Operation Jacknap: A True Story of Kidnapping, Extortion, Ransom, and Rescue by Jack Teich

Author:Jack Teich [Teich, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non-Fiction, True Crime, History, Memoir, United States
ISBN: 9781642935240
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Published: 2020-06-01T14:00:00+00:00

9

The Break

For nearly two years, the authorities reported no progress on the investigation. They answered questions, fewer and fewer over time, but offered little in the way of new information. There were no outward signs of any breakthroughs or imminent arrests. The initial intensity and outside interest had mostly died off, but Commissioner Danny Guido and Detective Dick McGuire knew a lot more than they told the press—and me.

It took a while, but they quietly got their break.

The first area of interest had always been Acme Steel Partition. Who would’ve known about the employee profit sharing fund? Someone on the inside. Only a few of us knew the details of the account, such as how much was in it, where it was held, and how accessible it was. Then again, everyone at the company knew the fund existed. They wouldn’t have known big picture details, but they were either invested in the fund or had the opportunity to do so.

We furnished the FBI and the police with a list of 600 past and present workers. They quickly began whittling off non-starters and conducted exploratory interviews with anyone who might have the thinnest of connections to the case. One former employee caught their early attention: Charles Berkley.

Berkley worked at Acme Steel Partition for fifteen years as a draftsman before leaving the company to start his own business. When he left, he withdrew $12,000 in profit sharing to fund his new venture. That was almost two years before my abduction. They asked me about him, and I said it didn’t make sense. “There’s no way Charles Berkley was involved.”

He was a family man who was married with four children. He had also served in the Korean War as a paratrooper and was a longtime stable employee. He didn’t leave on bad terms, either. Berkley wasn’t fired. He left to go out on his own. More power to him, I thought. We wished him luck and no hard feelings. People come, people go.

But apparently, things didn’t go well. Berkley was a skilled draftsman, not businessman. And curiously, the business he chose had nothing to do with drafting or anything similar. He went into real estate and closed shop in just three months. From there, he joined a competitor of Acme Steel Partition. After a period of months, he left unsatisfied and joined another competitor, Superior Fire Door Co. in Westchester County. I knew the owner. Berkley started at Superior Fire Door in late-1973 and was attempting to get re-hired at Acme Steel Partition when I was kidnapped.

I never thought twice about it. He’d tried his hand in business, and it didn’t work out. No big deal.

Nassau County police detectives, however, did think he was a big deal—not that they told me at the time. Berkley was questioned on December 12, 1974, almost three weeks after I was released from the tenement apartment. The pre-interview background investigation was impressive. His out-of-left-field real estate venture was odd, but further scrutiny showed inconsistencies and an overall lack of clarity regarding his real estate business, its location, and the partners involved.

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