Three magazine salesmen wanted for allegedly raping a Concord woman were arrested late Thursday night without incident in Aberdeen, Md., as they exited the highway and pulled into town. The police had been tipped they were coming and were waiting with extra officers.

"It was like Custer," said Sgt. Stephen Smith of the Aberdeen police. "Their car was surrounded, and (the officers) brought them out one at a time and handcuffed them."

The arrest ended a three-day-long search by the Concord police, who believe the men raped the 19-year-old woman in her Concord apartment Monday evening while selling magazines door-to-door. Concord detectives got an early break in the case when the victim was able to name the Saugus, Mass., hotel the men were staying in. Early the next morning, the Saugus police arrested the trio on weapons and drug charges but had to let them go on bail with orders to return the following day for arraignment.

The men didn't return and had been on the run until the Aberdeen, Md., police stopped them at 10:45 Thursday night. They could be returned to Concord as early as this weekend to face rape charges. The men were being held in a Maryland jail as of yesterday evening. They are Christopher (Tobias) B. Armstrong, 23, of Jonesboro, Ark., Joseph Haniffy, 24, of Chicopee, Mass., and Cassidy Coburn, 19, of Monroe, Utah.

Yesterday, local detectives continued to investigate the reported rape but declined to release details of the incident, including the location of the assault or how the victim knew the name and location of the men's hotel. They have said only that the men were in Concord selling magazines door-to-door for a Florida company called Fidelity Reader Service.

The victim was raped between 5 and 7 p.m. Monday and reported the assault a few hours later, according to the police. That was the second complaint the police had received that day about a salesman for Fidelity Reader Service.

At 8 p.m. on Monday, the police were called to Oak Bridge Condominiums on Fisherville Road for a complaint of a man selling magazines inside the buildings, in spite of signs forbidding solicitation. Witnesses told the police that the man had gotten past the locked doors by ringing the buzzer and telling other residents he had lost his keys.

When the police arrived at the complex, they found Eugene A. Goebel, 19, of Johnstown, N.Y., leaving through a back door. When confronted, Goebel said he was selling magazines for Fidelity Reader Service. He was charged with criminal trespass and peddling goods without a license. The police found eight receipts for subscriptions in his pockets.

Detectives spent Monday night piecing together information, and before dawn on Tuesday had alerted the Saugus police that the three men wanted for the reported rape were staying in a hotel on Route 1. They had been there for a month. Lt. Michael Annese of the Saugus police said the victim identified the hotel, but he declined to say which one it was or how she knew the name.

At 4:30 Tuesday morning, the Saugus police knocked on the door of the men's room. The men let the officers in, and once inside, the police saw weapons and drugs, Annese said.

According to records at Lynn District Court in Lynn, Mass., Armstrong and Coburn were each charged with four offenses: possession of marijuana, receiving stolen property, possession of drug paraphernalia and carrying a dangerous weapon. They had a crossbow and arrow, nunchucks and a butterfly knife, according to a clerk at the court.

The clerk did not have a record of the Saugus charges against Haniffy. Annese also did not know what Haniffy was charged with, but he said he must have been arrested because his mug shot was taken. All three men were photographed and fingerprinted by the Saugus police and told they were being investigated in connection with the rape reported in Concord, Annese said. The Saugus police then released the three on bail for $40 and a promise to return the next day for arraignment. (next page »)