Echoes in the Darkness (48 page)

"We find that you are a person of unusual quality, highly creative, intelligent, and with more than just a modicum of charm. But I think it is safe to say that you are also extremely destructive. The inflection in and of itself is of a cold and calculating mind, bereft of human sympathy and compassion, that you are bent upon achieving your end at all cost. Now that is what I see.

"It seems to me that you have manifested these qualities which demonstrate that you are an extremely dangerous person by virtue of your actions, and for that reason it seems to me that the sentence that is imposed must be one that affords the community the maximum of protection.

"Therefore, I will impose the following sentence:

"On indictment number 908, that has to do with the conviction of homicide in the first degree of Susan Reinert, it is ordered that you pay the cost of prosecution and that you undergo imprisonment in the state correctional institution for the rest of your life.

"On indictiment 908a, having to do with the conviction of homicide in the first degree of Karen Reinert, it is likewise ordered that you undergo imprisonment in the state correctional institution for the rest of you life, that to run consecutively to the sentence imposed on indictment 908.

"On 908b, that being the conviction of criminal homicide in the first degree of Michael Reinert, it is ordered that you undergo imprisonment in the state correctional institution for the rest of your life, that to be served consecutively to the sentence imposed to number 908a."

At the conclusion of sentencing, Jack Holtz saw a woman weeping in the hallway. He recognized her as one of the writers who had been seeking an audience with Bill Bradfield for the purpose of writing a book.

She said, "Isn't it terrible?"

She had the look of a Bradfield woman. They were as interchangeable as widgets.

Jack Holtz turned to Rick Guida and said, "She's the next disciple."

Then he went to phone Betty VanNort.

Chapter
25

The Anniversary

In one of the telephone calls from Jay Smith to Raymond Martray there was a conversation that went far beyond the "self-serving" Jay Smith method. It was a very long conversation about the William Bradfield trial and it raised two possibilities: either Jay Smith was pretty sure that the authorities had tapped the conversation, or Raymond Martray had lied about Jay Smith having told him anything incriminating about the Reinert murder.

During the conversation both men were speculating on Bill Bradfield involving Jay Smith in order to save his own skin. Jay Smith said, "The only thing Bradfield could say is T called Susan out, drove her up to the house where Smith was, and he gave her a shot of morphine and he killed the kids and then I left.'"

"Puts you right in the middle, doesn't it?" Ray Martray said, and they both had a chuckle over that one.

"With three bodies? Now what the fuck do you do with three bodies? How did I get rid of them? And how did I get her up to Hai-risburg by myself and then get myself back with only her car? See what I mean?"

There was some credence to Martray's explanation that Jay Smith injected self-serving statements for the benefit of eavesdroppers because Jay Smith again repeated the alibi for the weekend in question. He again said that he'd taken his daughter Sheri out for a birthday dinner, and been with the new owner of his house on Saturday.

He couldn't have cared if Martray believed that he had an alibi, so for whom was he speaking? And then, interestingly enough, the name of the ice maiden surfaced.

He said to Martray, "In the newspapers the one thing in the

whole case that baffles me is this: here's a name to keep in mind, Rachel."

"Yeah, I heard her mentioned many times."

"Yeah. Now, he was shacking up with this woman for the month of May, right before Reinert died. Okay?"

"Uh huh."

"Now, she drove Bradfield's car to New Mexico."

"Right."

"And shacked up with him out there. Now, I think that event of her driving Bradfield's car to New Mexico is significant. Another thing the paper said is somewhere on the way out there she called Bradfield, and that's when she learned that Reinert was dead. What if she had those two kids' bodies in that car and dumped them off somewhere? See what I mean?"

"That would be an excellent, you know, summation."

"She sponsored his bail. See, the critical thing is if Reinert leaves her home at nine-thirty Friday night and goes with Bradfield. He shows up two hours later. So he has two hours. He killed her, gave her to Rachel and Rachel than takes her body to Harrisburg and comes back. Bradfield goes down to the shore, okay?"

"Um hum."

"And then Rachel had the two kids and then she takes them to New Mexico when he flies out there." Then Jay Smith added, "See, Ray, the thing is, here's another thing you have to keep in mind. I have a theory that the attorney general must have something else on Bradfield. I have a feeling he must have something else up his sleeve that would link Bradfield to the actual night of the murder. The only reason he would have picked on me to blame is that I was an obvious target out of all the bad publicity. So he dreams up the secret love affair with Reinert and the hit man stuff."

"They got the hair and the comb," Ray Martray said.

"But they still got a problem with why did Smith do it," said Dr. Jay. "The only thing they can say is, Bradfield was an alibi for him, and then to pay him back, Smith killed the three people."

It was probably that conversation which convinced Jack Holtz and Rick Guida that Raymond Martray was telling more truth than not. Jay Smith had laid out an entire case for any eavesdropper, a case against William Bradfield. But he'd included too much by repeating his own false alibi for that weekend, an alibi that the police could demolish. It was included for somebody's benefit, and it couldn't have been Martray's. They started to think that he'd never make any real admissions over the telephone and they were right.

The most interesting thing of all in that particular conversation was to hear Jay Smith ask Martray and any potential eavesdropper to supply a viable motive. Why did Jay Smith do it? he'd asked.

Bill Bradfields claim that Susan Reinert and Jay Smith had been secret lovers was not believed by anyone. The further claim that Jay Smith had somehow feared that Susan Reinert might refute Bill Bradfields alibi testimony was sometimes acceptable to the task force and sometimes not.

After all, Susan Reinert had told friends that she was with Bill Bradfield "most of the time" during the weekend in question. She'd said that she thought he wouldve told her had he seen Jay Smith. If Jay Smith had any success with an appeal, as he always seemed to think he would. Bill Bradfield could still have done the alibi testimony which had never been much good in the first place.

