One well-known side effect of delving into the Marty Tankleff case is the involuntary uttering of "WTF" at frequent intervals, as in "Jerry Steurman owed Seymour Tankleff half a million dollars, was the last guest to leave a poker game at the Tankleff home the morning of the murders, and was said to have threatened to cut Seymour's throat just weeks before the murders, yet was never considered a suspect by a detective found to have perjured himself in a previous murder case and who evidence suggests was friends with Steuerman although he denied it at trial...."
Another is the compulsion to create a character map. The Times displays theirs in all its glory all down the front page of the Metro section in their Sunday feature on Steuerman, "The Names Stay Linked: 'Bagel King' and Tankleff." The map invites the reader to contemplate the web of connections between Steuerman and Joey "Guns" Creedon, Steuerman and Detective James McCready, Steuerman and Suffolk County DA Thomas Spota, McCready and Spota (illustrated with the photo of the two of them hugging) and more.
The Times has inspired us to dust off our own Tankleff Case Character Map, which was done a couple of years ago but still stands as a helpful primer on the case. Those who view the character map also find handy our Corruption, Cover-Up & Conflict chart.
It's a good bet the SIC has their own character map up in their Tankleff war room, and the Attorney General's team shouldn't be far behind. There's a story going around that one of the appellate judges had become so obsessed with the case that one of his walls at home had been taken over with everything Tankleff. Ah, a familiar syndrome.
Click image to enlarge.
Thank you Marty (and Kelly) for allowing me to introduce myself.
We will all keep up fighting for you - it has been 20 years so far and we will never give up on you.
Thank you again for inspiring me at the courthouse on Friday.
Susan Finkelstein
Posted by: susan finkelstein | January 20, 2008 at 03:09 PM