It

bones. The wounds, particularly those in the skull, are not at all consistent with those which might be incurred in a fall. Dorsey Corcoran was beaten within an inch of his life and then dumped off at the Home Hospital emergency room to die.’
Asked if the doctors who treated the Corcoran boy might have been derelict ni their duty when it came to reporting either an incidence of child abuse or the actual cause of death, Borton said, ‘They will have serious questions to answer when Mr Macklin comes to trial.’
Asked for an opinion on how these developments might bear on the recent disappearance of Dorsey Corcoran’s older brother, Edward, reported missing by Richard and Monica Macklin four days ago, Chief Borton answered: ‘I think it looks much more serious than we first supposed, don’t you?’
From the Derry News, June 25th, 1958 (page 2):
TEACHER SAYS EDWARD CORCORAN ‘OFTEN BRUISED’
Henrietta Dumont, who teaches fifth grade at Derry Elementary School on Jackson Street, said that Edward Corcoran, who has now been missing for nearly a week, often came to school ‘covered with bruises.’ Mrs Dumont, who has taught one of Derry’s two fifth-grade classes since the end of World War II, said that the Corcoran boy came to school one day
about three weeks before his disappearance ‘with both eyes nearly closed shut. When I asked hi m what happened, he said his father had «taken him up» for not eating his supper.’
When asked why she had not reported a beating of such obvious severity, Mrs Dumont said, ‘This isn’t the first time I’ve seen such a thing as this in my career as a teacher. The first few times I had a student with a parent who was confusing beatings with discipline, I tried to do something about it. I was told by the assistant principal, Gwendolyn Rayburn in those days, to stay out of it. She told me that when school employees get involved in cases of suspected child abuse, it always comes back to haunt the School Department at tax appropriation tune. I went to the principal and he told me to forget it or I would be reprimanded. I asked him if a reprimand in a matter lik e that would go on my record. He said a reprimand did not have to be on a teacher’s record. I got the message.’
Asked if the attitude in the Derry school system remained the same now, Mrs Dumont said, ‘Well, what does it look like, in light of this cur rent situation? And I might add that I would not be speaking to you now if I hadn’t retired at the end of this school year.’
Mrs Dumont went on, ‘Since this thing came out I get down on my knees every night and pray that Eddie Corcoran just got fed up with that beast of a stepfather and ran away. I pray that when he reads in the paper or hears on the news that Macklin has been locked up, Eddie will come home.’
In a brief telephone interview Monica Macklin hotly refuted Mrs Dumont’s charges. ‘Rich ne ver beat Dorsey, and he never beat Eddie, either,’ she said. ‘I’m telling you that right now, and when I die I’ll stand at the Throne of Judgment and look God right in the eye and tell Him the same thing.’
From the Derry News, June 28th, 1958 (page 2):
‘DADDY HAD TO TAKE ME UP ‘CAUSE I’M BAD,’ TOT TOLD NURSERY TEACHER BEFORE BEATING DEATH
A local nursery-school teacher who declined to be identified told a News reporter yesterday that young Dorsey Corcoran came to his twice-weekly nursery-school class with bad sprains of his right thumb and three fingers of his right hand less than a week before his death in a purported garage accident.
‘It was hurting him enough so that the poor little guy couldn’t color his Mr Do safety poster,’ the teacher said. The fingers were swelled up like sausages. When I asked Dorsey what happened, he said that his father (stepfather Richard P. Macklin) had bent his fingers back because he had walked across a floor his mother had just washed and waxed. «Daddy had to take me up ’cause I’m bad» was the way he put it. I felt like crying, looking at his poor, dear fingers. He really wanted to color his poster like the other children, so I gave him some baby aspirin and let him color while the others were having Story Time. He loved to color the Mr Do posters — that was what he liked best — and now I’m so glad I was able to help him have a little happiness that day.
‘When he died it never crossed my mind to think it was anything but an accident. I guess at first I thought he must have fallen because he couldn’t grip very well with that hand. Now I think I just couldn’t believe an adult could do such a thing to a little person. I know better now. I wish to God I didn’t.’
Dorsey Corcoran’s older brother, Edward, ten, is still missing. From his cell in Derry County Jail, Richard Macklin continues to deny any part in either the death of his younger stepson or the