Bonus - Tom & Kitty Fitzgerald

You're listening to the Men's Raya podcast, and this is the story of Tom and Kitty Fitzgerald. Irischown is a small village in County Mayo just over the border from County Galway. It's a quiet rural place with a great community spirit, and its community proudly remembers that it was in that village the first demonstrations were held leading to the establishment of the city. The movement agitation against absentee land lordism in the late 19th century, and an integral piece of the puzzle which would eventually lead to Irish independence from Britain. In memory of its role in the land movement, its Gaelic athletic association and Irish sports and cultural organization is named after one of those early leaders, Michael Davish. The center of the village is a crossroads where a modern church building faces out and across from one of the town's pubs. There's a school and a community center and a graveyard to the west side, shops and pubs and homes to the east, and a number of new build homes to the north of the town. It's quite typical and everyone knows everyone. In 2016, Tom Fitzgerald was 75. He and his wife, Kitty, three years younger, had lived out their lives in the small village in County Mayo. Their little cottage was about a mile from the village crossroads on the Dunmore Road. Tom had worked most of his life in a sugar factory in County Galway until it closed in the early 80s. In his later years, he was a painter and decorator by trade, and by 2016, he'd still not retired, though he'd slowed down at work in recent times because he had some bother with his knees. Tom had injured himself while working and was having issues going up and down the ladder. Tom and Kitty had adopted their only child, a son called Paul. He helped his father with the painting and decorating, but eventually after he completed college, Paul moved from the rural family home to live in Galway City. The Fitzgeralds were well known in the village. Locals would tell the Irish independent that there wasn't a building in Irish town that Tom hadn't painted in recent years. Both he and his wife were well known in their parish church, and Tom was also heavily involved in the local GA club. He was the director of the Irish town community development program and was also involved in the community council before that. That organization had helped to lobby to have a care home for the elderly, opened in the locality, and was also involved in social housing. Tom was easygoing and was always willing to pitch in with whatever was going on in Irish town. Kitty was the more vivacious, bubbly, and outgoing of the two, and she knew nearly everyone in the small village. She was a fixture at all of the community events, and she also sang in the church choir. The two were truly opposites with Tom standing at 6'3", a gentle giant, and Kitty being only 5'2", but they complemented each other so well and had a good marriage and were well liked in the area. Their son Paul was cheerful, in his youth he appeared in school plays and was noted as an artistic lad as he made his way through secondary school. Despite having moved to nearby Galway city after completing a degree in fine arts and sculpture, he returned often to Irish town to help his dad with the painting. On the 1st of November 2016, shortly after 3pm, Paul's girlfriend, Eva O'Gorman, arrived at the family cottage. She'd tried texting and then calling Paul around 40 times over the previous day. She wasn't able to get a hold of him. The last she'd heard from him was the day before, early, just before 11am. He told her over the weekend that he was heading to his parents house in mail. In her worry, Eva drove to his parents house from Claire Galway to see if he was there or if there was something wrong. She'd never been there before or even met his parents, but she was worried. She had to stop and ask for directions to the house when she got to Irish town. She pulled into the drive of the bungalow she saw Paul's car there and noticed his dogs. Eva went to the front door where she found a bloody handprint left on the door jam and she knocked but there was no answer. It seemed someone was home though because she could hear the shower going inside. Panic began to rise from her stomach, something wasn't right. Eventually Paul appeared from the back door. He was confused and had blood on his head and face and two black eyes. Eva asked Paul where his parents were and why hadn't they taken him to hospital but he said he didn't know. She said that she would take him and he nodded but then he mumbled confused and Eva heard the words "shower and bed". Paul had put his hands together and laid his head on them to indicate he was going to sleep and then went back into the house. Meanwhile, Eva rang her mother not really knowing what to do. She was told to get Paul to the hospital and not to go into the house. So she waited in the drive for him there, frightened and confused at the situation she found herself in, not knowing what had happened and not sure what to do next. When Paul