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

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  • #61
I want to offer a possible explanation to the artist connection.

Jane would have sketched various things for her work, I'm sure the others did too. When Jane's body was found I believe the detectives took a look at the redish/yellow/brown substance and described it as red ocre. Nobody would have been shown the crimescene but they would have been asked something like ''what would be the purpose of finding red ocre in the bedroom ?'' It would be a natural reaction to put the two together and imagine Jane was painting one of her studies. Later, when the red substance was identified as Iodine oxide the ritual side would have stood out.
It is my opinion that initially it was assumed to be paint powder and then re-classed as iodine but because of the news black-out nobody would have been informed of the misinterpretation.
Sorry if that was long winded but I found it hard to explain what I meant.
 
  • #62
Interesting article about Harvard and the media.. with a mention of Jane Britton's murder being "bad timing".. might have been a factor in the news blackout?

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1969/6/12/covering-harvard-a-view-from-outside-pithe/

I also found (in yet another newsarchive bottom-of-page wordjumble) a few details I hadn't seen before. Humphries and Jane apparently went out for dinner, then went skating and back to Jane's place. JH left there at 11.45, after which Jane visited the Miller apartment across the hall. She was found dead 13 hours later.

http://newspaperarchive.com/avalanche-journal/1969-01-08/page-54/

Humphries had just returned from holidays spent with family in Toronto. He'd been dating Jane a few months (one report says 8 months), prior to which she was for several months dating the archaeology student from Peru who dropped out and 'went hippie'.

Police said there was no evidence of sexual attack (in other articles, they would not disclose this info..)

Things I am pondering at this point:

- did the Millers hear nothing? (another neighbour, a law student, was interviewed - it wasn't mentioned that he'd heard anything either)

- Was the killer waiting for Jane when she got back, or did they sneak in while she slept?

- I have to wonder what J. Boyd thought of his daughter 'slumming it' in that manky building...

- Jane was gorgeous, from an affluent family, vivacious and smart, and had no lack of admirers. Was someone stalking her/jealous of the attention she got?


An interesting snippet - a bunch of Radcliffe students were threatened with suspension and expulsion for a demonstration which disrupted a staff meeting on Dec 12. On Jan 7 (from http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1969/6/12/paine-hall-made-headlines-ate-students/ ):

After the 21 Cliffies who lost their bursar's cards in Paine Hall demanded that they be tried as a group by the Radcliffe Judicial Board the Board said that the girls would have to appear individually or not appear at all. The Board--which includes four student members--said it wanted a chance to "judge each case individually."

A bunch of angry students threatened with expulsion at Radcliffe are handed news they don't want to hear, and the Administrative Vice President of Radcliffe's daughter is murdered the next night. Coincidence? Probably. But I wonder if that angle was ever looked into?

- what were they protesting about?
- Was J. Boyd on that Board?

Sorry for all the waffling, it's very late.. but I can't stop digging for stuff now I'm in the mood. ><

ETA: Wow, cross-posted with you guys - good thoughts on the 'ochre' -- I am wondering now whether 'iodine' came from the liquid used to paint the 'symbols' on Jane's face (which led the consultant professors to state the marks were ancient funerary symbols)... or whether the oxide powder/stuff all over the room was also iodine (and blended with water to make said liquid?) - oxides are also used for ceramic glazes - did Jane do ceramics at all?
 
  • #63
Woah - the protesters were members of SDS, a radical leftist group who were known for elaborately planned and sometimes quite aggressive demonstrations.

From what I can understand so far, SDS strenuously opposed the presence of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps at Harvard:

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1968/11/19/sds-threatens-rotc-confrontation-psds-decided/


ETA: The final point of contention lay in the persistent problem of Harvard's relationship with the surrounding community. Town-gown relations have never been overwhelmingly cordial in Cambridge, but in 1969 the problems were especially acute. The University, with its vast real estate holdings, received numerous complaints from tenants about high rents and unsafe conditions; the murder of a Cambridge woman in a Harvard-owned building led to a lawsuit charging that Harvard ignored housing laws requiring locks on apartment house doors. In addition, the University's plans to expand facilities in the Medical area, and to clear the way for construction of the Kennedy School of Government, called for the demolition of thousands of University-owned housing units. The Faculty's special Committee on the University and the City, chaired by James Q. Wilson, Shattuck Professor of Government, called for the appointment of an administrative vice president to handle Harvard's relations with the community, but many tenants clearly wanted more concrete action.

