Small Town Murder - #3 - A Kidnapping & Murder in Raynham, Massachusetts - Part 2

Episode Date: February 1, 2017

This week, we finish up the story of what was the peaceful, affluent town of Raynham, Massachusetts, until a day in 1978 that changed everything. A monster of a human being becomes the stuff of nightmares with this brutal killing.Along the way, we learn about how ugly cars were in the '70s, how much it costs for a senior citizen to get into a flea market, and Dunkin Donuts' extremely loose hiring practices with the sexually dangerous!!Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie WhismanNew episodes every Thursday!!Please subscribe, rate, and review!Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!Head to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder!For merchandise: crimeinsports.threadless.comCheck out James and Jimmie's other show: Crime in Sports Follow us on social media!Facebook: facebook.com/smalltownpodInstagram: instagram.com/smalltownmurderTwitter: twitter.com/MurderSmall Contact the show: [e-mail] See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You're listening early and ad-free on Wondery Plus. What if you married the love of your life and then stood by them as they developed 21 new identities? What would you do? This Is Actually Happening is a weekly podcast that features extraordinary true stories of life-changing events told by the people who lived them. Listen to the newest season of This Is Actually Happening on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Today we head back to Rainham, Massachusetts for part two, where we'll find out the conclusion in the abduction of Mary Lou Arruda. Welcome to Small Town Murder.

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder. Hey! Oh, yay. Oh, yay. Here we are again. Thank you guys so much for joining us this week. Hope you've enjoyed it so far. Want to thank everyone for the iTunes reviews. My name's James Petrigallo.

I'm here with my co-host. I am Jimmy Wissman. Again, thank you guys. Mostly, thank you for the iTunes reviews. That means a lot to us. We've been on the charts and everything else, and it means a lot. Thank you guys so much for listening and caring. You just stop. Slow down a minute, because

I've been excited for the past seven days, because every day I look, and we have been on the fucking charts for seven days. No, it's nice. At this point, an entire week. So thank you all so, so much. James and I work really hard to put this thing out for you guys. And thank you for listening.

Thank you for enjoying. Thank you for reviewing. Keep that shit up. Keep us on the charts. Just thank you guys so much. Today. It's been awesome. It has been awesome.

And I would like to make a slight disclaimer before we start. I would like to do this. And I mean this honestly. Everybody out there, if you're listening right now, we are comedians. Yes. Okay? It says in the description this is a comedy podcast. Right.

We are comedians. We take it seriously. I do so much research. I take this research seriously. We're not throwing – It's fucking insane. We're not throwing willy-nilly facts out there, but we're not journalists. If we do get something wrong, we apologize and we're sorry.

And most of all, we make jokes. There's jokes through this. We never, ever, ever in a million years intend to insult or denigrate the victim or their families. So if you're getting that out of this, you're completely listening wrong. Because we go out of our way to make sure to not do that and not to not be offensive because it's not right to us. We don't feel good doing that. And we wouldn't feel good doing that. Because we both have families.

We both have children. We both have children. We both give a shit about people and we don't want any of them to get hurt either. No. The fact is these fucking things happen. It happens. And there are facts that go along with it that when you piece them together, sometimes they're fucking funny.

I'm sorry. And it's not the victim we make fun of. No. Sometimes we make fun of the town a little bit and that's just all in good fun most of the time we're making fun of incompetent people around the case right and most of all the perpetrator who guess what we can't do anything else to the guy he fucking deserves it they deserve everything we get we have our barbs are humor and that's all we can give so that's what we give the person and also too we want it to be a little more some these are morose crimes,

a lot of them. They're depressing. They're all that. I don't want to listen to a voice drone on about it and tell me, you know, then he murdered. I don't want to hear that. We try to bring a little levity to the situation. It's hard to watch 24 hours or 48 hours or whatever those fucking shows are and listen to Keith Morrison, who's

a legit journalist, and he's trying to make some sort of levity in it. And it's just almost insulting. It's like, stick to the fucking facts, Keith. Yes, but we're not journalists. And we are comedians, like I said. So guys, I just want to tell you, if you do like the show, if you're enjoying the show,

if you're interested in it, if you have an open mind to having some humor in your true crime, thank you. Welcome aboard. We'd love to have you. That's where it's at. If you do not think that comedy belongs in true crime at all, turn it off. I got no problem with that. Turn it off.

Take your phone. Hit unsubscribe. Put it back in your pocket because you're not going to enjoy it. It's not for us. You're not going to enjoy it, and we're not going to enjoy you getting offended by it. So take that and go. Take that with you will. But everyone who is listening, we love you guys.

Thank you. Listen, take that and go. That's it. Take it and go. Fuck it. Take it and go. Fuck it. Take it and go. If you enjoy it and you've enjoyed the past ones, stick around because we're going to have fun and we're going to work hard for you.

We're going to have fun, though. God damn it. We are. We're going to make this shitty, shitty crime a lot more powerful. We're going to try. We're really going to try. We're going to try to make it funny. We're going to try to make it entertaining.

And we're also going to try to give you the best information we possibly can. So let's wrap this up. I'm on the edge of my seat. What happened to her? Let's get into this here. Last we left off, Mary Lou Arruda was missing. She was kidnapped on September or missing on September 8th, 1978, around 4 p.m., a little after 4 p.m. Her bike was found on the street. No one can find her. There's a green Dodge Opal with a racing stripe and a guy with curly hair and glasses flying around somewhere. We had just found our main suspect.

Mary Lou is still missing. She has not been found. Police searched for her. We just found the main suspect. If you remember the police, when we ended up, he had just given his alibi, which was we'll get into here about his. We'll check out discrepancies there in a minute. And we just got into his car where it was the car described by the witnesses that they'd

seen in the area. And also he had some incriminating things like Benson and Hedges cigarettes. Those are a big key. Same brand found on the road right by where she was abducted. They found the tire prints are very distinctive to that car because of a bearing problem in the wheel. Oh, shit. Which we'll get into.

Very distinctive tire marks. That was also there. And not one, but two newspapers. Two. Both opened to the Mary Lou Arruda abduction story. The article in each newspaper is open to them. And this guy we're looking at is James Cater. Things are looking not great for James Cater at the moment here.

Not at all here. I found some interesting information, by the way, this week, continuing the research here. Remember, at the end of the episode, we found out James Cater was engaged. Right. He said he had bought presents for his fiancee on the day of the abduction. And then once he came in 10 days later to the police station, it was calling it his wife. I found out he actually married this girl. She was an 18-year-old girl that he married now, keep in mind.

He married an 18-year-old girl. I mean, it's legal, but it's weird. Yeah, he's in his 30s. He married an 18-year-old girl the day after Mary Lou Arruda was abducted. Wow. So that, you know, like I said, we're comedians. We're not experts. But I have read a lot of books.

And like I said, I've readians. We're not experts, but I have read a lot of books. And like I said, all the books I've read, it seems like this is something where a lot of times serial killers, I'm not saying he's a serial killer, but serial killers are activated by stressors in their life. And a lot of times new baby, they'll go out and kill. Things like this is what snaps them. And so if he was planning on getting married the next day, this might have been, this kind of explains it psychologically a little bit to me as trying to figure out why now, whatever. Yeah. So anyway, he had given his alibi and we'll go through that right now because, yeah, it's not it's not quite on the money here. Not the most stand up alibi ever. No.

