THE AMBUSH MURDERS

THE AMBUSH MURDERS                          BEN BRADLEE JR.
Posted:  Jan. 7, 2014


Do to the author not having a synopsis out anywhere this is what we have to use to tell you what the story is about.

The fact-based TV movie The Ambush Murders was adapted from a book by Ben Bradlee Jr. Dorian Harewood plays an African-American political activist who is loyal to his ideals and faithful to his friends and family. After two white policemen are killed, Harewood is charge with the crime. 49 months and two mistrials later, Harewood remains in prison. When lawyer James Brolin offers his services, Harewood doesn't trust him any more than any of the other self-serving white attorneys who've "helped" him in the past. But Brolin digs a little deeper than his predecessors, uncovering facts and evidence that may at long last spring his client. Ambush Murders was first telecast January 5, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi


HUBBY'S REVIEW:

This is a true crime story from 1971 in Riverside CA. I came across this book mainly because in the middle part of the 70s I was going to high school in Riverside I was not even aware of this or of the trials that took place. The first sad part is that two police officers were gunned downed. They were called to a home for burglary call and when they got out of the car each officer was shot by a shot gun blasts multiple times. The officer named Teel, never even got his gun out and was dead before he hit the ground. The second officer named Christiansen was able to draw his weapon fire three shots and get on the radio for help. Before he was put in the ambulance he said he say three people running away. Now comes the difficult part. Riverside police dept. had not had any officer or officers killed since the forties. Now began the investigation. They set up a task force and brought in an ada. This all sounds good but after a couple of weeks there really was not any leads and then a name come up and the investigators just stuck on that name and tried to put him at the crime scene any way possible. When they got a tip from someone who said that one of or two of the shooters might have been light skinned they said no because the person was a teenager. Someone else of the same age would come in and say they thought they say three or four men running who were dark skin they would take that information. When they finally started putting everything together they arrested 3 men. Two for the killing the third for making the phone call. Three trails and over 1 million dollars later no one was convicted. The one man was actually tired three times and on the last one the jury found him not guilty. There were many problems with this whole investigation, mainly focusing only on one person and trying to make the evidence fit him and the D.A.s office changing attorneys three so there was no consistency and pressure to make an arrest. Now forty years later I did find out that because of this some things were changed like not parking in the drive way and the dispatcher calling back the number for a call in for a burglary. So some things did change. A well written book but I don’t know if you can find it in a book store.  The True Account Of The Killing Of Two California Policemen