Newspapers: A Crime Writer's Treasure Trove for Story Ideas By Lisa Malice

I was raised reading the local newspaper. Heck, I even had a paper route, delivering the weekday evening edition and the Sunday behemoth. Like our trusty mailman, I delivered the newspaper to my customers’ front door regardless of the weather. As a young reader, of course, I fought my four siblings for first crack at the comics. As a teen I started reading the advice columns, Dear Abby and Ann Landers, as well as the high school sports reports (I was a 3-season athlete) for a chance to see my name and those of my team- and schoolmates in print. As an adult with a career and family, keeping up with local and national news became more important, so I read the paper daily from the front page to the back.

Long before I started writing, I remember the amazing Mary Higgins Clark once remarking that she got a lot of story ideas from reading the newspaper. So, as I embarked on my own author’s journey, my morning time with the Atlanta Journal and Constitution took on a whole new purpose--the search for news items, columns, human interest pieces, sources of information, even obituaries—anything that might pique my interest as a storyteller. If I didn’t have an immediate use for the item, I tucked it away in a clear plastic file box. 

My box of news clippings gathered dust in my closet these last few years while I wrote and revised my debut novel, but needing an idea for today’s blog, I decided to pull it out and open it up to see what ideas it might spark. I started by sorting the clippings by subject matter, and as I did, I realized what I had in front of me wasn’t mere paper and ink, a topic here, a tidbit there, but a pile of gold nuggets, collectively, a treasure chest of characters, plotlines, forensic information, investigative techniques, and more, just waiting to inspire my writing. The perfect idea for my post was lying all around me—I would simply write about a great resource that every crime writer can easily access—their local newspaper.  

Just look at some of the headlines I pulled from my box—they abound with possibilities:

People gone missing in submerged cars, found in freezers, even a city re-emerging – what secrets might also be revealed?

·         An old freezer in a warehouse reveals a terrifying secret: The body of a woman missing for nearly 6 years.

·         Submerged cars may soon solve case: Teens, couple missing from OK town since ’69, ’70.

·         Lost Georgia city reappearing: Drought has lowered Lake Thurmond 15 feet, exposing bits of old city.

This 2014 article lamenting the loss of life from a mudslide in Washington state set me wondering how and why someone might use the tragedy to purposefully disappear after being presumed lost:

·         Some mudslide victims may never be found.

The next article could provide more info on how to pull off that disappearing act:

·         Face transplants less sci-fi: Successes show surgery could help injured troops.

Newspapers are filled with tales of murder proving life can be more gruesome than fiction:

·         Police: Newlyweds used Craigslist to lure, then kill: Couple allegedly restrained, stabbed   male victim. (Apparently, these two just wanted to find out what it was like to kill someone.)

·        Murdering nurse killed at least 86, cops speechless.

·        Kurt Busch says ex is an assassin. (I found this in the Sports section.)

·        Speaking of assassins and murder—mine, in fact—there was one all-but-forgotten email that made it into this file, one from a purported hitman. Below the subject line, “Be Very Careful!” was a warning from mikekiller161, “I was hired to kill you.” Like many other “undisclosed recipients,” I could be spared by sending money and keeping quiet. I didn’t keep my mouth shut, but laughed as I kept my dollars in my bank account, and tucked the email away in my box as a reminder of a great opening line for a mystery or thriller.

 I clipped stories detailing all types of fraud, always a great motive for murder, either as the doer or the victim: 

·         9/11 charities labeled shady, failures: Several kept donations, didn’t account for how money was spent.

·         Tangled in fraud probe, hundreds may lose checks: Lawyer charged in false disability claims of $600M.

·         Stem-cell clinics offering unproven treatments get warning: FDA says small number of ‘unscrupulous actors’ seen in field.

 I found articles pertinent to crime detection and investigation:

·         A primer on surveillance practices. (Published in 2017, this piece detailed how the U.S. government collects information on Americans.)

·         Can your gadgets send you to jail? AK police look into whether Amazon’s Echo might have overheard conversations critical to murder investigation. (A tool for blackmailers, perhaps?)

·         FBI trains cops how to profile mass shooters: Potential attackers vary demographically but follow certain patterns.

·        Eyewitness testimony losing credibility: Reform efforts take aim at procedures that guide its use.

·        AJC Investigation: Coroners’ expertise optional: Are you a voter 25 or older with a diploma? State says you can decide death cases. (A whole host of ideas hit me with this one, the most nefarious of which involves a serial killer who gets away with murder because he hides his crimes as the local coroner.)

·         The latest private eyes: Was your spouse on Ashley Madison? A new type of detective can help. (This goes back years when this website was advertised as a way for affair-minded married people to hook up.)

 Then there are the outright bizarre news stories that lend themselves to all manner of stories:

·         Weird noises baffle town. (This Wisconsin town experienced 3 nights of thunderous booming.)

·        US to press Cuba over incidents in Cuba: Cuban diplomat to answer questions on health attacks. (This recent story involved embassy workers who experienced hearing loss, concussions, headaches, ear ringing, nausea, and more. Lots of speculation on a bioweapon.)

I even found an informational article that explains why cleanliness is next to godliness, at least for those authors blessed enough to win an Edgar Award: 

·        Why we get our best ideas in the shower. (It has to do with allowing your mind to wander. Beachcombing by myself has the same effect.) 

Sadly, I stopped adding to the file a while back when my local paper stopped driveway delivery in favor of digital access, save for two days each week—Wednesday and Sunday—to sell advertising inserts. I’ve also been unmotivated to read the paper these days, as the amount of real news is lacking—too much opinion trying to pass for impartial news.

But opening up this dusty old treasure chest of mine, my interest in reading the newspaper every day has been reignited. I’ll adapt with the times, read the newspaper each morning on my laptop, and print out every fascinating story that piques my crime-writer interests. Here’s my newest addition to my file:

• Man found camera with old wedding photos. (The waterproof device, lost on a rafting trip, was recovered 13 years later with the memory card intact. What else might be on that memory card?)

Now, it’s your turn. Do you have a file of story ideas? Where did you find them? Any you would like to share?