insisted the guy drop it.
“There was respect there for Joe. Joe never went out and looked for trouble. But let me tell you something: if you shit on Joey Fremut’s front lawn, you’d end up eating your own shit. He didn’t run from trouble. And if you brought it to him, well, you had better be ready.”
The ED-MCS now had a key suspect. Still, what was Fremut’s connection to Buzz? Deep River, although it wasn’t too far from Old Lyme, wasn’t exactly part of Buzz’s stomping grounds. Besides working in town at Pettipaug Manor for a few months, Buzz had rarely gone into Deep River.
Could Buzz have screwed over Fremut on some unpaid vehicle repair bills, or maybe a bad drug deal? Fremut, it was soon learned, had been dealing cocaine; plus, the drug-deal-gone-bad theory was on the ED-MCS’s shortlist of possible motives. Furthermore, how did Mark Despres, a second name White had given the ED-MCS, fit into things? Despres, a local man, had known Joe Fremut for about twenty-five years and had worked for him at Fremut Texaco. Catherine White said Despres worked as a used-car salesman—at least that was his job title. But Turner and Graham soon learned that Depres also had a few side businesses. Not only was Despres a paid confidential informant for the state police, but he, too, sold cocaine.
Despres usually dealt drugs, many claimed, out of a local bar in Ivoryton and hung around with Fremut at the Texaco station. In a sense, selling used cars was a front.
So how did Catherine White find out that her boyfriend, Joe Fremut, with whom she said she’d been living for some time now, and his best friend, Mark Despres, killed Buzz? Where was White getting her information? And why would two tough guys who had no connection to Buzz want him dead, anyway?
Detective Pete Cleary drove over to Fremut Texaco with another detective on May 26. He hoped Fremut could give him a few answers.
Fremut immediately turned over on Despres.
At a car auction in January, Fremut explained, he saw Despres wearing an “odd-looking ring and pendant necklace,” so he asked him about it.
“It has something to do with Satan,” Despres said. “Anything can be done for a price. I know people that would beat up, break legs or kill someone.”
A few weeks later, Fremut said, Despres told him he had been offered between $5,000 and $10,000 to “take care of someone.”
Then Fremut explained the mechanics of the contract and how Despres had shown him several guns—including a .38. He said after he’d heard that someone had been killed on the connector in East Lyme, he remembered that Despres had told him the contract was for a guy from East Lyme.
One and one made two.
“It was back in February,” Catherine White explained to John Turner. “While I was at Fremut Texaco, on or about the last week of February, I overheard Joe and Mark talking about how Mark was following a guy around but never had the opportune moment to ‘do him’ because someone was always around.”
Turner was astonished, but at the same time elated. From a source, cops listen for details of a particular crime that haven’t been reported in the newspapers—details that only someone who had inside information about the crime could know.
White, it was easy to tell right away, appeared to have known more than the local reporters covering the case.
“I heard Joe tell Mark that he should continue following the guy around, and the moment will present itself.”
Joe Fremut, Turner learned next, had even sold Despres out to White at one point.
“Later that evening,” White continued, “Joe told me that Mark had picked up a contract for eight thousand dollars to ‘do this guy.’”
It was obvious that Fremut and Despres hadn’t read any how-to books on murder, and they probably had never killed anyone before. Any armchair criminalist knows the first rule of getting away with murder: never tell anybody what you’re about to do. From what White was saying, it
“There was respect there for Joe. Joe never went out and looked for trouble. But let me tell you something: if you shit on Joey Fremut’s front lawn, you’d end up eating your own shit. He didn’t run from trouble. And if you brought it to him, well, you had better be ready.”
The ED-MCS now had a key suspect. Still, what was Fremut’s connection to Buzz? Deep River, although it wasn’t too far from Old Lyme, wasn’t exactly part of Buzz’s stomping grounds. Besides working in town at Pettipaug Manor for a few months, Buzz had rarely gone into Deep River.
Could Buzz have screwed over Fremut on some unpaid vehicle repair bills, or maybe a bad drug deal? Fremut, it was soon learned, had been dealing cocaine; plus, the drug-deal-gone-bad theory was on the ED-MCS’s shortlist of possible motives. Furthermore, how did Mark Despres, a second name White had given the ED-MCS, fit into things? Despres, a local man, had known Joe Fremut for about twenty-five years and had worked for him at Fremut Texaco. Catherine White said Despres worked as a used-car salesman—at least that was his job title. But Turner and Graham soon learned that Depres also had a few side businesses. Not only was Despres a paid confidential informant for the state police, but he, too, sold cocaine.
Despres usually dealt drugs, many claimed, out of a local bar in Ivoryton and hung around with Fremut at the Texaco station. In a sense, selling used cars was a front.
So how did Catherine White find out that her boyfriend, Joe Fremut, with whom she said she’d been living for some time now, and his best friend, Mark Despres, killed Buzz? Where was White getting her information? And why would two tough guys who had no connection to Buzz want him dead, anyway?
Detective Pete Cleary drove over to Fremut Texaco with another detective on May 26. He hoped Fremut could give him a few answers.
Fremut immediately turned over on Despres.
At a car auction in January, Fremut explained, he saw Despres wearing an “odd-looking ring and pendant necklace,” so he asked him about it.
“It has something to do with Satan,” Despres said. “Anything can be done for a price. I know people that would beat up, break legs or kill someone.”
A few weeks later, Fremut said, Despres told him he had been offered between $5,000 and $10,000 to “take care of someone.”
Then Fremut explained the mechanics of the contract and how Despres had shown him several guns—including a .38. He said after he’d heard that someone had been killed on the connector in East Lyme, he remembered that Despres had told him the contract was for a guy from East Lyme.
One and one made two.
“It was back in February,” Catherine White explained to John Turner. “While I was at Fremut Texaco, on or about the last week of February, I overheard Joe and Mark talking about how Mark was following a guy around but never had the opportune moment to ‘do him’ because someone was always around.”
Turner was astonished, but at the same time elated. From a source, cops listen for details of a particular crime that haven’t been reported in the newspapers—details that only someone who had inside information about the crime could know.
White, it was easy to tell right away, appeared to have known more than the local reporters covering the case.
“I heard Joe tell Mark that he should continue following the guy around, and the moment will present itself.”
Joe Fremut, Turner learned next, had even sold Despres out to White at one point.
“Later that evening,” White continued, “Joe told me that Mark had picked up a contract for eight thousand dollars to ‘do this guy.’”
It was obvious that Fremut and Despres hadn’t read any how-to books on murder, and they probably had never killed anyone before. Any armchair criminalist knows the first rule of getting away with murder: never tell anybody what you’re about to do. From what White was saying, it
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