Alice Crimmins was tried and convicted for the murders of her children. She proclaimed her innocence throughout the trials that focused mostly on her sex life. Did she kill little Eddie and Missy or were their deaths caused by someone else and pinned on Alice, because she lived a life that wasn’t seen as appropriate for a woman in the 60s?
July 13th and 14th, 1965
Around midnight on the night of July 13th, 1965, 5-year-old Eddie Crimmins, Jr. and his 4-year-old sister Alice Marie Crimmins (known as “Missy”) were asleep in their room when their mother, Alice checked on them for the last time. When Alice Crimmins opened the bedroom door the next morning, the children were no longer in their beds. Panicked, Alice called her estranged husband, Eddie, and accused him of kidnapping them from her apartment. Eddie told her that he hadn’t taken the kids. Alice remembered closing the window the night before when she was putting the kids to bed, but it was open now.
She remembered because there had been a hole in the screen. She was going to replace their torn screen with the screen from her bedroom window. However, the screen didn’t fit and instead of completely bolting the torn screen back in place, she just placed it in the window to deal with the next day. That screen was now leaning against the wall beneath the window. Eddie rushed to the Queens apartment and called the police when he arrived. Police were at the apartment within minutes and by 11 am, the search for the children was in full swing.
Within an hour, a young boy found Missy’s body in a vacant lot on 162nd Street. It was 8 blocks from her bedroom. The search for Eddie ramped up. If Missy was already dead, things didn’t look good for her brother. Then on July 19th, a man and his son were walking when they came across the body of Eddie covered in by a blanket on an embankment off the Van Wyck Expressway. He was 1 mile from his home. After the children’s bodies were found and the funerals were over, the police leaned hard on Alice Crimmins. They would monitor, follow, and harass her for 2 years before finally arresting her on September 11, 1967.
Alice Crimmins
Not much is known of Alice Burke (Crimmins) as a child. She was born in 1936 and grew up in the Bronx with her parents in their middle-class Irish Catholic life. She attended Catholic school and was thought of as a “good Catholic girl.” And as a “good Catholic girl” in the 50s, 19-year-old Alice was living in her parents’ house and maintaining her purity by waiting until marriage to have sex. So, as was the custom, the only way out of her parents’ house without looking like a “tramp” was to get married and move in with her husband.
Eddie Crimmins was Alice’s boyfriend – 6-feet tall with sandy-brown hair he was described as “ruggedly handsome” – and in 1959 they married and within 3 years, they had 2 kids. First, came Edmund “Eddie” Crimmins Jr. and a year later they had a daughter, Alice Marie or “Missy.” They were well-behaved and “cheery.” Everyone said that the two had no sibling rivalry and that Eddie was protective of “My Missy!” Missy was a “girly girl.” Once while playing with her dolls, another kid pulled the hair out of the doll’s head. Eddie charged at the little boy who had, in essence, hurt Missy. He yelled at the little boy, “Don’t you ever touch My Missy!”
After the birth of Missy, Alice decided that she was done having children despite their Catholic-nonbirth-control-using upbringings. Eddie was pissed when he found birth control devices in her purse. They moved from the Bronx to Queens. Considered a step up from the Bronx, their new “small-town” was not a fan of Alice. Their ground-level apartment was in an area that was full of Irish, Italian, and Jewish families who felt that Alice was a “snotty bitch,” a “drunk,” and a “nymphomaniac.” They gossiped about her non-stop, but she was unfazed.
Alice and Eddie had been madly in love at the beginning of their relationship, but as time went on, their marriage began to deteriorate. Eddie worked long hours in his job as an airplane mechanic on the late shift and had begun drinking more and spending more of his off time with the boys at the bar. Leaving Alice home alone with 2 small children. Alice resented that her husband was not only drinking and staying out late but had also put on weight. Alice wasn’t getting attention from her husband so…she looked elsewhere.
Growing up, Alice had struggled with severe acne and now had significant scarring on her face. Because of this, Alice only truly felt comfortable when she was fully made-up, her blue-eyes lined heavily with black-eyeliner, and her red hair teased for Jesus. Alice dressed in revealing clothes and high heels and made herself available to the men of New York. Their contentious marriage finally hit the skids in 1965 when they separated and a child custody battle began on June 22, 1965, when Eddie filed for full custody.
