http://www.projo.com/news/courts/content/WOODMANSEE_FOLO_03-08-11_B8MSMO9_v10.1af72d9.html

 

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Potential release sparks outrage

 

01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, March 8, 2011

 

By Tom Mooney

 

Journal Staff Writer

 

Woodmansee

A day after The Providence Sunday Journal reported the scheduled early release of child-slayer Michael Woodmansee, hundreds of outraged readers called the offices of the state attorney general and Corrections Department on Monday demanding that the killer who shellacked the little boy’s bones remain behind bars.

 

Meanwhile, as John Foreman, the father of 5-year-old Jason Foreman, reiterated his intention to seek revenge –– telling a radio audience that if given a chance he would kill the “monster” who “ate the flesh of my son” –– Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin urged corrections officials to “consider all avenues” to keep Woodmansee confined.

 

The one avenue corrections officials are considering is having Woodmansee involuntarily committed to a secure psychiatric facility before his August release — if psychiatrists deem him mentally ill.

 

Only once before have corrections officials attempted to keep a potentially dangerous inmate confined after his release date: in 2006, the department started down the road to involuntarily commit serial rapist Todd McElroy.

 

But before a District Court judge could make a final decision, McElroy voluntarily committed himself.

 

Woodmansee, who served virtually all of the last 28 years in prisons in Massachusetts for his own protection, returned to Rhode Island last week.

 

“We made the decision to bring him back well in advance of the end of his term of incarceration because we wanted to fully explore what the options would be after his sentence ended,” said Corrections Director A.T. Wall. “The law allows in a certain narrow category, commitment for mental-health reasons.”

 

In 1975, Woodmansee, then 16, stabbed to death 5-year-old Jason Foreman who lived on the same Peace Dale village street in South Kingstown.

 

Authorities found the boy’s shellacked bones and skull in Woodmansee’s bedroom seven years later after Woodmansee tried to strangle the local paper boy and ended up confessing to killing Jason.

 

But in 1983, as part of a plea-bargain arrangement, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. A judge ordered him to serve 40 years of a 50-year sentence.

 

(As part of the plea arrangement, Woodmansee also received 10 years for assaulting the second boy. That term ran concurrently with the longer sentence.)

 

Because of a long-standing “good time” law, Woodmansee is coming up for release 12 years sooner than many people might have expected –– or seem willing to accept.

 

Under the earned good time law that Wall says has been on the books since 1960, Woodmansee regularly had 12 days a month subtracted from his sentence: 10 days for good behavior and 2 days for holding a prison job.

 

 

The rumor that Woodmansee had cannibalized Jason Foreman’s body has haunted South Kingstown ever since Woodmansee confessed to the killing that April day in 1982.

 

Patrick Strickland was a young new officer of the South Kingstown police force when he interrogated Woodmansee and helped gain his confession.

 

Strickland and former prosecutor Susan E. McGuirl, now a Superior Court judge, said last week that they doubted if Woodmansee ever admitted to police he had cannibalized the body, or that the detail was ever included in police reports.

 

The atrocity, however, is referenced in a form of journal Woodmansee wrote and which the police found when they searched his house. Woodmansee told the police the journal’s contents were fictional.

 

However, the detail was so explosive that Superior Court Judge Thomas H. Needham sealed all evidence in the case, including the journal, which has remained under lock and key with South Kingstown Police Chief Vincent Vespia.

 

Monday morning Vespia was on WPRO radio with John DePetro, speaking about the case, when John Foreman called in and told Vespia he should have the journal.

 

“I want to know all the facts,” Foreman said, explaining he wanted to kill Woodmansee in the same manner used to kill his son.

 

“If I can find him … I do intend to kill this man as aggressively, as painfully as he killed my son,” said John Foreman. “He ate the flesh of my son … before he cleaned the bones.”

 

Woodmansee was found competent to stand trial in 1982.

 

The civil-commitment law allows a petition for commitment to be filed in a state District Court by someone’s relatives or a variety of state officials, including the attorney general or the director of corrections.

 

The petitioner must show that someone’s “continued unsupervised presence in the community would create a likelihood of serious harm by reason of mental disability.”

 

As part of the process, two physicians must evaluate the inmate in an effort to meet the law’s standard of proof.

 

Wall said Woodmansee has only been in Rhode Island for a week and prison officials are still awaiting records from prisons in Massachusetts.

 

“We’ve just begun the process of assessing him and conducting psychiatric evaluations,” said Wall.

 

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Eff it, let him go. If the father of the boy he murdered ends up killing him, it's nobodies fault but his own. He shouldn't have brutally murdered a 5 year old boy, he deserves anything that happens to him.

 

Side note. People like this man are the kind of people who NEED to either receive the death penalty, or should be literally held in jail the rest of their life. When you brutally murder a 5 year old boy and eat the flesh off his bones, that's the kind of messed up head that CAN'T be fixed.

The father's problem is that he advertised.

 

He should have said "I forgive him" "I've found God and want to meet the killer and forgive him in person".

 

When he meets the cannibal murderer, pull out a .357 and end him.

The father's problem is that he advertised.

