The Perverted Professor - Sharon, Massachusetts

Summary

Small Town Murder Podcast: "The Perverted Professor - Sharon, Massachusetts"

Podcast: Small Town Murder
Hosts: James Pietragallo, Jimmie Whisman
Episode Date: May 7, 2026
Case: The murder of Robin Benedict, Sharon, Massachusetts, 1983

Episode Overview

This week, James and Jimmie travel to Sharon, Massachusetts for a classic "pillar of the community with a double life" case: when a respected professor becomes the main suspect after a young woman disappears. They break down the murder of Robin Benedict, its investigation, and the bizarre, tragic, and infuriating aftermath. As always, the duo balances deeply researched true crime with quick-witted humor, often drawing comparisons to infamous modern cases and veering into riffs on suburban life, hypocrisy, and criminal justice absurdities.

---

Sharon, Massachusetts: The Setting

[05:53–18:36]

Small Town Profile

• Sharon is a quiet, affluent suburb southwest of Boston, near both Providence and Cape Cod (06:07-11:04).
• Population: ~18,500, highly educated, median household income $158,000, median home price $700k (09:29-11:32).
• Mostly residential, "low crime, high cost, high expectations," with "not much to do" locally except nearby beaches and cities.
• Town’s history stretches to 1637; churches feature bells by Paul Revere (07:30).
• One oddity: a nearby “Satanic mill marker” in Easton, allegedly the site of an 18th-century sawmill run by a “wizard” (16:25-17:47).

"Perfect Suburb" Ironies

• “That’s why no one’s getting divorced. They’re like, I’m not selling this giant house!” (11:45, James)
• Running jokes about being "house poor" and the impossibility of small-town life with real estate costs (11:59-12:05).

---

The Crime Scene Begins: The Discovery

[18:36–32:44]

The Find

• March 6, 1983 — at a rest stop in Mansfield, MA, a can/bottle collector (Joseph) discovers a brown garbage bag heavy with what he hopes are bottles, but in fact, contains:
  • A woman’s blood-soaked corduroy blazer, reeking of expensive perfume.
  • A man’s blood-soaked blue work shirt.
  • A small (2.5 lb) sledgehammer with blood and a long dark hair stuck to it.
• Joseph and his friend initially put it back (“Let’s just put this back. This is not our problem,” [24:14, Friend]), but Joseph’s conscience later compels him to call the police.

Police Response

• State Trooper retrieves the bag; all evidence is very fresh (blood still tacky).
• No immediate missing person matches the scene, so the evidence sits for days.

---

The Victim: Robin Nadine Benedict

[32:44–43:19]

Background

• 21-year-old, artistic, talented, much-loved daughter from a tight-knit family in Methuen.
• “Everybody, by the way that knows Robin said she's a real sweet-tempered, good kid...great grades, perfect attendance, an aspiring illustrator, plays the flute beautifully.” ([39:00–41:00])

Double Life

• Unbeknownst to her family, Robin is also a sex worker in Boston’s infamous Combat Zone.
• “She also has a complete double life…She’s also a sex worker. At night, she’s a prostitute. Yeah. Which is strange. That’s what she’s doing and she’s making good money at it, too.” (43:21, James)
• Started sex work in her late teens for money for school and to escape Methuen.

---

The Combat Zone: 1980s Boston Vice

[45:27–51:28]

• The Combat Zone: Boston’s X-rated entertainment district (think Times Square’s seedy heyday).
  • Sex work, peep shows, strip clubs, illicit arcades, drugs, street crime.
  • “Disneyland for perverts.” (47:01)
  • Robin, under the name "Nadine," worked out of Good Time Charlie’s, charging $100/hr.
• Had a live-in boyfriend, Clarence “Junior” Rogers, alleged to be both boyfriend and pimp.

---

The Disappearance and Investigation

[54:14–65:47]

• The day Robin disappears, she’s supposed to take part in a birthday party but never arrives.

• Multiple people (including JR’s ex-girlfriend) report Robin missing the next day, but her boyfriend, wary of scrutiny and his criminal record, initially hires private investigators instead of calling police.

• Private investigators focus immediately on client Dr. William "Bill" Douglas, a Tufts professor. JR calls him “obsessed.”

• Robin’s parents report her missing after hearing rumor of a "bloody corduroy jacket"—her signature jacket found in the bag (32:03).

• Douglas is tracked to D.C. for an academic conference. Has a suspicious forehead bandage and gives conflicting stories for the wound: “Cabinet” → “Mugging at Amtrak” → “Two young Black men in D.C. attacked me” ([68:32–71:10]).

---

The Suspect: Dr. William Douglas

[82:01–103:02, 129:25+]

Biography

• 41, Brown PhD, research scientist, tenured Tufts anatomy professor.
• Lives in Sharon with wife, Nancy, and three kids; "respected, busy, research-obsessed, also pee-wee hockey coach, family man."
• “Gentle as a cow...Big and slow and easy going.” ([101:56], from a book)
• But peers also describe him as a bit of a campus bully, and his home life is crumbling.

Obsessive Relationship with Robin

• Fell head over heels ("He wants to pretty woman this for sure," 117:47, Jimmie).

• Pays her several times a week, then daily—$45,000 spent on her in a year.

• Starts embezzling from his university via petty cash, phony payroll (“fluid collection units” for condoms, etc.).

• “Everything he had, he gave to her. Lunch, gifts, even put her on the Tufts payroll—as a ‘research assistant’ who never set foot in the lab.” ([122:19])

• His obsession turns into stalking, harassment, and sabotage:

  • Dozens of daily calls, breaking into her apartment, stealing her answering machine, reporting her to police to get her arrested, attempting to sabotage her legitimate day job ([135:09–137:09]).
  • “He bought her a new answering machine as a gift but kept the remote so he could listen to her messages.” ([135:25])

• Robin attempts to break off the relationship, tells both JR and Douglas’s wife.

---

The Night of the Murder: March 5–6, 1983

[145:03–151:53]

• Robin agrees to one last meeting with Douglas at his Sharon home to "settle accounts."
• Nancy is deliberately absent from the house that night.
• Robin is never seen again.
• Douglas:
  • Makes multiple suspicious phone calls (credit card–traced) to cover his tracks, using aliases and posing as others.
  • Disposes of bloody clothing and the murder weapon at a rest stop.
  • Disposes of Robin’s body (later confesses to dumping her, wrapped in bedding, in a Providence, RI dumpster after failing to use one in Brookline; the body is never found).

Attempts to Cover Up

• Robin’s car is found months later abandoned near Penn Station, NYC, reeking of decomposition, with dried blood and brain matter.
• Douglas sends a fake telegram to Robin’s family, “I’m in Las Vegas. Don’t look for me.”
• Douglas continues to visit the Combat Zone looking for sex workers even after her disappearance.

---

The Forensic Evidence

[156:44–159:40, 164:07–165:07]

• Search of Douglas’s house reveals:

  • Robin’s valuables (purse, address book, flute, underwear) in his closet.
  • His windbreaker with a "quarter-sized lump of human brain tissue" in the pocket.
  • Blood evidence, her personalized items.
  • Audio recordings of him harassing Robin’s employers and others.
  • Letters plotting his defense/blame of blackmail and frame jobs.

• Wife Nancy IDs bloody shirt as belonging to her husband, matching her sewing repairs and sewing thread.

• Sledgehammer traced to loan from Nancy’s father.

• Brain tissue found in coat pocket proven by protein analysis to be human (no cadaver work at his lab).

---

The Legal Case: "No Body, No Crime?"

[166:13–172:52, 174:46–176:19]

Prosecution Hurdles

• First-degree murder charges are rare without a body (Massachusetts precedent).
• Physical and circumstantial evidence is overwhelming but no corpse: blood, brain matter, car, phone records, weapon, confession.
• Defense: “No body, no crime,” suggests Robin merely disappeared, blackmailed Douglas, or was the victim of underworld forces.

Attorney’s Absurd Claim

• “Don’t be surprised if Ms. Benedict just happens to walk in here during the trial” ([169:50]), floating the idea she’s alive.

• Considered hiring an actress to fake a dramatic court entrance to “plant reasonable doubt” ([170:03]).

• Multiple books and a TV movie later slant toward Douglas as the victim of “sex and dope and intrigue,” a narrative rejected by the hosts for its misogyny and callousness toward Robin.

---

Plea, Sentencing, and Aftermath

[174:46–189:40]

• With trial looming and the body missing, Douglas pleads guilty to manslaughter (NOT murder) in exchange for (futilely) promising to reveal the body’s location.
  • “Did you kill her?” —"Yes, I did."
    “Did you strike her with a hammer and did that cause her death?” —“Yes, sir.” ([175:08])
• Gets 18–20 years—the maximum for manslaughter (with 5 years for embezzlement to run concurrently).
• Serves less than 9 years, out by 1993 at age 51.
• Never reveals where Robin’s body is, despite repeated meetings with the family.
• Remarries while in prison, teaches college courses, dies in 2015 in assisted living, never brought to further justice.
• “Her mother: ‘We didn’t realize he was just gonna walk free and nothing else was going to be done… We go to an empty grave.’” ([189:52])

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Let’s just put this back. This is not our problem.” ([24:14], Joseph’s friend on finding the evidence.)
• “He’s a 300 pound, big fat fuck who lives in Sharon, Massachusetts with his wife and three kids… a typical suburban dad and also a highly respected professor.” ([82:47], James)
• “He wants to pretty woman this for sure.” ([117:47], Jimmie)
• “He gave her gifts too. Money, records, clothing… He invented a game of grab bag…” ([128:52–129:25], James)
• “He was obsessed… called her up to a dozen times a day, wrote her dozens of letters… Broke into her apartment twice to steal her answering machine.” ([135:09], James)
• “He hit her two or three times by his own account, crushed her skull and dislodged brain tissue. He placed her body in a dumpster like a piece of trash.” ([185:56], prosecution at sentencing)
• “That is crazy. Her mother, Robin’s mother, Shirley, said, ‘We didn’t realize he was just gonna walk free and nothing else was gonna be done.’” ([189:52], James)

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 05:53 – Town history & character
• 18:36 – Discovery of evidence at the rest stop
• 32:44 – Robin’s life, family, and double life revealed
• 45:27 – Boston’s Combat Zone deep dive
• 54:14 – Disappearance; PI investigation; focus turns to Dr. Douglas
• 68:32 – Douglas’s inconsistencies, evidence piles up
• 82:01 – Douglas’s background, family, and professorial life
• 103:14 – Stalking, financial embezzlement, and obsession
• 145:03 – Night of the murder, Nancy’s suspicious absence
• 151:53 – Evidence disposal; body never found
• 156:44 – Police search: evidence bombshells
• 166:13 – Legal wrangling: the “no body, no crime” defense
• 174:46 – Plea, confession, sentencing
• 185:54 – Sentencing statements; families’ lasting grief
• 189:40 – Douglas’s release, aftermath, and legacy

---

Final Thoughts & Host Tone

• Throughout, James and Jimmie balance detailed research with gallows humor and “average guy” commentary.
• “How is this any different from Rex Heuermann?” - multiple references drawing parallels to Gilgo Beach and the psychology of the “double life.”
• Anger and disbelief over Douglas's light sentence for such a heinous crime, the injustice to Robin and her grieving family, and society’s callousness to sex worker victims.
• “Less than 9 years for that?!” – Both hosts incredulous.

---

If You Only Catch a Few Segments...

• For the chilling “evidence in the closet” moment – 156:44
• For the “no body, no crime” insanity – 166:13, 169:28
• For host outrage and the family's pain – 185:54, 189:40

---

Closing

Despite decades passing and books, movies, and law school classes on this notorious case, Robin Benedict’s family never got her body returned or full justice. The episode serves as a primer on obsession, hypocrisy, and system failure—wrapped in classic Small Town Murder banter.

Transcript

[James Pietragallo]

When it's time to scale your business,

[Jimmy Wissman]

it's time for Shopify. Get everything you need to grow the way you want.

[James Pietragallo]

Like all the way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Stack more sales with the best converting

[James Pietragallo]

checkout on the planet.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Track your cha chings from every channel

[James Pietragallo]

right in one spot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And turn real time reporting into big time opportunities. Take your business to a whole new level. Switch to Shopify.

[James Pietragallo]

Start your free trial today.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Hey there, it's Wayfair here where delivery

[James Pietragallo]

and setup are as easy as a

[Jimmy Wissman]

few taps on your phone. You're relaxing in an old hammock scrolling

[James Pietragallo]

Wayfair's app when you spot it, a brand new patio set. Next thing you know, Wayfair delivers it right to your patio and sets it up.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, you need a new grill too.

[James Pietragallo]

Alright, Wayfair's got you covered.

[Jimmy Wissman]

With Wayfair's room of choice delivery and

[James Pietragallo]

fast expert setup on qualifying orders, life gets a little easier.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Visit Wayfair.com or the Wayfair app. Wayfair Every style, Every Home.

[James Pietragallo]

This week in Sharon, Massachusetts, a mild mannered, respected middle aged professor is the main suspect when a young woman turns up missing after detectives uncover his debaucherous and criminal nightlife while everyone thought he was a pillar of the community. Welcome to Small Town Murder. Hello everybody and welcome back to Small Town Murder.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yay.

[James Pietragallo]

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

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm Jimmy Wissman.

[James Pietragallo]

Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another absolutely crazy edition of Small Town Murder. Just some hidden lives and I love that. I love when someone's got a whole other life hidden. And that's the most interesting thing. And we have that today. We will get to all of that and more. First though, head over to shutupandgivememurder.com tickets for live shows. Next live show with tickets available. I don't know if there's any left actually is Royal Oak, Michigan on May 30th. Those were going and I think they're probably gone by now but you can check and either way, if you can't get in there, let's go after the summer. May or I'm May. September 18th in Milwaukee, September 19th in Minneapolis, October 3rd in Dallas, October 16th in San Jose, October 17th Sacramento. Then November 13th Tarrytown. November 14th Boston. So get your tickets, get in there and do that. Shut up and givememurder.com, also get all your merchandise. Everything from coffee cups to shower curtains. You can't miss it. So get in there a lot of fun and hang out with us. Also listen to our other two shows, Crime in Sports and you'd stupid opinions. We promise. You don't have to like sports to like crime in sports. You just like to just want to have to hear us make fun of someone who did some bad things when they absolutely didn't have to. That's all it is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Didn't have to at all.

[James Pietragallo]

No reason to whatsoever. So we'll get into all that and then get yourself Patreon. That's the thing. Patreon.com crimeinsports that is where you get all the bonus material. Anybody $5 a month or above. You get everything we put out. I'm talking as soon as you subscribe. Hundreds of back bonus episodes. Almost 400 as a matter of fact. Bonus stuff you've never heard before. As soon as you subscribe. Then new ones every other week. One crime and sports, one small town murder. And they get all of it, every damn bit of it this week, which you're going to get for crime and sports. It's personal ads time again.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yay.

[James Pietragallo]

Those are so much fun. We see how people in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s tried to find each other. Then it was through the newspaper and it is wild, fun stuff. And then for small town murder, the poll is up right now. So check it out. It's up to you guys. Either Internet salad, which is we go all over the Internet and find everything that's going on currently except politics because you hear enough of that, or the new FLDS documentary that's out there, the false prophet one. Was it called Trust me, the False Prophet or something?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Trust me, False prophet.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Either that or that. So those are your options. Either way, we'll do the next one on the next time. So no worries. And then we have a prisoner dating game coming up pretty soon too. A lot of stuff going on there. Patreon.com CrimeInSports is where you get all of that. Then also you get everything. We put out everything, all the shows, all ad free with your Patreon. And then on top of that, you get a shout out at the end of the show as well. Jimmy will mispronounce your name awfully, awfully bad. But he wants to get it right. And that's the important part.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's not my fault. Blame the system.

[James Pietragallo]

Disclaimer time. This here is a comedy show is what we got going on here. We are comedians, you know, this is people are gonna die. The show's called Small Town Murder. It'd be weird if they didn't. So that's gonna happen and we're gonna make jokes and you say, well, how do you do that? How do those two things go together and not make it weird? Well, we think it actually makes it a little kind of smoother to us. It's a little more weird to be really with like, ominous music and, you know, then her arms were removed. And that's almost creepy to me. I'd rather. Let's. Oh, we're uncomfortable. Let's make a little joke about it. That means it's a little more human, is the way we like to do it here. But one thing we don't do is we never make fun of the victims or the victims families.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Why, James?

[James Pietragallo]

Because we're assholes.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But.

[James Pietragallo]

But we're not scumbags. That's just how it works here. We try to. Pretty good try to walk the line on that one. So if you think that true crime and comedy should never ever go together, maybe this isn't the show for you, but maybe it is. That's the thing. Either way, though, no complaining later. What do you say, everybody? That said, I think it's time. Let's do it. I think it's time to clear the lungs. Here we go. Arms to the SK Guy. Let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this, everybody. Okay, let's go on a trip, shall we?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Here we go.

[James Pietragallo]

We are going to Sharon, Massachusetts this week. Sharon, just like a lady's name.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Like a lady's name.

[James Pietragallo]

That's right. Sharon. It's in eastern Massachusetts, only about a half hour outside Boston.

[Jimmy Wissman]

South or north?

[James Pietragallo]

It's kind of. I think it's west. It's like southwest of Boston, if I want to say that correctly. You know, 30 minutes outside of Boston. So it could be a mile and a half. We don't know. It's like 17 miles. I think it's about 35 minutes to Providence. The other direction too. So if you live here, you kind of have two cities to pick where you want to walk and stuff like that. That's not bad.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And a lot more than that, really, because there's everything close.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, there's a lot close. But I mean, like two pretty good. Boston and then Providence is state capital. A lot of stuff going on there. It's about an hour and five minutes to Groton, Massachusetts. Our last Massachusetts episode. Episode 656. That was the killer prodigy. That was the jazz drummer. Remember that guy? He was like the prodigy jazz Drummer. And it didn't quite work out that well for him. This is in Norfolk county, just like in, you know, Virginia there. Area code 339 and 781. Got two area codes here. Now a little bit of history. And anytime you're talking about Massachusetts, if you wanted to talk about history, the whole three hour show could be about the history of a town because they go back hundreds of years. It's the first one. Yeah. It was first settled as part of the Massachusetts bay Colony in 1637. So the Unitarian and Congregational churches in the center of Sharon both have church bells that were made by Paul Revere.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He was a bell maker.

[James Pietragallo]

That's what he was doing. Apparently. He was popping out bells left and right. Geez. Seems like he could have figured out something better than shouting, right?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. He should have rung a bell.

[James Pietragallo]

One bell for this and two bells for that. Yeah. What are we talking about here? Guy had bells out of his ass.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't know.

[James Pietragallo]

He had more bells than he knew what to do with here. Reviews of this town. Here is five stars. Okay. I enjoy the people I work with in Sharon. It is a nice scenic commute as well. I enjoy driving by the lake on my way home every day.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This person just lives to work.

[James Pietragallo]

Just loves to work there. Loves it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Works their ass off.

[James Pietragallo]

Here's five stars again. I've lived here most of my life. I've lived here most of my life. It is one of the best towns in Massachusetts. Peaceful, quiet and safe. I think everything is great there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

All right.

[James Pietragallo]

Hence 5 stars then 3 stars. Most issues involve drugs or burglary. Crime is not a major issue here. We have stats. We'll let you know that. If it is or not, you calm down. Yeah. Chill out. The largest issue is enforcing rules and parking violations, especially around the high school. If your town's biggest problem is parking violations around a high school, you're doing all right. You're doing fine. That's not bad. Then finally, one star. There really is not much to do in the local area. However, we are located close to Boston, Providence and the Rhode island beaches. What are you complaining about?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Pretty nice life.

[James Pietragallo]

Two major cities and a million beaches within a half hour of you. You're a jackass. Also, Cape Cod is about an hour away and it attracts many tourists and vacationers.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, does it?

[James Pietragallo]

Cape Cod is a really.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's a vacation destination? Is that what you're saying?

[James Pietragallo]

That's what I really. What about the Bahamas? Anybody go there?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Down the Cape is really.

[James Pietragallo]

Wow. Okay. People in this town population, 18,477.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, good size.

[James Pietragallo]

Pretty decent sized town, but not that big. And being so close to Boston, it's definitely a little quiet suburb. The men and women breakdown here, 52.8% women. So a lot more women than men here. Median age, 42.6, slightly above the national average. But how about it? When you get the suburbs like that, that's when people move out. They're 35, and they have a couple kids, and they're like, all right, fine, I'll move somewhere boring. And then we end up in Sharon. It's about normally marriage. Here, people being married is about 50. 50. Here it is 71% married. Wow. This is a have your kids, let them play in the yard suburb, period. Very low divorce rate. Very low people. Very low rate of single with children people. This is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is that right?

[James Pietragallo]

Married with kids? Yeah. The racial breakdown here. Racial breakdown is 75.5% white, 2.8% black, 15.3% Asian. A lot of Asian people in sharon, Massachusetts, and 4.3% Hispanic. 65.5% of the people here are religious. This is when we say Catholics are the Baptists of the North. It's because if you get into, like, Alabama, it's going to be 65%, and they're all Baptists. Here it's 65%, and they're all Catholics. 50. 54.2% of the people here are Catholic. Huge. We know Catholics are the Baptists of the north. That's right. 3% Jewish. 3%. We get to sing. Oh, my goodness.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's crazy high. That's awesome.

[James Pietragallo]

3%. That's more than we usually get. Hava nagila nagila nagila I don't know the words. Hey, hey. All right. There we go. Unemployment here, a little bit low. Median household income, very high. More than double the national average.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Pietragallo]

Median household income here, $157,928. Wow.

[Jimmy Wissman]

My God.

[James Pietragallo]

That is killing it. Crushing it. And you better be crushing it, because the cost of living is not low. No, no. Usually 100 is regular average. Here it is 144.

[Jimmy Wissman]

God damn.

