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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