The Murder of Rene Cote, Part One
Nellie Strypek, Rene Cote, and Bertha Surprise Cote
Murder Under the Christmas Tree
When Patrolman Albert Blood first saw the tinsel in the snow, the words that popped into his mind were “angel hair.” Gossamer strands of the stuff filled the tracks that led from the back of the apartment building to the street out front. It gleamed red and gold in the beam of his flashlight.
The Cote’s third-floor apartment was standard for this working-class neighborhood of Brockton, MA.
Inside the living room, Officer Blood surveyed the ghastly still life before him. Until very recently, it had been festooned with lively holiday decorations. It was the early morning hours of December 28th, 1946—still within the cozy embrace of the Christmas season. But the magic had been destroyed by what had clearly been a violent and chaotic frenzy. The Christmas tree lay overturned, its marble base off to the side. Ornaments and more tinsel were scattered all over the floor.
And then there was the dead man. He was not a big figure, but death made him look even smaller. His pajamas had been twisted all around in the struggle. It did not take a medical expert to conclude that the man had been savagely beaten. His skull was crushed, his teeth broken, and there was obvious bruising around his throat. Nearby was a blood-soaked pillow. There was a pool of blood on the floor next to his body.
Voices and footsteps echoed up the stairwell. Perhaps driven inside by the cold, his fellow officer had returned to the apartment, bringing the women with him. Officer Blood met them in the kitchen. In this light, he had a better look at the wife. She had a lean face with narrow features and sharp cheekbones that gave her a striking look. She peered up at him with large, dark eyes.
She asked, “Is he dead?”
Later, he would turn those three words over and over in his mind, trying to remember the tone and affect. But, for now, Officer Blood merely nodded.
There was a faint pause, and then the widow crumpled to the tiles of the kitchen floor.
Bertha Surprise and Rene Cote
30-year-old Rene Cote and 23-year-old Bertha Surprise had been married almost exactly eight months after they had reconnected in the spring of 1941. Unfortunately, their wedding was on a day that would “live in infamy” for most Americans: December 7, 1941. The bombing of Pearl Harbor signaled the United States’ entry into World War II.
Bertha was already about six months pregnant at the time—still early enough that she may have been able to hide her belly under carefully draped clothing. She and Rene had been “keeping company” almost since the beginning of the relationship.
The Cotes decided to spend the holidays in Spencer with Bertha’s mother, Laura. On Christmas Day, Bertha’s siblings and their respective spouses gathered at the home. Even if Bertha’s family was upset about her speedy courtship and shotgun marriage, they were still excited to welcome the new child in the coming year.
What they were not excited about, however, was the Chief of Police interrupting their Christmas dinner. Chief Maloche of the Spencer PD informed them that he was there to arrest Rene... on charges of bigamy.
Bigamy is the act of marrying a second wife while still legally married to the first. It has been considered a felony in the U.S. since 1882, and remains illegal today. Rene’s wife lived less than an hour and a half away, in Medford, MA, and he had abandoned her and the young child that they shared some time before marrying Bertha Surprise.
Rene’s trial for bigamy began Thursday, January 12, 1942, for which he was promptly convicted and sentenced to 1-3 years at the Connecticut State Prison. The forgery charges had been dropped.
On St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1942, Bertha welcomed their child into the world. She named the little girl Barbara Ann Cote. It was her intention that they would be a family once Rene was out of prison.
A new life in Brockton
Shortly after the Cotes moved into 72 Harvard St in Brockton, MA in the summer of 1945, Rene began a new job at Earle Motor Sales on Washington Street in South Easton. It seems safe to assume that the proprietor of the business, Melvin Earle, was not aware that Rene’s license to sell cars had been revoked.
At some point, it became clear to Melvin that his new employee was taking orders for new cars and not delivering them—the same scam that had landed him in hot water when he was working selling cars independently the year before. Upon learning of his dealings, he ordered Rene to return the money to his clients. Being a trusting person, he assumed that this was done. Despite this stunt, Melvin seemed content to keep Rene on his payroll—he must’ve been quite the salesman
Rene and Bertha continued to have screaming matches that turned into physical altercations, but the couple always reconciled against the better judgement of everyone they knew. From almost the moment they moved in, shouting and cursing could be heard from the third floor, punctuated by the angry stomping of feet. Just two weeks after they arrived, neighbors heard them having a massive argument early one morning. Rene left for work, and Bertha slammed the door behind him. Rene marched back up the stairs, hollering for his wife to open the door. When she didn’t, he broke it down.
