Usually when I think of a guilty verdict, I'm looking at evidence being brought into play that proves the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt...fingerprints, blood evidence, DNA, ballistics/gun shot residue...perhaps just caught red-handed. Not to mention when evidence proves it was just one suspect or multiple. What happens when the crime involves nine victims and one suspect? Makes me wonder if it was just one man who did the horrible crime or if he had help that was never looked into.
The story of Lorne J. Acquin is a very tragic story for the nine victims, but I will admit that I'm not sure on if this man worked alone. I question this due to the number of victims and the horrific things that were done. Could one person have done everything all by themselves? I guess I will never know for sure.
Let's start at the beginning. Lorne J. Acquin was born on March 21, 1950. I was not able to find out much about Lorne's early life, but he did end up in foster care where he met and remained close with Frederick Beaudoin Sr. Frederick married Cheryl and they had seven children. Lorne was very close with the family, having lived with them for a few years and eventually just visiting their home in Prospect, Connecticut often.
In the early morning hours of Friday, July 22, 1977, people living on Cedar Hill Drive in Prospect, Connecticut were awoken from their sleep by the smell of smoke and hearing the crackling of fire. Neighbors noticed the Beaudoin home was on fire. The local fire station was called and they did their best to save the house. Unfortunately, the fire gutted most of the house. That's not the worst part. The awful part of this story is that upon entering the home, firefighters found the charred remains of nine people.
Cheryl Beaudoin, 29, was found dead on her kitchen floor. Three children were discovered in a bedroom to the right of the hall. Two children were found in a bedroom to the left. Another child was found in the master bedroom and two more children were found in the bathroom.
Some of the children and Cheryl Beaudoin had their hands tied behind their backs and the two children found in the bathroom had their feet bound together. All the children appeared to have head wounds.
The victims to be remembered are Cheryl Beaudoin, 29; her seven children, Frederick, 12, Aaron Lee, 10, Debra Ann, 9, Paul, 8, Roderick, 6, Holly Lyn, 5, and Mary Lou, 4. The ninth victim was Cheryl's niece, Jennifer Santoro, 6. She had been staying with the family that night.
Police immediately launched an investigation. Post-mortem exams showed that Cheryl died from head injuries and a stab wound to the chest. Paul also died from head injuries. The other children died from a combination of head injuries and smoke inhalation.
Detectives interviewed more than a hundred potential witnesses within the first 24 hours of the investigation. One of the witnesses interviewed was the husband, Frederick Beaudoin, Sr., and his foster brother, Lorne J. Acquin. Frederick was cleared due to being at his job at a Pratt & Whitney factory, working an overnight shift. Lorne had been at the house the night before playing with the children and a witness later confirmed that a man closely resembling Acquin had been seen in the area sitting in his car on the day before the murders.
The police were now concentrating on Lorne J. Acquin, 27. Lorne had a previous criminal record of a conviction for burglary plus an additional sentence for an attempted jailbreak.
Lorne Acquin was detained for questioning on Saturday, July 23. On Sunday, July 24, he agreed to make a statement after meeting with his psychiatrist. In that statement, he admitted to attacking Cheryl with a tire iron and he then did the same to the children. Acquin then spread gasoline throughout the house and set it on fire. Later that day, Lorne J. Acquin was charged with nine counts of murder and one count of arson.
According to an article from The Courant, police found a trash bag full of bloody clothing near Acquin's driveway, and bloody shoes and socks in the trunk of the car he drove the night of the killings.
Acquin's defense attorney, John R. Williams, accused the police of "gross misbehavior" in the investigation, claiming Acquin was coerced into making a confession. State Police Commissioner Edward P. Leonard refused to comment on Williams' claims and said after Acquin's arrest, "I'm absolutely sure he's the man who committed the crime." Acquin was held on a $250,000 bond.
Acquin was indicted by a grand jury on Sept. 7, 1977. Eight days later he pleaded not guilty.
