esteem. And she wants to, you know. Do I look okay? Basically there's also Josie Davis, that's the casino partner there that goes out with her. That's her. Her Louise to her. Thelma here. Jean's good friend Josie Davis also arrived while Brad was gone. Jean invited Josie to share in the pre wedding festivities. Josie and Gene had met years before. They used to work together. And they basically went out with each other every other weekend there. They'd been tight, close friends. They saw each other less frequently after Jean and Brad got engaged. Because as we know, nothing sets Brad off like Ladies night. Can't have that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Ladies night is the most. How dare you Sandrist fucking night. How bullshit.

[James Petregallo]

And they're gonna get cheaper drinks. I won't have it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

No Cupboard and quarter drinks. What the fuck?

[James Petregallo]

And they're out without me. I won't have it. So they had become closer after Josie had confided in Gene about her own abusive relationship. Gene had told Josie that she was concerned about. Concerned about Brad's anger. And that the fact that he didn't like her kids. So she confided in Josie about the incident where Brad. Brad broke her door down. Josie's understanding was that Jean and Brad had broken up in the weeks prior to the wedding. And that Gene had helped Brad meet a doctor to assist with his anger control. Josie thought they were back together at the time of the wedding because Gene had her engagement ring up. Which it might have just went well with the outfit because jewelry does. Yeah, yeah. People wear their. They wear their finery at a wedding.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's.

[James Petregallo]

People come with their nicest watch. They wear their nicest shit. That's what people do.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Brooch.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, yeah. Everything they have, they break it out. That thing grandma gave me, better put that on. So Josie was concerned that Brad might be abusing Gene. But Gene decided that, decided, denied that Brad ever hit her. So he never hit me. Now, the day before the wedding, Jean had invited Josie to leave her car at Jean's house and ride to the wedding with she and Brad. Because Josie didn't like to drive on freeways.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What?

[James Petregallo]

Jesus Christ. I didn't like to drive on freeways.

[Jimmy Whisman]

How do you get anywhere?

[James Petregallo]

That's part of driving.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, how do you fucking get anywhere?

[James Petregallo]

Back east? You can weave your way places, but it takes a shitload longer, right? So Brad later returned to the house dressed in his tuxedo, ready to go. Wow, tuxedo. Because he's with the mother of the bride, so he's got to dress up. He carried beer and ice into the backyard and began setting up for a party that Jean was to host at her house. After the wedding, Josie Davis spent some time in the backyard with him. Brad and Josie each had one beer. Josie told Brad she thought he'd given up drinking.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh boy.

[James Petregallo]

He said, well, I did give up drinking, but that quote, and this is a very, very New England thing to say, quote, beers don't count, right? Yeah, that's not drinking. This is beer. You know how many people in fucking New England I've heard say that? I'm not, I'm having a beer. I'm not drinking like Pennsylvania too. Like that quarter of alcoholism and like Scranton around there. My relatives, I'm just drinking a beer. Ma, that's my 15 year old cousin, she's like, oh, okay.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I thought it was something hot and have a beer. That's what they all say, that they don't do it.

[James Petregallo]

Yep. He told her only the hard stuff counts. This is New England, babe. After touring with the backyard with Brad for about 15, 20 minutes, Josie came back inside to have something to eat and watched the picture taking. Brad remained outside for a while, didn't participate in any of that activity, which why would he. That's a bunch of, of girls doing. It's a women thing. That's not, you're not involved in that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's them worst fucking part of a wedding too.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, I wouldn't do that. So he showed no visible signs of intoxication. As far as they could tell, he only had one beer. Finally, the wedding comes. Okay, well, we're going to go to the wedding. The bride and bridesmaids were getting into the limousine. That is when the granddaughter of Jean's neighbor, Alma Miller, Alma Miller's granddaughter, comes over to see them. Alma Miller is watching from across the street and saw Jean, Brad, Jendra, and her bridesmaids getting ready to go to the wedding. Brad took photographs of the little granddaughter, who's a little girl, with Gendra and Jean, who were all dressed up, and she wanted to take pictures with them. So Brad drives the ladies to the wedding, Josie and Jean. Anyway, the other ones are going in a limo. Okay. This is in Brad's car. While on the way, Brad and Gene had another argument about medication. Brad reached into the console, took out a pill vial, read the label and put it back. He then picked up a second vial and ingested a pill from it. And Gene said, what are you doing? You just took one an hour. You just took one an hour. An hour and a half ago you're going to be flat on your face. And he said, I can handle it. I got this. At no time during the drive or at any other time in the day did Brad show any apparent difficulty in saying or doing anything. He wasn't falling over. He wasn't slowing down.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Motor skills are fine.

[James Petregallo]

Everything's fine. So now ceremony and reception. Let's go to that. A videotape of the ceremony is taken and is out there for later. Brad is walking just fine, walking Gene down the aisle to her seat. Standing in the receiving line with her, Gene took an active role in greeting guests. Brad appeared as if he didn't want to be there. Ah, there's a reason for that. Watch fucking didn't. Yeah. After the receiving line, the families assembled for photographs. Brad remained detached, which is, I guess, fine. He didn't want to be photographed with Wayne, the father of the bride. What an asshole. He had to be coaxed repeatedly by others to participate in the picture taking. The videotape of the reception showed during the cocktail hour when Gene appeared in Brad's company. They're not looking at one another and there's no interaction between the two of them. They're just kind of standing next to each other.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I mean, you could have missing a golden opportunity to have a very funny or at least quite cool picture of those two, like, squaring up to fist fight while the. While the bride stands there.

[James Petregallo]

Something. It could be so fun if some. Everybody's not an asshole. It's not a weird situation. It's just not. It's fine.

[Jimmy Whisman]

But I mean, he's putting out the vibe that he doesn't like this guy anyway and everybody understands it.

[James Petregallo]

Who cares? You have to see him one day. The fuck do you care? Jesus, it's so stupid. So Gene's sister Patty then Told about an incident between Gene and Brad that happened during the reception. Patricia and her sister Geraldine and others were standing with Jean and laughing and talking. Brad was standing with them. At one point, somebody spilled a drink that Brad was holding on Jean's dress. Someone like hit his arm. It spilled, went on her dress, they said. Brad got a mean, pissed off look on his face. Gene tried to joke that Brad had bought the dress. So it didn't matter if he spilled the drink on it now. You bought it anyway. But Brad didn't think it was funny. He walked away and left her just standing there by herself without him after that. Just like an asshole. So this prompted Jean to walk outside for a private moment with Patricia, her sister. And she said, quote, I finally had it. You don't understand. You just don't know what is happening to me. And now Brad has left me and I'm here by myself at the wedding. A few minutes later, guess what? Brad comes back. He's Brad. So he's back. Gene tried to console him about the drink spilling incident, saying it was just a joke. Brad was still upset and maintained it wasn't a joke.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What?

[James Petregallo]

Calm down.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You could tear this dress. I don't give a shit.

[James Petregallo]

You bought it and I'm wearing it once just for this occasion.

[Jimmy Whisman]

One day I'm going to burn it tonight.

[James Petregallo]

I don't care. So at dinner, Brad and Gene sat at a table with with her parents and two of her sisters and their husbands. Gene spent most of the evening mingling. It's a mother of the bride. It's her job. Brad sulked, stayed detached. He wasn't observed eating or drinking while he was at the table. He was just kind of sitting there being pissy. Not really a part of the festivities. There was times during the reception where no one knew where he was. He just disappeared for a while. At one point at the table, he and Jean got into an argument because she wanted to meet meet her ex husband's brother who was in the car business and explore doing business with him. Brad was adamant that he did not want to meet Wayne's brother. She's trying to help him going, he's in the car business too. You guys might be able to get some business together. And he said, I don't care what the fuck he does. I don't want to meet him.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You're in the truck business. Maybe people that come to him looking for trucks, he can send them to you.

[James Petregallo]

And you can't put more fucking food on the table.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, we.

[James Petregallo]

Please. So Jean's Father finally advised her to just drop the subject, suggesting Brad was. She said, he's successful. He's a successful businessman. If he doesn't want to deal with this guy and be in business, it's not like he can't pay his bills. Leave him alone. Which is good advice. Quit breaking his fucking balls telling him how to run his own business. Leave him alone. So the videotape of the first time he's writing the entire evening is the the only time so far. The videotape of the wedding also shows Jean dancing with her daughter and all that. They both look very happy. They're crying, tears of joy, all that shit, right? Having a good time. Brad stood at a distance watching them and photographing them, which is fine. Also, Gene later sat on his lap as shown on the videotape, and they both posed for a picture. Brad grinned and waved for the camera.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Cute.

[James Petregallo]

So he's getting over it. That's what it seems like. 9:00pm it's slow dance time. Uh oh, here we go. Brad danced with Gene. Their slow dance is shown on the videotape. Luckily, this is a videographer doing all this. And Gene appeared serious and tense as she discussed him. They were talking, arguing while they were slow dancing, they said. Brad responded with a few words and showed little emotion or expression. And toward the end of the dance, he kissed her firmly. Okay, now he has no trouble dancing. He's not hammered or anything like that. In the last segment of the video, Brad is shown crossing the floor of the reception hall at the end of the reception. He walked normally and with purpose. At no time during the wedding and reception did he have any apparent difficulty with his speech, walking, or any other signs of intoxication. Didn't look shit faced, which Gene is is happy about, by the way.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Well documented sobriety. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Yep. So Brad and Gene were among the last of the guests to leave the wedding reception. Both Jean's niece Kelly and her dad, Albert Gerard Senior, said they saw nothing untoward in Brad's behavior when they said their goodbyes and left the reception. Now Gene's ex husband Wayne helped take down the white twinkle lights that had been used as decorations so they could be loaded into Brad's car and taken back to Gene's house. Brad was helping to pack up centerpieces and other items in the back of his car. So he's being a part of the crew here now. Albert Gerard Jr. Gene's brother, younger brother, waited around after the reception to talk to his sister. He'd been out of state for a few years. And wanted to catch up with her. Yeah, yeah. Gene, who basically, they have a big age difference. Oh, it's a big age, yes. She's the oldest and he's the youngest, and there's a bunch of kids. So I think that there's a really healthy age difference. And he always looked up to her like a mother because they had such a big age difference. And she would assure him that, you've always been my first son. Don't worry. That type of shit. So as he was walking out, Albert, which is this brother here, ran into Wayne with who he knew growing up. They were very close since they were young because, you know, he was an older guy that was basically. Yeah. So they hadn't seen each other in a long time. And they made plans, talking about going fishing together.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Hell, yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Nice. So as Albert was heading into his car, he ran into Brad in the back of the building. While Brad was loading his trunk and no one else was around, Albert said he was just about to move back to Rhode island and suggested that he maybe he and Brad could go fishing together. Albert's just friendly. He has nobody here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Albert loves fishing.

