Bizarre tale of murder in Maine to be CBS movie

THOMASTON — The bizarre story of Richard Uffelman — videotaped murders, a family living in armed terror and an alleged government conspiracy to cover up subversion of the nation’s defense — will be the subject of a CBS television film.

Charles Carner, of South Side Films of Santa Monica, Calif., was in Maine this week to research the 1989 shooting deaths of Florence and Michael Phillips in Machiasport and Uffelman’s trial two years later. Uffelman was convicted on two counts of murder and is serving a 45-year sentence in the Maine State Prison in Thomaston.

The Phillipses were killed on Aug. 29, 1989, by a barrage of gunfire that erupted from Uffelman’s house as the couple went for an after-dinner walk. The shooting was recorded on a video camera the Phillipses had set up in their kitchen window to document harassment they claimed Uffelman and his family were inflicting upon them.

At his trial in Houlton in October 1991, Uffelman testified that his two sons, ages 10 and 12 at the time, also participated in the shooting. Uffelman claimed he was an unpaid undercover government agent, and said the Phillipses were part of a drug and espionage ring attempting to disrupt vital communications from the nearby Cutler U.S. Navy Communications Center to nuclear submarines.

Uffelman surrendered to police immediately after the shooting. In his home, police found 35 firearms, with loaded guns in nearly every room, secret stairways, hidden rooms and multiple, elaborate security systems.

In a separate proceeding after his trial, Uffelman was denied a plea of innocent by reason of insanity. His sons, now in foster homes, were not charged for their parts in the shooting.

In a lengthy, rambling interview at the prison Tuesday, Uffelman, 47, recounted much of his testimony for Carner, starting with his tour of duty at Cutler in 1965, where he worked in the base commissary.

While recovering from a motorcycle accident, Uffelman said, he was approached by a high-ranking defense official about going undercover to expose drug dealing at the base.

After his Navy service, Uffelman returned to his native New Jersey, where, he said, he continued to work undercover against drug dealers and corrupt police. Uffelman said he and his family moved to Maine in 1979 to escape retribution from the criminals he had helped convict.

While working as assistant postmaster in Dennysville, Uffelman said he became aware of continued drug use at Cutler, with the dealers intending to disable the nation’s submarine fleet in the Arctic.

Uffelman told Carner he initially tried to befriend the Phillipses when they moved into the house across Route 191 in 1986, “but their campaign of terror soon started,” leading him to believe the couple was part of a conspiracy “to put me in a position where they could shoot me down and murder my family or put me in prison.”

Uffelman claims the Phillipses regularly threw soda bottles in his yard, vandalized his cars and were plotting to break into his house, none of which was substantiated by police or by a private investigator hired by Uffelman’s defense.

Although Michael Phillips was carrying a pistol when he was killed, evidence presented by the state showed the pistol had not been fired or even drawn from its holster. Uffelman first testified that he and his sons opened fire when Phillips shot at his house, but later testified that he was not certain the gun had been drawn.

Uffelman said Tuesday he now believes Phillips fired a second gun, “which was recovered and hidden by co-conspirators hiding in an alder thicket, leaving behind the unfired gun to hang me with.”

The Phillipses were out of camera view when the shooting started. “That, too, was pre-planned, clever, so no one can see their provocation,” Uffelman said.

What the tape does show is Uffelman leaving the house with a rifle after the barrage and moving out of camera range, where more shots are heard. That sequence is repeated a second time, with Uffelman accompanied by his two sons. Although the couple was severely wounded by the 20 to 25 rounds from the house, medical evidence showed the fatal shots were fired at close range.

“They make it look like I’m some whacko, paramilitary survivalist monster who went out to finish them off,” Uffelman said. “I went because I knew they were still out there with a gun. I risked my life to protect my family and to keep my country out of nuclear war.”

Uffelman then laid down on the floor of the prison’s interview room to demonstrate the positions of the Phillipses bodies and their final attempts to cock and fire the pistol.

Uffelman said he welcomes the opportunity to have his story told on national television. “It may be my only hope, my only escape from this conspriracy to shut me away in a place like this, a conspiracy that I now know goes to the Attorney General’s Office, the District Attorney, the State Police and many involved in our national defense mission. I’m not a murderer, I’m not a criminal. I’m a patriot who put his life in jeopardy to defend this country.”

While in Maine, Carner visited the crime scene in Machiasport with a state police detective and interviewed a local couple who were at the Phillipses home at the time of the shooting.

Carner, who has written and directed several fact-based films, said the initial appeal of the story “is definitely the video aspect, that a couple set up a camera that recorded their deaths, but there are other factors that make it a compelling story: this man moved his family to Maine to escape crime in the city and found even greater terror; the delusions going completely unchecked; the overwhelming desire to protect his family actually leading to their destruction.”

While Uffelman sees the film as a chance for vindication, Carner said his job “is to put this story together as factually as possible. The problem in a case like this is that one side is here to tell his story and the other side isn’t. That’s why we put several months of research into this.” Carner said he also will interview members of the Phillips family, including their 13-year-old son, now living with an older sister in Indiana.

A broadcast date has not been set, “but the project is definite, CBS has bought the story,” Carner said. “A finished script might sit on the shelf for a few months, but once it’s put in the schedule, things happen very fast.” While Carner said he prefers working on location, he said a decision on whether to film in Maine or on the West Coast will depend upon the project’s budget.