didn't return, Eva's worried grew and she decided to enter the house after one of the dogs started whimpering near the front door. She thought that maybe something had happened to Paul, maybe he'd collapsed and so she went in through the back door and found her boyfriend sitting on a single bed which was covered in blood in a small room. He was trying to wipe his face clean with baby wipes and the shower was running but the house was otherwise quiet. When she looked around the house further, Eva discovered who she assumed was Paul's mother lying prone dressed in her pajamas in the hallway. The older lady wasn't moving and there was a large pool of blood around her head. At that point, Eva fled the house and rang for emergency services. She described the scene that she had found at the Fitzgeralds farmhouse and given the circumstances, Garde were notified. The regional support unit, armed police officers, called on to support local Garde in potentially high-risk situations as well as ambulances were dispatched to the house. There was further operational support provided by Garde helicopters dispatched to the rural area too. When Garde arrived, knowing simply that there had been some sort of violent attack at the residence and that there were possible shooting victims or stabbing victims in the house, they ordered Paul to show his hands. When he didn't respond to their requests, Paul was tasered by officers before being handcuffed. It was quickly apparent that he was in dire need of medical help and was rushed to Galway University Hospital when the ambulance services arrived. Garde discovered the body of Paul's mother, Kitty, lying in the hall in her house in a pool of blood. In the farm yard adjacent to the house, Garde discovered yet another body. Paul's father, Tom, was found on his knees there with his head in a truffle water. In one hand, was a cap from a bottle of weed killer. The bottle was also found nearby. A blunt instrument was discovered and was preserved for examination by the Garde. It was suspected that this item, described as an iron bar, but actually a piece of scaffolding, was used at some point in the incident that led to the deaths and injuries. Irish town lying in the parish of Nakadun is a tremendously quiet place. When the few neighbors near to the Fitzgerald house saw the police and emergency response to the panic to call for help, they knew something was seriously wrong. No one had ever seen anything like it in the area. The Irish independent reported that one woman called her husband and asked him to come home because, without knowing what was going on, she was frightened by all the flashing lights and sirens. What had happened became more clear as the night wore on and by the following morning, locals were fairly sure of at least who had been at the centre of all the excitement the night before, and the shock began to set in for friends and neighbours who knew the Fitzgeralds and wondered at what exactly had happened out at their house the day before. Who would want to hurt such a lovely, caring, elderly couple? An operation room was set up in the closest town, Claire Morris, headed by chief superintendent Pat Diskin. He was eager to lay concerns of the community which had never before seen a murder that there was no risk to any other community. members of the public related to the incident at the Fitzgeralds farmhouse. He told the press quote, "While this is a very serious incident and it's being fully investigated, I'll be satisfied that the answers to our inquiries lie within the location of the incident. We have a full incident room set up. We're at the very early stages of the investigation and our various teams are doing serious work in relation to this matter and we're obviously trying to establish the full facts surrounding the tragedy." The press responded immediately to the emerging information that an elderly couple had been found dead in their home in rural County Mayo. A violent incident in an area such as this was highly unusual, but they would have no idea how strange the circumstances of the Fitzgeralds deaths would prove to be. Initial reports in all media outlets were that two pensioners were found dead and a younger man in his 30s was badly injured. The reporting was simply repeating the facts at hand at the time. The obvious suspicion was that the younger man had somehow been responsible for the attack. Gardee would only say that their investigation was ongoing. The Gardee technical bureau began a forensic examination to try and ascertain the sequence of events that led to the deaths and injuries while other Gardee began an investigation into the movements of the family for the weekend before their bodies were discovered. It was unclear as to when precisely the incident had occurred at the property. The bodies of Tom and Kitty remained in situ in their home until a pathologist could come to the scene. Forensic scientists, as well as a deputy state pathologist Dr. Michael Curtis, arrived at around 11 a.m. on the morning of the second of November, less than 