Justice for Joan Webster

 WHAT WAS SAID

John 8:32 - CIA Headquarters - Langley 

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11-28-1981  Joan disappears from Logan Airport

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12-2-1981  Purse and wallet found in Saugus 

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"From her her parents and friends we've found that she is not the type fo person who would disappear or go off by herself without telling them."

Sgt Neil Meehan - Harvard Crimson - 12-4-1981

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"We're terribly concerned.  Joan is a wonderful, talented, and dedicated person.  She has touched all of us."

David Duncan - classmate/boyfriend - Boston Globe - 12-6-1981 

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"The entire design school community is in a state of shock over Ms. Webster's disappearance.  We are a small school and at times like this we realize we are a single family. Joan is an exemplary student in every way. She is... performing well in her studies and is a valued member of our community."

Gerald McCue - Dean - Boston Globe - 12-6-1981

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"The project went so well that Joan was really high feeling really great about it the whole time she was home. She’s a fun loving girl and has lots of friends."

George Webster - Harvard Crimson - 12-7-1981

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 "I am usually here every evening (7:00-12:00) if you need to see me!"

Joan Webster - hand written note on Perkins Hall dorm room - Harvard Crimson - 12-7-1981

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"We are just trying to carry on, to keep our equilibrium as best we can, without getting into utter despair."

George Webster - NYT - 12-20-1981

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1-19-1982  ITT offers $10,000 reward

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1-20-1982  Websters receive anonymous call from Patty Bono

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"We are still hopeful, but as time goes on, hope grows thinner."

George Webster - Harvard Crimson - 1-20-1982

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1-29-1982  Bag found in bus station

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The search for Webster is continuing with the same intensity as it has been from the onset, and added that police are investigating every tip they receive "no matter how farfetched.  We've received numerous phone calls from clairvoyants and people who think this or that--everything has to be checked out."

Cpl John (Jack) O'Rourke - Harvard Crimson - 2-19-1982

"Crime Prevention Belongs to Everyone"

Quote stamped on envelope mailed by George Webster - from Cambridge, MA - 4-3-1982

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10-13-1982  Reward increased

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"Someone out there knows what happened to her and that person must be found. We feel this increase might bring out that individual."

"It may have been someone she knew, maybe a friend from school, maybe someone from the plane. It could have been a person my daughter didn’t know was that interested in her."

Webster acknowledged yesterday that there is "an individual who possibly could have been involved" with his daughter. That person, Webster said, "is not a suspect, he's a possible lead."

"I don't know how long it will take but it better go on for as long as it has to as far as I'm concerned.  There is a missing girl out there."

George Webster - Boston Globe - 10-13-1982

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"My mother soon realized Bond wasn't the person she thought he was.  She was afraid of him and looking for a way out."

Deleica Foreman - daughter of murder victim Mary Foreman - Herald American - 12-15-1982 

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State Trooper Andrew Palumbo said that information was received from a source "close to Paradiso." He said they received the information a couple of weeks ago and have been trying to "prove the veracity of the source." It has now been proven.

Trooper Andrew Palombo - Boston Globe - 1-27-1983

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State Trooper Andrew Palombo declined to give details of the information which he said was passed to a Suffolk County assistant district attorney several weeks ago except to say police believe it is "very, very reliable." 

Trooper Andrew Palombo - Boston Globe - 1-28-1983

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Essex County District Attorney Kevin M Burke said yesterday the case had been turned over to the Suffolk County distict attorney's office because investigators there believed Iannuzzi had been murdered somewhere else and then taken to the marsh.

DA Kevin Burke - Boston Globe - 1-28-1983

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"Apparently there have been tremendous leaks.  They are not coming from us, and we cannot control them."

DA Kevin Burke - Lynn Daily Item - 1-31-1983

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"Technically, it's the only lead we've worked on for awhile," said Tamarro, who coordinates work on the investigation by the State Police, the Boston Police and the Saugus, Mass, Police "Everything else was innuendo, and now we have something we can really investigate." 

Sgt Carmen Tammaro - Harvard Crimson - 2-2-1983 

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9-27-1983  Boat raised

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9-28-1983  Testing on boat 

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“We are very glad they found this boat.  It’s a step in terms of corroborating an earlier theory.”

George Webster - Boston Globe - 9-28-1983

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"What we're trying to avoid here is a trial in the press."

Attorney James Cipoletta - Harvard Crimson - 9-28-1983

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"Nobody is shouting for his release.  If you were in his place and felt you were innocent, you'd be screaming bloody murder."

Sgt Carmen Tammaro - Lynn Daily Item - 11-28-1983

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"Our plea is that if anyone has information and has not come forward there is still time to do so." 

George Webster - Boston Globe - 3-6-1984

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"The $50,000 reward we had offered has since expired, but we are willing to negotiate."

