“Outstanding, Shelle.”
Mickey puts his arm around his wife and kisses her on the cheek. “Love ya!”
“Love ya too, Mick.”
“Let’s get outta here, Shelle. We’ll talk in the car.”
Michelle steers her new company car, a black-on-black Explorer, out of her “preferred parking space” and follows the signs to north I-95.
Epilogue
“God takes no part in the bad designs of men.”
Irish Proverb
Michael Odysseus spent his first night back in Philly in a cell at the Police Detention Unit in the basement of Headquarters. The following day he was transported to an undisclosed high-security federal facility to serve out his five consecutive life sentences. Authorities confirmed that Odysseus remained tight lipped and refused to cooperate with authorities concerning his possible involvement in the Drum homicide or any of his activities while on the run over the past five years.
Knowing Odysseus the way he does, Mickey is convinced that “The Greek’s” ego is much too large to remain in check very long. It’s that character flaw that will eventually be his Achilles’ heel.
On Tuesday, May 28, Philadelphia’s police commissioner scheduled an eleven o’clock press conference in PPD Headquarters’ first-floor auditorium. The advance press release hinted at the commissioner making a major announcement concerning the arrest of a long-sought-after cop killer.
The commissioner hoping to take full credit for the capture of “The Greek” decided to disinvite Captain Mickey Devlin, who deserves the recognition. However, not being invited didn’t upset Mickey one iota.
The PC’s news conference quickly went south during his opening remarks. Once again, the PPD’s Top Cop was, as one media outlet later described it, “talking out of both sides of his ass.” And a local anchor was heard talking to her cameraman, “That press conference was a joke. The commissioner is obviously trying to take credit for something everyone here knows he had nothing to do with.”
One of many character flaws the PC has is his inability to handle criticism, especially from a probing media. So it was only a matter of time before he’d lash out. Therefore, it took less than an hour for him to lash out at Mickey. Once back in his office, surrounded by his entourage, he accused Mickey of conspiring with his friends in the media. “Devlin and that damn flunky of his, that Cunay, sabotaged my press conference. He does this shit all the time.”
In true form, the commissioner cancelled Mickey’s request for two days off to recuperate from his injuries. He also told Deputy Commissioner Lester Thomas not to reimburse Mickey for his “out of pocket” expenses while in Ireland. That was music to the ears of Lester “it’s my money” Thomas. The commissioner also ordered Mickey, in writing, not to speak to the media concerning his trip to Dublin.
Under pressure from the FOP, the commissioner relented and permitted Mickey to take time off, had Police Personnel classify that time as “injured on duty,” and told Deputy Thomas to “write the son of a bitch a damn check.” However, he refused to lift Mickey’s gag order.
No one was really surprised at the PC’s initial overreaction, including Mickey, who took it all in stride. Mickey withdrew his request for time off and reported to CIB that night an hour early.
On the morning of the commissioner’s news conference Michelle Cunay published the first installment of her exclusive three-part exposé, “Dublin Odyssey,” words gotten from the blood-splattered Michael Odysseus memo pad found at the Jerry Drum crime scene. The scene that helped catapult Mickey Devlin on a five-day journey to the land of his ancestors, Ireland. The exposé that did not sit well with the West Wing.
The night prior to the release of Michelle Cunay’s exposé, Mickey kept his promise to his friend Doc Steinberg. So Doc wouldn’t find out about Mickey’s Dublin experiences in the newspaper, he hand delivered an advance copy of Michelle’s exposé to his friend’s home.
During that visit, Doc Steinberg shared with Mickey his proposal to a New York publishing house for his next book. Switching gears, he was delving into the world of historical whodunit fiction. The proposed novel was about a veteran PPD homicide detective and a seasoned medical examiner who team up with a couple of amateur archeologists to solve the 1832 mysterious death of fifty-seven Irish immigrants. The men were hired to work on a one-mile section of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Media line.
