MetaFilter posts tagged with truecrime

More of the Best

dances_with_sneetches — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 10:39:46 -0800

Having previously put together a post with links to stories from the 2009 edition of Best of American Crime Reporting, I decided to go to earlier editions to gather together what is available on the web. Starting in 2007 with The Tainted Kidney: Charles Graeber, New York. A serial killer who chooses to donate his kidney has his motives questioned. Continuing in 2007 with The Inside Job: Neil Swidey, Boston Globe A trusted employee pilfers millions. Double Blind: Matthew Teague, The Atlantic An undercover agent helps take down the IRA. A Kiss Before Dying: Pamela Colloff, Texas Monthly A legendary haunting inspires a reporter to dust off a 45 year old killing. The Devil in David Berkowitz: Steve Fishman, New York Born again, David Berkowitz now has Christian advocates. The Man Who Loves Books Too Much: Allison Hoover Bartlett, San Francisco A book collector doesn't want to pay. Dirty Old Women: Ariel Levy, New York Teachers who seduce their students. Who Killed Ellen Andros? / Dan P. Lee, Philadelphia The prosecution of a police officer plays out between competing Medical Examiners. Fatal Connection: David Bernstein, Chicago Magazine The murder of a high class prostitute. Last Seen September 10th: Mark Fass, New York A doctor disappears the day the towers fall. Previously discussed. My Roommate, The Diamond Thief: Brian Boucher. New York Magazine. An aspiring writer lucks out by stumbling into a good story. The Monster of Florence: Douglas Preston, The Atlantic A journalist and a crime novelist investigate a series of murders near Florence, Italy and become part of the story. Also, previously discussed. The Loved Ones: Tom Junod, Esquire. A riveting account of a New Orleans couple scapegoated for the sins of those who did not adequately respond to Katrina. Also previously linked. The School: C.J. Chivers, Esquire Over a thousand students, parents and teachers are taken hostage in a Russian school. A couple more in the collection were not available online. The Talented Dr. Krist: Steve Fennessy, Atlanta Magazine The perpetrator of a notorious kidnapping appears to be trying to go straight after prison. not available. The Case of the Killer Priest: Sean Flynn, GQ Magazine After a quarter century, a priest is brought to trial for the murder of a nun. Not available. 2008 The Story of a Snitch: Jeremy Kahn, The Atlantic. A police witness gets careless. A Season in Hell: Dean LaTourrette, Men's Journal A surfer in Nicaragua is accused of murder. I'm with the Steelers: Justin Heckert, ESPN Magazine A con man convinces local women he's a pro football player. The Caged Life: Alan Prendergast, New West A white supremacist spends decades in solitary confinement. Badges of Dishonor: Pamela Colloff, Texas Monthly Two border patrol agents shoot an illegal alien and become heroes to some. The Ploy: Mark Bowden, The Atlantic Mark Bowden revisits the subject of interrogation and how it was used to find Al-Zarqawi. Day of the Dead: D.T. Max, New Yorker The life and death of Malcolm Lowery. Just a Random Female: Nick Schou, Orange County Weekly A student's murder appears to be the first of a serial killer. The Serial Killer's Disciple: James Renner, The Cleveland Free Times A man is executed for three murders. But was he the one? Mercenary: Tom Junod, Esquire A self-proclaimed government assassin is hired as head of security at a nuclear plant. Murder at 19,000 Feet: Jonathan Green, Men's Journal (pdf file) Mountain climbers witness an execution and face a moral dilemma. Dangerous Minds: Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker A deconstruction of criminal profilers. (previously discussed) And again a couple in the anthology that are not available online. The House Across the Way: Calvin Trillin, New Yorker In an isolated town in Northern Canada, townsfolk go to war with an alleged drug dealer. Dean of Death Row: Tad Friend, New Yorker CO Vernell Crittendon becomes the public face of California's death row.

