M.E.S.A. featuring co-authors of “A Murder in Marblehead” Harry Christensen and Richard Santeusanio
Join Lynn Museum/LynnArts on the second Wednesday of each month at noon for M.E.S.A. (Museum Enrichment Series for All). This virtual lecture series will cover topics such as wellness, genealogy, and current events and hear from local experts, community members, Museum staff, and others.
For over forty years, on the anniversary of the night of the most brutal unsolved murder in his town’s history, Harry Christensen has returned to the scene of the crime, hoping the psychotic killer might also. He parks across from the small, clapboard house where mild-mannered, unmarried, and well-liked elementary school teacher Beryl Atherton was brutally murdered on a stormy night in 1950, causing the townspeople of Harry’s New England town of Marblehead, Massachusetts to plummet into a state of fear and shock in the days following the murder. Who would be next, everyone asked? Why Beryl? Who would be compelled to violently kill this woman who seemed to have no enemies?
Co-authors Harry Christensen and Richard Santeusanio have submitted three theories of their own, and also invited readers to join the investigation, to go through the research, to ask their own questions, and to submit their theories as to the identity of the killer. Help them solve this!
The conversation will take place over Zoom and live-streamed on Facebook.
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Lynn Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Harry Christensen, a highly decorated Marine from the Vietnam War, has lived his entire life in the Town of Marblehead, Massachusetts. Here he has practiced law for forty years and has volunteered on various town boards, including the Board of Selectmen for 20 years.
After completing his undergraduate degree from Salem State University, he received his M.Ed. from Boston College and his Juris Doctor degree from Suffolk University Law School. Prior to starting his law practice, he taught in the Danvers, Massachusetts Public Schools as a special education teacher for 13 years. He has written several articles for the USMC Vietnam Tankers Association magazine.
He is married to his wife Marsha and they have two sons, Andrew and Matt, who reside in Marblehead with their families.
Richard Santeusanio received his undergraduate degree from Suffolk University, M. Ed. from Northeastern University, and Ed.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Santeusanio’ s entire professional career has been in the field of education. He began his career as a junior high school teacher in Revere., Massachusetts. His college teaching included serving as a professor of education at Suffolk University and teaching as an adjunct professor at Salem State University, Endicott College, and Northeastern University. He directed literacy programs at the Billerica House of Correction, STEPS Professional Development, the MGH Institute of Health Professions and in the Danvers Public Schools, where he also served as the district’s school superintendent.
He has had four books published and has authored several professional articles and book reviews.
He has been married to his wife Joan for 53 years and they have two children, David and Christine. David is married to Lauren Moran Santeusanio and they reside in Marblehead with their two children, Peter and Kate. Christine is married to Clinton Whyte and they reside in Melbourne, Australia.
