Trial 4 (2020): Season 1, Episode 1 - Execution Style Murder - full transcript
[somber music playing]
[indistinct muttering]
[bailiff] Court, all rise.
Suffolk County Court is open.
Please be seated.
I worry that my decision in this case,
which of course I stand by…
has, in the eyes of the public,
reflected negatively
on some very honest
and honorable police officers
who were involved
in the investigation of this case.
My decision is not intended
in any way to impugn their reputation.
Having said that, I feel strongly
about what I said in my decision
that-- that your client, Mr. Ellis,
did not get a fair trial.
[male reporter] Sean Ellis was just 19
when he was arrested
and is over 40 years old today
upon his release.
Ellis was just a teenager
when he was charged with the murder
of detective John Mulligan back in 1993.
[female reporter] Boston detective
John Mulligan was in his vehicle
when he was shot five times in the head
and robbed of his service weapon.
[male reporter] Sean Ellis faced
three trials, two of which were mistrials,
his fourth most likely a year away.
[Richard Mulligan] It's laughable
to think the court thinks
that this guy deserves another chance.
He's been in jail for 21 years, 7 months.
My brother's been dead for 22 years.
You know,
nobody's giving him another chance.
This guy's a savage.
I am convinced without
a shadow of a doubt that he is innocent.
I'd like to thank the Honorable Judge Ball
for giving me the opportunity of freedom.
I'd like to thank my family
and my supporters,
everybody that helped me and stood by me
and helped to raise the bail.
It's a great day for him
and for his family.
Um, he's tasted his first taste of freedom
in 22 years. It's just great.
[reporter] Do you think
Sean's fourth trial will be a fair one?
I will do everything in my power
to make sure Sean gets a fair trial.
Everything in my power.
There was a systematic problem
with the Boston Police Department
in the late '80s, early '90s,
and I think it screams out
for an investigation
to determine how this
could have happened to someone like Sean
because if we don't figure out
how it happened,
we can't ensure
that it won't happen again.
[Sean] For my fourth trial,
I want to be vindicated.
I want to be exonerated.
But I won't be
the only one that's on trial.
The Boston police will be on trial.
I want the jury to have the opportunity
to hear everything
that went on in the case, everything.
I definitely want the world to know
that-- that I'm innocent.
[dramatic music playing]
[mellow music playing]
Do you know what he was charged with?
My name is Rosemary Scapicchio.
I am a criminal defense attorney
here in Boston.
My name is Sean Ellis,
and I am 44 years old.
I went to prison
for 21 years, 7 months and 29 days,
uh, to be exact.
Um, when I talk,
I typically round it out to 22 years.
So, I remember going to see him
the first time. I remember him coming in.
He was sweating. He was nervous,
um, and shook my hand
and started stuttering.
And I was thinking, "Huh."
But, um, so I got the nickname Studda, um,
because, um,
I had a very, very bad speech problem.
There was me and another guy named Sean.
Uh, he's bigger than I was. [sniffs]
Uh, so he said, "Yeah, I'm Big Sean
and you're Little Sean,"
and I'm like, "Nah, I'm-- I'm--
I'm not going with 'Little Sean.'" Um…
And so, um, Lorenzo said, "Man,
I got the perfect nickname for you, man."
He said, "We gonna call your ass Studda."
And, um, it just stuck.
Um, so, I listened to him for a while.
I took a ton of notes.
Um, and I walked out of there thinking,
"Doesn't seem like a cop killer."
Once I decided to take Sean's case,
I looked at everything and I said,
you know, "Something just doesn't fit…"
It's a puzzle,
and the pieces weren't fitting together
the way I thought they should.
The way that the police said
it happened didn't make any sense.
I thought he walked into something,
and he became sort of the perfect suspect.
[automated message voice]
Three forty-nine and 50 seconds.
[operator] Boston Police 281.
[Walgreens employee] Yes, sir,
this is Walgreens Roslindale and…
Well, there's a policeman
we have outside for a detail.
I think he needs assistance outside.
It's an emergency.
He may have a bullet in his head.
[operator] At Walgreens?
We'll get to it right away.
[employee] All right. Bye.
[officer 1]
Two-two, I'm arriving at Walgreens.
[officer 2]
433. Over at the Walgreens, sir.
[officer 3] On my way.
[Toni Locy] That night,
I was on the schedule working weekends.
A little after 4:00, 4:15,
I got a call. I answer the phone,
and, you know, the overnight editor said,
"I just heard something very weird
on the police scanner."
And the thing about the police scanner
is most of the time, you can't
understand a word they're saying,
and most of the time,
it's, like, boring stuff.
But you know when something is happening
when cops start huffing and puffing
because the adrenaline's going, and
they're running or they're just excited.
And when they don't want you to know,
then they change to a channel
that we don't necessarily have access to.
[officer 4]
Okay, look, no further radio transmission
relative to that incident
that you're all investigating
except on channel seven.
Is that understood?
[Toni] I said, "Did you hear an address?"
He said, "I heard an address
on American Legion Highway,
but there's nothing there."
So, I just set off and said,
"Okay, I gotta find this thing."
Um, if a cop has been shot,
there is no way
I'm going back into The Globe
and--and--and looking at anybody
and saying, "I couldn't find it."
There was no way that was gonna happen.
So, I'm at a red light,
I'm looking around,
and I feel something coming up behind me.
[police siren blaring]
[indistinct chatter over radio]
Whoosh! Just-- just like that.
And I recognized it as a Crown Vic,
and I said, "Ha, ha, ho,
I know where that guy's going."
I just picked up on the scanner,
uh, the Boston Police Department.
They are pushing an ambulance
for a-- an officer shot.
They've given the location
as 670 American Legion Highway.
I'll be out of the car here,
and we'll see what's going on.
-Dennis, how are you?
-Thanks for getting my hopes up.
-[cameraman] What's up?
-Do you want to step back?
[indistinct chatter]
-[cameraman] He was answering.
-Uh.
We're up here in the Hyde Park-Roslindale
section of Boston. Uh…
We have a report of a Boston officer
who's been shot. Uh…
I'm declining to identify him,
at this point,
uh, but we do know that he suffered
a gunshot wound to the face.
Uh, we understand that the officer is,
uh, is dead at this time,
and, uh, there is an unconfirmed report
that his firearm is missing.
So, uh, that's all I can tell you.
I knew the officer, uh,
as well as anybody else did here,
so I don't know what else to tell you,
so…
[indistinct chatter over radio]
[dramatic music playing]
[gun firing]
[reporter] Police Detective Mulligan
was shot five times in the face
as he slept in his car
on a security detail.
He was in his vehicle when he received
five gunshots in the face.
Mulligan was shot five times in his SUV
outside of a Walgreens in Roslindale.
Ladies and gentlemen, for those
who don't know what's gonna happen,
the police commissioner will speak first.
Detective Mulligan
was a veteran Boston police officer,
a much-decorated Boston police officer.
He was performing a paid detail
at a Walgreens, uh, pharmacy.
The officer was found
in the driver's seat of the vehicle.
He was removed to this hospital
where he was pronounced dead
this morning at 4:18 a.m.
[indistinct chatter]
Detective Mulligan had been shot
a number of times in the head.
It is quite clear this was
a cold-blooded, premeditated murder
of a Boston police officer
who was shot at point-blank range
a number of times.
Might be descri-- It has some elements
that might, uh, lend one
to describe it as an execution,
an assassination.
The gun was placed up his nose.
That was really disturbing.
I remember just thinking, at that moment
when I heard about the wounds
and the-- just the way it--
way he was killed,
that you'd have to be pretty a cold dude
to-- to sit there and-- and pump bullets
into somebody's head like that
at-- at very close range.
Yeah, it-- it--
it sounded like an execution to me.
But again, we wouldn't know that
until we had all the facts,
and unfortunately,
in homicide, we don't speculate.