Eleanor Piggott Webster - Boston Globe - 3-6-1984

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"We're not in there on the Webster case, and I don't think the government has anything on him on the Webster case.  If they do, let them indict him."

Defense Attorney Steve Rappaport - Lynn Daily Item - 3-14-1984 

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“It’s not exactly pleasant to sit through this, but it‘s something we have to do.   We just wanted to hear how his (Bond) testimony came over.  He certainly made a good witness.” 

George Webster - Boston Herald - 7-17-1984

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“In my opinion, the man (Bond) has absolutely no reason to make up a story like that.” 

George Webster - Boston Globe - 7-17-1984

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“He (the witness Bond) has a fantastic memory.” 

Eleanor Piggott Webster - Lynn Daily Item - 7-17-1984

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7-18-1984  Burke has FBI results from boat and later submissions on 4-24-1984

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7-21-1984  Paradiso convicted in Iannuzzi trial

“She would never go off with a stranger.  There would have to be a connection.   That’s why the cab driver or limousine driver  theory came about.  We feel it’s the most logical.” 

George Webster - Boston Herald - 7-29-1984

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"My client received an improper sentence, and the witnesses used to convict him were a joke."

Defense attorney Steve Rappaport - Lynn Daily Item - 11-5-1984

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"We go through the holidays...but it’s tough. You live with it all the time. We’re still down here going through Joan’s things, disposing of this or that. It doesn’t go away. Time does not heal all wounds." 

“He’s written to us protesting his innocence.” 

George Webster - Boston Globe - 11-25-1984

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In the past year police have focused their search on the harbor believing Webster was slain and her body dropped there, said Massachusetts state trooper Andrew Palombo, assigned to the case since the beginning.

"In the past year, we have been looking at him solely as a suspect.  That's not to say we're not looking at other things, if other evidence comes to light."

Trooper Andrew Palombo - Boston Globe - 11-25-1984

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"As far as the emotional and mental aspects, I think you work your way through phases."

"If you knew Joan-she had several boyfriends. She wasn’t in need of that kind of-of company. She was definitely going back to work. In fact, she called Boston Saturday morning. She called one of the people she was meeting-she used the phone right here-to make sure they had materials. So that doesn’t sound like someone getting ready to flip out, to take a lark."

"In the Iannuzzi pretrial hearing-which we didn’t go to-there were women coming forward to testify, a series of people, about attacks on them, and some of these cases had never been brought to trial...And if he had been caught and convicted of some of these other things-he might have been-this might never have happened to Joan."

"You can say the person we’re convinced did this is in jail for life-so why a trial, why more resolution than that? But in the final analysis, a crime was committed. And it ought to be adjudicated, brought to justice."

George Webster - Boston Magazine - 12-1984

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"When David did call; George was unreachable, he was on an airplane, flying back from a business trip to California."

Eleanor Piggott Webster - Boston Magazine - 12-1984

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“The garden will be dedicated sometime in 1985.  It’s really very touching.” 

Eleanor Piggott Webster - Lynn Daily Item - 12-6-1984

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Eleanor Piggott Webster - Boston Herald - 9-22-1985

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"I've put more time into this case than anything I've ever worked on.  At this point I've gone as far as I can with the investigation.  But if and when anything comes up, I'll look into it."

Trooper Andrew Palombo - Boston Herald - 9-22-1985

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"During our many conversations Jean Day told me that her stepsister (Marie Iannuzzi) had been murdered in 1979, and that the police wanted her to testify at the trial of defendant, but that she did not wish to testify the way they wanted her to testify. She told me that as a result of her refusal to testify her son, at the instigation of the police was taken away from her. She was also arrested on charges unrelated to her stepsister's alleged murder, and she further told me, that the police had told her she would be sent to prison and that they would see that she lost custody of her son. Jean Day also told me that faced with all these charges she was forced to testify at the trial against Leonard Paradiso, and that she gave 'false testimony' at the trial because she was afraid of the charges against her and the possibility of losing her son forever."

Louis Tontodonato - neighbor - sworn statement - 10-28-1985 

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"Shortly after I concluded my interview with Ms Day, she was escorted to another area which location was unknown to me. Ms Day was escorted to said location at or about 1:30 pm and in the company of State Trooper Andrew Palombo and Assistant District Attorney Timothy Burke. Ms Day returned to the courtroom at approximately 2:15 or 2:30 and took the stand to testify. Her testimony sharply contradicted what she had told me only a few hours earlier."

PI Dennis Slawsby - sworn statement 

"That Christine DeLisi did tell me that the Massachusetts State Police told her that she could lose her child if the charges against her were pushed by the prosecutor's office. That Christine DeLisi told me that the Massachusetts State Police repeatedly called her on the telephone and visited her home until she relented and agreed to testify for the prosecution at Leonard Paradiso's trial."