He says 345 picked up clothes from cleaners for 15 stopped at a friendlies restaurant and had coffee and a sandwich. 545 stopped at Bradley's store, got a gift for his fiancee, and he was at his job at Dunkin' Donuts, who has apparently no problem hiring people who are sexually dangerous, judging by the place he was being treated. He stopped by there about 615 to check on the operations. That's his alibi. Police take his alibi. They don't even know where Mary Lou Arruda is. So they have to let him go. Yeah, he's they let him go that day. He's out on the street.

That's on September 19th of 1978. She was abducted on the 8th. Now, September 20th is the day after he's interviewed by the police with his wife. When they're very interested in his car and especially his tires. He gets his car fixed on September 20th, the very next day. Really? Gets his car fixed. Turns out inner wheel bearings were disintegrated. This apparently causes the odd tire pattern in the scalloping of the tires based on the way the wheel is. It's caused by over-torquing, according to the mechanic, in case anybody out there is ever wondering.

So you over-torqued the lug nuts and it jacks up the bearing, I'm assuming? I don't know what over-torquing means. I was so knee-deep in murder and trials, I didn't get into auto mechanics on this one. But I'm assuming that's what it is. So anyway, that happens on the 20th. Now, the police then start checking his alibi, obviously. This is the main suspect. Let's see.

Let's get really up that ass with the microscope on his alibi here. They find out that his 415 alibi of being at Friendly's, which he always goes to, is neighborhood Friendly's for a sandwich and a coffee. They had not seen him there that day. He did not come into Friendly's that day, we found out. And that's the main one because she was abducted around 4 o'clock. So if he was at Friendly's at 415 having a sandwich, this would be a pretty good alibi, which is bad. He also had a 5.30 appointment of some kind.

I could never find out what the appointment was for, but he had a set 5.30 appointment that he missed also. And he wasn't seen at the Bradley store purchasing the gift for his fiancee until 6.40 p.m., not the 5.45 that he claimed. So all of this is pushed back a lot. Also, too, he did not go to his job at Dunkin' Donuts to check on things until 7 o'clock. That's when people saw him there. So that, you know. So there's a four-hour window that.

His timeline's skewed. Yeah. Also, too, they found out that he washed his car twice that day. He washed his car around 1 o'clock. What? And then sometime after 5, he washed his car again. He's got to have it nice and detailed to pick up the little chickies. And that was even – yeah, that's what he's thinking.

Maybe they'll like it. This guy's an awful monster. This guy's terrible. And so – well, we don't know if he's terrible. We'll get into how terrible he is here. You got a good point. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt until the end of the episode. As of right now, he's just a misleading chief liar.

Yeah, yeah, at best. He's a liar driving a shitty car at this point. That's the only crime we're sure. And he's also a kidnapper and attempted rapist from 10 years ago. But that's not now, I guess. He's served his – he's paid his debt to society, which I don't think that's – He's an upstanding citizen at this point. He's an upstanding citizen that manages the Dunkin' Donuts at this point.

He did seven years for kidnapping and trying to kill a 13-year-old. That seems like paying his debt, right? like paying his debt. Ridiculous. So anyway, also to another big problem, Cater was seen. They found witnesses that saw Cater driving his bright green, very distinctive Opal. Yeah. Four different witnesses saw him driving, quote, in the immediate vicinity of the Freetown State Forest at approximately 430 p.m. I'd start looking there. So that's going to be an issue now. So now that's then. Now on November, time goes by until November 11th.

Oh, my goodness. Two months have gone by. All of October. All of October, the rest of September, and a part of November have gone by, and no one knows where Mary Lou is. They have not found this poor girl yet. I can't imagine what her family is going through at this point because it's a nightmare every day.

That's what I mean. Every single day. And oh, God, I found out to her father is a truck driver. So he's got to go out on the road for a long drive with his thoughts. Yeah. Imagine doing that. Right. And as he drives away from the town, he just feels like he's missing something and he's

driving away from a problem. That's terrific. Not being not being the hero that he's supposed to be to her. Exactly. I can't imagine what that has to feel like as a father, and I feel bad for this guy. Horrible. Yeah. Adrian Arruda, his name is.

I feel bad for the mother also. I was just saying that he's in the truck out there on his own, and her sitting at home with nobody while he's out on the road. And she can't feel safe. It's terrible. Her daughter just disappeared. There's out on the road. And she can't feel safe. It's terrible. Her daughter just disappeared. Nobody feels safe. There's no closure.

None. Her husband leaves, and she's just there by herself now. She's got to feel so alone and so afraid. Hoping no one takes her other kids. Yeah. Because I wouldn't let my other kids out of the house at this point. I would feel so unsafe. We're doing homeschooling now.

Forget it. So finally, on November 11, 1978, some dirt bike riders are riding in the Freetown National Forest, and they find a partially decomposed body tied to a tree by the hands, ankles, and neck. Does that sound familiar? Sounds like an MO of somebody. That sounds like exactly what happened to Jacqueline Bussieri back in 1968, but this time the job was finished. She's tied with a fabric twine. She's fully clothed. You know, they call the police, obviously, the job was finished. She's tied with a fabric twine. She's fully clothed.

You know, they call the police, obviously, the dirt bike riders. And they go back and the police come and they find and they fingerprint and find out that it is Mary Lou Arruda. Oh, God. So that's they find Mary Lou Arruda. For two months that poor little girl was tied to a tree. Two months. They do the autopsy. They do think that Mary Lou died the same day she was taken.

I mean, if there's any. So they don't think she stayed there. She didn't die from the elements or anything like that out there, which exposure, which is glad. Thankfully, I mean, it's horrible, but at least it wasn't worse than it was. Right. The autopsy showed that Mary Lou was alive when she was tied to the tree, shows signs of strangulation. Basically, what they ended up figuring out was that she had the rope around her neck, just like the last one. Basically, she was strangled, and she passed out from the strangling and leaned forward,

and then the rope choked her. The rope ended up strangling her that way. That's the cause of death that they're saying here. The town is absolutely... This levels the town. This is a close-knit, small town where things like this don't happen, and they are blown away by it. I have some quotes from some of the

local residents that are just horrible here. Resident Jeannie Jacques said, quote, it's like someone ripped the canvas of a Norman Rockwell painting. Our town was never the same. We have a former selectman, political guy here in town, Don McKinnon. He said, quote,

we can all recall it like it was yesterday. The town of Raynham and Mary Lou are synonymous. And another selectman, Jim DuPont, said it was the end of innocence in Raynham. So that's what we're doing here. That describes right there how well to do that town is. If that shit happened here, nobody would say tour the canvas of a rock wall.

That lets you know how pristine that town is. It's a nice small town where you would move your family to be safe. I mean, that's what they did. They came here in 1969, the Arutas, to be safe, to come to a nice town where your kid could ride a bicycle down the street in front of your house, and you don't have to worry about anything. That's why people move to these places.

That's why you pay $600,000 for a house, to live somewhere safe and where you're half as likely to be raped. That's what it was, half as likely. Come to Rainham, that should be on the seal, really. No doubt. Half the rape of normal towns. So on November 18th, 1978, this is a week later, one week after the body is found, about a mile from the site they found her. This is in the woods. Now, there is no path connecting this location to the Mary Lou Arruda site of finding her body.

There is no path. There's no connection. You'd have to go around the woods. It's not, like, accessible. Okay? It's not like accessible. Okay. They find in this area, about a mile away in the forest on the edge, a large wooden cross, lengths of yellow twine, leather straps.

Oh, God. A T-shirt, pair of shorts, a towel, and a paper bag. And how far away was it? A mile. A mile away. A mile through the woods. I'm going with not connected, guys. Yeah. That's the thing.

