The Blotter Presents

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Nope, that's not a typo: Best Evidence publisher Eve Batey joins me to talk about a movie that's still in "theaters," Most Wanted. Featuring Josh Hartnett's foxy 'stache and a breakout ugly performance from Jim Gaffigan, Most Wanted interrogates the role of budgetary concerns in law-enforcement corruption and/or incompetence...and we interrogate the crusading-reporter subgenre and whether it's true to life. We do it twice, as a matter of fact, as our Cold Case topic is While The City Sleeps, a movie that references the William Heirens case but is actually about whether media's attempts to "make" a story is itself the story...or criminal. The 1956 thriller stars Vincent Price, Drew Barrymore's dad, and a realistically sodden Dana Stevens in a tale about a callow press scion using a string of murders to pit his top men (...uch) against each other for a plum job. We recommend it, and not just because it kiiiind of makes John Douglas look like an ass for claiming nobody knew how to profile properly before 1974, so hike your pants up to your pits and have a listen to The Blotter Presents, Episode 155. SHOW NOTES Where to watch Most Wanted The Most Wanted/Target Number One Wikipedia page Reply All's Compstat episode Stephen McHattie's Zodiac credit Kill The Messenger While The City Sleeps on Amazon My Ripped From The Headlines review Eater NY on Marchi's (and the Eater's Digest podcast) Wikipedia's William Heirens page

[CW: The episode reviews series that discuss sexual assault, harm to children, and suicide. Please listen with care.] Omar Gallaga returns to discuss two very grim and infuriating properties, starting with Lifetime's Surviving Jeffrey Epstein, which centers the survivors of Epstein's monstrousness while also indicting a society that let him manipulate it with shocking impunity. It's a good docuseries that's also a difficult sit, and the rare discussion of the case of late that had the capacity to tell us something new. The Con also told us something new, about a different kind of predatory behavior -- the outright frauds that led to the financial crisis of 2008. It's a straightforward narrative without a lot of production bells and whistles, but it's also a very careful accounting (so to speak) of all the different bad actors in the world of mortgage fraud, from inexperienced brokers to rapacious CEOs to the Wall Street traders who created the demand. The podcast may not be fast, but you'll be furious by the end of The Blotter Presents, Episode 154. SHOW NOTES Surviving Jeffrey Epstein My Primetimer review of Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich Where to watch The Con Guardian review of The Con  Omar at LEVEL and Terribly Happy Check out Native deodorant and Hello Fresh! Best Evidence

Wondery's Even the Rich gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the stories of some of the greatest family dynasties in history. This season, three siblings — Gianni, Donatella, and Santo Versace — built one of the greatest fashion labels the world has ever seen. But when Gianni is murdered on the front steps of his Miami Beach mansion, the label loses its visionary. Can the House of Versace survive? On this four-episode series, we'll dive into the origins of the Versace label and we'll meet a few celebrities along the way, like Elton John, Princess Diana, and Madonna. Listen to the full episode: http://wondery.fm/ETR_BlotterPresents

Two guests, no waiting this week, as ...These Are Their Stories co-host Kevin Flynn joins me to talk about Ann Rule's Sleeping With Danger, starring Elisabeth "Serena Southerlyn" Röhm and Leslie "ME Rodgers" Hendrix. It's a thumbs-sideways from both of us on the movie, which is not quite good, but not all that bad, and has some anachronism issues and PSA pacing that undercut surprisingly decent acting. Grab a Smoothie Of Doom to fortify yourself for... ...the second Most Wanted topic, Amazon's The Last Narc, a series Jessica Liese and I meant to talk about months ago, before Amazon yanked it unceremoniously. The case of what really happened to murdered DEA agent Kiki Camarena premiered last week, with nearly as little fanfare, and while we're still not clear on why it got disappeared, it's a compelling and confidently shot four-parter featuring clear explainers and flavorful anecdotes. But that doesn't mean we wouldn't have changed anything...or that we weren't happy to hear Robert Stack in a voice-over. Brace yourself for more government malfeasance: it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 153. SHOW NOTES Ann Rule's Sleeping With Danger The Mets' starting catcher in 1978 The These Are Their Stories podcast WATCH Crime Writers On… The Last Narc on Amazon Prime "Midnight In The Garden Of East Texas," by Skip Hollandsworth Hector Berrellez alleges the CIA got the series taken off Collider's interview with director Tiller Russell Jessica at Rob Has A Website  Check out Feals Best Evidence

Is this the widest gulf in quality between the two shows under discussion in Blotter history? Maybe! But Netflix's new three-part series on the "Commission Case" that brought down the New York Mob is disciplined, compelling, and reminds me and guest Jeb Lund that Rudy Giuliani didn't always completely suck at everything...and that barbers really have a challenging job sometimes. The Perfect Murder, meanwhile, is also compelling, but risibly acted, weirdly production-designed, and hilarious in a way that brings to mind a certain [ploop!]. It's so memorably bizarre that at least it "honors" Gavin Smith by stamping his case indelibly into our memories, but we really shouldn't be giggling at a true-crime story. Wear a crop top to the cop shop for The Blotter Presents, Episode 152. SHOW NOTES Fear City: New York vs. The Mafia  Brian Tallerico's review at RogerEbert.com The NatGeo series whose junket found SDB sitting next to Michael Franzese The Perfect Murder S05.E09, "Jump Shot"  "The Ploop Incident" The Quaid In Full podcast Jeb Lund on Twitter

Filmmaker and baseball-Twitter-improver Randy Wilkins joins me to talk about Netflix's The Business Of Drugs, a six-part series hosted by Amaryllis Fox that tries to take a value-neutral look at the economics of black-market substances. But is it TOO neutral? Does it try to do too much in each episode? Might it have been better off only following a single figure through each drug's "story"? And what do coverage of cocaine cartels and MLB have in common? Later, we dig into Spike Lee's Summer Of Sam: why it was rejected by critics, how Lee uses local detail to get at universal truths, and whether Lee would come back to the chaotic summer of 1977 and David Berkowitz in a documentary format. All the nefariously used stuffed animals and Reggie Jackson crackpot theories you could ask for: it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 151. SHOW NOTES The Business Of Drugs  Where to watch Summer Of Sam  Summer Of Sam reviews on Rotten Tomatoes  Randy Wilkins on Twitter  Randy's website, pamsson.com Extra insight from Randy and Spike Lee about Dear… "Spike Lee" from The Root  Views From 314 Ft.  BestEvidence.fyi SPONSORS Native  Green Chef 

[content warning for discussions of child sexual abuse, suicide] Stephanie Green ventures back into the grim case against Larry Nassar with me this week, this time with Netflix's Athlete A, which sets itself apart from other properties by also making a case against USA Gymnastics, the Karolyi Ranch, and the messed-up ways we think about child athletes. If you watched At The Heart Of Gold, do you "need" to watch this one? And will you want a follow-up in a year's time? Later, we delved into the case of Scott Menaged as told by S13.E06 of American Greed. Despite Stacy Keach's gusto-rrific voice-over and a pretty decent explainer on recession-market house-flipping, Stephanie and I still had questions about Menaged's credit-card scam...and his terrible jeans. Come for the indictment of abusive coaches, stay for the elision of scam process: it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 150. SHOW NOTES Athlete A Stephanie and I talk about At The Heart Of Gold  30 For 30's "Heavy Medals" podcast season, on the Karolyi empire  American Greed S13E06  CNBC on "the risks of house-flipping" StephanieEarlyGreen.com Feals.com/blotter bestevidence.fyi

