Crime Story Editor

Links to all of CRIME STORY'S coverage of the Robert Durst trial are here. Episode 6: The Texas Trial of Robert Durst Episode Synopsis After the death of Morris Black, Robert Durst dismembered his body, threw the parts in Galveston Bay and made plans to flee Texas, not once but twice, the second after posting and jumping bail. Deputy DA John Lewin tells the jury that by telling a series of lies and half-truths, Durst seeded enough doubt in the minds of the Texas jurors to secure an acquittal on the charge of murdering Morris Black. You can listen now by clicking on...

The Last Gasp of the Death Penalty: An Interview with Maurice Chammah By Amanda Knox with Christopher Robinson Maurice Chammah is a Texas-based staff writer for the Marshall Project who reports primarily on the death penalty. He also organizes The Insider Prize, a contest for Texas-based incarcerated writers sponsored by American Short Fiction. Amanda Knox  How did you become interested in writing about the criminal justice system and the death penalty in particular? Maurice Chammah So after college, I moved back to Austin, Texas, which was my hometown, and I found out about this little organization here that was collecting oral histories related to the...

Sean Smith presents Part 12 of his week by week analysis of the news stories aggregated in Crime Story Daily related to COVID-19 and our carceral system. You can find links to each of Sean’s analysis pieces here. This article covers the week beginning May 31. WEEK 12 (MAY 31- JUNE 6)  On Sunday, May 31, as mass protests continued nationally against police brutality and the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, 41 cities, including Washington, D.C., imposed overnight curfews; many were extended through mid-week. Monday evening, police and National Guard units cleared demonstrators from D.C.’s Lafayette Square with flash-bang explosions and tear gas...

By Amanda Knox with Christopher Robinson We’ve all met her. That particular kind of white woman who exhibits deplorable, antisocial behaviors that range from passive aggressive entitlement to outright hostility. A “Karen.”  If you’ve ever worked in the service industry, you’ve likely had to deal with a “Nightmare of Karens” — that’s the proper collective noun, I’m told. If you’re a person of color, you may have experienced a version of the dog-walker-bird-watcher incident, where a white woman falsely told the 911 operator that a black man was threatening her life because he asked her to leash her dog. Amy Cooper...

Links to all of CRIME STORY'S coverage of the Robert Durst trial are here. Episode 5: The Killing of Morris Black Episode Synopsis It is early 2001. In the aftermath of Susan Berman's murder, Robert Durst is living disguised as a mute woman in a boarding house in Galveston, Texas, and is befriended by a new neighbor named Morris Black. Deputy DA John Lewin, using interview clips of Durst and others, chronicles the events that would lead to the killing of Morris Black in September of that year. You can listen now by clicking on your preferred platform below. Apple PodcastsSpotify Castbox - Podcast Player Acast Please...

Degrees of Separation: Maria DiLorenzo’s Deep Dive Into a Local Killing Spree By Amanda Knox with Christopher Robinson Maria DiLorenzo’s poetry has appeared in the Barrier Islands Review, The Flea, Hawaii Pacific Review, and the Pennsylvania Literary Journal. Her current writing obsession, however, is Maksim Gelman, a man currently serving a 225-year sentence at Sing Sing Correctional Facility for murdering four people and injuring five during a two-day stabbing spree in mid-February 2011. How does a poet go from Keats to killers? And why? I spoke with DiLorenzo to find out.  Amanda Knox  Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? Maria DiLorenzo I...