We Keep the Dead Close

by Becky Cooper

  The Cambridge Police

  1 Don wasted very little time: Letter from Don Mitchell to Det. Lt. Joyce, Jan. 22, 1979 (MSP file).

  2 letter in December 1969: Letter from Det. Lt. Joyce to Jill and Don Mitchell, Jan. 8, 1979.

  3 difference between Joyce and the Cambridge cops: The rest of this chapter is from interviews with Don Mitchell in 2017 unless otherwise noted. Details concerning Jill were cross-checked in her 2020 checking memo. (Jill wrote that the cops also made her look at Jane’s autopsy photos.)

  4 pick out the outfit she was to be buried in: Jill Nash wrote that she did not remember this.

  5 a relic, some later speculated: Class taught by James Deetz, per Susan Kelly notes from interview with Paul Shankman, July 31, 1996 (police file). Jane was in a class taught by Professor Deetz (Anthropology 207) the fall of her junior year (Jane Britton’s Radcliffe student file).

  6 Jane normally kept it by her coffee table: CPD-BB, p. 32.

  7 certainly gave the Mitchells the impression: Don Mitchell Websleuths post #381, June 17, 2014.

  8 police officer returned: Sennott also asked Don Mitchell about this on July 17, 2017 (transcript; MSP file).

  9 Perhaps it was Detective Giacoppo: I emailed Don Mitchell eight photographs of CPD officers who were involved in Jane’s case to see if he could identify the officer who asked him to photograph the fingerprint (Mar. 8, 2020). None of the photos were labeled. Don picked out the photo of former Detective M. Michael Giacoppo as the only possible. (He also correctly identified the photo of Lt. Leo Davenport.)

  10 According to the Boston Globe: “Mystery Fingerprints at Slaying Scene May Belong to Jane Britton’s Killer, Say Cambridge Police,” Boston Globe, Jan. 13, 1969.

  11 Don took a number of photos: Don Mitchell’s Nikon F and tripod setup to try to capture the fingerprint on the window in question is visible on page 4 of “Color Slides of Crime Scene” (CPD file). The windowpane was removed from its frame and propped up in the kitchen to better capture the print. Don emailed me a recent photo of the same tripod, which is still in his possession (Mar. 8, 2020, 2:06 p.m.).

  12 [Photo]: Photograph by Don Mitchell.

  13 About a year or perhaps even two: Letter from Don Mitchell to Det. Lt. Joyce, Jan. 22, 1979 (MSP file).

  14 He had died on expedition six months before: Peter Harrison and Phyllis Messenger, “Dennis Edward Puleston, 1940–1978,” American Antiquity 45, no. 2 (Apr. 1980): 272–276.

  Final Days in Hawaii

  1 Back on Don’s couch: This chapter is from interviews with Don Mitchell in 2017 unless otherwise noted.

  2 Bach’s Toccata in F Major: Particularly Michael Murray’s version, Track #2 on Bach and Franck Organ Works, 1979.

  3 “She’s just sitting on top of everyone else”: Don later sent me a photo of Jane playing the piece at his wedding. His description tracks; her hair was also covered with a white cloth.

  Erasure and Artifacts

  1 to talk to Michael Coe: Interview with Michael Coe in 2017.

  2 “We simply repressed it or faked it”: “In and Out of the Closet at Harvard, 1653–1998,” Harvard Magazine, Jan.–Feb. 1998.

  3 emailed me…with the news: Email from Dan Potts, June 4, 2017, 1:29 p.m.

  4 I got off the train in San Jose: The rest of the chapter is from my interview with Elisabeth Handler in 2017.

  Jane’s Letter to Elisabeth

  1 Saturday 27 July 1968: Letter from Jane to Elisabeth Handler, July 27, 1968.

  Boyd in Person

  1 The doorbell of my cousins’ house: This chapter is from an interview with Boyd Britton in 2017 unless otherwise noted.

  2 “Let all the poisons”: Robert Graves, I, Claudius (New York: Harrison Smith and Robert Haas, 1934).

  3 getting sober: Boyd has been sober since early 2011.

  4 “My sister really did not”: In 2020, Boyd added, “Jane never got the opportunity.”

  5 fiftieth reunion for Radcliffe: The fiftieth reunion was May 21–25, 2017.

  6 The thirtieth reunion students would join: The thirty-fifth, fortieth, and forty-fifth reunions were held in the fall that year: “Fall in with Classmates,” Harvard Magazine, May–June 2014.

  Family Silence

  1 After Jane died, Boyd tried: This chapter is drawn from interviews with Boyd (2014–2020) unless otherwise noted.

  2 mention his own daughter in his replies: Records of the Radcliffe College Office of the Administrative Vice-President, 1959–1972 (inclusive), Radcliffe College, RG IIA, Series 1, Schlesinger Library Archives.

