The Flitcrafting of Sam SpadeSpade had no original. He is a dream man in the sense that he is what most of the private detectives I worked with would like to have been…Jan 23Jan 23
The Cowboy as Detective: Finding Charlie Siringo’s WestWhen Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid finally came to my boyhood mall, I saw it three times, wondering in the dark about the unnamed…Sep 5, 2023Sep 5, 2023
The Bizarre Story of the ‘Cowboy Mutiny’In 1902, Captain Robert Peattie was attacked aboard the Leicester Castle by a disgruntled sailor, who then killed the ship’s 2nd mate…Jul 6, 2023Jul 6, 2023
The Greatest Crime Magazine That Never Was: Remembering ‘The Big Clock’ and Its Crime-Solving…THERE IS A CERTAIN PUBLICATION I would gladly go to work for over most others. Not the hard-drinking Harold Hayes-era Esquire, or…Apr 19, 2019Apr 19, 2019
A Detective’s DetectiveInspired by reading Hammett, David Fechheimer became the consummate San Francisco detective. But his longest case was investigating the…Apr 9, 2019Apr 9, 2019
Isidore Zimmerman: The Man the System Couldn’t BreakAs a teenager, Izzy Zimmerman was framed for the 1937 murder of a Manhattan detective. Nearly electrocuted at Sing Sing, beaten almost to…Oct 18, 2018Oct 18, 2018
Elmore Leonard’s Gritty Westerns : Before Crime, Elmore Leonard Mastered the WesternOn a night in April 1957, the lean Western movie star Randolph Scott attended the Detroit premiere of his new film, The Tall T, based on a…May 16, 2018May 16, 2018
Confessions of the Outlaw: The Lazarus Life of Emmett DaltonCoffeyville, Kansas 1892Jan 30, 2018Jan 30, 2018
Mike Johnson’s Waterfront JungleHis brave reporting gave us the Kefauver crime hearings and Mob movies, especially Budd Schulberg’s masterpiece, On The Waterfront.Dec 21, 2017Dec 21, 2017