The White Rag: A Portrait of a Compulsive Killer

New Canaan Connecticut is dubbed the next station to heaven. It boasted education, wealth, power, and affluence. With John Rice within this perfect landscape of House Beautiful homes, speckled with a feel of Norman Rockwell Americana, he drove home the lesson that no place on earth is safe. Even more so John Rice’s murders remain the community’s ultimate stain on its image. Many famous people of great notoriety have had their homes in New Canaan, this is part of the town’s narrative. Some are legends, but none is greater than the Rice family and Mary Mount slayings. The Rice tale is riddled with paradox and horror. Rather than the lore of billionaires and notables that have graced New Canaan’s downtown sidewalks, John Rice remains’ the town’s greatest saga. For those living at the time, it causes them to floor their gas pedals when they drive past his old home at night. Many residents still tell of their experience with him reliving their terror and dread.