Eddie alleged that immediately after they separated Alice “began to indulge herself openly and brazenly in sex as she had done furtively before the separation” and that she “entertains, one at a time, a stream of men sharing herself and her bedroom until she and her paramour of the evening are completely spent. The following morning, the children awake to see a strange man in the house.”
Alice’s mom even wrote up an affidavit in Eddie’s defense calling her own daughter “mentally ill” and Eddie a “good man” who would “take good care of the children.” Then she called the children “innocent victims of a sick mind” referring to Alice. However, while Alice’s mom was singing Eddie’s praise, she was unaware of his one-man stakeout surveillance missions on Alice. Since the separation, Eddie had spent hours listening to Alice’s phone calls and the events that took place in her bedroom from the tap he’d put on her phone and the microphone in her bedroom. He even occasionally listened from Alice’s own basement and once interrupted Alice and a waiter named Carl Andrade. Eddie burst into her bedroom and caught the naked lovebirds. This was the breaking point for Alice; she filed for divorce.
Eddie claimed that his reconnaissance was in an attempt to obtain incriminating evidence on Alice for the custody case. Alice claimed that Eddie admitted to her that he had exposed himself to little girls in a park. Their strange and toxic relationship and custody battle all built up to the night of July 13th, 1965.
July 13th, 1965
Alice and Eddie had spent their day separately, but still orbiting each other. Eddie woke early that Tuesday to play golf. After playing the course, he spent time in the clubhouse with a friend drinking beer and watching the Mets on TV and left around 2 pm. Then he had to check on Alice so he went to see if Alice was spending time with one of her side pieces, Joseph Roresh “Joe.”
Joe was described as tall, muscular, and chiseled with dark, wavy hair that he combed straight back. He was also less flatteringly said to be a “high-rolling, heavy-drinking” fella who was loud and a compulsive womanizer. Joe was also a “devout” Roman Catholic who was married with 7 kids. Joe was also in big-time financial trouble. He had deals that were floundering, and he was drowning in debt. His wife was selling encyclopedias door to door to supplement their income, but Joe was still writing rubber checks to his creditors and using aliases to dodge creditors and police alike.
Alice was actually picnicking with the kids in Kissena Park 6 blocks away from their apartment. She claimed they were there from about 2:30 pm to about 4:30 pm. Eddie got home around 5 pm and watched TV. Around this same time, 2 gas station attendants recalled seeing Alice getting gas. After their picnic and a stop for gas, Alice and the kids went by Sever’s delicatessen in their neighborhood to pick up food for dinner. She bought a package of frozen veal, a can of string beans, and a bottle of soda.
Once at home, Alice called her attorney, Michael LaPenna who had been recommended by her millionaire highway contractor boyfriend Anthony “Tony” Grace who was in his 50s with a “pencil-thin mustache” and a diamond pinky ring. Tony was short and stocky and wore silk suits. Alice and LaPenna talked about the custody hearing that was scheduled for a week from now. They discussed the problem with the former nanny, Evelyn Linder Atkins.
Evelyn had babysat for the Crimmins kids once while Alice went to a party on Tony Grace’s yacht. But Alice didn’t come home when she was supposed to. She ended up calling Evelyn from the yacht with a story that Tony and his friends had playfully locked her and another guy’s girlfriend on the yacht and sailed off. Evelyn called Eddie and told him Alice had abandoned the kids. Eddie used this against Alice and told her she wasn’t fit to take care of the kids. Now, Evelyn was claiming Alice owed her $600 and was willing to testify against her at the child custody hearing if she wasn’t paid. Alice’s attorney was not hopeful that Alice would win this case.
After she got off the phone with LaPenna, Alice fed the kids dinner (around 7:30 pm,) and then took them for a car ride. She was trying to locate Eddie’s new apartment. She knew Eddie had bugged her phone, and she wanted to get some more damaging information on him too. But after more than an hour of driving and the sun setting, Alice hadn’t found the apartment and headed home. She got the kids ready for bed around 9 pm and had them say their prayers. Alice wanted to repair the screen on the kids’ window so she brought in her own bedroom window screen to try and switch them out, but hers didn’t fit. She replaced the original screen, but without securing it.
After the kids were tucked in, she cleaned up the house. There was an inspection by city workers expected in regards to the custody case, so she threw out wine and liquor bottles. By 10:30 pm she flopped onto the couch to watch TV and fret about the fact that Tony hadn’t called her back. She ended up calling him at a bar in the Bronx.
