191: Part 2, Matthew Klein’s True Crime Journey with the NYPD

Game of Crimes

True Crime

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 8 April 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Former NYPD forensic artist Matthew Klein shares his incredible journey from military service to becoming one of the city's top police sketch artists. Matthew dives deep into the process of becoming a forensic artist, including the challenging art of sketching suspects from memory and how technology has transformed forensic art. One of his most notable cases, the Brooklyn slasher, is discussed in detail, showcasing how his sketches helped law enforcement track down dangerous criminals. Klein also reflects on the evolution of his career, the impact of his artwork, and his transition into the world of pop art and animation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I read about one case called the Brooklyn Slasher.
0:03.0	That was a really great case.
0:04.8	It ended up being an attempted murder, but it was just like a perfect storm.
0:08.4	Pretty much what happened was a woman was on a park bench and a guy just walked up to her and slid her throat.
0:14.7	She was very fortunate to survive.
0:16.2	But there was a guy selling textbooks to a local school and saw the guy.
0:20.4	And he remembered everything about him.
0:22.3	He's like, his hair looks like the running back for the Baltimore Ravens.
0:26.2	He looks like this, looks at that.
0:27.3	So I did the drawing, and within a couple hours, they knew exactly who he was and they were able to arrest him.
0:32.3	Holy.
0:32.7	There was a giant press conference about it at one police plaza.
0:36.5	And that time frame, there was a huge rash of
0:40.1	strangers slashings the mayor the police commissioner well they had a picture of my sketch
0:45.2	we're actively looking for these people and we just caught this guy and it just blew up and
0:49.1	that was my first really cool case and it just kept going on and on it's cool doing work getting out there
0:55.5	helping people so you go your first day do you have field training officers, right?
1:12.8	Yeah.
1:13.4	How long do you have to work with one of those?
1:15.5	So the program always changes throughout the years.
1:17.8	When I went through, which I was happy, like I heard stories about in the academy,
1:21.4	they would put you out in your great uniform and make you go stand on a street corner and see what's up.
	...

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