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.
Updated:
Book 'Em: Crime
Magazine's Review of True-Crime Books, Vol. 21 by
Anneli Rufus. (04/18/06)
If these last few years have proven anything, it's that eventually, cold cases
can start to simmer again and be solved.
New:
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.
Updated:
Pedophile Priest: The Crimes of Father Geoghan by
Denise Noe.
(12/01/03, updated 01/25/06)
Father
John Geoghan sexually molested young boys for over three decades with the full
knowledge of the Archdiocese of Boston. By the time Cardinal Bernard Law got
around to having him defrocked in 1993, Geoghan had become the poster boy for
the priest-pedophilia scandal that racked every Catholic diocese in the United
States.
9/16: Terrorists Bomb Wall Street by
Lona Manning. (01/15/06)
Long before 9/11 became the date most identified with terrorism, New York's
Wall Street District suffered through a massive bombing on September 16,
1920 that shocked the world. Italian anarchists orchestrated the bombing
five days after Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were indicted on
charges of first-degree murder.
Why Jack Ruby Killed Lee Harvey Oswald by
Mel Ayton. (11/25/05)
Contrary to the
claims of conspiracy writers, Jack Ruby died telling the truth. There is no
credible evidence he was part of a conspiracy. Ruby murdered Oswald for
personal reasons – he wanted to show that ''Jews had guts''; he felt emotionally
distraught about the Kennedys, and he wanted to fulfil his life long dream of
becoming a real hero.
The Bridge at
Chappaquiddick by Mel Ayton.
(10/17/05)
Ted Kennedy's reckless driving led
directly to the accidental, but wrongful death of Mary Jo Kopechne. His
bewildered behavior in the minutes and immediate hours after the accident were
those of one badly injured and in a state of shock.
Turning Point by
Dennis N. Griffin.
(09/15/05)
The introduction
to Griffin's upcoming book entitled The Battle for Las Vegas — The Law vs.
the Mob. The book chronicles the wide-ranging, criminal exploits of Chicago
Outfit enforcer Tony Spilotro, the mobster portrayed by Joe Pesci in the movie
Casino, and law enforcement's belabored efforts to oust the Mafia from
Vegas. It is told in large part by the former FBI agents and detectives who
fought the war against Spilotro and his Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. The
book is scheduled for publication by Huntington Press in early 2006.
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.
Updated:
The
Shame of Lorain, Ohio by Lona Manning. (updated 06/11/05)
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.
Part I: The Robert Kennedy
Assassination: Unraveling the Conspiracy Theories and
Part II by
Mel Ayton.
(05/08/05 and 09/06/05)
A majority of U.S. citizens continue to believe that Robert Kennedy's
assassination was part of a larger conspiracy. The fact is that Sirhan Sirhan
acted alone. From the beginning, both Sirhan's lawyers and the U.S. media sought to portray
the assassination of Robert Kennedy as the act of a deranged individual bent on
seeking fame and notoriety. But Sirhan was a political assassin. He murdered
Kennedy to advance the cause of the Palestinians.
The Lynching of Leo Frank by
Denise Noe. (03/14/05)
Virulent
anti-Semitism led directly to the arrest, prosecution, conviction, and
lynching of the innocent, but Jewish, Leo Frank. Police and prosecutors
fabricated evidence to win a death by hanging verdict. When the governor of
Georgia commuted Frank's sentence to life in prison, a resurgent Klan mob
stormed the prison and re-imposed the original sentence.
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.
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.
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.
Richard Nixon's Greatest Cover-Up: His Ties
to the Assassination of President Kennedy by
Don Fulsom. (10/15/03)
Nixon's ties to the assassination of President Kennedy run deep, from his
association with Jack Ruby, his ties to Jimmy Hoffa and the Mafia, and his
connection to CIA operative E. Howard Hunt. On a tape recorded in Nixon's
White House office in 1972 he told two top aides that the Warren Commission
Report pulled off ''the greatest hoax that has ever been perpetuated.''
No one knew that better than he did.
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.
The
Execution Photos. 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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