Ken Bailey/Doug Provost Both From Fairfax

Above Photo By Glenn Russell - Burlington Free Press Photographer

By Adam Silverman
Free Press Staff Writer

Kenneth Bailey, a 63-year-old former Burlington resident, denied his involvement Thursday in a slaying three decades ago in Winooski. He was ordered held without bail on the murder charge.

One day after police announced they had solved the 1971 shooting of Richard Langlais, a shackled and handcuffed Bailey pleaded not guilty to one charge of first-degree murder during a brief morning hearing in Vermont District Court in Burlington.

Police and prosecutors accuse Bailey of shooting the 49-year-old Langlais twice during a Jan. 3, 1971, robbery at the man's Winooski home. The shooting critically wounded Langlais, who survived until Sept. 21, 1973, when he succumbed to his injuries.

A medical examiner ruled the death a homicide after autopsy results showed Langlais' death was a direct result of the gunshot wounds to his chest and abdomen, according to a copy of Langlais' death certificate on file in Winooski. That decision allowed the murder charge to be brought against Bailey 34 years after the shooting.

Police reopened the dormant case in early 2004 following a tip from Bailey's wife, Lois -- who, is also the mother of convicted quadruple murderer Douglas Provost.

Bailey did not speak during his five-minute arraignment. His attorney, public defender Jerry Schwarz, entered the plea on Bailey's behalf. The stout, bespectacled man already is serving prison time: He was convicted last year in Franklin County of sexual assault and was sentenced to three to 18 years, according to police.

Bailey's next court appearance is a routine hearing scheduled for Sept. 2.
In court

Chittenden County State's Attorney Robert Simpson gave Judge Edward Cashman a synopsis of the crime and the investigation. The incident began on a quiet, cold night as Langlais watched television in his West Lane home.

"Mr. Langlais was minding his own business," Simpson said.

Two armed, masked men burst into the home and demanded money, lured there by rumors that Langlais had won a wad of cash in a card game. One of the assailants shot Langlais twice during the robbery. The men fled with $85, although police said it's possible the men took more.

The investigation stalled; but an anonymous letter in February 2004 and an unrelated police investigation into assault accusations led police to believe they'd finally found the shooter, Simpson told the judge. Prosecutors promised immunity to Bailey's alleged accomplice, who confessed and agreed to testify at trial, Simpson said.

Three of Langlais' relatives sat silently in the back of the courtroom and watched Thursday's proceedings. Through the State's Attorney's Office, they declined to comment. They were expressionless as they left the downtown courthouse.

Family members were stunned when investigators told them they had cracked the case, said Vermont State Police Detective Sgt. Gene Douillard.

"There was not a lot of reaction," he said. "They had to sit down and digest it because it's been 34 years."

After the arraignment, four police investigators who worked on the reopened Langlais case talked about the challenge of the inquiry and their satisfaction at having made an arrest.

"It was the oldest unsolved case Winooski still had," said city Police Chief Steve McQueen.
Two tips

The shooting badly wounded Langlais, the two slugs from the assailant's .38-caliber handgun striking him in the abdomen and chest. His wife, Marion, called police, and Langlais was rushed into emergency surgery, his condition critical.

Kenneth Bailey, then 28, was living in Burlington with Lois, according to a sworn police account of the shooting and investigation. He returned home, appeared upset and was shaking, according to the statement, which Douillard wrote.

"When she asked the accused what was wrong, the accused told her that he had just shot someone," Douillard wrote. "The accused threatened to kill her if she told anyone."

Lois Bailey kept her secret for 33 years, until she filed a domestic-assault complaint against Kenneth Bailey, according to Douillard's statement. Detectives learned during that investigation -- which led to the sexual-assault charges involving a 9-year-old girl -- that Lois Bailey had information about the Langlais shooting.

About the same time, police received an anonymous letter that said Kenneth Bailey was responsible for shooting Langlais, said state police Lt. Tom Nelson.

The tips led detectives to Joseph Dupaw, who was in a federal prison in Pennsylvania on firearms charges. Vermont detectives traveled to the Federal Correctional Institute in Allenwood and interviewed Dupaw. He confessed to being the second assailant in the Langlais robbery and said his friend Kenneth Bailey was the shooter, Douillard wrote.

Police and prosecutors tried to ensure Dupaw's truthfulness before they offered him immunity, Simpson said in court.

"We didn't give him immunity until it was confirmed by polygraph that he wasn't the shooter," the prosecutor said.

The investigation was difficult because a number of witnesses, including Marion Langlais and first-responding police commanders, have since died, Nelson said. Detectives were able to overcome that challenge, he said.
Provost connection

Lois Bailey's son, Douglas Provost, was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder Oct. 31, 2003. The 38-year-old Provost shot to death four people in a Belvidere home in July 2001, one of the bloodiest killings in Vermont history. Kenneth Bailey was Provost's stepfather, according to police.

Lois Bailey testified at her son's sentencing hearing in April 2004. Pleading for leniency, she said her husband abused the family for years, and the abuse affected Provost.

Bailey declined to comment Thursday afternoon.

"We don't have anything to say," she said.
Contact Adam Silverman at 660-1854 or asilverm@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
To read Free Press stories as they were written the day after the 1971 shooting and after Langlais' death in 1973, go to:
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/specialnews/article1971.htm

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/specialnews/article1973.htm

This is the house later renovated that burned halloween evening, October 31, 2004
where it is believed that Ken Bailey and Douglas Provost both may have lived here in Fairfax.