South Carolina Ping
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Posted on 07/24/2008 12:11:23 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Sgt. Mike Gordon has kept a steady date with death for 23 years, prowling some of Charleston's darkest corners to solve a host of brutal and puzzling killings.
The veteran detective has worked some 250 homicide cases in his career, witnessing firsthand the myriad ways humans can inflect pain and misery on one another. He's also seen the toll on the people left behind. That's one reason he's kept at the job so long, cracking cases and bringing closure to the grieving.
"I always felt that I was working for the families, and that they deserved the best I had to offer," Gordon said.
His watch comes to an end Friday as Gordon, 53, hangs up his detective's shield and retires after three decades on the job. He's looking into work as a private detective. He also plans to spend more time with his wife, Judy, who runs the Charleston Police Department's forensic services division, and their two young children.
Long ago, Gordon had set 30 years as a loose benchmark for his retirement. He wanted to make sure he didn't overstay his welcome and lose his edge, that he went out on a high note. But his news still surprised some of his closest friends and co-workers.
"It's hard to imagine going to a murder scene in the city and not having Mike Gordon be there," Charleston County Coroner Rae Wooten said.
Gordon rarely missed a call-out to a homicide. It didn't matter if it was the middle of the night or his day off or if family was visiting from out-of-town. He wanted to set foot on every crime scene, attend every autopsy, on the chance he might find some clue to solve the crime.
His family understood. After all, it was on a homicide scene that he asked his wife out on their first date 10 years ago.
Whether it was the hunt for the Ardmore rapist in the 1980s or the search for an honor graduate's killer in 2003, you would likely find Gordon behind the yellow tape, wearing a neatly pressed suit and adding fresh notes to the tattered leather binder he had carried since his first days as a detective.
"Mike has a family, and they come first; but his cases were never very far behind," said Detective Sgt. Barry Goldstein, Gordon's longtime colleague on the homicide desk.
The two men started working at the Charleston Police Department on the very same day, Sept. 16, 1977, part of a class of 31 new recruits. They are a study in contrasts — Goldstein, effusive and irreverent; Gordon, low-key and reserved — but they share a passion for detective work. Still, Goldstein said he has seen few people as devoted to the job as Gordon.
When Police Chief Greg Mullen arrived in Charleston two years ago, he was stunned to learn Gordon had been in the homicide unit for so long. "Most officers I know, they can do it for seven or eight years, then they have to do something else because it's such a hard assignment," Mullen said.
Late-night call-outs. Grisly scenes. Anguished families. Uncooperative witnesses. Angry suspects. The burden of speaking for the dead. It's a grinding gig that can wear down even the toughest cop.
With his chiseled features, probing stare and unflappable demeanor, Gordon comes across as the quintessential old-school detective. So much so, in fact, that Wooten once talked him into donning a trench coat and fedora to portray a sleuth for an educational presentation. His only request was that it not be seen in Charleston.
The truth is, Gordon is not much for the spotlight. Not a bit. He quickly deflects attention from himself and trumpets the contributions of others. Ask him about an arrest he's made, and he'll quickly tell you about the fine work done by the first officer on the scene, the crime scene techs who collected the evidence, the emergency room nurse who kept his victim breathing.
"I could fill a phone book with all of the people who have had a positive impact on my career over the years," he said.
Gordon transferred into homicide eight years into his career and never wanted to go anywhere else. The hunt for clues. The unraveling of a motive. The building of a case. The job perfectly suited Gordon's methodical, meticulous style.
One of the first big cases Gordon worked was the bizarre murder of 31-year-old David Joseph Middleton, who was beaten, robbed and hung by his necktie from a Charlotte Street fence in November 1985.
Middleton's brother-in-law, Charleston Fire Battalion Chief Raymond Lloyd, still recalls the young detective taking time to reassure the devastated family that the killer would be brought to justice. Herbert Lee Parker later received a life prison term for the killing.
"Mike made an extremely difficult time easier for us," Lloyd said.
Gordon also had a hand in the 1985 investigation that led to the capture of rapist Russell DeVall Bennett, tied to the sexual assaults of four women in the Ardmore subdivision. The detective can't forget the chilling interview with the suspect, who also received a life prison sentence. "He had so little remorse," Gordon said. "He seemed to think we were making too big a deal out of it."
In the years that followed, Gordon investigated a litany of high-profile cases: the 1994 slaying of Georgia tourist Elliot Davis, shot during an attempted robbery on Church Street; the 2002 slaying of 13-year-old Velvet Brown, shot in the back while walking home from the Sertoma football classic; the 2003 rape and stabbing of College of Charleston honors graduate Julie Jett in her West Ashley home; the 2006 killing of Dannie Johnson Jr., a wheelchair-bound paraplegic man slain in West Ashley. Those, and many more.
Gordon treated every case equally, Goldstein said, never judging the case or its victim. He was deeply disappointed when witnesses recanted their stories in the Velvet Brown case, forcing prosecutors to dismiss charges against the prime suspect, Earl Allen. But when Allen was shot dead on Strawberry Lane in 2006, Gordon took the case and worked it hard until an arrest was made, Goldstein said.
Judy Gordon said her husband never gave up on a case. He kept in touch with families of victims for years, and it pained him if he had no new information to share. As recently as a month ago, the detective stopped by to chat with the mother of Donna Florence, who was stabbed to death and mutilated near the Interstate 26 overpass on Meeting Street in July 1997, his wife said.
"He always says, 'There are no cold cases, they're just unsolved.' "
Would he change his mind if they made him Commissioner Gordon? Sorry, had to be said.
Too bad we don’t have more cops like Detective Gordon. He deserves his retirement - he’s more than earned it.
Good luck, Detective.
SC ping?
South Carolina Ping
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Amen, bro.
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