Albert,

Dr. Trestrail just sent this in:

Possibilities:

1 – she was mentally ill
2 – she was dead, either killed by someone else, or by Hawley (but there is now no evidence that he killed her!)
3 – Cora was involved with the remains in the cellar, and let Hawley take the blame.

Should Dr. Trestrail send in more information, I’ll post it here!

Thank you all for keeping this case in the spotlights! V

Thank you, Albert for stopping by and for taking the time to comment.

It is an excellent point and in fact, a missed opportunity for Cora to be in the spotlights! Cheers, V

@ John H. Trestrail III:

If Cora remained alive, why did she not intervene in the world-famous case to save her husband (however detested) from hanging?

Albert Borowitz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsdkHgwd6AI

Radio broadcasts from March 28, 1979.

In one of the oddest instances of meaningless synchronicity, look at the date in the excerpt below. Sometimes, I’m convinced the universe is just screwing with us…

I was wondering about the legal status of phone records from 1979, and did some research. The hit below was the first hit I got.

The reason I was wondering is, if the “B” scenario is correct, then the co-conspirators probably contacted “B” at Lonestar earlier that day. Who called(or if not called, visited, stopped by) the Lonestar office earlier in the day?

Smith v Maryland – US Supreme Court Case 1979 – Phone Records belong to phone company, no privacy
Find Law ^ | June 20, 1979 | SCOTUS

Posted on Friday, May 12, 2006 12:24:20 AM by TheEaglehasLanded

U.S. Supreme Court SMITH v. MARYLAND, 442 U.S. 735 (1979) 442 U.S. 735 SMITH v. MARYLAND. CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEALS OF MARYLAND.

No. 78-5374.

Argued March 28, 1979. Decided June 20, 1979.

