Mrs. RICH. That element, if what my husband had told me was true,
could have involved him a lot deeper than I suspected. And quite
frankly I am not stupid enough, shall we say, to believe if I ever
went to the authorities and that element was involved that I would
ever live to tell a second story. And if my suppositions were true as
to who the man’s identity really is—a combination of fear for myself
and protecting my husband. And at that time I thought, I suppose many
citizens do, well, let the next fellow do it, they will catch them
eventually. I chose to close my eyes.
Mr. GRIFFIN. You still have the fear of that element?
Mrs. RICH. No; I do not.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Why is that?
Mrs. RICH. Well, since then I have become involved more extensively or
intensively in police work—and I don’t know—perhaps I have got some
sense in my head. I am just not. I was told to tell you this—by the
way, I had better bring it in now—I don’t know if it has any direct
result on this or not—but I was advised by Mr. Sweeny from the Secret
Service and Mr. Fahety from the FBI to tell you of this. A week——
Mr. HUBERT. When did Mr. Sweeny and Mr. Fahety tell you what you are
about to tell us?
Mrs. RICH. Fahety said it on Monday—Sweeny said it on Monday.
Mr. HUBERT. Last Monday?
Mrs. RICH. Yesterday. And Fahety told me Friday.
Mr. HUBERT. Where?
Mrs. RICH. On the phone, when I talked to the FBI and the Secret
Service, respectively.
Mr. HUBERT. You did?
Mrs. RICH. Yes.
Mr. HUBERT. They called you?
Mrs. RICH. Yes.
Mr. HUBERT. What did they tell you?
Mrs. RICH. Well, the FBI had called me to advise me of my receiving
this letter, because Kennett had called them. And Sweeny called me to
advise me of my tickets and transportation.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Who called the FBI?
Mrs. RICH. Rod Kennett had opened the letter from you people. And at
this time——
Mr. HUBERT. Tell us what they advised you.
Mrs. RICH. They advised me to tell you what I am about to tell you. A
week ago last Saturday night I got home about 10:30, my brother-in-law
had a stroke——
Mr. HUBERT. Let’s get the date of that.
Mrs. RICH. That would be a week ago last Saturday.
Mr. HUBERT. Last Saturday was the 30th—the 23d of May.
Mrs. RICH. I believe so.
Mr. HUBERT. All right.
Mrs. RICH. About 10:30 at night I got home. And some phone calls
started. Again, let me say this may not or it may have a bearing
on this. My life was directly threatened. I called the Hanover
police—something I very seldom will do. But I panicked. They also
phoned my husband’s office. He was working that night on dispatch at
the cab company. They threatened my life with him. Sometimes they
would call and say something, sometimes just hang up, sometimes just
giggle. But they directly threatened my life. I thought perhaps it
was something to do with various police organization work I had done,
somebody had a grudge or something, or a crank, or anything. The phone
calls stopped and they started again. I called the police department
again. But then I was in hysterics.
Last Thursday I was on my way from my home up to North Attleboro, Mass.
For approximately 30 miles I was followed, and subsequently, up until
last Sunday I have had a tail on me. I notified the Mansfield police.
They got the registration number and the name of the fellow following
me. And he could give no reason why he was almost 60 or 70 miles from
where he lived.
Mr. HUBERT. And the Mansfield police have a record of that?
Mrs. RICH. That is correct. Mansfield, Mass.