WORCESTER—It was a pleasant fall day, Sept. 13, 1982, when John V.J. Joyce, Jr. asked his friend, William Garlick, to give him a ride from Worcester to Alton, Maine.
Garlick, 27, drove a 1980 black Chevy Corvette, and Joyce, 33, was recovering from a recent motorcycle accident. Joyce needed Garlick to drive him on an important errand; he was collecting a $22,000 debt, allegedly for Arnie Katz, who, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA,) was an organized crime leader and head of one of the largest drug rings in the country.
According to published reports, Garlick phoned his wife, Barbara, around 5 p.m. to let her know they’d arrived in Bangor and were headed over to Alton, about 20 miles away. A witness reported seeing the Corvette on Stagecoach Road being followed by a white Buick around 5:45 p.m.
“The vehicle was found in the parking lot of the Bangor Mall in Bangor, Maine, on September 14th,” Lit Sean Murtha, WPD’s public information officer, said. “The ignition and the interior of the vehicle were torn apart. Mr. Garlick’s wallet was found on the seat of the vehicle. John Joyce and William Garlick have not been seen since.”
The incident’s backstory suggests this is more than a missing persons case. Joyce was well-known to federal law enforcement, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the DEA. According to published reports, Joyce worked for Katz, who had been identified by the DEA as one of the largest cocaine distributors in the country. In fact, after finding the Corvette, Maine State Police alerted the DEA, FBI, and the US Marshall’s offices, who came to take over the investigation.
Joyce collected money for Katz, and the two had been arrested together in 1978 and charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. The charges didn’t stick due to a faulty search warrant.
Joyce had been indicted in 1981 on drug trafficking charges, but he evaded police for six months. He was finally picked up in Miami in February 1982 and had been out on bond when he disappeared.
Katz was the son of Israel Katz, who served as Worcester’s mayor from 1974 and 1975. He was sentenced in 1981 to 30 years in prison, after pleading guilty to federal drug charges. Katz ultimately had his sentence reduced to time served in exchange for cooperation with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He was subsequently placed in the witness protection program.
Ted Flanagan, a local paramedic and author of “Every Hidden Thing,” a crime thriller set in Worcester, said he is using this case as the basis of his current novel.
“I was casting around for ideas, on the Worcester Police Department’s unsolved cases, and I saw this little bit about these two guys,” he said. “The next thing I know, you bring in this story about Arnie Katz, the mayor’s son, and he’s tied in. Unbeknownst to me, Katz was the biggest cocaine dealer in the country. … He could still be alive for all we know. It’s an amazing story, I can’t believe it’s untold in Worcester.”
In the 41 years since then, there has been little progress. In 1985, Barbara Garlick told the Associated Press she believed her husband and Joyce were going to see Mark White, who lived in a mobile home park in Alton. Barbara Garlick believed White was the man from whom Joyce was collecting the debt. Barbara Garlick also thought White was going to include a white Buick as part of the payment, which is the same color and model car witnesses saw following Garlick’s Corvette. White was arrested that same year on weapons charges, but police were unable to connect him to Garlick and Joyce’s disappearance.
No trace of either man has been found, and there have been no further leads. In December 1984, according to the Associated Press, U.S. Attorney Timothy Woodcock told a federal judge in Maine that “the federal government believes both Joyce and Garlick were murdered.” In newspaper articles in the 1980s, both Barbara Garlick and Laurie Joyce, Joyce’s wife, are quoted saying they believe their husbands are dead. Both the obituaries of Joyce’s mother in 2000 and Garlick’s father in 2006 state their sons predeceased them.
“For a large part of the 20th century, that part of Maine was a big tree farm for the Georgia Pacific Paper Company,” Flanagan said. “I would think there in some part of the forest, there’s a grave with these guys in it.”
The case remains open.
“One detail that haunts me is Garlick’s wallet on the front seat of the car,” Flanagan said. “Was that because of a scuffle, or because he was sending a message?”
Anyone with information about this case is urged to send an anonymous text to 274637 (TIPWPD) or an anonymous web-based message at worcesterma.gov/police. Calls can also be made to the Worcester Police Detective Bureau at 508-799-8651. The Maine State Police consider this case open as well.
Information from the following sources was used in this story: www.namus.gov, Maine State Police website, “Unsolved Worcester” podcast with Dan Yeager, Bangor Daily News archives, Boston Globe archives, Telegram & Gazette archives.
This is the first in The Worcester Guardian’s series about cold cases – unsolved incidents still under investigation by the Worcester Police Department. According to the WPD’s public information officer, Lt. Sean Murtha, the department has 75 unresolved homicides and 10 missing or endangered persons. The Worcester Guardian’s “Unsolved Chronicles” delves into these cold cases and mysteries that happened in Worcester, Massachusetts. Stay tuned for more in this series.
Christine M. Quirk is the former editor of MotherTown and has written for the Telegram & Gazette, Bay State Parent and Times & Courier. She is a novelist and educator and lives with her family in West Boylston. She can be reached at cmqwriter@gmail.com
