Introduction

The US Marshal's office is on the twelfth floor of the far right building

Since a very young age I have been interested in criminal justice. I was the ten year-old girl who spent her free time reading Ann Rule (a true crime novelist) and watching Forensic Files. Last December, in my intensive In Pursuit of Justice, my class and I took a field trip to the US Marshal’s Office in downtown Cleveland. We met with the Marshal, Mr. Peter Elliot. He told our class stories of his career as US Marshal: creating a program that has apprehended tens of thousands of fugitives, busting inner-state drug cartels, and interrogating serial killers. When Mr. Elliot was giving us a tour of his office, he showed us were the interns worked. The interns (usually college students), worked with the “Cold Case Squad”. This squad is a division created by Mr. Elliot dedicated to finding fugitives who escaped prison in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The interns created webs like the ones in movies: pictures of people and places connected with strings and labeled with dates.

Mr. Peter Elliot

I talked to one of the college interns who was tracking down an individual from the 1980’s, who could possibly have been a number of wanted persons, including the Zodiac Killer. She was doing research using the Ancestry database, finding blood relatives of the suspicious individual. I, being my nerdy and interested in crime self, thought this was the coolest thing ever. When I returned home from the field trip I emailed the Marshal’s office asking if I could intern with them for my senior project. Surprisingly, perhaps because of the Hawken name, they agreed, no questions asked. I start my internship tomorrow, and am very excited. My briefcase and parking pass are ready to go! I won’t know exactly what I am doing until I arrive at the office at nine tomorrow morning, but I will be doing some kind of criminal research, and answering my essential questions: What do the US Federal Marshal and his deputies do to solve crimes and apprehend criminals?