There were stains that were possibly blood on some of the items. Police found this. And basically what they did, they just took photos of the items. They took five photos of the items based on the nature and location of the items. The officer concluded that they probably were not related to the Arruda case because there's no path and it's far away. Right. Or any other known criminal activity that was out there that was, you know, cases that were on the books. So he leaves the items in the woods, just photographs them and leaves them there. Wow.

Which is an, I don't know why. That's a bizarre thing to do. Actually, we'll find out later why this police officer, this is an A plus star move right here. Okay. Seems dumb now. Yeah. But out of dumb luck, 28 years later, this will pay off.

Okay. We'll put it that way. All right. We'll find out. Next day, he takes the film to the DA,. to the district attorney along with the Arruda autopsy just to cover his bases basically. There was no real big report made of it or anything like that. Yeah.

But the yellow twine found out there was not consistent with the twine found on Mary Lou. Right. Mary Lou had a fabric twine. It was a different thing. It's like a bedspread. This was. But it was a twine. This was like one of those nylon.

OK. Like. Yeah. Like the yellow things. Yeah. The yellow rope that you tie shit with. Exactly. This was like one of those nylon. Okay. Yeah, like the yellow things that you tie. The yellow rope that you tie shit with. Exactly. So it's plastic shit.

Yeah, utility stuff. It's a plastic. And like I said, the areas of the woods were not connected, so, you know, whatever. So on November 28, 1978, James Cater is indicted finally here. It's been two and a half months. Indicted on charges of kidnapping and first-degree murder. Wow. In the case of Mary Lou Arruda.

No one is upset about that at all. No, I'm sure. Except for him, I'm sure. Except for him and maybe his new wife. Him and Dunkin' Donuts. Yeah, they're like, we lost a hell of a shift manager. Let me tell you something. Even on his day off, he would come in to check on Johnny. He'd glaze.

He was the man. I'm sorry. Make sure Johnny wasn't fucking off. He'd glaze everywhere. Jesus, awful human being. Johnny Glaze. He was the man. I'm sorry. Make sure Johnny wasn't shooting glaze everywhere. Jesus. Awful human being. So on the case, Joanna Ruda, who was Mary Lou's mother, said, quote, she was a poor, innocent girl on the wrong street at the wrong time. That's all I can say. And that's all that can be said. Yeah. I mean, what do you say to that if you're the mother or anybody, really? But especially the mother. I can't even imagine her how she's feeling right now. Blaming herself every day.

No doubt. I mean, who wouldn't send their – back then in the 70s in this nice town, who wouldn't tell your kid they can come home from their friend's house? That was just the way things were. Very leave it to be there. You just said, go to your friend's house. Yeah, that's it. And come home. And so this was not what they expected. Now, prior to the trial, prior to court here, Cater's attorneys asked the judge if he can individually ask jurors during the jury picking if they feel a prior conviction of a crime means that someone should never be allowed back out on the street.

Okay. He's trying to influence them on that previous case. Yeah, trying to let them know, hey, this one may have something extra. Yeah, he's trying a little trick also, what he's trying to do, as we'll see. He's trying to pin them in so basically no matter what happens, now, let's say the judge

does not allow that information into the trial, because we haven't done that yet, whether the pretrial hearings, whether that information will be allowed in. Well, now the whole jury is completely, you know, they're completely contaminated because he has already told them about it. That's what he's trying to do. It's a tactic. It's an attorney tactic.

Basically the judge allows this, but after five jurors, the judge decides the question is misleading and it's going to cause further problems and he stops the practice. And this will come up later also. So there's five jurors already that are tainted. That are tainted. We don't know if they were chosen for the jury or not. I have no idea. The judge might have said, wipe all those clear. We're starting over. I'm not sure. Now, 1979, the trial begins. Five witnesses testify that Cater's car, which at that point they had in the basement of the courthouse, just hanging out in the basement of the courthouse, was similar and consistent with the car they saw on September 8th, which is a big deal.

Witnesses were both the ones that saw him in the neighborhood and the ones that saw him around the forest. These were both. There's not all of them testify because I'm sure. It's funny. If you get 10 witnesses, you go, six of them are decent witnesses. Those four look like jerk-offs. Get them out of here because someone's going to have fun with them on cross. You know what I mean?

One of those. She was kind of a nutcase. Remember? Yeah. She got arrested for having her shirt off in the middle of the street last week, screaming at a homeless man. So we're going to keep her off the jury. The other guy ended up being the other side of a glory hole or something.

Yeah. You never know. So at the first trial, also, the mechanic who fixed Cater's car on September 20th testifies. They get him in there. He testifies that Cater probably drove on that tire in that condition for about 5,000 miles to cause that tire pattern. So he drove for 5,000 miles, which is a good amount of time. It's, what, six months probably.

He drove for six months on this tire. On a couple oil changes. Never had a thought in the world about it. But then the next day after police are photographing it, he's like, I better get this fixed. So that's a little suspicious right there. What do you think? An FBI expert. And this is interesting here. This FBI expert that testifies. This was hard to find, man. This FBI expert that testifies is the same agent, same FBI agent that testified in the O.J. Simpson trial about his footprints. What? Isn't that crazy? This guy now, he's testifying about tire patterns in this.

That's wild. He's a footprint tire pattern guy. He testifies that the tread design, dimension, and wear pattern on the tread were all consistent with photos and impressions taken from next to Mary Lou's bike. So he says, this is this asshole's tire. You got that right there. 100%.

And then he said, this is this asshole's footprint 20 years later. And didn't get great results on the OJ one. Now, due to a policeman, this is an interesting thing. Remember I said they hypnotized in the first episode the witnesses that saw him? Basically, all the witnesses gave statements. They did sketches. They did all of that. And then a few days later, they hypnotized these people to see if they had any more information.

And a few days later, they hypnotized these people to see if they had any more information. And so a police officer did the hypnosis, which is a problem because back then hypnosis was a little more – it was a little more accepted as a – As a practice, as a scientific method. As a practice that might be allowed into court in certain instances. But they had like, are you a qualified hypnotist? What the fuck that means. Have you worked on a cruise ship in the last six months? That would be my question. Yes, then you're a qualified hypnotist. The only hypnotists

I see now are comedy hypnotists. That's it. An embarrassment to the profession. Yes, they are. An embarrassment to the profession. If you like comedy hypnotists, you really need to examine your life choices and back it up and go see someone who writes material. So anyway.

Anyway, they challenged whether proper, basically whether he had the proper documentation on the pre-hypnosis thing. Okay. Because they need – there's certain procedures they need to go through. They need to chart exactly what they say beforehand, what they say after. There's times. You need to do a full report when you're doing a hypnosis apparently. I can't imagine it's very – how thorough can you be with that?

That's fucking weird. Basically, they're saying you can't just swing a watch back and forth, ask somebody some questions and say that that's scientific. Now, like you have to have some sort of at least a procedure that we can look at. None of it fucking convinces me, though. It's so stupid. Did you make him quack like a duck? I mean, what the fuck? That would do it.

So the credentials of the policemen are challenged. The documentation is challenged. Also, there was other people in the room at the time of the policemen are challenged. The documentation is challenged. Also, there was other people in the room at the time of the hypnosis, which is apparently a no-no in this. Well, yeah. I guess. I don't know. Who the hell cares? It's hypnosis.

What's the difference? With extra people in the room, they can lead them to do something or say, I don't fucking know. I mean, once you're in a hypnosis, it's like, whatever. You might as well just have, you know. Turn on a video camera. Just have you and the fucking perp in the room. That's it. And show us the tape. Yeah. You might as well just have, you know. Turn on a video camera. Just have you and the fucking perp in the room. That's it. And show us the tape.

