DE LA ROCHE, HARRY
From Knob Knowledge
Harry De La Roche was a freshman cadet at the Citadel in the fall of 1976 when he asked for an early leave for Thanksgiving furlough to return home to his mother who he claimed had terminal cancer. During this break, De La Roche killed his family which included father Harry, Sr., 44, mother Mary Jane, 53, and his two brothers Eric, 12 and Ronald, 15.
The circumstances leading up to this event and the reasons behind De La Roche’s actions are complicated, some debatable, and disturbing. Some instructors and fellow cadets at The Citadel claim De La Roche was an outcast who was struggling both socially and academically in the school’s military environment. Possibly carried over from high school, the student’s insecurities and desire to fit in were intensified by the fact that his father had (by some accounts) forced him to attend the The Citadel; seemingly, it was not De Le Roche’s choice. Some of the peers in his hometown, however, described Harry, Jr. as “a real nice kid” who “was just fun.” According to his tactical officer, the knob was “an average, quiet, neutral cadet.” What is not debatable is that fact that Harry, Jr. was charged with and eventually convicted of four counts of murder.
Police approached the De La Roche son in the early morning hours of November 28, 1976 for running a stop sign. De La Roche’s initial statement was that he had found his parents dead and that his younger brother was missing; later he changed his statement to say that he had killed his younger brother Ronald after he discovered that Ronald had killed the rest of the family. This last declaration would prove to be one cause of delay and argument during the murder trial. A Hackensack, New Jersey newspaper, The Record, printed portions of the taped interview with a reporter from The Record during which the suspect made this statement. Bergen County prosecutors served a subpoena on the newspaper demanding that they surrender the tapes; however, initially, a three-week-old amendment to New Jersey’s “shield law” protected the newspaper from having to turn over any information gathered, “irrespective of whether the source is identified and regardless of whether all that news is disseminated to the general public.” By November 23, 1977, the court had ruled that The Record must comply with the subpoena. For obvious reasons, the defendant and his plea of not guilty lost much of its credibility when it was ruled the tapes could be used in court.
A second important turn of events occurred when a hearing was called for a panel to listen to, in the absence of the jury, a statement by a police lieutenant who claimed that De La Roche confessed in detail to him, after hours of questioning and before being charged, that he had killed his family. While police were searching for Ronald (because De La Roche had initially indicated that he discovered his family dead and Ronald missing), the lieutenant stated that De La Roche confessed to the murders after failing a lie-detector test. Police found Ronald’s body in the house around 12:30 p.m. that same afternoon; the defendant’s attorney, John Taylor, argued that since Harry, Jr., would have then become a suspect, his Miranda rights should have been read as soon as possible. During the trial, it was determined that his rights were not read to him until 4:05 p.m., making the first informal confession inadmissible. However, police stated that later that afternoon, De La Roche gave a second 30 minute confession before which his rights were “carefully” read to him. This second confession was ruled admissible by the judge, thereby allowing the jury to hear it.
Despite De La Roche’s plea of not guilty, his defense that he does not remember whether his rights were ever formally read to him, and that he was “pretty well out of it” by the time the official confession was recorded, the jury found him guilty on four counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to four consecutive, concurrent life prison terms on January 1978. Since the verdict, De La Roche has been denied parole four times as of August 2007 and will not be eligible for parole again until 18 to 36 more months in prison from the August parole hearing.
Both the book entitled Anyone’s Son by Roberta Roesch and a documentary (to be released in 2009) by the same title were inspired by the events.
(Sources: R. Hanley, R. "‘Confession’ is issue at De La Roche trial," New York Times, January 13, 1978, p. B3; R. Hanley, "De La Roche’s murder confession ruled admissible and read to jury," New York Times, January 14, 1978, pp. 47,49.; R. Hanley, "New report about family murder causes delay in teen-ager’s trial," New York Times, October 24, 1977, p. 84; "Jersey couple and 2 sons slain; third son, 18, held in murders," New York Times, November 29, 1976, pp. 57, 59; C. Salazar, "Man who killed his family in 1976 is denied parole, " The Record, August 23, 2007, p. L03; D. F. White, "Slaying suspect called ‘outcast’ who sought friends," New York Times, November 29, 1976, p. 59) (ER)
