Echoes Of My Soul by Robert K Tanenbaum

Paperback:  "That's what I thought you'd say.  So go forth and do justice, Mel.  Do justice."

It was a muggy summer day on 28 August 1963 when Janice Wylie and Emily Hoffert were murdered in their apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Months passed as their families grieved the unthinkable and a shaken city awaited answers.

Finally, Brooklyn police arrested George Whitmore, Jr, a nineteen-year-old with an IQ of less than 70.  But his incarceration would ultimately entail a host of shocking law enforcement missteps and cover-ups.

Whitmore had confessed.  Yet Mel Glass, a young Manhattan Assistant D.A. not even assigned to the Homicide Bureau, was troubled by the investigation.  With the blessing of legendary District Attorney Frank Hogan, Glass tirelessly immersed himself in the case.

So began an epic quest for justice, culminating in a courtroom showdown in which the Brooklyn arresting cops refused to admit their flagrant errors, providing a complete defense to a vicious predator.  The outcome would reach far beyond the individuals involved.

Including trial transcripts and never before published crime scene photos, here is a captivating depiction of one of the most intense manhunts of our time.  Echoes of My Soul (2013) is also a testament to the power of individuals like Glass and Hogan, without whom the real killer would never have been convicted and an unjustly accused man would have been jailed for life.  And we may never have gained the legal safeguards that protect us today.

In this first insider's account, New York Times bestselling author Robert K Tanenbaum delivers a page-turning real-life thriller about this historic case - that led the US Supreme Court to issue guidelines known as the Miranda rights in June 1966 - which forever reformed the American justice system.

About the author:  Robert K Tanenbaum is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five legal thrillers and has an accomplished legal career of his own.  Before his first book was published, Tanenbaum had already been the Bureau Chief of the Criminal Courts, had run the Homicide Bureau, and had been in charge of the training program for the legal staff for the New York County District Attorney’s Office.  He also served as Deputy Chief Counsel to the Congressional Committee investigations into the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.  The blockbuster novel Corruption of Blood (1994), is a fictionalized account of his experience in Washington, D.C.In his professional career, Tanenbaum has never lost a felony case.

His courtroom experiences bring his books to life, especially in his bestselling series featuring prosecutor Roger “Butch” Karp and his wife, Marlene Ciampi.

Tanenbaum was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.  He attended the University of California at Berkeley on a basketball scholarship, and remained at Cal, where he earned his law degree from the prestigious Boalt Hall School of Law.  After graduating from Berkeley Law, Tanenbaum moved back to New York to work as an assistant district attorney under the legendary New York County DA Frank Hogan.

Tanenbaum returned to the West Coast and began to serve in public office.  He was elected to the Beverly Hills City Council in 1986 and twice served as the mayor of Beverly Hills.  It was during this time that Tanenbaum began his career as a novelist, drawing from the many fascinating stories of his time as a New York ADA.  His successful debut novel, No Lesser Plea (1987), introduces Butch Karp, an assistant district attorney who is battling for justice, and Marlene Ciampi, his associate and love interest.  Tanenbaum’s subsequent twenty-two novels portrayed Karp and his crime fighting family and eclectic colleagues facing off against drug lords, corrupt politicians, international assassins, the mafia, and hard-core violent felons.

He had published two nonfiction titles:  The Piano Teacher (1987), exploring his investigation and prosecution of a recidivist psychosexual killer, and Badge of the Assassin (1979), about his prosecution of cop killers, which was made into a movie starring James Woods as Tanenbaum.  His latest nonfiction book is Echoes of my Soul (2013) providing a first insider's account of the historic Wylie-Hoffert case, that led to the Miranda Rights, and of the courageous stand that forever reformed the American justice system.

Tanenbaum and his wife of forty-three years have three children. He currently resides in California where he has taught Advanced Criminal Procedure at the Boalt Hall School of Law and maintains a private law practice.