You know, uh…
There was a fellow, Richie Ross,
who I'll attribute it to,
said, "If it's not written down,
it didn't happen."
Now, the detectives
assigned to this task force
are out interviewing people, canvassing
areas, checking into the background,
cases that Detective Mulligan
has been working on.
What we're trying to do
is determine the facts and circumstances
which led up to the shooting
of detective John Mulligan this morning.
John had arrested an awful lot of people
over the years. An awful lot of people.
If you want to define him
as an enemy that somebody he arrested,
yeah, a lot of people are
probably still in state's prison today
because of John Mulligan.
I remember thinking
that would be a long suspect list.
There were a lot of criminals
who would want to kill him.
[reporter] One Boston police officer said,
"If there was a list of the ten
most likely officers to be killed,
John Mulligan
would have been at the top of the list."
Today, the list became real
and Mulligan was at the top.
When Detective Mulligan was murdered,
I remember the sort of feeling in the city
because there was
a police officer who was killed.
Everybody was rallying around the family.
Everybody was rallying
around the police department at the time.
And I remember thinking to myself,
"This is going to be a really tough case
for whoever gets, uh, arrested,"
uh, because it's a cop killing.
It's always very difficult.
And I'm telling you, it seems to me
that rules go out the window,
uh, when you're dealing with cop killing.
The entire force is--
is behind the commonwealth's case.
So, you're not just fighting
the prosecutor and sometimes the judge,
uh, it's also the entire police force
that-- that will vilify you,
will vilify your client.
It's a tough case.
It's always gonna be a tough case.
[church bell ringing]
[police siren blaring]
[reporter]
The Thin Blue Line wasn't so thin
and a lot longer than the eye could see.
From Boston to Worcester
to Springfield and New York City,
thousands of police officers,
most of whom had never met John Mulligan,
escorted his family
and the hearse carrying his body
to Holy Name Church.
Anytime a policeman gets killed in
the line of duty, there's a big turnout.
You get police
that come from all over the country,
other countries.
[ceremonial music playing]
[William C. Dwyer] Cop funerals are big.
Lot of cops from different agencies
outside. Cops cling to one another.
There's a great camaraderie.
You know, blue.
Is-- there's a bond,
a special unique bond that cops share.
So, yeah, his--
his funeral was s-- significant.
[funerals hymn playing]
To know that an officer who's been shot
and killed in the line of duty,
that it could happen to one of us,
and that feeling certainly
runs through the minds
of every officer who's here today.
What a beautiful day
the Lord has given John
for his retirement party.
I can't imagine anything more
he might want today
except for maybe a paid detail.
[audience chuckling]
As you well know,
John had a basic philosophy
about police work:
There was right or wrong, good or bad.
The differences were obvious.
More or less, to him, in plain view.
The last week, we have all learned a lot
about the life of Detective Mulligan.
In some respects,
more than any of us really needed to know.
Many of us have
our own personal memories of John in life.
How we remember him in death
will also be a personal choice.
[Toni Locy]
There was, of course, the big cop funeral
where, you know, police officers from all
the surrounding, uh, municipalities
showed up.
Um, they had all that,
but this was different.
This was different,
um, because of what we were hearing
from sources inside the police department
about what kind of cop John Mulligan was.
[melancholy music playing]
The, uh…
But a lot of this stuff is still Mulligan.
This is all Mulligan.
There was a picture of John…
right here.
John was a free spirit.
Uh, John was John.
He was not afraid, uh, to arrest people.
Uh, quite the contrary.
Sometimes, too many.
You had to keep John in line a little bit,
but he was a hard worker.
He was a hard worker.
He'd work 23 and a half hours a day
and complain
about the half hour he had off.
John had a reputation as a workaholic.
He worked an incredible amount of hours.
John flat-out worked all the time
if he could.
John's life was the Boston police.
He didn't have a life outside of it.
When he put the badge on 27 years ago…
he's had such a strong relationship
with that badge
and at times,
no other relationship counted.
John may have been called
a dinosaur in his own way,
In Plain View, um, Cowboy…
the many nicknames that described John.
[Kevin Cullen]
His nickname was "Plain View"
because whenever he would file reports
about making an arrest,
"the drugs were in plain view," [laughs]
"the gun was in plain view,"
everything was in plain view,
because if it's in plain view,
you don't have to get a warrant.
That was among his friends, you know.
That's what the cops called him.
In the early days,
marijuana was kind of a big thing,
so you used to arrest people
for smoking a joint.
Well,
John Mulligan had this manila envelope,
and he used to use that as his court bag.
So, it had, like, case after case,
case after case, case after case.
He'd just put the new evidence
and carry this thing.
So, he got accused
of using the same evidence
for each and every guy,
but it wasn't really true.
[indistinct maneuver orders]
[gun firing]
[taps playing]
[Toni Locy] When you're shot in the face,
and I covered the mob in Philly.
Um, I mean, that's an execution.
He had a past.
Um, he was among a handful
of Boston police officers
who had the most civilian complaints
lodged against him.
And there'd been lawsuits and--
And the sense that we got, that I got,
was that there was a strong possibility
that John Mulligan's past
had caught up with him
in that parking lot in front of Walgreens.
[Paul Evans]
This is a top priority.
Not only for the message
it sends to your own police officers,
but the message it sends to the community.
Um, that, you know,
we don't want people out there
executing our law enforcement officers.
[reporter] Have you made any headway
in terms of what the possible motive
could be, and if it had anything to do
with his-- his duties as a police officer?
Uh, we're pursuing a number
of different theories at this point, uh,
but as to the substance of those theories,
we're not gonna disclose it.
We are, at this time,
not discounting any potential motive
or any potential individual as a suspect.
What I can tell you
is that we have 65 detectives out there
doing detective work.
We have set up a hotline
of three-four-three-four-four-seven…
We had assistance
from detectives throughout the city,
probably the best detectives
that you could assemble,
and from the detectives of the district
where the incident had occurred.
Generally speaking,
most of the detectives are well-seasoned.
They've been around for a long time.
They know what they have to do
as far as securing the scene
and looking for evidence
and everything else.
So, we had ample resources out there
to conduct our investigation at the scene.
[indistinct chatter]
[Toni Locy]
Eddie McNelley was the head of homicide.
And Eddie was-- he didn't-- He stopped
talking to me after my series ran.
"Bungling the Basics," uh,
was a four-part series
that started on April 7th, 1991.
I don't think I realized how explosive
it was going to be. I didn't.
What I found was, is that
the Boston Police Department
had serious deficiencies
in its ability to solve crime,
and that the inattention to detail,
um, was widespread.
[police siren blaring]
They were not securing crime scenes.
They did absolutely
no forensic, um, collection.
They relied on witnesses too heavily,
and eyewitnesses are unreliable.
The Boston Police Department of 1993
was not much different,
maybe this much different,
than the Boston Police Department
that I wrote about in 1991.
I doubted whether
they could solve something if it happened
right in front of them.
[indistinct chatter over radio]
[Daniel Keeler] We are outside
of Walgreens on American Legion Highway.
Sergeant Keeler is the speaker.
We're at the scene of a police shooting.
Detective John Mulligan
has been shot outside of Walgreens.
These windows are open here.
[car beeping]
And prior to anybody going inside,
there has been some ballistic evidence,
which is recovered.
Focusing in on the passenger-side seat,
you can see one shell casing
and to the right of it,
a second shell casing.
But moving into the back seat of the car,
we're zeroing in
on one more casing right there.
That's right behind the seat,
right against the wall.
[indistinct chatter]
And going up to the ceiling,
we have some matter.
Passenger-side seat, now, front,
we're zeroing in on…
We have some matter right here
on the seat,
which will be recovered.
[John Ellement] I got called early
and just went down there.
It was raining very heavily.
You know,
it was a center of police activity,
the Walgreens, the yellow tape.
There was a big piece
of the parking lot that was taped off.
And I believe they brought some recruits
down there by bus later in the day
and did a line search.
