CATSPAW The Famed Trial Attorney's Heroic Defense of a Man Unjustly Accused

Hardback. Here, from the legendary trial attorney, is his gripping account of his most dramatic case: an 18yr ordeal endured by a Holocaust survivor falsely accused of multiple murder. On a September evening in 1974, 71yr old Irving Pasternak and his wife were stabbed to death in their Waterbury, Connecticut home. Their former son-in-law, Murray Gold, was soon indicted, although he had no discernable motive and only the most tenuous circumstantial evidence linked him to the crime. During the subsequent trial the defence showed that another man, Bruce Sanford, was the most likely suspect. Sanford, an avowed satanist with a long criminal record, was seen, covered with blood, on the night of the murders and was reputed to have confessed his guilt to friends. But the jury was deadlocked. In a second trial, after Sanford had killed himself, testimony relating to him was dismissed as "hearsay" and Murray Gold was convicted. At which point the author entered the case. In a series of brilliant manoeuverings, he and a unique team of attorneys (including the successful prosecutor from Gold's previous trial), after two more trials, succeeded in setting aside the guilty verdict. With his remarkable pen and legal acumen, the author illuminates this account of a hideous crime and spellbinding courtroom drama, offering as well fascinating insights into the inner workings of law-enforcement, trials, precedents and the unprecedented. Illus. + Epilogue. 299pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Lightly browned pp., patchy fading to top edge of covers o/w Nr. Vg. in Vg+ dwe.