A somewhat familiar beat

With 17 years on the job as a Philly cop and close to 100 homicide cases under his belt, Mike Chitwood Sr. did something that January 1983 day he had never done before.

The homicide detective broke down on the witness stand while reading a killer’s chilling confession. Chitwood had the whole courtroom in sobs – except Henry Fahy’s defense attorney who shouted for a mistrial because of the detective’s show of emotion.

After a five-minute recess, Chitwood was finally able to get through Fahy’s confession, where the suspect recounted how 12-year-old Nicoletta Casserta pleaded for her life before Fahy raped, strangled and stabbed her in the heart 10 times inside her Kensington home in 1981.

Chitwood, now 61, recently recalled one of the confession’s haunting sentences: "Hanky, Hanky, please don’t hurt me," uttered by Casserta to the man who was a family friend and the boyfriend of her aunt.

It took the jurors a half hour to convict Fahy of first-degree murder and half that time to sentence him to death. Chitwood, a native of South Philly, told authorities he wanted to be there for Fahy’s execution because he wanted to see him die. But one of Philadelphia’s most decorated and high-profile cops never got that chance. Fahy’s death sentence was overturned and he is now serving a life sentence.

After the trial, a reporter asked Chitwood why he choked up on the stand. "Today, I realized I was a human being," he told that reporter. "I wasn’t a robot. I wasn’t a cop. I was a husband. I was a father. I was a human being."

It was a murder case Chitwood would never forget and was also a major turning point in his career. He decided to give Homicide two more years before calling it quits.

Chitwood jumped from detective to chief in 1983 when he accepted the new designation in Middletown Township, Bucks County. In 1988, he headed north, becoming chief of police in Portland, Maine.

IT’S BEEN SAID everything comes full circle. And now Chitwood Sr. is back home – sort of. Monday he starts a new gig as superintendent of Upper Darby police. He and wife Elizabeth will reside in Upper Darby, not their native South Philly.

"I wasn’t looking. They asked if I wanted the job," he said of his new employers.

Chitwood grappled with the decision to leave Maine, especially since his office commanded a view of the ocean, he said with a laugh. Giving up his position as police chief and trading in his idyllic New England surroundings was not easy, but he decided to put family first.

"There was a need to be closer to the Philadelphia area and this opportunity filled that need," he said.

Chitwood, who has a daughter in North Carolina and a son in Oklahoma, said he wanted to be closer, at least in commute time, to them. Coincidentally – or maybe not – Chitwood’s 41-year-old son, Mike, also is a cop.

Chitwood Jr.’s career echoes his father’s in more ways than one. Both are currently chiefs of police with Mike Jr. working in Shawnee, Okla., a position he accepted this past spring. Before that, Chitwood Jr. was a lieutenant who spent time in Southwest Detectives and then Homicide, two units in which his father worked.

Titles and units are not the only thing father and son have in common in this town. Both are decorated officers – dad with 70 department commendations, his offspring with 58.

"Even more than my son," Chitwood Sr. said with a laugh.

And both were media machines that never met a reporter they didn’t like. Chitwood Sr. made sure he passed along his philosophy in dealing with the press to his son.

"I think there should be a very, very open line of communication between the law enforcement community and the media. No matter where you serve, people deserve to know what is going on. To hide behind a code of silence is counterproductive to making people feel safe," he said.

Chitwood Sr. grew up on the 700 block of Oregon Avenue before moving to the 2400 block of South Clarion Street around age 20. He attended Epiphany Grade School and Bishop John Neumann High School. He graduated from Antioch University at Philadelphia, formerly at 19th and Spring Garden streets, with a degree in human services. He went on to earn his master’s degree in business administration at the same university.

After graduating from the Police Academy in 1964, Chitwood was assigned to the 18th District in West Philly. From there, he served in Highway Patrol, where he and partner Tony Kane earned the nicknames Batman and Robin (Chitwood was Batman) because of their track record of arrests.

Batman would not be Chitwood’s last nickname while a Philly cop. Dirty Harry also became a moniker during his time as a homicide detective.

After making detective, Chitwood spent some time in West Detectives, now Southwest Detectives, before joining the ranks of Homicide, where he spent his last seven years in Philly. He was involved "in one way or another" in 300 to 400 homicide cases. He was the assigned detective on the 1978 infamous Ira Einhorn murder case. It was Chitwood who found Holly Maddux’s decomposed body in a trunk in Einhorn’s Powelton Village Apartments in West Philly.

"That case was a part of my life for over 20 years," said Chitwood.

Chitwood testified at Einhorn’s 1993 murder trial, held in absentia as the suspect fled the country, eventually ending up in France. Einhorn was extradited from France to Philadelphia in July 2001. The French Government agreed to ship Einhorn east only if the District Attorney’s Office agreed to not seek the death penalty. In October 2001, Einhorn was retried and convicted of first-degree murder. The 65-year-old is serving a life sentence at a state prison in Houtzdale, Pa.

Chitwood was featured on America’s Most Wanted, Unsolved Mysteries and Larry King Live, just to name a few, during the 20-year Einhorn saga.

These days, the most rewarding part of police work is "having the ability to interact with people no matter who they are and where they are from."

Chitwood has not been afraid to befriend victims over the years. When a 70-year-old victim recently died of cancer in Maine, her family called Chitwood so he could pay her one final visit before her passing. The woman, who lived alone, was viciously beaten and robbed at 3 a.m. a few years ago. The chief became friendly with the woman and had coffee with her once a week. He even helped find her housing.

"Over the years I’ve had an uncanny ability to befriend people, especially the young and seniors, who have been victimized by criminals. Just the ability to make them smile, make them feel good and be a part of their lives, that’s the best part for me," he said.