Hartford Wicked: Book One of the New England Series

By Gloria H. Giroux

1973. The Vietnam War ended. Richard Nixon began his second term as President of the United States. The Watergate Hearings splashed across TV screens for months foreshadowing the downfall of a tumultuous administration. OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, imposed an oil embargo that led to a sharp increase in gasoline prices and to Congress changing the national speed limit to 55mph, AKA “double nickels.”

The Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade changed the face of women’s rights in controlling their own bodies. And in Hartford, the capital city of Connecticut, a talented young cat burglar is enjoying her profession and making a good living. She has no idea of the upheavals in her life that are simmering on the horizon. The first is a favor for a high-level mobster. A simple theft, it turns into a night of terror that has far-reaching consequences. At the same time her personal life is upended by familial twists that come out of left field and cause her to re-examine her values, life directions, emotional expectations,
and what defines family.

As she tries to navigate the twists and turns her life has taken and the unexpected choices she has to make she finds herself being dogged by a tenacious police detective, a determined killer, and the mobster that set her on a perilous course. Fleeing from attempts on her life she changes her name and builds a new life elsewhere. But the past has a way of catching up with you, and her past is closing in fast and furious…

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781663240798

Gloria H. Giroux

Gloria H. Giroux was born in North Adams, MA. Raised in Hartford, CT, she graduated from Bulkeley High School, the University of Connecticut and the Computer Processing Institute subsequently embarking on a double career of IT and writing. The author of nineteen fiction novels, Keene Retribution is homage to a special place in her life in New England. She currently lives in Arizona where she is working on her next book.

Book preview

Copyright © 2022 Gloria H. Giroux.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means,

graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by

any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author

except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Certain characters in this work are historical figures, and certain events portrayed

did take place. However, this is a work of fiction. All of the other characters, names,

and events as well as all places, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel

are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-4080-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-4081-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-4079-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022910685

iUniverse rev. date: 07/06/2022

Contents

History of New England

History of Connecticut

History of Hartford

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Epilogue

Excerpt

Endnotes

By the author

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Whitefire: Volume Two of the Chay Trilogy

Firesoul: Volume Three of the Chay Trilogy

Bloodfire: Prequel to the Chay Trilogy

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Copper Snake, Volume One of the San Francisco Trilogy

Voices of Angels, Volume Two of the San Francisco Trilogy

Out of the Ash, Volume Three of the San Francisco Trilogy

Bloodline in Chiaroscuro, Prequel to the San Francisco Trilogy

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Saguaro, Volume One of the Arizona Trilogy

Crucifixion Thorn, Volume Two of the Arizona Trilogy

Devil Cholla, Volume Three of the Arizona Trilogy

Ironwood, Sequel to the Arizona Trilogy

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Santa Fe Blood, Volume One of the New Mexico Trilogy

Santa Fe Bones, Volume Two of the New Mexico Trilogy

Santa Fe Heat, Volume Three of the New Mexico Trilogy

Santa Fe Secrets, Sequel to the New Mexico Trilogy

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Hartford Wicked, Book One of the New England Series

HARTFORD%20WICKED.JPGImage6.jpgImage7.jpgImage8.jpgImage9.jpgImage10.jpgImage11.jpgImage12.jpgImage13.jpgImage14.jpgImage15.jpg

Maps & Special Images Courtesy of Shutterstock

Additional Photos from Author

This book is dedicated to my two beloved fur babies who

provided love, companionship, and inspiration for many

years before they crossed over the Rainbow Bridge.

You will forever be in my heart.

Always.

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"New Englanders began the Revolution not to institute reforms and

changes in the order of things, but to save the institutions and customs

that already had become old and venerable with them; and were new only

to a few stupid Englishmen a hundred and fifty years behind the times."

— Edward Pearson Pressey, History of Montague;

A Typical Puritan Town

New England is comprised of six states in the farthest northeastern region of the United States: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. In terms of size, they range in the lower 25% of percentages, and include the smallest state in the Union:

In terms of proportional size, four New Englands could fit into the state of Texas. The region borders the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island Sound, Canada, and New York.

The earliest inhabitants of New England were not the European colonists but the Native Americans that lived there for many hundreds of years. The region was populated with many diverse tribes including the Abenakis, Mi’kmag, Penobscot, Pequots, Mohegans, Narragansetts, Pocumtucks, Androscoggin, and Wampanoag.

Population-wise, New England began burgeoning in the 17th century. The regional economy grew rapidly in the 17th century, thanks to heavy immigration, high birth rates, low death rates, and an abundance of inexpensive farmland. The population grew from 3,000 in 1630 to 14,000 in 1640, 33,000 in 1660, 68,000 in 1680, and 91,000 in 1700. Between 1630 and 1643, about 20,000 Puritans arrived, settling mostly near Boston; after 1643, fewer than 50 immigrants arrived per year. The average size of a family between 1660-1700 was 7.1 children; the birth rate was 49 babies per year per thousand people, and the death rate was about 22 deaths per year per thousand people. About 27 percent of the population was composed of men between 16 and 60 years old.

Currently, New England boasts a population of over fifteen million.

