What Happened to Tania Murrell?

Missing for 32 years…
by Robert A. Waters

Does Tania Murrell lie in a long-forgotten grave, her bones slowly decaying like the investigation into her kidnapping?

Or is she alive, having been raised by a family of strangers?

On January 20, 1983, at around 11:10 A.M., while walking home from Grovenor Elementary School in Edmonton, Canada, Tania vanished.  Bundled inside a heavy coat, the cute blonde-haired six-year-old fought below-zero weather as she trudged along.  Her school was less than two blocks from the home she shared with her mother, father, and younger brother.  That day, her aunt, Vera Stortz, waited for Tania to arrive.

When she didn’t appear, Vera phoned Vivian Murrell, Tania’s mother.  Soon Vivian and her husband Jack left their places of work and began scouring the area for Tania.  The online newspaper Canada.com recently summed up the search: “Police and volunteers canvassed the area around the home, at 10426-145th St., by foot and car.  More than 1,900 square blocks, including ravines and alleys, were searched within the next few days.  At the time, it was the largest door-to-door search ever mounted in Edmonton.”  Despite extensive efforts by police and the public, Tania was never found.

Today, more than three decades later, after their lives were shattered, Vera and Jack are dead.  Her younger brother, John, is dead.  Many of the original detectives are dead or retired.  And one of the most baffling cases in modern Canadian history is still a blank page lying on the desk of cold case investigators.

So what happened to Tania Murrell?

The most prevalent theory is that she was abducted, raped, and murdered by a pedophile.  A second theory is that someone who wanted a child kidnapped Tania, brainwashed her into thinking her parents didn’t want her, and raised her as their own.

When a child goes missing, parents are always scrutinized.  In Tania’s case, both parents were at work, so they had alibis that removed them from suspicion.  However, their hard-partying ways and suspected drug use raised the eyebrows of investigators.  Because of this, detectives closely examined their associates.  At least one friend was developed as a suspect, but was never charged.

Police also checked out “perverts” who lived in the area.  Tania’s parents were amazed at the number of molesters, rapists, and weirdos who lived close by.  Yet no one emerged as a person of interest.

One witness claimed to have seen a woman dragging an unwilling child along the sidewalk at about the time Tania vanished.  Because of this, the theory developed that a woman who couldn’t have a child may have snatched the girl.  Tania’s sister, Elysia, born after Tania disappeared, thinks she is still alive.  “I believe she is around and alive,” Elysia said. “I figure they changed her name and she was young enough that she would forget and believe whatever they told her.”

A school-mate recently informed police that she thought Tania was headed to a nearby convenience store instead of home.  The store would have taken Tania in the opposite direction from her house.  This would have changed the dynamics of the investigation had it been known earlier.

After more than three decades, the question remains: where is Tania Murrell?

Quotes from the Boston Bombing Trial
Compiled by Robert A. Waters

The first phase of the horror trial has wrapped up and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted of 30 counts, including 17 that could result in execution.  As the death penalty phase proceeds, here are some memorable quotes from the trial.

“We don’t deny that Jahar [Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s Americanized name] fully participated in the events, but if not for Tamerlan, it would not have happened.” Judy Clarke, lead defense attorney.

“That day, they felt they were soldiers.  They were the mujahedeen, and they were bringing their battle to Boston.” Aloke Chakravarty, United States prosecutor.

“Tamerlan built the bombs, Tamerlan murdered officer Collier, Tamerlan led and Dzhokhar followed.” Judy Clarke.

“The defendant brought terrorism into the backyards and main streets.  The defendant thought that his values were more important than the people around him.” Aloke Chakravarty.

“[Dzhokhar Tsarnaev] chose a day when there would be civilians on the sidewalks, and he targeted those civilians: men, women and children.” Aloke Chakravarty.

“I guess we were just unlucky that day.” Bill Richard, father of eight-year-old Martin Richard.

“There should be no doubt in your mind that the defendant and his brother are equally guilty.” William Weinreb.

“Tamerlan Tsarnaev didn't turn his brother into a murderer.  To shred the bodies of women and children with a homemade type of bomb, you have to be different from other people.  If you are capable of such hate, such callousness that you can murder and maim twenty people and then drive to Whole Foods and buy some milk, can you really blame it on your brother?” William Weinreb.

“The judgment is entirely yours.” U.S. District Judge George O’Toole’s instructions to the jurors.