Yeah. You might as well have clowns and elephants running around. It doesn't matter at that point. Who cares? It's all bullshit. It's all bullshit. Let's just be honest. So one good thing here caters with their calling, what they always call.

Real quick, they didn't have lie detector tests back then? They were even less reliable than they are now, which are completely unreliable. Were they less reliable than a fucking hypnotist? No, they didn't think they were lying, though. There was never a question of whether the witnesses were making it up. They just didn't know. They were trying to see if they remembered anything that they didn't remember, basically. So they're trying to snag something out of their psyche that they don't realize that

they know? Main thing is license plate number. Do you have a partial, any sort of one number of that license plate because that's key that's a key thing right there uh so anyway uh they they admit prior caters prior bad act which is this that's what they call up your you know if they allow an old crime in that they can judge you off of they call it a bad act prior bad act okay and most of the time they don't allow prior bad acts because they're you know they're they're uh that's what i call my first open mic set prior bad act since you should probably do that yeah everyone should everyone should uh but yeah the the prior bad act it's it's you're

tainting the the jury if you tell them a prior bad act unless it's something that's really relevant to what you're doing like exactly how we found the girl? Like if it's a signature, as they would call it. You know what I mean? That's your M.O. Right. So they allow that case in the 68 Bussieri case. Cater testifies on his own behalf.

What an idiot. As we've said, ballsy and stupid, this guy. Two words that describe him best, ballsy, dumb as a stump, are the two things perfectly summing him up.

He admits on the stand to pleading guilty in the 1968 case because what the fuck else are you going to do? They have documents going. You pled guilty in this case. I said, yes, I did. He says that he has been in the process of rebuilding his life since he was let out of prison in January of 76. So that's building 30 years ago.

Not even. Yeah. Well, from the murder, it was two and a half. Right. So he says, yeah, that rebuilding his life. He found a fiance. He got a job at Dunkin' Donuts. He's going to this clinic for the sexually dangerous and he's ready to go.

I still think burn that place to the ground. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. So he denies any connection on the stand to Mary Lou at all. So I never saw Mary Lou. I don't know Mary Lou. I don't know what you're talking about.

But like I said, prior bad acts allowed because of the similarities in the case. Good. Now, the prosecutor, this is in his closing argument for the case. Okay. Prosecutor makes a pretty good, makes a pretty good point here, I think, personally. He says, quote, does he have motivation to lie in this case? Think about it. Because you have to decide whether he's capable on September 8th of driving behind a little

girl who's on a bicycle, kidnapping her, driving her to the forest, tying her hands behind her back to a tree, tying her feet to a tree, and then strangling her. Think about it. So what he's saying is, do you think he's capable of doing that, being that we just detailed that he did that once before? I mean, he's really saying, like, do you think he's capable? He did this exact thing. Do you think maybe he strangled her an extra 10 seconds this time?

Possibly, maybe. You think he ran a girl off the road first. Yeah. That wasn't his way of his method that he's going to pick. Attack a widow with a chair leg in a cemetery. In a cemetery, grieving her husband. That's not the way he wants to do it. And then he gets one, and he doesn't finish the job.

And then he does one and he doesn't finish the job. And then he does one the, I mean, allegedly does one the exact same way, but held the thumb a little longer. And I feel like he thought he killed the first one. Right. I feel like he left her for dead. He thought he killed the first one. I think that was an accident. Yes. I think he wanted to kill her.

She passed out. Whoops a daisy. Okay, I did it. And then he walked away. Yeah. He was very self, he was patting himself on the back. Yeah. He's like, I did a pretty good job back there.

I really got my strangle on pretty good. And then he walked away. Yeah, he was very self-convinced, patting himself on the back. He's like, I did a pretty good job back there. I really got my strangle on pretty good. And then it's going to cost him twice now. He's a piece of shit. That's how I feel. This guy's a piece of shit. You really got my strangle on. I really feel like he's a piece of garbage that would be like, yeah, I'm betting America's. Way to go, buddy.

Like, really. I feel like that's like the sick line we're dealing with. You deserve a jelly word for that one. Let's go get a jelly. Let's go to Friendly's. Right. That's what he's going to do. You're getting extra Swiss on that sandwich today.

I want to get a sundae at Friendly's, this jackass. So, 1979 here, jury returns a verdict of guilty. Good. Guilty on first-degree murder and kidnapping. That's what I would do, too. He is sentenced to life in prison. Good. Thank fuck for that.

Cater immediately files an appeal based on the hypnosis testimony, also allowing prior bad acts. Also, he says the closing statements were inflammatory with pictures of Mary Lou, and he says they were trying to pull sympathy out of the jury. Yeah. Which, yeah, that's the point. If I got a parking ticket and they were able to pull my first my first over, Mike said they were like this prior bad act. Yeah, he totally did it. And I'd be guilty. Yeah.

This guy wouldn't want that shit shown in and shown to a jury. Well, this guy said that he the prosecutor, he was upset because the prosecutor was trying to play on jury sympathy to convict him for killing a 15 year old girl. But it's like, yes, exactly. Yeah, you killed a girl. We're putting it into relative terms. The weight of it needs to be put in court here. That's oranges to oranges, brother. Yeah, because he also told the jury, the jurors, the prosecutor, that Mary Lou begged for her life and all that kind of thing.

Because that's a reasonable inference to make. Of course. When you take a young girl and tie her to a tree in the forest and beat on her, she's probably going to beg for her fucking life. I would assume. And I feel like that's, you know, the jury thought that too. They were like, yeah, you don't even have to tell us. We get it. We know.

Local, so he's convicted. Now he's in prison. Appeals are going through. He's appealing with vigor at this point. Now, April 1980, there is a story in the local paper. The story is, headline is, quote, satanic cult may be linked to murders. Oh, no. Okay.

Article had pictures of the cross and the items taken on November – in November 1978 that the police officer left. Somehow the press – I don't know what the Freedom of Information Act was back then. But they got a hold of the pictures of these items and printed them in there and, you know, try to make it a- Turned it to an occult thing. They tried to turn it into an occult thing because there is a cult activity, there is cult activity in these forests. And around here, there's a guy named Carl Drew who's a famous killer and he was a Satanist killer and he had a cult thing and it's a big famous case around here and we'll probably

do it down the road. But, you know, I don't know. I got to check and see if other people have done it. I don't want to repeat cases. But this dick tainted this case. But so there was also just a lot of activity there. There was a lot of they would go have like stupid ceremonies and shit like that. It was the late 70s, early 80s.

I feel like it wasn't. It was like probably teenagers that like heard a Judas Priest album literally and were like, let's go like burn a candle, put a pentagram on shit. Like I remember like my Aunt Lisa is older than me, nine years older than me. And that's kind of when she was a teenager. And I remember the people she'd bring home. That's who they were. They were like, I like heavy metal and we'll draw a pentagram. But they weren't fucking killing anyone in the woods.

When did Ozzy bite that bat? Because they could have gone to the woods to look for a bat to do the same shit. Bring a cross and some yellow twine. Crucify it, bro. Bring the shorts and the paper bag, will you? So 1983 now, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, we're going to hear a lot from them. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court hears James Cater's appeal. There is a five-judge panel, and they rule that the judge in the original case should not have allowed testimony that may have been hypnotically aided.

They rule in favor of Cater and award him a new trial. So now overturn that conviction. Does he have to stay in jail? He has. He's in jail on no bond. They won't let him out. He's got a no bond hold. They're not letting him out anywhere.

