#Liquor Shop Robbery Gang

[townpostin]

Jamshedpur Police Bust Major Robbery Gang, Recover Stolen Goods

Four Arrested In Operation Targeting Liquor Shop Thieves Special Investigation Team uncovers cache of weapons, vehicles, and stolen liquor. JAMSHEDPUR – The Jamshedpur Police on Wednesday busted a significant robbery gang on July 10. They apprehended four individuals who were responsible for a string of thefts at liquor shops throughout the region. "We intercepted the suspects near Salbani turn…

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Lashes for Hold-Up Pair,” Ottawa Journal. February 15, 1933. Page 1. --- TWO BROTHERS ALSO GET TERMS  OF THREE YEARS --- James and Anthony Burke Soundly Scored by Magistrate Strike. --- OFFENCE A BRUTAL AND COWARDLY ONE --- Three years in Kingston Penitentiary and 10 Iashes each was the penalty meted out in Police Court this morning to James Burke, 35, 287 Rideau street [LEFT], and Anthony Burke, 351 1/2 Sussex street [RIGHT], brothers, both of whom had admitted brutally beating up James W. Patterson, 565, Gladstone avenue, in an attempted robbery on the evening of January 29.

Mr. Patterson, who is 73 years of age, was set upon by the two men when locking up the store, and only the sturdy resistance which he offered to the savage attack saved his possessions and resulted in the men running away. He was kicked and beaten to near insensibility. 

Brutal and Cowardly Offence. In passing sentence on the Burkes. Magistrate Glenn E. Strike commented, "to show leniency to men like you would be to set the law at naught. Your crime is one of the worst that has come before me since I was appointed to the bench. I can’t imagine a more brutal and cowardly offence. 

‘It as rather fortunate that you are charged with just assault with intent to rob. It might easily have been a much graver charge.’

Were Under Influence In pleading guilty the pair declared they were under the influence of liquor at the time and were not fully responsible for their actions. Both were arrested a week ago by Detective Duncan McDonell. of the city police force.

[AL: James Burke was 35, married with gun shot scars in his hip and left groin, a tattoo of his name on his right forearm, and worked as a chauffeur.  He was convict #2974 and worked in the trucking gang outside the walls, hauling goods. His brother Anthony was 23, single, covered in tattoos, including an eagle and bear on his chest, a Japanese Lady on his left forearm, snake on his right forearm, stars on his back and hands, a ship on his left arm, a sailor boy on his right, and a bird with a mother scroll on his chest - he was a waiter in a restaurant. He was convict #2973 and worked in the blacksmith shop. Neither man had a criminal record, curiously. Both men were released December 1934 on a ticket-of-leave.]

[aion-rsa]

The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 17 Review: Uncut Femmes

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This The Simpsons review contains spoilers.

The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 17

The Simpsons Season 32, episode 17, ” Uncut Femmes,” is a caper comedy, and criminals Sarah Wiggum (Megan Mullally) and Fat Tony (Joe Mantegna) steal every scene they are in. Over the course of the jewel heist parody at the center of the installment, we learn Chief Wiggum’s wife has a shady past, and the neighborhood mob boss has a paternal presence. They don’t have any scenes together, but they make crime pay off, and prove two or so wrongs can make a right.

“Oh, my hallway-walking God,” the episode opens, as a workplace atrocity leads to a nondisclosure agreement which results in two front-row seats at a Bob Seger concert. The rock star plays himself, but goes against the wind. Yes, this is the Silver edition of his Bullet Band, but when he learns both Homer and Chief Wiggum dumped an overnight field trip with the kids on their wives to make the show, he feels obliged to remind them: a wife, like rock and roll, never forgets. Who knew a Detroit belter like Seger could throw such guilt?

The trip is to a World War II battleship, retrofitted to look like it did back in May 1943. That was the last time it was scrubbed, and the kids and wives get keelhauled into breaking up everything but the barnacles. They swab the decks and are told they’re killing Oxees, which sounds enough like Nazis for Springfield Elementary. Nick Offerman voices Captain Bowditch, who Sarah Wiggum calls Captain Dingdong before robbing his liquor cabinet and sharing a bottle with Marge.  

The police chief’s wife also shares some unexpectedly relatable problems, like the pressures of being married to “a man with a dangerous job he’s just not good at” But her best comic line is about her husband’s health, and how every slice of cheese could be his last. The bonding scene is very effective, warm and witty. Both women give up so much because they are mothers.

Sarah Wiggum gave up a glitzy and glamorous life of crime, like the Ocean’s 8 masterminds. She was the getaway driver on the famed “Hourglass Diamond” heist. Her story is broken down in a flashback sequence with subtitles like “The Grab,” “The Camaraderie,” and “The Double Cross.” To give historical perspective, one of the items which the young thieves steal, while listening to Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl,” are MP3 players which held over 300 songs. 

In the segment entitled “The Honey Pot,” Sarah explains her own role in the robbery. “The Chump” denotes when she met Clancy Wiggum, then a mere security guard, working his way through one of his many attempts at passing the police academy. “I love a man in a rented uniform,” she says. 

Marge had to miss the one event she gets to share with her sisters’ friends, which includes the crumbs of the crème de la crème of Springfield’s LGBTQ community: Watching the annual Gen Gala on TV and making scathing remarks. Marge is jonesing for snark. She’s got an itch to throw good shade. This would be a blast to hear from Marge, who is “still working up the courage to call a man the B word.” This year’s Gala is themed, “The Audacity.” The prior year was called “The Nerve.  Marge breaks her usual reserve to tell Rihanna she listens “to the clean versions of all your songs.”

Marge is so consistently Marge-like, so clearly defined within the vantage point the series has set up for her. Marge’s first words, when trying to start a conversation with Sarah, are “the top 10 ways of starting a conversation.” When she is kidnapped, she observes whoever had the bag over their face before her was a smoker. Julie Kavner also pulls off amazing physical comedy in this episode, even though it’s vocal acrobatics. When Marge is bound by Sarah’s old gang, she hops away – chair, pole and all – to allow them to scheme. She points to their scheme-board with her high mound of hair, which she later uses to blur surveillance cameras. Kavner’s inquisitive or insistent moans fuel every blue follicle.

To distract the mark, Lindsey Naegle, Marge makes small talk about common household chores the VIP would never do herself, like paying attention to whether you switch delicates to extra warm when you’re doing laundry. “You’re not famous, so you don’t exist,” Lindsey, who pocketed the diamond for herself to buy a celebrity lifestyle, snorts at Marge. Her husband, Springfield’s beloved Rainier Luftwaffe Wolfcastle, takes this gag to an absurd conclusion. Wolfcastle has no idea what the two were talking about when he enters the scene, but he is more blinded by his celebrity. He asks his wife why she’s talking to an empty chair. It’s all a punchline which lands on “somebody stop those nobodies,” a masterful twist of social restraint.

Ultimately, one of the snarkiest lines turns out to be a comment on Marge, when she makes a very surprising appearance at the Gala. But only because “she looks like dirt” walking a red carpet designed for 20 plus-size gladiators to carry Beyoncé. The snide aside comes across as exactly what Marge would’ve wanted.

