Dig

Sad epilogue to 1970s serial killings

2011-12-02T12:31:00.000-08:00

After 40 years, we still don't know exactly how many boys serial killer Dean Corll, dubbed the Candy Man, and his teen henchmen caught and killed in Houston the 1970s though it was at least 29.

This week I wrote about another ID of a victim - a boy who went missing after leaving home to go to work at a shoe store in the Northwest Mall in about 1972.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/After-decades-another-serial-killer-victim-2336666.php?utm_source=twi

Murdered couple remains unidentified after 30 years

2011-11-28T09:30:00.000-08:00

Of the 400 unidentified bodies in Harris County's cold case files, some of the most confounding involve two people killed together whose identities remain lost in time. One of the most compelling is a pair of teens whose corpses were found, freshly murdered, in early January 1981.
This is their story -
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Investigators-hope-DNA-provides-answers-in-2296253.php

It's part of an occasional series we've done this year on the 400 unknown dead here - and efforts to use a new grant to try to identify some of them through DNA. Previous stories led to the identification of two people.

An estimated 50,000 Texans are in guardianships.Meet one of them:

2011-11-04T14:54:00.000-07:00

An estimated 50,000 Texans are in guardianships. Helen Hale is one of them...
A family dispute resulted in her being placed under the care of a court-appointed guardian.
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Guardians-for-the-elderly-and-disabled-paid-2251312.php

Four years later...I'm still waiting for a state department response to an FOIA

2011-11-02T12:09:00.000-07:00

Tracey Eaton, a former HChron metro editor and ex-foreign correspondent, has an initiative to try to get records out of the State Department regarding spending in Cuba (as well as other fed agencies) See: .http://cubamoneyproject.org/
His efforts remind me that the State Department never responded to my own request for copies of the database of Americans killed worldwide - a record it keeps and distributes, in part, online.

Tipsheet for the border and immigration coverage - 2011 edition

2011-10-10T11:00:00.001-07:00

CONTACTS, STRATEGIES AND RESOURCES FOR BORDER AND IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

Lise Olsen, Investigative Reporter,

The Houston Chronicle

Lise.olsen@chron.com

Blog: http://liseolsen.blogspot.com/

Twitter @chrondigger

United States

government sites/or government data:

U.S.

Immigration and Citizens Services (formerly the INS) website

http://uscis.gov/graphics/index.htm

You’ll find press releases, of course, but also helpful annual yearbooks with specific

stats on where immigrants are moving, trends in enforcement and contacts for district offices nationwide and overseas.

Also U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (formerly INS and customs)

http://www.ice.gov

Border Patrol – US Customs and Border Protection, links to spokesmen and local office phones: http://cbp.gov/

Links to the Federal Court websites

Links to all federal courts are at: http://www.uscourts.gov/

These include federal district, appeals and bankruptcy courts. You can search federal court cases for defendants’ names or company names nationwide and also search by statute (i.e. with the code number for illegal re-entry or other immigration-related cases). It makes sense to get to know the federal prosecutor and federal public defender in your area who handle immigration issues.

Get a log-on and you can get court records for pennies a page – and view case activity and get attorneys’ names, phones and e-mails for free:

https://pacer.login.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl?court_id=00idx

Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse

http://trac.syr.edu/

A non-profit that has successfully sued the U.S. Justice Department for tons of data and makes it available to reporters and researchers. Some of it is free, the rest you get for a

subscription fee. The ICE section is valuable to check out your region and see how its enforcement record compares to others. There is a whole section on immigration courts and you can get reports on immigration judges too.

The Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) of the Department of Justice

http://www.usdoj.gov/eoir/

It oversees the immigration courts (which aren’t part of the ICE, etc. though they are part of the Department of Justice). Among other things, there’s a pretty up-to-date report on

court performance. Immigration court hearings are generally open, but records are not. Also has lists of stats, sanctioned lawyers, court locations, etc.

