Melvin Reine Sr.
EAST FALMOUTH – As a light snow fell, the first of the season, six family members of Melvin J. Reine Sr. stood around his gravesite at St. Anthony’s Parish cemetery last Tuesday morning.
The gravestone had been pre-carved with his name and 1939, the year of his birth.
Space had been left for the date of his death.
Visitors to the cemetery said the gravesite and stone had been waiting for more than a year.
Some in Falmouth have been waiting much longer.
For decades, Melvin Reine was a much-feared figure in town, a convicted arsonist and suspect in numerous crimes including the murder of teenager Charles “Jeff” Flanagan, two disappearances—Wanda (Medeiros) Reine, who was Melvin Reine’s first wife, and teenager Paul Alwardt—and the attempted murder of Falmouth police officer John Busby.
(For more on the Reines, see “Dueling Attorneys Agreed on Culprit in Shirley Reine Murder“)
At the private burial November 12 were Melvin Reine Sr.’s sons, Melvin Reine Jr. with his wife; and Todd Reine with his two children; as well as Melvin Sr.’s brother, John Reine, according to Loretta Gilfoy who was watching from the church parking lot.
Gilfoy is the sister of Melvin Sr.’s second wife, Shirley (Souza) Reine. She said she went to the graveyard to pay her respects.
While knowing of Melvin Reine’s reputation as a suspect in high-profile crimes, Gilfoy said in person, he was “totally different.”
“He was a sweetheart. He was also a psychopath, how he started fires and enjoyed watching them. We were all naïve. We never brought up the subject,” Gilfoy said.
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