The plight of the tenants did not immediately affect most Harvard students. However, within SDS the tenants' demands assumed a position of importance, as members of the group's Progressive Labor wing began to stress the importance of a student-community alliance. It was through SDS--which to most students represented the militant opposition to ROTC that was rapidly gaining support on campus--that the tenants' demands became inextricably linked with the more broadly perceived anti-war sentiment.

from: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1979/4/23/the-strike-as-history-pithe-crimson/

I think SDS wasn't above grabbing hold of any issue to milk in order to push their own agendas. Jane's death (and Ada's too, possibly) was the fuel needed for several fires lit under University admin...


ETA: and I forgot to mention - in one of the articles I read (too tired to look for the link, will look tomorrow) it said JH did not show up for the polygraph test when expected to - the Millers were polygraphed in the morning, but JH had still not shown up by late afternoon. I presume he did at some point - but why not that morning, with the Millers? Kind of an important appointment.
 
  • #64
  • #65
http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter13/text13.htm

'' One of the colours used in the Andamans was ochre in the form of a burnt, powdered iron oxide''

''Ochre was also widely used by the first anatomically modern humans more than 50,000 years ago in funeral ceremonies and very likely for body painting. It is thought that the red colour signified blood and life and its use in the Andamans is important, all the more so in view of the fact that the Andamanese used it in connection with sickness, death and funeral rites''
 
  • #66
By Ausgirl

'' JH did not show up for the polygraph test when expected to - the Millers were polygraphed in the morning, but JH had still not shown up by late afternoon. I presume he did at some point - but why not that morning, with the Millers? Kind of an important appointment''
The link is on page 1 I believe.
I suppose it's possible he was taking legal advice.
 
  • #67
  • #68
Ausgirl said:
Interesting article about Harvard and the media.. with a mention of Jane Britton's murder being "bad timing".. might have been a factor in the news blackout?

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1969/6/12/covering-harvard-a-view-from-outside-pithe/

I also found (in yet another newsarchive bottom-of-page wordjumble) a few details I hadn't seen before. Humphries and Jane apparently went out for dinner, then went skating and back to Jane's place. JH left there at 11.45, after which Jane visited the Miller apartment across the hall. She was found dead 13 hours later.

http://newspaperarchive.com/avalanche-journal/1969-01-08/page-54/



Humphries had just returned from holidays spent with family in Toronto. He'd been dating Jane a few months (one report says 8 months), prior to which she was for several months dating the archaeology student from Peru who dropped out and 'went hippie'.

Police said there was no evidence of sexual attack (in other articles, they would not disclose this info..)

Things I am pondering at this point:

- did the Millers hear nothing? (another neighbour, a law student, was interviewed - it wasn't mentioned that he'd heard anything either)

- Was the killer waiting for Jane when she got back, or did they sneak in while she slept?

- I have to wonder what J. Boyd thought of his daughter 'slumming it' in that manky building...

- Jane was gorgeous, from an affluent family, vivacious and smart, and had no lack of admirers. Was someone stalking her/jealous of the attention she got?


An interesting snippet - a bunch of Radcliffe students were threatened with suspension and expulsion for a demonstration which disrupted a staff meeting on Dec 12. On Jan 7 (from http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1969/6/12/paine-hall-made-headlines-ate-students/ ):

After the 21 Cliffies who lost their bursar's cards in Paine Hall demanded that they be tried as a group by the Radcliffe Judicial Board the Board said that the girls would have to appear individually or not appear at all. The Board--which includes four student members--said it wanted a chance to "judge each case individually."

A bunch of angry students threatened with expulsion at Radcliffe are handed news they don't want to hear, and the Administrative Vice President of Radcliffe's daughter is murdered the next night. Coincidence? Probably. But I wonder if that angle was ever looked into?

- what were they protesting about?
- Was J. Boyd on that Board?

