Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets is a 1991 book written by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon describing a year spent with detectives from the Baltimore Police Department Homicide Unit. The book received the 1992 Edgar Award in the Best Fact Crime category.[1]
The book was subsequently fictionalized as the NBC television drama Homicide: Life on the Street (1993–99), on which Simon served as a writer and producer. Many of the key detectives and incidents portrayed in the book provided inspiration for the first two seasons of the show, with other elements surfacing in later seasons as well. It later also provided inspiration for Simon's HBO television series The Wire (2002–08).
David Simon, a reporter for The Baltimore Sun, spent four years on the police beat before taking a leave of absence to write this book. He had persuaded the Baltimore Police Department to allow him access to the city's Homicide Unit for calendar year 1988, and throughout that year he shadowed one shift of detectives as they investigated cases, conducted interrogations, executed search and arrest warrants, and testified at trials. Baltimore recorded 234 murders during the year Simon spent with the Homicide Unit.[2]
A total of 567 murders occurred in the city for the years 1989 and 1990 combined, the period during which Simon wrote Homicide. The book was published in 1991, during which Baltimore saw a record 353 murders. Simon said he was particularly interested in the demythification of the American detective. Although detectives are typically portrayed as noble characters who care deeply about their victims, Simon believed real detectives regarded violence as a normal aspect of their jobs.[2]
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets provides a sympathetic but unromantic portrait of crime fighting in a major American city at the height of the late 1980s crime epidemic. The book is notable for the detailed look it gives into the professional lives of police detectives and the mix of quirky, absurd, and sometimes tragic cases they investigated.[citation needed]
The case of Latonya Kim Wallace, an 11-year-old girl who was sexually assaulted and murdered, is perhaps the most notable case in the book. Tom Pellegrini was the primary detective on the case, which remains unsolved. The Adena Watson case in Homicide: Life on the Street was based on this case, and the travails on it of new Detective Tim Bayliss were based on Pellegrini's experiences. Simon described it as "the spine of the book".[citation needed]
A woman named Geraldine Parrish took out life insurance policies on multiple relatives, including her five husbands and a 13-year-old niece, then arranged for them to be murdered so she could collect the benefits. She eventually pleaded guilty to four murders and was convicted of three assaults, receiving eight life sentences without parole.
Donald Waltemeyer was the primary on this case, which played a large role in his transition from the mindset of a patrol officer to that of an investigator. His experiences involved two attempts to locate and exhume one of Parrish's victims, both of which ended with the wrong man being dug up. The case of Calpurnia Church, in the first season of Homicide: Life on the Street, was based on Parrish's crimes.[3][4]
Gene Cassidy, a patrolman and close friend of Detective Sergeant Terry McLarney, was shot twice in the head at point-blank range in October 1987. Although initially expected to die or be left completely disabled by his injuries, Cassidy made a full mental recovery but was left blind and without his sense of smell or taste. A drug dealer named Clifton "Butchie" Frazier was eventually convicted of attempted murder in the first degree and sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years. McLarney felt a great deal of disillusionment by the way that the BPD seemed unable to understand or fully help Cassidy in the aftermath of the shooting.
The Cassidy story was worked into the first season of Homicide: Life on the Street and was the largest storyline for the character of Detective Steve Crosetti (Jon Polito). Officer Chris Thormann (Lee Tergesen), a friend of Crosetti, was shot and blinded while on duty; Crosetti took the incident personally and went to great lengths to find the shooter. The case also inspired the character of Blind Butchie on The Wire, a blind Baltimore drug dealer who was soft-spoken and not vicious (a complete contrast to the real-life Butchie Frazier).
The jury's actions became the basis for a Season 4 storyline in which Bruce Campbell played a cop whose father, a retired officer, was strangled to death by a suspect who was acquitted by a disinterested jury. A passage in Simon's book revealed that the guilty verdict against Frazier came about because two jurors who were convinced of his guilt argued more strenuously to bring the jury to their side than did two who believed he was innocent, while the other eight had no strong opinion either way.
