Shady side of the Street

The October murders of two New York stock promoters with questionable financial reputations prompted frenzied speculation of securities fraud gone deadly. Investigators are still sorting through the facts surrounding the gangland-style hits on Alain Chalem, 41, and Mayir Lehmann, 37, and we may never know if their deaths were indeed linked to their penny-stock promotion web site, Stock Investor. But the grim episode highlights an undeniable fact: The phenomenal rise in the US equity markets