Fifteen-Year-Old Youth Confesses to Norwood Murder of Geraldine Annese-November 6, 1954

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Former Altar Boy Peter Makarewicz Arrested After All-Night Questioning in Brutal “Flats” Slaying

A 15-year-old former altar boy and neighbor today allegedly confessed to the slaying of pretty Geraldine Annese. The youth, identified as Peter Makarewicz of Washington Street, just around the corner from the victim’s home, broke down during all-night questioning and allegedly admitted the murder. Taken handcuffed to the scene of the crime, the youth was set upon by the slain girl’s stepbrother, Philip DeRose, who grabbed him and had to be pulled back by police. “My sister’s dead, my mother’s dying,” DeRose sobbed as he lunged for Makarewicz outside the two-car garage where the girl’s unclad body was found yesterday. Makarewicz was then taken inside the garage by District Attorney Myron N. Lane and other investigators. The restrained DeRose, referring to Makarewicz, turned to newsmen and said, “I wouldn’t kill him outright. He’d last a long time before he’d die.”

The suspect, the former altar boy at St. Peter’s Polish Church, was first taken to his own house where a cellar door was pointed out. He was then ushered alongside a garage in the yard of his house, along a vacant garden lot which separates his house and Geraldine’s home, and then to the garage where the body was found. A huge crowd quickly gathered as the youth, clad in a green-check jacket, was led handcuffed to the Annese home. A few minutes earlier when taken from police headquarters he was sobbing, but was dry-eyed at the scene of the crime. Makarewicz was booked on a murder charge at Norwood police headquarters after a visit to the scene.

District Attorney Myron N. Lane said he would be arraigned in Dedham District Court Monday morning and that he would be transferred to the Dedham jail today. The cause of death, Lane said, was “manual strangulation,” and that sex was a factor. Lane said the youth, who had dated the 15-year-old victim two years ago, allegedly planned the attack Thursday night, waited for Geraldine beside the two-car garage where the body was found, and called to her as she approached her home from the double date. They then went into the garage, Lane said, where the attack occurred. The youth left his nearby home through a cellar door and walked through the vacant garden lot separating the two homes to wait for Geraldine, according to what Lane told reporters. Asked what the motive was, Lane told newsmen the youth does not personally say why he did it.

The young victim is believed to have been strangled – possibly by her own gold chain necklace. “There were marks on her neck and other parts of her body,” Lane said. He classified the murder as “a brutal sex attack.” The body, unclad except for a pair of socks, was found sprawled on the floor of the two-car garage in the backyard of the three-decker Tremont Street house in which the Annese family occupy the second-floor apartment. Her clothing, ripped from her body, was strewn about the garage. Asked if the murder instrument had been found in the garage, Lane said he could not say at this time. The necklace was found there.

Three 16-year-old Walpole youths who were with Geraldine Thursday night were quizzed separately and at length by investigators yesterday. Robert Durning and Ted Baker were the double dates of Geraldine and 15-year-old Cynthia Savage of Dean Street, Norwood. The third boy, Don Shirer, went along with them. The three boys and two girls drove to Red Dam in Walpole and visited a drug store for a milkshake.

They then rode to the Sport Center in Norwood but did not go in. At 9:45 p.m., the boys and Cynthia dropped Geraldine off at the corner of Tremont and Washington Street, less than 100 yards from her home, then drove off as she walked towards her home – and to her violent death.

On the way to her house is a vacant lot. Her killer may have lurked there. Or he may have been in the shadows of the two-car garage. The murder climaxed a series of sex attacks in the neighborhood since September – attacks which have terrified the women residents of the area known as “The Flats.” This was the seventh and most brutal – the payoff with death.

The youth’s 14-year-old brother, brought to Norwood police headquarters by State Police Detective William H. Delay this morning, was ushered into an interrogation room in the office of Police Chief Mark Folan. Authorities were questioning the older brother about a scratch and directed part of the quizzing to whether or not he had taken a bath Thursday night – the night Geraldine left her home on a double date and came home to her death.

The visibly upset father of the two boys, who are both 9th grade students at Norwood Junior High School, after earlier bursting into tears at police headquarters, returned to the station and said his boys were innocent, but asked by newsmen if he had obtained counsel, the father replied, “No, why should I. They haven’t done anything. Just tell the truth, that’s all.” Later he re-appeared from the office which is being used as the interrogation room and burst into tears. Later this morning State Detective Lieutenant William Delay hurried from the police station into an inner office. The father added: “They’ve picked them up because they picked everyone else up in the neighborhood and because they live near her.”

The father said the older boy had gone out with Geraldine on dates, but that was two years ago when they were just “kids.” He said his son had not dated her since. The older brother, formerly an altar boy at St. Peter’s Polish Church, is subject to epileptic fits. It was believed the younger brother was questioned to uncover possible discrepancies in his brother’s account of his whereabouts the night of the murder.

The funeral of the slain girl is to be held Monday morning from the Paul H. Kraw Funeral Home, 1248 Washington Street, Norwood, at 8 o’clock, followed by a solemn high mass of requiem in St. Catherine’s Church at 9 o’clock. The youth’s father conferred briefly with investigators at the Norwood police headquarters.

Police this morning brought to headquarters a book, gilt-edged, similar to that of a Bible. The significance of the book was not immediately known.

Dist. Atty. Myron N. Lane branded as false reports that authorities sought a 25-year-old rejected suitor of the slain girl. “At least we are not looking for one at the present time,” he added. Reports that a note was found in the garage near the girl’s body were also said to be false.

A set of fingerprints was found on a fender of the auto of Joseph Freund, 26, of 17 Tremont Street – one of the two vehicles parked in the two-car garage at the three-decker house where the Annese family lived. The fender was removed and sent to State Police headquarters early this morning. Freund found the girl’s body yesterday when he went to get his car in the garage.

“We have several clues and some tangible evidence found in the garage to work on,” Dist. Atty. Myron N. Lane revealed last night. He did not elaborate. The preliminary autopsy, performed by State Pathologist Stephen Burgeon at Norwood Hospital, did not disclose the exact cause of death, but, said Lane, “there was some evidence of hemorrhage.” The girl’s vital organs were sent to the Harvard School of Legal Medicine for further examination, and the complete medical report was not expected until the first of next week. Pressed by newsmen whether there were any discrepancies in the youth’s stories, the district attorney said he planned to question them further.

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Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger