A surprising tune on Philadelphia officer Danny Faulkner's murder

On the 9th of December 1981

Nearly four in the morning, the nightmare's begun

On 13th and Locust, a car was pulled over

Behind the wheel was the killer's brother.

MAUREEN Faulkner isn't used to having the cult of celebrity on her side. If actors, singers or intellectuals get involved in the case that's dominated her life for three decades, it's usually on the side of the man who murdered her husband, Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.

That list is extensive, to say the least. It includes Maya Angelou, Alec Baldwin, Naomi Campbell, Noam Chomsky, Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's, Roger Ebert, Mike Farrell, Henry Louis Gates, Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, Casey Kasem, Spike Lee, Michael Moore, Paul Newman, Peter Norton, Sister Helen Prejean, Rage Against the Machine, Rep. Charles Rangel, Tim Robbins, Salman Rushdie, Susan Sarandon, Gloria Steinem, Sting, Michael Stipe, Oliver Stone and Cornel West.

But Gary Cherone is different.

After calling for backup, the cop ordered the man

To get out of his light blue Volkswagen

William Cook obliged and some words were exchanged

And without provocation, William struck him in the face

Given his resumé (lead singer of Extreme, the voice behind their massive single "More Than Words" and former front man for Van Halen), Cherone would seem to fit in more with the apologists than the widow's allies.

The singer-songwriter told me that he's always been interested in the case and long followed it from afar. Finally, after reading the

trial transcripts and eyewitness testimony, he was inspired to write a song about what happened at 13th and Locust on the morning of Dec. 9, 1981.

But, unlike so many folks stuck in a Hollywood cloud or ivory tower, Cherone was drawn to Maureen Faulkner's side of the story. So he penned "The Murder of Daniel Faulkner."

"I was kind of blown away by the detail of the story," he told me.

The cop hit him back threefold while trying to restrain

When running from across the street, William's brother came

He pulled out a gun, a shot rang out, it all happened so fast

That cop never saw it coming

Wesley shot him in the back

At first, Cherone considered the song a "writing exercise" that he'd simply work through until "it was put on a shelf."

But what he found on another shelf persuaded him to contact Maureen and take the song public.

Cherone picked up "Murdered by Mumia: A Life Sentence of Loss, Pain, and Injustice" - the book Maureen and I wrote and published in 2007 - as he wandered through a bookstore a few months after finishing the song.

"I was compelled to buy it and read it. And I was so moved by Maureen's story that I decided to contact" her and share what he'd written, he told me.

The song will be on the soundtrack of the upcoming Tigre Hill film "The Barrel of a Gun." (Visit Smerconish.com/audio.php to hear it.)

The officer then turned around, he fired one shot in Wesley's chest

And before that cop hit the ground both men's bodies bled

Wesley wasn't finished, he was standing over at close range

Four more rounds, he shot him down, once directly in the face

A bullet through the brain

Given Cherone's songwriting and rock-star resumé, Maureen told me that she was "pretty shocked" to hear from him.

Most striking is how meticulously Cherone's lyrics adhere to the facts of the case as they were established during the 1982 trial. No poetic license. And unlike so many of his peers, Cherone's retelling of the story doesn't veer into the realm of fiction.

Shocking, considering the standard set by actor Ed Asner and his Hollywood crowd. Pulitzer Prize-winner Buzz Bissinger once asked Mary Tyler Moore's ex-

co-star whether he'd read the original transcript. "Could I stay awake?" was his snarky reply.

LUCKILY, CHERONE could.

"He read the book, and he studied the facts, and we all have to remember . . . I mean, it's been 30 years," Maureen said to me. "The one good thing is that . . . Gary Cherone and many people have not forgotten about Danny and what actually happened that night he was murdered."

The killer tried to walk away

He didn't get too far

He was slumped up against the curb in front of his brother's car

Police arriving at the scene, four eyewitnesses observed

Yeah, that's the man, blood

on his hands, and the cop he murdered.

Listen to Michael Smerconish weekdays 5-9 a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Read him Sundays in the Inquirer. Contact him via the Web at www.smerconish.com.