Robin Murphy says 'Satanic cult' killer Carl Drew didn't do it. Why she changed her story.
NATICK — If the Massachusetts Parole Board was looking for clarity on Tuesday from Robin Murphy, the alleged mastermind of Fall River's notorious "Satanic cult" triple-murder mystery in 1979 and 1980, they did not get it.
Parole Board member Dr. Charlene Bonner began the round of questioning in Murphy's latest bid for freedom. Bonner has been on the board since 2011, and has seen Murphy before for several hearings seeking release since 2012.
“I think we’re at the point now where there’s been so much confusion, and there is not an easy way to say why, and there is a lack of candor. I’m not sure you can untangle the web,” said Bonner. “But this is an opportunity to really try.”
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Murphy claims Carl Drew didn’t kill her girlfriend
Murphy has told several different versions of the story over 44 years. Murphy, 61, yet again changed her story, and now says that Carl Drew, the man she implicated in the murder of her girlfriend, Karen Marsden, in 1980, was not to blame.
Drew is currently serving a life sentence for first-degree murder without the possibility of parole. He has been incarcerated since 1981.
“As you sit here today, do you feel that Mr. Drew is incarcerated appropriately?” asked Bonner.
“No,” responded Murphy. “I felt at the time that he was responsible. He said he was going to kill her, and she ended up dead. A lot of other things have come out since that time. My testimony should not have been false against him.”
Robin Murphy says new information has changed her mind
Murphy sat before five members of the parole board in a two-hour hearing on Tuesday, as she has before, most recently two years ago, when she was denied release.
Shackled and with a dozen supporters looking on, Murphy said that within the past two years new information has been presented to her that changed her mind about Drew’s participation in the murder of Marsden, then a 19-year-old single mother of a young boy.
However, Murphy declined to identify the source of the potentially new information.
Murphy was featured in a 2021 documentary series called “Fall River” that chronicled the infamous murders of Marsden, 17-year-old New Bedford runaway Doreen Levesque and 19-year-old single mother Barbara Raposa. All three women were sex workers at the time of their murders.
Murphy, then 17, and Drew, then 26, were rival pimps in a turf war around the Bedford Street neighborhood near the former Fall River police station at the time the three victims went missing and later discovered brutally murdered.
Murphy was convicted in 1980 for Marsden’s murder after testifying against Drew, the alleged head of a “Satanic cult,” in exchange for a second-degree murder conviction with the possibility of parole.
She told police she severed Marsden’s head in a cult ritual, but later recanted her involvement in the murder, claiming she testified against Drew believing he would not be brought to justice for her girlfriend’s murder.
Andrew Maltais, an alleged cult member, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of Raposa, with Murphy assisting prosecutors in that case. He died in prison in 1988.
Murphy has also alleged that Maltais molested her as a child.
No one has been convicted in the killing of the first of the three murder victims, Doreen Levesque, whose battered body was found under the bleachers at Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School.
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Murphy denies there was a Satanic cult under questioning
“Was there a cult?” asked Bonner.
“Not to my knowledge,” Murphy responded.
While her testimony regarding the three murders indicated Satanic rituals, it was Fall River police who had suggested they were the result of a Satanic cult led by Drew.
Bonner also questioned why Murphy would not only insert herself in the three murders, she’d told investigators she was in the car when Maltais murdered Raposa, and claimed she participated in Marsden’s murder.
In the 2022 parole hearing, Bonner noted, Murphy said she did not blame the police or the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office, but that she tailored her testimony to match their evidence.
“It’s kind of hard to have it both ways if you want the parole board to understand that part of the reason why you lied is to benefit the District Attorney’s office stories and that you were coerced into doing it, but I don’t blame them,” said Bonner. “I would blame them if that were true.”
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“So, I’m getting a lot of that,” said Murphy. “I don’t want to blame anyone else for my actions, I just don’t want to do that. I felt that I let Karen down when she was killed.”
Murphy said when Marsden ended up dead, she felt responsible.
“I didn’t think Carl was going to kill her. I didn’t think anyone was going to kill her,” said Murphy.
