The state police investigated the accident. The concern then was not that Dunn would get away with anything as serious as drunken driving, but that he could get railroaded. He had plowed into the family of a United States senator, after all.
As the chief deputy attorney general, Jerome Herlihy was assigned to the incident. Two days later, he issued his report, clearing Dunn.
A story headlined, “No Charges Due for Trucker in Biden Deaths,” in the Evening Journal read: “[Herlihy] said there was no evidence that [Dunn] was speeding, drinking or driving a truck with faulty brakes. In addition, Herlihy said, witnesses to the crash near Hockessin provided no basis for a prosecution.”
No further details were released, although Herlihy knew more about the accident than he let on. Years later, he elaborated.
It is hard to think of anyone better the Attorney General’s Office could have sent. Herlihy was a Republican, a good enough one that he served as the Republican state chairman in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but he also knew the Bidens and thought the world of Neilia.
In the late 1960s, Herlihy and the Bidens were neighbors with a common driveway on Marsh Road in Brandywine Hundred, when Joe Biden was a new lawyer. It was before he was elected to the Senate, even before he was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970.
The Bidens had two German shepherds, and for better or worse, they were named “Senator” and “Governor.” When Herlihy used to pull into the driveway late at night, he would spy eyes looking at him from the bushes and call out, “Senator, is that you?”
Herlihy, now a Superior Court judge, no longer will talk about the accident because he is constrained by his judicial office from injecting himself into a political campaign. He was interviewed about it, however, in 1998 by this writer as part of the research for
Only in Delaware, a history of modern state politics.
In that interview, Herlihy said Neilia Biden either accelerated or drifted through the intersection, and Dunn could not stop. The truck driver said she was not looking at him, her face turned away, and the state police thought she was distracted by one of the children in the back seat.
“She was one of the sweetest people you ever could meet. It was so tragic,” Herlihy said in 1998.
Dunn died in 1999, but Philip A. Lafferty, the truck owner he drove for, still lives in Avondale, Pa. In a telephone interview, Lafferty recalled the state police impounding the tractor-trailer and the station wagon for the investigation for a couple of days and concluding that Dunn was not at fault.
“Nothing came of it. They had people, witnesses,” Lafferty said. “He was a good truck driver, very caring. It shook him up. It was an awful thing for all of us.”
Delaware Grapevine
The crash involving the Biden family station wagon and the tractor-trailer driven by Curtis C. Dunn, 43, of Kaolin, Pa., occurred on Monday afternoon, Dec. 18, 1972, a week before Christmas, at the intersection of Valley and Limestone Roads in Hockessin.
Dec 18, 1972.
Theory Debunked..
1970-1979
October 15, 1970
Congress approved the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970. This law contained a section known as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act or RICO. RICO has become a very effective tool in convicting members of organized criminal enterprises.
May 2, 1972
J. Edgar Hoover died in his sleep at the age of 77. President Richard M. Nixon appointed
L. Patrick Gray III to be Acting Director.
May 8, 1972
The FBI Academy opened a new training facility on the US Marine Corps Base at Quantico, Virginia.
April 27, 1973
William D. Ruckelshaus was appointed Acting Director of the FBI by President Nixon following the resignation of L. Patrick Gray III.
July 9, 1973
Clarence M. Kelley was sworn in as Director of the FBI. Kelley was a former FBI agent and had served as the Chief of Police of Kansas City, Missouri for many years before this appointment.
Biden Lied For Years About the Driver Involved In His Wife's Death
Oct 18, 2019
According to Delaware Superior Court Judge Jerome O. Herlihy, who oversaw the police investigation 36 years ago as chief prosecutor, there is no evidence supporting Biden’s claim.
CBS News reports that in 2007, Biden told a crowd on the stump that the driver “allegedly...drank his lunch”.
Jerome Herlihy (O), 79 - Wilmington, DE Background Report ...
https://www.mylife.com/jerome-herlihy/e367713039660
Summary: Jerome Herlihy was born on 04/24/1941 and is 79 years old. Right now, Jerome Herlihy lives in Wilmington, DE. Jerome also answers to Jerome O Herlihy, and perhaps a couple of other names. Background details that you might want to know about Jerome include: ethnicity is Caucasian, whose political affiliation is currently a registered Republican; and religious views are listed as Christian.
Wilmington Delaware?? C'mon man.. LOL
anywhoo, my theory was false it was Hoover not Mueller.
And when I'm wrong I admit it.
anon's do too.
Just saying..
In 72 I was 7 years old. I really wasn't interested in politics at that age.
Have to go back and do a lot of research..
I rather be researching the word of the Lord.
Hugs
God Bless