Congress – Members of Congress, their staff and committee chairmen in both Mexico and the US congress are key contacts for reporters.

Find the list of the members of the Senate’s immigration subcommittee at:

http://judiciary.senate.gov/about/subcommittees/immigration.cfm Members of congress can assist with getting information on individual cases, or statistics on INS manpower, etc You can use the service Thomas to keep up with bills: http://thomas.loc.gov. A list of bills related to September 11th is posted at http://thomas.loc.gov/home/terrorleg.htm

US Department of State –http://www.state.gov/

Alerts and advisories, contacts, etc.

Deaths of Americans Abroad data is now online as well

http://travel.state.gov/law/family_issues/death/death_600.html

FBI Offices – this page has a link to all of them. Each has a press officer and a searchable archive of press releases.

http://www.fbi.gov/contact/fo/fo.htm

The FBI is also the best source of crime statistics for all border states and cities (though state governments and individual cities have this too.)

Census bureau: For information on border population trends, languages spoken, changes in Mexican-born or all Foreign born population on all cities, places, counties, states, towns and the

as a whole. http://www.census.gov/

State governments:

U.S.border states: Texas, Arizona, California, New Mexico

Mexican border states: Tamaulipas, Nuevo León, Chihuahua,Coahuila, Sonora

Baja California Norte. Each state has its own webpage and “portal” for public records – “transparencia”

Each state also has a Procurador General de Justicia del Estado – PGJE in Mexico or State’s Attorney General in the US. Find their contact information and e-mails on border state webpages.

Another list of border links – collected and updated by Molly Molloy, a researcher at NMSU and IRE member: http://lib.nmsu.edu/subject/bord/laguia/

Molly Molloy also runs one of the best border list-serves (in English). To receive it, e-mail her at mollymolloy@gmail.com

Gobierno Mexicano (en español)

Mexican Government resources – the indispensable guide to fuentes or sources – a comprehensive list of who’s who in government and in journalism and how to call or e-mail them all over

Mexico

: http://www.directorio.gob.mx/

Gobierno de México en Línea Portal Ciudadano, Sitio Oficial del Gobierno de México

http://www.gob.mx/wb/egobierno/egob_paginaaltaresolucion

Mexico

’s state department, the Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores

http://www.sre.gob.mx/

Instituto Federal de Acceso a la Información Pública

Mexican Freedom of Information Act information, sample letters, explanation of the law and database of requests. You don’t have to be a citizen to use it and can register under your own name or under Mickey Mouse if youwant.

http://www.ifai.org.mx/

Compranet – information about federal contracts in Mexico

http://web.compranet.gob.mx/

Senado y Camara de Diputados: Just like with the

Congress, Mexican congressmen on key comisiones (committees) as well as their staffs are excellent sources for stories.

http://www.senado.gob.mx/

Lista de comisiones http://www.senado.gob.mx/assets/com.pdf

http://www.cddhcu.gob.mx/

Procurador General de la Republica (PGR – the Mexican Attorney General/Department of Justice). Has an extensive archive of press relases and summaries of stores from around the Républica Méxicana.

Semefo – Servicio Médico Forense is Mexico’s national medical examiner network, though not all big cities have offices (just like some places in the

rely on Coroners.)

Mexico

’s INEGI – Census bureau and so much more. The motherlode of statistics and official information. http://www.inegi.gob.mx/inegi/default.aspx

Mexican non-profits with great info and archives:

Instituto Ciudadano de Estudios sobre la inseguridad

http://www.icesi.org.mx/publicaciones/comunicados/conferencia_situacion_mundial_delincuencia.asp This is the best site by far for Mexican crime statistics and for citizens’ survey data on crime – very interesting information.

Center for Border Students and Promotion of Human Rights (CEFPRODHAC) – a non-profit with a great archive on human rights issues on the border – including statistics, complaints and archives from all across the border.

