• Newsletter Signup
  • Interested Authors
  • Blog/Content
    • Author Reports
      • On The Trail Of Ted Bundy
      • Bradley Nickell Q&A With a Sin City Cop
      • From Russia With Love
      • eZine
        • Sign Up For The WildBlue Press eZine
  • Events / Media
    • Special Events
    • Upcoming Media Appearances
    • Media Appearances Archive
  • About Us
    • Catalog
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy
  • Partners
    • MacGregor Literary
    • ImaginePublicity
    • The House Of Mystery With Host Al Warren
  • Contact Us
    • For Interested Authors
    • Participate in Focus Groups
    • Employment

WildBlue Press

Great Reads from Exceptional Authors

Great Reads from
Exceptional Authors

  • Home
  • Our Books
    • By Genre
      • Business
      • History
      • Mystery
      • Sci-Fi/Fantasy
      • Thrillers
      • True Crime
    • Box Sets
    • Award Winners
    • Coming Soon
    • Featured Books
    • New Releases
  • Blog
  • Subscribe
  • Interested Authors
  • Partners
    • Imagine Publicity
    • MacGregor Literary
    • The House Of Mystery With Al Warren
  • About Us
    • Catalog
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us

Prosecutor Proved The Beatrice 6 Innocent And That Their Confessions Were False

John Ferak’s new book “FAILURE OF JUSTICE” about Beatrice, Nebraska brings to mind those strange days when we came face to face with the reality that five people had falsely confessed to participating in a murder.

That case confirmed a belief that I have held throughout my career as a prosecutor and as defense counsel.

Interrogation is not investigation.

The successful solicitation of a confession is no substitute for thorough investigation and careful evidence collection. In other words, just because someone says they committed a crime does not mean that they actually did.

If there is no hard evidence to back it up, a confession is just so much talk.

Ritnour photo

Former Nebraska prosecutor Randy Ritnour had an instrumental role in overturning the convictions of the Beatrice 6.

A confession is viewed by some law enforcement officers as the bow that ties up an investigation and in fact is the main focus of investigative effort in a criminal case. They like confessions because a defendant’s statement can be offered as evidence in court, making the more difficult task of collecting additional evidence unnecessary.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Suspect statements are usually self-serving batches of malarkey served up to satisfy the officer that the suspect was either minimally involved or not at all responsible. The officer then plays a verbal cat and mouse game with the suspect to get at the truth, all the while hoping that the suspect won’t assert his right to remain silent and lawyer up.

At best, the suspect’s statement corroborates the officer’s theory of the case when compared with the witness statements and hard evidence collected.

In the Helen Wilson case, the Beatrice Police Department based their investigation on evidence collected and when the blood test of their prime suspect was mishandled by the laboratory, excluding their main suspect, the case went cold. The Sheriff’s Department follow up investigation relied almost entirely on a series of interrogations that were conducted in such a way as to lead the suspects to answers and responses that conformed to the investigator’s theory of the case.

A genuine eagerness on the part of the principal investigator resulted in comic Q & A sessions where the suspects were fed nearly every confidential detail of the case, ensuring that their statements would conform to the allegations of that investigator.

Burt Searcey, Gage County Sheriff's deputy. In 1989, he netted six arrests in Helen Wilson's unsolved murder.

Burt Searcey, Gage County Sheriff’s deputy. Back in 1989, Searcey netted six arrests in Helen Wilson’s unsolved murder in Beatrice. An Attorney General’s Office task force later determined that Searcey’s theory of the murder was all wrong. Photo courtesy of Lincoln Journal Star

Alarmingly, the physical evidence collected by the Beatrice Police Department at the beginning of the case did not match the suspects nor the deputy Gage County sheriff investigator’s theories.

The result was a catastrophic miscarriage of justice on a scale greater than any other case in the nation’s history.

