[MURDER
MASTERMIND UNCOVERED:  Web Review investigates Tom Arriola]
Crime has certainly 
galvanized your attention. There's Crime Scene, of course, and you 
frequently bring up other
crime-related sites as examples. Do you have a criminal mind?
You know, it's just where we started. I have a feeling it's not where we're going to end up. I think it's just really easy to be concerned about a murder. It's the most important thing that happens in life -- death. I think that naturally lends itself towards this type of thing. I've got other non-crime ideas in mind, I just think crime is the most appealing to a mass audience. It's already got a format with the 911 and Cops shows, so it may be just a little easier to think in those terms right now, because I grew up with TV and books. I'm sure there are more interesting things.

Do you ever read USA Today? When it first came out, I was just fascinated by it because I could look and see what was happening in my home state. It was like a newspaper from Montana wherever I was. Then they started to put out on Fridays an obituary of people who died in every state. They weren't even famous people, just "Farmer Brown, who had once met Eudora Welty, and who died on his tractor at age 70." And I started to think, all these stories are right there, spelled out for you; all these people died today and there's something about them that's interesting: he worked with Eudora Welty, he was on a tractor when he died.

And I started to think, what if I could do a living newspaper theater event, where we would celebrate somebody's life -- not even somebody famous. That would be just as interesting as knowing about O.J. Simpson, or about superheroes. I think minutiae is becoming just as interesting as big things.

I remember that after JFK died, a famous reporter interviewed the man who dug JFK's grave -- that was the best story that any newspaper had. It would be interesting to do those kinds of stories on the Web.

[To: Important Documents]