The Pact

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Richard Schlesinger (0:19)

You go back to the first days after the murder. This might have been a dispute between teenagers. It might have involved a girl. It might have involved drinking. Whoever knew about John's killing kept this secret for over 40 years. That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

September 26, 1969 is the day that changed the lives of Bill and Neville and McCabe forever.

Evelyn McCabe (1:09)

I don't think I've had a whole night's sleep since it's happened.

Richard Schlesinger (1:14)

If it's not too painful, can you tell me about his last day?

Evelyn McCabe (1:18)

Winter dance, his second dance.

Richard Schlesinger (1:21)

Fifteen-year-old John McCabe was looking forward to going to the Knights of Columbus dance that evening.

Evelyn McCabe (1:26)

Took a shower, scrubbed his hair, put his father's aftershave on. He didn't shave, but put his father's aftershave on. Oh yeah, he got all spruced up.

Eleven o'clock, I started looking out the window. That's when the dance closes. He should be home by midnight. So I went down to the dance and checked the road, screaming out the window, John, John.

No, John. I started praying at that point.

Richard Schlesinger (2:02)

The day after John McCabe went missing, three young kids were cutting through a vacant lot when they made a horrifying discovery, which was the body of John McCabe.

He had been bound and gagged and tied with rope. After John's body was found, Bill McCabe, a pillar of strength, had to do the unspeakable. That was identify the body of his dead son.

Bill McCabe (2:29)

Never forget it.

People keep talking about closure. You can't shake it.

Richard Schlesinger (2:36)

He then had to go home and inform his family what had happened.

Evelyn McCabe (2:40)

Bill said, honey, my son's dead.

SPEAKER_6 (2:47)

Well, I was a senior in high school.

Mike Ferreira (2:50)

Were you fearful?

SPEAKER_6 (2:51)

Yes. They hadn't caught the people that killed my brother.

Richard Schlesinger (2:54)

Did you think when you looked at kids in your classes, maybe it's him, maybe it's him?

SPEAKER_6 (3:00)

Maybe it was them. Maybe they knew something. How could they not know anything?

Richard Schlesinger (3:04)

Without physical evidence, without a witness, this case remained unsolved for several years, and several years became decades.

Debbie McCabe (3:14)

Ready? This is it.

Evelyn McCabe (3:16)

I pray every day, justice will be served.

Richard Schlesinger (3:21)

There was only one way this case was going to be solved.

Eric Wilson (3:24)

Do you solemnly swear that-

SPEAKER_10 (3:25)

How old were you in 1969?

Edward Allen Brown (3:28)

Seventeen.

Richard Schlesinger (3:29)

That's if someone came forward and talked.

Mike Ferreira (3:31)

How do you know how John McCabe died?

Edward Allen Brown (3:35)

I was there.

Richard Schlesinger (3:41)

I'm Richard Schlesinger. Tonight on 48 Hours...

It took almost every ounce of strength left in his 85-year-old body to get to the witness stand, but Bill McCabe waited 43 years for this day and the start of this trial in January 2013

Tom O'Reilly (4:19)

Good morning, Mr. McCabe. Do you remember September 27, 1969? Yes, sir.

How old was John at that day?

Bill McCabe (4:27)

He was 15 years, six months, and two weeks.

Evelyn McCabe (4:37)

I always visualized him as being a big shot somewhere. John Joseph McCabe, my son JJ., you know.

But I never got to see any of those things.

Richard Schlesinger (4:52)

In the fall of 1969, two men had just landed on the moon.

Jack Ward (4:57)

Beautiful, just beautiful.

Richard Schlesinger (5:01)

Thousands had just crashed at Woodstock, and John McCabe, 15 years, six months, and two weeks old, was living with his family in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.

Bill McCabe (5:13)

I think we have a right to be proud of them, yeah.

Richard Schlesinger (5:16)

John's father Bill was an engineer. His mother, Evelyn, worked at the school library.

His sisters, Roberta, who was six, and Debbie, who was 17, remember a brother who was always busy, doing what brothers do.

SPEAKER_6 (5:33)

It was pretty interesting. You open the closet door, and your closet's filled with grasshoppers.

Debbie McCabe (5:38)

I just remember his hands were always dirty, like with oil or grease or a frog in his hand.

Richard Schlesinger (5:43)

So you brought home a goose once, too.

Evelyn McCabe (5:45)

Oh, yeah, Canadian goose. Big sucker.

Richard Schlesinger (5:48)

It's fun to watch you talk about this because your eyes light up. I mean, you have very fond memories of those days.

Evelyn McCabe (5:52)

Oh, yeah.