Alias

The name Rafael Resendez-Ramirez will remain on wanted posters for an alleged serial killer, even though the FBI confirmed that is just one of many aliases. Don K. Clark, special agent in charge of the Houston bureau and head of the task force pursuing the man linked to eight slayings in three states, said the suspect borrowed the Resendez-Ramirez name from his uncle. His real name is Angel Leoncio Reyes Recendis, according to a birth certificate, 39 years old, born in Mexico.

Margaret Atwood has used a sensational double murder that took place in Canada 150 years ago to perform a series of improbable feats. "Alias Grace" tells a grim story--two servants who were convicted of killing their master and his housekeeper-mistress--in a way that becomes pure enchantment. It evokes the society of the time in ironic and richly diverting detail. It portrays an astonishing heroine--Grace, the woman servant--so as to make her utterly present and unfathomable.

My heroes from the early days of rock 'n' roll weren't just the artists who sang on the records, but also the people whose names appeared in small print just under the song titles: the writers. Because there were as many one-hit writers as one-hit singers in the '50s, before artists commonly wrote their own material, a few names stood out because they appeared on hit after hit.

At that crucial moment--in a decision that may define the rest of her life--Alicia Sotero Vasquez decided not to run when Riverside sheriff's deputies approached the truck in which she was riding Monday. "I was too afraid to run away," Sotero, who had previously identified herself as Leticia Gonzalez Gonzalez, said in an interview from her hospital bed Wednesday. "When the truck stopped [on the Pomona Freeway], everyone was screaming, 'Run! Run!' But I didn't.

Computer hacker Justin Tanner Peterson, who called himself "Agent Steal" and used his cyber skills to obtain Porsches, trips to Hawaii and other luxuries, pleaded guilty to two more computer crimes Monday in federal court in Los Angeles. Peterson, who was handcuffed as he appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Judge Stephen V. Wilson, admitted he conspired to transfer $150,000 from Heller Financial in Glendale to the Union Bank account of an unidentified co-conspirator in Bellflower.

This nation's last Communist ruler, Ramiz Alia, was convicted Saturday and sentenced to nine years in prison for violating the rights of citizens while he was in power. A three-judge panel reached the verdict partly on the testimony of former political prisoners. Alia, 68, said the verdict against him "shows that revenge is still very strong." The former president said the charges against him were political.

Crisp, professional performances and unforced seasonal good cheer highlight "Alias Santa Claus," a tuneful musical parents and children can enjoy together at the Santa Monica Playhouse. The carol-filled Christmas tale, written and directed by Chris DeCarlo and Evelyn Rudie, is set in the 1800s, when a struggling prairie family gives shelter to a mysterious down-and-out stranger.

Dressed in a top hat and tux, Barry Hansen sits in his Lakewood back yard with a crushingly heavy stack of old records sitting on his knees. Mugging for a photographer, the bewhiskered 52-year-old huffs, puffs and growls like a werewolf, grabs a black vinyl 45 off the top of the stack and takes a splintery bite out of it. Hansen has dreams of finding records--bizarre, unimaginably weird records he's never heard of before.

In his earliest memory of the Mardi Gras, Malcolm (Mac) Rebennack, alias Dr. John, watched in amazement as a frightful but fascinating apparition rode toward him on horseback. His father, Malcolm Sr., had taken little Mac to see the annual Mardi Gras procession through their neighborhood, the Third Ward of New Orleans.