Crime

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Review: The Darkness II

The heart of the matter
Have you ever felt a rage so powerful and consuming that it seemed to be operating under its own control? That's the Darkness.
By MITCH KRPATA | February 15, 2012

Tattoos As A Criminal Act
A controversial legislative proposal developed by a secretive police group would send an individual to prison for up to 40 years if he or she is convicted of asking someone to join a criminal street gang.
By LANCE TAPLEY | January 25, 2012

Law & Disorder: The Best of Last Semester's Campus Crime Logs

Best time of your life? Hardly. Behold these stunning antics, ripped straight from the campus crime blotters.
Incident logs available online and/or at campus police stations display laundry lists of amateur-hour escapades and bike/backpack/wallet/gadget thefts. Here are some amusing, singular shenanigans and trends from last semester culled from public records
By BARRY THOMPSON | January 25, 2012

Review: The Devil Inside

William Brent Bell's limp mockumentary
William Brent Bell's film opens with a disclaimer that "the Vatican does not endorse this movie." No kidding — the Catholic Church isn't exactly known for its sense of humor.
By ALEXANDRA CAVALLO | January 10, 2012

Review: Into the Abyss

Werner Herzog turns to the abyss of capital punishment
From the abyss of time in Cave of Forgotten Dreams , Werner Herzog turns to the abyss of capital punishment in today's America.
By PETER KEOUGH | November 09, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Hollow justice

The FBI might have got its man, but anyone seeking real accountability from Whitey Bulger's government enablers will come away empty-handed yet again
When Whitey Bulger was arrested in Santa Monica, California, this summer, it may have seemed that a new day had dawned for the local FBI and for the Justice Department.
By DAVID BOERI | October 05, 2011

Gangs, Inc.: A special report

Mergers & mayhem
This story was originally published in the April 27, 1990, issue of the Boston Phoenix.
By SEAN FLYNN AND RIC KAHN | October 06, 2011

Review: Killer Elite

Narrative confusion
First Point Blank and now Killer Elite — isn't there a copyright law about stealing the titles of a better movie? Gary McEndry's espionage thriller isn't bad, but it isn't Peckinpah; all the two films have in common are the title and lots of shooting.
By PETER KEOUGH | September 20, 2011

Trinity Rep’s rip-roaring His Girl Friday

The write stuff
There are theatrical adaptations and then there are magnificent transformations, like His Girl Friday . Multiple-Obie Award-winning playwright John Guare has expanded the furious screwball comedy into a historical/social commentary without our losing out on the knee-slapping.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | September 21, 2011

Young activists explore police department

Portland 101
There are three streets in Portland that police lieutenant Janine Roberts won't walk down alone, learned a group of interested citizens organized by the League of Young Voters on a visit to the Portland Police Department last Wednesday.
By JEFF INGLIS | September 21, 2011

Review: Circumstance

Schoolgirls in hijabs
Circumstance begins like an early Kiarostami film, but with schoolgirls in hijabs instead of schoolboys in sweaters.
By ANN LEWINSON | September 06, 2011

Review: The Disappearance of McKinley Nolan

Rich in mysteries
An investigative doc brimming with cultural resonance and historical savvy, Henry Corra's film has ahold of a pungent story — that of the titular black Texan fella who vanished in Vietnam 40 years ago.
By MICHAEL ATKINSON | August 30, 2011

Review: Chasing Madoff

Jeff Prosserman's documentary
Few will dispute the evil avarice behind the $50 billion Ponzi scheme Bernie Madoff masterminded.
By TOM MEEK | August 23, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

How a Rembrandt wound up on a pig farm

Stealing Beauty
The next time you're bored on a Friday night and considering a caper at the RISD Museum, Anthony Amore wants you to consider this: you're more likely to make a few bucks begging the high school crowd on Thayer Street.
By DANIEL MCGOWAN | August 10, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Review: If a Tree Falls

A ggressive hippies
Director Marshall Curry's If a Tree Falls tells the full tale of the ELF's genesis in Oregon, and of the group's badass campaign of "economic sabotage" that left more than 1200 symbols of bourgeois excess (a Vail ski resort, an SUV dealership) burned to the ground.
By CHRIS FARAONE | July 26, 2011

Busy Monsters

Chapter 1, excerpted from the novel by William Giraldi
STUNNED BY LOVE and some would say stupid from too much sex, I decided I had to drive down South to kill a man.
By WILLIAM GIRALDI | July 20, 2011

Curbing corruption with a catch-all

Vague Justice?
Sal DiMasi is no saint, but that doesn't mean he's a criminal. His behavior makes us grimace, but it simply doesn't amount to a state or federal felony.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | June 24, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Corporate prison bill 'carried over'

Inmate Exile Dept.
Although LD 690, A BILL TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR "EXILED" PRISONERS TO RETURN TO MAINE , was killed May 6 by the Legislature's Criminal Justice Committee, political activist Ron Huber, who had pushed it, declared "victory in Augusta" on his Facebook page.
By LANCE TAPLEY | May 12, 2011

Review: Henry's Crime

False conviction
If you had to compare it to a Russian classic, Malcolm Venville's mild comedy about a nobody (Keanu Reeves) who gets busted for a crime he didn't commit might suggest half-baked Dostoevsky or lightweight Gogol.
By PETER KEOUGH | April 19, 2011

A bankrobber downsizes

Annals of Crime
There's nothing like an art heist to make a journalist spout hyperbole.
By JOHN LARRABEE | April 13, 2011

At a turning point

LePage's nominee to head Corrections has the skills to fix Maine's broken prison system. Will the governor and lawmakers give Joseph Ponte the tools?
When Joseph Ponte was told that Maine's longtime corrections commissioner Martin Magnusson had once informed the Legislature's Criminal Justice Committee, after a dramatic hostage-taking, that there were "probably 300 inmates right now with a weapon in their hand" — and that nobody at the committee meeting seemed disturbed by this information — Ponte's reaction was "I would be extremely perturbed by that."
By LANCE TAPLEY | February 09, 2011

Three-point stance

Balls, pucks, and monster trucks
With Green Bay and Pittsburgh squaring off on Super Bowl Sunday, three things about the current state of pro football keep occurring to me that I'd like to share with you, gentle reader.
By RICK WORMWOOD | January 26, 2011

Review: The Murder Trial of John Gordon at the Park Theatre

Trial from another era
Who knew? Everybody knows about that frisky, independent start by Roger Williams, and the first bloodshed of the American Revolution with the burning of the Gaspee , but who knows about the dispute between the lowly immigrant Gordon family and the prestigious Spragues, which resulted in the last state execution in Rhode Island, back in 1845?
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 18, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Food fights

Marshall football orders out, and Rick Pitino regrets getting table service
At least it wasn't a home invasion.
By MATT TAIBBI | August 11, 2010

Unsafe Passage: The dangers of getting to and from the job

Equal Writes
One evening in February, Sara left her State Street office building shortly after six o'clock to walk to her car. As she put the key in the lock of the car door, a man grabbed her from behind and hissed in her ear, "Get in the car."
By SUSAN STOBAUGH | July 13, 2010