“Oh, God!” Matt howled, and dropped to his knees and cradled her limp body in his arms.
“You wanted to see me, Mr. Mayor?” Inspector Peter Wohl asked, standing in the open door to the mayor’s private office in City Hall.
“You took your sweet goddamn time getting here, Peter,” Jerry Carlucci snapped.
“I didn’t think you wanted me to turn on the lights and siren, sir.”
“Don’t smart-mouth me, Peter!”
“No, sir.”
“Have you seen this?” Carlucci said, sliding the Philadelphia Bulletin across his massive desk toward Wohl.
Wohl glanced at it.
“I haven’t had a chance to read it, sir. I heard about it.”
“Read it. Improve your mind,” Carlucci said.
“Yes, sir.”
Wohl picked up the newspaper, and read the lead story:
“COLD-BLOODED TERRORIST” MURDERS FBI INFORMANT MOMENTS BEFORE HE FALLS TO FBI’S BULLETS IN BLOODY DOYLESTOWN GUN BATTLE; SPECTATOR WOUNDED IN HAIL OF GUNFIRE
by Michael J. O’Hara
Bulletin Staff Writer
Doylestown, Bucks County—Bryan C. Chenowith, described by the FBI as a “cold-blooded terrorist,” was shot to death shortly after 7:00 P.M. last night by FBI Agent John D. Matthews in the parking lot of the Crossroads Diner here moments after Chenowith machine-gunned to death Susan Reynolds, 27, of Camp Hill, Pa., who FBI officials described as a “public-spirited citizen” who had been assisting the authorities in their years-long, nationwide search for Chenowith and his associates.
Mrs. Deborah G. Dannmeir, 24, of Upper Black Eddy, who was using an outdoor pay telephone when the shooting erupted, was struck by one of the bullets fired from Chenowith’s fully automatic .30-caliber military carbine. She is reported in “satisfactory” condition at Bucks County Hospital.
Chenowith; his common-law wife, Jennifer Ollwood, who was apprehended by Philadelphia Detective Matthew M. Payne at the scene of the gun battle; Edgar L. Cole; and Eloise Anne Fitzgerald were indicted for murder following the bombing of the Biological Sciences building at the University of Pittsburgh, in which eleven people lost their lives. “The Chenowith Group” has been the target of an intense nationwide FBI search ever since.
Cole and Fitzgerald were arrested without incident at approximately 9:00 P.M. last evening at a remote Bucks County farmhouse to which Miss Reynolds, shortly before her death, had directed Detective Payne. Miss Reynolds, according to the FBI, had known the women at Bennington College, Vermont. She was an appeals officer with the Pennsylvania Department of Social Services in Harrisburg.
According to Walter Davis, Special Agent in Charge of the Philadelphia Office of the FBI, the Chenowith Group had turned to bank robbery, and said “there is incontrovertible evidence” that Chenowith, masquerading as a woman, had in the past few weeks robbed banks in Riegelsville, Pa., Clinton, N.J., and elsewhere.
“The Chenowith Group was armed with fully automatic weapons,” Davis said, “stolen from the National Guard at Indiantown Gap, and was clearly prepared to use them. Both Special Agent Matthews and Detective Payne knew this. It is clear proof of their courage and devotion to the public’s safety that they attempted to apprehend a criminal like Mr. Chenowith, disregarding the risk to their own lives.”
Davis went on to explain that
there had been no way, given the circumstances, that either Matthews or Payne could have requested assistance.
“I can’t, of course, go into the details leading up to this incident,” Davis said, “except that it was one more example of the close cooperation between the FBI and the Philadelphia Police Department.”
Inspector Peter Wohl, commanding officer of the Special Operations Division of the Philadelphia Police Department, to which Detective Payne is assigned, declined to comment on the shooting, or on Detective Payne’s performance, stating that the case was under review.
“Yes, sir?” Peter asked, looking at the mayor when he had finished.
“What’s the matter with you, Inspector, cat got your goddamn tongue?”
“Sir?”
“ ‘Inspector Peter Wohl declined to comment,’ ” Carlucci quoted in a high falsetto.
“What was I supposed to say?”