Chris said, “Bill, they wouldn’t electrocute an innocent man.”
But Bill Bradfield told him testily that he wasn’t worried about being smoked by the authorities. He was afraid of being snuffed by Jay Smith because of Vince’s big mouth.
Chris Pappas was getting all mixed up again, and he said in frustration, “Jay Smith’s in prison. So maybe we should tell the cops our side of all this.”
Ah, but Jay Smith’s minions were everywhere, Bill Bradfield reminded him. And Vince Valaitis might have just signed his own death warrant. And they’d better be careful or their names would be on a murder contract right along with his. They were not yet free from Jay Smith danger.
By the time Bill Bradfield was through twiddling his beard, it looked like Medusa’s hairdo.
* * *
After Vince Valaitis had talked, and all of Bill Bradfields friends knew about it, Trooper Lou DeSantis and Special Agent Matt Mullin got the assignment to travel to California to interview Shelly again. It was the first time that her Catholic college had ever had the law arrive to chat with a student about murder.
After being taken to a private room and advised of her constitutional rights, Shelly told the lawmen that she was willing to talk, but she might need some sort of immunity.
The lawmen were licking their chops because little Shelly was showing a brow like a pile of linguini, and they thought they had something going. But then she told them what had her so worried. When Bill Bradfield and Chris were at summer school, she and her pal Jenny had been driving Chris’s car all over the place without a proper registration or drivers license.
The lawmen couldn’t believe it. They were talking about a murdered woman and two missing children and she was worrying about a traffic ticket. The Bradfield Bunch made them yearn for cattle prods and ice baths. Anything to wake them up.
Shelly told them her version of the weekend as she and Bill Bradfield had rehearsed it, replete with all the lies. The lies kept getting tangled as to where she and Bill Bradfield had been on Friday, June 22nd. She now said they may have been walking around Haverford College. As to the time he dropped her at her pal’s, she changed it from 7:00 P.M. to 8:45 P.M.
As to Bill Bradfields obvious perjury at the Jay Smith trial, Shelly finally conceded that he could have made an honest mistake because he was bad about dates.
Then the cops told her a few things to test her response. They talked about some of Bill Bradfields amorous affairs, but Shelly said she didn’t believe for a minute that there’d been anything at all between Susan Reinert and Bill Bradfield. Ditto with Rachel even after they pointed out that she’d been registered in the Philly hotel for one month prior to the murder under the name of Mrs. William Bradfield.
Shelly looked pretty smug when she heard that because Bill Bradfield had explained to her that Rachel was afraid of the seedy neighborhood and wanted any potential rapists in the hotel lobby to think she had a man in the room. Besides, Bill Bradfield had told her that he’d been celibate for five years. Rachel was just a friend and it was a pretty sad thing that in 1979 people couldn’t accept friendship between the sexes that didn’t involve something sordid. She informed the investigators that Chris and her girlfriend had that kind of relationship.
But they pointed out to Shelly that they’d seen the phone records of the hotel and learned that at 5:35 A.M. on June 1st, Bill Bradfield had made a call from that hotel to Upper Merion High School to say that he wouldn’t be able to make it to class.
Shelly was stopped by that one, but finally she said, “Okay, maybe he spent the night with Rachel. But it was probably for a good reason. Don’t you understand that people can spend the night together without thinking of sex? He was just exhausted.”
Then she tried to tell them how he taught English and Latin to her. And how he tutored students in Greek and even taught Bible studies on his own time.
The lawmen at this time didn’t know about all the money storage and the rest of it. Nor did they know that Bill Bradfield and Shelly were going to get married in a French cathedral and declaim from “The Wanderer” as they followed the trail of the Mycenaeans and their thousand black ships.
Matt Mullin had some compassion for the young woman, but Joe VanNort did not.
After they returned, Joe VanNort said, “The FBI maybe wants to pay her tuition to Notre Dame. I wanna see her graduate through a correspondence course. In state prison.”
