Gone in the Night - Hardcover

Protess, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385306199 ISBN 13: 9780385306195

Publisher: Delacorte Press, 1993

Synopsis

An account of the murder of Jaclyn Dowaliby describes how, due to intense media and community pressure to find a killer--any killer--Jaclyn's father was unjustly accused, tried, and convicted of her murder

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

Well-told story of a suburban Chicago kidnapping, murder, and miscarriage of justice. Protess (Journalism and Urban Affairs/Northwestern) wrote three major stories about the case for the Chicago Tribune, while Warden is a freelance investigative journalist. One morning in 1988, Cynthia and David Dowaliby awoke to find their seven-year-old daughter, Jaclyn, missing: Broken windows attested to a break-in. Four days later, Jaclyn's decaying body was found in a field with a rope wrapped around her neck. The police had no leads other than the Dowalibys themselves and, asked to take lie-detector tests, the parents ``passed'' handily. But Chicago's outrage about the case boiled over, and local prosecutor Richard M. Daley, whose eye was riveted on the mayoral seat left vacant by his late father, decided to win ink by prosecuting the Dowalibys. Many career prosecutors in Daley's office told him that there was no case, but the Dowalibys were arrested the same day that Daley announced his mayoral candidacy. In the middle of the trial, the judge dismissed the case against Cynthia for lack of evidence, but the confused jury--under pressure from a hectoring foreman--decided David's guilt on irrelevant evidence not even discussed in the trial, and he was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Meanwhile, author Protess entered the scene and, joined by Warden, began punching holes in the verdict. Over a year later, Dowaliby was freed when the Illinois Appellate Court vacated the verdict on lack of evidence. Then Protess and Warden got hot after suspects, especially Cynthia's ex-brother-in-law, a paranoid schizophrenic, who told them about ``the spirit,'' his alter ego, who had taken Jaclyn to heaven. The case has now been reopened. Steadily gripping, though more as a story of justice gone awry than of a murder. (Sixteen-page photo insert--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

This wrenching account of a terrible crime and the dreadful injustice which followed it is searing. In September 1988, seven-year-old Jaclyn Dowaliby was abducted from her home in Midlothian, a suburb of Chicago; her body was found four days later. The local police investigation was inept. With the media clamoring for action, Capt. Daniel McDevitt of the Illinois State Police took over the case and accused Jaclyn's parents, Cynthia and David, of the crime. Given the paucity of evidence, prosecutors were reluctant to act until ordered to do so by their boss, Richard M. Daley, who was about to run for mayor of Chicago. The parents were charged and there followed distortion and suppression of evidence by the authorities. At the trial, the judge dismissed the case against Cynthia, but David was found guilty and sentenced to 45 years. Into the case stepped Protess, a journalism professor at Northwestern University, and Warden, a freelance reporter. Their investigation was largely responsible for overturning David's conviction. Unsolved, the case has been reopened. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0385306199
• ISBN 13: 9780385306195
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 434