Based in Reynosa. http://www.derechoshumanosenmexico.org/

An example of resources available is this list of murders in Tamalipas from 2009: http://www.derechoshumanosenmexico.org/pages/estadisticas/asesinatos-2009.php

(CEFPRODHAC also operates an online news service called Enlinea directa.)

Key journalism websites:

Many other news sites exist, but these are some of the oldest and most reliable and offer investigative stories from El Paso to the Pacific.

Tijuana/Baja California/San Diego:

Tijuana Press http://www.tijuanapress.com/

AFNT http://afntijuana.info/blog/

Zeta:www.zetatijuana.com

Frontera http://www.frontera.info/Home.aspx

Crónica de Baja California – http://www.lacronica.com/

(sister paper to Frontera and to El Imparcial in Hermosillo)

San Diego Union http://www.signonsandiego.com/

Juarez/El Paso:

El Diario de Juarez http://www.diario.com.mx/ (with sister papers in Chihuahua and in El Paso)

Norte de Juarez

La Polaka - http://lapolaka.com/

El Paso Times: http://www.elpasotimes.com/

Arizona/Sonora:

El Imparcial http://www.elimparcial.com/

Arizona Border reporter blog – Michael Marizco in Arizona http://borderreporter.com/

Arizona Daily Star

And its database of border deaths:

http://regulus.azstarnet.com/borderdeaths/

General border:

Narconews blog: http://www.narconews.com/

Frontera NorteSur another compilation site of U.S. Mexico Border News http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/

Houston Chronicle’s border murders of American citizens

http://www.chron.com/databases/mexicomurders

National and border news coverage:

El Universal – Mexico’s largest daily with a huge archive of stories that is free.

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/noticias.html

La Jornada– a smaller but important Mexico City-based daily with a free searchable archive.

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/ultimas/

LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/

Deaths in U.S. Immigration detention centers posted on the New York Times website

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/nyregion/05detain-list.htm

Journalism organizations:

Investigative Reporters and Editors – www.ire.org

IRE en español

http://www.ire.org/esp/index.html

Sala de Prensa

http://www.saladeprensa.org/

Centro de Periodismo y Ética Pública – México

A great journalists’ listserve and website with public information and information on attacks on journalists

http://www.cepet.org/

Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa: An association of editors and publishers in the

Americas

that monitors and provides help after attacks on journalists and lobbies for better press laws. (Spanish and English)

http://www.sipiapa.com/espanol/projects/chapul-presslaws.cfm

Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas – Newsletter in three languages, free and inexpensive web seminars and e-books as wel as events. http://knightcenter.utexas.edu/

Internacional Center for Journalists: Leyes de Prensa, becas

http://www.ijnet.org/Director.aspx?P=Home&LID=2

Lawyers/Abogados:

American Immigration Lawyers Association

http://www.aila.org/

PIO: 202-216-2404 Ask who are AILA members or board members in your area. AILA also has press releases on national issues on their website.

The American Bar Association’s Commission on Immigration http://www.abanet.org/publicserv/immigration/home.html Tel: (202) 662-1698 The ABA is a good source of information for keeping up with issues and for finding groups who handle immigration cases in your state.

The ACLU’s Immigrant Rights Page

Among other things, there are copies of key federal court decisions, as well as updates on

federal legislation as well as immigration groups all over the

U.S.

at this page: http://www.aclu.org/immigrants/gen/11649res20020219.html

Think Tanks/Experts:

NOTE: Many border universities have special study programs and great experts… way too many for one list.

Center for Immigration Studies

http://www.cis.org/

This is a think tank devoted exclusively to the research and policy analysis of all

immigration-related issues. Among other things, the CIS has a

mailing list that lets you stay on top of what everyone else is writing about immigration

issues, from the smallest border papers to the New York Times.

http://www.cis.org/immigrationnews.html -- link for joining the mailing list.

