John Gordon Purvis - A New Investigation

A New Investigation

Although attorney Kirsch lost appeals in the courts and Johnny spent time in prison, an Aspen, Colorado detective named Gary White put the first crack in the Hamwi murder, when a woman beaten by Robert Wayne Beckett Jr. said that she'd heard him boast that his father, Robert Wayne Beckett Sr., had killed a girl in Florida. White remembered the Hamwi case and had private detective Barbara Barton assist in checking this out.

Surprisingly, Rick Rice and Rich Martin, who had helped get Johnny convicted, weren't interested in this new lead in the Hamwi case. For years, Johnny languished in prison before two new detectives, Tim Bronson and Bob Williams, were assigned to the homicide section of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. They were looking at some old cases and were shocked when they found that detectives Rice and Martin had not investigated the Robert Beckett Jr. boast of his father killing a girl in Florida, and the Hamwi investigation was on again. Through the painful and sometimes unwilling cooperation of Robert Wayne Beckett Sr., Beckett admitted to the murder of Susan Hamwi and that Paul Serio was the other murderer. The baby, Shane Hamwi, had been left neglected. He explained that Paul Hamwi had paid the two of them $14,000 to murder Susan.