APRIL 2026 – The New Yorker’s Patrick Radden Keefe, now 50, has long had an approach of reviewing documents first, and engaging in real-world journalism second. The results – authoritative story-telling every time – separate him from the rest of the profession. As a journalist and writer, he’s today head and shoulders above the small field of good experienced writers, and history will likely compare him with Tom Wolfe and Truman Capote.
The New Yorker’s April 13 “Letter from New Orleans” is headlined “The Car Crash Conspiracy” – nearly 3,000 words that examine every angle of a longstanding scam in which conspirators organize carefully executed collisions with 18-wheeler trucks on a Louisiana Interstate – all to pursue legal claims and settlements from insurance companies. The story even includes a mob-style murder of a man who had agreed to testify against the others in the conspiracy, which included a shady lawyer and various characters from the poorer sections of New Orleans. A Confederacy of Scammers.
The story is tremendously researched and observed, and while the first few paragraphs are bit unwieldy in its need to explain the overall game, it’s compelling through and through. And remarkably, as he points out, there’s been little political fallout – Louisiana is in no rush to amend its tort laws that might discourage such behavior.
I know, handing a Rosebud to Patrick Radden Keefe is a bit of a cheap trick – like nominating Jack Nicholson for another Oscar. But some things just have to happen.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/20/the-car-crash-conspiracy