Gary Tuggle, an officer seconded to the homicide unit to help with the investigation, went on to serve in the Drug Enforcement Administration. He returned to Baltimore in March 2018 to take the post of Deputy Police Commissioner, then was appointed Interim Commissioner two months later and served until March 2019.
Butchie Frazier was not presented as being related to Robert Frazier, a drug dealer who was tried and convicted of a different murder detailed in the book.
John Randolph Scott, a car thief, was fatally shot in the back while fleeing from officers on foot. Only one of the pursuing officers had fired a round from his weapon, and the bullet was found embedded in the dirt of a nearby vacant lot. With no clear murder weapon and no cooperation from the other officers on the scene, Detective Donald Worden was unable to close the case, making it the only unsolved police-related shooting in department history. The book notes that several officers, including a primary suspect, were reassigned to administrative positions.
Minor friction resulted between Worden and his sergeant, McLarney, on this case. A civilian suspect was a possibility, but the exposure of this development by a reporter shut down that investigative alley, and infuriated Worden and Rick James, his partner, as they knew that information could only have come from a police officer.
This story was worked into a Homicide: Life on the Street story in which Det. Frank Pembleton investigated a police-involved shooting. Unlike the real case, the fictional story ended with a police officer being arrested and charged with the shooting.[5]
Throughout the book, Simon frequently refers to a set of 10 informal rules that apply in the majority of homicide cases, as detectives soon learn. They are as follows:
The victim is killed once, but a crime scene can be murdered a thousand times.
The initial 10 or 12 hours after a murder are the most critical to the success of an investigation.
An innocent man left alone in an interrogation room will remain fully awake, rubbing his eyes, staring at the cubicle walls, and scratching himself in dark, forbidden places. A guilty man left alone in an interrogation room will go to sleep.
It's good to be good; it's better to be lucky.
When a suspect is immediately identified in an assault case, the victim is sure to live. When no suspect has been identified, the victim will surely die.
First, they're red. Then, they're green. Then, they're black. (Referring to the color of an open case on the board, the money that must be spent to investigate the case, and the color of the solved murder as it is listed on the board)
In any case where there is no apparent suspect, the crime lab will produce no valuable evidence. In those cases where a suspect has already confessed and been identified by at least two eyewitnesses, the lab will give you print hits, fiber evidence, blood typings, and a ballistic match.
To a jury, any doubt is reasonable; the better the case, the worse the jury; a good man is hard to find, but 12 of them, gathered together in one place, is a miracle.
There is too such a thing as a perfect murder. Always has been, and anyone who tries to prove otherwise merely proves himself naïve and romantic, a fool who is ignorant of Rules 1 through 9.
David Simon joined the Baltimore Police Department as a "police intern" in January 1988 and spent 12 months following the homicide detectives of Lieutenant Gary D'Addario's shift. At the beginning of the year, the shift consisted of the following personnel:
Rick "The Bunk" Requer was the basis for Detective Bunk Moreland in the series, and in episode four of season five Roscoe Orman played a veteran named Oscar "Rick" Requer.
Roger Nolan, Terry McLarney and Donald Worden are briefly mentioned as officers in the department on various episodes, and Worden makes a cameo appearance as himself in the fifth season.
A 1970s contract killer named Dennis Wise is also briefly mentioned, and Dennis "Cutty" Wise is a major character in the series.
Another name that was used for a character was Roger Twigg, a police reporter who, in the book, is characterized as an annoyance to law enforcement. When the Monroe Street investigation yielded a potential civilian lead, Twigg published an article calling the civilian a potential suspect; although the description was technically true, police believed that the man had only witnessed the crime. He subsequently invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to testify, blocking that avenue of the investigation.
Additionally, several traits of various officers can be viewed amongst the characters on the show, and a lot of similar slang is used on the show such as the words "Dunker", "Redball", and "Stone Whodunit" to describe the various cases. Moreover, the police department as shown on the show has the same red/black case clearance and marking criteria.
Finally, a number of small anecdotes that were used in Homicide: Life on the Street worked their way into The Wire:
Most notably, the tale of "Snot Boogie", a small-time thief who was shot down after a craps game, was used in the cold open of the series' first episode, providing the "This America, man" quote.
