On the night of February 23, 1997, Dallas paramedics were summoned to the apartment that Dionne Pickens shared with her son, 2-year-old Devonta, her daughter, 8-year-old Deandrea, and her boyfriend of two months, 25-year-old Abdullah Youself Blackmon. Little Devonta Pickens was unconscious.…

WHEN WILLIAM HAYDEN SCORED just 78.9 on e 1994 Nassau County, N.Y., police exam -- score that placed him more than 8,000 names down the list and well out of contention to be hired -- he knew something was fishy. A former New York City police officer and a fire marshal on Long Island, Hayden had…