The Smoking Gun
| Available in | English |
|---|---|
| Owner |
William Bastone, Andrew Goldberg, and Joseph Jesselli (TSG Industries Inc.) |
| Created by | William Bastone and Daniel Green |
| Slogan(s) | Paving the paper trail |
| Website | thesmokinggun.com |
| Alexa rank |
 29,643 (March 2016[update]) |
| Commercial | yes |
| Registration | none |
| Launched | February 13, 1997 |
| Current status | active |
The Smoking Gun is a website that posts legal documents, arrest records, and police mugshots on a daily basis. The intent is to bring to the public light information that is damning, shocking, outrageous, or amazing, yet also somewhat obscure or unreported by more mainstream media sources. Most of the site's content revolves around historical and current events, although it also features documents and photos relating to out-of-the-ordinary crimes and people.
The name refers to the smoking gun metaphor, which is commonly used to describe an incriminating piece of evidence.
The website was founded in 1997 by William Bastone and Daniel Green, former reporters for The Village Voice, and graphic designer Barbara Glauber. Most of The Smoking Gun's content is obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, and from public records such as court documents. The site has used those requests to assemble a collection of mugshots of current and historical celebrities.
The cable network truTV, formerly Court TV purchased The Smoking Gun, as well as the website Crime Library, in 2000. A series of the same name premiered on Court TV in 2005. The series features some of the site's stories and assorted sketch humor using string puppets. This series was later moved and shown on Adult Swim. From March 2008 until January 2011 on truTV, The Smoking Gun sponsored a cable television series called The Smoking Gun Presents: World's Dumbest.... The series was originally known as World's Dumbest Criminals, but was retitled World's Dumbest... and began covering other topics. As of January 2011, the program was retitled again to truTV Presents: World's Dumbest... On June 2014, The Smoking Gun was sold back to William Bastone.
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