6/6/66

by JN Lenz

  This baroque arrogance proved to be costly for Delver in the eyes of the law, further to the fact that Delver briskly and casually brushed aside the second request from Police to detail his where abouts on the night his father was shot dead. Knowing his own innocence and feeling nothing but distain for what he viewed as parasitic investigators, Delver lashed back at them with a deluge of back handed insults and threats of legal action against them. Referring the investigators to the name of his lawyer, telling them to “arrest me or fuck off.”

  That whole event had been caught on camera by a nearby local reporter and camera man, as the investigators had confronted Delver in front of the Winslow head office.

  The blatant arrogance, along with his refusal to back his original statement to the police (which used his wife Barbara as his sole alibi for the night of his father’s murder) with a lie detector test, fueled the investigators and convinced them of his guilt. So convinced had the two detectives become of Delver’s guilt they reviewed the results of the investigation to the Police Chief to gain the support to enlarge the investigation into Delver Winslow. The Police would comb through the details of Harry Winslow’s will which divided his wealth equally among the three boys at thirty three per cent each, the remaining one per cent would be given to charity.

  Although Harry divided his monetary wealth up equally to his three sons, there would be a provision in which Delver would receive additional voting shares and control the board of directors over his two siblings. Delver could not force either brother’s control from them without consent from all three parties, just as there was a stipulation which prohibited Charles and Merlin from forming their two halves to form sixty six per cent of the corporation and throw Delver out, again unless all three parties agree on a mutual share swap or sale.

  Late in the week just one day before the funeral, members of the investigative team discovered Delver was a member of a riffle club. Turns out he owned several guns, including a thirty-thirty the matching the caliber of the slugs in Harry’s head and the casings found at the scene of the crime.

  Word at the riffle club was that Delver was an exceptional shot, had won his share of chub shooting contests and hated to loose. There would be several more revelations in the media about the Police investigation after the charges of first degree murder were brought against Delver Winslow. The charges would not take place until after the Shackles Funeral Home buried Harry Winslow on Saturday.

  The week leading up to the Saturday funeral for Harry Winslow was not as busy as the prior week, the cadaver we had picked up on the weekend was buried on the following Tuesday. The service was of the low end variety as the family had very little funds for their mother who had been living with her eldest daughter and her children for several years. A burial and head stone was out of the question for the family, the costs of such a service had simply been too high for the family. The family instead settled on a simple service with mother being cremated with her ashes placed in a simple small pine box.

  “To be thrown into Niagara Falls, just as mother had always wanted.” The daughter would explain to Fred, who I had handle the bulk of that service. My focus for the balance of that week remained on Harry’s funeral on Saturday. The morgue had not released the body to us until the Tuesday afternoon, the family had earlier agreed on Saturday as the date of the funeral service. This was a little long to leave a burial but Fred managed to do a remarkable job in both Harry’s appearance and the absence of the smell of death.

  The phones continued to ring throughout that week leading up to the funeral of Harry Winslow, with requests for service and visitation times, names of the local florists, etc. There would be no phone calls for additional services that week at all until Friday; I remember that much thinking back to that week. Clyde does not make any mention of the phone call or his next murder victim here in this file, I guess because it will all be detailed in his next file, Clyde’s third murder.

  Fred would take the call on Friday for Clyde’s most recent slaying, here we had yet to bury his last murder victim and we needed to return to the city of Toronto to pick up his next.

  “Christ, it’s another pre arrangement if you can believe that”

  “It is? Where and who?

  “Macy Mae Fredrickson, she had been living in a retirement residence down in Toronto. I don’t think the place is far from where Clyde is staying.”

  “Guess I will need to take a drive down to the city for the pickup.”

  “That was the Gateway Nursing Home; the body was removed from there by the coroner and can be picked up at the morgue.”

  “Nursing Home, she was living in a Nursing Home?”

  “Yes that is correct; she has been there for over ten years I believe”

  “I see”

  “Just my luck, the second I lose this place and the business takes off, what are the odds of that happening after all these years of stagnant sales?”

  “Just a short term little blip I’m sure”

  “Maybe, I wish it would have blipped last year instead”

  “I guess there is no crystal ball in life Fred, I’m going to take off down to the city while I have a chance and pick up the body at the morgue.”

  “Need directions?”

  “I can figure it out, see you later Fred”

  The entire drive down to the city and back I could not help but worry about the pace of Clyde’s murder spree, had he been taking enough precautions so as not to be caught? How had he murdered Macy Mae? Who was next? How the hell did I get talked into all this? By the time I arrived back to the Funeral Home my head was pounding through my skull, after helping Fred to bring the cadaver into the embalming room in the basement I sent straight up to the apartment and went to bed. I would not wake when Clyde arrived back from the city and school, with the Winslow funeral the following day I would have no chance to discuss the killing of Macy Mae until late Saturday evening.

