July Is Crime Month: The Crime Blotter, Week 1

Since July Is Crime Month at the Chronicle, the ruffians and reprobates at this rag want to be sure you find as much trouble as possible before August shows up like a nosy cop asking all the wrong questions. So each week, we’ll fill you in on films, readings, book clubs, and more where crime does pay – for a while, anyway.

Here are the trouble spots from July 1-7.

Reavis Z. Wortham: Hawke’s Target
Wortham's redoubtable Ranger has to hoof it across miles and miles of Texas to stop a savage vigilante.
Mon., July 1, 7pm. BookPeople, 603 N. Lamar. www.bookpeople.com.

Goodfellas
Scorsese’s amped-up, coked-up take on the true-life tale of wiseguy Henry Hill. It’ll leave you looking for helicopters with your heart beating like a triphammer.
Mon., July 1, 7:30pm. Paramount Theatre, 713 Congress. www.austintheatre.org.

Chandler Baker: Whisper Network
Austin author Baker seizes the #MeToo moment with a tale of suspense about four women determined not to let a man whose character has long generated whispers rise to power unchallenged.
Tue., July 2, 7pm. BookPeople, 603 N. Lamar. www.bookpeople.com.

Ghosts, Murder, and Mayhem Walking Tour
Take a stroll into Austin’s past and follow the trail of bodies that have littered Downtown through the years. See Guytown, the German District, and the sites of the Servant Girl Annihilator murders.
Thu., July 4, 8pm. Tour meets in the JW Marriott Hotel lobby, 110 W. Second. www.austinghosttours.com.

Noir Canon: Scarlet Street
Edward G. Robinson steps out of his comfortable middle-aged existence and finds himself snared in the web spun by femme fatale Joan Bennett. With his terrific leads and directorial style, Fritz Lang makes this story more delightfully creepy than it needs to be. Part of Austin Film Society’s summer series of essential film noir.
Fri., July 5, 7pm; Sun., July 7, 6pm. AFS Cinema, 6406 N. I-35 #3100. www.austinfilm.org.

Murder Walk Austin
Walk in the footsteps of the Servant Girl Annihilator, who terrorized Austin in 1885 and was never captured. Dubbed “the midnight assassin,” he’s considered by some to be the country’s first serial killer. Storyteller Jim Miles, owner of Walking Tours of Austin, guides you to many of the spots Downtown where the killings occurred.
Sat., July 6, 8pm. Tour starts at the corner of W. Sixth & Bowie. www.touratx.com.

Murder Mystery on Sixth Street
A Dallas socialite has been found dead in an alley off Austin’s party street, and you get to solve the crime in this interactive walking tour from Austin Detours. Complimentary cocktail included – because hard-drinking detective, right? (Not to mention Sixth Street.) Seventies street clothes encouraged.
Saturdays, 7-9pm. Tour starts behind the Susanna Dickinson House, 411 E. Fifth. www.austindetours.com.