The Pact

You go back to the first days after the murder. This might have been a dispute between teenagers. It might have involved a girl. It might have involved drinking. Whoever knew about John's killing kept this secret for over 40 years. September 26, 1969 is the day that changed the lives of Bill and Neville and McCabe forever. I don't think I've had a whole night's sleeps since it's happened. If it's not too painful, can you tell me about his last day? Into a dance, his second dance. 15-year-old John McCabe was looking forward to going to the Knights of Columbus dance that evening. Took a shower, scrubbed his hair, put his father's after shave on, he didn't shave. But his father's after shave on. Oh yeah, he got all spruced up. 11 o'clock I started looking out the window. That's when the dance closes. He should be home by midnight. So I went down to the dance and checked the road, screaming out the window. John! John! No, John. I started praying at that point. The day after John McCabe went missing, three young kids were cutting through a vacant lot when they made a horrifying discovery, which was the body of John McCabe. He had been bound and gagged and tied with rope. After John's body was found, Bill McCabe, a pillar of strength, had to do the unspeakable. That was identify the body of his dead son. Never forget it. People keep talking about closure. You can't shake it. He then had to go home and inform his family of what had happened. Bill said, "Honey, our son's dead." Well, I was a senior in high school. Were you fearful? Yes. They hadn't caught the people that killed my brother. Did you think when you looked at kids in your classes, maybe it's him, maybe it's him? Yes. Maybe it was him. Maybe they knew something. How could they not know anything? Without physical evidence, without a witness, this case remained unsolved for several years and several years became decades. This is it. I pray every day justice will be served. There was only one way this case was going to be solved. Do you solemnly swear this? And how old were you in 1969? 17. And that's if someone came forward and talked. How do you know how John McCabe died? I was there. I'm Richard Schlesinger. Tonight, on 48 hours, the pact. He 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 2013. Good morning, Mr. McCabe. Do you remember September 27, 1969? Yes, sir. How old was John at that day? He was 15 years. Six months and two weeks. I always visualized him as being a big shot somewhere. John Joseph McCabe, my son JJ, you know. 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, six months and two weeks old, was living with his family in Tukesbury, Massachusetts. I think we have a right to be proud of him, yeah? John's father, Bill, was an engineer. His mother, Evelyn, worked at the school library. His sisters, Roberta, who was six and Debbie, who was 17, remember a brother who was always busy doing what brothers do. It was pretty interesting. You open the closet door and your closet is filled with grasshoppers. I just remember his hands were always dirty like with oil or grease or a frog in his hand. So you brought home a goose once? Oh yeah, Canadian goose, big sucker. It's fun to watch you talk about this because your eyes light up. I mean, you have very fun memories of those days. Evelyn holds on to any reminder of her son. I have John's money. I can't spend it. And you've had it all these years. Yeah, 25 years. Every now and then, the snow is going off of it now. I almost put it in the casket with him. And then I thought, no, I'll just keep it with me. And when I see him again, I'll give it to him. When she last saw John, Evelyn gave him permission to go to that dance at the Knights of Columbus Hall. I let him go. I let him go out the door. I shouldn't have. The next day, police came to the house and took Evelyn's husband to the basement to talk. They didn't want me to know anything. I heard them. Evelyn got on her knees and pressed her ear to a vent in the bathroom. This is where I could hear everything that was going on down the floor. The police were telling her husband John's body was discovered in a vacant lot in the neighboring Gritty City of Lowell. What did you hear? I heard that he was tied up and there was tape on his eyes and his mouth. I heard a lot. I cried. I laid there and cried. A huge investigation was launched by the Lowell, Tukesbury and Massachusetts State Police. What evidence did they collect at the scene? The rope that was used to tie John up, a tape that was used to tape his eyes and his mouth. All of his clothing, his shoes. Jerry Leoni was the local DA who years later took on the case. Today he's a partner in the law firm Nixon Peabody. There was forensic evidence but it wasn't really meaningful because you couldn't tie it to anyone in particular. But the case looked promising at first. A witness had spotted a car near the crime scene that night. I believe the way he had described