Walter Kelly "Jack" Perry II, the legendary commander of the Atlanta Police Department's Homicide Task Force, died at his Conyers home Monday. He was 68.
Mr. Perry died in his sleep of complications from diabetes, a disease he was diagnosed with after retiring from the department in 1979. So did the murder business, Mr. Perry said when announcing his early retirement during the murderous summer of '79, when detectives were averaging four killings a week.
A city kid who grew up in Grant Park, Mr. Perry always wanted to be a police officer. He joined up when he was 25. Just after his 52nd birthday, he retired to his Lazy P. Ranch in Rockdale County.
Mr. Perry joined the Police Department in January 1952, when he was assigned to the Zone 2 precinct in Buckhead. He was transferred to the Homicide Task Force in 1975, where he remained until he retired as a lieutenant just before the missing and murdered children's cases dominated the news.
He was diagnosed with diabetes after leaving the force, but he continued to work as a private detective and then as chief of detectives at the Henry County Sheriff's Department from 1987 to 1989, Walter Perry III said.
But Mr. Perry and his detectives were never able to solve the greatest puzzle of his career: the 1965 disappearance of a 25-year-old newlywed.
Mary Shotwell Little vanished after shopping at Lenox Square on Oct. 14, 1965. Her bloodstained car was found in the shopping center's parking lot the next afternoon.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete.
Mr. Perry died in his sleep of complications from diabetes, a disease he was diagnosed with after retiring from the department in 1979. So did the murder business, Mr. Perry said when announcing his early retirement during the murderous summer of '79, when detectives were averaging four killings a week.
A city kid who grew up in Grant Park, Mr. Perry always wanted to be a police officer. He joined up when he was 25. Just after his 52nd birthday, he retired to his Lazy P. Ranch in Rockdale County.
Mr. Perry joined the Police Department in January 1952, when he was assigned to the Zone 2 precinct in Buckhead. He was transferred to the Homicide Task Force in 1975, where he remained until he retired as a lieutenant just before the missing and murdered children's cases dominated the news.
He was diagnosed with diabetes after leaving the force, but he continued to work as a private detective and then as chief of detectives at the Henry County Sheriff's Department from 1987 to 1989, Walter Perry III said.
But Mr. Perry and his detectives were never able to solve the greatest puzzle of his career: the 1965 disappearance of a 25-year-old newlywed.
Mary Shotwell Little vanished after shopping at Lenox Square on Oct. 14, 1965. Her bloodstained car was found in the shopping center's parking lot the next afternoon.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete.
Walter Kelly "Jack" Perry II, the legendary commander of the Atlanta Police Department's Homicide Task Force, died at his Conyers home Monday. He was 68.
Mr. Perry died in his sleep of complications from diabetes, a disease he was diagnosed with after retiring from the department in 1979. So did the murder business, Mr. Perry said when announcing his early retirement during the murderous summer of '79, when detectives were averaging four killings a week.
A city kid who grew up in Grant Park, Mr. Perry always wanted to be a police officer. He joined up when he was 25. Just after his 52nd birthday, he retired to his Lazy P. Ranch in Rockdale County.
Mr. Perry joined the Police Department in January 1952, when he was assigned to the Zone 2 precinct in Buckhead. He was transferred to the Homicide Task Force in 1975, where he remained until he retired as a lieutenant just before the missing and murdered children's cases dominated the news.
He was diagnosed with diabetes after leaving the force, but he continued to work as a private detective and then as chief of detectives at the Henry County Sheriff's Department from 1987 to 1989, Walter Perry III said.
But Mr. Perry and his detectives were never able to solve the greatest puzzle of his career: the 1965 disappearance of a 25-year-old newlywed.
Mary Shotwell Little vanished after shopping at Lenox Square on Oct. 14, 1965. Her bloodstained car was found in the shopping center's parking lot the next afternoon.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete.
Mr. Perry died in his sleep of complications from diabetes, a disease he was diagnosed with after retiring from the department in 1979. So did the murder business, Mr. Perry said when announcing his early retirement during the murderous summer of '79, when detectives were averaging four killings a week.
A city kid who grew up in Grant Park, Mr. Perry always wanted to be a police officer. He joined up when he was 25. Just after his 52nd birthday, he retired to his Lazy P. Ranch in Rockdale County.
Mr. Perry joined the Police Department in January 1952, when he was assigned to the Zone 2 precinct in Buckhead. He was transferred to the Homicide Task Force in 1975, where he remained until he retired as a lieutenant just before the missing and murdered children's cases dominated the news.
He was diagnosed with diabetes after leaving the force, but he continued to work as a private detective and then as chief of detectives at the Henry County Sheriff's Department from 1987 to 1989, Walter Perry III said.
But Mr. Perry and his detectives were never able to solve the greatest puzzle of his career: the 1965 disappearance of a 25-year-old newlywed.
Mary Shotwell Little vanished after shopping at Lenox Square on Oct. 14, 1965. Her bloodstained car was found in the shopping center's parking lot the next afternoon.
Funeral arrangements were incomplete.
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