'Waking up to a Nightmare': Family Awaits Parole Decision for Somers Killer

Relatives of Eleanor and Norman Prouty, Sr.—who were savagely victimized in 1980 by Terry Losicco—are awaiting a parole board’s decision on whether Losicco, convicted of the murder, would stay behind bars.

Losicco was sentenced to 27 1/3 years to life in prison for the horrific murder of long-time resident and civic leader Eleanor R. Prouty, a retired Reader's Digest editor, and the near-fatal beating of her husband Norman R. Prouty Sr.

The parole board met with Losicco on Wednesday. A decision about his parole was reached, but it has not been made public yet. 

The Proutys' grandson Brooks Prouty told Patch he wasn't made aware of the decision, but that would be notified before the general public. 

He began an intense campaign against Losicco's release from prison and formed an online petition, which currently has 1,177 signatures. He gained the support of thousands of people who have said they want to see Losicco stay behind bars. 

'Waking up to a Nightmare'

Losicco along with another teen, David Hollis, broke into the Prouty's home in Somers on May 25, 1980 in an attempt to steal money. Armed with a piece of firewood, Losicco attacked and pummeled 69-year-old Norman Prouty's head with full force. The man, who suffered from multiple sclerosis, was sleeping.

He then dragged Eleanor Prouty, 67, around the house and demanded money. He terrorized her, beat and kicked her, dragged her by the hair, strangled her and left an imprint of his foot on her face. Losicco was also charged with sodomizing Eleanor Prouty as she lay dying. 

Losicco knew the Proutys were elderly, living alone and that Norman Prouty was wheelchair bound – having obtained this information through a mutual acquaintance who had worked for them. 

[He] hadn’t merely targeted my grandparents’ house; he specifically targeted them," Prouty said in a January 2013 statement to the parole board. "This foreknowledge makes his actions all the more wicked; under no circumstances can they be construed – and thus mitigated – as reactions to unforeseen events. 

"Terry Losicco encountered exactly what he expected to find, exactly where he expected to find it, and he acted with insatiable, hate-filled violence, anyway," Prouty continued. 

Switching Into High Gear

This is the sixth time Losicco has applied for parole.

"I've been asked what makes this hearing different than the previous ones – why the petition, now and not earlier?," the Proutys' grandson said. "The answer is that my family and I thought that neither Losicco nor Hollis would ever be released."

Hollis was released in 2010.

"That decision to grant Hollis parole was the trigger for me," Prouty said. "I didn't know how I would respond, but when Losicco's hearing rolled around this time I switched into high gear, starting with my written statement to the parole board."

Most people, up until now, didn't know about this part of his life, said Prouty, who was 15 at the time of his grandmother's murder and lived next door to his grandparents.

"I tied talking about it years ago but found people don't have a frame of reference for it," he said. 

But when he posted his petition on Facebook the amount of support from people was tremendous. 

"Suddenly there were all these people running up to throw their arms around me and remembered me and all my family – and Ellie, my grandmother," he said. "We all were climbing out of the woodwork and into each others' lives after all these years – grieving session and lovefest all rolled into one. It turned out that we shared – many things, actually – but specifically this terrible experience."

Her 'Wonderful Character,' His 'Bright Career'

Norman Prouty, had worked in radio and advertising and had achieved the rank of lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, survived the attack and was confined to a nursing home for the rest of his life. Multiple sclerosis brought a premature end to his bright career.

"When I would visit him during my vacations from boarding school, his spirits would perk up for a time, but as soon as I started to leave he would sob how he missed my grandmother and how his life was, as he put it, 'a living hell' without her," his grandson wrote in his statement to the parole board. "Although my grandfather survived, he died a broken man. Terry Losicco may have killed my grandmother, but he destroyed my grandfather."

Eleanor R. Prouty was the mother of four sons and a daughter, a grandmother of six grandsons and six granddaughters. She also served as a civic leader in Somers, a member of the Somers Board of Education, among other positions and activities. She was also an avid gardener. 

"I remember her character – wonderful character – and it was directed toward other people in trying to make their lives better," her grandson Brooks Prouty said. 

He said he wants to leave a living legacy of his grandmother and live up to the "warm standards she set."

Cannot Remember More "Brutal or Vicious Crime Than This One"

As much as the petition of keeping the murdered of his grandmother behind bars, Prouty said it's also about engaging the community and building relationships, which was the essence of his grandmother. 

"It's a way of being with her," he said. 

When her murderer was sentenced to prison, the judge said that he could not remember a more "brutal or vicious crime than this one" and recommended that Losicco never be granted parole. 

"In killing my grandmother, Losicco removed the one person on whom so much
depended," Prouty said. "In killing her, he stripped us of our home and our family, as we had known them."

Lincoln Hall

"Lincoln Hall was one of the reasons that my grandparents were attacked," Prouty said. "The main point is that the population there was dangerous and the town was not up to speed on the risk that population presented. It still isn't 30 years later."

He said he believes that Lincoln Hall has not improved over the years and it may have become more violent.

"Somers is paying the price for that now with escapes and robberies and on-campus violence and who knows what else," he said. "However, someone in the town may pay the ultimate price like my grandparents. Somers needs to err on the side of caution in preempting that from happening."

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