Lead Story

Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »

In Eureka Springs, Arkansas, aldermanic candidate Louise Berry died on October 6, but her supporters continued to run ads against her opponent. On November 8 Berry won by a narrow margin. Also in Arkansas, attorney general candidate Dan Ivy won his fight to stay on the ballot despite having been recently convicted of beating his wife. Mrs. Ivy had made an audio recording of the July beating; on the tape, Ivy appeared mainly concerned about recovering valuable coins his wife had put in a safe-deposit box. After Ivy told her he wanted his coins, she reminded him it was Sunday and that the box was not accessible; during the remainder of the 30-minute tape, Ivy said “I want my coins” 76 more times. Ivy lost the election.

Ohio gubernatorial candidate Billy Inmon collapsed and had to be hospitalized in August after a 27-day hunger strike outside the capitol in Columbus. He was trying to get incumbent George Voinovich to debate him, but Voinovich never did. However, 18 days into the strike a man protesting Inmon’s antigay positions urinated on Inmon’s tent, provoking Inmon to point a gun at him.

Cliches Come to Life

A month after Susan Smith said a carjacker made off with her two boys in Union, South Carolina, a man in Lubbock, Texas, jumped into Donna Robles’s Dodge and sped off, probably unaware that her three-year-old son Ethan was strapped in the back seat. The car was found crashed two blocks away, driverless and with Ethan unhurt. Police speculate that Ethan’s crying startled the thief and he lost control of the car.

Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Illustration/Shawn Belschwender.