Subject: Murder and Homicide

• Dead Pool

  May 2, 2007

• The Big Bloody: Maggie O'Brien's Bartender Killed in Violent Night That Leaves Three Dead

  The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department reports this morning that three people died from gunshot wounds in the city last night. Two of the deaths -- involving the murder of a downtown St. Louis bartender -- may be related. Police say that around 11:45 p.m. last night a white male bartender in his early 30s was shot during a robbery attempt at Maggie O'Brien's, at 20th & Market streets (just a block up the street from the scene of a grisly, triple homicide last month.)View Larger MapThe

  June 2, 2009

• The Big Bloody: Man Charged in Murder of Centreville Cop

  Lemuel Antwan HoustonPolice have charged 22-year-old Lemuel Antwan Houston in the shooting death Tuesday of Centreville police officer Lt. Gregory Jonas. Houston allegedly killed Jonas because he did not want to get booked on a gun charge. Jonas had stopped Houston in the early morning hours outside the Elder Smith Senior Apartments in Centreville while on patrol. Houston is apparently well known to Metro East law officers. He is being held in undisclosed location to ensure his safety. Bond has

  June 5, 2009

• Wrongfully Convicted Darryl Burton: Set Free Friday

  September 3, 2008

• The Conviction of Tim Dreste

  May 12, 1999

• News of the Weird

  June 16, 1999

• Pop Fiction

  November 22, 2000

• Spike in Murders in St. Louis Contradicts Drops in Other "Dangerous" Cities

  Homicides in St. Louis jumped from 138 in 2007 to 167 last year, making 2008 the deadliest year in the 'Lou since 204 people lost their lives in 1995.Across the state, Kansas City also saw a surge in murders with homicides increasing from 94 in 2007 to 126 last year. Yet despite reports suggesting that an increase in killings is to be expected during these tough economic times, many U.S. cities actually saw homicides drop last year.

  January 5, 2009

• Conversation with the Chief: Dan Isom Discusses Towing Scandals, Gun Laws, Cops and Robbers

  This morning St. Louis Metropolitan Police Chief Dan Isom invited a few reporters to meet with him to discuss his first few months on the job -- as well as anything else we wanted to talk about. I, for one, appreciate the chief's openness. Such an invite would be anathema to some of his predecessors at police headquarters.During the nearly hour-long meeting, Isom (who's recovering from a knee injury suffered during a charity basketball game) opined on everything from black-on-black crime to stat

  January 7, 2009

• St. Louis: Nation's Second Deadliest City in '08

  flickr.com/photos/poohbahThe FBI came out with its 2008 crime statistics this week. And when it comes to murder rates, our fair city has a dubious distinction. St. Louis ranked second per capita last year in the number of homicides committed in the city, with 47 slayings per 100,000 people. Leading the ranking was New Orleans, which recorded 64 murders per 100,000 people last year. Yesterday the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department issued a release noting that homicides in the city as o

  June 3, 2009

• Burned

  June 30, 1999

• FORWARD BY UNPOPULAR DEMAND

  July 28, 1999

• Thursday, March 26: Morning's Newz

  Former St. Louis archbishop Raymond Burke is back in the news. Burke, who now serves on the Vatican's high court in Rome, says President Obama "could be agent of death" if other countries follow the president's support for abortion rights. State officials will no longer circulate the controversial memo identifying Libertarians and other third-party followers as possible militia members.  Lt. Governor Peter Kinder had threatened to put the state's public safety director on leave because of t

  March 26, 2009

• Who Killed Robert Walker?: Court testimony offers hints to an unsolved murder

  October 22, 2008

• Free at Last: Darryl Burton's thoughts after 24 years behind bars

  September 10, 2008

• Lady Elaine

  November 7, 2007

• Battle Lines

  August 23, 2006

• Dead Reckoning

  It's been six months since John Mullen was served up an arsenic cocktail. So whodunit?

