Leading Off (5/12/10)

1. In 1983, a man named Billy Allen killed two people in University Park. Largely based on the dying words of one of the victims, Billy Frederick Allen went to prison for the crime. But a different Billy Allen, a Billy Wayne Allen, might actually have done the deed. And now the DA intends to retry the case. I think this one’s pretty obvious, though. History has shown us that Wayne is the middle name of evildoers, has it not?

2. This story drives me nuts for the details it omits. Three people were shot in Pleasant Grove when a huge fight broke out during the filming of a video for which 1,000 people had gathered. A VIDEO OF WHAT? And did the cameras catch the fight? Cause that could be one krunk video. (And, no, I’m not making any assumptions here about the race of the people involved with the making of this video just because there was gunplay and also because it went down in the Grove. White people say “krunk,” too. For instance, I’m white.)

3. This one’s a bit farther afield than we normally go on FrontBurner, but a story out of Odessa is too good to overlook. A homeless kid shows up at famed Permian “Friday Night Lights” High. He’s 6-foot-5. The basketball coach takes him in. The team goes on to win state. Someone call Michael Lewis! The movie writes itself! It’s The Blind Side on the hardwoods! Except it turns out the kid is a 22-year-old man who, in a former life, was a high school basketball star in Florida. (I’d still watch the movie. Skip Hollandsworth, are you reading this?)