it was a 1965 Chevy Impala colored plumb on the room. Then another tip led police to a schoolmate of John's 16-year-old Mike Ferrara, who says he barely knew John. I probably seem like a handful of times in my life. You know, I didn't really. He wasn't a friend. Ferrara and his friend Nancy Williams were questioned because they had picked up John when he was hitchhiking on his way to the dance. I picked him up in a game of ride to the corner and I never saw him again. Ferrara told police that while the dance was underway, he left Nancy and met up with his best friend Walter Shelley. Me, Walter and Bob Ryan took right to Lull try to get some beer. They were in Walter Shelley's car. It was Maroon and it was a 1965 Chevy Impala. Police searched it but found no evidence. Still, Walter Shelley was now a person of interest. He was brought in for questioning and later polygraphed five times. The test showed he was lying in all vital areas of the questioning. If you read the reports, now you start seeing Ferrara and Shelley Shelley and Ferrara. Ferrara was questioned multiple times. I know where they were going. Not totally stupid. But Ferrara wasn't helping himself. At one point while joy-riding with some friends, he suddenly blurted out that he killed John. I was 16. We were drinking, joking. And I said, "Yeah, I did it." They knew I was a jokal. I was a jokal. Leoni says police were not amused, but there was no way to corroborate what Ferreira said. Without physical evidence, without a witness statement putting him at the scene, the Ferreira lead kept drying up. There were dozens of other people police investigated, other teens, local drug dealers, and pedophiles. It's worked this case hard for two years while Bill McCabe worked on a record of his son's life. I wasn't trying to be an author or anything like that. I was just looking at ways to hold on to him. Keep his memory. He also tried to make sure the police never forgot his son. I was always on the phone talking to the police. I'd be up in the middle of the night. She'd be saying, "What the hell are you doing up? Get back to bed." Despite Bill's persistence and the intense police effort, there were no arrests. Shelley and Ferreira went into the service in 1970, so the following year, the two of them left the area. And the McCabe family was left without any answers for decades. (Music) This is a little compass so he can find his way home. 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. I wondered, did he call for me? What kind of a mother was I? I wasn't there for I am. For a time, Evelyn set a place for John at the dinner table. His absence was a constant presence in the house. You can't just do something wrong and not have to pay for it. The case stalled for some 30 years until November 2000. John and I went just about everywhere, you know. When Jack Ward, a childhood friend of John's, made good on a decades-old promise to Bill McCabe's. He would say, "Jackie, if you hear anything about John, you keep your eyes though, let me know." And I said, "Have I ever heard anything of some kind of game?" You know, I'm going to tell you. Ward had been at a cookout at this house in Tukesbury, where he ran into a kid from the old neighborhood, Mike Ferreira. This photo was taken that day. We were all sitting around drinking, and that's where he just threw it out. I know who killed John, and he said it to me again. I know who killed John. And finally I said, "Who?" And he said, "Walter." I said, "Walter Shelley." And he said, "Yeah." Walter Shelley. I said, "What would be Walter's motive to kill John?" And he said, "Mala." Because of Mala. Marla Scheiner. Ward said she was Walter Shelley's girlfriend back then. But he said the trouble was, Marla also seemed to like John McCabe. And by all accounts, Walter Shelley was one very jealous young man. The footage you see was taken a few years after the murder. Ward admits he sat on the information for a while, worried about how to tell Bill McCabe. Do you go knocking on somebody's door and say, "Hey, I know I killed your son. You better have it right." I was shocked when he told me. So I scribbled it on a piece of paper. I'd put it in the Bible on the page beginning the book of John, so I wouldn't forget it. And I immediately called the police. But it took many more calls from Bill McCabe and three more years for police to show up at Ferraris' door. It was now 2003. Ferraris worked as a forklift operator, lived in Salem, New Hampshire, and Nancy Williams, his friend back in the day, was now his wife. Mike wouldn't hurt a fly. Never. I know. He wouldn't. Ferraris says he remembers the "cook out" conversation with Jack Ward very differently. Jackie went and told them I said, "Walt, to Shelley, kill them." I never said that. And at this cookout, you know, I already had a few drinks. And he's running his mouth. Shelley did it. Shelley did it. And this went on all afternoon. And finally, I got sick