Generally speaking, cold cases do not interest me. Nor am I am a fan of the true crime genre. My blood pressure rises when I hear news stories about missing people; ditto every time I read about another mass shooting.
Still, my stepbrother’s husband, David Greer, follows chilling cold cases the way other people follow March Madness. He will also adjust his schedule in order to observe components of an investigation or trial. In particular, he focuses on ice cold cases involving salacious details. And somehow the wealthier and more powerful the suspects, the more riveting such cases seem.
Over the years, his unwavering attention to the gunshot death of Reeva Steenkamp by Oscar Pistorius, the blunt trauma murder of Martha Moxley, and the strangulation killing of JonBenét Ramsey posed challenges. For example, David firmly believes Michael Skakel committed the Moxley murder, though Skakel’s conviction was eventually vacated. Similarly, he speculates one or another family member snuffed out JonBenét over Christmas in 1996. He also believes Alex Murdaugh is guilty, though the latter’s double homicide trial isn’t over yet.
Like Murdaugh, one of the three men suspected of killing Robert Wone was an attorney. Not just any attorney, either. Joseph Price was one of the founders of Equality Virginia, a statewide LGBT advocacy group. Price and Wone had met when the two were students on the idyllic campus of the College of William and Mary. Price later attended the University of Virginia Law School, while Wone received his juris doctor degree with honors from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Fast forward several years and the still unsolved murder of Robert Wone in Washington, DC became the subject of a blog David and three friends wrote in their own quest for the truth. Wone’s life ended in the most vicious way imaginable, and the whole depraved story is now airing in a two-part series starting March 7 on Peacock TV. Like the blog before it, “Who Killed Robert Wone?” tells the story of what happened in Dupont Circle the night of August 2, 2006. The story is particularly prurient; there is simply no other way to describe it. But the case remains cold mainly because the three men who lived at 1509 Swann Street evidently made a pact to deny any involvement in the fourth one’s murder.
In the classic board game “Clue,” players investigate a murder by gathering evidence to figure out who killed the murder victim, in what room, and with what weapon. In the case of Robert Wone, the evidence suggests he was restrained, incapacitated, sexually assaulted, and stabbed to death inside 1509 Swann Street. The autopsy also revealed some degree of suffocation. Truman Capote could update “In Cold Blood” on this case alone, though the actual clues cancel out any real mystery.
David and I spoke on the evening of Sunday, February 26 about his interest in various so-called “crimes of the century.” He talked about how a teacher had once helped him see the famous Leopold and Loeb case in a completely new light. This pattern repeated itself when considering the Sacco and Vanzetti case, the Lindbergh kidnapping, the O.J. Simpson case, and so forth. In each case, a social issue came to the forefront of the public understanding. Think race, politics, immigrant status, and sexual orientation. In Wone’s case, viewers may grapple with the polyamorous relationship among the suspects at the time of the murder. Others will no doubt question the role of kink culture in what allegedly took place August 2, 2006.
True crime is popular, and cold cases captivate us. In every instance, David wants what all true crime fans hope for: justice. Sadly, justice remains as elusive as ever in Robert Wone’s case. However, I’m incredibly proud of David for starting the blog that launched something much bigger. I know “Who Killed Robert Wone?” will find an audience, and perhaps the three men who last saw him alive will likewise find their conscience.
