Email Author Shelley Smithson

2004 Stories by Shelley Smithson

• Bad Medicine

  published October 6, 2004

  A young woman can get plenty tired of slinging belly bombers day after day at a White Castle. This was not the life Latisha Tally envisioned after... More >>

• Shrill Thrills in Soulard

  published August 25, 2004

  When Carlos Weeden tried to hold a comedy show in May at the old Soulard library across from the farmer's market, someone complained that he... More >>

• The Price of Innocence

  published August 18, 2004

  When Larry Johnson left prison two years ago, after DNA testing proved he was innocent of a 1984 rape, the warden offered him a handshake and a... More >>

• Man Killer

  published August 11, 2004

  Bill Prewitt dozed in the front seat as his wife Patty drove their Ford Torino home in the pounding rain on a February night twenty years ago. The... More >>

• Hell to Pay

  published August 11, 2004

  Instead of rapping Archbishop Raymond Burke on the knuckles, Catholic elementary school teachers are socking him in the wallet. The union that... More >>

• All the Jail's a Stage

  published May 26, 2004

  Act 1, Scene 1 The fierce morning rain has faded to a gentle patter as twenty inmates dressed in prison-issue gray pants and... More >>

• Sculpture Shock

  published April 21, 2004

  Bob Orchard first heard the perplexing news during a private dinner party at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. Emily Pulitzer had invited a... More >>

• Peeping Bob

  published April 21, 2004

  It is a picture-perfect morning in Soulard. Amid the warm wash of conversation, a few early birds enjoy the bright spring sunshine as they sip... More >>

• Deep Rugs

  published April 21, 2004

  Think of it as a split-screen TV -- made out of wool. It's called a "four-in-one" rug, and the four colorful scenes depicted in the weaving... More >>

• Brawling in Breckenridge

  published March 31, 2004

  Mayor Archie Ledbetter sits at a cheap desk in the tiny office he shares with the building commissioner at Breckenridge Hills City Hall. Fake wood... More >>

• The Kings of Kingshighway

  published March 17, 2004

  Mike and Steve Roberts sipped their apple martinis and savored the moment. One thousand guests had gathered in the Starlight Room of the Chase... More >>

• Go Blow

  published February 4, 2004

  Behind the closed garage doors at Loop Automotive on Delmar Boulevard, Gleb Gurevich points to the engine block beneath the raised hood of a white... More >>

• Gob Story

  published January 21, 2004

  Dot Timmerman feared the Christmas of 1999 might be her last. Doctors had just discovered a cancerous tumor below her left eye and behind her... More >>

• Bill's Bills

  published January 21, 2004

  On January 8, when William V. Roberti announced that he'd hired well-known local attorney Chet Pleban to file a defamation suit on his behalf, the... More >>