In early 1990, forensic psychologist and criminal profiler Richard Walter was in Philadelphia to join his professional colleague, forensic artist Frank Bender, in tracking escaped murderer Robert Nauss. Bender’s friend, William Fleisher, was anxious to meet the world-renown Walter. Bill Fleisher, a highly regarded polygraph examiner and interrogator, had worked for both the Philadelphia Police Department and the FBI before rising to a senior position in the United States Customs Service. He was delighted when Bender set up a lunch date.
The men fell into shop talk immediately and found that they shared a strong interest in crime, cold cases, and, most of all, justice. With their individual skills, it seemed obvious that if they united to focus on crimes that had long gone unsolved, they could help catch the murderers.
That afternoon, the three determined to establish a club for law enforcement officials and forensic professionals: dentists, pathologists, anthropologists, etc. Although Walter had some reservations, they decided to also invite a few “civilians” who had exceptional skills in topics of interest such as linguistics. The talent and training of those gathered would bring together the science, the art and the instinct of crime solving. The new organization would strive to help resolve cold cases. And the members would work pro bono.
Bill Fleisher, who’d long been hoping to start an association of this kind, was ready with a name, the Vidocq Society, in honor of Eugène François Vidocq (vee-DUCK), once a convict, later the founder of the French Sûreté in 1811. According to the Vidocq Society bio, Monsieur Vidocq:
- introduced record keeping (a card-index system), criminalistics, and the science of ballistics into police work;
- was the first to make plaster-of-paris casts of foot/shoe impressions;
- was a master of disguise and surveillance;
- held patents on indelible ink and unalterable bond paper;
- and founded the first modern detective agency and credit bureau, Le Bureau des Renseignements.
With these credentials and the great popularity throughout Europe of his autobiography, Memoires, Vidocq is generally considered to be the father of criminal detection, so his name provides the perfect identity for the group.
The Vidocq credo is Veritas Veritatum – The Truth of Truths.
In 1984, Deborah Lynn Wilson, a student at Drexel University, was found beaten and strangled. Her shoes and socks were missing. The Philadelphia Police Department presented the case to the Vidocq members in 1992. Richard Walter suggested the police check their files for known foot fetishists as well as look for such a fetish among possible suspects, which led to a Drexel security guard, who had been court-martialed while in the military for stealing women’s sneakers and socks. The guard, David Dickson Jr., was arrested and convicted of Ms. Wilson’s murder.
Several years after Scott Dunn disappeared from his home in Lubbock Texas in 1991, his father, Jim Dunn, appealed to the Vidocq Society for help. After learning the problems surrounding the case, V.S.M.’s arranged for the Texas detectives and prosecutors to get assistance from Scotland Yard which led to a conviction in the crime, more here from the Bucks County Courier Times.
Although the Vidocq Society members have worked on hundreds of compelling mysteries, produced a high rate of gratifying endings, and continue to do so, don’t look for the movie version any time soon. Danny DeVito’s production company, Jersey Films, bought the motion picture rights directly from the founding members of the Vidocq Society nearly ten years ago, but the project seems permanently stalled. However, it seems The Murder Room may have revived enough interest to bring the Vidocq Society to a small screen near you, becaause its author reports that the creator of CSI has a television version currently in development.
Image via Tim Downs.
Terrie blogs at Women of Mystery One of her recent short stories can be found in the anthology Crimes By Moonlight and another can be read on the Beat To A Pulp website.
That book had fascinating content, but it was really difficult to read. The editor needed a much firmer hand.
Amy, I couldn’t agree with you more. The content was all over the map, very hard to follow but too interesting to put the book down. I do wish that the author had shone a little less light on the personal lives of the Vidocq society founders. While their professional qualifications are extremely important to their activities in society, I think their personal lives would be better left private.
I just have to third the comments above. The book had some interesting content, but the writing was so bad it was a real slog to get through the whole thing.
Jeff, it just shows how important content is. It was the subject matter that kept us all reading.
Subject was absolutely fascinating, but what a terribly muddled read. The author was much too interested in Frank Bender’s bohemian lifestyle and wasted too much time on it. Also terribly hard to follow because it was all over the map in terms of chronology.
Rebecca, I couldn’t agree more. Frank Bender’s personal life should have received nothing more than a passing glance, but I think it fascinated Mr. Capuzzo more than many of the mysteries did.
I first picked this book up thinking it was fiction but thought it would be even more interesting when I found out it was factual. As mentioned in other comments, the subject matter did keep me reading even when I thought it got bogged down a bit with too much of the personal details of the members rather than concentrating on the mysteries themselves. Overall, though I did enjoy it….
@notarobot, I agree. The case studies were fascinating.
My son, Andrew Jerry Miller, was premeditatedly murdered, DeepState FBI DOJ are involved. I did call the Vidocq Society and spoke with Bill. He was interested, then he got “the call” excused himself. I called back but never received a call back.
The Vidocq Society claims “justice” is their major goal, except if it’s one of their own.
I can prove premeditated murder, how they murdered him and why. I do have names of some involved, which does include politicians. They did it to access a $B investment trust fund and ruin my life, which was the cherry to their demonic tactics.
Please V.S.M. help me get justice. If your claim is justice, then the lady wears a blindfold and there’s justice for all, not just the rich and powerful.
Now that Trump is in charged, will V.S.M. help expose the truth, or will they aid in the coverup?
I’m only a mom who loved her son and wants answers, exposure and justice.