Police rule inmate death a suicide Two notes discovered in Larson’s prison cell

loading...

THOMASTON – The odd death of a Maine State Prison inmate who pushed two of his wives to their deaths has been ruled a suicide, a Maine State Police spokesman said Tuesday.

When Dennis R. Larson, 50, leapt from a third-floor craft room window at 8:05 p.m. Sunday, he had duct tape, with the word “Geronimo” written across it, on his mouth, and a clothespin clipped to his nose.

When asked Tuesday if there were a chance that Larson was thrown from the window by someone else, Stephen McCausland, state police spokesman, said it was definitely a suicide.

“Bizarre obviously – a suicide nonetheless,” McCausland said, noting that the results of an autopsy performed by the Medical Examiner’s Office support a suicide.

The Montana native, who was serving a 50-year prison sentence for killing his third wife, and who confessed to authorities in September that he murdered his first wife, left two suicide notes in his prison cell, according to McCausland.

One note asked that his personal belongings be donated to an Auburn church, while the other letter complained about prison staff, McCausland said. He did not know any specifics about the messages.

When asked about a possible third note being left in Larson’s pants pocket, McCausland said that he would not classify what was found as a note. What was discovered in Larson’s pocket was a name, he said, but he did not know the name or whether it was that of a relative.

Larson began giving away some of his possessions a couple of weeks ago, a source said Tuesday, but McCausland said he had no such knowledge.

There were 28 people in the craft room when Larson dived out an open window, McCausland said.

On Larson’s way to the rocky ground below – a 30- to 35-foot drop – something caught the inmate’s pants and pulled them down to his knees, Warden Jeffrey Merrill said Monday.

On Tuesday, Merrill noted that that section of the recreation yard is part of the large quarry, located within the walls of the prison. But the section where Larson landed was not deeper than the bottom floor of the building, he said.

There are no steel bars on the windows in the craft room, Merrill said, because “this is not a security window.”

“It’s all internal,” Merrill said, explaining that the craft room is above an area contained within the walls of the prison.

“Nobody’s ever done this,” Merrill said.

The last time a similar suicide occurred at the prison was in the 1970s, he said, when an inmate jumped from the kitchen roof.

Since 1977, there have been 14 suicides at the Maine State Prison. Merrill noted that hundreds of inmates have passed through the institution in that period.

As a rule, there are three officers present in the craft room, Merrill said. But Tuesday, he said he did not yet know how many guards were there when Larson jumped Sunday night. Inmates and personnel were in the recreation yard when Larson hit the ground, Merrill said, but he did not know how many. The warden said he is awaiting reports and that the prison’s internal investigation had not concluded.

According to McCausland, the state police involvement in the investigation had ended.

“In our view, it is [closed],” he said.

To his knowledge, Merrill said, the state Attorney General’s Office is not conducting an investigation.

District Attorney Geoffrey Rushlau said that medical examiner protocol calls for his office to be notified and briefed on deaths of people in custody. Rushlau said his office was contacted, but that it does not conduct investigations.

The District Attorney’s Office also authorizes release of a body from the Medical Examiner’s Office, he said, except in the case of homicides, which would become the responsibility of the Attorney General’s Office.

The state Attorney General’s Office could not be reached Tuesday.

Before Larson’s admission in September to Montana investigators that he killed his first wife, Leslee R. Larson, he had a projected release date of 2022 for the murder of third wife Kathy Frost Larson in Maine.

In 1987, Larson pushed Frost Larson off an 80-foot cliff at Acadia National Park after being married to her for a few weeks. They had met seven weeks earlier when she responded to an advertisement he placed in a newspaper, seeking a wife. The day after the couple wed, he bought an insurance policy on himself that carried a $400,000 accidental-death rider on her.

It is believed Larson then returned to Maine to try to reconcile with his second wife, who had divorced him.

A taped confession led to his arrest and conviction before he was able to collect the insurance money.

In November 1994, the U.S. Supreme Court turned down Larson’s appeal for the 1987 murder. He claimed he did not get a fair trial.

After the 1975 death of Larson’s first wife, it took seven years, but he did collect $20,000 after an insurance company ruled on Leslee Larson’s death, even though her body was never recovered.

Initially, Larson lied to detectives about his first wife falling into a fast-moving stream near Wolf Creek, Mont. He told investigators that he dived in after her, but the officer who first arrived at the scene pointed out that Larson’s clothing was dry.

On Sept. 14, 2000, Larson admitted to a Montana detective that he had killed Leslee Larson. He was in the process of being extradited, the warden said.

Larson had been in the Thomaston prison since Aug. 24, 1989, after serving 567 days in a county jail prior to his sentencing for the 1987 murder. The only record that Merrill knew about was a felony theft in Montana, for which Larson received a suspended sentence. Larson’s parents live in Montana, he said.

Prison investigators still had not figured out why Larson had the tape on his mouth or the clothespin on his nose, Merrill said Tuesday. Merrill also was not aware of Larson’s connection with an Auburn church, which Merrill did not identify.

The reference to Geronimo may have been an allusion to a word many U.S. combat parachutists uttered as they jumped from their planes during World War II. Geronimo was the nickname of a historical figure, an Apache leader who lived from 1829 to 1909.