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The Rise and Fall of Thomas Capano Thomas Capano was a powerful man in Delaware. The golden child of a respected immigrant family, he had everything most people could ever hope for: money, a family he adored, widespread respect and admiration. His former lover Anne Marie Fahey was never that lucky. Her youth was a seemingly endless string of heartbreak, disappointment, and misery. Somehow, though, she managed to get through it all -- her mother's death, abuse from her alcoholic father, devastating poverty - and make a niche for herself as a trusted secretary to Delaware's governor. Thirty years old, she had a whole new life ahead of her.
She'd met a young man Michael Scanlan, whom she hoped to someday marry and start a family with, and she finally seemed able to put her past behind her. On a June evening in 1996, 30 -year-old Anne Marie Fahey, vanished without a trace following a restaurant meting with her secret lover of more than two years: Thomas Capano. One of Wilmington's most prominent and respected figures, a millionaire attorney and former state prosecutor, Thomas was a charming, soft spoken family man. But in the weeks and months that followed Fahey's disappearance, investigators would gradually uncover the shocking truth: Capano was a steely manipulator driven by power and greed - and capable of brutal murder. In a riveting narrative expertly documented by probing interviews, diary entries, and e-mail correspondence, and with superb insight into the twisted motivations of a killer, Ann Rule chronicles a real-life drama of Shakespearian proportions: ambitions fall, love turns to obsession, family names are tainted, a beautiful but vulnerable young woman pays the ultimate price in a convoluted and deadly relationship. Since Fahey's disappearance there were billboards: Help us find Anne Marie Fahey.
But Capano, who knew exactly what happened, was telling police and Fahey's friends she might have committed suicide or left town after he dined with her at Philadelphia's Ristorante Panorama on June 27, 1996. He insisted he had dropped her off unharmed. Fahey's murder "was premeditated and the result of substantial planning. " Under Delaware law, such premeditation and planning is one of 22 statutory aggravating circumstances that make a first-degree murderer eligible for a death sentence. In the end, defense attorneys often argue "residual doubt, " asking the jurors if they will be 100 percent comfortable with their decision on the morning of the defendant's execution or whether they will wonder if they have done the right thing. They also frequently point out that in Delaware a life sentence is just that -- there is no probation or parole for first-degree murderers. With somebody such as Capano, such defense arguments might work, Connell said, and the jury could recommend a life sentence.
Capano killed Fahey and threw the body with anchors into the sea. Three days later, on November 11, 1997, Capano was arrested. Police said Capano, acting alone, had killed Fahey because she was ending their three-year affair. Capano's narcissism prevented him from feeling anything for anyone but himself. Tom Capano displayed all the traits of a person who cherishes himself above all others, cannot bear to be blamed for anything, thinks his ideas are better than anyone else's and needs above all to control every facet of his world.
He wanted things to go his way and only his way; he might have broken up with Anne Marie at some point himself, but the fact that she initiated it was intolerable. She belonged to him. Her act damaged his belief in his omnipotence. He couldn't live with that. He killed her to reassert his power and reassure himself that no one decides how things will be except him. For a narcissist, image is everything, and for a man of power, the power must be maintained at all costs.
Even the cost of another person's life. But there would be a cost to him, too.
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Research essay sample on The Rise And Fall Of Thomas Capano