When listing the detectives whom he sees himself and the rest of the VCU as being on a par with, McNulty mentions Worden, Ed Burns (who was a homicide detective but was detailed with the FBI for the year), and Gary Childs, a detective on the other shift in the book.
Lieutenant Gary D'Addario rose to the rank of major commanding the Northeastern District of the Baltimore Police Department. The 37-year veteran of the department was forced to retire by new Commissioner Kevin Clark in 2004, as part of Clark's unpopular turnover of veteran command staff.[6] D'Addario had guest appearances as QRT Lieutenant Jasper in Homicide: Life on the Street, as a Desk Sergeant in HBO mini-series The Corner, and as a Grand Jury States Attorney on the HBO drama The Wire.[7]
Detective Donald Waltemeyer retired from the Baltimore Police Department and joined the Aberdeen Police Department. He died of cancer in 2005, aged 58, and was posthumously promoted to Detective Sergeant.[10]
Roger Nolan
Detective Sergeant Roger Nolan became the founder and longtime supervisor of the department's Cold Case Squad and retired a day before his 70th birthday in 2009.[11]
Donald Worden
Detective Donald Worden retired from police work in 1995 but was subsequently re-hired as a civilian contractor to work with the squad.[12][citation needed]
Detective Richard Fahlteich rose to the rank of major. He retired in 2004, but answered the Police Commissioner's request to return to duty that year as commander of the Baltimore Police Department Homicide Unit. He retired in 2006, after 32 years with the Department.[14]
Terry McLarney
Detective Sergeant Terry McLarney is still in the Baltimore Police Department, now holding the rank of major in the Homicide Section. He spent years of exile in the Western, "where he was banished after his shift commander [not D'Addario, whom he considered a friend] politely declined an invitation to fisticuffs". McLarney began to serve as acting commander of the Homicide Section in May 2008 and was officially named to the post that July.[15] In June 2011, McLarney was replaced as commander.[16]
The book details a number of slang terms used by the city's homicide detectives.
Billy – derogatory term for whites (either male or female) from hillbilly, specifically those with roots in Appalachia, and their descendants. As with blacks, "billies" do not include those with decent jobs, such as Worden or Kincaid, and Simon suggests that the two discriminations are more class-based. One typical description is that "Billies do not reside in Baltimore, they live in Bawlmer."
Billyland – area of South Baltimore inhabited by "billies", the city's "white trashredneck" population.
Board, The – A dry erase board kept in the squad room. Every squad sergeant's name is at the top of a separate column, followed by a list of the cases their detectives are investigating; each entry consists of a number, the victim's name, and a letter indicating which detective is the primary investigator on the case. Open and closed cases are listed in red and black, respectively. This allowed supervisors to quickly assess the productivity of each shift/squad/detective and acted as motivation for detectives. Use of "The Board" was discontinued in 1998 due to public relations and morale concerns, but was restored in 2000 at the detectives' request. Closed cases from previous years are written in blue ink, as noted briefly in the afterword regarding Worden's current work on cold cases, "putting blue names on the Board".[citation needed] The show followed this convention as well, though the layout of "the Board" was different: each shift used one full side, with a separate column for every detective on the shift in alphabetical order and an extra column to list suspects for whom arrest warrants had been issued.
Bunk/Bunky – A term of affection (short for "bunk mate") typically applied to friends and co-workers. McLarney regards McAllister as "my bunky", while Requer is known as "the Bunk". The veteran cops in the Southern District think of Waltemeyer in this way, since he was assigned there during his time as a patrol officer, and readily help him find a car used by a murder suspect. The term is also used sarcastically towards suspects.
Citizen/Taxpayer – A "real" murder victim, as opposed to a drug dealer or gang member murdered in the course of criminal activity.
Dunker – An easily cleared case (from the basketball term slam dunk). An example from the book: a husband who is arrested while standing over his wife's dead body, covered in her blood, telling cops he killed her and would do so again if he got the chance.