Sorry for all the waffling, it's very late.. but I can't stop digging for stuff now I'm in the mood. ><

ETA: Wow, cross-posted with you guys - good thoughts on the 'ochre' -- I am wondering now whether 'iodine' came from the liquid used to paint the 'symbols' on Jane's face (which led the consultant professors to state the marks were ancient funerary symbols)... or whether the oxide powder/stuff all over the room was also iodine (and blended with water to make said liquid?) - oxides are also used for ceramic glazes - did Jane do ceramics at all?
Click to expand...

Robin Hood said:
By Ausgirl

'' JH did not show up for the polygraph test when expected to - the Millers were polygraphed in the morning, but JH had still not shown up by late afternoon. I presume he did at some point - but why not that morning, with the Millers? Kind of an important appointment''
The link is on page 1 I believe.
I suppose it's possible he was taking legal advice.
Click to expand...
Not the "Millers", the MITCHELL'S.

Here:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...IMkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=HlEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7065,2257058
 
  • #69
The only other person I've ever seen named in articles about Jane's death was Ravi Rithye who lived across the hall. He was from India.

Who/where does a Peruvian boyfriend come into the picture?

I have not heard or seen anything about this?

Can someone please provide a link?
 
  • #70
Ausgirl said:
I'm also wondering if they ever caught up with her former boyfriend from Peru, who'd left the University to 'go hippie' apparently but was still in the area. And there was another young man who'd been spurned by Jane, who was also wanted for questioning. No mention of them in later reports - I think the blackout had a lot to do with that.

Media blackout - no news for forty years. Poor Jane.

I have contact details for the Boston PD, and I think I'll call them tomorrow..
Click to expand...
Can you please provide a link or further information about this former boyfriend from Peru as I have not found anything of the sort in my research and would be happy to explore this potential angle further.
 
  • #71
Ausgirl said:
.. or WAS it powdered oxide? From the Bennington Banner: http://newspaperarchive.com/bennington-banner/1969-01-09/page-5



The report also states that police refused to identify a fourth person who, along with JH and the Millers, were given lie detector tests to clear up a few discrepancies regarding details of the night of Jane's murder. Apparently the police found nothing suspicious in those discrepancies? I can't be sure, as I'm reading the garbled free-to-view text below the article.

ETA: it seems to me that Jane, JH, the Millers and person X may all have been together the night prior?

(I so NEED a sub to Newspaperarchive, but their monopoly on articles irks me to the point of not wanting to fork over the $.. OT, sorry, lol)
Click to expand...

The Peru connection is in the link.
 
  • #72
  • #73
Pink Panther said:
Not the "Millers", the MITCHELL'S.

Here:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...IMkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=HlEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7065,2257058
Click to expand...

I think a link or two did say 'Miller' but you are correct, the name was Mitchell.
By all accounts they went on to publish various studies and both became Harvard professors in 1974 (Jill working under her maiden name of Nash)

Edited to add something on Ravi Rikhye
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1967/10/3/student-shuttles-into-immortality-plike-the/

This might be him too
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1970/2/21/officials-jail-alumnus-in-1500-lb-hash/

Final edit to add a pic of what could be him too
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1967-Pres...y-Science-Harvard-Pamela-Rikhye-/280920889661
 
  • #74
  • #75
Robin Hood said:
I think a link or two did say 'Miller' but you are correct, the name was Mitchell.
By all accounts they went on to publish various studies and both became Harvard professors in 1974 (Jill working under her maiden name of Nash)

Edited to add something on Ravi Rikhye
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1967/10/3/student-shuttles-into-immortality-plike-the/

This might be him too
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1970/2/21/officials-jail-alumnus-in-1500-lb-hash/

Final edit to add a pic of what could be him too
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1967-Pres...y-Science-Harvard-Pamela-Rikhye-/280920889661
Click to expand...

Yes. I've researched many of her fellow students, colleagues and most of them (but for only a few) went on and became experts in archaeology, geology, etc...

I have not been able to find much information on J Humphries. And absolutely nothing on Dane.

Has anyone else had better luck?
 
  • #76
Ack, Mitchells/Millers. This is what I get for my sleep-dep typing. But yes, they were called 'the Millers' in a couple reports, and I think it just got 'miller' stuck in my head from there.