[content warning for sexual assault, neonaticide, truly egregious Foley design] When the subject is the Golden State Killer, the guest is Mike Dunn, who's back to talk about the first three episodes of HBO's I'll Be Gone In The Dark. Directed by Oscar-winner Liz Garbus and others, the six-part docuseries seems to struggle to integrate two narrative styles: a straight-ahead true-crime tale, and a "crimoir" about the wearing effects of researching monsters and the abysses they call home. Does Michelle McNamara's untimely death create a halo effect? Are some Capote comparisons more apt than others? And will we keep watching? In the Cold Case section, I went looking for a Garden State case to pair with the Golden State Most Wanted section...and what I found was so hilarribly bad, tacky, overacted, and downright bizarre that I fully expected Mike to end our friendship after watching it. Murder Made Me Famous S04.E06 covers the Melissa Drexler/"Prom Mom" case in pitilessly cringey detail, including a splash neither of us will ever forget, and when we go to hell for laughing at this trash-isode, it's this show we'll have to watch for all eternity. Collect all your most irrelevant details for the voice-over: it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 149. SHOW NOTES HBO's I'll Be Gone In The Dark page Mike's and my first convo about the case in Ep 048 My IBG piece for Primetimer Filmmakers' "responsibility" to McNamara/her materials Murder Made Me Famous S04.E06 Mike on Twitter The Best Evidence newsletter

How to describe Miles Hargrove's documentary about his father's kidnapping by FARC guerrillas in 1994 -- a kidnap memoir? Found footage meets ransom procedural? It's all of that, and it's unique in the genre; my guest Jeb Lund and I don't know when you'll be able to watch it, but if it comes to VOD or Independent Lens, Jeb and I agree that you should check it out. We're less of a mind about Netflix's exploration of questionable forensics disciplines from last year, Exhibit A. I liked it for the sugar-free talking-head interviews and the snarky structuring of the episodes; Jeb wished Netflix had a 1.5-speed setting while he was watching it. But we agree on this: 1) Dexter shouldn't be anyone's favorite show, and 2) you should listen to The Blotter Presents, Episode 148.  SHOW NOTES Miracle Fishing's website "Adventures In The Ransom Trade" by William Prochnau (the VF article that became Proof Of Life) Exhibit A on Netflix The Charley Project's page on Bianca Lily Jones, which sheds a different light on D'Andre Lane That New Yorker article on Cameron Todd Willingham, by the great David Grann Episode 023 on The Confession Tapes Dave And Jeb Aren't Mean Quaid In Full Visit Feals.com to snag that promo code The Best Evidence newsletter

[CW for references to domestic violence, racial violence, and medical malpractice.] The podcast staycations on the doc-festival circuit this week with a couple of films from the Human Rights Watch Film Festival: Belly Of The Beast, a harrowing account of involuntary sterilization in the California penal system, and the sickening persistence of eugenics in the U.S.; and Coded Bias, which explores the capitalist algorithm and everything artificial "intelligence" gets wrong. (Note: I'd intended also to review Down A Dark Stairwell, but that screener didn't come through; hopefully I'll get to it later in the month.) In the Cold Case section, I talked to filmmaker Yasmin Neal about her 2019 short Target Practice, a six-minute short that "has become a viral representation of 'modern-day lynching.'" We covered Holiday vs. Simone, how to direct children in dark material, and American iconography for all. The documentaries of tomorrow and a timeless short of yesteryear, in The Blotter Presents, Episode 147. SHOW NOTES The Human Rights Watch Film Festival lineup Amazon buckles on facial-recognition deployment Target Practice on YouTube

The Dirty John franchise, clumsily named though it is, is back -- and Marcia Chatelain is back to talk about it. It doesn't feel "necessary," in These Times...and yet we're both planning to keep watching, thanks to Amanda Peet's fearless performance; the comparisons we can make with Mrs. America; and the fond memories it recalls of Meredith Baxter's definitive version.  Later, we're digging into a Lifetime movie about another '80s true-crime icon: Laurie "Bambi" Bembenek, whose quest to unmask corruption in Milwaukee law enforcement (yes, she was kind of trying to defund the police) got her embroiled with a bad husband and a worse frame job. We don't agree on Tatum O'Neal's performance; we do agree that this early-nineties movie was ahead of its time in its takes on stalking, feminist whistle-blowers, and the awesomeness of Victor Garber. That ominous piano can only mean one thing...The Blotter Presents, Episode 146. SHOW NOTES The Marshall Project The Equal Justice Initiative Dirty John on USA Woman On Trial on YouTube Marcia Chatelain on Twitter… ...and her book, Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America And please visit TBP's sponsors, Feals and StoryWorth, to get those deals! Want more? Here's the Best Evidence newsletter.

First-time guest and Best Evidence contributor Margaret Howie joined me to talk about Quiz, the miniseries about the UK Who Wants To Be A Millionaire scandal now airing on AMC. Is it as good for what it leaves out as what it puts in? Are there class issues at work that non-Brits can't get at? And how does Matthew MacFadyen manage to play Charles Ingram so neutrally? Later, we talk about the great Alex Gibney's not AS great No Stone Unturned, a true-crime Troubles explainer that tackles the Loughinisland massacre in 1994. Gibney takes this one more personally than most; does that interfere with his usual "ear" for structure? Game-show process, overshadowing events, and six degrees of seventh-grade Sarah: it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 145. SHOW NOTES Vulture's Quiz explainer The real WWTBAM episode on YouTube The official podcast "The Man Who Got No Whammies" No Stone Unturned on Amazon Owen Gleiberman on No Stone Unturned for Variety  The Irish Passport podcast My review of Say Nothing Find Margaret Howie at the Public Intellectual podcast, and in her Three Weeks newsletter Best Evidence

Mobbed Up: The Fight For Las Vegas drops Tuesday, May 26. I interviewed producer and host Reed Redmond about the podcast, interviewing Mob enforcers, mid-century nostalgia, and NOT watching Casino.  SHOW NOTES Mobbed Up at the Las Vegas Review-Journal Tour the Mob Museum virtually

After our plans to cover Amazon docuseries The Last Narc got disappeared along with the show, Jessica Liese and I pivoted back to familiar ground: Fake Heiress, a late-2019 pod on everyone's favorite art-foundationing NYC scammer, Anna Delvey/Sorokin. The podcast isn't good, and across-the-pond class issues read weirdly to us North Americans...but is it a fast and fun enough listen for us to recommend? Or are you better off rereading the contemporary coverage? We went even further back in time for our second Cold Case of the episode: the third-season Unsolved Mysteries segment on the disappearance of Nyleen Marshall. We're pretty sure we know what really happened to little Nyleen, but the things we as a culture didn't understand about confessions, eyewitnesses, and the determination of amateur detectives 30 years ago led to an interesting discussion...and a proposal for a reboot we might actually need. Can't find this episode in your podcast app? We blame the CIA in The Blotter Presents, Episode 144. SHOW NOTES Fake Heiress on BBC The Blotter Presents's "Summer Of Scam"-isode Vice article backing my "really rich people look like hobos" play The New Yorker profile of Hunter Lee Soik Unsolved Mysteries S03.E10 The Unsolved Mysteries Wiki on Nyleen Marshall …and on Monica Bonilla The Jess Liese archive at Post-Show Recaps Best Evidence

