Tom Cassidy

Tom Cassidy is the young man whose date, Christine Watkins, becomes the great white shark's first victim in Peter Benchley's Jaws. His panicked report to the police after discovering her clothes on the beach sets the entire crisis in motion, and his horrified identification of her mutilated remains provides the first concrete confirmation of a shark attack.

Identity and Introduction

Tom Cassidy is a house guest of Jack and Eleanor Foote at their home on Old Mill Road in Amity. He arrives at the Foote house with a date, Christine Watkins, a woman he admits he does not know very well. On the night of June 15, after a party, Cassidy and Watkins go down to the beach. Cassidy is drunk; he stumbles on the bottom step of the porch. The two have sex on the cold sand, and afterward Cassidy falls asleep while Watkins goes for a swim alone. He wakes in the early morning cold, his mouth sticky and dry, tasting of Bourbon and corn, to find her clothes still on the beach and her missing from the house.

Discovery and Report

Cassidy searches the house, checking the living room, the bedrooms of the other guests, and the host and hostess's room, but finds no sign of Watkins. He wakes Jack Foote and confesses his fear: "What I'm beginning to think is that maybe she had an accident. Maybe she drowned." Foote calls the Amity police, and Patrolman Len Hendricks takes the report. When Chief Martin Brody arrives at the Foote house the next morning, Cassidy answers the door, saying, "We've been waiting to hear from you." He leads Brody and Hendricks to the beach, showing them the undisturbed indentation where he slept and the spot where he found Watkins's clothes.

Identification of the Body

Brody and Hendricks walk the beach in opposite directions. Hendricks discovers a clump of weed containing a woman's head, still attached to shoulders, part of an arm, and about a third of her trunk—a mass of tattered, mottled blue-gray flesh. Brody calls Cassidy over and holds back the weed so he can see. Cassidy stares at the gray and gaping face and says, "Oh, my God!" When Brody asks, "Is it her?" Cassidy nods, still staring. Then he turns away, asks what happened, and when Brody says, "Offhand, I'd say she was attacked by a shark," Cassidy's knees buckle and he sinks to the sand, saying, "I think I'm going to be sick." He retches. Cassidy's identification is the first eyewitness confirmation that a shark is responsible, and it sets the stage for the town's struggle over whether to close the beaches.