Around 11 pm, Eddie drove to a fast food stand. He bought a pizza and a large Pepsi and headed back home, but Alice hadn’t been stalked all day, so he stopped off at a bar for some gin and tonics until about 2:45 am. Then he headed over to Alice’s. He parked in the lot that gave him a view to her bedroom window. Lights were on in her living room and bedroom according to Eddie.
Alice was now on the phone with another former beau, Joe Roresh. She had met him in January of 1964 when she was working as a cocktail waitress at the Bourbon House bar. Tonight he asked her to join him at a bar on Long Island, but she brushed him off and told him she couldn’t get a babysitter at this time of night and on such short notice. They said goodbye and Alice turned back to the TV. Around midnight, Alice took Eddie to the bathroom, but she couldn’t get Missy to wake up so she left her sleeping.
Once the midnight bathroom trip was over, Alice latched the hook and eye lock back. The latch was reportedly in place on the outside of the kids’ bedroom door to keep Eddie (who had been described in one article as “chubby”) from raiding the fridge. Alice took her dog, Brandy, for a walk and sat out on the front stoop for a bit. Meanwhile, Eddie went home and called her to talk about the situation with their former nanny. She got mad and hung up so Eddie spent the rest of the night/early morning watching a movie on TV and reading. He was asleep by 4 am on July 14th. After the phone call, Alice needed some time to calm down so she took Brandy for another walk. Then she took a bath and was in bed, asleep by 3:30-4:00 am.
Disappearance - July 14th
Alice woke about 5 hours later at 9 am and released the lock on the kids’ room. Expecting to find her son and daughter awake and ready for breakfast, Alice was surprised when she entered the empty room. After calling Eddie and him coming over and calling the police, the Crimmins’ were questioned and the house was searched and investigated.
The first detective on the scene was Gerald “Jerry” Piering and from the beginning, Jerry saw this case as his stairway to a promotion. Reported as having “more enthusiasm than expertise” and “short with feral ambition,” Detective Piering saw Alice and from that moment had no further suspects. He felt like she didn’t look like an anxious mother whose kids were missing. The detective was in his 30s and a father of 6 kids himself, so he knows what a mother is supposed to look like.
Alice was a pretty woman in her 20s and when Piering got to her apartment on July 14th, she was fully made-up and dressed in “hip-hugging toreador slacks” with a flowery blouse and white high heels. And of course her, “Thank you for the Country Music Award” hair. Add to this the lack of tears being shed and her fate was sealed in Piering’s eyes. Piering was updated on the background of Eddie and Alice and then separated them for questioning telling another detective, Det. George Martin – Piering’s “easygoing” partner, “She looks like a cold bitch to me. You take the husband, I’ll take the bitch.”
Piering took Alice to her bedroom where, along with the birth control, he noticed something poking out from under the bed that turned out to be an overnight bag full of greeting cards and invitations from the upper echelons of New York society. People like the mayor, Robert Wagner and even Senator Robert Kennedy all writing to “Rusty” or inviting her to parties. Tony Grace had introduced her to these big wigs and “Rusty” had apparently made a good impression. (Enough of an impression to earn a little nickname.)
Also in the apartment, Piering noticed the empty bottles of alcohol in the trash and a “Little Black Book” where the men outnumbered the women in a ratio reported as 4:1. Little black books were fine for bachelors, but not for moms. Piering questioned Alice about the events on July 13th and she told him everything she’d done with the kids while Eddie told his side of July 13th to Detective Martin.
After his questioning of Alice, Piering went to the kids’ room. In the room, he noticed that the bureau under the window had a coating of dust on top of it. In his brain he was convinced that this meant that the kids couldn’t have gone out the window since they would have had to go over the bureau and thus would have removed dust. He even recalled moving a lamp on the bureau and seeing a circle left in the dust.
However, there were issues with Piering’s account of the state of the bureau. First being that the lamp didn’t have a circle base. It had a tripod base and that was confirmed by Alice, her brother John and others who’d been in the room. More than that, the “dust” that Piering saw was actually fingerprinting dust that had been used on the bureau before he entered. Not to mention that the night before, Alice admitted that she had tried to replace the screen meaning she would have had to lean over the bureau – probably wiping any dust that had been there off long before the kids disappeared.