[James Petregallo]

He'll fish with anybody. This guy who doesn't give a fuck. He indicated Brad said that Gene. He and Gene would enjoy that. So Albert talked to Brad about how Brad felt with Wayne around and how things were going with Brad and Gene. He's having a conversation. Brad said, I don't have any problem with Wayne, but I just don't really want to hang out with him and I don't want to meet his family. Albert said that Brad was flustered, upset, and kind of bent out of shape at the prospect of meeting the family. Wayne's family. He said he was adamant he didn't want to meet them. Like, he kept saying, I don't want to fucking care about these people. He said the tone of his voice, the look in his eyes, he was very intense about it. He said, I had never seen Brad upset like that before. Really went crazy. Over the course of the conversation, Brad mentioned to Albert that he had been taking. Taking tranquilizers.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh.

[James Petregallo]

After hearing that, Albert was concerned that Brad not be mixing tranquilizers and alcohol, especially if he was about to drive. It's probably bad news. He told Brad he hoped Brad hadn't been drinking. And Brad responded that he might not. He hadn't been drinking, but he might be all looped out on Sprite. You know how that stuff gets you. He was joking, obviously. He said nothing about Brad's speech, gait, balance, Anything led to Albert to think that Brad was under the influence of anything. He seemed perfectly fine.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He popped up on caffeine free and shitloads of sugar.

[James Petregallo]

Just lots of sugar, babe. During the conversation, Brad assured Albert that he loved gene a lot. 10:30pm the drive home. Here we go. Okay. Brad leaves the wedding reception with Jean and Josie about 10.30pm There was no plan for guests to return to Gene's house for more celebration, even though they had planned it earlier. I guess the wedding went long enough to where they didn't need to have an after party.

[Jimmy Whisman]

10:30 at night. It's time. Time to go home.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. These are a bunch of people in their 40s and shit. It's not for us. We're going home now. We've already been drinking. It's over. We both said that it's over. Brad drove. Jeannie sat in the passenger seat. Josie sat in the backseat. The drive from the reception in Bristol to Gene's house took about a half hour. Brad drove perfectly fine. You know, not fucked up, didn't hit anything and, you know, didn't swerve. His speech is fine. Everything's fine here. He did not open the console, take out any pills, or have any conversation about medication on the way home. On the ride home, three of these people, they talked about the wedding. At one point, Brad said that he didn't want anything to do with Gene's ex husband's family. Again, he made it very clear. Josie said. Jean said nothing in response because she's heard it 1700 times today. Although Josie got the impression that they had talked about it before they got. Before she got in the car. She was like, this is a sore subject. Okay. Josie and Jean talked at length about how great the wedding had been and how everything had gone so well. As they get close to Jean's house, Jean tells Brad that she would like to go to bed and that she would like him to leave. Why don't you go home so I can go to bed? I'm sure she didn't say, I would like you to leave. I'm sure it was like, I'm gonna go to bed. Why don't you go home? Home. She told Brad that when Josie left, he should leave too. Jean said she wasn't feeling that well. That was not feeling well. Brad didn't argue or say anything in response. Josie said, they get to the house. Brad drives into the driveway, pulls the car up near the garage. They all get out. Brad stands in front of the car to the left, between the car and the garage. Gene opened the door to the house and Josie went into the house for a few minutes to get her car keys so she could drive home. As you remember, she left her car there. Now Jean stood in the doorway talking to Josie as Josie transferred her flowers from Brad's car to her car on the street. Her car's parked on the street. They talked for about five minutes. Jean asked Josie if she was okay to drive and Josie assured her that she was just fine. I'm Rhode island sober. I'm like a 15. I'm good. I could. I'm good with that. They had an agreement to always be honest with each other about such matters. She said, no, I'm being honest. Don't lie to me, Josie. Don't lie to me, Josie. You drunk bitch. What's going on? Josie asked Jean if she was okay because Jean had said she wasn't feeling well. Jean thanked Josie for being part of this wonderful day. Josie said goodnight and to Gene and Brad and they said goodbye to her and she left. During this whole period, Brad never moved from his spot in the driveway. He's just standing there. So Josie assumed that he was waiting for her to leave so that he could say goodnight to Jean and let her go to sleep. Josie leaves. She drives on the back roads, as we know. She doesn't drive on the freeways. This is from her home, Jean's home in Cranston, to her home in Warwick. They figure she got home between 11:30 and 11:40 after a drive of about 25 minutes. 20 to 25 minutes. By her calculation. She left Jean's house sometime after 11 and perhaps as late as 11:20. She said she would never have left Gene with Brad if she thought Gene was unsafe. Everything seemed fine just before midnight. Remember Alma Miller? Well, here she is across the street.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Alma Miller, who's been a neighbor and friend of Gene's for over 20 years, was sitting at her kitchen table. This is like a weekend at like midnight, by the way. She's sitting at a kitchen table clipping coupons from an early edition of the Sunday paper, as was her. You. I would say early. It's not even fucking Sunday yet.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

As was her usual weekend custom, this is how she spent her Saturday night. She heard a voice from outside saying, help me. Help me. She thought it was Gene. The person was not screaming, but not saying the words in a quiet voice just loud enough so they could be heard across the street. But not screaming. Alma said, she's in her house, doors and windows closed, and she still heard it and she heard it. She paused for a few moments, thinking it was odd. She did one of these. She's clipping. She's like, yeah. Didn't hear anything else and said, okay, that's interesting. Then she got up from the table, unlocked the door and opened it, Turned the lights on outside and stood looking out of the screen door across the street to Jean's house. Because she's nosy.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, that's a movie scene.

[James Petregallo]

She's frugal and nosy. Yeah. When I saw this, it's funny, I was telling somebody about this and I said, this is a very cinematic scene. You can picture this playing out her

[Jimmy Whisman]

face through the screen door.

[James Petregallo]

Click. Yeah, the light turns on. Click. Close up on the light. Cut to the door, her coming into it. So she did all of this. She estimated that no more than a minute passed from the time she heard the voice until she flipped on the lights. And it took her about 20 seconds to open the door and turn the lights on. This is what she could see. She looked across the street towards Jean's house. And there's a photograph later on that you can see what her view is and everything like that. And it's a pretty good view out of there. Much better than the old lady and my cousin Vinnie that needs thicker glasses. Much better.

[Jimmy Whisman]

What about the guy with all the crud on his screens?

[James Petregallo]

What's this crud on your screen? What's this stuff? Now, a light on the front of Gene's house, located between the garage and breezeway and right above the driver's side of Brad's car, illuminated mainly the front of his car and the driver's side door. And the rest of the driveway was more in shadow. The car itself was pulled up close to the garage door. She does not believe. Alma Miller said that the floodlight on the opposite corner of the garage was on to light up that part of the yard. She said that she could not see in the back of Brad's car very well. Nor could she see to the right of the his car along the hedges. Only that spot that's reflecting, that's where the light is there. Okay. She said that had a person been lying on the ground behind the car, she would not have been able to see them, is what she said. So she said had a person been driving on the drive, lying on the driver's side of the car, or walked or run behind the car, she said she would have been able to see that, though. Okay, so Alma Miller, looking out the door, her attention was drawn to Brad as He stood next to the driver's side of the door. She testifies later that he appeared hesitant and that he stood next to the door for five to 10 seconds before he got in, and that all of his attention did not appear to be focused on getting into the car.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Hmm.

[James Petregallo]

I don't know what. That's weird. Although she had. She tells the police later that she saw Brad attempting to get into his car and that he appeared to appear to be having. Having difficulty. She said, not in a drunk way. He was hesitating, just fumbling around. She said that originally when she thought he was having trouble getting into the car, she said that that was her assumption because she figured he'd been drinking because she knew he'd been to a wedding, which is crazy. He must be stumbling because he went to a wedding.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Went to a wedding.

[James Petregallo]

It was weird.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. What do you do at a wedding besides drink and eat?

