From
the article quoted in
The Invisible Man:
"When FBI agents were investigating the younger DeRose's disappearance, they say they found a tape, secretly made by DeRose, in the breadbox of his girlfriend's kitchen of a conversation James A. Traficant Jr., then a Mahoning County sheriff candidate, had with local organized-crime figures. The conversation was about how Traficant, if elected, was going to protect their illegal interests for money.
Traficant was federally indicted for racketeering based on that tape, but won acquittal representing himself in 1983."
Is that tape still extant? Are there extant audio/video recordings of "Paul" to which it may be compared?
Also, when exactly was DeRose Jr. "killed"? Upthread it says in 1982, but the article says "the 1981 killing of DeRose Jr."
I ask because I note upthread that Ruth Ann Carson, who accidentally killed five-year-old Paul Harrod, herself committed suicide in 1962. 1982 would've been the 20th anniversary. Could her family have published a remembrance of some sort in local newspapers, which DeRose Jr. could've subsequently seen and used in order to assume her victim's identity?
Of course, if he was really killed in 1981, then that question may be moot.