Atrocities on Chichi Jima

Grady Alvah York

James Wesley "Jimmy" Dye

“We really were not cannibals…”
by Robert A. Waters

On October 4, 1946, an Associated Press article reported that “three Japanese militarists were condemned Friday to die on the gallows for cannibalism—a crime so heinous it is covered by no rule of war.  The 3—a general, a navy captain and a major—listened unblinking as a U. S. military commission ordered them to die for eating the roasted livers of 2 U. S. airmen downed on Chichi Jima late in the war.”

The three were Japanese Major Sueo Matoba, Captain Shizuo Yoshii, and Brigadier General Yoshio Tachibana.

Their victims were U. S. Navy Aviation Gunner’s Mate 3^rd Class Grady Alvah York of Jacksonville, Florida, and Radioman 3^rd Class James Wesley “Jimmy” Dye of Mount Ephraim, New Jersey.

Early on the cold, gusty morning of February 18, 1945, a crew consisting of York, Dye, and Ensign Bob King, the pilot, flew their Avenger from the aircraft carrier USS Bennington for a dive bombing mission on Chichi Jima, a tiny once-uninhabited speck in the Bonin Islands.  By now, the Japanese were reeling from Allied advances in the Pacific, including recent raids on Tokyo.  Their once-proud military machine had been beaten down, ship by ship, island by island.  Yet they refused to surrender, many fighting to the death, others committing suicide when all hope was lost.

On Chichi Jima, the Japanese had established airfields, radio stations, and strong anti-aircraft placements.  One American pilot spoke of the difficulty of getting out alive after flying a bombing mission there: “Chichi Jima was a mean place.  They had very good gunners there.  When you hit Chichi, you were hitting a valley between two mountains.”

As Ensign King’s Avenger neared its target, anti-aircraft fire tore through the left wing, ripping off the tip.  Because of the damage, King temporarily lost control.  Thinking they were going to crash, he ordered his two crew members to bail out.  York and Dye successfully deployed their parachutes and landed in shallow water near Chichi Jima where they were soon apprehended by Japanese troops.  Meanwhile, King struggled mightily with the plane and was eventually able to control it enough to fly it back to the USS Bennington and land.

The fates of York and Dye now lay with their captors.

After interrogating the Americans, Japanese Brigadier General Yoshio Tachibana ordered them to be taken to the island rifle range.  There the two hapless soldiers were tied to trees and used for bayonet practice.  When it was done, Captain Masao Yamashita (who had supervised the bayonet practice) beheaded York.  Dye was also beheaded, on orders from Japanese Navy Captain Shizuo Yoshii.

But the cruelty did not stop with the deaths of the soldiers.  The Japanese officers, impressed by the stoic demeanor of the enemy soldiers as they were being tortured and killed, ordered their bodies cut up and their livers cooked.  Then, to inculcate the “warrior spirit” of their victims into their own bodies, thirteen officers consumed the livers and some of their flesh at saki parties.

After the war, the remains of York and Dye were exhumed and re-buried Hawaii.  The story of their deaths and cannibalization horrified American war crimes investigators.  The officers involved were tried, even though cannibalization of the enemy was not technically a war crime.  The officers were found guilty and scheduled to be hanged.  In all, the American military executed thirteen Japanese officers for cannibalism.  (At least a dozen U. S. airmen were eaten or partially consumed by the Japanese.)

At his trial, Major Sueo Matoba attempted to explain the reasons U. S. soldiers were cannibalized. 

“These incidents occurred when Japan was meeting defeat after defeat,” he said.  “The Iwo Jima situation was desperate and air raids (on Chichi) were increasing in velocity.  The personnel became excited, agitated and seething with uncontrollable rage.  We were hungry.  We tried every eatable animal and plant, like rats, mice, dogs and lizards.  I hardly know what happened after that.  We really were not cannibals.”

When Japanese Lt. Gen. Yoshio Tachibana dropped from the gallows on a fine fall morning in 1946, his death was nothing compared to that endured by his victims, gunner Grady York and Radioman Jimmy Dye.  In fact, Tachibana had a Buddhist priest administer his last rites before dying.  York and Dye had only howling Japanese warriors to administer theirs.

NOTE: Much of the information for this story came from Flyboys: A True Story of Courage by James Bradley.