[James Petregallo]

It's very strange, she said, but the difficulty she actually observed is when he stood outside the car and had hesitancy and a lack of full attention to getting into the car. When Brad finally got into the car, he didn't have any trouble doing so. He started the car up, back down the driveway and put it in, started up, back out in a fluid motion. Didn't sit there for 30 seconds before he started the engine. As he backed the car down the driveway at a fast pace, it bounced and bucked. She said it looked like an inexperienced driver trying to use a clutch, that kind of shit. When the car got to the end of the driveway, it cut to the right with the passenger side tires cutting across the grass a little bit. The car backed up and went forward in one motion with the car still bouncing. Alma Miller observed no brake lights and does not recall seeing any backup lights. She said Brad never stopped the car or got out of it after he left Gene's house. And he made his way down the street in the direction of Bain Junior High School. Once Brad's car was gone, Alma Miller noticed something in the street to the left of the driveway, looking like a human body. So she grabbed her cell phone and a flashlight, ran out to the street so no one else would run over the body. Yeah, and Jean noticed that. Jean is the one lying in the roadway with injuries, she said. Looks so severe that she wasn't recognizable to her.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

She said, in the words of Alma Miller, she looked like a rag doll in the way she was laying, too, in terms of her limbs being in odd, you know, unnatural positions and shit like that. So she calls 911 from the street and she's saying that it's the same thing from the top of the show. No, no, no. The guy was backing out of his driveway and I don't know, I heard someone yell help. There was a wedding. I don't know if the guy was drunk or what. Now this makes sense.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

I don't know. Was going on. Yeah. She said though, the guy dragged them both down the street. She said she was positive that it was Brad's car, a black car driven by the guy who lives there. So Police arrive about 1 o' clock a.m. at Gene's house and there is a lot going on in the meantime, by the way, I believe it. Before they get here, there's a whole lot happening. We'll get to that. But we'll get to the scene here. First Sergeant Henry of the Cranston Police Department arrives And after the initial officers and rescue had arrived, he noted the victim was covered with road rash being dragged around on the ground. Her nightgown was rolled up around her neck and chest and she was dead. Now, Alma could not confirm her identity for sure. So in order to identify the victim, the cop went to Gene's house, got no response and found that the door leading from the kitchen to the breezeway was open. He found pictures that look like the victim, although he still wasn't positive it was Gene. But he goes, this looks like our lady. Similar. Yeah. Couldn't even tell. So we think this is maybe her house. He noticed blood on the street and the driveway. He also noticed blood inside the house.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh.

[James Petregallo]

He noted large puddles of blood in the kitchen, blood smears on the kitchen floor, and a large black flashlight covered with blood on the kitchen kitchen floor.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Somebody was leaking and then made it out to the street.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. This is not just someone got hit by a car in the dark. This is something way different. So they secured the scene, they notified Gene's family, they found Wayne, the ex husband, and drove him to the hospital. This guy, the cop. They also found a pool of blood in the driveway just to the rear of where Brad's car was parked. It was consistent with the blood bloody head laying there for a minute. The. The blood spatter marks around this location could be indicative of a victim's head hitting the ground with force at that location. They also found white fibers along the sidewalk where it meets the grass, consistent with her nightgown. They also found blood evidence further down the driveway away from the garage to another pool of blood on the roadway just north of the driveway. And Then a smear of blood in the roadway connecting that pool of blood to another pool of blood on the roadway a little bit north. You can see what happens there. The location of the blood is consistent with a body being dragged against the pavement down the driveway to the first point in the road where it rested, briefly creating a pool of blood until it came to its final resting place. The blood in the roadway is consistent with the location of the body as well. And. And what Alma Miller said she saw inside the house. The detectives find a swipe of blood above the handle of the aluminum breezeway door that leads to the outdoors consistent with something that came in contact with it. There's no blood visible on the artificial turf on the breezeway floor. Inside the kitchen and near the door that leads from the kitchen to the breezeway, there's a small chair from which items has been knocked off. There was a large police style mag flashlight covered with blood lying on a kitchen floor. On the kitchen floor near that chair. It's a 14 inch long 2 to 3 pound. A fucking cop flashlight. You all know it. The one they put on their shoulder big blind you with.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's the one that every mechanic has in his bottom drawer.

[James Petregallo]

Everybody's got one of those in their house in case there's a blackout. There was a blood spatter across the kitchen floor and droplets. There was also a smear pattern of blood on the kitchen floor. The largest collection of blood was found where the kitchen meets the hallway there. There was blood on the wall. Blood spatter from the hall to the kitchen and pooling of blood in the hallway consistent with blood dripping from a level close to the floor from the force of gravity. Only just the blood dripping. The way the blood was spattered in the kitchen indicates two cast off patterns that could be consistent with multiple blows to the victim with the flashlight when the victim was down.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

Similar cast off patterns appears on the wall of the hallway. The master bedroom door which locked from the inside. Which is. Okay. Yeah, it should. Okay, never mind. That's how it should lock. I was like, why would they put it that way? Of course it locks from the inside. I'm like inside that? No, that's normal. Yeah. Outside is weird. Was scratched on the outside and evidenced cracked wood around the damage to the striker plate. So it looked like some something happened in the door. It's kicked in before. Yep. The scratches on the door are not reflected in the photograph of the bridesmaids taken near the door earlier in the day. So these are new.

[Jimmy Whisman]

These are new scratches.

[James Petregallo]

Everything was Photographed in that house today. There was nothing inside the bedroom to evidence a struggle. The bed covers were messed up and pulled back to around a 45 degree angle. There was no blood evident upstairs at all. So they bring in, they go to the autopsy because they're like, we have no idea what happened. She got hit by a car. There's blood out there, but there's blood in here too. So the autopsy report indicated that blunt force trauma to the head and neck, including a scalp laceration at the vertex of the head, hemorrhage in the deep musculature of the left side of the neck and petechiae, conjunctive eye and. And sclerae of the eyes. These findings here were consistent with blunt force trauma to the head separate from being run over by a car and manual strangulation.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right.

[James Petregallo]

It's a lot of stuff that's happened to her. In addition, the evidenced the blunt force compressive trauma to the torso, including extensive broad abrasions and contusions on the chest and back, abrasions of the bony prominences of the face, a subscapular scapular hemorrhage, multiple bilateral rib fractures, laceration of the lungs, liver, spleen, pelvic fractures, thermal burns to the right ankle and left knee and contusions and abrasions to the extremities.

[Jimmy Whisman]

She's been in a massive fight.

[James Petregallo]

You could have dropped her out of a fucking plane, she'd have less injuries than this. This is crazy. Crazy. These findings were consistent with being run over and compressed under a motor vehicle. They determined the cause of death was rib and pelvic fractures, lung and liver lacerations due to the compressive blunt force trauma from being run over. The nightgown was removed from her at the time of autopsy and secured by police. It was bloodied, shredded and consistent with being beaten and dragged under a car. Okay. Later on, by the way, a cop that returns to the scene, apparently a pedestrian the next morning, found a bloody tuxedo shirt near the junior high school that's down the street.

[Jimmy Whisman]

The ruffles in the center.

[James Petregallo]

Absolutely. So this is what's going on now. Okay, now that happened at 1 o'. Clock. Now at 12:04pm okay, the police were called. That's when the first 911 call came. During this same time that's happening, Brad uses his cell phone to call his sister Debbie, who was the chief secretary and records clerk for the Portsmouth Police Department. Oh, his cell phone records indicate the call lasted eight minutes. And his sister said, he said, quote, I think I'm in trouble. I've killed Gene. Oh, you're in trouble, asshole. Debbie responded by saying, no, you didn't. Are you sure? Which is a dumb question. Later Brad said, I don't know. Maybe she's all right. Here's her telephone number. 529-1122. Call her up. Go check on her.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Call her up. Last time I started to dispose of a body and then she came too.

[James Petregallo]

So who knows? Could be anything. I thought I killed a Broadway once before. Didn't.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I'm terrible at this diagnosis.

[James Petregallo]

I don't know. I don't feel for pulses. I just like to see the general view. Brad said, you do that. She said, why don't you do it? He goes, well, I'm busy. And she said, why? And he said, well, I'm driving to the bridge to jump off because I don't want to go to the aci, which is either the jail or the mental institution. One of the two, Debbie said, stop. Don't go any further. Call the police or go home and call the police. At one point Brad said, quote, I'm wearing a tux and it's covered in blood. Which I will say this, we've done. This is episode 723. We've had a lot of episodes. A lot of outfits. People kill in overalls are very popular for murder. Nude is popular in a buck. We have never had someone kill informal wear before. Have we ever?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Not a tuxedo.

[James Petregallo]

I'm sure it's formal wear. A suit. Yeah, that's happened. Play. But like a tuxedo.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Tuxedo, bow tie.

[James Petregallo]

Clip on rented clothes.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. Somebody else's shoes.

[James Petregallo]

Thin soled shoes that hurt when you walk. Yeah, that's what he's wearing.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Different laces on either side.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, Barely long enough to tie a stupid bow.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Very small bow on those shoes.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, this big. It's like a mouse's mustache, that bow. It's so tight.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Get arthritis tying it.

[James Petregallo]

It's so bad it's easier. You'd be easier off just doing it with your tongue. Like a cherry. Stuff them trying to do it with your big stupid fingers. He said, also, quote, I hit her with a flashlight and ran her head over twice.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, Jesus.

[James Petregallo]

He said that he had life insurance policies at work and that either Debbie or his sister Cindy was the beneficiary. And I don't know which one, but I'm just letting you know that that money is the beneficiary. He said the ring he gave Gene was in the glove box. He said, he was driving like a maniac and had done some minor damage to his car during the drive from Cranston to Newport. He's just hitting shit. He did say, I'm sober, though. Stone sober. Debbie said that Brad's voice was quiet and rambling, like someone who'd been drinking a lot, though she had no difficulty understanding him. Nor did she note any slurred speech. She just thought that he sounded intoxicated, but she didn't know because she knew something was wrong with him. She said, though, she had never dealt with someone who had just killed someone before. So maybe he was just being. Being weird because of that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. Manic episode.

