A new RTÉ podcast investigates how a man charged with murdering his wife in the US in the 1960s fled to Ireland to avoid arrest.
"Runaway Joe," a new Documentary on One series by Pavel Barter and Tim Desmond, explains that Irish police were called to investigate an incident at a house in Killiney, Co Dublin, in 1973.
There, they became suspicious about the business activities of Michael O'Shea, a well-known member of the local community who owned a garage in Dun Laoghaire.
Gardaí sent Smith's fingerprints to Interpol, leading to the astonishing discovery that the fingerprints belonged to Joseph Maloney, a man on the run from US authorities after being charged with murdering his wife in 1967.
The shocking discovery did not lead to Maloney's arrest, however, due to a lack of an extradition treaty between Ireland and the US at the time, and he has managed to evade the US authorities ever since thanks to a combination of luck and international politics.
Gene Harding, a US federal agent who pursued Maloney in the 1980s and 1990s, told the radio documentary that the murder of Maloney's wife June Fisk is one of the oldest open cases on the FBI books.
Fisk, a nurse at a hospital in Rochester, New York, left her husband in March 1967 to live in an apartment with their two children, stating that she had suffered physical and emotional abuse.
However, Maloney persuaded his wife to let him attend his son's fifth birthday party three months later.
Prior to attending the party, he visited his friend Neal Dunkleberg to seek advice about how he could poison a dog. Dunkleberg, a chemist, told him to use methyl alcohol but became suspicious of Maloney's intentions and refused to give him the poison.
Maloney allegedly returned when Dunkleberg was out and took the poison.
Harding told documentary maker Pavel Barter that the evidence suggested that Maloney gave his wife a poisonous drink.
"Based on the case investigated by the district attorney’s office and the local police department, Maloney gave his wife a poisonous drink," Harding said.
Fisk fell into a coma and died nine days later on June 5, 1967.
An autopsy later revealed that methyl alcohol was in her system, while investigators subsequently discovered Dunkleberg's empty bottle at Maloney's home.
Maloney was later arrested and charged with first-degree murder but persuaded a judge to send him to a local hospital for psychiatric evaluation before his trial.
Maloney, who worked as a janitor at the hospital, was able to fashion a makeshift key out of a clock and escape. He evaded authorities and a federal manhunt before moving to Ireland under the alias Michael O'Shea.
However, Wendy Lehmann, a retired prosecutor from the District Attorney's office in Rochester, said US authorities were powerless when O'Shea's true identity became known in 1973.
"Nothing could be done," Lehmann told Barker. "There was no treaty of extradition between the Republic of Ireland and the United States, so it was a waiting game at that point."
Maloney was not aware that gardaí had uncovered his true identity and continued to live openly as Michael O'Shea in the Dublin suburbs of Glenageary and Dalkey before selling his garage in 1975 and buying Capard House, an 18th-century stately home sitting on 125 acres of land in County Laois.
Maloney built a new life for himself in Ireland, marrying local woman Sheila Chandler and working as an armorer on a variety of TV shows and movies, including the popular series "Remington Steele".
He was finally arrested in January 1985 after Ireland finalized an extradition treaty with the US in 1984 and reportedly told gardaí that they had got the "wrong man".
He continued to insist that gardaí were mistaken and told Dun Laoghaire District Court Judge Gillian Hussey that he was not Maloney.
However, Rochester detective George Reiss, Maloney's former neighbor, flew to Dublin for a bail hearing at the High Court and identified O'Shea as Maloney.
His identity confirmed, Maloney's extradition to the US was approved, but more legal red tape would come to his aid.
While Maloney was in Portlaoise prison pending the verdicts of various appeals, Ireland's Supreme Court ruled that the extradition treaty between Ireland and the US was invalid because it had not been ratified by the Irish Government.
He was subsequently released and disappeared with his wife before the Government ratified the treaty.
Sheila Chandler returned to Dublin in the 2000s and died in 2010, but her husband remains at large.
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Barter describes Runaway Joe as a "live investigation" and wrote in the Sunday Times that he hopes to use the radio documentary to uncover Maloney's final destination.
The first two episodes of the series were released on January 19, with a new episode released every Friday thereafter.
Tim Desmond has encouraged listeners to send tips to the Runaway Joe tip line if they have information about the case.
"There are people out there who know what happened to Joe Maloney, particularly after 1986. Because he came across as so plausible, maybe at the time, those people thought they were doing the right thing," Desmond told RTÉ.
"But listening to our investigation and what we’ve learned, they might realize that information they have might help solve the mystery and bring closure to the family of the victim, in this case, his ex-wife June, and his children.
"Any information, even if you think it’s not particularly relevant, could help us resolve this historic murder case."
Anyone with information, knowledge, or photographs of Michael O'Shea is urged to send them to documentaries@rte.ie.
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