Identified! CT - Stonington (Ledyard), WhtFem UP8909, 18-30, JNHS 1917 Class Ring, Lady Clairol hair roller set, May'74 - Linda Sue Childers

[fred&edna]

I'm getting confused with all these robberies/attempted robberies and escapes!

It appears Carmichael (& pals) attempted to rob a bank in October 1968, Brockton MA. They escaped and promptly robbed the Hartford National Bank branch in Manchester November 1968.



Honored Off-Duty Patrolman Cohen Foils $18,355 Bank Robbery in Brockton BKOCKTON. Mass. (AP) An off-duty policeman foiled an $18.355 robbery of the First County Bank late Wednesday by taking the ignition key from" the robbers' car. left with its motor running. Three Boston men were arrested within three minutes after Patrolman Donald E. Cohen 'lolilied headquarters (hat a holdup was in progress. One shot \ v as iircc 1 in the brief chase. The men were identified as William Royce, 23; Gustavus Lee Carmichael. 22, and Roger Brown, 22. Each was held in bail ol $30.000 double surety on charges of armed robbery, assault with intent to kill, assault with a dangerous weapon and two counts of larceny of a motor vehicle. Police; said Cohen's .suspicions were aroused when he saw three men enter the bank. Alter taking the ignition key from their car, he ran to a nearby drug store and by telephone gave headquarters a running account of what he could sec looking out a window. Inside the bank, the three men, armed, masked and wearing wigs, worked quickly and fled with a shopping bag full of money. A bank spokesman said altur an audit they took $18.335. When the three ran put and discovered their car inoperative, police said they stopped a motorist, pistol-whipped the driver and took his cnr. Cohen, from his lookout post, passed its registration number to headquarters. Detectives Thomas G. Thi- beaull and Ralph G. Ruggiero quickly caught up with it sand fired one shot into it. In the! chase, the fleeing car struck five cars and was brought to a stop in a head-on crash with one driven by Mrs. Annette M. Goeres, 60, of Brockton. In the collision, the fugitive car became trapped against a bus and Thibeault and Kuggiero closed in. So fast was the pursuit that the car was no more than a mile from the bank. Koycf! was treated at Brockton Hospital for head injuries · ii ed in the collision. Mrs. Goeres suffered a severed artery in the neck, and Her condition was described ag fair at the hospital. Royce gave his address as 3510 Washington St.. Dorchester; Carmichael, 506 E. 7th-St., South Boston, and Brown, 386, E. 8th St.. South Boston

http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/56516981/

 

[fred&edna]

Thanks! I wonder when they parted ways. They abandoned the car in Hartford. I wonder who picked them up or how they got out of Hartford and where they went after that. They had stuck together through several robberies AND several escapes.

I've also found an article published on Dec. 12, 1968 that described Brown & Carmichael's capture in Nevada. They were with Gerard Podolske and had $25k in cash, 10 rifles and handguns with ammunition, and a movie camera.

Good questions, Skigirl!

Very interesting about Nevada. Was the name Podolske an alias used by Carmichael??

 

[Skigirl]

Good questions, Skigirl!

Very interesting about Nevada. Was the name Podolske an alias used by Carmichael??

The situation is very confusing regarding Podolske. He's named in a couple exploits but one of the articles I read about the Hartford robbery (the one that included the mysterious Lucille) Podolske is mentioned as someone police are looking for AND as a possible alias for Brown or Carmichael.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...edHAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Hv8MAAAAIBAJ&pg=2578,1669457

Here's the garbled text of the article about the arrest in Nevada from the Bridgeport Telegram, Dec. 12, 1968 (AP story):

Bank Robbery Suspects Seized By FBI in Reno RENO, Nev. (AP) — Two Massachusetts men" wanted in connection with two bank robberies and a third man wanted in connection with an armed assault .have been arrested in Reno, the FBI said Wednesday. Gustavous I.ee Carmichael Jr., 22, and Roger Joseph Brown, 23, both of Boston, are charged in the Nov. 7 robbery of more than 588,000 from the Hartford National Bank and Trust Co., Manchester, Conn., and the $18,000 robbery Oct. 16 of the First County National Bank in Brockton, Mass. They are also wanted as escapees from the Plymouth County House of Correction, Plymouth, Mass., and for armed robbery at Brockton, Mass., the FBI said. Agents .said they recovered about $25,000 in cash, 10 rifles and hand guns with ammunition, a movie camera .and other goods with the arrests. Also arrested was Gerard James Podolske, 27, of South Boston, Mass., wanted in Boston for unjawful flight to avoid prosecution on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. The FBI said Brown was arrested in a downtown Reno gambling casino late Tuesday. Carmichael and Podolske were arrested by FBt agents Reno police early Wednesday in a Keno motel. Ait tnree men were armed, agents said, but no shots were fired in the arrests. All three were to be - arraigned before a U.S. commissioner in Reno. They were held in the Washoe County Jail.

http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/32368439/

 

[Skigirl]

Here's another short account of the arrest in Nevada. Mentions that Carmichael and Brown were also wanted for the robbery of a furniture store in July of 1968. When I get a chance, I'm going to try to put all of these crimes on a timeline. I imagine that for every news story we find, there are probably at least a couple others that we're not finding or that never got written up (for example, the bank robbery in Trenton just before his death). Carmichael certainly seems to have taken his career seriously.

