GOOD COP/BAD COP
A True Story of Murder and Mayhem
Copyright ® 1994 by Rebecca H. Cofer with David McElligott
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever, including electronic, mechanical, or any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in the 1976 Copyright Act.
Requests for permission should be addressed to:
New Horizon Press
P.O. Box 669
Far Hills, NJ 07931
Cofer, Rebecca, with David McElligott.
Good Cop/Bad Cop: A True Story of Murder and Mayhem
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 93-61694
ISBN-13 (eBook): 978-0-88282-508-3
New Horizon Press
1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 / 5 4 3 2 1
Dedicated to the Memory
of
Tony, Dodie, Shelby and Marc Harris
and
the efforts of
The New York State Police,
The City of Ithaca Police Department,
and the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Department
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My deepest thanks goes to Senior Investigator David McElligott for his unusually patient and generous part in supplying information concerning the investigation of the Harris murders and David L. Harding. In many instances, the details he was able to provide had never before been made public.
I am also indebted to the many investigators and troopers with the New York State Police and to local police officers who talked with me with unfailing courtesy and openness during almost three years of my research and writing. Their input was crucial to telling the story of this investigation.
Also, I am grateful to Tompkins County District Attorney George Dentes, to Senior Investigator Karl Chandler, to New York State Police Chief Inspector Francis DeFrancesco, to defense attorney Bill Sullivan and to the special prosecutor Nelson Roth for their valuable contributions.
I would like to thank Mary Harris, Don and Patricia Lake and other Syracuse family members and friends for sharing with me their remembrances of Tony, Dodie, Shelby and Marc. I am also grateful to the Harrises’ friends in Marietta, Georgia, who talked with me about the Harrises they knew and loved.
Though there were some Harris friends and neighbors in Ellis Hollow who wished not to be interviewed for reasons of privacy or because they were still pained by the tragedy, I am extremely grateful to those who came forward. Dennis and Elizabeth Regan not only were willing to talk with me, but made me feel the project was worthwhile from the very beginning. Without people like the Regans, I may not have persevered.
My sincere thanks to Ed Reynolds and Doris Rosenblum of Manhattan’s Westside Alternate High School for their cooperation.
I am grateful to Dr. Charles Bahn, a forensic psychologist at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City and to Dr. Murray Miron, a sociologist at Syracuse University, for helping me gain a better understanding of the psychopathic personality.
Others who made a real difference with their personal support were Robin Cofer, Carolyn Lindquist, Maureen Aung-Thwin and Louis Kraar. And many thanks to my husband, Bob, for his computer assistance and for believing I could do it.
In addition to interviews, court transcripts, written accounts of the story which were valuable appeared in The Ithaca Journal, The Syracuse Post-Standard, The Binghamton Sun-Bulletin, and in Tompkins County court records. Other important written sources included The Harris Family; Ellis Hollow Lore by Zelle Middaugh Pritchard, 1962; The Peopling of Tompkins County by Carol Kammen, 1985; and A Short History of Tompkins Country by Jane Dieckman, 1986.
Photos begin on page 133
Photo #3 (Shirley Kinge) by Bill Warren, The Ithaca Journal
Photo #4 (The Harris House) by David Grene, The Citizen
Photo #6 (George Dentes) by Robyn Wishna, The Ithaca Journal
Photo #7 (William Sullivan) by Robyn Wishna, The Ithaca Journal
Photo #8 (David McElligott) by Jay Reiter, The Ithaca Journal
Photo #9 (David Harding) by Gayle Shomer, The Ithaca Journal
CONTENTS
Four: Two Days Before Christmas
Seven: McElligott And His Team
Eight: Christmas In Ithaca
Nine: A Lost Bicyclist
Ten: Running Hot And Cold
Eleven: Coping
Twelve: The Young Tipster
Thirteen: Stakeout
Fourteen: A Straightjacket
Fifteen: The Peregrine House
Sixteen: Getting The Evidence
Seventeen: Firefight
Eighteen: In Custody
Nineteen: The Line Up
Twenty: Preliminaries
Twenty-one: Advance Maneuvers
Twenty-two: The People Decide
Twenty-three: Mistaken Notion
Twenty-four: Lies And Truth
Twenty-five: Shelling Paradise
Twenty-six: Vainglory
Twenty-seven: The Last Straw
Twenty-eight: The Real David Harding
Afterword
Addendum
Epilogue