DailyMail.com exclusively learned that the innocent black man wrongly convicted for raping Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones in 1981 did not know she had used her story to launch her literary career. He has lived in squalor since he was released from prison and she has sold millions of books.
Anthony Broadwater (61), was convicted in 1982 of raping Sebold. After 16 years, he was released from prison in 1998. In a desolate apartment in Syracuse, New York since 1998, he and his wife have lived peacefully together.
His conviction was overturned Monday after Lucky Sebold, a producer who wanted to adapt Lucky’s book about the rape hired an attorney and private investigator to help with the appeal.
DailyMail.com learns that Tim Mucciante tracked Broadwater to his rescue after he was fired from Netflix’s production due to a casting disagreement.
Broadwater was found by his private investigator in Syracuse earlier this year. Broadwater lived in an apartment that had been abandoned in Syracuse. This is the same town as the crime scene.
He was shocked. It is a sad existence he is leading, and this is no exaggeration. Alice Sebold, who is based on Lucky & The Lovely Bones lives in San Francisco.
Timothy Mucciante (producer who revealed the wrong conviction through the hiring of a private investigator) said that “it is not right.”
Anthony Broadwater can be seen this week on his front steps holding a newspaper detailing his exoneration. Timothy Mucciante is the producer who hired the legal team to represent him in court. Alice Sebold right identified him in court as her rapist, in spite of having chosen another man from a police list. His exoneration has still not been commented on by her.
Anthony Broadwater has lived in Syracuse since 1998 when he was released. Broadwater is married, but has never had any children due to the shame of his conviction for rape. Sebold knew that the wrongly convicted crime was the one which he did not. This was how he started his career.
Alice Sebold resides in the $6 million mansion she purchased in San Francisco in center in 2007. It was bought eight years after her memoir was published.
Alice Sebold is the Lovely Bones author. She was left in 2018, while she was right in 2002 when The Lovely Bones first came out. Her comments on her exoneration are still to be made.
Mucciante had been working on Lucky as a film adaptation, which was to be available for Netflix.
After reading the book and script, he became suspicious and was dismissed from the production. He also resisted a proposal to make the rapper a white male and not one of his black counterparts.
Mucciante, who had previously been a lawyer, said that he was fired and began to go through the book as well as the original police reports in search of inconsistent information.
Broadwater said that he couldn’t sleep and hired a private detective to investigate the case. Broadwater appealed to them this week after he raised funds on GoFundMe.
It is not true. He was shocked. Alice Sebold lives a luxurious life in Lucky. Sebold lives in a rather squalid life.
Broadwater first saw him at his Syracuse, NY home in September this year.
I brought the screenplay and a copy the book. The book was not something he knew much about.
“His wife had mentioned in the 2000s that there was a book on it, but he didn’t want to read it. Only when I visited him in Syracuse in September did he realize what it was. [that he realized.]
“I did not know it when I began it, but it now makes me mad. Lucky would have made her who she is.
Broadwater described earlier in the week how he was considered a “pariah” who would not be allowed into their home. Broadwater and his wife wanted children, but he decided against it because he did not want the stigma of his father’s conviction for rape to destroy their lives as it did his.
Broadwater stated earlier in the week that they had an argument about children and she told me I couldn’t allow any child to enter this world without a stigma.
I’m able to count on my hands the number of people who have allowed me to attend their dinners or homes, but I’m limited by 10.
“That was very traumatizing to me.”
Broadwater was convicted after Sebold identified him in court as her rapist, even though she had identified a different man, standing next to him, in a police lineup months earlier. According to her, the two were identical and she was wrongly choosing the wrong man.
Her 1999 memoir Lucky was inspired by her violent rape experience and its prosecution. It sold more than 1 million copies.
Here is the 1981 list of black men Alice Sebold told her to pick from. Anthony Broadwater is in fourth place, second from right. He was the next man she chose, and she was placed in fifth place. However, police told her that she had “failed to identify” the suspect. Broadwater was a confirmed suspect and Broadwater was later named by her attacker. He was not named, and the reason he was included in the lineup is still unknown.
Lucky, Sebold’s 1981 college paper about her attack from the behind by a man at Syracuse’s park. He raped her and then released her, saying that she was a good girl and asking for forgiveness. Her career was propelled by the book, which sold more than 1 million copies.
