Love, Lies, and Murder Read online

  “To the best of my recollection, it was sometime around nine [P.M.].”

  “Why did you contact him?”

  “To let him know that my wife, Janet, had left.”

  “When had you last talked to your brother before that conversation?”

  “I do not remember. I speak to my brother daily, once or twice.”

  “Had you told your brother that you and your wife had separated?”

  “We hadn’t separated.”

  “During the days before August 15, 1996, did you tell your brother, or had you told your brother, that you were not living in the house, were not staying there overnight?”

  “I had not moved out of my house,” Perry responded. “I had stayed in hotels a few nights.”

  “Was your brother aware of that before August 15, 1996?” Jones asked.

  “I don’t remember.”

  Jones asked Perry whether he had spoken to his brother during the two weeks prior to Janet’s disappearance to inform him that he and Janet were having marital problems at that time, and Perry told him that he had. In response to Jones’s questioning, Perry described their marital problems simply as routine, and that they had had such difficulties on and off throughout their marriage. Jones asked if their marital problems had become worse.

  “There had been times in our marriage where they were equal degrees,” Perry responded.

  “Had you spent other nights in a hotel rather than stay at home?” Jones asked. “Because of your marital difficulties.”

  “Not at all.”

  “Sir?”

  “No.”

  “So, immediately before August 15, 1996, is the first occasion where the problems in your marriage caused you to stay in local hotels, is that correct, rather than stay at home?”

  “Correct.”

  “Tell me what happened on August fifteenth leading up to your claim that Janet walked out or disappeared,” Jones asked.

  Perry explained that he had arrived home from work at approximately 4:00 or 4:30 P.M. that day, and that Janet was at home with their two children while the cabinet workers were completing the repair work that Janet had requested. Jones then wanted to know what Janet had been wearing when Perry arrived home that day.

  “I don’t remember,” Perry responded.

  “Was she wearing blue jeans? Was she wearing a dress? Was she dressed up?” Jones asked.

  “Mr. Jones, I don’t remember.”

  “Okay. You have no idea at all. Is that what you’re claiming?”

  “That’s correct,” Perry responded. “As of today I don’t remember.”

  “Did she ever change clothes before you claim she left on August fifteenth? From the time you arrived home that day.”

  “I believe she did. I do remember that I noted that there was a change, but I don’t remember exactly what it was,” Perry said.

  “So you don’t remember if she changed from a dress to casual clothes or from casual clothes to a dress? That’s just blocked out of your mind. Is that correct?”

  “I don’t remember. I think she was wearing shorts and then—and then jeans or vice versa. But that’s about as good as I can remember at this time.”

  “When do you think she changed clothes?”

  “Prior to her leaving.”

  “Immediately before she left?”

  “I think pretty close to when she left, yes.”

  “What time do you say she left?”

  “Again, approximately, based on my recollection right now, sometime between eight-thirty and nine.”

  “How long after she left was it until you called your brother?”

  “Again, I know I called my brother sometime around the nine o’clock hour. It could have been nine-thirty, it could have been a quarter to nine. I don’t remember exactly.”

  “Do you have a sense that she had been gone an hour or more before you called him?”

  “I think she had been gone a relatively short period of time, but I don’t remember exactly.”

  “What do you mean by ‘a relatively short period of time’?”

  “I don’t have any way to give you an estimation of that—of that time period.”

  “Okay. Was it dark when she left?”

  “I don’t recall. I think it was dusky, or it could have been dark. I just—I don’t remember. I was inside. I wasn’t outside at all.”

  “You didn’t follow her out?”

  “No.”

  “All right. You arrived home, you say, around four to four-thirty P.M.”

  “Sometime in that time period.”

  “Where did you arrive home from?”

  “My office.”

  “Did you go straight home from the office to your house?”

  “I don’t remember.”

  “In other words, you don’t know if you stopped somewhere for an hour or so before you went home?”

  “That’s correct. I simply do not remember that day. A lot of things happened since then. I do not remember if I came directly home. It was a routine day to me.”

  “Mr. March, how could you not remember the last day you saw your wife?”

  “My testimony is I do not remember, Mr. Jones.”

  “Well, do you have any explanation for your lapse of memory?”

  “Yes. Lots of things have occurred since then and now, and it was not logged in my memory what happened.”

  “What was the last thing Janet said to you?”

  “Something to the effect, ‘It’s your turn. See ya.’”

  “Do you have a memory of that?”

  “Yeah, I definitely remember that.”

  When Jones asked him what had happened after he came home, Perry responded that it was difficult to recall because it had been more than three months since the evening of August 15. He said that he had taken care of the children while Janet stayed with the cabinetmakers and oversaw their work. He explained how he had played with the kids outside, and later had prepared their dinner and gave them baths before putting them to bed. Afterward, he said that he had helped the workmen replace the faucet in the kitchen and later went out to a grocery store.

  “Why did you go to the grocery store?” Jones asked.

