Behind the doors of Methuen, Massachusetts City Hall, a quiet empire of power, money, and manipulation was built-brick by brick-under the guise of public service.
Six Degrees of Corruption: The Fleecing of a City unravels the story of how one small city became a microcosm of everything wrong with local government: backroom deals, political payoffs, and the unchecked rise of a police chief who believed he was untouchable.
For nearly two decades, Chief Joseph Solomon ruled Methuen's police department with influence that reached deep into city politics, finance, and law enforcement circles statewide. What began as whispers of questionable spending grew into a storm of investigations, lawsuits, and state hearings-culminating in a series of rulings and revelations that stunned even seasoned watchdogs. But behind every headline was a deeper truth: corruption doesn't happen in isolation. It thrives through silence, loyalty, and the complicity of those who look the other way.
Author Retired State Police Sergeant L.P. Smith spent years combing through thousands of pages of records-civil service decisions, city contracts, payrolls, and federal court filings-to assemble the most comprehensive portrait ever published of how a city was systematically fleeced from the inside. Drawing on insider testimony and public records, he connected the dots between political ambition, misused authority, and a culture of entitlement that turned taxpayers into victims.
Part exposé, part investigative manual, Six Degrees of Corruption doesn't just tell what happened-it shows how it happened, step by step. It reveals how state oversight failed, how watchdogs were silenced, and how one city became a warning for every community that believes "it couldn't happen here."
Told with the pace of a crime novel and the rigor of investigative journalism, this is the true story of how corruption takes root, how power protects itself, and how ordinary citizens can fight back-with nothing more than persistence, public records, and the courage to ask hard questions
