About the Book

Bernard C. Welch, dubbed “The Ghost Burglar” by the detectives who hunted him, was called the most prolific burglar of modern time. He eluded police up and down the East Coast for years, stealing millions of dollars worth of goods from the elite homeowners of the Washington, D.C., area.

Welch was finally caught when he shot and killed Dr. Michael Halberstam, a prominent D.C. heart surgeon and community activist, during a botched burglary. He was sentenced to 143 years plus life in prison, but Welch escaped from a prison in the heart of downtown Chicago and earned a place on the U.S. Marshals’ Most Wanted list before being captured again.

Ghost Burglar: The True Story of Bernard Welch—Master Thief, Ruthless Con Man, and Cold-Blooded Killer by Jack Burch and James D. King details Welch’s life from his impoverished beginnings in upstate New York to the lavish world he created for his family- all financed by his criminal activities- to his trial, imprisonment, escape, and eventual recapture. Co-author King, one of the key detectives on the Ghost Burglar case, offers firsthand insights into the police investigation that always seemed one step behind Welch’s maneuvers. Extensively researched, Ghost Burglar finally reveals the full details of Bernard Welch’s life of crime.