Book ’em, Pat
New tome chronicles cop’s talent for busting serial killers
Paul Dennis Reid Jr. fancied himself a burgeoning country star.
And the place to make that happen was Nashville.
But that dream quickly turned to dust and the music became a bloody overture that terrified a city.
Reid embarked on a brutal murder spree that left seven — and probably eight — people dead as he terrorized fast food outlets around Nashville and Clarksville, Tenn.
Innocents slaughtered execution-style for a few bucks.
Nashville Det. Pat Postiglione sent Reid to death row along with half a dozen others.
The detective with the heavy Queens accent has put the bracelets on more serial killers than any other cop in the world.
“The Nashville cold case squad has closed more homicides than any other cold case unit in the world,” author and criminologist Michael Arntfield told the Toronto Sun.
“Singlehandedly, Pat has arrested more serial killers than any cop currently alive.”
He has also closed 80 unsolved homicides. Again, more than any cop who has ever worn blue.
Now, a new book looks at New York City-born detective’s remarkable career.
Monster City: Murder, Music and Mayhem in Nashville’s Dark Age was written by Arntfield, a former police officer and University of
Western Ontario criminology professor.
A major transportation hub since the Civil War, Nashville is a major distribution centre and stands at the crossroads of the south.
In the 1980s, Postiglione was waiting to get the call to join the NYPD. A trip to Nashville changed that.
“He liked it and applied for a job on the Nashville force, the rest is history,” Arntfield said.
At the same time as the cop was making his bones in rough and tumble Nashville,
New Country music was replacing the old.
“A lot of rootless people were coming to Nashville looking for their big break and there were a lot of predators seeking out these vulnerable people,” Arntfield said.
“It was a really seedy place in the mid to late 1990s. If not for Pat’s efforts, Nashville may have ended up like Memphis (consistently one of the most violent cities in the U.S.).”
Postiglione was posted to the cold case unit in the late
1980s and busted some of the city’s most high-profile killers.
Some of the monsters nabbed by Postiglione posed as agents, record executives and talent scouts.
A country boy looking for a break in Music City didn’t stand a chance against the predators lurking around Broadway where the bars and honky tonks reek of cigarettes, Budweiser and fried bologna sandwiches.
Another factor was the hundreds of trucks heading in and out of the city and pulling in to the dozens of truck stops that dotted Nashville’s outskirts.
There, drivers could get a bite to eat, and maybe a bit more from one of the drug-addicted prostitutes who plied their trade in the filthy lots.
“A lot of people come through Nashville are on their way to somewhere else or visiting the country music mecca … these are the flyover states,” the author said.
One was serial killer trucker, Bruce Mendenhall.
The Nashville area had been plagued by the murders of truck stop prostitutes.
On June 26, 2007, the body of Sara Hulbert was found by the overnight security guard.
“It was a mistake for Mendenhall
to come to Nashville, that put him in Pat’s orbit,” Arntfield said.
Postiglione had done his homework, scouring hours of CCTV footage from the TA truck stop on I-24 from the night Hulbert was slain.
Sometimes it’s important to be good and to be lucky.
Inside the cab, the detective found a large quantity of bloody clothing, the ID and effects of an Indianapolis woman who disappeared the day before.
Also inside the terrifying trucker’s moving lair were a rifle, knives, handcuffs, latex gloves, several weapons cartridges, black tape, a nightstick, and sex toys.
And DNA from five different women. The serial killer went down in 2010.
Arntfield points out that Postiglione was putting bad guys behind bars before DNA, databases, inter-agency cooperation and cellphones.
“He would make hundreds of phone calls, knock on doors and drive hundreds of miles to talk a suspect or witness in person,” Arntfield added.
But what’s made Postiglione such a stellar homicide detective -- possibly the best -- were gut instincts.
“He doesn’t know why he’s so good. With him, it’s simply ‘it looks like this’,” Arntfield said.
“Pat has taken down the worst serial killers in America … two of the guys he put away beat the needle but only because they died first,” he said.
“But a lot of the murders have been in dive bars and honky tonks and he’s treated them the same. The main thing about Pat is that he’s never been afraid to colour outside the lines.” Monster City is now available through bookstores, Amazon and more.
Singlehandedly, Pat has arrested more serial killers than any cop currently alive.”
Author Michael Arntfield