The Press Managing Editor Neil Campbell told me to just check over a few of them, write up looked to be interesting and we would plug it on page two, our records page.
As arrogant as I have always been, I was determined that I would come back with a page one story, despite the looming deadline.
And so I did.
I jotted down notes from a report on a domestic assault at a Carthage home. Normally that would not have been page one material, but I saw possibilities.
I wrote down information from a few more reports, then returned to the Press office and proceeded to write the others ones for page two and told Neil I had a page one story.
When I told him what it was about, he was understandably skeptical. A man going after a woman with a knife was interesting, but was not something that belonged on page one of the Carthage Press.
I asked him to let me write the story and he gave the okay.
I didn't always get my way, but this time I did.
The key was one detail from the incident report. The attack was precipitated by the woman throwing gravy on her husband.
I don't remember the eniire story, but the lead was "It started with gravy and nearly ended with the death of a Carthage woman."
Neil slapped the headline "It started with gravy" at the top of the story and ran it on page one. (It was a slow news day.)
As those of you who have read the Turner Report over the years are aware, much of my material comes from various documents, and a great deal of it comes from reports just like the "gravy" report from a quarter of a century ago.
It is rare that a week goes by without at least one or two of these true crime posts based on probable cause statements, plea agreements or detention motions and this week, sadly, my searches of state and federal court documents turned up a number of unusual stories.
Among the cases and allegations:
-A man falls asleep in a running car at the Kum & Go with two small children in the vehicle and is arrested for drunk driving
-A Joplin man is on the loose after allegedly assaulting a woman and sodomizing her with a broom handle
-A man with a record for drunk driving arrests is charged with the same crime- after rear-ending a Joplin police car
-An accused killer claims Jasper County jailers are putting something in his food and spitting in his drink.
The Turner Report is always going to include posts on politics and government, but I will keep mining the court documents.
You can never tell where you might find the next serving of gravy.
This week's top 10 posts and links to them from the Turner Report, Inside Joplin and Inside Joplin Obituaries are featured below.
The Turner Report
1. Joplin man at large after allegedly beating woman, sodomizing her with broom handle
2. Joplin woman, cocaine, meth user sentenced to 19 years in prison on weapons charge
3. Probable cause: Woman allegedy high on meth stabs in the throat with scissors at Carterville home
4. Joplin man arrested on meth charges following Jasper County SWAT raid
5. Government wants alleged operator of Joplin marijuana operation held without bond
6. Probable cause: Alleged drunk driver asleep in running car at Kum & Go with two small children in vehicle
7. Alleged drunk driver who rear-ended Joplin police car was on probation for two DWIs, felony drug charges
8. Welcome to Joplin- the magic city where city managers resign and get $3K a week and superintendents retire and get $250K
9. Accused killer Artilius Jordan to Judge Crane: The deputies here is putting something in my food
10. Message to Mary Gary Shaw: Anselm severance is not a "win-win" for the City of Joplin
Inside Joplin
1. Three arrested after Drug Enforcement Team, Newton County Sheriff, Duquesne PD execute search warrant, heroin, meth confiscated
2. Joplin Police Department Weekend Arrests
3. Jasper County Marriage Licenses March 1-10
4. Jasper County Sheriff's Office able to return stolen items to six victims following arrest of Joplin woman
5. Jasper County Dissolution of Marriage Petitions
6. Jasper County Sheriff's Office Arrests
7, Highway Patrol Arrests March 10-11
8. U. S. Bankruptcy Court Petitions- Joplin
9. Joplin Police Department Arrests March 13-14
10. Joplin Police Department Arrests March 12-13
Inside Joplin Obituaries
1. Denine Tahbaz
2. Gean Boyer
3. Doyle Price
4. Jimmy Walters
5. Michael Breault
6. Tracy Metcalf
7. Sandra Williams
8, Mildred Betterton
9. Mark Tarkington
10. Kay Link
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