Crime History, Oct. 8, 1967: ‘The Groovy Murders’ a wake up call for suburban America

Linda Fitzgerald

On this day, Oct. 8, in 1967, a rich-girl-turned-flower child and her hippie drug-dealing boyfriend were found bludgeoned to death in the East Village in New York City, in what become known as “The Groovy Murders.”

The killings fired a national debate on why “good” kids like 18-year-old former socialite Linda Fitzpatrick were leaving their homes and turning to mind-altering drugs and hanging with hippie stoners like  24-year-old James “Groovy” Hutchinson.

The murders became a cautionary tale for the psychedelic 60s. Newsweek magazine blasted a headline: Trouble In Hippieland. New York Times reporter J. Anthony Lukas would win a Pulitzer Prize in 1968 for an article “The Two Worlds of Linda Fitzpatrick.”

James “Groovy” Hutchinson

Eighteen-year-old Fitzpatrick had attended prestigious day schools in Greenwich, Conn., starred on her field hockey team and was named editor of the high school yearbook.

But after trying acid and marijuana during a family vacation in Bermuda, she returned home and suddenly ran away, immersing herself in the East Village counterculture.

Groovy Hutchinson was probably the best known hippie in the Village. The drugs, love-ins and bohemian lifestyle were relatively new to the public and reporters were quick to feature Hutchison. One publication called him “an urban Huck Finn.” He was known to let all manner of characters crash at his pad.

On the morning of Oct. 8, he and Fitzpatrick were found in the boiler room of a tenement apartment, their heads bashed in by bricks. Fitzpatrick was in her sleeping bag.

Although the case received national attention, investigators didn’t make an arrest for two years. Two drifters confessed and pleaded guilty to the murders. Their motive was never explained.

Fans of “Mad Men” may recognize “The Groovy Murders” as a plot line in the most recent season, when Don Draper’s ex-wife Betty goes to a flophouse in hopes of finding a missing teenager.