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Neil Entwistle's sordid secret life of sex and deceit
He was intelligent and likeable, but in reality there was a dark and deadly side to Neil Entwistle. A three-page web report on a double murder that shocked two continents.
NEIL Entwistle appeared a loving family man, but lived a sordid hidden life of deceit, searched sex websites looking for adulterous affairs, and was thousands of pounds in debt.
A series of failed internet porn scams led to him desperately trawling the web for "1-on-1" relationships with American women and tips on how to commit suicide in the days before killing his wife and baby daughter.
Widely known as an intelligent, likeable man with a young happy family, Entwistle kept his murky world of internet sex and financial troubles largely secret from his family and friends.
A Walter Mitty figure, Entwistle was a shy and reserved Briton, who harboured a secret life which led him to murder his wife and baby daughter with his father-in-law's gun.
And he even convinced his in laws he was working as a British Secret Service agent as he took out a 1,350-a-month lease on a Colonial-style four-bedroom home at 6 Cub's Path in Hopkinton, Massachusetts with no visible means of support. Just 10 days later the bodies of his wife and baby daughter were found.
Born on September 18, 1978, Entwistle is the son of school dinner lady Yvonne and Bassetlaw district councillor Cliff and was one of the highest achievers in his year at Valley School, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, where his name adorns an honours board in the school hall.
He left to study electronic engineering with business management at the University of York, where he met Rachel, an American student on an overseas placement. During a visit to his old school with Rachel, he introduced her as "the person I'm going to spend the rest of my life with".
Before the couple's wedding in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in August 2003, Entwistle wrote on the Friends Reunited website: "Getting married to the most amazing woman in the world this summer." He went on to speak about his work with QinetiQ, a leading defence technology and security company, and said: "Making bombs and other stuff for a living – would tell you more but I'd have to kill you." In the autumn of 2005, they moved to the US to pursue their American Dream and to be closer to his wife's family in Carver, Massachusetts.
They lived with Mrs Entwistle's family at first before settling in to their New England home, which was set in a small, family oriented development surrounded by woods and near a country club an hour's drive west of Boston. It came complete with a professional "welcoming lady" whose job it was to make sure the young couple settled in well.
Entwistle paid $8,100 (4,050) in certified cheques for a three month lease after being refused a six month period because of credit problems, and bought thousands of dollars worth of furniture with credit cards.
He also used cards to pay a $500 (250)-a-month lease on a BMWX3 car.
There were other credit card debts in England and Mrs Entwistle owed more than $18,000 (9,000) in student loans.
US prosecutors said the debts were not a "huge amount", but he was jobless and had no visible means of support. Still, the jury heard they believed the couple moved to the US to be closer to Mrs Entwistle's family, and not to run away from his debts.
Entwistle told US investigators he was dissatisfied with his sex life in the days before killing his wife and baby daughter in their Boston home and used a website to email women, saying he was looking for a discreet relationship with someone who was good in bed. He looked up escort services and other websites offering help finding sexual partners in the area.
Through another website, which bills itself as "the world's largest sex and swinger personals community", Entwistle sent a series of emails to American women, saying he was looking for more fun in the bedroom.
His defence team prevented prosecutors from showing the jury a photograph from his Adult Friend Finder homepage. It allegedly showed him naked on an outdoor lounge chair, but his lawyers insisted it did not show their client.
Just three days before the murders, Entwistle searched the internet for information about suicide, euthanasia and "killing people with a knife".
Rachel's mother Priscilla Matterazzo told US police she believed he was an undercover agent because he was so secretive about where his money came from. She said the secrecy "caused conflict" with Rachel. His wife told her mother their money "apparently had been tied up in offshore accounts which Neil would not talk about".
A month after his arrest, District Attorney Martha Coakley told CNN her impression of Entwistle, like everyone else including his in-laws, was that he was a very likeable man. "That is, I think, part of what makes this, in some ways, so sad and somewhat inexplicable, but, also, why people are so interested in it," she said.
The Murdered Wife
RACHEL Entwistle's family and friends remember her as "the essence of a loving mother" who would "light up a room with her smile, her laughter and her love of life".
Rachel, who was 27 when she was killed, gave her best to everyone she met and enjoyed a close relationship with her family.
"Everyone that became a friend of Rachel's became a very close friend," family friend Joe Flaherty said.
Born on December 14, 1978, in Kingston, Massachusetts, Rachel Souza graduated from the Silver Lake Regional High School in 1997 before studying at the College of the Holy Cross and moving to England as an overseas student at York University in 1999.
It was there, in the university's rowing club, that she met her future husband – and her killer.
Rachel taught English and drama at St Augustine's Catholic High School in Redditch, Worcestershire, for three years before the family headed to America.
Principal Yvonne Brennan said: "She was a vivacious, lovely young woman who was popular and well respected.
