Psychiatrist says killer Ross mentally unfit
Serial killer Michael Ross exhibits extreme pathological narcissism that makes him mentally unfit to choose execution, a psychiatrist testified yesterday. Dr. Eric Goldsmith spent 10 hours interviewing Ross and 60 hours talking with those close to him. Goldsmith was the fourth and final psychiatrist to testify at a hearing to determine whether Ross is competent to forgo his appeals. If Ross dies by lethal injection as scheduled on May 11, he will become the first person executed in New England in 45 years. Susan Powers, Ross's fiancée, was among those interviewed by Goldsmith, an assistant professor at New York University Medical Center. Goldsmith said Ross decided to die after he broke up with Powers. Powers told Goldsmith she believes Ross's decision to die has everything to do with their breakup. Prosecutors questioned Powers's motives, saying that she has written letters and made statements promising to marry Ross and move closer to him if he will file more appeals. She has also threatened suicide if he goes through with his execution. (AP)
PLYMOUTH
Clergy-abuse activist heads to Rome
Bill Gately, a Plymouth resident and New England coordinator of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, plans to fly to Rome today to serve as a visual reminder of clergy abuse and join the campaign against Cardinal Bernard Law, who said a Mass after the pope's funeral. Gately said he hopes his presence in Rome serves as evidence that the problem is not resolved. Gately said he was disappointed that Law was allowed to say Mass, even though the cardinal resigned from his position as head of the Archdiocese of Boston in 2002 amid reports of his failure to remove abusive priests. ''They are canonizing, or trying to canonize, a man who presided over the largest child sex ring on the planet," Gately said.
BOSTON
Relatives seek DSS accountability
Relatives of Dontel Jeffers, 4, the child who died last month in foster care, yesterday asked lawmakers to hold the state Department of Social Services accountable for its failure to place the boy with his grandmother. Testimony came from Phillipa Jeffers, the boy's aunt, and Vincent James, Phillipa's cousin, said Marie Parente, a Democrat from Milford, who chairs the special legislative committee on foster care. DSS officials have said they placed Dontel with a ''therapeutic" foster mother trained to supervise children with emotional or psychological problems. They worried that the grandmother, Agatha Jeffers, 67, could not provide the special care the boy needed. DSS also said the grandmother had failed to submit all of the documentation needed. The Suffolk district attorney's office, which has not released autopsy results, has asked to meet with the Jeffers family this week, said the grandmother. The boy died March 6 after the 24-year-old foster mother said the child hit his head on a radiator the day before in her Dorchester home.
Retired officer's conviction is upheld
A federal appeals court upheld the conviction yesterday of a retired State Police lieutenant who revealed information about wiretaps on the phones of two brothers of fugitive mobster James ''Whitey" Bulger. The three-judge panel in the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit rejected the appeal from Richard J. Schneiderhan, who was convicted in March 2003 of conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstruction of justice. The case was an offshoot of the tangled criminal case against Bulger and his associates. In September 1999, Schneiderhan had revealed to Kevin Weeks, a member of Bulger's Winter Hill gang, that FBI wiretaps called ''pen registers" had been put on the phones of John Bulger and former Senate president William Bulger. In his appeal, Schneiderhan challenged a US District Court's refusal to give him a new trial because prosecutors had not revealed a letter about William Bulger's wiretap. Schneiderhan also claimed that two witnesses should not have been allowed to express opinions in their trial testimony. He also appealed his sentence, saying it should be reduced because of a US Supreme Court ruling last year that affected federal sentencing guidelines nationwide. (AP)
Ex-mayor White, wife remain hospitalized
Kevin H. White and his wife, Kathryn, remained hospitalized yesterday in Massachusetts General Hospital for unrelated illnesses. The condition of the former Boston mayor, who is suffering flu-like symptoms, appeared to improve, said longtime family spokesman George Regan. White's wife, suffering from pneumonia, was ''stable and resting comfortably" last night, Regan said. Kathryn White was admitted to the hospital on Saturday, he said. Her husband, who served four terms as mayor, from 1968 to 1984, was hospitalized on Tuesday.
