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The Blotter Presents

The true crime worth YOUR time, reviewed weekly. Sarah D. Bunting, desk sergeant.

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 (http://bestevidence.fyi) 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. // https://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

123: Frontline, POV, Independent Lens, The Confession Killer, Moxley, and JonBenét

[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 (http://www.crimewriterson.com/)

122: Slow Burn S3 and Hunting Warhead

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 (https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2014/07/01/cold-cases-criminal-investigations)

121: The Devil Next Door and two crowd-solving longreads

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: https://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=

120: The Preppy Murder: Death In Central Park and Killer Legends

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 (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

119: American Elections: Wicked Game and The Fear Of 13

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 (https://www.netflix.com/watch/80214706?trackId=13752289&tctx=0%2C0%2C7762b4ae-8a69-407c-b8b4-d212ec29bfd1-52923659%2C%2C)
After The Eclipse: https://amzn.to/2Nm8Uqq (http://nytimes.com/2019/10/18/arts/television/leavenworth-review.html)
The Forensic Files ep on Crystal Perry's case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TfyjF4b1IE

118: Bad Batch, Tell Me Who I Am, and After The Eclipse

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

117: Leavenworth and Criminal #77, "The Escape"

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

116: The DNA Of Murder and Direct Appeal

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

115: Scam Goddess and Ghost Adventures: Serial Killer Spirits

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

114: Motive and Snowball

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

113: Unbelievable and Sports Criminals

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

112: Murder In The Bayou and Betting On Zero

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

111: Happy Jail and Ghosts Of Attica

(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 (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) , and sign up for the newsletter, Best Evidence (http://bestevidence.fyi) !
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.

110: Gangster Capitalism and the 2016 Bridge Scandal

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 (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) , and sign up for the newsletter, Best Evidence (http://bestevidence.fyi) !
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.

109: Mindhunter Season 2 and The Informant!

(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 (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) , and sign up for the newsletter, Best Evidence (http://bestevidence.fyi) !
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 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B00T2FM5D4/ref=stream%5C_3p%5C_sd%5C_ep?autoplay=1&t=0) Alex Segura's Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/Alex-Segura/e/B0078EELSI
Special Guest: Alex Segura.

108: Down City and The FBI Files (Yahweh ben Yahweh)

Why is law enforcement so interested in bringing cases against a hip-hop star when he's alive...and not as interested in solving the case when he's dead? Eve Batey is back to talk about Amazon's Free Meek, which takes on the story of Meek Mill, punitive probation, an activist judge with opinions on remixes, and how "police contact" and the art of rhymes feed each other. But is Free Meek as good at telling Mill's true-crime story as Mill himself is?
In the Cold Case section, we dig into the ReMastered doc on the still-unsolved murder of Jam Master Jay, and we don't just have questions about why a seemingly straightforward case still hasn't gotten cracked. We're also wondering why the show takes so long to get to the murder; why crackpot theories even the interviewees don't seem to credit get so much airtime; and what it's going to take to get a podcast about David Seabrook's failed Plan Bs. Grab Nicki Minaj and come to our office: it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 107.
Get even more true-crime content reviewed: support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) , and sign up for the newsletter, Best Evidence (http://bestevidence.fyi) !
SHOW NOTES Free Meek: https://www.amazon.com/Free-Meek-Official-Trailer/dp/B07QF4DXPH/ref=sr\_1\_1?keywords=free+meek&qid=1565117324&s=gateway&sr=8-1 (https://www.amazon.com/Free-Meek-Official-Trailer/dp/B07QF4DXPH/ref=sr%5C_1%5C_1?keywords=free+meek&qid=1565117324&s=gateway&sr=8-1) Paul Solataroff's coverage of this and other cases at Rolling Stone: https://www.rollingstone.com/author/paul-solotaroff/ ReMastered: Who Killed Jam Master Jay?: https://www.netflix.com/watch/80191044
Special Guest: Eve Batey.

107: Free Meek and ReMastered: Who Killed Jam Master Jay?

Sundance continues staking out space in the prestige-true-crime space with No One Saw A Thing, a six-parter on the killing of Ken Rex McElroy in Skidmore, MO in 1981 and what that's meant to the town since then...but although it's well made, Allison and I agreed that both-sides-ism and a certain cynical willingness to let correlation be causation undermined the series overall. Are you better off with MacLean's In Broad Daylight?
Another small town struggles with the legacy of an unsolved case in BBC Scotland's The Doorstep Murder, a podcast series from last year that surfaces the story of Alistair Wilson's mysterious 2004 murder. The Beeb pedigree, and presenter Fiona Walker's authoritative accent, lulled us for a while into thinking the podcast was good storytelling, but alas, this story too is undermined by self-indulgent tape and nothingburger interview questions we're beyond tired of. Two good stories, both marred by narrative choices, in The Blotter Presents, Episode 106.
Get even more true-crime content reviewed: support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) (join the tipster team or up your donation by August 1 and get a tote bag!), and sign up for the newsletter, Best Evidence (http://bestevidence.fyi) !
SHOW NOTES No One Saw A Thing: https://www.sundancetv.com/shows/no-one-saw-a-thing The Doorstep Murder: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/the\_doorstep\_murder\_alistair\_wilson (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/the%5C_doorstep%5C_murder%5C_alistair%5C_wilson) Allison Lowe Huff's author page at MHZ Choice: https://mhzchoiceblog.com/author/alhuff/page/1/ My review of In Broad Daylight at Best Evidence (free to all subscribers!): https://blotterpresents.substack.com/p/in-broad-daylight-leavenworth-kim
Special Guest: Allison Lowe Huff.

106: No One Saw A Thing and The Doorstep Murder

Toby Ball and I liked Uncovered: The McMartin Family Trials well enough, but we still wished Oxygen were less whodunnit and more whydunnit in its coverage of this most famous of Satanic-panic cases -- how it got so big and lasted so long. We'll never know what really happened...so why not spend more time on why THIS was allowed to happen?
The second season of Bundyville gives us just the Frontline-ian perspective we craved, but without underlining its own conclusions. After investigating the rebellion of Cliven Bundy in its first season, Bundyville expands its scope in S02 to look at anti-government groups, white-supremacist code, Pacific-Northwestern crime sprees, and how they all connect to a seemingly random suicide bombing in Nevada. How domestic terrorists become radicalized, the ethics of undercover work, and why we wish host Leah Sottile had worn some body armor on location, in The Blotter Presents Episode 105.
Get even more true-crime content reviewed: support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) (join the tipster team or up your donation by August 1 and get a tote bag!), and sign up for the newsletter, Best Evidence (http://bestevidence.fyi) !
SHOW NOTES Uncovered: The McMartin Family Trials on Oxygen: https://www.oxygen.com/uncovered-mcmartin-family-trials/watch-oxygen-new-special-uncovered-mcmartin-family-trials Lawrence Wright's "Remembering Satan, Part I" for The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1993/05/17/remembering-satan-part-i Bundyville: The Remnant companion piece(s) on Longreads: https://longreads.com/2019/07/15/bundyville-the-remnant-chapter-one-a-quiet-man/ A complete list of Frontline episodes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_Frontline\_(American\_TV\_program)\_episodes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%5C_of%5C_Frontline%5C_(American%5C_TV%5C_program)%5C_episodes)
Special Guest: Toby Ball.

105: Uncovered (The McMartin Family Trials) and Bundyville: The Remnant

...Why is Nancy Grace so successful? What is the point of her new Oxygen joint, Injustice With Nancy Grace, a show that complains about the very rushes to judgment in which she usually specializes? Does she make these grand banal pronunciamentos about pure evil at home, like after she walks through a spiderweb or something? Lani Diane Rich is back to help me tackle those questions.
Later, we preview Who Killed Garrett Phillips?, and while we may not get an answer to the titular question, we CAN tell you with authority that Liz Garbus's latest project is a well-structured, organized, suspenseful, and deeply compassionate look at a case's interminable toll on an entire community. This one doesn't air 'til next week, so you may want to put a pin in this podcast for now...and go set your DVRs, because while this one's maddening too, that's thanks to effective storytelling. Oh, and also idiot cops. Clichés, bad law-enforcement math, and much more in The Blotter Presents, Episode 104.
Get even more true-crime content reviewed: support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) , and sign up for the newsletter, Best Evidence (http://bestevidence.fyi) !
SHOW NOTES Injustice With Nancy Grace: https://www.oxygen.com/injustice-with-nancy-grace Who Killed Garrett Phillips?: https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/who-killed-garrett-phillips/about A Dangerous Son: https://amzn.to/2lKZ9YE (or try HBO Go) All of Lani Diane Rich's projects at Chipperish: https://chipperish.com/ And don't forget, we've got an actual tipline! 919-75-CRIME
Special Guest: Lani Diane Rich.

