“My wife is down at the stables, seeing to the horses. Call her there.” The crisp note of annoyance was obvious in the voice of John C. Pritzlaff, the former United States ambassador to Malta. Pritzlaff, now retired to his home and stables in Montecito, California, is the father-in-law of…
I take nobody’s word these days. I don’t believe the Warren Commission. I also don’t believe the conspiracy theories of his being killed by the mob and Fidel Castro. I don’t even believe County Attorney Richard Romley when he says he has solved the murder of actor Bob Crane of…
The big crowd oozes slowly into Arizona State University’s Gammage Auditorium. It’s early morning, and in a few minutes Vice President Dan Quayle will speak. An appearance by Quayle on a politically active campus would spark dozens of protests. There are few dissidents at ASU. It is a student body…
“NOT THIS WEEKEND,” J.D. said. It was February 14, 1991, the Thursday before Presidents Day. Something was up his sleeve that he wasn’t telling. “Loose lips sink ships,” he said. He didn’t answer his telephone that Saturday. Sunday night he finally answered. He was jubilant, but a little tired from…
Could J.D. have established a pattern of “arbitrary and capricious enforcement” by the Park Service if he’d had a good lawyer connecting the dots? Could a lawyer have proved that J.D. had been singled out for prosecution? The federal magistrate took the case under advisement. APRIL 14: J.D.’s GI Bill…
THE HEAVILY TRAVELED highway from Phoenix to Las Vegas has often been called Blood Alley” because of its high number of deadly accidents. These days, however, if you’re in a gambling mood, there’s another route to the action. You start out the same way, northwest on Route 93, the Vegas…
Head football coaches live in a terrifying dream world. In that world, tumultuous laughter and happiness can instantly turn into a nightmare. Great victories are the other side of the coin to heartbreaking defeats. These coaches are very much like politicians. They are addicted to adulation. They distrust and dislike…
Here is a fascinating peek behind the scenes as the Resolution Trust Corporation’s $140 million civil suit against Governor J. Fife Symington III grinds slowly forward. When you look closely at the background of the cast of characters, the picture begins to clear. After a report was issued June 12,…
LIKE A CHILD hiding a caramel from a playmate, Jim Cryer conceals the plastic key chain with puckish delight. He is about to tell what he calls a nasty joke.” ²In his native Tennessean twang, he begins with what seems like a well-rehearsed question: Have you ever been on Mission…
Just before closing time, Bill Mounts strolls past the bare shelves of Euro Market to the check-out stand. Mounts, night manager of the beleaguered upscale grocery, spies a rumpled dollar bill on the floor. This dollar could save the store,” jokes Mounts, as he grabs the bill and hands it…
NOW THAT THE holidays are over and the reporters and TV crews aren’t hanging around anymore, things are back to normal at Central Arizona Shelter Services. But normal at CASS isn’t exactly quiet. Property owners near CASS, located at 1209 West Madison, have always complained about how the state’s largest…
CASS shut down its outdoor campground in 1990, she says, because the agency didn’t have enough money to operate it. About 200 people per night had been allowed to camp there. As recently as last month, says Orton, the board discussed reopening the outdoor area. One plan was to build…
There, up on the stage, was Annie Leibovitz. At the very sight of the celebrity photographer, the standing-room-only audience in the theatre at Phoenix Art Museum burst into applause. Leibovitz is a tall, angular woman with a nose as prominent as the one that gave the late writer Lillian Hellman…
USING FLASHLIGHTS and kerosene lanterns to lance the darkness, incredulous lawmen warily make their way through the horrific clutter inside the Wisconsin farmhouse. It is the evening of November 16, 1957, and the men have good reason to be wary. They are prowling through Ed Gein’s ramshackle playground of death,…
®MD120¯ Ä CTEXTSETTER Ä 222 Lines Ä Depth 95.4 Picas Ä 15.89 In. Ä 33.94 Col In. ÄÄ ®MDNM¯ ®MDUL¯Agnes Lang says of the car salesmen: ÔWe figured they were honest people.” In July 1989, 77-year-old Agnes Lang bought a car from East Valley Jeep Eagle. After a day of…
Like any successful merchant, Mike Vito gets a lot of satisfaction from the well-stocked shelves in his stores. And so do his customers. Most Phoenix retailers may have had a puny Christmas season, but the seven adult bookstores in the Valley owned by Bookcellar Incorporated, of which Mike Vito is…
To me, Craig Tribken was the white knight in the battle against the forces of darkness. When it was still politically dangerous, Tribken led the way in the battle to create a public park on the site of the old Phoenix Indian School property. The Barron Collier family of Florida…
All in all, it was unconvincing. The catch in Bruce’s throat seemed genuine, but there seemed to be no logic to his confession. No one had held a gun to his head, no one had slapped him around, no one had forced him to answer the detectives’ questions. In fact,…
The investigators say they were reluctant to believe McGraw at first, but at the time he was the best lead they had. McGraw listed an impressive array of hardware allegedly used by the killers, including such glamorous weapons as a plastic Glock pistol and a 9-millimeter Beretta, but none of…
COPS DON’T ARREST people just because they claim to have committed crimes. There are troubled people out there who will confess to practically anything. More than 200 people tried to accept the blame for the Lindbergh baby kidnaping in the 1930s, and the six suspects who were eventually charged in…
When fast feeders locate on a strip shopping center’s pad, the design review boards force them to sing in tune with the strip’s colors and materials-to use blue roof tiles, for example, if same are in the backdrop. This doesn’t necessarily mean good design; it simply relieves conflict. The boards…
AMERICA MAKES the best fast food in the world. This is not an oxymoron. It is one overlooked point of light in our black hole of economic gloom. No Russian morozhenoye franchises are popping up in downtown Phoenix, even though ice cream might be more welcome here than in frosty…