  The funeral for Harry Winslow began early for all three of us at the Shackles Funeral Home. Both Clyde and I would be downstairs by four thirty in the morning drinking coffee and preparing to drive the hour round trip to get one of the Cadillac’s from a neighboring Funeral Home. Once we returned the florist was already at the Funeral Home delivering the casket sprays and arrangements for the Church, the funeral home and the mausoleum. Beyond the dozens and dozens of arrangements that had poured into the funeral home from across the country I would add a dozen more to the services, doubling their cost when I added them to the billing.

  The additional help which Fred had managed to cajole from the community Funeral Homes which surrounded the town of Largo proved to be invaluable. Several of them being very capable Funeral Home owners themselves, this provided a seamless funeral service despite the very large crowd in attendance. From directing traffic, to getting the multitude of cars parked and back into the funeral procession, to having the solid row of black Cadillac’s line to stern behind the Hearse.

  The most expensive casket the town of Largo would ever witness resided majestically at the front of the church; flowers lined every row and every corner of the church and the Funeral Home. After the internment the Funeral Home’s entire main floor, verandah and most of the front lawn would be covered with people attending the luncheon.

  In fact the entire service went brilliantly with no surprises, the town Police had requested the media remain across the street from the church while filming for their news casts, which most respected. The small placards reading the Shackles Funeral Home that resided inside the window of the Hearse and our lead Cadillac would be seen across the Nation on that night.

  Other than a few passing words there would be very little said between any of us at the Funeral Home and Delver the day of the service, we had simply been too busy. Perhaps the true gravity of his father’s death had finally taken a grip on Delver, or the reality that there were dark clouds ominously on Delvers horizon, but he did not appear to be the confident cocky man I had met only a week ago. Delver wo
uld attend the funeral with his wife, arriving in the same long black Cadillac limo that each of his brothers would arrive at the church in.

  Charles arrived with his wife and two children, making a point before leaving that day to thank Fred, Clyde and me for the service. Ensuring us all that the service was just as his father would have wanted. Charles would also introduce us to his brother Merlin, who we had all not met yet. Merlin managed to slur out a thank you, as he stumbled slightly towards us as he talked. It was then that I got a smell of alcohol, realizing that he had decided to spend the time at his father’s funeral drunk. I had noticed him a few times during the service but had no idea he had been drinking, too busy paying attention to other details instead I guess.

  Back at the apartment that night I was not sure what to talk to Clyde about first. All that had been happening around the funeral home that week and the funeral of Harry Winslow. The media coverage surrounding Harry’s death and search and the speculation about his killer or the most recent victim of Clyde’s who I had picked up in Toronto on the Friday night and was still lying on the stainless steel table in the embalming room waiting to have her blood drained. In a similar pattern to the past few weekends Clyde and I would spend to the wee hours of Saturday smoking and drinking while the pair of us compared notes and the week that had unfolded for each of us.

  That Sunday morning, Clyde amazingly would be up by six in the morning, drinking coffee before retreating to the basement to perform the embalming on his latest murder victim. I always wished I had his tolerance level for alcohol, the dubes never slowed me down but anything north of ten beers or ten shots it was a crap shoot how I was gonna feel the next day.

  It was not so bad back then when we were both still in our twenties, but by the time I hit thirty six years old, anything north of ten drinks had the potential to kick the shit out of me for like two days. This was not the case for Clyde, even to this day he can drink all night and still be awake and out of bed by six am. Deep down I think he really felt like shit, by this point in his life it was all for the perception of toughness I would joke to him, man I hated that fucker some times.

  The third victim of Clyde’s would see her first guest at visitation on that Sunday afternoon, I remained in the office and let Clyde and Fred deal with the two hours of visitation on that Sunday afternoon as my head pounded away reminding me of every mouthful of alcohol I had consumed the previous night, it was only after I had blazed for the second time in the day that my brain escaped from the grips of hell. The relief from that second joint of the day allowed me to focus on adding up the majority of charges to be placed against the billing for Harry Winslow’s funeral service.

  The totals ended at a greater sum than I had originally hoped for, the invoice I would bill to the estate lawyers Harry had entrusted his will with, once I had gathered all the potential charges together the total would provide us with a total profit of twenty three thousand dollars from one funeral, that was in nineteen eighty six which was closer to the cost of eight funerals at that time than the four times I predicted we could make from this one service. Looking over the numbers I said fuck it and added another three thousand in charges spread across all the items to bring our profit total to a more fitting twenty six thousand dollars.

  The following day after Clyde was long gone on his return drive back to school in Toronto, I would read the front page of the morning paper. The Nation’s largest daily newspaper head lined the late night arrest of Delver Winslow for the murder of his father, the rich industrialist Harry Winslow. The article provided a brief bio on Delver, the oldest son of Harry and the current president of his late father’s vast empire. Police had yet to provide details of the arrest to the media, other than releasing that Delver had in fact been charged with first degree murder.

