When I was a child, we had a summer house, and on the drive back to our home in Boston I always rode in my father’s car because he loved radio serials.

From the massive back seat of his Buick, I waited for my favorite show, Boston Blackie. It followed Horatio “Boston Blackie” Black, a reformed jewel thief and safecracker who solved murders, robberies, and kidnappings. My favorite part came at the end, when the FBI made a “special announcement” about America’s most wanted fugitives. After hearing their descriptions, I took it upon myself, as a responsible seven-year-old, to always be on the lookout for the bad guys.

My detective skills took a somewhat embarrassing hit when it was discovered that notorious bank robber and prison escapee Willie “The Actor” Sutton, who robbed over one hundred banks, lived next door to my aunt Gertrude on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. We knew him as Eddie Lynch and saw him often, but because he was never officially on the Ten Most Wanted list—in fact, he was known as the list’s only ever “number eleven”—I guess he had managed to slip through my personal dragnet. My brother Fred and I saw him being led from the building in handcuffs during his return trip to prison. All of this is to say that I have been a fan of true crime since my childhood.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that world-renowned pathologist Dr. Michael Baden and his wife, Linda Kenny Baden, a prominent litigator in high-profile civil rights and criminal defense cases, lived in our town!

Dr. Michael Baden is one of the world’s most prominent forensic pathologists and has performed or analyzed more than 20,000 autopsies during his career. He served for years as New York City’s Chief Medical Examiner and chaired the congressional Assassination Panel that re-examined the deaths of President John F. Kennedy and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. In 1990, the Russian government invited him to join the American forensic team that examined and identified the newly discovered remains of Tsar Nicholas II and the Romanov royal family in Siberia.

Dr. Baden also contributed to many high-profile civil rights cases, including Michael Brown, Eric Gardner, gathering evidence against Byron De La Beckwith facing his third trial for the murder of Medgar Evers and George Floyd, as well as investigations into the deaths of John Belushi, musician Sid Vicious, Claus Von Bulow, Phil Spector, and more recently, Jeffrey Epstein. His books include Unnatural Deaths: Confessions of a Medical Examiner and Dead Reckoning: The New Science of Catching Killers.

Linda Kenney Baden is a renowned trial attorney, former prosecutor, legal analyst, and author. She is known for her work in many high-profile criminal defense cases including Phil Spector, Casey Anthony, former NBA player Jason Williams, and former NFL tight end Aaron Hernandez, Harvey Weinstein, and Michael Skakel. During her early career she served as an assistant prosecutor in New Jersey trying major felony cases including murder and capital cases. She also clerked for the presiding judge of the Appellate Division of New Jersey.

Throughout her legal career Mrs. Kenny Baden has been deeply involved in advocacy for the wrongly accused and serves two terms as Co-Chair of the Wrongful Conviction Committee of the New York State Bar Association. She notably represented defendant Paul Gregory House pro bono on forensic matters leading to his charges being dropped after he spent 22 years on death row. Mrs. Baden is also an active on air legal analyst for Crime Network, CNN, MSNBC, and Court TV and has co-authored legal thriller novels “Remain Silent” and “Skeleton Justice” with her husband. It will be a surprise to no one that Ms. Kenny Baden is a recognized poker champion who is determined to win both in court and at the poker table.

On Saturday October 17th starting at noon both Dr. Baden and Mrs. Kenny Baden will be at the Lumberland Town Hall for True Crime Saturday-The Road to Justice event. Sponsored by the Sunshine Hall Free Library’s Speaker’s Series and hosted by actress and community activist Melissa Gilbert, Baden’s will be talking about their famous cases and answering questions about their careers. Suggested donation is $10 - no reservations are required but the space is limited. For more information go to sunshinehallfreelibrary.org