Small Town Prosecutor Trials of Killers, Con Men, and a Priest

By: Bob Simpson

Published by Onion River Press, 2025-06-24

<p>In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Bob Simpson, a former Vermont prosecutor, worked with police and other prosectors to bring evidence of murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, and sexual abuse before more than a dozen juries. In 1981, two teenagers raped and murdered a 12-year-old girl in Maple Street Park. In 1982, two men bludgeoned a rowdy bar patron and left him for dead in the Winooski River. In Barre, a man pleaded insanity after fatally shooting his downstairs neighbor because he "always had it in his head to kill someone." Simpson details the prosecutions of a pedophilic priest, a violent cult, a cleaver-wielding assailant, and other brutal and tragic offenders who brought incalculable pain and suffering to their communities. Amongst all these devastating stories, however, is the one of hope: Vermont juries delivering justice and shaping the system we rely on today.</p>