As best as I can tell, this “B” scenario is not high on the BPDs list of possibilities. I assume, because they have a Hell of a lot more information than I do. Or…they couldn’t rule out her alibi, and/or have no reason to suspect her nutter stalker friend, the not-really-a-PI. Or else they do, and it is just ‘B’ that is not high on their list…
My understanding is, they interviewed “B” on two separate occasions. I have a guess, because it would make sense, that she is the secretary at Lonestar who reported that Holly called the office at 4:45 to look for her father, who was away on business in Atlantic City. She was his secretary. Maybe she even had a pink slip recording the call, with a time on it. Maybe there was even a phone record of a call from the house to the office.
My suspicion is not that she did it: I never really believed that. (The not-a-PI nut was really pushing that theory, even 30 years ago, telling everyone she did it, he knew for sure, he claimed. How could he ‘know’ that unless he was there, and if he was there, then why couldn’t he have done it? “B” was maybe 5’3. Holly was what, 5’7? 5’8?) My suspicion is that “B” must have had some knowledge of who did it, maybe was even involved in some fashion as I described. But…the house is 5 minutes from Lonestar, and the little concrete office had a kind of lower floor/kitchen from which it was possible to exit through a lower side door and get to/from the parking lot out back, without walking out the main front door in front of everybody. If I remember correctly, there might have been a little kitchen or break room down there, and/or some kind of storage room they used for old files. She or anyone from that office could have easily been back and forth without anyone noticing. It was a tiny office, maybe 3 or 4 executives, Mr. Branagan was one of the sales executives, “B” was his executive secretary. My ex was the executive secretary of the head of the sales office, I forget his name. What I am saying is, if “B” showed them a pink slip in her handwriting with the time “4:45 – call from Holly looking for Dick B.” or whatever, and that matched up with phone records of a call from the house…then so what? Does that prove she wasn’t at the house which was 5 minutes from the office? Would that be enough to rule her out as having been involved—even if her involvement was innocent enough, as in, she was telling her bad-boy partying acquaintances about her well to do boss and his nice house on the hill on Pine Top Trail, some of who were working on a half-baked plan to rob/extort money from him, when suddenly, the TMI accidents showed up, and the day hurriedly chose them, they didn’t choose the day?
It is absolutely true that all of “B”s bizarre (and documented – there were court records left as residue of her commitment and hearing)behavior could be attributed to the reactions of a disturbed girl, reacting to the news that her boss, who she adored and doted over like a father, had his daughter murdered and son die in a tragic accident, all on the course of six months.
…except for the behavior and statements of this other not-really-a-PI nut. Either he is just coincidentally a nut that she was wrapped up with, and he has been making incriminating statements simply because he’s nuts, or he is the same nut he was on the day of the TMI accident.
And my biggest question regarding “B” is the same one I’ve had for 30 years; where did “B” go? Where is she today? I don’t know if the BPD know where she is today, or even, if she is today. Holly was murdered, and Dick Branagan’s secretary, “B”, the state certified disturbed girl who was being stalked by a complete psycho, has disappeared from the face of the earth. And, the man who I think was her father just happened to pass away on April 2, 1999 – just after the 20th anniversary of Holly’s murder. Coincidence, or stress over what his daughter knew or was mixed up in?
Jim’s many pieces at NBC have been part of the recent resurgence of interest in Holly’s case, he is familiar with all of the scenarios. It is through him that this not-really-a-PI nut from 30 years ago resurfaced, jonesing for information, and has been identified. He talked to Jim, gave Jim his phone number, and asked Jim to have me call him. (He lost his vast ‘water stained files’ from 30 years ago.) I’d already told everything I knew in writing to the BPD by this time, and I said I’d be glad to talk with this nut – jointly, in front of the BPD, but not privately. He’d already lied to me 30 years ago when he represented himself as a PI. He was no such thing, he was just beating the bushes, trying to dig up all of “B”s acquaintances to find out what she might have told them about his ‘deal to shut up’ with her. I said to Jim something like “I need to reminisce with one of “B”s murky mullet haired nonsense spouting friends like I need a melanoma.” He kind of creeped out Jim, and Jim thankfully did not give him my phone number, but passed on his request that I call him. His claims that he was just jonesing after non-existing ‘reward money’ creeped out both Jim and I, maybe for the same reason. It just seemed so naively sociopathic, like a little bad boy lie. I reverse looked up his phone number, DNS searched his fake ‘pinetoptrail’ investigative association (which he registered on May 7, 2009, and started using to harass/mislead folks like ‘starkrial’ on the CCF website — and discovered he is apparently common law living with a woman who is also self-registered as a member of Liberty ’78. (Interesting because Holly was Freedom ’79.)
When he later—on the CCF website – suggested that ‘we look up and talk to my ex-wife’ (who I haven’t talked to in 28 years, who worked with “B” in that same Lonestar salesoffice, between approx Jun ’75 and Sep ’77, which is how we met “B” and the Branagans…), I responded by a] emailing the BPD with what current contact information I had regarding my ex-wife, a decent woman who’d have no qualms at all, I’m sure, about talking to the BPD about anything regarding this case, b] I privately contacted her new husband and warned him that the not-a-PI nut from 30 years ago had resurfaced and was making noise about trying to find them, gave him all the current information I had on this nut, as heads up, and c] since the not-a-PI-nut brought up the subject, asked him why we then don’t also contact Liberty ’78, as a potential contemporary of Holly, Freedom ’79. (Liberty and Freedom are two ‘rival’ high schools in Bethlehem.) His response was to go completely white knuckled catatonic on the subject, and more, to eventually spin into a veiled public threat involving vague weapons in the 8-track equipped shagmobile he claims is parked in his driveway.