Federation for Immigration Reform http://www.fairus.org/ Tel: (202) 328-7004

An organization that argues the US has too many immigrants and proposes reforms.

Among other things, the site has state-by-state profiles and news releases.

International Human Rights organizations:

Human Rights Watch

http://www.hrw.org/ - English

http://www.hrw.org/es - Español

Amnesty International:

http://www.amnesty.org/en/contact/663

Amnistía Internacional Sección Mexicana

http://amnistia.org.mx/

Mexican Human Rights organizations

There are many other well-known human Rights organizations in

Mexico

For a complete list see the links on the Red Nacional de Organismos Civiles de Derechos Humanos website: http://www.redtdt.org.mx/enlaces.php

This website offers another even longer list of NGOs in all Mexican states -

http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/research/mexico-ngos.html

(with e-mails, brief descriptions, addresses and websites.)

Killer's claims about the "Eleven who went to Heaven"

2011-09-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

I have posted a new page with links to my stories about the 1970s serial killings of teenaged girls on a new page. It contains links to stories about claims made to me in letters and interviews by convicted murdered Edward Harold Bell, a Texas prison inmate, from July to September 2011.Many hope that the statements made by Bell, 72, will help clarify many unsolved murders from the 1970s. Victims families and friends have contacted me this week to say they hope his statments will be either verified or disproven before Bell himself dies.

Weird and weirder - Edward Harold Bell

2011-09-23T14:25:00.000-07:00

A 72-year-old prisoner named Edward Harold Bell is the subject of my upcoming story on Sunday in the Houston Chronicle.

I got interested in a string of unsolved teen girl murders in the 1970s as the result of stories I did in May and June on forensic anthropologists' efforts to help identify approximately 400 unknown Jane and John Does in the Harris County public cemetery. Among other things, I learned that one unknown teenaged "boy's" body might really have belonged to a murdered girl named Rhonda Renee Johnson. I spent weeks trying to find her family to see if that mystery could be solved through DNA.... her brother is trying to help.

That story led me to a Galveston Police Officer's theory that a man named Bell might have killed Johnson and others... More will be coming out soon about Bell and I'll post information here.

Perry, privacy and clemency

2011-09-08T09:47:00.000-07:00

Patricia Hart just did an updated story on Perry's "shroud of secrecy" - a habit of keeping public documents to himself, resisting release of his own calendars, travel expenses, e-mails and clemency reviews in response to public disclosure requests.http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Perry-has-wovenshroud-of-secrecyas-Texas-governor-2144596.php

I keep getting asked for stories I wrote about Perry's clemency reviews in 2009.
This 2009 story was based on information from the parole board, state archives and Perry's office (all very limited) about his reviews of requests from inmates executed during his tenure gov: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Clemency-rare-on-Texas-death-row-1547457.phpstories

The Chronicle later filed a lawsuit under the Public Discloure Act to try to get more information, since documentations on clemency reviews for executed offenders was made public under Gov. Bush (and Attorney General John Cornyn, now a US Senator). That lawsuit is still pending.
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Chronicle-sues-Perry-over-clemency-report-1748771.php

Lonely bones

2011-08-10T13:54:00.000-07:00

Nothing to me is quite so haunting as a long unsolved murder case - or an unidentified body.
This summer I have gotten caught up in following a story that begins with a so-called "boy's" body found, headless, in a local marsh back in September 1971.
Here's the story - 21 bodies and no clear answers:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7667527.html
Here are the other stories that led me to this tale, which continues to unfold.
Harris County's 400 John and Jane Does:
http://blog.chron.com/newswatch/2011/05/harris-cold-cases/
Two tips that led to identifications resulted from that first piece
http://blog.chron.com/newswatch/2011/05/harris-cold-cases/
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7626309.html

Getting started in investigative reporting- it's never too soon

2011-07-15T08:16:00.000-07:00

When you're just getting started in journalism, getting names spelled right and meeting your deadlines can be a huge challenge. But if your dream is investigative reporting - fighting corruption, righting wrongs, helping fix things, afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicated - it's never to early to start.

