Caleb Fairley

After months of public speculation, the attorney for accused double murderer Caleb Fairley has decided not to mount an insanity defense for the 22-year-old Gulph Mills man. Since November, when Fairley pleaded not guilty to strangling Lisa Marie Manderach and her 19-month-old daughter, Devon Marie, defense attorney Thomas C. Egan 3d has said an insanity defense might be used in the trial. Proceedings are scheduled to begin March 11 in Montgomery County Court. After receiving the results of psychiatric and psychological tests and interviews, Egan said yesterday that he was abandoning the idea.

It was a dark and stormy night. Sort of. It certainly is dark that far north along Delaware Avenue, just down the road from the Jack and Jill Ice Cream Factory. And OK, there were no thunderstorms Wednesday evening, but it did rain for about 20 minutes, making the Asylum parking lot's cracked asphalt much glossier than usual. It was all-ages Goth Night. Asylum - a members-only nightclub - attracts a small crowd of devotees these nights to all things Anne Rice.

James Fairley, father of double-murderer Caleb Fairley, has been arrested on charges of delivering drugs to an addict without a prescription, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office said yesterday. Authorities said Fairley, 50, of King of Prussia, owner of a Phoenixville pharmacy and a pharmacist himself, had been giving Darvon, a mildly addictive painkiller, to a Trappe woman for at least a year after her prescription expired. According to court documents, Fairley initially took money for the pills and then, about a year ago, asked the woman for sex in return for the drugs.

They've hoisted protest signs, initialed petitions and overheated the talk- show circuits with pleas for harsh justice. But how many of the folks second-guessing the deal that spared the life of accused mother-and-daughter killer Caleb Fairley were there to witness the moment when the controversial deal proved its worth? That moment came when a map was laid in front of Montgomery County authorities, and the attorney for Caleb Fairley pinpointed the spot where the police would find the body of Lisa Marie Manderach.

Three years ago, a Limerick woman and her 19-month-old daughter were strangled. Caleb Fairley was convicted of murdering them in his family's Collegeville clothing store. Three months ago, police say, a Trappe woman overdosed on painkillers illegally sold to her by a Phoenixville pharmacist - Caleb's father, James Fairley. Police now say James Fairley, who was arrested last month, was illegally selling prescription drugs the entire time his son was being tried for the double murder.

Nothing she can say will help. Ruth Fairley knows that. It was at her children's clothing store in Collegeville that 29-year-old Lisa Manderach of Limerick and her 19-month-old daughter, Devon, were slain. Her eldest son, Caleb Fairley, is accused of killing them. "He must have snapped," Ruth Fairley said. Tears drop on her black turtleneck, and she shakes her head. "Of course he snapped. " In interviews yesterday and the day before, Fairley spoke about her son. She also went about the business of getting on with her life.

Montgomery County prosecutors have abandoned a plan to use an unusual jailhouse phone call against accused double murderer Caleb Fairley when his trial begins next month. Authorities say that in the call, which Fairley placed from prison after he was charged with the September slayings of a Limerick woman and her daughter, Fairley told First Assistant District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. that he wanted to "own up" to what he had done. The brief conversation was the subject of pivotal pretrial hearings in February and seemed to be the defense's last obvious leverage.

Murder was not an insurable act under James and Ruth Fairley's business policy, says a lawsuit filed in federal court yesterday by the Boston firm that insured the store where a mother and her toddler were murdered two years ago. The Fairleys are the parents of Caleb Fairley, 23, who is serving two life sentences for first-degree murder in the deaths of Lisa Marie Manderach, 29, and her 19-month-old daughter, Devon. It was at the Fairleys' Your Kidz & Mine children's boutique in Collegeville that Caleb Fairley strangled the mother and daughter while they were shopping on Sept.

Two years after his wife and 19-month-old daughter were strangled at a children's clothing store in the Collegeville Shopping Center, James Manderach has filed a wrongful-death suit against the shopping center owners. Manderach accused the owners of "failing to provide adequate security" at the shopping center where Lisa Marie, 29, and Devon Manderach were murdered by Caleb Fairley in his mother's clothing store on Sept. 10, 1995. Fairley, 23, a loner and enthusiast of fantasy role-playing games, is serving two life sentences for the killings.

When Montgomery County Coroner Halbert E. Fillinger Jr. fired his deputy earlier this year, he expected the appointee to turn in his badge and leave Montgomery County medical examining forever. But three months after the firing, Richard Campbell has not submitted his coroner's credentials or the county badge, police radio and dictating machine he received when he was hired in 1990. Fillinger wants the property back. In a lawsuit filed late last week, Fillinger alleges that his deputy has "failed and refused" to relinquish the items - worth about $830.

