July 2011
23 posts
Margalit Fox's New York Times Obituary Archive →
It’s well worth your time to go through these. Among many, she wrote a particularly beautiful obit for Betty Friedan (in which I learned that the incomparable Emily Bazelon was the Friedan family spokeswoman).
The Hearst Nightmare →
longformorg:
From “comely heiress” to “armed terrorist,” an overview of the Patty Hearst kidnapping published weeks after her debut as a bank robber.
| Time | Apr 1974
A Revenge Plot So Intricate, the Prosecutors Were... →
1. Seemona Sumasar is raped by her boyfriend.
2. Sumasar reports the crime.
3. Her now ex-boyfriend vows revenge.
4. He concocts a plot that eventually gets Sumasar arrested for a series of armed robberies she didn’t commit.
5. Sumasar is jailed for seven months.
6. The police realize they made a mistake.
7. Sumasar: “From the beginning I was presumed guilty — not innocent. I felt like...
“Gabriel Dieblas Roman took orders from cartel bosses in Mexico, hard men who...”
– Richard Marosi’s “The strands of the Sinaloa drug cartel web,” the second story in a four-part series. (July 2011)
“On paper, Iris Varela’s appointment is anything but an unqualified disaster. She...”
– Juan Cristóbal Nagel’s “Tinderbox Meets Match,” on the appointment of “Commander Firecracker” as minister of correctional services in Venezuela. (July 26, 2011)
“The Michael Sandy case had all the hallmarks of a Matthew Shepard–style...”
– Robert Kolker’s “When Is a Hate Crime Not a Hate Crime?” (November 2007)
A Brevard Woman Disappeared, but Never Left Home →
longformorg:
The call to the sheriff’s office came on Nov. 18, 2010, just before noon. The townhouse, deputies learned, had belonged to a woman named Kathryn Norris, and the 1987 silver Chevy Nova was registered to her, too. She had used a normal amount of electricity in July 2009 and much less in August and none after that. She had paid her mortgage in August and then stopped. Her head was on...
Ann Rule's (or Rick Swart's) Sloppy Storytelling →
If you attempt to read this longform piece in the Seattle Weekly, you’ll be momentarily interrupted interrupted by one of the strangest editor’s notes I’ve ever come across. Rick Swart’s reporting on the true crime writer Ann Rule focuses on her depiction of Liysa Northon, who killed her husband in 2000, in Rule’s book Heart Full of Lies: “In Rule’s...
Casey Anthony, Photographer?
Upon turning on HLN, the talking heads were briefly discussing a particularly strange topic: Casey Anthony having a camera, willing to take pictures for the media. HLN anchors took the angle of “why is Jose Baez brokering photo deals, and why would anyone want pictures from her point of view?” (to paraphrase).
I took the angle of “what would Anthony’s view of the world...
“For years, I pondered the strange fate of Kim Sah Nae, a North Korean diplomat...”
– Dexter Filkins’ “Who Killed Kim Sah Nae?” (July 16, 2011)
“Trials offer exceptional opportunities for the exercise of journalistic...”
– Janet Malcom (Spring 2011)
“No matter how heated the larger debate on immigration becomes, it is safe to...”
– Ben Ehrenreich’s “Death on Terminal Island” (September 2008)
“But Peggy Jo didn’t just rob a bank. Beginning with that May 1991 trip to...”
– Skip Hollandsworth’s “The Last Ride of Cowboy Bob,” Texas Monthly (November 2005)
50 Crime Stories →
From 1903 to the present, 50 curated articles from the Los Angeles Times.