104: Injustice With Nancy Grace and Who Killed Garrett Phillips?

Erin Lee Carr has had a busy year, but I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth vs. Michelle Carter proves she's not too busy for nuance. The two-part documentary film, airing this week on HBO, looks at both sides of Conrad Roy III's tragic death, acknowledges the human instinct to find someone to blame, and takes us back to our own gusty teenage girlhoods. "Enjoyable" isn't the right word, but it's evocative for sure.
Paul Schrader's late-eighties look at Patty Hearst and the SLA is less so, but we're not sure if that's down to a certain failure of nerve on the script's part, or the fact that we've just consumed too much Hearst-iana at this late date for any biopic to move the ball. Good performances don't save what is, here in 2019, a superfluous narrative -- but WE might save you some time/room on your watch list in The Blotter Presents, Episode 103.
Get even more true-crime content reviewed: support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) , and sign up for the newsletter, Best Evidence (http://bestevidence.fyi) !
SHOW NOTES Ep 071 on Conrad & Michelle: https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/071 Jesse Barron for Esquire on the Carter/Roy case: https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a57125/michelle-carter-trial/ Smooth Talk: https://amzn.to/2XBdby3 Carr talks to Rolling Stone: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/michelle-carter-i-love-you-now-die-erin-lee-carr-interview-855417/ Ep 049 on Patty Hearst/The Lost Tapes: https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/56 Ep 064 on Patty Has A Gun: https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/73
Special Guest: Eve Batey.

103: I Love You, Now Die and Patty Hearst (1988)

Showtime's 16 Shots looks at the murder of Laquan McDonald in 2014, and why this police-involved shooting galvanized Chicago. Kevin and I talk about the excellent access filmmaker Richard Rowley gets on both sides of the issue; give suggestions for police procedural manuals; and wonder when the "a few bad apples" line of rationalizing will stop getting trotted out.
Another police-involved shooting, of a police officer, and the injustices that rolled downhill from it are the topic of Errol Morris's legendary The Thin Blue Line. Does it hold up, more than three decades after its release? Or does it mostly feel relevant because of the dozens of instances of misconduct and false confessions we've seen (and heard) laid bare in the meantime? The police, the public('s) trust, and the power of testimony in The Blotter Presents, Episode 102.
Get even more true-crime content reviewed: support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) , and sign up for the newsletter, Best Evidence (http://bestevidence.fyi) !
SHOW NOTES 16 Shots: https://www.sho.com/titles/3466069/16-shots Vic Mensa’s “16 Shots”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPWXOAYlgOc Bill James’s Popular Crime: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0043RSK9Y/ Local 5-0 confiscate discipline records at Summit, NJ schools: https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1984/02/22/05340018.h03.html The Thin Blue Line: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEb\_2mj1V8w (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEb%5C_2mj1V8w) Jill Lepore on Joe Gould and Joseph Mitchell: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/27/joe-goulds-teeth
Special Guest: Kevin Smokler.

102: 16 Shots and The Thin Blue Line

I'm so glad I could finally welcome Omar G to the TBP guest chair...and that it was to talk about David Lowery's The Old Man And The Gun, a charming joint about a senior bank robber and escape artist, Forrest Tucker, that flew totally under our radar last year. It shouldn't fly under yours, though; it's fun, smart about managing story, and elegantly shot, and an American legend is having the time of his life in his last go-round. And the movie's based on a New Yorker story by the great David Grann...
...as is the documentary we watched for the Cold Case section, Incendiary: The Willingham Case. This too got the scripted treatment, in a Laura Dern vehicle that's already left theaters after it premiered last month, but the doc had a lot of good things to say about the frailty of the forensic science we take for granted, the CYA maneuvering of state governments, and...a defense attorney's attention-whore rooster? Just listen, you'll see. Why Tom Waits should be in everything, why we shouldn't use space heaters for anything, and much more in The Blotter Presents, Episode 101.
Get even more true-crime content reviewed: support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) , and sign up for the newsletter, Best Evidence (http://bestevidence.fyi) ! SHOW NOTES The Old Man And The Gun: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-old-man-and-the-gun (Relevant Grann-ule: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/01/27/the-old-man-and-the-gun) Incendiary: The Willingham Case // on iTunes (or whatever it's called now), Vimeo, et al. (Relevant Grann-ule: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/09/07/trial-by-fire) Omar's Los Espookys piece on Primetimer: https://www.primetimer.com/features/hbos-los-espookys-is-a-weird-endearing-charmer
Special Guest: Omar Gallaga.

101: The Old Man & The Gun and Incendiary: The Willingham Case

Did we close the door on the centenary episode with a bang, or a whimper? ...Whimper, I'm afraid. Toby Ball kindly made room in a packed day to join me for two Cold Case properties, the first a feature film about the Paradise Lost case, Devil's Knot, that doesn't know who it's for, what it wants to say, or how to fit a Shoah-size story into a feature-size runtime. Also, who just has a picture of Robert Johnson in his office if he's not a blues musician?
We hoped the second film, All The Queen's Horses, would show better (as it were), but though the story of Rita Crundwell's serial heisting of more than $50 million from the town coffers of Dixon, IL is fascinating, the direction is amateurish...and while we can live with not really understanding the why of this case, a film by an accounting professor should probably be a little clearer on the what. Here's to the next hundred episodes; to spelling "embezzlement" correctly; and to you, dear listeners, in The Blotter Presents, Episode 100.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
SHOW NOTES Devil's Knot: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B00K7WTO58/ref=atv\_dl\_rdr (https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B00K7WTO58/ref=atv%5C_dl%5C_rdr) The Paradise Lost docs on HBO: https://www.netflix.com/watch/80221850 The legend of Robert Johnson: https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2008/11/johnson200811 All The Queen's Horses: https://www.netflix.com/watch/80221850 Blotter true-crime newsmag bingo card: http://www.the-blotter.com/the-official-blotter-true-crime-show-bingo-card/ Toby Ball’s novels: https://www.amazon.com/Toby-Ball/e/B003OHY2AU?ref=sr\_ntt\_srch\_lnk\_1&qid=1560254694&sr=8-1 (https://www.amazon.com/Toby-Ball/e/B003OHY2AU?ref=sr%5C_ntt%5C_srch%5C_lnk%5C_1&qid=1560254694&sr=8-1)
Special Guest: Toby Ball.

100: Devil's Knot and All The Queen's Horses

Ava DuVernay's four-part masterpiece, When They See Us, hit Netflix last weekend, introducing us to the boys and men who survived getting railroaded for the 1989 "Central Park jogger" attacks; to the outsize acting talents of Jharrel Jerome, Asante Blackk, and many others; and to what it's like to cry when you see Coney Island. Piper and I discussed all that, plus innovations in flashback writing, in the Most Wanted section, but our words won't do the series justice, so just go watch it.
But TAKE our words for it: Who Killed Nancy? is a frustrating waste of time, a semi-vanity project from a self-appointed Sid Vicious-ologist that we could tell WANTED to call itself Sid DIDN'T Kill Nancy Spungen, But If He Had, Nobody Would Have Minded. Is this just how the culture talked about "groupies" and "Yokos" until recently, or was Nancy a special case? And who else read Nancy's mother's memoir of her daughter's life and wants to recommend it to Piper? Good podcasts, sad Gerard Malanga stories, and more in The Blotter Presents, Episode 099.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
SHOW NOTES When They See Us (https://www.netflix.com/title/80200549) Sarah Weinman on Reyes’s other victims for The Cut (https://www.thecut.com/2019/06/the-attackers-other-victims-in-the-central-park-five-case.html) That time the Mystery Writers of America withdrew Linda Fairstein’s Grand Master award (https://www.latimes.com/books/la-et-jc-mwa-linda-fairstein-20181127-story.html) Who Killed Nancy? (https://www.hulu.com/movie/who-killed-nancy-5fe2dbdd-13a6-4256-bf8e-0f54171bd435) Deborah Spungen’s And I Don’t Want To Live This Life (https://books.google.com/books/about/And_I_Don_t_Want_to_Live_This_Life.html?id=BWpH6RQ1jT8C) Piper Weiss’s You All Grow Up And Leave Me (https://www.amazon.com/You-All-Grow-Leave-Obsession-ebook/dp/B0713W46F3)
Special Guest: Piper Weiss.

