It was F. Scott Fitzgerald who concluded that there are no second acts in American lives—only to himself prove it wrong. After all, the novelist died a seeming failure at age 44, only to achieve a remarkable life after death as one of his century’s most acclaimed novelists.
And so it has gone for many St. Louisans who’ve found themselves in the harsh glare of the media spotlight. Some have found new careers. Others have doubled down on what brought them to public attention in the first place. Others still continue to find their way. Whatever their current status, we wish them luck. Just as every saint has a past, every sinner has a future.
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And so if you’ve ever wondered “whatever happened to that guy who did that thing,” we have the answers. Well, nine of them anyway.
Steve Stenger
Former St. Louis County executive Steve Stenger got hit with nearly four years in federal prison in 2019 after pleading guilty to public corruption felonies alleging he ran a pay-to-play scheme, tossing county business to a donor in exchange for donations. He served his time and got out in 2021. More recently, he’s been spotted around downtown Clayton. His public Instagram account lists him as a “private investor,” and whatever he’s investing in seems to be doing well, as recent photos show him and his family in Italy and Hawaii. Rumor has it he runs the @InsightforSTL account on X, which has a lot to say about current county executive Sam Page.
Jamie Allman
Conservative commentator Jamie Allman got booted from his radio gig in 2018 for writing on social media that he planned to ram a hot poker up the ass of school-shooting-survivor-turned-gun-rights-activist-turned-politico David Hogg. Allman’s time out in the wilderness was relatively brief. He’s now back on the airwaves, just on a different dial, with a show that airs five days a week on News Talk STL 101.9 FM and 94.1 FM. He also heavily promotes an activated-charcoal supplement.
Faisal Khan
In the heady days of 2021, the acting director of the St. Louis County Department of Public Health, Dr. Faisal Khan, made headlines when he said he was subject to physical aggression and racial slurs after leaving a County Council meeting where mask mandates were being debated. Video later emerged of Khan’s relatively calm egress—there was no shoving, and no slurs could be heard. He doubled down on his claims, but was later reprimanded for making an obscene gesture while leaving the meeting. He resigned a year later, and his prognosis has since been a good one. Khan is currently director of public health for the 2.2 million residents of Seattle and King County, Washington.
Kim Gardner
It’s hard to think of any St. Louis politician who had a more ignominious conclusion to their career than Kim Gardner. The beginning of the end for the twice-elected circuit attorney came in February 2023, when she took the brunt of the public’s blame for an out-of-town volleyball player being run over by a reckless driver allowed free on bail. A few months after that, revelations that she was enrolled full time as a nursing student as her office went down in flames completed her downfall. Since then, though, the hits have just kept coming. Gardner entered a federal diversion program for misusing taxpayer money in October. She still faces a lawsuit from one of her former employees—and a recent Supreme Court ruling bodes poorly for Gardner in that matter. But it’s unclear where Gardner is today. Saint Louis University did not respond to several inquiries as to whether Gardner obtained the advanced nursing degree she was pursuing. Attorney Bevis Schock, who served a summons to Gardner as part of her former employee’s lawsuit, says even he doesn’t know where she is; he perfected service through one of her attorneys.
Don Marsh
Longtime radio host Don Marsh left St. Louis Public Radio in 2019 in a huff after members of his staff, including producer Alex Heuer, sought to speak with him about comments he’d made to, and about, female guests—cueing a major backlash for the station when former television colleague Karen Foss whipped up online sympathy for Marsh. Since his departure, Marsh has kept up a reporter’s pace, penning more than a dozen novels, the majority of the hardboiled detective variety. He hasn’t been shy about leaning on his media bona fides in crafting his fiction, as is the case with The Fabulist, a novel about a reporter/anchor Alex Menteur whose dubious, get-the-scoop-at-any-cost ethics sow drama at fictional ratings powerhouse WBWB.
Elizabeth Cooke
The saga of Elizabeth Cooke briefly broke the St. Louis internet in 2021 when the 35-year-old was interrupted breaking into a Marine Villa man’s car and dropped her phone while fleeing. The Marine Villa man uploaded her phone’s contents to the internet, where internet sleuths claimed to find evidence of a shocking amount of petty crime as well as the sketchy death of an elderly acquaintance, who before his death said in a video that he wanted Cooke to have all his stuff. (A song was later written recounting all this.) The websleuths investigating Cooke found a lot of dirt, but when it came to the most egregious allegations against her, the smoking gun was always just out of reach. You may be surprised to learn that Cooke is still in town. Court documents list her as picking up a slew of minor charges this summer for unlawfully being in a condemned building in Princeton Heights. Ironically, it’s the Marine Villa man who turned out to be involved in some seriously illegal behavior. He’s currently in federal prison.
Katherine Pinner
Katherine Pinner burned bright on the St. Louis political scene, but the moment was only fleeting. In August 2022, the political newcomer pulled an upset victory in the Republican primary for St. Louis County executive, but soon thereafter her history of kooky ideas came to light, including that COVID-19 masks are associated with “dehumanization and satanic ritual abuse.” Unhappy with the newfound scrutiny, Pinner told the party she wanted off the ballot, reversed course and said she wanted to stay, but then ultimately asked a judge to remove her. Though Pinner is no longer seeking elected office, she still seems to have COVID on the brain. A 37,000-word blog post on her website from June 2025 is all about mask mandates (well, at least the first several paragraphs are). She’s also available to speak at your next event.
Chris Keating
The famously camera-shy Keating previously owned the Riverfront Times, Out in STL, and Sauce Magazine. To the extent that people are trying to take Keating’s picture, it’s usually not for a flattering story. He was briefly public enemy number one after selling the city’s longtime alt-weekly to a porn-adjacent media company that allowed its website to fizzle into the digital ether. Since then, Keating’s fortunes have faded further. His Detroit alt-weekly Metro Times has halved its print production. He sold Sauce Magazine to social media marketers STL Bucket List, only to be taken to court by the woman who sold him Sauce, Allyson Mace, who claims Keating never paid her in full. A recent trip to Keating’s former offices on The Hill found the space completely vacant, save for a few old issues of Sauce in the lobby.
Jeffrey Boyd
Jeffrey Boyd was one of three aldermen taken down in 2022 on federal bribery charges. Since getting out of prison last year, he hasn’t been shy about sharing his opinions on city politics online. He’s directed ire toward former Mayor Tishaura Jones and backed, both financially and in his postings on X, Mayor Cara Spencer. He wrote that he tried to warn “Every City Official” about an allegedly rogue building inspector later linked to major scandal. But the occasionally sharp-edged social media posts belie the fact that Boyd says that all in all, he’s pretty content with his life since his release from prison. He’s felt nothing but a warm welcome from his community, and he feels lucky to have so much support, unlike so many of the guys he was locked up with. Helping run the family event space business in Hamilton Heights keeps him busy. He’s mulling writing a book. That said, not all his writing to date has aged well, like this X post from last August: “I’m telling everyone at the top of my lungs to Vote Alfred Montgomery.”
