‘MAKING A MURDERER’ TIMES SIX!
If the dubious efforts of law enforcement that led to the case behind MAKING A MURDERER made you cringe, your skin will crawl at the injustice portrayed in FAILURE OF JUSTICE: A Brutal Murder, An Obsessed Cop, Six Wrongful Convictions. Award-winning journalist and bestselling author John Ferak pursued the story of the Beatrice 6 who were wrongfully accused of the brutal, ritualistic rape and murder of an elderly widow in Beatrice, Nebraska, and then railroaded by law enforcement into prison for a crime they did not commit. FAILURE OF JUSTICE is the story of the crime, the flawed investigation and rush to judgment, as well as one man’s refusal to accept an unjust fate, and the incredible effort it took to make the state admit it was wrong.
Synopsis…
One of the Beatrice 6: Thomas W. Winslow.
Feb. 5, 1985 marked one of the coldest nights on record that winter in small-town rural Nebraska. That chilly evening, tenants in one downtown three-story apartment building hunkered down for a night of restful sleep. The next day, they were horrified to see several police cars lined along North Sixth Street. A demented, dangerous predator had bound, raped and suffocated an older widow who lived in unit 4.
Victim Helen Wilson
The local Beatrice police force made a gallant effort to identify the killer rapist who had been preying upon vulnerable older women since two summers ago. A specially trained FBI profiler, Peter Klismet Jr. was flown into Nebraska to determine the killer’s traits. After all, victim Helen Wilson was one of her tight-knit town’s nicest ladies. She enjoyed bingo. She babysat the children at her Methodist church. Who want to harm her, everyone wondered?
At the time of the revolting murder, Gage County hog farmer Burt Searcey was three years removed from the Beatrice police force. He quickly became obsessed with solving the gruesome murder after the sickening news was broadcast on the local radio. Years later, as a county sheriff’s deputy, Searcey arrested six lost souls for the terrorizing rape and murder. All six of the codefendants went convicted and sentenced to prison in 1990.
Then in 2008, the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office faced a conundrum. One of the accused, Joseph White was fighting for a chance to allow DNA testing. Would the DNA tests cement his guilt or lead to a shocking new revelation: Helen Wilson’s twisted rapist and killer was still out there somewhere, waiting to be identified?
Author, John Ferak
From the book…
“A deal’s a deal especially when it involves the criminal justice system. James Dean was now obligated to plead guilty in the death of Helen Wilson thanks to the failed polygraph test results. But there remained a giant problem: Dean remained forceful in his claims of innocence – even after being told he flunked that dubious polygraph test. The prosecutor and sheriff reached the conclusion that Dean needed a friendly visit from “Doc” Wayne Price, the clinical director at the Blue Valley Mental Health Center. These men knew Price was their secret weapon. Perhaps Price, moonlighting as Sheriff’s Deputy Price, could use his powers of persuasion to manipulate the vulnerable young man to come to terms with what the law enforcement professionals were sure was his guilt. Just three days after Dean supposedly flunked his polygraph test, the young man fraught with anxiety attacks and a troubled upbringing met with Price for a so-called emergency psychiatric evaluation.”
Outlaw Radio
John Ferak Discussed the Background of Beatrice 6 Case On True Crime Uncensored On Outlaw Radio With Burl Barer.
Acclaim for John Ferak and FAILURE OF JUSTICE…
“How could not just one person, but six people who hardly knew each other, all be in the wrong places at the wrong times, and all get railroaded into convictions for a murder they did not commit? In John Ferak’s riveting account, FAILURE OF JUSTICE, the common denominator was an overzealous police investigation that generated false confessions and false evidence. The unbelievable story of the Beatrice Six provides a wake-up call at a time when serious wrongful convictions continue to come to light with disturbing frequency.”–Brandon L. Garrett, Justice Thurgood Marshall Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
“John Ferak has carved his necessary true-crime niche with another fascinating exploration of unalloyed evil in overlooked places, and a dysfunctional judicial system. A chilling piece of journalism.”Ron Franscell, author of THE DARKEST NIGHT and MORGUE: A LIFE IN DEATH