Allison Lowe Huff returns for a UK docudrama two-fer, starting with A Confession, ITV's miniseries from last year about the murders of Sian O'Callaghan and Becky Godden, and the confession to them that cracked the cases but ruined a detective's career. Did we need more than six episodes with these people? Did Steve Fulcher's book have more crackpot theories than the TV adaptation allowed for? And is anyone worse than Pete? (Spoiler: no.) [NB: I discovered after recording that Britbox isn't available to those without a British CC or debit card. My apologies!] [Update: You can get it via Amazon Prime!] Later, we discussed another scripted take on a big case: Derek Bentley's death sentence and the hole it left at the center of his family in Let Him Have It. Despite the occasional weird choice (what's with the hair?), Let Him Have It makes it clear why the UK moved away from capital punishment after this case, and why Christopher Eccleston is an international treasure (and Murray Melvin should be). It's a cavalcade of Midsomer Murders guest stars in The Blotter Presents, Episode 143. SHOW NOTES A Confession on Britbox The murder of Sian O'Callaghan Let Him Have It on Amazon The Derek Bentley case The Pierrepoint family of hangmen (and the tweet thread that opened this wormhole for Al)  Al at MHz Choice Visit sponsors Best Fiends and Feals! Sign up for the Best Evidence newsletter!

Piper Weiss returned for a 1993 Lifetime movie about Tennessee baby broker Georgia Tann, Stolen Babies, that won Mary Tyler Moore an Emmy. Is this a notch above the usual '90s Lifetime fare, or do the accents ruin the relatively snappy pacing and shockingly direct villainy of Tann's actions? We dug into the Tann story thanks to the second part of the podcast: Kevin Smokler's conversation with Criminal and This Is Love host and co-creator Phoebe Judge from April 22, 2020. They talked about everything from Criminal's production timeline, to staying out of "the gotcha game," to how to report mainstream crime stories, to...well, Georgia Tann. Criminal has never missed a drop date or taken a break, so we're extra-glad Ms. Judge made time to talk to us. Get your paperwork in order for an all-new episode of The Blotter Presents. [Portions of the interview were edited/elided to remove Skype garbling.] SHOW NOTES Stolen Babies on YouTube Variety's review of Stolen Babies Criminal's 2019 episode on Georgia Tann, "Baby Snatcher" Piper Weiss and Kevin Smokler on Twitter Get Sundance Now free with that promo code! Best Evidence

Toby Ball takes a break from refilling the Clorox shot-ski to talk about HBO's ripped-from-the-2004-headlines docudrama, Bad Education, in which Wolverine and CJ Cregg defraud the Roslyn school district -- and Toby and I really liked it, but did it need a stronger or more singular point of view? Should it have embraced its All The President's American Vandals nature more openly? And what is Janney's accent doing? Later, we went back to 2015 for a rather un-Frontline-y Frontline that tried to dig into the murders of Vietnamese journalists by an anti-Communist kill squad. Why does "Terror In Little Saigon" feel more like a Cold Justice than a Frontline? What should the episode have investigated instead? And how does Young Sheldon's grandfather figure into all of this? Drop off thirty grand worth of dry cleaning and join us for The Blotter Presents, Episode 141. SHOW NOTES The NY Mag deep dive by who else? Bob Kolker  Rebecca Lavoie on LI accentry on Crime Writers On... Frontline's "Terror In Little Saigon"  Strange Arrivals Check out Sundance Now for a FREE month with the code "blotter"! All this and more at the Best Evidence newsletter!

Australio-Irish icon Ned Kelly got the very first big-screen treatment in 1906, and now the director of Snowtown is back with yet another one. Does Justin Kurzel's time-shifted "punk" take on Peter Carey's novel hold Alex Segura's and my interest? Later, we'll talk about whether The Catch & Kill Podcast With Ronan Farrow needs to exist, what we'd rather have heard instead, and text niftinesses that don't translate. Grab a colander helmet; it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 140. SHOW NOTES True History Of The Kelly Gang  Keva York's review of True History for ABC  Ned Kelly (1970) and Ned Kelly (2003)  Catch & Kill podcast  My review of the book  AlexSegura.com The Black Ghost Season One Don't forget to check out Best Fiends!

A new hour-long documentary confronts the deaths of Jen and Sarah Hart and their six adopted children in A Thread Of Deceit: The Hart Family Tragedy -- but did this doc need to exist? And does it do anything the Broken Harts podcast didn't? Later, we'll talk about a docu-nactment hybrid, American Animals, from the director of The Imposter, and whether this genre-buster works where the Transy book heist did not. (Uh, spoiler.) No free hugs here, folks; it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 139. SHOW NOTES A Thread Of Deceit: The Hart Family Tragedy on Amazon The Broken Harts podcast My Blotter Brief on same, and Eve's write-up Bello Collective's Nafari Vanaski on the difficulties more broadly of reporting this particular story American Animals on HBOGo VF's "Transy Book Heist" piece from 2007  The Imposter Dave And Jeb Aren't Mean Support TBP sponsors Best Fiends and Feals!

[CW for violence against children] Toby Ball returns to discuss -- from a safe distance -- HBO's limited series on the Atlanta child murders of 1979-1981, Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children. Is it too ambitious? Did it set out to be a true-crime docuseries, or a sociological study of the rise of The New South? And what did Wayne Williams actually do? Later, Kevin Smokler talks to Lost Girls author Robert Kolker about how that book became a film; trusting the filmmaking process; "the true-crime media apparatus"; and how his thinking about his new book, Hidden Valley Road (now an Oprah book pick!), evolved. SHOW NOTES Atlanta's Missing And Murdered on HBO.com Ep 109 on Mindhunter S2 Strange Arrivals on iHeartRadio Ep 136 on Netflix's Lost Girls My review of Random Family on Tomato Nation Kolker's "No Way Out" and "Nine Blocks From Home" Bob Kolker's latest, Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family, on Amazon Don't take our word for it; Oprah thinks you should read it too Bob Kolker and Kevin Smokler on Twitter

Mike Dunn returns -- from a safe distance -- to talk about HBO's college-hoops bribery-scandal doc The Scheme. Did we like it so much because we really miss sports, or is Christian Dawkins just that charismatic? Actually, it's probably both, and between this and Disgraced, director Pat Kondelis has really found his lane. Later, we manage to avoid getting into (yet) a(nother) Ocean's 11 quote fight while discussing last year's Finding Steve McQueen, a feature based on the United California Bank robbery that can't decide whether it's a heist picture, a rom-com, or some weird combination (a "rob-com"?) that can't stop ref-checking 1972. We didn't dislike it, but we couldn't stop recasting it, so maybe you're better off with that Stealing Nixon's Millions podcast...and you're definitely better off staying inside with The Blotter Presents, Episode 137. SHOW NOTES The Scheme Ep 004 on Disgraced The Most Honest Man in College Basketball Is Going to Prison Where to watch Finding Steve McQueen The Stealing Nixon's Millions podcast/series from the OC Register The United California Bank robbery Wikipedia page bestevidence.fyi!

