Retired Officer Tracks Down Rapist

Police work is never dull, said retired Concord Police Lt. Paul Macone, but it got pretty interesting a few years ago when he cracked a long-unsolved rape case.

Macone said around 2005, noted terrorism expert Jessica Stern requested information about a file from the 1970s concerning an unsolved rape. Macone complied, didn't read the file, and sent Stern what she wanted to know.

"I had no reason to dig," said Macone on Tuesday. "I handled the request for the few pieces she wanted."

"We are busy, and I forgot about it until 2006 when she called and requested the entire file," said Macone.

"It was voluminous," he said. "Now I'm interested. I read it while I was redacting the names of witnesses and suspects that I had to do because of the public records laws."

"I was flabbergasted," said Macone.

Macone said he recalled another file about a sexual assault in 1971 at Concord Academy. Stern's address was on Belknap Street, near the prep school.

"That file was identical," said Macone. "It was blatantly obvious that it was the same person. The description, the MO, the fact that he used a cap gun and sort of apologized afterward, it just went on and on."

So Macone got in touch with Stern and said the "guy could still be out there."

He needed her help to solve the case, and she agreed. Together, cop and author worked to identify the suspect who Macone tied to more than 40 rapes over the years. He was charged and convicted of two rapes. Macone said in the 1970s he traveled to Barnstable District Court in pursuit of the rapist.

"He did time," said Macone. "He did 20 years and got out" and lived out his life on the streets in Western Massachusetts.

Stern's publisher urged her to write about the incident and its aftermath, which resulted in the new memoir. She will be reading and answering questions at the Concord Bookshop on Thursday, June 24 at 7 p.m.

Stern's book, due out next week, is called, "Denial: A Memoir of Terror." The book will be for sale at the reading. The event is free.