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And Never Let Her Go:
Thomas Capano (1999)

Ann Rule

And Never Let Her Go is a shattering true crime story of Thomas Capano, a prominent and respected figure, a millionaire attorney, former state prosecutor, and a charming, soft spoken family man. When Anne Marie Fahey, the scheduling secretary for Delaware Governor Thomas Carper, was reported missing, her relationship with Thomas Capano was known only to a few close friends. In the weeks that followed, Capano, was charged with murdering her and dumping her body at sea because she wanted to end their three year affair.

Thomas Capano was the oldest son of an Italian immigrant who had become a Delaware construction magnate. He had been an overachiever, a good student and an athlete. After law school, he worked as a public defender and then as a prosecutor. Eventually he became chief counsel to Wilmington's mayor, as well as to the state's governor. Thomas Capano had it all: wealth, charm and moved in the highest circles of Delaware politics. He had even been encouraged to run for state attorney general.

Anne Marie Fahey was lively and well liked. Her youth had been a seemingly endless string of heartbreak, disappointment, and misery. Somehow she managed to get through it all, her mother's death, abuse from her alcoholic father, and devastating poverty. She had made a suitable position for herself as a trusted secretary to Delaware's governor. At thirty years old, she had a whole new life ahead of her. She had met a young man whom she hoped to someday marry and start a family with, and she finally seemed able to put her past behind her. But there was just one thing that stood in her way. She had to try to gently breakup a secret three-year love affair that she had been having with a wealthy married man, Thomas Capano.

But Thomas Capano did not want to be put behind anyone. It was his sheer arrogance that couldn't accept rejection and his narcissism prevented him from feeling anything for anyone but himself.

Kathleen Fahey-Hosey , Anne Marie's older sister, was troubled that for the past three days Annie had not returned anyone's calls. No one had heard from her since June 27. She had even missed a dinner date with Michael Scanlan, the man she planned to marry. Kathleen and Michael went to Annie's Wilmington apartment. The landlord said he had not seen the young woman in several days. The fact that Annie's green Jetta was parked outside was even more worrisome.

Kathleen and Michael went up steps to Annie's apartment and knocked, but there was no answer. Kathleen had a key to the apartment so she opened the door. Instantly, they smelled a foul odor which turned out to be rotting fruit and vegetables. There were shoeboxes tossed about and dry cleaning bags ripped open in Annie's bedroom. Her suitcase was still in the closet but no Annie. Then Kathleen spotted Annie's purse and knew that her sister would not have gone away without it. She called the police.

Several detectives arrived at the same time to investigate. Eventually, a diary was discovered, and from it the secret that had spanned the past two years poured out. Since 1994, she had been seeing a married man calling him only Tomas. She was in love with him. Then it appeared that that she had ended the affair. On April 7, 1996, she named this "controlling, manipulative, insecure, jealous maniac" as Tom Capano.

Tom Capano was the most likely suspect, since he seemed to have been the last person to see her alive. However, he was an upstanding citizen, had been a trusted political strategist, the city attorney, a successful prosecutor and legal counsel to one of the governors. So for now, they would just try to find out if he knew anything at all before jumping to conclusions.

The detectives went to the house, where Capano had been living since separating the year before from his wife of 23 years, to question him. He admitted to taking Anne Marie to dinner on the night in question, but insisted that he had taken her home afterward. He had no idea where she was, but he knew she had planned to take a day off and go to the beach. He said she was an air-head, unpredictable and suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts.

Then a conversation with Anne Marie's therapist revealed that Anne Marie was afraid of Tom Capano. He had stalked and harassed her, but she did not report him to authorities because she did not want to embarrass her boss, the Governor.

It wasn't long before the detective assigned to head the case discovered Capano's first lie. He said he had stopped at a Getty station to purchase cigarettes on Thursday around 10:00, the night of Annie's disappearance. The attendant knew Capano and said he had not been there. Not only that, the station closed at 9:30.

The next time the detective questioned Capano, he was more agitated and uncooperative. He called in his lawyers through whom all remaining questions would be asked. The detective found that to be suspicious.

From the various investigative reports, it seemed that the affair had gone on for two years, although it appeared that Anne Marie had decided to end it. The government got a search warrant and went through Capano's home and vehicles. They found a bloodstain remover and hard copies of emails back and forth between the two lovers. There were also small bloodstains in Capano's living room. These were sent to the FBI crime lab in Quantico. One more questionable item was the fact that a love seat and rug were missing from the same place they found the blood. Yet all of this combined was insufficient for an arrest.

