The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "hostage" ...
-
Suicide By Cop
Documenting the story of how a veteran from Iraq, suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, terrorizes a store full of customers and then proceeds to lead police from four counties on a high-speed car chase across North Dakota.
Tags: veteran; ptsd; iraq; hostage; mental breakdown
-
Columbus Police Chief
This investigation uncovered violation of drinking-and-driving laws and policies by the chief of the Columbus Indiana Police Department; it involved surveillance of the chief. In one incident, he arrived an hour late to a hostage crisis after drinking on a golf course. The story led to the chief's suspension and resignation.
Tags: alcohol; law enforcement; drinking and driving; drunk driving; police chief malfeasance; surveillance
-
15 days of anguish: The inside story of Arizona's prison standoff
This narrative recounts the nation's longest prison hostage standoff, a 15-day crisis at an Arizona prison. The story was reconstructed from Republic interviews and from 50 hours of taped negotiations between inmates and negotiators, official debriefings of corrections officers, investigative reports, inmate files, command logs and other public records. The Republic obtained the records only after much wrangling with the Department of Corrections and the Governor's office. After the Republic published stories on the standoff based on off-the-record sources, a county prosecutor's office rejected the Governor's office arguments to withhold the information and released the records. The story revealed how gross security flaws, mismanagement, and poor judgment led to the incident in which two women were raped.
Tags: prison standoff; rape; prisoners; public records
-
Gone
Esquire tells the story of eight Americans who have been kidnapped by guerrillas in Ecuador and kept in the jungles for more than five months. The article reveals that the families of the kidnapped men have been told lies by the negotiators - for example, that hostages would not be harmed. One of the men, Ron Sanders of Missouri, was killed, because the American organizations negotiating with the ninjas failed to achieve a deal on the amount of the ransom to be paid. Kidnapping has become a business in countries like Ecuador, the magazine reports.
Tags: families; Latin America; gringos; Helmerich & Payne; Control Risks Group; Erickson Air-Crane
-
Open for Business: While Marc Rich Was Fugitive, Firm Dealt With Pariah Nations
A team of Wall Street Journal reporters from around the globe reports that while fugitive billionaire Marc Rich worked to clear his name of criminal allegations, his trading empire also worked hard -- "landing some of the same sorts of deals that helped him get into trouble in the first place." Rich, who received a pardon from President Clinton before he left the White House, was indicted in 1983 on tax-evasion charges. Prosecutors also charged that Rich bought "about $200 million worth of oil from Iran while revolutionaries...held 53 Americans hostage there in 1979-81...Mr. Rich was never tried because he fled to Switzerland and renounced his American citizenship before being indicted." After he moved to Switzerland, Rich's business, unfettered by American trade restrictions, "not only conducted additional deals in Iran, it also traded with Libya, Cuba and South Africa, all at times when U.S. citizens and companies were barred from doing so." Although Rich's business practices since leaving the U.S. have not been illegal, they do "raise new questions about the wisdom of pardoning him."
Tags: Marc Rich; Pincus Green; presidential pardons; Denise Rich; trade restrictions; Marc Rich Investment
-
The 1980 'October Surprise' Revisited
Three-part article describing allegations about 1980 October Surprise, in which Republicans were accused of cooperating with the Iranian government to delay the release of American hostages until after the presidential election. Includes interview with Jamshid Hashemi, an Iranian participant in secret negotiations. Also includes allegations of President Bush's and the Israeli government's involvement in the incident.
Tags: international relations; diplomacy; Carter; Reagan; Iran; Israel; CIA
-
Turning Water into Whine
By taking advantage of loopholes in Colorado special district laws and then setting up a maze of companies to conduct business with himself, a millionaire Denver developer created his own government. Then he held a small town hostage with the state's most precious natural commodity, water - even after that water became polluted and he refused to clean it up.
Tags: environment; utilities; residents; neighbor
-
Escape from Kashmir
A Pakistan-based separatist group kidnapped several hikers, including two Americans, in the Kashmir mountains in 1995 One of the Americans, John Childs, managed to escape, The other man, Donald Hutchings, and several other hostages were never found.
-
No title (id: 12932)
Christine Beck lived every driver's worst nightmare: a breakdown in rush hour, in New York City. Her car was towed to a garage, but there things only got worse. CBS News used an undercover camera to record Beck's fight to get her car back, while the garage held it hostage. Using a planted car, a pattern of abuse by certain unscrupulous tow truck operators and mechanics was documented. (April 27, 1995)
-
John Dillinger Slept Here
Based upon more than 10,000 pages of FBI and other federal files, the book explores the untold story of how 1930's-era gangsters such as John Dillinger, Babyface Nelson, and Alvin "Creepy" Karpis held a city hostage, with full police cooperation, for nearly 16 years. (September, 1995)
Tags: Maccabee John Dillinger slept here Contest entry Mafia FOIA BOOK