Wild West Train Robber Killed by Engineer

A few years ago, my brother and I published a book entitled, Outgunned! True Stories of Citizens Who Stood Up to Outlaws--and Won. The book described a dozen cases from the Wild West through the Prohibition-era in which the good guys took on the bad guys and came out on top. The following story, similar to those in our book, came directly from an old newspaper. Notice the decidedly politically incorrect way of looking at things from a bygone era.

Sterling Evening Gazette
September 7, 1896

HARD ON BANDITS
Locomotive Engineers Do This Sort of Trick.
BUSINESS WILL BE VERY UNSAFE

Sacramento, Cal., Sept. 7. — An attempt was made Saturday night to hold up the overland express eight miles west of this city. Engineer Ingles killed one of the robbers, and then pulled out and the train reached this city. Sheriff Johnson and posse went at once to the scene on a special train. The body of the train robber was found lying near the track. In his hand was grasped a loaded pistol.

The man's name is thought to have been F. J. Morgan, and he probably came from San Francisco. Engineer Ingles, in speaking of his adventure, said: “After passing Swingle station, a man climbed over the tender, and looking over the coal board commanded me to throw up my hands. I could see from his attitude and his tone that he meant business, and I also got the impression that he was an old hand at the business. He told me to stop the train, which I did. As I stopped the train another masked man climbed up the bank and asked the train robber on the cab if everything was all right.

“The young fellow answered: ‘Yes, all fixed.’ The man on the engine then ordered me to pull the train up two car-lengths further. He told my fireman to go back with the masked man who had climbed up the bank and uncouple the express car from the rest of the train.

Engineer Makes a Good Thug.

“Burns and the masked robber started back along the train. The conductor and brakeman came out on the platform of one of the cars to see where the train stopped. The masked robber shot at them twice with his revolver and with a string of oaths ordered them back into the train. At the sound of the shooting the robber with me on the engine stepped to the side between the cab and tender and looked back. He turned his back to me. That was my opportunity and I lost no time in taking advantage of it. I reached down into my locker, got my revolver and shot him in the back. I shot again and he pitched forward from the engine to the earth and rolled down the bank.

“As he fell his revolver went off. Then I pulled the throttle wide open. I had business in Sacramento right away and I got there. The fireman was back on the train. I fired all the way in myself and kept poking coal into her all the way. We got in thirteen minutes late. Fireman Burns says that the robber who was guarding him jumped from the train when he heard the shooting and the train commenced to move.”

The End of the World

Doomsday never came
by Robert A. Waters

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son but only the Father.” Jesus Christ.

Doomsday prophets we have with us always.

Respected meteorologist Albert Porta once predicted that on December 17, 1919, “the conjunction of 6 planets would generate a magnetic current that would cause the sun to explode and engulf the earth.” As a respected scientist, Porta’s pronouncements gained credibility among many. Suicides and mass hysteria led up to the non-event. But as soon as the hullabaloo died down, a disgraced Porta was summarily fired from his job. In his final years, the failed prognosticator took a job as a small-town newspaper reporter and faded into well-deserved oblivion.

In April, 1961, the insufferable Bertrand Russell predicted that if the great super-powers of the day didn’t change their policies, “it is in the highest degree improbable that any of you present will be alive ten years hence.” (I would have been seventeen-years-old at the time and I don’t remember this prediction, but then again, I don’t remember much about Russell except falling asleep while trying to wade through some of his ponderous philosophical treatises for yet another useless college course I took. I never liked him after that and was glad to see that he was as spectacularly wrong on this matter as he was on just about everything else.) An article in the Kingston Jamaican Gleaner summed up his history of foretelling the future: “Lord Russell is in the habit of predicting the imminent end of the world. Last time he gave it two years and demonstrated surprise, but little gratitude, when it lasted longer than that.”

Millenium Manor, or "Armageddon House," in Alcoa, Tennessee, was built in the 1930s for an end-of-the-world scenario that was, according to its creator, William Andrew Nicholson, to take place in 1969. The massive stone house was built to survive Armageddon and last another 1,000 years. Nicholson thought that everyone in the world would be destroyed except for him and 144,000 other righteous people. They would then live for 1,000 years before the return of Christ when they would be spirited into heaven and the earth incinerated. Nicholson died in 1965, thus cheating his critics of the chance to confront him. His house, however, built like a Roman fortress, still stands and probably will for several millennia.