  3 J. Boyd had grown up in St. Louis, Missouri: “J. Boyd Britton; Was Chemist, Executive, Radcliffe Officer; 93,” Boston Globe, Oct. 29, 2002.

  4 banjo in dance bands on the river boats: “J. Boyd Britton; Was Chemist, Executive, Radcliffe Officer; 93,” Boston Globe, Oct. 29, 2002.

  5 first in sales, then management: J. Boyd Britton curriculum vitae, Britton family file.

  6 married a woman in Springfield, Illinois: Interview with Charlie Britton in 2017.

  7 just three months later: Confirmed with Boyd Britton military records, National Personnel Records, Department of Defense.

  8 “I had the feeling they would”: Susan Kelly notes from interview with Elisabeth Handler, May 24, 1996 (police file).

  For Boyd R. Britton from JBB

  1 Boyd called me the morning: This chapter is from an interview with Boyd Britton in 2017 unless otherwise noted.

  2 “Jane Britton Murder Files. Other Family Papers”: Britton family file.

  3 [Photo]: Photograph by Becky Cooper.

  Jane Britton Family Files

  1 “Can’t say I mind contemplating”: Letter from Jane to her father, July 20, 1965.

  2 a guinea pig holding the French flag: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 20, 1965.

  3 “Pew! Peppermint-flavored envelopes”: Letter from Jane to her parents, June 25, 1964.

  4 “Greetings to the postman from Gay, Exotic Les Eyzies”: Letter from Jane to her parents, Aug. 7, 1965.

  5, 6 [Photos]: Britton family file, courtesy Boyd Britton.

  7 his cover letter that read: Letter from CCLK to J. Boyd Britton, Dec. 21, 1979.

  8 save them for her for that reason: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 16, 1965.

  9 Dearest Muddah, Dahlink Faddah: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 16, 1965.

  10 I wouldn’t want to do anything if I: Letter from Jane to her father, July 22, 1964.

  11 Did I ever tell you after that amazing dinner: Letter from Jane to her parents, July 14, 1968.

  12 Had a letter from Bwad (pre-Cal): Letter from Jane to her parents, July 27, 1968.

  13 was a reference to Jerry Roth: Letter from Jane to her parents, Feb. 11, 1965.

  Lie Detector Test

  1 The lie detector machine: Description from “The Lie Detector Confirms His Story,” Life Magazine, May 15, 1964, and cross-checked with “Polygraph with Improved Cardiac Monitoring,” Lafayette Instrument Co., Inc, Patent Number 4940059, July 10, 1990. Leonard Harrelson, the expert in the Life article, administered the second round of tests in Jane’s case (“Grand Jury Hears Girl’s Slaying,” Boston Herald Traveler, Feb. 4, 1969).

  2 “What was fun about the lie detector test”: The remainder of this chapter is from an interview with CCLK in 2017. As far as I have been able to determine, no records of the lie detector test questions or results exist.

  Karl in Person

  1 I ran across Harvard Yard to Church Street: This chapter is from my interview with CCLK in 2017.

  Wrestling

  1 It was warm out: Scene from interviews with Peter Timms (2017), John Yellen (2017), and CCLK (2020). The memories differed slightly (over details like whether Karl climbed into the ring, who introduced him to the promoter, etc.). The scene as written sticks to as many details as possible consistent with all three sources. The key difference is that CCLK does not remember the top of his cane tumbling off.

  2 smelled like popcorn a
nd pizza and alcohol: “In City’s Wrestling Prime, No Holds Were Barred,” Boston Globe, Sept. 26, 2004.

  3 “Wrestling presents human suffering”: Roland Barthes, Mythologies: The Complete Edition in a New Translation, translated by Richard Howard and Annette Lavers (New York: Hill and Wang, 2012), p. 8.

  4 The good defeated the bad: “In City’s Wrestling Prime, No Holds Were Barred,” Boston Globe, Sept. 26, 2004.

  2018: Land in Boston

  1 The scene took place on July 30, 2018.

  Belief Vertigo

  1 Todd Wallack’s Globe article: “A Cold Case, a Cold Reality: Records Are Closed,” Boston Globe, June 18, 2017.

  2 last round of DNA testing…was in 2006: This refers to the last time any DNA was tested in relation to Jane’s case. The last time the crime scene sample itself was tested was 2004 (MSP Crime Lab report dated Aug. 18, 2004).