099: When They See Us and Who Killed Nancy?

Recording on Memorial Day, I went guestless to talk about two takes on the contested death of Rebecca Zahau: ID's Murder Mystery version, and a limited series from Oxygen called Death At The Mansion featuring Loni Coombs, Paul Holes, and Billy Jensen. Is either one worth your time? Does the nature of the case mean no TV show about it can maintain any momentum? And what is with the lingering shots of the courtroom death mannequin?
Later, I bail out my sinking DVR one teaspoon at a time by reviewing two American Experiences from Season 30, "The Bombing Of Wall Street" and "The Island Murder." One gives good context on post-World War I revolutionary "action," the tension between security and privacy, and the rise of J. Edgar Hoover. The other one is bizarrely flip about Thalia Massie's mental illness. Should you watch either? And will you feel for the narrators? Overlooked victims, colonial injustice, and a reading from Bill James in The Blotter Presents, Episode 098.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
Get more on Blotter Presents episodes, plus extra news and reviews, with the Best Evidence newsletter (http://bestevidence.fyi) !
SHOW NOTES Rebecca Zahau: An ID Murder Mystery (https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/tv-shows/rebecca-zahau-an-id-murder-mystery/full-episodes/rebecca-zahau-an-id-murder-mystery) Death At The Mansion: Rebecca Zahau (https://www.oxygen.com/death-at-the-mansion-rebecca-zahau) American Experience, "The Bombing Of Wall Street" (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/bombing-wall-street/#part01) American Experience, "The Island Murder" (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/island-murder/#part01) Popular Crime (https://www.amazon.com/Popular-Crime-Reflections-Celebration-Violence/dp/141655274X) by Bill James

098: Two on Rebecca Zahau and Two American Experiences

It’s taking all my strength to resist making a “throw another con on the barbie” joke, so why fight it: today Eve and I are talking about tragedy vampires on today’s episode, starting with the latest limited series from The Australian: Who The Hell Is Hamish?. How did Hamish Watson con so many people? Where did all that money go? And what makes Greg Bearup and The Australian's narrative construction so perfect for the story it's telling?
Later, we return to 2012, and 9/11, with Angelo Guglielmo’s documentary on 9/11-survivor faker Tania Head, The Woman Who Wasn’t There. It’s a trim 64 minutes that we both enjoyed...but what got left out? Guglielmo set out to make a film about Head’s primacy in the 9/11-survivor world; what changed? Does she have emotional Munchausen’s? And...where is she now? All that plus a newsletter launch, in The Blotter Presents, Episode 097.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) ! SHOW NOTES Who The Hell Is Hamish? (https://www.theaustralian.com.au/podcasts/podcast-who-the-hell-is-hamish/news-story/c95b519a9ececa6076df80bd130ba158) The Woman Who Wasn’t There (https://www.amazon.com/Woman-Who-Wasnt-There/dp/B00AHGXIE2) David Dunlap’s piece on Tania Head (https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/nyregion/27survivor.html) Best Evidence (http://bestevidence.fyi)
Special Guest: Eve Batey.

097: Who The Hell Is Hamish? and The Woman Who Wasn't There

Did Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile live up to the hype? ...Not quite. Jeb rejoined me to discuss Berlinger's scripted take on Ted Bundy, or more accurately Bundy's corrosive effect on one of his living victims, his longtime girlfriend Liz Kendall. Did the film do what it set out to, or was the dark gravitational pull of the killer himself too strong? Should Terrence Malick have taken a run at the material? And what's with those lazy music cues?
But Zac Efron's performance is pretty good...which is more than you can say for anyone's in the 1996 miniseries remake of In Cold Blood starring Anthony Edwards, Eric Roberts, and Kevin Tighe as Herb Clutter. It's slow, it seems table-read-y, the director -- veteran of several thrillers -- can't make it thrilling, and I for one found myself wishing I were watching something else...specifically, the Clutter-murders documentary Joe Berlinger made a while back. Good blocking, bad exposition, and new angles on old stories: it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 096.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
SHOW NOTES Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile (https://www.netflix.com/watch/81028570) on Netflix In Cold Blood (https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B00WO0VG8O/) (1996) TBP 032 (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/39) on Cold Blooded: The Clutter Family Murders TBP 082 (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/082) on The Ted Bundy Tapes Dave And Jeb Aren't Mean (http://daveandjebarentmean.libsyn.com/) Five Actors Whose Ted Bundy IMDb Credits (http://www.the-blotter.com/five-actors-whose-ted-bundy-imdb-credits-might-surprise-you/) Might Surprise You
Special Guest: Jeb Lund.

096: Extremely Wicked... and In Cold Blood (1996)

Stephanie Early Green was here to talk about Believed in Episode 077, and somehow made it through Erin Lee Carr's excellent but harrowing At The Heart Of Gold also...though we both wept at various points. The film comes to HBO May 3, but you can listen to our discussion about the importance of testimony, the miasma of guilt and responsibility around Nassar, and our admiration for Judge Aquilina right now.
And a podcast with a Cold Case section can't NOT talk about Wondery's very deep dive into the disappearance of Susan Cox Powell, Cold...so that's what we did, and while we both liked the podcast, it's got the occasional narrative issue...and Stephanie isn't sure how much further she can go with this bleak and possibly unsolvable mystery. It's not easy listening this week, but good storytelling isn't always fun, as we'll discuss in The Blotter Presents 095.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
SHOW NOTES At The Heart Of Gold (https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/at-the-heart-of-gold-inside-the-usa-gymnastics-scandal/about) on HBO Blotter 077 (http://www.the-blotter.com/the-blotter-presents-077-believed-and-30-for-30s-the-two-escobars/) on Believed Cold (https://wondery.com/shows/cold/) StephanieEarlyGreen.com (http://stephanieearlygreen.com/)
Special Guest: Stephanie Green.

095: At The Heart Of Gold and Cold

The name is a little glib, but A&E's Kids Behind Bars: Life Or Parole looks at the Supreme Court decision that forced the resentencing of juveniles given life without parole as teenagers, and Piper is back to look at the eight-episode series: the incarcerated "former kids" it chooses to focus on, the way each story is built, the perspectives of law enforcement and victims' families, and the conversation we need to keep having about the role of racial bias in sentencing practices.
Later, we looked at a better-than-average (but still kind of bad) A Crime To Remember that focused on the murder of Roseann Quinn, whose death heavily inspired Looking For Mr. Goodbar, both book and film. Half-decent re-enactments and A-plus talking-head interviewees (including the late Michelle McNamara) meant I enjoyed it, but Piper wasn't crazy about it -- and was it trying to have it both ways in terms of commenting on the sexism and victim-blaming of the time? Plus, who's going to play us in the docuseries of this podcast, Joe Berlinger's twisted knickers, and more in The Blotter Presents, Episode 094.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
SHOW NOTES Kids Behind Bars: Life Or Parole (https://www.aetv.com/shows/kids-behind-bars) on A&E's page A Crime To Remember S03.E02 (https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/tv-shows/a-crime-to-remember/full-episodes/last-night-stand) , "Last Night Stand" Looking For Mr. Goodbar (https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=leSs3hG9W5c) Judith Rossner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Rossner) on Wikipedia Emily Yoshida on post-film real-life slideshows (https://www.vulture.com/2019/04/post-film-real-life-photo-slideshows-will-be-the-death-of-me.html) for Vulture Piper Weiss's You All Grow Up And Leave Me, now out in paperback (https://www.amazon.com/You-All-Grow-Leave-Obsession/dp/006245658X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=)
Special Guest: Piper Weiss.