Montgomery County Court Judge William R. Carpenter heard attorneys' arguments yesterday on the question of whether to move to another county the trials of a state trooper accused of sexually assaulting several women while on duty. Carpenter did not rule on the matter, but he noted that he also had the option of bringing in jurors from another county to serve at the trials of Trooper Michael K. Evans, 32, of Pottstown. The trials are set to begin in September. When asked about out-of-county jurors, defense attorney Marc Steinberg said: "I would never say never, but right now, we're requesting a change of venue.

The attorney representing Michael K. Evans, a state trooper charged with sexually molesting several women while on duty, is asking a Montgomery County Court judge to move the trial to another county. Evans, 32, of the 1000 block of Belleview Avenue, Pottstown, faces several charges of sexual assault against three women and three teenage girls. He was suspended without pay shortly after his arrest in February. According to a motion filed by Evans' attorney, Marc Steinberg, extensive media coverage of the case and "numerous press conferences" by the District Attorney's Office could make it impossible for Evans to receive a fair trial in Montgomery County.

A Phoenixville pharmacist, whose son was convicted of a 1995 double murder, is on his way to prison after he pleaded guilty this week to improperly dispensing prescription drugs. James Fairley, 50, of King of Prussia, agreed to surrender his pharmacy license and pay $12,000 to authorities rather than have his Chester County business, Phoenixville Pharmacy on Bridge Street, seized under federal forfeiture laws. "He was very cooperative," said Fairley's Philadelphia attorney, Robert E. Madden.

Thelma Koe stood in the blazing morning light, held her grandson Brandon's hand, and brushed away the stream of tears behind her sunglasses. "I just have to cry every time I look at it and see all these people coming together," she said softly. From a gravel pathway off Ziegler Road, she watched a sunburned and sweating army of friends and strangers hammer together the tribute that would rise out of a community tragedy. Koe was one of hundreds this weekend who volunteered to construct a wooden castle and heart-shaped slides in the center of a sprawling field now officially known as the Manderach Memorial Playground.

Twelve straight days of rain had threatened to upset plans for the construction of a playground to honor a township mother and daughter slain in 1995. But thanks to the reappearance of the sun yesterday, this weekend's earthmoving plans are on. Caleb Fairley killed Lisa Manderach, 29, and her 19-month-old daughter, Devon, while they were shopping in his family's Collegeville clothing store, Your Kidz & Mine, in September 1995. Since then, residents have been working to build a tribute to the victims.

Three years ago, a Limerick woman and her 19-month-old daughter were strangled. Caleb Fairley was convicted of murdering them in his family's Collegeville clothing store. Three months ago, police say, a Trappe woman overdosed on painkillers illegally sold to her by a Phoenixville pharmacist - Caleb's father, James Fairley. Police now say James Fairley, who was arrested last month, was illegally selling prescription drugs the entire time his son was being tried for the double murder.

The parents of double-murderer Caleb Fairley have agreed to pay $1.6 million in a wrongful-death suit filed by the family of the mother and daughter Fairley strangled. Lisa Manderach, 29, and her 19-month-old daughter, Devon, were shopping on a Sunday afternoon at the Your Kidz & Mine clothing store in Collegeville 2 1/2 years ago when Fairley killed them. Fairley's parents owned the store, and the suit claimed that James and Ruth Fairley were negligent in hiring their son to work there without supervision.

James Fairley, father of double-murderer Caleb Fairley, has been arrested on charges of delivering drugs to an addict without a prescription, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office said yesterday. Authorities said Fairley, 50, of King of Prussia, owner of a Phoenixville pharmacy and a pharmacist himself, had been giving Darvon, a mildly addictive painkiller, to a Trappe woman for at least a year after her prescription expired. According to court documents, Fairley initially took money for the pills and then, about a year ago, asked the woman for sex in return for the drugs.

Today, he comes. The Main Line Murder defendant. The guy who has turned life upside down for anyone who works in the Montgomery County Courthouse. "It's a good time to take a vacation," joked Montgomery County Court Judge Stanley R. Ott, anticipating the gaggle of reporters who will descend on Norristown this morning. "I was hoping to get out of here for a couple of weeks. " From janitors to judges to the guy who sells coffee, the courthouse crowd seemed to agree that major heads of state could arrive with less anticipation than that greeting Craig Rabinowitz, who goes on trial today for murder.

The first time they faced off in court, things got so tense that they stopped speaking to each other directly during the proceedings, leaving most of the unpleasantries to their legal partners. Defense lawyer Frank DeSimone came out on top that day in February 1994, winning acquittal for accused Patricia Swinehart of Pottstown, accused of killing her husband. And Montgomery County prosecutor Bruce Castor lost a homicide case - the only time in his 12-year career. He has not forgotten.