Cold case gets Hot-1977 mutilation murder trial begins
Mke
her husband and 9 yo daughter. Ruth took another trail and was never
seen alive again. Today a 76 yo man who is no stranger to jail
and has a history of sex crimes will start listening to opening testimony
in his trial for her murder.
mike
Stay out of woods
By Rich Harbert
MPG Newspapers
PLYMOUTH (Nov. 1) - Former teacher Alba Thompson still recalls the
round-eyed looks of her high school students as they read about the carnage
in class.
After a young school teacher and mother was savagely murdered while riding
her bike in Myles Standish State Forest in 1977, the massive park and its
popular ponds, bike paths and hiking trails took on an eerie presence among
townspeople of all ages.
Overnight, the forest that locals enjoyed visiting in summer and winter
became a place of chilling suspicion. "It was kind of a strange awakening.
It hit with tremendous force," Thompson recalled this week. "Indeed, it
changed the atmosphere of the place."
Chief Robert Pomeroy likens the phenomenon to the way the horror movie Jaws
scared an entire generation away from the ocean.
For years, Pomeroy said, police would field calls from would-be campers
wondering if it was safe to go back to the forest, if the killer of Ruth
Masters had been caught and brought to justice.
More than a quarter century later, people with long memories still think
twice about venturing into the heart of the forest alone, but at least
authorities can now offer hope.
Decades after the murder, investigators began re-interviewing witnesses and
re-examining evidence. Five years ago, they succeeded in putting together a
case against a career criminal with a long history of violence against
women.
Whether their 76-year-old suspect is responsible for the unspeakably vicious
attack remains to be seen. But an accounting is finally at hand. Come Monday
morning - 26 years, five months and 20 days after Ruth Masters died in a
remote corner of the forest - Eric H. Anderson Jr. will stand trial in
superior court in Brockton for her murder.
A Stoughton native who has spent most of the last half century behind bars,
Anderson has a record of attacks on women that dates to the mid-1950s. He is
currently serving a 25-year sentence for the aggravated assault and
kidnapping of a woman in Maine.
But when he appears before jurors in Judge Patrick Brady's courtroom in the
weeks to come, Anderson will appear as any other law-abiding senior citizen.
A ruling earlier this year by the state Supreme Judicial Court will bar
prosecutors from referring to the decades that Anderson has spent in prison
or the crimes against women that put him there.
Prosecutors had argued that Anderson's crimes suggested a hatred of women
that lies at the heart of the Masters murder.
Masters, 33, was riding her bike in the forest with her husband and
9-year-old daughter on May 14, 1977, when she decided to try a more
challenging trail on her own. Her grotesquely mutilated body was found the
next day under a pile of brush off a deserted stretch of bike trail near
Federal Pond Road.
Prosecutors have called the murder "the epitome of hatred toward the female
gender" and argued that jurors needed to know Anderson's criminal history to
understand how passionately he could hate women.
Court records show that he was just 28 years old when he was arrested in
1955 for breaking into homes and stealing women's clothing. He broke into a
home again in the summer of 1957 and tried to rape a woman while her
children played outside. Court records show that he was wearing a dress that
was stolen from the house a month earlier.
Anderson spent the next 161/2 years in prison and a state treatment center
for the sexually dangerous.
Anderson was 46 years old when he was released on parole in March 1974 -
three years and two months before Masters died.
He was arrested again five months after the murder, in October 1977, for the
unrelated kidnapping of a female hitchhiker from Falmouth. Court records
show that Anderson tied the woman up at knifepoint and drove her to
Kingston, threatening to "cut her up and kill her."
After she escaped, Anderson was convicted of assault and battery by
dangerous weapon and kidnapping. He spent the next 11 years in prison.
Released on parole in 1988, Anderson moved to Maine to be near his parents.
Less than two years later, he was arrested for another attack on a woman.
Court records show that he assaulted a neighbor with a knife, tied her up
and dragged her to his truck in August 1990. She escaped but suffered a
broken nose and several stab wounds to the arms, legs and chest. Anderson is
still serving time (currently at the Plymouth County jail) for the attack
and will not be eligible for release until 2007.
Prosecutors argued that the long criminal history is the only way to explain
the murder of Masters, whose body was sexually mutilated after she died of
skull fractures and a slashed throat. The state Supreme Judicial Court
ultimately ruled that the other attacks were not similar enough to the
murder to show a pattern that jurors should learn. In barring the evidence,
the court also found that the information would unfairly prejudice jurors
against Anderson.
Prosecutors decided to try Anderson nonetheless and are expected to tap into
the memories of relatives, strangers and even convicted killers to help make
their case.
At least two men who served time with Anderson after the Masters' murder are
expected to testify that he made incriminating statements to them in prison.
Both are convicted murderers.
Court records show that one told investigators that Anderson confessed to
cutting up a woman pretty bad once on the South Shore.
