Firefighters
Security Guards May Have Been Involved in 1988 Explosion that Killed 6 Kansas City Firefighters
Newly released government documents involving a 1988 arson fire that killed six Kansas City firefighters affirm the guilt of five people who were convicted of the crime but also find that two other individuals may have been involved.
Kansas Firefighters Go West to Fight Fires, and COVID-19
Dozens of Kansas firefighters have been battling wild fires in the West, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with no end in sight.
“American Graduate: Getting To Work” Sparking Firefighter Careers
The “American Graduate: Getting to Work” series visits the firefighter training program at Fort Osage Career & Technical Center.
Fire and Justice
This podcast is from the Center for Investigative Reporting, which co-produces the “Reveal” radio show and podcast with PRX. “Reveal” features CIR’s reporting, as well as stories from public radio stations and a wide range of media partners, both nonprofit and commercial. For “Fire and Justice,” CIR relied on decades of reporting from Flatland’s Special Projects Reporter…
Son of Fallen KC Firefighter Speaks Publicly About Doubts Over Trial
All James and Tracy Kilventon want is for justice to finally be done. After almost 30 years of investigations, a trial, guilty verdicts, unsuccessful appeals and continuing questions, they say, justice still eludes them. But the recent release of one of the defendants convicted in the 1988 death of James Kilventon’s father and five other…
Behind the Bryan Sheppard Ruling: What the Release Order Says and Doesn’t Say
A federal judge’s decision last week to release a man serving a life sentence in the 1988 deaths of six Kansas City firefighters was, at least for some of the families of those men, a hurtful betrayal by the legal system. For the families of the accused, it was the final arrival of justice long…
Judge Releases Defendant in 1988 Arson Deaths of 6 KC Firefighters
Bryan Sheppard, the youngest of five people sentenced to life in prison for a 1988 explosion that killed six Kansas City firefighters, will be released, possibly in the next few days, a federal judge ruled today. Members of Sheppard’s family, who packed one side of a federal courtroom here this afternoon began sobbing as…
Bryan Sheppard and the Heavily Redacted Elephant in the Courtroom
In 1997 Bryan Sheppard was sentenced to life without parole for the deaths of six Kansas City firefighters. Although he and the other four defendants have always maintained their innocence, they have lost all of their appeals and are considered guilty of the crime in the eyes of the U.S. judicial system. All five were…
Reveal | Trial By Fire
Listen to the podcast here: This podcast is from the Center for Investigative Reporting, which co-produces the “Reveal” radio show and podcast with PRX. “Reveal” features CIR’s reporting, as well as stories from public radio stations and a wide range of media partners, both nonprofit and commercial. For “Trial by Fire,” CIR relied on decades of reporting…
Coming to the Tipping Point
As a reporter for The Star, Mike McGraw examined the federal prosecution of the 1988 explosion that killed six firefighters in numerous articles. He retired from The Star in 2014 and is now a special projects reporter for Flatland. What finally pried the cell door open last week for Bryan Sheppard, one of the defendants…