Which story is better?
In one case a suspect had killed six people. His defense attorney asked me if when his confession was given, had I taken notes. I told him, no, that I had just been babysitting while the other detectives took a break.
He asked, ‘Do you mean to tell me that you’re relying on your memory of what my client said?”
Boom! I sucked him right in. “Well, in my twenty-five years as a detective I have never interviewed a mass murderer before.”
“Your honor, I object!” snapped the lawyer.
The judge said, “You asked the question, counselor.”
I was in the apartment next door on the phone and he wouldn’t let me talk to her.
About fourteen hours later he said, “Why do you want to talk with her?”
I said, “I just want to make sure she’s alright.”
He said, “Alright.”
She finally got on the phone. I said to her, “This is the police.”
She said, “Yeah?”
I said, “What is wrong with you! Shut up!”
“But he said…”
“I don’t care!” I was screaming. We’re not suposed to lose control like that, but I was screaming at her. “I don’t care what he said! Agree with anything he says! The idea is to get you and your child out of that apartment!”
“But he said…”
When she said that to me, I gott more crazy, and started just screaming at her. Finally, she started crying. It shook me that I lost control there. I backed down.
I said, “I’m sorry. Let’s agree with anything he says, because we’re not going to let him do all this stuff. Just agree so we can get him out.”
He put the gun down and started talking about coming out, saying, “When I get her, I’m going to do this.”
And she’d start, “No you’re not!” And then the fight would start all over again.
I finally talked him into coming out. Coming out came be very dangerous.
I told him that day, “you have to listen to everything I tell you to do. You can’t deviate because there are so many cops out in this hall and they all have guns.”
When they come out they can often seem quite calm, but when they see weapons all over they freak.
She just kept with the mouth. By the time this guy came out 14 hours had passed since it started. When he did I was screaming final instructions. We were in a housing project. -I knew on the phone he was mad at me the whole last hour.
He came out backwards, like I instructed. They handcuffed him. When he turned around he gave me such a violent look. I touched his arm, told him everything was going to be alright. He pulled away. He was MAD!