Articles on Vidocq & Members

Pressroom

The Philadelphia Daily News
Reported on the suspicious death of a Rowan University coed in January 1998.  There is a possibility that The Vidocq Society or selected members with specific forensic expertise could be consulted in the investigation.

The Trentonian
featured the Vidocq Society's May 1998 presentation in this story about the unsolved 1984 robbery-murder of Roy Rogers Restaurant night manager Terry Brooks.

The Bucks County Courier
discussed the Scott Dunn murder case and The Vidocq Society's role in helping to solve the crime and prosecute the killers.  The article was written by veteran reporter George Mattar.
 
The Pocono Record
featured the Vidocq Society's presentation on the "Princess Doe" Case in its four-part series on the baffling death of the still-not-identified young woman whose body was found in a Blairstown, New Jersey, cemetery.  

WCAU-TV Philadelphia
Philadelphia's NBC Television Network affiliate featured the Vidocq Society, world-renowned profiler Robert K. Ressler, V.S.M., and Ressler's profile of the JonBenet Ramsey ransom note at the Vidocq Society's January 1998 meeting.  The television news report also centered on the "Princess Doe" case.  The Vidocq report was then featured in the NBC 10 website and Vidocq Commissioner William Fleisher was invited to an online chat session with anchor Tracy Davidson.

Community College Week
in an April 1998 article, featured Donald Weinberg, V.S.M. in a front page story that called him a "Philadelphia English professor turned super sleuth.

The Far Northeast Times
The past 41 years have done little to mute the memories and profound sadness surrounding a case which began when the small boy's body first was discovered in Philadelphia's Fox Chase section.  Philadelphia Police have never abandoned their investigation and almost everyone who lived in the Philadelphia area in the 50s recalls the sad story of the unidentified dead child, dubbed "The Boy in The Box."  This Far Northeast Times article appeared in March 1998.

The Philadelphia Inquirer
in a July 1998 article about a new self-help organization called Families of Murder Victims, mentioned the Vidocq Society and Vidocq Chairman of the Board Frank Friel, V.S.M.  

The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine
in a extensive article by Barbara Whitaker, discussed The Vidocq Society in November 1997.  Vidocq's role in solving the Dunn and Wilson murder cases are covered as well as V.S.M.s Frank Bender, Richard Walter and Bill Fleisher.  This article had been online but is now no longer available from phillynews.com.  

The Boulder, Colorado, Daily Camera
received a news tip that The Vidocq Society's January 1998 meeting would feature famed international profiler and FBI Behavioral Science Unit founder Robert K. Ressler, V.S.M. presenting the Jon Benet Ramsey ransom note. Television and print reporters developing feature stories on The Vidocq Society were not allowed to hear Ressler's presentation or the vigorous question-and-answer session that followed.

The New York Times
featured the Vidocq Society on the Metro front page in December 1997.  Ron Smothers' feature article was based upon the case presentation of the unsolved 1982 murder of a yet-to-be-identified woman who was given the name "Princess Doe" by authorities.  Several photographs appeared along with a sidebar summarizing The Vidocq Society's work on three cases: the Scott Dunn murder, the Deborah Lynn Wilson murder, and Vidocq's efforts in helping to dismiss charges in a 1991 Little Rock, Arkansas murder case.  

The Times of Trenton
Lisa Coryell's front-page story centered  on the  first-degree-murder conviction of a Texas woman for killing  the son of a Yardley, Pennsylvania man.  Scott Dunn disappeared from his apartment one day in 1991 and was never found.  Jim Dunn, the victim's father, learned about Vidocq from a CBS Television Network 48 Hours program and contacted The Society.  After years of investigation, led by Richard Walter, V.S.M., and forensic assessment from Scotland Yard, the victim's former girlfriend was convicted of murder and given a 20-year prison sentence.  Trial for the remaining defendant was pending.  (He later was convicted of murder but, inexplicably, given a probationary sentence.

Philadelphia Magazine
featured The Vidocq Society, and V.S.M.s Frank Bender, Richard Walter and William L. Fleisher in October 1997.  The article,  Mysteries. When a murder case goes cold, Frank Bender and the ace sleuths at the Vidocq Society get the call, by Sabrina Rubin, was not available from the magazine's website.

The Lombroso Society
of Virginia Weslyan University, a college-based organization similar to Vidocq for criminology students, featured the Vidocq Society in a Spring 1997 Journal article.  This article is  no longer available online.

WWDB-FM
Philadelphia's highest-rated talk station, has featured Vidocq Society members and officials over the past few years.   Most recently, Vidocq Commissioner William L. Fleisher, V.S.M., and Nathan Gordon, V.S.M. were guests in a two-hour Frank Rizzo program in which the Vidocq duo discussed cold cases and polygraph examinations.