Problematic Police Behavior toward the Two Truck Fire Victims in Cattaraugus County

Several posts have discussed similarities in the suspicious truck fires of Salamanca pharmacist Dale Tarapacki and my brother Mark (see esp. July 23, August 24, and September 24, 2016; February 26, April 30, and June 13, 2017).  The investigations into both deaths clearly glossed over or ignored many troubling facts, including significant wounds to the body.  As observed in numerous posts on this blog, the New York State Police did not pursue the role of Salamanca police officer Mark Marowski in the events the day immediately preceding Mark’s truck fire that led to my brother’s arrest for DWI.  This post raises the issue of reportedly antagonistic behavior toward Dale Tarapacki by another local police officer.

A reliable source informed me that some time before his death Tarapacki was being harassed by a Salamanca police officer over an issue that had nothing to do with police business but rather was a strictly personal matter.  This Salamanca policeman reportedly accosted Tarapacki on several occasions in a menacing manner over a private matter which angered the officer, but for which Tarapacki himself was not responsible.  The incident that spurred this policeman’s hostility reportedly took place at the Holy Cross Club.  Out of concern for the source of the information, this post will not name the Salamanca police officer or state the specific nature of the incident.  But the unprofessional, and quite disturbing, behavior of that officer appears not to be an isolated example of policemen in the Salamanca area abusing their authority to try and settle private grudges.

Not long before his death, according to more than one source, Tarapacki was picked up for DWI.  It is not clear if the officer who hassled him was in any way responsible for his arrest.  But it is difficult not to see a parallel here with the events that preceded my brother’s death.  In that case, the time frame is clearer, and there is no question about Marowski’s action of calling the Salamanca police to arrest Mark for DWI immediately after he left the Holy Cross Club following their heated personal argument.  But, in both my brother’s and Tarapacki’s case, what followed a DWI was an unthinkably savage and suspicious death by fire that the investigating authorities (New York State Police in the one and Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Office in the other) swept under the rug.

Who Tended Bar the Afternoon of the Argument at the Holy Cross Club?

A number of posts have brought up the problem of the failure by the N. Y. State Police investigators to question the members of the Holy Cross Athletic Club who witnessed the argument between my brother Mark and off-duty police officer Mark Marowski (see esp. April 18, 2013, September 14, 2014, and June 21, 2016).  That argument ended with Marowski calling in to the Salamanca police to pick Mark up for DWI on his way home, and the very next night, my brother’s truck suspiciously went up in flames in the field across from his house in rural Great Valley, N. Y.  An anonymous letter to me reporting that Mark’s wife Susan was having an affair with Marowski (see esp. post of August 11, 2014) makes the failure of the N. Y. State Police to investigate the argument at the Holy Cross Club even more problematic.

As also discussed on this blog, shortly after Mark’s death many individuals expressed concerns and brought up details about this argument, but no one has admitted being there or knowing anyone who was (see esp. April 18, 2013, and November 16, 2014).  This post discusses the problem of finding out who was bartending that afternoon and would thus have also witnessed the argument between my brother and Marowski.

Some time ago, several individuals suggested that I contact two former bartenders who might have worked at the club that day, Tom O’Connor and Mary Baker.  When asked, Tom O’Connor stated that in 2003 he had worked only weekends at the Holy Cross Club and therefore couldn’t have tended bar that Monday when Mark and Marowski got into their argument.  According to another individual, shortly after Mark’s death Tom O’Connor’s mother mentioned a number of details about the argument that her son had conveyed to her.  He had obviously got significant information, whether from fellow bartenders or customers at the bar.  In my conversation with him, Tom O’Connor was not sure who had bartended that day but recalled a woman named Mary who worked in the afternoon back then.

After that bartender was identified as Mary Baker, a phone conversation with her yielded some significant information but not specifically the identity of the bartender that day.  Mary Baker recalled the argument but said that she wasn’t sure if she had actually been bartending that day.  She was very clear, however, that Marowski was “very nasty” and that he “thought because he was a cop, he could do what he wanted.”  By contrast, she stated that my brother was “always good” to her and that, unlike Marowski, he was “not a troublemaker.”

Mary Baker also mentioned that Mark and Marowski had argued over the pool tabs, from which one could win “quite a bit of money.”  That information recalls a statement made by a reliable source that the argument at the Holy Cross Club was spurred by Marowski’s anger over Mark winning a pool that day.

Knowing what that argument involved could be the key to understanding what happened the next night, when Mark’s truck mysteriously burst into flames.  One bartender certainly saw and heard what happened.  Although considerable time has passed, that bartender could also presumably identify some club members who were there.  How could the State Police have claimed that “it wasn’t much of an argument anyway” if they hadn’t even identified and interviewed the bartender?

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A Report about Other Suspicious Deaths in Cattaraugus County

As previously mentioned in this blog (see post of October 16, 2015), over the years since my brother Mark was killed in a suspicious truck fire, many people have mentioned that his was one of several suspicious deaths in the Salamanca area within the same general period of time.  A number of recent posts have dealt with the very troubling deaths of two individuals who were killed within a year or so after my brother, Tim Nye and Dale Tarapacki (see October 16, 2015; February 16, March 19, April 19, May 19, July 23, August 24, September 24, and October 25, 2016; February 26, April 30, and June 13, 2017).

As with my brother’s case, the investigations into these two suspicious deaths seem to have been very inadequate, glossing over or ignoring evidence that appears incompatible with an alleged suicide in the one instance and accident in the other.  As with my brother’s case as well, there was apparently no newspaper publicity about the manner of either of these two deaths.  The suspicious nature of all three of these deaths was swept under the rug.

Recent information from a reliable source suggests that a number of suspicious deaths in Cattaraugus County may have been ignored by police authorities.  This source reported that a young man was paid five-hundred dollars per body to bury individuals who had been murdered.  According to this source, the person did not know who actually supplied the money he was paid for burying the bodies. But the young man at some point apparently felt remorseful about performing such tasks and informed the police about what he had been paid to do.  Reportedly, however, the police response was dismissive, claiming that the “mafia” must have been behind the apparent murders and payments for burial.

Assuming that there is a basis to this report, one wonders if the police had these bodies exhumed for identification.  Or was the whole business simply covered up?  Attributing such apparent murders to the mafia seems to reflect an unwillingness by the authorities to look more deeply into the problem.