Gone in the Night

This wrenching account of a terrible crime and the dreadful injustice which followed it is searing. In September 1988, seven-year-old Jaclyn Dowaliby was abducted from her home in Midlothian, a suburb of Chicago; her body was found four days later. The local police investigation was inept. With the media clamoring for action, Capt. Daniel McDevitt of the Illinois State Police took over the case and accused Jaclyn's parents, Cynthia and David, of the crime. Given the paucity of evidence, prosecutors were reluctant to act until ordered to do so by their boss, Richard M. Daley, who was about to run for mayor of Chicago. The parents were charged and there followed distortion and suppression of evidence by the authorities. At the trial, the judge dismissed the case against Cynthia, but David was found guilty and sentenced to 45 years. Into the case stepped Protess, a journalism professor at Northwestern University, and Warden, a freelance reporter. Their investigation was largely responsible for overturning David's conviction. Unsolved, the case has been reopened. Photos not seen by PW. (May)