George Sherwood

Colder Case: How California Executed the Wrong Man and Left a Serial Killer Free to Stalk Children George Sherwood

Publisher Marketing: This is the first book to prove California executed the wrong man. The year 1937 was the year of the most horrifying crime in the history of Los Angeles County, and it is largely forgotten. There was a frantic search for three missing little girls, ages seven, eight and nine. That search ended when their ravaged bodies were found in the hills two days later. There was an arrest after one of the most intensive manhunts in California history; there was a trial and a jury guilty verdict based on a false confession, and the accused was hanged by the neck until dead. But forensic science proves him innocent, and when an innocent man is convicted of a crime, it is still an unsolved cold case. When a wrongful conviction of the innocent leaves a serial killer of children free to pursue his sadistic devices, it is a colder case. This is the story of a colder case. There is already proof the wrong man hanged and there is compelling evidence a serial killer roamed free as a result. The story begins from the night three little girls were reported missing, moves to the manhunt for their possible kidnapper and then for their killer, to the Coroner's Inquest, to the psychiatrist that crafted a forensic profile, to the false confession by Albert Dyer that conformed to that profile, to his arrest and through his trial and to the California Supreme Court, to the fight by Inglewood citizens to save him from the gallows and the fight by the state to put him to death, and ends the day of his hanging. Colder Case walks through each step of our criminal justice system and reveals flaws that still exist today. Contributor Bio:  Sherwood, George George Sherwood retired from teaching high school history after 33 years with the Toronto District School Board, but continues to teach Canadian History at Woodsworth College at the University of Toronto, where he has been an instructor in the Academic Bridging Program for the past 30 years.