Crime
Magazine is about true crime: organized crime, celebrity crime, serial
killers, corruption, sex crimes, capital punishment, prisons, assassinations, justice
issues, crime books, crime films and crime studies.
New:
Dr. Petiot Will See You Now by
Marilyn Z. Tomlins,
(10/07/07).
Sixty-one years after Dr. Marcel Petiot, dubbed "Dr. Satan" by French
newspapers, was guillotined for the murder of 26 people, he remains France's
most prolific murderer.
New:
Adoption Forensics: The Connection Between Adoption and Murder
by Dr. David Kirschner
(09/19/07).
Of the 500 estimated serial killers in U.S.
history, 16 percent were adopted as children, while adoptees represent only 2 or
3 percent of the general population. Adoptees are 15 times more likely to kill
one or both of their adoptive parents than biological children.
New:
Murderous Mothers by
Marilyn Z. Tomlins
(9/19/07).
Five recent
cases of infanticide in France are causing the French to ask what is it in their
psyche that makes the nation's mothers kill their newborns.
Updated:
Book ‘Em: Crime Magazine's Review of
True-Crime Books, Vol 25 by Anneli Rufus
(09/19/07)
When a single crime inspires not one but three books — and that crime
doesn't involve celebrities — then you have to wonder what it is about such
a case that strikes such a compelling chord.
Updated:
The Attempted Assassination of George
Wallace by Denise Noe.
(09/14/03; updated 09/19/07)
Arthur Bremer tried to fill the void in his miserable
life by taking the life of Gov. George Wallace in 1972. He failed on both
counts.
New:
The Chicago Outfit
Makes Its Move: An excerpt from the upcoming book Black Gangsters of
Chicago by Ron Chepesiuk
(9/07/07).
This chapter chronicles how The Outfit, Chicago's
powerful white mafia, moved to take over the lucrative policy racket in the
Windy City's so-called Black Belt in the 1940s.
One Murder, Two Victims: The Wrongful Conviction
of Ryan Ferguson by Jane Alexander
(7/22/07).
In a case rife with DNA and other
physical evidence, not one shred of evidence linked 17-year-old Ryan
Ferguson to the murder of Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune sports writer
Kent Heitholt in 2001. Ferguson's conviction in 2005 proved only how far the
police and prosecution would go to close Columbia's only unsolved murder.
A User's Guide to the Polygraph Exam by
Daniel B. Young
(7/22/07).
If you're ever asked or forced to take a polygraph exam, get ready for an
assault. Here's some of what you need to know before being wired up.
Blowing Smoke From the Grave: E. Howard Hunt and the JFK
Assassination by Don Fulsom.
(06/06/07)
Howard St. John Hunt, the son of
super-spook E. Howard Hunt is now peddling a story that his father rejected an
offer to take part in plot by rogue CIA agents to kill President Kennedy. Isn't
it about time a congressional committee finds out what the CIA's role was in the
assassination?
The Investigation Begins by
Ron Chepesiuk.
(6/20/07)
An excerpt
from Ron Chepesiuk's Drug Lords: the Rise and Fall of the Cali Cartel,
chronicling how the longest running and most important investigation in DEA
history began. Originally published in 2005 in paperback by Milo Books, the
book has been expanded and updated to include information about the
successful completion of the Cali Cartel takedown. It will be available for
purchase this July (2007). For background see Crime Magazine's
The Fall of
the Cali Cartel by Ron Chepesiuk.
Hunting Down Vito Genovese in WWII Italy by
Tim Newark
(06/01/07).
Tim Newark is
the author of the recently published Mafia Allies: the True Story of
America's Secret Alliance with the Mob (Zenith Press). This article is an
adapted extract from that book.
Updated:
The Great Prevaricator by
Lona Manning.
(Updated 05/29/07)
Edgar Smith,
with William F. Buckley Jr. blithely playing his stooge, wrote his way to
freedom from the Death House in Trenton State Prison in 1971, becoming the most
famous death-row prisoner of his time. Fourteen and-a-half years earlier, Smith
-- at age 23 -- had bludgeoned to death 15-year-old Vickie Zielinski in Mahwah,
N.J. Less than five years after his release from prison, Smith kidnapped a
petite but scrappy young mother who miraculously managed to escape from Smith's
car with a knife stuck in her side.
