WILKES-BARRE — In February 2015, after nearly 12 years of trying, investigators and prosecutors finally convicted Hugo Selenski of the strangling deaths of pharmacist Michael Kerkowski and Tammy Fassett.
It was a long time since authorities searched Selenski’s Mount Olivet Road property in 2003 and found the bodies of the missing pharmacist and his girlfriend, and at least three other sets of human remains.
During his nearly three-week trial, prosecutors said Selenski, then-41, and a co-conspirator brutally beat Kerkowski to compel him to reveal the location of tens of thousands of dollars he kept in his house, then used flex ties to strangle him and Fassett.
According to an Associated Press story, authorities found their decomposing bodies on Selenski’s property about a year later. A few months after his 2003 arrest, he escaped from prison using a rope fashioned from bed sheets and spent three days on the run before turning himself in.
The jury reached its verdict after deliberating more than 11 hours over two days. It convicted Selenski of eight of 10 counts, including first-degree murder and robbery.
And now, Times Leader staff writer Ed Lewis has written a book — “Hugo’s Graveyard” — that is available on Amazon at https://amzn.to/4cUl8A9.
Lewis said retrieving a manuscript from an old computer hard-drive was easy — but organizing and sorting thousands of pages of court documents was far more difficult.
Lewis, a Times Leader reporter who has covered crime and courts for nearly three decades, recently published “Hugo’s Graveyard” that chronicles the investigation, prison escape and criminal trials of Hugo Selenski.
“It was Dec. 18, 2022, when I spoke with two podcasters who called me for information about the disappearance of Phylicia Thomas and their belief Selenski was somehow involved in her disappearance,” Lewis said. “That very same night, my daughter Emily, who was home from college, asked when I’m going to start the Selenski book and it just kicked me into overdrive. I restarted writing the book that night and did not stop.”
Lewis said he had begun a manuscript in 2003 when he wrote 90 pages, but parenting three children and coaching youth and high school soccer took precedence.
As he was urged to resume writing, Lewis said he woke up at 2:45 a.m. most mornings during the work week to write a few hours before he headed into the Times Leader and the Luzerne County Courthouse — and he also wrote for three to four hours at night and five to seven hours on the weekends.
As the manuscript was nearing completion, Lewis said he met with two literary agents who were interested in publishing the book. When Lewis learned he would lose nearly all rights to the book, he said he opted to self-publish after conferring with other authors.
The title of the book was recommended by an editor in New York City who reviewed Lewis’ manuscript.
“I wrote the book for two reasons,” Lewis said. “I hate being bored, and I strongly believed the Selenski case needed to be told in one setting.”
Lewis said the book is 530 pages and took nearly 17 months to complete.
“Getting advice from other book authors, they told me ‘write what I know,’” Lewis said. “I’ve covered the Luzerne County Courthouse for more than 20 years and drafted an outline. The book follows Selenski’s case through the courts, prison escape and dramatic court proceedings.”
The book explores the early days of the investigation, Selenski’s Luzerne County Correctional Facility escape using bed sheets, and court proceedings where Selenski battled with his own lawyers.
The book also explores a murder plot to kill a key witness, a juror reporting being intimidated outside a Hanover Township business and behind-the-scenes accounts of private meetings.
Lewis’ daughter, Emily, an amateur photographer majoring in psychology and minoring in creative writing, designed the book cover.
“Kerry Miscavage, our publisher at the Times Leader, permitted the use of Times Leader photos of Selenski,” Lewis said. “Emily looked at multiple pictures and the one on the cover immediately stood out. The families of Kerkowski and Fassett criticized Selenski before and during the 2015 trial for having a smirk, and the picture on the cover speaks for itself.”