Don’t Look Behind You

statement. She showed jurors photographs of Joe Tarricone in life, immediately followed by pictures of his bones with the clean edges that proved a chain saw had cut through them.
    “For the next twenty-nine years, Joseph Tarricone’s five grown children and two minor children would worry and wonder what happened to their father,” Farina said. “And finally, after thirty years, a family’s worst nightmare came true. Not only had their father been murdered, but his body [was] brutally dismembered limb by limb with a chain saw and then discarded in large plastic bags—like a piece of trash.”
    Farina explained to the jury that they must find four circumstances true in order to convict Nick Notaro of murder in the first degree:
    One: that on or about the period between the twenty-first day of September 1978 and the twenty-first day of October 1978, the defendant—as an accomplice—acted with intent to cause the death of Joseph Tarricone. Two: that the intent to cause the death was premeditated. Three: that Joseph Tarricone died as a result of the defendant’sacts. And four: that any of these acts occurred in the state of Washington.
    And then Dawn Farina pointed out with details and examples that each of these conditions was true. Notaro had had the opportunity, the means, and the motive to kill Joe Tarricone.
    “The defendant himself said it best during the interview with detectives Benson and Wood. When they asked him who told him to kill Joseph Tarricone, Notaro responded, ‘Nobody had to tell me to kill him. We went down to the basement and he leaned over [the washing machine] and I shot him in the back of the head. I shot him twice.’”
    The jurors quickly found Notaro guilty of first-degree murder. Judge van Doorninck ruled that his sentencing would occur after Renee Curtiss’s trial.
    Renee’s trial began in late March, almost exactly a year after Ben Benson and Denny Wood arrested her in Henry’s Bail Bonds. She had been out on bail for that year, and remained free. Ironically, she would face a female prosecutor and a female judge, probably not her first choice.
    No one was more elated to see Renee go on trial for first-degree murder at last than Gypsy Tarricone. Gypsy put a banner up on her fence marking the first anniversary of Nick and Renee’s arrest, announcing her sentiments. When Ben Benson saw it, he told her to take it down immediately. The last thing the prosecution wanted was something that Renee’s lawyer could use in an appeal. Chagrined, Gypsy obeyed. Ben had always told her thetruth and she knew that he, along with Denny Wood, had worked many off-duty hours to make this upcoming trial happen. She had waited three decades to see Renee Curtiss punished for her father’s death; she could wait a week or so longer to celebrate.
    Renee dressed in expensive and flattering clothes at her trial. She was still free on bail and didn’t have to sleep in jail when each day ended. Her hair and makeup were more appropriate than usual. Her sister, Cassie, other family members, and a number of women whom she identified as her friends were there each day to support her.
    One trial spectator described these women as “hardened by age and experience, wearing a lot of thick makeup—much like Renee,” while Gypsy Tarricone simply called them “the old biddy cheering squad.”
    Henry Lewis couldn’t be there; his heart disease had progressed rapidly after Renee’s arrest, and the strain of a murder trial where his wife was the defendant had accelerated the damage. His coronary artery disease had brought him to the edge of death.
    Gypsy was there, of course, along with her brother Dean, her sister Rosemary, and occasionally other family members. The two camps stared at each other coldly as the trial progressed.
    The defense had planned to call Nick Notaro to the witness stand first, but as the trial started, circumstances made it impossible for him to be in court on time, and Judge van Doorninck wanted the trial to move as quickly as possible without long delays. Had Nick testified first, Renee would have heard his version of their “facts,” andtailored her testimony to fit. Usually witnesses are not allowed in the courtroom until after they have testified—to avoid hearing something that might change their testimony. But Renee was the defendant so she was allowed to hear every word witnesses said.
    But Nick was late, so Renee began.
    Renee Curtiss was determined to testify in her own