This case is one of the very first crimes committed when I
was about 9 years old of which I was fully aware. The case involves 2 of 3
young female roommates living on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in the summer
of 1963. One of the young women was lucky that day; she left before the killer
arrived. The other two; whom the press dubbed “career girls”; were brutally
murdered by a 24 year old drug addict, and the press promptly dubbed the case
as “The Career Girl Murders.” It was still the age of Doris Day and Rock Hudson
movies, and the case of three young women living in the big city, working, and
then being murdered was sure to grab headlines.
Through a series of mistakes and deliberate coercion, the
police question, and then charge a young black man named George Whitmore; who
has an IQ “south” of 70; with the crime. Then, over a period of 18 hours they
manage to gain a confession from him by “feeding” him bits of information about
the crime which only the killer can possibly know. After that, having worn him
down like the nub of a pencil, they draft a “confession”, which he readily
signs, if only to end the horror of the ordeal.
Meantime, in Brooklyn, two women have been sexually
assaulted; and the police in Brooklyn mistakenly decide that Whitmore is their
man. When the Manhattan police learn of him and a photograph is found in his
possession which resembles one of the murdered women, he is also charged with
that crime by detectives in Manhattan who are desperate to close the ‘career
Girl Murders.” The photograph, of a white girl sitting on the back of a
convertible, was inscribed on the back “To George from Louise.” He claimed to
have found it in a garbage dump in Wildwood, New Jersey and then inscribed it
to himself as a way of showing off to his friends. This photo becomes one of
the most crucial pieces of evidence used to try him for the double homicide,
officially known as the “Wylie- Hoffert Murders.”
Only the entry into the case by a diligent Assistant
District Attorney in Manhattan; Mel Glass; who does not think the facts add up
to the conclusions being made by the detectives involved, begins to turn the
case around. When a young man named Delaney is charged with killing a man in
self-defense over a drug deal claims to know who the real killer is; Mr. Glass
seems to have been the only one willing to listen. Acting with the full
authority of legendary District Attorney Frank Hogan, he begins a one man quest
to bring the real killer to justice in the Manhattan double homicide, as well
as the crimes committed in Brooklyn.
In the final trial setting of the real killer, the
Prosecutor finds himself in an awkward position. To prove Whitmore’s innocence the
Prosecution is called upon to destroy the integrity of the very Police Force
upon which it normally relies for evidence.. And then to convict the real
killer, they must do it again.
Relying on the “bugs” planted in the apartment of the young
heroin addicted Delaney couple from whom the real killer “scores”, the
prosecution is able to prove both the innocence of Whitmore, and the guilt of Richard Robles, who was a small time burglar
who liked to enter apartments when someone was at home. In the Wylie-Hoffert
crime, things had escalated way past what even Robles thought he was capable
of.
Written in a gripping style by Mr. Tannenbaum; who is also
the author of over 20 mysteries, as well as being a top notch prosecutor
himself; this book reads like a crime novel, the only difference being that the
horror of the crime is real. And to someone, like myself, who recalls the case,
the book rings as true as a bell.
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