24 hours after EFA had made the grim discovery. The elderly couple were eventually removed from the house in a hurry that afternoon and brought to Mayo General Hospital for post-mortem. Those post-mortem examinations took place on the 3rd of November and meanwhile the badly injured Paul was transferred to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin for further treatment for his head injuries. When the medical reports came in it was determined that Tom Fitzpatrick had died from poisoning, likely after ingesting some of the weed killer whose container was found nearby to his body and the property outside the small village. His wife Kitty had died from traumatic and catastrophic wounds to her head, indicating that she had been the victim of a serious assault. By the time the results of these examinations were handed over to Gardee, Paul was fighting for his life across the country in Dublin, having suffered from wounds similar to those inflicted on his mother. Gardee also confirmed that he was not a suspect in the incident, nor were they looking for any other individual in relation to the attacks and deaths, but they could not release the results of the post-mortem for what they called operational concerns. From this it was clear to the press that what had occurred at the Fitzgerald House was a murder suicide. A number of Tom and Kitty's siblings lived locally and the remains were released to them by that Friday 4th of November. Other relatives were travelling back to the area from other parts of Ireland, the United States and the UK. When Tom's brother Frank arrived at the house to lay flowers in memory of Tom and Kitty, he had to stop at a Gardee crime scene tape, which blocked off the road 300 meters from the house. Frank spoke briefly to the press who had gathered at the Gardee Corden expressing his disbelief. He said, "God's own way is not our way. He was a good, honest and straight man." Frank's knees buckled as he spoke and was weeping quietly as he was helped with car by a younger man. Father Martin O'Connor, a local priest and friend to the Fitzgeralds, spoke to the Irish independent. He said, "We obviously are stunned and heartbroken because Tom and Kitty were both very involved in our community. Not only that, but they were friends and we've lost two good friends. They were lovely people." The community came together to start making arrangements for the Fitzgeralds. The couple were well liked and their neighbours said that they'd have done the same thing for them if the situation was reversed. Paul was still being treated for his wounds, and so friends, neighbours and extended family stepped in to fulfill what would traditionally have been his role. The locals from the parish hoped that if they delayed the date of the Fitzgeralds funerals, then their son might be well enough to attend himself and say his goodbyes to his parents. It became clear though that even as Paul's conditions stabilized over the following days, he wouldn't be in a position to travel home for a long while. With that in mind, his parents' funeral was held at the church of the Holy Family in St. Oliver in Irish Town on the 7th of November, having been weaked the night before together at the local community center, a building just yards from the church and the main crossroads in Irish Town. Hundreds of mourners filled the local church for the joint funeral ceremony, and investigating Gardy were also present during the service. Nine priests who were local or knew the Fitzgeralds can't celebrate it the recwea mass. Father O'Connor, the parish priest, told the assembled friends and family that the silence that had come over the village in the wake of the shocking news of Tom and Kitty's deaths, was understandable. He said, quote, "On hearing the news, everything changed. Nothing I expect will ever quite be the same again. Many felt a nut in their stomach, including myself. As we tried to digest, the sad news our friends Kitty and Tom were dead and Paul critically injured." Father O'Connor spoke of how Tom and Kitty would continue to be connected to those assembled through the special memories they all had of them. He went on to say, quote, "It is these memories we need to turn to so that you, their family and we, their community, can pick up the shattered pieces of this past week and make something good and holy out of them." Prayers were offered up for Paul's continued recovery and then the couple were buried together in the small graveyard, a short distance from the church itself. Then the community of Irish town and the relatives of both Tom and Kitty were left to try and come to terms with what had happened that day in November, with no clear reason for such a violent and destructive act. An inquest was held into the deaths of Tom and Kitty in November of 2017. A statement given by Paul Fitzgerald was read to the coroner's court where he said he had no memory of the days around the attack and had no idea what happened in the house that day or why. The last thing he remembered was attending a film in Dublin with