Introduction to the Book:

     I first heard the name Tom Bird in 1989. At the time, I published a political newspaper in Minnesota called Dave Racer’s Minnesota Report and had run a story about Kathy Greening. Someone murdered her in July of 1982 and the case remained unsolved. Several politicians seemed to be less than enthusiastic about pursuing her killer and I enjoyed writing about lazy and corrupt politicians.

      Rev. Kenneth P. Kothe, pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Burnsville, Minnesota, read the Greening murder story and called me. His friend and seminary classmate Tom Bird had been wrongfully convicted of murder, he said. Would I get involved?

      All my attention focused on Minnesota and Ken failed to catch my attention. Ten years later, though, he asked me to write a book about Tom. This time I caught on and we plunged ahead on this project. Kothe’s fervent and continued pursuit of justice for Tom impressed me; anyone who would stick with a friend that long at least deserved a hearing.

      I signed a contract to write Caged Bird on July 2, 1999, and thought I would finish the project late in the year. I had no idea how huge this job would be. It involved three criminal trials, several appeals, thousands of news stories and even a four hour TV mini-series—Murder Ordained.

      As I write this introduction, I have expended more than 2,200 hours on this project. I have read nearly 10,000 pages of material. These include trial transcripts, appeals, court decisions, investigative reports, letters, memos, news stories and even Tom’s mother’s personal journals. I have conducted dozens of interviews and traveled to Kansas’ Lansing Correctional Facility eight times.

      I set out to do something no one else who ever wrote a word about Tom Bird had done—tell the story from his perspective. Even so, Kothe and I agreed that we would let the evidence take us where it would. If it proved that Tom killed his wife, so be it. If it proved he killed Marty Anderson, we would report it. It took me nearly nine months to finally draw my conclusions about these charges. You will have to read the book to learn them.

        This book is filled with names. I did not personally interview them all. In fact, some are now dead and a few have conveniently disappeared. Yet every name that appears in this book is the result of a written record that I allow to speak for itself.

Some men and women found them themselves not only caught up in these criminal accusations, but also held to public exposure and ridicule. In several cases, I have changed those names. They need no further shame. All other names are listed alphabetically on the followed pages to aid you to sort through all the players in this drama.

The Bird family spent scores of hours with me putting spirit into the flesh of cold facts. Tom Bird worked very hard under the difficult and frustrating circumstances of incarceration to answer the hundreds of questions I threw at him. At all times he was forthcoming. On a few occasions, his answers didn’t square with what I had discovered in written reports. He forthrightly set the record straight.

      I resisted requests in this introduction to tell you much about myself. If you want to know more, go to my biographical sketch.

    This is a story about a pastor, a paramour, and a quadrangle murder. Though it is long and complicated, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Dave Racer

The Year of Our Lord, 2000