I fully believe Alice did NOT kill her children, and it devastates me to know that she had to serve time in prison for a crime she did not commit.
This book had me going through so many emotions. Heartbreak, anger, devastation, astonishment, and so much more. I could not believe how botched the trial became for Eddie and Missie. I could not believe the witch hunt that it turned in for Alice. The police department, attorney generals, judges, jurors, prosecutors, and so many more involved said they wanted justice for the murdered children, but after reading this retelling, it is clear that was never the intention for the majority of those involved.
I was so captivated by this book, I struggled at times remembering that this actually happened to real people. Alice Crimmins was a real woman who had her reputation trashed by the courts of Queens. Eddie and Missy were real children who were brutally murdered. They never got justice because everyone believed their sexually promiscuous mother was guilty.
At times I had a hard time reading this book. I kept waiting to get to the point where it would get better, where Alice would stop being vindicated, where justice for the slain children would come. But it never happened. I hated how the police would not let Alice rest on the second day of the search for her children. They were convinced from the start she was guilty, and was purposely disorienting her to try to get her to crack, instead of looking for the murderer. Alice and Eddie did not even get to go to little Eddie’s funeral, because they were being interrogated when it happened.
I was in awe at the woman Alice was. She had such an alluring presence that she had had daliances with many powerful people. She had a greeting card from Paul Screvane, President of the City Council, likely to be the next Mayor. She had a telegram from the present Mayor, Robert Wagner, inviting Alice to attend the opening of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. She had dinner programs autographed by Mayor Wagner and Senator Robert Kennedy, and a card from Tony Grace, the contractor who had constructed a small park underneath the Verrazano Bridge. I also admired Alice for her tenacity. She knew her home was heavily bugged, yet she would still put on a show for those listening in. Either yelling “FUCK ME” in the middle of a tryst, or simply starting off a phone call with “Hello boys, drop dead”.
While the police were too busy focusing on the wrong people, Jay Silverman, just a child himself, came across the broken body of Missy. It was so upsetting to read Dr. Richard Grimes observations on Missy. How the fly eggs were so thick that they obscured the eyelids and her forchead, and how Dr. Grimes had to keep brushing fies away from Missy's face. Meanwhile Veron Warnecke came across Eddie’s body covered with flies, that had also been eaten by rats and insects. To be exact, Eddie’s upper right arm had been eaten by maggots. His body was simply a blackened, formless mass, chewed and decayed beyond recognition. Eddie devastatingly had no face left, and almost all his fingers were gone.
From the very beginning, it was made clear Alice had no chance of coming out of this unscathed. Jerry Piering made it very obvious that he strongly disliked the woman in front of him who was breaking the social taboos of her class, religion, and sex. Because she wore tight clothes and regularly donned a face of makeup meant she was guilty.
I was fuming when I read how the police photographers botched the crime scene because they did not take enough photos of the apartment. We have Jerry Piering to thank for that though. Why he was allowed this case as his first major case is beyond me. Piering had just assumed the photographers would know what to do and would overshoot rather than undershoot. Instead they took random and incomplete photos. This would cause a snowball effect because when more seasoned officers came in, they became hindered by the lack of evidence. Another heavily argued point was the dust on the bureau. It was dusted before photographs were taken so it could never be proven if the murderer came from inside or outside. Technicians had dusted the window and bureau, the bed and some toys, but none of the crucial surfaces— the walls and doors outside the children's room. Another heavily debated point was what was fed to the children for dinner. This could never be proven because Piering did not save the Manicotti packaging he claims he saw, nor did he make any note of it. Eventually the blanket Missy was found in wound up being lost.
Furthermore, Piering regarded himself as a complete detective. He would, for example, install his own recording machinery, even if all the tapes did come out blank. He would take his own photographs, using expensive telephoto equipment, even if the pictures were blurred and out of focus. On his days of, he would follow witnesses, although they would often turn around and smile at him.
I really hated Piering. He seemed to be under the impression that grieving was a one size fits all process. He became mad on the second day of Eddie and Missy‘s disappearance that Alice was once again well groomed and not obviously disheveled. He was not happy that Alice did not want to grieve for the entire world to see. He was not happy when Eddie decorated for Christmas.
