The Murder of Lynne Friend.

When I learned that Clifford had strangled Lynne...I don't know how to describe what I felt; I had never felt it before: I felt "light," in the weight sense and I was in bright sunlight. Instantly, there was a specific setting and every time I have thought of the moment I have had this same setting pop into my head: I am looking down on a man, presumably myself, who is in a grass field in the country. He is facing toward me but I cannot make out his facial features. There is a big old tree with branches going every which way, like a fruit tree, off to the viewer's right, to the left of the man, myself also, I think, in the field. The sky is blue and the sun is shining, like on a summer's day in the country.

I do not have the foggiest idea what that imagery is about.

All of us who had ever worked on the case had wondered how Clifford had killed her. Of course, we considered strangulation. There was no blood anywhere: not in Clifford's house, not in Lynne's, not outside either of them, not on the boat. But strangulation was not the theory of choice. At least when I had the case, the theory was not that he had killed her in his house. The theory was that he had rendered her unconscious somehow at his house and that she was transported out to the ocean still alive. I remember there was a stun gun found up on some piece of furniture or something by the front door. I remember meeting with Rundle one time (one of the last times) and she said "Test the contact points of the stun gun for DNA." It wasn't a completely hare-brained idea but it was wrong, we had the contact points tested and there was no DNA.

Why wasn't strangulation the theory of choice? That's bloodless. Part of the reason was that we didn't see other evidence that we assumed we would see if it had been a strangulation: Clifford was photographed a few days after Lynne disappeared. His hands, front and back, and his forearms, front and back, were photographed, precisely because in a bloodless killing, strangulation is one of the first things that comes to mind. I can still see those photographs in my mind's eye. No scratches, I think there was one defect on one of his fingers, almost like a hangnail gone wild. We thought that Lynne would fight like a demon, I don't remember why we thought that, but we did, and we assumed strangulation equaled "struggle" and with a struggle Lynne would have scratched Clifford or marked him up somehow.Yet I have had two homicide cases, one as a prosecutor and one as a defense attorney, where strangulation was the manner of death and there were no scratches. In those cases also there were, like, bodies that could be examined, fingernail clippings that could be taken for DNA testing: There was no foreign DNA found under the fingernails in either case. I have never seen a body so free of external trauma as that of the strangulation victim in the case I tried as a defense attorney. So strangulation does not necessarily equal struggle. I knew, from countless meetings with Medical Examiners over the course of thirty years, that strangulation is an "inefficient" killing mechanism. The pressure has to be sustained, that is the key thing. If the struggling victim is able to relieve the pressure, even for a second or two, then the victim gets another gasp of air, the brain gets another dose of oxygen, and the killer pretty much has to start all over again. The period of sustained pressure does not have to be long but it has to be sustained. Strangling someone can be a physically exhausting experience (I'm told): Whitey Bulger. Bulger was experienced, strangulation was his murder method of choice. Took it out of Whitey, though. Had to go lay down on the floor afterward. Clifford was not a huge guy and Lynne weighed 135 pounds. We thought it would be a struggle for Clifford. He was not experienced as Bulger was. If the strangler reads the physical signs incorrectly, thinks the victim is dead when (s)he is not, well then you've got round two.

We thought Clifford was a p----. We didn't see him having the confidence in his physical capabilities to choose strangulation, we didn't think he would do it alone. We really didn't think he would do it alone. We thought he would have Allan Gold with him, at least as a backup. We thought maybe Gold, who was a big guy, might have killed Lynne as a favor for Clifford.

However, when I learned of strangulation as the manner of Lynne's death, I immediately thought of something else that might explain it: Did Clifford have some martial arts training? Not that I know of, but that was my thought. I thought that because I have a specific, though vague, memory that Christian, his son, took karate or something as a little boy. That wouldn't be unusual, the martial arts are wonderful exercise for a boy, they teach a skill. That's Christian, that's not Clifford. There are plenty of parents who take their children to karate who don't know the first thing about it. I know of nothing to indicate that Clifford knew any of the martial arts. Nearly the same with my client. Never had any martial arts training but knew one move: I forget what it's called but you put your forearm on the neck of the victim and clasp your other forearm with your hand. Your arms form like a square with your chest. Now squeeze. The pressure-forearm compresses the victim's windpipe. It's not physically exhausting to keep sustained pressure on the windpipe with that move and within seconds (it varies depending on how full the lungs are) the victim will be unconscious. Sustain the pressure a little longer, under a minute, and the victim will be dead. My client picked up that technique online. I had him, gently, demonstrate on me when I went to see him in the jail.

We did not think Clifford had the ice water in his veins to personally, physically, kill Lynne himself. Alone. We thought he was a p----. We didn't think he was Whitey Bulger. We were wrong. Apparently. Clifford called Gold only after the murder to help take the body out to the ocean. It was Gold who threw Lynne's body overboard. Tim Stellhorn saw Gold struggling to lift a heavy suitcase-like object onto the side of the go-fast and then push it overboard.

The Murder of Lynne Friend.

He strangled her. That was the manner of death. Clifford strangled her. Did it alone. Alan Gold involved only in disposal of body. Strangulation is a very personal, inefficient, intimate manner of death. Very cold.