Dying declaration – A statement made by a dying person who is able to speak and identify their attacker, and definitely knows they are dying. However, useful declarations are rare; instead, they tend to become the stuff of homicide legend. For example, one man, dying from a gunshot, "assured detectives that he would take care of the matter himself". Garvey solves a case using a dying declaration during the book.
Eyefuck – To look at someone disrespectfully or in anger. A ceremonial eyefuck takes place in the book when an unrepentant criminal is convicted. Garvey is disappointed when one criminal, convicted for two brutal murders, does not follow this tradition, describing him as "no fun at all".
Number One Male – Police radio description for an African American male suspect. Number Two is for a White suspect, Number Three is for a suspect of another race. Numerical order is most likely based on either Baltimore's African American majority or on African Americans' being the most commonly targeted criminal suspects in Baltimore, in the eyes of the BPD.[citation needed]
Polygraph-by-Copier – A folk tale in police circles in which detectives use a photocopier as a faux-polygraph machine on a particularly dumb suspect. Pages are loaded into the machine with "TRUE" or "LIE" on them, and questions are asked to match them. ("What is your name? Truth. And where do you live? Truth again. And did you or did you not kill Tater, shooting him down like a dog in the 1200 block of North Durham Street? Lie. Well, well: You lying motherfucker."). This was used in one episode of Homicide: Life on the Street, and in a Season 5 episode of The Wire. A story from the book notes that several cops in Detroit were punished for using this technique during interrogations.
Put down/Clear – To close a case, either by arresting a suspect or by establishing that the perpetrator is dead.
Red ball – A high-profile case that draws media and political attention. Red ball cases are investigated by all detectives on a shift and take precedence over existing active cases. They can and often do make or break a detective's career. They are also known as "shitstorms," "clusterfucks," and "murders that matter." Examples during the book include the Latonya Wallace case (Pellegrini's first assignment as primary detective) and the Scott police-involved shooting. Red balls also include major cases that usually fall outside the jurisdiction of the homicide unit, such as non-fatal police-involved shootings and high-profile abductions.
Secretaries with guns – Derogatory term typically used for incompetent female detectives. There are some exceptions to this rule, e.g., Jenny Wehr and Bertina "Bert" Silver.
Smokehound – Derogatory term for a drunk.
Squirrel – A criminal, a suspect, a rodent. Typically too cooperative during interrogations.
Stone Whodunit – A difficult case.
Ten-Seven – police radio code for "out of service"; may be applied to a homicide victim.
Ten-Seventy-Eight – police radio code invented by McAllister to refer to "your basic blowjob-in-progress interrupted by police gunfire". This occurs twice in the course of the year, though only one is described in detail.
Toad – A derogatory term for Blacks, specifically those who have or had a criminal history. Not usually applied to Black policemen such as Sgt. Nolan or Detectives Brown, Edgerton, or Requer, or law-abiding Blacks who hold other legitimate jobs.
Yo – A derogatory term for Blacks, often applied to male teenagers and young adults in place of a name. Like "toad," it is not applied to those with legitimate jobs and good social standing.
Yoette – A young black female. Unlike "yo," the term does not have any criminal or derogatory connotations.
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets won the 1992 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime book.[1] The Associated Press called it "a true-crime classic".[17] The Library Journal also highly recommended it, and Newsday described it as "one of the most engrossing police procedural mystery books ever written".[17]
Dutch: Homicide: Een jaar achter de schermen van de afdeling moordzaken, lit. 'Homicide: A Year Behind the Scenes of the Homicide Unit'. Translated by Meile Snijders. Amsterdam: Ambo|Anthos Uitgevers. 2009. ISBN9789026321979.
German: Homicide: Ein Jahr auf mörderischen Straßen. Translated by Gabriele Gockel, Barbara Steckhan and Thomas Wollermann. Munich: Verlag Antje Kunstmann. 2011. ISBN9783888977237.
Spanish: Homicidio: Un año en las calles de la muerte. Translated by Andres Silva. Barcelona: Editorial Principal de los Libros. 2015. ISBN9788416223251.
