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This week:
• Uncovering a century-old love triangle.
• Missteps and mystery in a high-profile legal case.
• A coming-out story for the (advanced) ages.
• How a gaming juggernaut lost its way.
• The cat who tore a neighborhood apart.
1. Secret in the Walls: Hidden Letters Reveal Love, Lust, Scandal in 1920s Baltimore Society
Tim Prudente and Stokely Baksh | The Baltimore Banner | May 8, 2024 | 2,467 words
I read a lot this week, but not many pieces spoke to me. Frankly, I think I craved something different. So it was easy to get swept away by this Baltimore Banner story: a tale of “lust and scandal and fortune” and, ultimately, a love triangle between a woman and two men. Tim Prudente and Stokely Baksh recount how Joanna Meade, a resident of Baltimore’s Roland Park neighborhood, discovered a black tin full of juicy love letters inside the wall of her house during a bathroom renovation. All 67 letters were addressed to a woman named “Mrs. R.A. Spaeth,” and all except one were postmarked in 1920 or 1921. Reading the cursive penmanship and old-fashioned language was difficult, but Meade was quickly hooked; “It was like eavesdropping,” she tells the authors. She enlists the help of her neighbors, as well as the Banner’s staff, to decipher the correspondence and gather clues from across city archives and the internet to piece together the mystery: Why were these letters stashed away inside her house? Who was Mrs. Spaeth? Who is “R,” the man writing to her? The scans of envelopes, letters, photographs, and newspaper articles enhance the read, like we’re discovering each detail as it’s uncovered in the newsroom. While the story’s premise is not new—it reminds me, in fact, of a piece in our sister publication called “Castles in the Sky”—there’s so much here to like: Secrets hidden in an old house, waiting to be found. A community working together to uncover information (through Nextdoor, of all places). And the power and sway of writing, of these words handwritten on delicate paper, more than a century later. —CLR
2. A British Nurse Was Found Guilty of Killing Seven Babies. Did She Do It?
Rachel Aviv | The New Yorker | May 13, 2024 | 13,339 words
The day a Rachel Aviv story drops is basically Christmas for me—everything she writes feels like a gift. With the latest entry in her unparalleled catalog of features, Aviv delves into the investigation of Lucy Letby, a British nurse who last year was convicted of killing seven infants and attempting to kill six others at the hospital where she worked. Demonized by the press and reviled by the public, Letby is only the fourth woman in UK history to receive a life sentence. When the verdict came down, the judge accused her of a “calculated and cynical campaign of child murder.” The problem, as Aviv shows in exacting detail, is that there is no evidence of such a campaign. I’m not exaggerating. There is no proof of malicious intent or action on Letby’s part. The prosecution’s case rested almost entirely on the fact that Letby was on duty when the babies died, but it’s not even clear that they were murdered—their deaths might have been a result of natural causes or medical mistakes (and not necessarily Letby’s). Aviv’s piece is a brilliant analysis of failures within systems: the UK’s revered but overburdened National Health Service; a law enforcement apparatus eager for scapegoats; and a media sector practically salivating for content about a so-called “angel of death.” (I urge you to spend time on social media looking at side-by-side comparisons of Aviv’s story and previous reporting about Letby. The differences are shocking.) Ultimately, Aviv does what the systems she examines never did: she musters clear and convincing evidence to make her case. To read more about how she did this, check out this excellent interview she did with Nieman Lab. —SD
3. My Trans Awakening—at Age 66
Abby Tickel | Maclean’s | May 6, 2024 | 1,846 words
When I read Abby Tickel’s essay for Maclean’s, I found joy in an unexpected place. Tickel, who was assigned male at birth, first attempted to come out to her parents at age 10, in 1964. Shamed by her father for her so-called shortcomings as a male, she resigned herself to learning how to live life as a man. She married twice and had children. Keeping her true self hidden, she never dared to Google “transgender” for fear of being outed by her search history until one day, at age 66, she typed it into her Facebook search bar. Stunned and inspired by the community of people she discovered online, she came out to her wife. (If you have tissues handy, now would be the time to grab one.) “But for me, telling her the truth lifted a weight off my shoulders,” she writes. “It took tremendous energy to spend my whole life acting. The day I came