Maine Fugitive Nabbed by FBI AUBURN (AP) -- An Auburn man who allegedly escaped rom a Massachusetts Jail was captured with two companions y the FBI in Reno, Nev., Vednesday. Police said that Robeg Brown, 22, of Auburn and Gustavous Carmichael, also 22, of Boston led the Plymouth County jaiL Jso arrested was Gerard Po- dolske, 27, of Boston. The FBI said its agents seized handguns, rifles, ammunition and money from the'trio. Boston authorities said Brown s under indictment on a charge )f armed robbery with Carmichael at a Boston furniture store last July.

http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/56556247/

 

[vermontaigne]

I think the unidentified victim rented the place that the calls were made from, and the landlord collected and passed along the bill for her to pay. How they connected the girl and the telephone bills, I don't know. I think it was actually Gardner's wife who ended up with some of the UID's clothes. Gardner and Rainello, the estranged common-law wife/gf of accused--and later convicted--murderer DeFreitas, were the two key witnesses for the prosecution vs. DeFreitas and Brant.

As I mentioned above, Brant held his tongue throughout, except for procedural matters. DeFreitas and his attorney tried to pin the homicides on Gardner and a guy named Robichaud, who was dead by the time of the 1974 trial. DeFreitas said that Gardner's testimony against him was motivated by his desire to get a sweeter deal in lock-up. Gardner stipulated that the .38 used for the murders was his gun. He also claimed that DeFreitas had on this occasion proposed that he, Brant and Gardner should split all their takes. According to Gardner, DeFreitas had divided his $30k take on the day that Carmichael and the young lady appeared at the A-frame, in front of them. He also claimed that after DeFreitas and Brant whacked Carmichael and the UID, they called him to help take care of 'a problem.' That's when he and Carmichael transported the two corpses by sled to the other side of the creek and buried them. They would have buried them deeper, but it was cold. He then received another $15k from DeFreitas.

According to Gardner, who was then already imprisoned for other offenses, it was at that time DeFreitas and Brant told him what had happened. According to his version of what they said, they had lured Carmichael and the woman back to the A-frame that they'd arrived at on the 28th, before the couple established a bank account with credentials that DeFreitas had stolen earlier from Dirk Stahl and his wife, and rented a house in a nearby town. According to Gardner, it was DeFreitas's common-law wife, Joanne Rainello, that had lured them back to the A-frame, though she testified she was got out of the way by being asked to drive Brant's car to her boutique at the time, without mentioning any role in luring them there. In her testimony, it was Gardner who'd initially brought Carmichael and the girl to the A-frame, though that was absent from his testimony. According to Gardner, he'd heard from the accused that they'd decided to kill the girl when she told Joanne Rainello (DeFreitas's common-law wife, who lived with him at the A-frame) that she was nervous about living under an assumed identity . . . the Stahl's. Rainello and Carmichael had lived in the same apartment complex before, and babysat the Stahl's kids. That's what gave them the opportunity to steal their ID, which they later gave to Carmichael and the woman. It seems it was SOP for them to take someone's ID, when they had a chance. Rainello mentioned this to Carmichael, who passed it along to Brant, whom he supposedly summoned from Rhode Island to help kill Carmichael and the woman, before similarly summoning Gardner. Carmichael had to die, supposedly, because she might talk if caught, and he was in love with her. Per Gardner's testimony, Brant had also been at the A-frame on the day Carmichael and the girl first appeared looking for a hideout, on the 28th, when they divided up the loot from DeFreitas's bank job, in front of Carmichael and the girl.

Gardner's hearsay testimony was initially kept from the jury, but according to the judge later allowed when the defense attorneys opened the door in cross-examination of either Gardner or Rainello, or both. Gardner stated that he'd heard from Brant and DeFreitas that DeFreitas had shot Carmichael in the A-frame when he was putting down a box, then shot him in the heart a couple more times, including once when the body 'shivered.' DeFreitas had then given the gun to Brant, who tried to shoot the girl. Because of the overkill with Carmichael, the gun was empty, so DeFreitas had held her while Brant reloaded it and killed her with a shot to the head. According to Rainello's testmony, Brant stated that they always die when you do that to them.

