Big Red

Everett Delano was shot to death during an apparent robbery at Sanborn's Garage in Andover on September 1, 1966. 
Cody Peck talks to investigators and experts about the surprising detail that helped solve this cold case.

Transcript

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The year is 1966 and we find ourselves in Andover, NH at a small town auto repair shop known at the time as Sanborns Garage located on Route four.

It was early in the day on September first, around nine o’clock in the morning when...

[Sounds of rustling, gunshots ring out]

[Deep pulsing fades in]

This is the story of the 1960 homicide of Everett Nelson “Red” Delano. A case that took more than five decades to solve.  A key piece of evidence sat under investigators' noses for so many years. They didn’t even know it at the time.

[Deep pulsing fades out]

Before we get into the real meat of the story let me give you some information about Mr. Delano and his life.

There weren’t many photos of Mr. Delano to be found online and since I wasn’t able to chat with any of the Delano family we look at the photo from the cold case unit that the online database uses. This photo I found of Everett Delano looks to be his photo for the Navy. Or perhaps he is just wearing a nice suit with his hat from his time in the Navy. However, he is dressed up very nicely and wears a smile. He looks happy to be there.

[Solemn music slowly fades in]

Everett Delano, born May twentieth, nineteen seventeen, was a family man and a Navy veteran. He probably got his nickname, Red, from there. I wasn’t able to really find that piece of information out.

He worked a total of two jobs. A night watchman at what is now known as Colby Sawyer and a part-time gas station attendant at Sanborns Garage.

Working two jobs, I can only believe he was just getting by. Probably making enough money for his three children and wife.

You heard that right, three kids and a wife. He died at the young age of fourty-nine. 

[Curious music fades in]

I’m Cody Peck and you’re listening to Gone Cold NH, a WNEC production over at New England College. This is Big Red. The now solved homicide of Everett “Red” Delano.

I only just heard about this case recently. It was time to sign up for one of my last few college classes, at this point I just needed the credits, and I stumbled upon a True-Crime Podcasting class open for the fall semester. I was automatically intrigued. Ready to throw myself into anything.

Now, I find myself here, in the WNEC radio station recording this podcast. However, that is not the only thing that drove me to this case. I wanted to understand why a case such as the Delano case took so long to solve. Almost five decades as I have stated beforehand.

[Curious music fades out]

So with that in mind I wanted to dig some more, and I became super curious. I really just wanted to know the detail.

...

*UNSOLVED FOR FIFTY YEARS*

[Interview fades in]

JOELLE DONNELLY WIGGINS: (05:13-05:49) “We didn’t know about the Delano case and the family called us up, probably 10 years ago, and said ‘Hey, what about my loved one?’ And we get those calls occasionally because before there was a centralized unit, the towns held some of the files, the sheriff's office held some of the files, the state police held some of the files so we did the best we could to compile all these cases but Delano was one of them that just wasn’t on the list so when a family like that  calls in we spend some time looking for the case, then advocate going yep, nope, that definitely should be on the website...”

[Interview fades out]

That was Joelle Donnelly Wiggins and she is an advocate over at the attorney general’s office in New Hampshire. I will let her do the explaining of what exactly she does:

JOELLE DONNELLY WIGGINS: (00:27-01:07) “So I was hired as a full-time on call homicide advocate so that means I’m on call with my other partners we do week long rotations and if there’s a homicide in the state of New Hampshire, along with the prosecutors, an advocate goes out and we will find the next of kin and do the death notification for the family and then we work with that family as we call it the ten days of crazy after a homicide there’s a lot going on and we’re doing a lot of crisis intervention at that point. Then we will work with them through the criminal justice system, through post-conviction services in the corrections system and beyond. Our cases really never close.”

[Interview fades out]

She has been doing this for fifteen years, so for a decade and a half she has been on call for families whose loved ones have passed away in any homicide case in the state of New Hampshire. 

And in that time she happened to become a part of the process with the case of Everett Delano. 

She went on to tell us about how she grew up in the town of Andover, she didn’t know these people but she knew them. 

JOELLE DONNELLY WIGGINS: (05:53-06:05) “... Obviously growing up in Andover I had been to those places. It was something that was very close to my heart, I knew some of the people but I didn’t know I had an association with them...”

But this does not exactly help us with understanding the case. Sure, we get an insight into the fact that the case was forgotten for so many years but why?