Two Popular Statements that Are Just Outright Lies

Cliff and Christine Walker

Proven falsehoods…

by Robert A. Waters

(1) “There are no perfect crimes”

If there are no perfect crimes, why do one-third of all American murders go unsolved, even in this era of DNA, surveillance videos, computers, criminal databases, and other technological marvels?  Why are at least 200,000 unknown killers wandering around the country?  Yet, at least once a week on true crime TV, some detective or crime writer will repeat the provably false cliché that “there are no perfect crimes.”  If a killer is never caught, he or she committed a perfect crime.

Here is just one example.  (NOTE: I’m using a case from the 1950s because there is always a chance that a more modern case could be solved.)  On December 19, 1959, the Walker family was murdered inside their rural home near Osprey, Florida.  Cliff, 25, Christine, 24, Jimmie 3, and Debra, 1, were savagely executed.  All were shot except Debra, who was drowned in the bath tub.  Christine was also raped.  No one was ever charged with the killings.  In 2013, officials exhumed the bodies of “In Cold Blood” killers Richard Hickock and Perry Smith to obtain DNA.  After attempting to match it to a sample from Christine Walker, investigators found it didn’t match.

(2) “Polygraphs will tell whether you’re lying or not”

Polygraphs are notoriously unreliable, which is why they’re not allowed in American courts.  The frightening thing is that some cops think the contraptions are accurate.  Examples of people beating the polygraph could fill an encyclopedia.  Charles Cullen, the “Angel of Death,” passed a so-called lie detector test after his first murder—39 slayings later, he was arrested and confessed.  After the fourth Green River killing, Gary Ridgway passed a polygraph—48 murders later, he was captured and confessed.  CIA spy Aldrich Ames passed several polygraphs.  Because of his ability to beat the exams, at least eleven CIA operatives were caught and executed by the Soviet Union.

There have also been numerous innocent people who failed the polygraph.  One example is Bill Wegerle, who flunked two polygraphs in connection with the murder of his wife, Vicki.  It was later proven that Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer, had committed the murder.

Polygraphs are a scam of the worst sort because they can mean the difference between life and death, or freedom and prison.

Alleged Craigslist Robber Shot

Victim stops violent armed career criminal
by Robert A. Waters

In my hometown of Ocala, Florida, Jeffrey Tyrone Smith lived for cocaine.  Like many addicts, he robbed and stole to support his habit.  He had a long list of arrests, including convictions for cocaine possession, credit card fraud, burglary, domestic battery, grand theft, larceny, and violation of probation.  On April 6, 2015, he was free on bond while facing a charge of false imprisonment.

That afternoon, Smith met with two Gainesville men, allegedly to sell them a truck.  The vehicle was non-existent, of course.  Smith planned to rob them, as he’d done six days earlier with another victim.

After so many arrests and convictions, Smith thought he’d finally figured out how to make crime pay without getting caught.

Craigslist.

He would respond to advertisements of people who wanted to purchase a vehicle, robbing them when they met.  His first Craigslist robbery had been a roaring success—he netted $1,800.

Then Smith made the mistake of attempting to duplicate his crime.

What he didn’t know was that one of his would-be Gainesville victims came armed.  According to the Ocala Post, “The victim with the gun stated that his friend then exited the vehicle and walked toward the backyard with Smith [to look at the truck he claimed to have for sale].

“The victim stated that all of a sudden he heard his friend yell, ‘Son of a b***h.’  He said that is when he saw his friend bending over in pain, like he had been punched in the stomach.

“At this point, the victim did not know that his friend had been stabbed.

“The victim told deputies that Smith then turned and ran toward him, at which time he drew his gun and fired a single shot, striking Smith.

“According to the victim, Smith fell to the ground, but continued to try and get up to come at him. The victim said he told Smith to stay down.”

Smith eventually fled the scene, but was quickly captured.

Both Smith and the stabbing victim were hospitalized.  After Smith is released, he will be held without bond and charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and two counts of robbery with a weapon.  If convicted, it will likely be many years before Smith is released from prison.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office will not charge the shooter with any crime.

Second Chances

Officials at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta were…RIGHT
by Robert A. Waters

Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.  That saying was never truer than in the case of then-fifteen-year-old Anthony Stokes.

According to the Atlanta Daily Post, “the troubled teen had a thick juvenile rap sheet after frequent run-ins with authorities.” 

He also suffered from dilated cardiomyopathy—because of this, the left ventricle of the heart failed to pump enough blood to permanently sustain life.  Without a heart transplant, Stokes would likely die within twelve months.