of hearing that. I just, he probably did it. Next thing I know, three years, four years later, I had to cops down my house wanted to talk to me about John McCabe. Ferraris also denies discussing the jealousy motive with Ward. That's his theory. I never said that. But again, there was no corroborating evidence. So again, the case stalled. Well, what did they tell you about the investigation? It's going fine. It was always going fine. And how long did they tell you that? And you know what? It was sitting on a freaking shelf. But the police had not forgotten John McCabe. All right, thanks. In January of 2007, 37 years after the murder, Jerry Leoni was sworn in as Middlesex County District Attorney. The Lowell Police Department took it upon themselves to visit me weeks after I'd been elected to say, "We'd actually like you to focus on this one and take a hard look at it with us." Investigators had gone back over the files and a name jumped out at them in Mike Ferraris' latest interview with police. In recounting the night of the murder, Ferraris said he was with Walter Shelley. But this time he added a name and said the other guy with them was Alan Brown. Edward Alan Brown's name surfaces as someone who we're going to focus on. Edward Alan Brown was 17 and lived not far from the McCabes when John was killed. He had long since moved away, but when police tracked him down, he said he knew nothing about the murder. Never even heard of it. So how likely is it that he would never even heard the murder of John McCabe in a town the size of Tukesbury? I'd say curious at the time. And police got a call from Brown's wife that was even more curious. His wife told police that she thought he was lying. His wife said that she thought he was lying? Right. Carolyn Brown indicates to police that 20 to 25 years earlier, her husband had told her about an evening where he was involved in a young man being killed. But even that wasn't enough. It was the same old story. There was no corroborating evidence and no real movement in the case until 2011, when Detective Linda Coughlin was assigned to find the killers. You think this case really took off when you met Detective Linda Coughlin? Yes, definitely. Why did you feel that way? Because of her attitude, she said I'm going to get them. And she did. Detective Coughlin zeroed back in on Edward Allen Brown. He was retired from the Air Force and living in New Hampshire. Coughlin interrogated Brown just twice. But when Brown learned he failed a polygraph, he suddenly broke down. He confessed that he was there when Walter Shelley and Mike Ferreira killed John McCabe. Why? Lowell police brought in the McCabe's and told them Brown's story about John's final hours. My dad started crying. He killed over on the table. On April 15, 2011, nearly 42 years after John McCabe's body was found in that vacant lot, his father's perseverance finally paid off. Mr. McCabe held out feet to the fire. He never let us forget John McCabe's murder. The DA's office announced the indictments of Edward Allen Brown for manslaughter and Michael Ferreira and Walter Shelley for first degree murder. Two names known to police since day one, two names also gathering dust here in John's book of mourners. The murderers came to the wake and they came to the funeral. 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. January 18, 2013, Edward Allen 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. They wanted me to go with them, to help them. Help them do what? I didn't know what the time until they got in the car and we left. Brown testified they were on their way to the Knights of Columbus Hall, when he learned of their plan. They said they wanted to go find his kid that had been messing around with Marla to teach him a lesson. And how did you know Marla Shiner? I was Walter's girlfriend. Michael noticed John McCabe was thumming and he said there he is. Then we pulled up next to John, Michael got out and grabbed him and pushed him into the backseat where I was. Michael was facing back at John trying to smack him and John had his arms up to try to stop him from doing that. When I'm in the spaghetti field bridge, Brown says they drove up a dirt road to the vacant lot and pulled over. And we got him outside the car. Who pushed John out of the car? I did. I thought they were just going to slap him around. What happened next? Then Michael and Walter rastled John, tripped him up and got him on the ground. Brown testified that he and Shelley held John McCabe down while Ferreira tied him up. Michael tied his ankles, then went around and tied his wrist together. Then he took another piece of rope around his ankles and attached it up to his neck. They had put tape on his mouth. And squirming Wigley and trying to get out. He's lying on his belly with his legs up in the air and his head turned sideways. Then they said that this will teach you to mess with Marlor anymore. And we got in the car and left. Brown