In reality, it’s simple, there was no fingerprint system at the time of this case. Perhaps it wasn’t developed enough to get what we wanted. But then when it came to, they simply just forgot. 

[Curious music fades in]

Remember when I first brought up that key piece of evidence that sat under investigators’ noses?

Well, written in an article from New Hampshire Union Leader written by Mark Hayward goes on to state,

“In 1966, State Police detectives had sent the fingerprints to the FBI, sending a letter to the attention of legendary FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.”

This is good, right? But wait, there’s more.

“But the FBI, which had recently launched the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, never entered the fingerprints into the system. The investigation stalled by the end of the year.”

Now here we are, a case that was forgotten until state officials were contacted in twenty-thirteen by one of Delano’s children, this piece of information was stated from Joelle Donnelly Wiggins prior.

Also in this article Hayward talks with Susan Morell, the homicide prosecutor who oversees cold cases in the state of New Hampshire and she goes on to say that the case “was so forgotten that the murder didn’t even make the initial listing of unsolved murders when the state launched its Cold Case Unit in 2009.” Those exact words were used.

By the end of the article we learn from Morrel after she informs Hayward that no prosecutor had been devoted full-time to the Cold Case Unit for much of those years between two-thousand and nine and twenty-thirteen.

[Solemn music slowly fades in]

So this all really makes sense. These very old cases have slipped through the cracks over the years with no one really on call at the time. But with families always reaching out, now these cases soon come back up to the surface and are solved with some good old investigation. All thanks to people like Joelle who are advocates for these families and are there for them to help close the case of their loved ones. 

[Solemn music slowly fades out]

...

*WHAT HAPPENED?*

[Curious music slowly fades in]

Now, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Ben Agati and he also works at the Attorney General’s office as the Senior Assistant Attorney General.

He also works these cold cases in the state of New Hampshire but more importantly he worked closely with the case of Everett Nelson “Red” Delano.

He even showed our class a photo he kept of Mr. Delano on his desk. He usually does this for every case he has worked. 

He originally told our class about the case of Delano, encouraging one of us to possibly research this case for our podcast project. I took this opportunity right away and he was able to give us lots of information. I got really lucky as some may say.

At first he brings up the time when prosecutors went back to take a look at the case and found those fingerprints that have been lost, I will let him tell you just a little more.

[Interview fades in]

BEN AGATI: (09:20-09:40) “In that case, when prosecutors went back in the early 2000s and were looking at what was there they saw that a fingerprint had been collected from a water faucet that had been left on inside the bathroom.”

[Interview fades out]

[Perhaps curious music slowly fades in]

Remember when I first talked about the fingerprint on the sink? That same fingerprint that the investigators at the time of the homicide were able to receive from that garage. And Ben Agati is now able to confirm this detail. 

However, before we can go any further into how, I would like to talk about what happened that morning with Mr. Everett Delano. We will get into more fingerprint details when we get there. 

Now, I was also able to have a quick chat with Chelsea Hanrahan and she works at New England College as the library director with a side hobby of researching the state of New Hampshire cold cases on her own free-time. Some pretty cool stuff I think. 

[Curious music fades out]

[Solemn music swells slowly]

Now, I was able to speak with her about her thoughts on the case and she kindly gives us some insight from the day it happened. I started out by asking if she heard of Everett Delano:

[Interview fades in]

CODY PECK: (02:56-03:41) “Have you ever heard of the 1960 homicide of Everett “Red” Delano?

CHELSEA HANRAHAN: “I have heard of it!”

CODY PECK: “Can you tell me what in that case is compelling to you? When you first started researching it?”

CHELSEA HANRAHAN: “Sure. So if I am not mistaken he was a part time gas station attendant at this garage called “Sanborns” in 1966 and he was also working part time at what is now called Colby Sawyer. So you know working guy had two kids, married, the whole thing, Just trying to get by and the guy, whoever it was at the time, who they thought it was came in and shoots him and leaves with seventy-seven dollars which is you know pretty pointless in terms of somebody's life...”

[Interview fades out]

[Solemn music slowly fades out]

...

[Curious music builds]

[Deep pulsing underneath curious music]

So let me finally put this whole thing together for you. In 1966, Everett Delano was a part of a murder-robbery located at Sanborns garage, on Route 4 to be exact. He was more than likely held at gun-point for money but then shot two times when standing and another shot while he was on the ground. 