In 2013, after reviewing Stokes’ medical records, school records, and criminal history, officials at the Children’s Healthcare Hospital of Atlanta denied him the transplant.  The Huffington Post reported that “Stokes’ family says the teenager is being denied access to the transplant list [because of] his performance in school and previous run-ins with the law.”  Stokes’ mother, Melencia Hamilton, told reporters that a hospital spokesperson told her “they don’t have any evidence that he would take his medicine or that he would go to his follow-ups.”  In other words, the teenager would likely be “non-compliant.”

Then came the predictable outcry from those who didn’t care that there were 4,000 better candidates on the waiting list.  “They’ve given [Stokes] a death sentence,” said Christine Young Brown, president of the Newton Rockdale County Southern Christian Leadership Conference.  Fanning the flames of outrage, Stokes’ mother and so-called civil rights groups began a national campaign to gain sympathy for the troubled youth.

It worked.

Hospital administrators quickly did a back-flip.  Stokes was placed at the top of the list and got his new heart.

So it came as no surprise on April 1, 2015 (no—this was not an April Fool’s joke) when Dunwoody, Georgia cops announced that Stokes had been killed in a car crash.  Not just any car crash.  He was fleeing cops in a stolen car when he hit another vehicle, side-swiped a pedestrian, and rammed head-on into a highway sign.  Investigators stated that they believed Stokes was running because he allegedly kicked in the door of an elderly woman, fired a gunshot at her, and attempted to rob her home.

We’ll probably never know who got bumped from the top of the waiting list for a new heart.  But some more deserving soul may have died because Stokes received the gift of life.

Second chances are often precious.

Someone, however, never got that second chance. 

Who Murdered Mary Imelda Coyle?

“Officials argued while a murderer fled…”
by Robert A. Waters

Seventeen-year-old Mary Imelda Coyle desired nothing more than to be a nun.  Deeply religious, she attended several Catholic services each week.  Despite the attentions of male classmates, Mary followed her own path.

She lived with her mother and older sister on a shabby houseboat in New Rochelle, New York.  Her father, a drunkard of the worst sort, had deserted the family, although he made sporadic and unwanted visits.

On the evening of October 11, 1938, Mary walked over the nine-foot-plank that connected the houseboat to land, and started toward St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church.  “She left home at eight o’clock,” Mrs. Coyle later told police.  When Mary hadn’t returned by midnight, Mrs. Coyle began searching for her.  She found a neighbor who had a telephone, and began calling churches and friends of the girl.

Finally, when she was unable to determine the whereabouts of her daughter, Mrs. Coyle’s neighbor drove her to the New Rochelle Police Department.  A skeptical desk sergeant rolled his eyes when told that Mary had no boyfriends, didn’t go to parties, didn’t speak with strangers, and had no reason to run away. In fact, all of that was true.

At 8:30 on the morning of October 12, Mary’s body was found a mile from her home, just over the city line in Larchmont.  The site was near the path that led to Mary’s houseboat home.  Her blood-soaked coat was found underneath a tree a few hundred yards away in New Rochelle.  According to news reports, this ignited a firestorm between the two police agencies, each claiming that the other was responsible for investigating the case.  Finally, the Westchester County District Attorney called a conference of all police agencies in the county and attempted to nice-talk them into working together on the case. To help smooth the way, the county put up a $5,000 reward and loaned five of its best detectives to New Rochelle and Larchmont.

Still the friction existed.  When Mary’s beret and stepins were found in Larchmont, local police insisted that the girl must have been killed in New Rochelle because there was no blood underneath the items.  Therefore, according to the Larchmont police chief, New Rochelle should take the lead.

In-fighting between the two agencies continued throughout the investigation.

An autopsy confirmed that Mary had been “criminally assaulted.”  She had died when the killer drove a “metal wedge two inches into the girl’s skull.”  The Burlingame Times and Daily News Leader reported that “despite the brutality of the slaying the perpetrator arranged the body with extreme care.  He placed it in a spot where passersby would be sure to see it the next morning.  The coat, dress, and underclothes were carefully smoothed out.”

Investigators questioned 200 “sexual delinquents.”  They checked “thousands” of automobiles for bloodstains.  Detectives visited all laundry establishments in the area searching for someone who may have cleaned bloody clothes.  Nine men wanted for various crimes in other states were rounded up.  None, however, emerged as suspects in Mary’s murder.

