Why that little rascal...

18-YEAR-OLD FACES STABBING CHARGES

Boston Globe

February 24, 1981

Author: Joan Vennochi Globe Staff

An 18-year-old Marshfield man was arraigned yesterday in Hingham District Court on charges that he stabbed two Scituate men while they waited in a Hanover movie parking lot for a midnight show to begin.

Walter A. DePierro, 18, of Highland St., Marshfield, is charged with stabbing Thomas Patterson, l9, of Hazel avenue, and Gavin Flaherty, 18, of Brook street. Patterson is the son of former acting Scituate Police Chief Gilbert Patterson.

DePierro was arraigned on two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and disturbing the peace. His case was continued to March 2.

Both victims were reported in good condition today at South Shore Hospital, Weymouth. Patterson received a two-inch deep stomach wound and Flaherty was stabbed twice in the back.

The incident was apparently triggered during a fight that broke out among a group of young people waiting to see a midnight showing of "The Little Rascals Festival" and "The Three Stooges Festival."

James Mahoney, manager of the Hanover Mall Cinema, said he was beginning to allow patrons to enter the theater when a man walked into the lobby and told him he had just been stabbed. Mahoney said he looked out and saw a second man on the ground at the far end of the parking lot. Theater attendants called an ambulance.

Mahoney said he has had minor problems in the past with young people who arrive for the midnight shows on Friday and Saturday nights. He said he did not believe the promotion for the movie festival, which advertised the films as having "All the Violence Left Intact," was connected with the stabbing incident.

"This involved a bunch of guys who were drunk or on something. What else is new with kids today?" Mahoney said. "I would have thought the Three Stooges and the Little Rascals are pretty tame."

The theater always employs an off-duty Hanover police officer on a paid detail for weekend shows, Mahoney said.

Patrolman Howard E. Rollins, who was at the theater Friday night, responded when the incident broke out. When the suspect took off in a car, Rollins waited for an ambulance in the theater lobby with Flaherty, Patterson and a third youth.

While they were waiting, David E. Coughlan, 20, of 49 Beaver Dam road, Scituate, swung at Rollins with a bottle of liquor, the patrolman reported. Coughlan, was treated for head cuts and released from South Shore Hospital. He was arrested on a charge of assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon.

Both were released on personal recognizance.

DePierro was identified as the person who had allegedly stabbed the two youths when the fight broke out.

There were no incidents during the Friday or Saturday showing of the films, according to Mahoney.