  “Pick up some dinner,” Perry replied in his sometimes fragmented manner of speaking.

  “Who cooked dinner?”

  “I did.”

  “What did you cook?”

  “I don’t remember. I’ve been trying to remember what I cooked. I have no idea.”

  “What store did you go to?”

  “I’m sure I went to the Com—Steven’s. That’s it. I’m sorry. Steven’s. Steven’s grocery store—near the split of highway one hundred and [highway] seventy.”

  “You remember going.”

  “Absolutely. Because I never go to the grocery store.”

  “All right. What did you drive to the store?”

  “I don’t remember. Probably my Jeep, but maybe her car. I just don’t remember what the situation was with the cars.”

  Jones changed the course of his interrogation with his next question.

  “Why did you have a roll of carpet in the house, or a partial roll?” Jones asked.

  “Mr. Jones, I have no idea what you’re talking about. What roll of carpeting?”

  “Was there any rolled-up carpet at any time in your house on August fifteenth?”

  “Mr. Jones, I have no idea. My house is full of things. I have no idea if I had rolls of carpeting in my house. We have three rooms of carpeting. I have no idea what extra carpeting is in my house. None. My wife was completely in charge of the construction of that house. Whatever extra materials or excess materials were, she was in charge of putting wherever she put them.”

  “When you lived in the house, did you see rolls of carpet or any rolled-up carpet anywhere in the living area of the house?”

  “I don’t recall any rolled-up carpeting in the living area of the house. I’m certain it wouldn’t have been in the living areas of
the house. Although it could have been. I just don’t recall it.”

  “In other words, it might have been there and it might have been something that was there every day you were in the house or it might have been brought in just shortly before August fifteenth, but your mind’s completely blank about that; is that right?”

  “No, sir. I think that you’re putting words in my mouth. My testimony here and my answer to you, my truthful answer to you, is I don’t recall any rolled-up carpeting in any living section of the house whatsoever. There may have been remnants of rolled-up carpeting somewhere in my house, either stored in my basement or in some closet, but certainly not in a traffic living area. That I can recall.”

  Perry explained during the lengthy questioning that Janet had requested him to come home early that day. She had called him sometime during the day at the office, which she had often done. When asked if he had ever recorded Janet’s telephone conversations with him, Perry responded that he had, on two or three separate occasions when she had become hysterical or had been in a very upset frame of mind.

  “I would record those conversations to—I would just record them,” Perry said.

  “When you said you did them ‘to,’ and then you stopped. To do what?” Jones asked.

  “At the time I did them, it was to play them back to her to analyze them and go over what it was that she was upset with. Or to—I think on one occasion when Janet was hysterical and I taped it, I gave that tape to Carolyn and Larry Levine to have them listen to it to see if they could help and shed some light on what was the font of her anger. But really that—it was only—I can only recall two occasions I have taped Janet at my office. Both of them for that purpose.”

  “All right. Tell me about those two occasions.”

  “I honestly don’t remember the significance, the substance, or the purpose of the times when Janet was upset on the phone on the two occasions that I taped her. Now, I will say to you it may have been three times, it may have been one time, but I do know that I did tape her on, I think, two occasions with my Dictaphone, standing like this in my office with my eyes rolled up because she was being hysterical on the phone with me.”

  “Have you ever taped Larry Levine?”

  “Never.”

  “Have you ever taped anybody besides Janet?”

  “To the best of my recollection, I have not taped anybody else.”

  “All right. You got home. You said you gave the children a bath. You said you went out shopping. You cooked supper.”

  “I think you have the order reversed, Mr. Jones. I said that I came home and I played with the children and I puttered around. I believe I had some conversations with the cabinet people. And then I went out to the grocery store. I made the children dinner, I gave them baths, and I put them to sleep.”

  “Did Janet eat with you and the children that evening?”

  “No, she did not.”

  “Why?”

  “She was working.”

  “Where was she working?”

  “In her studio.”

  “What was she working on?”

  “A painting.”

  “Did you have any conversation with her about your marriage that evening?”

  “Not until after the children were asleep.”

  Jones grilled Perry repeatedly regarding the time of day that Perry claimed to have put the children to bed, and Perry responded that it was sometime around 7:00 P.M. Jones continued to push Perry into being specific about the time on the evening of August 15, and Perry eventually told him that he took offense at Jones trying to find out the specific time periods of that evening.

  “Why do you take offense to my trying to find out specific times?” Jones asked.

  “I misspoke,” Perry responded. “I do not take offense, but I will correct you because it was not specific in my mind.”

  “Okay. And you want to, in your testimony, keep time general. Is that correct?”

  “No, I want it to be truthful. And I want to tell you that I do not have specific testimony about specific times. And it would be untruthful to do that.”

  “So no time during the evening of August fifteenth did you look at the clock, or do you have any reliable time estimates? Is that correct?”

  “That’s not correct.”

  “What’s incorrect about that?”

