Randolph Kelly’s house is full of family photos. They’re stacked on the television and on tables; they cover the walls. On the north side of the living room hang two large and faded photos, their sepia tones encased in oval frames. One of the pictures is of Kelly’s dead wife’s…

Guadalupe “Lupe” Salinas was controversial long before he was appointed to head up Denver’s regional Social Security Administration office in 1991. But five years into his tenure at the SSA, it’s hard to track the many bureaucratic tiffs involving Salinas without a Social Security scorecard. Not only have nine of…

Some people would say that the hit man is an emotionless, cold-blooded killing machine; that he has no fear and no belief in God. On the contrary, a hit man has a wide range of feelings. He may be excruciatingly tender towards his woman. He may be extremely compassionate towards…

The people believe that employees should have a voice,” says Jerry Beers. As area director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), he’s pretty much expected to say that. But his words may be more than mere union posturing. Denver city workers and representatives of a…

After eighteen months of cops, courts and attorneys, Sue Smith is back at square one. And she’s damn glad to be there. A new trial has been ordered for Smith, who was found guilty last August of criminally negligent homicide and drug distribution in connection with the death of Bruce…

part 1 of 2 For three years, until his death in January 1994, Gary Smith’s life was a nightmare of medication, hospitalizations, chemotherapy and pain–pain so severe that eventually even huge doses of morphine could not extinguish the fire that coursed through his cancer-riddled body. “Smitty’s” wife, Sue, found some…

part 2 of 2 When police and firefighters arrived at Smith’s home, they found the house clean and tidy, making Wirtzfeld all the more incongruous. He was sitting on a corner of the sofa, perched casually as if he’d fallen asleep while chatting with friends. He was leaning on his…

part 1 of 2 One day several years ago, a young woman approached retired prison secretary Mary Jane Eaklor and asked her what she thought the chances were of making a successful marriage with her inmate fiance. Eaklor responded by telling her about a pile of rocks in her driveway…

part 2 of 2 Like so many women who have fallen for prisoners, Flo Orona insists that her man and her marriage are different. Orona met the man of her dreams in 1987. She’d prayed to God for a man who would meet her ideals. That’s why her two marriages…

As the train pulls into Denver’s Union Station, its massive, red locomotives are veiled in billows of smoke. Appropriately, the vaporous clouds increase rather than decrease as the engines chug to a halt and the passengers disembark. Welcome to Marlboro Country. And welcome to the “Marlboro Unlimited,” a custom-built, luxury…

Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman was just beginning to launch into a well-rehearsed spiel explaining why convicted teenage murderer Cheryl Armstrong should be punished to the fullest extent of the law when he was cut off mid-sentence by District Judge Warren Martin. “You may sit down, Mr. Silverman,” the jurist instructed…

The next TV camera in a Denver courtroom may have to be wheeled in from the trashiest of the talk shows. Last week Denver sheriff’s deputy Karen Kirchberg stood accused of flourishing a weapon and threatening to “put a bullet” in a couple of other female co-workers following a love-triangle…

part 1 of 2 January 2, 1995 Me and T are over. I wanna commit suicide. I love him so much. –excerpt from Cheryl Armstrong’s diary It may have been something about living in the tame Littleton suburbs that made sixteen-year-old Cheryl Armstrong and her friends long for a more…

part 2 of 2 January 31, 1995 Met T downtown. Afterwards we went and fucked once, then I saw Rachelle’s picture in his wallet & I took it. He totally tweaked out on me so I got all hurt. Got in hugest fight ever. He told me we’re over. When…

The civilian watchdogs entrusted with investigating complaints about Denver police have become so discouraged by a lack of support from the city administration that resignations appear imminent. And that would suit the police–and some city officials–just fine. “If they were to go away,” city councilman Ed Thomas, an ex-cop, says…

Sixty-nine-year-old John Hickey would rather gamble on a prison term than admit to wrongdoing for breaking the nose of his wife’s lover moments after discovering the two flagrante delicto. “Put one man on the jury,” Hickey has said, “and there’s no way they’ll convict me.” He’ll get a chance to…

Eighteen months ago Jim Kleber, long suspected of killing his wife, Lois, in 1992, seemed on the verge of confiding what her family wanted, yet feared, to hear: where he’d hidden her body. “I just want to do the right thing,” Kleber told an Arvada police investigator. Now, however, his…

part 2 of 2 If Hilton had named Gray as his attacker, says DOC legal counsel Brad Rockwell, Gray would have been slam-dunked into solitary to await a disciplinary hearing. But since Hilton had not yet named his assailant, Gray stayed where he was. On July 20 Gray was given…

part 1 of 2 James Mervin, Colorado prison inmate No. 56225, was moving again. Over the years, he’d learned to pack quickly, tossing his meager belongings into a box so as not to upset the guard waiting to escort him to his new home. He didn’t think much about it…

On Thursday, September 7, following fourteen hours of deliberations, a Fort Morgan jury acquitted Charles “Butch” Allee of second-degree murder, first-degree assault and three other charges related to the February 19 beating death of Wiggins farmer Jeffrey Lousberg. Allee’s teenaged son, Charles Allee III, is scheduled to stand trial September…

During the past year, budding, nonviolent juvenile delinquents have been turned into budding, nonviolent artists, the idea being that the pint-sized perps would sell their artwork to reimburse crime victims. It may be working. The youngsters, all age sixteen or younger, have raised roughly $5,000 (the bulk of it in…

Denver’s halfway houses are supposed to help state prisoners ease their way back into society. But for an ever-increasing number of inmates, “community corrections” facilities are simply an easy ticket to freedom. Inmates have escaped or walked away from Denver halfway houses at a record pace this year. According to…