The motive that Guida did not want to introduce in the William Bradfield trial might have placed a big burden on that jury. It was easier all around to proceed with the idea that the children had been a "mistake," as inmate Proctor Nowell had testified. Yet even the judge in his sentencing had implied more than once that the children might not have been a mistake.

Given all they had learned about Jay Smith, Guida had other thoughts, not shared by Jack Holtz, that the children had not been a mistake at all. By virtue of practicing law, he knew how difficult it would've been for Bill Bradfield to probate that will if the children had been alive.

Two minor children-excluded by their mother in favor of a friend, and this within days of her murder after she'd overloaded on insurance-would have put a very great burden on Bill Bradfields probate attempt. There was every chance that such a will would be set aside in favor of the children, especially since there wasn't even specific language in the will to exclude them.

William Bradfield, and certainly Jay Smith, must have known what a difficult probate that would have been. But then, why not leave the bodies of the children with their mother's? Guida believed that one would have to consider everything they knew so far about Jay Smith and his penchant for making people disappear, and his obsession with forensic clues. It mustVe been difficult enough to get him to leave one body for the lab technicians, let alone three.

Given the way Jay Smith's mind worked, the disappearance of the children was not inconsistent with the planning of their deaths from the beginning. The motive was the same as for Bill Bradfield: his share of the insurance upon release from prison.

That probability was advanced by the fact that her copy of the policy had disappeared. Guida was reminded that Susan Reinert had asked her insurance agent for an extra copy for her "executor" to keep, but was refused as a matter of company routine. Guida suggested that Jay Smith may have demanded to see that policy with his own eyes before fulfilling his part of the bargain. The "executor" may have actually been the executioner.

Moverover, Bill Bradfield, a world-class grandstand player, could then offer huge rewards from his "inheritance" for information leading to the missing children.

Though Jack Holtz stayed with the simplicity of the panic killing of the children, Guida thought that the conspirators may have ordained the murder of Karen and Michael Reinert right along with their mother from the day the insurance policies were obtained. But this was intricate and very diabolical, and it was far easier for the prosecutor to conclude for the sake of a jury that the children were an afterthought, that they'd been witnesses killed in panic. There was less to prove.

The irony is that it was better for everyone concerned if there was always a shadow of a doubt as to what happened to the children. The absence of little corpses made it more difficult for other inmates to hang the jacket: baby killer.

When Holtz and DeSantis met Charles Montione in December, 1983, he was twenty-four years old. He wore Cuban heels and silk shirts and looked like he could've been an extra in Al Pacino's version of Scarf ace. The task force found his name in a letter from Jay Smith to Ray Martray, care of the P.O. box they controlled.

He'd gotten a sentence of six to twenty years for armed robbery and had gotten out in five. He was living in a halfway house when the cops had a secret meeting with him at the Holiday Inn in Scranton.

He was a friend of Martray's, and had been a passing acquaintance of Jay Smith's while Martray was still in prison. Jay Smith helped Montione too with his legal work. Dr. Jay, according to Montione, never turned down any of the cons who needed legal assistance. They started getting close after Martray got out.

One day, Jay Smith had some bad feelings and wanted to talk about them. He told Charlie Montione that someone named Bradfield had just been arrested for the murder of a woman and her two children and was attempting to implicate him in the murders. If Bradfield was successful and got Jay Smith in trouble, there'd be an escape with some help from Raymond Martray. And hopefully from his pal Charlie, if he was on the outside by then.

According to Montione, Jay Smith had three plans. One entailed Montione and Ray Martray coming to see him on visiting day. They were to enter the canteen where visitors can get cooked food. They were then to do a "DIC," which Montione explained was Jay Smith lingo for "disarm, immobilize and cover."

His second plan was to wait for his court appearance and to escape from the prison on Camp Hill where the transporting officers have to take off their guns to go inside. This plan involved a shootout: Charlie and Ray would come in like Bonnie and Clyde and shoot out tires, then take the transporting officers as hostages and kill them later. If Jay was arrested for murder, the officers would be a couple of state police investigators named Holtz and DeSantis, Montione was told.

The third plan involved a breakout from the Dauphin County Courthouse itself, where prisoners are housed in the basement cells while awaiting court.

And Jay Smith thought he should also bump off the deputy warden at Dallas because he figured this guy was telling the cops every move he made. Jay Smith made a lot of gangsterish plans while daydreaming in the yard.

According to Montione, Jay Smith gave him a lecture on murder that sounded a lot like the ones he'd allegedly given to Bill Bradfield. He said that you should use drug injections to overdose your victims. And that it was best to let a body lie around for a couple of days so the blood could coagulate before you started cutting it up and disposing of the parts in different places. He said the small parts fit nicely in drums or buckets and you could weigh the pieces down with chains before dumping them in rivers or lakes.

Montione claimed that Jay Smith had another talk with him at the end of October, telling him that Bill Bradfield had been convicted. He went over an escape plan in more detail. Since it was hunting season the guards were often set out on the road to watch for trespassers, and so it might be a great time to vanish.

But he was very mad at Bill Bradfield that day and allegedly told Montione that nearly five years had passed and in only two more years Susan Reinert would have been declared legally dead.

According to Montione, Jay Smith said, "We would have been okay." And that Bradfield's greed in making her body appear had caused all these problems.

Furthermore, he was furious that Bill Bradfield was trying to set him up. He said he should have taken care of Bill Bradfield a long time ago. As to the missing children, he said that he wasn't worried about Bill Bradfield making a deal with police because Bradfield didn't know where the bodies were.