The Fence: A Police Cover-Up Along Boston's Racial Divide Read Online Free PDF

“class flirt,” while Vince was named “class jock” and cited for “best legs.” Tim was honored as “laziest” and “least organized.” Mike was not happy about losing “best dressed” to another classmate who was always wearing clothes borrowed from other kids. Mike thought it was unfair, a form of cheating. “Mike took pride in his clothes,” said Tim.
    The yearbook staff noted that Mike’s trademark was his greeting, the way he said, “Hi.” Vince wholeheartedly agreed. “Mike’s famous thing was to go up to girls and say, Hi, and they would melt.” The staff predicted Mike “will end up as a GQ model.” For his yearbook photograph, Mike, dressed in a tuxedo, tilted his head slightly, as he addressed the camera directly, with warm eyes and a groomed look. To Tim, Mike wrote: “You’re cooler than I am and you’re prettier too. When I am old and gray there’s no doubt I’ll miss you.” To Vince, Mike joked: “It is said that a good friend is an extension of yourself. So stay like me and we’ll always be friends.” To “Mom and Family,” Mike wrote: “I caused a lot of headaches; I made a lot of mistakes but all I really wanted was to make you all happy. I hope this helps. I love you all.”
    In his essay for college, Mike wrote about his time at Wooster and how he’d come around after an uneven start to finish on a high note of self-respect and confidence. He applied to Providence College, Boston University, the University of Bridgeport, and other schools. He had thoughts about playing college basketball.
    The fall of 1984, Mike began at Providence College. Right off, he mostly hung out at the gym and played with the guys on basketball scholarships recruited by the Big East team. Mike did not have a scholarship, but his sophomore year went out for the team anyway. He was a “walk-on” trying to impress the new coach, Rick Pitino. But he did not make the cut. To Mike, a key reason was his grade point average. It was low, and Mike knew the coaches were usually looking to bolster the team’s overall GPA by adding a few bench players whose grades were high.
    Mike actually found Providence less demanding academically than boarding school, but he did not do well in his classes. “I was distracted,” he said. He was enjoying his freedom—sleeping late, playing pickup basketball, and socializing. He worked as a bank teller part-time to earn spending money. “I wanted to have fun,” he said.
    The biggest thing in his life during college came after his junior year. Mike decided he needed a change of scenery, and, in the fall of 1987, he headed south to Georgia. He enrolled for a semester at Morehouse College, the all-male black college in Atlanta. “I had heard a lot about the school and the area and I just wanted to go there.”
    While at Morehouse, Mike met Kimberly Ann Nabauns. Kimberly, a year younger than Mike, was from New Orleans. She was a pre-med student at Spelman College, the all-female black college in Atlanta. They fell in love and soon began talking about marriage and family. When the semester ended, Mike returned north, but without firm direction. He was committed to Kimberly, but little else. She was bound for medical school, but Mike wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. Sometimes his thoughts returned to his childhood interest in police work, remembering Will Saunders and other officers he’d known as a boy. His sister Lillian took him up on the idea and lobbied him to take the civil service exam.
    It was in May 1988, while Mike and Kimberly began planning their life together and Mike was beginning to think seriously about police work, that a man named John L. Smith Jr. sat in his car smoking crack cocaine. He was parked near Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox. It was shortly after sunrise when he began driving away erratically. Two Boston police officers in a cruiser picked up his scent. When Smith drove the 1978 Cadillac through a red light, the police wanted him