Two months into the project, all fifty-seven men were lost to some “mysterious disease” and buried in a mass grave along the tracks they had been working on. The medical examiner and the detective questioned the determination that all fifty-seven died of a single disease. The two sleuths go on to investigate the possibility that it was “foul play” and not illness that caused the railroad chief to bury the men in a mass grave along the tracks.
Two weeks after Jerry Drum was shot three times, Homicide Detective Sly Cliver and the DA’s office issued an arrest warrant for Michael Odysseus’ wife, Penelope. The warrant was based in part on trace evidence found at the scene: a PD memo pad with her husband’s name on it, a single strand of blonde hair including the root, and one bloody thumbprint on the poly-handgrip of the murder weapon that was found in a dry sewer inlet. The print was matched to that of Penelope’s substitute teacher’s background check. Additional evidence included a description from a ten-year-old boy who told police he was knocked off his bike by a woman with blonde hair running out of the alley behind Jerry Drum’s Olive Street home on the day of his murder.
On another one of his hunches, Mickey had Detective Cliver show the boy, in the presence of his mother, a photo display that included Penelope Odysseus. Little Billy Wilson from Meredith Street immediately identified Penelope Odysseus as that “mean blonde lady” who knocked him off his red skateboard.
The warrant also included information federal authorities received via prison “ear-hustling.” A term used when a prisoner, usually a cellmate, is looking to make a “deal,” for getting a shorter sentence or better accommodations, for incriminating information against another inmate.
In this case, an inmate, number F513922, working in the prison library with Michael Odysseus told authorities Michael told him his wife “once killed a guy.” The reason Odysseus gave for the murder was “he had a big mouth.” The exact words Odysseus used back in Howth, Ireland, when telling Mickey why Jerry Drum was murdered. The same prison inmate also told prison officials that Odysseus said his wife was living in Marseille, France, with people he described as his “disciples.”
Coincidently, one month after hearing that Penelope may have relocated to France, that country was hit with a rash of high body-count explosions. Two in Paris and a third just outside Marseille. All three occurred without warning, and no individual or organization took credit for the blasts.
A trip to France to investigate the possible connection between Penelope and the explosions isn’t on Mickey’s radar. He’ll leave that trip in the hands of the very capable investigators from PPD Homicide Unit. Or, better yet, the CIA who might like nothing better than to save everybody the hassle of a lengthy trial.
After the information received from federal prisoner number F513922 was verified and used to obtain an arrest warrant for Penelope Odysseus, the informant got his “deal.” He was released from federal prison back into the streets of Baltimore, Maryland, city of his birth.
Thirty-six hours after his “early release” the Baltimore PD responded to an anonymous 911 call of a scorched body lying on the sidewalk outside a downtown hotel. The official police report read:
Received anonymous 911 call for body on
fire in front of Paradise Hotel. Upon arrival
observed charred body on sidewalk. No witnesses
located. Emergency Van 207 transported
remains to Medical Examiner’s Office.
The report was signed by the responding officer, then reviewed and co-signed by her supervisor.
It took several months of missed meetings with his Baltimore probation
officer and an astute federal prosecutor before the body was identified as prisoner number F513922. Further investigation revealed that Michal Odysseus’ “ear hustler” jumped, fell, or was pushed from the roof of the thirteen-story Paradise Hotel. The investigation now being handled by federal authorities remains “open.”
Twenty-three-year veteran Secret Service Agent Greg Miller was investigated by his agency for dereliction of duty. His decision to dismiss the intel received from Mickey concerning suspicious activities in Ireland and at the Jerry Drum crime scene could have been devastating. Miller was demoted and transferred from his presidential detail assignment to a desk job in Anchorage, Alaska. He took an early retirement and relocated to an unknown location in Europe. Recently, Miller requested his pension checks be deposited directly into a bank in Marseille, France.
Jerry Drum, a twenty-five-year civilian employee of the Philadelphia Police Department, had his remains claimed by the parish priest from Saint Bernard’s in Castleknock, Ireland. Jerry was laid to rest in the Catholic cemetery next to his parents.
