FIFE’S FISHING TRIP

Governor Fife Symington’s chief henchmen went to the Mesa Tribune last week for a long-awaited powwow. By the time it was over, John Dougherty-the Trib reporter whose scoops about the savings-and-loan scandal consistently have embarrassed the governor and other politicians-was off the big story, possibly for keeps. Several sources present…

RUBY MORRIS’ BIZARRE LAST RIDE

The courtroom is hushed. Earl Morris swallows hard. He is playing to a small audience. Its numbers are few, but they are totally mesmerized. If Morris were a veteran actor, this tiny crowd of spectators might be discouraging. It might even tempt him to deliver his lines too swiftly. He…

TEENAGE WASTELANDDEATH AND BOREDOM IN THE WEST VALLEY

At trial, Balkan will likely argue that the statements of the Tucson suspects-none of which mention Doody or Garcia or seem to describe either of the boys-are legitimate confessions. “And I think the sheriffs are going to say, `Yeah, yeah, you’re right, [the Tucson suspects] did it,'” Balkan says. “I…

TEENAGE WASTELANDDEATH AND BOREDOM IN THE WEST VALLEY

PLUNGING SOUTH down Dysart Road from Glendale Avenue, into the great wide nothingness of the West Valley, everything is rubble and scorn. It is about five miles from the Circle K on Glendale Avenue to the Whataburger on Van Buren, past the faux oasis of Litchfield Park, with its palm…

TEENAGE WASTELANDDEATH AND BOREDOM IN THE WEST VALLEY

Doody told detectives Caratachea approached him asking for help in defeating the temple’s “motion sensors”-floodlights activated by movements on the grounds. This may have been the “intrusion alert” exercise Joseph Burner said Doody told him he was going on. Earlier this month, new evidence surfaced against Caratachea when two juveniles…

TEENAGE WASTELLAND DEATH AND BORDOM IN THE WEST VALLEY

“He even said he was at the scene at the time it happened-he mentioned Alex’s name, he mentioned Rolando Caratachea,” Rowlett said. “They had gone in there for robbery purposes, to get what they wanted and leave, but one of the monks woke up, and he [Doody] didn’t want nobody…

With the Help of His Ancestors, Fife Takes On Congress

Governor Symington goes to Washington! On Thursday of this week, J. Fife Symington III is scheduled to appear before a Congressional committee looking into the fall of Southwest Savings and Loan. If Symington, a Harvard man, were also a diarist, here is how he might describe the upcoming events: Dear…

TONGUE-TIED AT LAST

When Howard Cosell stepped down from his 35-year career as a radio sportscaster recently, his departure was barely mentioned. This was strange. In his best years, Cosell’s name was on everyone’s lips. He was the undoubted star of Monday Night Football when that show was one of the hottest on…

REVELS NOW ENDED

I have touched the highest point of my greatness; I haste now to my setting. I shall fall Like a Bright exhalation in the evening, And no man see me more. Shakespeare, Henry VIII For great professional athletes, the last act is the most difficult to perform with grace. It…

L’ AFFAIRE KRAVCHENKO

For two years, Valentin says, he was unable to remember his own name. While he had once been an accomplished musician, his musicality had apparently been beaten out of him-he could no longer hold melodies in his mind; they were suddenly slippery, evasive, lost. Other parts of his personality seemed…

RECKLESS ABANDON

Robinson also says he does not know why Weaver and Schilling were not notified prior to Brown’s release. He is sure, however, that the oversight wasn’t the police department’s fault: Such notification is the responsibility of the agency that’s holding the prisoner, in this case the sheriff’s department, he says…

AND THE WINNERS ARE. . .

A good way to hit the jackpot in the Arizona Lottery may not have anything to do with luck. According to some unhappy lawmakers and business people, all you have to do is make promises about creating jobs.” Apparently, it also helps if your business is fund raising. Stung by…

L’AFFAIRE KRAVCHENKO

MILES AWAY FROM asphalt, in a secluded lodge north of Lake Pleasant, the Russian blusters and frets. Mad with dislocation, he drags his prison-damaged leg from room to room, bellowing for the interpreter, sounding like a wounded bear. Valentin Bodrov, the son of a traitor, has a child’s capacity for…

RECKLESS ABANDON

IF YOU LIVE in the inner city, it isn’t difficult to imagine that you will become the victim of a crime. At least, it hasn’t been difficult for Chris Schilling and Jeff Weaver to imagine it during the nearly three years that they’ve lived in the historic Story District, south…

L’AFFAIRE FRAVCHENKO

And, of course, Victor was aware of the ice-pick assassination of Leon Trotsky in Mexico City in August 1940-lending grim veracity to Trotsky’s warning that “Stalin seeks to strike, not at the ideas of his opponent, but at his skull.” Even so, Victor Kravchenko appeared before the committee, speaking in…