A Courtroom Massacre

by Mark Porto

  As he walks down the street, Lucero enters a house in the red light district that was decorated with bright red lights in the bottom windows. He knew the madam well asking for one of the girls for the night.

  The stern faced madam summons one of them to come down, when she did, she refuses to go with Lucero. The madam asks why, she told her he never paid what he owed. When she demanded payment, he would beat and slap her. She showed her boss the various bruises he gave her a couple of nights ago. A couple of other girls said they saw Lucero beat her. “I demand you pay up and get the hell out of here, I never want to see you again!”

  While Lucero scowled saying he wasn’t going to pay any more money to this dump. The madam pulled out a gun pointing it at him, prompting him to run out of the brothel.

  As he walks down the street, he notices a streetwalker and offers her double what she normally gets in an hour. The prostitute agrees to go with him to an abandoned warehouse; he claims he has a loft there. She scratches her head asking why he wanted to go there. Lucero says he wasn’t welcome in any of the city’s flophouses and gave him a strange look.

  After engaging in sex, Lucero tells the woman to turn over on her stomach, she refuses saying that activity was going to cost extra, while holding out her hand to collect, “It’ll be a hundred more for that type of sex.”

  Lucero grips her hands shouting, “You’ll do what I want!” He pulls out a switchblade to make his point.

  The prostitute gets down on her knees to plead with him, “Don’t hurt me please! I’ll give you any sex act you want for nothing.”

  Lucero’s incendiary eyes are as red as blood, his teeth grit with the sweat dripping down his face, he grabs her by the throat, and utters with a deep, brass voice, “Shut up, you whore!” His grip closes in on her throat.

  She hyperventilates until he tries to force her legs apart; she then kicks him in the groin. He stands upright rising up his pants, mumbling and uttering a string of obscenities. “You’re going to pay for that, bitch!”

  All of sudden, a dark figure in silhouette wearing a hat walks slowly towards Lucero.

  While he was looking for the prostitute, a dark figure grabs Lucero by the trachea and plunges a machete into Lucero’s side. The thug’s eyes bulge as his face stiffens while his mouth flies open, although he’s still breathing, he falls down.

  The woman’s face turns white with fright while suppressing a scream. The dark figure motions her to leave, she nods and takes off.

  When the police arrive several hours later, they find Lucero dangling from the rafter upside down with a cable cord wrapped around a cinderblock to secure it.

  Sergeant Brian Davidson remarks while shaking his head, “Lucero, who would have known.” He chuckles nervously chewing on a smoked out cigar.

  He calls the medical examiner as another officer saw an audio cassette and gives it to Davidson. He tells him to wait for Investigator Mel Maliewski as they search for more clues.

  When the medical examiner arrives, he examines the body concluding, “The stabbing per se didn’t kill him.” He takes off his glasses to clean them, “He bled to death very slowly.” The examiner points to the large puddle of blood. “When he was stabbed, he fell into shock and bled to death afterwards. Of course, I’ll have to perform an autopsy to ascertain the exact cause.”

  The officer takes off his hat to scratch his head looking at the august gentleman, it was then the investigator arrives at the scene agreeing with the medical examiner about the probable cause of death. They search around the premises and don’t find a weapon, but they did find Lucero’s two switchblades, a garter belt with a card which linked him to a local brothel.

  The officers and examiner seem to believe someone from this brothel may have wanted him dead. Davidson says the madams of these brothels know a lot of shady characters. The police investigate the brothel on the card, but the madam says he was thrown off the property and told never to return.

  The next morning’s headline read: PAROLED RAPIST FOUND DEAD. A sub-line read: Lucero’s death is the second homicide in as many weeks.

  Johnny’s family is sitting down to breakfast as Sal and he were reading various sections of the newspaper when his father reads the headline, showing it to him.

  He looks at it for a minute, he hands it back to his father while wondering who killed those men, and Johnny shrugs his shoulders continuing to eat.

  His father asks him how the appeal was coming, Johnny says Georgia tells him a hearing will be held sometime next week, and she seems to be optimistic about it.

