Investigative Reporting
New:
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.
New:
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.
Updated: Manhunt Case Closed by
Hal Mansfield. (Updated
6/20/07)
The great Southwest manhunt of 1998 came to a quiet close on June 10, 2007.
New:
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 Fall of the Cali Cartel by
Ron Chepesiuk
(10/21/2006).
The
sentencing of Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela brought down the world's
most successful drug cartel, but did little if anything to halt the flow of
drugs to the United States.
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.
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 Labs That Made It Snow by
Ron Chepesiuk. (06/15/03)
This is the prologue to the upcoming book
The Bullet or the
Bribe: Taking Down Colombia's Cali Drug Cartel by Ron Chepesiuk, the story
of the rise of the powerful Cali Cartel and the long and often frustrating
campaign that U.S. and international law enforcement waged to take it down. The
book details the cartel’s rise to international prominence and the lifestyles of
its godfathers, its efforts to buy Colombia, its death struggle with legendary
Colombian drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, its brilliant strategy to portray
itself as the kinder, gentler drug cartel from Colombia, and the mistakes that
ultimately led to the crumbling of its well-oiled organization. The book will be
published by Praeger, a member of the Greenwood Publishing Group,
in the fall of 2003.
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.
Part
One: The Mysterious Death of CIA Scientist Frank Olson by H. P. Albarelli
Jr.
(12/14/02)
When CIA Scientist Frank Olson plunged to his death from the 10th floor of a New York hotel in 1953, his death was ruled a suicide. Twenty-two years later a special Presidential Commission investigating the CIA's development of potent drugs for use in biological warfare and assassinations revealed shocking new details about Olson’s death. In 1996 Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau opened a new investigation into Olson’s death based on startling discoveries uncovered by forensic sleuth James Starrs that put to lie the CIA’s version of how Olson died.
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.
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 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.
The Sodom and Gomorrah of the Midwest
by Ronald J. Lawrence. Rising from the hills of the
Ozarks in south central Missouri, Saint Robert, a hamlet of 1,500 residents, had
the appearance of a prototypical small town in rural America. But looks can be
deceiving. With the Army’s sprawling training center at Fort Leonard Wood
nearby, Saint Robert was home to hundreds of prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers,
gamblers, corrupt politicians, organized crime and hit men. And it liked it that
way.
The Beauty of White-Collar Crime: Do the Crime
Not Much Time by Ronald J. Lawrence. Could a
Midwestern resort town with a struggling economy be bamboozled out of $25
million by a chain-smoking, fancy-dressing New Yorker? Yes. So how much time did
this flimflam man get? Six
months.
Murder For Hire by Ronald
J. Lawrence. Lawyers don’t always confine their differences to the
courtroom. Attorney Joseph Langworthy’s murder was a cold-blooded execution
paid for by an attorney so well connected that the chief of police "lost" all
the evidence in the case for over a year.
Part I of the Leisure Wars: A Reason to Die
by Ronald J. Lawrence. Sonny Spica, the rash
protégé of St. Louis Outfit boss Tony Giordano, was a marked man. Nick Civella
in Kansas City wanted him dead and so did Ray Flynn, the most violent labor
racketeer in St. Louis. The car bomb that killed Spica in 1979 ignited St. Louis’
infamous "Leisure Wars."
Part
II of the Leisure War: The Killing Fields by Ronald
J. Lawrence. Paulie Leisure wanted to control St. Louis’ underworld and he
was prepared to kill anyone who stood in his way. In using car bombs to take out
Tony Giordano protégé Sonny Spica and then Jimmy Michaels, the venerable head
of the Syrian-Lebanese faction, he touched off a bloodbath known as the
"Leisure War."
The
Brother Who Fleeced His Flock by J.
Patrick O’Connor. For years, the Catholic brother in charge of a Kansas
City home for developmentally disabled men had embezzled his way to a fortune.
When the board of directors found out, its cover-up – with the help of The
Kansas City Star – was as bold as the theft.
Murder by Mistake by Ronald J.
Lawrence. The car
bomb that killed Philip J. Lucier – the president of the Continental Telephone
Co. and the father of 11 children – was meant for an attorney whose clients
had swindled a minor New Orleans Mafioso. The FBI misread and mishandled the
case from the beginning. Subsequent federal investigations never produced a
single indictment. Now, 30 yeas later, it seems certain no one will ever be
charged in Lucier’s tragic death.
Stoneking
by Ronald J. Lawrence. Before Jimmy Fratianno made ratting out mob bosses
fashionable, Jesse Stoneking’s testimony against St. Louis mob figures was the
most damaging ever heard in a courtroom. It helped send more than 30 gangsters
to prison. Stoneking was a respected and feared wise guy, a lieutenant to St.
Louis Outfit boss Art Berne and an accomplished thief. When Stoneking was packed
off to prison in 1981, Berne failed to take care of Stoneking’s family as
promised. That disloyalty quickly turned Stoneking into an FBI informant.
Randy
Kraft: The Southern California Strangler by J. J. Maloney. The reporter who
coined the phrase "Freeway Killer," sets the record straight about why
serial-killer Randy Kraft should not be confused with William Bonin.
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.
The
Man Who Got Away by J.J. Maloney. The story of
Albert Bradford, a talented and charismatic man who went to prison at the age of
17 with three life sentences for rape, transformed himself into an artist of
note and a leader of men -- then committed his most heinous crime of all and
beat the system.
In The
Wake of a Riot by J.J.
Maloney, is the story of the disastrous 1954 riot that leveled much of
the Missouri State Penitentiary, leaving four convicts dead and 30 wounded. One of
the dead convicts was a police informer and seven convicts were convicted of his murder.
The seven men claimed to have been tortured into confessing to the murder.
Mark M. Hennelly, a legendary St. Louis defense attorney fought for 29 years at his own
expense because he believed his client to be innocent.
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 Freeway Killer
is an examination of not only the notorious murders committed by William Bonin,
but the role the media played in the case. Written by J.J. Maloney who, as
a reporter for the Orange County Register, first coined the term "Freeway
Killer".
River
Quay by J.J. Maloney,
is the story of the Kansas City Mafia's attempt to take over a major
entertainment area in Kansas City in the mid-1970s - an effort that included
bombings, arsons, extortion, and a large number of murders. Maloney was an
investigative reporter for the Kansas City Star during that period, and
provided most of the newspaper's coverage of the Mafia.
Updated:
To Live And Die In Belton U.S.A.,
by J.J. Maloney, is the story of Jeffrey Gardner,
a young man sentenced to prison for shooting an abusive husband who was
threatening his wife with a knife. After the printing of
this story, the Missouri Court of Appeals,
Western District, on March 2, 1999, overturned the conviction of Gardner -- who
was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the shooting. Gardner was a boarder in the couple's
home at the time of the shooting. On Dec. 7, 1999, the Missouri Supreme Court
did overturn the appellate court opinion. Gardner is serving his sentence at the
state penitentiary in Jefferson City, Mo. Click here to read the Missouri
Supreme Court decision. Additional update 12/19/2007.