Jerry’s brother, the real Patrick Drum, has never been located. Since the Drums had no will and no living relatives, their estate was divided into five equal parcels of land. One parcel for each of the four tenant sheepherders who have been renting land from the Drums for the past twenty years. And one parcel went to the county to pay the taxes the Drums owed on the ranch.
Jerry’s “pastime” of collecting articles on the president’s travel activities and presidential assassinations has not been connected to the attempted attack on Air Force One in Ireland. The Secret Service has kept that part of their internal investigation “open.” The City stopped paying out Jerry’s pension when no relatives came forward after his death. Jerry listed no beneficiary in his personnel file.
The identities of the two men who stopped at the ME’s office requesting Jerry Drum’s remains have never been determined. The two surveillance cameras outside the ME’s receiving dock garage door and parking lot had been spray painted black prior to the duo’s arrival. Teenagers seen on tape, just prior to the lenses being covered in paint, told police that they were each given ten dollars to “tag” the cameras by “white cops on bikes from the college.”
The boys were shown photos of campus police from three colleges and universities closest to the ME’s office. They could not or would not positively identify the bike cops. The boys were given ten hours’ public service and made to pay for repairing the cameras. Both young men now work on the City’s vacant lot mural project.
Aweek after Mickey returned from Dublin, he received a call from Superintendent Kevin O’Clooney. He gave Mick an update on the investigation at the Drum ranch. Kevin told him that the team located the remains of four human bodies in the excavated swimming pool, three males and one female. He also confirmed Mickey’s suspicion that young John “Tex” Deforrest’s father was one of the males. John wasn’t charged with any crimes and he returned to Texas to complete his studies.
One of the male victims found at the Drum ranch was identified through dental records as Canadian James Dawson. James escaped from a Belfast prison in 1994, where he was confined for his IRA activities. The female victim, a blonde with French designer labels on her clothing, has yet to be positively identified. Her teeth, hands, and feet were missing. According to Garda investigators, the fourth set of remains is still unidentified. This male victim had been shot in the eye and his fingertips treated with an acid solution.
Only one year after the OJ trial, DNA testing still hasn’t become “cost effective” for the Garda. They have made arrangements to ship some remains to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, for additional examination.
In early June, Kevin faxed Mickey a copy of a report outlining what the Garda Bomb Unit, with the assistance of ATF, uncovered surrounding the Drum Ranch investigation. It was revealed that Patrick had been renting two storage garages. One in Clonee where the Drums sold their raw wool and another in Kinsaley, another town just off the M1 highway a short distance from the Dublin airport. According to the Garda report, both were “bomb warehouses.”
In the Clonee garage, they found fifty four-inch metallic tubes and lead wires in assorted colors. They also found three thirty-meter-long spools of wire and shelves filled with acetone, alcohol, aluminum powder, ammonium nitrate, citric acid, silver nitrate, and urea. All classified as highly flammable.
At the Kinsaley site, the bomb squad found remnants of SEMTEX 10 (the type of explosive used in Pan Am Flight 103), a box of trinitrotoluene (TNT), an unopened shipping crate of M72 LAW anti-tank rockets, one AT-2 Swatter anti-tank guided missile, and a list of American detonator vendors.
On the second level of the Drum barn, they found a copy of the IACP’s 1973 247-page Blasting Caps Recognition and Identification manual, an American Gauge Wire booklet, inert dynamite, shock tube caps, electric caps, spring igniters, and several C-4 look-a-like blocks packaged in OD green shrink-wrap bags. The Garda believe the barn was used as an explosives training camp.
In late June, Kevin called Mickey to inform him that the Dublin Garda arrested an American street musician for drug possession. During the investigation they found that Turk Blanca was an AWOL Marine explosives specialist, E-5. During his interrogation Blanca confessed to manually detonating a series of C-4 shape charges that he had placed on and around the barn doors. According to Blanca, the barn was in a small town west of Dublin. He also stated that he acted alone.