The federal grand jury happened to be in session in Philadelphia. The Reinert task force used the powers of this grand jury to subpoena phone records, credit card information and bank records, to go deeper into the affairs of William Bradfield and his friends. And of Jay C. Smith, as well.
Vince Valaitis couldn’t wait to talk publicly about the terrible dilemma that he and his friends found themselves in. Prior to volunteering his testimony to the grand jury, Vince talked to reporters again.
“Bill Bradfield refuses to be interviewed,” Vince told them, “because he fears no one will believe him. And because he has a higher moral motivation. He doesn’t care about this world at all. He cares about his soul and another world. I’ve prayed a rosary with Bill and he wants to become a Catholic. I see Bill in an entirely different way than you do.”
He told the grand jury his strange story and then he volunteered what he thought might set the record straight for all of them:
“In the news it says ‘this clique of teachers.’ It sounds like we’re some kind of insidious group. This is something that evolved slowly. I can’t even believe I’m sitting here saying all I’ve said to you.
“There’s nothing insidious about our group. We’re good people. We’re friendly. We love each other. I feel that people in our school district think we consider ourselves superior. They’re saying that because Bill Bradfield is such an aggressive man, such a brilliant man, such an overpowering man, that we all believe in everything he does. That’s not true.”
When Vince was through talking that day, one of the grand jurors said, “Explain to me, to all of us, why in the world didn’t you at some time go to Mrs. Reinert and warn her?”
And by now Vince knew he’d spend the rest of his life being asked that question. And by now he knew that even when the words were not being uttered, the eyes were asking it.
Flattened and humiliated, after an interminable pause, Vince said, “I … just did not … deal with it.”
It was as good an answer as any of them would give. And it would never get any better.
When it was time to pay his lawyer a little installment, did Bill Bradfield just send a check or money order or even walk in and plop some cash on John Curran’s desk? Of course not, since a straightforward move like that might cause him to limit his cast which already had more players than Nicholas Nickleby.
He didn’t want his lawyer to know that he had the pile of money that Shelly had been hiding. He told Chris to ask his father if he’d take the cash and buy money orders for several thousand dollars and give the money orders to Bill Bradfield. He wanted his lawyer to think he was broke and having to borrow.
And Bill Bradfield told Chris what he’d like to do about the Judas who had caused all this misery for them.
He said, “I’d like to blow Vince’s brains out!”
He said that he was thinking about planting a story with Jay Smith that Vince Valaitis had hired a private eye to uncover things about Jay Smith. That way Dr. Jay wouldn’t think that Bill Bradfield had talked to anyone about all the Jay Smith shenanigans, and he might be encouraged to have a member of the mob “take out” Vince.
Chris wasn’t worrying about Vince at this point. Mostly he was worrying about Chris Pappas. He’d learned a lot from his master in the past several months. Chris saved potential evidence that came his way. After all, Bill Bradfield himself always said that he hated to destroy anything because he never knew when he might need it again.
The superintendent of the Upper Merion school board promised a crowd of 150 parents and citizens
that while 3 teachers whose names were not mentioned could not be legally fired, they would be removed from direct contact with students.
Chris went to work at a construction job. Bill Bradfield, Sue Myers and Vince Valaitis were reassigned to nonteaching duties while the school district tried to figure out what to do with them. They were ordered to report to the deserted Union Avenue School and were given busy work.
The superintendent said privately to Vince, “Boy, if I could get you out of this district, I would!”
Unfortunately for Vince, he and Bill Bradfield were forced to share the same basement office, the same work table in fact, and there was no real work to do. They’d just report every day and Vince would read the latest newspaper article on the Reinert case and try not to talk about it to his friend, but once in a while he couldn’t help himself.
He saw a tidbit that some reporter wrote and asked, “Did you ever have breakfast at Susan Reinerts house?”
“Absolutely not!” Bill Bradfield answered.
