The Fence - Dick Lehr [159]
In the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office, I want to thank DA Dan Conley, press officers Jake Wark and David Procopio; in the U.S. attorney’s office, I thank assistant U.S. attorneys Ted Merritt and Brian Kelly.
I thank Robert Brown, Mattie Brown, Indira Pierce, and their families for their openness and cooperation.
I am grateful to a number of attorneys, some formerly prosecutors, for their assistance: Robert Andrews in Portland, Maine; Saul Pilchen, Jonice Gray Tucker, and Robert Bennett of Washington, D.C.; Robert George, Robert Peabody, Tom Giblin, Robert Sheketoff, Willie Davis, Fran Robinson, and Roberta Golick—all of the Boston area. I would like to acknowledge the assistance of Superior Court Judge Carol Ball and U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young and his staff.
My agent, Richard Abate, made this book a reality. Thanks to Dan Conaway at HarperCollins for seeing the merit in the story, and thanks especially to Gail Winston, my editor, for her unflagging support, not only for this book but for my previous ones as well. I also thank Sarah Whitman-Salkin, Shea O’Rourke, and the entire HarperCollins team.
I was helped in my research with a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, and I completed the book while a Visiting Journalist at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University. I thank Florence Graves, the institute’s executive director, for her continued support for this project.
This book would not have been possible without the support and friendship of my colleagues at Boston University’s College of Communication and the Boston Globe.
At BU, Bob Zelnick, past chair of the journalism department, and Lou Ureneck, the current chair, helped me juggle my classes with my writing. Mitch Zuckoff has served as a longtime sounding board for ideas (and writing partner), and I thank him. Susan Walker, Paul Schneider, Bill Lord, Ken Holmes, John Schultz, and Sheryl Jackson-Holliday all helped out, with good humor, music, and various other ways. For research assistance, I thank BU journalism graduate students Erin Crosby, Rushmie Kalke, Emily Berry, and John Eagan.
At the Globe, past and present, I want to thank Larry Tye, Steve Kurkjian, and Shelley Murphy. Head librarian Lisa Tuite and librarians Richard Pennington and Wanda Joseph-Rollins were invaluable in finding and organizing news stories and photographs. I’d also like to acknowledge Mary Jane Wilkinson, the paper’s managing editor for administration, and Toby Leith, the paper’s content licensing manager, for their help. Thanks to David Butler for producing a fine map of Roxbury and beyond.
Gerry O’Neill read an early draft of the first half of the book, and I thank him for his insights, his partnership on other books, and his friendship going on two decades now. I’ve learned so much about journalism and investigative reporting from him. My gratitude goes to another longtime pal, Dave Holahan, who, like Gerry, offered his thumbs-up after an early reading of the work-in-progress. I was lucky to have his wife, Kyn Tolson, and their son, Jackson, also read the manuscript. I thank my parents, John and Nancy Lehr, for their support.
David Bernstein, a writer at the Boston Phoenix, was helpful in tracking down stories regarding Jim Burgio that ran in his paper. Carl Todisco, the current owner of 60 Winthrop Street, was generous in giving me a tour of the house where Mike Cox grew up. Thanks also to Donna Kenney, a veteran ER nurse, for a tour of the former Boston City Hospital’s emergency room, which was arranged by Maria Pantages and Ellen Berlin of Corporate Communications,