But Piering didn’t even note this dust or circle from the lamp in his first report. This lack of documentation would be a recurring theme in Piering’s investigation. He also later claimed that there had been an empty box of frozen manicotti in the trash can and a plate of leftover manicotti in the fridge, but this was also not in his original report.
Missy
Then, Missy’s body was found around 11 am in a vacant lot by a young boy. She was lying on her side dressed only in a white t-shirt and yellow panties, but her blue flowery pajama top was tied tightly around her neck. Her eyes red from the strangulation. Detective Piering was told of the discovery and decided to use this opportunity to “test” Alice. Instead of telling her and Eddie right away, she was shuttled to the vacant lot and without warning was placed directly in front of her dead 4-year-old daughter.
Alice said, “It’s Missy!” and fainted. She was caught by Det. Piering, who considered this a “theatrical” reaction. Alice was assisted back to the police cruiser and driven home. Piering noted that Alice didn’t cry the whole drive back, but instead spent the drive in a kind of daze. Staring straight ahead and answering questions in a “flat expressionless tone.” As soon as they were back at the apartment with the media showing up in droves having caught wind of the case with their cameras flashing in her face, Alice’s tears began to flow. This cemented Piering’s feelings about Alice and he felt like she was faking grief. But perhaps the flashing lights snapped her out of her shock and that’s when the tears came?
The following morning, the detectives came back and were made to wait while Alice put on her make-up. Author Ken Gross wrote in The Alice Crimmins Case that things like this enraged the police and the public as a whole because here was “a woman who was supposed to be in the ultimate stages of grief and anxiety (her son was still missing) was more concerned about appearance.”
Eddie was still missing and unfortunately, his little body was found the following Monday by a man and his son. Eddie was covered in a blanket and was, by now, too badly decomposed to determine how he died. His body had been gnawed on by rats and insects and been outside for possibly almost a week. Eddie was found a mile from home near the ground of the New York World’s Fair that was currently in progress.
Little Eddie and Missy were buried on the same day in the same plot and Alice and Eddie were left to try and move forward. But the police always came back to Alice in their “investigation.” Alice and Eddie even reconciled and fell back together for a while after the death of their children. But Alice still didn’t “look” like a grieving mother. She spent many nights in bars and clubs drinking and dancing.
It was noted that this could be a coping mechanism. One article suggested that Alice had previously used “pleasures of the flesh” to fill the void of loneliness when Eddie wasn’t showing her attention, perhaps she was doing the same to fill the void of grief? The make-up and hair were also written about in the same light. Ken Gross wrote, “It was an important part of her, the make up. Later it would be misunderstood, dismissed as cold vanity. But the adolescent acne of her well-scrubbed Catholic girlhood had burrowed into her permanent feelings of inferiority. It would take her the better part of an hour, but that great affliction of her acne-scarred complexion would be disguised with expert care.”
Alice’s fainting at the scene of Missy’s body was another thing that Piering was counting against her, but apparently Alice had a tendency to wilt in situations of extreme emotions and it will be seen more throughout this case. While investigating Alice, the police talked to Tony Grace and other men in her little black book. They also looked at a series of burglaries in the neighborhood by the “Pants Burglar” who would break into houses and steal men’s pants, but none were investigated with the fervor they used on Alice.
In December of 1965, the police administered sodium pentothal “truth tests” on Joe Roresh and were convinced that he wasn’t involved, so they recruited him. They wanted to use Joe as a covert op and wire him up for conversations with Alice. However, nothing of substance was ever recorded. Eddie started out being cooperative with the investigation and agreed to take a polygraph. He even convinced Alice to take one. While she originally agreed and answered the preliminary questions where they established a baseline, she refused to continue with the test after that.
Alice and Eddie moved to a new 3-bedroom apartment in Queens and the police basically moved with them. They placed microphones in the apartment, tapped the phones, and monitored the feeds 24 hours a day, 7 days a week from the hospital pharmacy nearby. There was still nothing incriminating, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t get a show. The police listening in got to hear all of Alice’s extra-marital escapades. Alice even seemed to know the police were listening in because she would answer the phone and say “Drop dead, you guys.”
All the sex they were hearing just built the police’s mental case that Alice was guilty and that if she was this immoral, of course she could kill her kids. Then the police started interfering overtly in her life. They would hear Alice having sex with Joe and would call up Eddie. Eddie would call Alice who would deny it and claim she was alone. The police flattened Joe’s tires in order to prevent him from leaving and almost ensuring that he and Eddie would run into each other. However, Joe was able to get his car towed before Eddie made it home.
