Spingola Files
The sleuth with the proof takes a look at real cases
Archive for January, 2012
January 29, 2012 at 4:41 pm · Filed under Homicide
Some homicide numbers from 2006 to 2011 spotlight things worth noting.
If you are a killer and want to get away with murder, you may want to set-up shop in Chicago. WBBM radio reports that the Windy City’s homicide clearance rate was just 30 percent in 2011. If you think this number is horrific, it is a seven percent improvement from 2010, when investigators cleared only 28 percent of Chicago murders.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/01/25/only-30-percent-of-last-years-murders-have-been-solved/
A cynic might claim that Chicago’s homicide clearance rate has declined as a direct result of a mandate requiring videotaped confessions. SF’s post concerning former Chicago PD police commander Jon Burge’s interrogation techniques might, in part, explain the significant drop in clearance rates there—down from 80 percent in 1991.
http://www.badgerwordsmith.com/spingolafiles/2011/01/23/bag-man-a-portrait-of-illinois-justice-system/
The city of Milwaukee reported 84 homicides in 2011. Sources claim the clearance rate was near 70 percent, which means 26 killers remain at-large to reoffend. From 1990-1999, Milwaukee homicides claimed the lives of 1,432—an average of 143.2 a year.
http://www.knoxnews.com/data/murder-knoxville-nation/
Milwaukee’s homicide clearance rate from 1990-1999 was an astonishing 84 percent, which meant, on average, 23 killers remained at large in any given year. As such, even though Milwaukee’s homicide rate per capita has declined, the number of killers at large in 2011 compared to the average in the 1990s has increased 13 percent.
To get an idea how Milwaukee homicides stack-up, no pun intended, against other areas of Wisconsin consider these numbers as the concealed carry permits arrive in the mail:
- In 2008, Milwaukee County experienced 74 homicides, causing public officials to laud the decrease.
- In 2008, Dane County’s homicide rate soared to 11—a 63.5 percent increase from 2006.
- These 2008 numbers indicate that a Milwaukee County resident is 330 percent more likely to fall victim to homicide than one in Dane County.
- In 2008, the total numbers of homicides in Eau Claire, Brown, Washington, Waukesha, Qzaukee, and Sheboygan counties totaled just nine.
- In 2008, Milwaukee comprised 11.6 percent of Wisconsin’s population, but accounted for 48.6 percent of the state’s homicides.
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Steve Spingola is an author and retired Milwaukee Police Department homicide detective.
If your group is in need of a fascinating guest speaker, consider the Spingola Files Psychology of Homicide presentation. For more information, visit www.badgerwordsmith.com/the_psychology_of_homicide_presentation.html
© Steven Spingola, Wales, WI, 2012
January 24, 2012 at 3:37 am · Filed under The Courts
To view this article, please checkout Best of the Spingola Files, Vol. II: Here’s Looking at You, available exclusively at Amazon.com in December of 2012.
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Steve Spingola is an author and retired Milwaukee Police Department homicide detective.
If your group is in need of a fascinating guest speaker, consider the Spingola Files Psychology of Homicide presentation. For more information, visit www.badgerwordsmith.com/the_psychology_of_homicide_presentation.html
© Steven Spingola, Wales, WI, 2012
January 21, 2012 at 8:09 pm · Filed under Book Review
To view this article, please checkout Best of the Spingola Files, Vol. II: Here’s Looking at You, available exclusively at Amazon.com in December of 2012.
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Steve Spingola is an author and retired Milwaukee Police Department homicide detective.
If your group is in need of a fascinating guest speaker, consider the Spingola Files Psychology of Homicide presentation. For more information, visit www.badgerwordsmith.com/the_psychology_of_homicide_presentation.html
© Steven Spingola, Wales, WI, 2012
January 18, 2012 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Citizen Talk
To view this article, checkout Best of the Spingola Files, Vol. II: Here’s Looking at You coming to Amazon.com in December 2012.
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Steve Spingola is an author and retired Milwaukee Police Department homicide detective.