We'll be starting two tenths of a mile
down American Legion Highway.
We're going up a path
and searching this way.
There was a lot of heat on it too.
This wasn't just your average crime
that's off the paper the next day.
All the way down. All the way down.
All right, everybody ready?
[recruits] Sir, yes, sir!
[officer] Go! Stay stretched.
First squad, hold it up.
Looking down now.
[indistinct chatter]
[cameras clicking]
As you see by the poster to my left,
the department, through three sources,
will be offering a $25,000 reward
for information
leading to the arrest and conviction
of the individual, or individuals,
who participated in the murder
of Detective Mulligan.
We are today, uh, flying in two experts,
uh, one from Detroit, one from Virginia.
I think it's safe to say that some
of the technology that we're applying
is cutting-edge technology
that's only recently been developed
within the last couple of months.
There is a lot that
can be gathered, uh, from the vehicle,
whether it be fingerprints,
whether it be direction of blood,
things that they may have left behind,
hair, fiber, et cetera.
At this juncture,
we do not have any active suspects,
and we, uh,
definitely do not have a motive.
Thank you very much.
Appreciate it.
We're gonna be going out there. Thank you.
[indistinct chatter]
Um, for a few days,
we were absolutely nowhere.
I mean, people watch TV police shows,
and they all sense
that this thing should be…
and it doesn't work that way.
I mean, it's an awful lot of hard work
and it's not just, um,
the Mulligan homicide, but all of them.
You depend on people to provide you
with information to solve the case.
[somber music playing]
My name is Richard Ross,
I'm a detective assigned
to the Boston Police Homicide Unit.
Presently with me is one Joanne Samuel.
You came here voluntarily,
and you came here with a friend.
[Joanne Samuel] That's right.
There was a witness that supposedly
saw a woman in Mulligan's car,
and they were arguing.
[Ross] Let me ask you this:
Was there another person
in the vehicle with the officer?
-[Joanne] Yes.
-[Ross] And was that a male or female?
-[Joanne] Female.
-[Ross] Was she Black or white,
or could you determine?
-[Joanne] She was white.
-[Ross] Okay.
And the color of her hair,
was it blonde or did she have brown or--
-[Joanne] Kind of like a blonde-brown.
-[Ross] Brown.
It appeared they were having
an active conversation with each other,
or at least she was anyway, right?
[Joanne] Yes.
[Rosemary] Initially, there were rumors,
um, that indicated that when,
uh, Detective Mulligan was found,
his pants were around his ankles,
which would seem to indicate
he was otherwise engaged when he was shot.
The police officers
that were investigating the case,
they were looking for someone
who they thought must have known him
because they were of the position
that he wouldn't have let somebody
that he didn't know into his car.
Um, and so, then they started
investigating who could that have been,
um, and they came to the conclusion
pretty quickly
that it had to have been Mary Shopov.
Um, and so, in my mind,
they were setting Mary Shopov off--
up for, um, potentially being charged
with a homicide.
[gun firing]
[McNelley] Mary Shopov, she was brought
into homicide. She was interviewed.
It was her boyfriend
that had been murdered.
And she was a person
that would have some knowledge
about John and his activity.
And once you investigate any person…
um, you either determine
they're a suspect or they're not.
You know, as Clouseau says that,
"I suspect no one and I suspect everyone."
[Rosemary] Then we know that the first
person that they interview is Mary Shopov,
and she's one of the first people,
other than the people at the crime scene,
um, that they take a statement from.
[Richard Ross] Mary,
has John told you recently
-that he no longer wants to see you?
-[Mary] No.
-[Ross] Are you sure?
-[Mary] Yes.
[Ross] Okay.
Have you noticed a difference in his…
and this is a very personal question,
okay?
Um…
Have you noticed lately,
his physical attraction to you,
has it, um, deteriorated to any degree?
[Mary] As a matter of fact…
I feel so weird talking about this,
but, it's like…
[Ross] This is the death of a policeman
and the person that you love.
[Mary] No, if anything, just the opposite.
It's like
he wanted to have sex more often.
I couldn't understand that,
because here I am, always tired,
because I thought I was working, you know,
and just doing things
and it always just got so late.
He was working more than I was.
-[Ross] He had a lot of energy.
-[Mary] Yeah, I guess so.
[Ross] Um…
Has he told you
that he has another woman in his life?
[Mary] You know, actually,
at one point, he did, yes.
[Ross] Okay.
And this was supposed to have happened
on more than one occasion?
-[Mary] Yes.
-[Ross] Were you upset?
[Mary] Yeah, I was upset
because if there was somebody,
if that even was what it is.
Who knows?
If he wanted to date other people,
I mean, I would hope
he'd at least have the decency to tell me.
[Ross] Do any of them look like you?
[Mary] Not the ones I know, no.
[Ross] Did you kill John Mulligan?
[Mary] Absolutely not.
-[Ross] Could you kill John Mulligan?
-[Mary] No.
[Ross] Do you know how many times
John Mulligan was shot?
[Mary] Um, four or five,
from what I've heard in the paper and…
[Ross] And where did he get shot?
[Mary] Um, in the head,
and, from what I've read and heard again,
it seems to have been above the eyes
and in the middle of the head.
[Ross] Okay.
[Rosemary] It's no doubt in my mind that
she was the initial scapegoat in this case
and that's where the case was going,
um, investigating it
as if she would have done it.
Um, and they started to press her
pretty hard about what she knew about him,
and was there stuff missing
from his apartment.
And I think they would have developed that
and charged her
had Sean not gone down
to the police station
and talked to them
about his cousins' murder.
Mulligan was murdered
on September 26th of 1993.
Um, Tracy and Celine, Sean's cousins,
were killed on September 29th…
three days after Mulligan was murdered.
[melancholy music playing]
I was close to both of them…
um, but Celine, um, Ce-- Celine,
is one of the closest people to me, um…
at that time.
You know,
she was one of the closest people to me.
I was going back to my cousin's house
because my cousin, Celine, had paged me.
And, um… [stammers]
There was police cars in the parking lot.
I vividly remember
looking through the window
and seeing a police presence
in-- in Tracy's apartment,
and that's when I called her.
Um, I called her several, several times,
and it kept going to voicemail.
Um…
I wasn't big on talking to them.
It's like, dealing with the cops,
you don't talk to cops.
And there was a bunch of people outside.
So, you know,
I started asking, like, "What happened?"
And, um, somebody told me,
I don't remember who,
I don't remember if it was an ambulance
person or just a bystander…
um, told me that…
that, um, that my two--
that my two cousins were killed.
But [stammers]
they said two girls got murdered.
Um, they didn't know the relationship.
[indistinct chatter]
I wasn't trying to get into the apartment,
um, 'cause it was surrounded by police,
and as a-- as a young Black kid
in the inner city,
we didn't have that type of relationship.
I didn't have that type of relationship.
We don't talk to no police.
That isn't what we did,
you know what I mean?
So, I wasn't trying
to have a conversation with them.
[indistinct chatter]
[police siren blaring]
Detective Brazil was asking us
some more questions about possibly
as far as what happened.
Brazil wanted us as far as contact.
Who could we contact
if we need to speak to who
as far as whatever?
And with all the commotion going on,
I gave him my number.
"If you need to talk to somebody,
give me a call."
[sinister music playing]
[indistinct chatter via radio]
He called me, I think it was
the next day or the day after,
and he asked, uh, he asked me
could I meet him somewhere,
so we agreed to meet
at Victoria Diner on Mass Ave in Boston.
[Brazil]
The speaker is Detective John Brazil.
I'm in the rear of the Victoria Diner
in Roxbury.
We are going to discuss
the double homicide
of the, uh, Tracy Brown and Celine Kirk.
So, you were present after the homicides,
at the scene of the double homicide,
when you realized that
you did know the, uh, people involved.
You responded to the scene and,
uh, at that time,
I had a conversation with you.
-[Murray] Yes. I talked with you.