The etymology of each state’s name found its source either in names associated with the first colonists or the Native American tribes already occupying the land that someday soon would no longer be theirs. This stands true of many towns, which share their etymology with names derived mainly from Great Britain.

The history of New England revolves around the first colonists coming to the new world and settling in what became the Massachusetts coast and spreading out north, west, and south. In 1620 the Pilgrims set anchor at Plymouth, formerly found and named by Captain John Smith. The group of Puritan Separatists was initially known as the Brownist Emigration, who came to be known as the Pilgrims. The colony spread out into a wide range of related towns:

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The Revolutionary War began in the thirteen original colonies and resulted in the creation of an independent country replete with opportunities to actualize manifest destiny. White settlers clashed with tribes in what was called the Indian Wars to solidify their hold on land that never should have belonged to them. Colonists were far from righteous; they held slaves and indentured servants and discriminated against their own race— No Irish Need Apply was a familiar sign in towns. White settlers were separated by class and ethnicity.

By the end of the eighteenth century the boundaries of New England were well-defined.

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1795, John Russell & H.D. Symonds

New England is famous for its rocky coastline; its splendid autumn colors; its crystal-clear lakes, rivers, and streams; its dense forests; its stunning mountain ranges; its magnificent Victorian, Georgian, and Cape Cod houses; its population centers ranging from the large and cosmopolitan (Boston, MA) to it quaint little towns (Troy, NH) to its towns soaked in history and spiritualism (Salem, MA) to its seaside villages (Madison, CT) to its exclusive enclaves reeking of wealth and old money (Newport, RI). People enjoy pumpkins and Halloween and leaf-peeping and skiing and hiking and driving on backroads that seem stuck in time. New England people are often referred to as Yankees and rather than an insult that term is a source of pride. The most plausible theory of that term’s origin comes from the Dutch, where "Jan Kees" was a term used in a derogatory manner by southern Dutch towards northern Dutch, and then adopted as an insult by British colonists.

New England has produced a swarm of famous people who have made their marks in academia, politics, the military, the legal arena, medicine, entertainment, literature, and film.

Connecticut: Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, P.T. Barnum, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Nathan Hale, Samuel Colt, Dorothy Hamill, Adam Clayton Powell, Ella Grasso, Charles Ives, Totie Fields, Meg Ryan, Noah Webster, Brian Dennehy, Paul Giamatti, Christopher Lloyd, Michael Bolton, Glenn Close, and the inimitable Katharine Hepburn.

Massachusetts: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Louisa May Alcott, Elmer Bernstein, Alexander Graham Bell, George H. W. Bush, Bette Davis, James Spader, Kurt Russell, Matt Damon, Emily Dickinson, Dr. Seuss, Nathaniel Hawthorne, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Edgar Allen Poe, Paul Revere, Winslow Homer, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Henry David Thoreau.

Rhode Island: Harry Anderson, Ruth Buzzi, Viola Davis, Nelson Eddy, David Hedison, Van Johnson, Ted Knight, George M. Cohan, Julia Ward Howe, H.P. Lovecraft, Mr. Potato Head, Horace Mann, Gilbert Stuart, Henry Giroux, and Roger Williams.

Maine: Dorothea Dix, Dustin Farnum, Hannibal Hamlin, Stephen King, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Margaret Chase Smith, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Patrick Dempsey, Judd Nelson, Linda Lavin, and John Knowles Paine.

New Hampshire: Robert Frost, John Irving, Christa McAuliffe, Franklin Pierce, Alan B. Shepard, Earl Silas Tupper, Samuel Bode Miller, Mandy Moore, Adam Sandler, Seth Meyers, Steven Tyler, and Eleanor Porter.

Vermont: Chester A. Arthur, Orson Bean, William H. Macy, Calvin Coolidge, John Deere, John Dewey, Brigham Young, Rudy Vallee, Elisha Graves Otis, Henry Wells, and Ben Cohen & Jerry Greenfield (Ben & Jerry).

New England has also had its share of notoriety in both solved and unsolved murder and disappearance cases.

• Lizzie Borden in Fall River, Massachusetts

• The murders on Smuttynose Island off the coast of New Hampshire

• The massacre of colonists in Prouts Neck, Maine

• The woodchipper murder in Connecticut

• A swath of unsolved murders in Vermont such as Lynne Shulze, Doris Maxfield, Leslie Spellman, and the I-91 serial murders of six women

• In Rhode Island, the unsolved murders of Benjamin Bailey, Wendy Lee Madden, and Kathy Perry

New England has a wealth of history and mystery, of the old and new, of wealth and poverty, of a population of every race, ethnicity, and religion. It experiences all four seasons, from brutal winters to mild springs, humid summers, and refreshing autumns. Each state has its own accent, with most Massachusetts people dropping their R’s. As Chief Brody once said, They’re in the yahd not too fah from the cah. There are many instances of slang that relates only to New England. For example, it’s a GRINDER, not a hoagy or a sub! People in New England bang a uey (instead of making a U-Turn), applaud people who are wicked smart, and remote controls are clickers. People from more than one state often tack an R onto the ends of words; for example, they don’t have ideas, they have idears. And when they need to acquire alcohol they make a packie run.