Broadwater was found on a Syracuse street by Sebold months after she raped him. He taunted her and she thought he was her serial rapist. He was taken into custody after she went to police.
When he appeared at trial, he said that he did not speak to her but to another police officer standing on the street. He was convicted because she identified him as the victim and hair DNA analysis which was now considered to be ‘junk science by the Department of Justice.
His innocence was maintained by him, refusing any admission to the crime, even though it might have allowed him to be released earlier. He also spent what little money he did have after being released on private polygraph test that he believed would lead to his exoneration. Four appeals were filed, but none of them were granted.
“He was refused parole for refusing to confess to it five times. He was always innocent. This is what struck me the most.
Mucciante stated that they would have released him on his 1990 parole date if he had just confessed to the crime, but Mucciante insisted that he was innocent.
Broadwater has not been in touch with her since exoneration, he said. While she knew about the proceedings, she is not yet ready to speak publicly.
I am not suggesting that she deliberately identified the wrong man. After Broadwater’s conviction was overturned, Mucciante said that she did her best as a teenager, but she should reach out to him.
Sebold did not respond to multiple requests made through her agent.
Mucciante stated that he had conducted his private investigation and that he believes PI and Mucciante know the true rapist and have provided the details to police.
Syracuse Police Department have yet to confirm that they have reopened this case.
Broadwater, said he, will probably sue Scribner’s publisher and author.
He said, “I am fairly certain there will be legal actions,”
Lucky is Sebold’s description of the lineup. She believes that the man in the fifth position raped her. He ‘looked’ at her even though she was behind a panel with glass and could not see him.
Five black men wearing nearly identical light blue shirts had walked in, in dark blue pants and wore almost identical light-blue shirts. In her memoir, she stated, “It’sn’t one, two, three,” she added.
Broadwater stood in place 4.
‘I stood infront of number 4. He didn’t look at me. As he was looking at me, I could see his shoulders. He was powerful and wide like the rapist.
“The shape of his neck and head – exactly like the rapist’s. His body, his nose, and his lips. I leaned forward and gazed at him.
“I went on to number 5. He was tall and built right. He was staring at me as though he saw me. He understood who I was. The expression in his eyes told me that if we were alone, if there were no wall between us, he would call me by name and then kill me…. The clipboard was in front of me. I approached the clipboard… “I had not marked the correct one,” she said.
The Lovely Bones made it into a Hollywood blockbuster. Starring Saoirse Ronan and Stanley Tucci, the film also starred Mark Wahlberg.
After the lineup, she was told by a Sergeant Lorenz, that she picked out the wrong person.
“Alice! It’s my responsibility to inform you that the suspect was not picked out,” she said, quoting him.
“He didn’t tell me which suspect he was. But he couldn’t. However, I was certain. For the record, I said that the positions of the men at four and five seemed almost the same to me.
Next, she related how Gail Uebelhoer (then Assistant District Attorney) came in to the room and told her: “Well we got the hair from the bastard,” which was a reference to Broadwater.
Sebold’s 2002 publication, The Lovely Bones was another tale about child kidnapping and rape.
It sold over 5million copies in America alone, grossing $60million in sales, and was turned into a blockbuster Hollywood movie in 2009 starring Saoirse Ronan, Stanley Tucci and Mark Wahlberg.
Broadwater broke down as Sebold exonerated him. Broadwater is asking Sebold for an apology. He has yet to respond.
Broadwater, aged 61, was overcome with emotion and sobbed as his head fell to his hands as the Syracuse judge vacated the conviction. Sebold has offered an apology.
Broadwater was pictured at court Monday. He said that he still cried tears of joy over the exoneration the following day.
It is my hope that Ms. Sebold may come forward and apologize and admit to having made a serious mistake. She was right.
Lucky was a memoir by Sebold about being raped in Syracuse as a freshman student in May 1981.
“That is how I recall it.” I had my lips cut. I bit down on them when he grabbed me from behind and covered my mouth. His words were these: “I will kill you if your screams are heard.” He screamed at me, and I was motionless. “Do you understand? If you scream you’re dead.”
“I nodded my head. I felt my arms cinched by his right arm, and my mouth was closed with his left.
She continues to detail the rape, telling the story of how she was forced to speak to the rapist in order to support him.
He then wrote that he had to apologize in tears after the attack and said that he was sorry for what he did.
Sebold claims that the assault took place at Syracuse University on 22 September 1982.