Saturday, July 23, 2011
Ordered held without bail pending Aug. 26 court appearance.
Michael Ferreira, 57, of Salem, NH, the youngest of the three men charged in connection with the 1969 murder of Johnny McCabe, was arraigned Friday in Lowell District Court on one count of first degree murder. According to a spokesperson for Middlesex County District Attorney Gerald Leone, Judge Thomas Brennan ordered the defendant held without bail. Ferriera, who was 15 at the time of the killing, was previously charged with murder in Juvenile Court, but was moved to District Court last week following a judge’s ruling. Ferreira had also been indicted on May 26 on one count of perjury for allegedly lying to the Grand Jury in 2008 regarding McCabe's death. He had been being held on $500,000 cash bail in that case. An arraignment date in …
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Hearing on Fereira's status ends, decision pending.
More than 41 years after prosecutors say he participated in the murder of Tewksbury teen Johnny McCabe, Walter Shelley was arraigned Tuesday in Lowell Superior Court. Shelley, 60, one of three men indicted by a Middlesex County Grand Jury in connection with the 1969 slaying of the 15-year-old, is charged with first-degree murder and intimidation of a witness. According to a spokesperson for District Attorney Gerry Leone, Shelley, the only defendant who still lives in Tewksbury, is scheduled to be back in court on July 5 for pre-trial conferencing. Bail was continued at $500,000, which Shelley posted a few weeks ago. Edward Brown, 59, of Londonderry, NH, whose answers during an interrogation by investigators in March led to arrests in the …
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Juvenile Court judge will determine whether defendant should be charged as an adult in the murder of Johnny McCabe.
UPDATED Thursday, 8:30 p.m. Michael Ferreira was just 15 years old when prosecutors allege he and two other teens murdered fellow Tewksbury teen Johnny McCabe back in 1969. In the next few days, a Lowell Juvenile Court Judge will decide whether or not Ferreira should be tried as an adult for that crime. McCabe was also just 15 years old when he was allegedly kidnapped by Ferreira, Edward Brown and Walter Shelley while walking home from a dance at the Knights of Columbus. Prosecutors allege McCabe was beaten in the backseat of a car by Brown and Ferreira, while Shelley drove to a vacant lot in Lowell, where McCabe was bound and gagged in such a way that he asphyxiated. In a statement to police in March, Brown pointed the finger squarely at …
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Case will be moved to Superior Court.
UPDATED: 9 p.m. Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone announced today that three men have been indicted by a Grand Jury on charges connected to the 1969 murder of Tewksbury teen Johnny McCabe. Alan Brown, 59, of Londonberry, NH, was indicted on one count of manslaughter. Walter Shelley, 60, of Tewksbury, was indicted on one count of first degree murder and one count of intimidation of a witness. Michael Ferreira, 57, of Salem, NH, was indicted on one count of perjury for lying to the Grand Jury. Because Ferreira was 15 at the time of the incident, he is also being charged in juvenile court on one count of first degree murder. Prosecutors have filed a motion to have Ferreira charged as an adult. That hearing has been continued to June 15…
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Brown claims the defendants only wanted "to teach him a lesson."
While confessing to his role in causing the 1969 death of Johnny McCabe, Edward Brown said, on more than one occasion that the death, itself, was an accident. According to court documents, during police interrogation in March, Brown said he, Michael Ferreira and Walter Shelley just "wanted to teach (McCabe) a lesson," and that the death was an unforeseen byproduct of a prank gone horribly wrong. That could be true, at least in part. But there is evidence in the case that raises the possibility that one, if not all three suspects, had an idea that McCabe would die that night in Septemeber 1969. According to Brown, the trio had been out driving around in Shelley's car and drinking alcohol when they decided to track down McCabe. Shelley was …
Monday, May 16, 2011
With Grand Jury indictments against three suspects expected soon, we look back on what we know about the case to this point.
