Post by Naj on Aug 27, 2005 18:49:51 GMT -5
Cold Case show mention as a reference.....
Disorganized look at Cold Case Squad leads to dead end
By Verna Noel Jones, Special to the News
August 26, 2005
On the highly popular CBS television show Cold Case, long-forgotten murder cases are revisited. In short order, the evidence is resifted and the cases are neatly solved to the satisfaction of both the cold case squad and relieved relatives.
The reality is much different. In New York City alone, the killers of some 8,894 people murdered since 1985 remain free. While TV show murders tend to feature lots of innocent bystanders wrongly killed, journalist Stacy Horn explains that many of the people in unsolved murder cases had been involved in unsavory occupations, including drug dealing, prostitution and organized crime.
Yet there is the occasional surprise victim, such as 14-year-old Christine Diefenbach, one of the cold cases highlighted in Horn's new book, The Restless Sleep. Diefenbach apparently was stomped to death in 1988 simply for fighting back during an attempted rape. Another unfortunate victim was off-duty cop Ronald Stapleton, who was killed with a meat hook and his own gun in 1979.
The elite Cold Case Squad emerged in that city in the mid-'90s in an attempt to find closure for some of those murders. Horn followed along as three homicide detectives attempted to solve four cold cases and then chronicled the details. She makes clear that the work of these detectives is highly difficult, given that the barrels of evidence kept in storage over the years until recently has been in great disarray.
The detectives do what they can to resurrect all the prints, clothing and anything else connected to the crimes. They then track down potential witnesses once again, hoping they'll spill new details about the cases that occurred decades before.
Horn takes a hip yet sometimes insulting approach in characterizing the very people she means to praise for their dedicated, difficult work. For example, in discussing Jack Maple, who is credited with starting the Cold Case Squad, she notes that he is always described by co-workers as an "amazing dresser." But Horn begs to differ, saying, "But I've seen the pictures. The man dressed like a pimp, for God's sake. Outlandish, inelegant, it's just plain embarrassing how badly he dressed . . ." Pardon me. Have the fashionistas not yet found their way to the men in blue?
What the book makes clear is the dogged determination of these hard-boiled detectives. They exhibit uncanny patience over long, frustrating months of work to dig up any new clues to the cold cases.
Much of their work is downright boring, as they fill out forms, make countless phone calls to follow up on usually dead leads, and wait months (not minutes, as on TV) for DNA results. Unfortunately for them, their personal stories are bogged down here by the disorganized structure of the book, which jumps maddeningly from person to person and case to case. And in trying to be thorough, the writer sinks the book by cluttering it with too much impertinent information.
For instance, Horn notes at one point that a "49" was sent. Then she proceeds to explain in great detail that the term 49 comes from the now-defunct form called a UF49, which refers to interdepartmental memos on a police letterhead.
Who cares? She also goes on unchecked about unnecessary data, such as the laborious arrest process in the New York boroughs.
The jumble of facts makes a mess of what should have been a great book about behind-the-scenes detectives who truly care about these unsolved murders. If you look closely, the people are in there. But it takes a detective to sift through the detritus and piece their stories together.
rockymountainnews.com
Disorganized look at Cold Case Squad leads to dead end
By Verna Noel Jones, Special to the News
August 26, 2005
On the highly popular CBS television show Cold Case, long-forgotten murder cases are revisited. In short order, the evidence is resifted and the cases are neatly solved to the satisfaction of both the cold case squad and relieved relatives.
The reality is much different. In New York City alone, the killers of some 8,894 people murdered since 1985 remain free. While TV show murders tend to feature lots of innocent bystanders wrongly killed, journalist Stacy Horn explains that many of the people in unsolved murder cases had been involved in unsavory occupations, including drug dealing, prostitution and organized crime.
Yet there is the occasional surprise victim, such as 14-year-old Christine Diefenbach, one of the cold cases highlighted in Horn's new book, The Restless Sleep. Diefenbach apparently was stomped to death in 1988 simply for fighting back during an attempted rape. Another unfortunate victim was off-duty cop Ronald Stapleton, who was killed with a meat hook and his own gun in 1979.
The elite Cold Case Squad emerged in that city in the mid-'90s in an attempt to find closure for some of those murders. Horn followed along as three homicide detectives attempted to solve four cold cases and then chronicled the details. She makes clear that the work of these detectives is highly difficult, given that the barrels of evidence kept in storage over the years until recently has been in great disarray.
The detectives do what they can to resurrect all the prints, clothing and anything else connected to the crimes. They then track down potential witnesses once again, hoping they'll spill new details about the cases that occurred decades before.
Horn takes a hip yet sometimes insulting approach in characterizing the very people she means to praise for their dedicated, difficult work. For example, in discussing Jack Maple, who is credited with starting the Cold Case Squad, she notes that he is always described by co-workers as an "amazing dresser." But Horn begs to differ, saying, "But I've seen the pictures. The man dressed like a pimp, for God's sake. Outlandish, inelegant, it's just plain embarrassing how badly he dressed . . ." Pardon me. Have the fashionistas not yet found their way to the men in blue?
What the book makes clear is the dogged determination of these hard-boiled detectives. They exhibit uncanny patience over long, frustrating months of work to dig up any new clues to the cold cases.
Much of their work is downright boring, as they fill out forms, make countless phone calls to follow up on usually dead leads, and wait months (not minutes, as on TV) for DNA results. Unfortunately for them, their personal stories are bogged down here by the disorganized structure of the book, which jumps maddeningly from person to person and case to case. And in trying to be thorough, the writer sinks the book by cluttering it with too much impertinent information.
For instance, Horn notes at one point that a "49" was sent. Then she proceeds to explain in great detail that the term 49 comes from the now-defunct form called a UF49, which refers to interdepartmental memos on a police letterhead.
Who cares? She also goes on unchecked about unnecessary data, such as the laborious arrest process in the New York boroughs.
The jumble of facts makes a mess of what should have been a great book about behind-the-scenes detectives who truly care about these unsolved murders. If you look closely, the people are in there. But it takes a detective to sift through the detritus and piece their stories together.
rockymountainnews.com
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