Category Archives: Crime
Guns in Classrooms
I arrive late to a packed board meeting of the Arid School District in your community and have to join others pressed against the wall and already listening to speakers address the five popularly-elected trustees of the school board who sit behind a long desk on the dais. “Guns are inherently offensive, not defensive,” says […]
Also posted in Bakersfield, Education, Guns, Murder
The Sweater
This story is now in the collection “Tales of Romance”
Money in the Bank
There aren’t any good jobs in L.A., and I’m sick of work anyway. I don’t even want to sell drugs anymore. I’ve got a better plan. Two friends and I are going to knock off a bank in Bakersfield. It would be too tough in L.A. In Bakersfield we’re dealing with hicks. I figure we […]
Also posted in Bakersfield, Banks, Los Angeles, Theft
The Derringer
“I’m sorry to say, Mr. Jones, that we can’t hire you.” “Why? I’m an excellent candidate. Look at my history of selling heavy equipment. Have you checked my references and letters of recommendation?” “We have, but those factors have been overridden by a problem.” “What problem?” “You lied to us.” “I did not.” “According to […]
Violent Virgin Islands
Worn by cold weather and eternal gray days I leave Des Moines and move to the Virgin Islands where a friend from college tells me the weather’s always great except for high humidity and occasional hurricanes. I don’t worry much about climate. I just do what locals do. I like the Virgin Islands but better […]
Also posted in Detroit, El Salvador, Guns, Honduras, Murder, New Orleans, Virgin Islands
Louie in Transition
I didn’t start out well, throwing a paperweight at my principal in second grade. Next year half the kids on the playground chased me for stealing a little girl’s necklace. I didn’t mind. I liked to fight. So did many kids in my neighborhood. A guy stabbed me when I was fourteen. I also fought […]
Also posted in Assault, Juvenile Crime
Jail for Juvenile Felons
There’s a pretty picture on the postcard: San Francisco Bay provides a serene, blue backdrop for a hill with a group of shining buildings on it. The writing on the other side acknowledges the setting’s superficial beauty but offers a warning: San Quentin prison may look good on a postcard but is not a nice […]
Also posted in Juvenile Crime, Murder, Prisons, Rape, Sacramento, San Quentin, Theft
Senior Scams
Don’t think thieves have no conscience. Some of us feel quite guilty, even before capture. Thankfully, I think I’ve outgrown my unacceptable tendencies; serving two stints in prison and turning seventy make a man mellow and empathetic. Today I’m just one of about fifty aging residents of Paradise Homes who’ve gathered in the community center […]
Also posted in Aging, Poetry - GTC, Theft
Airport Taxi
Mark didn’t like late night arrivals at any airport especially in Mexico City where some people get hyper when they see a gringo. He should’ve been ready when a young man rushed up and in Spanish said, “Here, Señor, come with me.” “Where?” “To a place with no lines and low taxi fares.” “Taxis are […]
Also posted in Economics, Kidnapping, Mexico, Mexico City, Poverty
Bakersfield Number One
Bring out the beer, boys, Bakersfield’s number one again. You see the report? We got the highest rate of auto theft in the United States. My buggy was ripped off last month. I love it. We also got the dirtiest air in the country. And as more of our teenage girls get knocked up we […]
Also posted in Bakersfield, Education, Environment
Shorty Belton
Bombs, bullets, bayonets, and insanity dominate island Okinawa in spring 1945 as American soldiers kill hundred thousand Japanese soldiers who kill and wound sixty-five thousand Americans, and both slaughter thousands of natives. Someone shoots Shorty Belton in leg. He’s lucky, surviving in relative good health, and returns to Spokane where he marries, raises family, works […]
Also posted in Murder, Prisons, Short Pieces - GTC, World War II
Night Court
This story is from the collection “Paint it Blue”
Also posted in Art, Economics, Great Depression, Painters, Phil Paradise, Poverty
House Arrest
This story appears in the collection “In Other Hands”
Also posted in Kidnapping, Sex, Short Pieces - GTC
Lady Driver
This story is now in the collection “The Bold Investor”
Also posted in Murder, Rape, Sex, Short Pieces - GTC
Bag in Stall
In a crowded holiday airport he long waited for a stall and was thanking god when, fast as he blinked, a hand reached under the door and yanked his bag.