  “Do you think it was wise to have that confrontation with Judge Hartnett?”

  Johnny put down his paper, “That judge is a fool; I’ve put in a complaint against him hoping this state does this city the dignity of removing this schlep.” He resumes his reading.

  His father mentions that business is bad; Johnny quickly asks if it attributed to him, Sal says he didn’t think so, but some people did talk about his outburst and threatening the judge.

  “When are you going to understand these people are so used to swallowing crap they don’t know how to react to these people? Besides, the recession is causing this, not me.”

  “You don’t understand, Johnny, I know you love the dog and so does your mother and me, but when are you going to stop butting heads with these people?”

  “When they leave me alone, let’s just keep at that.” He looks at his watch telling his father he has to run a few errands.

  Anita had eaten earlier and cleans up the dishes.

  Later in the day, Tommy Richards is arrested and charged with beating up an elderly man while trying to rob him in his duplex. The robbery was foiled when he was captured by the man’s son after chasing him down the street with a loaded shotgun, cornered him and called the police.

  Richards was arraigned before Judge Courtney, the judge smiles folding his hands. “Well, Mr. Richards, back so soon, you must miss the surroundings.”

  Assistant District Attorney Talbot states, “My office recommends there not be any bail for Mr. Richards, since he has been charged with a felonious offense, so soon after his release. I call for his original bail to be revoked.”

  Thomas Menchenson, Richards’s attorney stand up, “Your honor, my client was coerced into signing a confession. The police told him that the system will go easy on him, if he confesses. In addition, the elderly man’s son threatened him if he didn’t confess; I recommend all charges be dropped.”

  Judge Courtney reminds Mr. Talbot, “Judge Griffin handled the case when the prosecutor’s office appealed the bail, what I’m going to do is set a preliminary hearing two weeks from today.” He expected the parties to be ready and was going to allow Mr. Richards to remain out on bail, based on the prosecutor’s evidence. “There wasn’t enough to suggest that Mr. Richards had committed the crime. At the hearing, you’ll have an opportunity to present your case.”

  Tommy Richards and his lawyer walk out of the courtroom; Tommy tells him they didn’t have anything.

  Mr. Menchenson gives him a grave look warning him not to get too cocky for his own good. “I can’t help that much if think you’re going to get away with this automatically.” He puts his hand on his shoulder telling to keep a low profile.

  When they get into the elevator, Tommy Richards remarks he never killed Doreen Norman, “But, the attack was my idea and I did attack her that day. When the lawyer asks who killed her, the elevator door opens to the lobby as Tommy was about to tell him, but after seeing the crowd there, he decides to remain silent.

  After the evidence cabinet was locked up, the attending officer left his post to go to the bathroom. During this time, a mysterious figure came in, unlocked the door to take out a package and replace it with “evidence” that appears to exonerate Richards. The door was then locked up as the figure disappears into the night.

  When the officer returns, he feels like something was suspicious, goes back to the locked chest noting the locks were jimmied. He
notifies his superior about it who takes a look and accuses the officer of letting his imagination run away with him.

  Two weeks later, Richards attends the preliminary hearing on charges of robbery and assault. The hearing drags on for about two days, when it appears the prosecution was headed for victory, a woman who knew one of the officers who questioned Richards took the stand. She testifies one of the arresting officers bragged about making a suspect confess to a crime; she shows everyone an audiocassette of the interrogation.

  Menchenson stands at the podium asking her if he mentioned the suspect’s name, she says no. “How do you know it was Richards?”

  She says the officer played the recording for her, it mentions Tommy Richards.

  The prosecution concedes defeat by not contesting the defense’s motions for the dismissal of the charges.

  During the hearing, another woman appears in the hallways, she sits down after coming into the courthouse from the back door. She has blonde hair, heavy makeup, reddish orange lipstick with push on rings and dark sunglasses. The woman wears a chiffon suit, a white blouse, black stockings and pumps. She carries a handbag with a strap across her right shoulder with a briefcase in her left hand.

