twosleuthspodcast
- Mar 18
- 3 min read

The Career Girls Murders - Part 1

Updated: Mar 25

Newspaper article detailing the double murder. | Courtesy: Newspapers.com

Wednesday, August 28th, 1963. A Summer’s morning on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Two promising young career women… left mutilated in their own luxury apartment. This is the case of the 'Career Girls Murders.'

Uncover the hunting tale in our latest episode, where the lives and dreams of Janice Wiley and Emily Hoffert were brutally extinguished in the heart of Manhattan.

We examine the entwined paths of these two young women against the backdrop of a nation wrestling with civil rights and the onset of feminism. Their story is a harrowing reflection of the era's broader fears, intensified by the looming shadow of the Boston Strangler and the coinciding watershed moment of Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic speech.

The murder scene. | Courtesy: The New York Post

Step with us through the dense thicket of the Manhattan Double Homicide Investigation, an exhaustive search for truth led by the NYPD's finest. Over 3,000 interviews, meticulous fingerprint analyses, and the daunting task of sifting through leads paints a vivid picture of the dogged pursuit for justice.

Murder weapons and broken clock. Courtesy: Dan Farrell/Daily News/Getty Images/VanityFair

George Whitmore post-arrest. |Photo Courtesy: Boston Globe

While the investigation into the "Career Girls" murder unfolds, another homicide happens across the East River, in Brownsville Brooklyn. 9 days later, and a few streets away, beat cop Frank

Isola heroically intervenes in an attack, leading to a questionable encounter with George Whitmore, Jr. who turns from witness to suspect within hours. Whitmore is brought to the precinct and interviewed for hours.

Photograph removed from Whitmore's pocket. Photo Courtesy: Echos of my Soul, Robert K. Tanenbaum

Police pulled a photo from Whitmore's pocket. It is of two women, a blonde and a brunette, sitting in a convertible. A detective familiar with the 'Career Girls Murder' case believed the blonde was Janice Wylie. If Whitmore had her picture in his pocket- that made him a prime suspect in her murder, thought the detective.

The case will continue in next week's episode when we pick up with the 20+ hours-long interrogation of Whitmore that ends in a false confession, and we'll conclude with the pursuit of truth that comes at a profound cost.

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Sources:

The Career Girls Murders - Part 1

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