Shots were also fired at the Village Shalom Retirement Center in Leawood. Both buildings are on lockdown. KC Star tweeted that there was one death on the scene, and at least one wounded. The two locations are about a 1.3 miles from each other. Update: Overland Park Police Chief not releasing name of suspect, only says he is a white male, in his 70s, has a […]
In The Company Of Misery: How I Became a Manchester City Supporter
This is an essay I wrote 7 years ago, which was published in an American newspaper. Yes, things have changed (most notably, the bank account of City), but the meat, marrow and meaning remains the same. Rivalry. No matter what the sport, I will hand over three hours if the two teams on the field are rivals, the fans in the stands sporting chewed-up […]
The Story of The Amateur Detectives Who Hunted Accused Kitten Killer Luka Magnotta–In Rolling Stone
My feature which chronicles the citizen detectives who tracked down a kitten killer turned accused murderer was just posted on Rolling Stone.
SXSW Driver Did Not “Crash Through Barricade” — He Drove In Between Barricade and Curb
First let me preface by saying nothing will take the blame off of the suspect in SXSW Red River vehicular murder which has claimed two lives, has eight still in the hospital, and injured 15 others. Nothing. But I wanted to clear up something that is being widely reported. The morning after the incident, I went down to the site and spoke to the […]
Solving Murders with Social Media SXSW Panel
Le Monde wrote it up in their daily round up. Scroll down, we are in between Oculus and Grumpy Cat. The slides will be up shortly. There was not a single law enforcement representative in the crowd of 125. Something to work on for next year’s panel.
LA Mag Johnny Lewis Feature in “Top 5 Longreads of the Week”
Thank you to the longreaders at Longreads for putting my LA Magazine feature The Secret Life of Johnny Lewis alongside bad-ass stories by Sonia Smith and Adam Penenberg (and Garrison Keeler’s ode to his hometown). I particularly like the fact that they tell you how long it will take to read the story–21 minutes. Please take at least 22 minutes, adding an extra minute to reflect. You can […]
Maura Murray Went Missing On This Day 10 Years Ago
On Feb. 9, 2004, Maura Murray sent her professors at UMASS Amherst an email explaining that there was a death in her family and she would be gone for a few days. The 21-year old nursing student then walked out of her dorm room, purchased $35 worth of alcohol and drove her black Saturn into the White Mountains of New Hampshire. She took a shaky […]
The Downward Spiral of Johnny Lewis: Feature in Los Angeles Magazine
My feature on Johnny Lewis, the Sons of Anarchy actor who killed his landlady and then either fell or jumped from her home last September, was just posted on the Los Angeles Magazine website. You can read the story here.
RJ Lockwood, Killed In Miami On New Year’s Eve, 2003
Today marks the tenth anniversary of the murder of RJ Lockwood, who was killed in his Miami apartment just after midnight on January 1, 2003. The murder is still unsolved. I wrote a feature story about the murder in May of 2004 for Miami New Times. It is part internet love story, part murder mystery. The only thing it needed was an ending. It […]
A Creature Was Stirring: The Christmas Eve Murder Of Brian Boothe

On Christmas Day 2002, Brian Boothe was found dead in his apartment in Stuyvesant Town, in Manhattan, victim of a knife wound to the neck. “Police sources” tagged it a suicide in several newspapers. Boothe’s brother Tommy had died by suicide. New York newspapers, and perhaps the police, connected those dots: A gay male spending Christmas Eve alone, whose brother had recently taken […]