[James Pietragallo]

And the housing is the high one here. Median home cost here, $703,200. That's why no one's getting divorced. They're like, you're not. I'm not selling this giant house. We're living here. This is expensive.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We are so house poor. Yeah. Cash poor. I don't. We have a house. And that's all.

[James Pietragallo]

And that's all. We have. And we can't afford a divorce. That's not in the budget right now. So if we've convinced you that. Well, first of all, we must have convinced you to make a shitload of money and be able to afford $700,000 average houses. But if we have, then we have for you the Sharon Massachusetts real estate report. Average two bedroom rental here, $2,920. That is wild. That is wild.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's almost three times the average.

[James Pietragallo]

Now. Boston is a really expensive city. It's like it's, you know, New York, Boston, San Francisco are like the three most expensive cities and it's so it's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And then throw Chicago in there too.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, it's not that bad actually. Chicago compared to those.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, it's expensive compared to the rest of Illinois, which is cheap. But compared to New York and San Francisco, it's pretty low on the list.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And the price gets affordable there too, because the suburbs are incredibly affordable. Whereas in the city of Chicago is out fucking rageous.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, some of the nicer parts. Yeah, they're real ridiculous in some of the nicer parts. So here's your first house. It is a two bedroom, one bath, 640 square foot, little like bungalow. It's very nice. It's done nicely on the inside. It's not falling apart or anything like that. It looks like a very small, nice house. $499,000 for that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How many square feet?

[James Pietragallo]

640 square feet. 500 grand. Half a million dollars.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's absurd.

[James Pietragallo]

Here's a four bedroom, three bath, 2,720 square feet. It's nice. It hasn't been redone in a while. You can tell on the inside. It's got those big kind of older tiles, stair carpeting. Looks a little old.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Finished basement though.

[James Pietragallo]

I believe it does have a finished basement. It's not bad. Otherwise you're kind of, you know, vinyl siding.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Regular looking house. $1,150,000 for that house on 0.92 acres. So not even a whole acre. Sweet. Christ. And then finally this house. 4 bedroom, 5 bath, tea bowl for each and every B hole. And then one left over 4,323 square feet.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, shit.

[James Pietragallo]

It looks like the home alone house. That's what it looks like. It's like one of those wide with shitloads of windows. Really pretty. On 1.22 acres. 1,799,900 bucks. And that's after a $50,000 price cut which just happened recently. So a little pricey in this area here. That said things to do, not a whole lot. But you can go to Boston, you can go to Providence, you can go to the beach. So they don't really need a lot to do. Here we have. The Sharon Carnival is here. They have a whole carnival. Some of the fan favorite thrill rides that came back include but were not limited to the Top Gun, the Fireball, Zero Gravity, and the Freakout.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay, they're all just freak out, man.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, I don't know what that means. Freakout. I assume they give you a bunch of acid, make you wait about a half hour and put you in a funhouse and then send you into just one of those ones with the mirrors and you're just like, wow.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Just all muted.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, you just start losing it. You talk like Spicoli by the time you leave. So now. Oh, by the way, the Freakout's now known by warrior. That's what it's called.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh.

[James Pietragallo]

Said whether you're into flipping upside down or flying through the air, there's something for everyone. No carnival is complete without some greasy treats. This is under the food section.

[Jimmy Wissman]

At least they're being honest.

[James Pietragallo]

They're being honest. And this one is no exception. There were, of course, classics, hot dogs, burgers and fries. And for the more daring, there were even carnival treats almost guaranteed to give you a stomach ache before a ride. Cotton candy, fried dough and ice cream.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Yay. Then on top of that. Okay, so there's that, and then there is the Sellee or Sealy. S E L E E Satanic mill marker. The what? This is definitely gonna get a bonus episode. This whole shit. Okay, this is about 5 miles away in Easton, Massachusetts. But it's right there. I don't know if that's where they make the bats or not, but I hope so.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I doubt it.

[James Pietragallo]

I hope so. Now this is a sign. Marker marks the location of an 18th century sawmill owned by, quote, a wizard who employed satanic imps. Okay, I had to put that in quotes. I don't want anyone thinking that's coming from me. Well, we'll find out. Here. The story begins around 1755, when Easton, Massachusetts was growing at the time, and John Seeley set up a sawmill to supply the town with lumber for construction. The business was successful, and John intended to pass it to his son, Nathan. However, Nathan was a brooding young man who aspired for other things in life. There were rumors he had an interest in the dark arts. According to the legend, the devil visited Nathan one night and asked Nathan to follow him into A nearby swamp. And then it gets weirder. It gets weirder from there. So. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What did they do in the swamp?

[James Pietragallo]

We're gonna do a bonus episode on that because that's a goddamn mess right there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I mean, that implies his pants came off, right?

[James Pietragallo]

Something he visited that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Invited to the swamp?

[James Pietragallo]

No, never. Yeah. This is like the Ghostbusters blowjob with Dan Aykroyd. Except afterwards he's led into a swamp. It's very weird, fascinating, and it's just like a marble, almost like a gravestone marker.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But they believe this shit happened. Somebody does.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. They said, in memory of Mr. Nathan Seely, who died whenever. Erected this here. And there's all signs. So you'll go there and look at a sign and go. A crazy person had a mill here once. That's a weird thing to do. Crime rate in this town, what we are interested in here, property crime. Wow, this is really low. Is about one quarter of the national average. Not one quarter lower than. I've got it all 3/4 low. Yeah. You got $700,000 average house here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You own everything.

[James Pietragallo]

Violent crime, murder, rape, robbery, and, of course, assault. The Mount Rushmore of crime is less than one third of the average. So also extremely low. So this place is safe. I mean, very, very safe. That said, let's talk about some very horrible murder here that took place.

[Jimmy Wissman]

A day was unsafe.

[James Pietragallo]

A day was very unsafe. Let's start in March of 1983. Okay. March 6, 1983. You got your Flock of Seagulls hairdo ready to go. Jimmy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, babe. I was 2. I barely had any hair. I got about as much hair as I've got now.

[James Pietragallo]

It was still styled in a very crazy way. Yeah, you're doing that. You're going to see E.T. or some shit in the theater. It's 83 is E.T. times. I know. 82. It came out. I think so. Yeah. You're still probably. It was a huge hit. It's probably still out in 83.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Probably stuck around in the theater a while.

[James Pietragallo]

The last Star Wars, I think, came out in 83 of the first three. So that's the time period we're dealing with here. Now it's a Sunday morning. It's cold. Early March in the east coast can be pretty cold. This is in Mansfield, Massachusetts. Okay. Now, a guy named Joseph is out collecting bottles at a highway rest stop. He's at a rest stop and he is. Yeah. He's going through garbages and dumpsters looking for cans to bring back nickels. Yeah. Dimes on the yeah, nickels and dimes. It depends. Michigan's 10 cents.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is it really?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. So he's looking for nickels, basically. And he's working the left side of the parking lot of the rest stop with a friend of his. Now, I guess at the time, I don't think they did the 5 cent. It was like 50 cents a pound back then. They did it like California or Arizona does where you have to bring giant bags of them in to get weight and all that shit. So he's doing all this. This is shitty work on a Sunday morning in the cold. But the guy obviously needs the money. So he reaches into a trash barrel and pulls out a big brown garbage bag. And it's heavy. And he's like, fuck, yeah. Because heavy means bottles and money. Well, yeah, there's bottles in there. That's gonna be money. So he's excited. He's like, all right. So he tears the bag open excitedly looking for bottles, which, if he'd ever listen to this show, he would have quit doing this a long fucking time ago. He sees something in there first. That is not a bottle. Yeah, it's a tan corduroy blazer. Clearly a woman's cut, soaked in blood. Oh, boy, that's not good. Okay. Then he notices while he's holding this blazer that the weird part of it, it's in the trash and it's soaked in blood and you'd expect it to smell like blood or trash. It smells like expensive perfume. Oh. Which is strange.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's like, it hasn't gone away yet.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. This must be obviously pretty fresh because they haven't dumped it also out of these garbage cans. But, you know, this is a weird thing to have a blood soaked jacket, you know, smelling a perfume. So at this point, if you're this guy. If I'm this guy, I'm stopping at this. I found any. First thing I find that's soaked in blood. The day's over. Going home.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. This is no longer mine. I'm not winning.

[James Pietragallo]

We're done. He keeps digging into this bag past a fully blood cell corduroy blazer because. Wow. I get that you're trying to fucking get cans, but that's not the bag to do it in, apparently.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How broke you gotta be to push past, crush blood.

[James Pietragallo]

Just shrug and be like, well, keep digging. Wow. So underneath the corduroy jacket is a man's blue work shirt. Okay, so like a blue shirt there. It's also soaked in blood.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

So at this point you go, okay, I'm done. That's two blood soaked items. I don't want to find out what's under this. An arm or some shit, I don't want to know about it. He says, let me keep digging. You never know, there might be a can in here still.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There might be. It's still heavy.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. At this point there's more of a chance that you're going to find a hand than a can probably in here or a head or some shit like that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Well, you're going from jacket to shirt now and now other things, but it's a large.

[James Pietragallo]

It's like a bigger man's work shirt. Doesn't go with the corduroy jacket. These are not from the. The same person. Okay, so that's another thing. I would think these are two people's shit soaked in blood. Even scarier. But he persists, this guy. Jesus. I want to. Joseph, I'll give you my address. You can come get all my cans. I'll just leave them outside for you. This is crazy. Don't do this shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They must have been name brand clothes, huh?

[James Pietragallo]

Maybe, maybe. He's like, yeah, there must be some good booze in the bottom of this bag. And so under that, under the blue work shirt, he finds a small sledgehammer. A short handled two and a half pound sledgehammer with a dark stain on the top of it there, clearly from blood.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And now he's touched that?

[James Pietragallo]

Well, yeah, now he's grabbed the handle of it, probably with gloves on. I don't assume you're doing this barehanded, searching through the garbage for fucking cans. This is. You have work gloves on when you're doing that. Nobody's.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You should. Right?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Well, you don't know if there's glass in there you can't be digging through. So you're cut yourself and stuck to the stain in the blood is a single long strand of dark human hair.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh boy.

[James Pietragallo]

So evidence is what that's called? Yeah. Okay, so Joseph, guy looking through the cans, he calls his buddy over, hey, come here, look at this. Okay? The friend looks at the jacket, looks at the shirt, looks at the sledgehammer and says, you know what, let's just put this back. This is not our problem. Which is the most. I mean, I could not relate to somebody more for saying that. Obviously you can't do that, but that's what you'd want to say. Oop, I don't know anything about this. I got to go on with my day.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's not our problem.

[James Pietragallo]

Put it back. So he does, he puts Everything back in the bag. Sledgehammer, shirt, jacket. And puts it back where it was. And they take off and go home. They're done for the. This would definitely be the end of your morning. I would say probably it should be, anyway.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't think I'd ever do this again.

[James Pietragallo]

No, it'd be like, last time I went out there, I found bloody things. So now this guy, they get home, Joseph gets a sandwich, and he sits down, he starts watching tv. And he's sitting there for about two hours, and he just can't stop thinking about it, can't shake it. So he said, damn it, what if this is a problem? What if there's like somebody's hurt or something like that? So this guy actually has just a bout of conscience. Conscience feels terrible. And he calls the state police.

[Jimmy Wissman]

All right?

[James Pietragallo]

So they send a cop over, Trooper Paul Landry of the Massachusetts State Police. And they go out to the rest stop so he can show them where it is. And the trooper gets the bag, opens it, and he's like, holy shit, this is bad. And it was fresh blood, still tacky. It wasn't even dried yet. It's still.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Jesus.

[James Pietragallo]

This is within the last 24 hours this has been put here. So this is. Now someone could be actively bleeding. You know what I mean? This could be something like that. So he takes it, bags it up as evidence, obviously, of something, there's something going on here, and sends it to the state crime lab. Just because he doesn't know what else to do with it. So he starts asking around, anybody missing, anybody. He literally is asking around, putting out to other. The local departments, see if there's any assaults, homicides, missing persons, anywhere in Boston, Providence, South Shore, like anywhere in the area. If someone's missing a blazer, perhaps a blazer or a work shirt, one of the two or both. Is there a couple missing? Like, who knows? So nothing happens for a week. Nothing really. Nothing at all happens. There's nobody missing. They can't find anybody missing. There's just this bloody bag of clothes and a hammer with hair on it that obviously was bashed into somebody's fucking skull. So this is an issue. And a two and a half pound sledgehammer, that person's not doing well. Whoever got hit with that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No, that's a. That's a.

[James Pietragallo]

That's big.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's a lot of sledge.

[James Pietragallo]

It's a lot of sledge. Especially with that short handle. That is a vicious weapon. Then on March 11, 1983, a call comes in. Okay, this is A call comes in and then they show up too, to make a. To fill out a missing persons report. John and Shirley Benedict are their names, and they're from Methune. And they drive down to file an official missing persons report. And so the word had gotten around, apparently around the area that there was someone found a bag of bloody clothes and a sledgehammer and all this that had gotten around. Hey, everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show and tell you how to learn a language the better way with Rosetta Stone.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Rosetta Stone.com oh, you need to do

[James Pietragallo]

this, I'm telling you. And get ready now because it's spring. You're gonna have spring, summer travel, go somewhere. Maybe you'll go somewhere where you need a new language. And Rosetta Stone is the only way to do that. Maybe spring break or summer vacations, weddings over here, you never know. International work trips, something like that. Imagine arriving, actually understanding the language, ordering your meals confidently. Connect. Actually talking to people that live there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sure.

[James Pietragallo]

In, like a real meaningful way. And feeling immersed rather than just kind of visiting and feeling like, you know, an alien somewhere. It's much better this way. You gotta do it. Rosetta Stone has been a trusted leader in language learning for over 30 years. Their immersive, intuitive methods help you naturally absorb your new language. No memorizing random vocabulary lists. That's not gonna help you. No relying on transitions. Instead, you learn by connecting words, visuals, and meaning in context. The way language is meant to be learned, the way you learn how to speak when you're a kid. And this is just a better way to do it. I am absolutely. It is my summer goal that I am going to learn proper Italian and I'm going to do it through Rosetta Stone because this is really a great product and I really, really want to do this. So they're going to be the people I trust because they can. They work. This works, period. There. With 30 years of experience, they have millions of users, 25 languages to choose from, including Spanish, French, Spence. It's a new language, Spence. Yeah, it's Spanish and French mixed together. Spanish, French, German, Japanese and more. Rosetta Stone is the go to tool for real language growth. They also have this really cool thing called True Accent that gives real time feedback on pronunciation so you don't sound weird when you're talking. It's like having a personal language coach right there. Ready to start learning a new language this spring? Visit rosettastone.com Smalltown Murder today to explore Rosetta Stone and choose the language that's right for you. Go to rosettastone.com smalltown murder now and begin your language learning journey.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now back to the show.

[James Pietragallo]

Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show and tell you about the perfect gift for your mom this Mother's Day. An aura frame.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Auraframes.com oh, I'm telling you, this is

[James Pietragallo]

the only gift that you get. People. I have given this to everybody and they love it. This will be mom's centerpiece. You don't understand. This will be on the kitchen counter. Photos going all the time. A conversation starter. It's the coolest, coolest gift. This frame and switch it up. This year you have your mother's day playbook. And you go in and you go, there's my flower order from last year. Send her that. Maybe a gift card somewhere she likes. There you go. Maybe a brunch or something like that. No, something that lasts. Something that's going to be there that she can enjoy every single day. And that is an aura frame. It's an upgrade. Does your mom deserve an upgrade? You should do this. I'm telling you, it's really nice. It looks really nice. It comes in a gift box. Every frame comes packaged in a premium gift box with no price tag on it. You can share your photos and videos effortlessly. You just download the aura app or text the photos straight to your frame, load it up for her. It's top rated, reached number one in the App Store on Christmas Day in 2025. Honestly, I've never given a gift that everybody loves as much as the aura frame. It's the only gift.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Mom's sentimental. She loves this stuff.

[James Pietragallo]

She's gonna love it. All the pictures, pictures, the kids, older people, her parents, black and white pictures, all of them on there. Make Mother's Day special with aura frames named one by wirecutter. You can save on the gifts moms love by visiting auraframes.com for a limited time. Listeners get $25 off their best selling carver mat frame with the code Small town murder. That's a U R A frames.com promo code small town murder. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now back to the show.

[James Pietragallo]

So John Benedict goes to the state police on his own because somebody apparently told him about. Basically he knows people and not all these details have been released to the public of what they found. But he heard, he heard tell around the area there was that there was a bloody tan corduroy jacket in there. And he says, my daughter wore a tan corduroy jacket. I haven't seen her in a week. So let me see the jacket.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Basically sans blood. It's usually blood free.

[James Pietragallo]

So they show him the jacket and he recognizes it. And he said, that's my daughter's jacket. I know that for a fact. And I haven't seen her in almost two weeks. So this might be her jacket. And this scares me because usually we talk to her now and then he says, her name is Robin and last time I saw her, she was wearing that jacket. Oh, okay. So now they at least have somebody to look for. I mean, if they can find this person, they can rule it out, but it's over. It's someone to look for. And they're looking for Robin Nadine Benedict. She's born July 19, 1961. So she's 21 years old at this point.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Young lady.

[James Pietragallo]

She's young, yeah, Very, very young. Or 22. Yeah, 21. Not even 22 yet. She grew up in Methune, up there near Lawrence, up by the New Hampshire border. Kind of a shitty town she grew up in. Yeah, kind of a rough and tumble kind of a joint. Everybody, by the way that knows Robin said she's a real sweet tempered, good kid. Not even a kid anymore. She's 21, a good daughter. They talk about how her mom, Shirley is blonde and like bosomy, apparently big boob blonde here. She grew up in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and her father, John Benedict, apparently is described in a book that will tell you the names of these books here as a handsome Hispanic Trinidadian with high cheekbones and deeply set eyes that make him look like sculptures of long ago.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's hot.

[James Pietragallo]

He sounds hot from the book. Yeah, he sounds like he's smoking over here. So that was the deal. Now the weird part is her mother's blonde. Her father's like Hispanic. So there some mixing going on there. Yet she is not. Her father will not allow her to ever date black men. That's not allowed in high school. Okay, we can mix, but you can't is what he said.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, what is that?

[James Pietragallo]

I don't know what that is. I love people's funny, weird things like that. It's like, what are you talking about? What if her parents said that to you? Then what would you be doing right now?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Be banging big tittied blonde chicks.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, you can't hear that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Where's your Trinidadian wife?

[James Pietragallo]

What if her parents banned her from ever dating Hispanic Trinidadians? What about that? Then what? You're screwed.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Interesting.

[James Pietragallo]

Now, in this area of Lawrence and Methune, there Is some nice streets. But for the most part it's described as dilapidated housing projects and old Victorian houses that are crumbling, you know what I mean? Kind of like Baltimore was years ago.

[Jimmy Wissman]

A crumbling society that once was probably. Huh.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Probably was a mill town or something at one point. And when the mill closes, things start to fall apart here. Just a lot of. Kind of shitty raised ranches on quarter acre lots with, you know, a lot of car parts in the front yard.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Shamwow to be made there or something.

[James Pietragallo]

Something. Yeah. So Robin grew up in this exact kind of a place. Little house and kind of cramped by the way, because there's five kids. She's got four brothers and sisters. So seven people in a relatively small, you know, house. And I guess John the dad, he managed a marching group called the White Eagles Drum and Bugle Corps.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

And the children would carry flags and have little sabers and all that kind of shit. And they'd do holiday parades in all these towns. Some very New England shit. This is. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is there a white eagle?

[James Pietragallo]

I don't know. White Eagles Drum and Bugle Corps. I'm not sure if there's a white eagle or not. I've never seen one.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But I've never. I. I'm not in trying to picture one. I don't. I don't see one.

[James Pietragallo]

I don't see an albino eagle flying around as close as it gets.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. I would think the head. Anyway. I don't know if maybe White Eagles was a tribe that was around here or something about a tribe that was in the area. I'm not sure. I guess all that they'd go on vacations during the summer and on holidays and you know, they would. They would dress up to take pictures. So this is not like a. A rough and tumble scattered family.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No.

[James Pietragallo]

You know, when it's holiday time, you're getting a little. You're getting a little pink fluffy dress and you're putting a fucking tie on. And they're gonna put everybody in front of the camera to go down to the olin mills and get a picture taken. We're going to Sears. Everybody in the car.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sit on one of those ranch fences and smile, motherfucker.

[James Pietragallo]

One of those. Dad was a commercial photographer employed by the Raytheon Corporation in Lawrence. And Shirley worked as the manager of a jewelry store in a shopping mall in Lawrence as well. So they have three boys and two girls. Robin is the fourth child and the first daughter. So they had three boys and then they had two girls after that. So she was this was like a big deal for the family to have three boys and then a girl. So she was doted on like crazy. When she was born, they put her father put a sheet across the front of the house and had a projector project, an image that said it's a girl on it. That's how happy they were.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Very nice.

[James Pietragallo]

Finally, no more boys pissing in our faces while we're changing diapers. Great. He wanted a girl and basically he really doted on her. I mean, daddy daughter relationship was a big deal. One time he said of Robin, and I hope he said this before their fifth child and second daughter was born. He said, I have five kids, but I have just one little girl. So that's a. Yeah, thanks. The boys are like, great. Thanks a lot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Imagine if you're the five kids. One that matters.

[James Pietragallo]

One that matters. Imagine if you're like the third boy. You matter nothing to these people. It sounds like the fourth feel that way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Frustration boy.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, yeah. The third boy that's born was like, God damn it. This pain in the ass. And then the fourth one is born, and she's the. You know everything. She's the light. And now you're the one who wasn't a girl yet.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, it's. There's four. Three boys or four boys?

