¶ Wicked Wanderings True Crime Episode
did you ever have like a booger in your nose ?
you just want to pick , but like it's not socially appropriate to pick it even worse when it's a hard booger yes , and you know it's in there , because you can , like , feel it on the outside of your nostril , and then you're like , could I just go to the bathroom real quick , pick this shit out and then wash my hands . I do think that a lot . Actually .
I'm not gonna lie to you . Girl okay , girl Okay .
Hi , I'm Hannah and I'm Courtney . Join us as we delve into true crime , paranormal encounters and all things spooky .
Grab your flashlight and get ready to wander into the darkness with us . This is Wicked Wanderings . Okay , so I have an idea for an episode . Hannah , that is actually not my own episode , okay , bear with me . So we're always asking you lovely folks to text us , tell us if you want to hear about something .
And so I apologize because this was December 8th , but we did get a fan mail in and I'm going to read it so everybody knows , kind of , where I got the idea for the episode . So the fan mail says hey , sorry it's taken me so long to text . Y'all have been my latest binge show and I'm so excited to find something local . I'm from Agawam .
Thank you , agawam . Shout out yeah , we're in Springfield . I was wondering have you heard of the case from Springfield on Daviston off Sumner Ave , trigger warning that kids are involved , where an 18 or 19 year old young man with schizophrenia murdered two of his neighbors ?
It happened in 1954 and there's a book called a threat of evidence by joanne connor's wade who tells the story as someone who lived in the neighborhood at that time . This is a forewarning given in the text , so it is not our opinion , but someone who wrote in , who is anonymous , wrote in forewarning .
I know you love your books and this is not the most well written . With all due respect , you'll know what I mean if you choose to read it , but it's worth the story .
So can say I went on amazon , I bought the book , I read the book and I will say it seems like the author is a local author who is more independent , and or when she wrote the book at that time she was more independent so meaning like she had self-published and things like that . So it is a little bit different if you are an avid literature lover .
It's not maybe the best literature review , but it does weave an interesting story and it is based off of a true story . So if you haven't read the book which probably most people have not I want to say when I was on goodreads , one of three people who shelved it on goodreads for the year was me .
So it's definitely not a very well-known or popular book , but it is based off of a true story . And again , it was located in Springfield , mass . I think for myself , one of the hardest parts about the read was being so local to the area for Springfield .
I knew what they were talking about , but the author chose to use names that were like just barely off , like one letter off use street names that were like one barely off . What I will say that I did find entertaining was the big e made a very , very short , notable mention .
So the date of the murders was september 25th and the date of the arrest was october 8th . So we're right in biggie territory , right ? So the big e , if you're familiar with springfield , did make a mention and I did think it was a little entertaining that she didn't choose to name it something different .
So like everything , like even springfield was called something else in the book . So if you're native to springfield , reading the book might be just like a keep it in the back of your head like these things are gonna sound . I think she called it like springdale or something like .
It's very , it's so close that you're like a springfield so do you know why the author decided to make it quote-unquote fiction and not just have it be a biography ?
I , I don't actually . My hunch is that because she was local , she didn't want maybe the media coverage of it . I will also say it's not my cup of tea , like if I'm gonna read something that's non-fiction , I want to read non-fiction , yeah , you know .
So I was a little bit outside of my genre too , which presented its own personal challenges right right obviously not on the author . What I did think was interesting was the author who wrote the book was actually 10 years old and lived only a few blocks away at the time of of the murder .
Okay , so I did feel like it was a nice connection that the author had like clearly taken that experience into adulthood and said like okay , this happened . I remember hearing about it as a kid and I think your mom actually , on one episode , was talking about uh , danny croto yeah exactly , so I think it does add a different element .
Oh , absolutely absolutely so . The killer and I'm going to talk in their actual name . So I just used a thread of evidence as my kind of starting point , and then I did have to do a lot of my own research . So I apologize , wanderers , this episode is a . It was a little bit hard to write .
I'm not gonna lie to you , just because all of the names and things were like slightly off in the book . So I had a really hard time with my own adhd brain trying to like keep straight in my head what exactly people's real name was , as opposed to their fiction based name . So the killer's name was kenneth chapin .
He was 18 years old at the time of the murder and when he was arrested , chapin , is that c-h-a-p-I-N Correct ?
Okay , okay , yeah .
And his victims were Lynn Ann Smith , who was 14 years old at the time , and then Stephen Goldberg , who sadly , was four years old at the time . Four , so I will put a trigger warning on and just say that it does involve children .
If that's something that's a little bit more challenging for you to hear , or if it's a hard stop for you , then I would just a very violent crime .
The book took on a role where you were getting a lot of Lynn's character , so the young female who was killed where she was like going to go babysit , and you were kind of hearing a lot more of her perspective . So from my understanding , what happened between the book and research is that Lynn was babysitting at the time .