At least there's that. Absolutely. I mean, the family has to go through the shit again. Imagine. Unbelievable. He's gone. He's off the street. And then they get a phone call. He might be coming back on the street. It's horrific. So the 1985, there's a new trial starting. So the prosecution right away refiles and they're getting this going. Pre-trial, the Supreme Judicial Court again reverses the

decision. This is confusing. Hang with me here. They reversed the decision to deny Cater's attempt to suppress the hypnosis evidence. So basically, it's so hard. So many reverses. I'm reading this out of court documents, mind you. Now, first of all, I don't know if you've ever seen a court document, but there's a lot of like annotations. It's super hard to read a court document and figure out what the hell happened. But it's even harder when they do so many double negatives like that, when you're attempting to make sense of the legal language here. Basically, they say that he can try to suppress hypnosis evidence if he wants to because they had a thing denying his request to suppress it. Now they're saying he can have a request to suppress it. Super confusing.

Took me an hour to figure out. Hope you guys get it in a sooner amount. Hope I could explain it to you in a less amount of time than that because it was killing me. They rule that the trial judge must hold a hearing to decide what evidence was garnered pre-hypnosis and what evidence was garnered post-hypnosis and what is admissible. Okay? So they task the trial judge with this. Okay? Judge has a hearing in 1985 but decides that he can't possibly judge what

evidence is pre or post who me judge who am i to judge you're a fucking judge it's your fucking title you dick so this is a judge who was asked by five other judges to judge something and he went i can't possibly i don't know anything what about you five what am i gonna do jesus i'm just a judge what do i know holy shit so he just allows the same lot of evidence from the first trial in, all of it. He just says, I'm basically calling a wash and saying whatever's done, whatever came before will go forward now. Wow. That's what he does. He just basically just says, I don't fucking care.

I'm too lazy to deal with this. I'm retiring in two years. Fuck it. Let's go forward. Unreal, man. One thing that's not allowed in two years. Fuck it. Let's go forward. Unreal, man. So the prior one thing that's not allowed in is the prior bad act. They're not allowing the 68 Bussieri

case in. And that's ridiculous. How? That's ridiculous. He was convicted for it. It's exactly the same thing. It's the exact same thing that happened. Unreal. How is that thrown out? How is that not admissible? Somehow, even without that, in 1986, Cater is again convicted of first-degree murder and kidnapping, right?

We're good now, right? Thank God. He's sentenced to life in prison. Okay. He's appealing, but now, geez, it's two times now. He's done, right? There's no way it happens again. You'd imagine it wouldn't happen again. Now, also, in the late 80s here, they move Cater out of state to a different prison for his own safety. Where'd they move him? Illinois or some shit?

They moved him to Lompoc, California. Wow! Across the country? For his own safety. Where'd they move him? Illinois or some shit? They moved him to Lompoc, California. Wow. Across the country? For his own safety. Apparently the prisoner's there. You know, he's a local guy. They frown upon it? They frown upon when you kidnap 15-year-old girls, tie them to trees and kill them.

Shocking. So they're like, yeah, you know, I'm kind of from there and I'm going to rip your fucking head off. So they need to move him. I know her neighbor, you dick. They need to move him to a place where nobody gives a shit. So they find that. They find Lompac, California.

Wow. So March of 1991, we're going to hear again from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. What the fuck? Well, it's the appeals process. You're in prison life in prison. You get a full appeals process here. So they're making a decision in March of 1991 on whether or not Cater gets a retrial. 91 on whether or not Cater gets a retrial.

The five-judge panel rules that the trial judge erred in letting in the witness IDs because the prosecutor failed to show the IDs were made before hypnosis. It's the exact same goddamn thing. Exact same thing. You would think the prosecutor in the second case would have said, hey, hey, hey, let's disallow some, let's make this so they don't turn this over. I don't know if this was a prosecutor who was going to be out of the job in a minute. The prosecutor, by the way, that's all I can imagine. They were like, well, yeah, maybe I won't be here when the appeal comes down.

I don't know what it was, but unbelievable. Wow. He gets another retrial. God damn it. Another retrial. That poor mother. Poor Adrian. The poor Joanne.

Joanne Arruda, here's her quote about this. Poor Joanne. I can't even imagine. Unbelievable. The pain this woman must be going through. Just the general angst and just anger. Your stomach is just constantly in knots. I guarantee the poor woman hasn't had a solid bowel movement in years. She's a mess, this lady.

Awful, awful. She says, quote, I was shocked they overturned it. These are five intelligent so-called judges sitting up there, and now they come back with an awful, stupid decision. I love her. She stays in St. Joseph's Cemetery. Nobody overturns that verdict. Oh, wow. That's a mic drop right there.

Yeah. She just said, you incompetent fucks. Yeah, that's a mother thing. That's what moms say. You incompetent fucks. Thanks a lot. I just wish she would have said that. You incompetent bastards, and then went away.

The father, Adrian, wouldn't even talk to the press. He was too upset, visibly, and shaken. And he just couldn't. Like I said, he's a truck driver. He's going to knock somebody out. He's got to go get on the road and think about this now. The town in Boise that needs their Hitachi TVs. I got to get the fuck out of here.

I got to go. I got to go. I don't know why. Whenever I picture a truck driver, I picture Sylvester Stallone in the movie Over the Top with a big truck full of brute cologne arm wrestling his son across the country. I don't know why. Whenever I picture a truck driver, I picture Sylvester Stallone in the movie Over the Top with a big truck full of brute clone arm wrestling his son across the country. I don't know why. That's all I pictured in my head. So great.

I was sly looking over at his son and going, you know, arm wrestle. And I'm going, okay. I'm going to turn my hat backward. Yeah, I'm going to turn it back. I've got to work out much. I've got truck workouts to do. I've got to think I made myself a solo flex. Sitting there with that spring as he's going down the road.

He's flexing his hand. Oh, my God. So I'm sure he wishes he was Sylvester Stallone. No doubt. Now, in 1992, prior to the third trial, now we're up to a third trial. Oh, Jesus. Third trial. This is ridiculous.

Before the third trial, Supreme Judicial Court, again, grants the motion by Cater to suppress expected testimony that may be based on hypnotically obtained evidence. So they're suppressing that evidence right from the start. So they don't have the witness testimony, but at least it won't taint anything that goes forward. If they actually convict him, it'll stick. The trial judge orders that the 1968 conviction, the prior bad act, not be admissible. So now we have no witnesses, no prior bad act. What do we have? You have his car.

Right. We have – You literally have his car. People saw his car near the forest. We have people saw the car near the abduction. Oh, and that's not even good. No, we can't have that. No.

No, that's witness testimony, so that's out. We don't have that. We don't have his prior bad act. We basically have a guy with a green car and them going, the tire marks are pretty close, and he smokes Benson and Hedges. Right. That's what we have, literally. And we can't even talk about that he raped a chick before. No physical evidence.

Not even raped her. He just abducted a girl before. It's as circumstantial as you get. It's that he had open newspapers to the stories. And he's going, well, it was a crazy story around then. Everybody was talking about it. There's 13,000 people in this town. Of course I got them.

It's not that whatever. So the retrial begins in October 1992. Third trial. Unbelievable. It's a shorter trial, two months. On December 17th, 1992 the jury begins deliberation. Now on Christmas Eve, December 24th, 1992,

jury comes out and says that they remain deadlocked and they're hopeless and it's not going to happen. So the judge with both sides, apparently this has been going on and they had no – it was not going to change basically. Some people said yes. Some people said no and it wasn't a thing that was going to – they were fighting apparently. Now, it's hopeless so the judge declares a mistrial with support from both sides. Oh, my God.

