handle the matter. This plea on their part proved effective. Following it not a single retaliation attempt was reported, although news media attacks on Philadelphia's 911 system continued unabashed. These criticisms grew so intense that they threatened to fully derail the mayoral administration of Ed Rendell, who up till then had been praised as a fast rising star on the U.S. political stage and had been hailed as "America's Mayor" by The Wall Street Journal. In his defense he appeared on Larry King Live and other national broadcasts in efforts to distance himself from what he summarized as a defective carryover from previous administrations that he vowed to amend. Still, the bad publicity regarding Philadelphia's 911 system remained strong, with NBC-TV's Saturday Night Live doing a comedy sketch with Roseanne Arnold in the role of an indifferent Philadelphia 911 operator refusing to take any callers seriously. As for Eddie Polec, he had been a well-liked high school senior with no apparent ties to the Fox Chase youth said to have initially sparked the hostilities. His popularity was such that when a memorial service for him was held at his church, his entire high school senior class was in attendance, the church itself was packed to near double capacity, and a thousand more people stood outside in the rain where a loudspeaker was set up so all could hear the service. At his viewing over four thousand people came, waiting in line for hours to pay last respects, and his funeral procession when traveling from the funeral home to the cemetery was reported to be a mile long. Murder trial The Eddie Polec murder trial began on January 2, 1996. at the Philadelphia Criminal Justice Center with Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas presiding. Joseph Patrick Casey of the Philadelphia district attorney's office served as the prosecuting attorney, and Angelo Charles Peruto, Sr., in addition to his personally representing one of the defendants, served as the lead defense attorney. Other defendants under his representation also had their own personal defense attorneys. Famous for never having lost a murder case, and notorious for representing major Philadelphia organized crime figures, the Eddie Polec murder trial would prove to be one of Peruto's greatest challenges. Another defendant, the grandson of a retired Philadelphia police officer, was not under Peruto's representation because he had struck a deal with the prosecution