[James Pietragallo]

Three boys. One, two, three. And then the fourth born. Yeah, fourth born is a girl. And then they have another girl after that. So there's a lot of her. Dad took so many pictures of her growing up, like, just super into that. She's very beautiful. Everybody says to Robin, like, really pretty. And I've seen pictures. She's pretty. She's very pretty. Especially like that early 80s pretty. Like. Yeah, yeah, she's gorgeous. She's not. Not in, like a fake type of way either. Like, she's just a naturally pretty girl.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Just there.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, that's it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Long dark hair, you know, nice bone structure, big eyes, all that. She also is a flute player. She plays the flute. And everybody said any kind of family arguments. She's the peacemaker. She's the one that goes around and

[Jimmy Wissman]

comes in with the flute and brokers

[James Pietragallo]

everybody up and everybody goes, oh, they turned her. Yeah. Hey, look at her. She's an aspiring illustrator. She wants to be. She's an artist. She wants to be an illustrator. And she graduated from Greater Lawrence Regional Vocational School and got into the Rhode Island School of Design, which is actually. It's actually a big deal. It's not a. Yeah. It's not like DeVry or anything. This is like A really good art school and she studied graphic design there, so she's doing great. But she dropped out. Oh, no, couldn't afford it. It's a very expensive school.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yes.

[James Pietragallo]

And so couldn't afford it. So that's the main problem here. Her brother Richard, who was in the Navy at the time this was all going on, describes her as an artistic kid who used to sign her name with a tiny hand drawn bumblebee. So she'd add that to anything she did. Like if she wrote a letter, imagine

[Jimmy Wissman]

being in line behind somebody at the grocery store writing a check.

[James Pietragallo]

No, no, no.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You sign it and now the work starts.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, I think, you know, it's not on a check, but.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, she's probably just really quick at it too.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, no, no. If she writes a letter to her friend or something. This is the 80s. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, behind that in line, you're like, all right, fucking scribble your mind, Bob Ross. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Why are you putting happy trees on it?

[James Pietragallo]

I don't think anybody would do that. But she's very much into flute playing. Her brother said she played so well that when she practiced in her room, you couldn't tell if it was her or the radio. Well, you probably could tell because what fucking radio station is all flute all the time? No other instruments, just Jethro Tully.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's a song on the radio that has a fucking flute in it.

[James Pietragallo]

It's all flute. No drums, no anything, no vocals, just flute. Hey, is that the All Flute station or is that our sister in there?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is that our sister or did the Allman Brothers put out an album of just flutes? Yeah, Andre 3000 is doing just Flutes now.

[James Pietragallo]

Alrighty. Well, he must have enough money then. That's what that means, because no one's buying that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's giving up on making.

[James Pietragallo]

That's what that is. Whenever I hear those celebrities, stars doing shit like that, I'm like, oh, bored enough to not make any money. Good for him. Yeah, that's like when Steve Martin makes banjo albums. I'm like, oh, you must be doing pretty well, Steve. All those movies paid off over there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Single other joke.

[James Pietragallo]

Huh? All right, all right, good deal. Just gonna dick around on there. All right. Now she's in school, she had perfect attendance, great grades, was a President's Merit scholar. I mean, she is, like, dependable and on the ball here, huge. She said she's also a free spirit. Richard said her brother said she would jump into the ocean when it was dark outside, fully clothed, just because she felt like it's A free spirit? Yeah, I think so. It's fun.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I think that is ballsy.

[James Pietragallo]

Really?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Does she not have any. Where are you going after?

[James Pietragallo]

They're by the beach and everybody's hanging out and she feels like running in the water. She'll just go run in the water.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So clothed.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, just having fun.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, that's fun.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Amazing.

[James Pietragallo]

She wants to open her own design business. That's her goal here. And she wanted to see her artwork in a gallery. That was her big deal. Now, a few days before she vanished, her brother Richard was home on shore leave, and she gave him a picture of herself to take back to the ship. And so that's what he's got now is this picture of her, and then she's gone. Here on the back, he saw the handwriting on her picture. It said, something to remember me by. So, like, that's interesting. So, I mean, she's got this whole life with her family as a, you know, as just this perfect kid. And she does all of these things, and she's a great artist and a great flute player and perfect grades and all this. She also has a complete double life that she leads.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What do you mean?

[James Pietragallo]

She's also. She's also a sex worker. At night, she's a prostitute. Yeah. Which is strange. That's what she's doing. And she's making good money at it, too. For back then, she's. Yeah, it's. Which is just not what you expect from this. A family that's together. And it's just. She's doing this, it seems like, as a conscious choice for money, which is. It's just strange. You don't see this often from people who haven't had a lot of abuse in the family and things like that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's not even just that. It's just she doesn't have a lot of challenges apart from the lack of money. And she's just like, this is easy to make money. All right.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, I guess so. So that's the thing. Now, one of the books that we talk about is actually a Pulitzer Prize winner here about this case called Missing Beauty by Teresa Carpenter. So that's one of the sources here that we'll talk about. There's another book, too, that we'll bring up later on here. But this was around her late teens she started doing this. So this is before she couldn't afford to. It doesn't make sense. Apparently, a guy at a party casually suggested to her that she could make a lot of money turning tricks, which, I mean. Yeah, her then boyfriend who was a former New England Patriots linebacker. So I know he was much older than her at that point, named Ray Kosticht. He told her, no, you're not doing that. What are you talking about? Yeah, don't do that. Jesus Christ. But she said she needed money for school and needed money to get out of this goddamn town. She wanted out of methune there. She was done with that place. This place sucks. I want to go someplace better, like Boston.

[Jimmy Wissman]

In her late teens, she's dating a retired football player.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, she's hot. That's what that tells you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Smoke show.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, yeah, Smoke Show. And also smart, too. So it's like, yeah, why not? Who wouldn't like her? You know? I mean, pretty much she's every guy's type.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. So she's.

[James Pietragallo]

You know what I mean? That's just what it is. Hot and smart and talented. Who the hell doesn't like that?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Artistic.

[James Pietragallo]

It's what I mean. Who wouldn't like that? So by 1982, she is working at a place called Good Time Charlie's. Okay, Good Time Charlie. She's going under the name Nadine, her middle name. And she's working for 100 bucks an hour. That's her rate.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What is Good Time Charlie's?

[James Pietragallo]

It's a bar. Okay, it's a bar. I was going to get into all that. But she's making 100 bucks an hour, which is in 1982.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Great cash.

[James Pietragallo]

Immensely. Huge money. That's huge money. Now, this Good Time Charlie's is in a section of town known as the Combat Zone. This does not exist today at all. No way. There's probably super expensive old fancy houses that used to be brothels. Basically, that's where it is now. So basically it was a red light district in Boston.

[Jimmy Wissman]

In Boston?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. It was an adult entertainment district in downtown Boston centered on Washington street between Boylston and Neyland. There was. It was like Times square in the 70s, basically.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, I know exactly where it is. It's a beautiful area.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Oh, now I'm sure. Back then it was peep shows, strip clubs, X rated movie theaters, you know, adult bookstores, all that kind of shit. And Good Time Charlie's, obviously. Okay, there's one place called the Liberty Bookshop. And by the way, all these bookshops had like jack booths in the back and, you know, fucking guys would pound each other in the ass in there. And it was like, this is a. These bookstores are filthy places.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Call it a bookstore all you want. Nobody's in there reading a book no,

[James Pietragallo]

they're going in the back where there's, like, films playing and shit like that. And it's all sorts of weird shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I like when they call it an arcade. The only joystick.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, an arcade. You wouldn't touch it. Yeah, I'm not touching any stick in here. Put it that way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Hi.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Where do you guys keep Street Fighter?

[James Pietragallo]

I don't see. Is there asteroids in here? I don't know. Bob's got hemorrhoids. All right, well, close enough, I guess.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's a man back there getting asteroids.

[James Pietragallo]

He's getting asteroids right now. Now, one writer described the Liberty Bookshop as, quote, disneyland for perverts. Which is very funny. That's just good use of the language right there. That's all. That is Disneyland for perverts. Yeah. The name, the Combat zone, Disneyland for perverts. It was coined in the 60s by a reporter named Jean Cole. It meant that it was crime and violence zone. Basically, enter at your own risk. And it was also where servicemen on shore leave went, okay. So you'd see hordes of uniformed servicemen going through here. So that's why it became combat zone.

[Jimmy Wissman]

With a pocket full of.

[James Pietragallo]

Pocket full of pay.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. Pocket full of offshore money from the last six months that they didn't spend a dime of.

[James Pietragallo]

All saved up. Yeah. Ready to go. So. And then they said, also, you know, in this area, there was a lot of. Not only some violence, but there was street crime. There was, you know, there was hustlers and prostitutes that would pickpockets and shit like that, too. The Wall Street Journal. This isn't as fun. They took the Disneyland name and made it a little more boring. Called it, the whole thing, a sexual Disneyland. Which that's not nearly as fun as pervert, you know. Disneyland for perverts. That's much better. In 74, the Boston Redevelopment Authority officially zoned it as an adult entertainment district.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Pietragallo]

It was officially zoned that? Well, that was it. Here's where the porn is. It's all here. Here's where the theaters are. Nowhere else in the city. It's allowed, though.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You can't build a house here. This is zoned for dirty shit.

[James Pietragallo]

You can build a house, but you gotta have people sucking dick inside of it. If you're gonna build a house, you gotta put something in there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You gotta have a Minnie Mouse on the lawn with their tits out.

[James Pietragallo]

That would help a lot. So. But that meant nowhere else in the city, only here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Pietragallo]

Red light. Amsterdam, Vice. And that's. Yeah, I feel like that's how it should be. Yeah, they should have districts that you don't go to if you don't wanna go do that kind of thing. You know, like, kind of like me around a church. It's the same thing. Yeah, yeah. I'm not gonna. I don't. I don't need to.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Also, don't force a man with that vice to be running all over town looking for whatever he's looking for.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, then you're gonna mix that in with the good parts. That's the problem.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. Keep that guy in the porn shop where he belongs.

[James Pietragallo]

If he gets rolled. He knew what the fucking, you know, what the risks were. Come on. So Robin is working in this environment, which is scary for a beautiful young lady here she's working as a full time escort. I mean, this isn't a nighttime one day a week I pick up a few extra bucks from school. This is her job. So she's working at Good Time Charlie's, which is a bar in there, but it's like a hustler bar. It's at 25 Lagrange street so you can all look up what's there. Now, I guarantee you it's not a hustler bar. It's probably something very expensive where they sell artisan, you know, artisan sandwiches with arugula coming out of them or some shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's a lot of croissants in the awful lot. Yeah. Being prepped right now.

[James Pietragallo]

No shit. So she's like I said, 100 bucks an hour is what she charges, which is equivalent to about 300 and change today. Almost 350 an hour.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's a pretty good one.

[James Pietragallo]

Not bad. She has basically a couple hundred clients in an address book that she keeps with her. She's been arrested on prostitution related charges four times already. It doesn't make sense because she has a place to go, she has a family, she has people that love her. She has all this. But this is her choice. She wants to do this. So she cannot live in that town. Basically.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She dated a New England patriot for Christ's sake.

[James Pietragallo]

It's very strange. She also has a boyfriend, a live in boyfriend who also is called her pimp from time to time as well. So live in boyfriend, pimp named Clarence Rogers who goes by Junior. Now we know that she had a baby. Silver. I guess that's a bluish silver that used to early 80s color. Toyota Starlet back in the day. Which is a. I don't even know

[Jimmy Wissman]

what that car is.

[James Pietragallo]

Very tiny little fucking car. Little, tiny, like hatchback Little tiny fucker, little thing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Toyota Chevette.

[James Pietragallo]

Kind of basically exactly like that. I was gonna say like those old. The old. Old Hondas look like that. Kind of like the old Honda Civics kind of were like those tiny things. It had a black racing stripe on it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

She has her own apartment with J.R. rogers, the boyfriend. Everybody says he's also her pimp. Although, you know, where do you. Between pimp and boyfriend who helps her keep her business straight? What's the difference at that point? You know what I mean? Honestly, if her business is that, what are we talking about? So Junior has a record as well. Nothing violent. Nothing violent. He's unarmed. Robbery, which is better than armed robbery, I suppose, receiving stolen credit cards. And he also owned a co. Owned a hair salon in Boston that was basically rumored to be just a front for human trafficking. That was the rumor that was around. Girls are brought in and shit like that, and they're taken a meeting place. By the way, he's a black guy too. Which father is not.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm just about to ask that. Is Clarence a black guy? How happy is her dad about this?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, her dad had to have fucked something. And I don't mean to. I'm not trying to disparage the family, but if you have a young lady who's going against everything her family wanted for her, and she's not 16, it's not a little rebellion. She's 21, she's an adult. All this type of thing. And I'm not saying the dad. Somebody must have done something to her to make her do that and then be like, what, don't you like me to date black guys? Great. I'm gonna find one that'll pimp me.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

You know what I mean? Like, there's some, like. And I don't know if that's exercising independence. I don't know what that is exactly. Psychological.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Or maybe it's just that one thing that she's just like, well, I'm doing

[James Pietragallo]

that, then maybe that's the other thing. We don't know. But she's doing a lot of things. She's doing that and this and. Oh, I'm sure quite a bit of this and that going on here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm sure the dating of the black guy is the least of his worries. If he knew about this.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, absolutely. So the day that they found the cans and Looking for cans and bottles and found the hammer and the sweater or the jacket and the work shirt, this same day Robin is supposed to be at JR's son's birthday party.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

Okay, so Robin is supposed to pick up JR and his son to go to this birthday party, but she's not answering the phone at her apartment, and her car isn't outside, so the answering machine has messages on it. So apparently JR's ex and Robin were friends. Oh, so Robin was supposed to pick up JR's ex and JR's son and take them to the birthday party. Okay, so when JR's ex can't get a hold of Robin and her car's not outside, she calls Robin's parents to see if she knows where they know where she is. And Robin's parents hadn't heard from her either. So Robin's mother, Shirley, had called Robin the night before to invite her over to see their new puppy, but she never answered the phone or called back or came over. Yeah, so now JR is alarmed a bit, but not too much, because in this profession, shit happens. Things come up. She might have got a late night call and had to do something. Now she overslept because of that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It may be a thing that ran into today. At $100 an hour, we do whatever that guy says until time's up.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. I mean, if Julia Roberts had plans at any point during that week in Pretty Woman, she would have broke them. I mean, and there was no cell phone. She would have not showed up, and people would have thought she disappeared, too. So, I mean, that happens. So now by the afternoon, though, nobody's heard from her. And that's weird. That's different. She's not someone who would not show up at a kid's birthday party who wants her there. You know what I mean? It's a strange thing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And she's the ride.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, that's the other. She's the ride. Now, JR's ex, there she is actually the first person to formally report Robin missing that afternoon. Really? That's before even the family does.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How about that?

[James Pietragallo]

JR is not aware that she did that. JR doesn't call the police. He hires private investigators.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, that's what you do when you're into.

[James Pietragallo]

Because. Exactly. He's an underworld guy, so he's not gonna be like, oh, police, please help me find her. Well, last time I talked to her, she was turning a trick. So you don't want to tell the

[Jimmy Wissman]

cops that I dropped her off at her job. What's her job? Don't worry about that.

[James Pietragallo]

Good Time Charlie's in the combat zone. Oh, okay, so he does this, hires these PIs. Problem is, though, if someone's legitimately missing and you think something might have happened to them, you call the police. Doesn't matter what your business is, call the goddamn cops. But he knows for a fact that they're gonna be looking at him. That's why he doesn't call the cops. He hires private investigators. And basically what these books all say and what seems to make the most sense is he's a black guy with a record who owns a hair salon that might be a front for trafficking and has a sex worker girlfriend. So he's like, they probably aren't gonna look at me as the most upstanding cat.

[Jimmy Wissman]

The probably not gonna help me. They're probably gonna be more of investigating me.

[James Pietragallo]

That's exactly what it is. He said later he knew if he walks into a police station and says, my girlfriend's missing, he's gonna be treated as a suspect. He's gonna be in an interrogation room in five minutes. They're not gonna look for her. They're gonna talk to him.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right? And that's the problem. Investigate me all you want. Yeah, I do bad shit. But there's still a missing girl at the end of this that I care about.

[James Pietragallo]

Absolutely. So he hires these private investigators and they go, well, where do we start? I mean, honestly, this is a girl who has a young woman who has hundreds of clients in a phone book. Where do we even start with this? We can't go to every one of these guys. And that would take years to do this shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And all those guys, There was a first time, you know what I mean? So who even knows if this guy's even in the book?

[James Pietragallo]

And most of the guys, probably a lot of them, I'm sure, are fucking married. They don't really want to get a phone call about that. You know what I mean? You're going to run into some people going, I don't know what you're talking about when it comes to this type of. Not everyone's going to openly admit. Oh, yeah, she's. Oh, I see her twice a week. She's great. She's the best. Yeah, but don't tell my wife, but Junior has his own idea. He says, never mind all those fucking other people. There's one guy you need to look at. Oh, one. His name is Bill Douglas, which sounds boring as shit. You don't expect that there's one guy you need to look at, and you expect it to be some crazy name, and it's Bill Douglas.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Todd Franklin.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, Todd Franklin.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sounds dangerous.

[James Pietragallo]

He's a professor at Tufts University, which is a very good school by the way Tufts, huge, big school. This junior says he's been obsessed with her. He said also she went to tell him that she's not seeing him anymore on March 5th. And I haven't seen her since. So that's the guy to look at first. Obviously it could be anybody. That's the problem too is after she talked to him, she could have went and saw somebody else and that guy could have decided, who knows. So the private investigator said, he said he spent a thousand hours looking for her. Andrew Palmeiro. He said the father was very close to her and she kept in close touch with her family. So this, I mean, the family that she still keeps keeping in close touch. So this doesn't seem like it stems from the family. I don't know what's going on with her. So they said the family knew what she was doing, but they tried to do the best that they could. Sometimes you close your eyes to what's really going on, hoping it will go away. They knew they knew, but they weren't admitting it to themselves type of deal.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay, they suspected they knew, but their suspicions were right.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, they knew what was going on. So the PIs in all of this work, they track this Bill Douglas, they find him and they track him to a hotel in Washington D.C. where he's at an academic conference. And they knock on his hotel room door and he lets them in. And the first thing they see is he's a dork. First of all, of course he's a fat guy. He's just a middle aged, He's a professor. I mean, he's not a, you know,

[Jimmy Wissman]

he's got a specific thing he likes and she does it.

[James Pietragallo]

He doesn't look like he ever played for the New England Patriots. Put it that way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Got it.

[James Pietragallo]

Hey everybody. Just gonna take a quick break from the show and tell you a better way to feed your dog with Ollie

[Jimmy Wissman]

O L L I E dot com.

[James Pietragallo]

That's right. Absolutely. We love our dogs. I have three dogs. I love them. Jimmy's got two dogs. Just got a puppy and a puppy. Don't you feel great? We just got home from the road and you walk in your door, I mean, you can. It's an overwhelming amount of love and it's just like, oh man, here I am. This is my thing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This tail is dangerous.

[James Pietragallo]

They're wagging all around. They're climbing on top of each other to get to you. It's just so great to have dogs. I really love dogs and they're so much fun. You want them to eat the healthiest stuff, the best stuff. And if your dog observes obsessed like we are and like Ollie is. And if anyone's dog obsessed, it's Ollie. They are relentless about delivering the best food and experience for you and your dog. And they give you a way to check in on the health of your pet over and over and over again. They have fresh food recipes developed by real chefs too, backed by vet nutritionists. They're obsessed with making the best meals with the highest quality ingredients. You are jealous of your dog. Yeah. You're putting it in there going, I want. This looks good for me right now. Like, this is crazy. I'll have a bite of this. It's pretty good. It's so good.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Dre and Vaughn both love it, but amazing. It's real food that's in there.

[James Pietragallo]

Absolutely. From the moment you start your subscription, everything is tailored to your pup. The meals are perfectly portioned. You get a puptainer and a scoop for easy storing and serving. And with Ollie, you don't just get the the food. Through their app, you can actually check in on your dog's health with real vets just by uploading a picture. Their team can check on your dog's weight, digestion, teeth and coat because they're obsessed with making sure your pup is as healthy as can be. Our dogs love it. Their poop is better, they're happier, the tails are wagging, the coats are shiny. You're gonna love it too. Get ready for both you and your pup to be obsessed. Head to ollie.com sr STM tell them about your dog and use the code STM to get 70% off your welcome kit when you subscribe today. Plus they offer an obsession guarantee. If you're not completely obsessed, you'll get your money back. That's O l l I e.com STM and enter code STM to get 70% off your first box.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now back to the show.

[James Pietragallo]

Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you about our SafeST sponsor, SimpliSafe.

[Jimmy Wissman]

SimpliSafe.com S I M P L I

[James Pietragallo]

Safe.com Absolutely normal traditional security systems, they lock you in the long term, multi year contracts with huge cancellation fees. And that's ridiculous. I'm not doing that. I'm not. Especially when there's an option like Simplisafe, which they don't do any of that. So why would you want that? It's amazing. It's 247 professional monitoring and our houses, our studios, this is what we trust it all to. To Simplisafe. It is absolutely safe. It's game changing and no long term contracts. I love, love, love the fact that they can see somebody coming, trying to break into your house or is creeping around and talk to them and yell at them and tell them to get out of here. I love that so much. It's amazing. And you've listened to small town murder. You want to understand that bad things can happen. And so do we. So do we. You know what I mean? We, we know this for a fact and you know we're responsible for protecting our homes. So we appreciate Simplisafe and we appreciate that we could install it ourselves. It's super easy. And you know, we knew we had to have our homes protected. Episode one of this show, we were like, oh God, we need this. So I mean honestly, it really, it fits in. It's easy to set up. It doesn't take all day or anything like that. You expect it to and I do because I don't know what I'm doing. But half hour later, here I am with a security system installed. It's fantastic stuff here. It's fully customizable to fit your exact needs. The sensors, indoor outdoor cameras. It's backed by SimpliSafe's 247 professionally professional monitoring agents who dispatch emergency help when you need it. Over 5 million people value and trust safety Simplisafe with their home security every day. That includes us right here. So I'm telling you right now, get Simplisafe. We don't put our name behind a whole bunch of things like that. Just any old brand. But we trust Simplisafe. Our listeners will get 50% off a new system when you sign up for professional monitoring. And your first month is free by visiting simplisafe.comsmall that's half off at SIM P L I safe.comsmall there's no safe like Simplisafe.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now back to the show.

