Crime in 2008: Gang War, Gold Coins, and a Good Time

The biggest Boston crime story of 2008 might have been the one that got the least media coverage.

Gang War
A gang war erupted in Boston's neighborhoods this spring following the daylight shooting of Luis Troncoso. Troncoso was killed during a basketball game on a the courts across the street from the Stony Brook T station in Jamaica Plain. Known on the streets as Mata, Troncoso was a rumored gang leader, a charge that his family denies. Nonetheless, his killing, which was said to be in retaliation for an earlier gang murder, sparked a conflict that made the streets of the city run red.

In June, when a five-month-old baby was shot in Mattapan, you could see the Boston Miracle in tatters.

Those were the months when a new shooting seemed to appear every morning on the second page of the Globe's Metro section, virtually ignored for other news. If the papers overlooked Boston's gang troubles, the blogs and the city did not. In June, Universal Hub unveiled a map of shootings linked to Troncoso's murder. And in December, Mayor Thomas Menino dedicated $26 million to restoring the police-community ties that had stymied gang violence in the nineties.

Gold Coins
While gangs ran rampant from Roxbury to Mattapan, what did Boston's newspapers cover? The story of a German millionaire with a false identity who might have kidnapped his daughter and killed a man in California two decades ago. The Alleged Criminal Formerly Known as Clark Rockefeller was an inspired character. The faked past and dubious connection to a famous family. The gold coins. The Brahmin accent. The kidnapping flight. The yacht. America's Most Wanted. It seemed like hysterical realism come to life.

We even wondered if the ACFKACR was actually an evil genius.

Compared to his adventure, the story of a State Senator with a bra full of alleged bribe money seemed like small beer in a large cup.

A Good Time
Somerville's Good Time Emporium had a storied history in the Boston Blotter. Perhaps no event was a better objective corollary for Good Time's unique combination of the sublime and the ridiculous as this year's 200 person Easter Sunday melee, which led riot police to evacuate the building.

But all good times must come to an end. Good Time closed its doors for good this summer, leaving a hole in the hearts of crime watchers and Skee ball fans alike. As a fitting tribute, a dude from Pembroke wound up behind bars after trying to invade the Emporium during its closing weekend. Rest in the archives, Good Time.

Criminal weirdness wasn't limited to Boston's neighbor to the north. A Lawrence man heralded the coming of spring by briefly evading police in the Boston Common's Lagoon. Kids in Lowell swiped an eight-foot-tall sculpture of the Incredible Hulk and a dinosaur, leaving the feet behind. Sandwich lovers in the North End mourned the decline of the New England Mafia. Bruins fans discovered a terrifying reason to take their eyes off the ice: the pee pee dance. And, back in Somerville, cops found crack in one man's butt.

All charges alleged until proven under law.