Prosecution and defense said, yeah, we're not getting anywhere. We're banging our head against the wall. How would you like to have that Christmas in the Arruda household? The worst. The worst. There isn't a worse one. I can't imagine the last 13, 14 Christmases have been horrific, I would assume, just anyway. And now, on top of it, on Christmas Eve, let's get that piece of information.

She would be nearly 30 years old, and we can't even hash this out yet. No, can't hash it out yet. It's ridiculous. The suspense in that. Yeah, and then hash it out yet. It's ridiculous. The suspense in that. Yeah, and then they have to wait. They have to wait. Are the parents still married at this point? Yeah, they're still family together.

Because I don't know how that doesn't tear you apart. I don't know. They have other children, I know. That may draw you closer together. And plus, he's on the road a lot. So maybe she's like, whatever. We won't kill each other. He's out there.

Get the fuck out of here. So June 1994. This is how long this all takes. Years. So when there's a mistrial, does he get out now here so june 1994 this is i mean this is how long this all takes years every time there's a trial does he get out now no no he's not he's held on the judge will not let him out okay because he would have because he's still under whatever he would have to have bail set okay basically and they're not giving this fucking guy bail which is understandable so it's at least they're smart enough to not say well you know you haven't convicted him and so i gotta let him go.

He's still held on first degree murder charges pending investigation. Exactly. Pending a trial. Now, Cater in June 1994, this is how long this took. This is a year and a half later. These people have to wait now. He motions to dismiss the indictments on grounds of double jeopardy. Now, if you're from another country and you don't realize we have something in our, I guess, Constitution called double. It's a double jeopardy. Now, if you're from another country and you don't realize, we have something in our, I guess, Constitution called double.

It's a double jeopardy protection clause. Basically, if you're tried for something and found not guilty, they can't then bring you to trial for that same thing again. They have to let you go, and that's it. That's why O.J. didn't. I was going to say, think O.J. Simpson. Believe me, they wanted to try him again, but he was found not guilty. Oh, you bet your ass they did.

So that's the basic deal here. He's saying it's double jeopardy, and he wants the state to be barred from seeking a fourth trial because of the hung jury mistrial. One little problem, sir. You were not found not guilty. You were not found. Now, yes, Cater argues that because the jury couldn't reach a verdict that it would be double jeopardy because some of them were wanting to acquit him. The court has to decide, this is interesting here, only whether there was enough evidence to have reasonably found Cater guilty of the crime.

That's it. That's what they found, to negate the double jeopardy. And July of 1994, finally, it's ruled that because of the case of Busieri and Arruda are so similar, it's as close to a signature as you get. Bingo. So your motion's denied. Take a hike, asshole it's as close to a signature as you get. Bingo. So your motion's denied. Take a hike, asshole. Nice.

Back to fucking jail with you. Retrial will proceed finally. I love it. Good God. So this now, it's November 1996 the trial starts. This has been four years. Four years. A month shy of four years.

Since the mistrial. Since the mistrial. And 20 years since the disappearance of the poor girl. 18 years. Do you say 98? 96. Oh, 96. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

18 years. 18 years since she disappeared. So you still don't have a closure on this yet. And it's going to take a little while longer, too. Good God. Well, here, let's get into this here. November 1996, this trial is a circus. He's got a new lawyer caterer, a guy named James, what is his name, Kroski, Joseph Kroski is his last name.

This guy's an asshole. He's a real asshole. Like, I get that you want a vigorous defense, and everyone deserves a vigorous defense, but not everyone deserves a complete asshole who throws up bullshit to get child killers out of fucking jail. Terrible. Sorry, but this guy's a dick. Yeah. And, too, I looked up

what, I looked up Kroski here and I really got some information on him. I want to know the background of someone I'm calling a complete asshole. And we want to hate him. Yeah, if I'm going to put out you know, call someone an asshole to thousands and thousands of people that listen, I would like to at least know that I'm secure in that. And guess what? I am

because I looked this asshole up and he was a crime reporter for some newspaper before that. And he's always been very he in his bio, basically. I found his bio on his law firm site here. He touts what a great job he did in the Cater case and all this. Like this is he's touting this. He's proud of this. This is a life achievement.

I threw a monkey in the wrench of getting a child killer convicted, basically. What a dick. I get he's a lawyer and that's his job and I understand that. Yeah. I mean, everyone needs representation, but he's zealous about the fact that like you don't have to be zealous about it 20 years later. Right. In 2015, you don't have to be saying like. You can have some remorse.

Man, I didn't. Yeah, you could be saying, I wish I didn't have to do that shit. Right. That's the word. Everyone deserves it. That's the Constitution. That's how our country works. But that particular guy, I would have liked to fucking –

Not been a part of that? I would have liked to tie him to a tree myself personally. I would have loved to have heard that from the guy. But you never get that from him. No. Just bragging. He's a dick. So he goes back on trial for murder.

November 1996 it starts. During the opening here, opening statements, the Bristol District Attorney, Walter Shea, said he's confident before the trial. Now, to the opening statements, he said, quote, when police found Mary Lou's body in that forest, they knew they had a murder case. When they found her body in that forest, they knew they had a killer, James Cater. That's just pretty right to the message. I like that. Also told the jury about the Benson and Hedges, the tire tracks, how his alibi is a complete fucking disaster.

All of this in the opening statement. Set it up really nicely. Also here, now Joseph Kroski, his opening statement here includes, quote, there is no evidence, there was never any evidence, and Mr. Cater is not responsible in this case in any way, shape, or form. Kroski also said that it's not his client's responsibility to provide closure to the Arruda

family. Wow. This is not my responsibility. Sincerely callous. Yes. What a cunt. Now, if you are a not guilty person sitting there, it isn't your job to do that. But that is not the way to endear yourself to a fucking jury of 12 people who might have

children. Sorry. Also, here's the thing, too. It's not my job to do that. That is not the way to endear yourself to a fucking jury of 12 people who might have children. Sorry. Also, here's the thing, too. It's not my job, but I apologize. I feel terrible for them. I offer some sort of closure. Jimmy, if your grandfather died, I'd say, I'm sorry, Jimmy. I didn't kill your fucking grandfather, but I'm going to try to help a little.

And I'd probably tell you, it's okay, man. It's not your fault. Some shit like that. But fucking offer the words, for Christ's sake. Next time something happens, come up to me and I'm going, it's not my fucking job to make you feel better about that. It's not my job to provide closure to you on that, Jimmy. What the fuck?

Eat shit and die. Sorry. I'm going to start commenting that on any person's post on Facebook or social media that posts that their grandparents died. I am going to write, it is not my job to provide closure. It's not my responsibility to provide closure to you the fill-in-the-blank family. Very formal.

You've got to be very formal about it. Holy shit, that is so callous. Yeah, he's a dick, this guy. So Kroski also said that Arruda was most likely the victim of cult activity. That's his whole case. That's all he's going to say. His whole case is that bullshit from earlier. God, he sucks.

And I've got to say this, too. I'm going to say something here. There was a real scare in the early 80s and the late 70s all through the mid 80s and even into the 90s it's a famous thing this satanic shit was such an overblown scare there was eight kids in a forest with a candle burning drawing a fucking pentagon pentagram on a tree and people freaked the fuck out and yes there was people who were murdered like that yeah very. Very few of them. The Manson family did shit like that. Very few.