  Following his arrest on charges of first degree murder, Delver would hire Clay Rutty, one of the city’s top criminal’s lawyers to defend the charges against him. Despite his lawyers noted court room prowess, Delver was denied bail and remanded in custody until his trial for fear of flight. The back log of criminal cases at that time would mean trial would not begin for six months or longer. Clay Rutty having lost his bid for bail, advised his client Delver to divulge that he had in fact been having an extra marital affair.

  Having no intention on spending the next half a year in jail awaiting trial, Delver accepted the worse of two evils and agreed to Clay’s advice. Delver would make the confession to the Police that he had been having an extra martial affair with a young stripper from the south side of the city for more than a year. If Delver had been confident that the confession of his infidelities would result in the Toronto Police and the Crown Attorney dropping the first degree murder charges against him, he would be wrong. There would be no reason for them to keep Delver in custody; Clay had assured Delver before the confession.

  What Clay and Delver saw as a revelation of the truth to the authorities only served to provide further legitimacy to the investigators? They reasoned this affirmed their belief that Delver was a lying and manipulative murderer, whose ambition would stop at nothing until such a point that he controlled the entire estate of the late Harry Winslow.

  The fact that Delver would solicit the testimony of a known stripper and likely prostitute for use as a cover from the first degree murder charges showed that Delver was a man that lied to both his wife and the authorities, why is he to be believed now they would reason? There was also the allegations of deception and illegal funds against his own siblings and father in the family business as well further proof that Delver could not be believed and there was no way for him to truly verify his where abouts on the night of his father’s assignation. There would still be the incidentals, such as the prolific achievements at the local firing range, and his extensive collection of rifles and pistols.

  The collection included a thirty- thirty, the rifle may not have had matching ballistics but demonstrated Delvers understanding of the weapon. The revelation to the Police of his extra marital affair would not facilitate his exit from jail but the admission of his extra marital affair would quickly leak beyond the jail house walls and into the public eye.

  Delver’s wife Louise would be informed of her husband’s indiscretions when viewing the following morning’s paper which had a large front page photo of the woman who the papers alleged had been sleeping with her husband. It was reported that this woman who without question Louise viewed as cheap looking slut who looked to be closer to thirty than forty had in fact been sleeping with her husband for months including the night of his father’s murder, this was the same night she had lied to Police telling them that she had spent the evening with Delver.

  Reading the paper and realizing she had the real potential of facing criminal charges for lying to the pair of investigators (who she now without question saw as being rather cute). Louise would call her lawyer immediately to number one arrange a meeting with the investigators to recant her initial statement she had made to the Police about the night Harry Winslow had been shot. Number two would be to file for divorce from Delver Winslow immediately and with vengeance, it would later be reported that she gained a full fifty per cent of Delvers thirty three per cent ownership share.

  Louise would end Delvers dream of controlling the business he had helped build into a giant even before Delver would come to trial for the murder of his father Harry. The additional damning statements that Louise would provide the Police against her estranged husband reinforced the Prosecutions circumstantial case against Delver; she would be called on by the Crown Attorney to testify against Delver during the three month murder trial.

  The story of the great family wealth and murder captivated the front pages of all the National papers and TV newscasts both before and during the trial, the final verdict would not be delivered until nearly one year had passed by, Delver remained behind bars in one of the city jails the entire time. After reportedly spending close to a million dollars on his defense (which was no small amount in
the mid-eighties) Delver’s lawyers convinced a jury that he was in fact innocent.

  The team of Lawyers had torn down the Prosecutions circumstantial case which lacked the apprehension of the murder weapon and the testimony of a Chinese Food delivery boy that had delivered take out to the apartment containing Delver and his mistress the night Harry Winslow had been shot. Freedom from jail brought Delver back as a free man in a completely different world than he had left just one year earlier, his wife was gone and he would never control the family business.

  There would be very few additional comments by Clyde in the file concerning Delver in the years since his release from jail. On a few of the files Clyde had made notations to the bottom of the file, making note of any significant news or revelations about his victims as the years passed by. At the bottom Harry Winslow’s file, Clyde had made several small notes over the years after the murder of Harry. The first note detailing the date Harry’s Mausoleum was completed and the day we moved both Harry and his wife into the new structure.

  Clyde went on to list how Harry’s son Charles was now the head of the family empire, and also how Merlin would die some five years later. Harry’s youngest son died almost to the day of his father’s murder, the result of cocaine and alcohol fueled overdose. There would be little more said about Delver other than a note about the sale of his Mansion some years after he was exonerated on the first degree murder charge, that and mention of his marriage to some woman several years later other than that Clyde had added no more comments on a man that lost control of the family empire and served a year in jail for the both of us.

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  Chapter 6

  Clyde would go against my suggestion from the previous weekend, to hold off future murders for a week or so. The margin from Harry’s funeral I reasoned would get us very close to our financial goal. Instead he ignored my request and turned his attention to the number three murder following his return to Toronto, on that very Sunday night.