Capano had three younger brothers, Louis, Joey, and Gerard, each of whom Tom had rescued from legal scandals. Louis had been caught giving illegal campaign contributions, Joey was charged with the kidnap and rape of a woman, and Gerry was involved in drugs. Two facts emerged: Gerry Capano had sold a fishing boat without an anchor and Louis Capano had ordered the emptying of a dumpster at a construction site before it was scheduled to be emptied. Had Annie been killed and dumped in a landfill? Or at sea? Then a receipt was discovered for a cheap rug that Capano had bought. Why had he replaced an expensive rug with this one?

In August, the Prosecutor's Office began to apply pressure on Louis Capano. He resisted but finally admitted that Tom had told him that a despondent Annie had slit her wrists on his loveseat and bled on that and on the rug. He had asked Louis to help him to get rid of these items. Tom had also asked Louis to supply him with an alibi for a certain suspicious time period.

After over a year, Gerry was having bad dreams and came forward and confessed that he had been involved in something that Tom had explained in a way that had initially convinced him, but he now realized that the incident had been something else entirely. Louis and he had put two-and-two together, and they begged Tom to go to the police.

This prompted the Prosecutor's Office to sent 25 federal agents to Gerry's home to search for drugs and illegal firearms. They found cocaine and a gun in the bedroom of Gerry's son. This meant parental neglect.  Then a second search warrant allowed the Prosecutor's Office to invade the home of Gerry's best friend, a convicted felon. They found a gun, linked to Gerry, and Gerry was now ready to talk. On November 8, 1997, pressured by a prison sentence, he confessed what he knew. Gerry admitted that Tom had once asked him for a gun and then wondered if he knew anyone who could break someone's legs. Tom claimed that an extortionist was threatening him and he needed to protect himself and his children. Gerry had given him a gun, but had balked at Tom's request to use his boat in the event that he had to kill the guy. Eventually Tom returned the gun, unfired, to Gerry. Then he talked about what happened on June 28, 1996, and no one could really believe it.

It was the morning of Friday, June 28th, just before 6:00 a.m. Gerry walked outside his home and saw Tom sitting in his black Jeep Grand Cherokee. Gerry approached Tom. Sensing something serious, Gerry asked him, "Did you do it?" Tom nodded, and then said he needed Gerry's help. Gerry did not want to get involved. He wasn't going to risk his home and family. Tom had previously told him that someone was trying to extort him. Gerry believed that Tom had killed the man, and he wasn't about to have anything to do with that.

Tom reminded Gerry that he had helped him out of several jams in the past. Gerry owed him. All he wanted was to use Gerry's fishing boat to  take the body out and dump it in the ocean. No one would know. Gerry continued to protest, but finally he gave in. After he did a few chores, he went to Tom's home where he was waiting for him with his former wife's blue Chevy Suburban. Next to the car was a large white Igloo cooler, wrapped with a chain. It was two feet high, two and a half feet wide and forty-four inches long—large enough for a body. They lifted the heavy cooler together, put it inside the suburban, drove out to Stone Harbor, New Jersey, and boarded Gerry's boat.

They drove the boat out and stopped at a point where the ocean's depth was nearly 200 feet deep. Together the two men lifted the cooler and threw it over the side but the cooler did not sink. Gerry walked over and grabbed his shotgun. He shot at the cooler but the cooler did not sink. The cooler floated out of range, so Gerry had to turn the engines back on and get closer to it. They got close enough to pull the cooler back into the boat. Tom didn't seem to know what to do next, so Gerry brought him two anchors and dumped them at his feet and told him he was on his own. Then he walked as far away as he could and tried not to watch. Tom wrapped the body in the chains and anchors and threw it overboard. When Gerry heard the heavy splash, he rejoin his brother. That was a mistaker. He should have waited just a moment longer, because he would now be haunted into his dreams by the sight of a human calf and foot disappearing into the water.

The case against Tom Capano was now secure. Then Louis came in and confessed what he knew about the bloodstained sofa. He said that Tom had dumped a gun as well. On November 12, 1997, Tom Capano was arrested for the murder of Anne Marie Fahey. Denied bail, and fearful of retribution from inmates he had helped place in the prison, he sat in solitary confinement until his trial.

Although the prosecution had put together a strong circumstantial case, they had no body, no weapon, and no witnesses. That was a major drawback. What they needed was as much corroboration of Gerry's story as possible, and then the man who found the cooler, brought it in. That was fairly damning evidence.

The trial began on October 6, 1998, with jury selection, and lasted twelve long weeks. Much of the testimony came from several of Capano's various mistresses. One man had to admit to a threesome with Capano, and it became clear that even while Capano was married, he had dated several other women at the same time.

For a few months, the defense's best witness was to be Debbie MacIntyre, the woman whom Capano had seduced and carried on with for over seventeen years. She had been friends with his wife, but had found in Capano everything she could desire. Resisting at first, she finally gave in to his attentions, and he quickly figured out how to make her do anything he wanted...including having sex with other men so he could watch. Debbie always assured Capano of her undying love, that is, until she found out that she could be in serious trouble for perjury. Then she decided to turn state's witness. She admitted that in May 1996, Capano had asked her to buy a gun for him, and she had done so reluctantly, spending her own money, which he never reimbursed. That admission gave the state's stand on premeditation much more weight.