Alice tried to get jobs. Once, she was working for a man who she subsequently moved in with for a minute, but the police contacted the man’s wife who came to the apartment. The police helped her destroy Alice’s clothing. When she would get jobs under her maiden name, Alice Burke, the police would out her to her employers as Alice Crimmins who killed her kids. During this investigation, the case would go in front of multiple grand juries to determine if they could file charges against Alice. The first and second grand jury trials didn’t bring an indictment, but the detectives didn’t let that stop them in their pursuit of Alice Crimmins. It wasn’t until a 3rd grand jury trial in September of 1967 (2 years after the deaths of Eddie and Missy) when the prosecution presented a surprise witness that they would get their indictment.
Surprise Witness
The surprise witness was originally anonymous, but the police ferreted her out and found her name and address. Sophie Earomirski was a neighbor of Alice’s in 1965 and on November 30, 1966, she anonymously wrote a letter to the district attorney claiming that she had been having trouble sleeping that July night and looked out her window to see a man, a woman, a child, and a bundle of something wrapped up in a blanket.
It was signed, “A Reader.”
To find out who “A Reader” was, the police took the descriptions from the letter and found the apartments that would see that specific location. Then they removed the ones with AC units in the windows and narrowed it down to about 39 apartments. From the leftover apartments, they obtained handwriting samples and figured out the letter was written by Sophie Earomirski. Sophie ID’d Alice as the woman she saw that night and then testified at the third grand jury hearing.
Sophie was described as a middle-aged, heavy set blonde who suffered from insomnia. After being located, Sophie’s original story she wrote got some new details. She would tell the detectives that she now remembers the woman saying “My God, don’t throw her like that.” This testimony was what turned the tables and got the prosecutors the indictment they wanted. Alice was charged with the murder of Missy because, based on the story from Sophie, it was “reasonable” to think the blankets held the body of Missy. However, because the decomposition made it impossible to tell how Eddie died, they didn’t bring charges against Alice for his death…yet.
Alice’s trial began May 9, 1968 in the Queens County Criminal Court Building and the media was right there claiming that she sacrificed her children because she hated Eddie, or that she got rid of her kids so she was no longer trapped and could live her life. Alice was being tried in the media for her lifestyle and that won’t change in the courtroom.
When the trial began, the prosecution questioned the medical examiner Dr. Milton Helpern, who testified that based on the amount of food that was in Missy’s stomach at autopsy, he determined that she had eaten less than 2 hours before she died. So, if Alice was the last one to feed them, Missy would have been dead before 12 am. The suggestion being that she killed them before the midnight bathroom trip and thus lied about that fact.
While Dr. Helpern claimed that Missy died no more than 2 hours after eating (Alice said dinner was at about 7:30 pm), another medical examiner, Dr. Richard Grimes testified to Missy’s time of death based on her deep tissue temperatures. His assertion was that Missy had died at least 6 to 12 hours before she was discovered. (So about…between 11 pm and 5 am on July 13/14.)
Dr. Helpern and Dr. Grimes both testified that on autopsy, Missy’s last meal consisted of something like macaroni and there was no meat (veal) in her stomach. (In fact, they would later testify that neither child had veal in their stomachs.) This suggested that the kids either never ate veal or that Missy “might have had another meal at some unknown time and unknown place considerably after the one taken at home.” (quote by the medical examiner Dr, Richard Grimes)
This was something that Piering leaned on with his – never noted or saved – manicotti box. He suggested that the kids never ate veal, but that Alice fed them manicotti and then murdered them. Dr. Grimes testified, “I saw the body of a girl who appeared to be about 5 years of age…She was clad in a cotton undershirt, a pair of yellow panties — “ At this, Alice yelled, “NO!” and sobbed. This would not be the last time Alice was disruptive. Dr. Grimes continued, “Around the little girl’s face there was a cloth tie. The loose ends of the tie appeared to be the arm of some type of garment. The tie was over the mouth of the child, the knot encircling the neck, and the tie was rather loose –”
Again, Alice wailed and sobbed.
