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Sections

Crime

Arts Crime

A 20th-Century Master Scam

How a London con man turned a struggling painter into a master forger, sold more than 200 fakes, and exposed the art industry as its own worst enemy.

Peter Landesman New York Times Magazine Jul 1999 30min Permalink

Crime World

The Murderers of Mexico

The narcocorrido-immortalized Pacific coast traditionalists, the kidnap-crazed Gulf coast Zetas, and massacres that no longer seem tied to a discernible purpose; inside the ruins of the Mexican-American border.

Alma Guillermoprieto New York Review of Books Oct 2010 20min Permalink

Crime Sports World

The Death of a Pitcher

The story of a young man killed in Juarez.

Eric Nusbaum Pitchers and Poets Mar 2009 Permalink

Crime

Bringing Down the Dogmen

A pair of undercover cops infiltrate a dogfighting ring in Houston.

Skip Hollandsworth Texas Monthly Aug 2009 25min Permalink

Crime History

Welcome to the Monkey House

In 1906, Enrico Caruso was arrested for molesting a young woman inside the Monkey House of Central Park Zoo, paving the way for the first celebrity trial of the 20th century.

David Suisman The Believer Jun 2004 15min Permalink

Business Crime

Fast Money, Secret Lives

In an elaborate FBI sting to expose corruption, four agents pose as futures traders in Chicago. The plan works–if you don’t count the hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars the agents lost in the process.

Eric N. Berg New York Times Jan 1989 10min Permalink

Crime World

In the City of Death

In Torreón, north of Mexico City, cartel gunmen are freed from a prison, commit a massacre at a wedding that includes the band, and then return to custody.

Rory Carroll The Guardian Sep 2010 10min Permalink

Business Crime

The Follieri Charade

Raffaello Follieri was young, handsome. He was Italian. He was dating Anne Hathaway, hobnobbing with Bill Clinton, and using contacts at the Vatican to launch a lucrative business in the States. Then he was in jail.

Michael Shnayerson Vanity Fair Oct 2008 40min Permalink

Crime World

The Chessboard Killer

Russian serial killer Alexander Pichushkin was so prolific that even he doesn’t know how many he killed.

Peter Savodnik GQ May 2009 Permalink

Crime

The Trials of "Dr. Sam"

A Wikipedia-style dissection of the case that inspired The Fugitive. The accused, Dr. Sam Sheppard, claimed to have struggled with an intruder before being knocked out and dumped on a beach, his wife’s left corpse in their house.

Denise Noe Crime Magazine Jun 2010 Permalink

Best Article Crime

Innocence Lost

In 1992, Anthony Graves was arrested for brutally murdering a family in the middle of night. He had no motive. There was no physical evidence. The only witness recanted. And yet Graves remains behind bars.

Pamela Colloff Texas Monthly Apr 2011 55min Permalink

Best Article Crime

The Inkjet Counterfeiter

Albert Talton started with some recycled newsprint and a cheap printer from Staples. By the end, he’d put more than $7 million into circulation.

Adam Higginbotham Wired (UK) Oct 2009 10min Permalink

Crime

The Interrogation of Detainee 063

A classified Guantánamo Bay interrogation log reveals the techniques used on Mohammed al-Qahtani, the so-called 20th 9/11 hijacker.

- Time Jun 2005 Permalink

Crime

My Favorite Teacher

Mr. Lindall was the only high school teacher who understood him. Then Mr. Lindall went to jail, and it was his turn to try to understand.

Robert Kurson Esquire Mar 2000 Permalink

Crime

The Headmistress and the Diet Doctor

The night the doctor behind the Scarsdale Diet was shot by his mistress, the impeccable headmistress of the elite all-girls boarding school Madeira.

Anthony Haden-Guest New York Mar 1980 20min Permalink

Crime World

Russia's Spam King

The unsolved killing of Russia’s most notorious spammer.

Brett Forrest Wired Aug 2006 10min Permalink

Best Article Crime

Nightmare on Elwood Avenue

A Barclays analyst leaves for a routine laser treatment and is never heard from again. Ten months later, authorities find her body under a concrete slab at the house of her doctor, who was in fact not a doctor at all.

Bryan Burrough Vanity Fair Jun 2004 30min Permalink

Best Article Crime

Guarding Sing Sing

A firsthand account of prison’s dysfunctional relationships. The writer wasn’t able to gain access through official channels, so he completed guard training and took a job as a Sing Sing corrections officer.

Ted Conover New Yorker Apr 2000 40min Permalink

Arts Crime

The Lies of Laura Albert, a.k.a. JT LeRoy

For nearly a decade, Laura Albert lived a double life as troubled teen turned cult writer J.T. Leroy, writing books, chatting constantly with celebrities, and convincing another woman to appear as J.T. Leroy in public.

Nancy Rommelmann LA Weekly Feb 2008 35min Permalink

Best Article Crime

The Silver Thief

After two New Jersey homes were robbed of their silver—only their silver—in the same night, the local police got a call from a detective in Greenwich, Connecticut. “I know the guy who’s doing your burglaries.”

Stephen J. Dubner New Yorker May 2004 35min Permalink

Crime

Poor Little Rich Girls

Two sisters, heirs to the Bronfman fortune, may have blown $100 million supporting the cult-like group NXIVM.

Moe Tkacik The New York Observer Aug 2010 Permalink

Arts Crime Movies & TV

Jukeboxes on the Moon

Slumdog Millionaire, the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and the arrival of “New India” in the American imagination.

Rafil Kroll-Zaidi Triple Canopy Jul 2010 Permalink

Crime Politics World

The War for Drugs

How Juarez became the murder capital of the world.

Sarah Hill Boston Review Jul 2010 Permalink

Crime

Prison Without Walls

Is letting convicts roam free under electronic surveillance better than putting them behind bars?

Graeme Wood The Atlantic Aug 2010 10min Permalink

Arts Crime

Stealing Mona Lisa

Was the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre actually a smokescreen to obscure an even more audacious art crime?

Dorothy Hoobler, Thomas Hoobler Vanity Fair May 2009 25min Permalink

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