Order your copy of John Ferak’s true crime book on the Beatrice 6 case, FAILURE OF JUSTICE.

failure beatrice

Filed Under: Blog, FAILURE OF JUSTICE, True Crime Tagged With: Beatrice 6, Burt Searcey, DNA, exoneration, FAILURE OF JUSTICE, false confessions, Helen Wilson, Homicide, innocence project, John Ferak, Murder, Nebraska, prosecutor, Prosecutor Randy Ritnour, wrongful convictions
May 17, 2016 By John Ferak Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Order FAILURE OF JUSTICE

Order FAILURE OF JUSTICE today:
Amazon Kindle eBook  eBook
Amazon Trade Paperback  Paperback
Audible Audio BookiTunes Audio Book  Audio Book

INTERNATIONAL KINDLE EBOOKS
USA  UK  Canada  Australia  Germany  France  Spain  Japan  Italy  Brazil  India  Mexico

GET A FREE AUDIBLE AUDIO BOOK
Get this Title for FREE at Audible with a free trialGet this Audible Title for FREE with a 30-day free trial

LISTEN TO THE FIRST CHAPTER

Burl Barer Interview

Burl Barer interviews John Ferak about the "Beatrice 6" case and FAILURE OF JUSTICE .

Posts by John Ferak

Audiobook Offer

Audiobook Offer

Start 2021 off right by reading more and learning more with free audiobooks! Browse by genre and select the cover to get more information and your free copy! Non-Fiction True Crime Business … More...

Holiday 2020 Audiobook Giveaway, get free audiobooks

Holiday 2020 Audiobook Giveaway

We know how hard 2020 has been. To help you end the year on a better note, we wanted to give you the gift of free audiobooks! Hence, the Holiday 2020 Audiobook Giveaway! You're probably thinking of … More...

Brandon L. Garrett Is Now Helping To Free “Making A Murderer’s” Brendan Dassey

Read On About WildBlue Press Author John Ferak's Connection To The Case WildBlue Press author John Ferak has done extensive work on the Steven Avery case featured in Netflix's "Making A Murderer." … More...

John Ferak True Crime TV Interview 1/2

WildBlue Author John Ferak’s Latest Work On the Steven Avery “Making a Murderer” Case

Investigative journalist and WildBlue Press author John Ferak has done extensive work on the Steven Avery Case, which has been detailed on the Netflix original "Making a Murderer." Check out John's … More...

FAILURE OF JUSTICE’s John Ferak: Cutting Wrongful Conviction Book Can Be Challenging

Since embarking on this wrongful conviction book project in January of 2014, A FAILURE OF JUSTICE underwent multiple revisions. One of my early drafts contained a curious older gentleman named Earl. … More...

John Ferak’s Media Appearances

WildBlue Press 2018 Year in Review

In 2018, WildBlue Press released 29 new titles! Among those titles, twenty-one were under the true crime genre, four were thrillers, two mysteries, and one business book as well as one fantasy book. From winning awards to being featured on

True Murder Dan Zupansky Logo

FAILURE OF JUSTICE’s John Ferak on True Murder Radio Show With Host Dan Zupansky

John Ferak, author of WildBlue's hit true crime book FAILURE OF JUSTICE, was recently featured on the True Murder radio show with host Dan Zupansky to discuss his book. FAILURE OF JUSTICE details the case of the Beatrice Six, which is the largest

Watch John Ferak’s Interview With Al Warren on The House of Mystery

Watch John Ferak's interview with Al Warren on The House of Mystery Radio Show. John discusses his new true crime book, FAILURE OF JUSTICE, which details the largest wrongful conviction case in U.S. history! Get your copy of FAILURE OF JUSTICE

All of John Ferak’s WildBlue Press Books

WRECKING CREW Kindle Cover

WRECKING CREW Gives An Inside Look Into Kathleen Zellner’s Efforts To Free Steven Avery

“Ferak chronicles the long and sordid history of the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s department and the reason Sweaty’s license was suspended. Framing Avery was just par for the course." -- Kathleen

FAILURE OF JUSTICE: A Brutal Murder, An Obsessed Cop, Six Wrongful Convictions; A True Crime Thriller By John Ferak

