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The Rikers Island jail, formally known as the Men’s House of Detention on Rikers Island, was branded “outmoded and inappropriate” by the Board of Correction, which advised phasing the jail out as a long-term detention facility. The board’s chairman said a phase-out would be “a matter of paramount importance” in the months ahead.
–Brought to you by Lights Out Summer, set in 1977, coming Oct. 1.
Agatha Christie is golden age, but is she cozy or bloody–hard boiled even? Okay, maybe not hard boiled, but according to a WSJ front page article, Christie staged “some of the world’s grimmest homicides” on paper that were then made bloodless for the screen. New TV productions commissioned by her estate bring back bloody Agatha.
The estate has its motive (in this crime, if you’re a cozy fan). By 2013, it had adapted nearly every Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot detective novel. “We were kind of staring down the barrel of ‘What do we do now?'” James Prichard, Christie’s great grandson and chairman of the estate, told WSJ.
This should set off some serious debate (hide the knitting needles and kittens) at Malice Domestic.
NYC Police Commissioner Michael Codd held a formal press conference at 1 Police Plaza to announce a .44-caliber handgun, a Charter Arms Bulldog revolver, had been used in the murders of Donna Lauria in July and Virginia Voskerichian two days ago (March 8). Codd linked the weapon to at least three separate incidents in the Bronx and Queens that had, for the past five months, been treated as separate crimes. One man was the shooter in all, a .44-Caliber Killer.
–Brought to you by LIGHTS OUT SUMMER, set in 1977, coming Oct. 1.
Virginia Voskerichian, a junior at Barnard College, was shot in the face and killed while walking home in Forest Hills Gardens, Queens. She’d raised her textbooks to her face to try to protect herself. Over the next two days, ballistics would link her murder to the killings of two other women dating back to July 1976. The gun was a Charter Arms Bulldog .44-caliber pistol.
–Brought to you by LIGHTS OUT SUMMER, set in 1977, coming Oct. 1.
America, as reported on the nation’s police blotters:
“Received a report of a subject on the 400 block of Jersey Avenue on a bicycle ranting on a cell phone. Patrol spoke with subject, who stated they were having WiFi issues.”
—North Country This Week, Potsdam, N.Y.
Forty years ago today, Four of the men arrested for the break-in at the Watergate agreed to a $200,000 out-of-court settlement to be paid by former President Nixon’s campaign fund. The men, members of the anti-Castro community in Miami, had charged in a suit they were conned into believing the burglary was sanctioned by the CIA or some other government agency.
–Brought to you by LIGHTS OUT SUMMER, set in 1977, coming Oct. 1.
Forty years ago today: Two serious pros robbed an estimated $1 million from a Yonkers bank, including part or all of the receipts from three nights of racing at Yonkers Raceway.
–Brought to you by LIGHTS OUT SUMMER, set in 1977, coming Oct. 1.
I’ve been celebrating a winter festival of police blotter entries from Skagway, Alaska, in the great book “The Best of Skagway, Alaska” published by the Skagway News. With hints of spring around, I’m returning to reports from today’s blotters around the nation.
“Two men were arrested for a strong armed robbery incident.”
—San Jose Mercury News
Here they are, the title and cover of Coleridge Taylor Mystery book 4. Out Oct. 1.
No spoilers…but LIGHTS OUT SUMMER is set during six months in 1977 when two major crime stories dominated the front pages of New York’s papers. Son of Sam was halfway through his yearlong killing spree. And the 25-hour blackout in mid-July resulted in 1,000 businesses damaged or destroyed and more than 3,000 arrested.