[Mgmt. apologizes for various sound issues, incl. 1) construction noise next door; 2) dog being a yappy heller; and 3) Skype throttling Kevin's sound.] Kevin Smokler is back to discuss Liz Garbus's feature on one fragment of the Long Island Serial Killer case -- Lost Girls, based on Robert Kolker's excellent book. We like everyone involved, but aren't sure we can recommend the film, because despite excellent sources and performances (mostly), the film isn't sure who it's for. All Good Things, Andrew Jarecki's FIRST take on Robert Durst's various (alleged?) misdeeds, is worth watching, if only as a primer on the case if you've forgotten what went down in The Jinx. Events of the case have overtaken it, and Ryan Gosling is miscast...and yet an abundance of acting talent and a few flawlessly done moments make it worthwhile. If you must leave the house for a sandwich, please pay for it: it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 136. SHOW NOTES Lost Girls  Lost Girls reviews on Metacritic Kolker on the death of Mari Gilbert, Shannan's mother  A few of Kevin Smokler's and my thoughts on the book All Good Things  The Best Evidence thread on "Vanity Fair movies" Kevin Smokler.com And my sponsors, Best Fiends and Feals!

Can FX repeat its American Crime Story success in the unscripted space? The Most Dangerous Animal Of All takes a big swing, but Gary Stewart may get stuck on the bench with me, my guest Eve Batey, and everyone else whose dads aren't the Zodiac. Would this have made a good feature just on the criminal drama that was Stewart's birth parents? What is the series trying to accomplish with the volte face in the fourth episode? And should I rename the podcast "Look, Nobody's Dad Did Anything"? But we're thrilled that Hustlers qualified for discussion in our Cold Case section, and no, not JUST because it's a crime that Jennifer Lopez didn't get an Oscar nom. What makes a good longread-to-film adaptation? Does Constance Wu make the perfect not-too-charismatic protagonist? And is Cardi B's character running on a pro-labor platform or what? Don't let your earbuds fall out during a reverse stag: it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 135. SHOW NOTES FX's landing page for The Most Dangerous Animal Of All  Aaron Barnhart's TMDAOA review Eve's and my first foray into the Zodiac case, Ep 019 Ep 079 on The Innocent Man Hustlers on Amazon (you can also rent it) Jessica Pressler's original story in New York  That New Yorker profile of Constance Wu Eater San Francisco Best Evidence 

I'm so grateful Dr. Marcia Chatelain made time for even more discussion of fast-food malfeasance; she's my guest again as we take a look at the back half of Monopoly-scam docuseries McMillion$. The character-based future seasons we wanted, "poor man's Sante Kimes" used as a verb, the ways in which McMillion$ is the most American of stories, and much more. Later, we waded into Netflix's Big Food series, Rotten, which does a lot of things well (good research, excellent vintage footage), but a lot of other things not so well (stentoriously inexperienced narration, over-reliance on said vintage footage). Is there any food we can feel ethically okay about enjoying? Is there any-one who will steal Tancítaro's avocado welcome sculpture for Sarah? Find out what happens when Mayor Pete does a presentation in Dr. Marcia's class; it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 134. SHOW NOTES McMillion$ on HBOGo Last month's Extra Hot Great episode with Eve on McMillion$ Rotten on Netflix Episode 112 with Marcia Chatelain More on Franchise and Marcia's book-tour stops The Best Evidence newsletter And head to TakeCareOf.com for 50 percent off with that BLOTTER50 code!

Jessica Liese joins me to talk about a limited series Netflix picked up from Reelz, Unabomber: In His Own Words, which exceeded our expectations -- and while we'd recommend it as a good case overview with unparalleled access, we both wondered if it wasn't trying to hard to explain (or even rationalize) Ted Kaczynski's motivations for killing three people and injuring dozens more. Our second Most Wanted topic is recent podcast Strictly Stalking, and we agree that it's a great idea with some unfortunate execution errors. Has the production team fallen prey to "NPR syndrome"? And we admire a true-crime property that starts from believing women and goes from there...but how much further can it go with this premise? Stupid punctuation tricks, FBI agents we'd like to drink with, and more in The Blotter Presents, Episode 133.  SHOW NOTES Unabomber: In His Own Words on Netflix Strictly Stalking on Apple Podcasts Vice on Lenora Claire Jess Liese's work on Primetimer And don't forget to check out our sponsor, Best Fiends!

The new four-parter about a grieving father's crusade against Purdue Pharma, The Pharmacist, has a couple of problems -- but, guest Jeb Lund and I agree, the chief issue is that we wanted more: more on the pill-mill ecosystem, more on the race and class issues that permeate awareness of the opioid crisis, and more from this production team. Even when Dan Schneider Sr.'s grief is hard to watch, The Pharmacist is very watchable. Our Cold Case topic, Inside Story's episode on Jeffrey MacDonald from 1989, isn't UN-watchable; it's just...kind of weird. It seems like it's trying to both-sides the evidence, but in doing so, often exposes alternate theories of the crime as absurd-sounding. It also seems like it's trying to trap MacDonald in bogus overacting, and like it's trying to explain the late-'60s counterculture to visitors from space? But it got Jeb interested in the case, so hold onto your pajama bottoms: it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 132. SHOW NOTES The Pharmacist on Netflix Patrick Radden Keefe's "The Family That Built An Empire Of Pain" for The New Yorker Inside Story, "False Witness" The Best Evidence MacDonald reader Dave And Jeb Aren't Mean

Toby Ball didn't watch all of Interrogation, CBS All-Access's new choose-your-own-watch-order procedural (based, evidently, on a real case); I did; we both have some of the same issues with the "hook" of shuffled episodes -- and I had MAJOR issues with the ending. Was an all-star cast wasted on a project that doesn't really know what it's trying to do? Later, we talked about an episode of The Power Of Attorney, a podcast from Rutgers Law School, that talks to the guy on whose case Interrogation might be based: exoneree and marathoner Huwe Burton. Alas, that podcast doesn't talk to Burton enough, and while it's a solid overview of how false confessions come about -- and a clever idea for a podcast overall -- we're not sure this treatment of the material works either. But we also talk about David Simon's many contributions to the genre, so have a listen to The Blotter Presents, Episode 131. SHOW NOTES Interrogation on All Access TV Guide's Noel Kirkpatrick on why the shuffled structure makes the show hard to plug into The Power Of Attorney, Episode 4 Huwe Burton on Real Sports New York Times coverage of Burton's exoneration Toby's Deep Dive book club on the CWO Patreon Best Evidence

Stephanie Early Green is back to discuss the usual complement of light, fizzy fare! ...Okay, no: our first Most Wanted conversation is about Amazon's new Ted Bundy docuseries, Falling For A Killer. Does it succeed in subtracting Ted Bundy from all the secondary stories of grief and horror he created? Should the filmmaker have spun off another series on women in '70s law enforcement? And what exactly happened between Bundy and Molly Kendall? We KNOW what happened between Shelly Knotek and her children (and luckless boarders) in Gregg Olsen's mercilessly detailed If You Tell -- but Olsen doesn't do as much with the hows and whys as we'd like. Olsen's book reads fast, but not so fast that we didn't wonder why certain figures in this tale of gaslighting and abuse weren't taken to firmer task. (And why his editor didn't cut that awful eagle simile.) It might seem like nothing good comes out of Washington State in The Blotter Presents, Episode 130. [Content warning: this episode's materials involve sexual trauma, child abuse, and...well, Ted Bundy. Please listen with care.] SHOW NOTES Ted Bundy: Falling For A Killer https://www.amazon.com/Ted-Bundy-Falling-Killer-Season/dp/B082FPGQD8 If You Tell https://www.amazon.com/If-You-Tell-Unbreakable-Sisterhood/dp/B07TNTB329 Stephanie Early Green's blog http://www.stephanieearlygreen.com Best Evidence: bestevidence.fyi And our sponsor, Lola! http://mylola.com