094: Kids Behind Bars and A Crime To Remember (the Looking For Mr. Goodbar case)

Director and Columbine High School graduate Laura Farber made a very personal look at living with the 1999 massacre, featuring a handful of her classmates, and Toby is back to talk about the emotional terrain it covers, how it chose its subjects, and the ways survivors live with trauma.
In the Cold Case section, my attempt to impose a Colorado theme backfired somewhat with a Most Notorious episode from last year on the kidnapping of Coors heir Adolph "Ad" Coors III, and we tried to diagnose what it was about this story and this interview-podcast style that didn't quite match up for a good listen. I'll fire myself for this "Rocky Mountain low" pun, but in the meantime, open a cold one and enjoy The Blotter Presents, Episode 093.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) ! SHOW NOTES We Are Columbine (https://wearecolumbinefilm.com/) Toby on Episode 072 (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/072) about The Sentence Most Notorious's 4/27/18 episode (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1960-colorado-murder-adolph-coors-iii-w-philip-jett/id1055044256?i=1000410065327) with Philip Jett An excerpt from Jett's book (https://longreads.com/2017/09/26/the-death-of-an-heir-adolph-coors-iii-and-the-murder-that-rocked-an-american-brewing-dynasty/) on the Adolph Coors III kidnapping, Death Of An Heir Crime Writers On (http://www.crimewriterson.com/) ...
Special Guest: Toby Ball.

093: We Are Columbine and Most Notorious on Adolph Coors III

Netflix's eight-part review of the Madeleine McCann case, The Disappearance Of Madeleine McCann, is journalistically rigorous -- but is it rigorous to a fault? Eve returns to look at the series, its organizing principles, its indictment of tabloid media's role in the case, and how we think the case would "play" if Madeleine disappeared today.
The bleak possible outcomes continue in the Cold Case section; we're looking at Who Took Johnny, a 2014 documentary about the 1982 disappearance of Johnny Gosch in West Des Moines, IA. It's a watchable film that at the same time isn't good, but provides an interesting contrast with TDOMM in what it chooses to highlight, and whom it chooses not to question. Fake news, Etan Patz, and many other debates in The Blotter Presents, Episode 092.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
SHOW NOTES The Disappearance Of Madeleine McCann (https://www.netflix.com/title/80194956) McCann parents' statement (http://findmadeleine.com/updates/index.html) on not participating in the series A This Morning interview (https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a26834369/madeleine-mccann-netflix-documentary-kate-gerry-mccann-this-morning-conspiracy-theories/) with the McCanns' spokesperson elaborating on the same subject Who Took Johnny (https://www.amazon.com/Who-Took-Johnny-Noreen-Gosch/dp/B01DEC7760) Interesting analysis on Who Took Johnny (https://medium.com/@blakekhunt/who-took-johnny-the-temptation-of-conspiracy-and-the-power-of-denial-f9f319de334b) by amateur online sleuth (?) Blake Hunt Avenues Dry Goods (https://www.instagram.com/avenuesdrygoods/) on Instagram
Special Guest: Eve Batey.

092: The Disappearance Of Madeleine McCann and Who Took Johnny

You may not remember much about the Alex Rodriguez/Biogenesis flap from a few years back; you may not care about it now. But Billy Corben's weird, withering Screwball is the best kind of documentary: the kind that works even for people who don't think they care about the topic. Mike Dunn returns to the podcast to discuss the bizarre, yet perfect, re-enactments by Little Leaguers, the snarky sound design, and which bedtime stories we'd read to Manny Ramirez.
Later, we head back to 2010 for a first-season 30 For 30 on Allen Iverson, whose trial forced the town of Hampton, VA to reckon with some uncomfortable truths. Filmmaker Steve James tries to reckon with them in the film himself, and while the episode is a good one and does what the series has always done best, we wondered if it would be made the same way today. 'Tis the season for baseball, college basketball...and The Blotter Presents, Episode 091.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
SHOW NOTES Screwball (http://www.rakontur.com/screwball) Billy Corben's "The U" (http://www.espn.com/30for30/film?page=the-u) for 30 For 30 30 For 30's "No Crossover: The Trial Of Allen Iverson (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrag_0AnQWA) Ned Zeman's "Southern Discomfort" (https://www.si.com/vault/1993/10/25/129658/southern-discomfort-a-virginia-town-has-split-along-racial-lines-over-a-stiff-jail-sentence-meted-out-to-high-school-basketball-star-allen-iverson) for SI
Special Guest: Mike Dunn.

091: Screwball and 30 For 30: No Crossover: The Trial Of Allen Iverson

Is Hulu trying to make its own American Crime Story with anthology true-crime series The Act? Maybe; Tara Ariano and I agree they're off to a good start with the eight-part Gypsy Blanchard limited series co-created by Michelle Dean. Good production design, good performances, and a good sense of the claustrophobia in Gypsy and DeeDee's relationship make for a compelling look at a case full of cons.
History Detectives isn't as successful; I thought recent Austin transplant Tara might enjoy an investigation into one of the city's more gruesome chapters, but the show's ponderously didactic tour of the servant girl murders of 1884-5 didn't work for the true-crime buff OR the civilian on the panel. But sidle on up to kiosk anyway, and slide The Blotter Presents, Episode 090 right into your tote bag.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
SHOW NOTES The Act on Hulu (https://www.hulu.com/watch/7ca28e65-63a5-4a84-8164-aa62c4bd289b) History Detectives S11.E03 (https://www.thirteen.org/programs/history-detectives/history-detectives-hdsi-texas-servant-girl-murders/) on Channel 13 Skip Hollandworth's Texas Monthly piece (https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/capital-murder/) on the "servant girl murders" Tara Ariano on Twitter (https://twitter.com/taraariano) The Again With This (https://www.againwiththis90210.com/) and Extra Hot Great (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/extra-hot-great/id682755715?mt=2) podcasts
Special Guest: Tara Ariano.

090: The Act and History Detectives

A flawed but compelling investigation into the disappearance of Adea Shabani.

Brief 42: To Live And Die In L.A.

A new documentary revisits the Steubenville rape case. What is it trying to say?

Brief 41: Roll Red Roll

It's yet another take on the rise and fall of Theranos and its founder, Elizabeth Holmes, so of course I had to invite Stephanie Early Green back to talk about The Inventor. Neither of us can ever resist variations on this story...but does the Alex Gibney documentary make too many allowances for Holmes's initial good intentions? Should it have been a limited series instead of a two-hour film? And how does Holmes even manage to WALK contrivedly?
Later, we look at a miniseries from Investigation Discovery on the Oakland County (MI) child abductions. It's a wild series of interconnected cases that took place where Stephanie grew up...but it's got a bunch of extra (in several senses) elements that took away from the story. Bothersome theremins, obvious questions, and mysterious motivations abound in The Blotter Presents, Episode 089.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
SHOW NOTES The Inventor (https://play.hbogo.com/feature/urn:hbo:feature:GXGWJ8wyZ-K2uAwEAAAAK) The Guardian's interview with Alex Gibney (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/17/americans-have-a-fascination-with-fraudsters-alex-gibney-on-the-fall-of-theranos-and-elizabeth-holmes?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other) Children Of The Snow (https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/crimefeed/id-shows/oakland-child-killer-children-of-the-snow) The Blotter Presents 070 on Bad Blood (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/070) Brief 31 on The Drop-Out (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/brief-31-dropout)
Special Guest: Stephanie Green.

089: The Inventor and Children Of The Snow

ITV's popular three-parter brings its bracing lack of contrived melodrama to Acorn.