He could just be some sad sack sociopath nut, just as, he could have been just some sad sack sociopath nut 30 years ago when he was beating the bushes claiming to be a PI, or on the day of the TMI accident, when this sad sack nut has admitted to ‘having the car packed for Florida’, after having made detailed calculations based on ‘wind speed’ and so on, of how long he would have to ‘flee the radiation cloud’, once the word was given.
I was in the Lehigh Valley that day. I lived in Fountain Hill, and was working in Phillipsburg, NJ, at IR-Turbo. I was a development engineer. Yes, folks were a little edgy that day, listening to the radio. But I have yet to come across a single person who even knows a single person who actually ‘had the car packed’ that day. This psycho has admitted to being pushed right to the edge that day—the day Holly was murdered. He’s admitted to knowing “B” before the murder. He’s admitted that he once swore ‘never to be poor.’ He’s admitted that he ‘knew of the Branagans financial situation.’ He’s described “B” as ‘irresistible to certain men.’ He’s claimed that she was a brilliant scam artist, and was scamming thousands from all the men in her life, and his lament was that ‘she wouldn’t share with him.’ He’s publicly asked for $100,000 to ‘not tell what he knows about “B”’, and has also claimed to have told the BPD ‘all he knows about “B”. He claimed that he made a ‘deal’ with “B” in a mental institution for her to ‘shut up’ about the murder that he claims she did. (Why would he need to make a deal with her – the person he claims did the murder—for her to shut up about her murder????) After describing his shared room in ‘the extended Main Street section of Bethlehem’ , and after bragging about his precise calculations on the day of TMI and ‘having the car packed for Florida’, when asked what he was going to do for money in his new life in the radiation free zone, he suddenly jarringly moved his location to “Pottstown”, where everybody had the car packed that day. Only, TMI is not in ‘Pottstown’, that is Limerick, and none of that is in the ‘extended Main Street section of Bethlehem.’ He admitted to stalking her, right before her incident in 1981. He was caught attempting to ‘repo’ her car at APCI, and was apparently thrown off the lot. Did he show the police a fake, printed business card, like the fake, printed business card he once showed me, claiming to be a registered PI? Because after getting caught and interviewed on APCIs lot, the cops just told him to get lost. He was convinced that “B” was deep into a plan to eventually extort money from her new APCI boyfriend, and ‘she wouldn’t share with him.’ The guy is a sad sack nut, a clear sociopath.
In that state, what would such a nut have been capable of on the day of the TMI accident? What did “B” step in with the bad-boy partying side of her diagnosed multiple personality disorder(enough to get her commited in 1981), and did she inadvertently drag something into the lives of the Branagans?
I once wrote about this scenario, where there is smoke there is sometimes fire, and where there are insane drops of nitroglycerine still dripping from sweaty dynamite, there might have once been an explosion.
The BPD knows explicitly about this nut, they have his name, his address, and so on, and they know about the “B” scenario. The craziness on the CCF website is also documented public domain, hiding in plain sight.
It could all just be unrelated nut noise. I have no idea. But it is nuts, that is for sure.
There are for sure many problems with the “B” scenario…
1] Where is “B”?
2] Wherever she is, she has a state certified get out of jail free card. But, that not-really-a-PI has no such state certified card, even though he is clearly nuts. I think that is why he is still beating the bushes 30 years later. He is ominously not concerned with “B” showing up to testify against him. His main concern now, just as it was 30 years ago, is with “B”s acquaintances, and what she might have told them. If I were him, I’d also be sweating whatever “B” left in those commitment documents and medical records, not closed to a Grand Jury. Which is why I’ve all but begged the BPD, ‘go open them up and look at them. There is more than enough suspicion to think that “B” might have been trying to show, not tell us something about what she knew about the murder, and we might have all missed it back then.
3] There are other equally and even more compelling scenarios, totally unrelated. The neighbor kid who was found covered in blood the next day at the bottom of the hill, supposedly committed and in an institution ever since, but who was also ‘ruled out,’ I assume, because it wasn’t her blood or might have even just been his blood. The one who believes he is God. I don’t’ have any first hand knowledge of that scenario, but when I heard it, it was equally compelling. I don’t know the timing, but was his a reaction to the news of Holly’s murder, or could that not have been? Just like “B”s bizarre reaction – nutter bad boy friends or not – could have been a reaction to the news(and, the stalking by a her nutter acquaintance.)
The general scenarios based on parents protecting their teenage children are the least compelling, to me. Of course they wanted to protect their children, did not want them involved with this. That isn’t incriminating, that is being a parent. Where is the specific smoke with those scenarios? There don’t’ seem to be many coincident facts that line up with those general assumptions based on the protective behavior of parents at that time.
Holly was a great kid, a totally normal kid. But damn, somebody murdered her. She didn’t stab herself to death.
Re: 3] above. It occurs to me, no matter what the timing was relative to Holly’s murder, if this neighbor boy’s incident was on or after March 28, 1979, this could be just another example of someone ‘close to the edge’ pushed over the edge by the news of the TMI accident on the radio. The kid was clearly disturbed, and this is how he might have reacted to the news of the TMI accident. The radio was filled with conjecture that day, news of a nuclear accident at TMI that was unfolding; it really wasn’t fully declared ‘under control’ until the next day, I think. It did make even normal people a little nervous.
My question is, how might other folks already near the edge have reacted to the news of TMI that day, and might that have impacted Holly’s murder?
