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I was in New Orleans in early December of last year. I always make a point of walking down Bourbon Street at least once each night I am there. I was accompanied during one of these walks by a friend of mine who has lived his entire life in the city. His observations are always interesting; he can point things out that I might otherwise miss. He was up to form on a night in question. "There," he said, nodding to a couple of young women chatting up a middle-aged man on a sidewalk outside of what is now referred to as a "gentleman's show bar." Behind them, a woman danced in naked silhouette in a window covered by a sheet and illuminated by a spotlight. "Them two don't match with that guy. They'll go across the street" --- he nodded to a hotel, an upscale place catering to well-padded expense accounts --- "and be out in an hour or so, be back out here, pullin' the same ****." As my friend spoke, the trio crossed the street, heading toward the hotel. He shook his head. "You come back here in January, they'll be gone. Girls turn up missin' around here all the time. No one knows where they go. Nobody cares."
I had cause to reflect on this while reading MURDER IN SPOKANE. Spokane, over a 10 year period, experienced a series of episodes involving the murder and dumping of at least 18 women who were known prostitutes. It was not until after August 1997, however, when the bodies of two women were discovered on the same day, that a task force was created for the purpose of identifying and arresting the individual involved. Mark Fuhrman, the man who solved the Simpson/Goldman and Moxley murders, provides an account of the investigation that is shocking, but not for the reasons one might expect.
The evidence, when laid out by Fuhrman, indicates that there were indications long before 1997 that the Spokane area had a significant problem with a serial murderer. It was some time, however, before significant attention was paid, due in no small part to the fact that the murderer's victims were prostitutes. By the time a task force was named, there had already been several victims. What Fuhrman demonstrates is that the Spokane police had the opportunity to catch the murderer several times within two months after the August 1997 discoveries and had possession of evidence that could have led to his arrest and conviction. The eventual arrest did not come until some three years --- and several more murders --- later. Fuhrman's account demonstrates that the problem was that the Spokane police relied too much on computers and forensics and not enough on good, old-fashioned police work. The individual eventually arrested and convicted of the crimes did not arouse more than incidental suspicion until he declined a voluntary blood test, yet the evidence necessary to convict him had been in the possession of the police for years.
MURDER IN SPOKANE succeeds both as a real world mystery and as a statement. It is a documentary as to how crimes are solved --- whether by good police work or by winning ugly. It also is a statement as to how the invisible among us --- those on the sidewalk, to whom we afford a passing glance but little else --- can be tragically separated and culled, without our even noticing. It is unfortunate and sad and true. By the way, the women I mentioned outside the club...They were nowhere to be seen by January.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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