Now Delano is almost lifeless, on the floor and bleeding out. The suspect takes no less than one hundred dollars from the register. A cash box with at least five hundred dollars was left behind and untouched under the register in one of the cubbies on the shelf. 

Information from the Attorney General’s Report on the September first, nineteen sixty-nine homicide goes on to state that a Ralph Lewis and a Bruce French arrived that morning at the station for gas.

At first they thought they heard someone behind the counter thinking they were sleeping, snoring away the day but eventually they figured out Delano was actually injured.

At this time two more witnesses then showed up to the scene of the crime, these two people being Leon Webber and William McKee. Then Mr. Ralph Lewis drove to the Sanborn’s resident and brought back the garage owner’s wife, Mrs. Sanborn. Now something interesting happened but I want you all to hear it from someone else.

Now, remember when I asked Chelsea what the most compelling detail from this case was? Well, let us have her tell you, just listen...

[Interview fades in]

CHELSEA HANRAHAN: (03:42-04:14) “What’s really interesting about that is that the people who discovered the crime scene had the presence of mind to leave it alone and not touch anything I think when they walked in the water was running on the sink and there actually were fingerprints on the sink nozzle. So they had the presence of mind not to touch it even though finger print stuff was not like anything widely known at the time. So that ended up being one of the ways that they found out who actually committed the murder.”

[Interview fades out]

So, I never really got to talk with anyone close to the discovery of this scene so I can only speculate that the witnesses just somehow decided not to touch anything. Having the actual right of mind to leave the scene alone. Especially for the time of this happening, that being nineteen sixty-six. 

It’s just super interesting as Chelsea states. The fact that no one who discovered that scene and the sink being on would turn it off. Ben Agati gives us a good idea what actually happened that morning when our witnesses discovered the scene of this homicide.

[Interview fades in]

BEN AGATI: (35:28-36:20) “What happened is, as people came in and discovered that Mr. Delano had been murdered and was lying there on the floor behind the counter inside this garage filling station, gas station. In the bathroom next to him the cold water, I believe it was the cold water, it was on and left on and typically the first person that would respond would go and turn the water off right? Yeah I don’t know. How many times have your parents yelled at you to turn the lights off, turn the water off! You know... that happens to everybody. But somebody luckily said ‘No, don’t touch it, stop.’ And they went outside, they went into the back service closet that backed onto the sink and the toilet coming out from the side, they came in here and disconnected the water there and turned it off and then removed it for it to be fingerprinted...”

[Interview fades out]

[Curious music swells and fades out]

...

*THE FINGERPRINTS OF THOMAS CASS*

{Low sounds of a cell phone ringing]

Now here we are, present day or matter of fact, it’s twenty thirteen and investigators go back to review the case of Everett “Red” Delano after receiving that call from a family member. One of Delano’s kids to be exact. His daughter, Darlene Delano, was the one to contact New Hampshire state officials.

[Curious music fades in]

From an article on Valley News written by Kathy McCormack, a news reporter on Valley News. She has lots of articles you can check out on the website. But this article states some interesting things when investigators went back to this case in the early two thousands. It goes on to state:

“During investigators’ review, they discovered that the fingerprints hadn’t been entered into the FBI’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System, which wasn’t fully operational in 1966.”

Now we know this small amount of detail but the article continues with some interesting facts about the FBI finally getting a match on these fingerprints. The author goes on to state...

“The prints identified a match in 2013: Thomas Cass, 67, of Orleans, Vt.”

{Curious music abruptly stops]

There it is. They found him. The guy that shot and killed Mr. Everett Delano in nineteen sixty-six. But wait... The article goes on some more when investigators talked to Thomas Cass, their alleged suspect in twenty thirteen.

“...Cass denied any knowledge of the Delano case when investigators first visited him that year, but he voluntarily provided a DNA sample.” 

Strange...  But there is some more located in this article. It states:

“The report said in February twenty fourteen, investigators saw Cass again and told him that forensic evidence had been found that linked him to Delano’s murder.”

Those exact words, linking him to the scene of the nineteen sixty-six homicide. So, as I said before, it’s got to be him. Right?

Mr. Thomas Cass also claimed to have never heard of Andover NH, Ben Agati talks about this a bit more.

