The Perfect Fire
It started with a candle in an abandoned warehouse. It ended with temperatures above 3,000 degrees and the men of the Worcester Fire Department in a fight for their lives.
It started with a candle in an abandoned warehouse. It ended with temperatures above 3,000 degrees and the men of the Worcester Fire Department in a fight for their lives.
Sean Flynn Esquire Jul 2000 1h Permalink
Serial arson in rural Virginia: a love story.
Monica Hesse Washington Post Apr 2014 30min Permalink
The arson case that may have led Texas to execute an innocent man.
David Grann New Yorker Sep 2009 1h5min Permalink
After flames engulfed an Atlanta highway last year, police arrested Basil Eleby for arson. The fire could have destroyed his life. Instead, it may have saved it.
Max Blau Atlanta Magazine Nov 2018 20min Permalink
Thomas Sweatt torched D.C. for decades and was finally jailed for killing one person. During a year-long correspondence from prison with a reporter, he confessed there were more.
Dave Jamieson Washington City Paper Jun 2007 50min Permalink
A murder, a missing deer head, and a Mr. Big sting.
Jana G. Pruden The Globe and Mail Oct 2018 30min Permalink
A rash of building fires in San Francisco has many speculating that the fault lies with landlords hoping to oust their poor tenants. One anonymous landlord describes his failed plan to do exactly that.
Jon Ronson GQ Jun 2017 20min Permalink
Ira Tobolowsky, a prominent lawyer, was burned alive in his North Dallas garage. A strong suspect quickly emerged. So why can’t the cops solve the case?
Jamie Thompson D Magazine May 2017 30min Permalink
A small town upstate, a Queens ambulance veteran, and a murder
Nina Burleigh New York Times Apr 2014 20min Permalink
An Italian town plagued by mysterious fires turns to science, the church, and the law in a search for answers.
The Atavist Magazine Nov 2016 45min Permalink
On Lucille Miller, who in San Bernadino in 1964 was convicted of burning her husband to death in his Volkswagen.
Joan Didion Saturday Evening Post Apr 1966 30min Permalink
The tale of the first conviction overturned on faulty arson science.
Jeremy Stahl Slate Aug 2015 1h10min Permalink
The flawed science that helped convict a Tennessee man of murder.
Liliana Segura The Intercept Feb 2015 45min Permalink
In 2004, Cameron Todd Willingham was executed for starting a fire that killed his three daughters. The case hinged on the testimony of a jailhouse informant named Johnny E. Webb. Today, Webb says he lied.
Maurice Possley The Marshall Project Aug 2014 20min Permalink
From prison, a member of the Earth Liberation Front tells her story.
McKenzie Funk Outside Aug 2007 20min Permalink
For 18 months, Coatesville, Penn., was besieged with an improbable number of arsons. But who started the fires – and why?
Matthew Teague Philadelphia Magazine Jan 2010 20min Permalink
Early last year, 10 churches were torched in East Texas. The culprits? Two Baptist teens having a crisis of faith.
Pamela Colloff Texas Monthly May 2011 30min Permalink