Famalaro’s Mother Assails Town’s ‘Lying’

From her next-door window, Anne Famalaro has been watching her family tragedy unfold day by day.

Watching as authorities search for more clues at her son’s Prescott Country Club home that would link John J. Famalaro to the murder of Denise Huber. And listening uncomfortably as neighbors and others describe her son’s “secretive” nature and herself alternately as combative and domineering.

“A lot of people are doing a lot of lying to build a juicy case here,” she said in an interview at her home. “It is unbelievable what they are saying. This is killing us.”

But Anne Famalaro, a self-proclaimed Christian conservative, emerged from seclusion Thursday, outraged by the “talk on the street” and bewildered by the personal criticisms leveled against her.

Attired in a modest housedress and her gray hair styled close to her tanned face, Famalaro’s hands moved in rapid gestures as she addressed the crisis facing her son whose name is now casually spoken among curious patrons in local sandwich shops and barrooms.

Anne Famalaro remains devoted to her son, who she describes as a “very hard-working man”--so dedicated to his business pursuits as a painter, real estate agent and home remodeler that she rarely saw him in recent months.

“I hardly knew what John was doing or where he was going,” she said. “He would leave early in the morning and return late in the evening. He worked so hard last year that he came down with pneumonia.

“But everybody else seems to think they know what he was doing,” she said. “Those people all want their 15 minutes of fame.”

She has said that she was never suspicious of the Ryder rental truck parked in the driveway, since her son’s work required him to haul paint and other materials for his work. Neither, according to authorities, did she question the presence of an extension cord that sometimes ran from the truck to an outside plug at her home, about 100 yards away. That cord powered the freezer in which Huber’s body was discovered.

“My husband and I have been leading a very isolated life until now,” she said. “We are the kind of people who like being with one another.”

Her eyes sweeping her own spacious home, Famalaro said the house was built before her husband had become sick a short time ago with Parkinson’s disease.

“He’s not doing very well. This is hurting him,” she said.

According to neighbors, the family’s spot in this quiet retirement community has always been regarded with some curiosity. But of all the family members, Anne Famalaro has been clearly the most visible.

Her conservative politics have led to her to become involved in campaigns to chase gambling interests from the area. Considered an astute businesswoman, local real estate agent Neil Prill said, she purchased a number of investment properties from him and turned them into profitable sales.

More than anything else, though, Anne Famalaro has always been seen as extremely strident in her dealings with others and fiercely protective of her family’s interests.

“Sure, I ran a tight ship,” she said of her maternal role in the family. “But if I were a liberal and my kids got into trouble, people would have said it was because I was too liberal. Since I am a conservative Christian, they are making me out to be a domineering mother.”

Especially troubling, she said, have been recent published accounts from neighbors that she did not approve of her son bringing female friends to his house.

“Where do they get that kind of stuff?” she said. “That’s just not true. . . . For anyone to say that is just wrong.”

In part, she blames law enforcement officials for spreading false information about the family in daily briefings with reporters.

“I see them over there,” she said, nodding to her son’s home, “leaking information to reporters all the time. They are trying to build a case any way they can.

“Maybe it’s because I’ve been involved in politics,” she said. “Maybe (that involvement) is all coming back now to kiss me off. You know all the suffering that Jesus went through? That’s what’s happening to me right now.”

Although she has been advised not to speak about the case and has been keeping a low profile since her son’s arrest more than a week ago, increased attention was brought to her Wednesday when defense attorney Lawrence William Katz said he was dismissed from the case in favor of a Catholic lawyer in keeping with the family’s strong religious ties. Katz is Jewish.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing in my life,” Katz said Thursday. “I put my heart and soul into this case. I liked him. I looked at him as the guy-next-door type who needed a real aggressive defense. We got along well. I don’t know what the hell she did, but John was not a factor in that decision. It was her. . . . She has (John) gripped like a vise.

“What happened here, I think, is that they wanted somebody cheaper,” he said.

Troubled by Katz’s remarks, Famalaro said religion played no role in Katz’s replacement. She said Kelly “offered me a hand when I needed one.”

From the very beginning, Anne Famalaro seems to have remained close to her son.

She was in the red Jeep when her son was stopped near their Prescott Country Club homes and taken into custody. Pointing to abrasions on her lower lip, she said the ordeal left her so shaken that she nearly bit clear through the skin.

Despite his illness, Angelo Famalaro has been accompanying his wife to the Yavapai County Jail to visit their son on every available occasion. They were there again Thursday.

“I’m telling you, I think the end is coming,” she said. “There are bad things happening out there. I am counting on Jesus to bring our family through this.”