Here are some things you can do:
1. Really listen Put down your notebook at the end of an interview and say - is there anything else you want to tell me? Or: Is there anything else I should know?
2. Show up early and leave late for interviews and press conferences. Look around and be curious.
3. Listen to your instincts. Does something seem wrong? Is someone lying to you? Pay attention to your own responses.
4. Have conversations - not just interviews with sources: Go out to lunch or coffee or ride around in a car with them and listen to them talk. You'll find the bigger stories behind the stories.
5. Drop by: If you have a beat that includes covering people who work in a government office, visit different people's offices to chat when you have free time. Or if this is impossible, ask for a tour or pick up a phone directory or hang out in the break room and leave your card with everyone you meet.
6. Know the players: Figure out who are the experts , the gossips, the whistleblowers and who really has the power and get to know all of these people.
7. Be organized: keep a list of tips you get from sources (since hopefully you'll have more than you can tackle), record your source's phone numbers, cell numbers, e-mails, kids' names and other info in your contacts files.
8. Keep project notes separate from your daily stories: Set up a folder in Windows/Mac named for your project. Keep your interview notes, electronic documents, "to do lists" and story memos there.
9. Use placeholder drafts - Periodically write up a summary - what I call a placeholder draft - of what you know so far, your best stuff and a list of things you still need to do. That way, if you have to set aside your reporting for a while (or even for a long time) you won't lost time or forget where you were.
10. Set goals: Often the most you can do as a beginner, is try to tackle one difficult story every six months or so. This means you tackle that story little by little in between other assignments. A goal helps you stay motivated.
11. Look for mentors - this might be your editor, someone on an investigative team or even someone in another news organization - who will read your stories, talk to you about your project and give advice. A good mentor will improve your story and help you get better too.
12. Join Investigative Reporters & Editors. Through IRE I have found many mentors, and have used tipsheets and story archives to figure out how to tackle investigations.

Dickens

2011-07-07T13:11:00.000-07:00

As I struggle to integrate twitter, blogs and facebook to my professional and personal life, I have to say that I appreciate deeply these words of Charles Dickens - and feel compelled to share them electronically (of course!)...

"Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with his soul encourages another person to be brave and true"
- Charles Dickens

Unnamed, unsolved

2011-05-31T11:37:00.000-07:00

This weekend I returned to the theme of the nameless dead - an estimated 40,000 corpses remain unidentified nationwide - to report on an effort in Harris County by forensic anrhropologists to find new leads to decide which unnamed bodies to exhume (an effort funded by a NIJ grant..)

Here's the link to the story, a video and a map - an interactive database will be up soon.
http://blog.chron.com/newswatch/2011/05/harris-cold-cases/

Sex Trafficking In Houston - over and over and over again...

2011-03-04T13:31:00.000-08:00

A problem that doesn't seem to go away, Susan Carroll and I again wrote about a ring of traffickers who keep popping up in the same seedy Clinton Dr. cantinas.http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7448566.html
Here's my 2008 story on the same ring - part of a series on sex trafficking.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/5987854.html

Join me to dig in...

2011-01-07T15:05:00.000-08:00

As an investigative reporter at the Houston Chronicle, I dig up information in a lot of different areas, mostly focussing on Houston and Texas. This blog is an effort to organize major stories I've written over the years by topic to communicate with people who might be interested in joining me in unearthing information in very different topic areas, including:
- Probate court/guardianship issues
- Federal judicial ethics and misconduct
- Prescription drug abuse
- Americans murdered in Mexico
- Police shootings
I will more regularly update my facebook page and use this blog for sharing investigative stories and updates.
Your posts and ideas are welcome in English, Spanish or French. Or if you prefer, e-mail me privately at lise.olsen@chron.com