This remains one of my favorite holiday shots. It’s still sad to see the Trade Center in the background, and I still want to know who that daring Santa was!

Happy holidays, everyone. For those who have sad memories, I’m very sorry. And for those who are doing what they can about those sad memories, thank you.

While researching The Restless Sleep I became obsessed with murder statistics. I’d look through reports of unsolved murders to see what patterns I could find. For instance, which neighborhoods in New York have the highest number of unsolved murders? Morrisania (Bronx), East New York (Brooklyn), and Inwood (Manhattan). Because I had researched New York’s Potter’s Field on Hart Island for a previous book, I was curious to learn the number of unidentified victims, which was 373 at the time Restless Sleep went to press, including eight skeletons, two skulls, two sets of body parts, three torsos and 30 abandoned newborns.

A sad fact: 59 of the murders that went cold happened on Christmas Eve and Christmas, and 18 occurred on New Year’s Eve. I just tried to find a study of homicide rates on holidays, but only came up with this on a quick search. “Rates of U.S. homicides and suicides during 1972-1979 were higher on 7 major national holidays except one for homicides and were lower for suicides, except New Year’s Day as Lester noted for 1972-1979.”

While looking for that I came across a 1955 Time Magazine article about murder in the United States. In 1955 the south had the highest murder rate (it still does) and Georgia was the worst state (now it’s Louisiana and Maryland, Georgia moved down to #14).

As a result of a pretty interesting DNA hunt, a man has been charged with the murder of 14-year-old Eileen Adams [the link to an article I had no longer works]. Unfortunately, they don’t know where he is to arrest him. They believe he’s homeless in California. (I learned this researching my book. It’s one thing to figure out who did it. It’s quite another to then find them.)

This part of the story kills me:

“Mr. Bowman’s marriage ended in divorce. His wife apparently knew the teen was in the basement and came forward with a statement in 1981 that he was involved in the slaying. She told police that she had waited to come forward because she was afraid. Without her, Detective Beavers said, police would not have identified him as a suspect.”

She couldn’t have come forward while the child was in the basement?? Her husband would have been immediately arrested, there would have been no danger to her, and Eileen might be alive today.

This article details the DNA side of the case. Good work, Lucas County Cold Case Task Force. Having gotten to know the father of another murdered 14-year-old girl, I know that Eileen’s father, who is now in a nursing home and has been waiting 39 years, has badly needed to hear the words that you were finally able to tell him: we know who did it.

I just heard that one of the Cold Case detective’s criminal informants died. I know some people might take this the wrong way, but it’s weirdly sad. He was a limited man. It’s like the universe crushing a wounded animal after it spent three hours trying to cross a highway. If nothing else, Cilone helped to put the thug in this photograph in jail (picture courtesy of Gangland News).

This is from my book about Mike:

“Organized crime doesn’t amount to much anymore. In the most mundane ways, the business of organized crime is like any other business. Sometimes people feel trapped in dead end jobs …

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