“Pat Schnure says that Karen told her you did.”
Bill Bradfield threw a desk calendar against the wall, and shouted, “They’re all liars! The hounds are after a conviction!”
“They’re saying a lot about you and Susan Reinert,” Vince said. “It can’t all be lies.”
And then Bill Bradfield looked at him with his blue eyes brimming with sadness and disappointment, and he started mixing metaphors:
“Vince, the Book of Job says that sometimes innocent people have to be punished. God never promised you a bed of roses. During court cases there are battles, and after battles there are bodies.”
Something happened then that had never happened to Bill Bradfield. A disciple got mad enough to clench a fist.
Vince Valaitis slammed his fist down on the wooden table and said, “I’m not going to be punished for you! I’m not going to jail with you!”
Bill Bradfield got mad too. He grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and said, “All right, if I’m going to be blamed for murder, I might well as admit it. Here. I’ll show you how I did it.”
He drew a square with a little line. He said, “I took the children and I gave them to …”
But Vince snatched the paper and crumpled it and threw it on the floor saying, “Don’t do that! Don’t make things up!”
Vince stormed out of the basement office and was allowed to have desk space in another room.
Over the years he was asked many times to think back on that incident, especially as to Bill Bradfield saying, “I gave them to …”
At a later time he would swear that Bill Bradfield said “Smith.” He would remember that it was “I gave them to Smith.”
Years and memories are tricky. Bill Bradfield may or may not have said “Smith.” The implication seemed clear, but Vince learned that lawyers worry a great deal about such things.
Later calls from William Bradfield to Vince Valaitis came at all hours of the night.
The phone would ring and Vince would pick it up sleepily and Bill Bradfield would say, “Why are you deserting me? I need you.”
Once he cried, “Don’t betray me to the Fascists! Look what they did to Jean Seberg! Look what they did to Ezra Pound!”
Another time he called and said, “Vince, it’s all a mistake. We didn’t do anything. None of us.”
But Vince responded, “How about Jay Smith? How about all the things you told me about you and Jay Smith?”
He almost suffered a blown eardrum when Bill Bradfield screamed, “Don’t mention names! It’s phone-tapping time! The house is bugged! Everything’s dangerous! You don’t know it was Doctor Smith! None of us knows for sure!”
Bill Bradfield wasn’t the only one showing a little paranoia. Sue Myers sat weeping in her apartment one day because of her portrayal in the media. She told Vince that she’d had $1,500 worth of work done on her car but the transmission went out immediately. She was frightened.
Vince said, “That’s terrible, but it’s nothing to be frightened about.”
“Don’t you see!” Sue whispered. “The transmission could’ve been sabotaged by the FBI!”
It was inevitable. A reporter found out about the Mary Hume tombstone in Vince’s apartment and speculated that the “cult” might have lit candles on it as they uttered incantations about Susan Reinert.
During those awful days Vince’s parents stood by him. His father invited him to move back home, so Vince slipped out of his digs faster than the Shah of Iran.
Even after he’d deserted Bill Bradfield, Vince Valaitis still did not believe that his friend was guilty of anything except foolishness in not revealing what he knew about Jay Smith to the authorities. As far as he was concerned, a good man had become involved with a bad man for a good reason, and was refusing to save himself.
Vince had a theory that Jay Smith himself had placed the comb under Susan Reinert’s body, knowing it would implicate him.
“He always loved to shock and torment,” Vince told the FBI. “He’d tantalize you by drawing a circle within a circle within a circle.”
During one of his many meetings with Vince Valaitis, Chick Sabinson alluded to Jack Holtz offering Vince a drink and said, “I have to apologize. I didn’t know he’d try to ply you with liquor. By the way, I’d like to put a radio transmitter on you in case Bradfield says something incriminating. Would you do it?”
“Can’t!” Vince said fearfully. “He’d detect it. He’s a hugger.”
