Dec. 19, 2018. Like every year, local news stations ran anniversary pieces describing the cold case of Michelle Martinko, an 18-year-old woman stabbed to death in Cedar Rapids in 1979. The facts of the case were recounted. A tip line scrolled across the bottom of the screen. The weather report would be next, and Martinko’s story would be
True Crime
How the Golden State Killer — and true-crime obsession — de-charmed ‘the Midwest of California’
I had passed by this quaint block countless times before on my bike commute to and from work, but this time it felt macabre as a horror story coalesced around me. The dissonance between the crime scenes I’d read about and their plain existence made my head swim. Seeing this unremarkable block through new eyes, I was struck by how normal
Talking Movies: Exploring true crime
Americans like to feel that we invented the ‘true crime’ genre. We think that it happened sometime after World War II, was rooted in classic detective fiction and was nurtured by pulp magazines, film noir, excessive smoking and the shock and disillusionment bred from serial killers and post-war ennui. Several movies currently showing in town […]

