We’re up to 515 murders in New York as of December 15th. Still well below last years total of 572. It’s weird (and sad) to think that since the last time I was sitting here, typing away in this very same place, seven more people who were just going along, living their lives, were murdered. […]

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Interestingly, when the murder rate was at its highest in New York, so were the clearance rates. In the 1980’s, the percentage of murders that went unsolved in New York was 31.2%. Now it’s up to 40%. (It’s been hovering around 35% for decades, sometime a little better, sometimes a little worse.)

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Based on the number of homicides in America, I estimate that 6,000 murder cases are going cold every year. (My computer is in the shop, by the way. That’s why I am posting less, and will be posting less for the next week. Hopefully it will only be a week.)

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When my book went to press there were 8,894 unsolved murders in New York since 1985. Los Angeles, the next largest city in America, had 8,000 going back to 1960. Fairfax, VA, had 75 going back to 1964. If you want to try to figure out how many cold cases are in your city, go […]

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