[Interview fades in]

BEN AGATI: (45:16-45:49) “You know his statements to law enforcement were pretty clear, investigator Bob Fritas who I believe is now working as an axillary officer down at Manchester Police Department. Very good investigator, Very very good. He and the rest of the state police and staff have gone over to do that interview with him, he was very clear ‘I have never in Andover’, ‘Never been in a garage’, ‘No reason for me to be in that part of New Hampshire.’ Only time being in New Hampshire was being a Rodie working over in Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom.”

[Interview fades out]

{Deep pulses fade in]

So, Thomas Cass, of Orleans Vt. claims he was never near the town of Andover, New Hampshire anytime besides as a Rodie. That we will get into later.

[Deep pulse rises]

But obviously he is tied to that scene. Investigators just never told him what that piece of evidence was. And that key piece of evidence being the fingerprints. They never got to tell Thomas Cass because he then asked for a lawyer once becoming aware of this information.

However, four days after being spoken to by these investigators, Thomas Cass of Orleans, VT tragically killed himself. A self-inflicted gunshot to the right side of his head. A Llama .45 caliber handgun laid near Mr. Thomas Cass at the scene when they first found him.

[Deep pulsing fades out slowly]

Information from the Attorney General’s report on this case states that they find the man who sold the weapon to Thomas Cass. It was a private sale made by one of Cass’s friends, but he didn’t know why he wanted the weapon nor that he planned to take his own life with it.

Now also from the report they give us a quick conclusion and let me just read this for you:

“The evidence derived from this investigation, and all of the reasonable inferences that can be taken from that evidence, establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Cass shot and killed Mr. Delano on September 1, 1966, during the course of a robbery at Sanborn’s Garage in Andover, New Hampshire.”

There it is, we finally are able to place the guy that shot and killed Mr. Everett “Red” Delano but sadly we are now unable to do anything about it. All because he decided to take his own life. However,  just know that this guy will not be able to hurt anyone. 

Here is Ben Agati again and he puts this better than I can. He uses the case of Judith Whitney as an example in terms of the suspect doing what they did. 

[Interview fades in]

BEN AGATI: (1:08:29-1:08:56) “I would say it’s a win where, besides the missing and the unidentified persons where we can say this is the individual that was responsible. Even in Judith Whitney, well here is the individual who is responsible and if you... they’re not just roaming around anymore, They are not just out there. They are not somebody who is going to come back and hurt anybody else. It’s good to be able to communicate that.”

{Interview fades out]

{Solemn music fades in]

So we finally found the guy who did it. Who arrived at Sanborns Garage located on Route four on September 1st, 1966. This murder-robbery that ended in the killing of Mr. Delano was all because of career criminal Thomas Cass of Orleans, VT. 

{Solemn music fades out]

...

*THE PAST AND DEATH OF THOMAS CASS.*

{Curious music fades in]

At the time of September first, nineteen sixty-six, Thomas Cass was only twenty years old as the report from the Attorney General states.

The one picture I found of Mr. Cass was at a younger age that came from that same report. It was a New Hampshire booking photo from the seventies, nineteen seventy-one to be exact. Five years after the homicide of Everett Delano. He would have been around twenty-five or twenty-six in this. Still a very young age to have gone into jail in my opinion.

In this picture, Thomas Cass of Orleans Vermont looks like he has a whole life ahead of him. He has darker colored hair and looks like a very young adult. He holds a sort of smirk on his face. He doesn’t look sorry but rather looks rather cocky. Perhaps it’s how his face sits or his criminal offenses have made Mr. Cass a cocky guy. 

However, there is some more to be said on Thomas Cass because from some information given by the Murder, She Told podcast transcription by Kristen Seavey on the website. In this they are able to give us some insight on who Mr. Thomas Cass truly was. The following information goes on to state: 

“Cass’s ex-wife told investigators that his home life growing up was rough—his father was an alcoholic and the household was abusive. She also said that he was a very violent person, and on multiple occasions had threatened to kill her. She subsequently got a restraining order, and ultimately, a divorce. She mentioned Cass would frequently brag about his crimes, proudly calling himself a “career criminal”. She also believed that he had no problem with hurting people to get what he wanted. Another ex-wife told investigators the company Cass kept was no better than he, telling them of a conversation she overheard between his friends laughing and boasting over a murder they’d allegedly gotten away with in the 70’s. She also recalled an evening where Cass stormed out of their home, gun in hand, to go take care of somebody who owed him money. On occasion, she would witness the bloody and beaten aftermath of people who crossed Cass, and she remembered a time he used the butt of one of his many guns to get his point across.”