Then, Joe Roresh testified against Alice after being offered immunity for all crimes except adultery and murder. He made it very clear that he no longer had any loyalty to Alice, testifying that she had told him that she didn’t want Eddie to have the kids. More damningly, he told the court that Alice had said she’d rather see the kids dead than with Eddie. Joe testified that he had talked with her in a motel and she was sobbing and saying that the children “will understand, they know it was for the best.” Then he said that Alice continued sobbing while saying, “Joseph, please forgive me, I killed her!” This testimony struck a nerve with Alice. She leapt up crying and screaming, “Joseph! How could you do this? This is not true! Joseph…you, of all people! Oh my God!”
Mrs. Sophie Earomirski’s testimony would step on many more of Alice’s nerves and be very damaging to the defense. Sophie was very over the top in her story and added details she hadn’t previously mentioned like the pregnant dog that was with the people she saw. It turns out that Brandy, the dog, had been pregnant that night, but no one had known until about a week later when she gave birth to a single puppy. Alice and her neighbors had all been surprised by the birth because no one knew, and Brandy hadn’t appeared pregnant. During Sophie’s testimony, Alice yelled at her, “You liar! You liar! You Liar!”
The defense had to break apart the testimony of Sophie and make her seem less credible. However, they had been hindered by the judge refusing to allow an affidavit from Dr. Louis Berg that stated that Sophie Earomirski had suffered permanent brain damage from head injury she had suffered at the World’s Fair. The defense attorney was able to question her about 2 suicide attempts. She claimed that she had just put her head in the oven to see how dinner was coming along. Sophie was well-received in the courtroom despite the defense’s attempts to debunk her. She even had people laughing and applauding! When she stepped down from the stand, she threw her hands up like a boxer who just won a fight.
Then the defense decided that they were going to put Alice on the stand in order to show the court that she wasn’t this soulless monster. When the attorney’s questions came to the kids, Alice cracked. She started trembling and eventually whispered to the judge that she couldn’t keep going. The judge showed mercy and called for recess. However, Alice fainted during the recess and the court had to continue the recess to the next day. Alice was able to pull herself together for the next day and come back to the stand to finish her testimony that vehemently denied the claims brought to the court by Joe.
However, by calling Alice to the stand, the defense had basically given the prosecution (ADA James Mosley and his assistant Anthony Lombardino) a hard on because now they could focus all their energy on Alice’s love life and make her look as slutty as they possibly could. nAccording to New York law at the time, the prosecution could bring up literally anything that might look bad against the defendant’s character “even if there was no direct connection to the issues on trial.”
They brought up Carl Andrade and Eddie’s interruption of their naked time, a little “tryst” with a buyer at the World’s Fair, a 1964 cruise with Tony Grace to the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, and they brought up a time that Alice was swimming nude in Joe’s pool.
- Prosecutor Anthony Lombardino: What were you wearing when you swam in Joe Roresh’s pool?
- Alice: One time, a bathing suit; one time, no bathing suit
- Lombardino: And where were your children while you were swimming in Joe Roresh’s pool without a bathing suit?
- Alice: They were dead.
His biggest jab was in bringing up Alice having sex with the kids’ barber in the back of a car behind the barbershop. Alice held it together and admitted that she went on 10 dates with the barber, but she wasn’t able to recall sex in the back of a car. Lombardino kept going with her paramours until the judge finally made him stop. Alice stepped down on wobbly legs, but later, one juror, Sam Ehrlich would say “A tramp like that is capable of anything.”
The prosecution, throughout all the grand juries and investigations and jury trials, were never able to provide a motive that was reasonable. It was rumored that Alice had always kind of disliked Missy for some reason, and that Alice got angry and killed her and then Eddie because he would have likely witnessed the murder. But there was never any forensic evidence that linked her to their murders and Alice was under constant surveillance when Eddie’s body was dumped.
The children didn’t seem to get in the way of her social/love life and if they had, she could have surrendered custody to Eddie. For that matter, if the custody battle was the motive, Eddie would have been just as likely a suspect as Alice. One of the medical examiners even referred to Eddie as “pathologically curious” about the kids’ injuries. Eddie had been disregarded, because he was seen as “not too bright” and was “incapable of the complexities involved in kidnapping and murdering children.”
This trial lasted 13 days and on Monday, May 27th, the jury decided that Alice was guilty of manslaughter in the first degree. It was reported that the shock of the verdict was so much that Alice lapsed into a coma for 2 weeks and stayed in the jail hospital. At sentencing, Alice continued to proclaim her innocence and made an angry and accusatory statement to the judge saying, “You don’t care who killed my children. You want to close your books. You don’t give a damn who killed my kids.” He was unmoved and sentenced her to 5 to 20 years. Alice was sent to the New York State Prison for Women in Bedford Hills, New York.