“Mugger,” Joe VanNort added when he heard about that one. “Hugger-mugger, just like I said.”
19
The Basement
After the FBI started pressing its agents toward the Jay Smith connection, the red fibers found on the body of Susan Reinert took on significance. Particularly after what Vince Valaitis said about the prince of darkness.
Jack Holtz wanted to pursue the Jay Smith connection along with the FBI, but Joe VanNort still wasn’t convinced and ordered him to stick with Bill Bradfield and his cronies.
He said Bill Bradfield and Jay Smith were only connected in the same way that pus and phlegm are connected.
The FBI called on Grace Gilmore, the woman who’d bought the house on Valley Forge Road just before Jay Smith was sent to prison. She said yes, there was red carpet in the upstairs portion of the house.
Grace Gilmore told them that she’d closed escrow on the property prior to the weekend of June 22nd, but Jay Smith was allowed to stay in his basement apartment until Monday in that he correctly assumed that he might get sentenced to prison that day.
Grace Gilmore told Special Agent Hess that she’d gone to the shore with her sister on Friday, June 22nd, and didn’t return to the house on Valley Forge Road until Sunday afternoon. She didn’t get access to the basement until Monday, after Jay Smith was gone for good.
She’d never really seen him the day she returned. While putting away some things in the upstairs part of the house, she heard a noise from the basement apartment. Then she heard his car drive away. He always entered and left the basement by way of the garage entrance, which could not be seen from the street. His basement was off-limits to anyone.
The FBI also learned that when she’d bought the house there’d been a beige carpet in the basement. It was long gone now. She said it had been sopping wet on Monday, June 25th, and she’d cut it in four places and had it hauled away.
When the feds asked if it looked as though the carpet had been washed that weekend, she said that’s what she’d figured. Naturally, the feds crawled around the trash dump like rubbish rats, but to no avail.
Next, the FBI contacted the local cops who’d made the original arrest on Jay Smith back in 1978 when his secret life was revealed. The cops said they’d noticed at the time that there was a large remnant of the upstairs red carpet stored in that basement. Yet Grace Gilmore had found no red remnant when she moved in.
The agents started speculating that Susan Reinert may have been placed on that carpet remnant to await her fate, bu
t they hadn’t any idea where she would’ve picked up the two blue fibers found on her body.
Interviews with Jay Smith’s younger daughter were not helpful. Sheri was a sad and lonely young woman, whose immediate family was dead, imprisoned or missing. She was forced to live with various friends and relatives.
Jay Smith’s brothers had known nothing of his secret life, but were generally supportive and loyal to him. They seemed to feel that he might be involved in the earlier crimes but certainly was not a killer.
But a friend of his missing older daughter came forward with a tidbit. She told the FBI that young Stephanie had said that Jay Smith once warned her and a boyfriend that they knew too much about his business and that he was going to shoot them both and chop them up and pour nitric acid over their bodies. This because they’d discovered some information about his unusual sex practices. He just didn’t like people bad-mouthing his sex life.
The owner of a massage parlor told the FBI that she’d been solicited by Dr. Jay to go into business. He’d given her $800 seed money to get started and find a location, but he had one caveat: whenever she called him she was to let the phone ring one time and hang up. Then she was to call back immediately and he’d answer.
She told the agents that she felt intimidated by Jay Smith. He seemed too sure of himself. She thought that if she went into business with that guy she might end up like his timid librarian friend over whom he seemed to have abnormal control. He made her so uncomfortable that she gave him back his money.
The FBI also learned that when Jay Smith arrived late for his sentencing on Monday, June 25th, he told the judge he was late because he’d made arrangements for a friend to deliver him to Harrisburg, but the friend had been unable to make it.
The FBI contacted the friend and learned that Jay Smith had placed a call to him earlier in the weekend, not on Monday. And he did not ask for a ride to Harrisburg. He said that Jay Smith had sounded distressed-his voice was unusually high.
Echoes in the Darkness Page 24