Dennis Albano - neighbor - sworn statement - 10-28-1985

"I'm not leaving this case.  I'll never stop working on this one."

Tim Burke - Boston Herald - 11-25-1985 

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"Inside that boat we found shards of glass and we want to compare them."

"Paradiso also told her (Bullerwell) 'how he would get rid of them was to section their bodies and tie cinderblocks to them and dump them in the ocean.'  There is evidence to suggest Joan Webster was coerced to get on that boat."

Tim Burke - Lynn Daily Item - 1-17-1986 

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Liquor bottles and fragments of glass also were found in the cabin of the Mala Femmina, lending credence to the informant, the prosecutor (Tim Burke) argued. 

Hearing for removal of splinter - Boston Herald - 1-17-1985 

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"My opinion is he injured his hand - and this is backed up by statements - injured his hand while in the process of murdering Joan Webster."

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"If she did go on the boat, she was attacked by Paradiso, and she was murdered on that boat, and her body was disposed of from that boat."

Trooper Andrew Palombo - TV Channel 4 WBZ Boston - 11-1987

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"It is very difficult to prosecute a case where there is no body.  Joan Webster's body has never been found."

"He got her on board her boat, sexually assaulted her, killed her, striking her in the head with a blunt object, and then took her out in the Boston Harbor area, sunk her body, and then brought his boat back into the Pier 7 area and cleaned it up and sunk it two days later."

Tim Burke - TV Channel 4 WBZ Boston - 11-1987

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"He's almost like a serial killer.  I think he's completely amoral."

George Webster - TV Channel 4 WBZ Boston - 11-1987

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4-18-1990  Skull found

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4-26-1990  Grave found 

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"We know the whole body's there.  That's the grave."

Chief Walter Cullen - Beverly Times - 4-26-1990

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“It will make me feel better that we have a body, but there is never an end when it comes to murder.” 

Eleanor Piggott Webster = Boston Herald - 4-27-1990

"Of course it’s being checked out, but the location doesn’t seem to correlate. Circumstances pointed to her being taken out in a boat and dumped at sea. This is somewhere way up north and that doesn’t tie to anything. We believed all along she was murdered."

George Webster - Harvard Crimson - 4-28-1990

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“I guess my daughter tried to live up to this motto.  I guess we have to make room for others.  She‘s no longer here.”  

Eleanor Piggott Webster - Boston Herald - 5-1-1990 

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"It is our intention to say as little as possible about the remains or the condition of the remains."   

DA Kevin Burke - Boston Globe - 5-1-1990

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"Obviously it contradicts the aspect of the story as to where the body was going to be located, but even at the time the information was brought to the attention of investigators in the case, there were questions as to whether his boat was operable."

"The weather was very stormy that night and one of the cables to the rudder...one of the cables was broken."

Tim Burke - Boston Globe - 5-1-1990 

"We didn't come upon anything that could be considered a formal grave."

DA Kevin Burke - Newark Star Ledger - 5-1-1990

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''The cause of death has been determined to have been from blunt trauma to the head.''

DA Kevin Burke - NYT - 5-2-1990

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"There have been many cases that have been solved 10, 15, 20 years after the event."

Tim Burke - Boston Globe - 5-2-1990

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"I think a lot of material has to be gone through to find out why she was found in the spot she was found.  We certainly want the person who did this to be apprehended."

George Webster - Beverly Times - 5-4-1990

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"There are elements of it that now don't make any sense."

While the location of Webster's body casts doubt on the alleged confession of Paradiso, it does not mean he is not the killer.

DA Kevin Burke - Beverly Times - 5-4-1990

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A close reading of Pisa's (refers to Bond) statements to police indicate that the inmate may not have specified whether Paradiso actually dumped the body overboard.

DA Kevin Burke and source close to the investigation - Beverly Times - 5-4-1990

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"Paradiso had offered to take a lie detector test but George Webster said no.  In his mind Paradiso was already guilty."

Det Gordon Richards - Beverly Times - 5-4-1990

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“We were convinced she was dead.  We never had hope she was alive.  We gave that up some time ago.” 

Eleanor Piggott Webster - Salem News - 5-4-1990

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The Websters won’t rest they said, until the person who murdered their daughter is apprehended and convicted.   

The Websters - Salem News - 5-4-1990

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“The inmate could not have made it up,”  said George who refused to elaborate why he was so sure that Paradiso confessed. 

George Webster - Salem News - 5-4-1990

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“We now we have a body…certainly we want someone convicted.  There are degrees of tragedies and you just have to keep moving ahead.” 

George Webster - Boston Globe - 5-4-1990

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“We now have a body, we have a corpse.  Certainly we want the person who did this apprehended and convicted.  That’s a given.” 

