The History of The River City Blade . . .
Picasso Smith was a Frisco Foiler, tried and true. But one day he finally retired. It was a sunny day in May, 1999. That same day, a man walked into the newsroom with a gun and kidnapped our favorite columnist just as he was cleaning out his desk.
Funny thing, The River City Blade kinda began right there.
The kidnapping, and all its gory details, was the subject of "Ready for Retirement," a story that appeared in PLOTS WITH GUNS!, a kick-ass crime-writing journal. A sequel to the story, "The Listener," also appeared there.We won't go into the details here. You can go to PLOTS WITH GUNS! and read it for yourself. (Plus all their other stories.)
But suffice it to say that Picasso Smith ended up on the East Coast -- a place he had never lived. He stayed in hiding -- in fact, the old gang at The Frisco Foil didn't know if he was alive or dead. Media reports listed "Picasso Smith sightings" on the Jersey shore, and later in the small backwater towns of the Chesapeake Bay.Even though Smith's body was never found, The Frisco Foil had him declared legally dead on June 6, 2000. (It was a slow news day. They needed a feature.)
The Foil collected his life insurance proceeds, which they used to pay off several bar tabs that accumulated in and around the Bay Area since the 1950s. Smith's wife had died a long time ago, and his only son was supposedly on a heroin jag somewhere in the streets of New York City, and got cut out of the will.
But as it turned out, there was a codicil to the will filed just a few months before Smith's "death."
It stated that the balance of his life insurance proceeds should go toward establishing a new paper in Virginia, his adopted home state. It would be called The River City Blade, and it would have the same commandment as The Frisco Foil, to "boldy print the Truth and mayhem."
To honor the memory of Smith, The Frisco Foil sent its crusty old metro editor to Virginia to head up the new publication. It was thought that Aesop Farsworth could instill some discipline into what would be a young, raw staff.
But there was one more surprise.
The news of The River City Blade triggered the appearance of Picasso Smith Jr., who had graduated from a methadone clinic in the Village and -- to the surprise of just about everyone -- had received a journalism degree from New York University.
Now Smith has come to Virginia to be the star reporter for The River City Blade, and but he'll have to satisfy old Mr. Farnsworth, who knew the REAL Picasso Smith, and who is not easily impressed.
It should be fun.
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