Analyzing the Media’s Racial Bias for the Quadruple Murder Case in Bucks County

Three years ago, four young men were murdered in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  I wrote about this case and created an illustrated timeline in my crime blog, Caroline's Chronicles of Crime.  The Investigation Discovery Channel produced a short documentary on the incidents.  These crimes happened within miles of my home.  It was surreal for my parents to see someone from the gym mourning her son on the television screen.

The young lives that were cut short were portrayed as purely innocent despite that the murderous conflicts involved drugs.  Anyone murdered becomes innocent regardless of their past.  However, I can not help but wonder if this case happened a few miles away in Philadelphia and everyone involved was African American, would the media portray the black victims in the same light?  Would the case have been turned into an hour-long feature on Investigation Discovery?

The white skinned serial killer, Cosmo DiNardo, murdered four white males, but had DiNardo and his four victims been people of color, would the story have been told differently on the news?  No one is calling the case, “white-on-white crime!”

The sad reality that is somewhat taboo is that the murder victims were attempting to buy marijuana in wholesale amounts.  Since marijuana has a reputation as a soft drug, it is possible that the victims did not perceive the business to be as dangerous as dealing heroin or cocaine.  The victims most likely wanted to make some extra cash from selling it to friends.  Jimi Patrick, who was college bound, probably intended to make a few sales and become popular with partiers in his first semester.  Although it is saddening for these men to be brutally and coldly murdered, the victims were not perfectly innocent lambs.  If the victims were black men from North Philly, the wording would be changed in the columns.  Instead of “Four murdered in Bucks County,” the headline would probably read, “Four Drug Dealers Killed by Philadelphia Drug Lord.”

Regarding the victims, Jimi Patrick was straight-laced and clean cut with no criminal record, but Dean Finocchiaro was a rowdy boy who had a few run-ins with the cops for joy-riding.  The ID program treated his past as forgivable, and his father said he was “just a little immature.”  If Dean were African American, would the media downplay his rap sheet?  Would he be just a mischievous kid or would he be painted as a juvenile delinquent whose life led him to a deadly drug deal?

Don’t get me wrong.  These were horrific crimes no matter who fell victim.  Cosmo drove a tractor over Thomas Meo’s body while he was still alive!  Cosmo ran out of bullets and intended to stop Meo’s screams so distant neighbors could not hear.  Meo was paralyzed from the waist down from being shot, and there was nothing he could do but curse as he was run over.  He died next to his friend, Mark Sturgis, who was shot multiple times.  Cosmo DiNardo morbidly premeditated the murders, telling by how calculated his cover up scheme was.  He used the family’s backhoe to bury three of the victims six feet deep in a large, metal pig roaster.  Cosmo and his accomplice cousin, Sean Kratz, perpetrated the murders on an isolated estate belonging to their affluent family.

Despite the fact that everyone involved was Caucasian, privilege still played a role due to socioeconomic differences.  The murderer, Cosmo DiNardo, came from a wealthy family who owned a cement contracting business.  All four murders took place on DiNardo’s second property, a farm in Solebury Township.  When Cosmo was first taken into custody, Daddy DiNardo posted his $100,000 bail, setting a suspected murderer free to roam.

The last time Dean Finocchiaro spoke to his father, he said he would be “back in 15 minutes.”  I believe he was telling the truth.  Surveillance showed DiNardo’s silver Ford pickup truck driving away.  Drug transactions take a few minutes in a parked vehicle, but Cosmo had other plans for him.  DiNardo probably suggested on driving to a separate location for the transaction or that the marijuana was kept at the farm.  In less than 15 minutes, Dean was gone, and all his father would have were memories.

It’s vicariously heartbreaking to see the surviving parents grieve as they tell their stories.  Though do we get to share the heartache of black parents who mourn their late sons lost to drug and gang violence?  It doesn’t matter if it happens more often in one neighborhood or another.  Murder victims are human beings regardless of skin color, and their surviving families feel just as much agony.  At the end of the documentary, Mrs. Sturgis said she wished she could pick up Mark’s dirty socks one more time.  Don’t black mothers want to pick up those socks one more time too?