says they drove around drinking beer for a while. And I told him that we should go back and let him go. Brown says they eventually returned to the lot. Michael and Walter got out of the car and went over to him. They were there for about 30 to 45 seconds and they came quickly back to the car. We started to drive off and one of them said that he wasn't breathing. John McCabe had died of strangulation. I wonder what he thought of that night. Then they brought me home. What did you do? I remember I think I cried. Brown says he kept the murder a secret for 41 years because he was afraid of Michael Ferreira. Michael said if anybody talks to anybody about this, I'll kill him. And Brown is a friggin liar and I mean they know that. According to the prosecutor, he's been Iraq in Afghanistan, five to us. Maybe he's got something wrong in his head. They talk about these people that give false confessions. But he did it with somebody else or by himself, or he is really a messed up human being. My sense of Edward Brown was he was easily led. Eric Wilson, Michael Ferreira's attorney, believes that police pressured Edward Allen Brown because he was someone they could force into confessing to a crime he did not commit. They also offered him a deal, no jail time. Edward Brown did not walk into Lowell Police Department headquarters and say look, I got to get this off my chest. After being interrogated by trained detectives over the course of many days, he was faced with the threat of spending the rest of his life in jail or he could tell the police what they wanted to hear. Walter Shelley and Mike Ferreira picked you up at your house at 1030, right? Yes. The question that I had to answer for the jury is why would he tell them that if he didn't do it? Did you think you could do that? That's a tough sell. It was a tough sell, but Ed Brown gave me a lot to work with. You were fed information. It was a dirt lot, right? Yes. Over the course of two days, Ferreira's attorney grilled Brown relentlessly. And in your four or five trial prep sessions? Until Brown admitted that the prosecution had fed him parts of his story. You were fed information that was near a railroad tower, right? Yes. And you were being told that Shelley was jealous over Marla Scheiner, right? Yes. There are certain pieces of information that an investigator may provide to someone who they're interviewing, to see whether or not they know anything about that, to see whether or not it jugs their memory. Well, but couldn't that also be a way of telegraphing to the witness what you want him to say? Well, in this case, that didn't have to happen because Brown was the one who talked about the rope, the tape, the binding of John. However, Brown got his story, Wilson claims it cannot be true because it does not fit the evidence. In fact, in the 1969 police reports, detectives noted that they were unable to find any evidence of a scuffle. There was no suggestion anywhere around John McCabe's body or the scene that that struggle described by Edward Brown ever took place. Why would Edward Allen Brown lie and implicate himself so directly in what happened, unless it was the truth? Your testimony has not always been 1030, hasn't it? Wilson thought it was not enough to try to discredit Brown. He also had to punch holes in the alleged motive, jealousy over a girl. He'll do it by calling that girl, "My name is Marla Scheiner." To the witness stand, Mr. Brown, you've lied under oath when you're scared, right? Yes. You've lied under oath when you're nervous, right? Yes. You've lied under oath when you're frightened, right? Correct. With their star witness, Edward Allen Brown, he seemed to wither under strong cross-examination from the defense. You still can't get your facts right, can you? No. So, prosecutor Tom O'Reilly called Detective Linda Coughlin to counter accusations that she'd forced Edward Allen Brown to confess and fed him details. At any point did you feed him information as to the investigation? Never. And Eric Wilson says Coughlin also had tunnel vision and ignored evidence of other suspects. There were a number of investigative reports and material that you either overlooked or didn't even know about. True? I don't know what you're referring to. How about Richard Santos? Richard Santos was flagged in this Tuquesbury 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. 