The Kids on the Corner

When nineteen-year-old Scott Scholfield is found murdered in his Upper West Side apartment, the case seems straightforward: a drug dealer killed over territory. But as Detective Jack Kuchinsky and his partner dig deeper, they uncover a far more troubling story-one of privileged teens playing at being criminals, with deadly consequences.

Based on true events, this gripping account follows the investigation and trial that rocked Manhattan's affluent Upper West Side in the 1970s. At its center is H.G. O'Connor, a fifteen-year-old from a good family charged with executing his friend and mentor in cold blood. As the case unfolds through the eyes of the detective, the victim's friends, and a mother caught between protecting her son and seeking justice, a dark underbelly of wealth, status, and a generation's dangerous flirtation with drugs is exposed.

A haunting exploration of family, morality, and justice, THE KIDS ON THE CORNER masterfully captures a pivotal moment when the innocence of youth collided with the harsh realities of crime on New York's meanest streets-even the ones lined with elegant brownstones.

Perfect for readers of IN COLD BLOOD and HELTER SKELTER, this meticulously researched true crime narrative asks the chilling question: in a world of privilege, who pays the price for justice?

Pat Jenkins is a Long Islander who started out as a photographic model and is the last living Armstrong Girl of renowned calendar artist Rolf Armstrong, a contemporary of George Petty and Alberto Vargas fame. She is featured in the coffee table book The Great American Pin-Up written by Louis Meisel. She longed to escape her middle American life and experience the remote corners of the world, so she traveled to all seven continents, visiting the Antarctic, Indian Tibet, Easter Island, The Australian Outback, Tasmania, Greenland, Northern Kenya, Siberia, and more, where she frequently stayed with native families. Travel to many of these locations, at that time, was rare. Pat did not start out with the dream of writing as the goal of her unusual travel choices, but once, on her first excursion out of the US, when her foot touched down on Iceland's inky-black, volcanic soil, she knew she had to share these journeys. Thus, a career as a Travel Journalist emerged out of Iceland's volcanic ashes. Her first article, "When Children Meet Unexpected Warmth In Such a Cold Place," was published in the New York Times. For many years, she worked freelance and on assignment with the New York Daily News, New York Post, and other periodicals. Graduating from the University of Life, Pat Jenkins now resides in New York City where, in leaner days, she once drove a yellow cab.