This Day in Norwood History-March 10, 1955-Scar on Peters Face Brought Quiz, Jury Told

DEDHAM, March 9—Peter Makarewicz first drew suspicion to himself by mingling with the crowd around the Norwood garage where police were investigating the Geraldine Annese murder, prosecution witnesses testified today.

A sharp-eyed Norwood patrolman, Richard Towne, decided Peter was worth investigating further after noting a scratch on the boy’s face as he hung around the scene where the strangled girl’s body had been found.

Under direct examination by Dist. Atty. Myron Lane, the patrolman related his observations of Peter and three other boys. The policeman was sent to the Tremont st. two-car garage at 11 a.m. Nov. 5. about five hours after the nude body was discovered.

“Did you know the defendant, Peter William Makarewicz?” Lane asked Towne.

“Yes. for several years.”

“Did you see him on the afternoon of Nov. 5?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Where?”

“On the sidewalk a short way from the driveway of the home where the Annese girl lived”

“What was he doing?”

“He was standing there with three other boys.”

Towne explained that the four boys were ‘just a part of the crowd that gathered.’

He said Peter especially caught his tee because the boy had a “scar’ on his face The “scar” he referred to is alleged by the prosecution to be fresh facial laceration inflicted by 15- year-old Geraldine as she bought for her honor and her life.”

Patrolman William Costello, detailed to the murder scene, and he, too, noticed the scratch on Peter’s face.

Agreed to Go to Station

Later, Towne testified, he talked with a Mr. Howard, proprietor of Howards Variety Store. The conversation came about as he called police headquarters to ask about relief.

Howard’s conversation with the officer did not come out in court shortly after it took place Police Chief Mark Polan told the officers to go to Peter’s home and ask him to come to the station for questioning. The boy readily agreed.

Earlier prosecution witnesses furnished medical testimony and told of discovering the murder in the two-car garage next to the Annese home and within seeing distance of Peter’s house.

Calm to the point of boredom during the first two days of trial. Peter today displayed his first signs of nervousness. He paced up and down in the dock before the start of the afternoon session and during the recess.

But during the late afternoon testimony by Dr. Frederic A Stanwood, the medical examiner, he was composed and impassive. During the medical testimony, some of it gruesome, the boy sat with his chin in his hand, head down. He yawned several times.

Because of the sexual aspects of some of the testimony, deputy sheriffs have been screening spectators Only those 17 or older are permitted in the courtroom. There were over 100 spectators today,

Tells of Autopsy

Dr. Stanwood told the 14 members of the all-male jury and Judge Lewis Goldberg that in his opinion Geraldine met death in the garage where her body was found and that death was due to “asphyxiation due to manual strangulation”.

Dr. Stanwood said he was present when an autopsy was performed by Dr. S. S. Bjomson state pathologist, of the Department of Legal Medicine at Harvard. Bjornson is due to testify tomorrow.

Dr. Stanwood’s testimony was listened to closely by Dr. J. Steward Rooney, medical expert for the defense, and by the four defense attorneys, headed by Louis Goldstein. Dr. Rooney sat within the barristers’ enclosure with the defense lawyers.

Dr. Stanwood said he noticed external injuries on the neck beneath a gold chain. He said there were two lines, about two to three inches in length and an inch apart. They were on the right side and like a scratch, he said.

He said that he considered them superficial and not enough to cause death.

Examination of the hands disclosed a broken fingernail on the middle finger of the left hand, he said.

Finds Contusions on Scalp

He said that the girl had not been raped but there was evidence she had been the victim of a sexual attack.

An autopsy of organs in the neck—the larynx, vocal cords and moment as she recalled from the stand circumstances surrounding the finding of the body.

Mrs. Lena Garneau of Oolah Ave., Norwood, testified she came to her parents’ Tremont at. home about 6 a. m., Nov. 5. after learning from them that her sister was missing.

Looking from the living room window about an hour later, she recalled, she noticed the unusual behavior of a neighbor, Joseph Freund, who had come to the garage to get his auto which he regularly parked there.

“I saw a figure,” Mrs. Garneau related, “I cried out: ‘Oh, my God I think they’ve found Gerry!”

She said she warned her parents to remain in the house. She ran to the garage and found her sister’s body, nude except for socks and necklace. Her parents followed her.

The sister recalled that clothing was scattered all over the garage. The mother picked up some of the garments to cover her girl. The father, grief-stricken, flung himself on his daughter.

Also testifying were Sgt Martin J. McNulty, desk officer who received notification at 7 a.m. of the murder, and Patrolman William Travers, first policeman to reach the scene.

‘Date’ Testifies

Questioned by Lane during the morning session were Robert Durning and Theodore Baker, both 16 and both of Walpole. Durning was Geraldine’s date on the night she was slain. Baker was the date of Cynthia Savage, 15. the slain girl’s closest friend.

They told a story similar to that given the day previously by Cynthia and Donald Schaier, 18. also of Walpole, who accompanied the boys on the double date.

It was following the date that Geraldine was dropped off near her home and walked down the street to meet death.

Dist. Atty. Lane said he expects to complete the state’s presentation by Friday night.

It was announced today the court will sit Saturday morning, a consideration for the locked-up jury.

The trial resumes at 10 a.m. tomorrow.