Episode 205: Edward Wright
On May 14th, 1984, the Springfield, Massachusetts Police Department arrived at an apartment to investigate after the building’s maintenance team had been notified of some concern that the apartment’s occupant, 24-year-old Penny Anderson, hadn’t been heard from by her family in a while. Her family requested that Penny be checked on. When the building’s maintenance supervisor gained access to her apartment, he found a horrific scene. Police were also shocked by the scene as inside, Penny was bound at the wrists with a ribbon and tied to a chair. She had significant stab wounds. Penny had been stabbed 60 times, and there was extensive blood splatter around the apartment.
Neighbors had heard a woman scream at around 4:00 a.m., and neighbors were able to make out the woman yelling out “Please don’t do it” and screaming for help and for someone to call the police for fifteen entire minutes. They also heard a car squealing as it peeled away quickly shortly after the scream. Penny was determined to have been murdered between midnight and 6:15 a.m.
A man named Arthur Turner was incredibly alarmed to hear the news about what happened, and he told police he might know the person responsible. His mom, a woman named Thelma, was in an on-again, off-again relationship with a man named Edward Wright. Arthur had actually been in a car accident on the night of the murder, and while he was okay and able to get home after the whole ordeal, he remembered this night for another reason. He said he received an odd phone call a little after 4:30 p.m. from a man who only gave the name “Ed.” Ed then proceeded to tell Arthur that he murdered someone, in his words, “a white b*tch,” and proceeded to tell Arthur an address to an apartment in Springfield. Specifically, Penny’s apartment. The man went on to say that he had stabbed the woman with a knife that had a fourteen-inch blade because she had fired a gun at him. He called the woman a derogatory term for a sex worker and said that she was high on “tic,” a slang term for meth. The man told Arthur that he would hear about the murder in the newspaper and know who the victim was.
Arthur saw the news the next day and gave his statement about the phone call to police the day after on May 16th. Arthur shared that the only “Ed” he knew was Edward Wright, his mother Thelma’s on-again, off-again partner. At this time, the two were in an “off-again” stage and Thelma had actually gotten a restraining order against Edward. Things were tense between Thelma and Edward, so understandably things were tense between Arthur and Edward as well.
Edward Wright not only knew Penny Anderson, he had seen her on the night of her murder. Penny, who was a topless dancer at a nightclub called Club 418, left the nightclub with Edward. The two then picked up Penny’s young son who was under a year old and with Penny’s mother while she was at work and then ran a few errands. At some point the two had sex in the car that Edward was borrowing and then drove to Penny’s apartment. They talked and hung out, and then Edward left at around 1:00 - 1:30 a.m. After Edward left, he went to a friend’s house but ended up sleeping in the car as it was really late by the time he got there. The next morning, now on May 15th, he headed down to Delaware to visit his sister. Police went to Delaware and arrested Edward for the murder of Penny Anderson on May 16th.
Police searched the borrowed vehicle that Edward and Penny were in that night, and they found blood in the car. It was on the steering wheel, the headlight switch, the handle on the inside of the driver’s side door, the turn signal, the accelerator and other parts of the car. Later investigation found that the blood in the car was old and was from Edward himself as he had been stabbed the week prior to the murder on May 7th. He was rushed to the hospital by his friend, the owner of the car he borrowed the night of Penny’s murder. Police had also found a bloody shoe print in the apartment, and while the print matched a very popular brand of shoes at the time, investigators felt that they had their guy and moved forward with a murder conviction.
On April 11th, 1985, 22-year-old Edward Wright was convicted for the first-degree murder of Penny Anderson. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, which was the mandatory sentence for murder at the time.
Edward filed motions for new trials and kept doing so until after the 6th time when the court finally agreed to hear his arguments.
