SOLVED MA - Jane Britton, 22, Harvard student, Cambridge, 7 Jan 1969

[Ausgirl]

Hi Justice4Jane! Welcome to WS!

So glad to see people still interested in this crime. I put a lot of legwork into finding articles, sleuthing suspects and so on. I'd LOVE to see some 'new' (to me) articles and any info at all you can dig up on this one. Looking forward to your links!

Whoever killed Jane well and truly has gotten away with it so far - and there's a good chance this person is still alive and able to be prosecuted. The blackout on info is just ridiculous, all these decades later, and I'm hoping that we can actually find some sources who can shed light on the events and people surrounding Jane at the time of her death.

This case IS solvable! I truly believe that.

 

[Justice4Jane]

Do we know for a fact that LE still maintains a news blackout in this case? If a Harvard faculty member was a prime suspect, I could certainly see why.

 

[fred&edna]

Do we know for a fact that LE still maintains a news blackout in this case? If a Harvard faculty member was a prime suspect, I could certainly see why.

The very first post of the thread by macoldcase states that a couple of emails were sent to Cambridge police but they didn't respond. In a pm I received (many months ago) macoldcase said he/she planned to call LE for more info, but I haven't heard anything since.

Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community - View Single Post - MA MA - Jane Britton, Harvard student, murdered in 1969

 

[Robin Hood]

I think there's a chance that Jane's brother might know why it played out the way it did. LE would have to to inform the family why there was a news blackout, he's the way forward IMO. He's the only person as next of kin who could get more answers.

 

[Robin Hood]

Look at the chart at the bottom of this page. I don't know how it works but this might be a way to try and understand what I think happened. I'm sure I'm on the right track but it would be a legal nightmare.
I can't see anything that says with time it can be lifted. We need a legal person to look at it. Just my opinion.

Diplomatic immunity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Ausgirl]

Robin, you are BRILLIANT, if I haven't already said so.

That'd explain a few things, neh? (for those just joining us, we were investigating a suspect mentioned at length in the thread, whose dad was a political bigwig, and who was present in the apartments the night Jane died, as well as fitting the suspect description in Ada's case).

As well how he'd swing a teaching position in the US after drug smuggling charges OS, maybe. Or yeah. Maybe they just didn't check, or the records are sealed or something..

 

[Robin Hood]

Thanks Aus, it's been said before but I don't over play it

I bet the Diplomatic Immunity over rules any indiscretions. If it does, it's scary, more or less gives a person the ability to do whatever they wish to whoever they wish.
Might suggest the lack of enthusiasm in Ada's case too.

 

[musicaljoke]

Thanks Aus, it's been said before but I don't over play it

I bet the Diplomatic Immunity over rules any indiscretions. If it does, it's scary, more or less gives a person the ability to do whatever they wish to whoever they wish.
Might suggest the lack of enthusiasm in Ada's case too.

The host country can ask that diplomatic immunity be waved, especially in a murder investigation. At the very least, the suspect would be declared persona non grata and returned to their own country to face criminal charges there.

This is what *should* happen, but the real world of diplomatic immunity is a sleazy place.

 

[Robin Hood]

I can't remember if the POI was born in the US or not (it will be in the thread somewhere) It would be his father's immunity that he was shielded under. The father was born elsewhere (it's in the thread). I don't know how that would work though. Lots of political unrest at the time, that might have stopped any waver. I really don't know.

 

[fred&edna]

Not relevant to her killer but I didn't realize this existed:

Jane S. Britton Memorial Book Fund

http://hcl.harvard.edu/info/giving/funds/415_565064.cfm

and

Two traveling fellowships for summer field work for graduate students will be dedicated to her.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/an.1969.10.5.10.1/pdf

and

photos (sorry, if we've viewed these before)

https://www.argentaimages.com/media/image/q/Dead/page/16

JHH (boyfriend) photo

https://www.argentaimages.com/media/image/q/boyfriend

 

[Robin Hood]

Well done F&E. Thanks .

 

[Ausgirl]

I can't remember if the POI was born in the US or not (it will be in the thread somewhere) It would be his father's immunity that he was shielded under. The father was born elsewhere (it's in the thread). I don't know how that would work though. Lots of political unrest at the time, that might have stopped any waver. I really don't know.

Born in Pakistan. family moved to India to escape persecution, iirc. He came to US to study (though how he managed that while flitting all over the world making drug deals, idk..) and was shipped back home to face trafficking charges, for which he was given 10 years in prison but didn't serve the whole sentence, I believe. His family moved to the US about that same time.

I do think he would have had some kind of immunity in the US, given his father's status at the time. It makes perfect sense.

I also think he had a lot to do with radical student groups (like the ones Jane was on the fringe of).. perhaps drug money funding or something... anyways, he sure did step in some doo-doo and it would have been a hideous embarrassment and a pile of paperwork for all concerned.

 

[Ausgirl]

Oh my gosh, F&E - the picture site is awesome.

Interesting to get a look at Jane's apartment from the outside. Top floor, middle of building -- probably the last place a random psycho would pick. Not that I think this was in any way random, but interesting nevertheless:

 

[fred&edna]

If anybody has access to these files there might be more on Jane and other cases.

http://speccoll.library.kent.edu/truecrime/crimephotos.html

I'm really curious as to how many photos they have in this collection. It reads as if there is only one.

