For the longest time I thought that my father had tried to kill his boss at the J.P. Patti Roofing Company. Since he always said he worked for J.P. Patti, I figured that there was an actual man by that name under whom he slaved in the hot sun, on hot roofs, with hot tar.

I liked to picture him rebelling, Spartacus-like, against his boss. But given that J.P. Patti was founded in 1917, and is now part of a large corporation, I wonder about that whole conception. But 1975 it was probably a pretty big organization. And somewhere along the line I learned that the man he'd tried to kill was named Walter Suhaka, the business manager of his roofer's union, Local 10. 

One night I Googled that name. For $29 I used to be able to buy a report from Hoover's that will tell me about Suhaka and Associates, an insurance company in Wayne, New Jersey, but I can't anymore. People finders tells me that there's a Walter Suhaka in Wayne, born 1947, and another born in 1921. A 1994 New York Times article refers to a Walter Suhaka who was a deputy police chief in Wayne (but the way the Times is, you probably have to be a subscriber to see it). The Wayne Policeman's Benevolent Association listed him as a retired officer, but that link disappeared and I can't prove it to you. 

I was pretty emotionally messed up at the time, and it was late, and I'd probably had a glass of wine or cider. I got the impression (as you'll see in the video below) that the Walter Suhaka who became a cop was the son of the Walter Suhaka my father tried to kill. But on closer inspection, in the light of day, I wonder if the cop and the near-victim are one in the same. Only one way to find out. Write the damn letter.