On October 2nd, 2023, after over 36 years in prison, the New England Innocence Project, who had taken on Edward’s case, as well as members of their legal team announced that they filed a motion for a new trial on Edward’s behalf. In the motion they cited the recent discovery of DNA evidence on multiple crucial items from the murder scene, and they brought up multiple police reports kept hidden and kept away from Edward that he was unaware of. They said that a police officer had lied at trial, and that forensic evidence presented at trial had since been deemed unreliable by experts. The filing of this motion was on October 2nd, which is International Wrongful Conviction Day. The New England Innocence Project did this intentionally to raise awareness of wrongful convictions, and said that police misconduct, flawed or misleading forensic evidence, racial bias, ineffective counsel, and the unavailability of DNA testing at trial are leading reasons why innocent people are wrongfully incarcerated, and every single one of those factors played a role in Edward’s own wrongful conviction.
Edward himself stated, “Since I was first arrested at age 22 and this nightmare began, I’ve lost not only my freedom, but also so many family members and friends. These are people that I’ll never see again. When you’re incarcerated, it’s an endless battle to be the person you want to be instead of the person they try to make you to be inside the prison walls. I’ve tried to preserve some semblance of my humanity—have tried to learn the law, to help fix the wrongs in prison to help not just myself but others. And I’ve never stopped trying to prove my innocence. But after so many denials, I am hopeful that a judge will finally look at all the evidence in my case – not just the horrific facts of the murder. I just want the truth to finally come out so a court can do the right thing and I can live out the rest of my life in freedom.”
The only piece of forensic evidence available against Edward was the shoe print. Two to three days after the murder, when Edward was arrested and down in Delaware, someone broke into Penny’s apartment. The bloody shoe print cut off of the linoleum flooring was taken a day or so after the break in, which means there was someone in that apartment that was considered a crime scene that wasn’t Edward. Rather than disclose this and have that piece of evidence thrown out, Springfield Police Detective Alfred Ingham had actually testified in court during the original trial that only law enforcement and investigators had access to the crime scene. The possibility that the shoe print was from the break in rather than the murder was intentionally hidden.
Decades later, it was found that there was a washcloth in the bathroom covered in blood that the perpetrator likely used to wash his hands after stabbing Penny. The DNA evidence on the washcloth was found to have belonged to another man who was not Edward. DNA found on the pants Sandy was wearing, DNA from the pillow used to try to smother her screams as she was being stabbed to death and hair found on her shirt when her body was found all came back with one thing the same: none of the DNA was a match for Edward.
As for possible other suspects, there are two alarming options.
On the evening of May 13th at 10:00 p.m., hours before Penny’s murder, Edward said that he went to the nightclub where Penny was working at and met her there. He saw Penny talking to Andrew Jefferson, her own on-again, off-again boyfriend and the father of her young son. Within minutes of this, Edward saw another man named Allen Smalls walking into the nightclub after Penny. Edward went to put gas in the car and drove back, and when he and Penny started leaving the club, she got into an altercation with Allen.
Allen had grabbed Penny, which caused her to drop her purse and the purse’s contents spilled all over the floor. Allen then picked something up off of the ground that had spilled out of the purse and put it in his pocket. They then began arguing, and when Penny and Edward began walking away, Allen followed them. Allen asked Penny where she was going, and she stated “I'm going to pick up my baby. And then I'm going home to f*ck him." Allen replied, "Don't go home because I'll be there when you get there." Penny told him “You ain't my man no more," and she and Edward got into the borrowed car and drove away.
Allen’s mom, Lee Britt, had gone to police in January of 1996 to make them aware of several statements her son made. Lee said that she had gone down to Florida to visit Allen and his girlfriend at the time, a young woman named Maria Rivera. Maria confided in her that very soon after Penny’s murder, Allen had told Maria “I will kill you just like I did [Penny]." On May 12th, 1985, Lee asked Allen over the phone whether he was responsible for killing Penny. He denied this, then said everyone else had forgotten about the murder after Edward was convicted and she should too. He then added that Penny was better off dead because her life had been "a Hell" and she had been miserable. On a separate phone call, Allen told his mom Lee that he told Maria he killed Penny, but only did this out of anger and to scare her.
