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 "arson" ...
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Burning Questions: Arson or Accident?
Investigation which found that insurance companies with significant financial interests in the outcome of criminal arson investigations are in fact taking the lead in such probes- with the result that property owners are accused of setting fires that are almost certainly accidents.
Tags: Arson; Insurance Fraud
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Fire Mark: Did prosecutors wrongfully convict a 17-year-old of triple homicide in the 1995 blaze that killed three firefighters?
The Innocence Institute of Point Park University looked into the conviction of Greg Brown who was charged with arson in a fire that lead to the death of three firefighters. Through their reporting efforts, the Innocence Institute the fire was not started by Brown - it was cause by a natural gas leak, not arson. And that some of the main witnesses had been paid as much as $10,000 to testify.
Tags: wrongful conviction; arson; crime; Innocence Project; FOIA; ATF; Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
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Firefighters' Explosion
There weren't any eye witnesses or physical evidence against five Kansas City residents sentenced to life in prison after six firefighters died in arson fires ten years earlier. Concerns from local journalists and some prosecutors questioned the convictions, sparking the Star to exam the case.
Tags: criminal investigation; testimony; Emanuel Cleaver; alibi; Bryan Sheppard; ATF;
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A Girl's Life
The single 7,500-word story chronicled the life and death of Acia Johnson, a South Boston girl who seemed to be doing everything right: getting good grades in school, becoming a standout basketball player with a chance at a scholarship to go to a good high school and taking care of her younger sister. That was until her house was set ablaze last April in what authorities said was a jealous rage by her mother's lover. Acia burned to death along with her three-year-old sister in her third-floor bedroom closet. Her mother stood, safe, on the ground with the family dog. Her father was in jail. It was the last in a long list of instances of neglect recounted in the story. Anyone could have saved her life--her parents, drug addicts and sometimes violent petty criminals who never managed to get straight' neighbors who knew about the violent family fights and often didn't call police; friends who did nothing though thought it unusual that Acia was left to care for her sister while their parents were out running thr streets; social workers who had declared Acia's parents unfit in 2003 and placed her in the custody of her grandmother but who never figured out that she was still living with her mother. They didn't figure it out even though they frequently visited Acia at her mother's house, including two days before the fire. They didn't figure it out even though her mother reported Acia was living with her when she applied for housing subsidies, food stamps and cash assistance. And they didn't figure it out even though her mother's house was listed as Acia's primary residence at her middle school.
Tags: social workers; arson; child death; neglect; custody; Boston
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Firefighter's Explosion
The Star reinvestigated "the case of five Kansas Citians convicted in 1997 of setting arson fires ten years earlier that sparked an explosion killing six Kansas City firefighters." The Star found that many of the witnesses who testified stood to gain from their claims and that the jurors misunderstood their instructions.
Tags: arson; trial; jury; evidence; testimony; witness; firefighters;
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Letters from an Arsonist
"This story chronicled the rampage of Thomas Sweatt, a serial arsonist who was arrested in April 2005 and later admitted to setting a string of fires that terrorized the Washington area for years...Jamieson not only nailed down a startling psychological profile of the man, but also uncovered the extent of Sweatt's destruction -- he had set hundreds of fires stretching over more than two decades."
Tags: crime; arson; murder; letters; psychological profile; plea bargain; fire
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"Burning Rage"
This story covers the rising threat of eco-terrorists in the U.S. In May, 2005, John Lewis, Deputy Director of the FBI, testified on Capitol Hill that domestic terrorism by radical environmental groups such as the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front were the biggest threat to American security. 60 Minutes set out to either prove or disprove Lewis' testimony and found that, indeed, such groups were responsible for a rising number of arson and bomb attacks.
Tags: Eco-terrorism; domestic terrorism; FBI; ecology; environment; counter-terrorism
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Forensics Under the Microscope
This extensive series by reporters at the Chicago Tribune looks at the erroneous forensic evidence used to convict innocent people of vicious crimes. The investigation looks at the unreliability of some areas of forensic science, including DNA testing, fingerprinting, arson theories, and dental comparisons. As a result of the groundbreaking series, two inmates will be released because of faulty forensic analyses and several pending criminal appeals are using the report as evidence.
Tags: fingerprinting; DNA testing; arson; forensic science; wrongful imprisonment
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Forgotten Heroes: America's Volunteer Firefighters
Pardue recognized that nearly every story he read about rural fires included the phrase "By the time the firefighters arrived, the house was fully engaged." His curiosity about the effectiveness of rural volunteer fire departments led to this story, which found that they really aren't effective at all. People protected by volunteer fire departments are nearly three times as likely to die in a fire than those protected by full-time departments. Lots of interviews and database analysis exposed a lot of problems within volunteer fire departments.
Tags: fire department; arson; firefighters; National Fire Protection Administration