Re-posted by Nicholas Stix
I thank my partner-in-crime, David in TN, who sent me this story, writing,
Robert Tanenbaum published a book, Echoes of My Soul, on the Career Girls murder last year. He wrote this piece in reaction to an article in the New York Post.Historical note: Richard "Ricky" Robles murdered Janice Wylie and Emily Hoffert on August 28, 1963, the same day Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Monument.
Rebuttal to the New York Post
By Robert TanenbaumAugust 21, 2013
American Justice System
robertktanenbaumbooks.com
The Truth About the Career Girl Murders
For several decades, I have been an avid reader and subscriber to the New York Post. Naturally, I expect that its reportage is vetted for accuracy and authenticity to ensure trustworthiness and journalistic professionalism.
Regrettably, the Sunday, August 18, 2013 account of the brutal rape murders of Janice Wylie and Emily Hoffert which you entitle The Career Girl Murders failed miserably to meet, even remotely, basic journalistic standards of factual accuracy and historic essence. Permit me to be candid and explain:
On August 28, 1963, at approximately, 10:30 a.m., the fiend junkie killer, Richard Robles, climbed into apartment 3C at 55 E. 88th Street in Manhattan and brutally raped and murdered Janice Wylie and then slaughtered her roommate Emily Hoffert. Thereafter, Robles got his heroin fix inside the apartment of Nathan “Jimmy” Delaney and Margie Delaney. He confessed his crimes to both of them at that time and thereafter at separate times in the following months.
Eight months later in Brooklyn, on Friday, April 24, 1964, George Whitmore, a nineteen year-old impoverished young man with an IQ somewhere south of 70 (according to the Bellevue doctors who observed and examined him for over a six month period) was arrested for an attempted rape that occurred just two days before. During the course of the custodial interrogation conducted by Brooklyn detectives that spanned a seventeen hour period, Whitmore confessed to committing two serious substantive crimes that occurred in Brooklyn (Kings County): an attempted rape and murder.
During the course of the questioning, the Brooklyn detectives found in George Whitmore’s wallet a photo prominently depicting a blonde woman in the foreground seated on the back seat of a top-down convertible and a brunette seated in the passenger seat. The Brooklyn detectives, Joe DiPrima and Edward Bulger, believed that the blonde in the photo was Janice Wylie. They proceeded to question Whitmore about the Wylie/Hoffert murders. After hours of propounding leading questions, Whitmore finally confessed.
Two months after Whitmore was indicted in Manhattan (New York County) for the Wylie/Hoffert murders, Assistant District Attorney (ADA) Mel Glass informed legendary District Attorney Frank Hogan that serious questions existed with respect to the guilt of George Whitmore. With Hogan’s blessing, Mel Glass found incontrovertible evidence that exonerated George Whitmore and incriminated the killer, Richard Robles.
With ADA Mel Glass and ADA John Keenan (now Federal District Court Judge sitting in the Southern District at Foley Square in Manhattan) as the lead prosecutors, the defendant, Richard Robles, was tried in New York State Supreme Court, New York County and convicted before a jury on December 1, 1965. Supreme Court Justice, Irwin Davidson presided.
Significant to note that during the course of the trial, the Brooklyn detectives, Joseph DiPrima and Edward Bulger, who obtained the false confession from George Whitmore, refused to admit their mistake and testified in support and on behalf of the defendant Robles. ADA Keenan conducted a devastating cross-examination of the Brooklyn detectives which revealed their misconduct and unprofessional engagement with George Whitmore which resulted in a flawed and unreliable confession.
Yet nowhere in “The Career Girl Murders” article is there any mention or slight reference to the significant heroic roles played by Mel Glass, John Keenan and D.A. Frank Hogan who were solely responsible for exonerating an unjustly accused George Whitmore and bringing to justice the murderer Robles. Instead, the article mistakenly stigmatizes all of law enforcement as dismally corrupt, perverse, uncaring and unprofessional.
In addition, the article also misrepresents factually how and why the Delaneys, to whom Robles confessed immediately after the murders and at many more times thereafter, came forward to Mel Glass who then through investigative techniques, corroborated the truthfulness of their subsequent in court testimony.
On May 28, 2013 Kensington published my book on this subject, Echoes of My Soul. It is my 27th book and was selected as Publishers Weekly pick of the week. Mel Glass asked me to write it so that the truth about the case would be objectively revealed. My research, with the active participation of Mel Glass, delved into original source materials including, but not limited to, the trial transcripts, and law enforcement investigative materials.
It seems only fair that before the Post would publish any article about the Wylie/Hoffert case, it would at the very least interview John Keenan and review original court documents. If indeed those minimal efforts were done, then investigative journalism and reporting would have resulted in informing the public in the article that the professionalism and skill of DA Frank Hogan, ADA Mel Glass (who subsequently served as a Criminal Court Judge and acting Supreme Court Judge for over two decades) and ADA John Keenan averted a terrible injustice, exonerated an unjustly accused young man and brought to justice a vicious killer.
Moreover, their efforts forever reformed law enforcement practices and procedures. Instead, a misleading rendition of a faux narrative was taken out of mothballs, slapped into the article and portrayed as fact. Your readers deserve better.
Robert Tanenbaum has condemned Nifong several times. He also said the Zimmerman jury delivered the correct verdict.
ReplyDeleteMarcia Clark, unsurprisingly, said Zimmerman should have been found guilty.
David In TN
There's something about the Miranda Warning I can't remember being discussed. Namely, suspects very often ignore it.
ReplyDeleteThey are helpfully told they don't have to talk to the police, but do so anyway, making it easier to convict them at trial.
All four of the Knoxville Horror killers ignored Miranda and talked for hours to law enforcement. How many times have we seen black suspects do this?
David In TN
Robert Tanenbaum published his last Butch Karp novel, "Fatal Conceit," in 2014. It's also the best one.
ReplyDeleteThe story takes place during an election campaign. American mission personnel in Chechnya are attacked by terrorists with several killed and the rest captured and held as hostages. The administration lies about what happened. The acting CIA chief, a former army general, is murdered in a New York City hotel room when he threatens to tell the truth to a congressional committee.
The villains pulling strings are the president's campaign manager (an Axelrod type) and national security chief (a homosexual Ivy League careerist). They try to find and kill a young woman who was having an affair with the dead CIA chief.
New York DA Butch Karp brings the defendants to trial with the administration and MSM denouncing him for "The Politics of Hate" and "political prosecution."
The book ends with a shocking trial, flavored by author Tanenbaum's experience in trying cases.
This novel looks to be based on the Benghazi Affair.
A very good read for followers of the WEJB/NSU.
From time to time I check the Inmate Locator for famous murderers. I looked at the Wiki entry for the Career Girl Murders and found Ricky Robles was paroled in May 2020, at age 77. The New York State Prison inmate locator confirmed it, the Career Girl killer has been released from prison.
ReplyDeleteRobles was slipped out the door along with many others, who got out due to Covid. I could find no news item on Robles being paroled. The Career Girls was a "Big" case making it surprising that there was no notice in 2020 of the killer getting out.
Winston Moseley, who raped-murdered Kitty Genovese, died in 2016, age 81. Moseley would have been released if still living.