The site of the Groovy Murders

This is the building where Linda Fitzpatrick and James "Groovy" Hutchinson were murdered.

It is located at 169 Avenue B in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan.

Fitzpatrick (18) and Hutchinson (21) were found beaten to death in the boiler room of this tenement during the early hours of Sunday, October 8, 1967.

Background

The media referred to the double homicide as "The Groovy Murders" due to Hutchinson's nickname.

Hutchinson was a drifter, hippie, and occasional drug dealer who frequented Tompkins Square Park.

Fitzpatrick, on the other hand, came from a privileged background. She had grown up in a 30-room mansion on a four-acre estate in Greenwich. Her father, Irving Fitzpatrick, was a wealthy spice and tea importer.

The East Village

The East Village was a haven for hippies, artists, and beatniks during the late 1960s, as gentrification had priced many of them out of the surrounding areas.

It was also an alluring destination for runaways and those seeking to escape their mundane suburban lifestyles.

Fitzpatrick began making regular trips to the area during the "Summer of Love" in 1967. At the time, thousands of young adults and teenagers were streaming into the neighborhood to hang around Tompkins Square Park.

There, they would play music, visit head shops, hold concerts, drink beer, and experiment with various drugs.

Fitzpatrick struggled to fit in with the other hippies, as she was a naive teenager who had lived a sheltered life. To her, the dingy tenements of the Lower East Side were a world away from the sprawling family estates of Greenwich.

Despite this, she was determined to adapt to her new surroundings and pursue a career as a painter of psychedelic art. She would frequently buy drugs for people in an effort to make friends.

In September 1967, she convinced her parents to let her move to the East Village by claiming she would be staying in an upscale hotel to study painting. They had no idea that she was actually moving to a flophouse to live with hippies and experiment with drugs.

At some point, Fitzpatrick became involved with "Groovy" Hutchinson, a long-haired Rhode Island native who was well known in the area.

Friends described him as a kind individual who helped introduce newcomers to the scene.

Murders

At roughly 10 p.m. on the night of the murders, Fitzpatrick and Hutchinson were seen standing outside "The Cave" at 120 St. Marks Place. The building was a five-story tenement that was a popular spot for squatters and people who needed a place to crash for the night.

Witnesses reported that the pair appeared to be high on speed.

Later that night, they were trying to purchase drugs in Tompkins Square Park when they met a man named Thomas Dennis.

Dennis led them to a party in a cellar at the building on Avenue B, which had a reputation for drug dealing.

There, they met a dealer named Donald Ramsey, who was a resident of the building, as well as some of Ramsey's other customers.

Everyone at the "party" in the cellar that night was drunk and high on various drugs.

Investigators believe that the men attempted to rape Fitzpatrick. When Hutchinson tried to intervene, he was beaten to death with a brick. Afterward, one of the men murdered Fitzpatrick to cover up the crime.

Their bodies were discovered the following morning.

Detectives noted that there were blood stains on the concrete floor and walls. Furthermore, someone had neatly folded Fitzpatrick and Hutchinson's clothes by the door.

A brick was found inside a pair of men's pants on the ground.

An autopsy confirmed that the victims had received multiple blows to the head from a blunt object that was "consistent with the brick" found at the scene.

The murders received national media attention, as people were perplexed as to how a wealthy girl from Greenwich could end up dead in a garbage-filled drug den in Manhattan.

Donald Ramsey and Thomas Dennis

Ramsey and Dennis were later convicted of the killings.

Dennis was allowed to plead guilty to "Groovy" Hutchinson's manslaughter after he agreed to testify against his accomplice. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Ramsey pleaded guilty to Fitzpatrick's murder in 1969 and was sentenced to 15 years to life.

Neither man saw freedom again. Dennis passed away behind bars in 1984, while Ramsey died in 2003.