Monday, December 15, 1975

12151975 - Officer Paul Harrington - Murdered daughter Pamela - Detroit PD








12012000 - Officer Paul Harrington - Murder of Second Wife And Son - Sentenced - Detroit PD      







Slayings called act of kindness
Ex-cop talks about killing family
October 19, 1999
BY SUZETTE HACKNEY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Paul Harrington had recently lost his job, was behind in rent and was starting to feel the financial pressure of supporting a wife and two children with no income.

So Harrington, a former Detroit policeman, thought it better to kill his wife and 3-year-old son than to see them homeless.

That, Detroit homicide detectives say, is what Harrington told them in a confession.

He told them he borrowed a gun from a friend Thursday, the night before the shooting, and killed Wanda Harrington and 3-year-old Brian early Friday morning. Afterward, he called 911.

When uniformed officers arrived at the home on West Grand Boulevard, Harrington, 53, told them he had killed his family.

"He said he couldn't support them so he had to kill them," said Sgt. Felix Kirk of the Detroit Police Department homicide unit. "He was under pressure trying to take care of his family. He said he didn't want to see them in the street."

Detectives said Harrington told them his last job was at a steel company in Livonia. Harrington was arraigned Saturday in 36th District Court on two counts of first-degree murder. He is being held without bond in the Wayne County Jail.

In 1975, Harrington faced three murder charges -- for the deaths of his wife and their two children in December. Harrington shot Becky, 28, and their daughters, Pamela, 9, and Cassandra, 4. He was fired from the police force after being charged with the triple homicide. In 1977, Recorder's Court Judge Susan Borman found Harrington not guilty by reason of insanity and ordered him committed for psychiatric treatment. Borman could not be reached for comment Monday.

Two months after his treatment began, Harrington was released from the program.

Harrington, a Vietnam veteran with a history of psychological problems, told homicide detectives this week he was under the care of a therapist and had been without some medication for about a week.

A Wayne County assistant prosecutor says last week's slayings were cold-blooded, calling for first-degree-murder charges. "Based on the information that was provided to me by the police department, I felt that was an appropriate charge," said Ralph Elizondo.
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12151975 - Officer Paul Harrington - Murdered wife Becky - Detroit PD




           








Slayings called act of kindness
Ex-cop talks about killing family
October 19, 1999
BY SUZETTE HACKNEY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Paul Harrington had recently lost his job, was behind in rent and was starting to feel the financial pressure of supporting a wife and two children with no income.

So Harrington, a former Detroit policeman, thought it better to kill his wife and 3-year-old son than to see them homeless.

That, Detroit homicide detectives say, is what Harrington told them in a confession.

He told them he borrowed a gun from a friend Thursday, the night before the shooting, and killed Wanda Harrington and 3-year-old Brian early Friday morning. Afterward, he called 911.

When uniformed officers arrived at the home on West Grand Boulevard, Harrington, 53, told them he had killed his family.

"He said he couldn't support them so he had to kill them," said Sgt. Felix Kirk of the Detroit Police Department homicide unit. "He was under pressure trying to take care of his family. He said he didn't want to see them in the street."

Detectives said Harrington told them his last job was at a steel company in Livonia. Harrington was arraigned Saturday in 36th District Court on two counts of first-degree murder. He is being held without bond in the Wayne County Jail.

In 1975, Harrington faced three murder charges -- for the deaths of his wife and their two children in December. Harrington shot Becky, 28, and their daughters, Pamela, 9, and Cassandra, 4. He was fired from the police force after being charged with the triple homicide. In 1977, Recorder's Court Judge Susan Borman found Harrington not guilty by reason of insanity and ordered him committed for psychiatric treatment. Borman could not be reached for comment Monday.

Two months after his treatment began, Harrington was released from the program.

Harrington, a Vietnam veteran with a history of psychological problems, told homicide detectives this week he was under the care of a therapist and had been without some medication for about a week.

A Wayne County assistant prosecutor says last week's slayings were cold-blooded, calling for first-degree-murder charges. "Based on the information that was provided to me by the police department, I felt that was an appropriate charge," said Ralph Elizondo.
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12151975 - Officer Paul Harrington - Murder Of First Wife Becky And Daughters Cassandra and Pamela



















Vietnam veteran commits similar family slayings 24 years later
The former police officer's second murderous act came after a maximum two-month sentence of psychiatric care
The Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) -- Authorities thought then-police officer Paul Harrington could lead a normal life after spending two months in a psychiatric facility for fatally shooting his wife and two children.

But 24 years later, Harrington ran out of medication, and his second wife and their 3-year-old son were shot dead too.

"The same thing happened in 1975," he said in a statement to police. "They should have put me away then."