Eiffel O'Gorman some days before. He said that there were no issues that he was aware of in the house and went on to describe his parents' relationship to the court as strong. His father had been depressed, Paul said, because of his difficulties carrying out work, but he'd sought help and had taken antidepressants to address the problems he was having. Paul last remembered seeing his parents a week before the attack in the house when he'd visit his home to help his father paint the wall out in front of the cottage, but he didn't remember why he went to the house the day of the incident. He'd gone back to the cottage only once since his parents' deaths in the hopes that it might jog his memory of the events, but still nothing further came back to him. Eiffel O'Gorman also gave evidence and described the scene as he had come upon at that day just over a year before. The court heard about the wounds Paul had suffered, but his face was badly bruised and according to Miss O'Gorman there was a deep gash to the back of his head. It was so deep you could see his skull. According to the deputy state pathologist Dr. Michael Curtis, Kiti had died after a minimum of three blows to the head. She also had wounds on her arms consistent with attempts to ward off the attack. Dr. Curtis explained that Tom would have died quite quickly after ingesting the poison liquid. Superficial lacerations to Mr. Fitzgerald's neck which were determined to have been self-inflicted were also observed at Post Mortem. The pathologist reported that a Stanley knife as well as Tom's dentures had been found at the bottom of the trough that his body had slumped forward into at the scene in the farm yard. No trace of alcohol or drugs were found in either of the elderly couple systems. A forensic scientist Mr. John Horge told the coroner's court that the iron bar had blood on one end and had DNA from all three of the Fitzgeralds on it. He gave every construction of what might have happened that day at the farmhouse by examining blood spray patterns found in the house. Kiti was attacked firstly in her bedroom and then into the hallway where she suffered the fatal blow. Blood impact spatter on the walls and floor area of the hallway he said indicated that Kitty had been struck at least once when she was already on the floor. Blood spatter from the yard and shed indicated that Paul had been set upon in that area and had collapsed to the ground. At some point after that, he made his way back into the house through the back door and lay in his bed. That's what had left the large blood stains on the bedding observed by Efo Gorman when she had entered the house. Once all the evidence relating to what was known of the events of the previous November was presented in court, the coronal jury retired and quickly returned a verdict of homicide in the case of Kishi Fitzgerald's death and self-inflicted homicide in relation to Thames. After the verdict was read, the coroner Patel Conner said that this was one of the most difficult cases he had had to deal with. According to the Irish independent, he expressed his sympathies to all of those involved and said, quote, "There is lots that could be said, but words are really inadequate. It seems all we can do is remember Tom and Catherine Fitzgerald as best we can and try and learn something I don't know what from their tragic deaths." Although an official end was brought to the tragedy upon the delivery of the Inquest results, this is a story like many other cases of family annihilation with no real ending. With Tom and Kishi's son having no memory of the events, whatever triggered Tom's attack on his own family remains unknown. All seemed to agree, however, that the actions were very unlike him. People who'd met with Tom the weekend before the murder suicide had said he seemed his normal self. There was some discussion of whether he would have to have a knee replacement due to his injured leg and he'd told Paul that he was a bit worried about the future because of his waning ability to work. But according to those who met him in the village that last weekend of October in 2016, he seemed his usual laid back and jolly self. There was no reason to suspect something as horrific as this was just hours from occurring. The deaths of Tom and Kiti Fitzgerald will remain a source of grief and mystery to their friends, relatives and neighbors in Irish 10 County Mayo. Thank you for listening to mensraya, the true crime podcast. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @mensrayapod or you can send an email to [email protected]. This podcast is made possible in part from generous nations by supporters on Patreon. Please do check it out at patreon.com/mensrayapod. Our theme music is "Quin Song" that dance begins by Kevin MacLeod. Additional music is by Wannita Meisel and Kevin MacLeod. This episode was researched and written by me, your host Cheneyte. All sources for today's episode can be found in the show notes or on our website, www.mensrayapod.com. And so, until next time, don't do anything I wouldn't do. [Music]