First-time guest David J. Roth and I came late to the discussion of Killer Inside: The Mind Of Aaron Hernandez...only to realize that the discussion we DID have didn't require us to watch KI:TMOAH, which is well made and yet not made the best way for the material. We also talked about responsibility vs. indemnity; Bill Belichick's trademark grey reluctance; and the untitled Mike Massey project we're hoping comes out in 2021. Our Cold Case topic, The Tillman Story, is more successful, even as it brings us back to a "dumb, shitty" time in recent American history. Pat Tillman's death may not qualify as a true-crime subject, but Army cover-ups -- and how predictable they are -- might. Jon Krakauer, Tom Brady, and two NFL stars with very different untimely demises: it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 129. [Content warning: this episode addresses suicide, and there is some gore. Please listen with care.] SHOW NOTES Killer Inside: The Mind Of Aaron Hernandez https://www.netflix.com/watch/81090138 Sports Illustrated review: Docuseries too reliant on speculation https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2020/01/16/aaron-hernandez-netflix-docuseries-review Blotter Brief 2 on the Gladiator podcast: https://audioboom.com/posts/7349338-blotter-brief-2-gladiator-aaron-hernandez-and-football-inc The Tillman Story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz2jtO0GvI4&feature=youtu.be Travers review of The Tillman Story for Rolling Stone https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-tillman-story-251351/ Dave and Jeb Aren't Mean https://daveandjebarentmean.libsyn.com/ Dave Roth on Twitter http://twitter.com/david_j_roth Best Evidence: bestevidence.fyi

Piper Weiss and I waded into basic cable's accidental anthropology this week, starting with MTV's new extension of a heritage non-fiction show, True Life Crime. It's got potential, and we'll keep watching, but we couldn't help wondering if the network was giving a lot of Dateline-y notes -- and if the show in its original inception involved a lot more of the late Zachary Stoner. Later, we looked at Love/Life After Lockup, and questioned WEtv's intentions. Is it trying to make an acerbic comment on the American incarceration industrial complex, or the unintended consequences of mandatory sentencing and the opioid crisis? Or that a coincidence arising from the filming of various figurative emotional trainwrecks? Either way, we're voting B for president in The Blotter Presents, Episode 128. [Content warning: this episode addresses child sexual abuse, domestic violence, and suicide. Please listen with care.] SHOW NOTES True Life Crime William Lee from the Trib: the Kenneka Jenkins case was "never a murder mystery" Life After Lockup LAL's Lacey implies that husband Shane has gotten violent with her Piper on Twitter Best Evidence: bestevidence.fyi And of course my sponsor, Feals!

Mark Blankenship discussed the first season of Surviving R. Kelly on the podcast, and kindly returned to unpack the second season. Is the additional testimony, and our bearing witness, the point? Could a different organizational strategy have made Part 2 more effective? And what drives the people who take to the streets with signs to defend Kelly and his ilk? Later, we talked about singer-songwriter Allison Moorer's memoir of her parents' tragic deaths, Blood: A Memoir. Mark read the book and I listened to it, and these contrasting experiences of the text led to a conversation about the spaces in narrative, whether sometimes physical text is more "musical" than when it's spoken, and how to write yourself as a child.  [Content warning: this episode addresses child sexual abuse, domestic violence, and suicide. Please listen with care.] SHOW NOTES Surviving R. Kelly: https://www.mylifetime.com/shows/surviving-r-kelly Episode 080 on SRK Part 1: https://audioboom.com/posts/7349303-080-surviving-r-kelly-and-behind-the-music Elaine Weiss reads from The Woman's Hour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnaYTC9r2Mg Blood: A Memoir: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0306922681/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0306922681&linkCode=as2&tag=blotterpresen-20&linkId=3a7fdd7f2c2eb5c9c14156eca4391dc2 My review of The Reckoning for Primetimer: https://www.primetimer.com/features/dont-look-away-from-surviving-r-kelly-part-ii-the-reckoning The Showtune Countdown: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1248-the-showtune-countdown-50444773/ Best Evidence: bestevidence.fyi

All the true-crime properties that were worth MY time last year, from The Act to Zeman. "Special" "appearance" by Bear E. Williams! SHOW NOTES Abducted In Plain Sight: https://audioboom.com/posts/7349289-brief-36-abducted-in-plain-sight “Caught Up In The Act” on Primetimer: https://www.primetimer.com/features/caught-up-in-the-act At The Heart Of Gold: https://audioboom.com/posts/7349273-095-at-the-heart-of-gold-and-cold Bundyville: The Remnant: https://longreads.com/bundyville/ Catch & Kill: https://blotterpresents.substack.com/p/november-bonus-book-review-catch Down City: https://audioboom.com/posts/7349260-108-down-city-and-the-fbi-files-yahweh-ben-yahweh The Inventor: https://audioboom.com/posts/7349281-089-the-inventor-and-children-of-the-snow Leaving Neverland: https://audioboom.com/posts/7349284-087-leaving-neverland-and-the-skye-borgman-interview Murder Mountain: https://audioboom.com/posts/7349295-083-murder-mountain-and-the-weather-underground Norco '80: https://blotterpresents.substack.com/p/august-bonus-book-review-1-norco Savage Appetites: https://audioboom.com/posts/7447885-124-detective-trapp-and-savage-appetites Say Nothing: https://blotterpresents.substack.com/p/december-2019-bonus-book-review-say Surviving R Kelly: https://audioboom.com/posts/7349303-080-surviving-r-kelly-and-behind-the-music Tell Me Who I Am: https://time.com/5706370/tell-me-who-i-am-netflix-true-story/ Unbelievable: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/12/16/an-unbelievable-story-of-rape We Are Columbine: https://audioboom.com/posts/7349275-093-we-are-columbine-and-most-notorious-on-adolph-coors-iii When They See Us: https://audioboom.com/posts/7349269-099-when-they-see-us-and-who-killed-nancy ...and of course Best Evidence: bestevidence.fyi  

Jeb Lund returns, but probably wishes he hadn't, because we're talking about Apple TV's Truth Be Told, a property that may think it brings Serial to mind, but is actually a lot more in line with the estranged-from-reality journalisming of one Brandon Walsh. Have the creators never watched even part of a procedural? Why does the series contain EVERY possible story about this family? And is every agent involved getting fired? It's bad, is our point. 2018 Netflix series Dark Tourist is better, but it's still muddled as to whether it's trying to comment on the dark-tourism industry -- and its consumers -- or participate in it, or both. We're also not 100 on whether Jeffrey Dahmer is the quintessentially American killer...or just the easiest target. Wasted opportunities abound, but we might save you from wasting your time in The Blotter Presents, Episode 125. SHOW NOTES Visit my sponsor, Lola! (Don't forget the code!) http://mylola.com Truth Be Told: https://wondery.com/shows/detective-trapp Dark Tourist E03, "The United States": https://amzn.to/2P5XfxS This American Life 385 (Jon Ronson): https://www.thisamericanlife.org/385/pro-se Dave And Jeb Aren't Mean: https://daveandjebarentmean.libsyn.com/