 

He should have said "I forgive him" "I've found God and want to meet the killer and forgive him in person".

 

When he meets the cannibal murderer, pull out a .357 and end him.

 

I agree completely. The father should kill the guy, but now he's going to end up in jail.

that's what suppressed sniper rifles and ghillie suits are for...

I agree completely. The father should kill the guy, but now he's going to end up in jail.

 

 

bet you he doesn't if he kills the guy!

I somehow envision a lot of "alibis" going his way.

Too many states have budget issues and cannot affort to spend taxpayer money on incarcerating somebody proven guilty without a doubt for the rest of their lives. Invoke the death penalty, get it over with and move on.

I hope he doesn't decide to take the law into his own hands, as much as I would approve of it morally. If the dad kills him and goes to jail, the murderer has now ended two lives. Understandably if the father said the his life ended when his son's did I would understand, but why leave the mother even more alone and isolated. It's not fair to her.

 

It's easy to take the high road when you're not involved, I'm sure if I was the father I'd be camped out in a certain backyard right now.

Eff it, let him go. If the father of the boy he murdered ends up killing him, it's nobodies fault but his own. He shouldn't have brutally murdered a 5 year old boy, he deserves anything that happens to him.

 

Side note. People like this man are the kind of people who NEED to either receive the death penalty, or should be literally held in jail the rest of their life. When you brutally murder a 5 year old boy and eat the flesh off his bones, that's the kind of messed up head that CAN'T be fixed.

 

I'm all for this except the part life in jail. Tax payers should not pay room and board for a psycho. I say death penalty and destroy the genes. Is that too harsh?

I'm all for this except the part life in jail. Tax payers should not pay room and board for a psycho. I say death penalty and destroy the genes. Is that too harsh?

 

No, it just makes sense..I am suprised he was not killed in jail...

Yes, Your Honor, I am 100% positive the father was with me on a boat 150 miles at sea the entire day and night the boy's murderer was killed.

Too many states have budget issues and cannot affort to spend taxpayer money on incarcerating somebody proven guilty without a doubt for the rest of their lives. Invoke the death penalty, get it over with and move on.

I will start by saying I support the death penalty 100%, especially for guy like this. However, it is more expensive to execute someone than to pay for life in prison without parole. All the mandatory appeals and expert testimony adds up to cost more.

Yes, Your Honor, I am 100% positive the father was with me on a boat 150 miles at sea the entire day and night the boy's murderer was killed.

what gun? the one we lost in the boating accident that same night?

I'm all for this except the part life in jail. Tax payers should not pay room and board for a psycho. I say death penalty and destroy the genes. Is that too harsh?

That is by no means harsh at all. I know that not to many people would be sympathetic enough to allow scumbags like that to live the rest of their lives off someone elses coin, I would much rather enforce the death penalty as well. However, the idea behind what I am saying is this......the man who murdered and cannibalized this boy is so messed up in the head that no amount of treatment, rehabilitation, or time in jail will EVER heal his sick mind. He NEEDS to be kept out of society until his dying day, regardless of what kills him. I think it's downright wrong that he is even being released, there are certain crimes that "good behavior" just should not be a consideration in early release for. Honestly, I think we have a moral obligation to keep him out of society for good, and I think it's a sad day when we don't.

He will be released and move to NJ where he will live on the government tit for life. OOOHHH the poor baby just needs guidance. And We The People cannot carry.

I will start by saying I support the death penalty 100%, especially for guy like this. However, it is more expensive to execute someone than to pay for life in prison without parole. All the mandatory appeals and expert testimony adds up to cost more.

 

This, I think, is the truth. Last I checked (but it was from an anti death penalty source), it costs 3 times as much to kill an inmate than it does to house him for life without parole.

 

I also believe it was an error for the father to advertise his intentions.

The father's problem is that he advertised.

 

He should have said "I forgive him" "I've found God and want to meet the killer and forgive him in person".

 

When he meets the cannibal murderer, pull out a .357 and end him.

 

My thoughts exactly, the second I heard it I thought the same thing, wait a year and set up an alibi, then take him out.

that's what suppressed sniper rifles and ghillie suits are for...

 

Very good point.

 

Harry

This, I think, is the truth. Last I checked (but it was from an anti death penalty source), it costs 3 times as much to kill an inmate than it does to house him for life without parole.

 

I also believe it was an error for the father to advertise his intentions.

 

I think 3x is a low estimate. But, it's a good argument to streamline the executions.

But, it's a good argument to streamline the executions.

Good luck with redefining what due process means. I don't really ever see that happening in this country. I honestly hope it doesn't as well. Once they redefine due process to take someones life, they won't hesitate to take something else.

 

I don't think the answer is taking their life quicker. I think that the answer is taking away a lot of freedoms and benefits they have while in jail......we could probably cut the expenses in HALF without all that. They live a normal lifestyle in there, it's wrong. They were taken out of society for a reason, they shouldn't live off my coin and have a normal life. They should be in their cell, have their food brought to them, and only be brought out to do work that they DON'T get paid for. Enough of this "rehabilitation" crap, they don't get rehabilitated in there. They just become better criminals with all the time they spend hanging out with other criminals.