The so-called “Grannis Vigil” took place between September 29, 1975 and July 16, 1976. It was in the little town of Grannis, Arkansas that approximately twenty-five residents quit their jobs, left their homes, and moved into a cramped residence to await the end of the world. They received quite a bit of publicity as they patiently awaited the return of Christ. For ten months they persevered, their homes falling into arrears and their cars being repossessed. Gene Nance, owner of the home where the watchers had gathered, eventually was evicted for not making his mortgage payments, thereby putting a screeching halt to the vigil. He and his followers blended back into Grannis society, their strange wait now just a footnote in local history books.

Lee Jang Lim, pastor of the Tami Missionary Church in South Korea, predicted that the destruction of earth would occur in September, 1992. Thousands fell for the shyster’s lies and seemed surprised when the old sphere kept spinning. A few weeks later, his followers were also surprised to find that Lim had $350,000 “in bonds due to come good in 1995.” He was arrested for fraud and mercifully disappeared from the public eye.

In 999 A.D., mass hysteria swept the earth. Many were convinced that at midnight on December of that year, the world would end. It was no different in 1999 A.D. As the doomsday clock ticked toward midnight on that last day of the year, millions cringed at the disaster that awaited planet earth. At one second after midnight, computers would crash, planes would fall out of the sky, and the world would go black as utilities failed. Chaos, anarchy, and crime would follow. Civilization would quickly become just a mere thought in the memory banks of the stragglers who survived. Y2K may not wipe us out, but it would certainly send us reeling back to the stone-age. On January 1, 2000, many awoke with hangovers and relief—the world had continued on as it has for thousands of years.

A few months ago, Harold Camping predicted that the “rapture” would occur on May 21, 2011. Five months later, the world would end. (Before this date, he’d also predicted that September, 1994 would be the end of the world.) An article written by a FOX News reporter summed up Camping's prognostication: “According to the Christian broadcaster, Judgment Day was supposed to bring a massive earthquake, powerful enough to throw open graves, followed by a slow death for all non-believers over the next five months across the globe. He went on to say only 200 million people will be saved and those left behind will die in earthquakes, plagues, and other calamities until Earth is consumed by a fireball on October 21.”

Next year, a long-suffering public will be afflicted with the “2012 Apocalypse,” supposedly predicted by the Mayan Calendar. According to believers, a cataclysmic series of solar storms and magnetic pole misalignments will bring about the end of time. While taking time off from sacrificing children to the gods, the great Mayan priests were allegedly able to see into the future for thousands of years. On December 21, 2012, the sayers said, earthquakes, mega-volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes and numerous other natural catastrophes will come together in a perfect storm of destruction, thereby sending the planet spiraling into the abyss.

So once again the end is near.

I’ve got a suggestion for those inclined to believe such prophecies of doom: keep paying that mortgage.

Life Without “America’s Most Wanted”

Bad guys celebrate as AMW folds
by Robert A. Waters

Five million viewers each Saturday night aren’t enough, so “America’s Most Wanted” has been deep-sixed. To replace the beloved show, the FOX network is going to slug in some reruns. They also plan to have new two-hour episodes every three months.

AMW was born on February 11, 1988. That show caught its first bad guy a few days later, setting the stage for two decades of successful captures. The bad guy was an evil psychopath named David James Roberts. He also happened to be one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted fugitives.

Roberts was a career criminal who incinerated three innocent people, including a toddler, when he burned down a family’s home. He later kidnapped a woman and her baby, raped the mother, and left the infant by the side of the road. The child died of exposure. After the first AMW aired, viewers in Staten Island called in to identify Roberts. He was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to six terms of life in prison.

It’s safe to say that had Roberts not been arrested, he would have murdered again.

Over the years, the show has helped capture 1,150 fugitives. It has also found more than 50 missing children.

Two of the most sensational cases solved by viewers of AMW were the John List case and the Elizabeth Smart abduction. List murdered his entire family, then fled to Colorado where he became a mild-mannered accountant. Eighteen years later, AMW commissioned forensic sculptor Frank Bender to sculpt a bust showing what List might look like as an older man. List was captured after a viewer recognized him.

In 2002, Smart was abducted from her home as her family slept. One of the most intense manhunts America had seen at the time produced no results. When Elizabeth’s younger sister (who'd been sleeping in the same room) recalled that her kidnapper was a man who had worked on the family’s roof for one day, police didn’t believe her. He'd gone only by the name "Emanuel"--no one knew his real identity. AMW hired an artist to draw a sketch of the suspect based on the girl's memory. When it aired, the family of a drifter named Brian David Mitchell recognized him and called the show. Within a few weeks, a viewer of AMW saw Mitchell and two women walking down a street in Sandy, Utah. One of the women turned out to be Elizabeth Smart. It was one of most sensational rescues of a kidnap victim ever recorded. And it was all due to AMW.