[James Petregallo]

She said that him later on, she said, I guess him having just killed someone could have explained his rambling speech. I just know what's going on. That call ended at 12:12am on September 19, 1999. Then he's making more phone calls. A couple minutes after he called Debbie, he called the operator. We don't know what went on there. What time is it when you do that? Yeah, yeah, that would be fucking amazing. At the tone, it will be 132. He. We think he might be calling the police on himself here. Okay. A minute after that, he called Gene's house. That call lasted for less than a minute. Cause ain't nobody fucking answering. 12:17am he calls his sister Cindy. About that time, Debbie was talking to Cindy about the call she just gotten from Brad. And Brad either beeped in his call, waiting through Cindy. Cindy hung up from talking to Debbie and took Brad's call. This lasted for 18 minutes until 12:35am after he hung up, they talked for another five. She called him right back and they talked for another five minutes till 12:41. After that, he hung up again. She called him back three times at 12:41, 12:42 and 12:43am Each of those times, the phone kept cutting out. So now we're in bad. This is 1999. The reception sucks. Generally it still sucks a lot of places.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's pretty bad.

[James Petregallo]

It's bad. So in his first conversation with Cindy, he said he just killed Jean and he was on his way to the bridge to jump off, as one does. He later said he was on the bridge when he was talking to her. She spoke to him while he was out of his car on the bridge. He said he was going to jump. And then he said, oh, Frankie Rosa's here. That's Frankie Rosa.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Who's that?

[James Petregallo]

Frankie Rosa is Officer Frank Rosa of the Newport Police Department, formerly the Portsmouth Police department where his sister works, who is a longtime friend of the family.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They've known him for a long time.

[James Petregallo]

They know him forever.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

So Cindy said that Brad had just. Cindy says later to the police that Brad had just swallowed a bottle of pills and that she could hear him swallowing the pills. On the phone call, she surmised that he must have told her, although she could not recall whether he told her or not. But whatever she also said, it seems like Cindy doesn't really want to tell what they were talking about. Debbie is willing to talk about it. Cindy's. It's a lengthy conversation. She pretty much synthesizes it down to about 30 seconds. And that's about it, where there's a lot more conversation going on. But she said that he sounded out of it and he sounded drunk, although she did not put that in her police statement later on. She didn't say that till later and that her impression was based only on his rambling conversation, not any slurring or other difficulties in his speech. Sounds like he kills someone and then goes spins out. Now, Stephen Clark was the supervisor working at the entrance of the Newport Bridge that night in Jamestown, he received a report of a man stopped in the center span of the bridge. He notified the state police and Newport Police, then drove up to the top of the bridge in his own emergency vehicle. Now, prior to that, neither he nor the only toll collector working the inbound lane that night noticed anyone trying to run the lane without paying or otherwise exhibiting any erratic behavior. Nobody blasted through the fucking arm there and kept going. Now, at the top of the bridge, two Newport patrol officers arrived just after Stephen Clark got there. And a Jamestown patrol car happened to be on the bridge as well. A black car with the license plate BE27, which is Brad's car, was found parked directly against the curb near the top of the bridge with the motor turned off and its flashers on. So I put the hazards on. No one inside the car. The officers fanned out in different directions because they didn't see him and couldn't find any. Him. There's just a car. They thought he jumped already.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Hilarious.

[James Petregallo]

There's just a car. So Detective Frank Rosa checked the car and found no note. Found a pill bottle with Edwards written on it. Officer Sylvia of the Newport Police then yelled, I found him. He had crawled over the side of the bridge onto a. This is terrifying. Onto a platform and then across and onto an I beam. Beam situated six to eight feet out from and parallel to the side of the fucking bridge. He's on the. Yeah, on the bottom the maintenance beam. On the bottom of the fucking bridge. Just standing on a fucking I beam like a lunatic. The I beam is used by repairmen. The. He sat. He sat on the I beam, straddling it, facing Newport, with one leg on one side of the beam and one leg on the other. There's water hundreds of feet below him. If he falls, he's fucking dead. That's it. So the detective approaches him and he recognized him, as we know from the phone call, and said, I'm glad to see you, Frank. That's his name, right, Frank? Yeah. Glad to see you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, he said that to the cop?

[James Petregallo]

To the cop, Glad to see you, Frank, because he's an old family friend. He knew, I guess he had apparently attended the wedding of Brad's second wife. Oh, so he knew the whole family. Rosa asked him, hey, whatcha doing out here? Which is a real reasonable question.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You're doing maintenance.

[James Petregallo]

Now, this is. They have not found Gene yet, mind you. Gene is not gonna be found for another half hour. So this is. Or 15 minutes or so, actually, at this point. So at that time, Rosa had not spoken to the Cranston police about anything in Cranston. So Frank. Rosa got within 20ft of Brad. Brad got anxious and started moving around a lot and threatene jump if anyone came closer. The detective decided that because he knew Brad, he should be the one to try to talk to him to gain his confidence because he kind of was already halfway there and get him onto the safe part of the bridge. So Rosa kept eye contact with him and kept up a continuous conversation with him. So, yeah, good. What do you think? Spring training looking good right now. The Sox are looking good. Pedro. Pedro is hurling it, boy. He is throwing it down there. And then Florida, it's looking great.

[Jimmy Whisman]

How's that wife of yours?

[James Petregallo]

Ah, shit, let's not talk about that. Rosa let him take the conversation anywhere that he wanted to go. The detective knew that if he stopped talking or said the wrong thing, he might jump. So you just got to keep it going and keep it positive. So just as he began to establish some sort of rapport with Brad, Brad's cell phone rang. So now he's straddling a fucking I beam above the water. Hold on, I got to take this call. He answered the call and he said, this is my favorite thing in the world. Okay? You've just murdered a woman. Yeah, three different ways. First of all, yeah, murdered the fuck out of a woman. Driven away. Are informal wear straddling a fucking. I Beam on the side of a bridge while the police and rescue squad try to talk you down. He answers the phone and says, quote, I can't speak right now. I'm busy. I can't speak right now. I'm busy. I can't talk. I'm busy. That's what he said. And then he took the phone and threw it into the water. Would you think he would have done that before answering it? Just ring, ring. Fuck this thing. He answered and said, I'm busy right now. I can't talk.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That is interesting. He gave them. I don't want him to sit around wondering why he's going to voicemail. May as well tell him

[James Petregallo]

this is the most busy a human being has ever been. By the way, you're so busy right now. Brad tells Rosa that he had done something that he couldn't deal with. He held up his bloody hands and said, I killed her. I killed her. With his hands up in the air. Rosa tried to calm him down. He said, listen, calm down. Come over the rail and let's go. I ain't coming out there. That shit's dangerous. You come over here, we'll talk. We can work everything out. And Brad just kept saying that he did something wrong. He did something wrong, and you don't understand. You don't understand. He asked Rosa to get the Cranston police too. And he gives the address of Gene's house on Fiat Road. I won't give the address because we get looky lose and that's not cool. So you can look it up though, if you really want to.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Out there somewhere.

[James Petregallo]

It's in there. So Rosa then asked him, who should we be looking for at that address? And he said, gene Robinson.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You know who.

[James Petregallo]

So at his request, Rosa advised the other officers to call the Cranston police and check on Gene Robinson. At that point, he then shows Rosa his hands again, swings around facing the ocean and begins emptying his pocket pockets. So this is. I'm about to jump now.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. Making himself lighter.

[James Petregallo]

I don't know if he's doing that or just saying, I don't need this shit. Just one of those things.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Earthly possessions is bullshit.

[James Petregallo]

So the detective just wanted Brad to look at him. And Brad said, you don't understand, man. I can't go to the ACI or the loony house. This is her blood on my hands. He kept bringing up Gene and the blood. He said, I killed her tonight. I beat her with a flashlight. I ran her over with my car twice. He said he wanted Rosa to call the hospital to check on her condition. And Rosa said, well, tell you what, why don't you come over the railing and we can call together, right? Me and you will both call. I'll put it on speaker, we'll talk about there. Fuck it. Hey, let's take a ride. So Rosa tried to get closer to him. By this point, it was about 20 minutes after Rosa initially approached Brad. His speech began to show the first evidence of slurring. At this point, after 20 minutes, because that's how long it takes for the medication to kick in, he assured Rosa, he's okay. He stated that he had taken 25 to 30 pills today. Wow. Brad commented that he was losing his train of thought. The officers at that point ordered the bridge closed, which I think they should have done from the beginning, people driving by. Brad then said to Detective Rosa, it all started in the house. Frankie. I kicked in her bedroom door, I beat her, I tried to calm her down. I dragged her outside, I slammed her head into the driveway and I ran her over to kill her.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

You see why I have to end my life, right? I'm fucked, basically, is what he said.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, I'm in a lot of trouble.

[James Petregallo]

Count to a hundred, asshole. Ten is a matter. Count to an hour. Count to an hour. That's what I said. He's a timer. Click that's going to go up and he needs probably like four or five of them because there's a bunch of shit that's going to piss him off. My 2 o' clock is up. I can be okay. I'm fine. About that one now. He said that he wasn't feeling well then and that the pills were beginning to work on him. Detective Rosa told him he had to get off the beam. Brad's speech became more slurred. But he says, you know, I'm okay out here.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This is where I'm gonna be.

[James Petregallo]

I'm good. So then he moved to the platform. Brad does. It took about 15 to 20 minutes to get him on there. Once he was on the platform, he's right face to face with Rosa. And he said, quote, I know what's going to happen. You guys are going to muckle me. I've never heard the word M U C K L E. Muckle.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I don't know.

[James Petregallo]

That's got to be a Rhode island slang.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Maybe he met tackle, but he was drunk.

[James Petregallo]

Maybe. Or it's like I said, it's Rhode island slang for bum rushing me, you know, I don't know. He said, I know I really messed up tonight. That Is you want to talk about. Putting it mildly. I know I really messed up tonight.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I really fouled up this job, didn't I?