Crime Time

dances_with_sneetches — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:28:03 -0800

The 2009 anthology of The Best American Crime Reporting is out. Each year this series collects examples of exceptional and diverse true crime journalism. Many of the entries are available in their online magazines. Starting with "Dan P. Lee, Body Snatchers - Philadelphia magazine" (part of the story previously discussed here), a ghoulish tale of stolen corpses and the market behind him. Continuing with the sad life of a spree killer: Mark Boal, Everyone Will Remember Me as Some Sort of Monster - Rolling Stone A pathological spree of consumerism is recounted in Sabrina Rubin Erdely's, The Fabulous Fraudulent Life of Jocelyn and Ed - Rolling Stone. A surgeon recalls The Day Kennedy Died - Michael J. Mooney, D Magazine. Charles Bowden writes about drug wars in Mexico's Red Days - GQ magazine A hate crime or not a hate crime? R. Scott Moxley, Hate and Death - OC Weekly. A hedge fund trader is found floating face down in his swimming pool in Stephen Rodrick, Dead Man's Float - New York magazine. Hanna Rosin's, American Murder Mystery previously discussed here - The Atlantic. Not generally available, but in The New Yorker archives for subscribers, Calvin Trillin, The Color of Blood - The New Yorker John Colapinto, Stop, Thief! - The New Yorker David Grann, True Crime - New Yorker (recommended) Alec Wilkinson, Non-Lethal Force - The New Yorker And finally, only available in the book: Matt McAllester, Tribal Wars - Details Mark Arax, The Zankou Chicken Murders - Los Angeles magazine L. Jon Wertheim, Breaking the Bank - Sports Illustrated Enjoy.

On the Trail of a Serial Killer in Macedonia

Kattullus — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 08:29:26 -0800

Then, in November 2007, exactly three years after the disappearance of Simjanoska, another woman from Kičevo went missing. Fifty-six-year-old Lubica Ličoska was, like Simjanoska, a custodian, and she also lived in the same section of town. When the similarities were noted, locals suddenly remembered Gorica Pavelska. She was seventy-three, a retired custodian who went missing in May 2003. No one had thought much of it at the time. She might have suffered a stroke in some remote place, they had speculated, or gone to work in Skopje. No trace of her was ever found and the whole business had been forgotten. But now it appeared that little Kičevo was home to a serial killer, and Vlado Taneski’s editors smelled a big story.

- The Mask of Sanity: On the Trail of a Serial Killer in Macedonia by Dimiter Kenarov. An account of the Kičevo Monster and the killer's surprising identity. [Warning: Descriptions of the murders include graphic details]

Even The Good Old Days Had Bad News

jonp72 — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:06:17 -0800

The Hope Chest: Bad News from the Past is a new blog of old newspaper clippings, mostly from Detroit and Chicago in the 1930s, with true crime and other bizarre stories. Examples include Tries To Shoot A Cat And Hits Automobilist, Driver Loses His Arm Giving Traffic Signal, and Pastor Writes Spicy Book. Other highlights are a phony cop attacking a pornographer with acid and the teenage girl who became a tattooed atheist bandit.

The Old Ball and Chain

Bookhouse — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:00:14 -0800

"The best man was Kirk "Spanky" Smyth, who had recently been caught passing through the metal detectors with Buck knives in his rectum. Today he was loaded on smack and rubbing his face red." A Los Angeles Times series examines a woman's quarter-century of marrige to a man behind bars. Part Two. Part Three.

James Ellroy's Crib Sheet

Bookhouse — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:42:35 -0800

Real L.A. Noir. (Video/audio auto-plays). Los Angeles Times reporter Paul Lieberman has been chronicling the era of the LAPD Gangster Squad, a secret division of the department that tried to combat the mobs of Jack Dragna and Mickey Cohen in the 1940s and '50s. (Keep the cast of characters straight with this handy chart.)