-[Brazil] Okay.
He was like on me like… [sighs]
like a tick on a dog, okay? Like that.
As far as trying to get information,
finding out more information.
And he was asking me questions
as far as when-- what's transpired.
So… he was telling me some stuff
that I didn't even know,
and then as we were talking, he had said,
"'Scuse me, who is Sean Ellis?"
I said, "That's my nephew."
At the time, who was living there
was, uh, Tracy, Celine, and Sean.
[John Brazil] I think it's very important
that I speak to Sean.
[Murray] Yes.
[John Brazil] I'm talking about trying to
sit down and talk to him. I want--
I'm not going to arrest him.
[David Murray]
I don't think he'll talk to you.
[church bells ringing]
[eerie music playing]
So, I was preparing dinner,
and the doorbell rang.
I went to the door,
and he introduced hisself,
Detective Brazil,
and said that, uh, Sean had a warrant out.
They said that, uh,
"We are here to arrest you,"
and that's when they took him.
[police siren blaring]
[Sean Ellis] They had accused me
of killing Celine and Tracy.
They accused me [stammers]
of being on drugs
[stammers] and just getting into a rage
and then killing Celine and Tracy.
They said that, um, that I did it
because Tracy wanted me out of her house
because I was a loser,
like-- like, that sort of thing.
At that time, um, like,
I started going back and forth,
like, I said then--
I'm like, "Are you fucking crazy?"
"I like-- I love my cousins."
[stammers] "You know what I mean?
I'd never [stammers] hurt my cousins."
And then they asked me,
"Well, what about Mulligan?"
I'm like "I don't give a fuck about
Mulligan. Tell me who killed my people."
So, d-- during talking to them
about Tracy and Celine,
um, like,
I acknowledged being at Walgreens.
Like, I said, "Yeah, I was there."
Um, they asked me, you know,
"Well, what happened
the night of the 25th-26th?"
I took them through it.
Tracy had asked me to buy some diapers.
So, Celine, um, with Terry, picks me up
and, um, pulled up at Walgreens.
I ran in, um, I bought some diapers
and came out and left.
[register beeping]
They asked me again,
I took 'em through it.
Asked me again, I took 'em through it.
But each time that I took 'em through it,
it's like they was getting
madder and madder.
[engine starts]
Soon after,
they started, like, accusing me
of being involved
with the killing of Detective Mulligan.
They kept making him repeat the story
over and over and over again,
and he told the same consistent story
four or five or six times to the police.
And they tried their best
to try to trip him up.
It reached the point
where I told them that I wanted a lawyer.
They ignored that and just--
just kept asking
until I just said,
"Listen, enough is enough."
"I've said all I'm going to say,
I'm not gonna say anything else."
I happened to be in the corridor
outside my old office,
and I wasn't totally aware
what was going on in my office
other than
there was an interview going on.
So, all of a sudden,
the door opens, and it's John Brazil,
and he comes out,
he sees me, and he's white.
You could see something really is…
And just by chance,
he threw out the diaper thing, you know.
He didn't know this guy,
what his involvement was,
but he jumped right on.
He jumped on it, said, "Yeah."
He told them the story. They were there.
This tied Ellis into it.
They definitely were onto the right guys.
[Rosemary] When Detective Brazil said,
"What do you know
about the Mulligan investigation?"
the first words out of Sean's mouth is,
"I was there that night."
And to me, as a criminal defense attorney,
it's not something that somebody
would normally put themselves
in the middle of a homicide,
never mind a cop homicide…
um, if they were involved.
Why would you volunteer that?
You'd have to be a psychopath to do that.
[sad music playing]
[John Brazil] Okay.
You're aware that, uh, that last night,
myself and several officers
arrested a one Ellis, Sean Ellis?
[David Murray] Yes.
[John Brazil] As a result
of my conversation with Sean Ellis,
uh, one of the things that came out
was, uh, that Sean Ellis was present
on the night
of the homicide of Detective Mulligan,
uh, on American Legion Highway.
He says, "Well, uh,
we think, uh, Sean has something to do
with, uh, Mulligan's murder."
And I'm saying, "How the hell was that?"
I don't know how he picked that up,
as far as Sean being involved.
[David Murray] My feelings are…
he knows a hell of a lot more
than what he has told you,
and what he has told me.
[Brazil] Yeah.
[Murray]
Sean is capable of shooting the Pope,
but he could not have shot Celine
or, uh, his other cousin.
[police siren blaring]
[reporter] Today, Craig Hood, believed
to be a former boyfriend of Celine Kirk,
was charged with the double murder.
The suspect charged in the murders,
18-year-old Craig Hood, has confessed
to murdering the women in a dispute
with one of them over a gold chain.
[eerie music playing]
The search for Detective
John Mulligan's killer continues,
but tonight, police have a new lead
they're following.
Investigators are looking for a car.
They want
to question those who were in it.
News Seven's Byron Barnett
has a live update
from the Hyde Park Police Station. Byron?
Well, Margie, by tomorrow morning,
everyone will be hearing about this flyer.
It'll be all over the city.
It's a description of a car
that was allegedly near the scene
where Detective John Mulligan
was murdered on Sunday.
Police say they got this tip
from a witness who called in,
and they say if they can find this car,
they'll be much closer
to solving this case.
[John McCarthy]
It's September 26th, 1993.
It is 11:21.
This is Detective John McCarthy
of the Boston Police Homicide.
We're about to interview Mr. Victor Brown.
Victor, you want to speak about
an incident that happened, uh, last night
in which a motor vehicle
parked outside of your house.
[Victor Brown] That's right.
I saw a brown Volkswagen Rabbit
and two Black males.
I noticed there's a passenger
in the back seat on the passenger side.
[John McCarthy] Did you notice
the nationality of the persons?
[Brown] Black.
[McCarthy] When you get back
inside of the house, what did you do?
[Brown] As I'm reaching the top of
the stairs, uh, I hear the engine start.
The car speeds off with its lights out.
[eerie music continues]
[reporter] On Friday night, police found
the object of a nationwide bulletin
right in their own backyard.
They believe this brown Volkswagen Rabbit
is the same car
spotted near the murder scene.
After a week of chasing dead ends,
the recovery of this car
is a significant breakthrough.
Police say
they do know who the owners are,
but wouldn't say whether
they're possible witnesses or suspects.
No pictures.
[reporter] In Boston tonight, 19-year-old
Terry Patterson was arrested and charged
with Detective John Mulligan's murder.
-Anything to say, Terry?
-Fuck you!
[reporter]
Anything else you'd like to add, Terry?
Patterson will be arraigned
tomorrow morning
in West Roxbury District Court
on a charge of murder one,
armed robbery,
and unlawful carrying of a firearm.
[reporter] Are there any other suspects?
At this point,
I'm not gonna comment on the extent
to whether or not he's the sole suspect
or whether or not
there are any other suspects.
[indistinct chatter]
He was being questioned.
He had nothing to do with it.
He told them he had nothing to do with it.
And then you have Brazil,
who needs the investigation to stop.
[dramatic music playing]
Brazil, who says in his report,
um, that when he asked, um, Patterson
about "Did Sean shoot, um, Mulligan?"
He says Patterson shook his head in an
up and down version as if to say, "Yes."
His lawyer, Nancy Hurley, was sitting
next to him and never saw that.
So, she, at that point,
fires a letter back to Phyllis Broker,
who was the prosecutor,
and said, "I was there.
He never shook his head up and down,"
because she knows it didn't happen.
That's how easily it happens.
It's one cop
who says something that's completely wrong
that immediately gets refuted
by the lawyer there,
and everyone discounts the lawyer
because she's a defense attorney,
and no one wants to believe
that, um, Brazil would say something
on a cop killing that wasn't true.
At the time that this whole thing
happened, you have to remember,
nobody had any-- any reason
to disbelieve Brazil.
And then, once he made that false claim
that Patterson had implicated Sean,
that was it. That was it.
