It would take some doing to pull it off, but many things had fallen in place that allowed such perfidy to advance. Foremost among these was that, by serendipity or destiny, three like-thinkers had met and, despite being in Western Penitentiary’s most secure setting, managed to intrigue and plot in the Home Block. The first member of this fetid trio was the small, dark-haired George Butler, who had earned his place in prison through murders committed the previous year. In December 1971, Butler had entered the Beechwood Inn, twelve miles outside Bedford, Pennsylvania, looking for cash. He’d been there before, and on more than one occasion had received a free hot meal—when he was down on his luck—from the inn’s two kindly proprietors, Mary Deremer and Marguerite Snyder, both age seventy. The women, Christian and trusting, were known to have served many who could not pay. That Butler had been a recipient of their benevolence meant little to him, however. He wanted money. It was some time later that a man stopped at the inn for cigarettes and called the police.
