THE WHEELS. The State of Connecticut vs. Patrick G. Finno

Hardback. The State of Connecticut vs. Patrick G. Finno began on a quiet Sunday afternoon in October of 1965 when mMargot Farnham, suburban housewife and part-time real estate broker, was brutally murdered near a wooded building site on the outskirts of Stamford, Connecticut. A chain of circumstantial evidence led to the arrest of a young man picked up by Stamford police on a back road near Mrs. Farnham's abandoned car. For Patrick Finno, erstwhile construction foreman and engaged to be married, the wheels of justice had begun to turn. Cautious, glacially impersonal, the State's machinery swung into motion, its very movement creating a sense of security in the community. But for the handful of those familiar with the circumstances of Pat Finno's arrest and aware of the evidence against him, there remained a gnawing, growing doubt. The murder occurred early in October. In mid-November Pat Finno was still in jail awaiting a positive move from the prosecution. No coroner's inquest had been held to determine legally the cause of Mrs. Farnham's death. No grand jury had met to indict Finno for the crime with which he was charged. The author was one of Pat Finno's defence lawyers. This book is his dramatic reconstruction of Finno's arrest and trial, of the 8 months of painstaking legal research and detective work essential to the preparation of the defence, and of the tense courtroom drama played out in the trial itself. In a fascinating analysis of the interplay of individual roles, and motives - conferences between lawyers, between lawyers and client, between lawyers and judge; deals made between prosecution and defence; the psychology of jury selection and the search for competent, qualified witnesses - he lays bare the intricacies and manoeuverings of modern American criminal procedure. With Map eps. Covers drawing by Harry Bennett. 366pp. 8vo. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Vg+ in sl. sunned vg+ pcdw.