"She took great pride in Lillian and frequently brought the baby in to show us." When her body was found under the covers of her bed, Rachel was clutching her baby daughter protectively to her body.
Rachel's mother Priscilla Matterazzo said her daughter "became very involved with her students and in their lives".
Mrs Matterazzo told the Boston Globe in February 2006: "She always talked about 'her kids'.
"Rachel was a very happy person. She had worked hard, and her life was going in the direction she had hoped it would.
"She gave her best and expected the best from us. She never let us slide over things." Rachel was the kind of person who "would light up a room with her smile, her laughter, and her love of live.
"She was always thinking of ways to make other people happy," Mrs Matterazzo said.
"Rachel was absolutely thrilled with motherhood." Rachel's family set up a memorial website dedicated to her and her daughter and established a scholarship under her maiden name.
The Rachel Souza Memorial Scholarship will help students of her former high school in Kingston.
The young mother and her baby daughter were buried in a single grave following an emotionally-charged Catholic mass in Plymouth, Massachusetts, attended by about 500 tearful friends and family in February 2006.
Neil Entwistle did not attend and his name was not spoken at the service.
And it is Rachel's maiden name which marks the grave where she is buried with her baby at the Evergreen Cemetery in Kingston.
Beneath a photograph showing the mother and daughter, the "Souza" name is inscribed on the pink granite headstone above their personal details and a message which reads: "God cries with us and with every tear is another I love you." There is no mention of the Entwistle name, and he is not included in the photograph.
A space for Rachel's mother Priscilla and stepfather Joseph Matterazzo sits alongside, with their birth dates already engraved onto the headstone.
Family friend Father Bill MacKenzie, who had led Lillian's baptism in the same church just seven weeks earlier, told funeral-goers who packed the pews in St Peter's Church that they were gathered "in the saddest of times".
He said the double murder, which shocked both Britain and America, was not the will of God but the result of his intentions being "frustrated by the evil that lives among us".
One of Rachel's closest school friends broke down in tears repeatedly as she described her as a natural teacher who always expected the best of others.
She remembered her "wonderful friend" and a kindred spirit who selflessly helped her through some of the toughest years of her life.
Countdown To Murder
September 18, 1978: Neil Entwistle born in Worksop, Notts.
December 14, 1978: Rachel Elizabeth Souza born in Kingston, Massachusetts.
1999: Entwistle meets Rachel through rowing club at York University.
August 10, 2003: Couple marry in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
April 9, 2005: Lillian Rose Entwistle born.
September 2005: Family moves to US, at first living with Mrs Entwistle's mother.
January 12, 2006: Family moved to 1,350-amonth colonial-style five bedroom home.
January 20, 2006: Entwistle shoots wife and baby daughter in bedroom, later driving to his wife's parents' home to return gun while they are at work.
January 21, 2006: Entwistle flees US, flying out from Boston's Logan Airport on a one-way ticket to England.
January 21, 2006: Friends arrive at the Entwistle home for dinner, but find doors locked. Police are called. Officers enter, but find nothing.
January 22, 2006: Mrs Entwistle's family and friends search house themselves. They look in bedroom, but find nothing. Later Mrs Entwistle's parents file a missing persons report. Officers return to home and discover bodies.
January 27, 2006: Entwistle leaves his parents' house in Worksop for London, where detectives are waiting.
February 1, 2006: Rachel and Lillian buried at St Peter's Church in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
February 8, 2006: Middlesex County District Attorney's Office issues warrant for Entwistle's arrest.
February 9, 2006: Entwistle arrested at Royal Oak underground station in London. He is carrying a blue bag containing notes on how he wants to sell his story to "the highest bidder" and newspaper cutting showing phone numbers for escorts.
February 15, 2006: Entwistle waives right to fight extradition proceedings and is transported back to US.
INTERNET TRAIL OF PYRAMIDS ANDPORN THE SCAMS
A series of failed get-rich quick schemes, often linked to internet pornography, were exposed after Neil Entwistle's arrest.
The jobless computer programmer operated several internet companies selling computer software and pushing get-rich-quick pyramid schemes which promised fortunes for those willing to invest cash up front. He frequently used the popular internet auction site eBay but was banned from the site amid claims of scams shortly before the murders.
On his websites, such as www.millionmaker.co.uk, he offered to make people millionaires by setting up internet pornography businesses.
The site, which was shut down three days after the murders and listed as an internet scam, promised assistance to those with an adult internet business for a 50 joining fee and 14 monthly subscription. It claimed that for a 2,000 fee, i clients could earn 1m in under two years.
Entwistle was also linked to an organisation called SR Publications, registered in his wife's name, which was banned from eBay in January 2006 over a computer software scam. Buyers complained the get-rich-quick software was either illegal, that it did not work, or that they never received it.
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