In the final episode of Season 1 of Unfinished Justice: Inside the NYPD Cold Case Squad, our host Vito Spano sits down with legendary cold case detective Wendell Stratford to find out what it’s really like working in the cold case squad.

Unfinished Justice takes a look at the cold case murder of Jam Master Jay of the legendary hip hop group Run DMC, and reveals startling developments in the case. 

The Cold Case Unit struggles to solve the murder of a 29-year-old woman named Juliet Alexander who had been shot three times in the head. The case would only get more complicated when one of their own – an NYPD Sergeant – turned out to be the main suspect. 

Walter Mack’s work on the stolen car ring uncovered a killing spree.  After years of preparation and investigation, Mack would finally have the chance to prosecute the case of his life – and take down the Gambino crime family at the same time. This is the second of two episodes that focuses on connected Mob killings that resulted in dozens of cold cases.

When prosecutor Walter Mack volunteered to take on what he assumed was a “simplistic” case involving a few stolen cars, he had no way of knowing that this “boring” case would ultimately reach the top of organized crime in the City, change the course of New York City law enforcement, and ultimately clear dozens of cold case murders. This is the first of two episodes that focuses on connected Mob killings that resulted in dozens of cold cases.

For years, Mickey Spillane ran the Irish mob that controlled the Hell’s Kitchen section of Manhattan. Behind the scenes, he controlled the area by ordering kidnappings and killings, but in public he always wore a dapper suit and an easy smile, earning the nickname of the Gentleman Gangster. When a new generation of Irish gangsters known as The Westies emerged, they had a different idea of how to run the neighborhood – and it didn’t include Spillane. So when Mickey’s body was found filled with lead, the cops assumed The Westies were behind the hit.  But it’d take the NYPD almost two decades to clear the case.

New York City was shocked when a glamorous fashion model was found murdered in her apartment at the height of the glitzy 1980s.  It was hard to find anyone who didn’t love her.  But as the detectives on the case started looking deeper they found a number of possible suspects within her orbit.  It wasn’t until years later when one of those suspects emerged as the likely killer due to new information uncovered by the Cold Case Squad.

When Brazilian-born Maria Isabel Pinto Monteiro Alves went for her daily run in Central Park, she didn’t know it’d be her last. After her body was found, the murder became a cold case and an international incident as the Brazilian government demanded answers. The pressure was on the cold case detectives who struggled to find any leads – until an unlikely sequence of events helped shed new light on the case.   

It was Christmas time when the 911 call came in. A husband and wife were brutally murdered in their nice apartment, and their young children discovered the bodies.  The year was 1996, the same year that the NYPD created the Cold Case Squad to help clear the thousands of unsolved murders in the city of 8 million.  The case stumped the NYPD for years until the Cold Case Squad took it over.

Credits:

Executive Producers (Asterlight): Cathy Tankosic, Joe Poletto, Sam Roseme

Executive Producers (Neon Hum Media): Shara Morris, Jonathan Hirsch

Lead Producer: Chrystal Genesis

Associate Producer: Liz Sanchez

Editor: Maura Walz

Executive Editor: Catherine Saint Louis

Production Manager: Samantha Allison

Original Music by: Asha Iwanowicz 

Engineered by: Sam Bair 

Fact-checkers: Lori Segal 

Director of Distribution: David Gross

The most famous cold case in NYPD history: the case of Baby Hope. It’s a case that spanned three decades. The Cold Case detectives simply wouldn’t stop working the case of the unnamed four year old baby found on the side of the road – not until they solved it.  And the detectives who cracked the case tell us how they did it.

Credits:

Executive Producers (Asterlight): Cathy Tankosic, Joe Poletto, Sam Roseme

Executive Producers (Neon Hum Media): Shara Morris, Jonathan Hirsch

Lead Producer: Chrystal Genesis

Associate Producer: Liz Sanchez

Editor: Maura Walz

Executive Editor: Catherine Saint Louis

Production Manager: Samantha Allison

Original Music by: Asha Iwanowicz 

Engineered by: Sam Bair 

Fact-checkers: Lori Segal 

Director of Distribution: David Gross