In the summer of 1986, I was chosen to serve on a Philadelphia grand jury investigating the worst fire in the city’s history. What I saw and heard during my two-year service on the grand jury prompted me to investigate as fully as I could the circumstances that are related in this book.
In the interests of fairness—and to avoid going to jail—I must, however, explain how this book was written. The grand jury met in secret, and the jurors are under an oath to keep the proceedings secret. This book does not violate that oath. Virtually all of the evidence we heard and saw—the transcripts of the months of testimony and the dozens of pieces of physical evidence that were presented to us—is sealed by the court. The only public statement of the grand jury consists of a 279-page report issued in May 1988.
Because I am bound by the grand jury’s oath of secrecy I have taken special pains to report only those facts that have become available from public sources. The most important of these sources are the files of the MOVE Commission, and I have relied on them extensively—though sometimes with a grain of salt.
In addition to the reports of the grand jury and the MOVE Commission, my coauthor and I have consulted countless newspaper and magazine articles. We also conducted our own independent interviews with key figures in this story who were willing to talk to us.
Finally I wish to point out that though this story is reconstructed, it is not a dramatization or an embellishment. Every event related here actually happened or reasonably can be inferred from the evidence we collected. The dialogue is based on the actual recollections of those involved and is taken verbatim from public testimony, police reports, and other documented sources. I have tried to point out those parts of the story that are open to dispute and to present conflicting interpretations fairly.
Michael Boyette
March 1989