Last month Cindy Martin, an instructor at the University of Colorado at Denver, asked the students in her Internet-based magazine-writing class to submit an introductory essay; she asked them to describe themselves with anecdotes that showed their “uniqueness.” Student Scott Lafferty thought he did a pretty good job. The 34-year-old…
Denver baseball fans find themselves nailed to the couch again this October, watching a pair of teams from distant cities contest the World Series. This is the way it’s been for five seasons, and likely the way it will remain for five or ten or who knows how many more…
A Killer Story After reading Alan Prendergast’s “The Killer Inside Him,” in the October 16 issue, I realized that killing him was too good for Gary Davis. First he should have suffered the way his victim suffered–and then we should have put fourteen bullets in him. Thanks for showing us…
Self-proclaimed millionaire Terry Walker can look for miles in any direction from his Southwestern-style mansion in the mountains just west of Denver. He can see just about anything from this lavish perch. The real question is whether anyone can see him. Walker, a 58-year-old businessman who says he emerged from…
Like hundreds of other men on death rows across America, Gary Lee Davis paid attention when Ted Bundy took the juice in Florida’s electric chair in 1989. Just hours before his execution, while the hecklers gathered outside sang “On Top of Old Sparky,” Bundy granted his last interview to psychologist…
With all its bureaucratic ritual and live, up-to-the-minute news bursts, Monday’s execution of Gary Davis was a collective wallowing in death by media injection. Not having carried out an execution in thirty years, officials at the Colorado Department of Corrections were determined to get it right. Not having covered one,…
It’s mid-afternoon on an unseasonably warm October day, and Taz is rubbing Rebecca’s back. They’re hanging out on the steps at downtown’s Skyline Park. Teens and young adults periodically stop by to bum a cigarette, chat or share some fries. Swells of laughter mix with the soft thwacking sound of…
About five years ago, a couple of male postal clerks at the downtown post office at 20th and Curtis streets started coming up with nicknames for some of their co-workers, who are mostly female. “Roly-poly ass,” “big black cow,” “horse teeth” and “black butt” are a few examples. “Wackadoo,” “Mack…
Rocky Mountain lie: Even before Colorado broke a thirty-year stretch by executing Gary Davis Monday night, a kinder, gentler, sappier era had ended. First came the news that John Denver, born Henry Deutschendorf Jr., had died in a plane crash off the California coast. (Earliest and, so far, most tasteless…
There aren’t many patients rich or important enough for a hospital to consider building a brand-new wing just for them. But Denver Health Medical Center is on the verge of bestowing such VIP treatment on one group: prisoners. Last week, administrators for the medical center (formerly Denver General) pitched the…
What, if anything, should the city of Denver do to prevent the construction of ugly buildings? With Denver’s construction boom showing no sign of letting up, neighborhood activists and some property owners are advocating the creation of design review boards with the power to dictate the design of new buildings…
When I first knew Grissom–it seems like a century ago now–he was like a lot of other well-heeled jock wannabes. He wanted sporting goods. All kinds of sporting goods, and nothing but the best. When Wilson came out with its top-of-the-line A-2000 outfielder’s glove, Grissom (a pseudonym) was the first…
Johnnie’s Market is closed. Cerrado. For the first time in over sixty years, Johnnie’s is not open for business. “Closed because of illness,” the sign on the door reads, although people walk right in anyway. They cannot imagine Larimer Street without Johnnie’s. Ed Maestas, who’s owned Johnnie’s for over two…
Cut Him Off I read Eric Dexheimer’s “Fill ‘er Up,” in the October 2 issue, with great disgust and disdain. Leroy Lucero’s Crossroads Managed Care is reminiscent of the institution and staff in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest–another bunch of self-righteous zealots who justify their cause under the guise…
Kneeling in prayer at Denver’s Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Kerry Dore lit six candles–one for each of his four children, one for his ex-wife, and one for himself. He had already purchased a pistol and bullets, and he felt that God was guiding him during his final hours on…
In this desert, no living thing moves. Rocks and saguaro cactus bake on the barren hills. The sun is so bright that it hurts to look at it–even on a television screen. A voice, British and full of Shakespearean portent, rolls over the scene. “It has all the hallmarks of…
Single mother Dana Gonzales moved five times around the Denver metro area with her young son Nathan between 1993 and 1995. With each move, says Gonzales, she was trying to provide a better life for herself and her son. But Nathan’s father, Anthony Wetmore, saw something else in Gonzales’s itinerant…
When Boeing acquired a division of Rockwell International last year, it also acquired Rockwell’s controversial 1992 plea agreement that settled a lengthy investigation into environmental crimes at the Rocky Flats nuclear-weapons plant. But now Boeing executives are considering withdrawing that guilty plea–if the judge will let them. Late last month,…
The Adams County Sheriff’s Department has put together a manual to help landlords spot potential troublemakers–did you know that Asian gangsters like Japanese vehicles?–and is trying to spread the word on the Front Range about gangs and drugs. But after deputies took their “Landlord Training Program” up to Georgetown, a…
It was funds while it lasted: The RTD board was so proud of its hastily adopted (and sadly unconstitutional) Resolution 15, “‘Guide the Ride’ is NOT for sale,” that in late August it sent a hurried notice to potential RTD bidders, warning them that if they wanted to bid on…
Baseball’s ghost of honor this season was Jackie Robinson, and the hundreds of uplifting things the scores of speechmakers said in ballparks from coast to coast about his courage were long overdue. But they told only part of the story. Half a century after Robinson broke baseball’s color line, he…
Dead to Writes After reading her October 2 column, “Father Knows Best,” here’s what I want to know: If Patricia Calhoun is ever found murdered in Boulder, what do you think the cops will call it? The answer to their prayers, maybe? Art Berg Denver Face it: Justice will never…