One can start out driving in the early morning in Hartford and return there after driving through all six states. One can be at a Rhode Island beach in the morning and near the top of Mount Washington later in the day. One can find unique little antique stores where some merchandise could easily be a hundred years old.

Hollywood has used the region for a plethora of films, documentaries, and TV shows including Christmas in Connecticut, The House of the Seven Gables, Yankee Doodle Dandy, The Thomas Crown Affair, Love Story, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Other, The Paper Chase, The Dead Zone, Baby Boom, Judging Amy, Pet Sematary, Boston Legal, Newhart, Murder She Wrote, Breaking Bad, and, of course, the inimitable daytime soap opera Dark Shadows with its loyal fans devoted to the one and only New England vampire, Barnabas Collins.

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New England is a place of creation and dreams, of sturdiness and flexibility, of tradition and acceptance of innovative ideas.

It is a place to proudly call home.

And proudly call oneself a Yankee.

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"I sing Connecticut, her charms / Of rivers, orchards, blossoming

ridges. / I sing her gardens, fences, farms, / Spiders and midges."

— Phyllis McGinley

The Constitution State

            The Nutmeg State.

                        The Provisions State.

                                    The Land of Steady Habits.

The fifth state admitted to the union has many names and nicknames. The word itself is a derivation of the Mohegan-Pequot word Quinnitukqut, meaning at the long tidal river. It is the third smallest state in the union, preceded only by Delaware as number two and Rhode Island as number one. It borders Rhode Island on the east, New York on the west, Massachusetts on the north, and Long Island Sound on the south. Surprisingly, the state does not actually have any Atlantic Ocean coastline and only four New England states save Vermont do. People in Connecticut are known colloquially as Nutmeggers.

The state’s motto is Qui transtulit sustinet (Latin), which translates to He who transplanted still sustains. There is evidence of human population from 10,000 years ago; prior to European colonization that population was comprised of various Native American tribes, some of which still exist today.

The state of Connecticut was originally called the Connecticut Colony and was a loose association of several settlements: Hartford, Windsor, Saybrook, New Haven, and Wethersfield. The colony was soon comprised additionally of Fairfield, Guilford, Milford, Stratford, Farmington, Stamford, and New London. In 1701 Hartford and New Haven became joint capitals of the colony; in 1875 Hartford gained its place as the sole capital of the state.

Generally, Connecticut can be divided into five physiographic regions: the Taconic Section, Western New England Upland, Connecticut Valley Lowland, Eastern New England Upland, Coastal Lowlands.

The Connecticut River, which originates at the northern Quebec, Canada border, bisects the state from the northern Massachusetts border but swings southeast south of Hartford and empties into Long Island Sound. Hartford rests precisely on the river, which proved to be dangerous and destructive when the river mightily overflowed its banks in the great flood of 1936. To the west of the river lies the more affluent communities such as Avon and Litchfield, and to the southwest lie such enclaves as Greenwich and Westport. The eastern part of the state holds more upscale properties such as Glastonbury, Marlborough, and Hebron.

The state is comprised of 169 towns, of which 21 are considered cities. The oldest town is either Windsor, settled in 1633, or Wethersfield, settled in 1634: the towns argue over the dates and facts since there is a question surrounding the interpretation of when a settlement becomes an actual town. Working-class towns and cities abound throughout the state including Willimantic, Andover, Vernon, Norwich, Manchester, Waterbury, North Haven, and New Hartford. In eastern Connecticut the town of Storrs supports not only a typical residential community but is populated with thousands of students and teachers; the University of Connecticut, a thriving, large, well-respected educational facility is one of the finest universities in the country. In the southern part of the state in New Haven lies the Ivy League university Yale. The state has produced quite a few universities and colleges, and the state’s population has the resources to be well-educated.

The state also provides a plethora of recreational and cultural activities for residents and tourists alike. Hartford has a riverfront section where people can convene to boat and fish. The river passes by Gillette Castle and the Goodspeed Opera House. Adjacent to the river lies Mystic, a small village at the mouth of the Mystic River which empties into Long Island Sound. Mystic has antique shops, an aquarium, and Olde Mistick Village, a gathering of small shops which feature many coastal-related art and souvenirs.

The shoreline of the state provides the full beach experience with Hammonasset State Park near Madison, Ocean Beach Park in New London, and Silver Sands State Park near Milford. A variety of other small rivers provide viewing and fishing. The state is replete with many lakes where patrons can swim, camp, and enjoy fresh water, such as Crystal Lake (originally called lake Wabbaquasset, or place where cattails grow by the Nipumuc Indians), Shenipsit Lake, Lake Compounce, Candlewood Lake, and Mansfield Hollow Lake.

The state has a variety of marvelous cultural events and locations. The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford claims not only a remarkable Gothic architecture but paintings from grand masters. Known as the oldest public art museum in the United States it has been serving its awestruck guests since 1844. The Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, the Mystic Seaport Museum, the Connecticut Trolley Museum in East Windsor, the theme park at Lake Compounce in Bristol, the Navy’s submarine museum in Groton, and the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History of New Haven are only a few of the places to visit and luxuriate in history, art, and culture. For a more unusual experience the Dinosaur Place in Montville has sixty acres of trails along which one can see fifty life-sized dinosaur replicas.