Though no one in the office of District Attorney Gerry Leone's office will go on the record to confirm, all indications are that a Middlesex County Grand Jury will hand down indictments shortly against Walter Shelley, Michael Ferreira and Edward Brown in connection with the 1969 murder of Johnny McCabe, a 15-year-old Tewksbury High student. At that point, the case will shift from District Court to Middlesex County Superior Court, either in Lowell or Woburn. In the meantime, here are 10 facts we know about the case to this point. Brown finally cracks A tip broke open the McCabe murder case in March. According to court documents, that tip led police to haul in Brown for questioning. During that interview, he finally cracked and admitted his…
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Family and friends of murdered teen recall a gentle heart and a winning personality.
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- B Schill
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Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Johnny McCabe, as family and friends knew him, was a boy who loved life. His sister, Roberta Donovan, remembers him in the garage at all hours, constantly fiddling with lawnmower parts, playing with mechanical odds and ends, or working to fix up his mini-bike. The garage was a second home to the teenaged boy. “If you looked at his fingernails they were embedded, embedded with oil and dirt from working on engines in the garage,” she said, “He was a boy who liked to get into things, tinkering with his hands." Donovan said she remembered Johnny spending time in the bathroom on the evening of the Knights of Columbus dance in September, 1969, washing the oil and dirt from his hands, using his father’s aftershave to freshen up. “I remember him …
Friday, April 29, 2011
McCabe family and friends pushed for police to solve murder for 41 years.
- POLICE & FIRE
- B Schill
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Friday, April 29, 2011
Who killed Johnny McCabe? That was what Carol “Maggie” Coffey wanted to know. She posted that very question on Topix, an online forum, on July 28, 2010. “Does anyone remember Johnny McCabe, murdered after leaving the Knights of Columbus dance?” she wrote in her first post. The body of John McCabe, a 15-year-old Tewksbury resident had been found on September 27, 1969, bound and gagged, and left to asphyxiate in a vacant lot in Lowell. These posts came more than eight months before three men, Edward Brown, Walter Shelley, and Mike Ferreira were charged with counts ranging from perjury to manslaughter and murder stemming from the 1969 case. Coffey’s Topix forum picked up some replies. Anonymous posters mentioned remembering the case and …
Monday, April 25, 2011
Michael Ferreira faces charges related to the 1969 murder of Johnny McCabe. Reactions of Salem residents ranged from fear to indifference.
In 1999, Michael Ferreira moved to Salem, NH. Last week he returned to Massachusetts to defend himself against the charge of murdering a Tewksbury boy over 40 years ago, and reactions to the news in his adopted hometown have been varied. For many people living and working in Salem, a town of approximately 30,000 people just over the Massachusetts border on I-93, have largely either been too busy with their daily lives to have heard the news that an alleged murderer was living in their midst or were too busy to think much about it. “It’s just kind of a pointless question to ask because nobody obviously knew that he had committed a murder,” said Kim LaFrance, who works at Barnes and Noble on Route 28. “Murder is obviously a big deal, and it’…
42.769857
-71.220856
125 S Broadway # 28, Salem, NH
Barnes and Noble
/articles/alleged-murderer-draws-fear-indifference-from-his-adopted-town
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42.74837
-71.20355
419 S Broadway, Salem, NH
/articles/alleged-murderer-draws-fear-indifference-from-his-adopted-town
/locations/4184032
Friday, April 15, 2011
Three men are identified in connection with the 1969 murder of John McCabe.
A break has been made in a cold case murder that has been hanging over Tewksbury for 41 years. The Middlesex District Attorney's Office announced this morning the arrests Edward Alan Brown, 59, of Londonberry, NH, Walter Shelley, 60, of Tewksbury, and Michael Ferreira, 57, of Salem, NH. Brown and Shelley were arraigned in Lowell District Court before Judge Harvey Friday morning. Shelley was ordered held on $500,000 cash bail. Brown was released on personal recognizance. Their next court date is May 26 for a pre-trial conference. Ferreira was arraigned in Exeter District Court in New Hampshire on the fugitive from justice warrant and was ordered held on $500,000 cash bail. He faces a rendition hearing in Salem District Court on Monday, …
PATRICIA LAULETTA
10:11 pm on Wednesday, June 22, 2011
hell yes he should be tried as an adult he is one it doesn't matter if he was one then he is one now and for them to keep it hidden all these years is a horrible crime in it self. the family should be the one sentencing them! more ›