Appeal and Retrial
In December of 1969, Alice’s case went to the Appellate Division of New York Supreme Court who ordered a new trial. This decision came about when it was discovered that 3 of the jurors (including judgemental Sam Ehrlich) from the previous trial had gone on their own, unapproved, really early morning field trip to the scene of Sophie’s story so that they could see if she could have seen everything she claimed to see at 2 in the morning. The Supreme Court ruled “the net effect of the jurors’ visits was that they made themselves secret, untested witnesses not subject to any cross-examination.” The Court of Appeals agreed and ruled in April of 1970 that these field trips were “inherently prejudicial to the defendant” and that this influenced the verdict.
The new trial in 1971 came with a change in characters and charges.
Alice was being charged with Missy’s murder and Eddie’s during this trial. In the first trial, Alice was convicted of “manslaughter,” so they weren’t allowed to try her for a greater crime due to double jeopardy. And despite not having a cause of death for Eddie, the new prosecutor would use the medical examiner to show that Eddie’s murder could be “inferred because of the circumstances” of Missy’s death. The prosecution decided that Anthony Lomdardino was out, and the far more experienced chief of the DA’s office, Thomas Demakos was in. The judge was now George Balbach, and he was not here for the shenanigans of the previous judge’s courtroom. Balbach placed court attendants throughout the court and in corridors to ensure order.
Herbert Lyon was now Alice’s defense attorney and was considered “a leader of Queens’ trial bar.” He and his partner, William M. Erlbaum took the case pro-bono, because they were completely certain that Alice was innocent. His plan was to be more focused on Alice’s grief and what she lost and would not be putting her on the stand to have her love life used against her again. Lyon had also asked for and was granted bail for Alice before the trial because he was confident that the conviction would be overturned. So, Alice had only spent 24 days in jail and was free until this new trial.
The trial started Monday, March 15, 1971 and the public was not as judgemental as they had been in the past. Females were not judged as harshly for their sex lives and Women’s Liberation was a big-damn deal in 1971. During this trial the same iffy characters were called to testify and Alice was just as emotional and vocal as in the first trial. During opening arguments, the prosecution claimed she fed the kids manicotti and Alice yelled, “I did not!” By this point, Alice and Eddie were officially divorced and Eddie testified that he had “no feeling for her really.”
Detective Piering testified that Alice had told him that during the gas station stop, “The children were acting up in the back of the car, and she swung and hit the girl.” Lyon popped up asking for a mistrial, because it was typical for parents to use corporal punishment and this statement from the detective was making prejudicial statements. His motion was denied.
Joe’s testimony was tweaked to better fit the new prosecution’s narrative. Now, when Joe testified that Alice had told him she killed Missy, he also said that she told him she “consented” to the murder of Eddie. Alice yelled out “You miserable, lying worm!”
Sophie testified again to her letter and what she supposedly saw that night and Alice was having her nonsense again. After her first outburst of “You liar! In God’s name, tell the truth!” the gavel was banged and order was called, but Alice wasn’t done. “You liar! You swore to tell the truth up there! Do you know what the truth is? You’re so sick you don’t know how to tell the truth!”
But during this trial, Lyon was able to question Sophie about her mental health and her accident at the World’s Fair. Sophie told him, “There’s nothing to it. I reached down to take my pocketbook from the little bin and a mouse ran up my arm and I fainted.”
- Lyon: “A mouse?”
- Sophie: “Yes, a mouse. You know, a little itty-bitty thing with a tail on it: a mouse.”
Lyon asked about Sophie reporting that the mouse had been yellow, to which Sophie said, “Because upstairs in the gourmet shop they had a giant cheese which all the mice used to eat and the cheese was yellow and the mouse was yellow. Yes, sir.”
Sophie continued to deny her suicide attempts and was flippant about her OD on tranquilizers. She joked that she got her stomach pumped “[a]nd then I went with my husband across the street to a diner and had a hamburger.”
Lyon continued talking to Sophie and questioning her about what she saw and heard that night…
- Lyon: “Were they speaking loud, were they yelling?”
- Sophie: “No, in normal tones.”