The North Hollywood Bank Job

Bookhouse — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:12:57 -0800

The North Hollywood Bank Job. part two part three part four . Inspired by this famous (and NSFW) scene from Heat, on Feb. 28, 1997, Larry Eugene Phillips, Jr. and Emil Matasareanu attempted to rob a Bank of America in North Hollywood, CA using body armor, automatic weapons and barbiturates. This documentary uses news footage, recreations, interviews, computer animation and a cheesy narrator to explain the chaotic hour that followed. There are some violent images. Supplements: The chapter (starting on page 246) on the North Hollywood Bank job in this book is excellent, and provides a nice summary of the pair's earlier robberies. Here is a Google map of the events.

The Jim Jones Gospel Hour

Bookhouse — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 08:36:47 -0800

The music of the People's Temple. Five years before Jim Jones coerced 900 of his church members to commit suicide in Guyana, the People's Temple cut an album. See this previous post for a link to an excellent website on the Temple. The best tracks on He's Able are a product of the church's famously energetic service and interracial membership: Something Got a Hold of Me (MP3) Walking With You Father (MP3) He's Able (MP3) Found after watching this excellent PBS documentary.

Trial by Internet

Bookhouse — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:07:54 -0800

It's a cause célèbre jamboree, starting with Mumia Abu-Jamal: Guilty! Innocent! Guilty! Innocent! Hurricane Carter: Innocent! (in song form) Guilty! Leonard Peltier: Innocent! Guilty! Innocent!(in song) The West Memphis 3: Innocent! Guilty! Lizzie Borden: Open for Business! Alfred Dreyfuss: Innocent! Sacco and Vanzetti: Guilty! Innocent! Charles Manson: Innocent! Hilarious!

Account of the cruel and barbarous murder...

thomas j wise — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:20:27 -0800

Dying Speeches & Bloody Murders digitizes over five hundred broadsides owned by the Harvard Law Library, all of them devoted to "last dying speeches"--that is, sensational accounts of crime, punishment, and (fictional) confession, intended to be sold at public executions. The New York State Historical Association has an online exhibition devoted to nineteenth-century American murder pamphlets. You can find a couple of seventeenth-century examples at the Early Modern Web and the Folger Library. Old Bailey Online briefly puts this literature into context. (Main link via C18-L.)

How to sell wolf tickets.

Bookhouse — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:50:55 -0800

A guide to prison slang. Texas prison guards' guide to prison slang. Jim Goad's guide to prison slang.(He should know). More prison slang. Yet another guide to prison slang. Gang slang collected by police. Even more prison slang. Barely readable tripod page with more.

To Snitch or Not To Snitch: That Is The Question

jonp72 — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:16:46 -0800

Stop Snitchin' may be the hidden link between hip hop and the 1980s alternative rock group, House of Freaks. According to the New York Post, journalist Ethan Brown has accomplished "making the Stop Snitching movement seem reasonable" in his new book Snitch: Informants, Cooperators, and the Corruption of Justice. Brown argues that harsh mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses have created a "cottage industry of cooperators" and informants who fabricate evidence, because Provision 5K1.1 of federal sentencing guidelines gives leniency in exchange for "substantial assistance to authorities." According to Brown, two of these criminal cooperators included Ray Dandridge and Ricky Gray, the perpetrators of the Richmond spree murders that ended the life of Brian Harvey of House of Freaks, his wife, and his two children. On the other hand, Mark Kleiman argues that the Stop Snitchin' movement has driven homicide clearance rates so low that, in some cities, "you have a better than even chance of literally getting away with murder." Wikipedia on Stop Snitchin' Popmatters on the Stop Snitchin' phenomenon Rapper Cam'Ron: Snitching Hurts His Business The Snitching Project Snitching: The Institutional and Communal Consequences "Tell, Tell, Tell (Stop Snitchin')" by Project Pat

Pronounced en-drang-ay-ta

Bookhouse — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 12:40:11 -0800

"The ‘Ndrangheta cannot be beheaded.” Organized crime is Italy's biggest industry. Most people are more familiar with the Sicilian Mafia or maybe even the Neopolitan Camorra, but it's the Calabrian 'Ndranghta (very in-depth article) that has police around the world worried now, especially after they were blamed for a six-person murder in Germany this summer. More: The FBI's page on Italian organized crime A short piece on the 'Ndrangheta with some interesting links to chase A current news story about 'Nrdrangheta arrests netting a town's mayor.

