National Affairs: Black & Shameful Page

When the bullet-riddled body of Philadelphia Policeman James T. Morrow was found in an empty lot back in 1936, his fellow officers set out to show the world that cop-killing never pays. First they exacted a confession from a suspect named Joseph Broderick. On second thought, they let him go and got another from a feebleminded 19-year-old named George Bilger. The obliging Bilger (who happily confessed a lot of other crimes, too) was promptly sent off to the penitentiary. But after three years, the cops had a new thought: the murder had been committed by a gunman named Jack Howard.

This was...

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