“America’s Most Wanted” has been my favorite television show for many years. I'll miss it. But maybe now I can catch a few “Malcolm in the Middle” reruns. NOT!

Intended Rape Victim Kills Attacker

Israel Perez Puentes

Intruder had a long criminal history
by Robert A. Waters

A few days ago, on May 11, in Duluth, Georgia, a woman lived through a nightmare and lived to tell about it.

As reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the woman, whose identity has not been made public, was taking a shower at 6:30 a.m. Suddenly the lights went out. When she opened the curtains to see why, she was startled by an intruder holding a knife. He attacked the homeowner, but she fought for her life. During the struggle, she fell backwards into the shower, injuring her back. As the life or death battle continued, she grabbed the shower rod in an attempt to fight her assailant off.

"She was telling him that she has money and please don’t hurt her," an official with the Gwinnet County Police Department said. "He forced her into her bedroom [and] once inside…she retrieved a .22-caliber pistol and shot him several times." It was reported by another news outlet that she in fact shot him nine times.

According to police, the assailant planned to rape the intended victim. After the intruder was shot, he ran out the back door and the homeowner ran to a neighbor’s house. Police found the assailant dead in the back yard.

The victim was taken to the hospital, treated for minor injuries, and released. Police said she would not be charged.

The dead man was identified as Israel Perez Puentes, 34, of nearby Alpharetta. WSBTV.com reported that he had been arrested six months earlier: “Police stopped Puentes that night and found tools to break into homes and a nine millimeter hand gun, according to the police report. Investigators also discovered Puentes had eight prior felony convictions in Nebraska, including four convictions for terroristic threats. The felony convictions made it illegal to carry a gun.”

A righteous shooting, so the cops would say.

This reminds me of a case that happened near Tampa a few years back. Maria Pittaras went to bed one night only to wake up with a man on top of her. He held a knife to her throat and attempted to rape her. Pittaras pulled a .38-caliber revolver from a nightstand and shot her assailant. He died on the scene.

Women with guns.

Rapists beware.

Baby Abducted As World War II Ends

Janet Lynn Bramon was never found
By Robert A. Waters

On August 14, 1945, at 4:00 p.m. Pacific Time, President Harry Truman read a statement that was broadcast by radio to the cities and villages and farms of America. “I have received this afternoon,” he said, “a message from the Japanese government…of the unconditional surrender of Japan.”

World War II was over. Nearly a half-million American men had been killed and another half-million wounded. Men from every segment of society had bled their lives away on battlefields across the globe. The announcement of Japan's surrender triggered massive celebrations from a war-weary country.

In Los Angeles, crowds exploded into the streets. Businesses quickly closed. Cheers rocked the city for hours. Horns sounded throughout the evening and night. Sirens wailed in a wild celebration of victory. Confetti streamed from upstairs office buildings and covered the crowds. In the midst of the jubilation, strangers hugged and stoic men wept like babies.

It was the perfect time to commit an abominable act, and the abduction of eight-week-old Janet Lynn Bramon was just such a crime.

Exactly twenty-six years later, in 1971, the Los Angeles Times published segments of a letter from Charlotte Bramon. Her intent, she said, was to get the police to reopen the case.

As the nation celebrated the end of World War II, Bramon wrote, a nursemaid had stolen her baby. “She couldn’t have picked a better day,” Bramon said. “It was pandemonium.”

The babysitter, who went by the name of Marie Griffin, had been hired only three days before. As the celebration began, she simply took the child and walked into the street. The woman and the baby disappeared among the throngs never to be seen again.

Police launched a wide-ranging search, but never found the child or her abductor. Many of the cops who worked the case were of the opinion that the nursemaid had given a false name and that her purpose in taking the job was to steal Janet. The celebration following the end of the war gave her the perfect opportunity.

“For months afterward,” Bramon said, “I looked at babies, abandoned or with suspicious women, always hoping it would be little Janet.”

As the days and weeks and years wore on, Bramon continued to search for her missing child. The only consolation she had was that Janet Lynn was probably being well-cared for by her abductor. “The only thing I could ever think of,” she said, “was that if the woman wanted a baby that bad, she would take care of it.”