I’ve purely hypothesized “B”s involvement in some screwy scheme. She was partying with some low-life “bad boy” friends long before the murder. She brags up her rich boss, Mr. Branagan, and his house on the hill on Pine Top Trail. An acquaintance of one of her bad boy boyfriends – a roommate sharing an apartment in the ‘extended Main street section of Bethlehem’ (near the Branagan’s home)becomes aware of “B” and her stories. These are druggie low-lifes, now coming up with a half-baked plan to rob or extort money from the Branagans somehow. They aren’t necessarily even acting on it, just dreaming it up. And then along comes the TMI accident. These two mullet heads are wigging out. They’ve calculated that they’d have ‘about an hour’ to flee the area, once the word is given. They have ‘the car packed for Florida.’ They have an idea where they can get access to money/resources.
Mr. Branagan is away at Atlantic City on business that day. “B” dotes over him, like a father figure, as his executive secretary. Maybe she’s even worried about Holly being alone that day, while the TMI accident has the potential to require an evacuation. Her nutter bad boy friends have a plan to ‘flee to Florida.’ They ‘have the car packed.’ They involve “B”. “B” maybe even goes to Holly’s door with her bad boy friends, to try and talk Holly into coming along, to beat the rush of any panicked evacuation of the Lehigh Valley. (There was absolutely no panic that day – except for possibly in the minds of folks who were already on the edge. Reasonable people were aware and cautious, attentive, but there was no panic. The only reports of actual evacuation I’ve ever read were for folks within actual sight of the plant at TMI…in Harrisburg, not Pottstown, and not in the Lehigh Valley, and certainly not in the ‘extended Main street section of Bethlehem.’ 90 miles away, it would have been a fringe, as in, on the edge, occurrence.)
They show up, and try to convince Holly to go along with their plan to flee to Florida, to not get caught in the rush. If they are wrong, they just turn around and come back. But if they are right, they avoid the rush, don’t get caught. But, they need money, and lots of it. Holly tries to contact her father, to ask what to do. They might even almost sound reasonable at this point. “B” is concerned about Holly, is worried, thinks this might be the best thing to do under the circumstances. But they can’t reach Mr. Branagan when they call around 4:45. Holly calls back to the office to try and locate him,. She knows he is in A.C., but not sure where, so she calls the office to try and find out. Who was it at Lonsestar that said they actually talked to Holly at 4:45? It doesn’t matter which secretary at Lonestar later corroborated the call. If “B” was with Holly, then another secretary recorded the call. If it was “B” who corroborated the call, maybe even with a written pink slip, then so what? She knew the call was made, if she was there, and could easily have recorded a pink slip in her own handwriting. That same day(the office was 5 minutes away)or even the next day. If it was the fact that it was “B”s handwriting on the pink slip that has ‘ruled her out’ , then that needs to be re-thought. And if it was another secretary answering for a call to Mr. Branagan, then, where was “B”? It was late in the day, her boss was away in A.C., and the radio all day was full of the TMI accident unfolding 90 miles or so to the West of us.
But, Holly can’t reach her father. So, they listen to the news on the radio? TV? and … there is really no panic. Holly has to assess on her own, and just finally calls ‘bull****’ on the idea, is not showing the proper amount of respect for these nutters and their detailed meteorological calculations and whatnot. This whole negotiation takes a while to unravel – about 30- 45 minutes from the time that two or three of them showed up at her door(“B” and one or more others), but this situation eventually goes bad. One of the nutters decides to force the issue, Holly resists, there is a struggle, one of the nutters – outraged at this rich girl and her privileged life and lack of regard for his brilliant plan to flee to Florida – takes all of that out on her. (Always the ‘poorest boy at Liberty,’ he has sworn an oath to ‘never be poor…’) He’s convinced he’s right – in a few hours, the entire region is going to be covered in radioactive dust or whatever, and this rich young privileged girl from Freedom is giving Mr. poor boy from Liberty grief. Class warfare/L’es Mis/virtuous proletariat rage/nutterville.
But, this isn’t why they came there – they didn’t come to murder Holly. “B” initially went along with this scheme, convinced she was also looking out for Holly under the circumstances; Holly is home alone while TMI is unfolding, “B” believes she must act somehow. Her nutter friends are there because they think “B can convince Holly to fund the expedition to Florida ‘somehow.’ Access to safes, piles of cash, jewelry in the house on the hill. When it spins out of control and one of them wigs out and murders Holly, they freak out; this isn’t why they came there, to murder Holly. But, one of the nutters – already under stress – takes exception to Holly’s reaction, something she says, or just the fact that she is a privileged rich girl not showing him the proper respect for this brilliant plan. Yet another example of the rich thwarting the desires of the poor. He – or one of them — stabs the rich girl on the house on the hill – his oppressor, an example of the folks who are keeping him down and poor and whatnot, and now today, when he wants to save them all with his brilliant plan to flee to Florida in the shagmobile, she calls ‘bull****’ on him, so he stabs and stabs – until he – or one of the nut with him — breaks a knife off in Holly’s back!
“B” is terrified, and scared to death, he makes her swear never to tell a soul. (He is infatuated with “B” , who he describes as ‘irresistible to certain men.”) So, why didn’t they rob the house? Because they just murdered Holly. This isn’t what they started out to do. They panicked Now its just clean up their tracks and skedaddle the Hell out of there, and make sure everyone there shuts up about Holly’s murder.
This nutter eventually becomes the ‘not really a PI’ who spends the next 30 years beating the bushes, looking down the trail obsessed with “B”s other friends and what she might have told them, always looking down the trail at who is coming after him or by extension, his common law roommate, Liberty ’78, who he might be protecting.
I am not hypothesizing the nutter; he has made public statements corroborating much of the above, except for the key points: he claims, absolutely, that ‘there was only one person at the door that day, and it was “B”, and “B” was the murderer. “ How could he or anyone ‘know’ any of that, unless he was there?