Also posted in Airports, Short Pieces - GTC, Theft, Travel
Crime Scene
going to drive by house down street want to come what house said wife where those three people were shot last night that’s disgusting
Also posted in Marriage, Murder, Poetry - GTC
President Chapo Guzman
Come on. Admit it. You keep having to Google “new Mexican president” because you can’t remember Enrique Pena Nieto. He’s handsome but like generic model and smooth but so’s oily auto part. You know he represents old guard PRI that ruled dictatorially for decades, spoon feeding wealthy while ignoring poor. Trust me, Enrique Pena Nieto […]
Also posted in Chapo Guzman, Cocaine, Drugs, Enrique Pena Nieto, Methamphetamine, Mexico, Murder
Enforcement
money men who rage against crime appreciate stylish new gallows on wall street
Also posted in Capital Punishment, Economics, Employment, Poetry - GTC, Poverty, Wall Street
Travel Advice
Avoid crowded and dangerous Mexico City, stay way from torrid beaches, ignore over-hyped pyramids, and forget boring cathedrals. Instead, come to San Juan in infernal yet enchanting Nuevo León. Here you’ll meet friendly and forthright people. Don’t worry about forty-nine headless corpses on highway under welcoming white arch. Everything’s been cleaned up, and narcotics traffickers […]
Also posted in Drugs, Mexico, Mexico City, Murder, Short Pieces - GTC
Mexican Journalists Murdered
routine news three mexican journalists found maimed in plastic bags week after female reporter strangled at home
Also posted in Drugs, Mexico, Poetry - GTC
Both Barrels
everyone now armed in public new law mandates good citizens carry second gun
Also posted in Guns, Murder, Poetry - GTC
Norwegian Fascist Salute
norwegian anti muslim anders breivik sieg heils in court to commemorate blowing up eight and shooting several dozen kids next time anders breivik sieg heils court orders fascist arm amputated and used as club
Also posted in Conservatives, Mental Health, Murder, Nazis, Norway, Poetry - GTC, Religion
Mass Murder in Mexico
Hasn’t been much new in search engines about discovery of hundred seventy-seven corpses near San Fernando, Mexico. Occasional reports reminded just eighty miles south of border Mexican authorities ignored mountain of unclaimed luggage in bus depot before finally digging holes and discovering mummified Central Americans and Mexicans who’d headed north to work. Some had been […]
Also posted in Agriculture, Drugs, Google, Mexico, Short Pieces - GTC
Crime Scene
man handcuffed chest down on floor head other side of room
Also posted in Murder, Poetry - GTC
Remembering Mass Murder in San Fernando, Mexico
There hasn’t been much new news in search engines about the discovery one year ago of a hundred seventy-seven corpses near San Fernando, Mexico. Occasional reports merely reminded that just eighty miles south of Brownsville, Texas, Mexican authorities ignored a mountain of unclaimed luggage in a bus depot before finally digging holes and discovering mummified […]
Also posted in Agriculture, Drugs, Google, Mexico, Poetry - GTC
Teddy Bear
mommy and daddy had rooms full of smelly chemicals rotting teeth and making act crazy and now at night i don’t even have my teddy bear cuz police said it’s contaminated Source – Performing Arts Christmas Extravaganza in Tehachapi, December 17, 2011. To read “Wired in Bed,” please click here
Also posted in Drugs, Mental Health, Methamphetamine, Poetry - GTC
Criminal Justice in Islam
In blighted but affordable east Bakersfield old bank transformed into new mosque hosts annual Islamic Conference where keynote speaker Main Al-Qudah, PhD in Islamic law and imam at large mosque in Houston, steps to podium. He’s slim, stern, middle-aged, dressed in suit and tie, and resembles prosecutor as power points to screen bearing principles of […]
Also posted in Alcohol, Bakersfield, Drugs, Islam, Jordan, Main Al-Qudah, Marriage, Middle East, Rape, Religion, Saudi Arabia
Son of John Gotti
I hereby celebrate avoiding every commercial during the Super Bowl between the wildcard Green Bay Packers and the hardscrabble Pittsburgh Steelers. I didn’t have to dodge any pitches during the first third of the game since I overslept as I battled sinusitis. Joining the showdown with the Pack leading fourteen to three, I thereafter held […]
Also posted in 60 Minutes, Advertisements, Commercials, John Gotti, John Travolta, Kidnapping, Media, Movies, Murder, New York City, Organized Crime, Television
Subject of A Clockwork Orange Refutes Stanley Kubrick
Don’t call me Alex DeLarge. I long ago changed my notorious name, and for that I cannot blame Stanley Kubrick since I would’ve hidden my identity even if he hadn’t directed A Clockwork Orange, the film purportedly about my life. What I do forever excoriate Kubrick for is misrepresenting and exaggerating my deeds, which had […]
Also posted in England, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mental Health, Movies, Murder, Music, Prisons, Stanley Kubrick
Drug Rehabilitation in Ciudad Juarez
No one I knew used cocaine when I was a kid. We just drank beer and smoked green mota. Snorting coke was for rich and poor people in the United States. It amazed me when I heard they were smoking it. That sounded stupid. They could do it all they wanted. I only wanted to […]
Eyewitness Account 1975: Lynette Fromme Tries to Assassinate President Ford
I witnessed the following incident on September 5, 1975, and this article appeared four days later in the student newspaper at California State University, Sacramento. A few revisions have been made. SACRAMENTO – Blinds were drawn over the windows on the east side of the hotel, keeping out the glare of the mid-morning sun. Some […]
Also posted in Assassinations, Charles Manson, Cults, George Thomas Clark, Gerald Ford, Lynette Fromme, Murder, Sacramento
