On March 15th, 1987 police in Anchorage, Alaska arrived at a horrific scene of carnage. ... ... In a modest downtown apartment, they found Nancy Newman's brutally beaten corpse sprawled across her bed. In other rooms were the bodies of her eight-year-old daughter, Melissa, and her three-year-old, Angie, whose throat was slit from ear to ear. Both Nancy and Melissa had been sexually assaulted. After an intense investigation, the police … [Read more...]
Reflections From FAILURE OF JUSTICE Author on Week 1 of Beatrice 6 Trial
Lincoln, Nebraska. That's where the media spotlight returned this past week. A handful of journalists are covering the plight of the Beatrice 6. It's now been eight years since Beatrice, Nebraska, a city of 12,000, became the new home of the country's worst nightmare involving a miscarriage of justice. A total of 6 people lost 70 years of their lives for somebody else's rape and murder. The threat of Nebraska's dreaded electric chair played a … [Read more...]
Police Lt. Oliver Reflects on Solving Notorious Murder Case
In 2007 I was promoted to Lieutenant of Investigations at the Beatrice Police Department. I was briefed about the appeal process that was already in motion involving Joseph White. I was thinking “what a waste of the courts time." When the DNA results came back I was surprised to say the least. The Helen Wilson task force was formed, and I was given the opportunity to be in charge of it and handing out assignments. I was thinking “how are we … [Read more...]
Nebraska AG Jon Bruning: Some Didn’t Want To Believe The Beatrice 6 Are Innocent
A staunch conservative and prominent Republican, Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning never anticipated he would find the media spotlight for exposing the nation's largest wrongful conviction case right in his backyard. In November 2008, Bruning made a shocking announcement to all Nebraskans- his state agency had uncovered irrefutable proof that a terrible injustice had been committed nearly 20 years earlier in Beatrice, a small community … [Read more...]
Who Was Helen Wilson’s Killer If The Beatrice 6 Are Innocent? Read The Book
It might be Alabama or Alaska, Tennessee or Texas, Michigan or Minnesota. The name of state doesn't really matter. Most wrongful conviction cases have a similar theme - Person A gets arrested for a shockingly heinous killing. He's vilified in the media. The victim's family hates him. The judge throws the book at him. The convicted killer goes off to prison. The media coverage stops. Ten years pass, maybe a lot longer. Then, like a piano … [Read more...]
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 … [Read more...]
Investigator Tina Vath Unraveled Beatrice’s FAILURE OF JUSTICE Homicide Case
Nebraska Police Investigator Talks About Her Role In The Beatrice 6 Investigation In 2003, I became the Beatrice Police Department’s Criminal Investigator. At the time the department had only one investigator position. I knew the story of the Helen Wilson murder and subsequent investigation that led to the arrest and conviction of six people. I had not reviewed any of the case file and never questioned their guilt or innocence. I just believed … [Read more...]
Did A Psychic Help Solve The Helen Wilson Rape-Murder in Beatrice, Nebraska?
As of February 1988, the Helen Wilson murder investigation was in need of a fresh set of eyes - like a psychic, perhaps? By 1988, more than a hundred potential suspects had been interviewed, examined and excluded. Mostly these were southeastern Nebraska residents, but some were out of state serial rapists from the likes of Kansas and Colorado as well. It didn't matter. Wherever the Beatrice Police Department seemed to go looking, … [Read more...]
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 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 … [Read more...]
“Making A Murderer,” FAILURE OF JUSTICE Shine Light on Wrongful Convictions
Millions across the globe have watched 'Making a Murderer' on Netflix. It's the story of Wisconsin's Steven Avery. He goes to prison in the 1980s. He's a victim of a wrongful conviction for a brutal rape. Years later, he goes back to prison for murder and people are now debating whether he was victimized by a broken criminal justice in Wisconsin - again. My new book chronicles the terrible saga of Nebraska's Beatrice 6. FAILURE OF JUSTICE is … [Read more...]