Evil Guardian

by Scott Bonn

  Bratton calmly and confidently steps behind the podium to address a large group of news reporters who have assembled for the event. The room is filled with TV cameras and journalists from both the local media and major national television networks. The briefing room grows silent as the police commissioner prepares to speak.

  After a few cursory opening remarks, Bratton tells the crowd that an unknown male perpetrator is believed to be responsible for murdering two girls found yesterday at the bottom of the East River. He confirms what many veteran reporters already suspect—that is, a serial killer is on the loose in New York City.

  Bratton says, “Based on the similarities of the two victims, including their family backgrounds, the nature and characteristics of their abductions and murders, as well as material evidence discovered with their bodies, we believe that a serial killer is targeting adolescent Caucasian girls in our city.”

  The police commissioner does not elaborate on the details of the material evidence discovered with the bodies. He says nothing at all about the blue nylon cords or iron crosses that were tied to both bodies. It is common for law enforcement authorities to withhold certain evidence during the early stages of a criminal investigation of this magnitude.

  The commissioner makes a major announcement. He states that he has created a special task force consisting of more than two hundred police officers and detectives for the exclusive purpose of hunting down the unknown serial killer. He further announces that NYPD homicide Captain James Pritchard, a highly decorated and skillful veteran detective, will lead the task force. Captain Pritchard is standing directly beside Bratton on the podium.

  The commissioner says, “Based on his extensive knowledge, experience, and an outstanding record for solving murder cases and bringing criminals to justice quickly, Captain Pritchard is the ideal man to lead this team. I have complete faith that he will close this case promptly and stop the madman who preys on our children.”

  Commissioner Bratton states that apprehending this serial killer is now the number one priority of the NYPD. With rising emotion in his voice, he says that his department will not rest until the unknown perpetrator is either captured or killed. He asks the public to assist the NYPD in its investigation by utilizing a special telephone hotline and website that were established overnight to collects their tips and leads. He concludes his statement by reminding the public to be vigilant and asking all parents to watch over their children with great care.

  Immediately after the commissioner completes his short briefing, the journalists in attendance begin to yell out questions about the hunt for the killer to Captain Pritchard. The members of the news media understand that Pritchard is a veteran homicide detective with extensive experience, so they are particularly interested in his thoughts about the unknown serial killer that haunts New York.

  Pritchard is startled for a moment by the volume and intensity of questions directed at him all at once. The police captain is not used to public speaking. On the few occasions that he has done it, he disliked it very much. He is reluctantly willing to speak publicly now, however, because he is disgusted by the senseless murders of the two girls. He wants to express his outrage to the public, so he decides to make a general statement in response to the barrage of questions from the press about the unknown perpetrator.

  Pritchard speaks directly from his heart with brutal honesty and conviction when he says, “The unknown perpetrator of these two murders is not a human being. No man could ruthlessly kill two innocent young girls in cold blood and leave their bodies in the river. This killer is a monster, pure and simple. I want to assure the public that my task force and I will work tirelessly, around the clock, and not stop until we capture this creature. You have my word on that.”

  The news media immediately disseminate Pritchard’s brief but powerful statement around the globe. By 4:00pm, the captain’s words reach the ears of the guardian himself who becomes enraged at being labeled a “monster” by him.

  The killer’s grandiosity, narcissism, and arrogance demand that he respond directly to the homicide captain in order to express his tremendous scorn. Accordingly, he composes a taunting letter on his computer and sends a hard copy of it in the mail directly to Pritchard at the NYPD.

  The letter reaches Pritchard’s desk two days later, on the morning of October 13th. In his letter, the killer proclaims that he is “neither a monster nor a creature.” He says that the captain is simply too “dim-witted” to recognize his “true genius.” The killer also instructs Pritchard to call him the “guardian” because he is on a “divine mission to save young girls from the evils of the world.” The guardian claims that “God almighty” has assigned him to this mission, and it is only just beginning.

  After reading the letter, Pritchard is initially perplexed. He is not sure what to make of it. He wonders if it could be a hoax. That is certainly a possibility, he thinks to himself. He realizes that the NYPD forensic analysts must thoroughly test the letter.

  He initiates forensic tests that take several hours to complete. The tests on the letter prove to be negative for both fingerprints and DNA. The analysts determine that it was laser jet printed on common white bond paper. It arrived in a white business envelope. The mailing address on the envelope was also laser jet printed. The envelope has no return address. Plain water was used to moisten the glue and seal the envelope. The zip code post marked on the envelope is 10028. That is Gracie Station Post Office on the upper east side of Manhattan.

  With the initial forensic tests completed, Pritchard decides to show the letter to Commissioner Bratton. At 2:00pm, Pritchard enters the commissioner’s office and places the letter on his desk. Pritchard describes the contents of the letter to Bratton. Before the commissioner can read the letter, Pritchard offers his boss a bit of background information and context.

  Pritchard says, “High profile cases like this one bring all sorts of crackpots out of the woodwork. Bogus letters claiming responsibility are quite common in such cases.”