The night Marsden was killed, Murphy claimed, she had cheated on her girlfriend.
“So that became my responsibility, so I didn’t care what happened to me,” said Murphy.
Fall River detective speaks in opposition to Murphy’s release
As he has in Murphy’s past parole hearings, state Rep. Alan Silvia petitioned against her release, indicating she was a threat to the public’s safety.
Silvia was a young Fall River police detective who worked on the “Satanic cult” murders for three years of his life, he said.
“I know this case cover to cover,” said Silvia. “Robin Murphy was at every homicide and participated in all of those homicides. The first one under the bleachers, where I saw the nude body tied with a fishing line, with her head crushed, Robin Murphy was there and committed that act of murder.”
As Silvia spoke, Murphy stared at the ceiling.
Silvia said there was never any organized Satanic cult, and that Murphy used the notion to intimidate the sex workers, including Marsden.
“Karen Marsden was killed, actually, because she was speaking with me,” said Silvia.
In fact, Silvia was the last person to see Marsden alive after she declined to have Silvia place her in witness protection, and he dropped her off on the steps of a church.
Carol Fletcher, who set up the meeting between Silvia and Marsden and was a key witness to her murder, told Murphy that Marsden and the police had met. Silvia said Marsden was murdered three hours later.
Fletcher was given immunity, placed in protective custody, and sent to Seattle.
Silvia said Maltais was wrongfully convicted based on Murphy’s testimony.
“She did the same thing with Carl,” said Silvia.
Speakers testify that Murphy isn't telling the truth
Patricia DeSouto, who was friends with Raposa, testified, as she did two years ago, to urge the parole board to keep Murphy incarcerated.
“Carl was prosecuted falsely and convicted solely on this evil person’s testimony and full-out lies and hatred of this man,” said DeSouto.
She said Murphy hated Drew because “he was in control of the city and the girls.”
“She wanted to do that, that was her goal,” said DeSouto. “She liked the power. One day, she disrespected Carl in front of his people, and he slapped her, and that was the end for Carl. He made her angry, and that was the end of his life.”
Dennis Collins, chief of the Bristol County District Attorney’s Homicide Division, said he was confident in saying that Murphy was incapable of telling the truth about Marsden's death.
“Miss Murphy’s claims and recantations have been going on for 40 years,” said Collins. “Miss Murphy is unable to accept the person she was in 1979 and 1980 and continues to manipulate to get her way without taking responsibility.”
Murphy was out on parole before; why she says she should be released again
Murphy spent more than 20 years in prison before being released on parole in 2004 to a long-term treatment facility. She was sent back to prison in 2011 after being accused of violating her parole when she allegedly started a relationship with a convicted felon; Murphy was reportedly with the woman during a drug deal.
Attorney Courtney Kenyon, who has represented Murphy since 2015, said over the years there has been a shift in her client “in terms of acknowledging her own issues.”
“When I first met her, she was very shut off and did not acknowledge any of the trauma from her past. She just boxed it up and put it away,” said Kenyon.
Since Murphy’s last parole hearing in 2022, Kenyon said, she’s really delved into her co-dependency issues, abuse, and what had happened to her, relating it to her relationships with Marsden and the woman she was involved with during her parole release.
“I think that in itself is a big movement for her, to recognize what went wrong last time she was on parole. She’s a very good inmate, does what she needs to do and has the programming. She’s actually learned how to apply that programming in the past few years,” said Kenyon. “There’s definitely been a shift for her and an acknowledgement.”
Murphy had supporters at the parole hearing, including her stepmother, but Kenyon said they would not publicly address the board because of the publicity the murder cases have generated. However, the parole board did receive letters in support of her release.
Murphy told the parole board that she wasn’t sure if she’d clarified the story of the murders, “but I promise you I will do my best.”
“As far as being a risk to come back to prison, recidivism, it’s not going to happen,” said Murphy. “Despite what people think, I am a good person. I’m definitely a caring person and I’m not going to be lying to people anymore.”
It’s unclear when the parole board will render their decision. In 2022, it took the board eight months to decline her release.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: 'Satanic cult' murderer Robin Murphy asks parole board for release
