Thomas Joseph Capano (October 11, 1949 – September 19, 2011) was a

disbarred Disbarment, also known as striking off, is the removal of a lawyer from a bar association or the practice of law, thus revoking their law license or admission to practice law. Disbarment is usually a punishment for unethical or criminal conduct ...

American lawyer and former

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

deputy attorney general who was convicted of the 1996 murder of Anne Marie Fahey, his former lover.

Background

Thomas Capano, a prominent Democrat, was one of four brothers. Capano belonged to a prominent family of

real estate developers and building contractors. He became an affluent lawyer, state prosecutor, Wilmington city attorney, legal counsel to

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Mike Castle Michael Newbold Castle (born July 2, 1939) is an American lawyer and politician who was governor of Delaware (1985–92) and the U.S. representative for (1993–2011). He is a member of the Republican Party. The district includes the entire ...

, and political consultant, well known in Delaware's political circles. In 1994, Capano was a partner at the Wilmington office of Saul Ewing LLP when he became involved with 28-year-old Anne Marie Fahey, the appointments secretary to then-Governor

Tom Carper Thomas Richard Carper (born January 23, 1947) is an American politician and former military officer serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from Delaware, having held the seat si ...

. Married with four daughters, Capano separated from his wife Kay the following year. In September 1995, while still involved with Capano, Fahey began another relationship with Michael Scanlan.

Fahey's disappearance and investigation

Fahey was last seen alive on June 27, 1996, when she went to dinner with Capano in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. Fahey's family reported her

missing Missing or The Missing may refer to: Film * ''Missing'' (1918 film), an American silent drama directed by James Young * ''Missing'' (1982 film), an American historical drama directed by Costa-Gavras * ''Missing'' (2007 film) (''Vermist''), a Bel ...

on June 30. After an extensive search, the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

joined in the investigation in July and a federal

grand jury A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a pe ...

heard evidence for over a year.Capano v. State, 781 A.2d 556, 582, 2001 WL 980939 (Del. 2001). Capano, the last known person to have seen Fahey alive, was the

prime suspect ''Prime Suspect'' is a British police procedural television drama series devised by Lynda La Plante. It stars Helen Mirren as Jane Tennison, one of the first female Detective Chief Inspectors in Greater London's Metropolitan Police Service, who ...

. He was arrested for her murder in November 1997, over sixteen months after her disappearance. However, Fahey's body was never found, and prosecutors were unable to establish the cause or manner of her death. Prosecutors alleged that Capano murdered Fahey at the house he rented and, with the assistance of his brother Gerry, dumped her body in the Atlantic Ocean. Gerry owned a boat and, when it was sold, its two anchors were missing. On November 8, 1997, Gerry was interviewed by detectives and told them that Capano had borrowed the boat and admitted that he had murdered someone who was attempting to

extort Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, al ...

him. They went to Stone Harbor,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, with a large cooler that contained Fahey's body, sailed out to sea, and pushed the cooler overboard. Gerry told police that Capano shot the cooler in order to sink it, but that the cooler remained afloat in the water. Capano then retrieved the cooler, removed the body, and wrapped the anchor chains around it. He also asked Gerry to help dispose of a blood-stained sofa and carpet into a dumpster, which was managed by a third brother, Louis. Capano instructed Louis to empty the dumpsters outside of their regular schedule. The empty cooler was found on July 4, 1996, by a local fisherman. Investigators did not have a murder weapon or a body, nor any evidence that Capano had purchased a gun. However, Capano's other mistress, Debby MacIntyre, had bought a gun and admitted having supplied the weapon to Capano.

Trial and appeals

The highly publicized case went to trial on October 26, 1998, and lasted twelve weeks. The

defense Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense industr ...

claimed that MacIntyre had burst into Capano's room and, in a jealous rage upon seeing Capano and Fahey engaged in intimacy, had threatened to shoot herself; as Capano and MacIntyre were wrestling for the gun, it discharged and killed Fahey. On January 17, 1999, the jury convicted Capano of

first-degree murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...

and he was sentenced to death by

lethal injection Lethal injection is the practice of injecting one or more drugs into a person (typically a barbiturate, paralytic, and potassium solution) for the express purpose of causing rapid death. The main application for this procedure is capital puni ...

. This marked the first time in Delaware state history, in which a person was convicted of murder, without a body or murder weapon. In January 2006, the

Delaware Supreme Court The Delaware Supreme Court is the sole appellate court in the United States state of Delaware. Because Delaware is a popular haven for corporations, the Court has developed a worldwide reputation as a respected source of corporate law decisions, ...

affirmed Capano's conviction but remanded the case for sentencing because the death penalty was imposed by a non-unanimous jury verdict. In February of that year, the state abandoned its efforts to seek

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

, opting to leave Capano imprisoned for life without parole. In April 2008, the

U.S. District Court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

rejected Capano's ''

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

'' petition, and on September 2, 2008, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. Capano did not appeal to the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

, bringing an end to his appeals.

