Edna Buchanan Quotes

Betty Dravis is a fantastic mix of Shirley Jackson, Edna Buchanan and Janis Joplin. Don't ask me how I came up with that unlikely comparison––I just feel it, and I haven't been drinking much tonight.

I took the elevator to the newsroom, mind racing, wondering how to explain my six-hour lunch. I didn't need to. Nobody even missed me.

Gary Robinson died hungry. He wanted fried chicken, the three-piece box for $2.19. Drunk, loud, and obnoxious, he pushed ahead of seven customers on line at a fast-food chicken outlet. The counter girl told him that his behavior was impolite. She calmed him down with sweet talk, and he agreed to step to the end of the line. His turn came just before closing time, just after the fried chicken ran out. He punched the counter girl so hard her ears rang, and a security guard shot him—three times.

In the official police account, the plumber was shot and robbed on the street. Not true—guys stick together—the detective didn't want the victim's wife to know he was flagrante delicto with a prostitute when wounded. I didn't want her hurt or embarrassed either. She figured it out herself. I met her later, after their divorce, and she brought up the subject. The hospital returned her injured husband's garments. She was washing them when she realized that, although there were a number of bullet holes in his body, there were none in his clothes.

No, I work for the newspaper, the Miami News. The hip-hopper's stare was blank. "What channel?" The future of my chosen profession looked bleak.

The man at the keyboard frowned. The green dot moved with the car, miles away. I watched the three detectives glued to the screen. This, I thought, is the police work of the future

In the criminal justice system you see the worst people on their best behavior, unlike the civil system, where the best people behave at their worst.

wantthem

Notify the uniformed lieutenant in that sector. If the crime scene tape has been taken down, put it back up. Arrest anybody who violates the scene, including that son of a bitch Edelman.” “Wonder how he likes having his exciting new condo project renamed the ‘House of Horrors.’ How ya think it’ll affect pre-construction sales?” Corso chortled. The phones continued to ring nonstop. “Take that file into the conference room,” Burch told Nazario, “and study it till you know chapter and verse. We’re gonna

You can’t be what you can’t see.

True friends are those who really know you but love you anyway.

reporters bumping into

Officials who succeed in withholding information always celebrate by withholding something else. They continue to further block the free flow of facts until they are operating the way they like best, in secrecy.

When I was young, journalism was all about the five double-yews: Where, When, Why, What, and Who. Today it’s about the gees: Garbage and Gossip.