INQUIRER: Antonio Rodriguez, the suspect in the murders of three women in Kensington, has confessed to the murders, police sources said today. Rodriguez, 22, gave a statement to police but has not been charged in the killings. Police arrested him Monday on outstanding bench warrants, hours after a DNA match in a database identified Rodriguez as the alleged strangler. MORE
Confessed Sabina Killer Donte Johnson Tells Judge He Can Afford New Six Figure Defense Attorney
PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY: At last month’s pre-trial conference, Johnson surprised the court by revealing that he fired court-appointed attorney Lee Mandell and instead hired lawyer Douglas Dolfman. Dolfman’s first motion was to announce that his client will not accept a plea and instead wants a jury trial. It was revealed this morning that the state’s plea deal was life in prison plus 40-80 years. If convicted at trial, Johnson, who was 18 years old at the time of the murder, could face the death penalty. […] Judge Hughes told Johnson that the type of sophisticated defense that his case would require […]
CINEMA: A New Philly Repertory Film Blog Launches
CINEDELPHIA: Cinedelphia.com is a new online resource for repertory film screenings in the Philadelphia area. These types of screenings are often ignored by major showtime websites as well as the online counterparts of our city’s major publications. Adventurous movie-goers no longer need to visit multiple venue sites for listings as Cinedelphia provides a comprehensive overview with links directly to said sites’ event details. MORE
Would Casey Mahoney Still Be Alive If It Didn’t Take Eight Weeks To Enter DNA Into State Police Database?
INQUIRER: Rodriguez, a convicted felon, was required to submit his DNA when he was released from jail this summer. It had been waiting to be uploaded into the state police database since Oct. 25, because of a backlog that averages about eight weeks. Philadelphia police submitted DNA taken from the crime scenes on Nov. 23. Had his DNA been in the system then, he might have been identified about three weeks before the final victim was killed. MORE PREVIOUSLY: Police Have Strangler Suspect In Custody
Glenn Beck Declares ‘Philadelphia Sucks’; Says He Is Afraid To Walk Around Independence Mall After 6 PM
ATTYTOOD: “Philadelphia sucks,” Beck declares at the end of today’s rant, which is focused on his notion — and feel free to debate this, as I know you will — that it’s not safe to walk around the City of Brotherly Love at 6 p.m. (6 p.m.?) without getting robbed or shot. MORE PREVIOUSLY: Beck and his fellow right-wing gabber Sean Hannity got dumped today by the city’s top-ranked talk-radio outlet, WPHT 1210-The Big Talker, in a major shakeup aimed at keepin’ it local. While Hannity and Beck — nationally the No. 2 and No. 3 most-listened-to talk hosts behind […]
CLASS WARFARE: Ex-Swiss Bank Executive Turns Over Info On 2,000 Illegal Bank Accounts To Wikileaks
NEW YORK TIMES: A former senior Swiss bank executive said on Monday that he had given the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, details of more than 2,000 prominent individuals and companies that he contends engaged in tax evasion and other possible criminal activity, Ravi Somaiya and Julia Werdigier report in The New York Times. Rudolf M. Elmer, who ran the Caribbean operations of the Swiss bank Julius Baer for eight years until he was dismissed in 2002, refused to identify any of the individuals or companies, but he told reporters at a news conference that about 40 politicians and “pillars of […]
ANARCHY IN THE NJ: Camden Lays Off Half Of Police
CHERRY HILL COURIER-POST: After months of disbelief over mass police layoffs in the nation’s second most dangerous city, Camden officers Monday began turning in their guns and badges. And in a move that will allow the department to maintain a much-needed street presence with fewer officers, the department moved to 12-hour work shifts Monday morning, according to sources with knowledge of the department. “Today was extremely difficult as we collected equipment from people who have dedicated and risked their lives for this city,” said Police Chief Scott Thomson. “Some of these individuals have more than 10 years of service, have […]
BREAKING: Police Have Strangler Suspect In Custody
DAILY NEWS: Police just announced that they’ve arrested Antonio Rodriguez, identified tonight as the Kensington Strangler. Rodriguez was arrested on Mutter Street near Westmoreland in Kensington. MORE MSNBC: DNA links the 21-year-old alleged serial killer to three murders in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, police said at a Monday night news conference. During that news conference a 911 call came in saying that Rodriguez was hiding out in a house on the 3300 block of Mudder Street. MORE DAILY MAIL: Philadelphia police say they have caught a serial killer who has been dubbed the Kensington Strangler – after a $37,000 […]
MONSTER PORN: Cops Say Jared Lee Loughner Photographed Himself In A G-String Posing With Glock
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] NEW YORK TIMES: Law enforcement officials said Friday they have multiple photos of Jared L. Loughner posing with a Glock 9mm pistol next to his naked buttocks and dressed in a bright red g-string. It is the same model of weapon as the one the police say Mr. Loughner used last Saturday to kill six people, including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl, and to wound 14 others, including an Arizona congresswoman. The photos were turned over to the police by Walgreens, where Mr. Loughner had taken the 35-mm film to be developed on Jan. […]
CINEMA: The Boys Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest
DAVID EDELSTEIN: The Green Hornet at least is likable, a refreshing change from all those heavy, angst-ridden superhero movies. The director is Michel Gondry of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a virtuoso at making childish fantasies take wing. And I’m not the first to notice a Bob Hope-Bing Crosby road-movie vibe between the two stars, Seth Rogen (as Britt Reid, aka The Green Hornet) and Jay Chou (the kung fu master Kato), who are both smitten with Cameron Diaz in the Dorothy Lamour role. Rogen’s Britt is a ne’er-do-well rich kid, the son of a disapproving media mogul played […]
LIT: Whatever Happened To Norman Mailer?
COMMENTARY: By this point, Mailer had jettisoned his first wife, college sweetheart Beatrice Silverman, and clearly traded up in the sexual-allure department by marrying the painter Adele Morales in 1954. With Adele’s all-too-willing complicity, he cultivated the ugliest part of his nature and called it high moral adventure. Threesomes, foursomes, and moresomes became a regular feature of their sex life. Mailer especially got off watching his wife with other women; when he could provoke her to duke it out with her lesbian partner, his night was made. The spectacle was even better than naked mud wrestling. Marijuana lubed the orgiastic […]