[James Pietragallo]

Thanks to Home Serve for sponsoring this episode.

[Jimmy Wissman]

HomeServe.com Absolutely.

[James Pietragallo]

It's great to own a house. That's wonderful. You know, it's great until start stuff starts breaking and then it's not so great anymore. One minute you're just hanging out, you're you know, looking around, showing your place. Yeah. Sitting on your porch. Next thing you know you're ankle deep and burst pipe water and you don't know what to do and repairs. They don't really care about your timing. They don't care if it's not really a good time for you right now. Things will Just break. That's how it goes. And you, they don't care about your budget even more. That's the other problem here. So you protect your health, you protect your car, even your phone. You can, you protect, there's always everybody's got it on that. But what you, you need to protect your home. That's your biggest investment. And when things go wrong, the costs can hit hard and fast. That's where HomeServe comes in. Regular homeowners insurance don't cover a lot of the day to day wear and tear, the plumbing things, H vac breakdowns, electrical problems. You're on your own with that for the most part. I mean that's where HomeServe comes in. It's like a subscription for your home. And for as little as $4.99 a month, they got your back. Repairs come and they hit hard and they hit fast. You can be searching for a contractor in a panic while the water level raises in your basement. Or you could already be on the phone with HomeServe's 247 hotline scheduling a repair, letting them worry about that. It's super simple. You choose a plan that fits your needs and your budget. And when something on your plan goes wrong, just call their 247 hotline to start the repair process. They've been doing this. They've helped homeowners just like you and just like myself and Jimmy for over 20, 20 years. With a trusted national network of over 2,600 local contractors, they have 4 1/2 million customers and about 4, 4.8 out of 5 post repair rating as well. And an A plus on the better Business Bureau for their rating. They are the real deal. Love this company. This is fantastic. It's really, really good because I've had home repairs problems when I didn't have something like this a long time ago. Being in Phoenix when the air conditioning went out in August and had no way to be able to fix it. And that was a nightmare and it's so bad and everybody has an equivalent to that and this will really, really alleviate all of the stress of that situation. So help protect your home systems and your wallet with HomeServe against covered repairs. Plans start at just $4.99 a month. Go to HomeServe.com to find the plan that's right for you. That's HomeServe.com not available everywhere. Most plans range between 4.99 and 11.99amonth. Your first year terms apply on covered repairs.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now back to the show.

[James Pietragallo]

First thing they see On Bill is a large bandage on his forehead. Okay, so that's suspicious right there, because this guy, not like he, you know, plays hockey on the weekends or something. He's a middle aged, fat professor. So they said, bill, what happened to your head? And he says that, oh, I hit my head on the cabinet door. Yeah. Okay. A few hours later, he says, I don't know where she is. The PIs leave. They come back a few hours later to the same hotel because they thought something was off. So they're gonna go knock on his door and go, oh, we forgot to ask you one question type of thing. So they go back, and in talking to him again, they go, so what happened to your forehead again? Yeah. And he says, quote, I was mugged at an Amtrak station.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Well, which is it, motherfucker?

[James Pietragallo]

The robbers hit me in the head with my briefcase. Oh, which, if they already had your briefcase, why bother hitting you with it?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Entirely different run away story.

[James Pietragallo]

Hit my head on a cabinet and mugged at an Amtrak station. Or you wouldn't forget a mugging.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Assaulted with my own shit. Or I assaulted myself with the cabinet.

[James Pietragallo]

Yep. And I would go, I would look around too, and if he still has a briefcase sitting there, I'd go, well, that's wrong.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

So they said that was an interesting thing. In a few hours, it went from a cabinet to muggers.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

And they. That was the other thing. They thought. Just what I just said is, robbers don't hit you with your own briefcase. Once they have a briefcase in hand, they usually leave. Yeah. They want to be away from this shit. No one's out there beating you with your own briefcase.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Pietragallo]

So now a week later, the Massachusetts State Police are gonna talk to him as well, to Bill. And he said, I was mugged by two men who hit me in the head with a metal pipe.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Kay.

[James Pietragallo]

Now it's a metal pipe, he said, in Washington D.C. and they stole my briefcase. And they stole his briefcase and hit him with a pipe. So it's either a cabinet, a briefcase, or a pipe. One of the three, we don't know. But now it's two men, not just one. So now the story has changed quite a bit in the course of just a few days. Then later on, he'll give a completely different version to police. Now it was, quote, two young Black men in D.C. attacked me, hit me in the head, and took my briefcase. They weren't black before. Now he made them black.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay?

[James Pietragallo]

They were white before. Now they've turned black all of a sudden, which is, I guess, Time went by, I don't know. And it's two young black men is what he said. So that's what he said. Now, no assault on Bill Douglas or robbery was ever reported to any police department in Boston, D.C. or anywhere else.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So whatever happened, he didn't call the cops about it.

[James Pietragallo]

He didn't report it at all. So they were like, okay, that's interesting. Now, March 11, 1983, that's when all this was going on. That's when the, you know, this all started. Robin's parents also report her missing, like we said. Her dad drives down to file a missing persons report. They talk about the jacket. And the one thing is, they show him the jacket and he recognizes it and he says it's Robbins. But they also, they have JR come in and bring a bottle of her perfume to see if it's the same scent as on the jacket. Which is not really scientific, but it works. You know what I mean? You could tell if it's the same smell.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, you're not checking if the molecular makeup of it are the same, but how it hits your nostrils.

[James Pietragallo]

So they all open up the perfume. They all smell it. They all smell the jacket. They all say that's the same smell. That's her. That's her jacket. That's her perfume. So obviously, dad, John Benedict is crushed. I mean, this guy, this is a little girl. I mean, we both have a little girl. It's not little anymore, but we both have daughters. It's always your little girl. And if this happens, you're harf. This is the end. This is the worst thing that could happen. So the cop sends dad home to grieve. You seem like you need to rest here. So they send him home to grieve, but they keep JR to have a little chit chat with him. Oh, they're gonna spend the next four hours interrogating J.R. is that right? Oh, absolutely, yeah. I mean, other than what he says, he sure looks guilty. Other than, you know, but he, I mean, he really doesn't look that guilty. But not very. No, it's just. Who's the first one you'd go to? It's the live in boyfriend, who's also her pimp.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Who also didn't call the cops, however, is spearheading his own investigation.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, which doesn't, again, look good, though that looks like.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Pietragallo]

You're trying to steer it. And at the same time, too, they also look at it and go, well, I mean, it could not be him. Because in her profession, it could be anybody. Could be Some guy who just came in on shore leave. We don't know. I mean, it could be anything. So anyway, when they sit Junior down, the opening question is, quote, what'd you do with the body? Oh, boy. I mean, they are not even Minson. I mean, it is right to it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

So accusatory.

[James Pietragallo]

Very interesting interrogation technique. Usually you try to build rapport. You try to. He just said, what'd you do with the body?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Hey, murderer man.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Hey, murderer. What'd you do with the body?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Hello, killer.

[James Pietragallo]

So J.R. is distraught, and he says, quote, I did not hurt her. I loved her. We were planning to. Which I loved. It doesn't sound good either. No, I didn't hurt her.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I did not hurt her.

[James Pietragallo]

That is no. Contraction and minimization. So that's two things. I didn't hurt her. I loved. Past tense, past tense. Yeah, we were planning to get married. Past tense.

[Jimmy Wissman]

All of this sounds like he's a bad man.

[James Pietragallo]

We never even fought. I have no idea where she is. That's what he said. We never fought. I have no reason to do this. We're going to get married. But all of the things he says in terms of tenses and everything else sound terrible.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's got her in his head. She's gone.

[James Pietragallo]

Apparently so. But he said, the person you need to be looking at is Bill Douglas. That's another thing. If you're interrogating someone on their own and they're like, look at this guy. That doesn't look good either.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Redirection.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, redirect. Exactly. He said, quote, he's been obsessed with her. He's been stalking her. She went to his house on March 5 to end it. She never came home. Please, for the love of God, look at Bill Douglas is what he says. So they go, that's great. And they keep talking to him for another three and a half hours.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's awesome.

[James Pietragallo]

Where's the body? Where's the body? But at the end of the four hours, the cop believes him.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Pietragallo]

I don't think he did it. He sticks with his story. It's very consistent. He seems legitimately distraught. He doesn't seem like he's faking it or he's putting on a show. They seems like he's legitimately distraught. So he believes him for now and lets him go and tells him, as far as I'm concerned, you're not a suspect right now. Basically. Which, who knows if they decide to change their mind later, but as far as right now, you're good. Now, the problem is when the press Gets ahold of this, they're gonna spend the next several months insinuating that JR did this. No matter what happens, they absolutely have no evidence. They just know that he is a possible human trafficking sister who quote, pimps his girlfriend.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I mean, why wouldn't he be a suspect forever?

[James Pietragallo]

Absolutely. So he tells the cops that, yeah, this Bill Douglas, she drove down to Sharon, Massachusetts to see this guy at his house to tell him no more. Okay.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

Now, Sharon is about five miles from the rest stop where the clothes were found in Mansfield. So very close by now. Little bit about Sharon. By the way, we talked about the cost of living and all that. CNN's Money magazine has named it one of the best places to live in America. Multiple times.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Not just live or not just retire, but actually live.

[James Pietragallo]

Grow to retire. Yeah. Probably not retire because taxes are high, very expensive. But for, you know, to raise a family and shit. When you want your taxes to go to like good schools and shit. Yeah. Sharon, High school is consistently ranked in the top 10 public high schools in Massachusetts, which basically means that's almost top 10 in the country. Massachusetts has the best, by far the best schools in the country. Every time they do ratings, it comes up back in, you know, 83. It was an up and coming suburb and still had, you know, still pretty good. There's a lot of doctors, lawyers, architects, things of that. Professional white collar people lived out here. So the investigator who's tasked with doing this is Trooper Paul Landry. This is, it's his case here. He's a veteran trooper. He's the guy who took, he's right from the guy who took the trash bag from Joseph there and looked through it and bagged it in evidence. And he's the guy doing interrogations.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

He's the guy in charge of everything. He is just a few short weeks from his retirement. He's too old for this shit. Getting too old for this shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Now we're in a Lethal Weapon movie

[Jimmy Wissman]

and this poor guy just took one of the hardest cases he's ever had.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, this isn't, this is a crazy hard case. Weeks from retirement, he literally has a retirement party scheduled. Like it's, it's happening and it's done.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You can retire and this is the only one you're still working on, but you're going to keep going. You got to stay.

[James Pietragallo]

That's it. And part of this is this guy's a very, he's a very rabid investigator. He goes after shit. He's, you know, bring him in, sit him Down. I'll talk to him for four hours. Do that. He's. He's not a lazy guy at all. He's real into this. And he actually wants to find Robin and actually want to help her family. Problem is, and this might be because he's been on the force for 25 years or whatever, and an older guy, and this is 1983, so he could have been on the force since, like, the late 50s. If he was on the force for 25 years, that would mean 1958, he came on him. Police work was way different back then. Way different. And they say basically, he's not real good at paperwork, this guy. That is not his specialty. Not his specialty. He's not good at keeping track of shit like that. Paperwork, filling things out. Not good at that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Uh.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, no. He's good at gathering things. He's good at talking to people. He's good at instincts, but he's not good at.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Good at figuring hunches. Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Not good at keeping paperwork straight. Which, as policing evolved, became much more of an issue of, you needed your paperwork straight. So they get the lab results back on the items that they had tested, the ones from the bag, the jacket, the shirt, the hammer. They say that it is type A human blood.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay?

[James Pietragallo]

It's fresh. It was less than 24 hours old. And the hair on the hammer is also human. Okay, so now they have a bag with things in it with blood. No body, no victim, no location of where this could have possibly happened. No suspect, no motive, Nothing. They have UGATs at this point. They have her pimp boyfriend saying, talk to one of her hundreds of clients, which, that's not much.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And nobody's seen her. That's all we know. This could be a disappear job.

[James Pietragallo]

That's what I mean. And that's the other thing, too. Maybe she met a guy that said, I'll take you away from all this. She could have met some guy with $50 million that said, right now, let's go to my house in the south of France, and we're going to, who knows? You never know. She's a beautiful young lady.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Croissants and cheese every day, all day.

[James Pietragallo]

We're goddamn doing it. So the prosecutor, John Kivlen, he is the assistant district attorney of the county here, Norfolk County. He's a veteran. He said to the newspaper years later, quote, generally speaking, most cases start with the recovery of a body. In this case, it was just the opposite. It was the result of a couple of men searching for bottles and cans around Route 95 who found a bloody jacket which turned out to be Robin Benedict's. And that's how this investigation started. As you listen to small town murder episodes, you know, this is not how an investigation usually is built. So now the investigators talk to Robin's family and they all kind of. And they talk to the prosecutor and everything, and they all figure out, they all agree that J.R. is not involved. Okay, we don't think J.R. is involved. He is genuinely just crushed. I mean, they said he's distraught.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Miserable. He's distraught. He's not doing well. He's a puddle at this point. So they go, that'd be really odd for that to happen. And this guy keep up this front. So they said he also hired private investigators out of his own pocket within 48 hours of her going missing. So.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Thousand hours of investigator. That's not cheap.

[James Pietragallo]

No, it's not. Yeah, your hair shot better be a fucking front for human trafficking because you're gonna need to be able to afford this shit. So. And his ex, who is the mother of his young son, they looked at. Maybe that's who's pissed off at her. But they're really good friends. They're close to each other.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right?

[James Pietragallo]

So. And she was the one who reported her missing and was scared about her.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She was gonna be her ride.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, that's exactly right. So. But then they keep going back to jr, saying, I even had my private investigators go, look at this guy, Bill Douglas. Bill Douglas. He said, I've been telling Robin for months that this guy is off. He's a little screwy. End it with him. So they go, okay, fine, we'll talk to Bill Douglas if this is so important to you. Bill Douglas is William Henry James Douglas goes by Bill. It's a lot shorter than William Henry James and a little bit. He's 41 years old when they contact him here, he is a Brown University PhD. So it's Ivy League PhD at Brown. And then he's a professor at Tufts right now.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Billy Hank Jim.

[James Pietragallo]

He's a. Billy Hank Jim is a smart guy here. He's also a 300 pound, big fat fuck who lives in Sharon, Massachusetts with his wife and three kids. So he's a typical suburban dad type of guy and also a highly respected professor. So they're like, probably not. You know what I mean?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Like, happens to be a fat schlub.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. They look at this guy and they're like, it doesn't quite. Just this. This doesn't match up. You know what I mean? So they finally bring him in for formal questioning on March 16. So it took a while Here. They said he sits down and he's condescending. Oh, and he's kind of a I'm better than you, blue collar scumbag type of guy. He's one of those guys. I don't think he's used to talking to a lot of guys like. Like that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Probably not. Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

So he died better than you. Bullshit. He admits right away that, oh, yeah, I'm a client of Robbins. Yeah, I paid her. He said, yeah, of course I paid her. Everybody, you know, everybody knows that if you want to go out with a lady like that, she's gonna. You have to pay her. He says, I didn't hurt her. He said, she did come to my house on the night of the 5th, but she left. She came. She was there for 10 minutes and she left. And she went to a party. He said, all I could remember is she said she was going to Joe's party. I don't know who Joe is, though, because I don't know her friends. That's what he said. So they said, okay, let's go back to that head wound again that you had. And he says, I told you last time, two guys in D.C. hit me with a pipe. Yeah. Landry doesn't. And a cabinet. And my own briefcase.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And my cabinet and my briefcase.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, he took my cabinet. I don't know where he got it from, but he beat me with it unmercifully. So Landry here, this cop doesn't buy it, just thinks he's lying about shit. But there's really nothing you can do at this point. He's got no evidence. All he has is a bag of bloody clothes. He has no body. It's 1983, so it's not like he can go. Let's get a cheek swab on you and see if your DNA. There's none of that shit at all. So they're like, can you. Yeah, that's all. I mean, you can, but at this point, it's just a guy with a head wound and kind of a, you know, kind of a shitty story. That's all he is. Can't hold him. Can't arrest him.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No.

[James Pietragallo]

So they let him go. Then JR brings in letters that JR is trying to help at this point. And the cop said, I need anything that you have on this Bill Douglas, because I don't trust him. I talk to him, too, and I think he's shifty also. So JR Says, oh, I got a ton of shit. Here's a Stack of letters that Bill wrote to Robin. Letters, letters. Pages and pages and pages and pages. It's love letters and I'll do this and you help me with this. And angry letters and apology letters. And letters where Bill talks about his plan to, quote, rescue Robin from sex work by putting her on a payroll at Tufts and all this shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Maybe she likes it.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, he doesn't see it that way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

Letters where he apologizes for insulting her. Letters where he promises to be better. This is like a fuck up boyfriend, except they're not in a relationship like that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, except he's paying for the sweet opportunity.

[James Pietragallo]

That's it. So when he reads the letters, this Landry guy, he goes, okay, this is starting to make a lot more sense here. This is an obsessive guy who's obsessed with her, and maybe that's what did it. So now a little bit about Bill Douglas here. Let's get a background on him. He came from lower class parents. He came from very blue collar ways here. His mother is an immigrant from Germany and she was a maid and his dad was a plumber.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

So, I mean, yeah, he had to work all through high school and basically ended up at Plattsburgh State as the first college he went to because that's all he could afford. No, Plattsburgh's in New York. Western New York, yeah. It's every small town in western New York has a college. That's why the town exists. Plattsburgh is one of them. And I think it's a SUNY school. And this is. It's a government subsidized teachers college. The SUNY schools are super cheap if you live in New York.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Got it.

[James Pietragallo]

They're affordable. So while he was in college, his father died in a construction accident. No money for graduate school, anything like that. He finished Plattsburgh and he married his high school sweetheart, who is a woman named Nancy. That's his wife till now.

[Jimmy Wissman]

His dad died in a construction accident. He was a plumber. Therefore, I mean, that's just something caving in on.

[James Pietragallo]

Shit fell on you, I would assume, right?

[Jimmy Wissman]

What the fuck else is it? Yeah, usually plumbing unclogged something and it's super unclogged.

[James Pietragallo]

It fucking shot through your chest back at you. Yeah. Hairball just went right through his brain. It's wild. Wow. Wow. Now, Nancy is described in this book as, quote, a heavyset, plain young woman. Yeah. So that's kind of what they both are. Kind of heavyset, plain people. Seems like they go together.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You know, it's Rex, heuermann Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, it's a Rex Heuermann. This whole case is extremely Rex Uhrman, by the way. Really? And that's kind of why I picked it, because I've been both Jimmy and I, a little behind the scenes for everybody. We have been obsessed with this Gilgo beach thing. The new one that's on Peacock with the. With the. Lewis Proud, the psychologist.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, my God. It is fascinating.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I want to sit. I want to ask him so many questions. Oh, yeah, no cameras. I'm not going to record anything, man. I just want answers.

[James Pietragallo]

How many do you think he killed?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Over 30.

[James Pietragallo]

My guess was 26.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's a lot, man.

[James Pietragallo]

It's a lot. It's a shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's all over and it's a lot. He's been doing this for so long.

[James Pietragallo]

There's no way that this guy killed eight women. And they happened to just randomly find all eight found pieces. Pieces. Well, I mean, they found enough to know that there's eight different women. And then they went to him and he goes, yep, you got all of them. You're lucky. Wow, you guys are good.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Good job, guys. You even found the Asian man. That was my golden egg.

[James Pietragallo]

Super weird. Yeah. Yeah. Jesus Christ. That was the Easter egg. You guys got it. Great job. So I'm telling you, like, it's. It's like, it's fascinating.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

And he's like, sure, I'll plead guilty to those eight. And it's like, listen, homie, you're too quick. Yeah. You. You have at least three times that many.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's too fast to jump onto the plea with a number that tells me it's so many more.

[James Pietragallo]

Even with two properties down south. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

He's got two properties down south. It's all scary. So.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Place in Vegas. He's just. He's too much running.

[James Pietragallo]

Absolutely. Now, at this point, he's married to Nancy. There are a couple of, quote, plain, heavyset people.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

And basically he's being a small town high school science teacher. That's as far as he could go academically because he didn't have any money. But after a couple years of teaching, he applied for and managed to get a National Science foundation fellowship for a year of postgraduate study at Yale.

[Jimmy Wissman]

At Yale.

[James Pietragallo]

Yes. He gets accepted now. He makes a huge jump from Plattsburgh State to Yale.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

And that's where he's gonna stay. Cause he's gonna go from Yale to Brown and he's gonna be natural. Then he thinks he's fancy. Yeah. He's academic. So they've been together since they were teenagers, he and his wife. This. I'll read from this book. The intellectual atmosphere of New Haven, which is where Yale is, altered Douglas and made him more ambitious because people around him. It's Yale, they're all very ambitious people. Now all of a sudden, he wants to be a researcher and a professor, not just some kind of science teacher. So he sought other grants after that year at Yale and continued his postgraduate studies at Brown, which is another Ivy League school. By then, his mom had died, too, but Nancy had given birth to two of their kids at that point as well. So by 1970, he's a young guy, still with his young wife, with two little kids, and he's getting his PhD from Brown. Brown gets his first college position, which is an associate professor of biology at Edinburgh State College in Pennsylvania.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Awesome, awesome life.