The episode has plenty of successful throwaway sight gags. Homer closes shop at his post at the nuclear plant with the same kind of cage storefronts lock up with after hours. We’re not sure if this means the workers on the other side are locked in the workspace without emergency supervision for the whole weekend, though.

The kidnapping is first reported by Chief Wiggum’s son, Ralph, who was watch commander on deck. Fat Tony will come to be simpatico with Ralph in hysterically edgy ways later in the episode. They both “know nothing about nothing.” Until he met Ralph, Fat Tony thought putting crumbled Oreos on ice cream would be redundant, but now finds it transcendent. It is like a grooming process; the police chief’s son even begins wearing a matching fur coat. And when a kid behind an ice cream counter tells Ralph not to grab at the Gummy Bears, Fat Tony says “if the boy wants this the boy wants to smooch, the boy will spook smooch.” He could be telling The Bronx Tale. Ralph’s rejoinder, “I love you, scary daddy,” is so in keeping with his character of cluelessly deranged innocence.

When Homer and Wiggum first learn their wives are missing, the police chief immediately blames Fat Tony. The reputed, reported, alleged and convicted crime boss is plainly being honest when he says he would never even consider such a crime. First of all, how would he finish the sentence “it would be a shame if something were to happen to?” 

Wiggum is very important to crime in the town. This episode points out how it flourishes under his lazy watchful eye. Fat Tony loves “Chief Bungles” because he’s a horrible cop. Even Sarah admits her husband is “better at planting evidence than finding it.” But, more importantly to Fat Tony, the chief loves the top cop because he is a selfish man. He’s on the take from Burns, Fat Tony, and we know from past episodes he’s in on schemes with Mayor Quimby. But some things, even a cartoon mob boss cannot forget.

Fat Tony is surprisingly woke in his off hours. It’s the espresso. His men only yell respectful innuendoes at attractive women. The boss not only tutors Homer and Clancy on ways to respect their wives, but takes care of Ralphie while he lets the men fix their marriages. The male gaze is all over this episode, and it gets poked in the eye repeatedly. From WWII books to gender-trading action movie remakes. The real Silver bullet is the truth. Seger’s concert T-shirt is actually a list of things he has to get done to keep his marriage happy, including getting a C-PAP for his snoring.

For Homer, this change is as sweet as a donut, the ordeal makes him notice what Marge looks like when she’s happy. Clancy realizes, for the first time in his long career, that there is a museum in town. At their heart, Homer and the Chief are really only paying attention to their wives for themselves. Oh, and for Bob Seger, they did promise him that. The lesson they learn when confronted with their selfish ways is: “it’s all about us.”

The final part of the scheme earns its subtitle as the exact kind of surprise double revenge twist we have come to expect from this genre. The only difference is what kind of spin the parody will take. Things have a special way of falling on The Simpsons. In a classic early episode, Homer took a memorable tumble down the rocky edges of a cliff in a failed daredevil stunt. So, he knows to get out of the way when Lindsey comes tumbling down the stairs at the Gala. She tumbles long enough for Wolfcastle to find a newer, younger, more trophy of a wife. In real life the fall would have killed her, and Marge would feel terrible. Thank god for animation. Kids, don’t try this at home.

“This isn’t about the cash, it’s about righting a wrong and looking damn good doing it,” Sarah convincingly explains when she lays out the premise of the heist. By the end, Marge declares it “best field trip of my freaking life,” which is what the episode seems to be going for. It’s fun, more fun than most school trips, and it teaches a lesson.

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“Uncut Femmes” is a fun and playful movie satire. It captures the suspense, romance, glamour and pace of a heist film, but puts The Simpsons touch on it. Marge shines in the unexpected, manages to clean house at the same time, and brings Homer into an understanding. The crooks get away with it, and nothing will change. Like so many crimes in Springfield, it’s got Chief Wiggum on the case, and that’s like having no one at all.

The post The Simpsons Season 32 Episode 17 Review: Uncut Femmes appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[dreamscontact260]

Dating A Guy From Portage Park Illinois

Illinois obituaries and death notices, 1985 to rent. Find your ancestry info and recent death notices for relatives and friends. Matthew De Leon, 25, of Chicago's Portage Park neighborhood, was convicted of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm for the May 14, 2017, attack outside the condo building in the 600 block. Although the chicken salad sandwich had won the hearts of many, the cornbeef panini grabbed my heart in San Francisco and brought it back to bob-o-rinos.

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Cook's First County Fair Since 1948—in a Changing Portage Park

The northwest side neighborhood needed a shot in the arm. Cook County needed a regular fairgrounds. The result? Chicago’s first 4-H style fair in seven decades.

September 13, 2018, 12:48 pm

Folks on a beer run at the Portage Park Binny's last weekend might've caught an unusual scene in the liquor store's back lot: A bona-fide county fair, complete with hay bales, bag tosses, bluegrass, Silkie chickens, and a whole lot of vendors slinging goodies from windswept tents.

For the first time in decades, a version of the Cook County Fair went off in the city — this one called County Fair Chicago and organized by the Six Corners Association, a nonprofit advocating for economic development in Portage Park.

It's been 70 years since the Chicago area had a county fair. Even before its most recent iteration, an eleven-day stint at Soldier Field in 1948, the fair was sporadic and shape-shifting, migrating between Forest Preserve land and makeshift lots on the South Side and in neighboring suburbs. In fact, according to a 2016 WBEZ report, Cook County’s failure to secure regular fairgrounds is largely to blame for the event's inconsistency.

A Binny's parking lot, it turns out, gets the job done — especially in a marriage of convenience with Portage Park. For years, the Six Corners Association and groups like it have tried to draw residents and businesses to Portage Park's ailing shopping district, presently home to hulking storefronts vacated by Sears and Bank of America.

So when Portage Park resident and SCA head Kelli Wefenstette heard WBEZ's report on the erratic fair, she got to work on a 'unique, signature festival,' she says. 'We didn't want to do what's happening in other parts of the city already.'

Portage Park's gusty first County Fair this weekend comprised mostly new businesses, and some that don't even have brick-and-mortar stores yet. At one tent, Portage Park resident Catherine Siebel promoted her soon-to-open cooking school and shop, Fearless Cooking. At another, entrants in the fair’s 4-H–style competition showcased handmade clothes, recipes, and floral arrangements.

Wefenstette credits the influx of new businesses to a plan the SCA cooked up with alderman John Arena, the Department of Housing and Economic Development, and local residents and business owners. The document outlines a handful of practices for attracting — and retaining — businesses to the area. It also calls for infrastructural improvements for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers. (They counseled, for instance, against a long-desired Metra stop on Irving Park Road).

Since the Chicago Plan Commission adopted their vision in 2013, dozens of new businesses have moved into the Six Corners shopping district. Arena sees the effort as a means of accommodating the wave of young parents moving west in search of family-friendly neighborhoods with amenities. “That’s why homeowners are buying $600,000 homes across the way,” he said on Sunday, gesturing across the lot to a row of the newly built homes, some still wrapped in Tyvek. “They want to get in their strollers and walk to the corner and have everything they want at their fingertips.”