- Lyon: “And from 200 feet away you heard them talking in normal tones?”
Another move made by the prosecution was to call another surprise witness despite how hard Lyon objected.
Demakos called a woman named Mrs. Tina Devita who had lived in the same development at the time and told the court that on the night of July 13/14, 1965, she had been driving home with her husband. She testified that while riding by, she looked out the driver’s window from her spot in the passenger seat and saw “people walking, a man carrying a bundle, a woman, a dog and a boy.”
However, the defense wasn’t shaken when they called their own brand new witness. Marvin Weinstein was a salesman from Massapequa, Long Island. Weinstein testified that in the early morning hours of July 14th, he and his family (including him, his daughter, son, and wife) had passed through that area and by Sophie’s window on the way to their car. He had carried his daughter under his arm “like a sack.” Oh…and they had their dog with them. Weinstein stated that she was a pretty fat dog and very likely looked pregnant.
The defense wasn’t done casting reasonable doubt, and Lyon called a jailed gangster named Vincent Colabella to the stand. Colabella had previously admitted to another prisoner that he had been the one that killed Eddie. He later denied that he had made this claim, and on the stand he chuckled as he recanted the confession. Lyon used his closing argument to attempt to discredit Sophie’s statement. He brought out the fact that Sophie had been compelled to write that letter and tell her story, because she had been hearing the voices of the children crying from the grave. Lyon said if the children were crying they were saying, “Let my mother go; you have had her long enough.”
Demakos came to his closing statement to attack Alice’s decision not to take the stand. Saying, “She doesn’t have the courage to stand up here and tell the world she killed her daughter.” Alice shouted out, “Because I didn’t!” Demakos wasn’t fazed and finished up the thought saying, “And the shame and pity of it is that this little boy had to die too.”
The jury began their deliberations after lunch on April 23rd and by 5:45 pm the next day, they had come to a decision. Alice was once again found guilty. This time it was first degree murder of Eddie and manslaughter for Missy. After this 2nd trial was over, Joe told the New York Post, Alice “had to have those children out of the way to avoid the custody proceedings.” Alice spent the next 2 years in prison, but her lawyers were working on her appeal.
In May of 1973, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court once again ruled that the convictions were to be thrown out. They ruled that the state had not proved her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and a new trial was ordered based on the numerous “errors and improprieties” One in specific was the comment made by Demakos about Alice lacking the courage to take the stand and admit to killing Missy. It was explained in one article that this declaration “amounted to an improper assertion that the prosecution knew her to be guilty and in addition, was an improper attack on her refusal to testify.”
Alice was released, but not for long. In February of 1975, the Court of Appeals made the final decision regarding the appeals. While they sustained the dismissal of the murder charge for Eddie, they reversed the granting of a new trial in Missy’s manslaughter case. They agreed that Demakos’ jab at Alice’s refusal to testify violated her constitutional right not to testify or incriminate herself. However, they felt that the error in speech was “harmless” compared to the “weighty evidence of Alice’s guilt.”
The manslaughter conviction for Missy was upheld and Alice was sent back to prison to continue the original 5-20 year sentence. Alice was done appealing and conceded to just serving her time and getting out.
Starting Over Again
In January of 1976, Alice became eligible for a work release program that allowed her to leave the prison on weekdays to work. She had a job as a secretary. In this program, participants were allowed to have every other weekend free. Alice spent those weekends with Anthony Grace. They had actually gotten married in July. In September of 1977, at 37-years-old, Alice was granted parole after spending 30 months in prison and then 9 months of work release.
Alice seemingly vanished from the public eye upon her release. Now, most of the people involved in the Crimmins case are dead, except Alice. Eddie remarried and relocated to Leesburg, Florida where he died in 2012 at age 76. He was buried in the same plot as his children. Sophie Earomirski died in 2009. Joe Roresh continued to struggle with his financial issues and eventually died in 2006. Tony Grace died in 1998 in Westchester in Harrison, New York.
Tony Lombardino is still alive and practicing law (and hopefully not shaming more women for their love lives) and 5 years after he achieved the conviction he was quoted as saying, “I don’t know if she did it. It still seems unlikely. I can’t believe it. I don’t even believe the story I told the jury. I don’t even believe it now.” But then he denied ever saying that.
Alice left New York for Florida as well, but has reportedly been seen in Queens more recently, but nothing solid. She is in her late 80s now and living a quiet life.