  Pritchard explains that going all the way back to the hunt for the legendary Jack the Ripper in London at the end of the nineteenth century, serial killer investigations have almost always elicited fraudulent claims of responsibility from the public. He further explains that the infamous moniker “Jack the Ripper” came from a letter claiming responsibility for the murders sent to London police during the manhunt. Contemporary forensic experts now consider that iconic letter to be a fraud, but its impact is timeless, nevertheless.

  Captain Pritchard states that in contrast to the legendary Jack the Ripper letter, he believes this letter from the self-named “guardian” is genuine. Pritchard tells Bratton he believes that the letter is real because it contains very precise information only the killer himself would know. Pritchard tells his boss that the author of the letter specifically mentions the Christian crosses found tied to the necks of the two victims.

  The commissioner listens attentively to Pritchard. He nods at him to indicate that he recognizes the merits of the captain’s argument. After Pritchard is finished speaking, Bratton reads the letter himself.

  When he is finished, Bratton shakes his head in disgust and reads aloud from the letter, “I bless these girls with the sign of the cross. It is my gift to them. Wearing it will lighten the burden of these girls.”

  Pritchard says, “That is the passage I was referring to, sir. The author’s mention of the cross cannot possibly be a coincidence. It is too specific. The odds of it being a coincidence are about one in fifty million. Therefore, the letter must surely have been written by the killer himself.”

  The police commissioner concurs with Pritchard’s assessment of the letter. It must be genuine, he thinks to himself. Bratton reflects briefly on the killer’s words about the cross in the letter.

  After a few moments, he looks straight at the captain and shouts, “Jesus! This crazy bastard is claiming that the cross he puts on their bodies will ‘lighten the burden’ of his victims!”


  Now, filled with anger and indignation, the commissioner asks, “Is this guy making some kind of sick fucking joke about the murders?”

  Not waiting for a response from the homicide captain, Bratton adds, “Those damn cast iron crosses dragged the girls’ bodies to the bottom of the East River. This asshole is trying to be a comedian, Jimmy. He really is a sick piece of work.”

  Pritchard replies, “That he is, sir.”

  One issue remains concerning the letter. Bratton and Pritchard must decide whether to release it to the public. There are pros and cons to doing so. Pritchard is in favor of giving it to the public. After a bit of discussion, the commissioner reluctantly decides to release the letter to the news media. He decides to include a statement of his own along with the letter in which he will ask the public for its help in catching the killer.

  After making his decision, the commissioner says, “Jimmy, I don’t like the idea of giving this madman publicity because he will probably eat it up. I really believe that he wants notoriety. On the other hand, the public has a right to know what kind of monster we are dealing with here. Also, if it generates some useful leads or tips, then releasing the letter to the public might help us to catch this sick bastard, sooner than later.”

  “Yes, sir, I agree,” says Pritchard.

  Chapter Eleven

  It is 5:00pm on October 14th. The letter to Captain Pritchard from the guardian and the statement from Commissioner Bratton were both released to the news media early this morning. Local, national and international media outlets have all picked up the letter and published it around the world. All types of media, including newspapers, magazines, radio, television, Internet news services, and social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter have disseminated the letter from the serial killer.

  A veteran crime reporter at the New York Daily News christened the unknown killer the “Evil Guardian” in a front-page news story this morning. Crime reporters everywhere have seized upon the catchy moniker and are using it in their own stories as well. Due to the avalanche of news stories, the so-called evil guardian is becoming an instant criminal celebrity. The massive news coverage he is receiving is reminiscent of the attention given to infamous past serial killers such as Son of Sam, the Zodiac, Ted Bundy or Jack the Ripper.

  Bratton and Pritchard both recognize and accept that the guardian will bask in his newfound celebrity status. They are well aware that releasing the letter to the press was a calculated risk. The guardian is narcissistic and grandiose, so publicity will inflate his already massive ego. Giving him notoriety could have the terrible, unintended consequence of escalating his killing spree by rewarding his behavior.

  On the other hand, Bratton and Pritchard are hoping that the killer’s grandiosity will cause him to become cocky and reckless. They hope that he will begin to take greater risks that could lead to his capture if he makes mistakes. In essence, Bratton and Pritchard are giving the guardian publicity almost like a rope to hang himself.

  The two senior law enforcement officers know that at least one precedent exists for using the news media to bait and capture a serial killer. Specifically, the legendary predator, Dennis Rader (Bind, Torture, Kill or BTK), was captured by the police as a direct consequence of his massive ego and recklessness that were exploited by giving him the attention and notoriety he craved so much.

  Bratton and Pritchard are taking a gamble that the same strategy will work with the guardian. Time will tell whether their bet pays off or if it goes bust. The stakes are high, as the lives of many innocent girls ride on the outcome.

  Chapter Twelve

  The veteran officer in charge of catching the guardian is NYPD Homicide Captain James Pritchard. He is an intelligent, intense and private individual. He stands exactly six feet tall, is powerfully built, and ruggedly handsome. He has short dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Pritchard is forty-three years old and has been with the NYPD ever since he received a Bachelor’s degree with honors in criminal justice from John Jay College in Manhattan at the age of twenty-one.