Gossip swirled around the case.  An inebriated ship’s captain informed New Rochelle bar patrons that Mary had been the victim of a love triangle.  The captain stated that a wealthy lover became angry when Mary chose a pauper for her sweetheart and killed her in a blind rage.  Investigators jumped on the lead, but it quickly fizzled.  In truth, Mary had no lovers.

Within a few months, the case went cold.

Ten years after the unsolved murder, the Syracuse Post Standard summed up the case.  “Many who have studied the Mary Coyle case,” the editors wrote, “believe that Mary was stopped only a short distance from her home by a man she knew who induced her to get into his car. Eventually, so the theorists say, they drove east along Palmer Ave., for more than a mile, lined with wild brush and scrub without a single habitation.  Somewhere along Palmer Ave., so the prevailing theory runs, Mary was criminally attacked and then killed.  The slayer, acting coolly, deliberately wrapped Mary’s battered head in her own coat and loaded her body into his car.

“After taking the girl’s body to the Larchmont lot, the murderer drove south to the Boston Post Road, where he threw away her torn stepins, beret and rosary (never found.) Then, [thoroughly] familiar with the lay of the land, he swung on the heavily traveled present Post Road, turning into the quieter Old Boston Post Road and dropped the coat at Lispenard Ave.  It was but coincidence—or so it is conjectured—that he left the coat only a few hundred yards from Mary’s home.”

Mary’s wayward father died in 1946, eight years after her murder.  Her mother and sister soon moved away, disappearing into oblivion.

In 1948, the Post Standard reported that “the houseboat still stands, empty and silent, a crumbling monument to a girl who had no real chance in life and to officials who argued while a murderer fled.”

Robert A. Waters’ Review of American Murder Houses

American Murder Houses: A Coast-to-Coast Tour of the Most Notorious Houses of Homicide
by Steve Lehto
Berkley Books, New York, NY

Conrad Aiken was one of those famous poets who wrote such obtuse verse that he won a Pulitzer Prize.  He was friends with all the major writers of the early Twentieth century, including T. S. Eliot.  What I never knew was that Aiken’s father murdered his mother, then committed suicide in their Savannah, Georgia home.  American Murder Houses, by Steve Lehto, recounts the tragic story that left Aiken an orphan.

Lehto describes 29 murder cases, some famous and some not so much.  The cases sweep across America, from Florida to California.  “Included here,” the author writes, “are the addresses and many other details of the houses.”

Still standing is the Villisca, Iowa home where an axe murderer slaughtered eight people, then vanished in the night.  Despite one of the most intense manhunts ever conducted in the mid-west, the killer was never found.  The home, believe it or not, is open to visitors, for a nominal fee.  In fact, you can even spend the night there, but remember—it has no electricity or running water.

Many of the homes are private, but still visible from the road.  There’s the small Pasadena, Texas cottage once lived in by the “Candyman,” serial murderer Dean Corll—absolutely horrific things went on in that house.  There’s the “Wonderland” murder home, where porn star John Holmes helped several cohorts murder four people in a dispute over drugs.  And there’s the Miami Beach home where Gianni Versace was gunned down by a psychopath named Andrew Cunanan.

What happens to a home after a gruesome murder or series of murders?  Many, like Joel Rifkin’s mother’s home in East Meadow, New York, end up going back on the market.  His mother traveled often, and while she was away, Rifkin would bring prostitutes to the residence where he murdered them.  He was arrested after two cops stopped him for having no license plate on his truck.  They smelled a foul odor and found a dead woman in the back.  Rifkin quickly confessed to 17 killings.  After he went to prison, Rifkin’s mother lived in the home until she died.  Then the home was listed for sale, where it was described as a “handyman’s special.”  The couple who bought it stated that they didn’t care about its history.  Lehto writes that one of the new owners said: “A house is a house.  People die all the time in houses.  We’re bringing all positive vibes.”

I highly recommend this intriguing book to the readers of my blog.
 

Slavery Revisited

New York: The capital of American slavery

by Robert A. Waters

Douglas Harper is a Pennsylvania historian and author.  His website about slavery in the northern states draws heavily on original source material.  While researching northern slavery, Harper writes: “I kept running into people, most of them born and raised in ‘free’ states, who had no idea there ever were slaves in the North.”  Much of the information in this story comes from Harper’s work, and from Mac Griswold’s book, The Manor: Three Centuries At a Slave Plantation on Long Island.

Yes, Virginia, northern slavery not only existed but flourished.  In fact, slavery still survived in some northern states long after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation called for freeing slaves in the South.