  3 Karl wrote to say: Email from CCLK, June 18, 2017, 11:21 a.m.

  4 Don Mitchell was rattled by readers’ comments: Email from Don Mitchell, July 11, 2017, 1:33 p.m.

  5 A lawyer reached out to offer: LinkedIn message from Robert Bertsche, June 18, 2017, 3:41 a.m.

  6 threaten escalating the matter: Letter from Robert Bertsche to Rebecca Murray, June 20, 2017.

  7 Mike Widmer, it turned out: The rest of this chapter is from interviews with Mike Widmer in 2017.

  8 UPI article, syndicated in Stars and Stripes: “Girl 22 Beaten to Death,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, Jan. 9, 1969.

  9 twenty-four reprints to two: Roger Tatarian (then editor-in-chief at UPI), internal UPI document, Jan. 8, 1969.

  Richard Michael Gramly

  1 archaeologist named Anne Abraham: Bill Fitzhugh, “Tribute to Explorer Lost in Labrador,” Smithsonian 7, no. 9 (Dec. 1976).

  2 devolved into gossip about Gramly: See, e.g., Websleuths posts circa late Aug. 2014–Oct. 2014.

  3 In 2016, Boyd mentioned: Interview with Boyd Britton in 2016.

  4 written to Lieutenant Joyce: Letter from Don Mitchell to Det. Lt. Joyce, Jan. 22, 1979 (MSP file).

  5 I spoke with Bill Fitzhugh: Interview with Bill Fitzhugh in 2017.

  6 Over the phone, Gramly: Interview with RMG in 2017.

  7 “Jane never got justice”: “A Cold Case, a Cold Reality: Records Are Closed,” Boston Globe, June 18, 2017.

  8 email from Todd Wallack: Email from Todd Wallack, June 20, 2017, 3:54 p.m.

  9 a Copper Age site: The dig, run by Kaman and Yavor Boyadziev, was part of the Balkan Heritage Field School.

  10 Ted’s letter to the Cambridge Police: Letter from Ted Abraham to Sgt. Nagle, Aug. 23, 1996 (CPD file).

  11 fought unsuccessfully to sue: “In the Matter of George Abraham, Claiming as Father of Anne Abraham, Deceased, and Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.,” Docket No. 84–108, Hearing Sept. 14, 1984, Issued Oct. 30, 1984, United States Department of Labor.

  12 I got an email from Ted: Email from Ted Abraham, June 20, 2017, 5:34 p.m.

  13 in the Smithsonian article by Bill Fitzhugh: Fitzhugh, “Tribute to Explorer Lost in Labrador.”

  14 [Photo]: Courtesy Bill and Lynne Fitzhugh.

  15 he did, in fact, know Jane Britton: Interview with RMG in 2017.

  Mickey

  1 It was Gramly’s first semester: This chapter is from my interviews with RMG in 2017, unless otherwise noted.

  2 six foot one: License details for RMG (MDAO file).

  3 A year younger than Jane: Public birth records.

  4 certificate listed “violence”: Aug. 6, 1957, divorce certificate, Jefferson County, Alabama Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics. When I spoke with RMG in 2020, he said he wasn’t aware that his father had hit his mother, but he wouldn’t be surprised. “My father was a wonderful person,” Gramly shared, but his father had hit him, too.

  5 As a child, Mickey: This section from interviews with people who knew Gramly from the neighborhood. Names left out by request.

  6 Ritchie sent a cohort of young men: Ritchie details from interview with Bruce Bourque in 2017. In 2020, Gramly agreed and added, “Ritchie’s idea of heaven was being elbow-deep in red ochre.”

  7 The Hunting Peoples: Carleton Coon, The Hunting Peoples (Gretna, LA: Pelican, 1971).

  8 she was drawing for Coon: Coon also wrote that Jane drew artifacts for him in his CPD “Report of Statement,” Jan. 10, 1969 (CPD file).

  A Scholar of Remains

  1 Scrutin-eyes laid out a damning case: “Scrutin-eyes” first posted on Aug. 14, 2014 (Websleuths post #598). “Scrutin-eyes” never replied to my request for an interview.

  2 “macabre handling of human remains”: “Scrutin-eyes” Websleuths post #604, Aug. 15, 2014.

  3 Gramly had gone rogue: “Scrutin-eyes” Websleuths post #645, Aug. 20, 2014.

  4 He had been forbidden from digging: “Scrutin-eyes” Websleuths post #598, Aug. 14, 2014.

  5 “often flew off the handle”: “Scrutin-eyes” Websleuths post #604, Aug. 15, 2014.

  6 let his membership in the Society for American Archaeology lapse: RMG confirmed in a 2020 interview. He also said he renewed it for a time, but is not currently a member.