[James Petregallo]

Wow. So once he got to the staging area between the beam and side of the bridge, he asked to talk to a trooper, a state trooper there, Trooper Lou of the Rhode Island State Police. As Lou approached, Brad told him that he respected Lou and his office and shook Lou's hand. He then started a conversation about giving his car to his sister. He Talked about the $9,000 ring and the cash that's in the car. He tried to get Lou to go into the car to look for those things. And Lou said he would not go look for the car until he knew Brad look in the car till he knew Brad was safe. Lou asked if Brad had been drinking, and Brad said he does not drink. Lou asked about drugs, and Brad said he took two prescriptions. He said he took none of the first and three or four pills of Klonopin. Lou tried to talk him over the railing, but he said he couldn't go to the aci, the jail. Lou agreed that if Brad came over the railing to talk to him, he would help Brad get his things. Look, I'll help you. Brad got suspicious at that point and started to get distraught and weave back and forth. The trooper then thought that could be from drugs. So the trooper, Lou, grabbed him and told Brad he was going to hold him so he wouldn't fall over. Not trying to fuck with you. I'm just holding you. Both Lou and Rosa then grabbed Brad and pulled him over the railing while Brad resisted, tried to hold back and get back over the railing. The other officers then rushed, or muckle, I guess, muckled him. They muckled him up good. And they said the other. This is from the court document. The other officers rushed the defendant and were able to help. Muckle him. That's gotta be a word.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They muckled him.

[James Petregallo]

Maybe that's a legal word for handcuffing and tackling. I don't know.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Muck, tackle.

[James Petregallo]

I mean, we've never heard that word. 723 episodes and 500 something. A crime in sports, too.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I've never heard that word in 45 years of life.

[James Petregallo]

No, but I figured in this context, we might have. Maybe we didn't read court documents when we were 23, but we're in there now. He said as his standard practice with suicide suspects taken off the bridge, the officers placed him in handcuffs and took him to the emergency room for evaluation. They left the bridge at 1:51am and at Newport Hospital they explained to Brad, to the doctor that Brad had just come off the bridge and had taken a large amount of pills for anxiety and depression. Now Brad at the hospital now, he's talking to a nurse who's been there for 25 years and he gets signed in at 1:55am they bring him into the psychiatric room and tell the nurse that he's a suspect in the murder of his girlfriend in Cranston and they've taken him off the the bridge. The nurse was alone with him initially and said he had dried blood on his hands. He told her the blood was from his girlfriend and that he had hurt her. He asked if he could wash off his hands. She told him that he could not wash off his hands because the police might need some sort of evidence here. She asked him to get undressed. He was wearing a gray sweatshirt and black pants because he had put that on because he threw his tuxedo shirt out. He had a jacket though, over the. Which is just ridiculous. Brad told the nurse that he'd gotten into an argument with Gene and said he choked her. When she wouldn't shut up. He hit her over the head with a flashlight. And when that didn't shut her up, he dragged her outside and ran her over with his car.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Wow.

[James Petregallo]

She said. He described these acts in a monotone voice with zero affect and she could understand him perfectly. He told her he'd taken 20 Buspar pills and said that he took the pills after he hurt Gene because he was scared. The nurse was very upset by this story. She hadn't seen many cases like this in the hospital. This is crazy. She went to report to Dr. Gleason what Brad had said and she started crying. If you make a psychiatric nurse, you make a psych nurse cry, you have fucking done something bad.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Bad. It's a real bad story.

[James Petregallo]

As a hardened group there, the doctor was concerned about her and asked if she would like to be be relieved from the case. She declined and took a few minutes to compose herself. The staff moved Brad into an observation room to monitor him for a possible drug overdose. The nurse found that he had thick speech. It's all muckled up. His speech. Yeah, fat tongue. From that, she would have expected to smell alcohol on his breath, but didn't smell anything.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Nothing.

[James Petregallo]

She had no trouble understanding him and found him cooperative and not resistant. She never got the sense that he understood what was that? He didn't understand what was going on. The only question he asked was if police could call Rhode Island Hospital to check on Jean, you know, make sure she's doing okay. He had a very fucking flat affect and was concerned about his car being towed to the hospital either because he's like, can you tow my car to this hospital? Don't worry about your car. According to the nurse, he was more concerned about his car than anything else that was going on. Very concerned with his car.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Make sure I get that back.

[James Petregallo]

The doctor sees him shortly after 2am he knew the patient had told the nurse about ingesting the 20 tablets. The doctor, though, however, said he had taken his. He told the doctor, though, that he had taken his usual amount of Buspar, which is two tablets. The doctor asked him if he had overdosed on any medication. And he said that he overdosed or he ingested the entire bottle, the remainder of. Of the bottle of Klonopin that he had. He said he thought There was about 35 tablets in the bottle. Oh, shit, that seems like too many. That's crazy. Now, he denied drinking any alcohol. None of that kind of shit. Brad told the doctor he got in an argument with his fiance. She had thrown a ring away and he had tried to get into the house or apartment, knock down the door, and then he had strangled her. Now the ring comes into play here. The doctor had no difficulty understanding him. He examined Brad, noted that he had scratch marks on his chest and right hand and was hurting, you know, fucking defense wounds from her. On his initial assessment of Brad, he did not believe he was suffering from a Klonopin overdose, which the doctor had seen many times because he was not sedated, sleepy, slurring of speech or difficult to arouse. He got down there, his dick got hard like that. He said, yeah, easy peasy, yeah. Dr. Did not find his speech to be thick. He displayed no signs that he was suffering from a drug overdose. They suspected, the doctor did, that he may have overdosed on some medication, but possibly he didn't know because his story was difficult to assess at that time. He said he just treated him like someone who had possibly overdosed, ordered him to be given charcoal drink to absorb any toxins in his stomach and observe him for four hours. That's it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Bump the stomach.

[James Petregallo]

That's it. By 2:15am they had confirmed that he was an official suspect in the murder here. And Detective Rosa then administers his Miranda rights. He had not been read his rights at all till now.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I mean, he just offered up all that shit.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. And they took him to the hospital because at the time he wasn't under arrest. For anything because they didn't know if any of that was true. He could have just been nuts. So that's a tough one. But he said the cops. He believed he understood his rights at the time. The nurse then gave him the charcoal drink at 2:30. He slept until she had to wake him to take X rays. She had no difficulty arousing him. Again, rock hard.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's great.

[James Petregallo]

Rock. Tumescent. He knew her name and where he knew his name, where he was. He was a little unsteady in his walk. She said he never worsened while he was at the hospital and essentially was in the same condition when he was discharged at 6:00am okay, so the nurse said, you know, it seemed to balance out by the end of the night. Uh, he stood unassisted to dress himself. He signed a consent form releasing his clothes to the police and verbalized the understanding of the release. Um, you know, she said that her. His speech was thick to her. Her indicating he took something, but he was understandable. So the doctor said that if Brad had taken 35 Klonopin on the bridge, as he said he would have, he would expect him to be a lot sleepier and more difficult to arouse. As of 6am and now as of 3am his urine test was negative for Klonopin.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Hmm.

[James Petregallo]

Not at all. And the test, there's no. It doesn't put boost bar in the test. That's not on the test.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. Three hours after ingesting 35 tabs of

[James Petregallo]

that, it'd be in there.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It doesn't go away that fast.

[James Petregallo]

No, that shit would be. Your urine would be mostly Klonopin. They said that. The doctor said, though, that some or all of the Klonopin could have been absorbed into the bloodstream rather than being present in his urine, depending on when he ingested it. But if he ingested it on the bridge like he said, or on the way to the bridge, it would definitely be there then. So they discharged him. He's taken to the police station. He appeared on videotape to be a little out of it. With difficulty keeping his balance. He had to be held up a lot of the time to make sure he didn't lose his balance. So he gets into the police station. He's asked to sign a written rights form. He signed his name but had the rights initialed for him. His capacity to understand his rights at that time is unclear. Then he made some statements to a Detective Falcone consistent with his earlier statements he made about the killing and his concerns about his personal Effects especially his car.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And ultimately declined to speak with a lawyer.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That car must be rad.

[James Petregallo]

It's gotta be amazing. They search his car. Now first of all, the tuxedo shirt that they found from the track of the junior high school was missing buttons that were found in his car. Uh oh, the shirt was. Yeah, the shirt was soaked with blood from the. He's not getting his deposit back from that fucking. That tux place.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Men's Wearhouse is keeping that fuck.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. The shirt was soaked with blood on the right front and right arm. From the perspective of someone wearing the shirt, you know, stage right, stage right over here. And showed other blood evidence on the right sleeve and left sleeve of something bloody brushing against it. Its blood markings are consistent with the person wearing the shirt. Holding someone against his right chest with his right arm wrapped around the person for a long enough time for blood to soak all the way through the shirt. Choking someone. Chin lock. Many of the other blood markings are consistent with bloodied hair coming in contact with the shirt. That's the brush marks. His sweatshirt that was seized showed blood evidence on the inside of the location that would have touched his chest area if he wore it backwards, which is what he was doing, I guess. His car was eventually examined after it was put on a lift. It showed blood on the undercarriage. There was no blood after the transfer transmission pan. But white fibers from the nightgown were visible before that area. The blood began to the rear of the front tires. Inside the car were found the ring box with the diamond in it, his wallet, a vest to his tuxedo and a bow tie, a cell phone cord, a Zestral pill bottle on the front seat containing six Buspar pills and numerous Zestral pills. Didn't we say that was blood pressure, cholesterol or something? And a Buspar pill starter kit. There was no pill bottle for Klonopin found in the car. And no Klonopin.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I didn't take that.

[James Petregallo]

So they do a mental competency evaluation with him here. They take him to the hospital and that's gonna be a big deal. He's sent to the forensic unit. Basically he sits down with interviews on September 22nd, 23rd and 27th over three hours. It indicates that pretty much as soon as he got to the forensic unit from the ACI he attempted to drown himself in a prison toilet in the aci. That's why he got there. How? Dude, to go from imagine going from the bridge that has all the water beneath you to how do I fucking drown myself? In a prison toilet.