But it wasn't for Satan. Right. That was for politics almost. I mean, that was for a lot of reasons. That was for his power. It was for a midget that's crazy as fuck is what it was. They weren't like, hey, we need to go kill for the devil. That's not what it was.

That's what I mean. This shit was so overblown. And if there was one or two cases like that Carl Drew case, people just extrapolated, that must be everything. That must be everything just blanket every killing with that shit now i'm scared of the devil i saw the exorcist this must be real that doesn't account for fucking just crazy people no and there was one out there absolutely i blame liam freaking for all of it sorry thanks will thanks dickhead for the exorcist appreciate it you fucking you the poor aruta family 24 years later 22 years later has to deal with this shit because of you.

Because you had to make a fucking devil movie. You provided fucking Kosky with a great argument. Not even a great argument. Just an argument. Absolutely. So he's saying, yeah, most likely victim of cult activity in that Cater was the victim of, quote, overzealous prosecutors who piled trifle upon trifle of evidence to create a case. I hate that word. Yeah.

And it's especially coming from this dickhead. His hair is silver. I just know it. I guarantee it. That's a little incisive. He's overweight. Yeah. So he also told jurors that they would bring a witness to the stand that says that they saw more than 20 people, 20 people carrying

torches into the woods around the time Mary Lou was killed. Oh, God. No, I'm sorry. First of all, 20 people is a hell of a little cult you got going on in a small town. That's a shitload. You've only got 13,000 people in the town. Bullshit, yeah. And you found 20 that are going to carry torches into the woods?

In the woods at 4.30 in the afternoon, mind you, in September when it would have been light outside. You need torches at 4.30 in the afternoon. That's the other thing I thought that was bullshit. I mean, if you were planning on being there later. Plus, if you're going to be a satanic cult and try to kind of keep it under wraps, you're not going to get 20 people together with torches to all walk in together like you're some kind of posse from the Old West that's hunting for-

That sends up a literal flag. Yeah. A literal flag i don't it's a it's pretty obvious that grabs attention 20 flames right people chanting shit that's not what you're gonna do you go hey well we'll meet in the forest then light the torches once we're in the woods you know what i mean come on guys get your fucking satanic everybody everybody on opposite sides too you go in alone i'm not a cult member but i think i can do this better you know what i mean so gross maybe they can bring me in as a consultant i'd be like look guys number one the torches wait till you get in the way to light them give it a minute so kroski also said that quote there will be evidence that other parties were in those woods doing quote weird things which i love i had to quote twice there but i don't care because it's weird. He actually said they were doing weird things.

Killing a 15-year-old girl isn't a weird thing. There's a big difference. I know lots of people that do weird things. I really do. They do tons of weird shit. They're not killing 15-year-old girls in the woods and tying them to trees. I take my shirt off to shit. I do that.

There you go. That's something that's weird as hell. How many bodies are tied to trees based on that? Thank you. And you're fine. And you're fine. Then you're fine. This trial will include the evidence excluded from the previous two trials, including the 1969 conviction of the Bussieri case, the one after the almost killing, as we remember, just like Mary Lou there. Now, it will also allow part.

This is what they should have done before. Partial witness testimony. They do have these people's initial statements when they got there before they were hypnotized. They're going to allow those in. So you just can't have what you had after the hypnosis, which is all that 1985 judge had to do. Just don't be lazy and parse it. Say, okay, these are the statements made on this date. They hypnotized them on this date.

Anything past that date is no good. Anything back, that's fine. That's good. Which is all of the descriptions and everything else everything that mattered everything that fucking mattered just the car the thing because you're just it's just pieces you put that those things together with the fact that his tire print matches together with the fact that he did this before and there's benson and hedges outside of the road it's pretty coincidental at this point right you know and i'm not for convicting people on bullshit evidence but

there's a dead 15 year old girl we're pretty fucking sure this guy did it i want him dead 15 year old girl and there's an almost dead 13 year old girl it's fucking identical so they have the witness testimony they have tire tracks prior bad act they have his shitty alibi they have all of that uh they also have this is new they didn't have this since the first trial and it was kind of uh the scientific evidence't great back then. They have on his front fender, there's a smudge of rubber that they believe is from her handlebar of her bicycle, like the handlebar grip. They did a bunch of tests on it, and it came back inconclusive. And then basically the test destroyed the sample. So later on, they couldn't retest it in 96 when the science was better.

But that's a piece of evidence that they're going to put in there. That's clever. It's interesting because they lined it up and it's the same height. It's the same. It worked out perfectly. He pulled up pretty close to her and grazed her bike. Or we're thinking pulling away. He pulled away and it was the thought.

That's the other thought. Or he pulled up and hit her bike and then was like, oh, I'm sorry, and then put her in the car. That's another thing that could have happened. Knocked her over or whatever. Could have said, oh, my God, I'm so sorry. But that would have also drawn a shitload of attention. Oh, my God, yeah.

You can't hit a little girl on a bicycle. A 50, not little, but you can't hit a girl on a bicycle. Now, the defense brings in photos of that cross, of the twine, of all that bullshit taken back in 1978, tries to say that they've been deprived of this evidence on purpose by the prosecution because they didn't get it till 1994, this evidence, because they didn't think it mattered. That's not evidence. Says the cult members must have killed Mary Lou.

This Kroski guy sucks. So what they're thinking, though, here, so they're saying the cult guys must have killed Mary Lou. It can't be anything else. OK, so we have a verdict. Finally, 1996 here. The verdict comes back. Cater is convicted for a third time.

Take that shit, Krosky. First-degree murder and kidnapping, life sentence, appeals going through, of course, again, obviously. Now, the appeals. Appeals are based on, among other things, the fact that the state didn't preserve the cross because they left it in the woods and other possible satanic ritual items back then. And they could have been used as exculpatory evidence for him is what they're saying for Cater. The judge rules, and this is where this cop did perfectly well by leaving it there. Judge rules that it's not the state's responsibility to preserve it since they never had it in

their possession. I feel like the judge. Why should they preserve it? Whoever did that, whoever threw that argument out heard Kowalski's example of it's not his responsibility to offer closure to that family. That judge was like, I can't wait to use those words again. I really feel like he said that. It's not their responsibility, fuckface. I really feel like fuckface was left after that.

I promise it was. I don't know. It's not in the documents, but I'm just assuming. Whoever wrote it down went, it's not their responsibility. And then they lifted the pen and just said, fuck face. Fuck face. Son of a bitch. So, now, August 30th,

2000. 2000, four years later. Oh my God. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, again, these idiots, makes a decision on the Cater appeal. He appealed based on the prior bad acts being let in, saying that that was discriminatory toward him. Court denies appeal at this point, saying that, oh, no, because they were so similar, that's what you call a signature.

Yeah. And you can't get any more relevant than that is basically what they said in the appeal. I read the whole decision. I was like, yeah, exactly. Good. Like, Jesus Christ, they listed in the decision all of the similarities. And it's like, yeah, there's 10 points of similarity. You were an asshole. You did this. So Cater now has to begin the federal appeals process. Maintains his innocence still. This is 22 years later,

still maintaining. Now, finally, April 16th, 2007, he's trying to go to the United States Supreme Court with this. The largest court in the land. It's called a certiorari appeal. I don't know if that's right. It might be a centiorari. It's a Latin fucking word, and I don't speak Latin. Whatever. It's an appeal basically process to the Supreme Court to see whether they'll hear the case or not.

That's how they do it, and they either say granted or denied. And the decision comes in and they say certiorari denied. Wow. No more appeals. U.S. Supreme Court denies James Cater's final appeal. He's fucked. That's it. Nice. Done. Nobody else to bitch to. Nobody to go to. No more bullshit. Do your time.

