Fatal Switch
PROLOGUE
April 22, 1897, Thursday, 4:30 p.m.
A whipped branch, a whirl of sand. Preternatural silence. As the still before a hurricane, the world watched the day close on the irrevocable, the inconceivable. Only the pealing church bells shattered the quiet and called forth the gathering.
Tucked in the rear of the sanctuary, according to church dictates, the Gato children stood in a double semi-circle by the open coffin. Tears streaked down their cheeks. The older children held the slight shoulders of the smaller ones who stood before them. Gabriel H. Gato, the father, with swollen eyes and tightly pulled mouth, set tight with controlled rage and sorrow, greeted visitors who filed by. Family, friends, and voyeurs, whom no one knew, passed Marie Louise Gato’s silk lined casket uttering sounds of mourning. Enriqueta, the young woman’s mother, lay at home in bed, sobbing into her pillow, clawing at her mattress. From a small chair in the corner, a friend watched over her in silence.
Marie’s first cousin, Katy Huau Lorraine, waited in the vestibule to join the family procession behind the small white casket as it moved forward through the nave of the church. Alphonso Fritot, another cousin, waited with Katie until the priest called him to help carry the coffin. Their parents and siblings also stood in the vestibule speaking of nothing much in soft voices.
Finally, the casket was borne tenderly up the aisle preceded by the rector reading the opening lines of the solemn service of the Episcopal Church. The Rt. Reverend Edwin Weed, Bishop of Florida, assisting in the service, indicated the importance and respect afforded this family. The full choir, swathed in flowing robes, also participated.
From his jail cell a block away, Edward Pitzer heard the bells of the St. John’s Episcopal Church tolling the girl's funeral. "It would have meant a lot to me," he said, listening to the bells, “if I could have attended the funeral."
That morning, his mother had fainted at the coroner’s hearing when Georgia, Marie’s older sister, weeping, testified that she had recognized Pitzer two nights before at her front gate with a gun in his hand.