‘Model’ Father, Actor Played Credible Role That Masked Murder

To his longtime girlfriend, Doug Henare is a level-headed man who is a loving father to their three children. He’s also an occasional actor, a tireless volunteer who helps wayward youngsters and a budding real estate broker.

But Henare is no murderer, Gayle Babineaux insisted.

She professed her faith in her boyfriend Tuesday as Arthur Alonzo Bembury--Henare’s real name--was in Los Angeles Municipal Court for arraignment on a felony fugitive warrant from Massachusetts.

Escape Recalled

Authorities there said he is a convicted murderer who was serving a life sentence when he escaped nearly 16 years ago while on a weekend furlough.

Police confirmed that Bembury, 37, before his capture Monday afternoon, had led a “model” life in Southern California.

“I’ll stand behind him because of the person I know him to be, not of what he’s accused of,” Babineaux, 40, said. “He says he didn’t kill (anyone).”

Bembury, dressed in a tan suit, appeared briefly before Municipal Court Commissioner Diana Wheatly, asking for a delay in his arraignment until next Monday so he could hire a lawyer.

“Yes, ma’am” was his only reply when he was asked if he wanted the delay. He was ordered held without bail.

Fight in the Courts

Babineaux, who met Bembury after he arrived in Los Angeles, said he would probably fight extradition to Massachusetts, where authorities regard Bembury as a “Top 10” wanted fugitive.

As news of Henare’s true identity spread, there was only one reaction from those who knew him--shock.

“I had no idea,” Babineaux said. “It’s like lights flash before your eyes and your knees buckle.”

Walter Miles, an executive at the Marina del Rey real estate office where Bembury was arrested, added: “We were shocked out of our skin. He’s a neat guy.”

Bembury was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for the 1970 slaying of Louise Simmons, the mother of a 14-year-old girl whom Bembury was seeing. Bembury and Simmons got into an argument when she forbade him to date her daughter.

The key evidence against him was that he was found in an alley near the shooting with the murder weapon, a .22-caliber revolver, in his possession, authorities said.

Capt. Kurt Wood of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections said Bembury was at the state prison in Norfolk when he escaped after being given a weekend furlough in August, 1973. “He just didn’t come back,” Wood said.

Since Bembury’s escape, Massachusetts officials have changed the furlough requirements for those convicted of second-degree murder. Now, a convict must serve at least 10 years before being eligible for a furlough. At the time of his escape, Bembury had served 3 1/2 years, officials said.

Friends say Babineaux and Bembury, who was married for a time in the Boston area, met in Los Angeles in 1977 and began dating. They soon began living together.

Babineaux said Bembury had many good qualities. He volunteered to work for a private school that helped runaway youngsters. “At one point, he brought three of them to live with us,” she said.

She also said he volunteered for the Crippled Children’s Society, but officials could not immediately confirm his involvement.

She said he dabbled in the movies, getting work as an extra in such recent movies and television programs as “Colors,” “Hill Street Blues” and “Atlanta Child Murders.” He also wrote music and played the guitar, hoping that the revenue from the activities would eventually pay for his children’s education.

Above all, she said, he was a loving father to the couple’s three children, J’Mal, 10; Diego, 5, and Shannel, 4. “He took them to the park, everything,” she said.

But there was another side to Bembury that had prevented the couple from marrying, Babineaux said. He often “partied” at night and left her alone with the children for several days at a time without explanation.

“We’ve been separated several times, but we recently worked things out,” she said, adding that they planned to marry next July 4.

Over the years, Babineaux said Bembury gave a “blanket story” about his past life in Boston that left many questions unanswered. For example, she said, he talked of a mother in New England, but never went to see her.

“I wondered why he never wanted to go back, but I never suspected anything like this,” she said.

Others who knew Bembury in Los Angeles also say he was secretive.

Babineaux’s father, Joseph, 65, who shared a neat wood-frame home with the couple in Los Angeles’ mid-city area, said Tuesday that Bembury avoided having his picture taken, pointing out that there are no photographs of him in the family album.

And Joseph Hutt, an executive at a Century 21 real estate office in Sepulveda, where Bembury worked for a time, said Bembury frequently changed his telephone number.

“People usually aren’t that secretive, so I once even imagined he might be some kind of undercover agent giving us a check or something,” Hutt said.

Authorities in Massachusetts learned of Bembury’s whereabouts recently when a tipster told them that Bembury was using the name “Frank” as part of his alias in Los Angeles.

Wood, recalling the 1970 murder case, remembered the name of a man who was Bembury’s brother-in-law for a time--Franklin Douglas Henare.

Searching for that name, authorities learned of Bembury’s real estate license in California, matched fingerprints, and alerted Los Angeles police, who arrested him at the Hettig and Co. office in Marina del Rey.

Times staff writer Carol McGraw contributed to this story.