Page 6 - Tom Toolan News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> at 37, tom toolan was a walking, talking swoon machine. tall, broad shouldered, preppie and beth had a lot in common with him. >> he liked literature and music and he was good looking and came from a catholic family whose parents were still married 30 years later. that was a big attraction for beth. >> she saw someone who she thought was like minded. i guess. >> in many ways, yes. >> tom toolan's childhood friend bernadette, had introduced them. bernadette had known him since he was a toddler. they had grown up in the same apartment building in brooklyn, new york. >> he was four years young...

Went shopping for knives. toolan may have been drinking that day, prosecutors argued, but he was used to consuming quantities of alcohol and drugs without showing it. and the prosecutor called witnesses who would testify that toolan didn't seem drunk. that's what the clerk who sold him the knives testified. and at the nantucket airport. >> did he seem intoxicated to you at that time? >> no. >> would you have rented a car to him if he appeared drunk at that time? >> not likely. >> he flew into the airport after the murder arriving at 1:15. jurors could see him renting a car, walking out to get ...

Wondered through old nantucket town looking for souvenirs, tom toolan went on trial in the center of town. he pleaded not guilty. >> all rise. >> he was as smartly turned at as ever looking for the successful executive he long wanted to be. the kind of guy that would fit right in on the island. the defense would argue that toolan's polished exterior was nothing more than a facade for a profoundly troubled man. they would not say he killed beth lochtefeld but that he was not guilty by reason of insanity. toolan's attorney began by hinting at the turmoil that lurked within tom toolan. >> looks g...

>> methamphetamines, zoloft. >> there was more. the defense revealed that toolan spent years fighting depression and obsessive compulsive disorder and in the late '80s he attempted suicide and finally the defense was ready for its knockout punch. a neuropsychologyist. >> my opinion is that he has profound frontal executive dysfunction. >> he testified that years of substance abuse brought about that mental defect. because of it, toolan could not control his impulses so the defense argued he could not be held criminally responsible for the murder. >> it was like the perfect storm. you have the ...

To investigate johnson for misconduct in public office. now back to "dateline." welcome back to "dateline." i'm natalie morales. beth's fairytale romance turned out to be violent. he sexually assaulted her and later held her at gunpoint. once again, here's hoda kotb with murder on nantucket island. after a terrifying night when she was held captive in tom toolan's new york apartment, beth lochtefeld had managed to escape and get home to nantucket, her island refuge. she called her friend, leslie, the morning she got back. >> she did say he has a gun and i'm afraid he might use it. i'm no...