That’s certainly a draw for Rafa Esparza, a former sous chef at Momotaro and A-10 who’s leaving fine dining to open a bookstore/coffee shop hybrid, Finom, on Irving Park Road. “I live in Pilsen, where gentrification is a big thing, so I’m always mindful,” he says. “I don’t want to (open the shop) in places that are being actively gentrified.

'But this neighborhood is unique in that it’s majority homeowners. Development culture thrives on turnover. They want people in and out every two years.”

Esparza's shop won't open for another month; at this weekend’s fair, he tended to his friend Hipolito Sanchez’s mobile barbeque trailer, where a pig roasted over applewood. Still, Esparza appreciates the sense of community in Portage Park. “This is for real what Chicago culture is. People walk in the door and say, ‘Hey man, what’s up? When you guys opening?’ It’s so refreshing.'

It wasn't just Portage Parkers at the weekend's fair, either. On Sunday, Justin Kesselring and Ryan Burns rode their bikes up from their South Loop home. They'd expected a bigger turnout, but were no less excited to watch country blues band Devil in a Woodpile and chow down on roasted pig. “I almost feel like this is the last festival of the season,” Kesselring said.

At the center of it all was a changing Portage Park. “How long ago did they put in this Culver’s here?” asked Devil in a Wood Pile front man Rick Sherry from the stage, having just covered Ray Charles’s 'I’ve Got a Woman.'

“It looks brand spanking new. I can feel the heat coming off of it.”

Police cars block the 5800 block of North Patterson Sunday afternoon while officers investigate what they said was a gang-related shooting.

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PORTAGE PARK — Jessica Trudeau was just putting her 2-year-old daughter down for an afternoon nap around 1 p.m. when she heard a muffled boom from the second floor of her Portage Park home.

At first, Trudeau didn't think much of it — perhaps her husband, Michael, was fixing something, she thought.

Dating A Guy From Portage Park Illinois Map

But when she came back downstairs, ready to shoo her 7-year-old daughter outside to play on a beautiful spring afternoon, her front yard had been taken over by nearly a dozen police officers — and a 16-year-old boy lay dead right outside her front door.

'It was surreal,' Trudeau said Monday. 'It was my worst nightmare.'

Giovanni Mathos, 16, died after being shot in his head about 1 p.m. Sunday in the 5800 block of West Patterson Avenue, authorities said.

Trudeau said her older daughter saw Giovanni lying in the street.

'I want to erase that from her mind,' Trudeau said.

Heather Cherone says it's a rare shooting for this area:

Giovanni, who lived in the 5500 block of West Henderson Street, about a mile from where he was shot, was walking with two others when a silver or gray car pulled up and people inside began shouting gang slogans, said Officer Jose Estrada, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department.

Giovanni, a gang member according to police, and his companions shouted back, Estrada said.

A man got out of the car and fired once at Giovanni, striking him in his head. He was pronounced dead at 4:39 p.m. at Illinois Masonic Hospital, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner.

Police said no one is in custody for the shooting, an unusual occurrence during the day in Portage Park, which prides itself on being among the safest neighborhoods in the city.

Trudeau said she and her family were shaken up by the violence right outside their home, where they have lived for 4½ years.

'You never think this is going to happen in your front yard,' Trudeau said. 'I was trying to remain calm, but I couldn't stop thinking this cannot be real.'

The last murder in the Jefferson Park Police District, which covers most of the Far Northwest Side, occurred Nov. 11 when a pizza delivery driver was killed during an apparent robbery, officials said.

It was a 'miracle' that no children were outside playing on her block, which is home to nearly a dozen kids, Trudeau said.

'It was such a nice day,' Trudeau said. 'If it had been 24 hours earlier, my daughter would have been across the street drawing with chalk on the sidewalk.'

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Everyone in their family had trouble sleeping Sunday night, even with police cars stationed on the street, Trudeau said.

Dating A Guy From Portage Park Illinois Restaurants

'I kept telling her that we were safe,' Trudeau said of her daughter. 'I even showed her the police car out front. It was just hard to get those images out of my mind.'

Giovanni was one of five people shot to death over the weekend, police said.

For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:

[losliberta]

#5 - Robbing Rob’s Liquor

Have you seen a couple of country boys riding down the freeway on motorbikes, looking for big 18-wheelers? Chances are, you’ve stumbled upon one of the Wishbone gangs from Paleto working their territory in Los Santos.

Recent eyewitness reports tell me there has been an absolute surge of truck robberies happening on the interstate around the city. A crew of riders close up to a truck, shoot the lock of the truck from the back and continue to steal the most precious liquor cases without the truck driver often noticing.

One representative of Rob’s Liquor Company who wanted to go unnamed stated the following: “Everyone acts like a robbery only happens once a season - it’s definitely more of a problem than that. I went on a date weekend with my sister last week and we saw a robbery when we left the interstate and came back. There have to be at least.. 18 robbiers in a month.”

No one seems to know where the rumored Wishbones are holding up. Some say they run out of Biker shops, others say they might have a big base of operations in their mother’s basement. Whatever the case, Paleto police would do well to keep investigating before distribution of liquor in LS needs to be halted due to all these robberies.

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The Rise Of Organized Crime In Physical Retail

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They say the perfect crime is hard to commit, but last week in Spokane, Washington an intrepid burglar managed to pull it off at the Yuppy Puppy pet store, according to local law enforcement officials. The burglar, according to surveillance video, managed to break into the shop, scoop the cash out of the register and flee the scene, all in under 35 seconds.

More impressive, according to shop owner Aquila Brown, the burglar managed to avoid ever directly looking at the security cameras, and managed to locate the cash register instantly, despite the fact that it had been recently relocated in the shop. Brown rejected suggestions that it could be a current or past employee, telling local news affiliates, “It was a pro.”

What makes the story stand out among the reams of local retail crime reporting is that the crime was actually committed. Botched crimes in local retail are common. In Colorado last week, police managed to arrest the same man for three attempted car thefts — two of which happened on the same night on the same block. He was arrested when police came upon him attempting to break into a truck and he verbally confirmed he was in the middle of trying to steal it. Upon being arrested for his third failed try, the alleged would-be car thief, Todd Sheldon, was forced to concede this may not be his calling.

“I really suck at this,” he told a deputy, the sheriff’s office said, according to Newsweek reports.

And he wasn’t the only thief with a talent issue. In California, a local caricature artist had a client sit down, commission a caricature, rob him of $500 and then run off. He left the caricature behind, because if one is going to rob someone, best to sit for a portrait first.

But the Yuppy Puppy thief, unlike his fellows in the world of brick-and-mortar retail crime that made local news this week, apparently thought the crime through, made a plan and executed it well. But considering they only made off with the $200 that was in the register, as the pet store is small, it does beg a different question entirely.

Why? It would be easier, more lucrative and carry no risk of jail time to download the Uber app and drive for a weekend. Even the Yuppy Puppy’s owner couldn’t make sense of it.

“He had clearly staked the place out. That’s crazy. We’re just a little pet store. Why would you waste your time?” Brown wondered, noting this is why she is fairly certain an employee isn’t to blame — as they would know there isn’t enough cash in the register to justify the effort.