If your group is in need of a fascinating guest speaker, consider the Spingola Files Psychology of Homicide presentation. For more information, visit www.badgerwordsmith.com/the_psychology_of_homicide_presentation.html
© Steven Spingola, Wales, WI, 2012
January 15, 2012 at 4:07 pm · Filed under Cop Talk
To view this article, checkout Best of the Spingola Files, Vol. II: Here’s Looking at You coming to Amazon.com in December 2012.
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Steve Spingola is an author and retired Milwaukee Police Department homicide detective.
If your group is in need of a fascinating guest speaker, consider the Spingola Files Psychology of Homicide presentation. For more information, visit www.badgerwordsmith.com/the_psychology_of_homicide_presentation.html
© Steven Spingola, Wales, WI, 2012
January 6, 2012 at 2:45 pm · Filed under Citizen Talk
If city homicides continue at their current rate, Milwaukee will witness 365 slayings in 2012. Experiencing five murders in as many days is, of course, purely coincidental, although it seems the stars are aligning at an awkward time. In just a few hours, Police Chief Edward Flynn is set to take the oath of office for a second term, a day after an assistant chief retired under a shroud of secrecy.
http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/136784753.html
But this isn’t the first time Milwaukee began the New Year with a bang. Twenty-one years ago, three people were murdered in the early hours of January 1—two at a tavern on S. 15 and W. Mitchell Streets. As the following link illustrates, the clatter of gunfire ushering in the New Year is a tradition, of sorts, in some Milwaukee neighborhoods.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqDqAsq5l6o
To avoid being hit by falling lead, some officers make it a point to have a roof over their heads during the first 15 minutes of the year. Things get real ugly in the ensuing hours as drunkenness sometimes results in a run-of-the-mill argument ending with a body or two being scrapped from the pavement.
Adding to the disproportate increase in January homicides is the unseasonably warm weather. Once the frigid cold returns—and it will—armed gang members with a grudge will hunker down inside their heated drug houses. Data driven policing be damned, experience dictates that the next rash of back-to-back homicides will probably occur during the first warm days of early spring.
PAYING FOR THE FISH WRAPPER
Seasoned detectives of yore often referred to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and its predecessor, the Milwaukee Journal, as ‘the fish wrapper.’ Obviously, these old school sleuths didn’t think too highly of the crew at 333 W. State Street (although the old Milwaukee Sentinel received higher marks).
Yet I wasn’t surprised to hear that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel—better known these days as JSOnline.com—is now charging a fee to view its Web site content. As any sound business model suggests, a company giving away its products for free will soon be out of business.
As of this morning, however, the newspaper’s home page, containing a wide variety of information—such as the popular “News Watch” section—is still accessible at no cost.
Here is some free advice for the brass at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: if you actually want people to pay for the content of your newspaper, lock down your Web site. Do not surrender a single morsel of information unless readers pay for the content. Otherwise, tight-fisted persons, like me, will not fork over $2.35 month. Why? Residents of southeastern Wisconsin are very frugal (i.e. we’re cheap).
On the other hand, if the JS would increase the size of its staff and actually unearth some news of local import, many of us might be willing to pay $5 a month. Over the past ten years, the corruption scandals involving members of the city’s common council, Ald. Michael McGee Jr.’s shakedown of businesses in his district, and public employees using government computers to advocate on behalf of politicians, have pretty much flown under the newspaper’s radar screen. Instead, the newspaper has three reporters investigating one of the few public institutions that actually performs reasonably well—the Milwaukee Police Department.
BEST OF THE SPINGOLA FILES COMING SOON
Recently, some readers have asked about a number of previous posts currently unavailable at SF. To view these outstanding articles, readers will need to purchase Best of the Spingola Files, Vol. I, a Kindle only e-book debuting later this month. I personally selected top-notch pieces, like “Max [Adonnis] & the Mob” and “Serial Killer in Plain Sight for All to See,” for publication. The cost of this new book is just $3 and will be available exclusively at Amazon.com.
The proceeds from of Best of the Spingola Files, Vol. I help fund this Web site’s overall operations.
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Steve Spingola is an author and retired Milwaukee Police Department homicide detective.
If your group is in need of a fascinating guest speaker, consider the Spingola Files Psychology of Homicide presentation. For more information, visit www.badgerwordsmith.com/the_psychology_of_homicide_presentation.html
© Steven Spingola, Wales, WI, 2012