Piecing Together the Story of an Oregon Serial Killer By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Finally telling the story of the women who were raped and murdered along Oregon’s Highway 20.
Longreads Best of 2018: Crime Reporting By Longreads Commentary We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in crime reporting.
Monopoly vs. the Magic Cape By Will Meyer Feature Trust busting is a great idea. But would it be enough?
No Justice For Old Men By Michelle Weber Highlight In 2018, we’re inured to stories of a powerful men taking advantage of girls and getting away with it, but Jeffrey Epstein’s story still manages to horrify.
The Rising Tide of Wrongful Convictions By Longreads Feature Wrongful convictions are not isolated events. They happen in every state. They happen multiple times a week. Here’s a breakdown of how and why the innocent are locked up in America.
Who Killed Canada’s Pharmaceutical Giants? By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight The investigation into the murder of two Canadian pharmaceutical giants remains inconclusive.
The Prank that Killed Andrew Finch By Krista Stevens Highlight How a malevolent, remorseless online troll and the shoot-first, ask questions later mode of policing added up to a real-life tragedy in Wichita Kansas.
It was Mr. Henthorn on the Cliff with a Swift Shove By Krista Stevens Highlight Oh, your first wife died in a freak accident too?
A New View of Crime in America By Longreads Feature What does incarceration do for the member of a family that views prison as a rite of passage? A New York Times reporter takes a close look at intergenerational criminality.
How the Border Patrol Threatens Civil Liberties Far from the Border By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight While ICE makes headlines, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency continues to detain and search American citizens far from the actual border, and it doesn’t need a warrant.
Vladimir Nabokov’s Other Favorite Crime By Sarah Weinman Feature While the Sally Horner case gave ‘Lolita’ its main character, the Edward Grammer case gave the book an almost perfect murder.
How MS-13 Targeted Latino Youths for Execution on Long Island By Krista Stevens Highlight ‘Too often, Suffolk detectives acknowledge, police have stereotyped young immigrants as gang members and minimized violence against them as “misdemeanor murder.”’
Sorry, But Drug-Induced Homicide Laws Aren’t Going to Solve Our Opioid Crisis By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Another ineffective technique has been added to the ineffective war on drugs: Drug-induced homicide charges.
An Accident Compounded By Injustice By Michelle Weber Highlight Wendell Lindsey, convicted of murdering his 10-year-old daughter in a fake drowning, has consistently maintained his innocence — and there’s a lot to suggest he’s telling the truth.
Russian Malware Is Really Killin’ It Lately By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight When Russia attacked Ukraine with sophicated malware in 2017, it caused over $10 billion dollars worth of damage and revealed the whole world’s vulnerabilities.
The Case of the Poisoned Calves By Catherine Cusick Highlight Someone poisoned eighteen of Buck Birdsong’s calves in the past four years. But who? And why?
So Long, and Thanks for All the Value Meals By Michelle Weber Highlight Sorry you never won a million dollars; hope you at least got a fresh batch of fries.
She’ll Be Everything He Isn’t By Michelle Weber Highlight An MRI sparked gymnast Selena Brennan’s interest in sports medicine, and Larry Nassar isn’t going to take that away from her.
Powerful On the Beam or Off By Michelle Weber Highlight Aly Raisman is a six-time Olympic medalist. She’s a survivor of abuse at the hands of Larry Nassar. And now, she’s an activist.
Redlining in the Lap Lane By Catherine Cusick Highlight An incident of police brutality in Texas highlights the ties between private pools, homeowners’ associations, and racist housing policies.
The Good Guys Aren’t Always the Good Guys By Michelle Weber Highlight “About 50 of the 800 women housed at Rosie’s at any one time are being sexually victimized by staff.”
Our Future Success Depends on Rocks from the Sky By Michelle Weber Highlight Steve Curry’s meteor-hunting hobby went from business to obsession to a connection with Cliven Bundy, and eventually landed him in jail after an armed standoff with law enforcement.
The Section 8 Cannabis Eviction Problem By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight Although many states legally allow the use of medical marijuana, federal law still prohibits its possession in federally subsidized housing, so many residents live in fear of eviction.
There Are Few Second Chances for Immigrants Who Commit Crimes By Aaron Gilbreath Highlight How America punishes immigrant criminals multiple times for the same crime and continues traumatizing them.
The Daughter as Detective By Alice Bolin Feature A bibliophile tries to understand her father through his favorite Swedish mystery books.
The Bungled Bank Robbery That Ended in a Landmark Legal Ruling By Longreads Feature In 1958, John Leo Brady got his lover pregnant and decided to stick up a bank to fund a new life. It ended with a murder, a Supreme Court case, and the formation of the Brady rule.
You’re Putting My Brain Where, Exactly? By Michelle Weber Highlight When you donate your body to science, you don’t get a whole lot of say over what happens to your parts.
Just Another Bugout Behind Bars By Michelle Weber Highlight How and when did prisons become one of the New York’s major providers of mental health care — and can we actually call it “care”?
When the Answers Wash Out with the Tide By Michelle Weber Highlight Police eventually figured out who killed Jaimee Mendez, but not how or why.