The empty chamber episode was missing from Rainello's account, though otherwise it jibed. According to her, she returned home to find Brant helping mop up the scene, though Gardner testified she'd helped to do so. Because Gardner had turned state's witness in several cases after he was put away long term, DeFreitas testified that his version of events was a put-up based on better jail conditions for testimony, and Rainello's against him was based on her fear of Robichaud, who was still alive when she'd spilled the beans about the burial site, and also because he'd left her for another woman, after she'd left her husband and kids for him. A woman testified that she'd spent the entire day of Dec. 31, 1970, with Brant, prepping for a New Years Eve party. At the time of the trial, she was married to a cop. Other jailbirds claimed that they had heard from Robichaud, now deceased, that he and Gardner had murdered and buried Carmichael and the girl, but their testimony, being hearsay, was not allowed, which was the basis for an appeal by DeFreitas and Brant, rejected.

DeFreitas argued that Rainello had testified against him because she was particularly afraid of the now-dead Robichaud, who had a reputation for killing people. Prompted by his attorney, he stated that he might have been a thief, but he wasn't a murderer. He also claimed, somewhat unconvincingly, that he'd never met Carmichael or the girl, though he couldn't say where he was on the 28th. Why it would have been necessary to summon Gardner to help bury the two, when according to Gardner Brant was already there, wasn't stated in the reports I've been able to see via Google. I don't know that the police ever established just how Carmichael and the girl came to the A-frame where they were murdered, initially. None of them deals with what happened to Carmichael's share of the bank job he did just prior to arriving there, though we know he and the girl opened a bank account in Irene Stahl's name.

The DA did enough to get a conviction, but not a lot more, IMO.

 

[Skigirl]

I totally dismissed Ilonka Cann at first because it seemed obvious to me that her husband killed her, since his story about waiting until the next day to alert the police to her absence seemed suspicious to me. However, it didn't really click for me until tonight that her photo appears to be a mugshot (because her height is visible in the background), which would suggest to me that maybe there was more going on in her life than motherhood (prostitution?). Does anyone know of any other reason she might have had her picture taken in front of a height gauge? Did PA used to do that for drivers licenses, for example? Otherwise, I am liking that potential match a lot more.

 

[fred&edna]

Great synopsis, Vermontaigne.

Brandt's girlfriends' testimony always troubled me... she had no reason to lie. And, you're right, the summoning of Gardner to help dispose of the bodies seems very unnecessary.

So, do you think the Feds just really wanted to "get" Defreitas? Do you think it's possible Gardner and Rainello murdered Carmichael and his girlfriend?

I wonder how Gardner knew Defrietas, and was he ever arrested as an accomplice in some crime?? What happened to Gardner after he testified in all these cases??

 

[alliemay]

I also read that Rainello was afraid of Robichaud because she had participated in two different crimes with Robichaud along with Gardner. Where did you read that she was married to a cop at the time of the trial? I know before she confessed what she knew to police she had been talking to a detective who convinced her to tell what she knew. She said she was afraid for her family but she waited three and half years to tell what she knew, AFTER she found out she wouldn't get in trouble for it. I half wondered if she started to take an interest in him romantically, or maybe he took an interest in her that way and that's why she got off so easily. I thought about all of that especially after reading that she had participated in crimes with Robichaud and Gardner. It seems like someone really liked her enough to make it hard to find out any information about her criminal record. Do you remember the name of the cop she married?

 

[Skigirl]

Sorry to be going off on another tangent because you all are on to something very interesting, but I wanted to post this before I lost track of the link. Ilonka Cann did have ties to West Virginia and Kentucky.

Mr. Clinton N. Harless, son of the late Mr. Alpha Harless and Mrs. Myrtle Smith Harless, was born August 26, 1924, in McCorkle, West Virginia, and departed this life on Monday, May 12, 1997, at the Jane Todd Crawford Memorial Hospital in Greensburg. He was 72 years, eight months and 16 days of age. He had made a profession of faith in Christ and was a member of the Greensburg Church of Christ. He was a veteran of the United States Army, where he served during World War II and the Korean War. He was also a member of the D.A.V. in Ashland, Kentucky. He united in marriage to Miss Renate Rusgen Harless on April 19, 1952, who survives. To this union were born three daughters: Anita Harless of Lavergne, Tennessee, and Lorraine Dangerfield of Greensburg. He was preceded in death by: Ilonka Cann. He is also survived by one, brother, Noah Harless, of West Virginia; two step-brothers and two step-sisters: Wilbert Harless, Alpha Harless, Jr., Marie Harless, and Annie Harless, all of We!
st Virginia; four grandchildren and a host of .other relatives and friends. The funeral services for Mr. Clinton N. Harless will be conducted at 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 14, at the Cowherd & Parrott Funeral Home with burial in the National Cemetery in Lebanon. Rev. Craig Waddell will be officiating. Pallbearers will be Eudell Dangerfield, Ronald Bonta, Hubert Wright, Elroy Shuffett, Ronnie Shuffett, Mike Arnett. and Eudell Stilts.
Obituaries of Green Co. Ky. Vol. 8, compiled by Eunice Montgomery Wright, p. 101

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/KYGREEN/2005-06/1119560278

 

[FiveFelines]

Sorry to be going off on another tangent because you all are on to something very interesting, but I wanted to post this before I lost track of the link. Ilonka Cann did have ties to West Virginia and Kentucky.

