{"id":12886,"date":"2023-08-02T21:08:12","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T21:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=12886"},"modified":"2023-08-12T21:10:49","modified_gmt":"2023-08-12T21:10:49","slug":"james-larkin-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2023\/08\/02\/james-larkin-gone\/","title":{"rendered":"James Larkin Gone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2023\/08\/02\/backpage-publisher-alt-weekly-entrepreneur-and-free-speech-warrior-james-larkin-has-died\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2023\/08\/02\/backpage-publisher-alt-weekly-entrepreneur-and-free-speech-warrior-james-larkin-has-died\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">from reason<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Backpage Founder, Alt-Weekly Entrepreneur, and Free Speech Warrior James Larkin Has Died<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>Larkin, 74, took his own life on Monday, just a little over a week before he was slated to stand trial for his role in running the web-classifieds platform Backpage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>by <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/people\/elizabeth-nolan-brown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ELIZABETH NOLAN BROWN<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Rise and Fall of Backpage\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DPchvgMsjl8?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Entrepreneur, journalist, and First Amendment warrior James Larkin has died, just a little over a week before he was slated to stand trial for his role in running the web-classifieds platform Backpage. Larkin, 74, took his own life on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A native of Maricopa County, Arizona, he leaves behind a wife and six children, as well as a string of newspapers and a legacy of fighting for free speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With journalist Michael Lacey, Larkin built the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.phoenixnewtimes.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Phoenix New Times<\/em><\/a>\u00a0from an anti-war student newspaper into a broad\u2014and still-thriving\u2014record of Maricopa County culture and politics.\u00a0<em>New Times\u00a0<\/em>didn&#8217;t shy away from honest reporting on local law enforcement and power figures\u2014including\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.phoenixnewtimes.com\/news\/mccain-the-most-reprehensible-of-the-keating-five-6431838\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sen. John McCain<\/a>\u00a0and his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.phoenixnewtimes.com\/news\/opiate-for-the-mrs-6432986\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wife Cindy<\/a>\u2014or on controversial issues like abortion, immigrant rights, or the 1976\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.phoenixnewtimes.com\/news\/cops-skate-on-bolles-murder-case-6412871\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">murder of\u00a0<em>Arizona Republic<\/em>\u00a0reporter<\/a>\u00a0Don Bolles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I had just come back from school in Mexico City and had been exposed to the Mexican student movement in the late 60&#8217;s and early 70&#8217;s and they were really serious radicals, serious revolutionaries, and a lot of them were killed in the ensuing years, murdered by the Mexican government. I realized that politics were serious,&#8221; Larkin told\u00a0<em>Reason<\/em>\u00a0in 2018. &#8220;I felt that the paper\u2026really had an opportunity to be politically powerful.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[ <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2023\/08\/02\/backpage-publisher-alt-weekly-entrepreneur-and-free-speech-warrior-james-larkin-has-died\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2023\/08\/02\/backpage-publisher-alt-weekly-entrepreneur-and-free-speech-warrior-james-larkin-has-died\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">click to continue reading at reason<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>from reason Backpage Founder, Alt-Weekly Entrepreneur, and Free Speech Warrior James Larkin Has Died Larkin, 74, took his own life on Monday, just a little over a week before he was slated to stand trial for his role in running the web-classifieds platform Backpage. by ELIZABETH NOLAN BROWN\u00a0 Entrepreneur, journalist, and First Amendment warrior James [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art","category-literary-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12886\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}