There was another guy questioned (I can't find the Peruvian's name yet) who lived next to Jane, named Stephen Presser, a law student. I think he's some kind of expert legal historian now, unless I have the wrong one.

My sleep patterns are not allowing me to be up and coherent at good times to call the Boston PD. I'm hoping to get to it in the next few days, unless someone in the US wants to do so, just to see what the status on the case is, and whether they'd be willing to release any details which might help zero in on a perp.

Humphries is a hard bloke to track. I did find the marriage in Texas to a J H Humphries who matched the right age, but no idea if it's the right guy. He appears to have written a paper co-credited with Jane's professor, then left the course and dropped off the map. I am assuming this is what was meant, regarding the comment that JH had surprised the prof by quitting after 5 years, before finishing his dissertation or whatever.

Maybe a guilty conscience. Maybe he couldn't handle the grief, or being eyeballed for the crime. I'd love to talk to someone who knew him back in the day...
 
  • #77
Interesting that Ravi was ROTC, the military presence at Harvard the SDS leftists were protesting around the time of Jane's death. And a drug dealer, too (hardly shocking at Harvard in the 60's I'd imagine).

ETA: and that he saw two men running from the building to an idling car around the time Jane got home..

More on Ravi:

The Commander, Major-General Indar Jit Rikhye, has had a Family reunion this month. His wife, Usha, and two sons, Ravi, 19, and Bhalinder, 16, joined him in Gaza 15 june. With Ravi was his flance, Miss Pamela Bunbury, a student of the Beaver College. Ravi himself is at Harvard, one of the top Ivy League Colleges of United States. Younger son, Bhalinder, is attending Riverdale Country Scholl. (sic)

from: http://www.batalhaosuez.com.br/UnefMonthlyJune1966.htm

And I wonder if the editor of this is the same Ravi: http://low-intensity-conflict-review.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/worlds-top-strategic-thinker-ravi.html


I'd really like to know if the report regarding the missing stone being found was accurate - and where it was found!

Also, apparently the whole 'funeral rite' angle was refuted by anthropology dept. chairman Stephen Williams, who said it was more likely to be something Jane used for art than part of some archaic ritual.

And was this red ochre iron or iodine oxide? And what about the reddish brown liquid she was said to have had her face painted with, in 'symbols'?


Not long after Jane's death, her father ordered locks installed on Radcliffe's student housing rooms.. poor man, all those admin duties and student demands to see to, while grieving for his daughter.
 
  • #78
I'm starting to wonder if the news of the day could get Miller/Mitchell confused that they have Peruvian and Persian confused too.

Ausgirl asked if anyone could possibly call Boston PD for a case update, I'm in UK otherwise I would call, any takers ? Please.
.
 
  • #79
I found some (perhaps utterly incidental) info on Jesse L. Gill, chairman of the Mt. Auburn Tenants' Union (of which Jane was also a member).

Jesse threatens to use violence if Harvard's purchase of student housing blocks (including Jane's building) negatively impacted tenants - with a veiled threat that the SDS would support such protests:

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1967/5/10/university-wins-fight-to-purchase-building/

And later claims to have been working for the FBI and CIA as an informant against the SDS (leftist movement) and other 'radicals':

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1973/4/14/gill-sings-fbi-cia-squirm-pwhat/

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1973/4/12/jessie-gills-story-is-it-fact/
 
  • #80
And woah - Ravi was still wanted for the drug smuggling thing in 2005:
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2005-07-26/delhi/27859544_1_sitar-crates-hashish

Though a Ravi Rikhye was working in Maryland from 2000:

Link to CV - note that this Ravi says he is n "leave of absence from start of senior year in 1967. Plan to finish after retirement."

And worked for 'think tanks' in India.. military ones? The blogger I linked earlier is known as a 'military analyst' - in keeping with his family's military background?

Might be the same guy?

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9901E5D71730F93BA15756C0A9619C8B63

ETA: ^ Yup, same guy in Maryland.

Court case mentioning Ravi: http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.asp...1291.xml&docbase=CSLWAR1-1950-1985&SizeDisp=7
 
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