The Monfils Conspiracy

On November 21, 1992, Thomas Monfils, an employee at the James River paper mill in Green Bay, Wisconsin, disappeared. After an intensive search, his body was found the next evening, submerged in a pulp vat. The police called it murder. In 1995, six of Monfils' coworkers were wrongfully convicted of his death, the result of a preordained theory and a reckless prosecution. Highly detailed and meticulously researched, The Monfils Conspiracy reveals the true story of a botched case that landed six innocent men in prison. Through extensive interviews, court documents, police reports, and other documentation, Denis Gullickson and John Gaie present a powerful look at the troubling events surrounding the death of Thomas Monfils and the mistake-riddled investigation that followed. Gullickson and Gaie trace the futile twenty-nine month investigation between the time of Monfils' death and the conviction, one pock-marked with dead end leads and overlooked evidence. Using solid facts, they lay bare the weaknesses, inconsistencies, and secrets in the prosecution's case and the jury's erroneous rush to judgment. As recently as 2001, a federal judge ordered the release of one of the men, citing a lack of evidence, and further suggesting the original proof as unsound. Fifteen years after Monfils' death and a dozen years after his coworkers' convictions, The Monfils Conspiracy shatters the myths surrounding this case and opens the door to justice-and the truth.