Here I Stand

Murder on the Tracks

One night I reported for work at Station Two and after saying hello to my fellow officers I sat down to read the exceptional incident reports. After each shift a report is prepared describing briefly the more notable or serious incidents that occurred during that shift. The report was then teletyped to the other stations and printed out. Every policeman on the Sam squad was required to go over the E.I.s to see if there was anything needing our attention or help.

One of the incidents jumped out and knocked my mouth open. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. There was a homicide in a railroad boxcar at 7^th Avenue and the railroad tracks. The victim was described as Tommy Robertson aka Buddy Robertson C/M (Caucasian male) and his date of birth was listed. After a little investigation, I determined that this was the same Buddy Robertson that I had known for the better part of my life. Apparently a few men were inside the boxcar playing poker and drinking. When the game was over, most of the men went on their way but a couple, including Buddy stayed in the boxcar and went to sleep. A person quietly entered the boxcar and went through the personal belongings of the two sleeping gamblers. They had very little worth taking. The intruder then took a thin piece of wire from his jacket pocket and wrapped an end around each hand. He knelt beside Buddy, slipped the wire around his neck and pulled tightly. Buddy struggled enough to wake his companion but instead of helping, he ran like a bat out of hell. He did contact the police later that morning. Buddy was no match for the strangler and after a few minutes, Buddy lay lifeless in a pool of his own blood. The strangler’s wire cut deeply into Buddy’s neck and severed his jugular vein. My old neighbor and friend was dead for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Buddy’s murder was one of several that had occurred in the same area recently. The M.O. (modus operandi) was the same or similar in each case. I requested that our squad go undercover in the area and see if we could come up with the murderer. The boss agreed and we formalized a plan. Since I had a personal interest in this case, I was sort of chosen to ramrod things.                                                                          

All the recent murders that were apparently committed by our suspect occurred between 7^th Avenue and 7^th Street and between Washington Street and just south of the railroad tracks. This was roughly the area known as the “Deuce.” It was decided that our squad dress and act like Deuce bums and hang around the Deuce. Since the most recent murder, Buddy’s, was committed in a boxcar sitting on the railroad tracks just east of 7^th Avenue, we decided to start there. At the time, our squad consisted of six policemen and a sergeant. After looking over the murder scene very carefully, we split up. A few of us decided that we wanted to “ride the rails” into the downtown area.

 Also in the Book:

There was a lot of shooting in the area and every now and then a makeshift firebomb would light up the night as it was thrown towards the compound that I was guarding or just thrown up in the air.

A stark naked, pretty, young, blond woman was standing in the kitchen. This naked woman was holding a small, chrome revolver in her right hand. If this was a set up for a shooting, I had been had. I was caught completely off-guard by the naked woman.

There were two El Caminos containing armed men cruising up and down Buckeye Road and around the projects. The passenger compartments and beds of both El Caminos were packed with men holding up shotguns and rifles.

When I was about four feet from the temporary cage, the lid was knocked completely off and about eighteen inches of mad snake appeared above the opening. Those eighteen inches were less than one third of the total length of the snake. I know that if I had put that snake in Charlie’s locker, there would have been big trouble. I pictured Charlie drawing his revolver and shooting up the office trying to kill the snake.