The Murderers (Badge of Honor 6)
It was the consensus that while nothing incriminating had been found on the tapes, it was suspicious
(a) that Officer Kellog had carefully recorded his telephone conversations with other officers of Five Squad;
(b) that the conversations had used sort of a code to describe both past activity and planned activity.
It was also agreed, based on Inspector Wohl’s assessment of the reaction of Mrs. Kellog at the time, and on a conversation Staff Inspector Weisbach had had with Detective Milham concerning his wife, that
(a) there had indeed been a life-threatening telephone call to the former Mrs. Kellog shortly after her husband’s murder;
(b) that it was reasonable to presume that this call had come from someone on the Narcotics Squad.
Staff Inspector Weisbach also reported that, somewhat reluctantly, Captain David Pekach had come to him with conjecture concerning how members of the Narcotics Five Squad could illegally profit from the performance, or non-performance, of their official duties.
It was Captain Pekach’s opinion that—and official statistics regarding arrests in the area supported this position; the number of “good” arrests resulting in court convictions was extraordinary—the Narcotics Five Squad was not taking payments from drug dealers or others to ignore their criminal activities.
That left one possibility. That, if there was dishonest activity going on, it took place during raids and arrests. Inspector Weisbach felt that the number of times raids and arrests were conducted without support from other police units, the districts, Highway Patrol, and ACT teams was unusual.
With no one present during a raid or arrest but fellow members of the Narcotics Five Squad, Captain Pekach said, it was possible that the Narcotics Five Squad was illegally diverting, to their own use, part of the cash and other valuables which would be subject to seizure before it was entered on a property receipt.
“Shit,” the Mayor of Philadelphia said, confident that he was among friends and that his vulgarity would not become public, and also because he had really stopped being, for the moment, Mayor and was in his cop role. “That’s enough to go on. I want those dirty bastards. The only thing worse than a drug dealer is a dirty cop letting the bastards get away with it. Get them, Peter. Lowenstein will give you whatever help you need.”
“Yes, sir,” Inspector Wohl said.
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The Bennington Wumnae News
Philadelphia Regional Chapter
BY PATIENCE DAWES MILLER ’70
All of her many friends were saddened to learn of the death of Penelope Alice Detweiler ’71, who passed at her home after a short illness May 21.Penny is survived by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. H. Richard Detweiler (Grace Wilson Thorney ’47) of Chestnut Hill, and her fiancé, Matthew Mark Payne.
Funeral services were held at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, with interment following in the Detweiler tomb in the Merion Cemetery.
But there was good news, too, from Philadelphia. Mr. and Mrs. Chadwick Thomas Nesbitt IV (Daphne Elizabeth Browne ’71) are the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl. The child, their first, was christened Penelope Alice at St. Mark’s with Amanda Chase Spencer (’71) and Matthew Mark Payne as godparents.
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