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Jun 22, 2024 · As the police found the body of a 15-year-old missing boy named John McCabe in September 1969, they turned their focus on catching the perpetrator/s responsible for claiming the life of the innocent teenager. The murder sent shockwaves across the entire community while the family and friends of the victim were struck with a heavy sense of grief.
- Walter Shelley: Where is John McCabe’s Killer Now?
On the night of September 26, 1969, 15-year-old John McCabe...
- Where is John McCabe’s Family Now? - The Cinemaholic
John McCabe’s Parents Have Since Sadly Passed. It was...
- Walter Shelley: Where is John McCabe’s Killer Now?
John J. McCabe. John Joseph McCabe (March 13, 1954 - September 27, 1969) was a youth from Tewksbury, Massachusetts, who was abducted and murdered after attending a Knights of Columbus dance in the nearby city of Lowell. His bound and strangled body was found in an empty lot on Maple Street in Lowell the next day. [1]
Jun 22, 2024 · On the night of September 26, 1969, 15-year-old John McCabe attended a dance event filled with the typical excitement of a boy his age. Tragically, he never returned home. The following morning, police arrived at his parents’ door with devastating news: John’s body had been discovered by children in an empty lot in Lowell, Massachusetts. […]
Mar 2, 2016 · Published 6:04 AM PDT, March 2, 2016. LOWELL, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts man convicted in 2014 of first-degree murder for the 1969 slaying of a 15-year-old boy has had the verdict reduced to the lesser charge of second-degree murder. Walter Shelley, who is now 64, was convicted of killing John McCabe of Tewksbury. Prosecutors say Shelley ...
- Overview
- A COLD CASE HEATS UP
- SECRETS REVEALED
- MARLA SHINER TAKES THE STAND
- JUSTICE FOR JOHN?
Produced by Judy Rybak and Peter Henderson
It took almost every ounce of strength left in his 85 year-old body to get to the witness stand, but Bill McCabe waited 43 years for this day and the start of this trial in January of 2013.
"I always visualized him as being a big shot somewhere. John Joseph McCabe. 'My son, JJ,' you know?" Evelyn McCabe told "48 Hours" correspondent Richard Schlesinger. "But I never got to see any of those things."
In the fall of 1969, two men had just landed on the moon, thousands had just crashed at Woodstock and John McCabe, 15 years, 6 months and 2 weeks old, was living with his family in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.
"I think we have a right to be proud of him," said Bill McCabe.
John's father, Bill, was an engineer. His mother, Evelyn, worked at the school library. His sisters, Roberta, who was 6, and Debbie, who was 17, remember a brother who was always busy, doing what brothers do.
With each passing season, John McCabe's case grew colder, but his mother kept asking the most painful questions about how he died.
"I tried to strangle myself just to visualize what it felt like," Evelyn McCabe said. "I wondered ... 'Did he call for me? What kind of a mother was I?' I wasn't there for him."
For a time, Evelyn set a place for John at the dinner table. His absence was a constant presence in the house.
Through it all, Bill McCabe continued to write John's story, while constantly pushing police for an ending.
"You can't just do something wrong and not have to pay for it..." he said.
The case stalled for some 30 years, until November 2000, when Jack Ward, a childhood friend of John's, made good on a decades old promise to Bill.
It would take almost two years to bring the men accused of killing John McCabe to trial. Two more years the McCabe's would have to wait.
On Jan. 18, 2013, Edward Alan Brown was called to testify against his one-time friend, Mike Ferreira -- the first defendant to go on trial.
For the first time, Brown publicly shared the details of the night John died. Brown says he was at home watching television when Mike Ferreira and Walter Shelley pulled up to his house:
Brown testified they were on their way to the Knights of Columbus Hall when he learned of their plan:
Brown says they drove up a dirt road to the vacant lot and pulled over:
Brown testified that he and Shelley held John McCabe down, while Ferreira tied him up:
Prosecutors had a problem. It was their star witness, Edward Alan Brown, who seemed to wither under strong cross examination from the defense:
So prosecutor Tom O'Reilly called Det. Linda Coughlin to counter accusations that she'd forced Edward Alan Brown to confess and fed him details:
But Eric Wilson says Coughlin also had tunnel vision and ignored evidence of other suspects:
Richard Santos was flagged in a Tewksbury police report as a suspect in the McCabe murder in 1974. Santos was arrested for committing a crime eerily similar to John McCabe's murder.
"This young woman was abducted on Route 38," Wilson said. "Her feet were bound, her hands were tied behind her back, her mouth was duct taped, and her eyes were taped shut."
"All of the facts that surround Santos as a possible subject lead you to be suspicious," Former D.A. Gerry Leone explained. "But there was never anything tying him to motive, opportunity, means."
"I still don't believe Bill is gone. I can still hear him snore in the night. And then I feel the bed. He's not there," said Evelyn McCabe.
She was determined to honor her husband's dying wish.
"He laid in the hospital bed, and I said, 'I'll pick up and take over for you,'" said Evelyn.
She'd see to it that someone would pay for John's murder.
"And my father just kept prayin' and sayin' to me, 'Before I die, we have to find out who did this," said Roberta McCabe.
And watching Michael Ferreira go free was tough for some jurors, too.
- 43 min
Jun 22, 2024 · John McCabe’s Parents Have Since Sadly Passed. It was actually Bill’s perseverance that drove officials to reexamine John’s case in the late 2000s, which then led to the arrests of Edward Brown, Michael Ferreira, and Walter Shelley in April 2011, following the former’s confession. However, it took two more years for the accused to face ...
Jul 2, 2024 · In the fall of 1969, two men had just landed on the moon, thousands had just crashed at Woodstock and John McCabe, 15 years, 6 months and 2 weeks old, was living with his family in Tewksbury ...
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