[James Pietragallo]

He's doing really well. He did well there, too. His supervisors praised him, the head of the departments, all the students liked him, but he wanted to get out of there because this is. Have you ever heard of that place?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Never.

[James Pietragallo]

Exactly.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And that's embarrassing.

[James Pietragallo]

That's embarrassing for him. I have a PhD from Brown.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I've been to Yale.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. He's essentially Glenn Howerton on AP Bio,

[Jimmy Wissman]

where he's like, everybody starts shutting up.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, everybody starts shutting up, like, I don't belong here. This is. You're lucky to have me in the room. Don't ask me questions. It'll ruin my wonderful brain.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's a waste of time. I'll be out of here shortly.

[James Pietragallo]

Yep. Have a good one. So that's what he's doing. He wants out of this place. So after a year of being there, he found a research job at the W. Alton Jones Cell Science center in Lake Placid, New York. It's a private institution.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

He would be director of the center's electromicroscopy facility. Oh, yeah. So he's a big deal director as well as associate director of education. He's designing curriculum, period. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Pietragallo]

So he really starts kind of getting a name for himself going in research circles when he's here. His field was tissue culture. Okay. That means if you blow your nose, he takes it and sees what's in there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

No, puts it in a petri dish. That's right. He picks it through it with a fucking tweezer. He specializes in studies that involve isolating cells, then growing them outside of the body, basically. In vitro research is what they call it. He worked on a bunch of projects. At one point, his studies were of a Waxy substance secreted in the lungs that permits them to inflate and deflate properly, but that is absent in lung tissue of infants born prematurely. So he's trying to figure that out.

[Jimmy Wissman]

When do we develop it?

[James Pietragallo]

I'm not sure. I don't know anything about that. But, yeah, he's working all the time. He's really not a lazy guy when it comes to work and things like that. He begins to regularly publish in scientific journals, and after a while, he's serving on several editorial boards of different scientific journals. I mean, he's doing a lot. He began doing grant applications to private foundations and the National Institutes of Health and was soon serving on one of the National Institute of Health's review panels, overseeing and evaluating the work of his peers. So, I mean, he's a big deal. He also taught at his alma mater in Plattsburgh and at a nearby north country community college as well. He became a consultant for the American Cancer Society, really? And for the Department of Medicine at Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. So he is in demand and clear, clearly very good at his job, and

[Jimmy Wissman]

they always want to pick his fucking brain.

[James Pietragallo]

Everybody wants a piece of his opinion on this shit here. Now, family life, it seems like he'd be too busy, but he's not. He's also into his family. He is now. His wife, Nancy, had decided to go back to school to study nursing and had given birth to their third child. So I think they have two boys and a girl. He tried to be a father, too. Like a modern kind of guy. Like a 70s guy where he would. If the wife was at school at night or whatever, he would, you know, do the household chores and cook and, you know, be a normal person. But back then, that was considered a big deal. Your husband washed the dishes. My God, what a gentleman. Like, he would have been the star of any party, you know? This is the guy who washes the dishes. Honey, look at him. Look at him. Everybody's staring at him, touching his hands.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Where's that palm, Olive?

[James Pietragallo]

Where's. Oh, look at. Oh, soft. You must be using the Palmolive. He chaperoned the kids on camping trips. He chauffeured them to their speed skating lessons. He was a pee wee hockey coach.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Pietragallo]

I mean, he's doing everything he loved. Nancy, she had a miscarriage at one point, and he took an entire week off work to be with her and just to make sure she's okay. So this doesn't sound like the type of guy who would kill a young prostitute at this point.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Displaying a lot of empathy.

[James Pietragallo]

A lot of empathy. A lot of empathy here. So by 1978, she's working nights as a nurse at a local facility. They live on a cul de sac in Sharon, a nice single family home. Three bedrooms with a finished basement, big deck out back and a yard. Suburbia. Suburbia. And it backs up to conservation land, which is awesome. On the east coast, if you have that, that's great because that's where our land backs up too. So they can't build behind us. It's conservation land. So that's the best, best property to get because you're not going to have shit popping up around you. So their house was nice. They called it a new suburb, basically. Sharon. It was getting, you know, more up and coming at this point. Yeah. Their house was on Sandy Ridge Circle, which sounds awfully idyllic. It's nice. Well landscaped streets. Street and that kind of thing. And they said it's a type of street that you drive down and everybody's got a basketball hoop in the driveway and kids riding bicycles around the cul de sac and all kinds of shit like that. They move there in 1978 after he receives an appointment to Tufts as a professor. And that's when they moved there. It's about a 30 minute drive. And Bill was fine. So he's into this and around this area they have great schools, which he's happy for with the kids, and he's ready to go. So Bill's job at this point is tenured anatomy and cellular biology professor, which we've both done that. I mean, that's not a big deal. Easy, no problem. We quit that to do these shows, actually. Yeah. You know, got to be a lot. All the cellular biology. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Tenure is very overrated.

[James Pietragallo]

It really is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It means you've really just put in work and then you just have expectation. No expectations.

[James Pietragallo]

We didn't need. We were tenured in the cafeteria in high school. That's where we were tenured. We had no tenure.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Tenured at the desk in the hallway.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, the one where they kick you out too. This is at Tufts University, and this is the big time. Tufts is a big deal. It's a medical school and a big fucking deal to work here. An awfully big deal. So he was teaching as well as he's in the university's dental and veterinary schools as well as other things too. And being the cellular biology anatomy professor as well, the students all thought he was a good teacher as well. He was consistently voted the best teacher in his department. At the medical school? Yeah. One student said that he was enormously considerate, always willing to answer questions and go over material that was complex and difficult to understand. And another said that out of every teacher he had, that Bill was the most concise and easy to understand. And when you're talking about medical shit, that's complicated. So it helps if someone can synthesize that and something that you can ingest and take in, streamline it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

He loved research, though. That is what he was into and that's what he devoted himself to. And he published over the next couple years More than 60 articles in scientific journals. Oh, that's a lot. And applied for and received shitloads of grant research. So much so that his lab became the busiest and most endowed by these grants in the Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy. So he's doing great. He knows how to fill out those grant applications just right and get those. He's engaged in all sorts of projects. One is sponsored by the New England Anti Vivisection Society.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's a society.

[James Pietragallo]

Do we have to say we shouldn't vivisect people? Is that a. It's involved in developing an alternative to the Dray's technique, which is a method of testing the toxicity of cosmetics intended for human use by injecting their chemical components into the eyes of rabbits.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, gee.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, that's what we did. When you talk about animal testing, you picture like, okay, let. They put that mascara on a monkey's eyelash. And you go, yeah, it looks pretty. And she didn't drop dead. No. They're injecting chemicals into these fucking things. Eyes, man.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I see him shampooing a rabbit with Head and Shoulders, you know what I mean?

[James Pietragallo]

It's like, ah. Yeah, it looks like. It's like. It's like an Herbal Essences commercial.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Just really love it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

When does it. How does a rabbit come?

[James Pietragallo]

No. So he was also doing research for the US Navy as well, continuing his efforts to, you know, do all of this shit. And he traveled to scientific conferences all over the country. He went to Europe. One of his colleagues said his achievements were not obscure and unimportant. They were very serious and cogent projects which made notable contributions to science. He's a big deal and he's 41. He's got his real science years ahead of him here. I mean, in the next 20 years. So, I mean, basically over the next 20 years, he is looking at being like a very well known, especially in scientific circles. Like we wouldn't know who the fuck he was, but Anybody at the university levels would know who the guy was. Over the next 20 years, he brought in hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars in grant research grants as well. They say most of his department colleagues would run one or two projects at a time. He ran eight at a time. And this is in addition to pee wee hockey and all that kind of shit. Now to describe him personally, he's a bald guy who a chubby 41 year old, soft looking bald guy with glasses. That's who he is. He's described as nebbish is what a lot of people describe him as. Just kind of harmless little guy. A schmuck. A schmuck, exactly. One book about the case said he seemed gentle as a cow.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's mean.

[James Pietragallo]

Big and slow and easy going.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's a manatee.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. You know, they said he also was a non smoker. These are the people from work. Said he's a non smoker. Didn't drink anything stronger than ginger ale. He's a real square. They said his hobby was his children. He's a dedicated family, ma'. Am. They said he won't even commit to coming to a barbecue before first calling his wife. I mean, he's very buttoned up. They said he's a loner, but he's also terrified of being left off. Social shit. But then he doesn't show up if invited to the get together.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What?

[James Pietragallo]

Which that makes perfect sense to me.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Trying to big time him.

[James Pietragallo]

No, not at all. You want people to want you to go places but you don't want to actually go to those places.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is that what it is?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, you want to be invited and then you want to go. Ah, okay, good. They don't hate me. Good. But I can't go there. That's too much.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I can't show up.

[James Pietragallo]

I can't show up because then they won't like me. That's when you hate yourself. That's what you do. You go. If I show up, then they won't like me anymore. I should keep it to the point where they want me to come and then I don't come.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I liked it better work. They hated me.

[James Pietragallo]

That's not how your brain works. That's how my brain works. If he did, I don't. No, yeah. They said he.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I love showing up to places. I love the fucking party.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, okay. I mean, once I'm there it's fine. But I don't want to go there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

God damn, I love a party.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, yeah, sometimes it's weird. I don't mind it either. There's a line in Clerks that holds it perfectly. You hate people. He goes, yeah, but I love gatherings. Yeah, it's a weird thing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Hate people.

[James Pietragallo]

But I don't mind a gathering. It's one of those deals. So now at Tufts, his colleagues call him, quote, the Man. And this is kind of out of the fact that he's a bit of a bully around campus.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really.

[James Pietragallo]

He's kind of the big shot. So he feels he can bully a little bit here, which is again very Rex Uermanish, because Rex Uhman, if you, if you, if anybody watches those old interview videos with him, he is a loudmouth, know it all asshole. That's what he is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That one where they do the thing

[James Pietragallo]

at the, in his office.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, with the glasses and shit. He's trying to be so cool. It's like, dude, ski, look in the mirror, nobody. You are not cool.

[James Pietragallo]

And then whenever any. The interviewer says something, he's always like, well, no, no, but let me tell. Let me really give you real skinny because you don't know shit. But I do. It's one of those things.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's amazing.

[James Pietragallo]

He's a dipshit, but this guy, they said he doesn't tolerate being questioned or contradicted very well. Lab assistants would tiptoe around him, basically. So he does all of this. Seems to have a pretty goddamn busy life going on. And after all of that, he also hangs out at the Combat Zone. Yeah, hangs out in the Combat Zone area, I guess in this area. Emerson College is very close to this. And Tufts Medical School. School is basically around the corner from Bill's lab at Tufts to Good Time Charlie's. It's less than a 10 minute walk. Walk, walk. So I mean, he could use the exercise, but that's beside the point. By 1982, this is the combat Zone has fallen even into a further state of disrepair. Because now nobody wants to whack off in public when you can do it at home. Yeah, there's VCRs now. Yeah, you can go rent a movie and do it in the privacy of your own house. You don't have to bump into. Bump elbows arriving right now. Yeah, you don't have to bump elbows with the guy jerking off next to you. Are you righty or lefty? Okay, well then I'll sit on this side. You don't want us to bump elbows while we're going. Yeah, we gotta switch. This show, Small Town Murder, is sponsored by BetterHelp. BetterHelp.com youm know it, Jimmy. And you know we're big proponents of therapy. Everybody could use some therapy. It's saved Jimmy's life and it saved a lot of lives out there. And May is Mental Health Awareness Month. A reminder that whatever you're going through, you don't have to go through it alone. Life is long and it's hard. Some days are great and some days aren't. And some days are just even worse and overwhelming and everything. You'll get kept up at night by something. And you know, it's easy to feel like you have to figure it out on your own. But the truth is you don't have all the answers. Nobody does. And no journey should be taken like that alone. Having someone with you to listen and to understand and support you, that is the big deal. That's the difference maker. It's everything. And you know, we've had hard things go on and therapy is some way that you can really solve it. And it really, really is. And Mental Health Awareness Month. Everyone should be aware all the time of their mental health. It's huge. It's a big deal. It can even impact on your physical health. It's a lot. So telling you betterhelp is the way to do this. They have quality therapists. Better help therapists work according to a strict code of conduct but are fully licensed in the US now. The way they match you with their therapy therapist, that's the difference too. Better help does the initial matching work for you so you can just focus on your therapy goals. There's a short questionnaire that helps identify your needs and preferences. And they use their 12 years of experience and industry leading match fulfillment rate, which means they usually get it right the first time. But if you're not happy with your match for any reason, you switch to a different therapist at any time from their tailored recommendations. No charge. They just want you to get help. It's great. And with over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform having served over $6 million people globally. And it works. It really does. With an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews. What are you waiting for? There's no reason to suffer anymore. Get in there. Help yourself out. You don't have to be on this journey alone. Find support and have someone with you in therapy. Sign up and get 10% [e-mail] smalltown murder that's betterhelp.com small town murder now

[Jimmy Wissman]

back to the show.

[James Pietragallo]

So yeah, the theaters were kind of closed and the clubs were struggling a bit, but the only thing that was doing well was the prostitution business. Yeah, that was still going on. So Good Time Charlie's was a huge dive. Street prostitutes would gather in front of it and then upstairs they had a few small rooms and basically you could, you know, if you're a schmuck that wants to pay a young woman for their time, this is the place to do it, apparently.

[Jimmy Wissman]

All right.

[James Pietragallo]

His work colleague, one of them said he was intense, a workaholic who had a strange biological clock. Not given to 9 to 5 work. He could work from 10 to 10 one day, then come in the next and work from noon to 3. So makes sense. I mean, yeah, but I never in the least thought he might be frequenting the Combat zone after hours. There are four bachelors in the lab who are always discussing it. But when the subject came up, he never participated in any of the comments. He wouldn't join in and be like, oh, yeah, that place is great. Yeah, they have hot girls or any of that shit. This is from that book about Good Time Charlie's. This is the author saying this, the one we mentioned earlier. Quote, When I visited Charlie's, I was struck by the fact that despite its cheerful back slapping name, it was extremely dreary. The customers, chiefly young sailors or seedy, down on down at the heels. Foreigners looked more lonesome than libidinous. They look sadder, more than horny, basically, and downcast. They drooped forlornly over their drinks, sipping steadily and eyeing with minimum of interest the topless and bottomless dancers, bumping and grinding mechanically to the sounds of a distant jukebox. Even when a tune ended and the dancers, in whatever state of undress they found themselves, climbed down from the overhead Runway and perambulated through the smoky bar to put 50 cents in the jukebox. They and the nearness of their naked flesh did not seem to arouse the lethargic, lonely drunks. Yeah, if a naked chick doesn't get your attention, you're down in the dumps a little bit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This poor girl out danced She's My Cherry Pie and she needs to pick another song.

[James Pietragallo]

She needs to pick another song. Well, Motley Crue is coming out here. She's like more smoking in the boys room. They seem to like that one.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This is a time that the strip club DJ needed to be around and there just wasn't one.

[James Pietragallo]

He had to be like, hey, rather than the girls, give it up for the girls. Candy, Candy, Candy. That asshole.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They needed one. So Bad?

[James Pietragallo]

Those guys are the worst. They also say, quote. Of course, the dancers weren't much to look at. They were, for the most part, bony or flabby or haggard. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Especially in a dump like this. Nor were most of the prostitutes who frequented the bar particularly appealing. They were getting on in years. Their expressions were obscured beneath heavy coats of makeup. Their clothes were garish. But oddly, here and there, there were some young prostitutes who were fresh faced, beautifully built and handsomely dressed. This person said. The author goes on to say I'd come to Charlie's with a friend, a prosperous, proper Bostonian who'd never been in a Zone bar before, but had agreed to accompany me for safety's sake. And also out of curiosity, all evening I interviewed the bartender and several prostitutes who had known Robin Benedict. My friend kept saying, how could a man like Douglas, an academic, be attracted to women like this? Sex, yes, but attracted, involved. They go on to say he was disdainful and uncomprehending. Yet before the night was out, he would alter his views. One of the handful of beautiful, well groomed prostitutes approached him, and soon he was buying her drinks and listening to the story of her life. She was young, dressed in an ultra suede suit, wore her hair in a librarian's twist, and spoke impeccable Boston English. That's a fun accent, apparently. Oh, yeah. Once, when she got up for a moment, my friend whispered to me, I'm getting a bit of insight into your professor now. The woman who'd picked up my friend was called, she told him Sabrina. And when he asked her what a nice girl like her was doing in a place like Charlie's, she said, and he liked believing her, that she was just here temporarily.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm just here to work my way through college.

[James Pietragallo]

As soon as she got a bit of a nest egg together, she'd be going back to her studies, finishing her MA in anthropology at Boston University. My friend was fascinated and talked with her animatedly, only to be bitterly disappointed when the manager of Good Time Charlie's suddenly arrived, worried that we might be detectives, shooed Sabrina out of the bar. Okay, so here we go. This is kind of the first deal here. This is Bill's first outing. It was March of 82. Bill meanders his way into the combat zone.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Combat zone.

[James Pietragallo]

One of those deals. Have a drink, do something like that. He could have gone home and done that. But no, he wanted to get out into the seediness a little bit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Have a little company while I drink this.

[James Pietragallo]

A little something something, you know what I mean? So you know, that's kind of what's going on. So he did that. Now he first meets Robin in April of 82. He's 41, she's 20 at the time.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh boy.

[James Pietragallo]

She'd been working at a good time Charlie's for not too, too long, only a few months. She still didn't have a ton of regulars. Still a small client list and a few dozen people. Later on she'll have over 250 clients. In her book, he saw her and liked her, according to the book Boston Tabloid by Don Stradley. He smiled like an idiot at her is what people said. Which is what you do when you're a schlubby middle aged man and a 20 year old attractive woman is talking to you. Smile like an idiot. That's all you can do at that point. If you're that guy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's what you do when any girl or guy talks to you. When you're out of your league, when they're out of your league, you just go, this is ridiculous.

[James Pietragallo]

If I say anything, she's going to stop talking to me.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, I'm just going to smile and let her talk.

[James Pietragallo]

Try not to fuck this up. So this is from the book again. Robin Benedict must have been a lot like Sabrina. That's the one that they got shooed away from. Certainly. She was beautiful, slim and willowy, with wide dark eyes, luxuriant raven colored hair and sweet smooth pale skin with an underglow of topaz. She dressed conservatively, wearing slacks or skirts with matching blazers. And she had a lively outgoing manner, a high spirited way of putting shy men at ease. Douglas, a diffident man and always something of an observer from the sidelines, may have noticed these appealing traits about Robin and attracted by them, put down his drink and tried to to strike up a conversation. Or maybe she came up to him, who knows? Either way, we do know. Within minutes of their conversation, Robin took him, took Bill to her trick pad that she had rented in Boston. She's got a trick pad? Okay. Apparently she had looked him over and decided he was safe because he's a pudgy middle aged guy with a family and a professor and he doesn't look real hardened. He doesn't look like a guy who came in off the high seas is going to murder you and dump you off into the harbor. So he's a nervous, smiling professor. Her rate's $100 an hour, which is a little bit expensive for the Combat Zone girls. But she's as good as the Combat Zone girls. Get. So they do this. Now here, one of the people at the bar, one of the other ladies said, I remember seeing him in here a few times. He was pretty hard to miss because he was so big. But he stopped coming in after he met her. What was really neat about her was she was so fresh looking, the clean cut type. That's what this woman goes on to say. Now, Bill, rather than being like, okay, I have my teaching and I have my wife and I have my kids and I have all this stuff going on, maybe once in a blue I'm going to go hook up with some hot young girl or something.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How often is he doing it?

[James Pietragallo]

Well, no, he falls in love with her. Oh, he's in love with her.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, my God.

[James Pietragallo]

This is. I mean, he's looking at her, she's 21 and glamorous and beautiful. And also he's been with the same woman, a quote, plain, heavyset woman, since high school. What do you think their fucking is, like, pretty vanilla.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Nonexistent is a word.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. And if it's happening, it's probably pretty lights off.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Probably pretty, hurry up and get it over with.

[James Pietragallo]

This girl knows what she's doing. This young lady knows how to. And he is blown away by this. Absolutely. Just mesmerized by it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Very impressed.

[James Pietragallo]

Yes. He. He wanted to be his. Her boyfriend. He wanted to, like, you know, I want to walk around with her and, you know, go canoeing and have candlelit dinners and. Sure you do. Yeah. He was in love with her, period.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He wants to pretty woman this for sure.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, that's the thing. He totally wants to pretty woman her. And he said one day he confessed to her. And he told her, he said, this is what I want. He's like, I want you to be with me. And pretty soon they started going to the movies together, going to concerts and plays together. They took drives in the country. They'd stroll on the common feeding ducks with bread. You know, just like a young couple.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You do that and then at the end of it, you give her a wad of cash.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, that's the thing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You gotta disregard everything that happened.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, well, that's the thing, too. This isn't free.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No.

[James Pietragallo]

She said, no matter what we're doing, it's $100 an hour. When I go out to dinner, it's $100 an hour. It's all 100 bucks an hour. So she gives him no freebies. She said, literally, whether it's oral sex or a slice of. Of pizza, it's 100 bucks. Doesn't matter.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Fuck the pizza.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, exactly. But. Doesn't matter. It's always 100. So one night, she took him to her apartment and cooked dinner for him. She charged him for the time she spent with him. She also charged him for the time she spent shopping and preparing the food and the ingredients.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You bet.

[James Pietragallo]

Come on. And the grocery bill, even the groceries that Evening cost him $700 to have dinner at her apartment.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Worth it.

[James Pietragallo]

Wow. But Bill was into it. He loved it. He felt like he was a young guy again. He felt great. He's doing all these. Writing him all these letters. Dearest Robin, stuff like that one. He writes in the very edge of the notepaper. Knowing you has made my life brighter and happier.

[Jimmy Wissman]

You.

