This annual collection of true crime presents 20 well-written articles that will keep you turning pages. Each piece is followed by a short commentary by the author about the case or article that was not included with the original.
Here is a brief description of each of the entries:
"Ciudad de la Muerte" by Cecilia Balli, from Texas Monthly, is a chilling look at the disappearances of more than 300 women from Juarez, Mexico in the past decade. The history of Juarez is sad: Families hoping to make a living settle there only to find that the work difficult, low paying, and hard to find. Young women are easy targets, and many have possibly been lured away with promises of jobs. The ones who are found have been brutally murdered. And the Mexican government shows little interest in investigating. Balli lives in El Paso and is writing a book about the unsolved murders. She has been an active proponent of American intervention, urging the FBI to offer help.
"Code of Dishonor" by Clara Bingham, from Vanity Fair looks at the Air Force Academy's "rape culture" and the long process women have had to endure to bring it to the attention of authorities who will do something about it. Not for the queasy.
"Lord of the Drug Ring" by Charles Bowden, from GQ describes a fatal hit on Comandante Guillermo Gonzalez Calderoni, a drug lord hiding out from Mexican authorities in McAllen, Texas, and the events leading up to that fateful day.
"The Dark Art of Interrogation" by Mark Bowden, from The Atlantic Monthly was one of my favorites. Bowden, the author of Black Hawk Down explores coercive interrogation techniques.
"Possessed" by Luke Dittrich, from Atlanta magazine is a strange tale about Tom Bronson, a Georgia neo-Nazi and self-appointed investigator of the death of Betty Jean Farris. This one, while well written, was a bit hard to understand.
"Night of the Bullies" by Robert Draper, from GQ is a story about a 1978 fraternity bullying episode that left the victim emotionally damaged 25 years later. Draper talks to the actors in the incident and finds their shame unsatisfying-they are too embarrassed to make things right even after this long.
"Stephanie" by James Ellroy, from GQ is a choppy, rhythmic look at the 1965 unsolved murder of 16-year-old Stephanie Gorman. In his unusual style, Ellroy shares the murder book and the crime scene.
"Who Is the Boy in the Box?" by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, from Philadelphia magazine is another cold case story, this one more than 40 years old. The man who originally fingerprinted the young boy, found in a cardboard box in a Philadelphia dump, pursued the ace his entire career, striving to identify the body. In 1998, the boy's body was exhumed for DNA testing, and his case featured on America's Most Wanted a year later, which produced several good leads, among them, a name for the boy.