  January 19, 2005

• Critical Fatwa

  Ja Rule

  January 4, 2006

• Dead on Arrival

  A murder case ends as it began: bizarrely

  November 2, 2005

• Crash and Burn

  Fire chief is killed after ex-con flees

  March 23, 2005

• Life After Death Row

  From maximum security in Potosi to a bungalow in Maplewood: The odyssey of Rabbit, a.k.a. Robert Driscoll

  February 23, 2005

• The Case That Haunts

  The most notorious cold case in the history of the St. Louis Police Department still haunts homicide detectives

  December 1, 2004

• Not Guilty

  HotCity Theatre debuts with a polemic -- and how!

  November 17, 2004

• A Shot in the Arm

  A federal appeals court says Darryl Burton might very well be innocent of the 1984 murder of Donald Ball. But there's nothing they can do about it.

  November 3, 2004

• Best Evidence

  George Allen claims police made him confess to rape and murder. Twenty years after Allen was convicted, his last hope hinges on a DNA test.

  July 2, 2003

• Whack Job

  Frank Brown was butchered in 1996. His killer still hasn't paid the price.

  March 12, 2003

• Protest Songs

  Songwriter, performer and left-wing activist Steve Earle turns his politics into art

  February 5, 2003

• Open Season

  Police crackdown on guns and gangs runs into Way of the Gun mentality

  October 30, 2002

• For the Defense

  Terry Niehoff, one of the city's top criminal-defense lawyers, makes his money the old-fashioned way -- he earns it, one client at a time

  October 23, 2002

• Death Man Walking

  October 31, 2001

• Now You See It, Now You Don't

  January 24, 2001

• See No Evil

  January 10, 2001

• The Benetton Four

  August 16, 2000

• The Lost Boys

  March 15, 2000

• BODY OF EVIDENCE

  November 17, 1999

• Craig Newmark speaks at victim's memorial in wake of Craigslist killings

  April 29, 2009

• The Big Bloody: Police Fingerprint Father of Strangled Family

  Christopher ColemanLast week Christopher Coleman hired defense attorney William Margulis to represent him in the investigation into the strangulation death of his wife, Sheri, 31, and sons Garett, 11, and Gavin, 9, at their Columbia, Illinois, home on May 5. Yesterday Coleman and his lawyer arrived at the Columbia police station to provide fingerprints to investigators -- even though authorities have yet to name any suspects in the murders. Coleman and his attorney did not answer questions when

  May 12, 2009

• The Big Bloody: Coleman Told Girlfriend They'd Marry Next Year

  Christopher ColemanThe Post-Dispatch is reporting that Christopher Coleman told his Florida girlfriend that they'd marry in 2010. The woman's name is Tara Lintz and went to high school in Largo, Florida with Coleman's wife, Sheri. Last week Coleman was charged with murdering Sheri and the couple's two sons, Garett and Gavin, on May 5 in the family's Columbia, Illinois, home. The daily recently obtained search warrants in the case that state that St. Petersburg police interviewed Lintz in the day

  May 29, 2009

• FoodWire: Arrests in Maggie O'Brien's Shooting

  Police have made two arrests in the murder of Maggie O'Brien's bartender Michael Dolan. My colleague Chad Garrison has the details of the arrests at the Daily RFT.

  June 10, 2009

• Police Name Suspects in Maggie O'Brien's Murder; Confirm Thief Killed His Accomplice

  Police have identified two men from Illinois as the final suspects in the slaying of bartender Michael Dolan at Maggie O'Brien's on June 1.Police provide this full account of the robbery-turned-homicide...INCIDENT:  Homicide, RobberyDATE/TIME:  6/1/09@11:42pmLOCATION:  2000 Market Street (Maggie O'Brien's)VICTIM:  Michael P. Dolan, 32 year old White male of the 1400 block of S. 18th Street in St. LouisSUSPECT #1: Derrick Bell, 30 year old Black male of the 5000 block of Cote

  June 10, 2009

• FoodWire: Maggie O'Brien's Robbery an Inside Job

  At the Daily RFT, my colleague Chad Garrison has the latest update on the robbery at Maggie O'Brien's and the murder of bartender Michael Dolan: A fourth suspect -- a ten-year employee of the restaurant -- has been arrested.

