Awards

• Short-listed for Edgar Allan Poe Awards (Fact Crime) 1997

Overview

Jim Fisher, criminal justice professor and former FBI agent, reveals how he uncovered the framing of two boys in a pair of unrelated murders committed in 1956 and 1958. In the first of the cases, eleven-year-old Charlie Zubryd confessed that at the age of eight, he had murdered his widowed mother by driving a hatchet into her skull. The crime was committed in the basement of the modest Zubryd home in a rural section of Sewickley Township in western Pennsylvania, an area not far from Pittsburgh. Following intense police questioning, young Zubryd confessed to the crime in March 1959, a full twenty-eight months after the bloody murder of his mother. Too young to prosecute, Charlie Zubryd was adopted after his confession and a brief stay in a mental ward. A childless couple gave Zubryd a new name and identity. It would be twenty years before Charlie Zubryd--now going by the name Chuck Duffy--would have any contact with his biological family. When Zubryd/Duffy made an effort to get his real family back, he was rejected because his relatives still believed he had murdered his mother. In fact, until Fisher began to investigate the case in 1989, Chuck Duffy himself was not sure he had not killed his mother during some kind of mental blackout. The second murder occurred in 1958, two years after the Zubryd case. Thirteen-year-old Jerry Pacek endured forty-one hours of police grilling before he confessed to raping and killing fifty-year-old Lillian Steveck as she walked home one evening from a bus stop in Breckenridge, Pennsylvania. Pacek told the same Allegheny County homicide detective who had framed Charlie Zubryd that he had killed the woman with a variety of blunt objects, none of which were ever found. The thirteen-year-old boy was tried and convicted of the murder the following spring. He was sent to Camp Hill Prison, where he remained incarcerated for ten years. Fisher's investigation cleared the names of both the wrongfully accused boys. Because of his investigation, the Zubryd case was reopened, which led to the identification of a vicious killer. In 1991, Fisher's investigative efforts convinced the governor of Pennsylvania to grant a full pardon to Jerry Pacek, who as a teenager had served ten years in an adult prison for a murder he had not committed. Jim Fisher and the Zubryd and Pacek stories have been featured on a number of nationally broadcast television programs.

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Reviews

Jim Fisher takes readers through the detailed paces of his investigation that ultimately proved that two boys accused of unrelated murders in 1956 and 1958 were forced to make false confessions and take the rap as a political expediency. . . . Fisher's book helps unravel the long-standing mysteries about the cases that became front-page stories because of the brutality of the murders and the age of the suspects. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette This is fascinating reading, and it makes readers wonder about the many miscarriages of justice that result in the punishment of innocents, not to mention the unpunished crimes of the guilty. Fall Guys provides a meticulous anatomy of these outrages. -- Rapport A gripping account. . . . While today's legal process often seems lost in loopholes and deals, this tale reminds readers that there really are miscarriages of justice. Fisher's righting of two terrible wrongs is a remarkable act of generosity, and his narrative of those events is haunting and worthwhile. -- Kirkus Reviews Criminology professor Fisher, a former FBI agent, has written a compelling account of his investigation into two seemingly unrelated murder cases in towns near Pittsburgh during the 1950s. . . . Fisher is both an excellent investigator and a smart writer, capably combining the details of his research with a vivid recreation of the past. Most of all, he shows a fine sensitivity to human tragedies and shattered lives reverberating through the years. -- Publishers Weekly This is fascinating reading, and it makes readers wonder about the many miscarriages of justice that result in the punishment of innocents, not to mention the unpunished crimes of the guilty. Fall Guys provides a meticulous anatomy of these outrages. Rapport A gripping account. . . . While today's legal process often seems lost in loopholes and deals, this tale reminds readers that there really are miscarriages of justice. Fisher's righting of two terrible wrongs is a remarkable act of generosity, and his narrative of those events is haunting and worthwhile. Kirkus Reviews Criminology professor Fisher, a former FBI agent, has written a compelling account of his investigation into two seemingly unrelated murder cases in towns near Pittsburgh during the 1950s. . . . Fisher is both an excellent investigator and a smart writer, capably combining the details of his research with a vivid recreation of the past. Most of all, he shows a fine sensitivity to human tragedies and shattered lives reverberating through the years. Publishers Weekly

<p> This is fascinating reading, and it makes readers wonder about the many miscarriages of justice that result in the punishment of innocents, not to mention the unpunished crimes of the guilty. Fall Guys provides a meticulous anatomy of these outrages. -- Rapport

A gripping account. . . . While today's legal process often seems lost in loopholes and deals, this tale reminds readers that there really are miscarriages of justice. Fisher's righting of two terrible wrongs is a remarkable act of generosity, and his narrative of those events is haunting and worthwhile. -- Kirkus Reviews <br> Criminology professor Fisher, a former FBI agent, has written a compelling account of his investigation into two seemingly unrelated murder cases in towns near Pittsburgh during the 1950s. . . . Fisher is both an excellent investigator and a smart writer, capably combining the details of his research with a vivid recreation of the past. Most of all, he shows a fine sensitivity to human tragedies and shattered lives reverberating through the years. -- Publishers Weekly <br>

