Echoes in the Darkness is the title of a 1987 book by crime writer Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh, Jr. is a bestselling American writer known for his fictional and non-fictional accounts of police work in the United States...

 which also became a made-for-TV movie the same year. The book details the lurid tale of the murder of Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

's Upper Merion Area High School

Upper Merion Area High School

Upper Merion Area High School is a high school of the Upper Merion Area School District located at 435 Crossfield Road in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania....

 English

English studies

English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...

 teacher Susan Reinert and her two children in 1979. The case captured national media attention. Both her boss, high school principal Jay C. Smith and her lover and colleague William Bradfield were convicted, although Smith's conviction was later overtuned, because of police and prosecutorial misconduct in the case.

Echoes in the Darkness was adapted into a made-for-television mini-series in 1987. The television production starred Treat Williams

Treat Williams

Richard Treat Williams is a Screen Actors Guild Award–nominated American actor and children's book author who has appeared on film, stage and television...

, Peter Coyote

Peter Coyote

Peter Coyote is an American actor, author, director, screenwriter and narrator of films, theatre, television and audio books. His voice work includes narrating the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics and Apple's iPad campaign. He has also served as on-camera co-host of the 2000 Oscar...

, Stockard Channing

Stockard Channing

Stockard Channing is an American stage, film and television actress. She is known for her portrayal of First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series The West Wing; for playing Betty Rizzo in the film Grease; and for her role as Ouisa Kittredge in the play Six Degrees of Separation and its...

, and Robert Loggia

Robert Loggia

Robert Loggia is an American film and television actor and director.- Early life :Loggia, an Italian American, was born on Staten Island, the son of Elena Blandino, a homemaker, and Benjamin Loggia, a shoemaker, both of whom were born in Sicily, Italy...

, and was directed by Glenn Jordan.

The Chief Investigator, John J. Holtz of the Pennsylvania State Police

Pennsylvania State Police

The Pennsylvania State Police is the state police force of Pennsylvania, responsible for statewide law enforcement. It was founded in 1905 by order of Governor Samuel Pennypacker, in response to the private police forces used by mine and mill owners to stop worker strikes and the inability or...

, later admitted having accepted $50,000 from author Wambaugh. The money was provided on the condition that suspect Jay Smith be arrested.