Fall Guys: False Confessions and the Politics of Murder

by Jim Fisher and Professor Jim Fisher Ph.D. B.A.

Book Overview

Jim Fisher, criminal justice professor and former FBI agent, reveals how he uncovered the framing of two boys in a pair of unrelated murders committed in 1956 and 1958.

In the first of the cases, eleven-year-old Charlie Zubryd confessed that at the age of eight, he had murdered his widowed mother by driving a hatchet into her skull. The crime was committed in the basement of the modest Zubryd home in a rural section of Sewickley Township...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080932069X
• ISBN13: 9780809320691
• Release Date: December 1996
• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

As the daughter of Jerry Pacek, I might be bias

I grew up in Jerry Pacek's home, never knowing what had happened to him so many years before until I was about 13 myself. I was never allowed to read the book until I turned 18. With his death in 2004, I just couldn't bring myself to read his story because I knew partially what he went through. To know my father was a true gift. He was the nicest man you could ever meet and had friends everywhere! But to know him and also know his story just makes you think of what a great man he truly was. To go through this turmoil and be such a kind, caring human being is beyond me. It's a great book to read. Jim Fisher did a wonderful job proving that my dad was innocent and I am eternally grateful for that. If you have the chance, pick this book up. It's a good read. It'll both astonish you and anger you.

Interesting Book - false confessions, recantations and the truth

The best part about this book is the way that it changed so many people's lives in a positive way, and how the author was caught up into the story by chance, and then he followed through until the case was solved. The story is important because it provides facts and history about a very young child who is accused of a brutal murder. Most of the non-fiction books written about children accused of serious crimes have focused on adolescents and young adults. There hasn't been enough written about very young children and the criminal justice system. The book is way too heavy on minute details in some places, and I skipped through some of it because I wanted to find out what happened to the people in the story. I really hope that one day this book can be made into a movie so that more people will know about this very interesting criminal case.

Riveting

Although horrifying to read, this book is absolutely gripping and impossible to put down. Author Jim Fisher does an excellent job of bringing the reader along with him as he essentially stumbles into the 30-year-old Zubryd murder case and becomes entangled in a web of inconsistencies surrounding the evidence, the crime scene, and the boy's confession, and eventually uncovers the identity of the true murderer. He describes the investigative process matter-of-factly, never lapsing into tediousness or overplaying the drama. Fisher lays out his reasoning beautifully, and the reader experiences every nagging question, every false hope, and every thrilling break in the case right alongside the detectives. How Fisher then became involved in the Stevick/Pacek case, which ultimately helped spur the Zubryd investigation, makes this already amazing story truly stunning. A great true-life thriller made all the more haunting because of its myriad victims: the murder victims, the wrongfully accused, their families, and the actual or potential subsequent victims of the true perpetrators. The senselessness of the frame-ups, in both cases, boggle the mind. Thought-provoking, fascinating, and chilling. I can't praise this work enough, and God bless Jim Fisher for bringing the truth to light in these tragic cases.

fall guys

Mr Fisher, You don't know me but I am the daughter of Harry & Maureen Zubryd. My father and i talked back in 1979 about this case and he showed me charlie at my aunts funeral. I would never of known him. Your book was very informative, and i love finding out the information you had in the book. I would love to know which library you went to to get copies of these newspaper articles. Can i get them through my computer do you think. This is the only way i thought I might be able to reach you. Since Helen was my aunt and i was just curious. Please e-mail me back if you can. I would appreciate and love to hear from the man that knows a good bit about my family. Eileen

True Crime by a True Crime Fighter

A good read for fans of true crime books. The wrinkle that sets this book apart from others in this genre is that the author himself is an investigator (a former FBI agent). He helped reopen two cases in which youngsters had been railroaded into confessing to murders they didn't commit (both times by the same detective), and in both cases, he was able to discover evidence to exonerate the wrongly accused.