Tabloid displays Wake mug shot photos

RALEIGH -- Public stocks went out with the Puritans, but public humiliation of people charged with crimes is making a comeback in Raleigh.

Mug shots of the recently popped -- a lineup of toothy smiles, frowns, grimaces and tears -- grace the cover of The Slammer, a new weekly tabloid in Wake County.

In three months, The Slammer has become a popular urban version of the police blotters common to small-town newspapers.

"As soon as it was out, people who hadn't talked with me for years were calling me," said Ayana C. Parrish of Raleigh, who had her picture in a recent issue after an arrest for a probation violation she's contesting. "Everyone sees that paper."

The 20-page tabloid, which costs $1 an issue, pokes fun at those who pass in and out of the Wake County jail. Using mug shots obtained through public records requests, the tabloid offers such features as "Slammer Salon," a collection of the more creative hairstyles. "Mature Menaces" focuses on those well along in life. "Doctor!" picks out suspects who get booked with bruises, cuts and bandages.

One June issue had a quiz for readers: "Is it a man or a woman?" accompanied mug shots of androgynous-looking inmates.

Isaac W. Cornetti, the publisher, who uses the nom de plume Dash Dangerfield in the paper's masthead, chooses mug shots at random. People charged with murder appear alongside people picked up on charges of impaired driving or passing bad checks.

"We show crime from any entertaining way," Cornetti said. "If you get in trouble, you're fair game."

Business takes off

Cornetti, 33, originally from Smithfield and with a criminal past of his own, started the newspaper 10 months ago in Charlotte after he saw a television report about a similar publication in Florida. Since then, he said, business has taken off. Because most of the newspaper is photographs, readers don't even have to be literate.

When the paper started in the Charlotte area, 4,000 copies went out. Now, 24,000 are distributed in Mecklenburg and Wake counties, with 11,000 going out in Wake.

Cornetti said he has heard few complaints from people featured but does get calls from those who get out on bond asking him to keep their photographs out of the paper. He tells them he can't promise anything and can't offer special treatment.

Cornetti is concerned about how some people may respond to his publishing their mug shot. That's why he doesn't include his real name in his paper and why he declined to have photographs taken of the Raleigh office where The Slammer is put together.

Despite such worries, Cornetti plans to expand the Wake County edition to include Durham and Johnston counties in coming weeks. He'll also launch a Triad version in September and is weighing whether to offer subscriptions after getting requests from several people.

William Griffis, a loyal reader and customer at the Rock Quarry Road BP station, buys a copy every Friday, when the paper comes out. Safety, not grist for gossip, is on his mind.

"I got a 3-month-old granddaughter in the house," said Griffis, 40, a Raleigh tow truck driver. "I need to know who's around me."

But the lack of depth in The Slammer is questioned by some. Content consists primarily of a mug shot, a name and a listing of criminal charges.

"They're not concerned about society or anything like that, it's just business," said Imtiaz Ahmed Anjum, who manages three Han-Dee Hugo gas stations that carry the paper.

Cornetti freely admits he's in it for the money. But he also holds out hope that seeing a picture in The Slammer might keep some people from committing crimes in the first place.