I don’t think “B” did it. I think, even in the “B” scenario, there is a strong possibility that not even the not really a PI nutter did it. He seems to act, to me, as if he was ferociously protecting someone else, and the current candidate, to me, is ‘Liberty ‘78’, his common law roommate. He is Liberty ’69. Liberty ’78 would be one year older than Holly. He acts almost like he could have been protecting her all these years. Maybe she was along that day? Maybe she is who wigged out? He goes absolutely catatonic at the mention of Liberty ’78, has never responded to repeated queries, even to ask “what the hell/who the hell is that, what are you talking about?” Instead, he transitioned from full blown ‘Hannibal Lecter’ lecture mode, full of bravado and bluster, to catatonic non-response, and eventual a low growled threat involving vague murky weapons, when the subject of Liberty ’78 came up.
To me, it just smells really, really, really bad. It –could- just all be coincidental nuttitude. But, unless I hear a reason ‘why not’, it or something like it could be what happened, and “B” and this nutter were involved in Holly’s murder somehow.
Who do I think could have been at Holly’s door that day?
Not a PI nutter = ‘J*’ (his initials.) The BPD have J*’s name in file, even from 30 years ago. He was trying to throw “B” under the bus since back then, going to the BPD with his claim that she did it. So, the BPD know who J* is and was.
At Holly’s door that day?
A] “B” and J*.
B] “B” and J*, and J*’s then roommate.
C] “B” and J*, and J*’s then roommate, and Liberty ‘78
D] “B” and J*, and Liberty ‘78
E] “B” and J*’s then roommate, and Liberty ‘78
F] “B” and J*’s then roommate.
G] “B” and Liberty ‘78
H] “B” alone. (that is J*’s scenario, he insists he ‘knows’ this is the case.
Holly knew and trusted ‘B’, at the door. In the “B” scenario, “B” had to be at least one of the people at the door, unless Holly knew J*, or J*’s then roommate, or Liberty ’78, and there are no facts to suggest that. “B” alone? I doubt that, unless she just came first and the other’s eventually showed up and she told Holly “I know them, let them in.” There are statements (by J*) that J*, and J*’s then roommate both knew “B” before the murder. (I’m aware of no connections between Liberty ’78 and “B”, other than through J*. ) One person murdered Holly, but since then, a conspiracy to ‘shut up’ about it, the others threatened to be quiet, scared into hiding, or worse.
J* and Liberty ’78 are still living in Bethlehem, not far from where this happened. Where is “B”? Where is J*’s old roommate?
This is a lot of conjecture propped up around a few facts, I know. But the few facts are exceptionally bizarre facts, too bizarre to ignore.
I’m dumping all this to try and get someone objective to poke holes in it. I know, just because some of it might fit, doesn’t mean that it fits all the facts that the BPD might have. I don’t care if the BPD/Morganelli take their time, are deliberate, methodical, and even plodding, as long as they are also relentless, and get it right, and close the case, no matter what the actual scenario is. If it turns out to be other than the “B” scenario, and all of the above is just coincidental nuttiness, I can readily accept it – as long as the case is actually resolved. It has just been a constant cloying question – for thirty years – “What happened to “B”, and did she have anything to do with Holly’s murder?”
I also know, other than the suggestion to go let the GJ open up those commitment hearing records and commitment medical records, that I’m not providing any real usable ‘evidence’ that the BPD can use to close this. They need way more than my flaky suspicions. I wish I had more to give them, it all just seems like crazy smoke, even to me. But, the crazy smoke is at least now public crazy smoke, and this J* nutter is no longer sneaking around in the dark, undetected and unidentified. He’s in full spotlight now, not a pretend PI(and even possibly fake PA State cop)murking around in the dark, undetected.
More observations re: “B” scenario. I’m dumping this here with the hope that someone with ‘fresh eyes’ can see this clearly. If it triggers a new thought, great. If not, then no harm done. I don’t know that any of this is relevant; I only know that it might be. I cannot help but have strong suspicions, and yet, also know that strong suspicions won’t ultimately close this case. So, I’ve been dumping my recollections – to the BPD, and to anyone else with an honest interest – in the hope that with some sunshine, Clorox, and Lysol, the pieces will help the BPD unravel this mess. It really is just a hope. A fading hope at this point, but the BPD are the only folks with a prayer of investigating and closing this.
This particular scenario is so bizarre that, if it is not relevant – if it is just coincidental nuttitude surrounding the case – then it is a costly distraction. But the facts are bizarre; I certainly have never been made aware of a single fact which would rule any of this out, and there is way too much factual bizarreness, smoke surrounding this scenario to not suspect there could be a fire in there somewhere. But, there are also obvious problems, including “Where is “B”? and, wherever she is, she has a state certified get out of jail free card. I HOPE that these last two factoids are not the deciding factors in ruling out this line of investigation, because there seems something ultimately sad and perverse about our justice system if that is the case.
At her commitment hearing in 1981, the testimony of the people she invited to ‘speak for her’ was by people that knew her by different names and background stories.
“B” was the one who invited all these people to ‘come speak for’ her.
She might have been certifiable. She might have been a little ditzy. But she wasn’t ‘looney-crazy.’ She wasn’t ‘stupid.’ (in fact, according to J*, she was a brilliant Mata Hari, with Svengali like cunning and power over weak minded men, who bilked hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the unsuspecting, and was targeting APCI’s ‘millions’ through her live-in boyfriend in 1981, but she – the person he claims murdered Holly — wasn’t going to ‘share’ with him, her stalker…)
She had to know, at some level, that all these people, that she invited to her own commitment hearing, knew her as a different person. She had to know, at some level, that the testimony of all these different groups of people – that she invited – was going to expose her as running multiple lives under different names. That it was going to come apart at the hearing, which it did; she was committed.
