Tom Maimoni

American engineer formerly with Parker Brothers Toy Company, stationed in Salem, Massachusetts, a veteran of four marriages and divorces. On 12 July 1991, while they were both out walking their dogs he met his neighbor Martha C. Brailsford (born 8 May 1954). He told her that he was a widower, and after chatting amiably, offered to take her out in his sail boat. She was a 37-year-old designer, happily married and kind-hearted, who spontaneously agreed to go out on Maimoni's 28-foot boat as she felt sorry for him. When his wife did not return home that night, Brian Brailsford turned to Maimoni for help. Maimoni denied that they had gone sailing. He later changed his story twice, saying that they had gone for a short sail then he had dropped her off, and then that she had accidentally fallen overboard and drowned. Six days later, Martha's body was pulled from the waters off Cat Island in Marblehead after becoming ensnared in a lobsterman's trap line. The body had diver's weights tied around the waist and an anchor to the ankle; not much was left after the immersion in water and the fishes' attention. Maimoni fled to northern Maine where he was picked up on July 21 after a three-day manhunt. The defense attorney presented the case as an accident, describing his client as a lonely man with a "personality disorder." At that point, the calm, neatly dressed businessman began biting his knuckles and squirming. The lawyer said that Maimoni had made a heroic effort to save Martha after she slipped on deck, smashed her head and had fallen overboard. When he found that she could not be revived, he panicked and tried to cover up the situation. Maimoni testified that he was so devastated at the failure of his marriages and his inability to hold a job that he had resorted to living a life of lies. He said he was a touchy-huggy person and did not mean it to be harassment. At his trial, one woman testified that he had said that his wife had died of cancer. When he took her out in his sailboat, he began to talk about the erotic sex that he had had with other women on the boat before announcing that he thought he'd sail nude and dropping his pants. Another woman testified that he said he wanted to buy her house and they would discuss the deal while on the boat. Once at sea, he began touching her with sexual overtures until she said she'd jump overboard if he did not stop. A medical examiner testified that Martha Brailsford was probably dead before she went into the water, and that blood splatters on the mast were consistent with Maimoni's statement that Martha had hit her head. He was indicted of 2nd degree murder, found guilty on 12 February 1993 and given a sentence of life in prison. Maimoni died on 18 October 2017 in a Boston hospital, at age 72.