Frank De Felitta - Audrey Rose

AYes.

QDescribe what happened on that night, to the best of your recollection?

AThe same things happened. The screaming, running around, babbling—it was a duplication of what happened the night before, except Mr. Hoover wasn’t there to stop it. The nightmare continued for hours until the doctor arrived and gave her a sedative.

QThat would be Dr. Kaplan?

AYes. He’s Ivy’s pediatrician. He’s taken care of her since she was born.

QLet us move on to the night of the twenty-fourth. Your husband was out of town, I believe, and you were alone with Ivy?

AYes.

QTell the jury what happened on that night.

AThe nightmare started at about ten o’clock, and it was the most terrifying of them all. In trying to phone Dr. Kaplan, I accidentally left the bedroom door open and she got out. She fell down the stairs and hurt herself. She was bleeding, and there was nothing I could do to help her. She kept running away from me every time I’d approach. I’d never seen her so desperate and hysterical. She kept running around the living room from window to window, lunging at them and then pulling away, seeking to get out. I was terrified that she might accidentally go through one of them.

QDid you have a visitor that night?

AYes. Mr. Hoover. He came to the apartment house at about eleven.

QDid you ask him up?

AYes.

QWhy did you ask him up?

ABecause I needed help.

QBut wasn’t the doctor coming?

AI needed help immediately.

QThen why didn’t you call the police or send for one of the men on duty in the apartment house?

A I needed Mr. Hoover’s help !

MR. VELIE: Your Honor, if the court please, it has come to my attention that Mrs. Templeton suffered a severe trauma yesterday brought about by the injury of her daughter in an accident. Mrs. Templeton is in a highly agitated and emotional state, and I feel she should be spared the burden of testifying at this time.

MR. MACK: Your Honor, this is patently a device by the prosecution to prevent this witness from testifying because the witness’ testimony will destroy the prosecution’s case.

MR. VELIE: I’m sure the defense joins the prosecution in wanting to get to the truth of this matter; therefore, it is important that the testimony being presented be given in the absence of disturbing emotional influences. I believe that a recess until tomorrow morning in order to give the witness an opportunity to calm herself so that she may answer questions with some degree of responsibility is in order. I believe it not only is the humanitarian thing to do but will best serve the ends of justice.

MR. MACK: It is because the defense wants the truth to come out that it believes this witness should be permitted to testify here and now, and I object to Mr. Velie’s statements concerning Mrs. Templeton’s condition and state of mind which imply that she is incapable of testifying honestly and truthfully at this time, and I request that his statements be stricken from the record and that the jury be instructed to disregard them.

THE COURT: I won’t strike the remarks from the record, but I will instruct the jury that arguments made by either side are not to be considered as evidence. Mrs. Templeton, are you able to continue?

MRS. TEMPLETON: Yes, I’m all right. I want to continue.

THE COURT: Proceed, Mr. Mack.

QBY MR. MACK: You said you needed Mr. Hoover’s help, Mrs. Templeton. What help did you need from Mr. Hoover?

AI needed him to help stop my daughter’s nightmare, to bring it to an end, as he did before.

QAnd did you ask Mr. Hoover to help you?

AI didn’t have to. He came into the apartment and immediately began saying those things to her.

QWhat things?

AYou know, calling to her, telling her he was here now, and that everything was all right. He said, “Audrey Rose! It’s Daddy! Here, darling! I’m here!”

QDid that help your daughter?

AYes, almost at once. She seemed to recognize him, as she did on the previous night, and rushed into his arms, and then, as he was comforting her, she just fell asleep. Peacefully.

QWhat happened after he calmed your daughter?

AHe carried her upstairs, and he washed her wounds and then dressed them. And he put her to bed.

QWas this done with your consent?

AYes.

QDid you have a discussion with Mr. Hoover at that time?

AYes.

QWhat did he say to you?

AHe said that Ivy was in danger. That his daughter’s soul—that is, Audrey Rose’s soul—was crying out to him for help through Ivy’s nightmares. That Audrey Rose was very unhappy and was seeking to escape this earth life, and because of that, she would be pushing Ivy into dangerous moments.

QDid he say anything else?

AHe said that since her soul was crying out for help, he must take an active part in providing it with the help it needed, that we would have to form a bond between us, a bond so tight with all the love I had and all the love that he had that together we might mend and patch it and put the soul of Audrey Rose to rest again.

QDid you believe what be was telling you?

ANo. I just couldn’t comprehend this kind of thinking. It was foreign to my upbringing and religious training. I just couldn’t believe it.

QMrs. Templeton, is your belief as to what Mr. Hoover told you the same today as it was that night?

ANo.

QTell us what way your belief has changed?

A(Answer unclear)

THE COURT: Will the witness please speak up?

AI said, I believe now in Mr. Hoover and what he is claiming.

MR. VELIE: Your Honor. I object.

THE COURT: Yes, Mr. Velie? What is your objection?

MR. VELIE: I’ve changed my mind. I withdraw the objection.

THE COURT: Continue.

Qby MR. MACK: Are mere any reasons, Mrs. Templeton, that you can describe that have caused you to change your opinion of Elliot Hoover?

AYes, a number of events have happened recently to convince me that Mr. Hoover’s fears were justified.

QWhat, specifically?

AWell, my husband and I made the decision to send Ivy to a boarding school out of the city for at least while the trial lasted. I thought she would be safe there, away from the influence of Mr. Hoover. I thought that Audrey Rose, if indeed she were the force that triggered the nightmares, would remain subdued away from Mr. Hoover’s close proximity. And indeed the nightmares did stop, but other things started happening. Subtle things.

QFor example?

AWell, she caught a cold. Most of the girls at the school had colds, but Ivy’s cold developed into a severe bronchial infection. She was up half the night—that was this past Saturday night—having terrible coughing spasms. And she had a fever. I didn’t have a thermometer, but I could feel her head all flushed and feverish. I don’t know how we managed to get through the night it was so terrible, and the next morning Bill suggested we take her back to the city to see Dr. Kaplan. But I was afraid to take her back to the city, because of Mr. Hoover’s being there, so we took her to United Hospital in Port Chester instead, since it was Sunday, and the few doctors we called in Westport were unable to see her. Well, when we got to the hospital, the fever was gone, and so was the bronchial infection. The cough had completely subsided, and the doctor who examined her found her perfectly normal, except for a slight redness in her throat.