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Section Two The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, Wednesday, June 22,1994 11 Max HAINES Crime Flashback Y ou wouldn't call Alice Crimmins a good mother. Come to think of it, she wàsn't that great a wife either. Alice and hubby Eddie didn't see eye to eye on many things. Basically, Alice wasn't a homebody. She loved to step out and party. Eddie, on the other hand, believed a woman's place was in the home. Something had to give. The bickering and toe-to-toe quarreling quarreling became so intense that Eddie moved out of their comfortable Kew Garden Hills apartment in Queens, N.Y. into a rented furnished room about 1.5 km from his former home. Alice and the two Crimmins children, Eddie Jr., 5, and Missy, 4, remained in the apartment, along with the family dog, a half Spitz named Brandy. Tragedy struck the Crimmins family on July 14,1965. According to Alice, who never deviated from her original recital of what happened that day, she woke up, washed, dressed and applied her makeup. She was preparing for a tedious tedious custody hearing concerning her two children. Eddie wanted them, but Alice had no intention of giving them up. As usual, Alice flipped up the hook from the eye on the children's children's bedroom door. It was quite normal for the door to be fastened. fastened. On several several occasions little Eddie had crawled out of bed, raided the fridge and had become violently ill. In order to put a stop to his nocturnal nocturnal raids, Alice had installed a simple simple hook and eye on the door. Usually she heard the children playing before opening their door. On this morning, they were ominously silent. Alice entered the room. The children children were nowhere to be seen. She Called her husband, who immediately notified police. Officers who arrived at the first-floor apartment quickly ascertained this was not a routine call involving children who had wandered away. A screen had been removed from the children's window. It was found leaning against the outside of the building: The bedroom window was cranked open to about 70 degrees. Initially, the police, learning of the custody hearing, felt one of the parents parents had hidden the children. Alice and Eddie quickly convinced them this was not the case. That left only one logical possibility, the dread of every parent: some demented individual individual had lured away the two children. A massive search ensued. Sound trucks and helicopters were employed; neighbors were questioned. questioned. That same day, nine-year-old Jay Silverman took a shortcut across a field to his home. Along the way he saw what he thought was a pile of garbage. garbage. Jay kicked at the pile. The rubbish rubbish was the body of Missy Crimmins. An autopsy revealed she had been strangled. Five days later, Vernon Wamecke and his son were gathering empty beer bottles in a nearby lot. They stumbled across Eddie's badly decomposed body. Hie bodies of the two children were found about 1.5 km from their apartment, but in opposite GO ASK ALICE... Leaving police headquarters in New York, in photo above, Alice Crimmins tries to hide her face after being charged with killing her daughter. Inset above left, witness Sophie Earomirski waves to crowd after testifying. In photo at right, Eddie Crimmins, left, Alice and her lawyer leave the courthouse. directions. It appeared, at first glance, that the children had been kidnapped, but there was conflicting evidence. The bedroom door had been secured from the outside and the only exit was through the window. Investigators noted the window, cranked partially open, didn't allow enough room for an adult to enter or leave. In addition, how could an individual accomplish such a feat with two children in tow? Then there was the matter of motive. The Crimmins weren't wealthy and couldn't raise any appreciable amount of ransom money. Police also won dered why Brandy, who would bark at the slightest disruption in the house, had not made a sound while the children children were being spirited away. Detectives delved into the lifestyle of Alice Crimmins. They learned that in the course of working as a cocktail waitress, she came in contact with several movers and shakers. Alice admitted she had a busy sex life and many lovers. When contacted, these men verified they had spent time with Alice. Several went out of their way to state she was terrific in bed. Eddie was aware of his wife's swinging ways. Hie knowledge tortured tortured him until he finally left Alice. Investigating officers checked Eddie out and found he had an airtight alibi and could not possibly have been involved in his children's abduction and murder. That left Alice. Had she killed her own children to rid herself of the ties that held her to a life of domesticity? Police felt this was the case, although they couldn't prove murder. „ . , As the months passed, investigators never relented in their efforts to get the goods on Alice Crimmins. Undercover officers became friendly with Alice's acquaintances. Her phone was tapped for two years. The dogged policé work paid off. Finally, they felt they had enough to bring Alice to trial. In 1967, she was arrested and charged with Missy's murder. Mrs. Sophie Earomirski, who lived in Alice's building, wrote to the police. She stated it was extremely hot the night the children disappeared. She had difficulty sleeping. To pass the time, she stared out her open third- floor apartment window to the street below. She distinctly saw a man and a woman. The woman had a bundle under one arm and was holding on to a walking child with the other. A dog was trailing the group. As Mrs. Earomirski watched, the man took the. bundle and tossed it into the trunk of a parked car. She heard the woman say, "My God, don't do that to her." They then got into the car and drove away. Mrs. Earomirski swore from the witness witness stand that the woman she had observed was Alice Crimmins. "Joseph Rorech, a Long Island 1 contractor who had steadily _ 1 dated Alice, testified she had, in Xj a moment of weakness, told him she had killed her daughter and had "agreed" to the death of her son. The jury obviously believed the prosecution witnesses, who had nothing nothing to gain by testifying against Alice. They found her guilty of manslaughter. manslaughter. Alice was sentenced to from five to twenty years imprisonment. Her attorneys launched a successful appeal based on the fact that . three members of the jury had unofficially Visited the murder scene. . In 1971, Alice was again found guilty of manslaughter in the case of hèr daughter, Missy. In addition, she was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of her son. A former lover provided provided the motive for the double murder when he revealed Alice had once told him she would rather kill the children children than give them up to her husband. When Alice heard the vérdict, she screamed, "Oh my God, how could they do it?" Then she burst into tears. She was again sentenced to from five to 20 years for the manslaughter of her daughter and, in addition, was sentenced sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of her son. Her accomplice in the murder of her children has never been identified. Alice Crimmins has long since been paroled from prison.