The latest L.A. Times/Wondery joint project from the Dirty John team, Detective Trapp, may be a podcast in search of a Sunday magazine; Kevin Smokler and I talk about old-media effortfulness, why "merely good" is sometimes great," and narrative choices. The same topics come up again when we look at Rachel Monroe's Savage Appetites, as we ponder difficulty ratings in non-fiction, the power of teenage girls, and how Monroe makes "old" crimes new again. In a nutshell (not that kind), that's The Blotter Presents, Episode 124. SHOW NOTES A year of Best Evidence is just $52, now 'til 12/15! Visit my sponsor, Zola! (Don't forget the code!) zola.com/blotter Detective Trapp: https://wondery.com/shows/detective-trapp Rachel Monroe's Savage Appetites: https://amzn.to/2P5XfxS Susan Douglas's Where The Girls Are: https://amzn.to/2YwD4fM Kevin Smokler's website: kevinsmokler.com

It's a six-pack of DVR clutter this week as I let you know what I'm granting a continuance...or a motion to dismiss. Netflix's latest on Henry Lee Lucas, plus a Frontline on a predator on the reservation, a doc on Oakland PD, the continuing fascination with the murder of Martha Moxley, yet more JonBenét Ramsey theories, and a new hope for the oldest profession. Get ready for some justifiable deletions, people: it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 123. SHOW NOTES A year of Best Evidence is just $52, now 'til 12/15! Murder & Justice: The Case Of Martha Moxley // https://www.oxygen.com/murder-and-justice-the-case-of-martha-moxley/season-1/mourning-in-greenwich?autoPlay=1 Dominick Dunne on Martha Moxley // https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2000/10/dominick-dunne-martha-moxley-murder-greenwich New York on Dunne vs. RFK Jr. // http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/crimelaw/features/n_8816/ Timothy McVeigh: In Defense Of // https://www.oxygen.com/timothy-mcveigh-in-defense-of/videos POV S32E14, "Blowin' Up" // http://www.pbs.org/pov/watch/blowinup/video-blowin-up/ Hunting JonBenet's Killer: The Untold Story // https://www.aetv.com/specials/hunting-jonbenets-killer-the-untold-story/full-special Independent Lens, "The Force" // https://www.netflix.com/title/80168198 Frontline S37E12, "Predator On The Reservation" // https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/predator-on-the-reservation/ The Confession Killer // https://www.netflix.com/title/80213588

[CONTENT WARNING: language; discussion of child sexual abuse investigation] Toby Ball is back to talk about two fairly recent podcasts: the first, a departure from politics for Slow Burn, as the podcast's third season delves into the still-unsolved murders of Notorious BIG and Tupac Shakur. Am I too impatient with a project that is, after all, called "Slow Burn" -- or are the attempts to give far wider context to these murders too unfocused? And ARE these killings ever going to get solved? Later, we confront Hunting Warhead, a CBC/VG joint venture about a white-hat hacker's investigation into child pornography consumers in Norway that got much bigger...and as the podcast goes on, the story gets much, much darker. Is the excellent reporting worth the harrowing experience of listening?  SHOW NOTES Slow Burn Season 3 https://slate.com/podcasts/slow-burn/s3/biggie-and-tupac Ep 22 on Biggie: The Life Of Notorious BIG https://audioboom.com/posts/7349398-episode-22-022-biggie-the-life-of-notorious-b-i-g-and-gesualdo-death-for-five-voices Ep 47 (with Toby Ball) on Unsolved https://audioboom.com/posts/7349366-episode-54-047-unsolved-and-the-family Connie Bruck in The New Yorker: "The Takedown Of Tupac" (and now that I've reread it, I think it absolutely informs Slow Burn's third ep https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1997/07/07/the-takedown-of-tupac Ep 50 on In Ice Cold Blood https://audioboom.com/posts/7349363-episode-57-050-in-ice-cold-blood-and-mysteries-scandals Hunting Warhead https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcasts/hunting-warhead/index.html Crime Writers On… http://www.crimewriterson.com

Stephanie Green is back to discuss Netflix's latest original docuseries, The Devil Next Door, in which John Demjanjuk may or may not have been a Nazi extermination camp's Ivan The Terrible...and his true identity may or may not have been the point of the series. How is trauma "remembered"? Why did the U.S. consider some war criminals "useful"? And what did Demjanjuk really do between 1942 and 1952? Later, we talk about two different takes on crowd-solving cold cases: CrimeCon's "true crime experience," CrowdSolve; and the Vidocq Society. The Crime Report's piece on the former raised more questions than it answered, but The Telegraph's 2009 overview of the latter had me and Stephanie wondering if a hybrid isn't advisable. The panel will not be taking questions on Jack The Ripper; it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 121. SHOW NOTES  The Devil Next Door: https://www.netflix.com/title/80201488 Netflix to amend docuseries following complaints from Polish government: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/nov/15/netflix-to-amend-holocaust-documentary-after-complaints-from-polish-government "My Weekend As An Amateur Cold Case Detective": https://thecrimereport.org/2019/11/12/my-weekend-as-an-amature-cold-case-detective/ "The Vidocq Society: Murder on the menu": https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3489805/The-Vidocq-Society-Murder-on-the-menu.html "Crowdsourcing Criminal Investigations in the Digital Age": https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2014/07/01/cold-cases-criminal-investigations Stephanie Early Green's site: http://stephanieearlygreen.com The Blotter Presents's sponsor, Zola: zola.com/blotter

The Preppy Murder is Sundance's five-part look at the murder of Jennifer Levin by Robert Chambers, and how it gripped New York City for years starting in August of 1986. Guest Piper Weiss and I remember those headlines well, but the miniseries corrects our memory on some points -- though we're still not sure why this is coming out now, or why Linda Fairstein's participation isn't asterisked in some way. In the Cold Case section, Piper and I revisit one segment of Zeman and Mills's Killer Legends, with Piper theorizing on why the "call coming from inside the house" urban legend gained traction and both of us recommending Zeman's Cropsey. We also talk about ghost apps, snack diplomacy, and more in The Blotter Presents, Episode 120. SHOW NOTES  The Preppy Murder: Death In Central Park: https://www.sundancetv.com/shows/the-preppy-murder-death-in-central-park/season-1/episode-01-woman-down-in-central-park The book I loaned to Piper: https://www.amazon.com/Wasted-Inside-Robert-Chambers-Jennifer-Murder/dp/1504030370 Michael Stone's NYMag cover story: http://nymag.com/news/features/crime/48262/ Killer Legends: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B00M4QPDMI/ref=atv_dl_rdr?autoplay=1  Contemporary coverage of Janett Christman's murder: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3930183/janett_christman_1950_missouri/ Mueller's suit against local law enforcement: https://openjurist.org/203/f2d/797/mueller-v-powell Piper's book You All Grow Up And Leave Me, now in paperback: https://www.amazon.com/You-All-Grow-Leave-Obsession/dp/006245658X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