[James Pietragallo]

You are a remarkable, wonderful woman. And being with you makes me a very fortunate man. You are a beautiful person and deserve only the best in life. One time at midnight, they went to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show. At midnight showings, which was a new thing at that point. That night cost him $800 to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show. So he's a guy, which means he hated the Rocky Horror Picture show. And he spent $800 for her to like it and for him to be like, what the fuck are we doing? These songs suck. Which is how I felt about Rodney.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And that guy's got a big mouth with a lot of teeth. And he's in fishnets and a huge fucking head.

[James Pietragallo]

What the hell is going on here? So summer of 82, he starts seeing her pretty much every single day.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, my God.

[James Pietragallo]

Paying her $100 an hour, spending three to $500 a day on her every day of the week.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He can't be making that kind of money.

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, he's not at all making that kind of money.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No way.

[James Pietragallo]

We'll talk about. Next thing is how does he afford it? Literally, next word is, how does he afford it? Well, let's see here. He has a lot of leeway at Tufts when it comes to these research grants.

[Jimmy Wissman]

No fucking way.

[James Pietragallo]

He's the top grant generator in his department, and he has eight active projects. So he's got a lot of plates spinning. He signed off on his own lab's petty cash requirements.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, my God.

[James Pietragallo]

The university's policy at the time was that a $25 petty cash request didn't even require a second signature. You just wrote it down and pocketed the cash. So that's what he did over and over again in $25 increments for months, signed them over to his lab assistants, who would then hand the cash back to him so it didn't look like him. And then he would take the cash and go to the Combat Zone and give it to her. That's how this went. So she flattered.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We can't have a fashion show to pay this back.

[James Pietragallo]

This is crazy. Yeah. This is insane. She would flatter him. She called him her favorite professor. She would also. Because ladies of the night are good at listening. Yeah, they're good at it. They'll seem interested in what you have to say, because that's their job. So she showed interest in his research, and he began to see her as not just some young, hot chick, but he's got, like. She's a great artist and a good musician, and she's very smart, too. And he said he wanted to meet her friends and help her get an education and do all this. I want to be a part of your life.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. We're just. I want to meet your friends.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. He also started padding the invoices at work.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, no.

[James Pietragallo]

Basically, what he did is he put Robin on the Tufts payroll as a research assistant. This is. Talk about crossing the streams, man. You are fucking up.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, God.

[James Pietragallo]

Supposedly, she was doing scientific illustrations for the lab, but she was never. He didn't have to do that. He even started processing her timesheets personally.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Pietragallo]

So he started submitting receipts for work that Robin never actually did.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, Jesus Christ.

[James Pietragallo]

No one at the lab ever remembered seeing her there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Because they didn't.

[James Pietragallo]

She wasn't. Now, she thought this was a legitimate position at first. So when he told her what he was gonna do, she was like, awesome. She thought this was a job. She told her brother that she was super excited about a legitimate freelance illustration gig and that she could do some drawings and work and stuff like that, but the paychecks, she'd get paid for it. And this was a real gig. This is her first freelance illustration gig, and it's for a place like Tufts. That'll get around. I'm going to do great, Bill. Also, this is even fucking crazier. In addition to Robin, he put JR's ex girlfriend on the payroll as well.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Her best friend.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Her boyfriend's ex girlfriend. So now he has her and her pimp boyfriend's ex girlfriend both on the payroll.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Fuck.

[James Pietragallo]

Which is crazy. Alleged pimp. I don't know. That's what everybody says. So the ex would cash the Tufts check and give the money to Robin, and everybody got paid. So she didn't get paid, but she had her on the payroll so she could Just give that money to Robin so he could give Robin more without making her salary be a red flag. He ends up embezzling about $67,000 in 1982 money, which is about 200 grand today. That's a lot. That's a shitload. And he's always writing her letters. He went on a trip to Saskatoon and wrote her a letter that he missed her and his children, basically. I miss you and the kids real bad.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. It's only like 650 hours with her, though.

[James Pietragallo]

Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's not that much.

[James Pietragallo]

It's still a lot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, it's a lot of money. It's not a lot of time.

[James Pietragallo]

She said, my lab group at Tufts had a cookout for one of my postdoctoral fellows. I wanted to ask you if you could go with me to this party, but Nancy would not tell me until the last minute if she was going or not. She did not. And I didn't want to ask you at the last minute. Next lab party, I'm just going to ask you and not tell her about the party. Gee, great. He described an accolade he'd received at the cookout, saying, that, quote, one of my graduate students, he said, showed up in a sweatshirt. On the front of the shirt was the skyline of Boston with many skyscrapers across the buildings. Written in capital letters was W HJD and she said that everybody should get that. I don't know what that. William Henry James Douglas. Those are his initials. Yeah. So she's like, they're all getting shirts of me. That's how cool I am now, throughout the early spring and summer of 1982, he's getting more and more into her. And one of the things that they're doing, this is about a month and a half into starting seeing her, is they're doing cocaine together. If you could add another extremely expensive fucking habit into this.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He can't afford either of these habits.

[James Pietragallo]

No, she was a steady user at the time she was going into that, which, I mean, the nightlife and all that. And from the beginning of him being on board, he would pay for it. For now, he's paying for his, too, because he gets into it. So they'd meet up late at night, they'd snort some coke and all of that. She said to somebody that she was very strict about her habit and would always check her nose very thoroughly because she didn't want to go back to the bar and have any traces of it around her. She didn't want to look like a coke skank, basically. So he found himself super into her. He met two other young prostitutes with whom she shared the trick pad with and got to know them and talked to them about her live, about their lives and about why they went into this business. And he was studying the culture and everything else. And you know, he was using all the street lingo and he's like, oh yeah, I know these working girls and all that kind of shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's America Undercover now.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, that's what he's super interested. Yeah, he's HBO films here. He's very interested. And in the summer of 82, he started to lose weight, which happens when you're doing a shitload of coke. That's what it does to you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's a wonder diet.

[James Pietragallo]

It does wonders for that. One of his colleagues said. He went on eating all the stuff he liked. Hot dogs, cheese and crackers, ice cream, cookies, and he even drank beer. But he lost a lot of weight. I figured he was taking Benzedrine either way. Robin told him in an effort to encourage him to lose weight. She called him gross, apparently. And so then he was like, I gotta look better for my young lady here. So he's got to hook it up and get.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She means you've got a drip, you're doing coke, you're gross.

[James Pietragallo]

He didn't know Robin had a pimp during this time as well.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He thought she was just freelance, huh?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, he just wanted to spend time with her and all that kind of shit here. He also changed his schedule at Tufts, arranging to do research in the middle of the night so that he could stay in his lab until she finished her work and then go over there and meet her. This was often 2:30 in the morning.

[Jimmy Wissman]

God damn.

[James Pietragallo]

When she finished, he would go and stay with her until 4 or 5am and he wanted to be the last man she saw every night. That's what he said. He called her his treasure and his quote, precious lady. Yeah, he gave her gifts too. Money, records, clothing, whatever the fuck it was. One night he invented a game of grab bag. He filled an envelope with slips of paper on which he named various treats and let her pull out a slip before they had sex. Something she can get. Yeah, she had also one of the slips because she has nails that she keeps up. Nails by Dorothy, as often as you want them is one of the things he said he'd get her. What another said, a hair permanent at the salon of your choice as often as you wish. As often, often as you wish. Another slip said, one complete set of super expensive cosmetics of Your choice as

[Jimmy Wissman]

often as you want.

[James Pietragallo]

He doesn't even know a super expensive cosmetics. I don't know what these chicks put

[Jimmy Wissman]

on whatever this shit is.

[James Pietragallo]

On one he wrote one bike of your choice. Weird bicycle in his letters. Here he ends everything with qh, which means quick hugs. And tells Robin how much he longed for velament transfers, which I guess means that it's the little mint candies and we're gonna kiss and cast mints back and forth. He'd draw cartoons on the bottom, his notes, which aren't quite as elaborate good as the ones that she does here. But they were basically like 13 year olds. He acted like a 13 year old that was in love with someone with puppy love and writing them letters and all this type of shit here. Now the faculty starts to take notice of some shit. Oh, they start whispering about him and gossiping and they're like, yeah, he's just acting weird. Said with Douglas, they said one thing is he lost so much weight that his clothes were hanging off him. He looks different. He has no new wardrobe because he can't afford that. He's spending it on coke and fucking perms for his girlfriend.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And nails as much as you want them.

[James Pietragallo]

As much as you want. He lost all that weight. He's behaving uncharacteristically. He almost never comes into the lab while the sun is up ever anymore.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Jesus.

[James Pietragallo]

He keeps missing appointments with students. He wouldn't turn up for departmental meetings and laboratory supervisory sessions. And basically they said when someone would find him there, he was jumpy and weird and on coke, real jumpy. At first they thought that he was basically was probably having an affair. And they would joke around like, he's like the dorkiest, nerdiest of all of us. He's probably getting some on the side. That's what's going on here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

He mentioned to one of them a while back that if a Robin Benedict telephoned that he would be called to the phone no matter what he was doing, even if they were in the middle of a crucial experiment. You come get me. He said that she's a graduate student working with him on a research project at mit. They were like, sure she is. Yeah, that sounds right. October of 82, the school questions him about the money padding, expense accounts. And they said, what kind of work did these two people you've hired as research assistants do?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, shit.

[James Pietragallo]

At first he was calm, but he said that at one point, after a while, he admitted that some of his vouchers were problems and false but he insisted that some of the others being questioned were valid. And he maintained that the vouchers for money paid to the two young ladies were on the up and up. So they didn't know they were talking about doing a full scale investigation. They demanded to speak with JR's ex and Robin, and he drew very. He got very agitated. The vouchers were legitimate, he repeated again. And if they weren't, you know, and if it turns out I owe the university money, I'll pay it back, so don't you even fucking worry about it. That's it. So that's it. So they kind of leave it at that. And he continues to spend money.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, my God.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Some of the scams and things were ridiculous. Hiring her as a research assignment, by the way, want to know what he put in the paperwork? He thinks he's clever for why he hired her. She was a consultant on a project to develop a computer program for analyzing prostate tissue. He requisitioned a medical supply house used by Tufts University or Tufts Medical School, where he described on a voucher as, quote, fluid collection units crowd, which turned out to be condoms. That's what it was. And Robin would sell them to the other ladies at the Combat Zone and make a profit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's what he was doing.

[James Pietragallo]

He called it fluid collection units. Gross, gross, gross. Yeah, he added the ex girlfriend there. At one point, Tufts issued the JR's ex girlfriend a check for $9,000, which she cashed and gave to Robin. He gave robin herself about $20,000 directly and submitted all sorts of false shit like that. And they're just spending. He's just spending money and it's crazy. At one point she talked about continuing her art education. But according to a lady who knew her, that also worked at Good Time Charlie's. Robin frequently mentioned that she hoped one day to make a living by drawing. But by the fall, she no longer took that stage seriously. She told her, quote, there's a lot of reasons the cut and pay for one. She tells one girl, Fall of 82, stalking starts. Oh, oh, yeah. Now he wants her all to himself. That's it. And she's like, listen, you're fine when you pay me and all that, but then when you leave, I go on to the next person and that's what I do. But here's a list of what he did through the fall of 82. From the fall of 82 on through the time, she disappears. Called her up to a dozen times a day, every day. Wrote her dozens of letters, long letters, pages Long apologies. Love letters. That's the ones JR gave in. Showed up at her apartment uninvited. Parked outside, watched her come and go. Broke into her apartment twice to steal her answering machine so he could listen to the messages other clients were leaving.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, my God.

[James Pietragallo]

Bought her a new answering machine as a gift, quote, unquote, but kept the little remote control that lets you call in from a payphone and retrieve your messages. It's a beeper, and there's a certain tone you have to do back then, and it would go beep. And they knew that was the right.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And didn't tell her that it existed.

[James Pietragallo]

Exactly. Wow. So she was getting messages on a machine that he was remotely listening to. He bought her the Silver 82 Toyota Starlet with the black racing stripe as a gift. There. He paid for part of the down payment on a house for her. We don't know if that's true or not. That's an alleged. He stole her mail. He called her family members trying to get information about where she was. Called a massage parlor she used to work for and got her fired from a legitimate side job that she ends up getting. Made recordings of himself making harassing calls for some odd fucking reason. Copied Robin and JR's phone bills and annotated them in the margins in pen with notes about who Robin had been calling, who she'd seen, where she'd been seen. Kept a pair of Robin's underwear, as we'll talk about. And also, her flute disappears, and she doesn't know where that is. Okay.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This is a man that does research for a living.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He's going to be good at this.

[James Pietragallo]

You think? Fuck, yeah. This is also from the missing beauty book. Apparently, he met Robin's parents at one point and told them that if anybody bothered them or bothered Robin, I'll take care of it. Because he said he had access to chemicals at the Tufts lab that could dissolve a human body. He said that over dinner, just chilling. And they were like, okay. Uncomfortably laughing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'm going to help take care of your daughter and watch over your daughter. As I am in possession of chemicals that dissolve bodies.

[James Pietragallo]

I might have to completely disappear a human to do that, but I'll do that. Don't you worry.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'll definitely do it to somebody. Not your daughter.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, not her. No, no, we'll take care of her. January of 83, she called the Boston police anonymously. Or he called the Boston police. Excuse me, anonymously, to report that Robin had solicited him for sexual. He was mad at her, so he called the cops on her to say that this happened. That's really gross. I'm sorry. That's disgusting. Wow. That's gross. The cops showed up and she got arrested for it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

One of the four. Because of him.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. She also got fired from her legitimate job, which was at a health spa in Saugus, which was a very normal, legitimate job. And her employer found out about the prostitution arrest and fired her. So he gets her fired so she'll be more dependent on him and his money. Apparently, he called the police repeatedly at strategic moments to get her arrested when she was with other clients as well.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Pietragallo]

Then she starts noticing this, and she tells JR about it, and she says that she needs to break it off with him. 1-31-83, he is suspended from Tufts. Oh, yeah. Apparently, during a routine check of the financial records, they discovered their lab head, him, had been submitting expensive vouchers for large amounts of money against university grants that everybody shared. And the expenses he claimed to have incur made little sense. He submitted trips for vouchers abroad when they knew he hadn't been anywhere, vouchers for entertainment and lodging of visiting scientists that they'd never seen, and vouchers for work performed by Benedict, the graduate student who'd never even put an appearance in. So anyway, the auditors notice the discrepancies, they launch an investigation, and they suspend him with pay while the investigation is ongoing. He refuses to sign anything admitting any wrongdoing. So until they can come up with a full. Enough to fire him, he's still technically employed at this point. February of 83, he flies to upstate New York for a job interview.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. The university's auditors are up his ass, so he's got to go find another one. So he gets an offer. It's a tenure track professorship. So he comes out to the interview and he brings Robin with him.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Pietragallo]

Which must have cost him a fortune because this is an overnight trip and everything else.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, this is a girlfriend experience.

[James Pietragallo]

This is $2,400 a day right here. She's not giving breaks for like. All right, if we're together for eight hours, I'll do it for 300 or something. She's not doing that at all. I mean, Julia Roberts gave Richard Gere a deal.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Remember? It was like, you know, I don't know, it was $300 for the night, but for a whole week, it's like, you know, fucking.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I think she.

[James Pietragallo]

Eleven hundred dollars, twelve hundred. It was some ridiculous discount.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. It may have been bulk. And she May have said it as like a joke. Haha. 3 grand. And he goes, deal. And she's like. And then she was like, stunned.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Oh my God. That's one.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That whole movie happened because a woman

[James Pietragallo]

needed three grand or whatever, $3,000. Was desperate for it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

So she goes with him, stays with him in the hotel room, gets introduced to faculty members. He told them that she's a graduate student who is considering the school. So he figured he'd be a nice guy, take her up there. But obviously we know that isn't true. But she said that she was a grad student looking at the school and they ate salmon and made conversation about school type of shit. And this is his job interview. He just brings his. Wow. They give him an offer, he comes back home to Massachusetts with the job in his hand. Here by this time, Bill and Nancy are barely speaking, which I don't know how he would have any time to speak to her. He has no time. Where's the time? They're not speaking, they're basically. One of the authors described it as the passing notes on the kitchen counter stage of marriage where

[Jimmy Wissman]

neither exists. It's not even coexisting with the kid.

[James Pietragallo]

No. Yeah. It's all logistical. She knows she's been cheating. She knows he's been cheating.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Uh huh.

[James Pietragallo]

And there's a reason why she knows he's been cheating.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Because he told her.

[James Pietragallo]

Nope. On March 2, 1983, Robin called her.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh boy.

[James Pietragallo]

Called his house to talk to Nancy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh boy.

[James Pietragallo]

And said, you, husband needs to stop calling me. He needs to stop coming around. I don't want to see him anymore. And Nancy just said okay. And that was the whole exchange?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. It's embarrassing.

[James Pietragallo]

So she's embarrassed. Exactly. Later that evening, he stops payment on a $200 check he'd written to Robin on the same day Robin had deposited the check on March 4th. The thing is, Nancy called the bank, not Bill, to stop payment on it. Yeah. Later on, the police get bank records and the stop payment request is in Nancy's name. So somehow she's involved enough in this whole thing within hours of this phone call to cancel the $200 check.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Maybe she saw the check in the check balance book.

[James Pietragallo]

I'm not sure. It's not like she could see it online. Maybe it has to be in the balance book. Yeah. So March 5, 1983. This is the day that Robin kind of disappears. Here. Bill calls Robin's answering service and apartment 12 times. He spoke to her four times in that single day. Then between the evening of March 5th and the morning of March 6th, Bill made six calls from locations spanning Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Boston, Connecticut. This is overnight from the 5th into the 6th. Many of the calls were to his own house. Several were to Robin's answering service. One was to make a reservation on Amtrak. All of the calls were paid for with his credit card. So now there's a distinct paper trail of these calls. Otherwise, he could have just put a bunch of quarters in and made the calls and no one would have known what the fuck was going on.

[Jimmy Wissman]

But he used a credit card.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Now, Robin's day on the 5th, here, let's see here. 3pm, Robin leaves her apartment to go shopping. She's going to buy a birthday gift for JR's young son, whose party is the next day. So there's that. She's thinking about the gift, she makes the drive. She's doing all that shit. 7:45pm, she stops in at the Combat Zone bar of good time. Charlie's here. Meets up briefly with JR's ex girlfriend to confirm the plans for the next morning. That's it. They have a quick drink and they're planning for the weekend. 8:40, Robin shows up at a client's apartment in a Boston high rise. This is a regular client, and the appointment lasts under an hour. And then by 9.30pm, just before leaving the high rise, Robin calls her answering service to check her messages. Now, the operator who takes the calls, this is so long ago that operators are still working an answering service tells her this. She said, someone claiming to be JR called earlier and asked to pick up your messages. So Robin calls JR and says, you tried to pick up my messages? He says, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. I didn't call anybody. So now she knows someone posing as JR is calling her answering service, trying to get her message log. So she knows who it is. It's fucking Bill. Yeah. And so, God damn it, he's pissed off. He's spending his days now, he doesn't work anymore, so he's just obsessing over Robin the whole time. 9:45, she leaves the high rise. On her way out, she tells the client and the doorman that she's, quote, rushing to meet another client. Between the wife and kids. Between the wife and kids, she said, which is interesting.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Rushing, getting to him before he has to go back home to the wife and kids.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. So Robin had called Nancy three days earlier and told her she was done. But she also told Bill, this day, over the course of these Phone calls that she would come over one more time to settle out their accounts because he owes her money. Basically, he owes her money because she's done. So she gets in her silver Toyota, drives south on the I95 and goes to his house. She arrived at 10:30pm at the house. Nancy is not home. She came home from work at 7, found a note from Bill saying he was, quote, out for a walk and that Robin was coming by at 7:30. And Nancy, quote, didn't want to be home when Robin was around.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She jumped in the car and left.

[James Pietragallo]

So she went to the mall, then picked up two of the kids, then drove back. Now, here's what she says, though. She drove around. She drove home around 11:30 and saw Robin's car still in the driveway. So then she drove her own car around the neighborhood for 45 minutes, waiting for Robin to leave.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Pietragallo]

Wow, she is meek.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What a coward.

[James Pietragallo]

I'm just thinking, my wife. Imagine Sarah would have kicked the door off the hinges with like a machete in her hand.

[Jimmy Wissman]

If you already know that he's cheating, though.

[James Pietragallo]

And she would have killed me before that, I think.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. Yeah, probably. Yeah. And I mean, same thing to any woman. Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

You kick the door. What the fuck are you doing?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Livid.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. So Nancy said she came home around 2:15am 2:15, went inside, saw Bill asleep in their bed, and went to sleep in the living room. She's not going in the same bed with him.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Your own house, you wouldn't even come home.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Now that's her story. And people are shaky on her story, by the way. Cops don't know how much they believe this. 10:07pm okay. Robin is allegedly at this point arriving at Bill's house. A man calls Robin's answering service, identifies himself as Joe, tells the operator he's throwing a party in Charlestown and he wants Robin to come. They take the message. It doesn't sound weird. Joe, who needs a party girl. Yeah. That's what we do here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's our. Yeah, that's who we sell to.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. She does have clients named Joe, but he didn't call her that night. He was at home and never called. The service didn't invite her out. It was Bill calling, pretending to be Joe.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, God.

[James Pietragallo]

So then when Robin turned up missing here, he could say, oh, she left at my house to go to Joe's party. Aha. Right. Think about it. So 10:07pm that's the big one there, calling this, saying, the Joe's party. Because he's the only One who could have done it. So then she disappears, obviously. Now, at about 11:42pm Robin called the answering service while. Okay, someone saying they're Robin saying she's on her way to Joe's party. The operator takes a service, but she flags it because she tells her colleague something is wrong about the call. The voice doesn't sound right. It's higher than Robin's usual voice. They said it sounded like this person sounded like a man disguising his voice to sound like a woman.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, I don't know.

