An Unbelievable Story Of Rape By Ken Armstrong

Sexual assault holds a complicated place in American culture, being rarely discussed yet pervasive, that the long-form article “An Unbelievable Story of Rape” confronts head on. Investigative journalists T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong tell two stories; one of an 18-year-old girl in Washington, Marie, who is charged with a misdemeanor for false reporting of a rape and other of the detectives tracking down a serial rapist in Colorado. The article begins with the scene of Marie’s trial, leading the reader to believe her guilt. It then follows each story chronologically, switching from one to the other until it reveals the connection between the two cases. “An Unbelievable Story of Rape” reads like a gripping narrative that also serves

An answer to the question can be found in the structure of the article, which leads the reader along the journeys of the investigating detectives, but as the reader discovers in the end, those cases were skewed. “An Unbelievable Story of Rape” is written in a unique split narrative such that Miller and Armstrong are able to create contrast between the two cases, especially the quality of the investigative work on each. The first figure fully introduced in the article is Stacy Galbraith, a detective investigating a report of rape in a suburb of Colorado. The writers imply the Galbraith is especially qualified for her job in which she frequently interacts with rape victims: “She was good at empathizing with the victims, who were overwhelmingly women” (Miller and Armstrong). The other detective working on the case, Edna Hendershot, was also experienced, having worked over 100 rape cases in her career. The authors describe how exacting the investigation is that these two women run: they worked through bathroom breaks, had analysts pour “laboriously” over hours of surveillance tape, and in less than a month, the two were able to make huge connections in the case. In contrast, the writers introduce the detective on Marie’s case, Jeffery Mason and Jerry Rittgarn, both of whom had little to no experience handling rape cases, especially dealing with rape victims. Instead of latching on to clues at the crime scene similar to ones that Galbraith and Hendershot found, they latched on to inconsistencies in Marie’s story. The writers repeat quotes from Mason and Rittgarn, for instance, that “’Based on her answers and body language it was apparent that [Marie] was lying about the rape’” (Miller and Armstrong). Either way, the reader still believes in the authority of the