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. But there was never anything tying him to mode of opportunity means. Information on Richard Santos. Still, the judge allowed the jury to hear about Santos and another suspect. For their suspect to Robert Morley. Robert Morley, a local 25-year-old who reportedly knew both for error and shelly and was suffering from mental illness. He was labeled long before you were assigned this case as a strong suspect, right? There is a report that uses the word for him, strong suspect, and the very same report mentions Mr. Ferreira as a prime suspect. But it's how Morley became a strong suspect that makes him so interesting. He's learned about him shortly after the crime from his own brothers. When Morley's own brothers went in and said that they thought he might have been involved in it. Yeah. But he might have. Former DA Jerry Leonis has morally's brothers were mistaken. I think what happens in matters like this is people will say, "Sure, you should take a look at X or Y because they have a profile of somebody who would do something like this and they were around the area at the time." But then you have to look at the evidence and see whether or not the evidence leads you to believe that they had anything to do with it. Did the brothers have any specific evidence that you're aware of? They did not. He split the Florida the day after he was questioned by police. Mr. Morley years later, in my estimate, committed suicide. You learned of his death is suicide, right? He jumped off a bridge, right? His brother says he fell off a bridge. The defense also tried to punch holes in the alleged motive for the murder and called a surprising witness to do it. Yes, my name is Marla Scheiner and my spelling of my last name is S-H-I-N-E-R. Thank you. Marla Scheiner, the girl who Walter Shelly and Mike Ferreira allegedly killed for. Edward Allen Brown had just testified that Marla was Shelly's girlfriend in September of '69 and Shelly was jealous because John was flirting with her. But Marla says John never flirted with her. Did you ever go to a dance with John McCabe? Never. Did I ever convey to you that he had any type of romantic interest in you in August or September of 1969? None. The McCabe say it doesn't matter if the flirting was real or imagined. She could have been just stopped and settled out of John and Shelly could have walked by and said it. And he's going to explode. Next, Marla through the prosecution, a curveball, September 26, 1969. Were you dating Walter Shelly? No. It was not dating Walter when John McCabe died. When did you start dating him then? I believe it was after that death. How old were you? 13. You're 13 September of '69. No, I don't know. I can't do the math right here. But according to police, Marla told him she was dating Shelly at the time and was just 12 years old when they started seeing each other. You didn't tell the police that you were dating Walter Shelly? In 1969 when John McCabe was killed? No, I don't believe I did tell him that. Why lie about dating someone? Unless it was because of her that John was murdered. 48 hours had questions for Marla Scheiner too, but she declined our request for an interview. Marla eventually married Walter Shelly. But it didn't last. She said he was very violent. Ms. Scheiner was Walter Shelly a jealous man? Absolutely. It appears that we're ready to proceed then. Judge at this point in time the defendant would rest. This was a hard fought trial till the end. And then it was up to the jury to decide. Did Mike Ferrera help Walter Shelly kill John McCabe over a girl? Or was Edward Allen Brown telling a story the prosecution wanted to hear? They only took jurors five hours to decide. I told Michael that we had to hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst. And he was ready for that. May I have the verdict slip please? For the McCabe family, more than four decades of waiting and working came down to this moment. What did you think the verdict was going to be? Guilty. My god he was guilty. If for no other reason, he was there. It's had to understand how the jury could anticipate otherwise. Will McCabe was too nervous and too sick to sit in the courtroom that day. So he waited in another room while Evelyn and their daughters heard the verdict. What say you do this indictment, ma'am, is the defendant guilty or not guilty? Not guilty. Not guilty. Everyone, including Mike Ferrera, was so stunned it took a while to sink in. When the verdict came in, when you heard that Ferrera had been committed, were you afraid to tell him? Yes. Why? I was afraid he was going to die. Tragically, Evelyn was right. Just four days after the verdict, Bill McCabe's heart gave out and he gave up. What do you think killed your husband? The stress, the stress of the trial. While Evelyn McCabe laid her husband to rest next to their son, the DA's office had a decision to make. After losing the case against Mike Ferrera, would it go ahead with the trial of Walter Shelley? You must remember this presents The Bisexuals. Libby Holman was a sexually fluid blue singer who became famous in the 1920s and then infamous when she was indicted for her husband's murder. Later, Libby began an affair with movie star Montgomery Clifft, who had to keep his own bisexuality secret in Hollywood in the 1950s, also featuring Elizabeth Taylor, Josephine Baker, drugs, or G's and, of course, movies. Follow and listen to you must remember this wherever you get your podcasts. There goes Jack, there goes