Barbara Belmore: A new love interest
Rene, never one to let marriage get in the way of his dalliances, continued chasing after women. In July 1946, the particular woman he was after was a famous showgirl who had caught his attention during a performance at The Frolics, a nightclub in the beach town of Salisbury, MA. Her name was Angela Strypek—Nellie to her friends and more-than-friends.
Nellie was petite and curvy, with dark copper-colored hair kept in short curls. She had lean legs toned by a career in tap dancing, ballet, and “fan dancing”—a form of exotic dance performed with fans or large feathers. But Nellie bristled at that characterization—she considered her act an acrobatic one—she could walk on her hands and perform other gymnastic feats and contort herself into different shapes. She was a big deal throughout New England, having performed under the stage name Barbara Belmore for nearly 20 years.
After Rene and Nellie met in Salisbury and took a shine to one another, they spent a week together in the company of Nellie’s mother, Mary. Nellie later said that neither she nor her mother were aware that Rene was married at the time. Soon, they were seeing each other frequently and exchanging letters.
An unmerry Christmas
December 1946 was a stressful month for Bertha. Her husband was out spending time with his mistress rather than his wife and daughter. To make matters worse, she had developed a soreness in one breast that made it difficult for her to sleep. Her doctor’s solution was to prescribe her sleeping pills and wait to see if it would go away on its own.
She spent most of Christmas Eve alone with Barbara Ann, with Rene only making a brief appearance between trips to Leominster to see Nellie. On Christmas Day, he arrived home late in the afternoon to deliver presents: a doll carriage, baby slippers, and tea set for Barbara Ann and a phonograph and some records for Bertha. He also gave his wife some money to pick out an album of her choice. This was unusual, as Rene was notoriously tight-fisted in giving his wife any cash, even to pay for groceries or household expenses. Perhaps he felt guilty for not being around much on Christmas. Not so guilty, however, that he didn’t order a bouquet of flowers to be sent to his mistress’s mother in Leominster, where he soon returned to celebrate the holiday.
Rene’s courtship of Nellie continued into Friday, December 27, when he drove again to Leominster—which was an hour-and-a-half each way. He had dinner with Nellie and her mom there, and then he then took Nellie on a trip to Boston that evening. Rene wanted to get as much time with his girlfriend as he could, as she planned to catch the midnight train to New York City for work.
Having dropped Nellie off at the train station in Boston, Rene drove home to Brockton and was back in the apartment around midnight. Rene got ready for bed and slept in the living room on a couch, while Bertha slept in the bedroom.
Despite their history of screaming at one another and domestic abuse, the Cote apartment was fairly still. Outside, snow fell in lazy white flakes on the empty street.
That quiet, though, was broken around 3:30AM, when the occupants of the lower floors of the building were awakened by shouting upstairs. There was a heavy crash and then all was silent and still for several minutes. Then Bertha began pounding on neighbors’ doors, screaming for help. In the Cote apartment, Rene was sprawled on his back on the living room floor, the overturned Christmas tree nearby. He was still in the pajamas he had donned only hours before and was, unquestionably, beyond anyone’s help.
The imperfect victim
When Bertha spoke about what had happened that morning, she described waking up to a stranger in the apartment fighting with her husband. She said that she heard a man in the living room declaring, “We gave you $1,500 for a car, and we didn’t get it. We want our money back.” At first, she didn’t get up—she said that late-night callers were not unusual in their home and they were often angry with Rene. But then she heard a scuffle and got up to see what was going on in the other room.
By December 29, the day following the murder, over a dozen people claimed that Rene had pulled the same scam on them. Beyond taking advantage of customers at Earle Motor Sales, he had been running his con in the local black market as well. Rene would take payment in advance from would-be buyers of automobiles that he claimed he had acquired through less-than-legitimate means, and then he would never deliver the vehicles promised.
If all of their claims were true, Rene had swindled between $8,000-$12,000 from people in Brockton and the nearby towns of Canton and Braintree. Inspecting his bank accounts proved fruitless—he had left no paper trail but instead has accepted and spent most of the money in cash. A lot of it seemed to go towards courting his girlfriend, Nellie.
Within two days, the suspect pool was enormous. One of the investigators told the media that they were struggling to narrow their search, as no one could yet be eliminated. There were simply too many people who wanted to see Rene Cote dead.