Brief 40: Manhunt

Another look at the case Serial made super-famous, plus a podcast about a predator guru Adnan Syed's case is back in the headlines (if we can say it's ever really left, post-Serial), and back in the true-crime-review discussion with HBO's four-part series The Case Against Adnan Syed. Eve Batey joins me to talk about the Amy Berg-directed docuseries, which, while it's well made, seemed to have a number of loose ends and missed opportunities. And it really isn't about the case against Adnan...but should it be? It isn't the case for Serial and Reddit sleuths, either...but should it be that, too/instead?
Later, we go back to the middle of last year for ESPN's podcast "season" on Bikram Yoga's eponymous founder, who's apparently also a huckster, an intellectual-property thief, and a serial rapist. What is it about certain kinds of "belief communities" that allows a predator to flourish? Why is this story arc so disturbingly familiar? And can we add "co-founding the man bun" to our list of grievances against Bikram? All these questions and more in the latest The Blotter Presents.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
SHOW NOTES The Case Against Adnan Syed (https://www.hbo.com/the-case-against-adnan-syed/part-1) on HBO 30 For 30 Bikram (https://30for30podcasts.com/bikram/) Avenues Dry Goods (https://www.avenuesdrygoods.com/)
Special Guest: Eve Batey.

088: The Case Against Adnan Syed and 30 For 30 Bikram

Leaving Neverland is the HBO doc everyone's talking about, and Piper Weiss is back to discuss it. We had our problems with it (the length, the score) but we had things we admired about it too (the room it left Robson and Safechuck to feel however they needed to about Michael Jackson, even to miss him), even as we wished someone would make MJ: Made In America and take on the larger cultural phenomenon that was the King Of Pop. Later, I interview Skye Borgman about the doc everyone was talking about EARLIER in the year, Abducted In Plain Sight, from how she found the story to how she managed the re-enactments to what other true-crime documentaries were her touchstones. It's a difficult but worthwhile what-the-hell-were-the-parents-thinking duo of properties in The Blotter Presents, Episode 087.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
SHOW NOTES Leaving Neverland (https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/leaving-neverland) on HBO LN director Dan Reed talks to Slate (https://slate.com/culture/2019/03/leaving-neverland-michael-jackson-dan-reed-interview.html) about the film Abducted In Plain Sight (https://www.netflix.com/title/81000864) on Netflix Skye Borgman talks to Vanity Fair (https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/02/abducted-in-plain-sight-netflix-jan-broberg) I talk about AIPS (http://www.the-blotter.com/blotter-brief-36-abducted-in-plain-sight/) Piper Weiss on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/thepiperweiss)
Special Guest: Piper Weiss.

087: Leaving Neverland and the Skye Borgman Interview

Sundance's four-part series on Tony and Susan Alamo's Christian-cult empire is solid and familiar...but is it TOO familiar?

Brief 39: Ministry Of Evil

Thirteen incarcerated men at Pendleton Correctional Facility collaborate with each other and director Madeleine Sackler on the stories of...well, their stories.

Brief 38: It's A Hard Truth Ain't It

The controversial Oscar-nominated short raises questions about an entire genre.

Brief 37: Detainment

Kevin Smokler returns to discuss Joseph Wambaugh's canonical account(s) of the murder of Ian Campbell On the Rushmore of true-crime classics, there's one face Kevin and I hadn't contemplated yet: Joseph Wambaugh's The Onion Field, which narrates the fateful kidnapping of LAPD officers Ian Campbell and Karl Hettinger, the murder of Campbell, and the precursors and aftermaths of that night in the onion field in 1963. It's a quick read whose influences you can see in Ellroy, Mailer and others, but may have suffered from being written while various court cases were still in process...and from not including a notorious police department's history as context.
Later in the podcast, we talk about the 1979 film version of the book starring Jon Savage, Ted Danson, Franklyn Seales, James Woods, and a parade of Hey, It's That Guy!s. Wambaugh wrote the screenplay, and the things that make the book a standout don't always translate...but sometimes they're improved by excellent acting. Should you read the book first, or see the movie? Do you need to consume both? And does the ghost of Capote hover over everything that came after? Come for the discussion, stay for the DVD giveaway on The Blotter Presents, Episode 086.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
SHOW NOTES The Onion Field movie at Rotten Tomatoes (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_onion_field) Chuck Klosterman's Q&A with Bill James (http://grantland.com/features/bill-james-crime/) on Popular Crime at Grantland Joe Domanick's Amazon page (https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AJoe+Domanick&s=relevancerank&text=Joe+Domanick&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1) , featuring To Protect And Serve, Blue, and others John Buntin's L.A. Noir (https://www.johnbuntin.com/author.html) Kevin Smokler on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/weegee)
Special Guest: Kevin Smokler.

086: The Onion Field

The 2017 docu took Netflix by storm. Does it deliver on its promise, or should it push harder?

Brief 36: Abducted In Plain Sight

The story of Dan Markel's power-couple marriage, hideous divorce, and death is another Pringles-for-the-ear outing from Wondery.

Brief 35: Over My Dead Body

Amazon Prime's Jordan Peele-produced Lorena drops Friday, February 15, and Piper Weiss is back to talk about what we missed in the Lorena Bobbitt story the first time around; why the focus seemed to be on the violence done to John Wayne Bobbitt's penis and not to his wife, by him; who crime stories should "belong to"; and the enduring repellence of the word "panties."
Next, it's an early HBO doc on the murder of Scott Amedure, and other (cultural) crimes for which the daytime-talk-show craze may be responsible. Were Jerry Springer et al. like the WWE? Was Amedure's family right to blame Jenny Jones for their loved one's demise? And what classist aspects of these "entertainments" let us stare, while distancing ourselves? The nineties still have much to teach us on The Blotter Presents, Episode 085.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
SHOW NOTES Lorena (https://www.amazon.com/Lorena-Season-1/dp/B07MDLGQTJ) Talked To Death (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPwvKfx4Dhg) Episode 082 (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/082) on The Ted Bundy Tapes PiperWeiss.com (http://www.piperweiss.com)
Special Guest: Piper Weiss.

085: Lorena And Talked To Death: The Dark Side Of TV Talk Shows

The Netflix series interrogates the circumstances surrounding the demise of the soul singer and activist.

Brief 34: ReMastered: The Two Killings Of Sam Cooke

Mark Blankenship returns to discuss TWO eminently English scandals from the middle of the last century. Mark brought Amazon's three-part take on the Jeremy Thorpe "business," A Very English Scandal, up for discussion, and we contemplated -- as Toby and I did last week -- how outlawing human behavior turns a whole bunch of humans into criminals, and creates more problems than it solves. We also wondered what English class-division issues we might have missed as Yanks, talked about the gorgeously subtle performances in the series, and giggled at the nicknames of the posh set ("Boofy"!).
Later, we talked about a documentary show from 1989 that covered not just the Profumo affair but the 1989 film about it, Scandal, that created a couple scandals of its own. What exactly was the crime there? Because we have a feeling it's more how people talked about Christine Keeler than any kind of felonious infidelity or Cold-War honey-trapping. It's a veddy veddy veddy good day to play croquet in four-inch pumps on The Blotter Presents, Episode 084.
SHOW NOTES A Very English Scandal (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D3DWWG7/?ref=dvm_us_dl_sl_go_ast_AVES_19GG_AMe2%7Cc_317515788889_m_U15JRQ10-dc_s__&gclid=Cj0KCQiAheXiBRD-ARIsAODSpWNvLOLR_i1keNiJv2jdjUBBntjTd4JcyM26zNg6fmnFduVDeXKIX40aAmUHEALw_wcB) The Scandal Story (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU3fEQ5khUs) My convo with Al Lowe on Criminal Justice (which became The Night Of) at Previously.TV (http://previously.tv/criminal-justice/revolting-prison-tea-for-two/) Mark And Sarah Talk About Songs (http://mastas.fireside.fm) Mark on Twitter (http://twitter.com/iamblankenship)
Special Guest: Mark Blankenship.

084: A Very English Scandal And The Scandal Story

The Atlanta Monster team takes on the Zodiac, with mixed results.

