"Mary Had A Little Lamb" Arsonists Charged

Birthplace Of Poem's Creator Destroyed; Two Men To Be Arraigned In Series Of Fires

(AP)  Two men are accused of burning down the birthplace of the woman made famous by the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

John Rousseau and Michael Dreslinski, who also face charges in a series of fires in central and western Massachusetts, have been held without bail since August.

They are scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in connection with the Aug. 12 fire that destroyed a vacant house in Sterling where town officials say Mary Elizabeth Sawyer was born in 1806.

Sarah Josepha Hale reportedly published a poem in 1830 about Sawyer, as a child, bringing her lamb to school with her. Other accounts, however, claim the original writer was a young man who was inspired by the incident.

Rousseau and Dreslinski were arrested in August on arson charges in a vacant warehouse fire that destroyed part of a paper mill. They are also charged in a fire that damaged a barn and a railroad bungalow.

The men, both of Clinton, pleaded innocent at their earlier arraignment in the mill fire. They were arrested on those charges following an investigation that involved police tracking the men through a global positioning system installed in Dreslinski's truck under an unrelated court order.

Calls to their attorney were not immediately returned Monday.

[excoachken]

These are Baaaaad Baaaaad Men!

[suzieh2308]

"These are Baaaaad Baaaaad Men!"
- that is the funniest thing I''ve heard all day!!!

[mswolfestock]

And they were probably the Black Sheep of their families, too.

[stargate1121]

they probably had a really baaaaaadddd day too. lol.

[sgtrds]

Maybe they thought they were going to pull the wool over the eyes of the cops?

[crusherking]

Did it say how long the were on the lam(b)?

[closethippy1]

I hope these guys get locked up for good for fear they might continue on the "Lamb" theme and set on fire the homes of the good folks who created The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
One of the top ten best things to come out of the 70''s. Check it out, you''ve never heard anything like it.

[ralan40]

...Looks like their records are no longer ''white as snow''...

[nlm2383]

Not too surprised to see that all comments are bad jokes about this stupid story...

[rushlimpdrug]

John Rousseau and Michael Dreslinski

the story is that they were looking for the little old woman who lived in a shoe but when they got to her "house" well, they didn''t know what to do.

[baptox]

"Every where the bad guys went, bad guys went, bad guys went...Every where the bad guys went the GPS was sure to go!"

[excoachken]

"UMMM......lamb chops, and a Duff."

Mary had a little lamb,
a lobster and some prunes
a glass of milk, a piece of pie
and then some macaroons.

It made the naughty waiter grin
to see her order so
and when they carried Mary out
her face was white as snow.

(no this is not original)