This was a horribly biased trial. From the beginning, some detectives used the press to poison the public against Alice Crimmins. Detectives and prosecutors spent long lunch hours attacking her behavior, her coldness, her immorality. This had lasting effects on the trial. Word spread fast, and especially ran rampant in the salon where Sophie Earomirski frequented. These rumors she heard, mixed with her medical issues, would cause Sophie to mix up anything she might have seen with things she had heard. In Morty Allerand’s case, he had bought a case of domestic champagne for the party he was going to throw when he believed Alice would become acquitted. The word got back to the people waiting in the lines every day, and it was mangled in the retelling. The version that swept the corridors was that Alice herself had ordered a case of champagne for her victory celebration.
The police involved often blackmail people in this case. One of Alice’s friends wanted to testify that Alice was a good mother. Expect the police knew she was cheating on her husband and threatened to tell him if she did not withdraw her testimony, which she ended up doing. Dr. Helpern was another person who let the police sway his testimony, as was Joe Roerch. Roerch finally cracked when he wanted Alice to marry him and have his baby, but she turned him down.
I simply cannot believe the harassment Alice Crimmins had to endure. The police moved into the hospital across the street from Alice’s new apartment to survey her. But before Alice could even move into this apartment, ultrasensitive microphones had been planted behind each beams, and the phones were bugged. The police monitored the listening post for three years, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, and did not pick up even one incriminating statement. Alice tried to go back to work, even reverting to her maiden name. But after just a few weeks in her new job her employer would get a visit from the police which would quickly result in Alice being let go. On top of all that, Alice was regularly getting strange phone calls, which very well could have been from the murderer, but police never did anything with that information.
Alice Crimmins started to become unfairly isolated. One by one, the people close to her were being transformed into police agents. Under constant pressure, they would reluctantly agree to allow their homes, their telephones, and sometimes themselves to be wired for sound. For Alice Crimmin’s mother, the device never worked in the first place. Hilariously, the only usable transcriptions the police were ever able to obtain were conversations between Alice's mother and the dog Brandy inside the apartment.
What I cannot understand is why they relentlessly pursued Alice knowing damn well she was not guilty. Alice killed her child because Missy got in the way, Anthony Lombardino told the jurors. He had made a strong case for it in Mosley's office, even if it was a weak one. He never really thought it himself, which was the problem. He didn't think the argument would hold up in front of a jury, not even then. Five years later, looking back, he would say: "To this day I know it's weak. I don't know if she did it. It still seems unlikely. I can't believe it. I can't even believe the story I told the jury. I don't even believe it now."
As much as Alice may have seemed guilty from making a statement where she would rather the children be dead then go to Eddie, Eddie incriminated himself just as bad. On the night the children were murdered, Eddie claimed he was at home watching a movie, only that movie was never on the time he claimed it to be. In another instance, George Martin had to practically drag Eddie up to make a normal appeal to the reporters about his missing children. Another wildly uncomfortable fact that came forward was that Eddie had claimed he had went to a park and exposed himself to little girls. He also had a habit of sneaking into Alice’s apartment to listen to her have sex, and he bugged her apartment before the police ever did.
I wonder how might the case had been different if Peter Farrell had not been assigned to it. The prosecutors office was happy to have him, for they regarded him as someone who would be friendly to their side, but it leaves me to wonder how things might have been different if the judge was friendly to the defenses side. Another thing that aggravated me with Farrell was that he had let word leak that he was thinking of throwing the case out. If not for that getting back to the prosecutors side, I wonder if if indeed would have gotten thrown out due to the lack of evidence.
It was disturbing to read how some people loved the attention they got from being a part of this case. Take Ralpa Warnecke. That afternoon when her husband and son found Eddie would become a high point in her life, the details would be etched in her memory more clearly than her wedding day. Sophie Earomirski was another person who loved the fame she got from the case.
Other thoughts:
I loved that this book had pictures. I really liked being able to put names to faces. It brought to attention for me really how male dominated Alice Crimmin’s case was.
I love how Alice’s mother, Alice herself, and little Missy all shared the same name.
I was slightly comforted to read about the children’s last day alive. I hope Alice can always hold on to that memory of that day with her children. A day filled with fun at the park: a picnic and lots of playing until the kids got tired.
I found it interesting that over the years this case received tens of thousands of letters.