Another said Anderson told him how he cut the throat of woman he found
bicycling in the park. He said Anderson confessed to burying the woman with
leaves and taking her bicycle.
Masters' bike, along with her bra, shirt and panties were never found, but
court records note that Anderson's ex-wife reported seeing him with a
strange bicycle that year. The same woman also reported finding a stash of
female clothing, particularly underwear, in their house when Anderson was
arrested for the Falmouth woman's kidnapping.
Relatives are also expected to link Anderson to two weapons that are central
to the case - a carving knife believed to be the murder weapon and a
.22-caliber rifle.
Investigators were able to identify the murder weapon as an Ekco brand
carving knife from a tip that broke off in the victim's chest cavity. Though
Anderson denied having such a knife, his ex-wife told investigators that he
carried one until some time in 1977, court records state.
A son may connect Anderson to an ammunition clip that police found with
Masters' glasses on the bike path.
The son, a Falmouth resident, told investigators that during the 1970s and
1980s he bought three .22-caliber rifles for his father that could be fed
with such a clip, court records show.
The state's star witnesses may also be traveling the farthest to testify.
Now living in Florida, the former Sagamore residents told investigators that
they were riding bikes in the forest on the day that Ruth Masters died and
immediately had a suspect in mind after learning of the murder.
The couple told investigators that they kept running into the same "weird"
guy in a blue car. He seemed to be stalking them.
Even 17 years later, the husband was immediately able to pick Anderson from
a photo array of possible suspects. Anderson's picture was one of three that
the wife said might have been the driver. She said the man was wearing a
knife sheath and was driving a dented Chevy Nova like Anderson's car.
The couple's testimony places Anderson in the forest and acting suspiciously
on the day that Ruth Masters died, but was not exactly fresh.
Though the couple contacted police right after the murder, their story
apparently remained untold for nearly two decades.
Court papers show that it wasn't until 1994 that state police Detective
Richard Nagle interviewed the couple in Florida and their observations came
to light. No explanation is offered for the delay.
The couple's frustration with police, meanwhile, may very well speak for an
entire generation of Plymoutheans. "Why did the police blow us off 17 years
ago?" the wife asked Nagle in 1994. "The Bourne state police talked with us
very briefly. Like here's your hat, what's your hurry, good-bye. The police
really didn't listen to us."
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday at 9 a.m.
http://www.southofboston.com/display/inn_3headlines/happenings1oc.txt
COLD CASE back on front burner: Five years after he was first charged,
suspect will stand trial in the stabbing death of Plymouth woman
By DENNIS TATZ
The Patriot Ledger
http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2003/11/01/news/news02.txt
Prison confession: Attorney: Inmate spoke of '77 murder
by Jessica Heslam
Tuesday, November 4, 2003
http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/murd11042003.htm
COMMONWEALTH vs. Eric H. ANDERSON, Jr.
Ruling on attempt to bring in past history of accused
http://www.socialaw.com/sjcslip/sjcMay03m.html
tinydancer
"Mke" <Noa...@homail.com> wrote in message
news:bo8esi$du4$1...@bob.news.rcn.net...
> On May 14, 1977 Ruth Masters was riding bikes in a state forest with
>
> her husband and 9 yo daughter. Ruth took another trail and was never
>
> seen alive again. Today a 76 yo man who is no stranger to jail
>
> and has a history of sex crimes will start listening to opening testimony
>
> in his trial for her murder.
>
> mike
What a horrible case. All the poor women this guy has hurt, and yet they
aren't allowed to tell the jury of his history. Especially with the couple
who were able to identify him from the photo lineup. I hope a conviction is
had, although at this late date, it certainly won't help the other victims
he's hurt since.
Thanks for posting and please update. This would be a good case to watch on
Court TV.
td
Mke
"tinydancer" <tinyd...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:hHTpb.33478$SV2....@bignews3.bellsouth.net...
>
> "Mke" <Noa...@homail.com> wrote in message
> news:bo8esi$du4$1...@bob.news.rcn.net...
> > On May 14, 1977 Ruth Masters was riding bikes in a state forest with
> >
> > her husband and 9 yo daughter. Ruth took another trail and was never
> >
> > seen alive again. Today a 76 yo man who is no stranger to jail
> >
> > and has a history of sex crimes will start listening to opening
testimony
> >
> > in his trial for her murder.
> >
> > mike
>
>
> What a horrible case. All the poor women this guy has hurt, and yet they
> aren't allowed to tell the jury of his history. Especially with the
couple
> who were able to identify him from the photo lineup. I hope a conviction
is
> had, although at this late date, it certainly won't help the other victims
> he's hurt since.
>
> Thanks for posting and please update. This would be a good case to watch
on
> Court TV.
>
> td
I felt the same about Court TV. I remember the case, it was, as
described in the above article, people were just terrified of being out
in that forest. Be away for a day or so, the boston papers will
be covering I'm sure, try to update again soon.
mike