George Webster - Boston Herald - 5-4-1990

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Told that Paradiso considers himself innocent since Webster’s body wasn’t where expected, Terry Webster quickly said, “That’s his opinion.”  Her husband echoed the remark.  

Eleanor Piggott Webster - Boston Herald - 5-4-1990

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"I think somebody's been out there for nine years with this on their mind.  I think it's an awful burden for someone to live with."

"Most murders are committed by someone (the victim) knew."  The investigation "may hopefully bring out someone who felt they couldn't come forward for whatever reason."

Det Sgt Paul Grant - Beverly Times - 6-12-1990

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Her case has never been prosecuted because of scanty (and hostile) witness information and a belief by her family and law enforcement officials that her murderer is already serving a long sentence for other crimes.

Submitted by Eleanor Piggott Webster - Parents of Murdered Children - Murder Wall Panel 1

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"We need someone to come forward with some information.  We're at a dead end." 

"The girl was murdered.  She was buried.  Personally I think it was someone she knew.  I fully believe there are people out there who know."

Chief Walter Cullen - Beverly Times - 4-30-1991

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"The MO (modus operandi) is different from the cases Paradiso was involved in.  If he were going to dump the body, he would have just dumped it in the road off an embankment."

Det Sgt Paul Grant - Beverly Times - 4-30-1991

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"I'm hoping something will break, someday, someplace, sometime.  Personally I believe someone out there has information.  There has to be people out there who know what happened." 

Chief Walter Cullen - Salem News - 4-30-1991

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"Bond isn't someone who has a college degree.  There was always a question as to when Bond said Paradiso took her 'way out.'"

Tim Burke - Beverly Times - 6-24-1991

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"I certainly don't believe he (Paradiso) had anything to do with Webster and I don't believe he had anything to do with Iannuzzi's death."

"I don't like to see a guy take a screwing like that.  There's no doubt in my mind he took a screwing."

"They wanted to build, build against Lenny because they had Webster in mind."

PI Ray Morgan - Beverly Times - 6-24-1991

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"We still believe he killed our daughter, and it would be nice if he would say 'Yes, I did this.'  It would be the final cap on things."

George Webster - Boston Herald - 12-29-1997

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"There's more about me no one knows...things I keep to myself because I know no one can help or understand."

Audrey Webster - letter - 1-5-2003

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"Well, it's something too complicated for me to explain, and the unfortunate truth is, we probably won't ever be able to sit down and talk this through."

Polly Webster - letter - 4-28-2005

"In my mind it is solved."

Tim Burke - Boston Herald - Boston Herald - 11-28-2006 

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“They’re all still unsolved. I’m hoping that this book may encourage further investigation into the deaths and murders of these other young women in the hopes that their families may have some closure.”

Tim Burke - Boston Herald - 2-17-2008

2-18-2008  Tim Burke publishes book

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2-27-2008  Paradiso passes away

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"I’m glad. It’s very un-Christian. I can’t think of anything better to say."

Eleanor Piggott Webster - Boston Globe - 2-27-2008

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Webster’s mother Terry praised Burke saying his book "will keep our daughter alive in the minds of people."

Eleanor Piggott Webster - Boston Herald - 2-27-2008

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"He’s gone. Life goes on."

George Webster - Boston Herald - 2-28-2008

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"And do you have any doubts that it was Audrey that wrote that letter?"

Eve Carson (Webster) - pre hearing meeting - 5-13-2008 

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"No."

Sarah O'Brien - counselor - deposition - 5-13-2008

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"During your treatment and work with her, this issue with Steve's sister being murdered in 1980 or 1981, was that any cause or any concern to Audrey?" 

Attorney Robert Garelick - pre hearing meeting - 5-13-2008

"I believe when Audrey would normally bring that up, it was out of concern that there might one day be a publication or legal matter that she could be drawn into and be or force, if you will, to interact with her mom, which at that point in time it was something she wanted to avoid at all cost."

Ari Gleckman - counselor - deposition - 5-13-2008

"John T. Dawley, the first assistant district attorney in Essex, called about three weeks ago to say that the office has renewed the investigations on the basis of his book."

Tim Burke - Boston Globe - 9-6-2008

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"We're reviewing several files based on attorney Burke's representations to us," he said. "That's all I'm going to say."

Stephen O'Connell - spokesman fo DA Blodgett - 9-6-2008

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Burke, haunted by self-doubt, suffers through every weakness in his case (Iannuzzi), occassionally loses confidence, yet continues on. 

Interview with Tim Burke - Lawyer's Weekly - 9-29-2008

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"Anybody who's lost a child, a sister, a mother, has a need to understand exactly what it is that happened. No matter how painful."

Tim Burke - Eagle Tribune 1-10-2010