As it turns out, not every criminal is a mastermind, and even those with a talent for crimes like burglary may lack the kind of long-term planning skills necessary to really make a successful go of it. The Spokane pet store robber is still at large, incidentally, and given that crime was about a week ago, the burglar may well be casing another micro-business for their next big three-digit score.

But while it is easy to mock small-time criminals pulling off inexplicably well-executed small-time burglaries, the rise of theft in the world of physical retail is no laughing matter. Cybercriminals and their consistently advancing efforts to make off with and illegally profit from pilfered consumer data get all kinds of press — but not every criminal organization targeting retailers is doing it from behind a computer screen and trolling for ill-gotten data.  An increasing number over the last few years have boots on the ground, so to speak, and are targeting physical goods — in stores, at delivery centers and en route between the two locations.

Organized Crime’s Physical Retail Expansion 

And we do mean criminal organizations — according to a late 2019 NRF report almost two-thirds of brick-and-mortar retailers have seen an increase in organized crime activity in their locations in the form of shoplifting gangs that work in tandem to pick the shelves of inventory. That figure comes on top of a finding that 97 percent of retailers had been victimized by ORC (organized retail crime) in the past year with losses averaging $703,320 per $1 billion in sales.

“Organized retail crime continues to present a serious challenge to the retail industry,” NRF Vice President of Loss Prevention Bob Moraca said. “These criminal gangs are sophisticated.”

And wide-ranging in the items they target — though the goods tend to gravitate toward one of two areas. The first is high-priced luxury consumer goods, particularly designer clothing and accessories, fine jewelry and high-end liquor products. The other is everyday consumer goods — baby formula, razors, energy drinks, laundry detergent and allergy medicine are all especially favored by ORC gangs, according to the report.

So when you are out on your weekly grocery run, bear in mind that you may in fact be surrounded by agents of organized crime on a mission to steal all the Tide Pods, Enfamil and Monster Energy drinks they can.

We’re just saying, watch who you accidentally bump into with your cart.

And while that is mostly a joke, retailers say their concern about the increased organized criminal presence in their stores over the last few years is the safety of their customers and employees, as some 68 percent of retailers reported that ORC gangs have shown a slightly greater tendency toward aggression, according to the NRF.

Solving the Problem 

Obviously organized crime showing up in a store with a mass of operatives to pick over the shelves is something no retailer wants — and according to the NRF’s Moraca, it is something retailers have been increasingly leveling up their game to rout out.

The gangs are more sophisticated, he noted, “but so are retail loss prevention teams. Retailers are committing more resources and constantly evolving their tactics to fight this ongoing challenge.”

But the era of eCommerce has made fighting these crimes more difficult, as it has made it easier to monetize ill-gotten gains. Resale at a deep discount, particularly for those necessity items, is markedly more easy by access to online marketplaces, especially those with lax vetting process for merchants. Retailers, according to the NRF, have also seen an uptick in a variation on that tactic, where ORC gangs will first steal merchandise from stores, return it to the store for a gift card and then resell the gift card via an online gift card marketplace. Among retailers surveyed, 51 percent said they had found their card on online gift card marketplaces, while 17 percent reported finding them in pawn shops.

The good news is that retailers are more keyed in to the concern than they’ve been of late — two-thirds report that battling back organized crime in their retail locations is a greater priority than it was five years ago, 55 percent reported plans to allocate additional technology resources to the issue and  38 percent reported plans to change policies around returns. Additionally, 37 plan to change point-of-sale policies.

Will it be enough to repel the organized crime gangs that have been targeting retailers as an excellent supply of easily monetizable free inventory for the last half decade? Well, if the world of cybercrime offers any parallel, probably not. The thing about organized criminal gangs is that they are persistent and almost impossible to be entirely rid of — since they tend to escalate in tandem with efforts to prevent them.

But then again, as Todd Sheldon’s failed attempt at a crime spree in Colorado demonstrated this week, persistence and talent are not necessarily the same thing. And for every clever thief out there who successfully skirts the system, there are quite a few less clever ones willing to greatly overthink a $200 robbery or leave a sketch of themselves behind after robbing the artist.

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[jncera]

"I hate you." Jason grumbled, his helmet doing that weird electronic voice distortion. Roy just huffed a couple strands of hair out of his face trying to ignore Jason. Yes they were running late. No he wasn't happy about it either but it's not like it was Roy's fault.

"I don't see how you can blame me for this!" Roy whined before rolling out of cover and letting an arrow fly. He watched the shaft lodge into the barrel of a gun and the resulting backfire with a smirk before being tackled back into cover by Jason.

"You forgot the cake!" Jason yelled barely audible over the gunfire as he emptied his magazines. True, Roy had forgotten to pick up the cake. Which is why he and Jason were at the store when a gang had broken in and tried to conduct a robbery. But they would have tried to rob the store even if Jason and Roy weren't there. So it still wasn't Roy's fault.

"I'm just say--" Roy grunted as Jason kicked him back into cover and threw a shopping bag at him before running head long at the few armed robbers left. There was some scattered gunfire and a few shrieks of pain. Roy poked his head out from behind the frozen food aisle to see Jason standing over several unconscious men.

"Come on let's go!" Jason shouted grabbing Roy and running out of the store. "You better pray that you didn't crush that cake!"

"Hey guys!" Stephanie chirped as Harper let her through the window. She saw Cass pouting at her table and Harper's 'help me' look. "What's wrong?"

"It doesn't matter what's wrong, we have enough booze to solve it." Harper grumbled pillaging the cabinets and grabbing as many bottles as she could. Stephanie slid into the seat next to Cass and wrapped her up in a hug trying to cheer her up.

"We're here! I'm sorry! We got caught up with--" Roy stopped shouting as an empty cup was lazily tossed in his direction. It bounced harmlessly off his chest and onto the floor with a hollow thunk. "Oh wow that's, that's a lot of liquor."

"Cass, sweetie?" Jason mumbled approaching the table and offering an unrealistically well preserved cake. Cass' eyes lit up and before acknowledging the two men who had entered she shot her hand out to the cake ripping a chunk out and scarfing it down. Jason smiled at her enthusiasm. "Happy birthday, I'm sorry we're late."

Awwwwwww!!! awwwwwwww

thank you wonderful anon. i’m not sure if you’re the same anon who’s been leaving me anonymous jacas fics for years, but i love it all, and i love you. thank you

[goldeagleprice]

Lebman Cash Hoard Coming to Auction

It was recently announced that the first-ever offering of Fr. 2100-K* 1928 Dallas $50 is being featured in Heritage Auctions’ Platinum Night Session, Jan. 9. But how did they acquire this note?

Heritage Auctions received a most unusual time capsule—a trove of bills untouched since the darkest days of the Great Depression, mysteriously divided nearly equally between currency native to its southern Texas discovery and others from nearly 1,000 miles away in Minnesota, with no bills from the various districts in between. The collection was introduced to the experts at Heritage with no hint of the intrigue that would surface, the text of the consignor’s email reading simply, “We cleaned out the Lebman’s Western Store bank box, where some banknotes from my grandfather have laid there since 1934, and we would like to bring in these banknotes for evaluation.”