[James Pietragallo]

What are you doing? Like Mrs. Doubtfire style.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Hello?

[James Pietragallo]

Hello? Hi.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Fun of the two, dear.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, ridiculous. Now, Bill has a high pitched voice for a big fat guy, by the way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Pietragallo]

So they're looking at that. Oh, man. And then also he. This is crazy. So he's trying to get that past everybody. At one point, he had been breaking into Robin's apartment when she wasn't there and singing in her apartment in a high pitched voice and playing her flute so the neighbors thought it was her. Oh, my God, that's wild. Shortly after midnight, Bill drives from Sharon to just outside Mansfield. There's a payphone across the street from a highway rest stop that's right where all the stuff was found. By the way, he called his house and spoke to Nancy and says, is there anyone there? Were there any calls? Nancy said she just got home around 11:30, said nobody called. Bill says, I have a problem and I'll tell you about it later, and then hangs up.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

Calls back five minutes later, tells her to lock all the doors and then hangs up again. Both calls are on his credit card. Bill. Let's see, the rest stop was full of trucks at the time, and they thought that maybe Bill didn't feel comfortable dumping evidence there because people might see him. So they think he made a U turn and drove north and found a further rest stop away that was less crowded, a little more empty. So they think that he pulled out the brown paper bag stuffed with the bloody clothes and towel because it also had bloody hand towel from cleaning himself, the jacket, the shirt and the sledgehammer and throws it in the trash barrel, gets back in his car, drives I95 north here. By the way, he's driving Robin's car with, we believe must have been Robin's body in the trunk.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Has to be right?

[James Pietragallo]

Has to be. He said there's no plan at this point. 2:12am A call is placed from Boston to the Douglas home. Bill is driving north, calling home again. He drove from the rest stop north into Boston. So they're tracking what route he could have made. When they look at all this, they said he was possibly trying to drive Robin's car back to the high rise where she'd seen her client at 8:40, maybe try to frame him, because that's where he was, in that area. But he doesn't do it. And he calls Nancy again and hangs up. 5:29am he's now in Rhode Island.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Good Lord.

[James Pietragallo]

So he's driven all the way around. Credit card call. He doesn't tell Nancy what he's doing. 6:51am he calls again from Long island or Rhode Island. He calls home and it's Nancy. 1:00pm the next day, he calls Robin's answering service, pretending to be a man named John, setting up an appointment with Robin. 3:33am on March 7. Now, so this is the. She disappeared the night of the 5th. This is now the morning of the 7th. He gets on an Amtrak train from New York to Washington, D.C. where he has an academic conference to attend. During this time, this is when the bag of evidence is being discovered. So based on all of these calls, they put together everything, and they're like, oh, he absolutely fucking did this.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What the hell, man?

[James Pietragallo]

Absolutely drove around all night looking for a place to dump her body. And this is crazy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Just goes to show, people from Yale aren't that fucking smart.

[James Pietragallo]

Apparently not. He's more of a Plattsburgh State College kind of guy. March 11. I know people who went there. They weren't that bright. 3-11-83. Robin's parents report her missing. March 13th is the first interview with Bill, by the way. Once Robin's disappearance hits the newspapers, it's a big deal. There's a New York. Well, yeah. And the New York school that hired him saw a photo of her and they were like, that's the chick that came with our new guy. Oh, my God. She's a suspected murdered prostitute. Okay. And they rescind the job offer to him. No, thank you.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He lost the job because they have a newspaper subscription.

[James Pietragallo]

Yep, that's it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Shit.

[James Pietragallo]

Second police interview. They bring him in again. He begins by telling a long, irrelevant story about how his car was stolen from outside Robin's apartment the Tuesday before she disappeared.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Stolen?

[James Pietragallo]

Stolen. Then he says the next day, after meeting Robin at a hotel, he was pulled into a van and beaten up by three black men who warned him to stay away from Robin.

[Jimmy Wissman]

There's a lot of black guys assaulting him now.

[James Pietragallo]

It's not even a mugging. Now it's a van. And they pull up and they just beat him up as a warning. This is a fourth story, by the way. Completely separate thing about his wound here. It's ridiculous. They let him talk, just let him dig a hole for himself here. Every new story is another contradiction that looks bad for him. They ask about the night of March 5th, and Bill says Robin came over around 10:30, delivered some artwork she'd been doing for his tough slab, which is bullshit, and left around midnight to go meet Joe, quote, unquote. He's not even working for Tufts right now. He's suspended. So that's crazy. They ask him about the $200 check that Nancy stopped payment on, and Bill says, oh, that check? Yeah. I paid Robin in cash instead when she was at my house on the 5th. So I just canceled the check, all right? Just didn't want it to go through, which is a dumb thing. And Nancy's the one who stopped the check. So they ask him about the head wound again, and he says that, oh, Amtrak. And I got beat with a pipe and a briefcase. And this time his briefcase was stolen by the two assailants. So at one point he says, bill, what did Robin do to make you kill her? And Bill says, I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't do anything. And he says, think he did. He goes, I didn't. Now, at this point, they don't have enough to keep. They don't have enough for an arrest warrant at this point, no. They don't even have a body. They have nothing. But they do have enough for a search warrant. Oh, yeah. So 3-20-83, 15 days after she disappeared, they come in and search his house. Okay. By the way, the house is disgusting. Really? That's what I mean. It's so much like Rex Heuerman. That house is a shit. Fucking crazy.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Gross, right?

[James Pietragallo]

Same exact thing. Same exact thing with this house.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What is that? Cause Rex was meticulous, yes.

[James Pietragallo]

But with what he did, it was like a bomb.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What the fuck is that?

[James Pietragallo]

Don't know. Cockroaches, they said. Rotting food on the couch. They have three kids. What's going on?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, my God.

[James Pietragallo]

Trash everywhere. They were like, this is. What the fuck is happening in here? You don't expect to see this from non crackheads. This is crazy. One of the person from Tufts described Bill's personal habits as a scientist as compulsive. So he was a compulsive researcher, but not a compulsive dishwasher, apparently, because none of this is good. Now Nancy is Home during the search. The kids are not home. Nancy just sits there and watches the whole thing go down. They go into Bill's closet and this is what they find in Bill's closet. Robin's pocketbook. Her pocketbook. The one she was carrying on the night of the 5th. Her credit cards. Her personal phone book, which is her lifeline to her business. Two of Robin's coded address books which had been stolen from her apartment. A pair of Robin's pink underwear. Robin's flute is in his closet. Yes. A blood stained man's blue windbreaker with a pocket that when tested with luminol showed signs of blood. Yeah. In the pocket is a quarter sized chunk of gray, gooey human tissue. What? He just has a chunk of brain in his pocket?

[Jimmy Wissman]

He didn't know. I'll bet it just fell in there.

[James Pietragallo]

Had to. Also, cassette tapes that when played, are recordings of Bill Douglas making harassing phone calls to a massage parlor that had previously embarked, employed Robin. Recordings he made of himself harassing the parlor, trying to get her fired from the job, which she was fired from it eventually. Also a cassette recording of Bill Douglas telling the story of the murder as he wants it told to an unidentified co conspirator. A voice that could be male, could be female, could be Nancy, could be somebody else. The investigators are never able to identify the other voice. In my opinion, it has to be Nancy. He's not telling anyone else about this shit, but I think Nancy is in now. You know what I mean?

[Jimmy Wissman]

She's gotta know, right?

[James Pietragallo]

My opinion? Yeah. A long handwritten note from Bill drafting some kind of defense explanation for the missing Tufts money, in which he blames the embezzlement on a mysterious woman who supposedly drugged him and took compromising photos of him and was blackmailing him. Oh, an audit report that shows Bill had stolen at least $67,000 copies of Robin and JR's phone bills. Not originals. Copies that he made indicating that he'd been obtaining them. And also with annotations in the margins about who he called, who she called and when. A beeper. Beeper belonging to the answering machine that he'd given her as a gift. The one that gets the messages. A cop's business card, which turned out to be the card of the police officer Bill had been calling when he anonymously tipped off the the cops to bust Robin. Trash bags. The same brand, color and style of bag as the one the bloody jacket and sledgehammer were found in. The flute, by the way, was found alongside her pocketbook and underwear he had her pocketbook, flute, underwear, all lined up there. That was just the closet. No? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And the rest of the house, all of Bill's shirts were the same size as the bloody blue work shirt found at the rest stop. Everyone okay. Now, it's at this point that detectives pulled the bloody blue work shirt out of evidence and showed it to Nancy and said, does this look familiar? She picked it up and looked at it, looked under the arm. There was a tear that had been sewn, a small one, a little patch of sewing work. And she said, that's my stitching. I fix Bill's shirts.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I did that.

[James Pietragallo]

In other words, that's Bill's blood soaked shirt that you found there. Wow. Then she walked to her sewing basket, pulled out a spool of thread and handed it to the detectives and said, I think this is the thread I used to make that repair. You should test it. Yep. They later confirmed the thread in the spool matched the thread in the armpit of the bloody work shirt conclusively. Okay. So she just handed that over.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is there stitching good or bad that she recognizes it? You know what I mean? I bet it's. But it's good work.

[James Pietragallo]

Three kids back then. Yeah, probably now. That was it. She refused to say anything else. She wouldn't say anything else. She goes, I gave you that. I'm not doing anything else. Won't do anything. They told her that Bill is the primary suspect in Robin's disappearance. She will not believe it. Refuses. Even though she's holding a bloody shirt with a stitch she fucking made. She did. Won't believe. Who's that reminds you of? Yeah, that's Asa fucking Huberman. I mean, to a T. That is the Gilgo beach killer's wife.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He told her he did it, and she's like.

[James Pietragallo]

And she was still like, nah, I don't know.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I won't do it. I won't believe it until I see it, ma'.

[James Pietragallo]

Am.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He can't murder anymore.

[James Pietragallo]

It's fucking wild. Wouldn't let the kids be interviewed either. Wouldn't testify. Wouldn't speak of it any further. Extremely. Gilgo Beach. I mean, then they do a search of his offices and his professor's office, and then they produce love letters from him to her. A stack of newspaper clippings about prostitutes, 55 pornographic books and magazines, and a box of Ramses condoms as well, just in case.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Is the fantasy just to bang a woman that you paid to do it, or is the fantasy finding a very hot woman that you're interested in? And pull her out of this life and marry her. Is that the fantasy?

[James Pietragallo]

That wasn't the fantasy at first. I think at first he was just out partying. But he met this one and she's. She's smarter than your average bear, too. She's fucking smart and she's talented and she's probably a good conversationalist. And she's everything that he could never get when he was 21, right? And I feel like he's like, well, I'm important. And if she likes me, which she pretends to because that's her job, she said she likes me, then I should, you know, really. Maybe she's in love with me like I'm in love with her. And he's just. He's a fucking sucker. He's a moron. This is, you know, this is stupid. Around Easter, Robin's parents receive a Western Union telegram, supposedly from Robin saying, mom, dad, I'm in Las Vegas. Don't look for me. Don't tell J.R. where I am.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Any money?

[James Pietragallo]

What?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Any money wired, or is it just a telegram?

[James Pietragallo]

Telegram. Western Union.

[Jimmy Wissman]

All right.

[James Pietragallo]

So they said they didn't believe a word of this because she signed the note Robin. And they said she's never once signed a note to us. Robin. We call her Bin Bin. And that's how she signs it, always. She would have said Bin Bin, not Robin. It's not her. Bullshit. So they turned the telegram over to the police. The police traced the origin. It had been sent from a Western Union office not far from Bill Douglas location at the time. Not Las Vegas, idiot. June of 83, still not under arrest, but he resigns from Tufts. He was not fired. He resigns. So that's how that works. The university announces they would pursue embezzlement charges. Then during this period, he's spotted back at the combat zone trying to hire more guns. Sex workers.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really.

[James Pietragallo]

He's still living at home. And this is crazy. So anyway, 6-6- or 7-16-83. It has been months.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Months.

[James Pietragallo]

The Toyota is found.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Where is it?

[James Pietragallo]

It is. A patrol officer in Manhattan finds it in New York in a tow away zone near Penn Station. It's been sitting there for months, coated in dust. So he looks at it, the license plates are gone. Everything on the exterior that could identify the car has been scratched off. Except because Bill, let's face it, he's not a mechanic. The VIN number is, right? No, he didn't scratch out the VIN number. He didn't even know a VIN number exists, properly sitting right there on the dashboard. Yeah, so that's not good. They run the vin. The car belongs to a missing woman. He opens the driver's door and said the smell hit him like a punch in the face.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She's still in the car.

[James Pietragallo]

No. Oh, but it's. The smell is of decomp. He said it's unmistakable. He said this car has had a corpse in it and you can tell. And yeah, you have a corpse in something, it's going to smell like that till the end of time period. There's dried blood around the wheel well. There is tissue residue later will be confirmed as brain matter in the car as well.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh my God.

[James Pietragallo]

But there's no body in the the car.

[Jimmy Wissman]

This is the murder scene, this car.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, at least the transportation of it. So they notify the cops in Massachusetts. They tow it to a forensic lab. Blood samples are taken, samples from Robin's family. They use FBI uses newly developed techniques of genetic marker analysis, which is kind of a pre DNA technique to determine that the blood in the Toyota is type A and shares genetic specific genetic markers with Robin's family. They also determine the blood is not Bill's, but probably Robin's. Then they get the test results back for the sledgehammer and for the windbreaker pocket with the gray matter in there. Okay, the quarter sized chunk of tissue in the pocket here came back with a big answer. It's brain matter. It's fucking brain. It's a chunk of brain in his pocket.

[Jimmy Wissman]

In his pocket.

[James Pietragallo]

In his pocket. Now, DNA obviously is not going to work at this point, but they have protein analysis and the thing that they're going to say is because he was an anatomy professor at a medical school, he had access to cadavers. Was it possible he'd been working with an animal sample in the lab, maybe a sheep brain, and got some on his jacket and it was just innocent residue from work. But they looked into it and they said no. None of Bill's eight active research projects involved animal brains or human brains. He was working on cellular biology, not neurology. So this is human brain matter. So he's just wearing a windbreaker with brain in it for a while. Unbelievable happen. Then the sledgehammer, okay, they learn through, through Nancy's brother, this is Bill's wife, who happened to be a police officer in a neighboring jurisdiction, that Nancy's father recently lent a sledgehammer to the Douglases. They said what kind? He said a small 2 1/2 pound sledgehammer with a short handle.

[Jimmy Wissman]

He borrowed a baby sledge from his wife's parents.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, from his in laws. Now wait til you hear what his story is. It's pretty wild about that. But anyway, they indict him. They have no body in 1983. No body, no crime. That's what it is. It is no body, no fucking crime. As Bob Marley would sing. That's how it is. No body, no crime. He's here. So they're trying to figure it out. So they charge him though, anyway, with first degree murder and embezzlement from Tufts. He pleads not guilty. The media goes crazy with this shit, as you can imagine. Huge fucking headline. The professor and the prostitute Worse. Talk about simplification. Jesus Christ.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Worse over. This man has been. He's been robbing everybody.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Oh, all over. That's why he's being charged with embezzlement too. Now the legal questions. This is from a newspaper at the time, noting that Douglas had remained in the Boston area, working at a succession of jobs after being forced to leave Tufts in May of 83. Kivlen told the judge, that's the prosecutor. I want to point out to you that although he did remain in the area, there's evidence in our possession that like many people in the public, Mr. Douglas apparently believed that you can't prosecute a case without a body.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Cause it keeps coming up. He maintained, according to court records, that both police and JR were planting much of the evidence linking him to the murder. And he says that his large and rapid weight loss affected his mental state as well. So is it no body, no crime or what?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Here the thing is too, even with that, that's such a crazy thing because has there ever been a person convicted and then the person walks into the court or into jail, anywhere and says, let that man out. I'm right here. He obviously didn't murder.

[James Pietragallo]

Not that I know of. But that's the fantasy they all keep talking about.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Boy, do they sell that right.

[James Pietragallo]

They sell it hard. Well, that's their case here. I was getting to that. Here they're talking about too. There is an Arkansas precedent. The prosecutor said a case was just prosecuted in Arkansas two months ago on much less evidence from this and without a body. And a conviction was obtained.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

So they're saying that now. The defense attorney said, as Mr. Kivlin indicates in his statement on the seriousness of the offense, with all of his scientific evidence and analysis and reports and whatever the like, there are going to be a number of novel questions to be decided by this case for the first time. So they're saying this is a new thing. This Is not normal in Massachusetts. Nobody, no crime. So Bill's offense is aggressive, too. His defense, Thomas Troy is his attorney, and they are just saying, basically, you know, she's a prostitute, and it could have been anybody. Anybody would kill her. He also says about this. He says the bottom. His entire strategy was, there's no body, therefore there is no crime. No body, no crime is literally this man's defense.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I cannot emphasize it enough.

[James Pietragallo]

Wow. He said that my client should be free to walk out of here. He said, Robin's probably still alive and well. She might even be in the courtroom any minute. So keep in mind, any minute. Any minute, he said, this whole case is Mickey Mouse. That's all I can tell you because of the gag order. Don't be surprised if Ms. Benedik just happens to walk in here during the trial.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Well, in the event that she does, we'll stop the proceedings, but until then, we're going forward.

[James Pietragallo]

We will have a hearty apology for your client if that happens. Just a real heart, you know, we'll get him like a fruit basket, and we'll send him on his way.

[Jimmy Wissman]

If there's no car, there can be no car theft.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, the guy, the defense attorney, allegedly, even at one point, came up with an idea to hire an actress who looked like her, have her veiled, and walk into the courtroom to raise reasonable doubts. So the jury would go, oh, my God. And you'd go, you thought it was her, right? Well, if you knew she was dead, you wouldn't have thought it was her. She could be alive. Which is.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's a pretty good defense. That's not bad.

[James Pietragallo]

It's not bad, but they were like, it's a stunt. Let's not do it. They didn't end up doing it. Now the defense just smears Robin. Jesus. They float that this is in the paper, that Robin was somehow involved in a drug and blackmail ring that had drugged Bill and took compromising photos of him. Said that Bill was a known anatomy scholar who'd been embezzling from a medical school for a year as a victim of sex and dope and intrigue. Victim of sex and dope and intrigue. Sounds awesome.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I think they sell movies to you with those three things.

[James Pietragallo]

I think so. And also, Thomas Troy here, the defense attorney, described Bill Douglas as a gentle, sensitive, educated man. Left his Alice in Wonderland of the scientific world for the combat zone's world of sin and sex. And there Samson met his Delilah. Bill met his downfall, a paramour for pay. His childlike infatuation made Bill Douglas, a prisoner of sex and dope and intrigue. Wow. Let's see if we can get him as a prisoner of the state here.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I don't want to jerk off to it, but I'm about to.

[James Pietragallo]

No shit. Robin's mom said this about the case. We go to an empty grave. You know, it's empty, but what can you do?

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah. That's fucked up.

[James Pietragallo]

Terrible.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That sucks a lot.

[James Pietragallo]

So, pretrial, they figure out that Nancy nor the kids don't want to testify. So you can't really force children to testify. And if they want to get Nancy, they're going to force her. And she's probably not going to be that cooperative, so that's not going to help much either. The prosecution's case, very simple. No body, still a crime. That's it. That's all.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Her car is in New York, where she doesn't live with dcomp.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, but still no body. Cases just didn't happen back then. So they were really worried that the jury would go, well, how do we know she's dead? Oh, that's usually the first thing.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Soaked in blood. We've got a piece of. We gotta assume it's her brain, right?

[James Pietragallo]

You think you. Yeah. But still, they go, who knows? It could be anybody. That car was in New York. Maybe somebody stole it, murdered somebody, drove them around. We have no idea. And they don't know if she's alive. Usually it's, you want a body, you want the murder weapon, you want evidence that go. This is. Nowadays, it's common. But back in 83, it was not.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I'd have the jury stand up and empty their pockets. And the first one with brain in it.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Anybody got brain in your pocket, let's let them go. You know, they could muddy those waters with some sciency shit. That's what I mean. That's not enough. And they have 157 witnesses. The prosecution, 157, which is a lot. They never, I guess. Apparently, spousal privilege does not apply to acts against third parties. So they can force Nancy to testify. The teenage children were never forced to testify. They have all of Robin's escort associates, private investigators. JR hired the cops who found shit. The operators who took the fake messages on her answering service. The bottle picker guy, Joseph, Nancy's father, who testified about lending the sledgehammer FBI genetics and markers. Tufts auditors. Numerous employees from an upstate New York hotel who met the, quote, graduate student.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Pietragallo]

They have physical evidence. They have blood of the right type of genetic markers in Bill's shirt sewn by Bill's wife. Brain tissue in a windbreaker pocket. Blood in the victim's car. Genetic markers matching her family. They have what they believe is the murder weapon. They have her personal effects, phone book, credit cards, pocketbook, underwear, flute. All in his closet. Yeah, I mean, it's a lot here. So they also figured out where the $67,000 went. $45,000 went directly to Robin for hourly rate payments. God damn, that is some serious shit. The car was between five and $7,000 and a bunch more shit here. Cocaine. Robin charged him $1,000 for a trip to pick up cocaine in Charlestown, where he had previously bought drugs from her. So It's a lot. April 23, 1984, jury selection comes in. The original pool is going to be as many as 500 jurors, which is a lot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Holy shit.

[James Pietragallo]

They have to find out who hasn't read about this in detail. Then April 27, 1984, everything changes. Bill decides. After 14 months of saying how innocent he is and saying he's been publicly framed and, you know, he's been manipulated and all this, he decides he's gonna change his plea and plead guilty.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Wow.