  Perry explained that he had a “reliable feel” regarding the time that Janet had left the house the evening she disappeared because he could remember that he had called his brother shortly after she had left. That had been sometime around the “nine-ish hour,” he said. Perry’s telephone records, according to the police, had shown that he had called his brother in Wilmette, Illinois, at 9:11 P.M. Even though Perry’s time estimate of when he had called his brother was reasonable based on the telephone records, Jones kept hammering away at him about being more specific regarding time that evening. He wanted to know whether Perry looked at his watch that evening; whether he watched television; and if he had watched television, which shows had he watched. When Perry said that he didn’t recollect, Jones asked him if he had changed clothes anytime that evening.

  “I have no recollection of that,” Perry responded. “I’m sure I changed into my sleeping clothes.”

  “When you came home wearing a coat and tie—”

  “Oh, I certainly changed out of my suit. I would never have taken care of the kids and given them baths that evening—in my suit.”

  “What did you change into?”

  “No idea. That was the middle of summer. I don’t know what I put on.”

  “Did you ever hit Janet?” The question seemed to have come out of nowhere, and took Perry somewhat by surprise, even though he knew that such a question would eventually be posed to him.

  “No. I never struck Janet,” Perry responded.

  “With a fist or open hand, you never struck Janet at any time in your life. Is that your testimony?”

  “Mr. Jones, to the best of my recollection, I have never struck my wife. It has always been something that I am proud of. I have never struck my wife.”

  “You said that to the best of your recollection you had never struck her. That’s not something that you could possibly forget, is it?”

  “Mr. Jones, I don’t believe I ever struck my wife.”

  “Do you know that?”

  “As I sit here today, I tell you that my testimony is that I do not believe I ever struck my wife.”

  “I didn’t ask you if you believed it. I asked you if you did. Do you know that you never struck her?”

  “Yes, I think I believe I do know I never struck her.”

  “Did you ever choke her?”

  “No.”

  “Did you ever physically hurt her or attempt to physically hurt Janet?”

  “I’m just—I’m thinking because I’m just trying to separate—I can’t—I don’t know, but there is certainly a possibility that at times I grabbed Janet’s arm and moved her out of the way or I took something from her, which she was holding back from me, or where I, you know, held her harm—arm in a firm manner, which might be construed by some to be twisting. But certainly never with the intent of inflicting bodily harm on my wife.”

  “Did you ever pull her hair?”

  “Not to my recollection.”

  “Is that something you have any question about?”

  “Does that mean did I pull her hair in lovemaking?”

  “Did you normally pull her hair in lovemaking?”

  “No. What does that mean, ‘pull her hair’? Does that mean if I’m sitting on a chair and her hair is underneath my arm and she sits up and her hair is pulled, did I pull her hair? No, the answer is I never intentionally grabbed my wife’s head, pulled her hair with the intent of inflicting bodily harm on her.”

  “Did Janet ever complain that during sexual relationships you would choke her or pull her hair?”

  “Not to me.”

  Chapter 9

  As Perry March’s Novem
ber 20, 1996, deposition continued, the questioning turned toward whether Perry was aware of anyone who might want to harm or kill Janet. Janet was known to have an unpleasant side to her personality, and it had surfaced regularly during the construction of her and Perry’s house. No less than seven subcontractors, who worked primarily on high-end-type projects, had said that she was difficult to work with and was never pleased until some of their work was redone, whether it was needed or not. Some of the subcontractors recalled that Perry often had to enter the picture to help smooth things out when Janet would become unreasonable in her demands. It didn’t seem likely that any of the subcontractors would want to harm Janet simply because of her occasional nasty disposition, but it did seem to be where Perry was trying to lead his inquisitor during questioning.

  “Do you know of anybody who might have any motive to kill Janet?” Jones asked.

  “Yes,” Perry responded.

  “Who?”

  “I believe there are a number of people involved with the construction of our house that carry extreme animosity and feelings of hate toward Janet.”

  “Have any of those people ever threatened to kill her or do her bodily harm?”

  “I have heard of intimations of such.”

  “All right. Let’s go down the list, if you would. Give me their names and what you’ve heard.”

  Perry responded that he believed the general contractor, as well as others, seemed to have extreme levels of “hate and animosity” toward Janet. Perry also mentioned a painter who did not particularly like Janet because he had not met Janet’s standards regarding the painting of their house. He said that the painter and Janet were battling constantly about what he should do and what he shouldn’t do. He said that Janet was often very demeaning to many of the workmen, and explained that he didn’t really remember all of them because of the enormous size of the job.

  “You have to remember, Mr. Jones, this is a large construction job,” Perry stated. “I was on the site two, sometimes three, times a day talking to various people who had contact with various other subs who had contact with my wife who had contact with numerous people. It was a project that lasted over a year. . . . I know for a fact that I warned Janet on a number of occasions to attempt to modify her behavior and to attempt to modify her statements and interactions with the various subcontractors and contractors working on our job because she was creating a great degree of animosity, and it was counterproductive to the job. It was also dangerous to her.”