Born in Brooklyn in 1906, he attended the legendary Erasmus Hall High School in Flatbush. As was common in his day, he did not attend college before entering law school. He graduated from Fordham Law School (also my alma mater) in the rather inauspicious year of 1929. Within a few years, he was hired to be an Assistant District Attorney in his home borough. By the 1940s, he had become one of the Brooklyn D.A.’s chief homicide prosecutors. My father has told me about going to court as a boy and watching him try cases.

My grandfather while trying a murder case in a Brooklyn courtroom (circa late 1940s)

As an officer in the U.S. Navy, during World War II

Recently, I found a box of courtroom transcripts and legal papers from murders that he prosecuted in the 1940s and 1950s. In among the yellowed documents detailing mid-century murder trials was a six-page affidavit, filed with the Kings County Court in April 1950, regarding a manslaughter case my grandfather had prosecuted the previous fall. The defendant, a man named John P. Hart, had been convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Months after the sentencing, a front-page headline in “a certain afternoon newspaper” criticized the sentence as insufficiently severe. As evidenced by the affidavit, my grandfather felt compelled to set the record straight in some public and lasting way. For as he concludes, “I think it is a very bad thing to allow the public to go on believing that perhaps the story that originated in this afternoon paper did reflect a true picture; and while it will not do anything to bring back the deceased, it will at least keep the record straight and let people know that the Courts are very jealous of their reputation, and that the Office of the District Attorney certainly is not going to leave unchallenged any attack on its integrity.”

Notwithstanding how long ago the murder occurred, its obscurity in the annals of Brooklyn homicides, and that likelihood that everyone who was once personally invested in this case is no longer with us, I found it a powerful and inspiring piece of writing. The complete affidavit is below.

USA-book on Norwegian crime

The American screenwriter Matthew McGough is writing a book about the Munch theft and NOKAS robbery.

The American heard about the Munch theft in 2005. As he was interested in art he became intrigued by the story, which eventually ended well.

“The investigation has showed that the Munch theft and NOKAS robberies are connected, and thus I became interested in both crimes,” McGough told Dagbladet.

Gathering information

The book will be released in the U.S., but Matthew McGough so far have much research and follow-up again.

“This is the third time I am in Norway to gather information. I’ll talk to the police and other people related to the investigation,” says McGough.

“After the Mona Lisa, The Scream is the world’s most famous painting. The theft from the Munch Museum was a world headline.  I visited the museum after the theft, and was stunned by the security.  It was like checking into an airport,” said McGough.

As he was interested in art and later as a friend of Norway, he followed both the Munch theft and eventually the NOKAS robbery, as it turned out that they had branches to each other.

“This is not fiction, but a documentary, non-fiction book,” he says.

Fascinating crime mystery

McGough is trained as a lawyer, but works as a screenwriter for Wolf Films and NBC Universal with the TV drama series “Law & Order,” known in Norway as “Law & Order in New York.”

“This is something different than writing television.  I do not mix these cards, and I have not yet been inspired to create a screenplay of the thefts.  But together I think these two crimes make for a fascinating true crime story.”

Recorded in 2003 before a live audience in New York City.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmYDtdAjblQ

Matthew McGough – My First Day with the Yankees (right-click to download as mp3)

As for the game itself, Scott Sanderson started for New York and Roger Clemens for Boston. The 1992 Yankees’ Opening Day lineup:

1. Randy Velarde SS
2. Don Mattingly 1B
3. Roberto Kelly CF
4. Mel Hall LF
5. Danny Tartabull DH
6. Matt Nokes C
7. Jesse Barfield RF
8. Charlie Hayes 3B
9. Pat Kelly 2B

This clip below from that day’s TV broadcast likely aired just as I was walking back to the clubhouse, ready to concede defeat in my quest for a left-handed bat-stretcher. In hindsight, I’m lucky I didn’t interrupt DeWayne Staats to ask if he’d seen one, or otherwise appear in the background looking lost and clueless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo7mpxG5mlM

Though the Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-3 to start the 1992 season with a win, they finished 76-86, 20 games behind the Blue Jays, who eventually won the World Series. No one would have bet on it at the time, but the Yankees have not had a losing season since.

Madonna and Scream on September 1, 2006