In his possession, the admitted bomber had documentation identifying him as the owner of a yellow Volvo. The VIN on the documentation matched that of the Volvo found inside the Drum barn. He was charged with two counts of attempted murder and other related charges. After his trial he will be turned over immediately to representatives from the US State Department and transported to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Federal Prison.
In the fall of 1996, the warden at the federal prison where Michael Odysseus was incarcerated after his conviction for the assassination of several Philadelphia police officers in ‘91 died from complications of Lou Gehrig’s disease. Shortly after his burial, his widow turned over to authorities an envelope containing the step-by-step escape plan he helped to facilitate allowing his US Special Forces team leader, Michael Odysseus, to “walk out of prison” back in 1991. In a typed letter dated the day after Odysseus’ escape, the warden maintained that he had no regrets and that he acted alone. Throughout his signed letter, the warden referred to Odysseus as an “American Patriot.” The claim that the warden acted alone has never been disproved.
In January of 1997, Mickey’s wife talked him into taking the Inspector’s Promotional Examination. Mickey took a quick oral exam refresher class given by a retired inspector. He surprised himself by coming out number seven on the list. There has been no announcement concerning the department making any promotions in the near future. Rumor is perhaps in May during “Police Week.” Until then, Captain Mickey Devlin is content working nights out of Police Headquarters, with the rest of the so-called “Bad Boys in CIB.”
However, shortly after seeing where Mickey is on the published inspectors’ promotional list, the commissioner seized the opportunity to “mess with Devlin,” one more time. He sent him to the 3rd District in South Philly, doubling his commute to and from work. The so-called “temporary assignment” came after the 3rd District’s Captain Blackstone became the target of an FBI investigation for corruption.
Blackstone was caught on tape discussing what he would “accept for his help” in an upcoming election for president of a South Philly-based labor union. Blackstone, recording secretary for the Brotherhood, a Black Police Officers association, has filed a Civil Rights brief in federal court. The FOP has denied legal counsel for Blackstone and pushed for the police commissioner to dismiss the captain. Instead, the commissioner had him assigned to his office until the FBI investigation has been completed.
As always, Mickey will make the best of his situation. And hope that the rumors of “Po
lice Week” promotions come to fruition. But twenty-four hours into his South Philly “temporary assignment,” Mickey will again find himself in the middle of something that the Commissioner, City Hall, and the Archdiocese would rather bury or kick down the road. Neither is in Mickey’s DNA.
In April of 1997, the newly promoted Chief Superintendent Kevin O’Clooney arrived at Philadelphia International Airport. He is met by Mickey and Captain Lance Dunn, Commanding Officer of the PD’s Airport Unit. Kevin with Lance’s connections is given the “dignitary treatment,” including a drive-by customs clearance, a police baggage claim, and a ride on Captain Lance’s super-charged golf cart from the tarmac to his waiting police escort.
What started as a seven-day “holiday” turned out to be more of an “adventure” than Kevin bargained for. He stayed in an apartment over O’Leary’s Pub, owned by Michael’s brother Sean, in a section of the city called “The Bog.” He did finally get to meet Mickey’s family, Michelle Cunay, Doc Steinberg, DA Katherine McBride, and ADA Alice Elizabeth Gibson.
Kevin returned home with a few more pounds, loads of Philly PD memorabilia and lots of Philly cop stories to tell back at Garda Headquarters.
Rookie Matt Kelly graduated first in his Garda college class and was assigned to the O’Connell District. Matt’s theory that Odysseus used a sailboat with number 31 on its mast because it coincided with Michael Collins’ age when he was killed was never substantiated. Chief Superintendent O’Clooney has plans for young Matt Kelly. Big plans.
Mickey’s wife, Pat, called a dozen jewelers trying to find one who could repair her husband’s fifty-year-old Timex that belonged to his Da and was given to him by his mother. Mickey’s Da was a Philly cop when he was assassinated by “the mob” the night before he was scheduled to testify in the biggest South Philly-organized-crime trial in the City’s history.
Dublin Odyssey Page 27
