For nearly three decades, a series of rapes and murders occurred around Western New York by a nameless, faceless man dubbed "The Bike Path Rapist" by local media. Authorities had his DNA and knew his tendency to use a ligature, but could never capture the elusive criminal. His first known attacks were in the mid-1980s, continuing regularly through 1994. After a twelve-year gap, in September 2006, he returned by strangling and killing a 45-year-old mother along a rural bike path. While investigating the case, Buffalo Homicide Detective and task force member Dennis Delano reviewed unsolved rape cases from the past thirty years. He concluded that the Bike Path Rapist's span of attacks stretched back even further, into the 1970s. Delano learned that a different man, Anthony Capozzi, had been convicted of two rapes in 1985 and was still imprisoned 22 years later. Members of the task force interviewed Capozzi, who is schizophrenic. Delano and his colleagues believed the wrong man was in jail, but had no hard evidence to secure a release. After working tirelessly on behalf of a convicted man, DNA slides were discovered at a local medical center. Capozzi was exonerated and released before Easter 2007. Bike Path Rapist: A Cop's Firsthand Account of Catching the Killer Who Terrorized a Community will examine the complex and compelling story inside the investigation of a thirty-year string of serial rapes and killings. With detailed information culled from interviews, police reports and insights from Delano and his colleagues on an elite task force that solved the crime, the book will blend the drama of Cold Case and CSI with a behind-the-scenes look at investigative techniques and angles examined by investigators.

A nurse from a Buffalo hospital punches out at midnight, then disappears, leaving an abandoned car in the parking lot. Four days later, the investigation falls to detectives Mark Bennett and Salvatore DeAngelis. Despite August's heat, the case is ice cold - no suspects and no clues. Meanwhile, on a sweltering afternoon, patrolmen George Pope and Bobby Bennett respond to a routine domestic call, encountering a drug-addled mother in conflict with a father trying to do right by their infant daughter. The legal system offers clear-cut answers, but how should officers respond when the law is flawed? As Mark Bennett struggles with his investigation, a woman appears in the detective bureau carrying his dead father's tie clip. They were once good friends, she claims, although Bennett has never heard of her. Now she asks a favor... The second installment in a series, Boneshaker is crime fiction inhabited by gritty characters who grapple with gray areas, explore the past, and tread staggered pathways between right and wrong.

Buffalo, New York, in the fall of 1980: a white supremacist embarks on a killing spree, targeting black people... one every day. His first murder- from City Hall's balcony twenty-eight stories high- becomes his signature. The case is assigned to Mark Bennett, a new detective whose father was a police legend. Ken Connell, the department's star investigator, is angry to learn he is passed over. Bennett owns a pedigree, but lacks experience solving homicides. Bennett grapples with secrets: conversations with his dead father and a burgeoning affair he must keep quiet, because Allison is separating from a husband who doesn't want her to leave: Ken Connell. Bobby Bennett, Mark's younger brother, is a rookie patrolman learning the job. His partner is George Pope, a veteran street cop who once paired with Bennett's father. Pope is wise but crusty, determined to mentor a stubborn young man, no matter how much resistance he faces. For several days, victims keep coming. Against a backdrop of crooked cops, drug dealers, prostitutes, transvestites, tension mounts as the net narrows on the killer while Connell learns the truth about his wife's affair. These events converge in a darkened basement with two cops, a killer and three guns trained in different directions. Rich in characterization, Broken and Profane is crime fiction that resonates with authenticity, a taut thriller portraying the underbelly of life and the men who are entrusted with keeping society's order. Jeff Schober is the author of the true crime book Bike Path Rapist with Det. Dennis Delano and the novel Undercurrent.