Lover’s quarrel
The next day was New Years, 1947. Bertha sat in an interview room in the Brockton Police Station, where she had been summoned that morning from her mother’s home.
At first, she stuck to her narrative that the attacker had been a stranger. But as the clock ticked and the afternoon light dimmed, her resolve faltered. She admitted to the lead investigator, State Detective John Sullivan, that the killer was known to her and to Rene. His name was Walter Steele, and she had been having an affair with him.
If the investigators had doubts about this latest narrative, they didn’t show it. Shortly thereafter, Brockton police officers arrived at Walter’s shop, where he was at work. A cop tapped Walter on the should and informed him, “We want to talk to you at headquarters.”
Walter protested that on the night of December 27, he had worked until midnight and had then gone straight home to the house where he lived with his parents. By 2:00AM he was in bed, he claimed. If he had left in the night, his mother would have heard him from across the hall.
Despite his protests, it seemed the authorities didn’t believe Walter. He was formally charged with Rene’s murder on January 2, and the following day was arraigned at Plymouth County District Court. The Assistant District Attorney, John Wheatley, told the press that Bertha’s testimony was the basis for the charges against Walter. The Brockton police had also seized a wrench from his garage that they suspected to be the murder weapon. Walter was held in jail without the opportunity for bail.
Material witness
Although the Miranda warning was not instated until 1966, Bertha did have the right to remain silent—she just didn’t have the common sense. Against her lawyer’s explicit instructions, she continued to talk to the police, with and without Townes present. And being held in the jail meant that investigators had nearly unrestricted access to her. Sometimes Lt. Sullivan would seek her out for a “friendly chat.” Sometimes he brought her little gifts of ice cream and soda.
Sullivan cautioned her that he wasn’t the only one who questioned her innocence. He said “I told her that all the people of Brockton and her neighbors believed she killed her husband. If she told the truth, she might win peoples’ sympathies.”
Bertha considered this. She then offered to tell the “real story” if her attorney were present.
“I’ll tell you the most fantastic story you’ve ever heard. It will go down in history.”
This story continues: Click here for Part two.
This portion of text has been adapted from the Murder, She Told podcast episode, The Murder of Rene Cote, Part One. To hear the full story, find Murder, She Told on your favorite podcast platform.
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72 Harvard St., Brockton, MA, arrow indicates Bertha and Rene’s floor (Boston Globe)
72 Harvard St., Brockton, MA, modern-day image (Google Maps)
Bertha (Surprise) Cote (Boston Globe)
Rene Cote (Boston Globe)
Nellie Strypek, aka Barbara Belmore (Daily News)
Nellie Strypek, aka Barbara Belmore (Boston Globe)
Nellie Strypek, aka Barbara Belmore, autographed pinup photo with note to Rene Cote (Daily News)
Nellie Strypek, aka Barbara Belmore (Newsday)
Crime scene photograph from the living room of 72 Harvard St., Brockton, MA, where Rene Cote was killed (ebay.com)
Margaret Minnock, 2nd floor resident at 72 Harvard (Boston Globe)
Helen Bertocci, neighbor of Bertha and Rene’s (Boston Globe)
Frances Gallagher, 2nd floor resident at 72 Harvard (Boston Globe)
Margaret Minnock, Frances Gallagher, Alice Winberg (Daily News)
Alice Winberg, 1st floor resident at 72 Harvard, Gloria Minnock, 2nd floor resident (Boston Globe)
Bertha Cote (Daily News)
Hotel Bryant, where Bertha was kept in protective custody
Walter Steele (Daily News)
Walter Steele (Boston Globe)
Walter Steele (Boston Globe)
Walter Steele (Boston Globe)
Bertha Cote (Boston Globe)
Sources For This Episode
Newspaper articles
Various articles from the Daily News, Fitchburg Sentinel, The Berkshire Eagle, The Boston Globe, the North Adams Transcript, and Newsday, here.
Written by various authors including Alan Sheehan, Amasa Howe, Charles Gruenberg, Charles Whipple, Edward O'Neill, Frank Harris, Fred Brady, Leonora Ross, Nat Kline, Peter Levins, Ruth Reynolds, Stanley Howard, and William Tisdel.
Photos
Photos as credited above.
Credits
Research, vocal performance, and audio editing by Kristen Seavey
Research, photo editing, and writing support by Byron Willis
Written by Morgan Hamilton
Research by Ericka Pierce
Murder, She Told is created by Kristen Seavey.