The Post reports that James E. Swann, Jr. -- the notorious "Shotgun Stalker" who killed four people and injured five others during a two-month-long rampage around Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights in 1993 -- has been denied a temporary release from St. Elizabeth's Hospital. The 46-year-old Swann, who has resided at St. Elizabeth's since being declared not guilty by reason of insanity during his 1994 murder trial, was diagnosed as still suffer from schizophrenia and narcissistic personality disorder by psychiatrists. (Swann claimed that the "evil spirit" of Malcolm X drove him to kill.) D.C. Superior Court Judge Fred B. Ugast ruled that Swann would "be a danger to himself or others" if released to spend his birthday with his father this weekend. more ›

Perhaps it was foolhardy to think that the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), which handles the Federal portion of the District's Comprehensive Plan, was actually interested in developing the former St. Elizabeth's site in Congress Heights into anything but a cathedral to commuting, traffic and Homeland Security. more ›

As we told you last week, the city is moving forward with its proposal to redevelop the Saint Elizabeths Hospital campus. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton held a public meeting on the plans already, and tonight it's Mayor Adrian Fenty's turn to host his version. The deadline to register to present testimony at the public hearing has already passed, but anyone may attend tonight from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at 2700 Martin Luther King Jr Avenue SE. The DC Office of Planning is running the meeting, so call (202) 442-7600 with any questions.
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To follow up with those of you who reacted strongly to our photo gallery yesterday of the abandoned St. Elizabeths West Campus and the plans that are in the works to relocate the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Coast Guard there, Mayor Adrian Fenty and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton held an impromptu press conference this morning to unveil the city's plans for its share of the nearly 200 acres of land in Southeast Washington, D.C. Wire reports. more ›

While the East Campus of St. Elizabeths hospital is owned by the District and still in use as a mental health facility, the West Campus, built by Congress in 1852 (originally under the name Government Hospital for the Insane), was by and large abandoned by 2002. It's still under the control of the U.S. General Services Administration, but few people these days get a chance to explore the abandoned 176 acre hospital grounds, which through time served as mental health facilities for the Army, Navy, and District of Columbia, provided a hospital for Civil War soldiers, and at one point housed the likes of Garfield assassin Charles Guiteau and writer Ezra Pound. more ›