This is some interesting information and we now are able to get this insight on who Thomas Cass of Orleans, VT really was as a person. 

Now, I speak with Ben Agati about Mr. Thomas Cass, and he is able to give us some information on the man and what he did for work. So let’s have him tell you this little bit of detail. 

{Interview fades in]

BEN AGATI: (45:49-46:05) “I think at one point, one of the investigator Frita interviews he says he was working as a Rodie for The Rolling Stones. I’d have to go back and check that but that’s some fascinating little details and low and behold he did work as a Rodie. That was not a false statement.”

[Interview fades out]

Besides from learning that Thomas Cass was a Rodie he was also a career criminal. Pretty telling because he was behind bars for many years at some point after the homicide of Mr. Delano. These sentences were more for other crimes he has committed. 

Now, Joelle also had something interesting to say in regards to Thomas Cass and his criminal history.

[Interview fades in]

JOELLE DONNELLY WIGGINS: (6:27-06:47) “And I’m just going to say if you have some extra time in your day to do a little research on Tom Cass and google him. He’s a pretty interesting dude. He’s associated with some pretty bad guys out of Massachussets so lord knows what else he did.”

{Interview fades out]

Now, this intrigued me. I wanted to really know who Thomas Cass of Orleans, VT truly was. I took Joelle’s words of wisdom and googled him.

However, we already know he committed the homicide of Everett “Red” Delano but I was super curious to find out what his criminal background was like and the Attorney General’s report helps us out with that. It goes on to state:

“In 2013, Mr. Cass had a criminal history which spanned most of his adult life. His criminal history included numerous convictions for felonies, including robbery, armed robbery, assault, escape, use of firearms, theft and burglary.”

Thomas Cass has a list of crimes he has been locked up for. The report even has a table with all of his criminal offenses that range from the years nineteen sixty-six to two thousand. I assume that the nineteen sixty-six convictions were probably after the case of Delano. This list is in chronological order and it goes:

Nineteen sixty-six, larceny and contributing to delinquency. Nineteen sixty-eight, possession of a sawed off shotgun, conspiracy to commit robbery and robbery (Armed while masked). Nineteen seventy-one, escape. Nineteen seventy-two, two counts of theft by unauthorized taking. Nineteen eighty, escape again. Nineteen ninety-seven, possession of marijuana. Two thousand, aggravated assault, federal probation violation due to weapons and manufacturing drugs at federal prison. All of Mr. Cass’s criminal offenses took place in the states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. 

[Curious music slowly fades out]

So, for all of his adult life, also stated from the Attorney General’s report, Thomas Cass had spent a lot of his life behind bars. Incarcerated for all the various crimes he committed over these years. So it kind of makes sense why someone like Mr. Cass would tragically take his life. He probably didn’t want to go back to prison at his age then. That is what it exactly was. Now I asked Ben Agati why Thomas Cass would take his life. And he gives us this:

[Interview fades in]

BEN AGATI: (44:00-45:15) “Well I think probably one of the most telling is the statement that was made on the 911 call from the woman that he was living with in which he professed that he believed they were going to be coming back to arrest him. And again his other statements and there's some crimes that don’t have a statute of limitations. That’s pretty limited, cases that don’t have a statute of limitations, most crimes do. In New Hampshire you have your standard seven years to bring in a felony crime after its been committed, Misdemeanors are only one year. Violations are only three months. Some of the few ones that fit in that category really include homicide and there are select group of public integrated crimes where if there was deception involved in the crime they would put a two year extension once you discover the crime has been committed. So for example if I hide the fact that I robbed a safe and it’s not until you open the safe that you find out it’s been robbed then you get an extra two years after whenever I robbed it. So I think that was probably most telling to one of the reasons what he was thinking about is he thought police were coming back to arrest him right away.”

[Interview fades out]

[Deep pulsing fades in]

Now this is some interesting information on Thomas Cass. And in this interview Ben Agati brings up a woman he was living with. This live-in was Jane Spainol and she had some statements to say on Thomas Cass. From an article on the Washington Post by the author, Megan Flynn states:

“His live-in companion, Jane Spainol, told investigators that he made clear to her that he did not want to “die in a square box.” In her 911 call on the day Cass committed suicide, she told the operator he “believed that police were coming to arrest him in relation to a cold case investigation,” according to the report. But most telling of all, police claim, was what he told her just after one of his original interviews with police. He assured Spainol that he had nothing to do with any robbery or murder at a gas station in 1966. Then, he added, “You never talk about something that has no statute of limitations.” “This statement is arguably an admission of guilt,” the attorney general wrote. In New Hampshire, the only crime for which there is no statute of limitations, the report notes, is murder.”

