Hunt For Killers Of ‘Hippie Girl’

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31497, 11 October 1967, Page 17

Hunt For Killers Of ‘Hippie Girl’

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) NEW YORK, October 10. Homicide squad men spread a huge dragnet over the whole lower East Side of New York today for two men believed to have taken part in the rape of a “Hippie girl,” bludgeoned to death with her boyfriend after a week-end LSD party. Two other men are already in custody.

Last night the police charged a second drug-taking Negro with the murders, which took place in East Greenwich Village, known locally as “Hippieland.” One of the men held, 26-year-old Donald Ramsay, was described by police as a Black Power advocate, an adherent to a West African religion and a convicted rapist. The naked body of Linda Rae Fitzpatrick, aged 18. a slim, brown-haired artist, was found in a boiler-room basement of the shabby rooming house where the party took place. Nearby lay the body of her boyfriend, James Leroy Hutchinson, aged 24, a longhaired drifter with a police record, known to his hippie friends as “Groovey.” Model’s Daughter Miss Fitzpatrick, was the daughter of the former Dorothy Ann Rush, one of the most famous fasihon models of the 19405, and Irving Fitzpatrick, president of a New Jersey spice importing company. The other murder suspect being held was identified as Thomas Dennis, aged 25. He and Ramsay lived on the upper floors of the house in which the murders took place, in a room bearing a Black Power sign.

Investigating officers said they were working on the theory that the four men lured the couple into the basement with offers of LSD. Spate Of Violence

The incidents are the latest in a spate of violence against hippies, mostly commited by Negroes and Puerto Ricans.

In a related investigation the police yesterday charged a third Negro resident of the building, Fred Wright, aged 31, with the rape and robbery of a 25-year-old hippie girl at the same party.

Last night hippies huddled on corners of shabby Greenwich Village streets discussing the killings, which have shocked their peace-loving, anti - violence community, which preaches universal love.