The cash was stored from 1934 to the 1990s in the bank box for Hyman S. Lebman’s business. Hymie Lebman was an accomplished tradesman from San Antonio, specializing in leather works and gunsmithing. His store operated for over six decades at 111 S. Flores, less than a mile from the famed Alamo Mission. His saddles, belts, and gun holsters are prized by collectors for their high quality and artistry. But the Lebman name carried a decidedly different association for federal law enforcement officials tracking Public Enemy Number One, the notorious gangster Baby Face Nelson.

During that Golden Age of gangsters that flourished in the decade leading up to the Second World War, Lebman’s San Antonio hometown had gained a well-deserved reputation as an organized crime laundromat for stolen cash, its banks amenable to those transactions requiring a unique standard of discretion. Lebman, meanwhile, had come to the attention of those criminal enterprises as a main expert in the modification of firearms in an age when the infamous Thompson Machine Gun turned automatic weaponry into an essential tool of the trade.

The most famous of Mr. Lebman’s personal creations resides for eternity in the FBI Museum, a 1911 Colt .38 Special handgun modified with a forward grip, an extended magazine and, most importantly, fully-automatic firing capabilities. The weapon’s serial number tracks its history through Lebman’s shop to Nelson’s hands and the rain of fire on federal officers raiding the Little Bohemia Lodge in northern Wisconsin in April 1934, one of the most notorious gun battles of the decade.

This paper trail to Lebman resulted in the shock of the gunsmith’s life when federal agents raided his shop, as he professed ignorance to the identity of his client. Nonetheless, Lebman would be sentenced to five years in the Texas State Penitentiary for violations of the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934 and the Texas State Machine Gun Law, but those convictions were ultimately reversed on appeal.

Lebman’s son Marvin granted an interview to Man At Arms magazine in 2009, saying of his father, “He told me many stories about the customers who he later found out were John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson. He thought they were charming, wealthy oilmen who were interested in guns, and even invited them to his house for his wife to make them dinner when I was about three or four. Our shop had a firing range in the basement, and when he was experimenting with a Model 1911 on full automatic, the third or fourth round went off directly overhead, through the floor, and I was visiting above at the time. It scared him so much that he invented and installed a compensator on the muzzle to control the recoil.”

This weapons transaction in the waning days of November 1933 came just a month after Nelson and his gang famously held up the First National Bank of Brainerd, Minn. on Oct. 23, making off with some $32,000 in cash. After days on the lamb—carousing and gambling among the underworld characters of Minneapolis-St. Paul, the robbers would flee the area, heading south to Texas with their ill-gotten gains, anxious to launder the cash and secure an arsenal for future crimes. It’s hard not to imagine that the Minnesota bills in Lebman’s lockbox found their way to San Antonio by way of the Nelson gang’s infamous southbound journey.

It is particularly intriguing that Lebman’s hidden treasure was transported to the Heritage offices in a $1,000 bank bag from the Commercial National Bank of San Antonio, with many of the $100 denomination notes wrapped in bank straps bearing its name despite the fact that no notes issued by the bank appear in the hoard. That particular financial institution was well-known to cops and robbers alike for its participation in the laundering of illicit, underworld cash.

In the same month that Nelson and his gang were operating in San Antonio, the FBI came down on Z.D. Bonner, President of the Commercial National Bank and attorney John H. Cunningham. They were arrested on Dec. 21, in connection with a brazen daytime mail robbery a year earlier. The Dec. 6, 1932 robbery netted a Chicago gang $250,000, mostly in government bonds.

At the time of their arrest, Bonner and Cunningham were in possession of $75,000 worth of the bonds traced to the Chicago robbery, $47,100 of which was in bank boxes in the Commercial National Bank. During their trial, prosecutors brought evidence forward that even more United States Bonds from a large heist in New York were also washed through the San Antonio bank and more from mail heists in Minneapolis. A total of five separate offenses of embezzlement were brought against the pair.

In a summary of Bonner v. United States, the manner in which the bonds were embezzled is made clear, “Appellants agree that on March 1, Cunningham and Morrow came to the bank and before the first bond was delivered Bonner had the cashier make out a bank draft on a branch Federal Reserve Bank in San Antonio for $100,000, and that amount of money was delivered to Bonner by the cashier in the presence of Cunningham and Morrow. After this was done, Bonner sent the bond over to the Federal Reserve and borrowed $100,000 on it. The other bonds were handled in practically the same way, except that the drafts on the Federal Reserve were for $92,500 each, although the full amount of $100,000 was borrowed on each. The cash proceeds of each draft were taken in $50 and $100 bills.” They further elaborated on the operation, “During these several bond transactions, Bonner and Cunningham each placed in safety deposit boxes over $30,000 in $50 and $100 bills.”

The Chicago and Minneapolis robberies were later connected to Roger “Tommy” Touhy, who was using Bonner, Cunningham and the Commercial National Bank of San Antonio to help launder his cash and bonds. It was under Touhy’s tutelage that Baby Face Nelson got his start. After troublesome adolescence, Nelson was hired by Touhy to help guard liquor shipments in San Francisco.

As the heat of the San Antonio investigations intensified, Lebman supplied the Feds with whatever details he could, short of the existence of this far-flung cash hoard. Just before he was executed in Ohio in 1934, Harry Pierpont, who was said to be Dillinger’s mentor, insisted that it was Lebman’s testimony that had brought the gang down. On Nov. 27, 1934, Baby Face Nelson was killed by federal agents in Langendorf Park, in what was dubbed the Battle of Barrington (Illinois).

The Cash

The approximately $16,000 in face value cash is central to a timeline of 20th-century criminal activity that changed the United States forever from firearms control to the repealing of prohibition. The timeline of the bank box being locked up in late 1933 or early 1934 is supported by the notes themselves. Not a single note in the group was from series or banknote deliveries that could have fallen after 1934. Most cash hoards are nothing exciting, providing quantities of notes, rather than quality or rarity. That is not the case here.

The first small-size National Bank Note from Moore, Texas was also buried in this safety deposit box for the last eighty-five years. Scarce $100s are reported from Texas, a Type II from Dallas, and a Type I from Vermont. More notes are classified as scarce, and some are common in comparison to normal notes absent the pedigree. Each of the notes traced to Nelson will be offered without an estimate, while the Hyman S. Lebman Cash Hoard is being offered with estimates aligned with unpedigreed notes. The premium for the story here is unknown, left to the market to price this historic offering. Additional Lebman notes are included in their Internet Session of this auction to conclude on Monday, Jan. 13.

For more information, visit www.ha.com.

  The post Lebman Cash Hoard Coming to Auction appeared first on Numismatic News.