What Watergate Was All About by
Don Fulsom.
(04/15/07)
In the early years of the Nixon presidency, billionaire Howard Hughes bribed Nixon with
$100,000 in cash. When Hughes's secret lobbyist Larry O'Brien became Democratic
Party chairman, Nixon had O'Brien's phone at the Watergate tapped to find out if
he knew about the bribe.
The
Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping by Lona
Manning. (3/04/07)
More than seven decades after his execution for committing "the crime of the
century," Bruno Richard Hauptmann still has his defenders and sympathizers.
Updated: Cold Case: The Murder of Emmett Till by
Denise Noe. (11/27/06; updated 3/12/07)
The brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi
in 1955 galvanized the fledging civil rights movement like no other killing of a black
by white racists before it. After an all-white, all-male jury acquitted Till's two killers,
the case festered for 49 years until the U.S. Justice Department reopened it in 2004. In late
February of 2007, a Lefore County, Miss. grand jury declined to issue any new indictments,
effectively bringing the case to an abrupt and ignoble end.
Updated: Gerald Ford's Role in the JFK Assassination Cover-Up
by Don Fulsom (11/11/06;
updated 3/12/07).
Warren Commission member Congressman Gerald Ford pressed the panel to change its
description of the bullet wound in President Kennedy's back and place it higher
to make "the magic bullet" theory plausible, enabling the Warren Commission to
conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman. Ford was J. Edgar Hoover's
informant on the commission and did the FBI director's bidding to squelch the
investigation from naming other assassins. When a Dallas County deputy constable
heard shots coming from the nearby grassy knoll, he rushed there to find veteran
CIA asset Bernard Barker, posing as a Secret Service agent. No Secret Service
agents had been assigned to cover the grassy knoll and all accompanied President
Kennedy to the hospital.
Updated: The
Shame of Lorain, Ohio by Lona Manning. (updated 03/03/07)
The ritual abuse hysteria that swept across the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s
resulted in hundreds of innocent people being wrongfully convicted of committing
a bizarre concoction of sexual acts on preschoolers. Most of those convicted
were eventually freed from prison on appeal, but some innocent people remain
behind bars. One of the most blatant cases of wrongful conviction occurred in
Lorain, Ohio. There a politically ambitious prosecutor's office coaxed and
manipulated a few Head Start preschoolers into testifying that they had been
sexually abused repeatedly over a six-month period by their bus driver and some
stranger -- two people who never even knew each other, but who are now serving
life prison terms for crimes that never occurred in the first place.
Updated: Nixon's Greatest
Trick: Orchestrating His Own Pardon by
Don Fulsom. (08/30/04;
updated 01/14/07)
On the eve of the
release of the "smoking-gun tape," President Nixon cut a blanket pardon deal
with Vice President Ford that would put Ford in the Oval Office eight days later.
Carlos Marcello and the Assassination of President
Kennedy by Don Fulsom
(10/16/06).
New Orleans godfather Carlos Marcello – with Jimmy Hoffa
as his bagman – funded Richard Nixon's 1960 presidential bid with $500,000 in
cash stuffed in a suitcase. Later Marcello – known as the Big Daddy of the Big
Easy – would be named a key conspirator in President Kennedy's assassination.
Updated:
The
Forgotten Innocent Man by Lona Manning.
(Updated 10/16/06)
The courtroom testimony of twin 8-year-old boys – a concoction of fantasy and
fear – led to a life sentence for Robert Halsey in 1993. In 2004 the National
Center for Reason and Justice took up his case, but all of its appeals have been
denied and the Massachusetts Supreme Court has denied Halsey's Application for
Further Appellate Review. Now in his 70s and in failing health, the former bus
driver will most likely die in prison, a victim of the child sexual-abuse
hysteria that put him there.
Updated:
The Murder of JonBenet Ramsey
by J.J. Maloney and J. Patrick O'Connor.