[Jimmy Whisman]

In a 4 inch deep prison toilet. Wow.

[James Petregallo]

The doctor said he did seem to have the ability to cooperate with an attorney because that's part of whether you're competent or not. He said, quote, this is Brad said, quote, I want to make sure that they understand that I have a chemical imbalance. That's what my psychiatrist told me. But he is found competent here. He's competent for court and shit like that. They diagnosed him. Two doctors diagnosed him with an anxiety disorder, with an adjustment disorder, and they believed he could be brought back to the jail. Another little story here. October 2, 1999. A Dr. Ingall interviewed him at the ACI. This doctor would become an expert witness for the defense later in his interview with Dr. Ingall. He was extremely anxious but very remorseful. He said that the relationship with Jean was stormy. He said they'd argue about her children because he felt they were leeches who spent inordinate amounts of money that he considered wasteful. And he talked about the problem surrounding Jean's son. He said Jean would respond to his complaints about her children by telling him that he did not understand because he never had any children. Which is.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's a nice way.

[James Petregallo]

Very true.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah, that's a nice way to relate it.

[James Petregallo]

Now you say it. What do you know? You fucking. Your sperm don't even work. How the fuck do you know? Ball as fuck.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Don't talk to me.

[James Petregallo]

Jesus Christ. You fucking. You got thin jizz over here. Look at you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

18 years of throwing at the same woman.

[James Petregallo]

Never, never once, never once she told him that if you want me, you get the whole package, quote, unquote. He said they broke off their engagement a year before or once before she threw the ring at him. Yet he said he loved her throughout. And he said that he never loved anyone else in his life. He said she was so good. She's just so good. In the interview here, he also talked about the wedding day. He said that Jean had been telling him about how anxious she was for him to meet meet Wayne's brother who sold trucks in Texas, so perhaps the two of them could link up on the Internet for business purposes. He kept telling her, yeah, he kept telling her repeatedly he didn't want to meet the man or anyone else from her ex husband's family. He didn't like them. He then talked about the wedding day. He said he began taking the Klonopin tablets. He said he took about 40 tablets over the course of the day. Possibly 25 to 40 somewhere in there. He said they argued on the way home from the reception, she was angry. He didn't want to meet the ex husband's family. He was driving erratically and heard branches brushing against his car. He said he felt like he was in a fog. He asked Gene or he said Gene asked him if he'd been drinking. He told her that he had not been drinking and had nothing to do with. Had not had anything to drink since Dr. Fixman advised him to stop drinking. He said the argument intensely escalated in an intense. When he pulled in the driveway, she took off her engagement ring and threw it at him. He went into the house to get a flashlight since he couldn't find the ring on the ground. Jean had kept a metal flashlight next to her bed, but he couldn't recall if she gave it to him or whether he went upstairs to get it. He looked for the ring with the flashlight and found it. He said then he went to the downstairs closet to find a box for the ring. The box for the ring, found it, put the ring into the box and put the box in the glove compartment of his car. He then said he went back to the house, found the door to Gene's bedroom locked. He forced the door open, kicked is a better word, and found her in bed in her nightgown. He said they were yelling at each other and he grabbed her around the neck and strangled her. He said he felt completely out of control. He said he let her go when she got up and went down the stairs. He followed her, and once they were downstairs, he hit her on the head three or four times. With that flash, which is brutal, she pushed him down and ran outside yelling for help. He said he then followed her, grabbed her from behind, around the chest, just like they said. He then felt her slip to the ground. He got into the car to leave, and as he was backing up, the car stopped as the wheel hit something. He pulled ahead, then backed up again out of the driveway. You know, get a running start at it. This story, this is his story. This is why he's fine. After he turned the corner, he said he heard a noise from the wheel, stopped the car, got out and saw that the mud flap was bent. He straightened it, noticed that his shirt was covered in blood, so he took it off and threw it on the ground. He put on the sweatshirt he had in the trunk and he said, I just wanted to get out of there. I thought the worst. Yeah, he said he headed for the bridge, took some more Klonopin. He said he kept calling one of his sisters and telling her everything and he said he wanted his sister to send help for Jean. He said, I figured something bad had happened. I loved her. So he said he swallowed the rest of the Klonopin, climbed out on the I beam. Officer Rosa came, he told him about everything, and next thing he knows, he woke up with an IV in his arm. That's that. So this is gonna go to trial.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Oh, boy.

[James Petregallo]

Now he waives his jury trial. Right? Because any jury is gonna see all of this and go, this is very, very bad. Whereas judges are not shocked by circumstances. Usually, yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

So he's just gonna present to a judge and hope he finds him incompetent?

[James Petregallo]

No, no, it's a bench trial. Okay, so he's going for diminished capacity also, but instead of a jury deciding, it's gonna be the judge. Generally, when things are very, very heinous, a lot of times people opt for the bench trial just because if a jury hears certain things, if it's bad enough, you're worried that they're not going to care if you're the right person or not. They just want someone to go down for that shit because they feel responsible. So he goes for that. It's a bench trial. He's going for diminished capacity. That's his defense. Because he admitted to everybody who would listen that he did it. So I didn't do it isn't an offense here at all. He denied that the killing was done with premeditation or even an intent to kill. He asserted at trial that a defense of diminished capacity due to intoxication from Klonopin prior to the crime. That's what he's going for.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay?

[James Petregallo]

In support, he has all of his psychiatric and CVS pharmacy records for 1999. The defense also presented the medical records of the defendant from the Newport Hospital and all that kind of shit. Alma testifies about her 911 call about Brad possibly being drunk. Again, was not based on her observations, but her assumption that he'd been to a wedding and was probably drinking. She said she was clearly trying to make sense of her observations at the time and perhaps not to rush to judgment. As to Brad before, she had many facts. So maybe it was an accident, he was drunk. She was clear in that her assumptions drove her statements and not any direct observations as to Brad's actions or inaction consistent with intoxication. The defense case is a bunch of experts. And Brad, he's got. He testifies. Yeah, and lays it out, man. He says that him and Gene were on again, off again. First of all, he got the Fucking year. Wrong. They met and started dating. He says, 97, all this shit. And on cross examination they're like, you met in August of 96. Is that true? And he was like, oh, yeah, I guess so. When they met right away is a lie. So he said Gene got him to see the doctor. And he said that on cross examination, he admitted to an incident referred to by the witnesses that he kicked in Gene's door from the breezeway into the kitchen because they had been arguing. And then he called a couple hours later and they played all the voicemails.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Here we go.

[James Petregallo]

They played all the fucking answering machine messages, all this type of shit. He said he was calling, leaving messages of apology on her machine. And then the cross examination were like, how is this an apology? Click, part of.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Son of a bitch.

[James Petregallo]

You fucking son of a bitch. How dare you. So. So, yeah, that was dated March 9, 1997, which I think is the day Biggie died.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I don't know.

[James Petregallo]

I think it's 3-9-97. So he admitted for the first time that he and Jane began dating. When he said here, he basically made it. So they started dating after he was divorced, came through. That's what he's like. He picked the next month after his divorce came through and said, yeah, we were dating right after I got a divorce. And they were like, no, you weren't. You were dating while you were married. Stupid. Now, he said he was drinking, though. He said he remembered the calls. Oh, this was from that one. This was from a night here. He said that Gene began. They began dating. He said that I had been drinking. He was quick to say that he remembered making all the calls on the machine from a tavern and then changed his story again. He said he couldn't remember making all the calls calls because he was pretty well looped that night. He said he had probably six or seven absolute vodka. Seven up drinks.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Seven and absolute is what he drinks.

[James Petregallo]

What the fuck you're doing there? He then said that these were not calls of apology, but were in fact calls he made before going over to Gene's house and kicking in her door. He was asked if he was angry and he replied that he was aggravated. They go all about the fucking, the pills and everything like that. He said that he was taking pills. They said, there's no fucking proof you were taking pills. And he said, sure I was. He denied knowing anything about an event in August that would have prompted Gene to call her sister Patty to talk about getting a restraining order from him. When asked when it was that Jean first gave him the ring back, he said. August 99, three weeks before the wedding. He said he gave it back. She gave it back because his anxiety was running wild. He had gone back to see Dr. Fixman to see what she could do. He confessed that when Jean gave him the ring back, she said she did not think she could marry him. She had threatened to give it back before, but this time she did. She said she did it face to face, probably in her kitchen or her house somewhere. But then they continued to see each other, and eventually she asked for the ring back, but that was just before the bridal shower, so she wanted. It might have been an accessory. He was not concerned that he might not get back the expensive ring that had put him in debt because she told his mother that she would give it back anytime if it didn't work out okay. The wedding day. He just kept talking about. He started taking Klonopin right away at 6am and he was taking a few more every hour. A few more here, a few more there. He said that he kept them in the console of his car. He put the vial in his pocket and took them in the house. He admitted also that this was the first time that he. This was the time at this time is when he first criticized Gene's hair, which is why she was saying, are you sure my hair looks okay? He was fucking being a bit sure.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah. He confessed that it was one of the first things he said to her that morning. Hey, what's wrong with your hair? Wow. He said on direct examination that he got back in the car and put the Klonopin back in the console, went to Bristol around 8:30am to make sure the reception was properly set up, stopped for breakfast with Joel and Vanessa. He said he took the pills out of the console, put them back in his pocket, and took a few more at breakfast. So he keeps talking about breakfast and pills and everybody, pills, pills, pills. He returned to Jean's house around noon, and he said that he had an argument with Jean over her hair. He told her he was not going to the wedding and left the house. She said, well, if you don't want to go, stay home, don't go. Yeah. So he called from the cell phone to apologize and said he'd go to the wedding, which we knew about. He got back, he took off from there and had three, four more Klonopins, stopped rice and beer, returned to Gene's house, had a beer, and then said he got a Sprite. He took the golf clubs out of his car and said he took some more pills in the bathroom so that no one saw him. He admitted that he did not want to wear the tux and that he did not want to go to the wedding. But he knew it meant a lot to Gene. Jesus Christ. According to him, he said Gene saw him taking a pill and she said, they're going to knock you down by taking the pills. And he went outside and took pictures of Alma's grandchild with Gene and Ginger before the limo left. Left, went to the wedding, and that was it. And he just describes how he did this. He took three more pills. He did that. He took three, four more pills. He said that he didn't want to meet people from her past. He said someone that was special to her at one time and someone with whom she shared children. He didn't want to do that because he wanted no part of her past, because he's insecure. That's why he hates her kids. Yeah, exactly. He said she would not even let up. As they danced, she kept saying please and he kept saying no, meaning go talk to the brother there about trucks. He wanted. He said he wanted to leave and wanted no part of meeting Wayne's family, which that's the only thing. Again, I think he's fair in saying, I don't want to do business with this guy. Leave me the fuck alone about it. You don't pay my bills. What the hell do you care what I fucking.

