Ghost Burglar: The True Story of Bernard Welch Jr. Master Thief, Ruthless Con Man, and Cold-Blooded Killer - Softcover

Burch, Jack; King, James D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1886028958 ISBN 13: 9781886028951

Publisher: Savage Pr, 2012

Synopsis

Bernard C. Welch was called the most prolific burglar of modern time. He eluded police up and down the East Coast for years and was finally caught only because he shot prominent heart surgeon, Dr. David Halberstam, who then hit Welch with his car as Welch fled the scene. Halberstam died and Welch was sentenced to 143 years plus life by one of the nation's first and most prominent black judges, Judge Carl Moultrie of the D.C. District Court. Sent to an "escape-proof" prison in Marion, Illinois, Welch managed to trick federal officials to sending him to a facility on the Chicago River on the promise of becoming a snitch. There, he broke out with the help of an enforcer from the Aryan Nation, hired to help him escape. Newspapers reported the Halberstam death, but the background and aftermath of this story never saw the light of day because other news events (the murder of John Lennon that same week and later the assassination attempt on President Reagan) became bigger headlines.This book is the whole story of a Rochester, N.Y. plumber who turned thievery into a business, even to the point of keeping books and filing taxes with the IRS for a "legitimate" antiques and silver trading business. This could only have happened in the 70s, before the age of computers made hiding in plain sight more difficult for criminals like Welch.

About this title

About the Author:

Jack Burch is a photojournalist, video photographer, director and editor, an instructor in film making and video production, a retired career public affairs officer, and serves in the U.S. Army Reserves at Ft. Snelling, MN. He is a former military policeman.James D. King is the Maryland police detective who worked the "Ghost Burglar" case for more than five years. He then spent three years researching and writing "Shadow of the Ghost Burglar" with Jack Burch.

From the Inside Flap:

Sociopath, psychopath, murderer, thief...Bernard C. Welch was all these yet he passed himself off as normal. One of his favorite aliases, of the 14 he used, was Norm, a name he took along with the surname of his common-law wife Linda Hamilton. How did this "One Man Crime Wave" manage to escape from two prisons, elude police for years and amass a huge personal fortune to become America's Most Wanted burglar? Reporter Jack Burch and Detective Jim King (who was the first to finger Welch) peel back the layers of the criminal career of the single individual that most Washington D.C. enforcement agencies thought was a gang of roving thieves. The night of December 6, 1980 when Washington's most beloved Cardiologist, Michael Halberstam and his wife Eliot Jones returned home to feed the dogs, Bernard C. Welch was doing his fifth burglary of the night. Halberstam fought Welch who shot the good doctor three times in the chest. As the cardiologist-killer fled on foot, Halberstam, driving himself to nearby Sibley Hospital, spotted the criminal and ran him down with his 1977 Monte Carlo. Halberstam died that night, but Welch--AKA Norm Hamilton lived, and the resulting trial became a media circus. This is the fascinating story of a criminal mind and life that wreaked havoc in the lives of thousands from New York to Washington D.C. to Duluth, Minnesota.

About this edition

• Publisher: Savage Pr
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1886028958
• ISBN 13: 9781886028951
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 265