Are you a gambler and enjoy the gaming and the luxuries for both amateurs and high rollers? The state has two massive Indian-run casinos, Foxwoods in Ledyard and Mohegan Sun in Uncasville. Care to travel within the country or overseas? Bradley International Airport in Windsor can get you to every corner of the globe.

In addition to those associated with the capital city of Hartford (see next section), the state has produced a wide variety of entertainers, writers, politicians, and people of notoriety either being born there, or working there, or associated closely with the state. These include Meg Ryan, Pamela Sue Martin, John Mayer, George W. and George H.W. Bush, Christopher Walken, Paul Simon, Glenn Close, Judge Judy, Leona Helmsley, Ron Howard, Jackie Robinson, Bob Crane, Robert Mitchum, William Atherton, Andy Rooney, Judy Collins, Cyndi Lauper, Robert Vaughn, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.

Hollywood has used the state for a number of films, documentaries, and TV shows including Christmas in Connecticut, The Other, The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, Beetlejuice, Holiday Inn, The Stepford Wives, The Conjuring, The Family Stone, Judging Amy, Gilmore Girls, Bewitched, Soap, Who’s the Boss?, Murder on Middle Beach, The Cheshire Murders, and A Haunting in Connecticut.

The state has a dark side, too. In 1647, Alice Alse Young of Windsor, a young wife and mother, was sent to the gallows after being judged a witch. She was the first witch executed in New England although many think that such barbarity swirled solely around Salem, Massachusetts. In 1648 Mary Johnson, a house servant, confessed to being a witch after she was accused of theft. After extensive torture and interrogation, Johnson confessed to familiarity with the devil. She also confessed to having sexual relations with men and devils and to murdering a child. Her execution was delayed as she was pregnant during her imprisonment in Hartford. Johnson was executed June 6, 1650. Joan and John Carrington were executed in 1651. They were prominent members of the Wethersfield community before being accused of witchcraft. From Hartford, four people were executed for the crime of witchcraft; Nathaniel and Rebecca Greensmith, Mary Sanford, and Mary Barnes were hung in 1662.

By 1697 Connecticut had the distinction of executing sixteen people after having heard forty-three witchcraft cases. Other men and women spent months in jail awaiting trial. It wasn’t until 1750 that witchcraft was removed from the books as a crime.

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An infamous murder occurred in Newtown, Connecticut in 1986 when Eastern Airlines pilot Richard Crafts murdered his flight attendant wife, Helle. He dismembered her body and ran the pieces through a woodchipper. A witness had seen the truck hauling the woodchipper near Lake Zoar. When police investigated they found many small pieces of metal and some three ounces of human tissue, including the crown of a tooth, a fingernail covered in pink nail polish, bone chips, 2,660 bleached-blonde human hairs, and O-type blood, which was the same type as that of Helle Crafts. Richard Crafts was put on trial and found guilty, and that case set a precedent as Connecticut’s first murder conviction without the victim’s body.

Newtown had another entry in crime infamy in 2012 when a psychotic 20-year-old named Adam Lanza, armed with a semi-automatic rifle and thirty extra magazines, murdered twenty young school children and six school teachers before committing suicide. The massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School has gone down in the history books as one of the deadliest mass shootings in the country.

The oldest house in Connecticut was built in 1639, the Henry Whitfield House in Guilford; there are dozens more houses still standing that were built in the seventeenth century. Some still stand from the early eighteenth century, and quite a few have survived from the past two centuries including the Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe houses in Hartford.

Once called the richest state in the union Connecticut built its prominence and wealth on many industries, the most notable of which were manufacturing and insurance. The state’s capital, Hartford, is known across the globe as the Insurance Capital of the World. After the Vietnam War manufacturing for that effort dissolved and although manufacturing is still quite viable in the state it has been an up-and-down industry as American wars rose and ebbed. Other manufacturing companies grew. Although the insurance industry is still robust, the original cluster of companies mainly centered in Hartford has seen business chipped off by new insurance companies and processes that are spread across the country. Still, companies like the Travelers, the Hartford, the Phoenix, and Aetna are still standing and making a profit. Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks flies people to and from across the globe.

Connecticut is a state steeped in history and tradition, beautiful farms, hills, mountains, rivers, lakes, and beaches. Historic villages founded in the 1600s are nestled in the rolling hills and are less than two hours from waterfronts where whaling ships once docked and unloaded their precious cargo. It is an easy driving distance to New York, Cape Cod and the northwestern Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts. This fifth of the New England states to be admitted to the union is held dear in the hearts of its residents and expatriates.

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"Of all the beautiful towns it has been my fortune to see, this is the

chief. You do not know what beauty is if you have not been here."

— Mark Twain

Hertfordshire is a county in southern England. Hertford is a county town within. The name of the county and city derives from the Old English word herut, meaning hart. The hart is a fully mature stag, and ford refers to a shallow stream that can usually be traversed by foot. Hertford, or Hartford, thus means a place where harts are found, or deer crossing. As in many names of towns and cities not only in New England but also across the country, the name is homage to the places of origin of colonial and later settlers.