This gentleman broke into the house and he stabbed her with a bayonet 38 times .
So oh , yeah at meeting a bayonet . I for some reason can't picture a bayonet in my mind .
Yeah it's kind of like a . I know they put each other in the land of guns , I believe .
Oh so , yes , okay , I want to say in this , like end wonders this is from the book it seemed like he killed the babysitter as probably his initial target or who he wanted , and then the little boy had actually come out of the room and seen what was happening so what's really interesting and not interesting in a positive way is that there were two little boys
at the house that she was babysitting and he did not kill the other little boy . So this family comes home and one little boy is okay , one is dead and so is the babysitter , god . So that was in September of 1954 that all that happened , okay , so he was obviously caught and he was sentenced to death in 1955 .
But he actually died in prison in 1996 of a heart attack .
So they kept having to put off the death sentence .
Yeah , so they had a really hard time . From my understanding about kind of where his mental health was .
Yeah .
So he was pronounced sane enough for trial by several mass psychiatrists and obviously his attorney had kind of continued to keep saying like hey , like what , yeah , what can we find ? And what I think is interesting is he never really provided a rationale for the murders .
Obviously , his attorney had kind of continued to keep saying like hey , like what , yeah , what can we find ? And what I think is interesting is he never really provided a rationale for the murders . So like he at some point , you know , came around and he didn't deny it , but he wasn't really giving you like a reason for why .
And I do think again , the discrepancy between the book and reality is really hard to distinguish . Because in the book there was a lot of like for the obvious plot piece of it there . Because in the book there was a lot of like for the obvious plot piece of it . There was a lot of hypothesizing and like leading people to think things .
But it really boils down to he didn't say why he did it . He really remained completely emotionless from the beginning to the end of all of the procedure . A little bit haunting seemed totally random , left me thinking like did he hurt other people or was this going to be the beginning of something ?
just he was only going on death row for those two murders correct .
Yeah , and what's even more messed up is and kind of like a fun fact , he was actually a pallbearer at lynn's funeral days after he killed her , because he actually knew her from school . Well shit , did they say what funeral home ? I don't think so . I didn't come across that .
But two weeks after the murder he confessed and he did talk to police and he had quoted and here I am quoting she screamed and I stabbed her . It was kind of like this is what happened she screamed and I stabbed her . Do you mind telling me the whole ?
name for Lynn again .
Lynn , l-y-n-n . Ann Smith . He just kind of stuck to I have no reason for these murders . I didn't . I didn't have a rationale , which is very interesting . He was arrested on October 8th of 1954 . And what year again was this ? The murders were 1954 .
It was a pretty quick situation because September 25th was the murder and then October 8th of the same year is when he was arrested . So it was originally the sentence to death in 1955 , and then they had changed it to life in prison without parole in 1956 .
The only reason why you want to know , because my family is very much involved with funeral homes and so okay , so her burial is at Hillcrest Park Cemetery in Springfield . Well , shit , I have pictures of her . Oh , I know . Damn . Yeah , we could literally see like where her burial site is .
Absolutely yeah , we could literally see like where her burial site is ? Absolutely we could .
¶ Unraveling the Thread of Insanity
I think what was like the most , like the biggest take home for me with this , and kind of what I found to be the most fascinating that I think is actually gonna kind of entice me to go down a different rabbit hole of research was really what constitutes insanity and in a trial and kind of , how do they decide that ?
Because they kind of continue to keep finding different people to try to assess him and say , hey , is he insane ? Eight massachusetts psychiatrists pronounced him sane , but one person did say , I believe , that he is in the early stages of schizophrenia . They tried to prove that he was a victim of epilepsy , even though it's not necessarily related to insanity .
They tried to talk about all sorts of different things that could have been the reason why I mean it comes down to for me , the two big pieces that I took away from what is a very scary case is just there's so much information that's not there . We don't have a confession from him saying why he did it .
Those poor families right , those poor families are just like who is this man and why did he do this ? And then the insanity part like to be to be declared sane by eight psychiatrists , I mean , and only one of them was like , yeah , maybe he had the early stages of schizophrenia this is here , it's a rabbit hole .
It's certainly a rabbit hole , because now I'm going through this all this stuff on my phone . I have to say one of my biggest things and obviously you guys know that when we do an episode here , we research them and we read the book and we give you guys thorough information .
I feel like I was so stuck with this one but I wanted to finish it because obviously I read the book and it was a recommendation from a wanderer and the case is certainly complex in its own way , but I felt like as much as it was super complex , there was just not a lot to find on it yeah , because I was even hoping that the republican at some point
because I feel like the republicans been around for a while would be able to give us information .
I'm not seeing any republican articles on it and that's obviously .