And yet, she called us all there ‘to come speak for her.’
If the “B” scenario is correct (a big if), and if she was scared into this psychotic event, stalked by a nut who she had seen murder Holly, and who(as he claims)made a ‘deal with her’ to shut up about the murder(that he claims she did), then under those circumstances, who would she definitely not invite to that commitment hearing? She invited so many disparate people in her lives, plural – except for JH and his roommate(and her parents, who I don’t think she invited. To protect? To hide the impending details from? That, to me, shows some conscious discretion in her choice of who she invited to that hearing.) Was that also her way of ‘showing, not telling’ what she knew? I wonder. In that scenario, she would be far more afraid of JH then of being caught running multiple lives. And the big question is, where is “B” today? Is she alive? Was she right to be afraid of J*?
This is clearly very thin ice; trying to make sense out of the behavior of a state certified psychotic. But…where is she? If she is inexplicably no longer with us, then … was she right to be paranoid? ‘Not being with us’ could mean two things: A] when she was released from her commitment period, she immediately moved to California and was never heard from again. She disappeared, changed her name again, went into deep hiding, and may still be alive, living in obscurity. I once said, “for all I know, she’s a disturbed nameless bag lady living in LA.” or B] She was found and silenced.
J* and his nutter friends were not invited to that commitment hearing, though JH and his roommate were part of “B”s partying past[*], prior to Holly’s murder, and J* was stalking her yet in 1981, claiming she was ‘his suspect/witness.’ (Sometimes he refers to “B” as a ‘suspect’, and sometimes, jarringly, as a ‘witness’; this is the person he claims he ‘knows’ murdered Holly…) Yet, she wasn’t hiding from anyone, except possibly him. J* knew nothing of –that- commitment hearing until decades later, and yet he claims to have made ‘a deal with “B”’ in a mental institution, sometime in 1979, to ‘shut up’ about what he knew. He claims, over money that ‘she refused to share with him.” ???? And yet, it was him constantly stalking “B” and “B”s friends, to try and find out what she was telling them. (If she murdered Holly, as he claims, then why would he have to make a deal with her to shut up about anything?) He represented then (in 1980, as Mr. fake PI) that he had ‘quit his job’ to pursue this case ‘full time’, in pursuit of the reward money. Maybe he did. But recently, when he resurfaced, he claimed the same thing – that he was just ‘after the reward money’ – but, there is no current reward money ,and again, he showed up as a fake ‘investigator’, registering a fake sock-puppet domain on May 7, 2009 for a non-existing pinetoptrail home owners association investigative organization that was supposedly offering a reward! It sounded – again – like a sociopathic little lie, a clumsy deflection, as in “I’m a terrible, terrible mercenary, but I admit that, so don’t bother to think I’m anything much worse than that…” Money now. Money then. Money at the mental institution in 1979. Money on the day of the TMI accident, on the way to life in the radiation free zone in Florida, the day Holly was murdered. Always the poorest boy at Liberty, he swore never to be poor.
His explanation doesn’t make any sense. He claims he knew that she was extorting money from lots of different folks – the way he made it sound, everyone she knew – and his ‘deal’ was over money, and he and/or his mullet haired friends got stiffed by her. And yet, he also complained that she refused to ‘share’ with him, and also claimed that he was trying to sell her out to the BPD as the person who murdered Holly, but ‘they(the BPD) couldn’t be trusted by him.’ He claims the BPD knows all of this about “B”, but was unable to stop her back then, and that even in 1981, she was in the midst of a scheme to defraud her live in boyfriend, an engineer who was working at APCI(from Wheelabraytor-Frye, on a joint project.)
He’s openly fretted that the BPD can’t be trusted – that, they are ‘spreading lies’ just to ‘trip up the murderer.’ ???? So what? Why would anyone (but the murderer himself) fret about that?
Another oddity: we had known “B”s former live in boyfriend, had gone to dinner and the Allentown Fair with him and “B.” He was a psychology professor at Allentown College SF DeSalles. He also testified at the commitment hearing in 1981. I think his name was ‘Robert’ something, but that would be in the commitment hearing records, as he testified on her behalf, just like we did. Presently, ‘Multiple Personality Disorder’ is no longer classified as MPD, but then it was, and after the hearing, he claimed that when he was dating “B” (years before Holly’s murder), he knew for certain that she had MPD. So I guess it is possible that she really wasn’t aware of the consequences of inviting all those different people to her commitment hearing. But it begs the question; who was she when she made those calls to all these people, asking them to ‘come speak for her?”
[*]”B”s partying past. This is not something from our experience with “B”. We knew “B” as a young, professional, ambitious, funny, warm, sincere, delightful friend. At most, a little endearingly ‘quirky;’ a little ditzy sometimes, but definitely not stupid, and never negative or threatening or even inappropriate in any manner whatsoever. She and my ex-wife went to the same business school. (My ex went to Bethlehem BS and then Churchman BS,for a total of two years between 1973 and 1975, so I forget which one, but Bethlehem BS closed down in the 70s, and that is why she ended up at Churchman, so it could have been at either.) We never knew her to drink excessively, only socially, like at dinner, nor to do any drugs at all, ever. I’m not even sure I remember her ever even so much as smoking cigarettes. There have been allegations by others that “B” had a ‘bad girl “B”’ party-girl side, as well as testimony at that commitment hearing about a girl we barely recognized, and given her diagnosis, she could very well have had a ‘partying bad girl B’ side, and we only ever knew the “young professional working girl B.”
OK. On any other day, including today, this is all nutty beyond belief. But, that was the day of the TMI accident. Normal folks were put a little on edge, which means that folks already on the edge were pushed right over. The movie ‘The China Syndrome’ had already been released. Folks were primed to act a little nutty. And so, “The China Syndrome” meets “One Flew Over The Cuckoo Nest…”
Frediano

