The Fox-TV show, America’s Most Wanted, first aired the Book of Days Murder segment in 2007. The television crew came to Arden to interview me and then flew to Texas and California to interview other photographers about the unsolved murder of Mike Cahill that took place in 1979 in Austin, Texas, a murder tied to the publication of the 1978 Austin Book of Days photographic desk calendar.
Also interviewed were Ave Bonar, Berkeley Breathed, Watt Casey, Randy Ehrlich, Roy Flukinger, and Rick Patrick.
Click here to learn more about the America’s Most Wanted episode.
Cahill’s family was gobsmacked when, in 2020, Michael’s guitar was recovered. In brief, Michael arrived home at night in 1979 just in time to see his favorite guitar being carried out of his house by a burglar. Michael jumped out of the car in which he was a passenger and gave chase. The burglar, rather than be caught, shot him dead. The case remains unsolved.
As a side note, in 2007, after the America’s Most Wanted episode aired, I met in California with a Los Angeles film producer, Jason Forest. He was interested in the idea of making a full-length movie about Michael Cahill’s murder. He thought this might be the story for his first feature film. We spent two hours talking about the movie possibility and about what it is like to be a movie producer, a very tough business. His outfit, Bully Pictures, is still around as of October, 2020, mostly making short films and commercials for corporate clients. See: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-forest-4481347