Tom Henderson - Blood Justice: The True Story of Multiple Murder and a Familys Revenge

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Dear Reader:

The book you are about to read is the latest bestseller from the St. Martins True Crime Library, the imprint the New York Times calls the leader in true crime! Each month, we offer you a fascinating account of the latest, most sensational crime that has captured the national attention. St. Martins is the publisher of bestselling true crime author and crime journalist Kieran Crowley, who explores the dark, deadly links between a prominent Manhattan surgeon and the disappearance of his wife fifteen years earlier in THE SURGEONS WIFE . Suzy Spencers BREAKING POINT guides readers through the tortuous twists and turns in the case of Andrea Yates, the Houston mother who drowned her five young children in the familys bathtub. In Edgar Award-nominated DARK DREAMS , legendary FBI profiler Roy Hazelwood and bestselling crime author Stephen G. Michaud shine light on the inner workings of Americas most violent and depraved murderers. In the book you now hold, BLOOD JUSTICE , Tom Henderson examines the trail of a serial killer gone cold and how one person got the case going again.

St. Martins True Crime Library gives you the stories behind the headlines. Our authors take you right to the scene of the crime and into the minds of the most notorious murderers to show you what really makes them tick. St. Martins True Crime Library paperbacks are better than the most terrifying thriller, because its all true! The next time you want a crackling good read, make sure its got the St. Martins True Crime Library logo on the spineyoull be up all night!

Charles E. Spicer, Jr.

Executive Editor, St. Martins True Crime Library

With special thanks to my wife, Kathleen, for putting up with a spouse who makes his living from murder and mayhem and who, though she tires of the too-many gory details long before Im done recounting them, graciously serves as my sounding board during the months of research and again during the writing and editing.

Ive prosecuted serial killers before, and they didnt scare me. HE scares me. Hes the man your mother warned you about as a little girl. Hes the bogeyman who jumps out in the night and grabs you.

Betty Walker, Wayne County,

Michigans, star prosecutor.

I had a small, vested interest in the murder of Nancy Ludwig, one of the two murder cases this book details. I thought one of my acquaintances might have killed her. There is a chapter in the book recounting the night some of us, members of a downtown Detroit running club, decided we had to turn in one of our fellow runners as a suspect in the brutal rape and slaying of this Northwest flight attendant.

That was in the winter of 1991. We never knew if the police followed up on the tip and, if so, what the outcome was. Had Rick been cleared? Or did he do it but they just couldnt prove it? In any event, he continued to run with us, and we continued to give him a wide berth when we could.

Nancy Ludwigs murder touched a nerve in a city you would think would have been inured to murder. Detroit was considered the nations Murder Capital then, and residents used to take a perverse pride in being from such a tough place. Youd even see T-shirts proclaiming: D ETROIT W E E AT O UR Y OUNG .

But Ludwigs murderthe savage butchery and rape of an attractive woman who had just arrived at the Airport Hilton from a long day of flyingwas huge news. And it stayed huge news as it went unsolved. Over the years, on the anniversary date of her murder, TV and radio stations and the citys two daily newspapers would invariably run look-back stories on her death and update listeners or readers on what was new, if anything.

It seemed, alas, her murder would never be solved.

There was another equally notorious, older case that had dominated the headlines in Flint, seventy-five minutes north of Detroit. Margarette Eby, an attractive music professor who was one of Flints leading citizens, and who traveled in the highest social circles, was brutally raped and murdered in 1986.

I must have read about the murder, but I dont remember anything about it from the time. Detroit and Flint are just far enough apart that big news in one city isnt necessarily big news in another. Flint has its own TV stations and its own daily newspaper. Ebys death seemed as if it would go unsolved, too.

And then early in 2002 came the dramatic announcement that both cases likely had been solved and an arrest made. The same killer had raped and murdered both women and now was in custody.

The accused killer was not our running buddy. Guilty till proven innocent in our eyes, we now owed him an apology.

I had written my first true crime book for St. Martins Paperbacks in the summer and fall of 2000. Titled A Deadly Affair, it told the tale of Michael Fletcher, a suburban Detroit defense attorney who was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife so he could continue his affair with a prominent and beautiful local judge.

Despite his conviction, and much to my surprise, by the time I was finished with my research, I was pretty sure Fletcher was innocent of the charges for which he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. I wasnt sure of his innocence, but I was sure that there were so many doubts about his guilt that he should never have been convicted.

It was a frustrating way to end a year of my life, not knowing if the subject of the book had committed murder or not. Did he deserve his punishment? Or was he the unluckiest person on earth? There was no middle ground. And, for me, no resolution.

This book, thankfully, has no such ambiguities. The bad guy did it. Good work by a Michigan State Police cold-case squad eventually caught him.

As I awaited word from my faithful agent, Jane Dystel, on whether St. Martins wanted me to write a book on these old Michigan murders, I began compiling a list of people Id need to contact. It eventually grew to more than seventy names. Some people refused to be interviewed. Most were willing to talk on the record. Some of them I interviewed many times, and I thank them for their patience, and for bearing with me when I proved to them that it is, indeed, possible to ask a dumb question.

Nothing in this book is made up. The excellent fact-checkers at St. Martins, and my equally excellent editor, Joe Cleemann, have kept errors to a minimum. Any that do occur are mine, and entirely inadvertent.

None of the conversations are made up of whole cloth. They come from court testimony, police records or from those involved. Obviously I wasnt at either murder scene with a tape recorder. When I quote people at those scenes, or any of the other scenes depicted in the book, I do so based on, at the very least, what they remember having said, and, at best, what others at the scene also remember.