Joseph Wambaugh and the Jay Smith Case

About the Book

No reader of this book will be more surprised than was the public by the truly bizarre beliefs and benthic depths of the evil (the Supreme Court’s repeated word, evil) encountered in this longest murder investigation in Pennsylvania’s history—thirteen years. Over fifty state troopers, eighteen FBI agents, and numerous local police departments were involved as this longest investigation began when the naked body of Susan Reinert was found, obviously sexually abused, a “strap-on” sexual device lying near her corpse. Her body was found stuffed in the tire well of her Plymouth Horizon and left with the liftgate open. A midthirties female, just five feet tall, round hips that resembled a “glistening white soccer ball,” according to witnesses that passed by the open liftgate, not knowing it was a corpse. Susan Reinert was a teacher in the English department in the elite, upper-middle class, Upper Merion Senior High School, located fifteen miles north of Philadelphia. In that same English department was William Bradfield Jr. a six-foot-three, former Haverford College wrestler from a Main Line family; his father, was the vice president of Western Electric. As the head of the teachers union, Bradfield wielded power that he was not afraid to use to protect his fellow teachers and to sexually exploit those that appealed to him. He developed a small cult of three other teachers in the English department, and an eighteen-year-old beauty, prom-queen type, high school student from one his classes. The cult was called the VAMPZ, Valaitis and Pappas, males, the other three females—all three servicing Bradfield every which way a female could. Bradfield was a close friend of the famous poet Ezra Pound from whom he absorbed a weird psychological viewpoint developed by a famous Frenchman, named Remy de Gourmant. After studying corpses, de Gourmont deduced that the brain fluid was related to the semen. Ejaculation of semen produced stimulation of the brain fluid, which produced increased creativity according to de Gourmont! Suffice it to say Bradfield, driven to be creative, became very promiscuous, and, with his position as teachers union president, “helped” many single women and men. Yes, men too, a strap-on works on both sexes. Bradfield, a strapping hunk, was able to and strapped all he could from eighteen to eighty. If they had trouble walking, he’d carry them. Susan Reinert tried to stop Bradfield’s promiscuity with her required marriage plan plus an inheritance of close to a million dollars, a nice bundle along with her body. He decided to do away with the body and keep Susan Reinert’s inheritance, blaming the high school principal, Jay Smith, for Reinert’s murder and the murder of her two children. Enter the justice people, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General and Pennsylvania State Police detectives. After Susan Reinert’s body was found, they also found Bradfield’s sexual involvement with Susan Reinert that he tried to deny and to cover up. With all the publicity that surrounded the murders of Reinert and her two children, including New York and California, plus the sex angle and strange sex philosophy, famous cop-books author, Joseph Wambaugh, got interested and came to the King of Prussia-Valley Forge area to write the story—called the Main Line Sex Murders by some, the Valley Forge Murders by others. Wambaugh met secretly with the investigators and promised them money, $50,000 plus hero parts, provided they arrested Principal Jay Smith as well as Bradfield for the murders. Without Jay Smith, there would be no story. No book. No movie. No moola. The detectives framed Smith so they could get the money and so the book would be written. The frame-up of Principal Jay Smith was hidden for twelve years. Also hidden was the secret Wambaugh Agreement involving the investigators. At a sensational hearing before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the details were thrashed out between Smith’s attorney and the attorneys from the Attorney Gen

About the Author

Born and raised in Chester, Pennsylvania, Jay Charles Smith always thanks his father and mother for giving him a great home life during the Great Depression of the l930s, which he was too young to fully understand. His four great brothers and his sister taught him the basics of survival that helped him forever in the two paths he followed: education and the military. With the help of his wife, high school sweetheart, Stephanie Zdun, he was able to go to college from their alma mater, Chester High, to become a high school teacher and, after holding other positions, finally Principal of Valley Forge Senior High in Upper Merion Township, selected over one hundred other applicants. His military career began with his enlistment as a private and advancing to sergeant in the Sixth Infantry Division. At the University of Pennsylvania Jay Smith won the Secretary of Army award as the Most Outstanding ROTC graduate. He was Penn’s exhibition drill platoon leader. He was called to active duty for the third time during the Berlin Call-up as the United States faced off against the Soviet Union. Jay stayed in the U.S. Army Reserves and retired in l976 as a full colonel. Currently, he lives in a Senior Citizens Village near Hunlock Creek, Pennsylvania, not far from the New York border. When not camping or fishing or painting, Jay Smith devotes his public activities as a speaker against the Death Penalty as part of authoress of Dead Man Walking, Sister Helen Prejean’s WITNESS TO INNOCENCE organization.