[Jimmy Whisman]

There's just no way. She's constantly saying, go talk to him. He's right there.

[James Petregallo]

Other people said that, too, though, that she was real insistent on it, really, all day. She really wanted him to get with Wayne's brother. Because maybe if they got along, then eventually it would. You know what I mean, bleed in, and then everybody would be okay. I think that's what she's trying to do, is bring people together. She's trying to do it in a way that's like, this is advantageous to you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right?

[James Petregallo]

You know, I think she's trying to be smart about it. They talk about the ride home. On the way home, he says he was in the high speed lane, riding close to the berm. And Gene hollered at him to pull the car back over to the right. Josie completely denies that ever happened. The swerving or the yelling, any of it. Back at Gene's house, he said he went to the house. Josie went into the house to get her keys. He remained behind. He said that she came around the front of the car, threw the ring at him and said, here's your ring. Gene told him to go home. He said he was upset. When asked about what he meant by upset, he said he was trying to find the ring and he didn't know where it went. So he told her he needed a flashlight. She said she brought him out of. He said she brought him out a flashlight. He got down on his hands and knees and all this shit happened. So he finished off the Klonopin bottle. He said, and he said when he goes inside. The bedroom door was locked. He had never had it locked before. So he sat at the top of the stairs and pleaded with Gene to let him in. She said she would not let him in anymore. He needed to go home. He didn't go home because he wanted to talk to her. He thought she was wrong for trying to force her ex in laws on him. Okay, well, today isn't the time we're going to discuss this anymore.

[Jimmy Whisman]

It's already over.

[James Petregallo]

He said he wanted to tell her she was wrong, but she wouldn't let him in. So he got up, put his foot against the door and kicked it in. She was sitting on the bed in the nightgown, looking startled. She didn't say anything. He pushed her back on the bed, got on top of her and started choking her. This is his testimony.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This is how I tell her things.

[James Petregallo]

He denied thinking about choking her and said he said nothing before he did it. He squeezed her neck and she gasped and made gurgling and growling noises. She couldn't breathe. He then got off of her and she got up and went downstairs. She was crying and wanted to know why he did that. He didn't answer her. He said that as she walked down the stairs, he followed a couple stairs behind her. She wasn't talking. She went in the kitchen, got a glass of water and started crying and asking him why he did it. He said he didn't respond. He just stood there looking at her. He said he didn't know what he said to her. He said he put his arm around her, picked up the flashlight and then hit her in the head with it three times. The flashlight had been on the table in the kitchen. He said he didn't plan to hit her with the flashlight. And after he hit her a few times, he fell down and he thinks that she went down too. She's more likely of going down than you. So then he's saying he felt dizzy and stuff like that. On cross examination, he said she got up and walked or ran. She ran outside. I heard her holler, help me. Help me in A soft voice. He said nothing, but followed her outside, put his arms around her. He said to bring her in.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Chase tried to silence her.

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, he said, I didn't know where I put my arms. He said, though he couldn't stay, he couldn't say if he put her on the ground. Yeah. He denied, quote, shutting her up. Now, even though he said that earlier. He said he didn't know what happened. Next thing he knows, he was inside the car, he was getting into the car. He didn't know where she was in relation to the car. He started to back out of the driveway. The car stopped, he pulled forward, kept going. He said he didn't know whether she was under the car or not. And then he talked about the mud flap and all that kind of shit. So that's his testimony.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Fascinating.

[James Petregallo]

Then we have all the expert testimony, basically, of them saying that they don't think he was intoxicated. He might have taken a few too many buspar on the way to the hospital. But he was not acting like he took all the Klonopin.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Right. He's not under Klonopin.

[James Petregallo]

No. And he said he was still taking it a couple hours before the test, which I think it would still show up.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That stuff doesn't leave that fast.

[James Petregallo]

I wouldn't think that fast. So we're gonna buzz through to the end of this here. So he basically has his own defense expert witness who says he could have been pretty fucked up. But this was not somebody who. This was the one person he talked to, remember, at the hospital I said would defend him later on.

[Jimmy Whisman]

He wouldn't have had that much Klonopin left over to take.

[James Petregallo]

No. And the other thing is, they said that the doctor failed to take into the factor that the analysis of his thoughts and actions after the crime. And they relied on his statements about Klonopin intoxication before the crime and his history of violent behavior when intoxicated, not this crime, and what happened. So they have their own rebuttal witnesses going, oh, no, this guy's a total asshole. He's violent when he wants to be, he's violent when he's drunk. He didn't take pills, he should be fine. He told the one doctor that after Gene went downstairs, she said, I loved you. Why did you choke me? And that was one of the things that set him off. And he was covered in blood. He said, I just wanted to get out of there. Jetted out of there. Talks about the bridge. Talks about everything like that. Being stuck on the fucking bridge. Now the judge here has a lot to say. This is the judge. Cuz they make the verdict. So the judge gets to say some shit before they announce the verdict. It goes to the jury. He said, I do not believe the defendant's woven tale of Klonopin ingestion. I believe that any Klonopin he took that day was taken immediately before or just after the crime. I do not assign any weight to any of the other corroborative evidence marshaled in his favor. I do not accept his testimony that he lacked thoughts during the crime and memories thereafter. Absent such credible evidence, his defense of diminished capacity is built on sand. Through the sheer incredulity of his testimony, he has eliminated voluntary Klonopin intoxication as a defense to murder. On the state of this evidence, no rational finder of fact could find the defendant and had a capacity so diminished by Klonopin as to preclude him from premeditating or forming an intent to kill. It is my judgment beyond a reasonable doubt, based on the persuasive and opinion of testimony of Dr. Wall, the state's expert, that the defendant's level of Klonopin intoxication together with his psychiatric conditions did not paralyze his will. Take from him the power to withstand evil impulses. Impulses. Or render his mind incapable of forming a sane design.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Okay.

[James Petregallo]

He then said. She goes on to say that the testimony of Nurse Aubyn, Detective Rosa and the defendant's sisters as to his statements in the minutes and hours immediately following the killing were very credible. They flatly contradicted his trial testimony that he had no thoughts while he was hurting Gene, nor or no ability to plan his behavior. And no recollection of what happened after Gene was in his arms. They show that he intended to kill Jean and that he not only knew he killed Jean, but how he killed her.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yep.

[James Petregallo]

Absolutely guilty of domestic murder in the first degree. Oh, yes. And this involves torture. And it's an aggravated battery. And an aggravated battery to the victim as well.

[Jimmy Whisman]

That's gotta be an extra sentence, right?

[James Petregallo]

It's. It's something. So the judge comes in here for sentencing.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

And he held a sentencing hearing. There's aggravating factors, mitigating factors. He. I'll just read the end of this quote. Self pity then set in and you became overwhelmed not by your brutal acts of violent killing, but what would happen to you next. You feared going to the adult correctional institutions. You contemplated suicide, your ultimate act of selfishness. But you were too cowardly to end your own Life, you bitch ass. Yeah, you sir, may fuck off. Life imprisonment without parole.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You son of a bitch.

[James Petregallo]

You son of a bitch. So life without. Life without tooth. That's what he's appealing is that sentence, but it's aggravated. Based on certain factors that you can do that and it would take way too long.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Judge ain't buying it.

[James Petregallo]

No. To get into the legalities of exactly why it would take us forever. And we don't have time for that. So he appeals the 2001 here on a few different accounts. It's affirmed. Then in 2002, he appeals on whether the trial justice erred in imposing a life sentence or life without parole that did not set for. When the indictment did not set forth factual allegations or a statutory reference sufficient to invoke that penalty. There's a few different things. Whether the trial justice erred in rejecting his diminished capacity defense, the motion to suppress statements made at the bridge and at the hospital. That got denied anyway. Denied. Dismissed. Affirmed. Get fucked. There you go. Have a good one. You son of a bitch. So currently he is still alive. He's 79 years old. Old, wow. 79. And he is sitting in the maximum security wing at the. Where is this?

[Jimmy Whisman]

He's still dangerous.

[James Petregallo]

Portsmouth is where he is. Yeah, absolutely. So there you go. Everybody there is Cranston, Rhode island in a fucked up ass case. Right.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Why would he do that? He's just a. Look, if you're in an abusive relationship, get the fuck out. This is so cyclical and so ugly.

[James Petregallo]

This is fucking crazy. And he kept doing it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I can't believe that his third wife or the third relationship he was in is the first one to get anything that's dangerous. That's life threatening.

