Editor’s note: Last Friday night, after this story was completed and laid out in New Times, the Carl Hayden football team finally won a game. Writer Paul Rubin and photographer Timothy Archibald were there to witness the celebration. That something wonderful was about to happen became apparent to Carl Hayden…
Maricopa County prosecutor Myrna Parker has been living with the Bob Crane murder case for more than three years now. She has spent untold hours conducting interviews around the nation, poring over the thick files, appearing in court. But Parker won’t be around to see the Crane case through to…
Los Angeles street cop Dan Calderon sketches in the air with an imaginary brush. “If I wasn’t a cop, I wouldn’t have nothin’ to draw about,” he says. “I’m not into pictures of flowers and stuff. I’m not an accomplished artist, but I’m into real life–what’s real to me.” Calderon…
Like everyone else these days, Tammi and Chris Carmody have many questions about the Clintons’ proposed health plan. But this young Phoenix couple knows for sure that a “health insurance for everyone” scenario sounds better than what they faced after the August 1 birth of their second child. The Carmodys…
If a part-time Maricopa County judge has his way, chronic shoplifter Rhonda Mecham will have a much harder time satisfying her confessed “habit” in the future. That’s because of an unusual sentencing provision that pro tem Superior Court Judge Joel Thompson says he designed to notify area retailers about Mecham’s…
It was perfect softball weather last Friday morning, when Jerry Lee Wells took the mound for the last time. Hundreds of Arizonans who had idolized him were looking on at the house that Wells built, Ken Lindley Field on Gurley Street in Prescott. This time, however, they were there to…
Latricia Brown murdered her boyfriend, Melvin Wilson, in 1989 and was sentenced to 13 years in prison in a case barely noticed by the press. Now, after spending more than three years behind bars, Brown, 47, has had her conviction overturned by an appellate court, saying a Maricopa County judge…
The Kings of Probate Dorothy Richards hadn’t spoken to her Aunt Delores for years when she decided to look her relative up in early 1988. A few inquiries led the Newport Beach, California, resident to Delores Reichwein’s home in Mesa. But Richards’ visit to Arizona was short and sad. Her…
Abuses by attorneys and private fiduciaries such as Wayne Legg, Webber Mackey and others have led to proposed changes in how the Maricopa County Probate Court operates. “This hasn’t been a matter of a little tweaking here and there to get things up to speed,” says the court’s presiding judge,…
One of Sarah Dugan’s last thoughts before her life changed forever was particularly sweet. It was the morning of November 2, 1990, and Sarah was at work as a quality-control supervisor at the American Express administrative complex in north Phoenix. She walked over to a colleague’s desk inside the building…
Casinos Checked Out Babbitt @deck:His Denials of Gambling Don’t Fit Record @body:Four Las Vegas casinos ran credit checks on Bruce Babbitt in 1976, when as Arizona attorney general he is said to have run up substantial gambling debts, a previously undisclosed grand jury transcript and a report by the Arizona…
The lead story in the June 9 Washington Times was a bombshell. Under a page-one banner headline boldly proclaiming, “Casinos Checked Out Babbitt, His Denials of Gambling Don’t Fit Record,” Washington Times reporter Jerry Seper gave Washingtonians something to chew on with their morning coffee, as he recounted the lurid…
It was a gorgeous, autumn afternoon on Mount Vernon Street in Prescott, with only a hint of the mile-high winter to come. Located up a hill from the northern Arizona city’s bustling downtown, the street presented an attractive slice of Americana. Youngsters frolicked in yards of the street’s spacious old…
It was time for Tempe cartoonist Tom “Snake” Robertson’s big moment at the Arizona Press Club’s annual awards banquet. Robertson was sitting with others who worked for the late Southwest Sage, a gutty Flagstaff weekly newspaper that stirred things up for 16 weeks before the money ran out. A few…
The man in the Mazda RX-7 pulled over to the side of the road and waited. For almost 14 years, John Carpenter had prayed this day wouldn’t come. It was about 6 a.m. on June 1, 1992, in the south Los Angeles suburb of Carson. Carpenter, then 63, had been…
Victoria Berry had been touring for months with Bob Crane in Beginner’s Luck when the play landed in Scottsdale in June 1978. The Australia-born actress–then 28–had been seeking stardom for years, to no avail. As always, Hollywood had more than enough busty blondes, and Berry’s efforts largely failed, despite some…
It is 1969, the year of Woodstock, a man on the moon, the miracle Mets and Chappaquiddick. Two middle-aged buddies turn on a tape recorder and discuss their favorite subject–women and how to snag them. The conversation is ostensibly an “interview” for a Los Angeles singles magazine. John Carpenter is…
Felix Solis steps down into the hole with a tiny pink box. Clutching it close to him, he closes his eyes and prays aloud. “Lord, I hope you will accept this baby into Heaven, where things are better than they are here,” Solis says, his voice cracking. “Please watch over…
It was 1987 and Manny Carbajal was talking boxing with a guest over a bowl of his wife Mary’s memorable menudo. “If you box, you’re gonna get hit,” he said. “It’s what you do after you get hit. That’s what counts.” A truly friendly man, Manny had been an Arizona…
Arizona State University men’s gymnastics standout Paul Bedewi is about to attempt a final, strength-sapping trick on the horizontal bar before dismounting. Standing nearby, ASU head coach Don Robinson talks his senior co-captain through it. “Own it, own it,” Robinson says, urgently. “Stick it.” His chiseled, five-foot-six frame shaking with…
Football coach Wayne “Chief” Hall is spinning a yarn about his friend, onetime Arizona State University quarterback great Dennis Sproul. In the mid-1970s, Hall–a former ASU assistant under head coach Frank Kush–had convinced Sproul, a California high school all-American, to become a Sun Devil. He and Sproul became close during…
MDRV leave ecrb until Rubin confirms all changes. thanks, cj February 22 noon MDNM @body:The page-one headline in the Arizona Republic was a doozie: “Two held in kidnap-maiming plot. Ring threatened to cut off boy’s arms. More arrests likely.” The February 21, 1992, story described how FBI agents had arrested…
