Salem man pleads not guilty in 1971 murder of Bedford woman

The man charged in the 1971 killing of a Massachusetts mother has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.

Other than entering his plea, 76-year-old Arthur Louis Massei did not speak at his arraignment Wednesday on a charge of first-degree murder in the killing more than 50 years ago of Natalie Scheublin in her Bedford home.

The prosecutor in arguing for bail cited Massei’s long criminal record. His court-appointed attorney did not address the specifics of the case but asked that bail be set without prejudice so it can be revisited.

The suspect was tied to the death through fingerprints and information from a new witness.

Prosecutor David Solet, the chief of the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office cold case unit, told the judge that she was found bound around the ankles, face down, had multiple stab wounds, and had suffered a severe blow to the head from a blunt object.

Massei had long been a person of interest in the case, Solet said. He once told police he had been solicited by an organized crime figure to kill the victim for a fee, but had turned down the offer. He told police in a 2005 interview that he learned that a cousin had carried out the killing, and gave police details that confirmed his involvement, Solet said.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said Tuesday that there was no evidence that anyone had ever put out a contract on the victim.

Massei was arrested at his Salem home on Tuesday based in large part on a 50-year-old fingerprint found in the victim’s car and information from a recently identified witness who said Massei once told her that he had killed someone using a knife.

The fingerprint was lifted from the victim’s car, which was found in the parking lot of a nearby Veteran’s Administration hospital shortly after the killing. Using updated technology not available in 1971, the fingerprint was linked to Massei in 1999, prosecutors said.

Scheublin’s children have been informed of the arrest and have asked for privacy, Ryan said.

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