“I would like to perpetuate the memory of my dear nephew,” she wrote in a letter to Chief Edmund Mosca regarding the establishment of a memorial fund for McMurray, “by contributing and encouraging others to contribute to projects designed to foster his humanitarian ideals.”

At that point, the fledgling memorial fund that would become the “Mac Fund” was nothing more than a bank account established the day after the death of McMurray, who had coached and counseled young people.

The Mac Fund to which Johnson donated bears little resemblance to the Mac Fund of today.

In 1976 Mosca used the Mac Fund to sponsor two days of youth baseball and softball picnics. But today the fund is under investigation by the state Attorney General's office. Among other issues, the office is looking at how a $64,000 bequest intended for the police union instead wound up in the Mac Fund; whether Mosca followed the state's charitable organizations law; and whether court-ordered donations from criminals on probation are missing.

A picture of the Mac Fund and its evolution can be gleaned from an analysis of thousands of pages of financial records dating back more than 30 years. The records were made public on March 14, two days after the state's Freedom of Information Commission ruled that the documents must be made public.

The documents show that in the 1970s and '80s, Chief Mosca used the Mac Fund — which in 1985 merged with the Kirtland Fund to become known as the McMurray-Kirtland Memorial Fund — to sponsor youth events. He used the fund to buy items directly related to the police department, uniform shirts and pants, and renovations to the department's kitchen.

By the 1990s, and especially in the past eight years, the Mac Fund became a vehicle to support Mosca's travel to events with police chiefs' associations and a way to fete visiting chiefs and their wives: a $442 dinner at Vinnie's Fish House, $200 for a “wives' lunch,” $414 for miniature police cruisers and $610 for embossed writing pads, according to a sampling of the records from the summer of 2006.

Mosca's lawyer, Lisa Lazarek, has said that Mac Fund expenditures on police chief functions and the like were subsequently reimbursed by those organizations. But the financial documents made public last week do not appear to show those reimbursements.

In a story that ran in The Hartford Courant on Dec. 27, 1973, Mosca said he wasn't sure how the newly created fund would be used. A scholarship, he said, was among several possibilities.

But by then, issues that have now become problematic for Mosca had begun to arise.

From its inception, Mosca had complete control over the fund, with no oversight by the town or, later, the police commission. He never registered the Mac Fund as a charity, nor formally defined its mission.

Instead, in thank-you letters sent to donors over the past 34 years, Mosca offered brief descriptions —the earliest letters saying it would be used for “programs and functions benefiting the youth of Old Saybrook” to later letters saying it would be used “to supplement the special needs of the department and its personnel and various youth programs.”

From the first donations until the most recent, Mosca did little to distinguish the Mac Fund from the town's police department.

He accepted checks made payable to the Old Saybrook Police Department and deposited them into the Mac Fund, then sent thank-you notes to donors using police department letterhead.

In other local towns, donations to police departments are infrequent and, when they do come in, go through the towns' finance departments and/or boards and commissions.

The distinction between the fund and the department frequently blurs in the record keeping. Mosca's assistant, JoAnne Klingerman, used department letterhead in correspondence with vendors who sold items to the Mac Fund, identifying herself as “Executive Assistant, Old Saybrook Police Department.” Some invoices are addressed to the police department and others to the Mac Fund. At least one vendor sent an invoice to “Dept. of Police Services Accounts Payable.”

The town's Police Commission has refused to question the chief about the fund's purpose. The commission's chairwoman recently called it a private fund over which the commission has no jurisdiction.

According to financial records, the Mac Fund was used to pay the chief's Rotary Club dues last summer and to renew memberships for 15 people, including at least one police commissioner, at BJ's Wholesale Club.

In mid-December 2006, according to the files, Mosca and a police commissioner, Timothy Conklin, traveled to Virginia to attend a ceremony for Lt. Michael Spera, who had completed an FBI training course.

According to the records, Mac Fund money was used to pay $435.48 for two hotel rooms at the Sheraton Suites in Alexandria, Va. Both Conklin and Mosca were listed on the invoice as being affiliated with the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

The Mac Fund was also used for $350 in travel expenses for the trip, according to the records.

Conklin could not be reached to comment. Mosca is out of state and could not be reached to comment, nor could his attorney, Lazarek.

