Sha Na Na was a doo-wop group from the 1950’s.  According to “The Great Pretender,” a piece that ran on CBS News’ 48 Hours, a  27-year fugitive successfully posed as the group’s former lead singer.

“Vinny Taylor,” a.k.a., Danny C (Catalano), moved into a Florida beach community and let it be known that he had once worked in the famous group.  He had a jacket, a gold charm, and the right way of talking.  He put on a show and soon seduced everyone around him into buying his story.

However, people close to Danny Catalano noticed some odd behavior.  He'd look out the window in the middle of the night and tell his girlfriend not to talk about Sha Na Na.

Then people who claimed to know better called Catalano a fraud.  When someone checked with Sha Na Na, they learned that the band’s lead singer had died in 1974.  Yet Catalano had all kinds of proof, including a birth certificate.  He claimed that the 1974 death had been faked. 

Mugshot of Edmund Solly

Of course, Calalano was not who he said he was. He was a man named Edmund Solly,  who had fled from New Jersey after killing a two-year-old.  Solly went to prison for the murder but took advantage of a home visit program to disappear.  His mother kept his secret, but after she died, detectives who inherited the case began asking questions anew.

New Jersey State Police Det. Louis Kinkle talked with Solly's stepfather and learned that Edmund was a singer in Florida.  Kinkle then approached the U.S. Marshals Violent Crime Fugitive Task Force in Philadelphia.  The Marshals then called Bender and Richard Walter to help them learn about Solly’s  appearance and habits three decades after he had escaped.  Walter said Solly had survived by being a manipulator.

“I did a drawing for them from a very old photograph that turned out to match him perfectly.  We got him in five months,” Bender said.

On May 10, 2000, police found Solly, now 55, fishing on a St. Petersburg pier. Solly was extradited to New Jersey and incarcerated once again. Authorities learned later that Solly had created a Web site, and on it were photographs of him with Florida police officers and politicians.