Book is about common goal of making wrongs right

“The Murder Room,” by Michael Capuzzo, Gotham Books, New York, NY., 426 pages, $26.

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Horrendous events always happen to other people, never to you or those whom you know. Right? Think again.

During the decade beginning in 1990 while I lived in the Piney Woods of East Texas, four extraordinary hideous events took place to people I know and to me — a colleague’s daughter disappeared.

A car was struck by bullets coming from an overpass on rural Interstate 20 as a mother and child I worked with were returning from a medical appointment in Dallas.

A mother of two disappeared and was never found. I experienced three incidents, which the local police and FBI agents made the same comment, “Ma’am, you were very lucky; it’s amazing you weren’t killed and your body never found.”

In Texas, I learned during reading this book, without a witness, crime scene, body or a portion of it, a person is “missing” — nothing more.

Despite exhaustive efforts from local law enforcement agencies and FBI in one incident, two persons mentioned among the four incidents still are “missing” 12 to 18 years later.

“The Murder Room,” is the result of exhaustive investigation lasting more than five years by New York Times best-selling author Michael Capuzzo.

During which time, he researched, interviewed, delved into records and was granted access to meetings of the Vidocq Society. These “heirs of Sherlock Holmes gather to solve the world’s most perplexing cold cases,” meet monthly over lunch in Philadelphia and represent the best of crime-solving experts.

This group of amazingly passionate sleuths, in the last 20 years, has investigated more than 300 cold cases and solved 90 percent of these crimes.

All of these cases were thought unsolvable, among them, one case occurred more than 47 years ago.

Named after 19th-century Paris detective Eugene Francois Vidocq, the father of forensic detective techniques, the society was organized in 1989 by three men: former FBI agent Bill Fleisher; an amazing psychological profiler, called “the living Sherlock Holmes,” Richard Walter; and forensic artist Frank Bender, said to be able to speak with the dead, and thus capture a person’s essence in clay.

His ability to model a person as he would look now from pictures 15 to 20 years old with amazing accuracy is unique.

They decided the group’s members would number 82 in all — one for each year Vidocq lived; including associates, the group now has 150 members.

The society now is global, as are cases presented for consideration. All members give of their time and skills pro bono, that is “for the public good.”

Cases must be at least two years old with the local policing agency requesting assistance in solving the crime.

In many instances, once the crime is solved and announced to the public, the society’s name isn’t even mentioned.

The importance in the group’s intervention is justice — finding a name of the victim, tracking the killer and holding that person accountable for the crime or crimes committed.

In the process of the reinvestigation, giving both the victim and family members some sense of resolution, and hopefully, peace.

In so doing, the group enables them to move forward with their lives. For the detectives involved, the process helps them gain understanding and with new facts, assurance they’ve done the best possible job, letting them put closure to the case and find some resolution with the victim.

Capuzzo is a masterful writer and storyteller — not only in retelling crimes, but also in focusing on the lives of the group’s three founding members.

Each is a unique character. The author’s skill is in adeptly sharing childhood experiences of each and how each makes use of his professional opportunities, which helps shape the adult each would become.

Capuzzo’s gift in writing enables him to share the passions the founding members have and share, and how their friendships evolve into lifetime commitments, enduring differences and all that life throws their way.

Ultimately, the book is about their common goal — making wrongs right and how each is somewhat a knight, overcoming the foes of time, red tape and territorial turf to solve 90 percent of cases, reaching that which others thought to be unreachable.

Who will benefit from reading this book? Anyone who reads it.

For starters, personnel in every law enforcement agency across the country; students studying government, sociology, psychology, judges, lawyers and law students; state and federal statesmen and women; physicians; voters; and especially you, because crime and disappearances can really happen to you and to those you know.

Margaret C. Barno, a retired social worker, lives in Pflugerville.