Spera, the police department spokesman, declined to comment on anything related to the Mac Fund, saying it does not involve police department business.

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Some donors said they had no idea that money they donated to the police department found its way to the chief's “private” Mac Fund.

“As far as I'm concerned, all I did was be sure that a check was made out to the Old Saybrook Police Department and that the check was sent to them,” said Rose P. D'Ambrosio, community service chairwoman for the Women's Club of Old Saybrook. “I never had a check issued to Old Saybrook Police Department care of the Mac Fund.”

D'Ambrosio said the Women's Club, which has tax-exempt status, tries to give something back to the community in the form of donations. She said she and the other women in the club, which has made several $100 to $200 donations to the police department over the years, believed the money was going to support programs for young people.

“It was not meant for this slush fund of the police chief,” she said. “That takes a lot of nerve.”

Other donors said they had no idea the Mac Fund was not registered for charitable contributions so they wrote the contributions off on their taxes.

Gregory Shook, president and CEO of Essex Savings Bank, said the bank donates 10 percent of its net income to dozens of registered charities each year, including, at one time, the Mac Fund.

Shook said that if the bank had known the Mac Fund was not a charity, it wouldn't have qualified for a contribution.

The courts often order people on probation to make charitable contributions as a condition of their probation.

One of several retired probation officers contacted by The Day said that when he began working in Old Saybrook and Clinton, he was told that the Mac Fund was the mechanism by which to donate to the police department.

The retired probation officer, who asked that his name not be used, said that unless the court had specified another fund, he would suggest the Mac Fund as a way to give back to the Old Saybrook community. Clients sometimes donated in cash, sometimes designating the money for the DARE program or dive team, but always through the Mac Fund.

The retired probation officer said that during his tenure, the Mac Fund each month received between $200 and $500 in charitable contributions from clients on probation without anyone realizing that it was not a charitable fund.

“Was there ever a concern that it was a non-charitable contribution?” the officer said. “Absolutely not.”

Mac Fund records are sparse during certain decades, and while some receipts for probation contributions are included, the records are not complete.

Blumenthal said earlier this week that he has received reports that some of the Mac Fund donations by probation clients are missing, but he declined to reveal the amount. The Attorney General's office was closed Friday afternoon.

The officer said that while he was in Old Saybrook, he always believed that Mosca “stood for the well-being of Old Saybrook.” Mosca always seemed to be able to find money for community service projects he assigned to probation clients, he said.

Other donors said they are keeping an open mind until Blumenthal completes his investigation.

“I'm glad people are looking into it because you know, you have to look into these things,” said Sandra Haas, treasurer for the Otter Cove homeowners' association.

Haas said the association has donated to the fund annually — $300 this year — for as far back as any of its members can remember. The association also donates to the fire department every year, she said.

“It's sort of like the old saying that you don't know why you're doing it, you're just doing it because it's always been done,” she said.

This week, she said, she was contacted by Blumenthal's office to answer questions about her contributions.

“I really don't know. Part of me thinks that once something a little bit off gets started, everybody's looking for all the bad things that could have come from it,” she said.

•••••••••••

Donald Hull, president of the police officers bargaining group, described the current mood of the police department as one of “disappointment and disbelief.”

Earlier this week, the attorney who handled a $64,000 bequest meant for the association said that his office mistakenly sent the money to the Mac Fund instead of the bargaining group.

Hull said the department has gone through a series of turbulent times in recent years, most notably the animosity over its members joining a union in 2003 and layoffs that occurred during that time.

Hull said the organization is getting its own copy of the fund's records on Monday and will decide, after review, whether to hire a lawyer and how to respond to the way money in the Mac Fund came in and went out.

Former Old Saybrook Police Lt. Clifford E. Barrows, who left the department last March, said he once requested money from the Mac Fund for a few extra holsters for a firearms project and was denied.

Shortly before his departure, Barrows said, officers asked repeatedly that an ancient heating system at the department be repaired. Barrows said the chief and commission each ignored the request.

“The fund was for whatever (Mosca) thought was appropriate — ifhe thought it was appropriate,” Barrows said.

Day staff writers Izaskun Larrañeta, M. Matthew Clark and Claire Bessette contributed to this story.