That was how they got off and running.
[dramatic music continues]
[indistinct muttering]
[bailiff] Court, all rise.
Suffolk County Court is open.
Please be seated.
I worry that my decision in this case,
which of course I stand by…
has, in the eyes of the public,
reflected negatively
on some very honest
and honorable police officers
who were involved
in the investigation of this case.
My decision is not intended
in any way to impugn their reputation.
Having said that, I feel strongly
about what I said in my decision
that-- that your client, Mr. Ellis,
did not get a fair trial.
[male reporter] Sean Ellis was just 19
when he was arrested
and is over 40 years old today
upon his release.
Ellis was just a teenager
when he was charged with the murder
of detective John Mulligan back in 1993.
[female reporter] Boston detective
John Mulligan was in his vehicle
when he was shot five times in the head
and robbed of his service weapon.
[male reporter] Sean Ellis faced
three trials, two of which were mistrials,
his fourth most likely a year away.
[Richard Mulligan] It's laughable
to think the court thinks
that this guy deserves another chance.
He's been in jail for 21 years, 7 months.
My brother's been dead for 22 years.
You know,
nobody's giving him another chance.
This guy's a savage.
I am convinced without
a shadow of a doubt that he is innocent.
I'd like to thank the Honorable Judge Ball
for giving me the opportunity of freedom.
I'd like to thank my family
and my supporters,
everybody that helped me and stood by me
and helped to raise the bail.
It's a great day for him
and for his family.
Um, he's tasted his first taste of freedom
in 22 years. It's just great.
[reporter] Do you think
Sean's fourth trial will be a fair one?
I will do everything in my power
to make sure Sean gets a fair trial.
Everything in my power.
There was a systematic problem
with the Boston Police Department
in the late '80s, early '90s,
and I think it screams out
for an investigation
to determine how this
could have happened to someone like Sean
because if we don't figure out
how it happened,
we can't ensure
that it won't happen again.
[Sean] For my fourth trial,
I want to be vindicated.
I want to be exonerated.
But I won't be
the only one that's on trial.
The Boston police will be on trial.
I want the jury to have the opportunity
to hear everything
that went on in the case, everything.
I definitely want the world to know
that-- that I'm innocent.
[dramatic music playing]
[mellow music playing]
Do you know what he was charged with?
My name is Rosemary Scapicchio.
I am a criminal defense attorney
here in Boston.
My name is Sean Ellis,
and I am 44 years old.
I went to prison
for 21 years, 7 months and 29 days,
uh, to be exact.
Um, when I talk,
I typically round it out to 22 years.
So, I remember going to see him
the first time. I remember him coming in.
He was sweating. He was nervous,
um, and shook my hand
and started stuttering.
And I was thinking, "Huh."
But, um, so I got the nickname Studda, um,
because, um,
I had a very, very bad speech problem.
There was me and another guy named Sean.
Uh, he's bigger than I was. [sniffs]
Uh, so he said, "Yeah, I'm Big Sean
and you're Little Sean,"
and I'm like, "Nah, I'm-- I'm--
I'm not going with 'Little Sean.'" Um…
And so, um, Lorenzo said, "Man,
I got the perfect nickname for you, man."
He said, "We gonna call your ass Studda."
And, um, it just stuck.
Um, so, I listened to him for a while.
I took a ton of notes.
Um, and I walked out of there thinking,
"Doesn't seem like a cop killer."
Once I decided to take Sean's case,
I looked at everything and I said,
you know, "Something just doesn't fit…"
It's a puzzle,
and the pieces weren't fitting together
the way I thought they should.
The way that the police said
it happened didn't make any sense.
I thought he walked into something,
and he became sort of the perfect suspect.
[automated message voice]
Three forty-nine and 50 seconds.
[operator] Boston Police 281.
[Walgreens employee] Yes, sir,
this is Walgreens Roslindale and…
Well, there's a policeman
we have outside for a detail.
I think he needs assistance outside.
It's an emergency.
He may have a bullet in his head.
[operator] At Walgreens?
We'll get to it right away.
[employee] All right. Bye.
[officer 1]
Two-two, I'm arriving at Walgreens.
[officer 2]
433. Over at the Walgreens, sir.
[officer 3] On my way.
[Toni Locy] That night,
I was on the schedule working weekends.
A little after 4:00, 4:15,
I got a call. I answer the phone,
and, you know, the overnight editor said,
"I just heard something very weird
on the police scanner."
And the thing about the police scanner
is most of the time, you can't
understand a word they're saying,
and most of the time,
it's, like, boring stuff.
But you know when something is happening
when cops start huffing and puffing
because the adrenaline's going, and
they're running or they're just excited.
And when they don't want you to know,
then they change to a channel
that we don't necessarily have access to.
[officer 4]
Okay, look, no further radio transmission
relative to that incident
that you're all investigating
except on channel seven.
Is that understood?
[Toni] I said, "Did you hear an address?"
He said, "I heard an address
on American Legion Highway,
but there's nothing there."
So, I just set off and said,
"Okay, I gotta find this thing."
Um, if a cop has been shot,
there is no way
I'm going back into The Globe
and--and--and looking at anybody
and saying, "I couldn't find it."
There was no way that was gonna happen.
So, I'm at a red light,
I'm looking around,
and I feel something coming up behind me.
[police siren blaring]
[indistinct chatter over radio]
Whoosh! Just-- just like that.
And I recognized it as a Crown Vic,
and I said, "Ha, ha, ho,
I know where that guy's going."
I just picked up on the scanner,
uh, the Boston Police Department.
They are pushing an ambulance
for a-- an officer shot.
They've given the location
as 670 American Legion Highway.
I'll be out of the car here,
and we'll see what's going on.
-Dennis, how are you?
-Thanks for getting my hopes up.
-[cameraman] What's up?
-Do you want to step back?
[indistinct chatter]
-[cameraman] He was answering.
-Uh.
We're up here in the Hyde Park-Roslindale
section of Boston. Uh…
We have a report of a Boston officer
who's been shot. Uh…
I'm declining to identify him,
at this point,
uh, but we do know that he suffered
a gunshot wound to the face.
Uh, we understand that the officer is,
uh, is dead at this time,
and, uh, there is an unconfirmed report
that his firearm is missing.
So, uh, that's all I can tell you.
I knew the officer, uh,
as well as anybody else did here,
so I don't know what else to tell you,
so…
[indistinct chatter over radio]
[dramatic music playing]
[gun firing]
[reporter] Police Detective Mulligan
was shot five times in the face
as he slept in his car
on a security detail.
He was in his vehicle when he received
five gunshots in the face.
Mulligan was shot five times in his SUV
outside of a Walgreens in Roslindale.
Ladies and gentlemen, for those
who don't know what's gonna happen,
the police commissioner will speak first.
Detective Mulligan
was a veteran Boston police officer,
a much-decorated Boston police officer.
He was performing a paid detail
at a Walgreens, uh, pharmacy.
The officer was found
in the driver's seat of the vehicle.
He was removed to this hospital
where he was pronounced dead
this morning at 4:18 a.m.
[indistinct chatter]
Detective Mulligan had been shot
a number of times in the head.
It is quite clear this was
a cold-blooded, premeditated murder
of a Boston police officer
who was shot at point-blank range
a number of times.
Might be descri-- It has some elements
that might, uh, lend one
to describe it as an execution,
an assassination.
The gun was placed up his nose.
That was really disturbing.
I remember just thinking, at that moment
when I heard about the wounds
and the-- just the way it--
way he was killed,
that you'd have to be pretty a cold dude
to-- to sit there and-- and pump bullets
into somebody's head like that
at-- at very close range.
Yeah, it-- it--
it sounded like an execution to me.
But again, we wouldn't know that
until we had all the facts,
and unfortunately,
in homicide, we don't speculate.
You know, uh…
There was a fellow, Richie Ross,
who I'll attribute it to,
said, "If it's not written down,
it didn't happen."
