Secrets

The roots of secrets can go deep, making it difficult to unearth. It takes time, patience and determination. It means poring through old scrapbooks, scrolling through newspaper archives at libraries, looking through government records. You need to pick at painful memories, where loss can overshadow past joys.

It is hard to keep a secret.  Benjamin Franklin once wrote “three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.” Sometimes you just need to keep digging to find the truth.

In researching my latest true crime book, “The Ghost: the Murder of Chief Greg Adams and the Search for his Killer” (Black Lyon), I found myself going back to that haunting, but familiar, theme: secrets. How can someone stay silent for decades? How can someone protect a killer? It is a question I wrestled with while writing my first book, “Shallow Graves: The Hunt for the New Bedford Highway Serial Killer (ForeEdge),” detailing the unsolved murder of eleven women in 1988 and one I found myself revisiting with The Ghost.

As a young reporter in New Bedford, Massachusetts in the mid-1980s, I had heard the name Donald Webb. He had killed a Pennsylvania police chief in 1980 and his stepson was a former New Bedford, Massachusetts cop who had left the force.  Long-time reporters at the paper talked about the stepson and the reasons behind his split from the department but few talked about Donald Webb. I always thought he was in prison, maybe dead. He wasn’t.

Donald Webb, a small-town mobster wannabe, was one of the FBI’s Top Ten Fugitives for years. After killing Saxonburg Police Chief Greg Adams during a traffic stop, Webb sped off and, it appeared, disappeared. No one in Massachusetts, where his wife lived, would admit to knowing where he was. No one would admit even seeing him.

It stayed that way for nearly forty years. A secret kept.

Unraveling how this secret was kept led me down the rabbit hole of prison records, FBI records, police reports, photographs, scrapbooks, and the memories of those who sought answers. 

Writing true crime books is not easy.  You need official documentation, such as police reports, court transcripts, and court records. You need access to investigators, witnesses, friends and relatives. You need to examine photographs to accurately paint scenes.  You need historical data. You need more information than you think you will use – and then some more.

For “The Ghost,” I was able to obtain personal scrapbooks from a Pennsylvania officer detailing the events following the killing. Records from that time, including the arrest warrant, were kept in a special drawer at the court in Saxonburg. Those close to both the original investigation in 1980 and those who helped close it graciously agreed to be interviewed. Witnesses to the aftermath of the killing shared their recollections.

The widow of the chief shared her grief. I tracked down prison records and filed Freedom of Information requests for reports with the FBI. I went to town and city halls to examine birth, death and wedding records. I checked city and town property records. I checked state corporation records. I learned about the history of Saxonburg. I visited the community – twice. I double-checked witness memories with public records for accuracy. 

Some information is easy to obtain. For example, corporation and property records in many states are now accessible online. Some information is cumbersome to get. Older records often are only accessible through hard copy archives and it can take time for an agency to find them. Sometimes those records no longer exist. 

Organizing files are key in writing non-fiction, particularly with true crime. Keep track of what information you need and from where. Figure out the people you need to talk with and transcribe those interviews right away before you forget the tone. Request information from agencies early on and expect it could take months (or years) before you get it. Make copies of everything. Scan documents, even if you have hard copies. Take photographs so you can refresh your memory about what a scene looks like. 

Always keep an open mind about the path the story may follow. The research in true crime holds the key to whether it will be a bland, court testimony driven story or one lush in detail and emotion. 

I’ve found writing along the way helps me find the holes in the story and prevents me from feeling overwhelmed by the boxes of files and hundreds of interviews. There is never that “Where do I start?” feeling because I’m already on the path. But not everyone works that way. Find what works for you.

Researching a true crime book is a bit like uncovering a secret. You keep chipping away until you find the core and always expect the unexpected.

(National award winning journalist Maureen Boyle covered crime for decades throughout New England and is now the director of the journalism program at Stonehill College. Her second book, The Ghost: The Murder of Police Chief Greg Adams and the Hunt for His Killer is set for release June 1)

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Maureen Boyle, an award-winning journalist, is the author of the upcoming true crime book The Ghost: The Murder of Police Chief Greg Adams and the Hunt for His Killer. Her first book was Shallow Graves: The Hunt for the New Bedford Highway Serial Killer. She is also the director of the journalism program at Stonehill College in Massachusetts.

Follow Maureen on Twitter https://twitter.com/MaureenEBoyle1

Find out more about her on her website https://www.maureenboylewriter.com/

PRAISE FOR THE GHOST

“Maureen Boyle’s journalism experience shines in her impeccably researched books–and her storytelling skills are stellar!”

Hank Phillippi Ryan USA Today Bestselling Author

“The author of Shallow Graves does it again. With the trained eye of a seasoned police reporter, Maureen Boyle gathers the pertinent facts, amassing details and connecting the dots as she chronicles the search for a cop killer with mob ties and many aliases who eluded the law for decades. The Ghost is another meticulous work of true-crime narrative nonfiction from a journalist who always gets it right. The Ghost is a haunting story of justice delayed but never forgotten.”

Irene Virag, Pulitzer Prize -winning reporter and assistant dean at Stony Brook University

“Gripping! Incredible storytelling. Maureen has a way of taking you through every moment of this real-life drama. A story told with compassionate truth, and dazzling detail.” or you can shorten to: “Gripping! A story told with compassionate truth and dazzling detail.”

Jerry Penacoli, former host of Extra!

“Maureen Boyle is everything a true crime writer should be. Tenacious. Unrelenting. And empathetic. Her new book The Ghost examines the nationwide manhunt for a low-level wannabe mobster on the run from the longest cold case murder in history — the brutal execution of a young police officer in a tiny Pennsylvania town. It is a riveting thriller that takes us on this chase for the man the FBI called a ‘flashy dresser, a lover of dogs, and a big tipper,'” . . . I cannot recommend it enough.”

Michele McPhee, author of Mayhem, A Mob Story, When Evil Rules,

“It may seem the work of fiction that a career criminal, having committed a notorious murder and under pursuit by multiple police agencies, could simply disappear. Yet it happened, and Maureen Boyle’s compelling narrative of this real-life “ghost,” and the close calls and frustrations of police who so badly wanted to nab him, will keep you reading as you, too, wonder how one can apparently vanish from the earth. This engrossing book, all true, will make you feel as if you are yourself part of the chase. Buckle up.”

Gary Craig, author Seven Million: A Cop, a Priest, a Soldier for the IRA and the Still Unsolved Rochester Brink’s Heist

“Meticulously reported and beautifully written, with tragic characters and bizarre plot twists that would be hard to believe if they weren’t real. Once again, Maureen Boyle’s superb journalistic skills have produced a gripping and unforgettable true-crime story that you won’t be able to put down.”

Elaine McArdle, co-author of The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind, The Migraine Brain and senior editor at UU World magazine.

“Boyle once again demonstrates her gifts for meticulous reporting and gripping narrative while never losing sight of the real human lives and emotions at stake. Ghost is as compelling — and cautionary — as true-crime gets.”
Chris Gonsalves, author of Haunted Love

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