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Raymond D. "Beaver" Tempest, Jr. was convicted of the murder of Doreen Picard.  The murder occurred at 409 Providence Street in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.  Picard was a third floor resident of this address and her brutally murdered body was found in the basement.  A first floor resident, Susan Laferte, was also found in the basement.  She had also been severely beaten, but had survived.  Evidence seemed to indicate that Laferte was the intended target of the attack which was interrupted by Picard.  Both victims had been beaten by a 28-inch length of galvanized pipe.

Laferte's three year-old daughter, Nichole, had apparently witnessed the assaults.  At various times when Nichole was at social gatherings that included a man named Donald Dagesse, Nichole made statements to the effect that Dagesse was the man who "boomed" her "mama" or asked him if he was that bad man who "boomed mama."  Dagesse also made incriminating statements to different people.  Dagesse had an alibi, but there were eight different inconsistencies with it.  When asked in the hospital to identify her assailant, Laferte repeatedly was able to write down the letters D, A, and a Y or a G.  A detective then recited several first names, but Laferte did not respond to any of them.  A nurse asked her if the assailant was Donald Dagesse and Laferte nodded her head yes. She was asked two more times by the detective if the name was Donald Dagesse and she nodded yes each time.  Laferte later had no memory of the assault or of being asked her assailant's name.

Despite the evidence against Dagesse, the investigation went nowhere from late 1983 to 1987.  Beaver Tempest's brother, Gordon Tempest, was a Woonsocket police officer and in 1987 he arrested Stanley Irza, the brother-in-law of Captain Rodney Remblad, the chief of detectives.  From Irza's arrest on, Remblad apparently had it in for Beaver.  Remblad would also use the case as a stepping stone for his promotion to Woonsocket Chief of Police.  In the years that followed, the frame-up of Beaver Tempest proceeded, with a complex tale of police convincing witnesses to lie, police manipulation of the press, and police convincing more witnesses to lie when the lies of previous witnesses were exposed.  By 1992, Beaver Tempest was arrested, tried, and convicted of the crime.  He was sentenced to 85 years in prison.  His brother Gordon was convicted of perjury for disagreeing at Beaver's trial with "facts" presented by false witnesses.  (caught.net) [5/08]

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