POLS TO THE WALL

Is There an Echo? What do former Phoenix mayor Paul Johnson and Michigan state senator Debbie Stabenow have in common? Plenty. Both are Democrats. Both paint themselves as outsiders bucking special interests. Both–until August 2–hoped to nab their party’s gubernatorial nomination and face, in all likelihood, the state’s incumbent Republican…

THE CHURCH BUYS SILENCE

When I read Bishop Thomas O’Brien’s challenge in the Arizona Republic recently, I decided this would be a trial worth watching. The message, read from the pulpit in all Catholic parishes, announced that the church was being forced to go to trial because of the excessive demands of the suit…

THE BASEBALL STRIKE: AS BORING AS IT IS STUPID

I must now find a new way to amuse myself. Baseball is gone, never to return–in this season, at least. What is left? There are so many experts spouting off about the ramifications of the baseball strike, they have worn me to a frazzle. They come boring in from all…

BROTHERS AND VICTIMS

I could never get the killing out of my mind. For one thing, I never could make any sense of it. Besides, I never could learn enough from contemporary newspaper accounts to put all the pieces together. On August 16, 1986, Eric Kane, 16, was found murdered in a room…

A LAME DUCK IN HOT WATER

John Thul walks to the back of his nearly completed $8 million sheet-metal-stamping plant and gazes at the undeveloped rangeland stretching for miles to the north. His face fills with the distressed look of a man who’s been had. Thul points to a lone creosote bush, about 150 feet away…

BLAND AMBITION

It was a sweltering August day in 1966, and two young lawyers were hiking deep within the Grand Canyon. Jon Kyl and Tom Kleinschmidt–both promising associates with the Phoenix firm of Jennings, Strouss & Salmon–had spent the night camping near the Colorado River, and now they were heading home, moving…

WHY THIS YOUNG MAN’S DEATH MATTERS

He is dead and he is cremated, but the tragedy of Michael Despain’s short, troubled life is not over. In death, Michael has achieved an awful notoriety as Phoenix’s first hate killing, a crime category law enforcement began tracking in 1990. Michael’s memory, however, is now the hostage of a…

MALIGN NEGLECT

Bishop Jimmerson walks around in the sun instructing a miniature work crew on the art of makeshift construction. It will create three bedrooms from two in the house sitting behind a square, dirt yard with no sidewalk. The street here, near Broadway Road, is not paved. The city does not…

THE FLYING LEININGER BROTHERS

Christophe Leininger and his opponent waltz sideways across the mat, like white-jacketed dancing bears, each one pawing at the sleeves and lapels of the other’s judo uniform, searching for a good grip and a moment’s imbalance. It’s late June, in a run-down, old Mesa gymnasium where the judo event of…

TAKE THE R&G CHALLENGE!

Top managers over at the Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette must be feeling a little underappreciated right now. And no one could blame them. They have surveyed their own staff, and the results–well, they’re nearly unbelievable. After all the improvements management has made over the last few years–including the addition…

SEARCHING FOR AMERICAN SUPERSTARS

When you think of Laughlin, Nevada, you think of: Slots! Blackjack! Dice! Drinks! Action! And Girls! Girls! Girls! But that’s not all there is in Laughlin, Nevada; I have two words for you: American Superstars. A fake Roy Orbison, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, Charlie Daniels, Blues Brothers (not to mention…

DEATH BY LETHAL REJECTION

On March 18, 1992, Joquitta Palmer neatly completed a handwritten application to the State of Arizona. “We want a sibling for our son,” the 29-year-old woman printed. “We know there are a lot of unwanted children and we want another one to love.” She and her husband, Cleveland, wanted to…

HOW CHILD-ABUSE CASES CAN BE PROSECUTED

Pinal County prosecutor Sylvia Lafferty refuses to file charges against Joquitta and Cleveland Palmer for the murder of TaJuana Davidson. Lafferty claims she can’t prove within a legal certainty who inflicted the girl’s fatal injuries last November 2. Lafferty used to work in Pima County, where she earned a reputation…

TO THE COPS, SOME CRIMES JUST SEEM LESS IMPORTANT THAN OTHERS

When the flames from the arson fire were put out last month, investigators discovered human remains in the upstairs bedroom. While dental records were the only way to identify the charred body of 24-year-old Michael Despain, there was one piece of physical evidence the fire did not destroy: The male…

THE OBJECT OF THEIR DESIRE

Most days, Linda Rawles rises at 8 a.m., drinks a Diet Coke, reads the morning newspaper and goes about the business of running for Congress. If she gets up any earlier, she vomits. Her husband, Tom, however, is an early bird. He’s on the freeway to Phoenix–and his dual career…