Delayed Justice: Inside Stories from America's Best Cold Case Investigations

by Jack Branson, Mary Branson

In 1988, a 29-year-old preschool fitness teacher, Julie Love, left the Atlanta home of her fiance and was never again seen alive. A year later her skeletal remains were found in a trash dump.

In 1995, the body of 42-year-old Gary Clark was discovered in a wooded lot about three miles south of Madisonville, Kentucky. He had been killed at another location by a single gunshot wound and his body dumped in the woods.

In both cases, the police initially found no leads or physical evidence.

These are just two examples of cold cases—crimes that stymie investigators and sometimes remain unsolved for many years. But for the painstaking, dedicated work of law enforcement professionals who reinvestigate and revive cases that others once abandoned, justice might never be served and lack of closure forever torment the families and friends of crime victims.

Delayed Justice documents the heroic efforts of some of the nation's most prolific cold case detectives. In collaboration with authors Jack and Mary Branson, these professionals share their insights, skills, and resources, using their most compelling cold cases as illustrations.

The authors examine how cold case investigations differ from standard investigations and why cold case detectives sometimes have success where earlier investigators failed. They also discuss some of the pitfalls of reopening long-unsolved crimes, such as lost or compromised evidence and the difficulty of getting accurate information from witnesses who must rely on fading memories. Looking to the future, the authors discuss new technology that may someday allow investigators to drastically enhance surveillance videos and create a facial recognition database as accurate as DNA analysis and fingerprints.

Both true crime readers and fellow law enforcement professionals will find the stories and expert insights described in this book to be fascinating and instructive.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

301 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 2 out of 5]

I returned this book to the library with some notes still inside so I only have about the beginning half of what I wanted to say about this book.
The one word that comes to mind when I think of this book is - "redundant". It's extremely, extremely, extremely repetitive. I really can't express how much is repeated throughtout the book. In some cases the information is meaningless and is some cases it's repeated on the same page.
I thought the book was going to detail, to different extents maybe, different cold cases and the results. Instead it seems to be some sort of how-to manual. I don't know how many people sit around at home pondering becoming cold-case detectives but if they're out there I'm fairly sure the first step in the process isn't to go buy a book. But hey, what do I know.
There are cases included of course, some even get fairly detailed which is what I like, and others are little more than outlined.
I was curious about one thing - one of the stories involved a few Navy officers as victims and one of them was hit with a baseball bat that had nails driven into it. The authors called this a "mace". I always understood "mace" to be a chemical spray.
Another thing that slightly bothered me was a race issue, a slight one I'll admit. When talking about the "last" (documented) racially motivated lynching that happened in GA. in 1946 the authors went to extreme lengths to make sure the reader was aware that the victims were black, the perpetrators white. Okay. My problem comes when you move on to others stories, like what happened in GA. in 1988 where a white woman was snatched off the street by two black men and one black woman. It's obvious from context clues what the races of these people were but the authors didn't seem nearly as determined to make it known. Not like when it was flipped and the victims were black.
Anyone who knows me or reads reviews of mine knows I'm sensitive to racial issues - either way it's spliced. But even knowing that the facts are right there in the book. When the victims were black it was made well known, when the suspects were black it was glossed over. That doesn't sit well with me and it wouldn't sit well with me if it was the other way around either.
Lastly, before I read this I read The Autobiography of an Execution by David R. Dow. I didn't like it at all and the reasons why are stated in my review. Dow believes death penalty supporters are out for "revenge". There is a quote included in Delayed Justice: Inside Stories from America's Best Cold Case Investigators by Francis Bacon, "If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us." It's fitting to me for numerous reasons.
Jack & Mary Branson also stated, very near to the quote, that "Revenge is personal, justice belongs to society." I very much agree with this.
I can't say I'd recommend this to anyone. There have to be better cold-case books out there. (I'm open to recommendations as this is a fascinating subject for me.)
If you read this make it at a time where you have an extreme amount of patience because it almost feels like parts were written for an elementary school child to read.

[Jennifer Short · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't able to finish this book - I really tried, and just kept picking it up and putting it down. Although it was an interesting topic, and the author obviously did a lot of research, the book seemed to be rather disjointed and repetitive.

I didn't like how he would present a topic, briefly describe a list of items in that topic, and then repeat all those items again with more detail - why not give either a concise listing (like a table of contents in each section) before the detailed information or else just provide all the info at the beginning?

And, I also found that he would present the same cold cases over and over - sometimes it was the same information that was presented in a previous chapter, and sometimes different information. I realize the whole point of the book was to present how a cold case is approached and worked, but the way in which the cases and information were presented just felt disorganized in the approach and repetitive in the information that I kept reading.

The book just didn't hold my interest, and after only reading half of it I felt like I had already read everything the author had to say a couple of times.

[Meaghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. I don't think this book was very well presented. From the dust jacket material I thought it would be a collection of stories about cold cases and how, after years or decades, they were solved (or not solved). But, while such stories were certainly in there, the book was more like a collection of lists: lists of reasons why cases become cold, reasons why a cold case can suddenly heat up again, new advances in forensic science that help cold cases, ways to re-activate a cold case, etc. There's nothing wrong with this and much of what the book said was interesting, but it wasn't what I was looking for.

[Pamela Beason · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a compendium of cold cases solved over the years by DNA advances, confessions, and witnesses finally deciding to come forward. As a mystery author, I wanted to hear some more of the "fight for justice" aspects, which probably is not really fair. But as a private investigator and mystery author, I did find it interesting to see how cold cases typically get resolved (if they do at all), and the book is very well written.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Inconsistent writing style, a LOT of redundancy. Interesting but not enough info on the cases.

[T.A. Henry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delayed Justice: Inside Stories From America’s Best Cold Case Investigators by Jack and Mary Branson is less story and more how to. They use examples from solved cold case files handled by different police and federal agencies to suggest an appropriate method of solving cold cases.

The book itself was a touch repetitive outside of the things said by the detectives and agents they interviewed. This was definitively written for the arm chair detective who’s retired and got caught up in the true crime channel.

It’s a solid book that fills a very small niche. This is not popular reading in my opinion.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I thought it would be. More of a manual/reference guide to resources and techniques to solve cold cases. There were some short case histories but my morbid self was expecting more in depth case studies. Not to take away from the book, just not what I expected.