On Oct. 15, Harrington's wife of 17 years, Wanda, and their 3-year-old son Brian lay dead on a couch in their Detroit duplex. Wanda had been shot in the temple while she slept. Brian had been shot three times in the head, police said.

Harrington, 53, called 911 and waited on his porch for officers. He faces two counts of first-degree murder and two felony firearm counts and is being held without bond.

The previous shooting was similar.

It was Dec. 19, 1975, when Harrington's 28-year-old wife Becky and their two daughters, Pamela, 9, and Cassandra, 4, were killed with Harrington's service revolver. The couple had recently separated.

Within minutes, Harrington turned himself in and took police to the murder scene.

Donald Cutler, Harrington's defense attorney in the original case, said he quickly realized his client was mentally disturbed.

"One evening at mealtime ... a phone rang, and he apparently had a flashback of what he called 'incoming mail,' and he thought he was under attack from the Vietcong," Cutler said he learned. "He took his service revolver he had with him and started shooting."

Recorder's Court Judge Susan Borman found Harrington innocent by reason of insanity in 1977 and sent him to a state hospital. Doctors released him after two months -- the maximum allowed by law.

Harrington, a Vietnam veteran and a Detroit police officer since 1972, was fired when he was charged with the triple homicide. But his life improved; he remarried and had two more children.

"He went on with his life, tried to work," said W. Frederick Moore, the Detroit attorney defending Harrington against the latest charges. "Along the way, he was married, he tried to deal with the situation."

But Harrington started having financial trouble. He was fired in April from his job at Hercules Drawn Steel in Livonia, where he worked for six years.

"The statement he gave police details a variety of setbacks, in my point of view, that impacted his ability to reasonably rationalize issues -- being fired, not having any money, worried about his family," Moore said. "It was taking a toll, he was going to the doctor, he tried to hang in there."

Detroit police Detective Sgt. Felix Kirk testified at a preliminary hearing that Harrington had run out of medications for his severe depression.

The drugs "keep me from hearing voices," Harrington told police.

"Had he been on his medication and had he had a (mental health) facility to utilize, probably it would have never happened again," Cutler said.












Tragic story has more fatalities
After '75 deaths, man again accused of murder
January 25, 2000
BY SHERYL JAMES
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
http://www.freep.com/news/locway/harr25_20000125.htm
Shortly after he allegedly killed his wife and 3-year-old son last October, Paul Harrington sat face-to-face with Detroit homicide detective Sgt. Felix Kirk, and told him the story -- the whole story.

Wanda and Brian Harrington were killed Oct. 15 at their Detroit duplex.

"The same thing happened in 1975," Harrington said. "They should have put me away then."

Harrington had committed an almost identical crime in 1975. He killed his first wife and two daughters, then called 911 to confess. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1977 and was released after two months in a psychiatric institution.

Harrington was ordered Monday to stand trial on two counts of first-degree murder and two felony firearms counts in the shooting deaths of his second wife, Wanda, and their son Brian in their Detroit duplex. His statement to Kirk was read aloud Monday at a preliminary hearing in 36th District Court.

Harrington's comments to Kirk renewed questions about the 1977 case and why Harrington was not sent to prison then.

Donald Cutler, a Southfield attorney, was Harrington's defense attorney in 1977. Cutler said Monday that two psychiatrists who testified at a hearing after the first killings agreed after examining Harrington that he was not criminally responsible. The law at the time, Cutler said, required then-Recorder's Court Judge Susan Borman to find Harrington not guilty by reason of insanity.

In court Monday, Kirk testified that Harrington told him he had recently run out of medications that eased his severe depression.

"I take Desyrel and Loxapine. It keeps me from hearing voices and helps me sleep. I've been out of the Loxapine for a week," Kirk said Harrington told him.

Harrington had been fired in April from Hercules Drawn Steel in Livonia after six years of employment. Kirk said Harrington told him: "I was told I got fired because everyone was scared to work with me. They said I had problems." Harrington, 53, a former Detroit Police Department detective and Vietnam veteran, said he had not slept the four nights before the shootings. He told Kirk he decided to kill his wife and son the night of Oct. 14, walked across the street and borrowed a gun from a man named "D."

"D" did not ask why Harrington wanted the gun, and Harrington did not offer the reason. Police have been unable to locate "D."

Harrington did not shoot his family that night, however. The following morning, he told Kirk, "everything seemed all right, but then in my head I just couldn't handle any more." He and his wife had not argued, he said. "It's just everything was going around inside my head. The welfare cut my check, I've been thinking about how I was going to take care of my family, I'm behind in the rent, and I didn't want to see them outdoors."

