Death of a Dream (48 Hours Mystery)

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Paul Cortez appeared to have lots going for him. He was the lead in a rock band, he was handsome, had a college degree, and was prepossessing. He told his friends he expected to be either a rock star or "a spiritual guru" (p 117) People frequently found him reading the "Bhagavad Gita".

One of his friends recalls picking up the book and realizing, shocked, "It's about death and how you shouldn't mourn someone's death, and if you do kill someone, they're taken to a higher level" (p 176).

An interest in New Age religions was one thing he shared with Catherine, who had attended a Wiccan meeting with another stripper friend of hers. Catherine was a pretty young woman who came to New York to break into show business and ended up doing lap dances in strip clubs.

Catherine's bloody body was found in her tiny apartment. Who stabbed her to death, and why? Paul would be charged with her murder, but the evidence was shaky at best.

During the trial, Paul was asked about the Taiping Rebellion, but he knew nothing about it. It was the lawyer who had to point out to him that "the bloodiest war...was between two Buddhist sects" (p 288). So much for his college education.

For all of Paul's vaunted interest in alternative religions, he and Catherine were both most alike in their sheer amorality and selfishness. No wonder they weren't interested in Christianity with its rules of right and wrong; they both clearly preferred being "spiritual" and living as they liked.

Their story is seedy but riveting, a picture of the young in New York that will make you want to cry.

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