Enjoy a Slice of South Brooklyn—”Playing the Numbers”—By Author Craig McGuire
I grew up in the same neighborhood as Carmine Imbriale, the subject of my latest book, "Carmine & the 13th Avenue Boys: Surviving the Bloody South Brooklyn Colombo Mob." So one of the things I enjoyed most while writing this book was revisiting that time and place, but with a deeper dive into the dark side of Brooklyn in the 1980s. While Carmine was hustling down on 13th Avenue, I was growing up on the corner of 77th Street and 16th Avenue … [Read more...]
Author Tiddy Smith Discusses Police Misconduct in Durham
The city of Durham in North Carolina had a serious problem with police misconduct at the beginning of the 21st century. The most famous example was the so-called "Duke Lacrosse" case, which gained worldwide attention. In this case, a young Black woman accused three Duke University students, lacrosse players, of having committed a brutal, racially-motivated gang rape upon her. The woman's story about what had happened on the night in question … [Read more...]
Author and Artist Punch Stanimirovic
The artist known as Punch first gained fame as the world's greatest safe cracker who could punch open a safe in under sixteen seconds. He was also a master forger, vandal "aerosol artist" whose legendary street art inspired Sean Sullivan, aka Layercakeny, and the youngest and highest-ranking member of what the FBI first termed the YACS, now known as the Pink Panthers. He served sixteen years in prison, where his artistic talent made him an … [Read more...]
A Fatal Owl Attack Has At Least One Historical Precedent, Says Author Tiddy Smith
Kathlee Peterson, Durham, North Carolina, media attention, news, Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, The Staircase, Netflix, Michael Peterson, Larry Pollard, owl attack, owl theory, Robert Schmidt, killed by an owl, forensics, investigation, animal attack A Fatal Owl Attack Has At Least One Historical Precedent, Says Author Tiddy Smith Kathlee Peterson, Durham, North Carolina, media attention, news, Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, The Staircase, Netflix, … [Read more...]
Author Tiddy Smith On ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘The Boys from Brazil’
In 1996, a sheep called Dolly was born. She was the first mammal in history to be cloned from an adult. For this reason, Dolly had three mothers: the one who provided the egg, the one who carried her to term, and the one who provided the DNA. It was a remarkable leap from science fiction to science fact. There's a tendency to think of Dolly as a duplicate, a carbon copy, of the sheep whose DNA was injected into the egg; as though Dolly … [Read more...]
Scholar and DEATH BY TALONS Author Tiddy Smith Answers “Who Is Larry Pollard?”
Thomas Lawrence Pollard, better known as Larry Pollard, was born in Durham, North Carolina in 1948. He was the son of Julia Davis Pollard and Forrest Pollard sr. Studying law at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, he would go on to work in some of the most prestigious legal counsel positions in the State. From birth, he was raised at a large stately home in Forest Hills. The address was 1902 Cedar Street, in the very same house where … [Read more...]
Meet Memoir Author Jim Duke
VISIT authorjimduke.com Dropping out of high school to pursue the life of a cowboy in Texas, Jim Duke eventually bullshitted his way into college and attended University of Wyoming and University of Texas before finally earning a BS in Zoology and MS in Range Science on Mountain Goat Habitat in Alaska, both from Colorado State University. His taste for the wild has taken him to the upper Amazon, Patagonia, Madagascar, and mountain biking … [Read more...]
Sylvester Stallone Calls Making HUNTER “Unfinished Business” and IMDb Lists Filming as in “Pre-Production”
Recently, fans of Sylvester Stallone speculated in a Facebook group dedicated to the Italian Stallion whether his popular TV show, Tulsa King, would return for a second season. However, Stallone has other projects he is more interested in pursuing, such as a film adaptation of James Byron Huggins' 2018 release, HUNTER. Stallone has already put HUNTER into pre-production and discussed the project further in a December 2022 interview with … [Read more...]
Author Margery Metzger On The Importance of True Crime Writing
A true crime writer walks a tightrope. Brutal crimes may be sensational, but most of all they are traumatic. The writer must balance facts of the crime about the perpetrator, the witnesses, law enforcement, the judicial, and the survivors. It is not easy to research this material and to sort through events to try to determine what is fact and what has been distorted either through time or one's own perspective. Perpetrators should be held … [Read more...]
