AltWeeklies Wire
Megan's Flaw: When a Sexual Predator Isn't One in the Eyes of the Lawnew
Two and a half years after Derrick Cook almost killed Katrina Mansfield, she sits quietly in a courtroom, alone, awaiting what the justice system considers fair trade for what she calls her life sentence. By any reasonable definition, Cook is a violent sexual predator—except, after a drawn-out and botched hearing to determine the status, in the eyes of the law.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Tara Murtha |
05-25-2011 |
Crime & Justice
Man Seeks Answers 44 Years After Witnessing Brother's Deathnew
Charles Stecker was only 4 years old when he saw his foster mother kill his 2-year-old brother Eddie, but he remembers it like it was yesterday.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Tara Murtha |
05-11-2011 |
Crime & Justice
For Americans in the Sex Trade, Still Little Hopenew
Want to know how much sex with a teenager costs? Just ask Mimi. It cost her everything.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Tara Murtha |
02-09-2011 |
Crime & Justice
Tags: Prostitution, Trafficking
A Snitch in Time: A Philly Gunshot Victim Defies the Inner-City Code of Silencenew
It's been five months since Maurice Ragland testified against the man he says shot him. In doing so, he broke the cardinal rule of the Philadelphia streets -- Do Not Snitch. That he survived his wounds is amazing enough, but that he testified is just as amazing.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Mike Newall |
10-19-2009 |
Crime & Justice
Peggy Reber: Cold Casenew
A grand jury looks for a killer but only finds more villains in the 1968 Peggy Reber murder.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Kevin Uhrich and Martha Shaak |
08-19-2009 |
Crime & Justice
Tags: Peggy Reber, cold cases
A Small Town Revisits the Grisly Torture and Slaying Case of a Teenage Girlnew
Cliff Roland, who was chief of detectives with the Lebanon Police Department in 1968, believes Morris Purcell may have been involved in the Peggy Reber slaying. But if he was involved, Roland says, he wasn't the only one.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Martha Shaak and Kevin Uhrich |
08-19-2009 |
Crime & Justice
Justice Is Curbed in the Peggy Reber Casenew
Will a conflict of interest keep a small town from reaching closure on a 40-year-old murder mystery?
Philadelphia Weekly |
Kevin Uhrich and Martha Shaak |
12-17-2008 |
Crime & Justice
No Second Chances for These Locked-Up Kidsnew
Why does Pennsylvania lead the nation in juvenile lifers?
Philadelphia Weekly |
Jamaal Abdul-Alim |
09-29-2008 |
Crime & Justice
Was Peggy Reber Pregnant When She Was Murdered?new
Forty years after her death, Lebanon's DA exhumes the body of the slain 14-year-old.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Kevin Uhrich and Martha Shaak |
05-07-2008 |
Crime & Justice
Two Young Filmmakers Document Philly's Crime Epidemicnew
"By the Numbers," a new public service announcement by filmmakers Alec Sutherland and Todd DosSantos and a local organization called the Anti-Violence Partnership, is just a minute long, but it's well worth watching.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Tasneem Paghdiwala |
04-14-2008 |
Crime & Justice
Forty Years After Her Murder, Peggy Reber May be Exhumednew
Authorities are considering exhuming the body of Margaret Lynn "Peggy" Reber, a teenager whose sadistic torture and murder nearly 40 years ago remains unsolved. However, the exhumation was just one of a number of recent dramatic twists in the more than two-year reinvestigation by local police.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Kevin Uhrich and Martha Shaak |
04-11-2008 |
Crime & Justice
Tags: Peggy Reber, crime & justice
A Confession Comes in the Murder of a Young Army Vetnew
Police are close to solving the murder of Gwen Harvey's son L'Salle.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Frank Rubino |
02-11-2008 |
Crime & Justice
Tags: crime & justice
Pennsylvania's Death Row Inmates Have Cause for Hopenew
Developments in neighboring New Jersey and nationwide have those on death row hoping for the best.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Frank Rubino |
01-22-2008 |
Crime & Justice
Tags: crime & justice
Death in the House of Broken Heartsnew
A small Pennsylvania town revisits the grisly four-decade-old torture and slaying case of a teenage girl.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Martha Shaak and Kevin Uhrich |
01-22-2008 |
Crime & Justice
Tags: crime & justice
New Police Chief's Record is Worrisomenew
I covered D.C. police and courts when Charles Ramsey was in charge, and he seemed to have one way of doing things. If there was a high-profile appearance, a high-profile disappearance or any action at all in well-developed parts of Northwest Washington, he brought a flood of blue and white. But if there was a stabbing, a shooting or a beating in the neighborhoods, he hardly changed a thing.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Jonathan York |
01-02-2008 |
Crime & Justice
Tags: crime & justice