Brief 33: Monster: The Zodiac Killer

Toby Ball returns to discuss the clashes between two sets of sixties ideals and one implacable system, capitalism, in the latest podcast. We led off with Netflix's six-part series on the changing times in Humboldt County, CA, Murder Mountain, and its heady blend (so to speak) of true crime and subcultural documentation. How does it stack up with Josh Zeman's other projects? Did it need another couple of episodes to follow the fates of "trimmigrants"? And should the series have arranged a certain poignant meeting?
Later, we contemplated 2003 Oscar-nominated The Weather Underground and the simultaneously corny and resonant message of the Weathermen here in 2019, plus the utility of bombing, well, utilities, and why the film seemed to avert its eyes from the group's biggest mistakes. Not sure "bombs, joints, and naked carpentry" is quite as catchy as "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll," but grab your toolbelts and a lighter and let's find out in The Blotter Presents, Episode 83.
SHOW NOTES Murder Mountain (https://www.netflix.com/title/80217475) Crime Writers On's Murder Mountain ep (http://www.crimewriterson.com/listen/murdermountain) The Blotter Presents's Prohibition ep (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/67) My interview with Josh Zeman and Rachel Mills (http://previously.tv/the-killing-season/the-killing-seasons-joshua-zeman-and-rachel-mills-on-how-a-community-creates-monsters/) on The Killing Season on Previously.TV The Weather Underground (https://vimeo.com/33006390) (also available on Amazon Prime)
Special Guest: Toby Ball.

083: Murder Mountain And The Weather Underground

Another day, another take on the Black Dahlia that tries to do too much and loses me early on.

Brief 32: I Am The Night

For those of us who wished Bad Blood would never end, it's a new podcast from ABC Radio.

Brief 31: The Drop Out: The Rise And Fall Of Elizabeth Holmes's Theranos

Sometimes I feel like I should retitle this podcast The Joe Berlinger Review Hour, because he's back on Netflix with Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, and first-time guest Piper Weiss joins me to discuss the male gaze of the miniseries; Carol DaRonch's bitchin' Camaro; and the things about Bundy that it's not possible for us to understand.
Later, we dug into the death of John Belushi -- specifically, Cathy Evelyn Smith, the woman who allegedly gave him the speedball that killed him, and whether she did time for administering those drugs because someone had to do time for something. Would Belushi have died the same way anyway? Is there any groupie who isn't, in some sense a victim? And can Erin Lee Carr please tell Smith's story? So many questions, so many muddled '70s non-answers in an all-new The Blotter Presents.
SHOW NOTES Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (https://www.netflix.com/title/80226612) on Netflix The Stranger Beside Me and other Ann Rule essentials (http://www.the-blotter.com/golden-ann-rule-essentials-from-the-godmother-of-true-crime/) You think Zac Efron playing Bundy is nuts? Dig THIS (http://www.the-blotter.com/five-actors-whose-ted-bundy-imdb-credits-might-surprise-you/) The 20/20 interview (https://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/john-belushi-mystery-woman-catherine-evelyn-smith-15835623) with Cathy Smith Rolling Stone's piece (https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/john-belushi-wrong-time-wrong-place-wrong-people-62730/) on Belushi and Smith Wired (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHRaZdFOVvs) on YouTube PiperWeiss.com (http://www.piperweiss.com/book)
Special Guest: Piper Weiss.

082: The Ted Bundy Tapes And Cathy Evelyn Smith

Oxygen's new series, on hundreds of possibly connected possible drowning deaths, sounds crazy...but it just might work. (My kookballoons idea for a "let happy-hour bar patrons try to crack unsolved cases" podcast, not s'much.)

Brief 30: Smiley Face Killers

David Feige's 2016 documentary interrogates sex-offender registry statutes, but may not have questioned its own edit closely enough.

Brief 29: Untouchable

First-time guest Alex Segura joints me to talk about The Skies Belong To Us, a page-turner that made a bunch of 2013's best-of lists -- and with good reason, as each of us only needed a day to finish it. But it did leave us wanting more of some subjects, and not necessarily in a pleasing way.
Later, we go back even further in time with a New Yorker piece from 2000 on the crimes and disappearance of Frank Koehler, one that satisfies two competing readerly desires: to see someone walk away from a "perfect" crime; and to see justice done.
SHOW NOTES The The Skies Belong To Us website (https://theskiesbelongtous.com/the-story/) , which might do in a pinch if you didn't read the book (yet; spoiler: you should, it's good!) "A Cold Case" (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2000/02/14/a-cold-case) in The New Yorker Where my click-slide into mid-century boxing lingo (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ham-and-egger) began Rosenzweig's bookstore, Book 'Em (https://www.whereorg.com/book-em-14493426) , is still there; get the car! And bring one of Alex's books (http://www.alexsegura.com/) for the road
Special Guest: Alex Segura.

081: The Skies Belong To Us And The New Yorker's "A Cold Case"

Revenge Of Return Of Even More Dirty John Meehan, tonight on Oxygen.

Brief 28: Dirty John, The Dirty Truth

Mark Blankenship on Lifetime's wrenching, but imperfect, Surviving R. Kelly: the power of the first four episodes, and the weirdness of the last two; the "tradition" of fetishizing teenage girls in rock music; the voices we heard for the first time, and the ones we still haven't heard; and whose time is up next.
Then we move on to a vintage Behind The Music that's both very typical of VH1's legendary pop-gossip video mag, and delightfully off-brand, as it follows narrator Jim Forbes out of the audio bay, on camera, and into prison for a profoundly impatient interview with the murderer of Selena Quintanilla-Perez. Terrible brothers, awful fan-club presidents, and much more in the latest episode of The Blotter Presents.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
SHOW NOTES Surviving R. Kelly (https://www.mylifetime.com/shows/surviving-r-kelly) Anjelica Jade Bastién's SRK review on Vulture (https://www.vulture.com/2019/01/surviving-r-kelly-review.html?_ga=2.138287160.985729568.1546965682-1658321032.1512831634) MASTAS Episode 11 (from inside a tin can, apparently; sorry) on Chic and R. Kelly (https://mastas.fireside.fm/11) The Selena Behind The Music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXfckQuQ8Wo)
Special Guest: Mark Blankenship.

080: Surviving R. Kelly and Behind The Music

A&E's undercover show heads to Arizona, and raises the stakes. Is it worth revisiting?

Brief 27: 60 Days In, Season 5

Two moms, six adopted kids, one terrible crash...and a somewhat amateurish podcast that's still compelling.

Brief 26: Broken Harts

The Intercept's investigation of a wrongful conviction in Georgia is a sadly familiar story -- in more ways than one.

Brief 25: Murderville

Will ID's event series on a notorious 1989 Ohio abduction hold your attention?

Brief 24: The Lake Erie Murders

Three reads, three listens, and five watches that made my best-of list for the last year.
SHOW NOTES Bad Blood, Episode 70 (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/070) Jessica Pressler on Anna Delvey, The Summer Of Scam (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/70) Kathleen Hale, "Living With Slenderman" (https://hazlitt.net/longreads/living-slenderman) Last Seen, Brief 1 (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/brief-1-last-seen) Slow Burn, Episode 64 (http://URL%20https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/73) Dr. Death, Episode 74 (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/074) Making A Murderer Part 2, Episode 73 (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/073) American Vandal S2, Episode 69 (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/069) The Sentence, Episode 72 (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/072) Rest In Power, Episode 66 (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/75) American Crime Story S2 recaps at Previously.TV (http://previously.tv/shows/american-crime-story/)

Blotter's 11: The Best Of 2018 True Crime

Listener Scott J. tasked me with a line-up of noteworthy Unsolved Mysteries segments; I ranked all five, from ghostly hecklers to NKOTB video mysteries and everything in between.
SHOW NOTES Season 1 Episode 22 (https://www.amazon.com/Episode-1/dp/B01NBWXMY5/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1545397439&sr=8-1&keywords=unsolved+mysteries) Season 1 Episode 24 (https://www.amazon.com/Episode-1/dp/B01NBWXMY5/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1545397439&sr=8-1&keywords=unsolved+mysteries) Season 4 Episode 1 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B06Y4GGVGY/ref=atv_dp_season_select_atf) GoSanAngelo.com (https://www.gosanangelo.com/story/news/local/2018/03/26/san-angelo-cold-case-sally-mcnelly-remembered-birthday/460569002/) on the McNelly/Stewart case Season 5 Episode 32 (https://www.amazon.com/Episode-1/dp/B071JN91BK/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1545397439&sr=8-5&keywords=unsolved+mysteries) Season 8 Episode 12 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B074SXGWCR/ref=atv_dp_season_select_atf)

Brief 23: Magical Unsolved Mysteries Tour

Marion "Suge" Knight Jr. gives director Antoine Fuqua a compelling oral history...of himself.

