And Washington had even called Coughlin by his first name.
What the hell is this all about? Why are all these people sitting around here getting smashed?
“How could we stop you?” Mickey O’Hara asked.
Washington continued, “With the given that Sergeant Jack Moffitt was a good street cop, that Captain Dutch Moffitt was a good street cop, and that Officer Charlton had survived almost to retirement as a street cop, what mistake-indeed, what fatal mistake-did all three of them make?”
“They weren’t as good as they thought they were?” Mickey asked.
“Close, Michael,” Washington said.
“Oh, shit, not that ‘they didn’t turn over the rock under the rock’ crap again,” Tony Harris said.
“Yes, indeed,” Washington said. “That ‘turn over the rock under the rock’ crap again. If Sergeant Moffitt had looked around the gas station one more time, if Dutch had looked around the Waikiki Diner one more time, if Charlton had taken one more look…”
“I don’t think that’s such a profound observation, Jason,” Coughlin said.
“More like self-evident,” Lowenstein said.
“I was trying to make the point for Matt’s edification,” Washington said.
Coughlin looked at him, then at Matt.
“He’s right, Matty,” he said. “Pay attention.”
“Yes, sir,” Matt said.
“Would you like to see how your names will appear in tomorrow’s Bulletin?” Mickey asked. “Or shall we go back to discussing Mother Moffitt?”
He took several sheets of paper from his inside jacket pocket and swung them back and forth.
“Curiosity underwhelms me,” Wohl said, and held his hand out for the sheets of paper.
Slug-Mayor Forms Double Murder Task Force
(Jack, don’t bury this with the underwear ads. These slimeballs need catching. AND USE THE PICTURES)
By Michael J. O’HaraBulletin Staff Writer
Photos by Jack WeinbergBulletin Photographer
Philadelphia-Mayor Alvin W. Martin, surrounded by the heavy hitters of the Philadelphia Police Department, and standing not far from where the body of Officer Kenneth Charlton lay in state in the Monti Funeral Home in the 2500 block of South Broad Street, this afternoon announced the formation of a special police task force to bring the two men who murdered Charlton and Mrs. Maria M. Fernandez during the robbery Sunday evening of the Roy Rogers restaurant on South Broad Street.
“Both a citizen-a single mother of three-and a police officer have lost their lives as a result of a brutal attack that affects not only their grieving survivors but every citizen of Philadelphia,” the mayor said, adding: “This sort of outrage cannot be tolerated, and it will not be.”
(Photo 1 L-R, Lowenstein, Mari
ani, Martin, Coughlin) Flanked by Police Commissioner Ralph J. Mariani, Deputy Commissioner Dennis V. Coughlin, and Chief Inspector of Detectives Matthew Lowenstein, Martin announced that Inspector Peter F. Wohl, the highly regarded commanding officer of the Special Operations Division, would head the task force.
(Photo 2 L-R, Washington, Wohl, and Harris) Speaking to this reporter later, Inspector Wohl said it was not his intention to take over the investigation from Lieutenant Jason Washington, “who is beyond question the most skilled homicide investigator I know of,” but rather to “ensure that Lieutenant Washington and his able team leader, Detective Anthony Harris, get whatever assistance they need from not only Special Operations, but the entire police department, so these criminals can be quickly removed from our streets.”
(Photo 3 L-R, Sabara, Wohl, Pekach, Sgt M. M. Payne, and Capt F. X. Hollaran) Wohl’s deputy, Captain Michael J. Sabara, and Captain David R. Pekach, commanding officer of the elite Highway Patrol, nodded their agreement with both Wohl’s cold determination and with his explanation of the difficulty sometimes encountered-as now-in identifying the perpetrators of a crime.
“The patrons of the Roy Rogers restaurant were terrorized by the cold brutality of these criminals. Shots were fired. Two people were killed, and everyone else’s life was in danger. It’s regrettable, but I think very understandable, that the horrified witnesses can’t really agree on a description of the men we seek.
“This is not to say that we won’t apprehend them, and soon, but that it will take a bit longer than we like.”
Wohl went on to say that “it’s only in the movies that a fingerprint lifted from the scene of a crime can be quickly matched with that of a criminal whose identity is unknown. There are hundreds of thousands of fingerprints in our files, millions in those of the FBI, and the prints we have in our possession will have to be matched to them one at a time until we get a match.”