Saturday, April 03, 2004



Kelley's stories needed this disclaimer: Based on a true story
Joel Achenbach says of former USA Today reporter Jack Kelley: It appears that, like a good screenwriter, Kelley took a real tragedy and adapted it into something more dramatic, more heart-wrenching, with sharper pieces of shrapnel impaling softer body parts. His articles should have carried an italic notation: Based on a true story.
· Reality

Jubilant residents dragged the charred corpses of four foreigners -- one a woman, at least one an American -- through the streets Wednesday and hanged them from the bridge spanning the Euphrates River. Five American troops died in a roadside bombing nearby.
· Euphrates River: scene of some of the worst violence on both sides of the conflict

Revenge, the settling of scores, a turf war - or just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Death takes many forms in a gangster war.
Fear probably motivated crime patriarch Lewis Moran's killers - fear that he would strike back in revenge for the deaths of his son Jason and stepson Mark, and the murder of his old mate Graham Kinniburgh.

· Yarra River