(Updated 08/30/06)
Astoundingly, this highest of high-profile murder case goes unsolved. John Mark
Karr's arrest and subsequent exoneration served only to demonstrate anew how
inept JonBenet's investigation has been from the beginning.
Exclusive:
Solving the JonBenet Case by
Ryan Ross. (04/14/03)
Colorado Gov. Bill Owens could crack the JonBenet case wide open by appointing a
special prosecutor to determine if John and Patsy Ramsey conspired to cover up
their daughter's tragic death.
Secret forensic evidence not in the public record implicates the Ramseys in such a cover up.
The Mob's
President: Richard Nixon's Secret Ties to the Mafia by
Don Fulsom.
(02/05/06)
By the time he became president in 1969, Richard Nixon had been on the giving
and receiving end of major underworld favors for more than two decades.
Watergate was just the tip of the iceberg.
The "Assassination" of Marilyn Monroe by
Mel Ayton. (07/24/05)
Since Marilyn Monroe died in 1962, an unabated stream of books,
articles and documentaries have attempted to link her death to then U.S. Atty.
Gen. Robert F. Kennedy -- despite the complete lack of any credible evidence.
The Truth About J. Edgar Hoover by
Mel Ayton. (07/19/05)
Since his death in 1972, J. Edgar Hoover's reputation has plummeted
for the wrong reason -- a false charge about cross-dressing. He should be
reviled for what he was: an egomaniacal, self-righteous subverter of the Bill of
Rights.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination: What Really
Happened? by Mel Ayton.
(06/12/05)
Obfuscation, manipulation, lies, greed, and distortion of the facts have
characterized this case, allowing James Earl Ray to escape full blame. The truth
of the matter is that Ray murdered King and he acted alone when he shot him. One
or both of Ray's brothers -- before and/or after the fact -- may have aided him.
Devil's Island by
J.J. Maloney.
(Updated 02/07/05)
An essay on the history of the most famous and dreaded prison of all time.
Recommended reading for those who think a ''get tough'' policy on crime is a new
idea, or that it works.
Crime
Books of Note. (Updated
01/15/05)
Crime Magazine's list of favorite books on crime,
criminals, and criminal justice. View list sorted
alphabetically by author, by title
or by by
category.
The Manson Myth by
Denise Noe. (12/12/04)
Thirty-five years after the Tate-LaBianca
murders, it's time to demystify the would-be messiah that Vincent Bugliosi
portrayed in the best-selling true-crime book of all time, Helter Skelter.
The real Charles Manson was a semi-literate, petty criminal – car thief, check
forger, pimp, drug dealer – so insecure about his ability to cope in the real
world that on the day of the parole that plunged him into infamy he begged
prison officials not to release him.
The Hurricane Hoax by
Lona Manning. The movie The
Hurricane portrays Rubin ''Hurricane'' Carter as a black man
wronged by a racist justice system. But Carter is a fraud and so was the movie,
from beginning to end.
Alcatraz: Rigid and Unusual
Punishment by Michael Esslinger. During the 29 years Alcatraz
operated as a federal penitentiary it built a reputation as a Devil's Island
of the soul. If Al Capone was the nation's symbol of lawlessness, then
Alcatraz would be the nation's symbol for punishing the lawless.
Frank Sinatra and the Mob by
J.D.
Chandler. The recent release of Sinatra's extensive FBI file exposes his
mob connections in voluminous detail, putting to lie Ol' Blue Eyes' most
celebrated claim that he did it his way.
Part Two: The
Mysterious Death of CIA Scientist Frank Olson by
H. P. Albarelli Jr. (05/19/03)
In 1996, Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau
opened a new investigation into CIA Scientist Frank Olson's 1953 "suicide,"
assigning the case to a special Cold Case Unit staffed by two veteran
prosecutors. Details about the activities and findings of that ongoing inquiry
have never before been revealed. Investigative journalist and writer H.P.
Albarelli Jr. conducted his own seven-year examination into Olson's death. In
Part Two, he reports his findings about one of the U.S. government's greatest
conspiracies and unsolved mysteries.