Lee’s husband also told Lee that on May 14th, the night of the murder, Allen had knocked on the back door and woke him up at 3:30 a.m. This was an entirely different story from what Lee had heard as Allen said that he "came straight home that morning" after getting a "ticket for going down a one way street on his moped." This would put him out and not home within the time frame of Penny’s murder. Lee told police that several days after Penny’s murder, Allen admitted to breaking into her apartment by breaking in through a window. He came home with Penny’s small gold purse and some of her records he had stolen. Allen was also attempting to sell a large hunting knife the day after the murder, and Allen’s sister Cynthia said that Allen tried selling the knife to her boyfriend.
At a much later evidentiary hearing on October 26th, 2007, Maria Rivera testified about Allen. She said they started dating in 1981 or 1982 and she described him as having an "evil streak." Allen had dated Penny for roughly six years before he began dating Maria. He had posted nude pictures of Penny all over his room for Maria to see, and he would refer to Penny often and as his “first love.” Maria said Allen became "hooked" on Penny, and she had heard him say that Penny was “mine and only mine." Allen was abusive, had a drinking problem and often used cocaine as frequently as every day and while drinking alcohol. Sometime after Edward was convicted, Allen had taken Maria into a wooded area in Springfield and forced her out of the car. He was under the influence of both alcohol and cocaine, and he became very abusive. He threw her down over the trunk of the car and then began raping her.
He yelled at her to stay still, saying if she didn’t he would kill her “just like [he had] killed Penny." Maria had asked him “So you're the one [who] killed Penny?" Allen had replied “Yeah, but nobody's going to find out." Maria was threatened to not tell anyone, and shortly after she was able to get away and get back down to Florida where she had originally been living. She never went to the police because she was terrified of Allen.
Andrew Jefferson, a former boyfriend of Penny’s and the father of her young son, was not only seen talking to Penny at the club the night before her murder, but was also seen by a neighbor banging on her door hours after the murder. He had also been seen fighting with Penny just days before the murder, and less than two weeks before Penny’s murder she had stabbed him during an argument. This was not known to the jury and seemed like a strong motive for her murder if he were going to retaliate.
After over 40 years in prison, on April 11th, 2025, Hampden County Superior Court Judge Jeremy Bucci overturned the conviction of Edward Wright. Judge Bucci found that the prosecution knowingly and withheld “significant” evidence of a break-in to the crime scene and that a detective gave “false testimony” during the trial as the shoe print was the only forensic evidence available to pin the murder on Edward.
Although the judge overturned his murder conviction, Edward Wright is not yet officially exonerated. The Hampden County District Attorney’s Office has chosen to appeal and they said they feel as though the case is “not re-triable,” but despite this they are advocating for Edward to remain in prison. He is still facing the original charges and yet more court proceedings.
Executive Director of the New England Innocence Project Radha Natarajan stated, “In a recent hearing, the prosecutor said that Mr. Wright’s case is not re-triable. We agree that it is not re-triable, but more importantly, we believe it should not be retried, because Mr. Wright is innocent. Enough is enough, and it is time to end this injustice.”
The New England Innocence Project wrote “Although Mr. Wright has been in prison in Massachusetts for the last four decades, he has maintained close contact with his family and loved ones and has had a positive impact on the people with whom he has been incarcerated. While in prison, he dedicated himself to learning the legal system that so tragically failed him. He uses his knowledge to help others challenge their convictions and improve conditions inside the prison walls. Mr. Wright has led efforts to ensure that people in prison have access to mail and food that meets their medical needs. Additionally, after winning a judgment against the Department of Corrections for civil rights violations, he used the funds to pay for his own DNA testing to help prove his innocence. Mr. Wright has been married since 2009 and looks forward to continuing his life with his wife and family in freedom.”
Radha Natarajan also stated, “I think for the first time he can think about, he can dream about what does freedom hold for him. There’s both sort of a pain of course with that, but there’s also a sweetness to that.” With the same sentiment, Edward stated, “There is bitterness for all the years I’ve lost in prison, but also sweetness in the possibility of freedom.”
Image sources:
newenglandinnocence.org - “Court Overturns 1985 Springfield Murder Conviction”