After being contacted by reporters from the Times, police stated that they considered the case still open.

“Maybe [Janet] died,” Bramon told reporters. “[But] she’s probably married and [has] kids.”

Whatever happened to little Janet Lynn Bramon? No one knows. It seems that someone got away with the perfect crime.

Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword

FBI’s Most Wanted Man Killed
by Robert A. Waters

Last night, Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., was killed by Navy Seals. Holed up in his million-dollar compound in Abbotabad, Pakistan, bin Laden was given the opportunity to surrender. He refused.

In the firefight that followed, the terrorist leader was shot in the head. News organizations reported that a woman he used as a human shield was also killed, as well as three others.

In the last twenty years, bin Laden orchestrated the murders of thousands across the globe. In fact, one attack on innocents turned his former ally, Egypt, against him. In addition, Saudi Arabia renounced his citizenship. A man without a country, bin Laden continued his attacks on western civilians and values.

Reports stated that detainees from Guantanamo Bay alerted officials to the identity of bin Laden's most trusted courier. This courier eventually led the CIA to the terrorist's compound.

In Matthew 26, Jesus, a Jew, said: "All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."

Osama bin Laden stands as the ultimate example of that statement.

NFL Brand Needs More Tebows

2011 draft is just around the corner
by Robert A. Waters

After last year’s National Football League draft, Boston radio talk show host Fred Toettcher commented on former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow’s draft party. “It looked like some kind of Nazi rally,” he said. Toettcher reportedly objected to the fact that all of the party guests were “lily-white.” This comment, of course, says more about Toettcher than it does Tebow.

By all accounts, Tim Tebow is the kind of young man you’d want your daughter to date. The same can’t be said for many of the other draftees of 2010. After a year in the NFL, here’s how a few of the non-Nazis turned out.

Dez Bryant was the 24th pick of the Dallas Cowboys. According to reports, the former Oklahoma State wide receiver was sued for $846,000. It seems he signed a contract with jeweler Eleow Hunt while still in college. According to court affadavits, Hunt allegedly contracted to supply Bryant with gold, diamonds, and other custom jewelry. Once he signed an NFL contract, Bryant was supposed to pay Hunt for the items. He never did, resulting in the lawsuit. Other brushes that Bryant has had with the legal system makes one wonder if he will ever reach his potential on the football field. Whatever the outcome of his legal troubles, it’s safe to say that Dez Bryant is no Tim Tebow.

Just before the season began, second-round draft pick Sergio Kindle (Texas) fell down some stairs and suffered a concussion. He was unable to perform on the field, but his performance off the field netted him a DUI charge. On December 26, 2010, the Baltimore Ravens linebacker’s blood tested twice the legal limit for alcohol, according to police reports. He had a previous conviction for driving while intoxicated when he was in college.

On December 9, 2010, Perrish Cox, 137th pick of the Denver Broncos, was arrested for felonious sexual assault. Documents released by the court indicate that the alleged victim was “incapacitated” when the attack occurred. If convicted, Cox could get two years to life in prison. As with many other 2010 draft picks, this wasn't Cox’s first brush with the legal system.

Derrick Morgan, 16th pick of the Tennessee Titans, was arrested for speeding and driving with a suspended license.

Adding a little humor to an otherwise sordid group of draftees, Seattle rookie Golden Tate and a friend were accused of breaking into the Top Pot Doughnut Shop at about 3:00 a.m. one morning. They allegedly stole a set of car keys and pastries. The two weren’t arrested, although a witness told police they were drunk.

So what did Nazi Tebow do during the season?

He used a portion of his signing money to start the Tim Tebow Foundation. The organization provides educational support for at-risk youth in Colorado, helps fund an orphanage in the Phillipines, and supports trips and events that give hope and inspiration to disadvantaged youth and their families. For many years, Tebow has worked with underprivileged children. He often visits hospitals and prisons to comfort those in need.

The NFL draft begins on Thursday. Here's hoping there are a lot more Tebows and a lot less self-absorbed thugs ambling up to the podium to shake hands with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Is It Wrong To Judge People By Their Looks?

Would you trust this guy?

Perceptions and Biases to Crime and Criminals
by Tara Forten

If you were reading a crime fiction novel and if the author had not described the criminal in too much detail, what image would form in your mind as you read the book? You may think you’re not biased at all, but the truth is, most of us think of stereotypes of criminals that have been formed over the years, thanks to television and the movies – roughnecks who are unkempt and look and smell dirty, thugs with massive muscles and visible tattoos, African Americans with dreadlocks or a shaven head, and so on. This is exactly the same reason as to why we also shy away from sinister looking strangers on the street and warn our children to beware of them.