[Deep pulsing abruptly stops.}

...

*CRIMINAL ASSOCIATIONS OF THOMAS CASS*

[Curious music fades in]

Another interesting thing with Thomas Cass is that he knew some pretty bad guys. Joelle states this prior in the episode and I wanted to find out who Thomas Cass knew. One of these few associates was Myles Connor Jr. Ben Agati is able to speak on this a bit more and tell us what was so interesting about Thomas Cass and his criminal history. Here he is to give us some more details:

[Interview fades in]

BEN AGATI: (42:15-43:27) “If you folks have or not got Netflix, have you seen the Netflix documentary “This is a robbery” about the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist. Okay, for those who have Myles Connor, actually sorry, Myles Connor Jr. Is the gentlemans name, he is interviewed in that and he is one of the people on that show they talk about him possibly having been involved in the robbery himself, I know the documentary doesn’t feel like he was but they certainly interviewed him and it was fascinating to watch. He’s written a book I believe it’s called the art of the heart which is fascinating because if you read through it form your own opinions but if you read through or heard about OJ Simpson writing a book saying “If I did it”. The art of the heist is very interesting about Mr. Connor is that he speaks about art heists in general, a fascinating individual. There’s a person that Thomas Cass knew and interacted with so I would say that was one of the more interesting aspects of Mr. Cass’s background.”

[Interview fades out]

So Myles Connor Junior was someone that Thomas Cass officially knew. This man was also a career criminal like Cass and perhaps Cass got his knowledge from this man or perhaps other associates. However, this information is unclear.

Now, as Ben Agati states Myles Connor was an art thief. He was in a documentary and even wrote a book. Some fascinating stuff I may admit myself. In the book, The Art of the Heist: Confessions of a Master Thief, Myles acknowledges Thomas Cass in his book, saying “Tommy Cass: you’ll always be my pal”. 

[Curious music fades out]

This is a big sign that these two knew each other and even talked at some point. When Ben Agati brought up this affiliation in the first place I was super intriqued. Now that I knew all of this I wanted to officially go back and get into the justice of the homicide of Everett Delano.

...

*ESTABLISHING JUSTICE*

So overall, learning about these statements really puts this all together. However, everything Ben Agati said and whatever I read, I was completely astonished. Everything just seemed to all click together about why Mr. Thomas Cass would so suddenly take his life like that and to be honest I agree with officials when they say these are signs of guilt.

So I had time to think on this before and our class got a chance to speak with Ben Agati a second time. This time I had the chance to ask him about how he felt on this. On the fact that Thomas Cass took his life and they were never able to get proper justice for Everett Delano. Ben Agati was also able to tell us where he was the day he find out of this news.

{Interview fades in]

BEN AGATI: (46:43-47:43) “I can say that was very frustrating, so I can tell you exactly where I was, I was meeting at an off site meeting area for state police, an old set of troop barracks that don’t even exist anymore and I was meeting with cold case that morning to discuss what our next steps were going to be in preparation for an arrest and an investigative step but I can remember knocking on the back door of the barracks to be let in and one particular trooper coming down saying come on in we are upstairs you’re gonna want to hear this and in walking up the stairs and as we come into the room there’s the Sergeant on cell phone with somebody and he just holds up a finger to me... sh sh wait a minute... and I said ‘What?’ and he just covered the receiver and just told me at that point that Mr. Cass had taken his own life that morning. It was utter shock I think for everybody in the room.”

[Interview fades out]

[Solemn music swells in and out]

Thomas Cass, who was the man to have shot and killed Mr. Everett Delano is now dead. He can no longer be convicted for this homicide. But Ben Agati is able to kind of give us some sort of closure to this because in all reality this is somebody's life we are talking about. That life being Mr. Cass.

[Interview fades in]

BEN AGATI: (48:04 to 48:48) “You don’t want that for anybody. You just don’t. I’m sorry to say. I know that there are some members of the public that might say ‘Oh well, he saved you guys having to do a prosecution on the case’ it’s not worth anybody's life. Everybody's life has value. Regardless of what it is, regardless of the acts they have taken, everybody’s life has value and with that being said you don’t like to see a situation like this where you can’t get the justice that you were trying to seek and now this person is not around anymore. That’s the decision he made but one I wish did not occur.”