Tainting
Evidence: Inside the Scandals at the FBI Crime Lab
by John F. Kelly and Phillip K. Wearne.
The FBI's vaunted crime lab is a scandal of atrocious forensic science. Its "junk science" permeates the U.S. criminal justice system as it bogus
"findings" routinely punish the innocent and set the guilty free, affecting thousands of lives in the process.
Updated: The
Execution Photos. (Updated
6/20/07)
When the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the electric chair
was a constitutional form of execution, an outraged justice of the court
attached three photographs to his dissent. The photographs show the
agonized and contorted face of a recently executed Florida prisoner, his
shirt-front drenched in blood. It is said a photograph is worth 1,000 words.
Some are worth more. Be forewarned that photograph #3
is particularly gruesome.
The Secret Life of a Sexual Predator by Lora
Lusher. Jack Bokin was bright and handsome. He
had a natural charm and a knack for making people laugh, although he had no
real friends. He ran his own plumbing business, was married and had two
children. As a child he had been something of a prodigy: a whiz at chess and
the piano. By age 10 he was also a sexual predator. His first victim was his
3-year-old cousin, his last – while he was out on bail after being charged
with raping and assaulting three other women –was a 19-year-old he bound,
raped repeatedly and beat for five hours before bashing in her skull with a
hammer, tying her up in a bag and dumping her into San Francisco Bay.
The
Dumb-Bell Murder by Doris Lane. The 1927 murder
of magazine editor Albert Snyder by his wife and her lover generated more
publicity than the sinking of the Titanic. A book and a movie, Double
Indemnity, and a Broadway play, Machinal, were based on the case. But
what is remembered most is a secret snapshot taken of the electric-chair
execution of ''The Bloody Blonde.'' It remains one of the most famous
photos in tabloid history.
James Earl Ray and
Martin Luther King are
in-depth articles by J.J. Maloney, who knew James Earl Ray and has researched
the King assassination over a 30-year period.
The
Death Penalty -- By
J.J.
Maloney. A primer on the battle over the death penalty in the 20th
Century covering historic cases in the 20th century, arguments for and against the death
penalty, and how the death penalty can motivate people to kill.
Firefighters Case
Part I and Part II by
J.J. Maloney Five innocent people were convicted in February 1997 in the deaths of six Kansas City
firefighters in 1988. These two stories run a total length of 20,000 words, and won
the Missouri Bar Association's annual ''Excellence in Legal Journalism''
award. On Oct. 30, 1998, the 8th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals denied the appeal in the Kansas City Firefighters case. Read the full opinion here and our analysis of the opinion. On
Oct. 4, 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to grant certiorari in the case.
American Lynchings
These photos of whites torturing and lynching black men present a side of U.S.
history that most history books ignore. They provide one of the many reasons why
blacks (and Indians) hold a different view of U.S. history than whites. Notice
the carnival atmosphere prevailing as these crowds of U.S. citizens watch the
completely lawless and most inhumane executions imaginable.
DNA Exonerations
is based on a 1996 study by the U.S. Department of Justice that details 28 cases in which
men convicted of sex crimes, including murder, have been released as a result of
subsequent DNA testing. It will challenge your assumptions about such things as the
reliability of eye-witness testimony. Because of its length, we've broken the study
up into three parts. But it is a must read, for many reasons.
The American Gun by J.J. Maloney. An in-depth look at the
''gun problem'' in the United States, along with suggestions for sensible new laws.
Chicago's Unione
Siciliana: 1920 a Decade of Slaughter
by Allan May. Part I:The
Fight between Anthony D'Andrea, the head of the Unione, and powerful Alderman
John Powers was a fight to the death. Part II:
When Uunione President Mike Merlo died of cancer in 1924, Al Capone had the next
two Unione presidents murdered so he could gain control of the Unione and its
fabulously profitable ''alky'' stills. Part
III: Capone's man, Tony Lombardo, is the next Unione president to be
killed. In Part IV Capone retaliates with the
St. Valentine's Day Massacre, but Joe Aiello responds by putting a $50,000 price
tag on Capone's head.
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