After his older son, Paul Jr., left for school about 9 a.m. Oct. 15, Harrington walked back into his rented duplex at 1444 W. Grand Blvd. According to Kirk, Harrington said his wife Wanda, 45, was asleep on the couch when he shot her in the left temple. He then shot his son, Brian, who was playing in the dining room, and carried him to the couch. Brian was shot three times in the head.

Harrington then called 911. He told police the gun would be on the dining room table, and he would be on the porch. Police found both, along with Wanda and Brian on opposite ends of the couch, their feet touching.

Defense attorney W. Frederick Moore of Detroit said Monday that the issue in the case "is not about what Harrington did, but about his frame of mind." Both Moore and Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Ralph Elizondo expect Harrington's case to center on psychiatric testimony.

Little is known about Harrington. He served in Vietnam and joined the Detroit Police force in 1972. He was undergoing psychiatric treatment in 1975 when he killed his first wife, Becky, 28, and daughters Pamela, 9, and Cassandra, 4, with his police service revolver. The couple had recently separated.

In court Monday, Harrington said little, rubbing his eyes as Elizondo read descriptions of his wife's and son's autopsies.

Harrington, who is being held without bond in the Wayne County Jail, has only one relative in Michigan, a cousin. No family members appeared in court on his behalf. Several members of his wife's family attended the hearing but declined to be interviewed.




































 



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Wednesday, October 29, 1975

10291975 - Officer Beverly Mix - Assaulted by husband, Phillip Mix - Frankfort PD






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Sunday, March 16, 1975

03161975 - Officer Clarence Ratliff - Suspension - Assault Of First Wife - Grand Rapids PD
















Probe Uncovers Threats Before Slaying of Judge
Argus-Press, Owosso MI
Wednesday, October 26, 1988
Grand Rapids [AP]- Evidence of death threats, wiretaps and extortion has been uncovered as police investigate the shooting death of District Judge Carol S. Irons, allegedly slain by her police officer husband.

Irons confided in close friends that her estranged husband threatened to kill her, but didn't tell police because she apparently feared provoking him and ruining his career, according to Irons' divorce attorney and personal friend.

In search of Officer Clarence D. Ratliff's home after the Oct. 12 slaying in Irons' chambers, police found a pipe bomb and other potential bomb-making ingredients such as impact explosives, blasting caps and detonation cord, according to warrants returned to Grand Rapids District Court on Monday.

Court documents said Ratliff, a former member of the department's bomb squad, had reportedly threatened to kill Irons' former boyfriend with a car bomb.

Ratliff apparently had used the pipe bomb for training purposes with other officers, Police Chief William Hegarty said at a news conference Tuesday.

Hegarty wouldn't say if it was against departmental policy for officers to bring such devices home. He said the bomb wasn't strong enough to destroy property.

Irons, 40, told her friend and attorney Diann Landers about the threats in June, Landers told the Grand Rapids Press Monday.

Landers, who was handling Irons' divorce from Ratliff, said she considered filing an injunction to keep Ratliff from harassing her client, but Irons refused to go to police because she feared it could cost her husband his job.

Hegarty said similar concerns apparently kept Ratliff's first wife from filing assault charges against him after he allegedly broke into her home in 1975 and struck her repeatedly on the back of the head with a handgun, causing at least three lacerations. The couple were going through a divorce at the time.

Ratliff, 53, was suspended from the department without pay for five days afterwards.

Hegarty said had been no other disciplinary problems with Ratliff, a 21-year veteran of the department, until last week's shootings.

After a brief exchange of gunfire with police in the courthouse, Ratliff surrendered. He remains in the Ottawa County Jail on a murder charged.

He is suspended without pay from the department and Hegarty said he has recommended to the city manager that Ratliff be fired.

Hegarty said police had no knowledge before Irons' death that she had been threatened, but that since the shooting a number of individuals had come forward.

Ratliff also allegedly made several tapes after wiretapping Irons' home telephone and "has in his possession tapes or statements made by Carol Irons and a second party that would be detrimental to her reputation as a judge and a candidate for public office," police said in court documents.

Hegarty said the department had not yet reviewed all the tapes, but that some involved pending or closed criminal matters.

Ratliff also wanted Irons to give him money or assume some of his debts as part of the divorce settlement, Landers said.

"There was some pressure, extortion, to attempt to get a better settlement," Landers told The Press.

Also Tuesday, Kent County Prosecutor William Forsyth said he would hand prosecution of Ratliff's case over to the state Attorney General's office because he and many members of his staff knew Irons personally.

Irons, the first woman elected to the bench in Kent County, was running unopposed for re-election Nov. 8. There will be a write-in campaign to elect a new judge.
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