The Devil at Genesee Junction

The Murders of Kathy Bernhard and George-Ann Formicola, 6/66

By (author) Michael Benson

Not available to order

Publication date:

05 November 2015

Length of book:

364 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781442252349

Today you’d call Ballantyne suburban, but back then, at the start of the summer of 1966, it was country — just a cluster of houses, some of them shacks, on or near Ballantyne Road, in the Town of Chili, NY. And while June 25 started like any other day it would end in a nightmare. In The Devil at Genesee Junction, veteran crime writer, Michael Benson, returns to his formerly rural hometown to take on the double homicide of his friends Kathy Bernhard and George-Ann Formiciola that took place that night.

The two girls were missing for a month and then found in the bushes horribly mutilated. The double homicide changed the author’s childhood suddenly, and drastically. He went from living in a rural playland, to being encased in fear, wondering who among them was the werewolf who cut up Kathy and George-Ann.

This heinous crime was never resolved, and didn’t go away. In recent years, the author has teamed up with a victim’s mom, and a local private investigator to delve deep into the 6/66 murders, developing along the way some strong new leads and shocking details. Together they have heated up this icy cold case, and their investigation has led them in a startling new direction.
Veteran crime writer Michael Benson embarks on a deeply personal and thought-provoking investigative journey into the murders of two young female neighbors nearly a half-century ago. Along with one of the victim’s mothers and a private investigator, they leave no stone unturned in identifying suspects and linking them to other grisly killings throughout the United States. It’s a page-turner.