Joan Angela D’Alessandro
This past Saturday evening John Douglas and I attended, and John was the principal speaking at, a large celebration in Hillsdale, New Jersey for Joan Angela D’Alessandro’s 48th birthday. There was a large, multilayer birthday cake, but Joan was not there to cut it. She had been raped and brutally murdered more than 40 years before, a half block from her home.
But Joan has never been forgotten, and never will be, mainly due to the efforts of her amazing mother Rosemarie. Because of Rosemarie D’Alessandro’s persistent and courageous efforts, children are being saved and protected from harm every day. Thank God we will never know the actual number, since we only keep track of those who are harmed or killed, not those who are kept out of harm’s way.
Joan was an adorable, bright, spunky and enthusiastic girl with a contagious smile who loved school, art, ballet, her Brownie troop, animals and nature. The afternoon of April 19, 1973, she walked over to a neighbor’s house to deliver the last two boxes of her consignment of Girl Scout cookies. The door was answered by 27-year-old Joseph McGowan, a high school chemistry teacher who lived in the split level home with his mother and grandmother. Joan was never seen alive again. Three days later, on Easter Sunday, her naked and battered body was discovered in Harriman State Park in Rockland County, New York.
Joseph McGowan confessed to the rape and murder, was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. His first parole request was denied in 1987. When he came up for parole again in 1993, Rosemarie, inspired by Joan’s spirit, started a movement for change. As a direct result of her work through the Joan Angela D’Alessandro Foundation, Joan’s Law has been passed in New Jersey, New York and on the Federal level. Other states are considering following the lead.
Joan’s Law states that anyone who murders a child under 14 years of age in conjunction with a sexual offense will never be eligible for parole and therefore will never get out of prison to prey on other children. It also eliminates the statute of limitations for wrongful death actions brought in murder, manslaughter and aggravated manslaughter cases, allowing victims to sue criminals if they acquire inheritance or other assets any time after the crime.
Though the law has helped keep the worst of the worst off the streets for the rest of their lives, the law could not be retroactive, so McGowan himself remains eligible for parole. The way John got involved was through the efforts of Andrew Consovoy, the heroic vice chairman of the New Jersey State Parole Board when McGowan came up for release again in 1998. Consoley brought John up to New Jersey, arranged for him to have full access to the D’Alessandro murder case file, sworn in as a temporary state official and allowed to conduct an extensive interview with McGowan (McGowan agreed to the interview) at the state penitentiary at Trenton.
The next day, John reported to the parole board and detailed his analysis that while he had been a “model prisoner,” McGowan had no appreciation for the enormity of his crime, no real remorse, and a serious likelihood of reoffending if let out. The parole board took John’s opinion seriously, and to this day, McGowan remains behind bars where he belongs.
When Rosemarie saw John Saturday evening, she hugged him like an old family friend. The next day, when we visited at her home – the house in which Joan spent her short life – she showed us tangible relics of her precious daughter: her drawings, a paper flower she had made for her grandparents, a myriad of photos and crayon drawings, and her lovingly preserved Brownie uniform and tie. The experience was almost unbearably poignant, and reminded us both of all of the lives, joy and opportunity that killers take from us. She also showed us one of the rocks under which Joan’s body was found and, framed on the dining room wall, the three bills that constitute Joan’s Law, signed by Governors Christine Todd Whitman and George Pataki and President Bill Clinton.
John and I are honored to have met and become friendly with so many people like Rosemarie – people who do not rise above their grief, but instead channel it into positive energy that does for others what could not be done for them.
God bless Rosemarie D’Alessandro, God bless Joan, and everyone like them.
Thank you. That sounds like a good law that is designed to target a specific type of predator.