Brief 22: American Dream/American Knightmare

Al returns to TBP to talk about Netflix's latest holiday-season bingeable, The Innocent Man, and how very much not...OK (sorry) the state of law enforcement is in Ada, Oklahoma. It's based in part on John Grisham's book about one of the two murder cases centered around false confessions; Al thinks it's one of the best she's seen of this type. *I* think that's in no small part thanks to one "Aint Peppy."
Later, the great Bryan Burrough does a lot to rescue the not-great inaugural ep of the Misfortune podcast, which tries a little too hard to be the all-dude, white-collar version of My Favorite Murder, and not quite hard enough to squelch its Buzz-and-Dave-in-the-morning tendencies. It's hard to mess up a brown-blimp-crash story, though.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
SHOW NOTES The Innocent Man (https://www.netflix.com/watch/80187132) Misfortune, "The Lou Pearlman Story" (https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/unpopular-opinion-4/misfortune-a-financial-crimes-podcast/e/53446079) Bryan Burrough, "Mad About The Boys" (https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2007/11/pearlman200711) Allison Lowe Huff on MHZ Choice's blog (https://mhzchoiceblog.com/author/alhuff/)
Special Guest: Allison Lowe Huff.

079: The Innocent Man And Misfortune, "The Lou Pearlman Story"

...No, not "that boat show." A new documentary about photographer Andy Sweet grieves his loss, and celebrates his reflections on/of Miami.

Brief 21: The Last Resort

Is The Australian's look at the long-cold Lyn Dawson case the Serial of the antipodes?

Brief 20: The Teacher's Pet

Jeb Lund is back to put the third season of Leah Remini's eponymous confrontation of Scientology "on the cans," and we don't mean to be entheta about it, but why not change the format to include some expert analysis from psychologists, debriefers, or forensic auditors? Why isn't Mike Rinder using his counter-PI-terrorism skills to find Shelly Miscavige? Why is dental floss apparently suppressive? And why doesn't Remini ever drive?
Folded into that conversation is a "celebration rundown" of Lawrence Wright's outstanding very-long-form "The Apostate" from 2011; it's the New Yorker article that became Going Clear, and it's a triumph of information-gathering, context, and chilly shade. Along the way, Jeb and I discuss Bobby Knight, Sauron, the road to German fascism, GOP county executives, spotted dick, and Iyanla. Obviously.
SHOW NOTES Leah Remini: Scientology And The Aftermath (https://www.aetv.com/shows/leah-remini-scientology-and-the-aftermath) "The Apostate" (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/02/14/the-apostate-lawrence-wright) Dave and Jeb Aren't Mean (http://daveandjebarentmean.libsyn.com/) Ian Kershaw (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Kershaw#The_Nazi_Dictatorship:_Problems_and_Perspectives_of_Interpretation)
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
Special Guest: Jeb Lund.

078: Leah Remini: Scientology And The Aftermath And "The Apostate"

Was there a crime committed in Kasem's 2014 death? Which one? And by whom?
"The Long, Strange Purgatory Of Casey Kasem" (https://www.gq.com/story/last-days-of-casey-kasem)
"The Worst Kasem Scenario" (http://previously.tv/law-and-order-svu/the-worst-kasem-scenario/)

Brief 19: 48 Hours, "The Mysterious Death Of Casey Kasem"

Kate Davis and David Heilbroner's latest for HBO is a poetically harsh investigation of Sandra Bland's death in 2015.

Brief 18: Say Her Name: The Life And Death Of Sandra Bland

Stephanie Early Green probably regrets suggesting Believed as a Most Wanted topic, but nicely saw the idea through as she sat down to discuss Michigan Public Radio's difficult but significant new podcast on the predations of Larry Nassar -- what he did, how he got away with it, and how survivors finally brought him down.
Later, we thought a vintage 30 For 30 on soccer might lighten the mood...but given how much Pablo Escobar loved the sport, and the lengths he was willing to go to to prevail in ANY situation, the story we discovered in 2010's "The Two Escobars" didn't exactly qualify as a pick-me-up. Turn-of-the-'90s South American hairstyles did, though. The topics are grim, but the storytelling is good in The Blotter Presents, Episode 77.
SHOW NOTES Believed (https://believed.michiganradio.org/) 30 For 30, "The Two Escobars" (http://www.espn.com/30for30/film?page=the-two-escobars) StephanieEarlyGreen.com (http://stephanieearlygreen.com/)
Special Guest: Stephanie Green.

077: Believed And 30 For 30's "The Two Escobars"

The Wing's new podcast about "women who were too bad for your textbooks."
[NB: I biffed the location of the Riverside Terrace Mausoleum; it's in HAMILTON Heights, not Morningside Heights. Mgmt regrets etc.]

Brief 17: No Man's Land

[NB: The sound's tinny this week; I'm so sorry.]
Bravo has turned the L.A. Times series, then podcast Dirty John into an all-star-cast TV series, and book glutton/attorney Julian Gross is here to discuss it. Did it need to become a TV series? Is Eric Bana the right casting as the titular John? Will we stick with it despite 1) some pacing issues and 2) knowing the outcome, which may affect 1) for us? And could someone please nominate Veronica for president?
Later, it's a look at the How Stuff Works podcast Stuff You Missed In History Class and their explainer on Cassie Chadwick, who claimed she was an illegitimate Carnegie daughter, rooked banks out of millions...and yet kind of sucked at her job? Teenage Spanish-prisoner cons, sexism in Philadelphian crime reporting, and more on The Blotter Presents, Episode 76.
SHOW NOTES Dirty John in the L.A. Times (https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-dirty-john/) and as a podcast (https://wondery.com/shows/dirty-john/) Stuff You Missed In History Class's Cassie Chadwickisode (https://www.missedinhistory.com/podcasts/imposter-cassie-chadwick.htm) The list of confidence tricks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_confidence_tricks) I wish were a book Michael Crichton's The Great Train Robbery (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Train_Robbery_(novel))
Special Guest: Julian Gross.

076: Dirty John And Stuff You Missed In History Class

A seemingly reluctant true-crime figure wades into the podcasting fray with a companion podcast to Sundance's Jonestown docuseries.

Brief 16: The Truth About True Crime With Amanda Knox

Reply All takes a Mystery-Show-ish journey into the dark Russian-online-shopping-hacker heart of...Woodbridge?

Brief 15: Reply All Episode 99, "Black Hole, NJ"

The fortieth anniversary of the mass murder in Jonestown, Guyana is next week, and Sundance's Jonestown: Terror In The Jungle miniseries looks back; Toby Ball joins me once again to talk about when Jim Jones's sincere dreams of utopia curdled, which Jonestown property is the least difficult to get through, and what we hope became of that Willie kid. Later, with both the MAGA bomber and Robert Mueller in the headlines recently, we're also looking back at another series of attacks by mail -- and another Mueller investigation -- with Frontline's "The Anthrax Files."
SHOW NOTES Jonestown: Terror In The Jungle (https://www.sundancetv.com/shows/jonestown-terror-in-the-jungle) American Experience, "The Life And Death Of Peoples Temple" (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/jonestown/) TBP's all-Jonestown Ep 013 (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/13) The New Yorker, "Orphans Of Jonestown" (http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1993-11-22#folio=CV1) Frontline, "The Anthrax Files" (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/anthrax-files/)
Special Guest: Toby Ball.

075: Jonestown: Terror In The Jungle And Frontline's Amerithrax Episode

Parcast's latest takes a three-part look at Pablo Acosta Villarreal and the pre-cartel Mexican drug trade.

Brief 14: Kingpins

An Emmy-nominated look at a prep-school predator and the wide swath of his crimes, from a first-time documentarian.

