THE TRIAL OF PATROLMAN THOMAS SHEA

Hardback. April 28, 1973: a 10yr old black youth named Clifford Glover is walking with his stepfather, Add Armstead, down a New York City street toward the auto salvage yard where Armstead works. Patrolman Thomas Shea is driving down the same ghetto street with his partner, Walter Scott. It is 4.50am. The destinies of Clifford Glover and Thomas Shea are about to collide. When they do, Clifford Glover will be mortally wounded and the gun that killed him will be smoking in the hand of Thomas Shea. The echoes of this shot will reach far beyond the lives of the Shea and Glover families: they will shake the foundations of New York City, its politicians and police, its black and white citizenry, and send tremors across the nation. The death of Clifford Glover was remarkable, not so much for the event itself as for what happened in its aftermath. Thomas Shea became the first New York cop in 50yrs to be tried for murder. His arrest, indictment, and trial were unparalleled in history and caused a furore in almost every segment of society. For civil rights groups it was the perfect time to air long-standing grievances against the police; for black cops it was a unique opportunity to make a statement about their own convictions; for white cops it was a chance to show their muscle as defenders of law and order and as powerful members of city government; for the district attorney's office, the courts, and city politicians, it was their most sensitive and explosive case in years. At the heart of the matter, however, there was Thomas Shea, a product of the society he served. For many, Shea remained a martyr. To others, he was simply a white man who murdered a black. In this astonishing minute-by-minute recreation, the author tells the untold story of these events and of the people who shaped the life and death of Clifford Glover and the trial of Patrolman Thomas Shea. With Map, Epilogue and Author's Note. 273pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Nr. F. in Vg+ protected pcdw.