Hartford is the capital of Connecticut. The location is where Dutch settlers, who boated from Long Island Sound up the Connecticut River under the command of Adrian Block, came to rest and started to build. Their purpose was to establish a trading post and fort, and originally the settlement name was Fort Hoop, meaning House of Hope. Although the Dutch discovered and settled the location they soon became inundated with waves of English settlers. Puritan pastors Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone took charge of the colony and renamed it Hartford after Stone’s hometown back in England.

Firmly established by the end of the Revolutionary War Hartford began to expand its economy and political influence. The five New England States (Maine was still part of Massachusetts at that time) met at the 1814 Hartford Convention to air grievances and feel out the support for New England’s succession from the union. Unlike the southern states in 1860, said succession did not happen.

The abolition of slavery movement was alive and robust in the Hartford area. Leading the charge was the Beecher family. The Reverend Lyman Beecher gave rousing anti-slavery sermons. His daughter, Harriet, authored the defining novel on slavery for that time: Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Her brother Henry and her sister Isabella were adamant proponents of suffrage and women’s rights. The Wide Awakes abolitionist group made its first appearance in Hartford as support for Abraham Lincoln’s run for president.

In the century following the Revolutionary War Hartford grew rapidly due to the increase in industry and agriculture and its excellent position alongside the Connecticut River. However, one name stood out in the annals of Hartford development: Colt. Samuel Colt was an industrialist and inventor that received a patent for an improved revolver mechanism that allowed for the loading and firing of multiple shots before reloading was required. His sales grew as the U.S. was entering the Mexican-American War, and he built the famous Colt Armory just south of downtown Hartford. By 1856 his factory was the largest private armament producer in the world. Business swelled during the Civil War in which the Colt factory supplied the weapons for the Union Army. Colt died in 1862; his worth at that time was $15 million (in today’s money, around $500 million).

Other industries popped up and small businesses grew and were supplemented by larger operations, particular in retail. By the heydays of the 1960s Hartford boasted department and five and dime stores such as G. Fox & Company, Sage-Allen, Korvette’s, Brown Thompson, J.J. Newberry, Kresge, Lerner’s, Grants and more. The world-renown insurance companies such as Travelers and Aetna began and burgeoned, and the Empire State Building-like Travelers tower is the most immediately recognizable feature of the downtown area. Another remarkable insurance building across the street from Travelers is the Phoenix boat building, the first two-sided building in the world and registered on the National Register of Historical Places.

Hartford’s population grew by steady but small increases in the early years and then began a more rapid growth around the time of the Civil War, leveling off around the 1960s.

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The demographics were more homogenous in the early days, comprised mainly of Dutch and English residents. As the 20th century progressed, however, the population gained in size and diversity. As different ethnic groups moved in Hartford developed names for the communities of people. The French, for example, established a foothold in the southern end of the city along Park Street and that territory became known as Frog Hollow. Little Italy blossomed in the south end where many Italian families chose to live and work. The north part of the city became known for its heavy black population; currently, the city’s black population comprises the highest percentage of Hartford residents. There is a heavy Latin population with Puerto Ricans making up the majority of that demographic component.

From the 1940s on the city built several low-income, or public housing communities. The north end had Stowe Village; the south end had Dutch Point. The western end had Charter Oak Terrace and to a lesser extent Rice Heights. They differed in residents and building structure. Stowe Village was similar to apartment buildings, multi-floored and brick. Charter Oak Terrace had at the most brick two-stories with single wooden stories tacked onto the ends of some sections. That housing project was divided into four sections, sections A, B, C, and D. For the most part the white and Latin residents were in sections A and B; the elderly were in section C; and the black population were in section D. The housing projects, what they meant, and who lived in them are gone now.

Hartford has produced a number of famous people in all disciplines from literature to entertainment, either being born there, or working there, or associated closely with the city. Writers hailing from the insurance capital of the world include Mark Twain (born Samuel Clemens), Dominick Dunne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Stephenie Meyer, and Suzanne Collins. Entertainers include Katharine Hepburn, Linda Evans, Charles Nelson Reilly, Totie Fields, Tony Todd, and Norman Lear. Sophie Tucker and Gene Pitney lead the musicians calling the city home. NHL and NBA athletes include Michael Adams, Andre Drummond, Johnny Egan, Mickey Fallon, and Eugene Robinson. In other arenas such people associated with Hartford are Samuel Colt, Horace Bushnell, J.P. Morgan, and Albert A. Pope. Another person that Hartford would prefer not to claim in association is Nathaniel Bar-Jonah, a convicted child molester and serial killer.

Hartford had small venues for entertaining the people, including lovely old movie theatres dotting the town. The Strand, the Crown, the Lyric, the Webster, the Elm Theater, E.M. Loew’s Poli, the Colonial, the Lenox, the Princess, the Regal, the Allyn, and the Rivoli were amongst the venues that had only a single screen (!), plush seats, and balconies. Seeing a movie wasn’t just seeing a movie—it was an experience. One could amble down the Berlin Turnpike and enjoy outdoor movies such as the Hartford Drive-in, the Berlin Drive-in, and the Meadows Drive-In. In 1973 a four-plex (!!!) theater opened on Silver Lane in East Hartford, signaling the evolution of movie watching. Live and Let Die and Dillinger were the first movies shown there.

