A book about two of the most significant Kline & Specter cases
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They couldn't have been more different — one a teenager from affluent suburbia, the other a little kid from the poor part of the city. But John "Tucker" Mahoney and Shareif Hall would come to share a common experience as random, unsuspecting victims of terrible tragedies. Tucker would be felled by a tiny piece of metal, a BB fired from the powerful, new-generation air rifle he got for his 16th birthday. Shareif, four years old, would be riding a transit system escalator on the day before Thanksgiving, when his brand new Fila shoe would get caught in the contraption's giant metal teeth.
The two boys would also share one other thing. The tragedies that befell them were not merely bad luck but the result of wrongful, egregious conduct. Both cases involved "bad actors": the manufacturer who sold some 7.5 million defective PowerLine air rifles (and later refused to remove them from circulation), and the transit authority that failed to properly maintain and upgrade it's moving stairways.
The boys' families, powerless to restore health or happiness, could not do much to help Tucker and Shareif. So they did the only other thing they could. They sought justice using the single remedy available to them — the legal system. Partners in the same Philadelphia law firm would represent the families and battle for them against well-known corporate entities: the Daisy Manufacturing Company and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), a government-related agency. Both would deny they were at fault, one going so far as to conceal and even fabricate critical evidence.
The cases would garner sometimes heavy media attention and be unexpectedly pressed to their limits. Intensified by revealing legal discovery and surprising courtroom testimony, the families' long quest for justice would build, inevitably, to dramatic conclusions. With crisp narration and great fidelity to detail, Robert Zausner's Two Boys tells this harrowing story.
About the Author
Robert Zausner is the author of Two Boys: Divided by Fortune—United by Tragedy and Bad Brake: Ford Trucks—Deadly When Parked. He is a former journalist with United Press International and The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he covered government and politics. He has won awards for feature writing and investigative reporting. A graduate of Syracuse University, the author lives in Moorestown, New Jersey, with his wife, Maureen. His daughters, Eve and Jackie, attend college in Philadelphia.