Jack Venturi

Who is Jack Venturi?

Jack Venturi, Esq. a New Jersey attorney was the trial attorney for Michael Behn who was accused of murder. This case is very significant because it is one of the key cases that got the Federal Bureau of Investigation to stop using Comparative Bullet Lead Analysis.

The murder took place in South River, New Jersey. Michael Behn, who had no previous criminal record, was accused of the execution-style shooting of a coin dealer in order to steal $40,000 worth of rare coins. Police found the coins at the home of Behn's mother. He told them he bought the coins from the murdered coin dealer, Robert Rose, the day he was killed. Behn explained that he and Rose did an under-the-table cash deal. No paperwork, no sales receipt. No proof he had bought the coins and that this was common in the coin business.

"At trial, prosecutors produced no eyewitness, no fingerprint, no murder weapon. But an FBI examiner testified that bullets found in Michael Behn's office and the bullets that had killed the coin dealer, quote, 'came from the same source of lead at the manufacturer, so they were manufactured on our about the same date'."