Dutch and English slavers brought Africans to America soon after its discovery.  Not to be denied, New England ship captains quickly began sailing to Africa where they purchased slaves from tribal leaders.  These Africans were shipped to northern ports and sold to the highest bidder.  By 1790, the population of America was four million, 19% of which were slaves, most in northern states.

In “The Hidden History of Slavery in New York,” Adele Oltman, writes: “On display [at the New-York Historical Society] is The Trading Book of the Sloop of Rhode Island, which left the Port of New York in 1748 for West Africa under the direction of Capt. Peter James…Early in the voyage, around Sierra Leone, James distributed two New World commodities that had come through the Port of New York: tobacco and rum…In return he loaded up on cloth, guns and other manufactured goods from Europe. Later, as he sailed along the Gold Coast (today’s Ghana), he traded those goods for slaves, a few at a time.

“James’s book registered the deaths of thirty-eight slaves on the journey home. But even with the loss, the trafficking in slaves was profitable. A table provides a graphic illustration of just how lucrative the business was. In 1675 the average selling price of a slave in dollars in Africa was $354.89, and in New York it was $3,792.66 (that's a 969 percent markup, for those econometricians keeping score). A hundred years later the trade was still profitable, although with a more modest return of 159 percent.”

Uncle Tom’s Cabin portrayed Southern slave-holders as brutal.  But brutality is where you find it, as these true stories show.

After a New York City slave uprising in 1712, Harper writes that “a special court convened by the governor made short work of the rebels. Of the twenty-seven slaves brought to trial for complicity in the plot, twenty-one were convicted and put to death. Since the law authorized any degree of punishment in such cases, some unlucky slaves were executed with all the refinements of calculated barbarity. New Yorkers were treated to a round of grisly spectacles as Negroes were burned alive, racked and broken on the wheel, and gibbeted alive in chains.”

The following example could come straight from the files of ISIS: “As in other Northern colonies, blacks in New York faced special, severe penalties for certain crimes. An example from Poughkeepsie illustrates one of them: A young slave, about twenty years of age...[burned] his master’s barn and outbuildings, and thus destroyed much grain, together with live-stock. He was detected by the smoke issuing from his pocket, (into which he had thrust some combustibles,) imprisoned, tried, and on his confession, condemned to be burned to death. He was fastened to a stake, and when the pile was fired, the dense crowd excluded the air, so that the flames kindled but slowly, and the dreadful screams of the victim were heard at a distance of three miles. His master, who had been fond of him, wept aloud, and called to the Sheriff to put him out of his misery. This officer then drew his sword; but the master, still crying like a child, exclaimed, ‘Oh, don’t run him through!’ The Sheriff then caused the crowd to separate, so as to cause a current of air; and when the flame burst out fiercely he called to the sufferer to ‘swallow the blaze;’ which he did, and immediately he sunk dead.”

In the early-to-mid 1800s, most northern states abolished slavery, but not all.

After Lincoln’s armies invaded the Confederacy, the U. S. president issued the Emancipation Proclamation.  Intended for the South, the Proclamation was never intended for the northern states.  For example, even though the War Between the States ended in April, 1865, slave-owners in Delaware kept slaves until the 13^th Amendment was ratified in December, 1865.  That was three full years after the Proclamation.  

One thorny question remains: if ending slavery was truly the major motive for the war, why did Northerners continue to own slaves while demanding that the South relinquish theirs?

“Let Nothing Tear Us Apart”

The Internet’s original cybersleuth, Todd Matthews, is to be featured in a documentary film that will publicize missing persons and the unidentified dead, but the project needs $40,000 for completion.  This website explains how you can help.

Todd, who now works for the Department of Justice, has been featured on national television, in People Magazine, and in books about the unidentified dead.

He has been my friend for many years, since I visited him in his hometown of Livingston, Tennessee.  Todd is a champion of the underdog whose life has been dedicated to helping others.  He learned early on that publicity and an online army of volunteers can do as much or more than law enforcement to find identities of those sad remains that no longer have names.

The first person who emails me and tells me they’ve made a contribution to the documentary film fund will receive a free copy of my latest book, The Kidnapping and Murder of Little Skeegie Cash: J. Edgar Hoover and Florida’s Lindbergh Case.  The book will be signed by both me and my co-author, Zack C. Waters. (NOTE: WE HAVE A WINNER.  THANKS, KAREN.)

“Let Nothing Tear Us Apart” will bring much-needed publicity to the cause.