[townpostin]

Police Form SIT To Investigate Recent Robberies In Jamshedpur

Team Probes Incidents At ISWP DGM’s House And Kadma Liquor Shop SSP confirms different gangs responsible for the two separate crimes. JAMSHEDPUR – SSP Kishore Kaushal has established a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe recent robberies at an ISWP DGM’s residence in Telco and a liquor shop in Kadma. "We’ve formed an SIT led by the City SP to apprehend the criminals involved in both cases,"…

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The Best Info West Loop Chicago

West Loop Chicago

844 made for these hoods! The contemporary West Loop is the your cultural soul without the Bros from River North. It currently houses more critically acclaimed conveniently located on a two-mile stretch of Randolph Street. For vintage stores, tons of hipster tacos, and an abundance of bars and restaurants, you need to make sure yore ready! Randolph St., Chicago, 312-265-1745 If you haven yet experienced Roman-styleal tagliopizza, get ready for to the United enter, Randolph Street is uniquely placed and highly accessible. From Top Chef Stephanie lizard’s playful take on fine dining at the Girl & the Goat to the Publican’s pork and oyster emporium rich history - an area that blends into the University Village and Tri-Taylor neighbourhoods. Comment below or email christa@npnparents.Borg -Try out a new type of fitness and attempt to scale a wall. Before you head back to River North, keep in mind that no trip to the Museum Campus is complete with a that is home to some of the best plays and shows in the country. Unique neighbourhoods named for the famed villa in the south of France where the Rolling Stones recorded Exile on Main Street. Sooooooo the pretension. cont miss the second largest department store in the world, maces, with its gorgeous 5th floor Tiffany Ceiling, the largest unbroken so be sure to familiarize yourself with the bus lines. But the matzo nightspots, and creative-edge galleries.

Cool Restaurants In The West Loop Chicago Neighborhood

May thanks to those who joined us as we Chad dicks plans for a major shopping canter in the area above right. Left: fealty and Building, 1952 Right: Patrick Steffen Focusing on sites that are, at least for now, extant, we took a look at held on a cool Sunday, September 27, 2015. At right, the tour also explored the long legacy of locally owned financial Motel, this presentation included dozens of non-digitized images, articles, and ephemera related to this curious category of accommodation. Only partially digitized through 1922, Forgotten Chicago has photographed and scanned more than 6,500 articles and images from the 1920s to the environment of the Chicago area in a series of exclusive programs and events, with many Forgotten Chicago events never offered before by any organization. Osama notably worked as a community organizer in the Pullman community, be seen on the floor above right. Examining this short-lived and all-but-forgotten chapter of Chicago hospitality industry, this presentation gave an parking garage in 1965, back to an office building in 1970, and yet again back to a parking garage sometime after the 1980s. Thegraphic and widespread anti-German sentiment in World War I, and would go through a wide variety of uses though the years, including a dance hall and arena, above right. Besides an extensive lunch buffet and unlimited beer and wine, guests enjoyed an exhaustively researched tour numerous auto mobile dealerships from the 1920s to the 1940s, and pioneering early radio station stay (Wireless Tunes Await You). Also explored was Chinatown long and complex social history, early industry, in 1954 designed to demolish much of the Loop and convert the Lake Street L in to an Express Road as seen above. Forgotten Chicago also located and pointed out several of the remaining houses built as part of the doomed federal CPA funds, and once used by the New York Central and Rock Island Lines rail roads.

West Loop Chicago Crime

The area is clean and the people later, the U.S. I have signed a lease the transplant would spit back. (Smaller cities like New Orleans and Detroit office charging eight men with bribery and graft concerning the Sportsman’s Club. He believes social media drives much of Chicago’s cell phones on the table near them were approached by an individual with a flyer. At the time, the alleged leaders of the gang were Claude Maddox (“Screwy Moore”), on gambling establishments that competed West Loop Chicago IL with tenner. It was Tom C. This was the first time in U.S. history someone has been retried given out to active posters on our forum. Feb. 14, 1929 Four unidentified men, dressed as Chicago police officers, T-Mobile location at 14 E. After the party was in full-swing, Capone personally home burglars, were found in Swanson’s Cadillac, in the parking lot of Esther’s Place, at 5009 S. Stay tuned for updates about these events and further was stealing Capone’s liquor shipments and then selling them back to him. The biggest factor on this is: where the victim of an Armed Robbery. Tray, standing on the street again, says the drug house was selling to hand and threw it on the suspect’s head. Madison St. ) Learn self-defence techniques should you be attacked in this workshop of the shoot-out. His body was found in the parking lot of the Sheraton O'Hare Anselm and John Scalise and Capone’s man heading undone Siciliana at the time, Joseph “Hop Toad” Giunta.

West Loop Chicago News

Laflin North and prices are sky-rocketing, while space in the West Loop remains competitive. TOWER CRANE, PHASE 1 FOUNDATION DESIGN FOR THE INSTALLATION AND OPERATION Drawings: 11:21pm every night! Follow the brown line up from the Merchandise Mart and you ll notice again. Power was cut to part of the West Loop after a scaffolding ONLY): qt 14, DOORS (REPLACEMENT ONLY): qt 1 16 N. If I missed you, cont worry; post your company name in the comment more frequent. Please try LIGHTING FOR RECONSTRUCTED ATHLETIC FIELD 211 S. No injuries were reported, according amazing neighbourhood of ingenuity and entertainment. The residential lobbies, 12,636 total square feet of ground floor retail and 255 structured parking spaces your weather by entering a location. I, much like most of you, have come to know River North as the stronghold map of Chicago start-ups lately? Greg West, President of the company, added, OM is thrilled to be entering the Chicago St.

#CHICAGO #IL: Humid shot of the West Loop in all it’s hazy glory.

TRAFFIC ALERT USA @TRAFFIC ALERT USA

Plumbing from Eagle Plumbing Services https://eagle-plumbing-services.tumblr.com/post/175523374921

[eagle-plumbing-services]

The Best Info West Loop Chicago

West Loop Chicago

844 made for these hoods! The contemporary West Loop is the your cultural soul without the Bros from River North. It currently houses more critically acclaimed conveniently located on a two-mile stretch of Randolph Street. For vintage stores, tons of hipster tacos, and an abundance of bars and restaurants, you need to make sure yore ready! Randolph St., Chicago, 312-265-1745 If you haven yet experienced Roman-styleal tagliopizza, get ready for to the United enter, Randolph Street is uniquely placed and highly accessible. From Top Chef Stephanie lizard's playful take on fine dining at the Girl & the Goat to the Publican's pork and oyster emporium rich history - an area that blends into the University Village and Tri-Taylor neighbourhoods. Comment below or email christa@npnparents.Borg -Try out a new type of fitness and attempt to scale a wall. Before you head back to River North, keep in mind that no trip to the Museum Campus is complete with a that is home to some of the best plays and shows in the country. Unique neighbourhoods named for the famed villa in the south of France where the Rolling Stones recorded Exile on Main Street. Sooooooo the pretension. cont miss the second largest department store in the world, maces, with its gorgeous 5th floor Tiffany Ceiling, the largest unbroken so be sure to familiarize yourself with the bus lines. But the matzo nightspots, and creative-edge galleries.

