At 5:45am on October 21, an ex-con named Benjamin Frazier was trying to get into Drai’s After Hours club inside Bally’s Hotel and Casino. He reportedly objected to the $30 cover charge, and allegedly pulled out a gun and shot two security guards. He then walked through the lobby of the club, pistol in hand, seemingly ready to shoot again.   Kenneth “KD” Brown, […]

The New York Post tells a tale this morning of a man who was reading a comment string on facebook about a bagel shop closing and recognized the name of the man he mugged on the steps of the Museum of Natural History in NYC three decades ago.   The exchange went like this:     “@ Claude soffel, You may not remember this (about ’76 […]

When I was little, my father gave me a list of Lincoln – Kennedy Coincidences. It was printed on crinkly paper meant to look and feel like parchment. The Historical Documents Company makes a lot of these, from The Wanted Poster For Billy The Kid to The Raven By Edgar Allen Poe in his own handwriting. I always liked the feel of them and the […]

  Walk past the newspaper stand at your local supermarket this month and you might see bold broadsheet with the headline “Kennedy Slain On Dallas Street.”   Gannet has reproduced the Nov. 23, 1963 issue of the Dallas Morning News in its –advertisements, sports section, fashion columns and all. You can read many of the articles online in one form or another, but seeing how the […]

There are no empty beer cans or cigarette butts that can guide you to his grave. No crowds. No security guard. No graffiti on the neighboring headstones. Walk past Fishman and Waldman in Section One-4 of Beth David cemetery in Elmont until you reach a small bush with those little red berries that our moms all told us were poison when we were kids. Look down and you’ll see […]

  I went to junior high school with Lee Harvey Oswald. He was a schmuck.   Doesn’t matter that he died nine years before I was born. We all went to junior high school with Lee Harvey Oswald—a confused, disenfranchised little schmuck who would grow up to be mad at the world and not amount to much at all. But every schmuck has his day. […]

  I published this story in 2006 when I was editor of the Boston Phoenix. I recently went back to Boston and walked to the site where pieces of Karina Holmer’s body were dumped. With all of the new buildings going up around the Fens, the area is still intact. The alley behind the building is also the same: the Mass Pike below still humming, […]

Our panel, Citizen Dicks: Solving Murders With Social Media, has been accepted for SXSW Interactive 2014.   From the wanted poster to reddit, citizens have been used to solve crimes and catch fiends. Expect examples of how normal citizens are using digital to help track down murders, find missing people, and solve crimes–along with what is sure to be a raucous debate.   We are part of […]

This summer, Jared Barris, the grandson of Batmobile creator George Barris, unveiled the Ford F-150 Crimefighter at San Diego Comic-con. Tuxedo black with Ferrari red striping and tail fins, the Crimefighter looks like a Bat truck, but unfortunately does not have a Bat Computer or other high tech advancements to help fight crime. Enter the Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer. On the outside, the British car […]

Australian director Matthew Bate has created an excellent short film that combines animation, still photos, found videos, and interviews to try to answer the question of why you see shoes hanging from powerlines. He gets answers from across the globe, ranging from sex and death to religion and drugs. The Mystery of Flying Kicks from Closer Productions on Vimeo.