THE ART OF POLITICAL MURDER Who Killed the Bishop?

Hardback. When, on Sunday night in April 1998, Bishop Juan Gerardi was viciously bludgeoned to death in his parish house garage in Guatemala City, one of the most sensational, controversial and momentous murder cases in contemporary Latin America began. Was it a political assassination or a sordid domestic crime? The case became a fight over the destiny of a country just emerging from decades of civil war and awash in corruption and violence. Was justice possible or was it just a quixotic dream? The author has written a suspenseful chronicle and reconstruction of the crime and investigation. Bishop Gerardi was murdered 2 days after he had presided over the publication of an unprecedented human rights report that found the Guatemalan Army primarily responsible for the war-time deaths and disappearances of 200,000 civilians, setting the stage for future charges against the military of crime against humanity. The Army was the obvious suspect in the murder, for decades its assassins had been free to kill with impunity. But why, others asked, would the Army have killed the bishop 2 days after the release of the report? The government's explanation was an increasingly bizarre story of a crime of passion that cast suspicion on the Church itself. The heart of the book belongs to the Untouchables, a group of irreverent young men from the Church's human rights office who decided to investigate the case themselves. Their brave and enterprising detective work, along with that of a determined prosecutor, led to an unprecedented and historic trial. The author began reporting on the case soon after the murder and spent 7yrs following the investigation. His persistence led him to witnesses no other journalist gained access to. Illus., Dramatis Personae, Chronology of Events, Sources and Notes + Index. 395pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. F. in f. dw.