  June 12, 2009

• Attorney General Wants Racist Executed for Murders; Fashion Police Want Him for Hitler Haircut

  Joseph Franklin rockin the Hitler haircut.Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster today called for the Missouri Supreme Court to set an execution date for Joseph Franklin. Franklin was convicted in 1997 of murdering Gerald Gordon -- twenty years after he shot and killed him in the parking lot of a St. Louis area synagogue. Franklin also was convicted of shooting two other men in the same synagogue parking lot following a bar mitzvah in 1977."Joseph Franklin planned out and committed a heinous cri

  June 16, 2009

• St. Louis Homicides Down 30 Percent for First Six Months of '09; Teen Murders On Pace for Lesser Declines

  As of today (July 1) the year is half over. And according to numbers provided by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, homicides are down nearly 30 percent compared to 2008.  As of Monday (June 29), the police reported 60 murders in the city in 2009 compared with 85 by mid-year 2008. Given that clip, St. Louis would end up with 120 homicides in 2009, down from the 167 killings that occurred in the city during an extremely violent 2008. (Last year's homicides were the most the city h

  July 1, 2009

• The Big Bloody: 60-Year-Old Man Guns Down Teen

  Johnnie Pulley, Jr.Yesterday we reported how the rate of teenage homicides in St. Louis isn't falling as fast as the overall decline in murders this year. And true to form, the second half of 2009 (which began yesterday, July 1) started out with a fresh teen homicide. This one, though, was somewhat unusual because of the age of the gunman. Police say 60-year-old Johnnie Pulley Jr. gunned down 17-year-old Brandon Colenburg in cold blood yesterday in the 700 block of North Union Blvd. (near the in

  July 2, 2009

• The Big Bloody: Three People Found Murdered in Their Homes Blocks Apart in North City

  Two phone calls to the St. Louis police led to the discovery of three bodies Sunday night in the Baden Neighborhood. View Sunday Night Homicides, June 19, 2009 in a larger mapPolice report receiving a phone call yesterday from a relative asking them to check on the well-being of two people living in the 800 block of Wall Street. Officers arrived at the residence at 7:26 p.m. to find Willie Murphy Ward, 66, and Michelle Renee Gowder, 40, dead. Both victims appeared to be beaten. Police believe th

  July 20, 2009

• Police Seek Help in Search for Man Suspected in Eat-Rite Murder

  D'Angelo Tate​St. Louis police are asking the public for assistance in trying to track down D'Angelo Tate. Police describe Tate as a "person of interest" in the brutal slaying of Shevette Chambers on August 16 outside the popular Eat Rite Diner near Busch Stadium. This is not the first time Tate has been suspected of playing a role in a homicide.

  September 11, 2009

• Cold Case Featured in Riverfront Times, Now Focus of "America's Most Wanted"

  amw.comThe only items on the body of "Jane Doe" were this bloody sweater and a length of rope.​Twenty-seven years ago this February the headless body of a young black girl was discovered in the basement of an abandoned building in St. Louis. Police have never been able to identify the child, and her murder (or murderers) remain at large -- that is, if they're still alive today. In 2004, the mystery of the girl known only as "Jane Doe" was featured in an in-depth RFT article, "The Case that Hau

  October 30, 2009

• The Big Bloody: Man Charged with Killing in Clifton Heights

  Police HandoutMichael Coffman​The St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office issued charges yesterday against Michael Shawn Coffman for the murder of Donald Eberhardt last Saturday, Nov. 14, in the relatively peaceful neighborhood of Clifton Heights. Coffman, 36, of the 1600 block of North 21st St., allegedly shot and killed the 32-year-old Eberhardt in an alley in the 3000 block of Tamm around 11 a.m Saturday. Eberhardt, 32, lived in the 800 block of Newport in Webster Groves. He was acquainted with

  November 18, 2009

• The Big Bloody: In What's Becoming a Redundant Headline -- Man Found Shot to Death in North City

  Mario Williams, 29, was found shot to death last night in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood of north St. Louis. Police discovered Williams body around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 3800 block of Kennerly. View Larger MapWilliams, of the 6100 block of Bermuda in Normandy, had been shot multiple times and was pronounced dead at a hospital. Count up all the other north city murders here. In other news, an undercover St. Louis cop last night shot and killed two suspects. More on that as information develo

  November 18, 2009