Lorne J. Acquin was moved from prison to the Whiting Forensic Institute, a state mental hospital in Middletown, on Oct. 5 "for security reasons," The Courant reported. He was officially committed on Oct. 31 after a court-appointed psychiatrist testified that Acquin could be suffering from schizophrenia or a form of epilepsy and could be dangerous to himself and others.
Acquin went on trial at Waterbury on Monday, July 16, 1979. Jury selection had taken more than a month. Prosecution stated repeatedly that in his confession, Acquin said he "might" have sexually molested 10-year-old Sharon Beaudoin. Postmortem examinations confirmed there were no signs of sexual injury to Sharon. The defense maintained the state's case was based on an inadmissible confession.
Acquin took the stand on September 5, 1979. Lorne denied a role in the murders. He said his psychiatrist told him, "You'd be better off if you signed" the confession, according to a Sept. 6, 1979, Courant story. Acquin said police repeatedly turned down his requests for a lawyer and told him, "I know you did it. Why don't you confess to it?"
Acquin also testified that the blood on his clothes was from a fight he got in the night of the murders with men outside a Waterbury café. I could not find any information regarding if testing was done on the bloody clothing, what the results were.
A state police fingerprint expert testified on Oct. 2, 1979, that bloody hand and fingerprints found in the bathtub near two of the children's bodies were not Acquin's. A handprint on a doorjamb did not belong to him, either. The examiner said the prints also couldn't be matched with any of the victims', The Courant reported on Oct. 3. So who's prints are these? I never found anything stating the person was identified.
According to Acquin's seven-page confession, he stated that he used a lug wrench, a knife and a tire iron to kill the victims.
He told police he had been at the house about 7 p.m. on July 21, 1977, to take the children to pick raspberries. He said he left by 8:30 p.m. and returned at 2 or 3 the next morning, entering through an unlocked cellar door.
When Acquin entered the kitchen and turned on a light, Cheryl Beaudoin came out of her bedroom.
"She didn't seem surprised that I was there," Acquin told police, according to The Courant's story about his confession.
Acquin told Beaudoin he needed tools from the basement to fix his car. He fetched a lug wrench, came back to the kitchen and asked her for a beer.
As she turned to the refrigerator, Acquin began to beat her with the wrench, he told police. He said she didn't scream or say anything, but one of her sons came into the kitchen to see what was happening.
Acquin then hit that child over the head with the wrench. He hit the other children with the wrench and tire iron and when he heard Beaudoin moaning, he went back to the kitchen and stabbed her.
Acquin described tying up some of the children with string and sexually molesting 10-year-old Sharon Beaudoin. Then, he poured gasoline over the children and set the house on fire. In interviews with Courant reporter Lincoln Millstein, conducted in October 1977 but not published until the confession was released, Acquin said he didn't remember anything about the killings other than "talking to Cheryl" and "bodies and blood all over the place and the house was on fire."
Acquin said he remembered being scared and hot, and running from the house. "When I came to my senses, I was on Whalley Avenue in New Haven," he said. He said he didn't remember giving the confession.
On Friday, October 19, 1979, after the jury deliberated for three days, they convicted Lorne J. Acquin on all nine counts of murder and the charge of arson. Acquin was then sentenced to 25 years to life on each murder conviction and 20 for arson. possibility for parole after 50 to 55 years.
Again, I go back to questioning could one person take out nine people? Lorne Acquin was found guilty for these murders, but did he have help? No identification of the bloody hand and fingerprints. Was his confession coerced? Did he confess to protect someone else? Lots of questions that I don't believe we will ever get the answer to as Lorne Acquin died in 2015. The truth lies with Lorne Acquin...and perhaps someone else.
--Audre
amok.fandom.com outlet.historicimages.com
Sources:
"The Encyclopedia of Mass Murder," by Brian Lane and Wilfred Gregg
Wikipedia.org
Julie Stagis (April 8, 2014), "1977 Mass Murder In Prospect Claimed Woman, 8 Children"
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