Do your fucking time, asshole. So during the time now, he's in prison rotting, thankfully. Mary Lou's family and the town, they all had a soccer field built in her name. Oh, that's nice. They try to preserve her memory in this town because it's a big deal. We actually, from part one, had someone message us saying that they are from Raynham. Amazing.

They were 10 years old when this happened. They remember it. And one of their friends said, hey, there's a podcast with a Raynham murder. And she said, Mary Lou Arruda? Like, she remembered it. Wow. She remembered it said, hey, there's a podcast with a Rainham murder. And she said, Mary Lou Arruda? Like she remembered it. Wow. She remembered it 30 years later. That's amazing. It affected her that much. And that's how much this is. It's the Mary Lou Arruda Borden Colony Complex. It's a big soccer complex there. It's at 225 King Philip Street in Rainham. Go check that out and say hello. If there's 13,000 people that will show up, we'll do a live podcast from that field. Yeah, let's do it, man.

Let's do it. So September 8th, now September 8th, 2011 and then on, on September 6th, 2011, the police chief, Police Chief Donovan of Rainham introduces a request to the town council to approve a motion to make September 8th Child Safety Awareness Day in memory of Mary Lou Arruda. Oh, that's awesome. That's really cool. The motion passes. September 8th is now Child Safety Awareness Day. And every single year they have a big thing. That is great. It's terrific.

It keeps her name going. It keeps people aware of that, too. They do, like, you know, fingerprinting and safety shit for the kids. Try to teach them how to not get abducted, I guess, basically. I don't know if you can teach someone that. But they try to make it safer. Survival skills. And, yeah, things like that, like the fingerprint teach someone that, but they try to make it safer. Survival skills. Yeah, things like that, like the fingerprinting and all that.

All that just makes it safer. Knock their glasses off. Absolutely. So they're trying, basically, to move on with the town and trying to do all of this, and I feel for these people. Absolutely. It's awesome that the town rallied around the family so much. So cool.

Not only that, but they rally around the idea of they didn't just go, fuck that. They were like, yeah, let's remember this. Let's not forget this happened, which is awesome. Now, January 23rd, 2016, after a short illness, James Cater dies in a Massachusetts prison. Oh, no. Fuck off. Salute, asshole.

Go fuck yourself. Goodbye. See you, dickhead. I didn't feel bad about that at all. Did they say what illness it was? They would not release the illness. I hope it was something so terrible. I scoured for that.

I hope it was fucking scabies or something, just some prehistoric illness. It's pretty much what? Almost exactly a year ago. Yeah. So I don't know if it's maybe later on. I hope it was fucking rickets, something from the 1700s. I hope it was something painful, man. So on this, let's give old Joanna Ruda her say on this, okay, on Cater's death.

This must have felt good for her. She said, quote, I think I'll be happier next week. Right now I know it's true, but it's hard to believe that he's finally gone. I always thought he'd slip through the system, and I was always frightened. Now I know for sure he will rot in hell. Boom. Mic drop again for me. Take that.

She is good with the statements. I like her. She's pissed. She's an angry mother. Good. You know, she should be. Now, out of this here, I found that this is terrible. There's also two in the town.

Don't confuse these two, by the way. There's a Cater Square in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and it's named for a man named James Cater that is not the same guy. Oh, thank God. It is named after three brothers, William Michael and James Cater, who all served in World War II. And James Cater was killed in action on September 27, 1944 in France. He did great things for the world, not just the country. And there's one guy I got to say, guys. Give him a break here.

I just found – I feel so bad for this guy here. I found a guy named James Cater online. Oh, God. He's a contractor in Methuen, Massachusetts. What? So he's from around there. His name is James Cater online. He's a contractor in Methuen, Massachusetts. So he's from around there. His name is James Cater. On buildzoom.com, his score ranks him in the top 20% out of 139,000 licensed contractors in the state. So please, he's probably never even thought of killing a teenage girl. Haven't put your bathtub in. Seriously, he's probably never thought of killing a teenage

girl, but I guarantee you he's lost work because his name is James Cater. So please hire him. His number is 617-936-7261, extension 11684. Hire him. Say, I'm sorry your name is James Cater. Do him a favor. That is, we can put to rest the case of Mary Lou Arruda and the poor Raina Massachusetts as they're still recovering from that. And James Cater is dead.

Thank God. Yay. Wow James Cater is dead. Thank God. Yay. Wow. Son of a bitch. Son of a bitch. I hate that guy. I really do. And he almost got through.

It's so bad that he not only did this, but then he drug the family through it for another 18 years. And at some point, you want to just heal from all the terrible stuff that happened. And losing your child is possible. It's absolutely the worst thing you can do. It's the worst thing. Now you have to keep going back to court every couple of years. Right.

And she has to relive it three goddamn times. All of these appeals, all of these motions. I just did the trials. Yeah. I mean, think about how many court proceedings there are in between these trials, pre-trial motions. This and that. And God love her.

She's at every one of these. Absolutely. So, I mean, she probably spent, I can't imagine how many days she spent in court wanting to rip this guy's fucking eyeballs out of his head. Exhausting all of her time off from work. She has to just go home and try to relax. To go stare at this fucking guy's face. She has to go home and try to be a good mother to all her kids.

And so does Adrian, too. Has to go home and try to be a good father. And she has to try to be a good wife, too. And he's got to try to be a good husband. How can you do that when you have zero closure on where your little girl is? It's insane. Well, that's small town murder, everybody. Thank you so much for listening.

Thank you so much for listening. Honestly, thank you, guys. Please rate, review on iTunes. Please give us five stars because it means the world to us. It helps us out tremendously. Keep us on the charts, goddammit. Keep us on the charts. Also, that'll help us get sponsors.

It'll help us do better work and better research. There was a couple things that I needed to pay for on this. I'm like, oh, god, I've got to pay for these sites. So please help us out there. Do that so we can get some sponsors and all that. Also, too, please shout us out on social media. What is it? At Murder Small on Twitter. And it is at Small Town Pod on Facebook. I always forget that. I want to say Murder Town Small or something. I know they won't allow murder on Facebook. It's because Zuckerberg tried to fuck us, that jerk.

Please do that. Please do that. Thank you once again, everyone, for leaving the iTunes reviews, everything like that. We're going to do a bunch of shout-outs next week, and thank you guys personally for everything like that. But this one was pushing the length, so we wanted to— Get it done and finish it up and get you guys some closure, too. Get you guys some closure. You got two weeks invested in this, so thank you. Thank you guys so much for listening.

And, Jimmy, you want to give them your personal information? Yeah, I am at WismanSucks on Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat, W-H-I-S-M-A-N Sucks. And I'll be at Stand Up Live in downtown Phoenix this weekend, February 2nd through the 4th, with Steve Renzese from the league. Come out. And I am at JimmyPIsFunny. And you can find me, James Petragallo. Look me up and find me and do all that good stuff. And come back and join us next week.

What do you say, guys? I can't wait. All right. Well, that's Small Town Murder for this week. Thank you guys so much for joining us. It's been our pleasure. We'll see you next week. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Small Town Murder early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.

It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly. And our show is part true crime, part spooky, and part comedy. The stories we cover are well-researched. He claimed and confessed to officially killing

up to 28 people, with a touch of humor, I'd just like to go ahead and say that if there's no band called Malevolent Deity, that is pretty great, a dash of sarcasm, and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing, this mother lied. Like a liar. Like a liar. And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal. Or you love to hop in the Wayback Machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes.

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