  7 “it says quite clearly in the By-Laws of the Society”: Cheryl Ann Munson, Marjorie Melvin Jones, and Robert Fry, “The GE Mound: An ARPA Case Study,” American Antiquity 60, no. 1 (Jan. 1995): 138. In an April 12, 2020, letter to me, Gramly wanted to make clear that he “cannot think of any time that [he] sold, exchanged, or ‘transacted’ artifacts discovered on his digs for personal gain,” and he “never paid for labor (my own or anyone else’s) by giving away scientific specimens.”

  8 compilation of questionnaires: “The Amateur Archaeologist,” American Society for Amateur Archaeology 1, no. 1 (fall 1994): 21.

  9 Gramly––and Canisius College…had indeed been sued: State of New York, et al. v. Gramly, et al., US District Court, Western District of New York (Buffalo), 1:99-cv-01045-WMS-HKS. Case filed Dec. 28, 1999. Settled July 7, 2000.

  10 NAGPRA, the 1990 federal law: Julia Cryne, “NAGPRA Revisited: A Twenty-Year Review of Repatriation Efforts,” American Indian Law Review 34, no. 1 (2009–2010): 99–122.

  11 “violated common decency”: “Landmark Settlement Protects Native Burial Site,” NY State Office of the AG press release, July 18, 2000.

  12 Gramly argued that the cardboard storage: Interview with RMG in 2020.

  13 Jason Neralich was an amateur archaeologist: Neralich did not reply to a request to comment.

  14 mischaracterization of site protocol: Interview with RMG in 2020; letter from RMG, Apr. 12, 2020. In “Return to Olive Branch: Excavations 2002–2005,” American Society for Amateur Archaeology 13, nos. 1–2 (Jan. 2008): 61, RMG refers to the bifaces as “The Neralich Cache.”

  15 One young academic: Interview with “young academic” in 2018.

  16 The user, macoldcase, feared: Interview with “MCC” in 2018.

  17 Scrutin-eyes summed up the case against Gramly: “Scrutin-eyes” Websleuths post #608, Aug. 16, 2014.

  The Three Suspects

  1 I got a call from an unknown number: This chapter is from an interview with Stephen Loring in 2017.

  On the Dig

  1 a text from Don Mitchell: Text from Don Mitchell, June 28, 2017, 3:55 a.m. (Bulgaria time).

  2 segment on public television: “Cold Case: The Murder of Jane Sanders Britton, 48 Years Later,” Greater Boston, WGBH, June 28, 2017.

  3 national database known as CODIS: To be very precise, CODIS is the software that searches the database.

  4 that was started in 1990: “Combined DNA Index System (CODIS),” Laboratory Services, FBI website.

  Mary McCutcheon

  1 I called Mary McCutcheon: Interview with Mary McCutcheon in 2017.

  2 Mary told me she met Gramly: In 2020, RMG confirmed many of the details in Mary’s account. He also sent me a copy of his unpublished Diary of a Young Man (June 1, 1968–Sept. 1, 1971), though the section he sent me covers only June 1–29, 1
968. He wrote that he began “this ‘project’ 10–12 years ago and dropped it.” In the following chapter, I indicate anywhere that RMG’s memory differs from McCutcheon’s.

  3 [Photo]: Courtesy Mary McCutcheon.

  The Road Trip

  1 Mick packed the bones in the trunk of the car: RMG wrote that this was his plan more than a week before the trip. “Will give up my sub-lease on the 12th—the day we drive down to Laredo and catch the train to Mexico City.…The trunk and the back seat will have to be crammed with stuff––including the human skeletal remains and artifacts from the Boys School site” (June 2, 1968 entry in Diary of a Young Man).

  2 agent asked them to pop the trunk: RMG confirmed in a 2020 interview. He did not write about the incident in Diary, but noted that when he crossed the border on his return, “One of the US border guards remembered who I was and spoke up for me during the inspection.”

  3 A fer-de-lance: RMG’s Diary states that they stayed at Palenque (June 14–16, 1968), but he makes no mention of being perched atop the temple during the storm. Instead, he writes that “we were comfortable and dry within the temple.” He also writes that the fer-de-lance crossed his path in the morning, not theirs.

  4 Mary at her family home: RMG wrote about this visit in his June 27 and 28, 1968, entries in Diary.

  5 continued corresponding with him: RMG wrote about their summer correspondence in Diary, but by his account he had already made peace with the fact that he and McCutcheon were not meant to be: “Such a long-distance relationship could never be practical. But it did not mean we had no deep feelings for each other.…For me no relationship with Mary could just be fun and casual. If it could not be total, then better none at all.” His entries, however, do not continue into the fall.