Michael Capuzzo - The Murder Room - The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World’s Most Perplexing Cold Cases

I would like to especially acknowledge the contributions of the late Dr. Halbert Fillinger of Philadelphia, aka “Homicide Hal.” One of America ’s great forensic pathologists, he was the old lion of the Vidocq Society and his presence pervades this book.

I’d like to thank all the members of the Vidocq Society (VSMs) for their help and forbearance as I watched them investigate murders and chatted with them over lunch. Being in the Murder Room for an afternoon of cuisine and crime is like attending a symphony orchestra, and this book is the story of all VSMs. I’d especially like to thank the society’s chaplain, Bill Kelly, a retired Philadelphia Police Department latent fingerprinter, and Joe McGillen, the retired Philadelphia medical examiner’s investigator, for their recollections of the Boy in the Box; Frank Friel, the Philadelphia homicide captain and police chief of Bensalem, Pennsylvania, for his memories of numerous cases and police investigation in general; Philadelphia captain of detectives Laurence Nodiff for his recollections of the Marie Noe case; California cold-case investigator Richard Walton, for taking me through his reconstruction of a 1920s murder; former U.S. Customs agent Frank Dufner for his remarkable memory of numerous federal cases; document examiner Robert J. Phillips for his frank discussions about JFK’s handwriting; Arizona forensic pathologist Dr. Richard Froede for describing his autopsy of CIA Beirut station chief William Buckley, kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by Hamas and Islamic jihadists.

Thanks to former FBI agent and VSM Robert Ressler, and Washington State investigator and forensic professor Robert Keppel. These two prominent members of the first American generation of criminal profilers, colleagues of Richard Walter, gave generously of their time and insights into crime assessment and profiling. VSM Steve Stoud, a profiler with the Pennsylvania State Police, put into clear perspective Walter’s theories in the history of profiling-and Walter himself, to the furthest extent humanly possible.

The story of the Vidocq Society was lodged mostly in memory and oral history, but the efforts of the society’s former publicity director Richard Lavinthal, English professor Weinberg, science officer Dr. Jolie Bookspan, and her husband, Paul Plevakas, have led to publication of the excellent quarterly Vidocq Society Journal, now converted to digital format by editor Plevakas. It was an important source for the book.

In many hours of interviews, Jim Dunn shared with me his passion and years of effort to find the killers of his son, Scott, culminating in Jim’s relationship with Richard Walter that secured justice. Homicide detective Keith Hall, now with the Onondaga County (New York) sheriff ’s office, was an important source of his work on the Case of the Missing Face with the Manlius (New York) Police Department, as was officer Thaddeus Maine. Homicide detective Tal English of the Lubbock (Texas) Police Department gave invaluable help on the Dunn case. Amateur investigators Robert Mancini of Ohio and Mike Rodelli of New Jersey, both mentored by Richard Walter, shared their research on two of America’s most notorious unsolved serial killer cases-the Butcher of Cleveland and the Zodiac Killer, respectively.

My thanks go to Nancy Ruhe, executive director of the National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children (POMC), who helped me understand the formidable issues facing families victimized by murder. With Richard Walter, a former POMC board member, I attended a POMC national convention in Cincinnati, and saw firsthand a scale of suffering not widely known or imagined. Retired Tampa doctor Bob Meyer and his wife, Sherry, shared with me their anguish and their bravery in facing and solving the murders of their daughter Sherry-Ann Brannon, thirty-five years old, and grandchildren Shelby, seven, and Cassidy, four. California forensic pathologist and POMC leader Harry Bonnell also helped me understand this tragic American underground.

I had the good fortune to meet Dr. Richard Shepherd, leading forensic pathologist in London and Liverpool and author of Simpson’s Forensic Medicine, at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) convention in Chicago. At the AAFS convention, I also met and interviewed John DeHaan of Vallejo, California, the premier fire, arson, and explosions investigator in criminal cases around the world and author of Kirk’s Fire Investigation, and Vernon J. Geberth, retired lieutenant-commander of the New York City Police Department and author of the detective’s bible, Practical Homicide Investigation: Tactics, Procedures, and Forensic Techniques. All three men contributed significantly to my understanding of cold-case investigations.

Thanks to Betty Smith of Montrose, Pennsylvania, for walking me through the history of the Susquehanna County seat, particularly the presence of the Biddle family of Philadelphia. Tom DeTitto, Cushman and Wakefield ’s project manager and archivist for the Philadelphia Navy Yard redevelopment, helped me understand the history of the Navy Yard and the Officers’ Club where the Vidocq Society first met, including pictures and elevations of Building 46. Douglas C. McVarish was also helpful.

Special thanks to Larry Biddison, emeritus professor of English at Mansfield University in Mansfield, Pennsylvania, for helping me sort out the unexpected presence of the Arthurian archetypes in the Vidocq Society. The professor walked me through Jessie L. Weston’s classic From Ritual to Romance, Tennyson’s Idylls of the King, and T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, writings that echoed themes I first discovered in The Grail Legend by Emma Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz. Thanks also to English professors Tom Murphy of Mansfield University and Nelljean Rice of Coastal Carolina University for providing inspiration. Sue Cummings of the Native Bagel in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, sustained me as well as offered a clean, well-lighted reading, writing, and interviewing place.

As I came down to the home stretch, I was lucky that Tom French, Pulitzer Prize-winning St. Petersburg Times reporter-turned-Indiana University professor, turned his remarkable narrative eye on this story one night over beers, and came up with several great suggestions. Tom was my teacher when I went back to school to the inspiring MFA program at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, where Patsy Sims also deserves thanks for her support and encouragement. Maryland always seems to be a place to recharge, thanks to my friend Jeff Leen of The Washington Post, and the incredible faculty and students at the University of Maryland ’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism-Eugene Roberts, Jon Franklin, Ira Chinoy, and especially Dean Tom Kunkel, author, journalist, and now president of St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin. Thanks, too, to my attorney and magazine partner George Bochetto, Dave Tepps, Tucker Worthington, Denise and Pete Boal, Steve Sonsky, Peggy Landers, Christopher Boyd, Bruce Boynick, Matt Walsh, Richard Strauch, Barb Madden, Gus Ciardullo, Theresa and Stanley Banik, Mark and Jessica Banik, Ron and Jackie Patt, John and Ruthann Gasienski, Stephen and Lisa Banik, Christopher Banik, Greg Banik, Kim Achilly, Michael and Mary Ann Banik, and Mohammad and Kathleen Sanati.

My publisher, the brilliant William Shinker, founder and president of Gotham Books, was passionate and unwavering in his support and vision for the book. The book is dedicated to my wife, Teresa Banik Capuzzo, one of the most tireless and gifted editors and wordsmiths I know. Now Bill Shinker knows it, too, having formally worked with Teresa on this book. It would not have happened without them-or without the great editing support of Gotham executive editor Lauren Marino and her all-star lineup including Erin Moore, Brett Valley, Brendan Cahill, who first saw the story’s potential, Cara Bedick, Sophia Muthuraj, and Beth Parker, who shared it with the world. Thanks also to Eric Rayman, for his keen eye as both publishing attorney and former magazine publisher. Thanks to New York literary agents Robert Gottlieb and David McCormick for their irreplaceable roles in the selling and nurturing of this book and this author. A special thank-you to Douglas C. Clifton, the great newspaper editor of The Miami Herald and Cleveland Plain Dealer, who introduced a then-twenty-year-old intern from Northwestern University to the power of narrative.