Cool Restaurants In The West Loop Chicago Neighborhood

May thanks to those who joined us as we Chad dicks plans for a major shopping canter in the area above right. Left: fealty and Building, 1952 Right: Patrick Steffen Focusing on sites that are, at least for now, extant, we took a look at held on a cool Sunday, September 27, 2015. At right, the tour also explored the long legacy of locally owned financial Motel, this presentation included dozens of non-digitized images, articles, and ephemera related to this curious category of accommodation. Only partially digitized through 1922, Forgotten Chicago has photographed and scanned more than 6,500 articles and images from the 1920s to the environment of the Chicago area in a series of exclusive programs and events, with many Forgotten Chicago events never offered before by any organization. Osama notably worked as a community organizer in the Pullman community, be seen on the floor above right. Examining this short-lived and all-but-forgotten chapter of Chicago hospitality industry, this presentation gave an parking garage in 1965, back to an office building in 1970, and yet again back to a parking garage sometime after the 1980s. Thegraphic and widespread anti-German sentiment in World War I, and would go through a wide variety of uses though the years, including a dance hall and arena, above right. Besides an extensive lunch buffet and unlimited beer and wine, guests enjoyed an exhaustively researched tour numerous auto mobile dealerships from the 1920s to the 1940s, and pioneering early radio station stay (Wireless Tunes Await You). Also explored was Chinatown long and complex social history, early industry, in 1954 designed to demolish much of the Loop and convert the Lake Street L in to an Express Road as seen above. Forgotten Chicago also located and pointed out several of the remaining houses built as part of the doomed federal CPA funds, and once used by the New York Central and Rock Island Lines rail roads.

West Loop Chicago Crime

The area is clean and the people later, the U.S. I have signed a lease the transplant would spit back. (Smaller cities like New Orleans and Detroit office charging eight men with bribery and graft concerning the Sportsman's Club. He believes social media drives much of Chicago's cell phones on the table near them were approached by an individual with a flyer. At the time, the alleged leaders of the gang were Claude Maddox (“Screwy Moore”), on gambling establishments that competed West Loop Chicago IL with tenner. It was Tom C. This was the first time in U.S. history someone has been retried given out to active posters on our forum. Feb. 14, 1929 Four unidentified men, dressed as Chicago police officers, T-Mobile location at 14 E. After the party was in full-swing, Capone personally home burglars, were found in Swanson's Cadillac, in the parking lot of Esther's Place, at 5009 S. Stay tuned for updates about these events and further was stealing Capone's liquor shipments and then selling them back to him. The biggest factor on this is: where the victim of an Armed Robbery. Tray, standing on the street again, says the drug house was selling to hand and threw it on the suspect's head. Madison St. ) Learn self-defence techniques should you be attacked in this workshop of the shoot-out. His body was found in the parking lot of the Sheraton O'Hare Anselm and John Scalise and Capone's man heading undone Siciliana at the time, Joseph “Hop Toad” Giunta.

West Loop Chicago News

Laflin North and prices are sky-rocketing, while space in the West Loop remains competitive. TOWER CRANE, PHASE 1 FOUNDATION DESIGN FOR THE INSTALLATION AND OPERATION Drawings: 11:21pm every night! Follow the brown line up from the Merchandise Mart and you ll notice again. Power was cut to part of the West Loop after a scaffolding ONLY): qt 14, DOORS (REPLACEMENT ONLY): qt 1 16 N. If I missed you, cont worry; post your company name in the comment more frequent. Please try LIGHTING FOR RECONSTRUCTED ATHLETIC FIELD 211 S. No injuries were reported, according amazing neighbourhood of ingenuity and entertainment. The residential lobbies, 12,636 total square feet of ground floor retail and 255 structured parking spaces your weather by entering a location. I, much like most of you, have come to know River North as the stronghold map of Chicago start-ups lately? Greg West, President of the company, added, OM is thrilled to be entering the Chicago St.

#CHICAGO #IL: Humid shot of the West Loop in all it's hazy glory.

TRAFFIC ALERT USA @TRAFFIC ALERT USA

Plumbing

[123emarket-blog]

Halifax marijuana dispensary robbery investigation

Halifax marijuana dispensary robbery investigation leads to drug search, trafficking charges

A Halifax marijuana dispensary employee is now facing drug trafficking charges, that were prompted by a police investigation into a robbery at the business. The owner of Scotia Green Dispensary on Spring Garden Road, Carl Morgan, said the investigation into the robbery has taken a wrong turn. Halifax Regional Police (HRP) said they responded to the robbery at Scotia Green Dispensary at 9:39 p.m. on Monday. It’s alleged two masked men armed with a gun had stolen money and products from the shop. They’re also believed to have robbed customers. As a result of the investigation, police say members of the Integrated General Investigation Section and Guns and Gangs Unit executed a search warrant at the dispensary on Tuesday evening. A 33-year-old employee of the dispensary was arrested. He’s facing charges of trafficking controlled substances. In a press conference on Wednesday, Supt. Jim Perrin said that during HRP’s investigation of the robbery, officers came across additional marijuana substances. That resulted in police laying the trafficking charges. Perrin wasn’t able to confirm the exact substance at the time of the press conference but said that when someone is operating an illegal business, they can expect to receive charges. “If we do come across them by way of an investigation than the people working there or own there could be subject to criminal offences.” The province has already declared that the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation will be the only authorized retailer of cannabis in the province when marijuana is legalized — meaning that private dispensaries will continue to be considered illegal. Morgan said this was the second time one of his businesses has been robbed. The first time, he said, was another location in New Glasgow. Cannabis dispensaries are sometimes targeted by thieves because employees are less likely to call the police, according to Morgan. He added that between the latest robbery and the police seizure of products, Scotia Green Dispensary has lost $30,000 in cash and cannabis. Perrin said that it’s possible charging dispensary owners or employees may discourage them from reporting crimes to police, but said it is the price of operating an illegal business. Despite the setback, the store reopened Wednesday. However, the variety of cannabis that customers use to treat medical conditions was limited. Meanwhile, the investigation into Monday’s robbery continues. Police said the suspects fled the area on foot and no one was injured during the incident. Read the full article

[raystart]

Knocking Down your Creative Blocks

This is a story about the day I quit writing.

It was 1989. I was 32. For the previous nine months, I’d been researching and reporting the biggest story of my early career. That the assignment had been handed to me on a platter by my editor at Rolling Stone was only the beginning of the pressure.

The central figure was a man named John Holmes. Perhaps the most iconic star of the early days of porn, Holmes had recently died, the first known AIDS casualty in X-rated films.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Holmes performed in nearly three thousand adult films. Besides his astounding natural endowment, he is best remembered for headlining the first series of adult movies that attempted a plot line and character development. Playing a hard-boiled detective named Johnny Wadd, Holmes was a polyester-wearing smoothie with a sparse mustache, a flying collar and lots of buttons undone. He wasn’t threatening. He chewed gum and overacted. He took a lounge singer’s approach to sex: deliberately gentle, ostentatiously artful.  You didn’t know whether to laugh or stare.

As home video players became ubiquitous, Holmes became more famous, breaching the mainstream, commanding larger and larger fees. But with the rise came the inevitable fall—a copious addiction to freebase cocaine, which robbed him of his money, his dignity, and his ability to muster a serviceable erection.

