How do I find out about a 1980 crime in Alabama?

June 23, 2009 1:10 PM

What's the best way to search distant local newspaper archives for information on a crime that occurred almost 30 years ago in Birmingham, Alabama?

I’m looking for any and all information concerning a crime that occurred in Alabama in 1980. I don’t have much information. A woman was abducted from Eastwood Mall in Birmingham Alabama. I believe the abduction occurred at the TP Crockmeir’s restaurant in the mall. That’s essentially all I know. I have access to Westlaw, but my searches are coming up with no results. I’ve sent emails to several local Birmingham newspapers, but I’ve received no replies. Is there an easier way for me, a person in NYC, to find articles on this crime?

posted by Doug to media & arts (6 comments total)

You should contact a local library. Librarians can do awesome things and helping search newspaper archives is one of them.
posted by chiababe at 1:12 PM on June 23 [1 favorite]

Here's a neat link I found on the Birmingham Public Library's website - Ask A Librarian.
posted by chiababe at 1:13 PM on June 23

Seconding chiababe's suggestion. I once worked at a small newspaper, and when people would call us up and ask us about old stories, there was nothing we could do for them except refer them to the local library (which incidentally happened to be right next door) and suggest they look stuff up on microfilm. We had no research department or readily-accessible archives, and nothing was on computer back then (late 80s-early 90s).

That state of affairs probably hasn't changed much for most small-town papers - they might have websites for recent materials, but not stuff dating back thirty years. So if the newspapers you've contacted don't have digital archives, it's unlikely they'll be able to help you dig up a three-decade old story. That said, they'll at least be able to tell you which libraries to consult. So try giving them a phone call. Also, since you say you are in NYC, you can probably make use of the NYPL's Ask a Librarian services.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 1:23 PM on June 23

Great ideas! I didn't think of contacting libraries, in Alabama or NY. I'll also try to give a call to local papers. If anyone else has any other ideas, of course, I am still very much open to them.
posted by Doug at 1:57 PM on June 23

I assume you're certain about the dates and the name of the mall? There are a lot of newspaper archives available on the web, but a lot of them start in the mid-eighties (and none of the ones I have access to are from Alabama), so you'd be looking for secondhand reports to nail down the exact dates and maybe the name of the woman. There is one other similar abduction that sounds close but I figure you would have found that by Googling.

- Stephanie Gach was abducted from the Eastwood Mall and killed in 1992

Looking up the mall in Alabama's FindaCase doesn't show anythign which just means that the abduction likely did not result in an Alabama trial. Curiously the University of Alabama actually has a special section in their special collections concerning the Eastwood Mall [I know, crazy!] and you can poke around in it online. They have links to newspaper articles. There are 14 of them from 1980 and none of them mention the abduction. So I guess I'd ask, before you start talking to other librarians, how certain you are of your information?
posted by jessamyn at 2:33 PM on June 23

If nothing else, the Library of Congress has Birmingham News on microfilm from that far back (and farther).
posted by MrMoonPie at 2:36 PM on June 23