[Interview fades out]

You know, Ben Agati makes a good point. Sure it would have been nice for them to actually lock up Thomas Cass but this is the result that seemed to have occurred. Now it does seem super unfair but I can stand on both sides of this argument and agree with Mr. Ben Agati that everybody’s life has value and you hate to see it. But on the side I would have hoped that they were able to lock Thomas Cass up.

[Solemn music slowly fades out]

Like I stated before, this whole thing with Mr. Thomas Cass killing himself just seems so unfair to prosecutors and most importantly the family for the Delano family. Even to Ben Agati, it is not something they would have liked to seen happen but unfortunately it did.

Ben Agati speaks on the idea of justice but overall he reminds us that this is a win.

[Interview fades in]

BEN AGATI: (1:07:22-1:08:14) “Like for example, again I’ll go back to Everett Delano where we located the individual and you know the prosecutors and investigators felt cheated by his own actions that we didn’t get the chance to get him in front of a court and show why beyond a reasonable doubt that he was the person who did this. So, it is frustrating and was justice done for the family? Well, it depends what your definition of judgement is. Has there been punishment? Has there been rehabilitation? Has there been deterrence? When this person has passed away, maybe not necessarily so. Sometimes though your wins often come from the victims family who can say maybe number one, that we, especially when we have an unidentified remains or unidentified person we can say we found them. That’s a lot.”

[Interview fades out]

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To you as the listener this may not seem like a win but it is for the case of Everett Delano. The case may not have ended as some may have wanted it too but finally the Delano family can have total closure. 

I found the full statement given from an email by the Delano family. It was found from the Murder, She Told podcast and they also happened to have done their story on the case of Everett “Red” Delano. The episode was by Kristen Seavey and the statement says this:

“Our family would like to take the opportunity to not only thank the initial investigators of our father’s homicide, but also the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit. Without their diligent efforts, we would not be here today. We are happy this day has come where our family has been given a small measure of justice. For almost 53 years, our family has wondered what happened on Sept. 1, 1966. There was a very long time our family didn’t know if we would ever receive the answers about what happened that day. Today, our family has the long overdue answers we have been waiting for.”

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*CONCLUSION*

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A case that took five decades to totally figure out who shot and killed Mr. Everett “Red” Delano has now been solved. This feels almost like a journey, crossing many broken bridges and crowded highways but eventually we got to where we wanted to be.

We may not have seen the justice we really wanted but in the end Thomas Cass can not go around and hurt anyone. The family statement from the Delano family really gives us this sort of closure in a way. 

Who knows how the family really felt. For fifty plus years the family was left in the dark and finally in the early two thousands they learn that Thomas Cass of Orleans VT was the one to have killed their loved one on September first, nineteen sixty-six. 

Sadly, Thomas Cass would then kill himself and leave this case in a sort of stall. Perhaps no one knew where to go from there but they use this and other statements towards admissions of guilt. The attorney general’s report on the case concludes with this:

“The evidence derived from this investigation, and all of the reasonable inferences that can be taken from that evidence, establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Cass shot and killed Mr. Delano on September 1, 1966, during the course of a robbery at Sanborn’s Garage in Andover, New Hampshire. Since Mr. Cass is deceased, and some of the evidence against him is the inference of guilt from his suicide, this case cannot be resolved with criminal charges. In lieu of criminal charges, this case will now be administratively closed and resolved without charges. This previously unsolved homicide is now solved.”

Finally, there it is. The conclusion to a long unsolved and overdue case. Now Mr. Everett “Red’ Delano and his family can officially put their minds at rest. Perhaps things were never the same and will never be the same but we know who did it and now they can never hurt anyone again. Even if it wasn’t the way we truly wanted it to happen.

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Thank you to the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit for contributing information for this story. And an additional thank you to Chelsea Hanrahan for letting me interview her. 

Music in this episode was provided by Blue Dot Sessions. 

Sound effects were provided by Walter_Odington from wordpress.org. 

On the next episode of Gone Cold New Hampshire... 

Eight year old Tammy Belanger was last seen walking to school but never made it. How did a young girl in a small town vanish for years? Alexis Welch looks into The Disappearance of Tammy Belanger.