  Captain Pritchard is well respected by his colleagues at the NYPD. He is highly decorated with an impeccable record over the twenty years he has been in the department. By all accounts, he is something of a superstar at the NYPD. For example, he received his detective shield in record time. Immediately after receiving it, he was assigned to the homicide division. His contemporaries at the time considered that assignment to be quite a coup because the homicide division only recruits the best and brightest rookie detectives.

  After solving many high profile homicides as a young detective, Pritchard was promoted to detective lieutenant at the age of thirty. His meteoric rise continued when, shortly after his thirty-eighth birthday, he was promoted to Detective Captain of Homicide for the borough of Manhattan.

  He has a sterling reputation throughout the NYPD, and he is highly regarded among the political elite in New York, including the mayor. He is well known and highly respected for solving complicated murder cases quickly and efficiently.

  Although well regarded throughout the NYPD by all of his colleagues, Pritchard is reserved, even secretive, and his personal life is a mystery to most of his peers. In that regard, he is considered something of an enigma even by his colleagues who respect and like him the most.

  James Pritchard is a very driven man who comes from a difficult background. He is originally from Nassau County, Long Island, New York. He grew up in the working class town of Hempstead. More specifically, he and his family are from the hamlet of Baldwin within Hempstead. Pritchard is the oldest of five children. His father, Ralph, was a plumber by trade. A life-long cigarette smoker, Ralph died from lung cancer at the age of fifty in 2000. His mother, Mary, a housewife, never remarried after her husband’s death, and she now lives alone in the family’s original home in Baldwin. James has dinner with his mother every Sunday evening.

  James Pritchard’s father struggled with many demons throughout his lifetime. He was a degenerate gambler, womanizer and alcoholic who periodically found himself in the local jail for disorderly conduct or getting into barroom brawls. As a result, the Pritchard household was chronically poor, chaotic and dysfunctional. It was not uncommon for the family’s utility bills to go unpaid for months at a time.

  Occasionally, the electricity or telephone would be shut off for lack of payment, and sometimes there was not enough food for the large family to eat. Because Ralph was so unreliable, it often fell upon James, as the oldest child, to step in and restore order when his father brought calamity into the Pritchard home, as he so often did.

  Having such great responsibility at a young age made James very serious, stern and uncompromising. He did not ask for so much responsibility in his youth, but he did reluctantly accept it. However, his unwanted family obligations made him angry and resentful toward his volatile and unreliable father. That resentment festered and intensified over the years.

  James was at Ralph’s bedside in the hospital when he died, but he has never really forgiven his father for the hardship he caused the family or for the burden that his father’s self-destructiveness placed on his shoulders. Sadly, James does not know how to make peace with his father, even after his death. Unresolved anger and resentment toward his father poison James to this very day.

  Three years after joining the NYPD, at the age of twenty-four, James married his high-school sweetheart, Claire Dawson. At Baldwin High School where the two met, James had been a talented wrestler and Claire was a varsity cheerleader and volleyball player. They were a very popular couple among their classmates in school. With Claire, James was able to escape the pressures and unhappiness of his own troubled home life. Claire brought some joy into his world. He loved her for that, and she loved him, too.

  It was never a question of whether or not James and Claire would marry. All of their friends and family knew they would marry from the time the two started dating in the tenth grade. The only question was when they would marry. The ever pragmatic and practical J
ames insisted on being established in his career with the NYPD before they got married. Rather than argue with James, Claire accepted his decision. She and her family were not worried that James would change his mind about getting married. They knew that he was a man of his word.

  No one was surprised when James proposed to Claire on her twenty-third birthday, shortly after the NYPD hired him. They were married six months later. James’s father, Ralph, was battling lung cancer by that time, but he summoned the will to attend his oldest son’s wedding. Ralph died the following year.

  James secured a mortgage on a small, three-bedroom house in the village of Freeport, on Long Island, for himself and Claire.

  In the early days of their marriage, James was rarely at home. He was always working and trying to move up in the NYPD. He accepted as much overtime as his superiors offered him, and they offered him a lot as his stellar reputation within the department grew.

  James was highly motivated. He wanted to receive a promotion from patrol officer to detective as quickly as possible. He never turned down an opportunity to gain experience in the field. He worked hard to impress his superiors. He was fearless on the street and never complained to anyone on the job regardless of the difficulty or danger of any assignment he was given.

  James was a dedicated young police officer, and his superiors loved him for his enthusiasm. Everyone who knew him at the NYPD regarded James as an outstanding and loyal officer, although a few of his peers who were jealous of his accomplishments and the favor he enjoyed with the higher ups in the organization developed petty resentments toward him. Even his few critics and envious peers all recognized that James Pritchard was destined for big things in the department.

  Despite the long hours he worked on the job, James loved Claire very much, and he did his best to be present for her both mentally and emotionally when he was with her at home. This was not always easy for him to do, given the physically and psychologically exhausting nature of his work. The early years of his policing career were particularly difficult for him in this regard, due to his fierce determination to make a name for himself in the department.