OK, thanks for the update, Jim. We will keep at it! I feel we can break the silence! V

PA State Police require a subpoena to obtain ‘public information.’ The state of PA is a joke when trying to gain access to any government agency. Bethlehem, PA city police have a report from the State Police Fire Marshalls office and I am trying to obtain a copy to share, but am not getting my hopes up since a GJ is hearing this case now. The DA and investigators are not saying anything about Branagans case so far.

There sure are a lot of odd factoids surrounding the phone.

1] She is on the phone with a friend, someone comes to the door. She investigates, and then tells the friend she has to take care of something. The impression is, one (or more?) people are at the door, and she knows at least one of them. Do we know it was just one person? How? Whatever, the impression from the friend’s description is that Holly knew whoever was at the door(or knew at least one person at the door?) She came back after investigating on the same extension? A different extension? Not clear. But no concern, and no shared details with her friend on the phone. If a friend from school, or common friend, you’d think she might mention it. If her father’s secretary, either alone or with someone, she might be puzzled but trusting, and not mention who to her friend. Or, if it was someone else she knew who her friend did not know.

2] According to a secretary at Lonestar(?) or, according to something written on a pink phone slip(?) Holly calls Lonestar to try and locate her father? To try and talk with him? Or, confirm he left for A.C.? Which secretary? “B” was Mr. Branagan’s secretary. Was this according to her? The house was 5 minutes from Lonestar office… call the office, hang up, drive to office, record pink slip message in own handwriting = alibi. Phone records would have call to office, pink slip would have handwritten notation of time of call. If “B” was murderer, not likely scenario, because she’d probably be covered in blood. But, if “B” was only there, — was the person at the door that Holly knew(and trusted… “B” had babysat and even housesat for the Branagans in the past) then other than being disturbed, might have no physical signs on her of struggle after whatever took a while to unravel occurred. But remember — this was the day of TMI accident. Lots of people were at least a little disturbed. Anyone could have easily masked being disturbed that day, would not have seemed out of ordinary. Lots of folks were a little distracted that day, nervously wondering what was going on at TMI, listening to the radio.

