A Mother's Tortured Journey: WaPo story on the Baylor basketball murder

It's been five years since Carlton Dotson shot Baylor basketball teammate Patrick Dennehy. This is a good reader from the perspective of Dotson's mother. Stick with it to the end.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/21/AR2008062101871.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2008062101601

 

Um, it's Carlton Dotson, not Colton.

 

And, um, that story is damn good.

 

Sweet. Lord.

I was all into it, following it, loving it...until the last five grafs when my stomach just dropped.

Insanely good.

 

Wow. Well done doesn't quite describe that piece.

Thanks for sharing, Cadet.

 

mike wise rocks. 8)

 

A Reader's Tortured Journey: The Washington Post and rockin' Mike Wise finds another grieving/estranged mother to write about.

 

Wow. Well written and all, but I'm not sure I would have touched that one with a 10-foot pole. Mom, like son, is clearly not mentally stable. Touts all these conspiracy theories, then blurts that out at the end because the place doesn't look like Dotson told her it did? I'm not even sure what that means. Damn. F'd up.

 

What I like about this: I'm glad they didn't cream themselves over getting the jailhouse interview with Dotson. Could have easily led the piece with that, but they didn't let it distract from the article. (I say "they" meaning Wise and his editors.)

What I didn't like: No mention of Dave Bliss' shady, shady involvement with this situation that ultimately cost him his job. Mom called out Baylor and Waco but didn't call out Bliss. Having lived through the media coverage of the story, I felt the circumstances as presented in the story were oversimplified. I also didn't get a sense of how long the drama played out, because there were several days from Dennehy went missing to Dotson confessed.

That said, hell of a read. Great details (like the Amish stepfather) that will stick with me for a while.

 

It's the early favorite, I'd say, for best sports feature in the 2008 APSE contest. It's also the early favorite for best sports feature in the 2009 contest. Seriously, it'll be interesting to see who rewrites it. Maybe they'll quote from Mike's story and none of the judges will notice (because the paper umbrellas in their pina coladas will be blocking their view).

 

It's an interesting story that I think is tremendous left as-is. Yeah, there are questions that linger, but I don't think any input from anyone else is necessary. What, for example, would Dave Bliss add to the story (though we know he wouldn't talk)? By blaming the university, I understood the whole thing to mean that she blamed the basketball program as well.

With regards to Dotson's mother, the fact that she's not mentally all there is detailed enough and understood to be part of the story. Yeah, she's not speaking fact. No kidding. She's on medications and has a troubled past and has been dealing with depression and poverty all her life. But again, that's understood in the story. It doesn't need to be emphasized more.

I think it's a great read with a strong ending. A nice job here.