Can Fitbit data help to convict the alleged perpetrator of a brutal murder?
Crime
How a Hurricane’s Trailing Winds Retold Willie Earle’s 1947 Mass Lynching
“Even with a preponderance of evidence and testimonies, every man on trial got away with murder. This fact was not front-page news but tucked beneath odd stories called ‘Flashes of Life.'”
‘What’s this guy doing loose in Malheur County?’
He faked an insanity defense, got out, and immediately committed another crime, and this time people are dead. He’s going to plead insanity again.
“What Do I Know To Be True?”: Emma Copley Eisenberg on Truth in Nonfiction, Writing Trauma, and The Dead Girl Newsroom
“We were interested in dead girls, but so interested in them that we were trying to do the opposite of what had been done before.”
Searching For Mackie
Seven years ago, a young woman from Tache, British Columbia, went out for the evening and never came back. Her family won’t stop looking for her, and they deserve answers.
How the US Spied on Allies and Adversaries Alike
The “United States and its allies exploited other nations’ gullibility for years, taking their money and stealing their secrets.”
Why the 9/11 Families May Never Get Closure
LSS: Because Trump wants to be pals with Saudi crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman.
How Bagel Makers’ Union Local 338 Beat NYC’s “Kosher Nostra”
‘“A bagel,” the newspaper of record explained in 1960, “is an unsweetened doughnut with rigor mortis.”’
They Were Extortionists and the Calls Came from Inside the Prison
“At least 442 service members across almost every branch of the armed forces had been conned—by prisoners—out of a total of more than half a million dollars.”
Longreads Best of 2019: Crime Reporting
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year. Here is the best in crime reporting.
