June 22, 1963
Saturday, sunny and very windy, 60’s. I washed for Doug and fixed Navy pants. Did ironing in pm. Doug took Carol over to Sandy’s to have her hair done and broke the rotary on David's car. Wayne worked for Raymond Brown. David and Sandy got back home at 7:20 pm and went to Roxbury for graduation.
Comment: Lots of breakdowns with David's car. Doug gets laundry and tailoring done. Over the years, when I see a Raymond Brown reference, I have always thought of the "Rocco" incident but have since discovered that my memory of the location was wrong. So here is my memory of the incident without a location reference...
Rocco was the name of a guy from New York City, who wanted to get rid of his wife. In Grand Central Station, he conned a woman who was a stranger to him into believing he was an undercover cop looking for smugglers. He convinced this woman that the box-like thing he had was an x-ray camera and he got her to point this device at his wife and click the “shutter”. The shutter was really the triggers of a double-barreled 12 gauge shotgun loaded with No. 2 birdshot. His wife was hit in the legs and crippled but not killed and Rocco soon became the prime suspect
Rocco had been a “boarder” and had hunted on some of the farms in our area. With the cops after him, he fled from the city to a farm in our area where the police and sheriff found him.
Rocco was in a remote area in a sleeping bag in the snow when the police surrounded him. He was armed with several rifles and pistols. A gun battle ensued and he was shot dead by a state trooper with a rifle but not before he put a bullet through the sleeve of another trooper.
My dad was a deputy sheriff at the time and our whole family loaded into the car and went to the scene just minutes after the battle. All the police were there still standing around, the Browns and many of the neighbors were there.
We were allowed complete access. The trooper showed me the hole through his sleeve and I remember walking up very close to Rocco’s corpse and, surprised at how pale he was, asking my dad why.
“He’s dead,” he said.
And I pondered that for a while, wondering why the other dead people I’d seen at funerals were not pale. I was 7 years old. Here is an article from the New Yorker that more fully explains the incident:
Rocco was the name of a guy from New York City, who wanted to get rid of his wife. In Grand Central Station, he conned a woman who was a stranger to him into believing he was an undercover cop looking for smugglers. He convinced this woman that the box-like thing he had was an x-ray camera and he got her to point this device at his wife and click the “shutter”. The shutter was really the triggers of a double-barreled 12 gauge shotgun loaded with No. 2 birdshot. His wife was hit in the legs and crippled but not killed and Rocco soon became the prime suspect
Rocco had been a “boarder” and had hunted on some of the farms in our area. With the cops after him, he fled from the city to a farm in our area where the police and sheriff found him.
Rocco was in a remote area in a sleeping bag in the snow when the police surrounded him. He was armed with several rifles and pistols. A gun battle ensued and he was shot dead by a state trooper with a rifle but not before he put a bullet through the sleeve of another trooper.
My dad was a deputy sheriff at the time and our whole family loaded into the car and went to the scene just minutes after the battle. All the police were there still standing around, the Browns and many of the neighbors were there.
We were allowed complete access. The trooper showed me the hole through his sleeve and I remember walking up very close to Rocco’s corpse and, surprised at how pale he was, asking my dad why.
“He’s dead,” he said.
And I pondered that for a while, wondering why the other dead people I’d seen at funerals were not pale. I was 7 years old. Here is an article from the New Yorker that more fully explains the incident:
1 comment:
Margie Husted
The farm was up the lane across from our home. It belonged to Alice and Addison Richtmyer and Carrie Mackie also lived there. Then Roy and Lucille Lewis rented it. Alice and Carrie moved down in the house Raymond Kingsley and his family eventually lived in. The land up behind the Richtmyer house was owned by Raymond Maybie. Rocco was a guest of the Lewis's who gave him the sleeping bag to go on the hill behind and hide along a stone wall fence. I have posted how Lucille Lewis came to our house with a bag of candy to get my brother, sister and myself in the house so Rocco could go up on the hill without us seeing him. Then while we were having dinner a caravan of law enforcement FBI, BCI etc. came up the road. Stopped at our place and proceeded to get my Dad to ride with them to see if Rocco had gone over the hill to Louis Kingsleys farm and out that road. Then they came in our home and checked to be sure we were not hiding him. We heard the shot when they shot him and then they drug him down the hill in the sleeping bag he was killed in. I don't think the stories about him having weapons and using them were true because no other shots were heard. We heard the law enforcement say,"we got the sob". It was a long night but my folks did not allow us to be gawkers of the event. We stayed inside until they all departed. I have heard so many stories over the years of this event but I was 12 years old and very aware of the facts.
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