Strange Days

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
And their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
Made to feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dream in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
'Cos I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very
Mad World

Mad world indeed.....I have so much to write about, and I know I've been a little sporadic in writing. But when I have so much I want to say, sometimes it seems like way too much for me to get written down, and I keep putting it off. The month of December has always been a weird month for me. The hustle and bustle of consumerism, and focus on material things glaringly brings to the forefront things that I and so many others do not have. I don't put myself in the same boat as others that I know have it so much worse than me financially, my bills get paid, my family is taken care of, but we have real needs that are put on the backburner for the monthly bills.

A few entries ago I wrote about my sister Carol and her murder at the hands of her husband. Since I wrote that entry, another blogger, who is a law student, sent me some articles about the case, which enabled me to find out more than I ever knew about what actually happened. It has opened sort of like a puzzle, with unexpected pieces that keep dropping into place, making the story more surreal than I ever thought possible. Here's the story that ran in the Chicago Tribune when it happened in 1982.

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MAN DIDN'T KILL WIFE FOR CASH, JUDGE RULES

By Linnet Myers.


A man accused of killing his wife to collect $250,000 in insurance money was acquitted Tuesday by a Cook County Criminal Court judge who said there was "a dark cloud of suspicion" over the defendant but not enough evidence to convict him.
Herbert Cammon, 35, was acquitted of murder charges after a bench trial before Judge Thomas Maloney. Maloney said Cammon was "a schemer, crooked, ignorant and callous; many circumstances cast a dark cloud of suspicion over him." But he said the "the evidence doesn't add up to proof beyond a reasonable doubt." Cammon, a social worker, told police that he found his wife dead when he returned to their Hyde Park apartment on April 27, 1982.

At first, he told police that he had no life insurance on his wife, former model and nightclub singer Carol Di-Pasalegne. But detectives later discovered that she was insured for $250,000. "Here we have motives, continuous lies, insurance, broken alibis. . . . Was there a reason for Herbert Cammon to kill his wife? There were 250,000 reasons for Herbert Cammon to kill his wife," said Robert Clifford, an assistant state's attorney, during closing arguments.

After Maloney announced his decision to acquit him, Cammon looked back at his mother, who cried with relief and later said, "Thank God! I had faith all the time."

Cammon and DiPasalegne were married on April 11 after a two-month "whirlwind romance," prosecutors said. Sixteen days later, she was strangled and stabbed in the face 20 times. She and Cammon had taken out insurance poli-cies three days before their wedding.

There were no signs of forced entry at the East 55th Street apartment, and a building worker said he saw Cammon in the basement the night of the murder, although Cammon said he was not there.

Cammon stood trial in 1984, but jurors split 10-2 for a guilty verdict and a mistrial was declared. This time, Cam-mon chose the judge instead of a jury.

Defense lawyer Patrick Tuite told the judge that the case was purely circumstantial. "We have here the fact that the defendant might benefit from his wife's death, but that's not evidence of murder," he said. He also argued that the prosecution did not refute the testimony of Cammon's alibi witness, a friend who said Cammon was with him at the time of the slaying. Tuite also pointed to an unexplained piece of evidence-the type B blood found on the knife that killed DiPasalegne. DiPasalegne's blood was Type A; Cammon's is Type O. Prosecutors theorized that the alibi witness, who had Type A-B blood, may have been with Cammon during the murder. Tuite, though, argued that they were "creating fiction."

More than 20 witnesses testified, including an insurance agent who said Cammon rejected her advice that he take out a $50,000 policy and insisted on a $250,000 policy that paid off immediately. One of Cammon's friends said Cammon had argued heatedly with him when he said that life insurance takes six months to go into effect. The friend said Cammon had driven home, gotten the policy and brought it back to prove his point, according to Jack Steed, another assistant state's attorney.

Evidence of Cammon's homosexuality was introduced at his first trial, but Maloney ruled it irrelevant during the retrial. Prosecutors contend that Cammon lived with a male roommate for five years and moved back right after his wife's death.

After reading that article, I realized, ok......there was another person involved in the killing....most likely the same man who lived with Herbert (her husband) before and after Carol's death, and who was also his alibi witness. Stevie Wonder could see that this was a likely scenario. Since they didn't have DNA in '82, maybe now they can take the DNA off the knife, and match it to the other guy?