The city enjoyed the privilege of having a professional sports team located within city limits. The NHL hockey team, the Hartford Whalers, were known as the New England Whalers from 1972 to 1979, and the Hartford Whalers from 1979 to 1997. In 1997 they moved to Raleigh, North Carolina and changed their name to the Carolina Hurricanes.

There were a wide variety of educational venues in the city. Four high schools led the pack: Bulkeley High School, Hartford Public High School, Weaver High School, and South Catholic High School. Elementary schools included Barbour, Mary M. Hooker, Batchelder, Kinsella, Fox, Moylan, and Burr. Prince Tech also serves those who prefer a non-academic four-year school. There are also world-class medical facilities in the city including Hartford Hospital, the Institute of Living, Mount Sinai Medical Center, and St. Francis Hospital.

Hartford has seen its difficulties within its economy, industries, and population, but two natural disasters and one manmade disaster made indelible marks. In 1909 the banks of the river overflowed and flooded the city. In 1936 a devasting flood laid waste to multiple states and cities as the Connecticut River and others blew over their banks and flooded cities, towns, mills, factories, homes, and bridges. In Hartford flood waters rose thirty-eight feet. Firefighters tried their best but had to abandon pumping efforts under the relentless onslaught. Phones and power were out and people were moving about the city in rowboats. When the waters receded, the cleanup was monumental.

Nature was not the only entity to wreak disaster. On July 6, 1944, Hartford suffered what was at the time the worst fire disaster in the country’s history. Around seven thousand people attended an afternoon performance of the Ringling Brothers & Barnum & Bailey Circus. While the Great Wallendas were performing a small fire began on the southwest sidewall of the tent. Panicked spectators rushed to leave the tent and in the chaos attempts to quell the flames were futile. Some exits were blocked by performance paraphernalia. Because of the paraffin wax waterproofing of the tent, the flames spread rapidly, helped by the wind.

When the conflagration was over 168 people were dead and seven hundred injured. The most famous victim was a young blonde girl wearing a white dress. Her identity remained a mystery and she was dubbed Little Miss 1656, the number assigned to her in the morgue. She was buried in Hartford’s Northwood Cemetery next to a small monument to all the victims. In 1991, the body was declared to be that of eight-year-old Eleanor Emily Cook. The Connecticut State Police forensics unit compared hair samples and determined they were probably from the same person. The body was exhumed and buried next to her brother, Edward, who had also died in the fire.

Notoriety notwithstanding, Hartford is a well-located small city in the middle of Connecticut, replete with the good and the bad of wealth and poverty, of racial strife, of all of the mistakes that human beings make. Still, the motto on the city seal is the very definition of hope: Post Nubila Phoebus—after the clouds, the sun.

For this author, however, Hartford is where she grew up, experienced joy and heartbreak, good times and bad, and she wouldn’t want to call any other place home.

The Insurance Capital of the World

New England’s Rising Star

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Chapter One

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February 15, 1973

Hartford, CT

The snow had been lightly drifting since early morning, tapering off every few hours then coming back with more intensity. As the grey afternoon darkened into sunset the drifting had become a full deluge of heavy, fat snowflakes. Schools had let the students out in the early afternoon and front yards were filled with bundled-up children that were yelling and throwing snowballs and making small lopsided snowmen that wouldn’t last more than a day.

Sunset on this mid-February day was just shy of five-thirty and by six the yards were empty and the kids and their parents were tucked into their warm houses as moms prepared to set their well-cooked meals on the dinner table. By eight, dinner had been cleared and the kids were probably watching The Mod Squad or The Waltons, with some perhaps tuned into The Flip Wilson Show. Very few people were walking the streets and only occasionally did a car pass by. Every so often the rumble of a snow plow broke the stillness, clearing the streets and pushing the snow against the curbs and often into the fronts of driveways. Once in a while the snow clouds broke a tad to reveal the nearly full moon that illuminated the homes awash in the beauty and peace of a cold winter’s night.

Hartford’s Elizabeth Park is on the national register of historic places. Originally the location of financier Charles Pond’s estate the hundred+ acreage was bequeathed to the city with the stipulation that it be named after his late wife, Elizabeth. The city assumed its charge in 1897 and began the construction a magnificent park that eventually produced formal gardens, green spaces, picnic areas and recreational facilities. The park’s famous rose garden is simply sublime. The cities of Hartford and West Hartford share its boundaries; the park’s postal address is 1561 Asylum Avenue, West Hartford.

To the east of the park past Prospect Avenue lie many grid streets where lovely homes rest on large lots and testify to the robust finances of the middle-class residents. Homes of many styles from Dutch Colonials to faux Tudors to rambling quasi-Victorians make up an oddly eclectic neighborhood. Some have detached garages in back but many have only the driveway in which to park. The streets are single lanes each way, usually with a parking section on only one side of the street. Most people have to walk to Asylum Avenue to catch a bus into the city. During the snowy winters anyone who parks their car on the street may wind up having to dig out the snow pushed against the driver’s side by the plows. Neighborhood teenagers make spending money by shoveling driveways that a house’s occupant can’t.