Tim, down to Lovers Lane, all the girls I sing in love songs. All of them on the street. All right, those wedding bells, I pray. I still don't believe Bill's gone. I can still hear him snore in the night. And then I feel the bad he's not there. Bill and McCabe was determined to honor her husband's dying wish. He laid in the hospital bed and I just I'll pick up and take over for you. She'd see to it, someone would pay for John's murder. The juror's fine Michael Ferrera and not guilty. Watching Michael Ferrera go free was tough for some jurors too. So how hard was it for you to acquit him? It was very difficult. One of the jurors Michael Duquette says the biggest problem was Edward Allen Brown. The plan was to teach him a lesson for a messing with Marlon. Did the majority of the jurors believe him? No. Why not? They just thought that he was not telling the truth. I thought they were just going to slap around. They felt that he had been fed information and that didn't make a ton of sense to me. Maybe he wasn't the best witness, but I just can't see somebody saying I did it when they didn't do it. Duquette came to believe Brown and wanted to find Michael Ferrera guilty of something, but the only choices the jurors had were first and second degree murder. So what did you want to convict him of? Man slaughter, and it wasn't an option. We are extremely pleased with the jury's verdict. Despite the Ferrera loss, prosecutors decided to try to convict the other suspect in the murder, Walter Shelley. The acquittal in the Ferrera case didn't do anything to listen to our belief that we had the right people who were responsible for killing John McCabe. September 3rd, 2013, seven months after Michael Ferrera's acquittal. It was Walter Shelley's turn to stand trial. Shelley was 17 the night of John's murder. He's now 61, remarried, and has lived quietly in Tukesbury ever since just a few miles from Evelin McCabe. If convicted of first degree murder, Shelley could spend the rest of his life in prison. It was the same case prosecutors presented against Michael Ferrera, the same motive, and the same evidence, the robes that came off the victim body, presented by the same witnesses. Marla Scheiner, Detective Linda Coughlin, and once again, the state's star witness, Edward Allen Brown. I heard one of them say he's not breathing. Was it any easier to sit through the second trial? No, I want to say it was hard. Dad wasn't there for backup. You were called a liar repeatedly. Yes, I was. I found scene less rattled this time, more confident, and the McCabe's allowed themselves to hope. I can keep my fingers, my toes, everything crossed. During closing arguments, the defense called Brown a liar. He'll tell you whatever you want to hear. But the prosecution argued that Brown would never implicate himself in a crime he did not commit. What took him first? He was talking to it? The week-long trial went to the jury. This would be the McCabe's last chance to see someone held accountable for killing John. We had faith that the jury was going to come with the right answer this time. Finally, two days later, a verdict. A person has a jury agreed upon its verdict. Yes, we have. Pass a verdict, so please. Walter Shelley's wife and family waited nervously. Evelyn McCabe couldn't bring herself to even sit in the courtroom and had to wait outside. She couldn't hear another knock guilty. She was scared. She was going to drop dead. Charging the defendant while the Shelley with the offensive murder. What say was the defendant guilty and not guilty? Guilty. Guilty of what? Guilty and life behind bars for Walter Shelley. This jury believed Brown. So when you heard guilty, do you remember the first thing you thought? I thought my father would be proud. We got one of them. It was the final twist in a mystery filled with them. For the same crime and on the same evidence, one man walked free. One man went to prison. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hey, John. Guess what? We got him. Billy, it turned out beautifully. He didn't live to write about it, but Bill McCabe finally got the end he was looking for to the story he wrote about John's life and death. A story that took four decades to play out. He was 15 years, six months, and two weeks. About his boy, who will be 15 years, six months, and two weeks old, forever. Please, John, please take great care of him until I get there. Please, and then I will. Because Walter Shelley was a juvenile at the time of the murder, his conviction was downgraded to second degree murder, and he will be eligible for parole after serving 15 years in prison. Evelyn McCabe died in August 2016. Saturday, October 3rd, on Paramount Plus, two rising UFC stars take center stage inside the Optiga. Natalia Silva, versus Wong Tug, in the first female championship main event in more than three years. The women's UFC flyweight title Saturday, October 3rd, on Paramount Plus, with no more pay-per-view.