“If you could put your own crew together and rob the biggest drug dealer you know, who would that drug dealer be?”

Everything I had going against me he had going for him. Us young Black dudes who were slanging were hated, hunted and haunted for our role in the drug war. He was praised and honored and rewarded with overtime.

Ignoring warning signs of misconduct, Baltimore Police praised — and promoted — a Gun Trace Task Force leader.

How order collapsed in an American city.

In America’s deadliest big city, the task of announcing each new murder falls to police spokesman T. J. Smith. One year ago, he confronted a killing like no other.

Inside one of America’s most corrupt police squads.

“GOD Almighty, you can get killed in Baltimore—for no reason at all.”

Davon Mayer was a smalltime dealer in west Baltimore who made an illicit deal with local police. Then they turned on him.

A new breed of real estate investor is destroying America’s cities.

Baltimore’s state’s attorney gambled that prosecuting six officers for the death of Freddie Gray would help heal her city. She lost much more than just the case.

A wandering food writer goes home.

Uncovering Baltimore’s secret aerial surveillance program.

Behind the character Ursula in The Little Mermaid was a legendary drag queen from Baltimore named Divine.

How an entire industry built itself convincing lead-paint poisoning victims to sign over settlement payments for a fraction of what they’re worth.

A journalist’s memories of covering the great Baltimore fire of 1904.

An account of Chinese residents in a future, dystopian city once known as Baltimore; excerpted from Lee's latest novel.

"Maybe Charters can easily forget what it's like out there, but we B-Mors and others in similar settlements should be aware of the possibilities. We shouldn't take for granted the security and comfort of our neighborhoods, we shouldn't think that always leaving our windows open and our doors unlocked means that we're beyond an encroachment. We may believe our gates are insurmountable and that we're armored by routines, but can't we be touched by chance or fate, plucked up like a mouse foraging along his well-worn trail? Before you know it, you're looking down at the last faint print of your claws in the dirt."

Learning of a plot against the life of the newly elected Lincoln, Alan Pinkerton decamps to Baltimore and infiltrates the conspiracy.

Is Bryan Saunders a drug-inspired outsider genius, or just in need of intervention?

Karen Holloman opened the door of her uncle's apartment with his best friend, Larry Young, a step behind. As they edged inside, she looked to her left and saw the end of her uncle's bed and his motionless feet. "He's been in here asleep all along," Holloman muttered, for a moment annoyed at the worry he had caused by not answering his phone. Her anger froze as she entered his room: The Rev. Marvin Moore lay dead in his bed, a bullet hole through the back of his head, a pool of blood gathered beneath his limp arm.

On the rise of witness intimidation in Baltimore.

The first entry in the City by City project, on a Baltimore funeral:

My homeboy is interred at a cemetery with a swan lake where we used to take our girls at night because it was a park with a lake and it was just over the line and in the county.

An interview with David Simon, creator of The Wire.

An 18-month investigation proves reveals how easy it is to get away with murder in Baltimore.

When the Feds sought the death penalty for four African-American drug dealers in Baltimore, the accused found a defense in the unlikeliest of places: the legal theories of white supremacists.