Now, the detectives
assigned to this task force
are out interviewing people, canvassing
areas, checking into the background,
cases that Detective Mulligan
has been working on.
What we're trying to do
is determine the facts and circumstances
which led up to the shooting
of detective John Mulligan this morning.
John had arrested an awful lot of people
over the years. An awful lot of people.
If you want to define him
as an enemy that somebody he arrested,
yeah, a lot of people are
probably still in state's prison today
because of John Mulligan.
I remember thinking
that would be a long suspect list.
There were a lot of criminals
who would want to kill him.
[reporter] One Boston police officer said,
"If there was a list of the ten
most likely officers to be killed,
John Mulligan
would have been at the top of the list."
Today, the list became real
and Mulligan was at the top.
When Detective Mulligan was murdered,
I remember the sort of feeling in the city
because there was
a police officer who was killed.
Everybody was rallying around the family.
Everybody was rallying
around the police department at the time.
And I remember thinking to myself,
"This is going to be a really tough case
for whoever gets, uh, arrested,"
uh, because it's a cop killing.
It's always very difficult.
And I'm telling you, it seems to me
that rules go out the window,
uh, when you're dealing with cop killing.
The entire force is--
is behind the commonwealth's case.
So, you're not just fighting
the prosecutor and sometimes the judge,
uh, it's also the entire police force
that-- that will vilify you,
will vilify your client.
It's a tough case.
It's always gonna be a tough case.
[church bell ringing]
[police siren blaring]
[reporter]
The Thin Blue Line wasn't so thin
and a lot longer than the eye could see.
From Boston to Worcester
to Springfield and New York City,
thousands of police officers,
most of whom had never met John Mulligan,
escorted his family
and the hearse carrying his body
to Holy Name Church.
Anytime a policeman gets killed in
the line of duty, there's a big turnout.
You get police
that come from all over the country,
other countries.
[ceremonial music playing]
[William C. Dwyer] Cop funerals are big.
Lot of cops from different agencies
outside. Cops cling to one another.
There's a great camaraderie.
You know, blue.
Is-- there's a bond,
a special unique bond that cops share.
So, yeah, his--
his funeral was s-- significant.
[funerals hymn playing]
To know that an officer who's been shot
and killed in the line of duty,
that it could happen to one of us,
and that feeling certainly
runs through the minds
of every officer who's here today.
What a beautiful day
the Lord has given John
for his retirement party.
I can't imagine anything more
he might want today
except for maybe a paid detail.
[audience chuckling]
As you well know,
John had a basic philosophy
about police work:
There was right or wrong, good or bad.
The differences were obvious.
More or less, to him, in plain view.
The last week, we have all learned a lot
about the life of Detective Mulligan.
In some respects,
more than any of us really needed to know.
Many of us have
our own personal memories of John in life.
How we remember him in death
will also be a personal choice.
[Toni Locy]
There was, of course, the big cop funeral
where, you know, police officers from all
the surrounding, uh, municipalities
showed up.
Um, they had all that,
but this was different.
This was different,
um, because of what we were hearing
from sources inside the police department
about what kind of cop John Mulligan was.
[melancholy music playing]
The, uh…
But a lot of this stuff is still Mulligan.
This is all Mulligan.
There was a picture of John…
right here.
John was a free spirit.
Uh, John was John.
He was not afraid, uh, to arrest people.
Uh, quite the contrary.
Sometimes, too many.
You had to keep John in line a little bit,
but he was a hard worker.
He was a hard worker.
He'd work 23 and a half hours a day
and complain
about the half hour he had off.
John had a reputation as a workaholic.
He worked an incredible amount of hours.
John flat-out worked all the time
if he could.
John's life was the Boston police.
He didn't have a life outside of it.
When he put the badge on 27 years ago…
he's had such a strong relationship
with that badge
and at times,
no other relationship counted.
John may have been called
a dinosaur in his own way,
In Plain View, um, Cowboy…
the many nicknames that described John.
[Kevin Cullen]
His nickname was "Plain View"
because whenever he would file reports
about making an arrest,
"the drugs were in plain view," [laughs]
"the gun was in plain view,"
everything was in plain view,
because if it's in plain view,
you don't have to get a warrant.
That was among his friends, you know.
That's what the cops called him.
In the early days,
marijuana was kind of a big thing,
so you used to arrest people
for smoking a joint.
Well,
John Mulligan had this manila envelope,
and he used to use that as his court bag.
So, it had, like, case after case,
case after case, case after case.
He'd just put the new evidence
and carry this thing.
So, he got accused
of using the same evidence
for each and every guy,
but it wasn't really true.
[indistinct maneuver orders]
[gun firing]
[taps playing]
[Toni Locy] When you're shot in the face,
and I covered the mob in Philly.
Um, I mean, that's an execution.
He had a past.
Um, he was among a handful
of Boston police officers
who had the most civilian complaints
lodged against him.
And there'd been lawsuits and--
And the sense that we got, that I got,
was that there was a strong possibility
that John Mulligan's past
had caught up with him
in that parking lot in front of Walgreens.
[Paul Evans]
This is a top priority.
Not only for the message
it sends to your own police officers,
but the message it sends to the community.
Um, that, you know,
we don't want people out there
executing our law enforcement officers.
[reporter] Have you made any headway
in terms of what the possible motive
could be, and if it had anything to do
with his-- his duties as a police officer?
Uh, we're pursuing a number
of different theories at this point, uh,
but as to the substance of those theories,
we're not gonna disclose it.
We are, at this time,
not discounting any potential motive
or any potential individual as a suspect.
What I can tell you
is that we have 65 detectives out there
doing detective work.
We have set up a hotline
of three-four-three-four-four-seven…
We had assistance
from detectives throughout the city,
probably the best detectives
that you could assemble,
and from the detectives of the district
where the incident had occurred.
Generally speaking,
most of the detectives are well-seasoned.
They've been around for a long time.
They know what they have to do
as far as securing the scene
and looking for evidence
and everything else.
So, we had ample resources out there
to conduct our investigation at the scene.
[indistinct chatter]
[Toni Locy]
Eddie McNelley was the head of homicide.
And Eddie was-- he didn't-- He stopped
talking to me after my series ran.
"Bungling the Basics," uh,
was a four-part series
that started on April 7th, 1991.
I don't think I realized how explosive
it was going to be. I didn't.
What I found was, is that
the Boston Police Department
had serious deficiencies
in its ability to solve crime,
and that the inattention to detail,
um, was widespread.
[police siren blaring]
They were not securing crime scenes.
They did absolutely
no forensic, um, collection.
They relied on witnesses too heavily,
and eyewitnesses are unreliable.
The Boston Police Department of 1993
was not much different,
maybe this much different,
than the Boston Police Department
that I wrote about in 1991.
I doubted whether
they could solve something if it happened
right in front of them.
[indistinct chatter over radio]
[Daniel Keeler] We are outside
of Walgreens on American Legion Highway.
Sergeant Keeler is the speaker.
We're at the scene of a police shooting.
Detective John Mulligan
has been shot outside of Walgreens.
These windows are open here.
[car beeping]
And prior to anybody going inside,
there has been some ballistic evidence,
which is recovered.
Focusing in on the passenger-side seat,
you can see one shell casing
and to the right of it,
a second shell casing.
But moving into the back seat of the car,
we're zeroing in
on one more casing right there.
That's right behind the seat,
right against the wall.
[indistinct chatter]
And going up to the ceiling,
we have some matter.
Passenger-side seat, now, front,
we're zeroing in on…
We have some matter right here
on the seat,
which will be recovered.
[John Ellement] I got called early
and just went down there.
It was raining very heavily.
You know,
it was a center of police activity,
the Walgreens, the yellow tape.
There was a big piece
of the parking lot that was taped off.
And I believe they brought some recruits
down there by bus later in the day
and did a line search.
We'll be starting two tenths of a mile
down American Legion Highway.
