Society’s Child I actually was relieved to finally read the last chapter of Steve Jackson’s “Dealing with the Devil,” in the June 3 issue. I am a member of the local media as well, and I must say I’ve never seen a story so in-depth and detailed. I must also…
It’s a long way from Centennial Airport to Altoona, Pennsylvania. The miles would pass quickly if you could hop a plane and fly there, of course–but Centennial doesn’t have any commercial flights. Not to Altoona, and not to anywhere else. These days, the airport doesn’t even have FAA funding. But…
Jay Balano thought it was strange when a woman from the Colorado Department of Transportation walked into his Print Stop store last winter, asking for him by name. He thought it was even stranger when the woman offered to arrange a printing contract with the state worth close to $20,000,…
In the only game Mark Skipper plays at Madison Square Garden, the cathedral of basketball, the seventeen-year-old sees an apparition of sorts. The godlike images of Walt Frazier, Earl “the Pearl” Monroe and Bill Bradley dribble through his mind. “Here I am,” Skipper says to himself, “playing on the same…
Sloan Shoemaker never guessed that getting hitched would be such a headache. All he wanted was to give his fiancee the fairy-tale wedding of her dreams; he even backed his vow with a down payment–$6,700, to be exact. In January, the groom-to-be called the stately Redstone Castle, where he wanted…
Erotic dancers in Lakewood must now apply for and purchase a $25 entertainer license. They may not dance within six feet of their customers; they may not perform on a stage that moves, rolls, raises or shakes, and the stage itself must be at least eighteen inches off the ground,…
Mr. Brown goes to Washington–not!: Brooks Brown, the Columbine student who was the subject of Eric Harris’s online threats–“All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you pricks as I can, especially a few people. Like Brooks,” read one Harris rant–was all set to join in…
Growing older, you find yourself searching for the deeper meanings in things, for their essence, with an intensity that would have been unlikely, or impossible, earlier in life. Why, you may find yourself asking, did your strikingly beautiful, once-married aunt, a mysterious woman by any account, stay so long in…
It happened in a place where the land rises and falls like ocean swells, and what the earth didn’t claim, souvenir-hunters did, until all that remained were trail fragments, faded memories and the restless winds of the prairie. And in this way, a killing ground was lost. May 1999: Metal…
A Matter of Life and Death We would like to make some comments regarding Steve Jackson’s “Dealing with the Devil” series, which concluded in the June 3 issue. First of all, the Warren brothers are not related to Francisco “Pancho” Martinez. Second, we feel that the justice system has failed…
Earlier this year, Detective John Incampo quit the Lakewood Police Department after a quarter-century of working as a cop–the last half of it as a detective–to begin a new career in corporate security. As his last day approached, he wrapped up his loose ends, handing over pending cases to his…
May 10, 1999 “Now that the facts have been determined, the presumption of innocence is gone, and Francisco Martinez Jr. sits before you a convicted rapist and murderer.” Deputy District Attorney Ingrid Bakke catches the people gathered in the courtroom in mid-murmur, like a play’s narrator just before the curtain…
When they tore it down on January 25, most people didn’t even know. Bob Hooley knew, of course, but he tried to ignore it. Mister Twister–the best ride of his life, number one on his list–had finally been reduced to a pile of lumber. “For every year that you live,…
Mud wrestling: Politics has taken a nasty turn in Glendale since the combative Tea Party won three city council seats last spring and proceeded to demolish the unpopular strip-club restrictions pushed by Mayor Joe Rice. Rice and the Party faithful have duked it out over taxes, lobbyists and such consuming…
What would you do with $300 million? If you were a member of the feuding Magness clan, you might decide to build a casino in Black Hawk or even launch a new career as a caterer. Never mind that much of the money from the estate of cable pioneer Bob…
A Life or Death Matter Regarding Steve Jackson’s “The Final Judgment,” in the May 27 issue: While there is no question that Brandy DuVall would most likely still be alive if she had been home the evening she was abducted, I still do not believe that state-sponsored blood sport in…
Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. This story is not about money. How could it be, when Adelaide de Menil and her husband, Ted Carpenter, have so much that it’s falling from the sky–or, technically, the beams of their eighteenth-century Long Island farmhouse,…
Hal Sargent takes a last glance at his notes before looking up at the panel of judges. Two years of prosecuting members of the Deuce-Seven Bloods gang for the May 1997 rape and murder of fourteen-year-old Brandy DuVall are nearly at an end. This is not the time to falter…
Linda McLaughlin sits on an examining table in the blood- and marrow-transplant unit of Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers. Though she’s a heavyset woman, there’s a fragility about her. Her voice, sweet and light like a child’s, trembles between exultation and grief and sometimes explodes in a mini-burst of laughter. She…
Life hasn’t been the same for J. Stewart Jackson IV since 1996, when he sold Denver Burglar Alarm, the business his family had run since 1917 (“Who Stole Denver Burglar Alarm?” September 17, 1998). An effort to start a new company last summer–Jackson Burglar Alarm–has resulted in a lawsuit filed…
Each time a neighborhood dispute breaks out in Denver and city officials throw up their hands in despair, they call one man to solve the problem: Steve Charbonneau. Perhaps it’s because Charbonneau’s nonprofit agency, Community Mediation Concepts, is easy to reach. One of its two offices is located inside city…
Getting soaked: The socialite crowd attending Ocean Journey’s pre-opening gala last weekend had to be nimble to dodge the wet weather, but it’s the general public that’s going to get hosed when they hit the ticket windows next month. No expense was spared in building the much-hyped, special-effects-laden mega-aquarium, and…