3] A friend tries to call her, gets no answer.

4] When police arrive the next day, the phone in the bedroom is found off the hook? If either 2 and 3 really happened, then taken off the hook after 2], after 3]? (or else, instead of no answer, busy signal.) By who? Why? Could have been other than by Holly, but why in bedroom? Why not kitchen phone or phone closer to exit? But, could have been left off of hook by Holly after 2. Was 2 after 3, or before? Or, could have been taken off of hook by other than Holly later. But, that is odd. Maybe incorrect assumptions above, including police finding phone off the hook when they arrived next day.

5] Reports by neighbors that the phones were messed up the next day. Not sure this means anything but phone company working on phones.

The dog being quiet, I don’t find so strange. Maybe it was just tempered that way. Cocker spaniel? Mixed breed? Older dog? Not every dog is going to act like Lassie. I probably met ‘Clancey’ once, at dinner, in 1975 or 1976, but I don’t remember the dog specifically, I am guessing, because it was quiet and well behaved.

“B” at Holly’s door would not be ‘a stranger.’ “B” had ‘babysat’ in the past and even ‘house sat’ for the Branagans in Jan 1977. Holly would have also known her well from company dinners and partys and picnics. But maybe “B” wasn’t alone at Holly’s door… on the day of the TMI accident, with Holly’s father away on business.

Re knife: Right, I think I posted that in the comments.