Are we actually wrong to let biases and stereotypes dictate the way we perceive the criminal intent of people, or is this just a survival instinct telling us to be careful and protect ourselves? If so, then we are leaving ourselves vulnerable to the criminal kinds that look and act normal – they are just your average people next door and you tend to trust them “instinctively” because your bias and perception of the criminal stereotype tells you that they are safe.

A recent survey found that we change our perception of crime based on the television shows we watch – with the proliferation of crime shows on TV, it’s hard to find people who’ve not seen one or the other at some point of time. Researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have found that if you prefer to watch non-fictional crime shows, you’re more likely to be more fearful of becoming a victim of crime and show less confidence in the criminal justice system. If crime fiction is your cup of tea, it really doesn’t affect your perception of falling victim to a crime or your confidence in the justice system. And if you watch the local news crime coverage, you’re more likely to believe that the local crime rate is shooting up by the day.

The reality today is that crime has reached proportions that are hard to even imagine, and no matter how safe our location and how cocooned an environment we live in, it’s best to err on the side of caution and take every precaution to safeguard your home and your family. Teach your children a few basic safety rules – never give out their address, phone number, social security number, credit card number, or any other personal information to anyone; don’t walk the streets alone, especially when it’s dark; inform an adult of your whereabouts at all times; seek out a law enforcement officer in case you think you’re being followed or harassed – and ensure that your home is well protected with alarms and deadbolts. Also, don’t trust strangers too fast and restrict access to your home for people you hardly know.

It pays to be smart and avoid becoming a victim of crime, so start protecting yourself today by taking the simple yet effective measures that have proven to work time and again.

This guest post was contributed by Tara Forten, who writes on the topic of forensic science technician online . Tara can be reached at her email id: tara.forte12_AT_gmail_dot_com

Help the FBI Solve a Murder

Victim's Encrypted Notes Could Break Cold Case

[This story is taken directly from the FBI's website.]

On June 30, 1999, sheriff’s officers in St. Louis, Missouri discovered the body of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick. He had been murdered and dumped in a field. The only clues regarding the homicide were two encrypted notes found in the victim’s pants pockets.

Despite extensive work by FBI's Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit (CRRU), as well as help from the American Cryptogram Association, the meanings of those two coded notes remain a mystery to this day, and Ricky McCormick’s murderer has yet to face justice.

“We are really good at what we do,” said CRRU chief Dan Olson, “but we could use some help with this one.”

The more than 30 lines of coded material use a maddening variety of letters, numbers, dashes, and parentheses. McCormick was a high school dropout, but he was able to read and write and was said to be “street smart.” According to members of his family, McCormick had used such encrypted notes since he was a boy, but apparently no one in his family knows how to decipher the codes, and it’s unknown whether anyone besides McCormick could translate his secret language. Investigators believe the notes in McCormick’s pockets were written up to three days before his death.



Over the years, a number of CRRU’s examiners—who are experts at breaking codes—have puzzled over the McCormick notes and applied a variety of analytical techniques to tease out an answer. “Standard routes of cryptanalysis seem to have hit brick walls,” Olson noted. Our cryptanalysts have several plausible theories about the notes, but so far, there has been no solution.

To move the case forward, examiners need another sample of McCormick’s coded system—or a similar one—that might offer context to the mystery notes or allow valuable comparisons to be made. Or, short of new evidence, Olson said, “Maybe someone with a fresh set of eyes might come up with a brilliant new idea.”

That’s where the public comes in. The FBI has always relied on tips and other assistance from the public to solve crimes, and although breaking a code may represent a special circumstance, your help could aid the investigation. Take a look at McCormick’s two notes. If you have an idea how to break the code, have seen similar codes, or have any information about the Ricky McCormick case, send them to FBI online at http://forms.fbi.gov/code write to CRRU at the following address:

FBI Laboratory
Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit
2501 Investigation Parkway
Quantico, VA 22135
Attn: Ricky McCormick Case

There is no reward being offered, just a challenge—and the satisfaction of knowing that your brain power might help bring a killer to justice.

“Even if we found out that he was writing a grocery list or a love letter,” Olson said, “we would still want to see how the code is solved. This is a cipher system we know nothing about.”

