August 21, 2000

Norm Hamilton built himself a nice place in the Washington, DC suburb of Great Falls, Virginia, home to many of our capital's rich, famous, and powerful. Life is pleasant in Great Falls, and about the only thing that worried folks here in the late 1970's was a rash of burglaries in the surrounding area.

So far, though, their community had remained untouched. This was all to change, but not in a way you could anticipate.

The other character in our tale is Dr. Michael Halberstam, brother of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Halberstam, and a respected cardiologist. Dr. Michael is loved in greater DC, donating his time to all kinds of organizations. He lives in what they call "Northwest."

On the night of December 5, 1980, as the good doctor is returning home with his wife, he notices someone burglarizing his house. Drawing on far more adrenalin than common sense, he confronts the burglar, who shoots him, and flees on foot.

By all accounts, the wounded Halberstam gets back in his car, and heads toward the hospital--but also runs down the perp. Very soon after, he collides with a tree. Both the perp and Halberstam are taken to nearby Sibley Memorial Hospital, where Halberstam dies, and the perp recovers.

The burglar/murderer is identified as Norm Hamilton, but is soon discovered to be Bernard Welch, a career thief--if not a violent offender. In fact, Welch is an escaped con from New York.

His house in Great Falls is found to contain millions in luxurious items, which he is, uh, collecting from his neighbors--outside of Great Falls, that is. I guess he never hits his home town because he doesn't want to live in a high crime neighborhood.

Welch would have eluded detection for a long time if the Halberstam caper had not gone wrong. He never used common fences, but dealt only with the finest antique, fur, and jewelry brokers. Besides, he was good at what he did. He was just another successful guy in Great Falls.

Welch was found guilty of first-degree murder, and did time all over the Federal Prison system, until he escaped an Illinois lockup in May, 1985. He was re-captured in August of that year and is now serving the rest of his 143 years to life sentence. (Yes, you read that correctly.)

Is this what Robert Frost meant when he said that good fences make good neighbors?