Murder in Newton: Triple Homicide Rattles 'America's Wellbeing Capital'
Local police tell residents to 'remain vigilant'
Update: Police arrested a suspect late Monday, 41-year-old Christopher Ferguson. He listed his occupation on his Facebook as a bagger and cashier at Whole Foods, but also said he had studied at UC Berkeley. Ferguson, who is set to be arraigned Tuesday, does not seem like the kind of guy who ends up a triple homicide suspect. His FB posts were well-written and thoughtful and reflected a gift for wordplay. He’d written in the past about being bipolar, however, and reports from Boston news outlets about his arrest indicate he’d begun spiraling recently, with neighbor Ilana Margalit telling the Globe that Ferguson’s arrest for this heinous crime “100 percent the failure of our mental health system.”
I’ll write a newsletter edition later today expanding on Ferguson’s arrest. And since I made a pact with myself not to always fall into “just the facts, ma’am” reporting style I’ve learned since my old crime-blogging days, I’ll reflect on why Ferguson’s alleged mental health issues (which are unlikely to stand up as a defense for these murders) struck a personal chord. My own brother was an example of how the mental health system can fail the desperately and dangerously mentally ill. I read about how Ferguson was arrested in an apparent psychotic state, and it could’ve been any one of a number of my brother David’s arrests when he lost touch with reality.
Original Post: In early June, Boston’s Fox 25 reported unsurprising news for anyone who has ever been through Newton, Massachusetts: It was ranked “America’s Wellbeing Capital” by The Great Green Wall, a website dedicated to healthy lifestyles. Newton, just eight miles or so due west of Boston proper, is a city of more than 88,000 with an average of fewer than 60 violent crimes yearly. It gave us celebrities with wholesome reps like The Office’s and Jack Ryan’s John Krasinski and intellectuals like radical historian Howard Zinn. Downtown Newton has a Norman Rockwell feel that jibes with the city’s reputation within Massachusetts—it’s a place where people want to live and raise their families.
This might illustrate why a brutal triple murder in Newton over the weekend was so shocking. Such vicious crimes rarely happen there. Certainly not to a 70-something couple on the cusp of renewing their vows and the wife’s nonagenarian mother.
The Boston Globe reports that the victims were discovered Sunday morning after they failed to show up at the Our Lady Help of Christians Church, where the couple was to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary with the vow renewal ceremony. Since I first became aware of the story, I’ve learned their names, but I will follow the local media’s lead and not give them here, working off the assumption that there may be a good reason the Boston press has chosen to withhold them. (The names were released late Monday: Bruno and Jill D’Amore and Jill’s mother, Lucia Arpino.)
The Globe interviewed retired Newton Fire Dept. lieutenant Jim Sbordone, who reportedly knew the victims well. “They were fantastic Italian people who wouldn’t hurt a soul,” he said, “and they would just do anything for anybody.” Later in the article, Sbordone continued:
“I’m just really feeling for [the neighbor] right now,” Sbordone said.
Sbordone, who served in the Fire Department for 31 years and has lived in Newton since 1964, said the violence has been very unsettling.
“This isn’t the type of thing that happens in the neighborhood,” he said. “I hope it never happens again to anybody.”
Newton authorities’ reaction to the murder was striking. Frequently, law enforcement will do whatever they can to keep the public calm and steady. It doesn’t do them any good to stir the waters. Vigilante types get the wrong idea, and the paranoid and unstable start calling in tips on everyone who looks at them cross-eyed. In a press conference, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said the public should “remain vigilant” and reportedly said, "Additionally, we are asking residents of the Nonantum and Newtonville [neighborhoods] to check any video they may have on their home, any Ring doorbell, Nest. We really need the public’s help."
Most reporting on the triple murder noted that there had been an attempted break-in nearby that morning. On Monday, Annie Jonas of the Newton Patch reported that authorities believed the homicides resulted from a break-in, but investigators weren’t sure there was a connection.
On Monday afternoon, police were still hunting for the killer or killers of the family at 49 Broadway St. CBS News reported that Newton Police Chief John Carmichael was adding patrol officers to beats around the neighborhood. Chief Carmichael reportedly said that he is “very concerned with such a violent crime taking place, and whereas this individual, individuals are still at large.”
"We do really emphasize again be vigilant,” Carmichael said, “pay attention to what is happening in the neighborhoods.”
There’s not enough information yet to know what kind of person would commit such an act. And police comments reported yesterday hinted at a truly appalling degree of violence, the victims stabbed and possibly bludgeoned to death. Burglars don’t always turn into murderers—most would rather get the hell out of there than confront a homeowner. When they do kill, it can be for various reasons—they are young, perhaps, and desperate. Or the killer already has a record and will do anything to avoid returning to prison.
Yet murdering the elderly speaks to a particularly vicious strain of cruelty, born out of tremendous anger and resentment, sociopathy, or all three.
Whatever the case, doors will be locked in Newton tonight, many residents hoping that the silence outside is only broken by innocent passing cars in the rain.