[James Pietragallo]

Doesn't look good. Now, they're not gonna make him plead guilty to first degree murder, though, or anything close to it, because, again, no body. So everybody's positions are tenuous here. The prosecutors, even though there's all that evidence, they feel scared. And he knows there's no body, but there's all this evidence, so he's scared. Now, they confer with the Benedict family, and everybody confers, and they agree to let him plead guilty to manslaughter, which is ridiculous. Ridiculous. And this is also if he agrees to help locate the body. That's part of it. And Robin's parents said it's worth it to get her body back so he can bury her. That's a lot here. Now, first degree murder is life without parole. Manslaughter is not, as we'll find out here. So the deal conditions are, tell us where the body is and do all of that shit. The judge says in open court, did you kill her? Bill said, yes, I did. Said, did you strike her with a hammer and did that cause her death? And he said, yes, sir and yes, sir both times. Okay. At one point, jr, who was seated between her parents, stood up and screamed, shut up.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, boy.

[James Pietragallo]

Shut up. And then he shouted obscenities at Bill. The bailiffs restrained him. Her mom wept on JR's shoulder. It's a mess. Bill Said, I'm sorry to the Benedict family because I've caused their family grief. I would also like to apologize to my own family because I caused them a great deal of grief and anguish. And J.R. continued to scream obscenities at him. And then they, whatever, it's a mess. Then they go right from the court into the prosecutor's office to get his confession. Because part of it is, say what you did. Okay. He's taken in there. It's four hours long. Confession, confession. He smokes Kent cigarettes throughout the whole confession. Bill does in his version. Obviously he's not that bad of a guy. Okay. Around 11pm they were inside the house, 42 Sandy Ridge Circle. There between 10:30 and 11pm on March 5th. He says his version is Robin arrived with a 2 1/2 pound sledgehammer concealed under her jacket. The sledgehammer he borrowed from his in laws, by the way. Somehow she's got it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

She came up with that.

[James Pietragallo]

She followed him upstairs to the bedroom and demanded $5,000 for posing as his grad student on the New York trip. He said he offered her whatever cash she had. Not five grand, but whatever he had. She got angry and pulled out the sledgehammer and stood, swung it at him. Now, he said she grazed him in the forehead.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, which is fine.

[James Pietragallo]

Grazed him in the forehead, which is where the mark came from. They struggled on the bed. She bit him on the leg and he wrestled the sledgehammer away from her, which wouldn't be too hard. She weighs like 110 pounds. Hit her in the head two or three times and killed her. Yeah. Now he's six foot tall, 300 pounds. She's five' four, 115, so you don't need the hammer for that. The investigators looked at his head wound and said it looked more like a cut that you get from a shark object or a struggle at close range. Not deep tissue damage like a sledgehammer. But he said, it grazed me. That's it. But obviously this is. Yeah, this is all bullshit. Also, Bill claimed Robin brought the sledgehammer, which we know isn't true. It's Bill's sledgehammer or his in law sledgehammer. Now, he claimed the struggle happened on the bed. When police searched the house, they spray Luminol, which makes blood glow. The only hit they get was a spot on the pocket of the windbreaker jacket. No glowing on the bed. Now the reason is while the police searched the house, Bill was lying on the bed the whole time. They never searched it. They never pulled the bedding back and tested the mattress because he was on it. They just forgot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Really?

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. That's wild. So they think that the blood, the mattress was probably soaked in Robin's blood and he was lying on it to keep them from testing it. Yeah. Yeah. Now, what mostly probably happened is Bill got Robin into the bedroom, swung the sledgehammer that he had waiting for her in there, hit her in the head, killed her, and cleaned up, then struggled to figure out how to put this together, how to lie about this, which is pretty crazy. Then midnight. This is from Linda Wolf's book, the professor and the Prostitute. This is the most detailed reconstruction here, based on Bill's own statements. Quote, there was blood all over. Blood on the comforter on which Robin lay dead, Blood on the floor, blood on the radiator behind the bed. It wasn't a lot of blood, but it was splattered. And there throughout the room. Most of it was his own from the wound, wounds Robin had inflicted on him. She seemed hardly to be bleeding at all, which is. That's what Bill said, which is physically impossible because she said her fucking brain is out.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Right.

[James Pietragallo]

You know what I mean? Then, this is from his account. He ran back to the bathroom, grabbed the hand towels he had used to clean himself, and began wiping up the gore with them and stuffing them into a brown paper bag. He then got dressed, put on a warm ski jacket with huge deep pockets, and managed to cram the brown bag full of towels into one of the pockets. Bill dragged her body down the stairs, pulled the bedding off the bed with Robin still wrapped in it, Made kind of a cradle that way, and holding the four corners like a hammock, dragged her down the stairs into the kitchen. Ben went outside to the Toyota, but couldn't find the keys. So he had to go in and search her pockets. And eventually he had to open the paper bag full of bloody towels and reach into the pocket of her jacket to fish out the. The car keys.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

Went back outside, backed her Toyota up to the deck, dragged her body, still wrapped in the comforter, out onto the deck. Wow.

[Jimmy Wissman]

James, he just said something that I don't know if the cops even picked up on. He said, grabbed the four corners like a hammock. That takes two people.

[James Pietragallo]

No, it doesn't. If you're small, you can grab the two like this and pick them up.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, I guess.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

And he carried downstairs 100 and, well,

[James Pietragallo]

he dragged down the stairs. This was just to get her in the car, I think, just to get her on the thing. But he's a 300 pound guy. I'm sure he can.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That sounded to me like he held two. Somebody back there held two. Nancy's guilty as shit.

[James Pietragallo]

I mean, that's possible. Allegedly. Please don't get us sued.

[Jimmy Wissman]

That's how it feels to me.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Hey, Nancy's story is full of shit. So. I mean, I don't know. Bill. Yeah. Bill said that he didn't have a plan at that point. Just started. Got behind the wheel and started driving. And he just didn't think about it. So he just kept calling home after the rest stop. 2:12am Is the Boston call where he tried to frame a client. Remember that one? He tried to say she was there still. Then there's the dumpster here. He remembered. This is what he remembers. He said he drove to Brookline, a neighborhood in Boston. Pulled out onto a quiet residential street, saw a dumpster and decided, this is where I'll put the body. Went back around to the Toyota, started to pull Robin's body out. And then he said Robin made a noise, which. No, not a breath, Jay said the residual air in her lungs being expelled as bodies sometimes do when moved after death. He said it was a sound he would never forget. And at that moment, he said a porch light came on in the house next to the dumpster. So he panicked, slammed the hatch back shut, got back in the driver's seat and peeled out.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sounds like more noise. Yeah.

[James Pietragallo]

So now he said there was nobody, no porch light witness they could find or anything like that. At 5:29 he makes the Rhode island call. Then he makes another one at 6:41 pre dawn. He says that he ended up at a large housing complex and shopping center in Providence, Rhode island, where he had once studied at Brown, so it was familiar. Had a big supermarket, a Radio Shack, the Rhode island blood bank, shitloads of dumpsters. So he removed several bags of garbage from one of the dumpsters to make room. Took Robin's body wrapped in the comforter along with the blankets she'd been on and shoved them into the trash on top of whatever and then put the other shit back on top of. He described it as, I disposed of the material. Robin's body is the material. Wow, that's disturbing. Got back in the car and drove south. Made more fake phone calls, took his Amtrak down there. Then he says at the end of his confession, when you find her, she'll be wearing her clothes. There was no monkey business, okay? Gee, that's what we were worried about.

[Jimmy Wissman]

We didn't have sex. It was straight up murder.

[James Pietragallo]

Straight murder for money. He described the Providence dumpster in a lot of detail. The parking lot, the shopping center, the layout. They went to the location he described. There was no dumpster there. No dumpster in the location he described matched with the dumpster he described. He described a standard commercial dumpster with a serial number, and they couldn't find it. He. He volunteered to be hypnotized in order to, quote, remember better. That didn't work. Under hypnosis, he recited a serial number that sort of matched the type of dumpster used by a specific waste management company. They tracked down a dumpster with a similar serial number which had been dumped, emptied many, many times. They said if she was in there, she had been taken to the central landfill in Johnston, Rhode island, which is a gigantic, gigantic facility that handles thousands of tons of trash a day every day. Yep, he muttered three times during hypnosis. It's not me by the dumpster. It's not me by the dumpster. It's not me by the dumpster. The state considered searching the landfill. It would cost around $150,000 in 1984. And the state declined. So that was that. So we never, ever got her body. Ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. And by the way, the media really did this awfully shitty. They did Robin wrong. The meeting. They really fucked her over good and made her sound like just a filthy streetwalker. I mean, they made her sound like she had no family and friends and she's just a bum. The prostitute. That's all she was. It was pretty sleazy. During sentencing, Shirley Benedict's mom here, Shirley Benedict Robbins mom, told reporters that basically, quote, it's a very empty feeling. It's going to be over, but we still can't have her. The prosecution here, sentencing runs for two days, by the way, because there's a lot of leeway in manslaughter sentences.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, so you gotta sway that judge.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. So they argue for the maximum sentence. He said that, you know, it's obvious here, you know, he said, no matter that Robin was a prostitute, she had a family that she was devoted to and a family that was devoted to her. He hit her two or three times by his own account, crushed her skull and dislodged brain tissue. He placed her body in a dumpster like a piece of trash. Then he exploited it for nearly a year, they said. On Easter of 83, Douglas caused a telegram to be sent to the family, allegedly from Robin, that she was working in Vegas and was alive and well. Then said, yeah, basically this man got away with murder. He would have gotten away with it entirely, except that we did this massive investigation. Investigation. And he's a dangerous, manipulative man. Give him the maximum. Okay. The other one, though, the defense attorney said that. Called him the Alice Wonderland of the scientific world. Traded that for the world of sin and sex. Sampson met his Delilah. Bill Douglas met his downfall. A paramour for pay. All that shit.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Hot.

[James Pietragallo]

Then he said a world of sex and pimps reached out and consumed him. Reached out? They came right to his house. Yeah.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They reached out.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. Plucked him right from his lab and put him in a bar. In effect, this court has been his confessional. The judge says you, sir, may fuck off. 18 to 20 years in state prison for manslaughter, the maximum available. That's the max. And a concurrent five year sentence for the embezzlement as well.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Okay.

[James Pietragallo]

In prison, he transferred to a medium security prison that was closer to his house. Nancy visited him up to three times a week, including once a week with the kids.

[Jimmy Wissman]

What?

[James Pietragallo]

Oh, yeah. 1986. There's a TV movie made, the High Price of Passion, starring Richard Crenna. Who's the guy from the Rambo movies? That's, you know, dude's Lieutenant or whatever. General Rambo's. Whatever the fuck. It's over, Johnny.

[Jimmy Wissman]

It's over.

[James Pietragallo]

That guy in Rambo, I don't remember. He's the guy that, you know, he's got the beret on.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I think that's him.

[James Pietragallo]

So that movie's there. It's got 6.8 stars on IMDb. It adopted Bill's framing, that he'd been seduced, ruined and destroyed by a manipulative young woman. She's the criminal almost in this. Robin's family hated this fucking. In 87, he was disciplined in prison for engaging in a sexual act with a female visitor who wasn't Nancy. Wow. A wife that forgave him for prostitution, murder, embezzlement. Still came to see him three times a week and he said, I still gotta fuck around with a chick in prison.

[Jimmy Wissman]

How did he do that?

[James Pietragallo]

I don't know. But Bill and Nancy divorced. By the way, that's mindhunter Bill Tenchen. His wife's name's Nancy. Right there. Bill and Nancy divorce in 87. Later on, in 87, he remarries while still in prison to a 43 year old woman named Bonnie Jean Smith, who he met as a pen pal.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Unbelievable.

[James Pietragallo]

My God, that's crazy. Then he taught college courses to civilians from prison for the correspondence courses. In 88, they grant his request to be transferred to a Connecticut facility to be closer to his new wife. He tried to write a book while he was in there.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Unbelievable.

[James Pietragallo]

Didn't really come out in 89. Teresa Carpenter's book Missing Beauty, which is what a lot of this is based on, won the Pulitzer for its reporting. June 3, 1993, after serving less than nine years, he is out. He is released from the Enfield, Connecticut facility. A free man at 51 fucking years

[Jimmy Wissman]

old sledgehammered a woman to death.

[James Pietragallo]

Yep. That is crazy. Her mother, Robin's mother, Shirley, said, we didn't realize he was just gonna walk free and nothing else was gonna be done.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Less than 10 years.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. She said the main thing we wanted was her body, and we're still not getting it.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Oh, my God.

[James Pietragallo]

We go to an empty grave. Every year, Bill meets with John and Shirley Benedict. I don't know how John Benedict and Shirley doesn't jump across the table and rip this guy's fucking face off. They requested the meeting, though. They wanted to ask him, where is Robin? Is she in the landfill? Where is he? He stuck to his story. Nothing else. The BenEdicts filed a $29.5 million civil suit against Bill Douglas that was dismissed. And they filed a petition to have Robin's court records released so they could pursue further legal action. That petition was denied. Don't know why. The rest of Bill's life here, he went on to live with his second wife, Betty Jean, and he divorced her eventually, too. Never regained academic employment, obviously. And, yeah, then in 2015, Bill dies at an assisted living memory care facility. He had dementia. Good. If anybody fucking deserves that, it's this cunt. Fuck that guy. So, yeah, 2022, there was a new book, by the way, called the Killing of Robin Benedict that looked critically at how the press covered this case. And yeah, they said there was a retrospective. They basically teach this case in law school in Massachusetts. They do how you do a no body case in Massachusetts. So there you go. Everybody there is Sharon. Massachusetts. So much information. Sorry we ran a little long, but I'm beside myself.

[Jimmy Wissman]

James, he got out.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah. At 3:00 in the morning, I'm in my living room going, what the fuck? As I'm putting this together. So anyway, if you like the show, go to whatever app you're on and give us five stars. Give a thumbs up on Netflix. Please do all the shit that you do that can help out the show. Please head over to shutupandgivememurder.com tickets for live shows here. Next one with Tickets. It might still have tickets. Is May 30th in Royal Oak. Otherwise it is in September in Milwaukee and Minneapolis. So come get your tickets there. Shut up and givememurder.com follow on social media. MallTownMurder on Instagram. Instagram Small Town Pot on Facebook. Patreon.com CrimeInSports is where you get all the bonus material. Anybody $5 a month or above, you get every damn thing we put out. Soon as you subscribe, you get almost 400 back bonus episodes you've never heard before. New ones every other week. One crime and sports. One Small Town Murder. This week, crime and sports. Personal ads are back. How did people find people 30 years ago, 40 years ago? We'll find out. Small town murder. It's up to you. The poll is up. Either the FLDS documentary, the False Prophet one, or Internet salad. You guys pick here. Do that. And you also get ad free. All the shows we put out. And you get a shout out, which is right now. Jimmy, hit me with the names of the best goddamn people on this earth who would never, ever, ever leave our bodies in dumpsters. And then claim you had no idea where they were. Hit me with them right now.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Now this executive producer, Gary Howard. Chicken in for Smith, Arkansas. Jen and Charlie. Happy birthday, you two.

[James Pietragallo]

Happy birthday to people.

[Jimmy Wissman]

They're terrific. Ron Bennington from the Ron and Fez Show. Do you know that show? It was in Tampa. I think I heard of it before. A few years ago.

[James Pietragallo]

I've heard of the show.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Ron's now sick. Awful. He's a terrific.

[James Pietragallo]

Sucks. Yeah. That's terrible.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Hang in there, Ron. But I don't know, it's. But it's tough stuff. And Aaron Zinsley, thank you all so much for participating in this shit.

[James Pietragallo]

Thank you, people. You're wonderful.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Other producers this week. Liz Vasquez, Peyton Meadows, Ryan Bender, Janice Hill, Tichelle Franklin, Laura Turner, Lisa Arnold, Dave Hogg, Courtney Ann, Tiffany Nolte, Keezy Bullock, Jessica Lindsey. Carlitin. Laughing Carlton. Maybe it might be Carlton. Carliton. I don't know. How do you spell Carlito?

[James Pietragallo]

Maybe it's Carlton. Carlton, like charlatan, but Carlton.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Perhaps. But they're laughing after Chris ruined their life. Thanks to us. So.

[James Pietragallo]

Well, Chris, and we don't know what

[Jimmy Wissman]

you're talking about, but Carliton.

[James Pietragallo]

Carlton. Thank you, Carla. Ton.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Sorry, Brown Freak 902 competitor.

[James Pietragallo]

By the way, that's Peloton's biggest competitor, Carloton Carlton.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Yeah, you just drive.

[James Pietragallo]

It's a lot easier. You don't lose as Much weight, but it's easier.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Catch up, fuckers.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, Sorry. I didn't mean that.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Pedal faster, pussies.

[James Pietragallo]

That's the most ridiculous thing I could think of.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Jessica would know last name. Amy Hardy. Bren's would know last name. Stephanie blank. Brandon Dunn. TVM TMV782. Nikki Lynch. Z with no last name. Melissa Duran, Renee Kennedy, Brianna Wallum, Kevin Craddock, Haley Levy or Levy Maria with no last name. Riley K. Kate L. Kdl Victoria Bean, Teresa Klopotech. Kalapa. Klopataka. Rachel with no last name. Elliot Moury, Diane Shanzen, Schanzenbach. Yeah, that's it.

[James Pietragallo]

Some tough names this week.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Amanda would know last name. Annie Ann, Jason. Dillon Cole with no last name. Somebody named. Just listening. That's not their name. Deanne Mather or Dina. Yeah, it's Deanne. Right. D. Yeah. Nikki Mendoza. Brittany with no last name. Aaron D. Ryan B. Alicia Pendergrass, Courtney Dobbs, Natasha Parks. Nettie with no last name. Maria Louisa Dowling. Marie Louisa. Yep. T. Sardine. Sardin, Stacy Pulver, Kelly Lawson. D And K. Climb. Keim. Yeah, there's no L there. Delaney. Delaney with no last name. Gwen Knutson. She donated twice. So she has two of these goddamn things. Thank you.

[James Pietragallo]

Gwenuter.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Patrick Lobb, Joanne Craig, Mike Asher, Sarah Wells, Karen Hall. Chris with no last name. Rossi. Houston. Maybe Rosie with two S's. Dawn Hammond. Natasha Prada. Ashley with no last name. J. Day, Lottie Grimes. Cameron Shaq. Carly Watson. Sharice Maxwell, Gregory Busby, Eleanor Jurgens. K and J. The letters K and JJ or just KJ. Brianna Denou, Bobby Sparrow, Tyler Grizzell, Leslie Ariza, Walter Turner. Holy Katie. C. April B. Brian Laure. Like adventure. So Lanture. Yeah. Triple E. It's French.

[James Pietragallo]

Adventure. La Venture. L. Adventure.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Lisandra Tharp, Bob Coty or Coat Piece Up, Toes Down. Christian Zumberchuk, Luke Garaschko, Carly Bernstein Feld, Jake Turner, Rebecca Lev Light, Melissa Billings, Heidi Arneson, Kevin Adams, Fabio Alcantar, Michael Castillo, Sarah Lambert. CPR Facts. Emily Cazzetto. Weirdo. Five of seven. That means there's seven of them. But the fifth one, James. That's the one that matters.

[James Pietragallo]

That's a real weird one.

[Jimmy Wissman]

Charlie K, Valerie Kelsey, W.W. xavier Smith and Natalie Friesen. Karen Buswell, M.S.T. jeepo. Justine Doj, De ACG. Groundhog for breakfast. Special. Paula Blot, Don Schleicer. Piang with no last name. Melissa Got for Tanya K. Eli Belly, Ellie Belly Bean. Megan Williams, Tracy Noland, Dale Ava or Ava John with no last name. Robert with no last name. Cora Lee with no last name. Vol Cab with no last name Collie, Mom H and M. Shanna Kibler Kibler Angela Odegaard Sarah with no last name Brian Wood Whitney Legate Bixels with no last name Mindy Shaw Brittany with no last name Laura Kaiser Anderson Brandis with no last name Cody Mitch Tara World's Brittany Sarajegna Cloud Gabriel Alexandria Roberts, Alicia Leslie Brett McConaughey Christine with no last name Eric Turley, Shamaria Johnson Crod Blivius Heather Mauger. Oh, that's Heath Mauger. Heath's been around for a long time. Thanks, Heath. Drew Swayze, Sean Schrich, Audrey Pack, the Packer Summerlin Ortiz Kelsey Byerly, Hannah Harris, Adol Hansen When Jesus Attacks Cameron Smith Like Mars James Benjamilli Laura Young ECB Amity Anderson EKG7 8. Debbie Richens. A lot of Richins lately.

[James Pietragallo]

Yeah, from Corey.

[Jimmy Wissman]

I hope it is not the fam. Paige. Depaula Chase with no last name. Rita Murray, Mark Gonzo, Ashley Rogers, Laura Larson, Daniel Drury, Marika with no last name. Perhaps America. Pamela Smith, Kervin Martin, Jack Miles. Blackistan. Blackistan. Blackistan. Blackistan. Not Blackistan. That's not a place. Samantha, Papa Dionisi and all of our patrons. You guys are the best. Thank you so much.

[James Pietragallo]

Thank you so much, everybody. You wonderful, fantastic, beautiful bastards. We appreciate every goddamn thing you do for us. Thank you, thank you. Thank you. Keep coming back and hanging out with us. Tell your friends, post about it wherever you can. And keep coming back every time. Go to shutupandgivememurder.com if you want to follow us. It's all new website redone. You can find our social media medias on there. And the show social medias, whatever you need, that's the spot to get it from. So thank you so much. And until next week, everybody, it's been our pleasure. Bye. Hey everybody. Listening to Small Town Murder out there. 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 Wissman]

Yes.

[James Pietragallo]

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 2nd. May 29th, Buffalo sold out. Royal Oak, Michigan. May 30th. We have. September 18th Milwaukee. September 19th Minneapolis. October 3rd in Dallas. October 16th in San Jose. October 17th in Sacramento. November 13th in Tarrytown. November 14th 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. Shut upandgivemerder.com is where you go for those tickets. Get them right now while they're hot.

[Jimmy Wissman]

See you on the road.