"A tortured young girl is dead": Is this art or exploitation?

kittens for breakfast — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 19:32:23 -0800

On October 26, 1965, a sixteen-year-old girl named Sylvia Marie Likens was reported dead to Indianapolis police. It was soon discovered that her death was the culmination of weeks of torture at the hands of an adult caretaker and several neighborhood children; when the case went to trial, the prosecutor declared it "the most terrible crime ever committed in the state of Indiana." In 2007, not one but two films inspired by the case make their debut: The Girl Next Door (trailer), based on a fictionalized version of the events, and the docudrama An American Crime (trailer). One person, at least, will probably be skipping both -- the victim's sister, who says of the latter film, "No one ever even asked us about it. It's their gain, our pain."

CRIMEBOSS

otio — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 12:24:06 -0800

Crimeboss: Crime Comic Books of the 1940s and 1950s - Galleries: Crime Does Not Pay 1, 2; Crime Reporter; Crimes by Women; Famous Crimes; Teen-Age Dope Slaves; Reform School Girl! (via)

The journalist who played fireman

PeterMcDermott — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 07:21:00 -0800

Diagnosis or job description? UK tabloids sometimes lead people to believe that all journalists are the scum of the earth. That's obviously not true, but one journalist who actually fits the bill seems to be ex-Woman's Wear Daily staffer, Peter Braunstein. On halloween, he dressed up as a fireman, called around at the apartment of a friend of his ex-wife and repeatedly drugged and raped her. Normally, this would just be another tawdry true crime, but like most writers, he's ended up leaving his mark all over the net.

The Trial of John Dicks, and other True Stories

anastasiav — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 15:45:39 -0800

Homosexuality in 18th Century England :: an amazing compilation of primary source material from newspaper reports and other sources.

'Evil doesn't wear a trench coat, doesn't have bad teeth, doesn't announce itself.'

anastasiav — Sat, 18 Dec 2004 09:43:05 -0800

Nineteen Faces :: Nik adds some thoughtful commentary to photos found on US Sex Offender Registry websites. I find Number Six to be most interesting.

Don't talk to strangers, remember what happened to Sarah Cherry....

anastasiav — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 09:59:12 -0800

On July 6th, 1988 Dennis Dechaine of Bowdinham, Maine came home from work (transporting frozen chickens from a slaughterhouse) and planned to work on constructing a greenhouse. However, that project hit a glitch and sometime that afternoon he decided instead to take some amphetamines and go exploring in the woods near his home. When he emerged from the woods, lost and looking for his truck, about 8:30 pm that night he was questioned by the police who were looking for a missing 12 year old girl named Sarah Cherry. Two days later, Sarah's body was found and Dennis Dechainewas charged with the girl's murder. He was convicted in March of 1989 to life in prison without parole and an entire generation of Maine girls were told to 'remember Sarah Cherry' as a caution to not talk to strangers.
The question before us now, is, of course, did he do it?

'We want them to let us know about it so we can do everything within our power to stop it' - State Auditor Beth Chapman

anastasiav — Sat, 31 Jul 2004 09:45:11 -0800

Meet Vernon Blake. Vernon Blake was a Systems Admin for the Alabama Department of Transportation, and it was 'well known' in his office that a certain supervisor spent far more time playing solitare on his computer than he did doing anything else. Inspired by a campaign to stop waste in Alabama government, Vernon installed a screen capture utility which took 717 screenshots (.pdf) over 7 months, documenting a clear pattern of non-work related use of the computer. The results? The supervisor was given a written repremand. Vernon Blake was fired.