Unsolved: Cold-Case Homicides of Law Enforcement Officers

It took two years for author James Bultema to collect information for Unsolved Cold-Case Homicides, in which he describes ninety-two criminal cases in which an officer was killed. In some cases, the killer was found, even though it may have been many years later. In others, the killers escaped justice. This trade paperback was inexpensively produced, though the text is easy to read. Many black-and-white photo illustrations are small and clear but of poor quality. For each case, Bultema gives the officer’s name, affiliated police department, date of the case, and “end of his/her watch.” Then follows a brief description over two or three pages of the case of the officer’s death. The cases are in chronological order from 1852 through 2013. Bultema also has a website called Officer Down Memorial Page where the reader can find an even briefer summary of each case. The link to each is added after each case in the book, along with other sources of information. There are some inconsistencies in the cited dates, yet this is a remarkable tribute to the killed officers’ memory. Yet the book is not an interesting read for most readers.