Mr. Clinton N. Harless, son of the late Mr. Alpha Harless and Mrs. Myrtle Smith Harless, was born August 26, 1924, in McCorkle, West Virginia, and departed this life on Monday, May 12, 1997, at the Jane Todd Crawford Memorial Hospital in Greensburg. He was 72 years, eight months and 16 days of age. He had made a profession of faith in Christ and was a member of the Greensburg Church of Christ. He was a veteran of the United States Army, where he served during World War II and the Korean War. He was also a member of the D.A.V. in Ashland, Kentucky. He united in marriage to Miss Renate Rusgen Harless on April 19, 1952, who survives. To this union were born three daughters: Anita Harless of Lavergne, Tennessee, and Lorraine Dangerfield of Greensburg. He was preceded in death by: Ilonka Cann. He is also survived by one, brother, Noah Harless, of West Virginia; two step-brothers and two step-sisters: Wilbert Harless, Alpha Harless, Jr., Marie Harless, and Annie Harless, all of We!
st Virginia; four grandchildren and a host of .other relatives and friends. The funeral services for Mr. Clinton N. Harless will be conducted at 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 14, at the Cowherd & Parrott Funeral Home with burial in the National Cemetery in Lebanon. Rev. Craig Waddell will be officiating. Pallbearers will be Eudell Dangerfield, Ronald Bonta, Hubert Wright, Elroy Shuffett, Ronnie Shuffett, Mike Arnett. and Eudell Stilts.
Obituaries of Green Co. Ky. Vol. 8, compiled by Eunice Montgomery Wright, p. 101

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/KYGREEN/2005-06/1119560278

Great to see something else on Ilonka. There seems to be very little. I still think she and Darlene Polizzi are the best matches, IF our UID was ever reported missing. I have never seen explained why LE thought UID had connections to West Virginia, etc.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Please keep in mind that we are trying to identify a dead woman, not trying to make a case for the innocence or guilt of the person convicted of killing her (well, at least I am).

 

[alliemay]

http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...iU0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=0eAIAAAAIBAJ&pg=1346,2226673

Roger Brown was from Sabbatus Maine, wow fourteen bank robberies, I guess that's why it's confusing.

 

[Skigirl]

Sandy Stiver is a MP I hadn't encountered previously. She went missing with her sister, which doesn't fit, but our UID was called "Sandy".

http://www.pamissing.com/stivergirls.html

 

[vermontaigne]

Looks possible to me.

 

[vermontaigne]

Where did you read that she was married to a cop at the time of the trial?

No, it wasn't Rainello who was married to a cop. It was another woman, who testified on behalf of co-defendant Brant.

 

[FiveFelines]

Sandy Stiver is a MP I hadn't encountered previously. She went missing with her sister, which doesn't fit, but our UID was called "Sandy".

http://www.pamissing.com/stivergirls.html

The sisters-in-law are believed to be the "Berks Girls," two UIDs found in PA. I think it's still under investigation and the bodies are being exhumed (?). If that doesn't pan out, she could be an interesting possible, although she's younger than our UID by a few years.

 

[alliemay]

I'm glad they have a dental chart for her, it's to bad that they don't have insufficient DNA, does that mean they exhumed her body to try to get DNA? Otherwise wouldn't it say no DNA available? I also wonder why there is no one "local" in the police department assigned to her case.

 

[fred&edna]

Please keep in mind that we are trying to identify a dead woman, not trying to make a case for the innocence or guilt of the person convicted of killing her (well, at least I am).

Well, of course we are attempting to identify this UID. However, I think that if Rainello was directly involved in her death AND she offered the "physical description" of our UID... her description could be a bit purposefully faulty (which could slightly figure-in as we attempt to identify her). As always... JMO

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Well, of course we are attempting to identify this UID. However, I think that if Rainello was directly involved in her death AND she offered the "physical description" of our UID... her description could be a bit purposefully faulty (which could slightly figure-in as we attempt to identify her). As always... JMO

It could, but that problem could occur with any composite. Sketches have been off before, even without a desire for the witness to be less than truthful.

 

[FiveFelines]

I find the sketch to be fairly unhelpful anyway. It's very generic looking: I can see any number of missing women in that face!