Capano had been furious at this betrayal. But he had a plan. His first move was to try to hire a convicted cocaine dealer, Tito Rosa from Gander Hill prison, to arrange to kill both Gerry and Debbie. He offered Rosa $100,000. This evidence was suppressed.

Ultimately, he accused MacIntyre as Anne Marie's killer. He urged his attorneys to try to force her to admit that she had come to his home on the night of June 27, 1996 with a gun and had used that gun. They had consulted by phone together the next day about what to do with the body. She adamantly denied this, but it was clear to the prosecution that Capano's team was trying to plant reasonable doubt by blaming a woman who would have had a clear motive: jealousy.

It was Capano himself, however, who told the tale. After fighting with his attorneys over defending himself and taking the stand in his own defense, he finally settled for the latter, against everyone's advice. His testimony and cross-examination lasted eight days.

Capano took the stand on December 16, 1998, swearing to tell the truth. He immediately launched into a rambling personal history. He said he purchased the cooler as a gift for Gerry. If he had had murder in mind, he would have paid for it with a credit card. He launch an attack against his brother, and from that point he verbally thrash everyone connected to the case. The next day, he apologized. Capano went on to describe how open-minded he was about sexual matters, talking in such candid detail that even the cops blushed. Yet it was when he described his actions afterward that he lost the jury. He pretty much denied everything that had been said about him and turned the stories back around on others.

Next he went after MacIntyre. He described her as a powerful manipulator, and said that she was the one who had killed Anne Marie Fahey. He and Annie had settled on the love seat to watch TV, and MacIntyre had called. He'had put her off, but she showed up at his house with a gun. She put it to her head and threatened to kill herself, so Capano tried to grab the gun. The gun went off and hit Annie in the back of the head. Rather than call 911 to get help, Capano had covered it up, and he was ashamed of himself for that decision. He had tried to protect his former mistress.

On the last day of his testimony, the judge admonished him to stop trying to manipulate the state's questions to serve his ends. Nevertheless, Capano managed to further alienate the jury by supporting his lies with theological distinctions between "good" and "bad" lies.

Finally both sides rested and prepared for closing arguments. The state wanted to show that Capano not only had murdered Anne Marie Fahey but had done so with premeditation. The false story of extortion and the purchase of a gun indicated his intent. The defense claimed it was all MacIntyre's doing, and that the prosecution had no body, no weapon, and no witnesses. It was a completely circumstantial case, which could have happened exactly as Capano said it did.

The trial lasted for twelve weeks. Many people expected the verdict to be quick, but the six men and six women of the jury deliberated for three full days. The judge had allowed them only one charge: guilty or not of first-degree murder.

On Sunday, January 17, 1999, the jury came out and the foreman looked right at Capano to pronounce him guilty of first-degree murder.

Thomas Capano was sentenced to death by lethal injection. In January 2006 his death penalty was overturned.  He will be serving the rest of his natural life in prison with no possibility of parole.

Ann Rule's Full Length Bestsellers
with Case Background
 

• Too Late to Say Goodbye: A True Story of Murder and Betrayal(2007) - Tells the story of a Georgia dentist named Bart Corbin, and how two women, a beautiful dentistry student named Dolly Hearn, and Bart's wife, Jennifer Barber Corbin, found themselves fatally involved with Corbin over the course of two decades.

• Green River, Running Red: The Real Story of the Green River Killer-America's Deadliest Serial Murderer (2004) - This is the extraordinary true story of the most prolific serial killer the nation had ever seen -- a case involving more than forty-nine female victims, two decades of intense investigative work...and one unrelenting killer who not only attended Ann Rule's book signings but lived less than a mile away from her home.

• Heart Full of Lies: A True Story of Desire and Death (2003) - An idyllic Hawaiian wedding held the promise of a wonderful future for handsome, athletic Chris Northon, an airline pilot, a confirmed bachelor-turned-devoted family man; and Liysa, an acclaimed surf photographer, loving mother, and aspiring Hollywood screenwriter. But few, including Chris, had seen Liysa's other side -- her controlling behavior and dark moods, her insatiable hunger for money and property. And no one anticipated the fatal outcome of a family camping trip in an Oregon forest. Liysa soon revealed herself as a victim of domestic abuse that culminated at the campsite, where she shot Chris in self-defense. But crime scene evidence led detectives to wonder if Liysa was a killer, not a victim.