Death

Capano, aged 61, was found dead in his jail cell at 12:34 p.m. on September 19, 2011, by an officer performing a routine security check at the

James T. Vaughn Correctional Center The James T. Vaughn Correctional Center (JTVCC), formerly the Delaware Correctional Center (DCC), is a state prison for men in unincorporated New Castle County, Delaware, USA, near Smyrna. It is the Delaware Department of Correction's largest c ...

state prison in

Smyrna, Delaware Smyrna is a town in Kent and New Castle counties in the U.S. state of Delaware. It is part of the Dover, Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to the Census Bureau, as of 2010, the population of the town is 10,023. The international j ...

. The medical examiner determined that Capano died of sudden

cardiac arrest Cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. It is a medical emergency that, without immediate medical intervention, will result in sudden cardiac death within minutes. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and possib ...

. He also had "atherosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease, and that obesity was a contributing factor in his death". Following Capano's death, his brothers Louis and Joseph engaged in a bitter court fight over their family's multimillion-dollar real estate empire.

Portrayals

Several books were written about the case, including ''And Never Let Her Go: Thomas Capano: The Deadly Seducer'' by Ann Rule, ''The Summer Wind: Thomas Capano and the Murder of Anne Marie Fahey'' by

George Anastasia George Anastasia (born February 5, 1947) is an American author and former writer for ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. He is widely considered to be an expert on the American Mafia. He was an organized crime investigative reporter, who was once tar ...

, and ''Fatal Embrace: The Inside Story of the Thomas Capano/Anne Marie Fahey Murder Case'' by Cris Barrish and Peter Meyer. In 2001, a television movie based on Rule's book was made, ''And Never Let Her Go'', starring

Mark Harmon Thomas Mark Harmon (born September 2, 1951) is an American actor. He is most famous for playing the lead role of Leroy Jethro Gibbs in '' NCIS''. He also appeared in a wide variety of roles since the early 1970s. After spending the majority of ...

as Capano and

Kathryn Morris Kathryn Morris is an American actress, best known for her lead role as Detective Lilly Rush in the CBS series ''Cold Case''. Career Morris's first role was a minor one in the 1991 tele-movie ''Long Road Home''. Several other small parts follo ...

as Fahey. A 2000 episode of ''

The FBI Files ''The FBI Files'' is an American television docudrama series that originally ran from 1998 to 2006 on the Discovery Channel and produced by New Dominion Pictures. The show was cancelled in 2006. However, Court TV Mystery, Discovery, and its siste ...

'', title " Deadly Obsession,"The FBI Files: Deadly Obsession
IMDb and an episode of the

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...

documentary program '' 48 Hours'' featured the case. In 2012, the story was featured on ''

Behind Mansion Walls ''Behind Mansion Walls'' is an American documentary television series on Investigation Discovery that debuted on June 6, 2011. The series, hosted by Christopher Mason, tells the stories of crime and investigation that are unveiled in wealthy fam ...

''. The case was portrayed in ''

Law and Order In modern politics, law and order is the approach focusing on harsher enforcement and penalties as ways to reduce crime. Penalties for perpetrators of disorder may include longer terms of imprisonment, mandatory sentencing, three-strikes laws a ...

'' season 11 in an episode titled "Ego". The case was also portrayed in the Season 1, Third Episode of the NBC series ''

Boomtown A boomtown is a community that undergoes sudden and rapid population and economic growth, or that is started from scratch. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although ...

'' (October 13, 2002). Also featured in a 2018 episode of ''Vanity Fair Confidential'' titled "The Secret of the Summer Wind."

References

External links

*Ramsland, Katherine
"The Rise and Fall of Thomas Capano"
Crime Library
''FATAL ATTRACTION: BEHIND THE FACADE, Capano: Politically Powerful, Charismatic''
48 Hours,

, 14. Oktober 1999 {{DEFAULTSORT:Capano, Thomas J. 1949 births 2011 deaths 20th-century American lawyers American people who died in prison custody American political consultants American prisoners sentenced to death American prosecutors American people convicted of murder Delaware lawyers Disbarred American lawyers People convicted of murder by Delaware People from Wilmington, Delaware Place of birth missing Prisoners sentenced to death by Delaware Prisoners who died in Delaware detention Murder convictions without a body Wealth in the United States