  As swarms of spectators and reporters rush from the courtroom. While Menchenson is answering questions, Richards tells him he has to go to the bathroom, “Don’t be too long, we’ve got to celebrate.”

  Richards walks into the nearest men’s room while the woman sits on the bench, waits a minute and inconspicuously walks inside.

  She stands near the door after Richards enters a stall, as she moves closer to the booth she puts on plastic gloves. When Richards sees her, he stares at her as she stands a few feet outside the stall door facing him and setting down the briefcase.

  Suddenly, he pulls out a butcher knife, which is hidden in the tank, with one hand and attempts to open the door with the other. The woman took off her sunglasses. Richards immediately recognized the person as she kicks in the door stall. He lunges for her.

  The woman pulls out a .38 special with a maxim silencer, shooting him in the chest. As Richards is lying face down on the floor, she aims the pistol behind one of his ears and fires a shot leaving some blood on the floor. She noticed the toilet wasn’t flushed; she took off her coat, rolled up her blouse as far as possible and threw them in the briefcase. The valise is put on the other side of the stall, where there weren’t any toilets. Despite the gloves, she grabs a wad of toilet paper, plugs up the drain and flushes the toilet. When the water reaches the top of the bowl, she takes his chin and hurls his head by the way of his shoulders into the contaminated bowl.

  Richards’ blood drips all over the toilet and floor, she went to the other side of the stall, by crawling under the stall wall, disrobes and puts the woman’s clothing in the handbag. In the valise, there’s men clothing and shoes, the person puts it on and quickly runs to the sink to wash off the makeup and lipstick. While combing his hair, he hears a noise of someone coming into the bathroom and the figure hides in another stall, shut the door and places his feet upward against the wall with the valise is on his lap.

  The young attorney who enters sees a large knife on the floor near the stall; he opens to investigate to find Richards’ body. The man’s face was white with his enlarged eyes, nose twitching and his mouth flying open. He shouts, “Oh, my God!” He rushes out the door and at the same time, Richards’ slayer follows him out the door and leaves the building.

  The man returns to the gruesome scene with three or four law enforcement officers, they warn him to stay by the door as their guns were drawn. The officers view the body and one of them removes Richards’ head from the toilet and knew who he was. An officer commented whoever did this, knew what he or she was doing.

  After Richards’ body was taken from the scene, the coroner and a criminalist examine it as well, Sergeant Martinelli was working at the Courthouse as part of his overtime.

  Dr. Marvin finds some strange items in Richards’ jacket: a condom, a pornographic sex magazine and an audio cassette. When it was played later, they hear laughing, jeering and other obnoxious noises; Richards’ voice is loud and clear. “We killed that bitch and it was great,” His voice was slurred, “I loved it when she starts begging for her life, if we hadn’t so much fun –“ Richards utters an obscenity, “I’d would’ve laughed my –“ another expletive, “off.”

  Martinelli has an uncomfortable feeling in his psyche. He mentions Lucero’s body, “There was an audio cassette as well.” But Dr. Marvin says it was copy. “It was obviously recorded in a bar.” Both admit these men were sadists.

  Upon leaving the coroner’s office, the sergeant travels to the Church of St. Martin’s on Black Meadow’s north side. He meets with Father Antonin Czeriak; he was Martinelli’s pastor.

  When the pastor wonders what was wrong after the look on the police officer’s face, he asks for a private place, the priest nods directing him to an office, which is filled with statues, and red velvet drapes on the windows. Father Czeriak sits behind an oak desk with a pen set. There wasn’t anyone else in the house, which gives the gentlemen the ability to concentrate; Father asks how he could help.

  Sgt. Martinelli explains there have been three gruesome murders in or around the Black Meadows area. “The victims are men who were accused and probably guilty of killing a pregnant legal assistant.”

  Father sighs with a shiver, “Yes, I know what you mean, I know the victim’s father, what a horrific thing to do!”

  Martinelli tells the priest he suspects the woman’s fiancé was somehow connected to those slayings, but says he doesn’t have any proof, “But I feel everything points to him.”

