An Excerpt from "The Truth of Mr. Justice" (Published 1976)
How did Police Inspector Hank Wild, who none could say was a worldly or intelligent man, get to using a phrase--Q.E.D.--usually reserved for the Intelligentsia in the closing of his cases? Hank had a genius of an older brother. Always being compared to his brother, who was able to do so much at a young age, made Hank a monster driven by an inferiority complex. As adults, Hank went into law, with his brother becoming a scientist. But, his brother had a considerably rough start as a scientist. He would work on complicated proofs for months and months, and come up with nothing but a series of unusable results.
At the same time, Hank was very lucky, solving difficult cases despite being a new recruit. For the first time in his life, Hank felt a sense of triumph over his brother, who had yet to come up with a single Q.E.D.. I would suppose he started using the term as a generalization, as if to say, "No matter how difficult the case, I can solve it. I can do it!"
However, this turned his life upside-down. He became unable to do anything methodically for the sake of being able to say his Q.E.D., forcing confessions through violent means; after a while, he was dismissing evidence as well as concrete proof in his pursuits as well. Then, the complex born in his youth exploded into a desire for others to see him as a superior.
He often used the power of the mass media to look for approval for his methods, and to pursuade the people into believing his Q.E.D. An appeal through the mass media. A compelling Q.E.D. Another appeal through the mass media. An even more compelling Q.E.D. He used this pattern over and over again. Before we knew it, he was the public hero, Mr. JUSTICE. The relationship between Hank and the local media became more and more intimate. Hank continued to give the mass media juicy stories, that they in turn kept running. They ran stories celebrating Hank's methods. For a time, there were those who wondered if he was paying them off, as well. Hank was someone who held enough influence over the mass media that when he said, "There's someone I can't pin this on. Run a smear campaign on them," the media would respond, "Okay, Hank. In return, we're asking for something really juicy that'll sell out our papers like that!"
Then, we come to the Black Maria Incident, as an example.
Through the trauma of constantly being compared to his superior brother, one supposes, Hank's move into the ranks as an elite officer was not preceding as usual. I am sure that another reason for this is the animosity he felt toward Mike, far more than should have been necessary on his part. Then, he was exposed for his missteps in the Elisa Cell case. By the hand of Investigator Mike, the media hero "Mr. JUSTICE" suffered a great blow to his pride. He didn't know if Richard Blaney was the perpetrator of the Black Maria murders. But, that was all he could say at the time. He ignored evidence. Hank was desperate. There was no way he could lose to Mike. Here is what I know from my research: at the time that Hank took evidence from Vivian's apartment, he took three newspapers with the letters "H", "A", "T", and "E" circled, but I have heard there were actually four.
When one of his subordinates pointed this out to him, he became enraged, yelling, "You're blind! There were only three from the beginning!", but he would not say any more about the subject. "Mr. JUSTICE" had taken one of those newspapers, secretly hiding it in Richard's apartment. He carefully tainted it with Brenda's blood. Then, acting as if he had just discovered it, used it as evidence to immediately take Richard into custody.
Then came the part Hank was really good at: telling the media to publish anything over the following days that would make Richard look like a deranged deviant. To them, it sounded a better story than the methodical thoughts of Inspector Mike, restoring Hank's rapport with them and causing the resurrection of the "hero" Mr. JUSTICE. That's the truth of Mr. Justice—it's all just a papier-mache of fabricated evidence.
It is not that Police Inspector Hank's methods had no one calling them into question at the time. But, after the resolution of the Black Maria Incident, the people of LA looked upon him as their hero, and elevated him to a godlike status; by that, no major questions were raised or investigations made. Some years later, drowning in the memory of his deception, he found himself suddenly troubled in regard to the fortunes he had been given in life--the realization came out of nowhere for him. The year was 1978. The father of an officer who had been following Hank's career and had committed suicide published a book that was full of Hank's secrets--"The Truth of Mr. Justice".
The book was sensational, claiming that Hank was involved in all kinds of illegal activity in the privacy of his secret investigation room, exposing his dealings with concealing evidence--and as an extra note, exposed Hank as a pedophile with a love of young boys who had fabricated everything that made him look like a hero.
There are a lot of things in this book that jump to far-fetched conclusions, but Private Investigator Quincy E. Danes has also determined that while the claims in the book made about the Black Maria Incident are not entirely accurate, they are not far off, either.
As for Hank himself, he denied the claims made in the book and filed a lawsuit, but died of illness before a verdict was reached. He was 76.
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