Former Duke lacrosse player Ryan McFadyen, author of the infamous “i plan on killing bitches ... while cumming in my Duke issue spandex” email, tells Vanity Fair that he changed his name to John in order to get a job. (And that he was just joking.)

A strange, scary coda to the Duke lacrosse rape scandal: Crystal Mangum, the stripper who falsely accused three college lacrosse players of rape, has been charged for stabbing her boyfriend in the chest with "intent to kill." The boyfriend was treated at the Duke University Hospital, the same hospital that treated Crystal when she cried rape. Yesterday's arrest was Crystal's second since the Duke rape scandal; last year, she was sentenced to 88 days in jail for assaulting her previous boyfriend in front of his children, then setting his clothes on fire. This lady wreaks havoc on all who encounter her. [WRAL via Crimesider, image of Crystal in 2008 via AP]

The more thoroughly some set of facts reinforces the relevant preconceptions, caricatures, clich s, and conventional wisdom, the easier it makes life for everyone, journalists as well as their audiences. Most people want to be told what they already know. And in a world of murky moral grays, who doesn't sometimes relish a black-and- white tale, with villains to loathe, victims to pity, injustice to condemn? Thus the enthralling power of the Duke lacrosse-team story when it broke last spring.