'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

Body of Proof Cover-Final

Discredited CSI Commander At The Heart of John Ferak’s True Crime BODY OF PROOF

Tainted Evidence In The Murder of Jessica O'Grady?   Jessica O’Grady was a tall, starry-eyed co-ed in search of finding her Mr. Right. Christopher Edwards was a 19-year-old deceitful and

Dixie's Last Stand Cover

Readers Asked To Decide “Was It Murder Or Self-Defense?” in DIXIE’S LAST STAND

A WildBlue Press True Crime By Award-Winning Journalist John Ferak Buy DIXIE'S LAST STAND now: Kindle      Paperback Audible iTunes Dixie Shanahan had a terribly troubled and abusive marriage in

Genres, Types

New Releases
Featured Books
Coming Soon
Award Winners

Business
History
Horror
Mysteries
Romance
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Thrillers
True Crime

eBooks
Paperbacks
Audio Books
Box Sets

Available

Cookbook
• Frank Cullotta's Greatest (Kitchen) Hits
True Crime
• 'the Son Of Sam' And Me
• Serial Killers
• Satin Pumps
• Out Of The Mouths Of Serial Killers
• True Crime Chronicles Volume Two
• The World Encyclopedia Of Serial Killers Volume Three
• The Enigma Of Ted Bundy
• True Crime Chronicles Volume One
• Killing Women
• From The Mob To The Movies
• The World Encyclopedia Of Serial Killers Volume Two
• To Kill Or Be Killed
• No Angels
• Monster
• Under A Full Moon
• 'til Death Do Us ...'
• The World Encyclopedia Of Serial Killers
• First Degree Rage
• The 'supreme Gentleman' Killer
• Beast Of New Castle
• The Garden State Parkway Murders
• How Now, Butterfly?
• The Encyclopedia Of The Ted Bundy Murders
• Survival
• Missing ... And Presumed Dead
• Wrong Numbers
• Tantamount
• Playing Dead
• Mothers And Murderers
• Dead Reckoning
• Underworld
• Gabacho
• The Gangster's Cousin
• Race To Justice
• Ted Bundy's Murderous Mysteries
• Travesty Of Justice
• Railroaded
• You Have A Very Soft Voice, Susan
• A Family Business
• Pathological
• Wrecking Crew
• The Last Man Standing
• My Son, The Killer
• Saving Annie Book 2
• Inconvenience Gone
• Toxic Rage
• The Killing Game
• Shots In The Dark
• Saving Annie
• The Case Of The Golden State Killer
• His Garden
• The Crate
• Burned
• The Case Of The Zodiac Killer
• A Murder In My Hometown
• Bullied To Death
• The Beast I Loved
• Summary Execution
• The Shawcross Letters
• Better Off Dead
• Sidetracked
• My Brother's Keeper
• Targeted
• Held Hostage
• Room 1203
• A Special Kind Of Evil
• Brooklyn's Most Wanted
• Outlaw Los Angeles
• Unsolved No More
• She Is Evil
• The Rise And Fall Of A Casino Mobster
• Outlaw Southwest
• A Clockwork Murder
• Raw Deal
• The Bundy Secrets
• Betrayal In Blue
• The Politics Of Murder
• Murderers Row
• Rough Trade
• Daddy's Little Secret
• Murder In The Family
• Failure Of Justice
• Ice And Bone
• Smooth Talker
• The Trail Of Ted Bundy
• A Taste For Murder
• Sketchcop
• Body Of Proof
• Kentucky Bloodbath
• No Stone Unturned
• Repeat Offender
• Dixie's Last Stand
• Vampire
• Man Overboard
• Bogeyman
Thriller
• No One Will Hear Your Screams
• The Screaming Room
• Bone Thief
• Four
• Crux
• Sword Of The Caliphate
• Last Son Of The War God
• Leviathan
• Highwayman
• The Strait
• Enemy Of The People
• Cain
• Dark Visions
• Hunter
• The Reckoning
• Hard Dog To Kill
• 16 Souls
• Borderland
• Paper Wings
• Lockout
• Pitfall
Mystery
• Raven's Ridge
• Raptor's Ridge
• Napa Noir
• Melia Ridge
• Emerald Ridge
• Beacon Hill
• Northern Ex
• Created
• Crevice
• Headlock
• Identity Crisis
• The Obituary
• Naked Addiction
• The Deadline
Horror
• Acadia Event
• The Red Son
• The Equinox
• The Pure And The Hated
• Savage Highway
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
• Happenstance
• Destruction Of Justice
• Blunt Force Magic
Business
• Leaderology
• The Age Of Pluralism
• Bamboo Strong
• Corporate Superpower
• Wordpress Websites For Business
• Productivity Tools For Business
History
• Legion Rising
• The Korean Crisis
• Tempest Tost
• Saving Sandoval
• Killing Rasputin
Politics
• The (Redacted) Mueller Report
Romance
• When Fall Fades