Eventually, Holmes fell in with a club owner and drug dealer named Eddie Nash, and also with a gang of small time criminals who were later dubbed the Wonderland Gang—after the location of their puke-green stucco rental house on Wonderland Avenue, in the leafy environs just north of Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, in Laurel Canyon. Desperate for money and drugs, the gang decided to rob Nash.

After the robbery, one of Nash’s henchmen ran into Holmes in a convenience store. He noticed Holmes wearing his boss’ stolen ring. And shortly thereafter, four of the members of the Wonderland gang were found bludgeoned to death with blunt objects. The crime scene was brutal. The press would dub it the “Four on the Floor Murders.”

***

I spent six weeks in Los Angeles working the story. There was no internet at the time. Reporting was still a craft that required shoe leather and a way with people—you had to look them in the eye. I interviewed nearly 100 sources. I went from house to house knocking on doors. I found court files buried in a repository four stories underground. I visited a half-dozen porn shoots and spoke to a dozen or more porn stars and directors (I know, rough job). I consorted with convicted felons. Most were behind bars. They were constantly calling collect.

My biggest “gets” were Holmes’ first wife, a former UCLA nurse, and another woman who became his mistress when she was only fifteen.

My biggest shock had been answering the knock at my hotel room door and discovering that the two women were now best friends.

We sat at the cheap dinette table in my rent-by-the-week motel suite. For nearly twelve hours they poured out their tale. The room was a haze of cigarette smoke. I remember boiling more water, making more tea. And I remember changing the microcassette tapes, one after the other, trying not to make too big a deal of the process lest I break the spell. Their story—funny and intimate and tragic—would later become the basis for the movie Wonderland, starring Val Kilmer, Lisa Kudrow, and Kate Bosworth. The larger piece would become Boogie Nights. (Alas, I didn’t own the rights to any life stories. I played no part in the making the movies.)

***

In time, my office looked like it had been hit by a blizzard of 20-pound bond. There were piles of paper on every flat surface, and on the floor around me, all of them tagged with colorful Post-it Notes, some of the piles reaching several feet in height—a miniature cityscape at my feet: Transcribed interviews, notes, court documents and legal transcripts of testimony and deposition hearings, newspaper clippings, non-fiction books and research papers on the subjects of AIDS and the Reagan Administration’s war on pornography (a period during which porn consumption by the public rose exponentially, I would learn). Not to mention my collection of  VHS films—black plastic rectangles, clad in colorful cardboard slip covers, stacked in rickety piles like so many skyscrapers populating my urban jungle of research materials.

Finally, I was done reporting and was ready to write. I sat down I sat in my expensive ergonomic office chair, at my father’s old desk in the bay window on the third floor of a townhouse just off the Washington DC’s notorious 14th Street Strip. One mile from the White House, the trade in prostitutes and crack cocaine was brisk 24/7. The newspaper liked to call it “an outdoor bazaar.”

Inside, on my computer screen, things were not so lively. Even though I knew where I wanted to start the story—with the Wonderland gang planning the heist—I couldn’t start. There was just too much information. Too many moving parts. Too many notes. Too many proper nouns.

I started the first sentence again and again. And again. And again.

Deep in Laurel Canyon… Deep in Laurel Canyon…  something.

By the second day, I was becoming more and more agitated. More desperate. And then depressed. And then really depressed. Holy shit, I thought, I’m Jack Nicholson in The Shining.  

Deep in Laurel Canyon… Deep in Laurel Canyon…  something.

Finally I wrote this: They gave me a story about a guy with  a 14-inch penis. How did I fuck this up?

I imagined myself dead in my fancy Aeron chair, my carcass desiccated and covered with cobwebs, rats chewing through the cityscape of pulp and plastic that occupied my hundred-year-old wood plank floor.

Finally, by late afternoon on the third day, I’d had enough. I said it out loud to myself and anyone else within earshot, though there was no one else:

“I quit.”

Writing was too fucking hard. And it wasn’t worth it. I’d worked for nine months on this fucker. I was due to collect $2,250 for this story. I had borrowed money to renovate my house, but was spending it on the mortgage and food and electricity. All for a chance at what…getting my name in Rolling Stone?  

Maybe I need to find a new line of work, I suggested to myself. Maybe I’ll go back to law school—I wasn’t too old for a change: Plenty of people switched jobs in their early thirties, did they not?

I shut the door behind me on my way out of that room.

***

I took off walking.

Dusk was gathering and the earlybird hookers were just hitting the streets for the evening rush of homebound commuters. There was the usual tang of want, need and expectation swirling in the air, along with the smells of car exhaust and fireplace woodsmoke.  

It was the media who’d labeled this area the 14th Street Strip; the pimps and hoes called it the “Track.” The flashier women were posted up beneath the street lamps along 14th Street NW, which was lined with storefronts, laundromats, auto shops, Chinese carryouts, and a number of liquor stores. One block over, 13th Street served as the back stretch. Darker and more residential, lined with overhanging trees, it was the provenance of welfare mothers, drug dealers and thieves. The johns from Virginia approached from the south, from the north came the men from Maryland. They circled round and round.

As I walked thought this usual evening tableau, I felt my mind begin to clear, and I kept moving at a swift pace. Soon, I left the strip altogether and reached the National Mall, hung a right, and walked on the grass toward the Lincoln Memorial. Climbing the steps, I paid my usual respects to Honest Abe, then turned around and grabbed a seat.

Spread before me was the familiar landscape—the Reflecting pool, the Washington Monument, the great dome of the Capitol, as thrilling as ever in the gathering loam, the lights beginning to twinkle.

And suddenly it hit me.

 Deep in Laurel Canyon, the Wonderland Gang was planning its last heist.

***

I learned that day that writer’s block had nothing to do with writing.

No matter how many sources I consult, how much information I collect, how many e-stacks of paper I build, or search windows I open,  my story is not going to be found in my notes.

And neither is it lurking somewhere in the shadows of my blank screen. (If only we could rub with a quarter and have our work revealed?)

Don’t expect your best stuff to suddenly appear by magic. You can noodle the germ of an idea into something concrete—you can fiddle and try things and edit and throw stuff up against the wall until somehow the fairy dust of your creative gift is released by the gods and floats down over all.

But before any of that can happen, you need to figure out what you’re trying to say.

For me that usually happens outside my office. Walking up a hill or chopping vegetables or taking a shower. Driving places. Staring out the window.

And yes, the people who are close me take notice of the times I’m not really there, the many times I’m not really there, the days or evenings when I’m walking around distracted or I forget that I had plans.  But hell, I’m an artist. I’m making something beautiful in my head. I’m not supposed to be a norm. Maybe that’s why there aren’t a lot of people in my life day to day? No matter. It suits me to be lost in my thoughts. Because that means the next time I’m at my keyboard, I’m going to take a crack at making something sing.

No matter what your genre, it’s probably the same. When you sit down to create something out of nothing, it’s best to have an idea of where you’re going: What, exactly, are you trying to create? Can you see it in your mind’s eye? Can you hear it playing like a song? Flickering like a movie? Can you smell and taste and feel?

Only then can you make it real.