It's another Wondery podcast up top this week -- I'll try not to make a habit of it -- as guest Eve Batey and I contemplate American Elections: Wicked Game. Eve thinks the deep weekly dive into every single U.S. election, and the adjacent chicanery/felon...ery (?), might have worked better with visuals, while I confess I've still never seen/heard Hamilton but think the podcast is primed to get really good with a few tweaks. But is it crimey enough? We'll compare it to existing properties so you can decide. In the Cold Case section, Eve makes her pitch to turn 2015 documentary The Fear Of 13 into a podcast instead. Is Nick Yarris's highly personal Spalding Gray-esque tale intimate and credible, or strained and stagey? Is it...both? And who should play him in the scripted version? Philly accents, that notorious milk ad, and yes, the cutting of cheese: it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 119. [Editor's note: Apologies for residual barking that I couldn't scrub out of the track. Mr. Bear E. Williams is not always a good dog.] SHOW NOTES American Elections: Wicked Game: https://wondery.com/shows/american-elections-wicked-game/ The Presidential podcast from WaPo: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/podcasts/presidential/ Irving Stone's Those Who Love: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68775.Those_Who_Love Jon Meacham's American Lion: Andrew Jackson In The White House: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3147367-american-lion The Fear of 13: https://www.netflix.com/watch/80099305 Nick Yarris talks to The Innocence Project about The Fear Of 13: https://www.innocenceproject.org/yarris-discusses-fear-of-13/ Still not subscribed to Best Evidence? Check it out: bestevidence.fyi

I'm on my own for a round-up episode, reviewing 1) the latest from Wondery and Dr. Death's Laura Beil, Bad Batch; 2) a documentary about twin mind and malleable memory, Tell Me Who I Am, that just hit Netflix; and 3) a 2017 crime-oir, Sarah Perry's After The Eclipse. SHOW NOTES Bad Batch: https://wondery.com/shows/bad-batch/ Tell Me Who I Am: https://www.netflix.com/watch/80214706 After The Eclipse: https://amzn.to/2Nm8Uqq The Forensic Files ep on Crystal Perry's case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TfyjF4b1IE

The five-part documentary series from Starz, Leavenworth, looks at the very complicated case of Clint Lorance, and after the first episode, guest Jeb Lund and I were a little impatient with the painstaking set-up -- but mostly because we wanted more of the textured, compelling stories that all converge on a single incident in 2012. Will we keep watching? And should you? Later, we revisit what's probably an all-time top-ten true-crime topic: the 1962 escape from Alcatraz, this time as considered by Phoebe Judge on Criminal. I'm seldom NOT going to recommend a Criminal episode, and this one's no different -- so why is that? What sets Criminal's treatment of this well-trodden ground apart? And what do Jeb and I think happened to the three who got out? Dig, dash, dive into The Blotter Presents, Episode 117. SHOW NOTES Leavenworth on Starz: https://www.starz.com/series/leavenworth/featured Daniel Fienberg for THR on Leavenworth: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/leavenworth-review-1248478 Mike Hale for the Times: nytimes.com/2019/10/18/arts/television/leavenworth-review.html Dr. Nathaniel Frank, Unfriendly Fire: https://amzn.to/2oUAB1o Dexter Filkins, The Forever War: https://amzn.to/2BuIfCe Ep 078 on Leah Remini: Scientology And The Aftermath: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/078-leah-remini-scientology-aftermath-apostate/id1213321943?i=1000425653050 Criminal #77, "The Escape": https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-77-the-escape-10-20-2017/ Spitting Image IS getting a reboot: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-49865406

Paul Holes joins the Oxygen family with The DNA Of Murder; Blotter Holes-ologist Mike Dunn joins me again to talk about the new show, and whether it's really anything new at all. Was local law enforcement just waiting around for Holes and Yolanda McClary to help them out on the Burkert/Atkison case? Why didn't anyone catch the toothpaste detail before? And why can't two criminologists make their theory of the actual crime make sense? Later, we discuss another project headed up by two criminologists: Direct Appeal, in which two Fairleigh Dickinson criminology profs agree to look into Melanie McGuire's case, even though she's still appealing her conviction for her husband's murder (and dismemberment). The set-up's got a lot of potential, but a couple of structural decisions may have led to a disappointing result, though we hope Professors Shlosberg and Sacks take a run at another case...and we hope you'll take a run at The Blotter Presents, Episode 116. SHOW NOTES The DNA of Murder: https://www.oxygen.com/dna-of-murder Iowa Cold Cases site summary of the case: https://iowacoldcases.org/case-summaries/rose-burkert-and-roger-atkison/ Direct Appeal: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/direct-appeal/id1462493685 Murderpedia's Melanie McGuire page: http://murderpedia.org/female.M/m/mcguire-melanie.htm Mike and I discuss I'll Be Gone In The Dark in Ep 048: https://audioboom.com/posts/7349365-episode-55-048-the-golden-state-killer-it-s-not-over-and-i-ll-be-gone-in-the-dark

New "con-gregational" podcast Scam Goddess kicked off last week with Paul F. Tompkins joining host Laci Mosley to talk about Anna Delvey, and Stephanie Early Green joined ME to talk about the newest comedy-convo crime pod on the block. How is it possible PFT never heard of Anna Delvey/Sorokin? Do comedy podcasts about true crime need to be better researched? And did you expect to get a wire-transfer primer on The Blotter Presents? Spoiler: you get one, "you're welcome." Later, we contemplated the long-running, impatience-making Ghost Adventures franchise's miniseries foray into serial killers, Serial Killer Spirits, and its premiere on H.H. Holmes. Unintentional hilarity aside, is this a show for true-crime fans, or does it lack context? What do those instruments actually do? And what is Samantha StarBrite's...whole deal? Even a ghost-hunting show has opportunities to make interesting connections, but the only connection we made to this one was with the delete button on the DVR, in an all-new The Blotter Presents. SHOW NOTES Scam Goddess: https://www.earwolf.com/episode/scam-goddess-with-laci-mosley/ Nash/Cons and Con Men: https://amzn.to/2AQo2Xc Anna Delvey Court Looks Insta: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxQOhGHl4Jv/ Williams's VF piece: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/04/my-misadventure-with-the-magician-of-manhattan My review of Williams's book, My Friend Anna, on the Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/posts/29589407 Ghost Adventures: SKS: https://www.travelchannel.com/shows/ghost-adventures Episode 015 with Toby Ball on HH Holmes: https://audioboom.com/posts/7349405-episode-15-015-h-h-holmes The Haunting Of…'s Illeana Douglas episode: https://www.mylifetime.com/shows/the-haunting-of/season-3/episode-10 Stephanie Early Green's story, "Host Mother," in the Chicago Tribune: https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/books/literary-awards/ct-books-algren-awards-2019-finalist-story-stephanie-green-20190720-yyahgv6wejfhnodflm2idtf3jq-story.html

Toby Ball and I took on two newish podcasts this week: the first from WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times, Motive, looks at the strange case(s) of TJ Jimenez. But is a competent, ambling narrative -- one that might have worked better as a longform magazine piece -- enough during peak true-crime? Unraveled returned with a fourth season last month, and we're talking about that season, "Snowball," in the second Most Wanted section. Snowball builds its timeline differently from Motive, doesn't try as hard to be literary, and works better for us overall -- but do we just like a scam story better? Before you spend $25 million buying a gang, have a listen to The Blotter Presents, Episode 114. SHOW NOTES Motive landing page: https://www.wbez.org/shows/motive/8c9f445c-4f62-46d6-a7f6-dc70a835e99b Snowball landing page: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/truecrime/snowball/ "Read" Snowball at the ABC website: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-03/con-artist-love-fraud-victims-investigate-lezlie-manukian/11300436 Ep 097 on Who The Hell Is Hamish?: https://audioboom.com/posts/7349271-097-who-the-hell-is-hamish-and-the-woman-who-wasn-t-there

