Welcome to Litsy!

This engrossing expos? and investigation into the tragic 1988 murder of four-year-old Barbara Jean Horne and its aftermath leads readers through the facts of the case in compelling, compassionate, and riveting fashion. Award-winning journalist Thomas Lowenstein makes a convincing, evenhanded case for the wrongful conviction of Walter Ogrod, a man with autism spectrum disorder who lived across the street from the girl’s family and who has been on death row since 1996. Informed by copious police records, court transcripts, interviews, letters and journals, and more, Lowenstein relates how Ogrod—who bears no resemblance to the man described by several witnesses as a key suspect, and who is not linked to the crime by any physical evidence—was convicted based solely on a confession he signed after thirty-six hours without sleep and being insistently fed details of how he allegedly did it, provoked with horrific photos and with accusations of being “sick” and not remembering his actions. Presenting explosive new evidence discrediting the notorious snitch who sealed Ogrod’s fate, Lowenstein presents a fascinating character study of a “professional” jailhouse informant and exposes a larger pattern of prosecutorial misconduct in Philadelphia.