ENVY: The Kidnapping and Murder of Sidney Reso

A Patina of Caring

In an interview years later on ABC's news magazine "20/20," Seale claimed that he cradled the dying Reso in his arms.

Morris County Prosecutor W. Michael Murphy

Authorities scoffed at that depiction, claiming that Seale was simply trying to perfume his depravity with piety. As former Morris County Prosecutor W. Michael Murphy put it in an interview at the time, Seale had sculpted "a Pieta of Sidney Reso gently slipping away."

Michael Chertoff

And Michael Chertoff, now Director of Homeland Security for the United States, and then the US Attorney for Newark who handled the Seale prosecution, put it, Seale's comments were "designed to color the monstrosity of this crime with a patina of caring."

To them, the proof of Seale's insincerity was the fact that even after Reso's death, the ordeal continued.

Bass River State Forest

The Seales carted Reso's body, box and all, to a remote section of Bass River State Forest, a vast expanse of sand and scrub pine in South Jersey, a region that has long been rumored to be the final resting place for mob victims and known in legend as the stalking grounds of the half man/half best Jersey Devil.

His body would remain there, unmolested, for more than 50 days. And in the meantime, Arthur Seale and his wife, Irene, proceeded undeterred with their plans to extort millions from Exxon.

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1. A Simple Man of Simple Tastes
2. A Man of Means
3. High Life and Hard Times
4. Schemes
5. Best Laid Plans
6. Cold Blooded
7. Now and at the Hour of Our Death
8. A Patina of Caring
9. The Rainbow Warriors
10. Ransom
11. Arrest
12. Hope Fades
13. Battered Wife Defense
14. Image Is Everything
15. Life in a Larger Box
16. The Sentencing
17. A Bid for Redemption
18. Bibliography