So...I started making phone calls. Chicago courts, Chicago police, and about 50 calls later I was speaking to a cold case detective in Chicago. She was really nice and after talking about everything she agreed that there probably was reason to see if the case should be opened, and that she would order the files and call me back, probably in a few weeks, but definitely after the holidays.

The next day, another officer from cold case called me, he had worked on the case last year, when they had actually opened the case. He agreed that I was right in suspecting Herbert's boyfriend, and that they had opened the case last year and were looking into that lead (the details of which I won't go into here) but that it didn't work out.

He proceeded to tell me that there was a lot more involved than just the murder, he told me that there was a book that talked about my sister's case written by Robert Cooley called When Corruption Was King (the link goes to the books website). He told me he wasn't sure how much was written about Carol, but he did know the case was referenced in the book.

He also said for now, there's nothing they can do because EVERY single piece of evidence having to do with the case was destroyed. When I asked why, he pointed me to the book again, and said he hated to tell me but that Judge Maloney (who I later found out is incarcerated) was paid off to acquit Herbert in my sisters case. In fact Maloney is "The first American judge ever (and since) convicted for fixing murder cases."


So....so...so...now I go to the website looking to see if there's anything mentioned about my sister. The only thing I found was under "Cast of Characters" he has a list of names, then the last one says "Guest Appearances" and he has the names Ed and Anne Burke listed. (Chicago’s power political couple and their special defense for a child molester and wife stabber.) That had to be what the cop was talking about.

If you check out the website, you'll understand that the guy who wrote it, Cooly was an attorney who took bribes and then decided he didn't want to anymore so from 1986 to 1989, he wore a recording device and developed criminal cases against mobsters and corrupt officials. His investigation led to nine federal trials in the Nineties and convictions or guilty pleas for twenty-four.

As if I wasn't overwhelmed enough, I emailed Bob Cooley, and he calls me back that night! I called him back the next day and we talked for over an hour, and he told me many many things about what he had been through, the current state of the justice system in Chicago, and tons of other stuff. About my sister he said he remembered walking into the court offices the day her case came up, and hearing the other lawyers discussing how disgusting and horrifying the case was, and then being told by someone else that the presiding judge was being bought, that the first judge was asked to recluse himself from the case by Burke and when he refused was asked (by Burke) "it's just a nigger, why do you care about a nigger?" I'm not really shocked, living here in GA for the few mos I've been here so far has exposed me to more racism in 6 months than I've experienced in 30 years. It's pathetic how people can walk around claiming to be god fearing christians, yet still manage to hate another human being, and Burke and his wife are said to be devout Catholics.

After talking things over with my sister, we're exploring what options we may, or may not, have right now. Best case scenario, would be to see this other suspect in jail. In lieu of that, we're going to look for an attorney in Chicago and see what our options are for a civil case against Herbert's estate, the city of Chicago, the county the case was in, the judge who took the bribe....whatever we can do to ruffle feathers and raise awareness, which could have the effect of bringing forth more witnesses or evidence.

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Other than that, I'm ok. Jessica is in NJ with her father's family. I was a little upset about that....ok...a LOT upset about it, being that we're in a new home, I was kind of wanting a "at home" christmas...but I realized that it wasn't all about Jessica, but also about the fact that my sister and her children aren't here....and that I'm here with no family and friends whatsoever, so that was what was really having me feeling a little lonely. Jessica is really happy, seeing her grandmother, sister, cousins, ect. So I'm happy, that she's happy.

The car is in the shop, something about the transmission, hopefully I'll have it back by xmas.

So for the next two weeks I'll pretty much be alone at the house, Joe works almost every day from 5am till about 6pm....

I've made a list of things I want to get done in this time....finish at least 4 new paintings, clean out my office/art studio, read a book or two, and try to relax. :)

Oh yeah, and blog more! lol

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Joy made me do this meme. 5 Random Things about me

1. I talk to my cats like they can understand me...and I'm not convinced they don't.

2. I'm only truly happy when i'm creating. Cooking, dollmaking, painting, writing, poetry, sewing, gardening, ect. Luckily I excell in these things, so when i do them, it's almost always for others and I enjoy making people happy.

3. Even though I had only Jessica, I wish I'd had more kids. 4....6....10....lol

4. I can find anything about anything online. I've become a regular sleuth, and all my friends call me when they need info about something, lol.

5. I'm awesome with directions, I can find my way to and from anywhere. I can tell north, south, east and west from anywhere.