Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Wick, known for his work at Newsday and a seven-year stint as executive editor at Times Review Media Group, has released his first novel, inspired by a true crime he wrote about as a reporter.
Set in 1954, “The Ruins” follows Lindenhurst chief of police Paul Beirne as he is called to investigate the grisly murder of a woman found on the railroad tracks. As Beirne, who struggles with his own demons and haunting memories of his time as a POW in Japan, begins to dig into the violent mystery, he discovers a shocking connection to a murder that occurred two decades earlier and realizes that Lindenhurst — on the verge of a mid-century renaissance thanks to a large developer building suburbs in the community — has dark secrets that reach far beyond Long Island.
Mr. Wick’s novel is inspired by a case he covered at Newsday. In a Feb. 10, 1981, article, “Twenty-Six Years Later, The Murder Is Solved,” Mr. Wick wrote about a cold case that was solved after a quarter- century.
“I had just gotten to Newsday,” recalled Mr. Wick, who was sent to cover Riverhead criminal court. “I’m sitting in the courtroom and the side doors open and two detectives bring in this shackled, very old man. They bring him before the judge and explain that they have made an arrest in a 1954 murder in Lindenhurst.”
As a journalist just starting out at a new job, Mr. Wick leapt at the chance to cover the story. The shackled older man was Rudolph John Hoff, who had been charged with the previously unsolved 1954 murder of Kathryn Ann Damm. Mr. Hoff’s ex-wife, Gurli, had recently come forward with a secret she’d kept for 26 years: She witnessed Mr. Hoff washing blood from his clothes the night of the murder and was forced to help him hide them. Mr. Hoff was sentenced to life in prison for the crime.
A newly solved cold case was exciting enough, but Mr. Wick found there was more to the story.
“I knew that it was one of those stories where if I could figure out a way to grow it, I could make something of it,” said Mr. Wick, who arranged to speak with the convicted killer in prison. Mr. Hoff maintained his innocence and said he was being framed, “just like Richard Hauptmann” — the tried-and-convicted killer of Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., the “Lindbergh Baby.” As it turns out, Mr. Hoff’s mother knew Anna Schoeffler, Mr. Hauptmann’s widow.
The wild coincidence inspired Mr. Wick to spin a fictional mystery yarn that included two connected murder cases and also tapped into his own interest and experience writing about Long Island’s history, incorporating the sociopolitical tensions of the time.
“There are photos I used in my research of uniformed, swastika-wearing German Americans marching on Wellwood Avenue in Lindenhurst,” he said, noting that the book’s other main character, funeral home director Doc, is a Holocaust survivor who never talks about his experience as an Austrian Jew.
While the story is a period piece, the themes of violence, generational trauma and fascism are obviously relevant today.
“I’ve been to some readings in the last few weeks where people see some sort of echo with today,” Mr. Wick said. “I think the power of the narrative is that there’s so much truth in it that people find it a very believable work of fiction.”
And while Mr. Wick is a seasoned investigative journalist who has dug into many complex crime stories over the years — including “Gone,” a 2018 Suffolk Times series about the 1966 disappearance and murder of Louise Pietrewicz, which eventually led to the cold case’s resolution — he says that his lead character of Paul Beirne is not an insert for himself.
“A lot of people have asked me that,” said Mr. Wick. “The parts of Paul that are me are the ones that want to know what happened. If you’re a journalist, you want to get at something. I wanted Paul to be that digger.”
Steve Wick will read from “The Ruins” Saturday, March 8, at 3 p.m. at Floyd Memorial Library in Greenport, where Burton’s Books will be offering copies for sale. Mr. Wick will also read at Cutchogue New Suffolk Library Saturday, April 5, at 2 p.m. For a full list of readings, visit stevewickbooks.com.