Undisclosed Witnesses

In 1951, a convicted killer flees custody and is caught hours later driving a Packard convertible with the owner’s corpse in the trunk. The grisly episode stuns the tranquil community. The fugitive is charged with murder.

Eliot Polk, a high school junior, and his football teammate, Cody Carson (son of the local sheriff), are intrigued. They track the case from arrest to trial. Along the way, they savor the idyllic lifestyle relished by teenage males in that halcyon era.

At trial, neither side produces an eyewitness to the slaying, hence the jury bases its verdict solely on circumstantial evidence.

Twenty-four years later, Eliot--now circuit judge--learns two people in the courtroom during the 1951 trial had, clandestinely, witnessed an incident indicating the escapee might not be the culprit, Yet, they remained silent. However, he faces a moral dilemma over whether to reveal this, as disclosure of their identity and reason for reticence would adversely impact several other lives.

AUTHOR

John Crow is a retired state appellate judge. Earlier, he was a military judge advocate, practicing lawyer, prosecuting attorney, and trial judge. He and his wife, Janet, reside in southwest Missouri.

In Undisclosed Witnesses, his first novel, he provides the reader an intimate glimpse into the nuances of a murder trial during a nostalgic journey back to the glorious fifties.