""A gripping account. . . . While today's legal process often seems lost in loopholes and deals, this tale reminds readers that there really are miscarriages of justice. Fisher's righting of two terrible wrongs is a remarkable act of generosity, and his narrative of those events is haunting and worthwhile.""--Kirkus Reviews ""Criminology professor Fisher, a former FBI agent, has written a compelling account of his investigation into two seemingly unrelated murder cases in towns near Pittsburgh during the 1950s. . . . Fisher is both an excellent investigator and a smart writer, capably combining the details of his research with a vivid recreation of the past. Most of all, he shows a fine sensitivity to human tragedies and shattered lives reverberating through the years.""--Publishers Weekly ""This is fascinating reading, and it makes readers wonder about the many miscarriages of justice that result in the punishment of innocents, not to mention the unpunished crimes of the guilty. Fall Guys provides a meticulous anatomy of these outrages.""--Rapport ""Jim Fisher takes readers through the detailed paces of his investigation that ultimately proved that two boys accused of unrelated murders in 1956 and 1958 were forced to make false confessions and take the rap as a political expediency. . . . Fisher's book helps unravel the long-standing mysteries about the cases that became front-page stories because of the brutality of the murders and the age of the suspects."" --Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A gripping account of the serendipitous investigation that uncovers two miscarriages of justice that branded innocent boys as killers. While doing some unrelated research in 1989, criminology professor (Edinboro Univ.) and former FBI agent Fisher came across the case of 11-year-old Charlie Zubryd, who confessed to the hatchet murder of his mother Helen 28 months after its occurrence in 1956 in Sewickley Township, Penn. Inconsistencies in evidence reports, the delay in gaining a confession, and Fisher's doubt that an eight-year old could drive a hatchet five inches into a skull led Fisher to investigate. Eventually, he found that the boy had been coerced into his confession by an overzealous homicide detective - the same man who would oversee the false confession of a second minor, 13-year-old Jerry Pacek, in another woman's murder. Unsatisfied with demonstrating that the two boys were innocent, Fisher began hunting for the true killers; his findings comprise the last part of the book. As in his previous book (The Lindbergh Case, 1987), Fisher is deliberate in unraveling evidence: Conversations are recounted at length, evidence is carefully gathered and described. Zubryd and Pacek are victims of a manipulative, fame-seeking detective, but they are not presented as Victims of Society. Except for one transforming event that stole their childhood, they are men who would likely have lived out their lives without incident. Fisher's precise reporting also lends an effective sense of place: Descriptions of a funeral home, of houses, courts, and street comers, all conjure up mid-century Pittsburgh and the mill towns that surrounded it. While today's legal process often seems lost in loopholes and deals, this tale reminds readers that there really are miscarriages of justice. Fisher's righting of two terrible wrongs is a remarkable act of generosity; and his narrative of those events is haunting and worthwhile. (Kirkus Reviews)

A gripping account. . . . While today's legal process often seems lost in loopholes and deals, this tale reminds readers that there really are miscarriages of justice. Fisher's righting of two terrible wrongs is a remarkable act of generosity, and his narrative of those events is haunting and worthwhile. Kirkus Reviews Criminology professor Fisher, a former FBI agent, has written a compelling account of his investigation into two seemingly unrelated murder cases in towns near Pittsburgh during the 1950s. . . . Fisher is both an excellent investigator and a smart writer, capably combining the details of his research with a vivid recreation of the past. Most of all, he shows a fine sensitivity to human tragedies and shattered lives reverberating through the years. Publishers Weekly

Jim Fisher takes readers through the detailed paces of his investigation that ultimately proved that two boys accused of unrelated murders in 1956 and 1958 were forced to make false confessions and take the rap as a political expediency. . . . Fisher's book helps unravel the long-standing mysteries about the cases that became front-page stories because of the brutality of the murders and the age of the suspects. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette A gripping account. . . . While today's legal process often seems lost in loopholes and deals, this tale reminds readers that there really are miscarriages of justice. Fisher's righting of two terrible wrongs is a remarkable act of generosity, and his narrative of those events is haunting and worthwhile. Kirkus Reviews Criminology professor Fisher, a former FBI agent, has written a compelling account of his investigation into two seemingly unrelated murder cases in towns near Pittsburgh during the 1950s. . . . Fisher is both an excellent investigator and a smart writer, capably combining the details of his research with a vivid recreation of the past. Most of all, he shows a fine sensitivity to human tragedies and shattered lives reverberating through the years. Publishers Weekly This is fascinating reading, and it makes readers wonder about the many miscarriages of justice that result in the punishment of innocents, not to mention the unpunished crimes of the guilty. Fall Guys provides a meticulous anatomy of these outrages. Rapport A gripping account. . . . While today's legal process often seems lost in loopholes and deals, this tale reminds readers that there really are miscarriages of justice. Fisher's righting of two terrible wrongs is a remarkable act of generosity, and his narrative of those events is haunting and worthwhile. -- Kirkus Reviews Criminology professor Fisher, a former FBI agent, has written a compelling account of his investigation into two seemingly unrelated murder cases in towns near Pittsburgh during the 1950s. . . . Fisher is both an excellent investigator and a smart writer, capably combining the details of his research with a vivid recreation of the past. Most of all, he shows a fine sensitivity to human tragedies and shattered lives reverberating through the years. -- Publishers Weekly This is fascinating reading, and it makes readers wonder about the many miscarriages of justice that result in the punishment of innocents, not to mention the unpunished crimes of the guilty. Fall Guys provides a meticulous anatomy of these outrages. -- Rapport

Author Information

Jim Fisher is a professor of criminal justice at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. His other books include The Lindbergh Case. He was a special agent for the FBI from 1966 to 1972.

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