Talk:Roy William Harris

Need help with sourcing

Hello fellow editors. I am trying to get Will Harris over the finish line as an article. This guy was front-page news 25-30 years ago for a giant scandal in Puerto Rico that unfortunately cost >500 people their jobs in Ponce. Also, he was the first financial RICO/Continuing Financial Crimes case for a non-drug lord or mafioso. They took all of his bank accounts and locked him prior to trial. I think his first trial was something like 8 weeks after his arrest (unheard of today). However, the articles about him are right before widespread internet publication and hence are scarce (or behind paywalls). Can you please help out with a little research of your own. I will use his appeals (legal filings) to source out more of the bottom sections of the article. Also, anything novel regarding the RICO seizure of his assets - which required him to use a pro-bono lawyer who did not even practice criminal law to run his appeals is very interesting for law cases going forward. - thank you

Also below is my response to @Snowman304:

Hello @snowman304, you rejected my draft on Will Harris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Roy_William_Harris a few days ago (on the basis of an empty section and it being light on references). I do not disagree with your assessment and your feedback is accurate. I have been frustrated by the paywalls and lack of good research material. Will Harris was really big news 25 years ago in the energy industry. He is notable for a $200 million fraud on Chase Bank (back when this was one of the biggest financial crimes ever committed) and was also the first RICO-type legal case against a corporation. In RICO cases, they take away all of your financial resources upfront. He basically ended up with a public defender/pro bono lawyer and was found guilty to all sorts of things that would probably not be today. I would hope that more resources will be available in the future with ExCo privileges. It would be really helpful to get a few other editors involved in review as there are things that I am limited in knowing about Will Harris from the outside looking in. Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated. The best sources that I have are on old Bloomberg article and the text of a couple of his appeals to his sentencing. Apparently, a lawyer worked on his case (pro-bono again) for like a decade. Refineryguycanada (talk) 15:52, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

Decline from Johannes

Below is the language from the Johannes Talk Page:

Johannes, respectfully, what is it in the citations for the article that you find problematic? There are ~8 major sources (e.g. NY Times, Washington Post, WSJ) and the balance is from the indictment and the appellate court reports (which are highly reliable). Obviously I would like more sources especially for Will Harris's early life (and for other editors to add more based on their greater resources). However, the specificity is high in the existing article with >95% of the sources are about Will Harris. I am perplexed by your unspecific comment and the unreliable sources. All of the links pull directly to the relevant documents. Please provide more feedback. thank you Refineryguycanada (talk) 18:43, 31 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Also - I scrubbed some of the dates etc. from the auto-populate wizard (which appears to have some issues). If this was the nature of your rejection earlier, please let me know. It was minor cleanup. Your response to me was very broad, so I prefer not to be presumptuous and assume that this was all. thanks Refineryguycanada (talk) 19:05, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

Refineryguycanada (talk) 20:04, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

Sources - General

Note that the sources for this article are from the largest media sources in the US. The article has specific articles from the NY Times, LA Times, Washington Post, Knight-Ridder, UPI, and Bloomberg. In addition, there are very extensive sources from the US Court System (including appellate judge opinions). Compared to most articles, this is the gold standard. Refineryguycanada (talk) 20:10, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

I've accepted, @Refineryguycanada, though have removed the unsourced Early Life section. Please add some WP:CATEGORIES. Qcne (talk) 22:19, 31 October 2024 (UTC)

Sounds good. I found some data on the guy from his childhood (via the WaPo article - but it really was not good enough to cite). Hopefully some other editors can find better detail about his early life. The guy has gone through a lot. There are some good quotes about him being a decent guy who went to jail for longer than most murderers and rapists. Perhaps some people will pick up the mantle and add more. I am about tapped out on the research. Thanks for your edits. - best Refineryguycanada (talk) 02:58, 1 November 2024 (UTC)