  Father advises the sergeant he must keep his silence, “You have to take into consideration, there is some chance it wasn’t him, after all, these men who were killed likely had enemies and you don’t want to put an innocent man in jail.”

  “You’re right, but how do I deal with this? I’m feeling a lot of pressure from my superiors and a few politicians, it’s like I don’t have enough problems in this job.”

  Father Czeriak is a meek gentleman in his sixties; he lowers his head starting to speak conclusively, “First, Jim, you should pray and then continue to seek the truth. You have to do what you must do. Above all, don’t let those party hacks bother you; I know it’s easy for me to say. What you should do is the best you can, no one could ask more.”

  Martinelli thanks him for his time, puts on his hat after leaving the rectory and drives to a bar to have a drink, before leaving for his home.

  Martinelli snickers, thinking of Father’s insinuation about local politics. When he returns home, Dr. Marvin calls to ask about one of the other audio cassettes, which has a chime. “Yes, sir, I remember, what about them?”

  “They’re all chimes from St. Andrew’s church.” The coroner says. Martinelli knew the church, starting to drink a can of soda. “One day, I was driving around the city at noontime, when I heard the chimes; I found it strange, I wonder what it all means?”

  The police officer rubs his face roughly emitting a groan. Dr. Marvin asked if there was anything wrong. Martinelli explains his suspicions are very strong.

  “Do you know this person? It seems you have an idea who it is.”

  Martinelli says he needs proof before taking any action.

  The next day’s headline read: ACQUITTED PAROLEE FOUND DEAD IN COURTHOUSE TOILET. A by-line stated: It’s the third in a series, is Tappan County under the terror of a serial killer?

  The news of Richards’ demise causes people to either wince or laugh in the area; there was talk in businesses around town where many people were relieved by the discovery, since Tommy Richards victimized Black Meadows, along with his friends for years?

  After the Bellow family had eaten breakfast, Johnny was reading the Classifieds for a job when Sgt. Martinelli arrives at the house. Sal answers the door, “Jim, what brings you here?”

  Martinelli says this wasn’t a so
cial call; he needs to speak to Johnny. He was sitting down at a desk when the officer walks into the room. Johnny puts down the periodical, but was not surly asking what he could do for him. “I want to know where you were around 10:30 yesterday morning.”

  Johnny lowers her head saying he was running errands.

  Martinelli tells him it was the time when Tommy Richards was killed, his head and eyebrows lower. “I know how you loved Doreen.”

  Johnny sat straight looking straight into his eye, “What makes you think I killed that no good piece of garbage?”

  The officer moves forward saying he couldn’t discuss it, but he knew he was angry about Richards taking part in the killing of his fiancée.

  Johnny’s tone rises, “May I remind you Tommy Richards had a lot of enemies, both inside and outside of prison? I was there, you were not.”

  “Come on, we know how angry you’ve been since her death.”

  Johnny holds his hand out, “Wait a minute, Sergeant! If your fiancée was pregnant and she was killed by thugs, wouldn’t you be angry?”

  Martinelli says, “We must operate within the law to punish them.”

  He got up, “I know this game you’re playing, and it is up to you whether you believe me.” The officer said he wants to. Johnny tells him to leave, “You don’t have any cause to be here.”

  Johnny’s father pleads the officer was doing his job.

  Johnny told him to stay out of it. “I’m not twelve years old; you don’t tell me how to talk to people! He’s trying to trap me, can’t you see it?”

  Martinelli leaves questioning his suspicions.

  Johnny receives a call from Georgia Valentine telling him she appealed Judge Hartnett’s ruling before County Court Judge Griffin and he threw out the ruling, saying since the license number recorded in the deposition was different than the one his dog had when he acquired him. “That’s great news, Ms. Valentine. When can I expect to see my dog?”

  “You sound low for such great news.”

  Johnny tells her of Sgt. Martinelli suspecting him of killing those convicts, “The questioning isn’t as bad as is their persistence in thinking I’m guilty. No matter how much I cooperate with them, it doesn’t seem to matter.”