A Doggerel for Dead Whores — Robb White

Cleveland homicide had access to their profiling apparatus as early as September eighty-eight, but we didn't start looking for similarities until ninety-three. You all have the same information in front of you. By then, seventeen women had turned up as dead bodies found. Fifteen in vacant lots on the East Side. All but two were black females between fourteen and forty-one. More than half were found nude. Twelve had been beaten severely in the face and head. Nearly all had drug problems or arrests, many were active street hookers. Cleveland homicide found no connections, no similarities besides the obvious. Forensics was a dead end in every case. But things were about to change … Thomas Haftmann, a former cop, now a private eye, was on the case.