...And Never Let HerGo

letter to Ferris Wharton. In it, he explained that Tom Capano had asked him to phone a person called Debby, who was going to blow the case wide open if she didn’t stop talking to the prosecutors. “He asked me to call Debby to remind her to fight the hypocritic bastards and not change her story about where she disposed of the gun in the trash can.”
    Four days later, Perillo told his attorney, Tom Foley, about what Tom Capano was planning, and Foley agreed to talk with the prosecutors about it. Perillo confided to Wharton that Tom had told him he always got involved “with head cases like Fahey” and that he had called Debby a “stupid dumb bitch.”
    While Perillo was not averse to being rewarded for information, he was also uneasy about what Tom seemed capable of doing. Perillo was a con man and an admitted drug addict, but he would no more have plotted to hurt someone physically than the guards in the bubble would. He told Wharton that Tom was very angry at Debby. “Very angry.”
    Perillo had been in the system a long time and he knew that information could be traded for a possible reduction in sentence. Wharton took him up on his offer to provide information about Tom, albeit without making any promises. Perillo also had a private backup plan he didn’t share with the prosecutors. This was a big story, and he thought he might just contact
Inside Edition
or one ofthe other tabloid shows and see if he could sell some information. Nobody accepted his collect calls.
    On March 4, Perillo had some fairly startling news for the prosecutors and got a message out to them via a guard. Tom had asked him if he knew anyone who might want to burglarize Debby’s house. “He told me it would be easy picking. He has the key and will give the alarm code to me—to send her a message.” Perillo said that he did know people who could commit a burglary for him, although it would take some time to find them.
    Tom had finally realized that Debby was not only unwilling to lie on the witness stand for him, she was going to stay with that “loathsome lawyer” Tom Bergstrom. As an attorney himself, he knew any lawyer worth his salt would advise her to look after herself, and that might lead her to cooperate with the “the Nazi” and “the hangman.”
    Debby had told Tom she would be leaving on St. Patrick’s Day for Sanibel Island in Florida for her children’s spring vacation trip and would be gone until March 28. In the second week of March, pursuing his burglary plans, Tom told Perillo that Debby’s home was full of valuable possessions, in both a monetary and a sentimental sense. He wanted her to be so afraid and, at the same time, so aware of who was behind the burglary that she would never even think of cooperating with the prosecutors.
    Tom’s plan to have Perillo find a burglar to send Debby a very frightening message was not a momentary aberrance. He had a perfect visual memory, an ability that many people don’t possess. He could close his eyes and picture every room in Debby’s house, and in those rooms, the places where she kept jewelry, art, antiques, silver, china, stereos, television sets, VCRs—all those things that burglars delight in.
    With utmost care, he drew five maps: of Delaware Avenue and the side streets near the little white house, of the three floors of Debby’s house, and of an exterior view showing entrances and the direction doors opened.
    For each room, Tom noted the valuables to be found there and pointed out hiding places. He had meticulous orders for the second floor, where Debby’s bedroom and office were. He wanted to be sure she knew who had sent the men who ravaged her home. “Must remove plastic bag with sex toys and videos,” he instructed. “In either: • office closet; • closet opposite Master Bath on right side; • Built-in cabinets in Master Bedroom outside wall; • Inside luggage in either closet.” He added that the floor-to-ceiling mirror in the bedroom MUST BE SHATTERED , and that all the artwork must be removed from Debby’s bedroom or slashed to ribbons.
    Other than Debby herself, there was only one person who knew what the mirror meant or where the sex toys were—her lover, Tom Capano. It would be like writing his name on her bedroom wall; she would get the message loud and clear.
    To be sure that the burglars Perillo contacted would be well prepared, Tom added a sixth page with thirteen instructions. Giving orders was almost a fetish with him, and