Death ruse traps hired killer

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33577, 4 July 1974, Page 15

Death ruse traps hired killer

(N. Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

NEW YORK, July 3.

A police officer has been arrested on charges that he hired himself out as a killer for about SNZ33OO, then subcontracted the execution to another man for half that amount.

But the intended target, a narcotics suspect, Ferdinand “Frenchy” Hunt, was not killed.

He co-operated with the police by staging his own death from gunshot wounds to try to gather more evidence against the defendant, Walter Booker.

Patrolman Booker, aged 40, was charged with conspiracy to commit murder, in the first degree, the maximum penalty for which is 25 years gaol. A special state prosecutor, Maurice Nadjari, said that Hunt was indicted last July on a narcotics charge and was awaiting trial when he began making statements to the authorities implicating other drug traffickers.

The indictment alleged that Booker was approached by someone he referred to only as “my man” and offered the money to kill Hunt.

Booker, however, was said to have been unable to carry out the execution and hired a second man. The subcontractor was a fugitive in a robbery case,

who knew a police detective, Al Morrow.

Hoping to gain leniency on the robbery charge, he divulged the plot to Morrow. Meanwhile, Hunt had been holidaying in the West Indies and returned to New York on June 25.

He was immediately taken into protective custody, and detectives planned la ruse in the hope of obtaining the balance of the killer’s payoff as further evidence.

Hunt was stretched out on a street and tomato sauce poured over him to make it appear he had been shot dead. Pictures of the "corpse” were circulated in the area in an apparent attempt to identify the victim.

The subcontractor was given one of the pictures and a talisman that Hunt was never without — a gold lion’s head medallion worn around the neck. He showed both of these to Booker and demanded the balance of his contract

According to Mr Nadiari, Booker put him off, telling him “my man would have to come through with the money.”