A Message From John Castle, Our First Coordinator.
Sunday, February 21, 1993 was a very long day. Margene, my wife, had read Tom Condon’s article in the Northeast Magazine in The Hartford Courant. She said, “Oh, we have to get involved. Here, John, read it.” I sat down and read it, too. Margene wanted to get hold of Tom Condon right away, but it was a Sunday and I didn’t think we’d be able to reach him.
Well, that was a long night for Margene. And the first thing Monday morning, she was on the phone, talking to Tom, asking how could she become involved. He referred her to Pat Beeman who had been a regular attender during the trial. She called Pat, and so we became involved, and we are still very much involved.
Well, I was aware that the Burger King in Wethersfield has a big meeting room, so I went over and arranged to use the room and it has been our meeting place for many years. We have had about a hundred members but we have averaged about fifteen to twenty members at a meeting, more on special occasions, and that’s pretty much what it has been for two and a half years now.
Our meetings are informal, and I’m not the president, I’m a coordinator. There are a lot of little things that need doing, but our focus is on the big things, such as this forum, which I suppose we can consider our crowning achievement until the day Richard Lapointe walks out of prison as a free citizen once again.
Submitted January 2008