 

[Robin Hood]

It's worth IMO, going through news archive and any other method one might think of, to see if a point of law has been changed. Over the years things are added to law and there might be something that's been reviewed and changed. LE wont be checking, it will be one case in thousands, they wont check if the boundaries have been moved and new criteria exchanged for old.

 

[Ausgirl]

Some interesting images..

What the heck is this? It appears to be pinned up outside Jane's flat, and of interest? "anthropology department" .. something.. "Solomon Islands" - a stencil, only half completed.

And there was also this poster on her door:

The 'Oliver' I mentioned was apparently the person who found Beverly Samans' body - so I assume his picture accompanied that story. It'd be too bizarre if it wasn't so.

 

[Ausgirl]

I've been re-reading some behavioural science stuff lately, and as I read a few cases have popped to mind.

I was reading about "undoing" - where the killer demonstrates some level of remorse - sorrow, guilt or just shame - about what he's done by covering up parts or all of the body, posing the body to look lifelike, etc.

I thought about Jane being covered by the coat and the rug.
No sexual assault (that we know of).
No robbery.
Just her, beaten to death with a heavy object and covered up.

And I thought: this is emotional, rapid, raging, this is personal and terrible to the killer. He KNEW her. He loved her, or liked her, or he just wanted her to shut up and 'behave herself', or all of the above.

I thought about our witness, the one staying at the Mitchell's, next door...

The one who, at that stage, was already notorious for impulsive, peculiar behaviour.
The one who -might- have spent time with Jane the night she died, while in the company of the Mitchells.
The one who just -happened to be- looking out of a handy dandy window at the precise moment two men came running out of the building to leap into an idling car..
And who had open access to Jane's apartment - seeing as the door was never locked, because that's where the shared fridge was.
The one who'd not much later go on to be part of a large scale international hashish smuggling ring.
The one who married a very Bostonian, American wife soon after the murder, only to have the girl divorce him very shortly after.
Oh yeah, and possibly had diplomatic immunity.. thanks to Dad, who hung out with presidents and dictators, etc..

..so there's that. but another thought was- could've been a female.

 

[fred&edna]

I've been researching this cold case for some time now and was surprised to see a thread on this site. I thought I was the only person thinking about this awful murder and wondering if it could be solved many years later. An anthropology professor I had in college recounted the story in class one day. The story seemed so sensational that I thought it had to be a myth, or that he was kidding around, so I was pretty stunned when I started doing some research about it and discovered that it actually happened.

The community here has found many of the same news reports that I did, although there are some that you haven't yet come across. I'll post sources when I get some spare time. As one poster mentioned early on, a Grand Jury was convened a month or so after the murder. They apparently failed to issue an indictment, although the DA didn't rule out charging someone. After that, there are no stories (as far as I can tell) for about 5 years, when a very short newspaper blurb mentions that Britton's murder hadn't yet been solved, but that a Harvard faculty member had been the prime suspect for a time. A much earlier piece mentions that the police wanted to question a member of the Cambridge academic community that left the country shortly after her death. Another early piece says that a faculty member admitted to police that he dated her once, but also doesn't identify the person. And that's all I can find. Can the police department actually still have a news blackout on this case when there have apparently been no leads in 40 years? I have no idea how law enforcement operates, but I can't understand this. Might the case files be available for review? Are there detectives alive who might be able to talk about this?

You'd think that with all the physical evidence presumably collected from the scene would include the killer's DNA? Today techniques have advanced so much that all a person needs to do is reach in a pocket and they've left behind identifiable DNA.

As I've researched this case I've felt a sense of helplessness that Jane's parents died without her killer being brought to justice. My wife's family lost a relative to murder 10 years ago, and it was pretty traumatic, so I know what they must've been going through. At least in my wife's case, the murderer was promptly caught, tried, sentenced and jailed.

BBM

Could you locate (and can share with us) this news report about a faculty member? Many of us have been leaning in a particular direction and this might be another avenue.

TIA!

 

[fred&edna]

Also, does anyone have additional info as to where and when the "missing" artifact was located??

 

[Ausgirl]

BBM

Could you locate (and can share with us) this news report about a faculty member? Many of us have been leaning in a particular direction and this might be another avenue.

TIA!

Yesss. I like a good suspect list! It's been frustrating, having such sketchy/non-existent info to bounce off.

I'm not discounting a female perp, a bitter ex-lover ("if I can't have you, no-one can"), someone who feared Jane might talk about something they'd prefer to remain secret...

It would be brilliant to have some other folks to put firmly on the radar.

As for the weapon - afik, it was never found?

Her injuries are described as being caused by a hammer or hatchet-like implement, and I'm supposing this missing 'archaelogical stone' given to her by the Mitchells not long before must have been some kind of primitive axe for it to be the first thing they looked for.

Also sought was Jane's archaeology pickhammer, I think one of those little ones for delicate digging. It, too, was missing.

Also looked at was the damaged end-table found in the trash near the building, but I can't find any free-to-view info on why.