[James Petregallo]

Worse.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Can you believe I thought this was an express. That's the other thing. That's the other thing that I don't think three expresses. So there you go, everybody. Hope you enjoyed that. If you do, please get on whatever app you're on and give us five stars. It helps tremendously to grow the show. So thank you for doing that. Netflix thumbs up helps a lot too. They help people see the show more. So do that. Thank you so much for doing that. Head over to shut up and givememurder.com tickets for live shows. You're going to love the fucking live show. I promise you that. If you like this show. The live show is amazing. So check that out. September 18, Milwaukee at the Pabst Great Theater. Only a few tickets left, so get those now. Next night on the 19th of September, State Theater, Minneapolis. Get those tickets right now. Can't wait for that. Then in October, Dallas, San Jose, Sacramento. In November, Terrytown in Boston. Shut up and give me murder.com. follow on social media at smalltown. Murder on Instagram at smalltown. Pot on Facebook. So you can do that. You can do all that stuff. Listen to our other shows. Get yourself Patreon. Do it all, baby. Patreon.com CrimeInSports is where you get all the bonus material. Anybody $5 a month or above, you get every last drop and speck and megabyte that we put out of stuff here. Soon as you subscribe, you get almost 400 back bonus episodes immediately upon subscription to binge. New ones every other week. One crime in sports, one small town murderer and you get them all this week. Crime and sports. Death on skis. Need I say more than for small town murder. Love after lockup season six. Holy shit, are we excited for that. We've done about 12 episodes on the phone with each other, not being recorded. Just having fun. Can't wait for that. Patreon.com crimeinsports and on top of that you get ad free. Get everything we put out ad free. And on top of that you get a shout out which happens right now. Jimmy, hit me with the names of the best fucking people ever who if they killed us, would have some self respect and actually jump off the goddamn bridge. Jimmy, hit me with that list of the best bridge jumpers we got. Hit me with them right now.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This executive producer, Gary Howard. Gary Hubbard, Ohio.

[James Petregallo]

Damn.

[Jimmy Whisman]

There you go. That is Penny Boyce and happy hour in Omaha, Nebraska. I know where that is.

[James Petregallo]

We know that.

[Jimmy Whisman]

One positive thing. The other producers this week are Scott Richard, Peyton Meadows, Janice Hill Lind. Liz Vasquez, Nikki Thoreau Thoralt. Casey Kampf. Oh my. What does that mean?

[James Petregallo]

A struggle comp. Mein Kampf. Isn't that my struggle?

[Jimmy Whisman]

I didn't want to say that part.

[James Petregallo]

Well, that's where we all know it from.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yes, I know. I don't want to give it a plug.

[James Petregallo]

I think it's. I think people are aware of it.

[Jimmy Whisman]

You don't think that perhaps we just told somebody that's never heard of it if they haven't.

[James Petregallo]

Wow. Wow, you have. What the fuck, man?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Casey struggle. Kimberly Corwin, Elizabeth with no last name. Shelby Gobelly, Go Bailey Gobly. Liz Lynn John with no last name. Sarah Schneider, Jennifer Triplett, Kristen with no last name, Patty Holt, Shabrin Shaybreen Price Hutch X. 86 or times 86 or something. Matthew 86 step. What is it?

[James Petregallo]

Yeah, some 86. Who knows?

[Jimmy Whisman]

He really loves that number. Megan Cherry. Andrew Young, Kayla Forer. Madeline Trish. Joe Wester, Max York, AA Double A. Trish Gale. Jessica Beal. Probably not Janice signed up.

[James Petregallo]

Why not?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Arn Anderson signed up. Why not?

[Jimmy Whisman]

Janice Piles. Named after that terrible disease in your buttocks.

[James Petregallo]

Poor thing. We're sorry.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Tammy Heath, Amber with no last name. Darth Bubbles, Tanya Simons Meads with no last name. Or Meds Don Heath, Corley Coetzee. Yeah. Jorge Andrade, Mike Hunt. Probably. It's a real person, James. I swear. Liz Kelly, Michaela Kate, Adriana Mata, Garen Rucker, Tori Doty, John Duncan, Annie Ann Bear. Anna Barry on Bear. Patty Post and Donna Whitaker. Dwayne Schramko, Emily Vorth. Blake Murray, Devin Daniels, Dana Dana, Little John with no last name. Catherine with no last name. Dan and Roy Thomas. Kelsey Ann, Kelsey Ann Andrade. Mike with no last name name. Sarah McGee, Matt Fentress, DV Hope it's not that. Jacqueline Dins.

[James Petregallo]

Hi, I'm Domestic Violence. Nice to meet you.

[Jimmy Whisman]

This show's.

[James Petregallo]

Have you read Mein Kampf? Domestic Violence brought to you by Mein Kampf. Domestic Violence brought to you by Mein Kampf.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Rebecca Eisenbacher, Crystal Nichols, Kelly Wilson, Daniel Hernandez, Kezia Keja Sima, Jeep. Jules the Dog Groomer. Dustin Ross, James Kelly Cole Mara Christian Zoll, Christine Cat, Luna with no last name. Mama Jen Andrea, Andrea Esposito, Jason with no last name. Brian Stockman, A.D. frost, Josh with no last name. Ali Mustric, Laura Capone, Natalie England, Juan Luna, Zach died. Jen Rook, Mike B. Cynthia Goldazine. Goldazan Goldie. Allison Haynes, Zachary Brinker. Off. Mandy Lockable. I bet that's corrected. There's no way her last name is Lockable. Right.

[James Petregallo]

Lockable.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Steven Arbutina, James Harrington, Nicolette. Isn't that somebody? Nicolette Lewis, Lisa Doepler. Hopler. Samara Samara. Samara. Samara Jenkins. Tina Duras, Sin Lin M. Tag. Amanda Arnold, Jennifer Moulay, TK Van Man. Sandy Delaney, Jeff Dalkley. Dalke, Dalke, Dalkey. Eric Bryan's Elk I with no last name. Joel with no last name. Brenna Lure, Robert Lamond, Layman Man. Laura. Oh, Feldebrugay Fool. Holly Cortel, Craig with no last name. Addis Phillips, Mark o', Brien, Kristen Seiberg, Garrett Lambert, Jessica Khan, Davey Wavy Janazewski. Owen with no last name. TB with no last name. JC Hennington, Molly Rhodes, Jacob Butch. Wilma Finger. Oh, Wilma Finger. Do James, because that's for Sure. A real person. Lisa Liza. Liza Watts. Gabriel Acri. Acri. Morgan Hall. Shannon Davis. Can't beat crazy. James Skull Vikings, whatever that even means. What does the skull part mean?

[James Petregallo]

What does that skull like?

[Jimmy Whisman]

The Skol. What? Like. No, it's. It's a Vikings. Yeah.

[James Petregallo]

Oh, like that. I thought you meant what are they?

[Jimmy Whisman]

I don't know. Does that mean like, let's go. Let.

[James Petregallo]

I'm still working on comp. I'm not sure.

[Jimmy Whisman]

I don't know what the skull part means.

[James Petregallo]

I'm not sure.

[Jimmy Whisman]

They put it on everything. Sarah Boards and Bailey, Monica Perez, Jacob Torres, Corbin Perry, Courtney Ward, Jamie with no last name. Scott Hansen. Probably the kicker. Or was he a quarterback? Kicker.

[James Petregallo]

Kicker. Yeah.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. Larry Thomas, Kathy Heron, Marcia Metcalf, Paige Garner, Michelle Hyduke Dixon Beaver James. Definitely a real person. Nick would know. Last name? Elaine with no last name. Dme, usa. Smc. What is that? Drill. Major emergency.

[James Petregallo]

Marines.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yeah. Heather Smith. Nicole with no last name. Nikki V. Nomadic. Art. KT with no last name. Charles Cuco, Grant Hudson. Kate with no last name. Trevor o'. Brien, Celine Zahn, Matthew Richardson. Tina loves Jim. Evidently he's a powerful wizard. James Von Bon, Matthew Richards, Chris with no last name. Sandy Kendall, Stacy with no last name. And every person that patrons this show. You're the best.

[James Petregallo]

Thank you so much, you amazing sons of bitches. Sons of bitches, as he would call you. We love you so much. We appreciate all that you do for us every day, every week. Whether you just tell somebody about it. Just, hey, listen to this podcast. That's what gets people to listen to shit. People they trust. So that helps a lot. Whatever you do for us, we can't thank you enough. So thank you. You want to find us on social media, Shut up And give me murder.com is where you find all that information. So keep coming back and seeing us week after week after week. And until next week, everybody. It's been our pleasure. Bye. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. Hey everybody. Listening to Small town Murder out there. Hi. Hi. Hello. Good to see you out there. I'm here with Jimmy too. And this is an ad. But not an ad for a product. This is an ad for tour dates.

[Jimmy Whisman]

Yes.

[James Petregallo]

Come see a live show. The 2026 tour all the tickets are for sale right now. Starting out with February 21st in Nashville, March 6th in Durham, March 7th in Atlanta. Phoenix is sold out. We do have tickets though to your stupid opinions on 21 March. Salt Lake City sold out. Denver has tickets. Be there on May 2. May 29 Buffalo sold out. Royal Oak, Michigan. May 30 we have September 18 Milwaukee, September 19 Minneapolis, October 3 in Dallas, October 16 in San Jose, October 17 in Sacramento, November 13 in Tarrytown, November 14 in Boston. Come see us. The live shows are spectacular. Come join all of the other STM people. You're going to meet so many people. You're going to have fun, make some new friends like crazy and make some new friends come out and see us. Shutupandgivemerder.com is where you go for those tickets. Get them right now while they're hot.

[Jimmy Whisman]

See you on the road.