In fact, Ricky McCormick’s encrypted notes are one of CRRU’s top unsolved cases. “Breaking the code,” said Olson, “could reveal the victim’s whereabouts before his death and could lead to the solution of a homicide. Not every cipher we get arrives at our door under those circumstances.”

Crystal Gail Mangum Arrested Yet Again

Falsely accused Duke lacrosse players
by Robert A. Waters

The meta-narrative was rife with error, but still the media persisted: three privileged white athletes attending Duke University had brutally raped a poor black girl who just wanted to make a better life for her child. The few who protested this rush to judgment were branded racists, which seems to be about the worst thing you can be in this day and age.

Crystal Gail Mangum was the black girl. The fact that she was a stripper who had already run afoul of the law and had already falsely accused a man of rape was ignored.

Reade Seligman, Colin Finnerty, and David Evans were the white lacrosse players. Their anguished protestations of innocence were laughed away. Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, newspapers large and small, the administrators and professors of Duke University itself, the national true crime talk shows—everyone assigned guilt to the players because the case confirmed what they already believed. The white world is racist, so the meta-narrative reads, and black people are almost always victims of hate-filled whites.

On March 13, 2006, members of the Duke lacrosse team hired two strippers to dance for them at the off-campus university-owned home rented by several players. Mangum and Kim Roberts, another black dancer, arrived at about 11:30 p.m. Several players were drunk, as was Mangum. The dance didn’t go well, and the two hired girls left at around 1:00 a.m. (There had been name-calling between a couple of the drunken players and the dancers.)

As they left, Kim Roberts, who’d had enough of Mangum’s drunken outbursts, stopped at Kroger’s Grocery Store and attempted to get her partner to get out of her car. Someone called police at 1:22 a.m. “"There's a lady in someone else's car,” the caller said, “and she will not get out.... She's like, intoxicated, drunk or something."

When officers arrived, Mangum accused twenty lacrosse players of raping her. The responding officer didn’t believe her, and Roberts was incredulous. She claimed she’d been with Mangum the whole time, except maybe five minutes, and there was no rape.

Enter a prosecutor running a tight re-election campaign. Mike Nifong needed the black vote to win, and suddenly it seemed that a case had dropped in his lap that would seal the deal. He began making pronouncements to the media about the case, even going so far as to label the players "hooligans." His unethical and illegal statements to reporters convinced many that the players were unquestionably guilty of sexual assault, kidnapping, and rape.

Few in the media expressed any skepticism about Nifong’s accusations. Fewer still bothered to check the background of the accuser. And while she remained anonymous in news stories about the case, the photos and names of the three players were plastered all over every newspaper and television show in America. Eventually Nifong charged Seligman, Finnerty, and Evans--if convicted, each player could have received up to thirty years in prison. Even though it was obvious that two of the players (Seligman and Finnerty) were not even at the party when the alleged rape occurred.

While their rich white-boy status brought heaps of fire on their heads, it at least allowed them to hire a group of experienced, high-quality attorneys. Those lawyers were eventually able to rip the lid off the case and shine the light of truth onto a corrupt investigation.

Even as Nifong’s carefully orchestrated case broke apart, the media continued to attack the lacrosse players like slobbering wolves. Nothing seemed to be able to overcome the meta-narrative. Police fudged reports and timelines, Nifong hid DNA tests that exonerated the players, and the defense attorneys weren’t given evidence that proved the players were innocent.

By this time, most Americans could smell the stink emanating from the case, but the media slogged along as if there were no question about the players’ guilt. (It’s hard to admit you’re wrong, and most never did.)

Finally, the charges were dismissed. The State Attorney, who had taken over the investigation, informed the press that not only were they "not guilty," the three players were totally innocent. Many law enforcement officers, Duke administrators, and members of the media had their reputations shredded. Mike Nifong resigned and was disbarred, and lawsuits have been filed against many of the participants in the witch hunt.

Crystal Gail Mangum went about her life in the same manner she did before she gained infamy. After a fight with her live-in boyfriend, she was arrested in 2010 for arson, attempted murder, assault and battery, and several other charges. She eventually was convicted of child abuse, resisting an officer, and damage to public property.

On April 2, 2011, Mangum was arrested yet again. This time she was charged with stabbing another live-in boyfriend. The victim, Reginald Daye, died two weeks later and Mangum has now been charged with murder. Let’s hope that those who rushed to judgment in the Duke case will let the courts sort out the case.