Bronx Justice (30 page)
Any resemblance between the characters and events depicted in this book with real people and actual occurrences is purely understandable. That's because it all happened, every last bit of it. I know, because many years ago, I was the young lawyer who lived through it.
That said, I've gone to some lengths in an endeavor to make it difficult for you to look the case up. In the interest of protecting individual privacy, I've changed the names of the people involved, and have even shifted the events so that they take place in different years from those in which they actually transpired. Beyond that, in an attempt to make the reading a bit easier, I've edited a word or two of the testimony, though only a word or two. The rest is lifted verbatim from the pages of the official court transcripts.
The locations all remain the same. There is indeed a Castle Hill in the Bronx, and I've kept it exactly as I found it and left it, just as I have with the story itself. It's my firm belief that, for the most part, truth really is far more compelling than fiction. And there are some things that happen in this life that are simply too extraordinary to change in the telling.
I've had the exceedingly good fortune throughout my writing efforts to have been aided and abetted by Bob Diforio, whom I count as literary agent, business manager, advisor, fan and friend. Not long ago he had the wisdom to put me together with Leslie Wainger at MIRA. Not only is Leslie as smart and gifted an editor as I've ever come across, but she puts up with allâwell, most ofâmy quirks and idiosyncrasies. Above all, she makes me laugh, an attribute far more important to me than all the rules of spelling, syntax and sentence structure combined.
My wife, Sandy, continues to be not only my love but my first and toughest reader, and in the end my most ardent supporter. My kids, my sister Tillie, my uncle Joe and my sister-in-law Carol are never far behind. And now that my granddaughters are all of reading age, I'm sure it won't be long before they, too, will be chiming in with suggestions and criticisms of their own. Darcy, the oldest of the four, has already proclaimed this book “pretty good,” a comment that for some unfathomable reason MIRA has elected to omit from the front cover.
Finally, I'm indebted to the real people who played
roles in this story. I may have supplied fictitious names to Darren Kingston, his family and all the others who went to bat for him. But I know who they are, and so do they.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-0527-0
BRONX JUSTICE
Copyright © 2009 by Joseph Teller.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, MIRA Books, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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