It took me and AB Chao a little longer than most people to get around to Unbelievable, but it lived up to its name in the best ways, nailing us to our seats and making us think about elegant exposition, acting choices, and everything SVU tries to get right and misses on. It really is "that good." Our other Most Wanted topic, Parcast's latest podcast Sports Criminals, isn't just not for us in the way Parcast content can sometimes be; it...really is not good, unfortunately. We tried to figure out how a seemingly foolproof choice of premiere topic could have gone so tiresomely wrong. If you can figure out what "subsiding a turmoil" is, let us know after you listen to The Blotter Presents, Episode 113. SHOW NOTES Unbelievable: https://www.netflix.com/browse?jbv=80153467 Pro Publica's reporting on the Unbelievable case: https://www.propublica.org/article/false-rape-accusations-an-unbelievable-story A Walk With A Miserable Merritt Wever https://www.vulture.com/2019/09/merritt-wever-netflix-unbelievable.html Sports Criminals: https://www.parcast.com/sportscriminals Pistorius Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Oscar_Pistorius

Dr. Marcia Chatelain joins me for the first time to talk about a first for Showtime: the network's foray into the true-crime-series space with Murder On The Bayou. The five-part series looks at the so-called "Jeff Davis 8" -- their lives, their deaths, what connected them and what didn't -- as well as at small-town class divisions, the economies of addiction, and the pointlessness of task forces.  Later, we discussed Betting On Zero, the 2016 documentary about Herbalife, and financier Bill Ackman's attempt to kill the MLM off by short-selling the stock. It's hard to say what the real difference is between an illegal pyramid scheme and a legal MLM...and what the ethical difference is between exploiting "the downline" for profit, and exploiting government intervention to back up an investment gamble. Does the doc answer those questions? Listen and find out what we thought on The Blotter Presents, Episode 112.  SHOW NOTES Murder In The Bayou: https://www.sho.com/murder-in-the-bayou Betting On Zero: https://www.netflix.com/watch/80108609 The Waves podcast on Slate: https://slate.com/podcasts/the-waves Support the podcast on Patreon, get extra eps and reviews!: http://patreon.com/blotterpresents

Netflix's recent documentary series, Happy Jail, looks at daily life and administration inside the Filipino detention center whose famous Dancing Inmates re-enacted the Thriller video so virally a decade or so ago. There are so many stories to choose from here, but Eve Batey and I agree that the production doesn't do well at organizing them, interrogating the issues in play, or giving us context for what we're seeing as it compares with life behind bars in the U.S. 2001's Ghosts Of Attica, recently re-issued to VOD, is much more straightforward and workmanlike -- and that's a good thing! It's no-frills, but it knows what its audience doesn't know, and brings two narratives that seem like they're competing together to indict the state, Governor Rockefeller, and the ignorance of the American populace about life inside.  SHOW NOTES Happy Jail: https://www.netflix.com/title/80223113 Ghosts Of Attica: https://amzn.to/2A5hT9b Ep 002 (!) on Kalief Browder: https://audioboom.com/posts/7349418-episode-2-002-kalief-browder-diane-whipple-and-local-crimes Frank "Big Black" Smith's obituary: https://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/03/us/frank-smith-71-is-dead-sought-justice-after-attica.html And Ms. Fink's: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/09/23/elizabeth-fink-lawyer-fought-attica-inmates-dies/72713484/ Support the podcast on Patreon, get extra eps and reviews!: http://patreon.com/blotterpresents

(Not the Chris Christie thing; the card game.) John Ramos returns to dig into a podcast from Andrew Jenks on the college-admissions bribery kerfuffle, Gangster Capitalism. Is documentarian Jenks learning the audio-narrative format on the job? Do episodes improve as you go along? And does that Loughlin stan have her priorities in order? Later, I get into it with John, a bridge pro, about the cheating scandal that rocked bridge in 2016: what it meant for the game at the higher levels, how it changed competitive bridge, and whether it qualifies as a "crime" the way we usually mean the word. Get ready for a whole bunch of puns involving "trump" and "dummy": it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 110. Get even more true-crime content reviewed: support the pod/site on Patreon, and sign up for the newsletter, Best Evidence! SHOW NOTES The Gangster Capitalism podcast: https://www.gangstercapitalism.com/ John Colapinto's piece on the bridge scandal for Vanity Fair: https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2016/02/competitive-bridge-cheating-scandal David Owen's for The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/03/07/the-cheating-problem-in-professional-bridge Michael Clark walks you through the Fantoni/Nunes cheating on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKe7gLTfaF8 And the Fisher/Schwartz cheating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=831tJ4EHLBY&t=97s John Ramos's bridge portal: https://losangelesbridgelessons.com/bio/ Special Guest: John Ramos.

Mindhunter returned for a second season on Netflix last week, and I talked with Will Leitch about the gifts director David Fincher brings to this kind of narrative, who's the real heart of the FBI BSU story, Fringe reunions, and whether the Li'l Tench, Creep In Waiting storyline worked for us. This section does contain spoilers for the second season, so if you haven't watched yet, skip ahead to... ...the Cold Case section, where we're talking about 2009's The Informant!, a genre-busting take on Mark Whitacre's elaborate, self-satisfied frauds against his employer in the '90s. Steven Soderbergh's understanding of southern-Illinois-ness, a vanity-free performance from Matt Damon, and a host of Hey, It's That Guy!s looking flabbergasted join a fizzy Hamlisch score to create a hilarious portrait of a deluded secret-agent con...that's also an object lesson in how to tell complicated white-collar crime stories visually. Screw your toupees on tight: it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 109. Get even more true-crime content reviewed: support the pod/site on Patreon, and sign up for the newsletter, Best Evidence! SHOW NOTES Mindhunter: https://www.netflix.com/search?q=mindhunter&jbv=80114855&jbp=0&jbr=0 Zodiac: https://amzn.to/2ZlGS2l The Informant!: https://www.netflix.com/search?q=the%20informant&jbv=70105371&jbp=0&jbr=0 Will Leitch's newsletter: https://tinyletter.com/williamfleitch/ Special Guest: Will Leitch.

(Content warning for suicide and addiction issues.) Alex Segura somehow made time amongst his new babies -- a human AND a just-published last book in his Pete Fernandez series -- to talk about Leah Carroll's 2017 Down City, her memoir of her childhood after her mother's murder when Carroll was just four years old. The subject matter, which also includes her alcoholic father's decline, is rough going, but the storytelling is flawless. Alex and I talk about the poetry in austere prose, transitions that are harder than they look, "the repeated thing," and when an author's entrance into a crime story makes it a better story. The FBI Files take on Yahweh ben Yahweh in S03.E10 isn't nearly as successful, as a story that spanned decades, multiple states, and a variety of RICO-predicate offenses needs a different approach from TFF's dry, linear narrative method. And while it's good at some things, like concise overviews, it's not good at giving context to, say, how many cult hitmen keep their dirty machetes between the couch cushions. One story we couldn't stop thinking about, another we almost couldn't get through, in The Blotter Presents, Episode 108. Get even more true-crime content reviewed: support the pod/site on Patreon, and sign up for the newsletter, Best Evidence! SHOW NOTES Down City by Leah Carroll: https://amzn.to/2H6HGBA True-crime memoirs at Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/true-crime-memoir Alex Segura and Carolyn Murnick on the "dead-girl trope" at CrimeReads: https://crimereads.com/inverting-and-avoiding-the-dead-girl-trope/ The FBI Files S03.E10: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B00T2FM5D4/ref=stream_3p_sd_ep?autoplay=1&t=0 Alex Segura's Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/Alex-Segura/e/B0078EELSI Special Guest: Alex Segura.