We're going up a path
and searching this way.
There was a lot of heat on it too.
This wasn't just your average crime
that's off the paper the next day.
All the way down. All the way down.
All right, everybody ready?
[recruits] Sir, yes, sir!
[officer] Go! Stay stretched.
First squad, hold it up.
Looking down now.
[indistinct chatter]
[cameras clicking]
As you see by the poster to my left,
the department, through three sources,
will be offering a $25,000 reward
for information
leading to the arrest and conviction
of the individual, or individuals,
who participated in the murder
of Detective Mulligan.
We are today, uh, flying in two experts,
uh, one from Detroit, one from Virginia.
I think it's safe to say that some
of the technology that we're applying
is cutting-edge technology
that's only recently been developed
within the last couple of months.
There is a lot that
can be gathered, uh, from the vehicle,
whether it be fingerprints,
whether it be direction of blood,
things that they may have left behind,
hair, fiber, et cetera.
At this juncture,
we do not have any active suspects,
and we, uh,
definitely do not have a motive.
Thank you very much.
Appreciate it.
We're gonna be going out there. Thank you.
[indistinct chatter]
Um, for a few days,
we were absolutely nowhere.
I mean, people watch TV police shows,
and they all sense
that this thing should be…
and it doesn't work that way.
I mean, it's an awful lot of hard work
and it's not just, um,
the Mulligan homicide, but all of them.
You depend on people to provide you
with information to solve the case.
[somber music playing]
My name is Richard Ross,
I'm a detective assigned
to the Boston Police Homicide Unit.
Presently with me is one Joanne Samuel.
You came here voluntarily,
and you came here with a friend.
[Joanne Samuel] That's right.
There was a witness that supposedly
saw a woman in Mulligan's car,
and they were arguing.
[Ross] Let me ask you this:
Was there another person
in the vehicle with the officer?
-[Joanne] Yes.
-[Ross] And was that a male or female?
-[Joanne] Female.
-[Ross] Was she Black or white,
or could you determine?
-[Joanne] She was white.
-[Ross] Okay.
And the color of her hair,
was it blonde or did she have brown or--
-[Joanne] Kind of like a blonde-brown.
-[Ross] Brown.
It appeared they were having
an active conversation with each other,
or at least she was anyway, right?
[Joanne] Yes.
[Rosemary] Initially, there were rumors,
um, that indicated that when,
uh, Detective Mulligan was found,
his pants were around his ankles,
which would seem to indicate
he was otherwise engaged when he was shot.
The police officers
that were investigating the case,
they were looking for someone
who they thought must have known him
because they were of the position
that he wouldn't have let somebody
that he didn't know into his car.
Um, and so, then they started
investigating who could that have been,
um, and they came to the conclusion
pretty quickly
that it had to have been Mary Shopov.
Um, and so, in my mind,
they were setting Mary Shopov off--
up for, um, potentially being charged
with a homicide.
[gun firing]
[McNelley] Mary Shopov, she was brought
into homicide. She was interviewed.
It was her boyfriend
that had been murdered.
And she was a person
that would have some knowledge
about John and his activity.
And once you investigate any person…
um, you either determine
they're a suspect or they're not.
You know, as Clouseau says that,
"I suspect no one and I suspect everyone."
[Rosemary] Then we know that the first
person that they interview is Mary Shopov,
and she's one of the first people,
other than the people at the crime scene,
um, that they take a statement from.
[Richard Ross] Mary,
has John told you recently
-that he no longer wants to see you?
-[Mary] No.
-[Ross] Are you sure?
-[Mary] Yes.
[Ross] Okay.
Have you noticed a difference in his…
and this is a very personal question,
okay?
Um…
Have you noticed lately,
his physical attraction to you,
has it, um, deteriorated to any degree?
[Mary] As a matter of fact…
I feel so weird talking about this,
but, it's like…
[Ross] This is the death of a policeman
and the person that you love.
[Mary] No, if anything, just the opposite.
It's like
he wanted to have sex more often.
I couldn't understand that,
because here I am, always tired,
because I thought I was working, you know,
and just doing things
and it always just got so late.
He was working more than I was.
-[Ross] He had a lot of energy.
-[Mary] Yeah, I guess so.
[Ross] Um…
Has he told you
that he has another woman in his life?
[Mary] You know, actually,
at one point, he did, yes.
[Ross] Okay.
And this was supposed to have happened
on more than one occasion?
-[Mary] Yes.
-[Ross] Were you upset?
[Mary] Yeah, I was upset
because if there was somebody,
if that even was what it is.
Who knows?
If he wanted to date other people,
I mean, I would hope
he'd at least have the decency to tell me.
[Ross] Do any of them look like you?
[Mary] Not the ones I know, no.
[Ross] Did you kill John Mulligan?
[Mary] Absolutely not.
-[Ross] Could you kill John Mulligan?
-[Mary] No.
[Ross] Do you know how many times
John Mulligan was shot?
[Mary] Um, four or five,
from what I've heard in the paper and…
[Ross] And where did he get shot?
[Mary] Um, in the head,
and, from what I've read and heard again,
it seems to have been above the eyes
and in the middle of the head.
[Ross] Okay.
[Rosemary] It's no doubt in my mind that
she was the initial scapegoat in this case
and that's where the case was going,
um, investigating it
as if she would have done it.
Um, and they started to press her
pretty hard about what she knew about him,
and was there stuff missing
from his apartment.
And I think they would have developed that
and charged her
had Sean not gone down
to the police station
and talked to them
about his cousins' murder.
Mulligan was murdered
on September 26th of 1993.
Um, Tracy and Celine, Sean's cousins,
were killed on September 29th…
three days after Mulligan was murdered.
[melancholy music playing]
I was close to both of them…
um, but Celine, um, Ce-- Celine,
is one of the closest people to me, um…
at that time.
You know,
she was one of the closest people to me.
I was going back to my cousin's house
because my cousin, Celine, had paged me.
And, um… [stammers]
There was police cars in the parking lot.
I vividly remember
looking through the window
and seeing a police presence
in-- in Tracy's apartment,
and that's when I called her.
Um, I called her several, several times,
and it kept going to voicemail.
Um…
I wasn't big on talking to them.
It's like, dealing with the cops,
you don't talk to cops.
And there was a bunch of people outside.
So, you know,
I started asking, like, "What happened?"
And, um, somebody told me,
I don't remember who,
I don't remember if it was an ambulance
person or just a bystander…
um, told me that…
that, um, that my two--
that my two cousins were killed.
But [stammers]
they said two girls got murdered.
Um, they didn't know the relationship.
[indistinct chatter]
I wasn't trying to get into the apartment,
um, 'cause it was surrounded by police,
and as a-- as a young Black kid
in the inner city,
we didn't have that type of relationship.
I didn't have that type of relationship.
We don't talk to no police.
That isn't what we did,
you know what I mean?
So, I wasn't trying
to have a conversation with them.
[indistinct chatter]
[police siren blaring]
Detective Brazil was asking us
some more questions about possibly
as far as what happened.
Brazil wanted us as far as contact.
Who could we contact
if we need to speak to who
as far as whatever?
And with all the commotion going on,
I gave him my number.
"If you need to talk to somebody,
give me a call."
[sinister music playing]
[indistinct chatter via radio]
He called me, I think it was
the next day or the day after,
and he asked, uh, he asked me
could I meet him somewhere,
so we agreed to meet
at Victoria Diner on Mass Ave in Boston.
[Brazil]
The speaker is Detective John Brazil.
I'm in the rear of the Victoria Diner
in Roxbury.
We are going to discuss
the double homicide
of the, uh, Tracy Brown and Celine Kirk.
So, you were present after the homicides,
at the scene of the double homicide,
when you realized that
you did know the, uh, people involved.
You responded to the scene and,
uh, at that time,
I had a conversation with you.
-[Murray] Yes. I talked with you.
-[Brazil] Okay.
