The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 33

Mr roReg E3 Boston Medical Center is investigating why a stabbing victim was unable to get into the hospital building last week. B2. inn- Weather B8 New England B9 Deaths CIO More Metro news A30 THE BOSTON SUNDAY GLOBE APRIL 20, 1997 An examination of conscience Storm brings snow, flooding High winds batter Cape Cod, islands Unknown patriot outdid Revere Message carrier's feat kept alive in Hinsdale A SMALL WOMAN WITH dark eyebrows and a sharp look stood yesterday at a bus stop on Broadway in wind-driven rain that came down out of a sky so low it seemed you could hit your head on a cloud by standing up straight. Satur- $fh 11 "W'AwC "-Ml 11 if 4 4 JJt day in South Boston found a By Dorothy W. Chapman GLOBE CORRESPONDENT INSDALE The stirring feat of Israel Bissell, the postal rider who outrode Paul Revere in sounding the i-i alarm about the outbreak of By Matthew Brelis and David Armstrong GLOBE STAFF The second powerful northeaster of the month swirled off the New England coast yesterday, battering; Cape Cod with hurricane-force' winds, dumping a foot of snow in the mountains and sending rivers flowing over their banks.

"Winter is back," announced the recording at the Killington Ski Resort in Vermont, where the summit area received 16 inches of fresh snow. But, unlike the April Fools' Day -storm earlier this month, most, of New England received only a heavy soaking of rain Friday and yesterday. Property damage was In New Hampshire and some areas received more than 4 inches of rain, causing several rivers to flood nearby roads and neighborhoods. Police in Lebanon, N.H., evacuated homes and streets along the Mas-' coma River. The river was expected to reach its highest point today.

The Kennebec River near Skowhegan, Maine, was also expected to 'cause problems late yesterday. GLOBE STAFF PHOTO TOM HERDE Paul A. Meyers takes a break from sprucing up the Hinsdale grave of Israel Bissell, who sounded the alarm about the British in 1775. war, may be unknown to most Americans celebrating Patriots Day 222 years later. But it's an important event in this small hill town in Massachusetts.

Bissell, who is known locally as the "unsung patriot," is buried here in a cemetery that dates to the Revolutionary War. Every year, members of the Hinsdale Grange gather to honor his memory and make up for the years of neglect. Local wags say Bissell simply outrode the history books. Revere covered less than 20 miles on his ride and ended it by being captured by the British. Some de- tractors claim that he dawdled in public houses along the way.

But Bissell, 23, rode day and night for four days, six hours and some minutes, covering 345 miles from Watertown to the City Hall in Philadelphia. It was Bissell who carried the message "to arms, to arms, the war has begun," spreading the news of the British attack on the colonists. He mustered the militia of five colonies in the struggle for independence, which began at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. The original "call to arms" document is preserved in the archives of the Historical Society of Philadelphia. Part of it reads: "To all friends of American Liberty let it be known that this morning before break of day a Brigade consisting of about one thousand or twelve hundred men landed at Phip's BISSELL, Page B6 mi ft fit mum iimmti Israel Bissell) 23, rode four days, six hours and some minutes, covering 35 miles from Watertown to Philadelphia, He had to race over rugged terrain at breakneck speed with a relay of horses.

His stops were quick; a shmt nap here, a hasty mealthere. The Boston Red Sox canceled; their afternoon game because the" field was drenched from overnight rains. But at Logan International Air-" port yesterday, Massport officials' said all flights were taking off and landing as scheduled, despite the less than desirable conditions. Mass-port spokeswoman Laura White said, the high winds were not affecting, op-; erations. STORM, Page B6.

whole neighborhood hunched once again behind a wall of drugs and death. This week's toll was two dead and several others numb from overdose, due to strong heroin, as well as a history of isolation and resentment so deep the past threatens the present, along with any future. Tuesday, the needle took out a 23-year-old. Thursday, the victim's 16-year-old cousin killed himself. The count for the year thus far in a section of the city that sits like a thumb on a hand, angular and apart is four dead from suicide, seven dead from drugs, and nearly three dozen others cheating death by overdose with the help of EMTs.

And only God knows how many have walked away from the incredible lure of destroying their own lives. "We don't need any expletive social workers or basketball games," the woman at the bus stop said. "We need fathers who don't walk out on their families and who work for a living. "My boy tried to kill himself in February. He's 14.

He's been selling drugs since he was 13. Don't ask me how long he's been using them. "I try, you know," she said. "I tell him it's wrong, and it's bad, and how it'E either kill you or land you in jail. But, it's hard: I gotta work.

I'm -flotihere when he gets home from school if he even goes. "Like today," she nodded. "I got a split-shift on account of Monday's a holiday, so I'm going in because of the money. He's home. My sister's there with him.

We live in Old Colony. His friends ain't the best. I know that. I tell my son: Stay away from them. And he tries, he really does, but there's so many of 'em, these kids, who do drugs only on account of how they're all over the place and it's something to do, I guess.

"His father?" she laughed. "A total loser. I call him after my son tried to kill himself. I'm a wreck, rightn mean, my son's all I got. I love him.