I looked for that one too and I I mean I you can find things on like random places , but then I'm , then I don't trust the information .
That's kind of my problem .
I mean , I think we should go to hillcrest cemetery because I think we might have to at least pair respects and yeah , like we did with danny croto .
I mean , I think that's really important , especially when we have these local cases .
I did find this picture of him ? I did find that , and he was just so young I mean , he was just he was just so young . You can buy that picture if you want what ? Yeah , I guess that website you can buy it on , which seems kind of terrible . Yeah , I don't . I don't love that .
I don't know . I think we need to go to hillcrest cemetery . I think we need because I mean they have it all mapped out and just I don't know .
I think it's important for these local victims what I do have to say and I buried the lead on this one is that everyone , when I picked I picked up the book I was like , why , a thread of evidence ? His mother actually gave him away with a thread . I want to say it was crochet , a piece of crocheted thread . That was when they were in the home .
It was what was found at the scene and in his home , because his mom was a crafter .
Oh God , mm-hmm , so I'm sorry . Wait , he was adopted .
No , was a crafter , oh god so . So I'm sorry . Wait , he was adopted . No , you said his mom gave him away . His mom gave him away as the murderer . Oh , his mom is the reason he was caught , because her craft room . He had used some part of the thread on something that I'm sorry , I thought you meant like .
I was like no , no , no .
So when they were doing the neighborhood canvas and they had checked everybody out , they were like wait a second . And and I think they out , they were like wait a second and I think they would have . He would have gotten away with it , but one of the detectives from the story again , obviously , I'm kind of adding on this .
It seemed like probably based off of the truth very closely . The detective was kind of like oh , wait a minute , that's a crafting room . We found this thread . Where did that come from ? Because the thread didn't match anything in the victim's home and that's where they were like where did this come from ?
And so when they showed it to her to be like , hey , do you recognize ?
this thread . She was like yeah , sure , I have that and she could show like oh god this is where I have this interesting .
Yeah , and they arrested him at school . He was arrested at the high school . What high school , I don't think they said . I think they left it as the high school that he attended .
There has to be more to this . It's just too many missing pieces .
And then every article you can find just always ends with when we asked him why he did it , he just said I don't know why I did it . I don't know why I did it , I don't know why I did it Crime of update . I feel like here at Wicked Wanderings we like to dissect the why .
So it's really hard for me , like this one did linger with me because I was like , why , why , why , we want that rationale so badly and you can't always find it Right . So I mean I'm happy that our wanderer pointed it out to us . Shout wanderer , pointed it out to us . Shout out , wanderer , I'm sorry I'm calling you wanderer , but they're anonymous texts .
So if you have an article or a story or a person you think you've heard about , definitely send it our way . Um , we love learning more and certainly it was shocking to me that this was right here in springfield and I didn't know about the book .
But it is hard to find local books too , I find about true crime , like even if you go to barnes and noble or whatever .
This book wasn't at barnes and noble , I checked yeah I'm assuming because it's a smaller read and maybe it wasn't but we appreciate the you know the recommendations we really do and if anybody has more information , uh , or if you can narrow something down further than I did .
Please reach out to me if you know me privately , or or through the the texting on our podcast , because I am stumped by this one completely . But yeah , threat of evidence .
I would say , if you are interested in this case reading the book as a starting point , or if you started to do your own research and then want to read it , I would have to caution you that if it is a book that you're just reading for enjoyment and just for a story , that maybe you would take a pass .
But if you're looking at research for this particular case , it will definitely get you going on the right side , and no disrespect to the author . Obviously , you know just not my cup of tea . Not every book can be your own cup of tea , but it'll definitely get you started on this case , if that's what you're looking for .
Well , thank you , Courtney .
Thank you .
Thank . If that's what you're looking for . Well , thank you , courtney . Thank you , thank you for taking this on and again .
Thank you , wanderer . This is the most short-winded I've ever been on an episode . I don't think I've ever not had this much to say . I just keep .
There's just nothing there , short ones aren't bad .
Short ones aren't bad .
No , I mean , not everybody can be like Ted part episode .
Listen , there's a lot to say . There's a lot to say about Bundy , but anyways , wanderers , until next time . I think Hannah's going to come to us with the next episode .
Yes , we're going to talk about Body Farms .
Body Farms . I know Rob's excited about Body Farms . He's been talking about Body Farms for like six months . I know I'm so sad that he's not going to be here to hear about it . Anyways , thank you , Hannah . I'll see you next time . Bye .
Bye . Thanks for listening today . Wicked Wanderings is hosted by me , hannah , and co-hosted by me , courtney , and it's produced by Rob Fitzpatrick . Music by Sasha N . If you enjoyed today's episode , don't forget to leave a rating and review and be sure to follow on all socials . To leave a rating and review and be sure to follow on all socials .
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