E2 | Officers Down in Kennett Square

Six years before the murders of August 1978, two police officers were ambushed and gunned down in the sleepy town of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Though Bruce, David and Norman Johnston were not charged at the time, investigators always knew there was a connection to The Johnston Gang. Years later, they would trace a line back to the Kennett Square murders as the starting point of a reign of terror that claimed at least six lives.

The events that took place in Chester County, Pennsylvania in August 1978 were unthinkable. Family killing family. A father calling for the murder of his own son. For years The Johnston Gang got away with everything—theft, burglary, violence—until the brazen attacks of August 1978 crossed a line, and the family crime empire began to crumble. Host and writer Amanda Lamb shares her own memories of the murders and the trials that followed. Her father was the lead prosecutor who helped bring the killers to justice. A fictional account of The Johnston Gang’s downfall was portrayed in the 1986 movie “At Close Range,” but this is the real story of a violent family crime operation and the long task of bringing its leaders to justice. The Killing Month August 1978 is a production of WRAL News in Raleigh, North Carolina.