out to her, it was like the sun shone for the first time.” Tickel’s wife was shocked after 18 years of marriage, yet it wasn’t long before surprise turned into loving support. Reading the piece, you get to share in Tickel’s joy at finally feeling truly seen for the first time in her life—and revel in the power she feels in paying it forward, by doing LGBTQI+ advocacy and education. I wiped away tears reading about how her life and outlook have changed: “I used to be a quiet person who rarely smiled and barely had friends. Now, I wake up every day looking forward to what’s ahead. . . . I’m finally the person I always was.” There are many beautiful things about Tickel’s piece, but the most beautiful of all is getting to hear her story in her own words. —KS
4. The Creator Of ‘Magic: The Gathering’ Knows Exactly Where It All Went Wrong
Nick Zarzycki | Defector | May 13, 2024 | 4,965 words
I’ve never played Magic: The Gathering. That’s not a nerd-doth-protest-too-much thing; I’ve got enough 20-sided dice in my house to know better. But it still feels like an important thing to point out, if only to assure you that you don’t need to know anything about the card game in order to enjoy Nick Zarzycki’s story. No matter how little you know about Magic, you know of it. It’s huge, and it’s been huge for 30 years. Pokémon wouldn’t exist without Magic. It single-handedly invented an entire genre of tabletop games in which players build decks of cards for battle, with each card having a different effect. But this is much more than the story of a man named Richard Garfield and his era-defining creation. (Though that story is fascinating in its own right.) It’s also the story of how Magic—or, more precisely, Magic’s publisher—strayed from Garfield’s intentions almost immediately. See, Magic decks aren’t fixed; new cards are released all the time. Garfield didn’t want this to be a game that rewarded those who spent more money to get more powerful cards, but over time, that’s exactly what happened. By one count, there are more than 27,000 unique cards that can be played in the game; meanwhile, the game’s publisher continuously tries to push players to use an online platform that prioritizes microtransactions and robs the game of its human element. Enshittification is all too common these days, but we’re accustomed to it happening online; with solid reporting and an accessible tone, Zarzycki’s piece winds up as a stunning indictment of how Magic’s publisher managed to do the same IRL. —PR
5. A Beloved Alley Cat Now Lives in the Watergate. Was She Kidnapped, or Rescued?
Andrea Sachs | The Washington Post | May 9, 2024 | 2,882 words
Welcome to the story of Kitty Snows, who lived in Foggy Bottom. While this may sound like the start of a fairy tale, it contains considerably more lawyers and strongly worded letters than Hans Christian Andersen tended to include. Kitty Snows is a cat who participated in the Blue Collar Cat program, a scheme to rehome strays that cannot be domesticated (having witnessed too much on the streets). Kitty gets adopted by the community of Snows Court in Foggy Bottom, belonging to “everyone and no one.” She lives in a box on a lawn until two locals—Tom Curtis and Barbara Rohde—find her with sores on her nose and take her to the vet. With the vet deeming her unfit for outside life, they move her to Rohde’s fancy apartment. As Andrea Sachs points out, no one knows how Kitty felt about her relocation from a box to a 14th-floor condo with “impressionistic paintings of a Russian forest . . . [and a] baby grand piano backed up against soaring windows.” (When two detectives turn up at the door, they are informed that Kitty is “unavailable.”) What we do know: the Foggy Bottom Association is not pleased, and the fight boils down to whether Kitty was stolen or rescued. The legal ramifications of this neighborhood dispute could have made for a dry read, but Sachs maintains a wry tone and delivers every detail delightfully. I am sure that, if available for comment, Kitty Snows—no longer of Foggy Bottom but of Watergate West—would agree. (Don’t worry, the “Kittygate” reference is there.) —CW
Audience Award
What recommendation attracted the most readers? The envelope, please:
In This Police Youth Program, a Trail of Sexual Abuse Across the US
Lakeidra Chavis, Daphne Duret, and Joseph Neff | The Marshall Project | May 1, 2024 | 3,122 words
Explorer programs, overseen by the Boy Scouts, are supposed to foster an interest in policing. As this investigation reveals, based on thousands of pages of documents and extensive interviews, the programs have faced nearly 200 allegations of misconduct. The Marshall Project uncovers what appears to be rampant abuse of power and influence, with profound consequences. —SD
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