New Releases

‘THE SON OF SAM’ AND ME

In 1976, a killer who called himself ‘The Son of Sam’ shot and killed a half dozen people and wounded as many more in New York City. During his crime spree, the madman left bizarre letters mocking the police and promising more deaths. After months … [More...]

SERIAL KILLERS: 101 Questions True Crime Fans Ask

Learn the terrifying truth behind the world’s deadliest serial killers… Serial killers haunt our dreams and inspire the terrifying villains of TV shows and horror movies. But how much do you really know about the minds behind the world’s deadliest … [More...]

SATIN PUMPS Gives Inside Look Into Gripping Midcentury Murder

It was the midcentury murder that fascinated a nation and kept it glued for two years to radio, television and newspapers through three trials. Did the handsome, wealthy doctor and his beautiful young paramour plan to kill his glamorous socialite … [More...]

OUT OF THE MOUTH OF SERIAL KILLERS

Why Do Serial Killers Kill? Find Out In OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF SERIAL KILLERS

WHY DO SERIAL KILLERS KILL? OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF SERIAL KILLERS​ is as close as you will ever come to discovering the answer ... and in the killer’s own words! In this one-of-a-kind book, author Mary Brett corresponded with some of America’s … [More...]

Coming Soon

The Son Of Seven Mothers Kindle Cover

Cult Survivor Benjamin Risha Tells Readers His Story In THE SON OF SEVEN MOTHERS

As the adopted son of two cult leaders, Benjamin Risha was raised to someday assume a place of leadership in the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation with the Bible, and his parents’ interpretation of it, as his guide. He believed the prophecies … [More...]

Recent Posts

  • Book Trailer for ‘THE SON OF SAM’ AND ME
  • ‘THE SON OF SAM’ AND ME
  • Author and Aviator Les Abend Comments on United 328
  • Carl Denaro: “This Book Is About My Quest To Figure Out Who Shot Me”
  • SERIAL KILLERS: 101 Questions True Crime Fans Ask
  • Joni E. Johnston, Psy.D.
  • SATIN PUMPS Gives Inside Look Into Gripping Midcentury Murder

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

eZine SignupJoin our email list and be the first to get hot deals, new releases and...
* Author updates
* Free eBooks
* Free audio books
* Enlightening and entertaining posts
* Advance notice of book deals, special offers

Follow Us

Blog Tag Cloud

best true crime books Bogeyman Bradley Nickell Brian Whitney Burl Barer Caitlin Rother Cold Case Crime Fiction Crime thriller Detective Detectives Facebook True Crime John Ferak Kevin Sullivan Las Vegas Murder murder book Mysteries Mystery mystery book mystery thriller Non-Fiction Ron Franscell Serial Killer serial killer books Serial Killers Steve Jackson Suspense suspense thriller Ted Bundy Thriller Thriller Books True-crime truecrime True Crime True Crime Authors true crime book true crime books True Crime Discussions True Crime Original true crimes true crime stories True Murder WildBlue Press writing

Privacy Policy

As Seen On:

Our Authors Have Been Seen On...

Interested Authors Click Here
See Our Entire Catalog
SSL Secure Connection

Copyright © 2021 WildBlue Press. All rights reserved.
Website design by Denver Local SEO Marketing Company
Prosecutor Proved The Beatrice 6 Innocent And That Their Confessions Were False