He was like on me like… [sighs]
like a tick on a dog, okay? Like that.
As far as trying to get information,
finding out more information.
And he was asking me questions
as far as when-- what's transpired.
So… he was telling me some stuff
that I didn't even know,
and then as we were talking, he had said,
"'Scuse me, who is Sean Ellis?"
I said, "That's my nephew."
At the time, who was living there
was, uh, Tracy, Celine, and Sean.
[John Brazil] I think it's very important
that I speak to Sean.
[Murray] Yes.
[John Brazil] I'm talking about trying to
sit down and talk to him. I want--
I'm not going to arrest him.
[David Murray]
I don't think he'll talk to you.
[church bells ringing]
[eerie music playing]
So, I was preparing dinner,
and the doorbell rang.
I went to the door,
and he introduced hisself,
Detective Brazil,
and said that, uh, Sean had a warrant out.
They said that, uh,
"We are here to arrest you,"
and that's when they took him.
[police siren blaring]
[Sean Ellis] They had accused me
of killing Celine and Tracy.
They accused me [stammers]
of being on drugs
[stammers] and just getting into a rage
and then killing Celine and Tracy.
They said that, um, that I did it
because Tracy wanted me out of her house
because I was a loser,
like-- like, that sort of thing.
At that time, um, like,
I started going back and forth,
like, I said then--
I'm like, "Are you fucking crazy?"
"I like-- I love my cousins."
[stammers] "You know what I mean?
I'd never [stammers] hurt my cousins."
And then they asked me,
"Well, what about Mulligan?"
I'm like "I don't give a fuck about
Mulligan. Tell me who killed my people."
So, d-- during talking to them
about Tracy and Celine,
um, like,
I acknowledged being at Walgreens.
Like, I said, "Yeah, I was there."
Um, they asked me, you know,
"Well, what happened
the night of the 25th-26th?"
I took them through it.
Tracy had asked me to buy some diapers.
So, Celine, um, with Terry, picks me up
and, um, pulled up at Walgreens.
I ran in, um, I bought some diapers
and came out and left.
[register beeping]
They asked me again,
I took 'em through it.
Asked me again, I took 'em through it.
But each time that I took 'em through it,
it's like they was getting
madder and madder.
[engine starts]
Soon after,
they started, like, accusing me
of being involved
with the killing of Detective Mulligan.
They kept making him repeat the story
over and over and over again,
and he told the same consistent story
four or five or six times to the police.
And they tried their best
to try to trip him up.
It reached the point
where I told them that I wanted a lawyer.
They ignored that and just--
just kept asking
until I just said,
"Listen, enough is enough."
"I've said all I'm going to say,
I'm not gonna say anything else."
I happened to be in the corridor
outside my old office,
and I wasn't totally aware
what was going on in my office
other than
there was an interview going on.
So, all of a sudden,
the door opens, and it's John Brazil,
and he comes out,
he sees me, and he's white.
You could see something really is…
And just by chance,
he threw out the diaper thing, you know.
He didn't know this guy,
what his involvement was,
but he jumped right on.
He jumped on it, said, "Yeah."
He told them the story. They were there.
This tied Ellis into it.
They definitely were onto the right guys.
[Rosemary] When Detective Brazil said,
"What do you know
about the Mulligan investigation?"
the first words out of Sean's mouth is,
"I was there that night."
And to me, as a criminal defense attorney,
it's not something that somebody
would normally put themselves
in the middle of a homicide,
never mind a cop homicide…
um, if they were involved.
Why would you volunteer that?
You'd have to be a psychopath to do that.
[sad music playing]
[John Brazil] Okay.
You're aware that, uh, that last night,
myself and several officers
arrested a one Ellis, Sean Ellis?
[David Murray] Yes.
[John Brazil] As a result
of my conversation with Sean Ellis,
uh, one of the things that came out
was, uh, that Sean Ellis was present
on the night
of the homicide of Detective Mulligan,
uh, on American Legion Highway.
He says, "Well, uh,
we think, uh, Sean has something to do
with, uh, Mulligan's murder."
And I'm saying, "How the hell was that?"
I don't know how he picked that up,
as far as Sean being involved.
[David Murray] My feelings are…
he knows a hell of a lot more
than what he has told you,
and what he has told me.
[Brazil] Yeah.
[Murray]
Sean is capable of shooting the Pope,
but he could not have shot Celine
or, uh, his other cousin.
[police siren blaring]
[reporter] Today, Craig Hood, believed
to be a former boyfriend of Celine Kirk,
was charged with the double murder.
The suspect charged in the murders,
18-year-old Craig Hood, has confessed
to murdering the women in a dispute
with one of them over a gold chain.
[eerie music playing]
The search for Detective
John Mulligan's killer continues,
but tonight, police have a new lead
they're following.
Investigators are looking for a car.
They want
to question those who were in it.
News Seven's Byron Barnett
has a live update
from the Hyde Park Police Station. Byron?
Well, Margie, by tomorrow morning,
everyone will be hearing about this flyer.
It'll be all over the city.
It's a description of a car
that was allegedly near the scene
where Detective John Mulligan
was murdered on Sunday.
Police say they got this tip
from a witness who called in,
and they say if they can find this car,
they'll be much closer
to solving this case.
[John McCarthy]
It's September 26th, 1993.
It is 11:21.
This is Detective John McCarthy
of the Boston Police Homicide.
We're about to interview Mr. Victor Brown.
Victor, you want to speak about
an incident that happened, uh, last night
in which a motor vehicle
parked outside of your house.
[Victor Brown] That's right.
I saw a brown Volkswagen Rabbit
and two Black males.
I noticed there's a passenger
in the back seat on the passenger side.
[John McCarthy] Did you notice
the nationality of the persons?
[Brown] Black.
[McCarthy] When you get back
inside of the house, what did you do?
[Brown] As I'm reaching the top of
the stairs, uh, I hear the engine start.
The car speeds off with its lights out.
[eerie music continues]
[reporter] On Friday night, police found
the object of a nationwide bulletin
right in their own backyard.
They believe this brown Volkswagen Rabbit
is the same car
spotted near the murder scene.
After a week of chasing dead ends,
the recovery of this car
is a significant breakthrough.
Police say
they do know who the owners are,
but wouldn't say whether
they're possible witnesses or suspects.
No pictures.
[reporter] In Boston tonight, 19-year-old
Terry Patterson was arrested and charged
with Detective John Mulligan's murder.
-Anything to say, Terry?
-Fuck you!
[reporter]
Anything else you'd like to add, Terry?
Patterson will be arraigned
tomorrow morning
in West Roxbury District Court
on a charge of murder one,
armed robbery,
and unlawful carrying of a firearm.
[reporter] Are there any other suspects?
At this point,
I'm not gonna comment on the extent
to whether or not he's the sole suspect
or whether or not
there are any other suspects.
[indistinct chatter]
He was being questioned.
He had nothing to do with it.
He told them he had nothing to do with it.
And then you have Brazil,
who needs the investigation to stop.
[dramatic music playing]
Brazil, who says in his report,
um, that when he asked, um, Patterson
about "Did Sean shoot, um, Mulligan?"
He says Patterson shook his head in an
up and down version as if to say, "Yes."
His lawyer, Nancy Hurley, was sitting
next to him and never saw that.
So, she, at that point,
fires a letter back to Phyllis Broker,
who was the prosecutor,
and said, "I was there.
He never shook his head up and down,"
because she knows it didn't happen.
That's how easily it happens.
It's one cop
who says something that's completely wrong
that immediately gets refuted
by the lawyer there,
and everyone discounts the lawyer
because she's a defense attorney,
and no one wants to believe
that, um, Brazil would say something
on a cop killing that wasn't true.
At the time that this whole thing
happened, you have to remember,
nobody had any-- any reason
to disbelieve Brazil.
And then, once he made that false claim
that Patterson had implicated Sean,
that was it. That was it.
That was how they got off and running.
[dramatic music continues]