His father and me, we ain't been together for 10 years, since he went to prison. He's been out two years, but I wish he never got out, he's such a bum. "Know what he says when I tell him his son almost killed himself? He says, 'It's the niggers and the spies. They're the ones bringin' in the drugs. The outsiders is the ones doing this to That was his take on it.

"And that's what you hear, more and more: Outsiders are the ones responsible for our kids committing suicide. That's what people are saying where I live. I guess they want to blame someone else so bad they'll say something stupid, instead of looking in the mirror and blaming themselves." A car pulled to the curb and a man rolled down the passenger window and asked the woman if she wanted a ride into town. She told him she did not. "C'mon," the guy said.

"I'm going right through Park Square. I'll drop you at work." "No, that's OK," she replied. "What," the guy asked, "you queer for the bus or something?" "No," she told him. "I'm queer for the bus-driver." "See him," she continued, as the guy roared off in the rain. "He's one of the jerks I was telling you about.

No matter what happens, it's always somebody else's fault: Like we got drugs in Southie because of busing or because they moved blacks into the projects. "Some of these people are retarded," she said. "I think busing was bad, OK? But it was 20 years ago. I mean, can we please get over this and start doing something about what's happening now?" I She stood on a sidewalk creaking beneath the weight of a resentment that a neighborhood and too many public people have allowed to prosper while greater evils, like drugs and despair, gained a foothold. Decency and the amiable solidarity of the majority are no match for what happens when poverty, joblessness and a culture of cutting corners is either ignored or excused, as if they were merely a latter-day chapter of colorful local lore.

"Nobody tried to kill my kid," the woman added as her bus appeared out of the gloom. "He tried to kill himself. It's us. We're doing it to All those hang-ups might he a computer calling By Patricia Wen GLOBE STAFF ing out busy signals, answering machines, and no-answers, most telemarketers use computers to dial phone numbers. When the computer reaches a consumer, it routes that phone call to a sales tative.

But if all the sale 'By the third or fourth time, I began to get really spooked' EFFIE CHAN Lawyer plagued by hang-ups keting techniques, you don't think it's a computer." Nynex spokeswoman Betsy Bottino said that of the 5,000 complaints logged each week at the company's annoyance call bureau, about 600, or 12 percent, are related to hang-up calls they suspect are related to telemarketers' computer callers. Over two months, Bond said, she received as many as five hang-ups a day. She worked with the telephone company and police, but the calls could not be traced, usually CONSUMER BEAT, Page B5 It's annoying, at best, to answer the phone and hear just the click of a hang-up. And hang-ups that go on day after day, often showing up as silent messages on an answering machine, quickly escalate from irritating to ominous. But as some local residents have discovered, the culprit may be just a telemarketer's computer.

In an effort to boost efficiency by weed speople are busy on other lines, the computer simply hangs up. "It can appear hie a stalking call," said Lois Bond of Reading, who was unnerved by repeated hang-up calls this winter. "If you have someone who is not aware of telemar- Family of '99' victims: Media erred on menu What's closed, open on Monday Holiday observed: Patriots Day Massachusetts Retail stores: Open. Liquor stores: Open. Supermarkets: Open.

Convenience stores: Open. Taverns, bars: Open. Banks: Open at banks' discretion. Stock market: Open. State offices: Closed.

Municipal offices: Closed. Schools: Closed. Libraries: Closed. Mall: Regular delivery. MBTA: The Green and Orange lines will run extra service, all buses and trackless trolleys will operate on a Saturday schedule.

Copley Station will be closed all day. Woodland Station, along Route 16 in Newton, will be closed to vehi- cles but will remain open for. pedestrian use. Boston traffic rules: Meters not in effect. Rubbish collections Boston: Delayed one da? except for down- town Boston and Roxbury.

(I r. ings, and "make' a killing on this massacre, no pun Intended," he said. The food has become a symbol of sorts to their relatives, one that helps explain why the family has been scarce during the trial of the three alleged killers in Suffolk Superior Court. "It's not for a lack of caring," Pepicelli said last week of what has become an informal boycott by the Luisi and, Sarro families. "We're a strong family, we stick together through everything, and we are all supporting each other." The defendants Anthony P.

Clemente his son, Damian Cle-mente; and Vincent Perez, a family friend each stand charged with four counts of first-degree murder. The trial began last week and will resume Tuesday, as the prosecution" continues to present its case. 99 TRIAL, Page B5 By John Ellement GLOBE STAFF Paul Pepicelli has never been interested in his relatives' last Ineal. But he now knows what was on the table in booth 45 of the 99 Restaurant Pub in Charlestown just before the gunfire began Nov. 6, 1995.

It wasn't steak tips. Robert Luisi his son, Roman; their relative, Anthony Sarro; and family friend Anthony Pelosi were eating Reuben sandwiches, chicken soup, and a chicken dish or two in the restaurant the afternoon they were murdered, Pepicelli said. The tale of steak tips was an error endlessly repeated by the news media, said Pepicelli, a first cousin of the Luisis and Sarro whrhas emerged as a family spokesman. News outlets exploited a massacre to sell newspapers, boost television rat If GLOBE STAFF PHOTO STAN GROSSFELD TILTING AT SPRING Daffodils bloom near the Smock Windmill in Brewster..