Reports out of Boston are that Julius Katz is dead

It's being reported this morning by the Boston Police that the body taken from Julius's townhouse has been identified by DNA testing as Julius leaving no question that Julius is dead. I've also learned that the blast originated in Julius's wine cellar, and it is believed that 8 pounds of C-4 were used. While the brick townhouse building is still standing, what I've heard is that the inside has been completely incinerated.

There's going to be a private funeral for Julius this Thursday. Julius's sister, Julie, called me earlier this morning and asked if I'd attend and I told her I would.

I'm still getting no answer when I try calling Archie. I talked to several scientists over the weekend, and according to them with Archie's titanium shell, he should've survived this blast. All I can hope is that Julius had gotten sufficiently annoyed enough at Archie to have turned him off before the blast, and that Archie will remain turned off and never have to realize what has happened. In many ways Archie is a pure innocent, and I don't think he'd be able to handle this well. My worst fear is that he's ended up in the hands of Desmond Grushnier and is being reprogrammed by Grushnier.

When I finished transcribing the Kingston case with Archie's and Julius's help, and wrote it as the true-crime book, Julius Katz and Archie, I had NY publishers all telling me the same thing--that Julius was an anachronism, that today's readers don't care about charming traditional mysteries or brilliant, eccentric detectives. At first I didn't believe this, but I'm now thinking they might be right and that's there's no place in today's world for someone like Julius.

I'll post more after the funeral.