Episode 174: Peter Reilly
Peter with his mom Barbara
On the evening of September 28th, 1973, 51-year-old Barbara Gibbons was found dead in the bedroom of her home in Falls Village, Canaan, Connecticut. She had been fatally stabbed multiple times and the scene was absolutely brutal. The walls of her bedroom, where she was found, were splattered with blood. Her throat had been slit almost to the point of decapitation, there were stab wounds to her abdomen revealing multiple broken ribs, and both of her legs had been broken at her thighs. She was badly beaten and her nose was broken. Barbara had been found naked and there was also evidence of sexual assault, and she was found with her clothes next to her.
Barbara’s son, 18-year-old Peter Reilly, had come home from a teen center church meeting just before 10:00 p.m. When Peter arrived home, he called out to his mother to let her know that he was home but got no answer. He went into the bedroom and came across the horrific scene. He originally said that she was on the floor of her bedroom having agonal breathing and placed multiple calls for help: one to an ambulance, one to a doctor and one to a hospital, and staff at the hospital then called the police.
When police arrived at 10:02 p.m., they found Peter and his friend, Geoffrey Madow. Peter had panicked and called him, and his mother, Marion Madow, had answered the phone. She and her other kids as well as a family friend followed behind Geoffrey in a separate car. Geoffrey had found Peter standing outside waiting for him and the ambulance in the dark. The lights inside the home weren’t on as Peter would have had to go into the back room to turn them on, and he was clearly in a state of shock. Geoffrey had ran into the home and also saw the horrific scene by a lamp light in the bedroom, and then he and Peter went outside to wait for the ambulance.
Peter was a high school senior who had started to play guitar in a rock band, and he got good grades and was an overall good kid. He had a good relationship with his mom, who thought the absolute world of him, and he had no history of violence or any other history of getting in trouble. Despite this, police immediately began looking at Peter as the prime suspect as he was at the scene when they arrived, and police took note of Peter’s lack of emotion with his mother having been stabbed to death. The story of how Peter had said his mother was still breathing when he got home also made police suspicious, however police were not taking into account Peter’s state of shock and mental state after finding his mother murdered.
Peter was taken in for questioning and held at the police station overnight where he was interrogated repeatedly. He was then interrogated at state police Troop B in North Canaan on the following morning, then brought to Troop H in Hartford, Connecticut, for a polygraph test. The test was voluntary and all of this took place without an attorney present to prove to police that he was innocent. Peter had waived his rights to silence and to counsel, which he reflexively waived as he maintained that he hadn’t done anything wrong. He had grown up in small town Canaan and trusted police, and in a later interview he stated “I hadn’t done anything wrong and this is America.” Even after the interrogation and polygraph test, police continued to hold and question Peter. They told him that he failed the polygraph test, and an officer had stated “Pete, we go strictly by the charts. And the charts say you hurt your mother last night.”
Almost a full 24 hours after his mother’s murder, Peter confessed. After being kept up all night, getting no sleep, being ravenous with hunger and undergoing relentless questioning, police continued to pressure him that maybe he killed his mom and blocked out the memory. Not seeing a way out of this, Peter said that that could have been a possibility.
While waiting for his trial, Peter recanted his confession and ended up seeking legal assistance. Multiple authors and notable names such as playwright Arthur Miller, who wrote “The Crucible” and “Death of a Salesman”, and William Styron heard of Peter’s case and donated money to his bond and legal expenses. Friends and supporters of Peter helped raise $50,000 for his bond and he was able to go back to school and finish out his senior year.
At trial, deputy state medical examiner Ernest M. Izumi went into depth about his findings on Barbara’s extensive wounds. He also did say that it could be possible to inflict the injuries to Barbara without being spattered with blood. Prosecution established that Peter sometimes argued with his mother and they continued to discuss how Peter showed “no signs of grief” with his mother’s death. When his confession and excerpts from his statements to the police were introduced, prosecutors nor the defense team were able to determine a timeline of events between when the meeting at the teen center finished at 9:15 p.m. to when the hospital called the police at 9:58 p.m. the night of the murder. The defense introduced several witnesses who saw Peter at the teen center as late as 9:30 p.m., socializing and talking after the meeting, as well as a friend named John Sochocki, who agreed that Peter had driven him home and dropped him off at 9:45 p.m.
The jury found it difficult to reach a conclusion, and they deliberated for over 15 hours over the course of two days. Judge Speziale reminded the jury that they needed to make a unanimous decision and told them they needed to make their own judgments while also considering what the majority is leaning towards deciding, attempting to rush along the decision.
On April 12th, 1974, Peter was convicted of first-degree manslaughter and sentenced in late May to a term of 6-16 years in prison.
Community supporters remained convinced that Peter was innocent and was not the true perpetrator of the murder. Advocates felt that his original confession was because of police giving a young, impressionable man suggestions to falsely incriminate him. Joan Barthel, a journalist who helped bring a ton of attention both in Connecticut and across the country, wrote a book detailing the case and included a good amount of the police transcripts in “A Death in Canaan.” The support group for Peter continued to grow, and his story turned into a documentary that was broadcast on CBS that only got him more attention and support.
An appeal was mounted on three grounds: two citing new evidence, and one contending that the state failed to provide exculpatory material, records, and evidence at the original trial. The full transcript of the interrogation was part of that material that was failed to have been presented as only excerpts of the transcripts were included. In March of 1976, Judge John A. Speziale of the Superior Court of Connecticut granted Peter Reilly a new trial on the basis of the newly discovered evidence. A fingerprint that was found on the door of the home had initially not been discussed, and it led to police developing suspicion of two brothers: Timothy and Michael Parmalee. They had a history of conflict with Barbara Gibbons and a witness saw them fleeing the scene the night of the murder.
Based on when Peter called and spoke to Marion Madow on the night of the murder, who was watching the movie Kelley’s Heroes that was airing on CBS television, CBS was able to determine that that portion of the movie aired at precisely 9:50 p.m., which solved a huge piece of the missing puzzle of filling in the timeline of events of where Peter was the night of the murder. Since he had dropped off his friend John Sochocki at 9:45 p.m., and it took five minutes to drive from John’s home to his own home, it was clear that he found the scene and panicked and called Marion as he didn’t know what to do.
On March 25th, 1976, the judge therefore ordered the release of Peter pending a new trial. The state of Connecticut never attempted to bring another prosecution and Reilly remained free. On November 24th, 1976, the charges against Peter Reilly were dismissed.
On June 1st, 1977, Superior Court Judge Maurice J. Sponzo ruled that Peter had been the victim of questionable police and prosecutorial tactics. He also critiqued the police as well as the Connecticut criminal justice system, and he said that he felt like Peter’s shock and lack of emotion when police arrived was a huge contributor to his conviction despite the lack of evidence.
After his exoneration, Peter became a huge advocate for reforming methods of police interrogation.
Barbara’s case has never been solved and no other arrests have been made. Anyone with any information on the murder of Barbara Gibbons is asked to please call the Connecticut cold case line at 1-866-623-8058, or by sending a tip to cold.case@ct.gov.
Image sources:
briankeithohara.blogspot.com Down the road less traveled .. - Peter Reilly proven innocent of Murder, despite the evidence, the Police still say he did it.”