• Every Breath You Take: A True Story of Obsession, Revenge, and Murder (2001) - Although happily settled securely in a loving second marriage, and a new family of quadruplets, Sheila never truly escaped the vicious enslavement of her ex-husband, multi-millionaire Allen Blackthorne, a handsome charmer -- and a violent, controlling sociopath who subjected Sheila to unthinkable abuse in their marriage, and terrorized her for a decade after their divorce. When Sheila was slain in her home, in the presence of her four toddlers, authorities raced to link the crime to Blackthorne, the man who vowed to monitor Sheila's every move in his obsessive quest for power and revenge. Shelia had said, "If anything ever happens to me... find Ann Rule and ask her to write my story."

• And Never Let Her Go: Thomas Capano: The Deadly Seducer (1999) - On a June evening in 1996, 30-year-old Anne Marie Fahey, secretary to the governor of Delaware, vanished without a trace following a restaurant rendezvous with her secret lover of more than two years: Thomas Capano. One of Wilmington's most prominent and respected figures, a millionaire attorney and former state prosecutor, "Tommy" was a charming, soft spoken family man. But in the weeks and months that followed Fahey's disappearance, investigators would gradually uncover the shocking truth: Capano was a steely manipulator driven by power and greed -- and capable of brutal murder.

• Bitter Harvest: A Woman's Fury, A Mother's Sacrifice (1998) - Rule probes the case of Debora Green, a doctor and a loving mother. A small-town girl with a genius IQ, she achieved an enviable life: her own medical practice, a handsome physician husband, three perfect children, and an opulent home in an exclusive Kansas City suburb. But when a raging fire destroyed that home and took two lives, the trail of clues led investigators to a stunning conclusion.

• Dead By Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? (1995) - When attorney Cheryl Keeton's brutally bludgeoned body was found in her van in the fast lane of an Oregon freeway, her husband, Brad Cunningham, was the likely suspect. But there was no solid evidence linking him to the crime. He married again, for the fifth time, and his stunning new wife, a physician named Sara, adopted his three sons. They all settled down to family life on a luxurious estate. But gradually, their marriage became a nightmare....

• Everything She Ever Wanted: A True Story of Obsessive Love, Murder, and Betrayal (1992) - For their wedding portrait, petite Pat Taylor and handsome Tom Allanson posed as Rhett and Scarlett.  Less than two months later, their dream exploded in terror and murder: their beautiful home mysteriously burned to the ground and Tom was convicted of the brutal slaying of his mother and father. Pat's only brother had died in a puzzling suicide, her grandparents-in-law were poisoned with arsenic, and no one -- from her wealthy employers to her own children -- was safe when Pat Allanson didn't get her way. It took Georgia lawmen more than two decades to stop her for good -- if indeed they have.

• If You Really Loved Me: A True Story of Desire and Murder (1991) - David Brown was a computer wizard and millionaire by age thirty-two. When his beautiful young wife was shot to death as she slept, Brown's fourteen-year-old daughter, Cinnamon, confessed to killing her stepmother. The California courts sentenced her harshly: twenty-four years to life. But thanks in part to two determined lawmen, the twisted private world of David Brown unfolded revealing a trail of perverse love, twisted secrets, and evil mind games. Did David Brown convince his own daughter to prove her love by killing for him?

• Small Sacrifices: A True Story of Passion and Murder (1987) - A shocking and powerful account of the destructive forces that drove Diane Downs, a beautiful young mother, to shoot her three young children in cold blood.

• The Want-Ad Killer - Written as Andy Stack (1983) - After his first grisly crime, Harvey Louis Carignan beat a death sentence and continued to manipulate, rape, and bludgeon women to death--using want ads to lure his young female victims.

• The I-5 Killer - Written as Andy Stack (1984) - As a young man, Randall Woodfield had it all--a star athlete, good looks, and an award-winning student. Working in the swinging West Coast bar scene, he had more than his share of women. But he wanted more than just sex. An appetite for unspeakable violent acts led him to cruise the I-5 highway through California to Washington, leaving a trail of victims along the way. As the list of the dead grew, the police mobilized to stop a twisted killer who had 44 known deaths to his name.

• Possession - A Novel (1983) - Joanne Lindstrom's camping trip to Washington's Cascade mountains goes terribly awry, leaving her husband dead and Joanne's only hope for survival in the hands of a twisted stranger. (This is Ann Rule's only novel. Based on a real Northwest Case.)  

• Lust Killer - Written as Andy Stack (1983) - To his neighbors, Jerry Brudos was a gentle man whose mild manner contrasted with his awesome physical strength. To his employers, Jerry was a fine worker. To his wife, he was a good husband. And to the Oregon police, Jerry Brudos was the most hideously twisted killer they had ever unmasked.

• The Stranger Beside Me - Ted Bundy: The Classic Story of Seduction & Murder (1980) - Ann Rule was a writer working on the biggest story of her life, tracking down a brutal mass-murderer. Little did she know that Ted Bundy, her close friend, was the savage slayer she was hunting.

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