Page 1 Roundup (04/19)

The New York Post: Facebook murderer's last words: "I need my nuggets!"

The Daily Mail: Pedro Hernandez sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for "murdering" 6-year-old Etan Patz 

The New York Times: The gang that couldn't shoot straight "strikes" again

The Wall Street Journal: In Las Vegas, Drinks Flow a Little Less Freely

Page 1 Roundup (02/15)

I'm happy Etan Patz's parents are satisfied with the guilty verdict, they deserve peace of mind. (I'm not so convinced.)

NYPD investigates sergeant who used Taser on pregnant 17-year-old in the Bronx / Read HERE.

Some think impeachment is a fait accompli, but I'm willing to rein it in a bit and just ask WHY were members of Trump's presidential campaign and other associates of his having repeated contact with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election? It's normal for wouldbe presidents to go on foreign tours and the like, but this sounds like something very different. Read HERE.

Roger Stone?

It’s Really Hard to Fill in a Web Form When Your Name Is Mr. Sample / Read HERE.

Pedro Hernandez Found Guilty of Killing Etan Patz

I've been following this case since I was 11 years old -- my family had just moved to Arizona from a city where a serial child killer remained uncaught when Etan's disappearance made national news in May 1979 -- so you would think I would be overjoyed that someone has finally been convicted of killing this child who will forever be an adorable 6-year-old boy in our minds. But with zero physical evidence and only the confession of a mentally ill, IQ-challenged man, I have a sad feeling this may not have solved the case at all. Read HERE.

Mistrial in Etan Patz Murder Trial

Heartbroken for the Patz family, who have waited 36 years for justice. Still, with false confessions being all too commmon -- and absolutely no other evidence to connect this nut to the case -- I think the jury was correct to not convict AND to not acquit. Pedro Hernandez is rightly added to a list of viable suspects. Here's hoping prosecutors will some day be able to thread the needle against one of them. Sad day for everyone involved. Etan’s father, Stanley, told reporters after the judge made his decision that he firmly believed that Mr. Hernandez had killed his son and he wanted prosecutors to try him again. “I don’t understand why the jurors couldn’t come to a verdict, but I am convinced,” Mr. Patz said. “This man did it. He said it. How many times does a man have to confess before you believe him and it’s not a hallucination?” Read HERE.

Page 1 Consider (02/03)

Gut-wrenching testimony from the mother of Etan Patz. (Neighbors judged her for laughing and playing outside with her two other children after Etan vanished.) What this poor family has been through. Read HERE.

Half Shirt, Half Truth

FBI artist says age-adjusted image of Etan Patz resembles teen in photo owned by one-time suspect

Dear New York Post:

I guess your EXCLUSIVE story "FBI artist says age-adjusted image of Etan Patz resembles teen in photo owned by one-time suspect" is kind of interesting. But then you admit that the police have determined 100 percent, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the young man on the right is NOT Etan Patz. Yet your source keeps insisting that he is, so then I'm not entirely sure what your point is.

Love,


Kenny

Confessions of a Child Killer

A makeshift memorial outside the home of Etan Patz's parents

While I do realize the family of Pedro Hernandez, the oft-confessing killer of 6-year-old Etan Patz, has a motive to be lying about this -- they would look really bad for not turning him in -- it really is starting to look like they DID tell authorities of their family member's shocking admission -- back in 1979. If this is true, the heartache the Patz family has endured for over 30 years seems that much more cruel and unnecessary than what they were already dealing with. Being an investigator cannot be easy, but stories like this are truly shocking. Read HERE.

South of Houston

Strangers have begun leaving flowers outside the SoHo residence of Stanley and Julie Patz -- on the 33rd anniversary of the disappearance of their son and the day that a man was finally charged in little Etan's death. A shocking turn of events.

33 Years Ago Today

Etan Patz went missing on May 25, 1979, which, like today, was a muggy Friday before the Memorial Day weekend. And now 33 years later police have a man in custody for this heinous crime, one that changed childhoods forever. For the sake of Stanley and Julie Patz, I sure hope the man who confessed to murdering their son is telling the truth. I tend to agree with Jim Dwyer that the police should have held off on the publicity, and searched for evidence first. (Cases built on confessions alone tend not to end well.) But if you're anything like me, you're guilty of being completely engrossed in all the coverage going on -- however conflicting and erroneous. This "Crime Scene" graphic is from today's NY Post HERE.

And James Barron's article in the New York Times, Since 1979, a Vigil for the Face on Milk Cartons and the Ages He Would Miss, will move you, marking the events that have passed in the 33 years since the little boy went missing. This photo of Etan's parents in their SoHo loft in 1979, shot as police officials answer phones in the disappearance, reduced me to tears, imaging the fear and anguish they must have been feeling -- and knowing that they still are. A timeline HERE shows all the fits and starts in this case, which drives home why it's so important that this not be another false hope.

Although I noted that kooks do try to insert themselves into high-profile crimes all the time -- the Lindbergh kidnapping and JonBenet Ramsey come to mind -- I guess this is different in the sense that Pedro Hernandez did (at the very least) have the means to commit the crime. While he claims he did not sexually assault Etan -- a claim police are skeptical about -- perhaps it's true he did just simply suddenly feel "the urge to kill," which makes the parallels between this case and the recent abuction and slaying of Leiby Kletzky all the more chilling.

Man Confesses to Murder of Etan Patz (Again) (UPDATE)

It's being reported that police are questioning a former SoHo bodega worker who is now claiming he kidnapped, stabbed and strangled Etan Patz, the 6-year-old boy whose disappearance sparked a new era in the hunt for missing children.

According to The New York Post: Sources identified the man as Pedro Hernandez. He was arrested near Camden, NJ, yesterday and taken to New York City for questioning. The man in custody told investigators that he lured the boy with candy, stabbed him, cut up his remains and put them in plastic bags, a law enforcement source told The Post. The suspect lived just a few blocks away from Patz and worked at a neighborhood bodega when the little boy went missing, the source said.

As much as I would like for there to be some answers for the Patz family -- and the nation -- my first reaction is to be highly skeptical of this confession. The intense media coverage last month is just the kind of cat nip to inspire a loon to insert himself into the story. (Remember the freak who confessed to killing JonBenet Ramsey???) And the fact that authorities so far are saying he's provided no information that wasn't already made public -- and that he says he put the body in a box that "went missing" (?????) -- only fuels my skepticism. (That, and the fact that he confessed in 1979 and police dismissed him as a wacko.)

But City Room says the guy has alluded to or confessed to the crime -- without naming names -- over the years, and say he was "very emotional" during the confession. Police are tracking down family members to confirm these alleged confessions, but it remains unclear if authorities have -- or will ever be able to -- independently corroborate Hernandez's version of events. More troubling to me, however, is that there seems to be no motive, so it just doesn't make any sense.

Detroit footnote:

My friend Frank points out this comment on the NYT site:

Paul
Cambridge, Mass.
A tragic case, for which we can only hope that the current investigation will shed light on. It was, however, not the signal event that NYTimes reporters often proclaim it to be. E.g., the "Oakland County Child Killer" (see wikipedia) was responsible for at least 4 abductions and killings from 1976-1977. These cases were heavily reported around the state of Michigan, and around the country. Sadly, there were also other cases in the nation's consciousness before 1979.

UPDATE:
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told Etan's parents that Pedro Hernandez will be charged in the murder of their son -- completely based on a confession. This has disaster written all over it. The Times disagrees with The Daily Beast's reporting that Hernandez had confessed to the police before. Sounds like a lot of conflicting/erroneous reporting going on. I get it a month before he recants his confession. Stay tuned.