Darkness fell but it was still snowing lightly. The clouds had dropped a foot of snow since the day before. One by one house lights were extinguished, and by eleven o’clock the street and houses were dark and ever so silent save a barking dog in the distance. A lone figure moved slowly but rhythmically down the west side of the street. Bundled in heavy slacks, boots, a bulky black backpack and a hip-length parka with a hood, the figure plugged head down through the snow until the intersection with Asylum Avenue was visible. The figure was holding a leash whose end attached to the leather collar on the small black dog. To anyone’s unknowing viewpoint this was simply a good dog owner who was taking their small furry beast out for a walk. The dog’s fur was dotted with melting snowflakes; its tail was wagging and it seemed invigored by the chilly weather and deluge from above.

The house was a big white clapboard colonial that was originally built in 1933. It was originally two stories but could now be considered three after the attic was remodeled into a floor with two bedrooms and a bathroom. The front of the third floor had extended windows with small A-frame roofs over the multi-pane glass. On both the second and first floors there were three large double windows to each side of the front door, framed by newly painted black shutters. The front door was white on the wood section but in the middle was a large, colorful stained-glass pane with swirled roses and hummingbirds. Over the front door was a proudly flying American flag.

The house was dark; no one was home. The owner had been gone for a week now and wasn’t due back from her warm, tropical Caribbean cruise for another week. A professor of antiquities Dr. Elena Cruz-Lopez traveled a great deal to collect artifacts from Latin American cultures. Divorced with both of her sons adults and out on their own she occasionally found her house too big for one person but she replaced the space with art of every kind hanging on the walls and placed in strategic locations to show off their uniqueness and expense.

Set on a smidge under a half-acre the property was fenced with stained wood planks five feet high, allowing for maximum privacy in the backyard where a detached two-car garage and a white steel utility shed offset the manicured green lawn that rolled up to a wide cement patio that held a wrought iron patio table and chairs. Currently, the set was stored in the utility shed until the spring. Topiary shrubs lined one section of the wall with the bushes carved into animal shapes.

The dark figure and the dog casually rounded the corner to Asylum where a gate on the fence was padlocked. No one was around to see the figure deftly make short work of the lock and pull the dog into the back yard before closing the gate. The snow continued and began covering up any footprints.

There was complete silence as the figure and dog made their way to the back door. The lock was almost too easy to pick, not much of a challenge. They slipped in silently.

The cat burglar told the dog quietly to sit and the dog immediately obeyed and sat rock steady. The burglar unzipped the backpack and withdrew an expensive set of night-vision goggles that were procured under the table and at a premium price. Overhead, the burglar thought. The burglar affixed the goggles to their head and switched them on. They didn’t make the room look as though it were lit by lamps but made it light enough to discern objects and prevent crashing into furniture. This was surplus from the Vietnam War, which was still engaged albeit winding down, and considered first generation. Scientists were already designing and piloting second generation versions where the edging was far crisper and had brighter illumination in low ambient-light environments.

The burglar moved swiftly out of the kitchen, taking a mental note of the upgraded appliances and counters. Lofty ceilings, crown molding, and beautiful hardwood floors gleamed under the greenish light. Two tall curio cabinets held expensive glass objects and souvenirs from Dr. Cruz-Lopez’s world travels. The burglar stopped in front of one and admired two Grecian silver eggs carved with mythological figures and an alabaster centaur. Tempting, but those were not the objects of the night’s excursion and the burglar never deviated focus from the precise task at hand.

The wraith-like figure moved through the rooms searching. The den turned out to be the location where the wall safe held its treasures. A reproduction of a Rembrandt painting was placed gently on the floor and the burglar set to breaking into the safe. A stethoscope helped the matter, and after several false tries the safe clicked open. An old, old book wrapped loosely in a shammy cloth was withdrawn from the depths then the safe was closed and the painting rehung.

The book was a rare one, published in 1843 in Concord, New Hampshire by I.S. Boyd. The Early History of New England was written by the Reverend Henry Wright. Historical as well as anecdotal the small leather-bound volume told tales of early settlers and how they built lives and businesses. The book also included vivid and sometimes gory tales of what happened to white settlers taken captive by Indians. The book wasn’t in great shape but it still held together and the pages were readable. It was worth a great deal of money but someone had commissioned the burglar to steal it because it belonged to his family and was stolen one hundred years ago. Apparently Dr. Cruz-Lopez had found it in an antique shop in Keene, New Hampshire, and wrote about it in her column at the college newspaper. She anticipated donating it to the Smithsonian. The article had come out two weeks earlier and she mentioned that she would do so when she got back from her annual Aruba trip. The burglar thought that people could be idiots—never tell strangers when you weren’t going to be home.

