Уильям Макгиверн - Summitt

The girl was with a youngster wearing a letter sweater from Muhlenburg High. Her name was Shana Selby. His name was Norman Bride. According to various witnesses, they arrived at the flag mall around ten o’clock. From there, they walked to the line of display cars and stopped in front of a black 1924 Packard touring sedan. A dozen people were standing there. Most of these spectators did not figure in what happened. I will list the names of those involved in the subsequent action. They were three young men, identified to me later as Earl Thomson of Wahasset, Pennsylvania, and his friends, Willie Joe Bast and Richard Knarl, both from New Jersey. These two young men, of good size, were wearing uniforms. On the yellow shoulder patches of the two cadets was the name of a school — Rockland Military College.

The girl, Shana Selby, walked up to Earl Thomson and pointed at him — this is according to the statement of witnesses — and accused him of running her down in his automobile sometime in the past (no exact date at this writing) and then taking her somewhere and assaulting her. The girl was angry and speaking rapidly. Witnesses did not get all she said. But the above is the substance of her charges against Earl Thomson.

After these accusations, Earl Thomson told her to stop bothering him. He stated he did not know who she was, or what her “hustle” was. Thomson’s friends, the Bast and Knarl boys, told her that if she was joking, or if this was some sorority initiation stunt, that she could get herself into trouble. One of them, Knarl it was, asked her if she thought they were a bunch of “goddamn Hell’s Angels or something.” (I should mention here that they had motorcycles parked outside the roped-off place where the Packard was — bikes painted yellow and black like the shoulder patches with the Rockland school name on them.) At this point, the young man with Shana Selby intervened. Norman Bride said something to one of the cadets. He spoke to Willie Joe Bast. That young man became angry and struck Norman Bride in the body, a severe blow, according to reports. Bast hit him again, in the face. Norman Bride fell to his knees. The other cadet, Knarl, told the Selby girl to “get your dirty little c — out of here.” What the girl replied is not known. She was trying to help her companion, Norman Bride, to his feet, according to spectators.

By this time, I had the news that something was going on, and was at the scene. I can testify to what else occurred. The other man showed up before I did. I saw him coming through the flag mall toward the cars. He wasn’t running, but he was hurrying. His name, I learned later, was Harry Selby. It was when Willie Joe Bast grabbed the girl and shoved her toward the exit area — it was just then that Harry Selby arrived there.

Harry Selby is the girl’s father. Selby pushed Willie Joe Bast and Knarl away from his daughter. Earl Thomson ran around behind the Packard automobile, climbed on one of the motorcycles and started it. When I say Mr. Selby pushed those two cadets, that is not all of it. He put a hand against their faces and shoved them hard. They stumbled back and fell across their motorbikes and rolled onto the ground.

Earl Thomson rode off on a motorcycle. In looking back, he lost control and ran into the side of a greenhouse. I took no action because it was not an unprovoked, disorderly incident, as I understand such matters. Mr. Selby gave me his name and address of his own accord, and offered to wait for police. I told him that was not necessary. He left with his daughter and N. Bride.

I called for an ambulance from Chester General and collected various names and addresses from witnesses.

Completed this date, 11:35 a.m. Submitted by hand to Trooper Milt Karec, Sheriff’s Station, Highway One, Muhlenburg.

The rain that had threatened most of the day was coming down hard by the time Selby arrived at George Thomson’s home. Dom Lorso opened the door, introduced himself and said abruptly, “Mr. Thomson’s waiting. It’s this way.”

The lights in the study shone on leather furniture and the black surfaces of wet windows. Thomson was at his desk, with his back to French doors and the illuminated terraces. Tubs of box cedars glistened there, and beyond them were dark lawns and trees.

Thomson said, “You can sit down if you want, Mr. Selby. I asked you here because we’ve got some things to straighten out. I’m not your friend or your enemy. You can take that on faith or dismiss it as bullshit. I don’t care. What happened at Longwood today could have been a misunderstanding, a mistake on your daughter’s part, an overreaction on yours. That’s how I figure it. Obviously, you’ve got other ideas. I think we should talk it over, try to put a lid on before something gets out of hand. You want a cigar, or a drink?”

Selby shook his head and took a chair facing Thomson’s desk. Dom Lorso stood watching him, a cigarette between his lips.

Thomson lit a cigar with a desk lighter. “You mind if I lead off, Selby?”

“Go ahead.”

“If my son hurt or raped any young girl, I’d still get him the best lawyer I could, not to help him weasel his way out of it but to make sure he had a chance to get the kind of therapy he needed, at some institution that would treat him until he was cured, if that took his whole lifetime. But I’d stand behind him and try to help him. That’s what I’d do if I thought he was guilty . So you can be sure I don’t intend to let him be hounded and framed for something he didn’t have a goddamn thing to do with. That’s all the explaining I intend to do, Selby. The doctor at Chester General said Earl’s lucky he didn’t lose an eye. A splinter of glass came close to going straight through it when he hit that greenhouse. His mother’s under sedation — she got hysterical when they brought him home. He’s upstairs now. In my view, Selby, you and your daughter have a goddamn heavy tab to pick up. I hope you can handle it. But I asked you here to talk. If you’ve got anything to say, I’ll listen.”

Selby said, “My daughter has twenty-twenty vision, Thomson. She had a long look at the man who raped her. She says it was your son.”

Thomson shrugged. “If that’s all you got to say, we don’t have anything to talk about. But you better understand one thing, Selby. You’re never going to hurt my boy again. I want you to understand that. It’s really why I asked you here, to make sure you got that through your head.”

Selby said, “I’ll make the same speech, Thomson. Your son will never lay a hand on my daughter again. Believe it.”

Thomson waved smoke from his face, as if trying to see Selby more clearly. “You think this is a tennis game we’re playing, some tit-for-tat horseshit? You think I’m putting on an act for your benefit, or that I’m lying, or my son is?”

“That’s occurred to me,” Selby said.

Dom Lorso moved closer. “Don’t press your luck, big man. We’re being gents for the time being.”

A red light flared against the terrace windows. Thomson said, “This will be Captain Slocum. My attorney Allan Davic is already here. You have any objection to them joining us?”

Dom Lorso blew a stream of smoke down at Selby. He said, “I don’t see what the shit we’re being so polite about. He’ll talk to ’em now, Giorgio, or in jail-later. I’d just as soon make it later.”

Lorso’s face was flushed. A bristling, attack-dog ferocity was running in currents through the little Sicilian. He looked ready to explode.

Selby said quietly, “Mr. Lorso, don’t blow smoke at me again, and don’t press me. Mr. Thomson, I don’t mind talking to Captain Slocum. He’s a good storyteller. Now go open the door.”