Parents, Brother Ready to Take Stand for Peter Makarewicz-March 14, 1955

Trigger Warning

This historical news report contains explicit details regarding homicide, sexual violence, manual strangulation, and crimes involving minors. Reader discretion is advised.

PARENTS OF MURDER DEFENDANT—Mr. and Mrs. Peter A. Makarewicz of Norwood, shown at Dedham courthouse where their son, Peter, 15, is being tried for murder of girl neighbor.

Fingerprint Experts, Doctors to Testify in Norwood Slaying

DEDHAM. March 13-The parents and 14-year-old brother of Peter W. Makarewfcz, 18, of Norwood, will testify on his behalf. attorney Louis Goldstein disclosed tonight.

The parents, Mr. and Mrs. Peter A. Makarewics, and brother, Richard, probably will be the first defense witnesses called, Goldstein said.

One or more of them may make an appearance on the stand tomorrow afternoon if Dist Atty. Myron N. Lane complétée presentation of the state’s case soon enough.

Brother Talked to Peter

Richard Makarewicz conversed with Peter upon returning home from the pavías about 9:40 on the night of the slaying. It is alleged that Peter committed the murder about 10 p. m.

Both parents were not at home at the time of the slaying.

Lane said he expects to wind up the prosecution’s ease sometime tomorrow after calling several witnesses. Two of these will be fingerprint experts.

In his opening to the Jury, Lane related that Peter’s fingerprints had been found on two automobiles parked in the Tremont st garage where 15-year-old Geraldine Annese was slain last Nov. 4. State Police Sgt. Basil Cooney and Timothy Moran, fingerprint experts, will present the evidence to the all-male Jury.

The defense plans to call between 25 and 30 witnesses, saving the two most important for last. They will be Dr. J. Stewart Rooney, a pathologist, and Peter himself.

Dr. Rooney’s findings in the case will be pitted against medical evidence supplied the jury by Dr. S. Stefan Bjornson, state pathologist and research fellow at the Harvard School of Legal Medicine.

Peter to Take Stand

Peter will provide a dramatic windup to the defense’s case when he takes the stand, reportedly to repudiate the “confession” the state alleges he made but did not
sign.

The defense is expected to show that Peter has been subject to attacks of epilepsy and nosebleeds. The contention may be made that he suffered such an attack while being questioned. His nosebleeds, it may be contended, could explain why blood was found on his clothing.

The defense may explain the fatal stuck on the girt by alleging she was the victim of a person, still at large, who assaulted several other persons in the general area.

Goldstein visited Peter in his jail cell today and found him in “good spirits.” The boy, the defense attorney said, “is looking forward to telling his story.”

The 14-man Jury visited the Wayside Inn, Sudbury, today and spent the afternoon on a sightseeing trip.

The trial will resume tomorrow at 10.