Ten minutes later the burglar, the book, and the dog were on their way to Asylum Street where they’d walk a decent length then take the next bus heading towards the heart of the city. The Asylum bus took them close to downtown where they got off and walked to Main Street, just managing to catch the Main Street bus headed south. They got off at South Green and crossed the street to the corner of Wyllys and Wethersfield. Two short blocks down Wyllys they enter the first building on the left on Lisbon Street and walked to the apartment on the third floor.

The dog, a small mutt named Bingo, wolfed down the food in her bowl while her master pulled off the parka and boots. The refrigerator opened and the last Pabst Blue Ribbon was withdrawn, the top popped loudly with a trusty church key engraved with the name Trifecta Bar.

Alexandria Chouette dropped down onto the worn couch and took a long sip before turning on the Channel 3 news. Newscaster Al Terzi was just finishing up with a story about a baby in Windsor that had been born yesterday on Valentine’s Day. Ken Garee had already completed his weather report which promised some cloud clearing with another possible snowfall on Friday.

Alex thought she’d better stock up on beer and TV dinners tomorrow. Bingo jumped up on the couch and snuggled against her and she absently petted her head as she flipped through the old book she had just stolen. The payment would satisfy three months of rent.

Alex wasn’t thrilled about driving up to Hadley, Massachusetts to meet the buyer halfway at a place on the backroads, the Tobacco Barn, which now served as a bar for the locals. Gas was inching towards a damn fifty cents a gallon and there were rumors on the horizon that it would hit a half buck by summer along with rationing. The cost was off-putting, but even more so was driving in the cold and on slippery roads. Still, the trip was a two-fer—she had lifted two dozen rare record albums from the Belmont and she had a buyer in Chicopee. She wished it were summer so she could stop in Riverside Park and grab a fast roller coaster ride and a hot, luscious corndog. Maybe in June. Right now, she just had to focus on business.

She lay back and looked out the living room window. The snow was still falling. She closed her eyes and felt Bingo crawling onto her lap. She gently stroked the dog until she heard it snoring. She had found Bingo the year before in the winter. Alex was passing a set of garbage cans and heard a slight whimper. When she opened the lid she saw a tiny, shivering, whining puppy nestled in the garbage. She took her home, made a lot of mistakes feeding and deworming her, then acquired a loyal, loving life companion. About a month after the rescue, she was walking behind a couple of kids and heard the adolescents snickering about killing some puppies and tossing the last in the garbage so it could be squished by the garbage truck. She dropped back but followed them to where they lived. That night she went back, grinning at the careless way they had dropped their bikes in front of their Dutch Point homes. Why the idiots were using the bikes during winter was anyone’s guess, but it was fortuitous. She flicked out her switchblade and shredded all the tires then poured kerosene on the bikes, flicked a lit match at them, and ran like hell back up Wyllys Street.

She sighed and let her hand rest on Bingo’s soft head. The closest package store was at the end of Charter Oak Place, across the street from Kinsella School where she had graduated eighth grade. They always carded her there even though she had shown her ID each time to prove that she was twenty-three rapidly ageing to twenty-four. She acknowledged that she didn’t really look her age but more like nineteen. That served her well in some instances but not in others. It often gave her an advantage as people underestimated her intelligence and fortitude.

People had always underestimated her except for her father. Henri Chouette was a world-class con artist, pickpocket, and thief. He had taught his only daughter the tricks of the trade ever since her mother took off when she was four and he had to be mom, dad, teacher, supporter, cheerleader, and protector of the smart, eager child. In the desertion-of-Mom scenario most men would have dumped their kid and taken off, but Henri was in many ways a stand-up guy. An alcoholic, a chain smoker and a thief, sure, but oddly enough a good dad. Short, wily, and sometimes mysterious, he was no Ward Cleaver but he was determined to raise his daughter.

He wanted her to go to college—at least community college after she graduated high school—but Alex had other ideas. She wanted his life, minus the booze and ciggies and gambling and bad investments in enterprises that inevitably failed. He finally gave up trying to dissuade her and when she was seven he used her for the first time in one of his smaller cons. She was perfection, with the face of an angel and the soul of a scoundrel. He had no idea where she got her propensity for meticulous planning and creative solutions, but he could envision the day that she would surpass him. From that point on he devoted himself to one charge: molding his daughter into the perfect thief.

He taught her how to pickpocket without being detected even by the most sensitive person. He taught her how to play poker and count cards. He sprang for gymnastic classes to structure her body into a lithe, flexible moving machine. He instructed her in reading facial expressions and finding the underlying meanings in words and tone. And, with all of these instructional experiences, he was strict about her doing well in school. She brought home A’s and B’s except for the C+ Chemistry class in Bulkeley High School. She vented about being forced in grade school to taking Home Economics classes; she was as far from Suzy Homemaker as the North Pole was from Antarctica. She scraped by and chafed that she couldn’t take shop.

Henri had a wide circle of friends, some criminals, some not, and the former helped train her in a variety of tactics and talents. She spent a lot of time across the street from their Washington Street third-floor walk-up in the dark, dank Trifecta Bar, sitting at the bar next to her dad, rolling cigarettes for him while he carried on lively conversations with the bartender and his buddies and imbibed one too many whiskies. When they lost