Brief 13: What Haunts Us

Stephanie Early Green joined me for Ep 009 on Mommy Dead And Dearest, so it felt only right that she sit with me again for Gypsy's Revenge, a follow-up on the Gypsy Rose/Dee Dee Blanchard case from ID that, to our surprise, was pretty good and not superfluous. (Our conversation about Gypsy's father's sexy audiobook voice? Deeehhhfinitely superfluous.)
But before that, we dug into the eminently bingeable, utterly horrifying Dr. Death, Wondery's six-part look at the reign of surgical terror of Christopher Duntsch. What makes the pod so captivating -- Laura Beil's narration? nifty, understated details like Stella the dog? our own struggles with back pain? We talked about all that, plus what exactly Duntsch's problem is, willing accomplices, doing operations from YouTube instructional videos, and much more in Episode 074.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
SHOW NOTES Dr. Death (https://wondery.com/shows/dr-death/) Gypsy's Revenge (https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/tv-shows/gypsys-revenge/) Stephanie Early Green's blog (http://stephanieearlygreen.com) Our discussion of Mommy Dead And Dearest on TBP 009 (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/9) The upcoming Dr. Death TV show (https://deadline.com/2018/10/dr-death-podcast-in-works-tv-universal-cable-productions-patrick-macmanus-1202475224/) Get $5 off your first order at Poshmark (https://poshmark.com/) with code "blotter5"
Special Guest: Stephanie Green.

074: Dr. Death And Gypsy's Revenge

Oxygen's latest special event is infuriating, baffling...and not boring for a second.

Brief 12: The Disappearance Of Phoenix Coldon

Crimetown moves from Providence to Detroit; I try to put my finger on something in the age of Peak Podcast.

Brief 11: Crimetown's Second Season

Oscar-winner Charles Ferguson takes on the fall of the Nixon White House for the History Channel. Set your DVRs; it's good!

Brief 10: History's 3-Part Watergate Doc

In her first podcast, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow digs into the very dirty forgotten history of Nixon VP Spiro Agnew.

Brief 9: Bag Man

Smithsonian Channel's archival overview of Clinton's high crimes and misdemeanors is solid, but perhaps superfluous.

Brief 8: The Lost Tapes: Clinton Impeachment

The Charlotte Observer's look at the 1999 hit on Cherica Adams by her child's father, Rae Carruth, makes an NFL-crime-podcast trifecta. Should you listen?

Brief 7: Carruth

Netflix's You Can't Make This Up podcast on MAM Pt. 2 doesn't quite work.

Brief 6: Taberski, Rudolf, And Judge On Making A Murderer

Is MAM still the same marathon-able, frustrating, compelling show in Part 2 as it was in 2015? Should Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi have tried harder to make the second season less "one-sided" as to Steven Avery's guilt -- or not at all? Does the second act suffer from a dearth of Strang and Buting, or of suspense as to Avery and Brendan Dassey's fates? And where does Kathleen Zellner keep all those stylish jackets?
Speaking of disgraces, the less said about 2006's Skinemax-y take on Karla Homolka, Karla, the better, except that you're better off watching Ellen Pompeo's ripped-from-the-headlines SVU on the case...or Misha Collins's apology for even being IN it. Brady violations and Lecter imitations: it's an all-new The Blotter Presents.
SHOW NOTES Making A Murderer Part 2 on Netflix (https://www.netflix.com/watch/80115431?trackId=250326339&tctx=0%2C0%2C4ae5a703-2995-424e-a350-35430672e107-110601329%2C34b9168b-50d6-4bef-8b2d-8c4ad54a70e2_8345250X19XX1540329994449%2C34b9168b-50d6-4bef-8b2d-8c4ad54a70e2_ROOT) (https://www.netflix.com/watch/80115431?trackId=250326339&tctx=0%2C0%2C4ae5a703-2995-424e-a350-35430672e107-110601329%2C34b9168b-50d6-4bef-8b2d-8c4ad54a70e2_8345250X19XX1540329994449%2C34b9168b-50d6-4bef-8b2d-8c4ad54a70e2_ROOT) * (https://www.netflix.com/watch/80115431?trackId=250326339&tctx=0%2C0%2C4ae5a703-2995-424e-a350-35430672e107-110601329%2C34b9168b-50d6-4bef-8b2d-8c4ad54a70e2_8345250X19XX1540329994449%2C34b9168b-50d6-4bef-8b2d-8c4ad54a70e2_ROOT) USA Today (https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2018/10/21/making-murderer-part-2-spoilers-evidence-steven-avery-brendan-dassey-teresa-hallbach/1694216002/) lists key revelations from Part 2 Misha Collins on regretting making Karla (https://spnhunters.com/2017/12/21/tbt-karla-the-movie-misha-collins-found-most-disturbing/) Some of the information Bernardo's parole hearing kept secret (https://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/8978808-transparency-lacking-in-paul-bernardo-s-parole-hearing-would-boost-public-confidence/) (warning: involves unsavory descriptions of his behavior during a "relationship" with a woman while he was in prison) Ellen Pompeo's Law & Order (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0629269/) (which was an SVU crossover, so I wasn't wrong?)
Special Guest: Eve Batey.

073: Making A Murderer And Karla

From a July POV episode, one woman's emotional battle with her decision to give a man the death penalty.

Brief 5: POV, "Lindy Lou, Juror No. 2"

Sports Illustrated wades into the NFL-adjacent crime-pod fray with Tim Rohan's investigation of a 2009 murder-suicide.

Blotter Brief 4: Steve McNair: Fall Of A Titan

The CBC cold-case podcast returns for a fifth (!) season, this one on the murder of Manitoba teenager Kerrie Ann Brown.

Blotter Brief 3: Someone Knows Something, Season 5

Toby Ball on Rudy Valdez's personal and affecting The Sentence, and a 19-year-old This American Life that in many ways could have been recorded last week -- plus parallels to the current season of Serial, how many crappy congressfolk keep haunting stories of the war on drugs, and how the tiniest of possession charges can, if you'll forgive the pun, snowball. The personal is political in The Blotter Presents Episode 72.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
SHOW NOTES The Sentence (https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/the-sentence) on HBO VF's review (https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/10/the-sentence-hbo-review) of The Sentence This American Life 143: Sentencing (https://www.thisamericanlife.org/143/transcript) Episode 024 on Strong Island (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/24) The New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain) 's 2017 profile of the Sacklers'/Purdue's role in the opioid crisis Frontline, (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/snitch/) "Snitch"
Special Guest: Toby Ball.

072: The Sentence And This American Life

The Boston Globe's spotlight team turns its attention to the crimes of -- and the crimes that made -- Aaron Hernandez (https://apps.bostonglobe.com/spotlight/gladiator/) .

Blotter Brief 2: Gladiator: Aaron Hernandez And Football Inc.

Introducing Blotter Briefs (tee hee, "briefs"): capsule reviews of all the stuff I don't get to on the main podcast. Today's topic is art-heist pod Last Seen (http://www.wbur.org/lastseen) from WBUR and the Boston Globe.

Blotter Brief 1: Last Seen

Eve Batey joins me to take on a Lifetime true-story two-fer. We tackled two recent Lifetime films, the first about the notorious and crassly named "texting suicide" case, and the second a 34-year-old kidnapping whose escaped victim helped police catch a serial killer...once someone finally believed her story. Is either movie worth 90 minutes of your time? Is Bella Thorne almost TOO good as Michelle Carter? What's with the Veronica Mars mini-reunion in C&M? And why isn't Believe Me on the IMDb?
We discuss whether it's possible to hew too faithfully to source materials, how glad we are texting didn't exist back in the seventeenth century when we were adolescents, and whether the portrayal of Bobby Joe Long put us in mind of Jack Bauer. Don't order a tuna sand at a donut shop; listen to The Blotter Presents Episode 071 instead.
Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) !
SHOW NOTES Conrad & Michelle: If Words Could Kill (https://www.mylifetime.com/movies/conrad-and-michelle-if-words-could-kill/full-movie) People (https://people.com/crime/michelle-carter-and-conrad-roy-text-messages-trial-begins/) on the trial of Michelle Carter Believe Me: The Abduction Of Lisa McVey (https://www.mylifetime.com/movies/believe-me-the-lisa-mcvey-story) Eve's (https://inside.com/media) newsletters (https://inside.com/sf)
Special Guest: Eve Batey.

071: Lifetime Movies Conrad & Michelle: If Words Could Kill And Believe Me: The Lisa McVey Story

You probably haven't heard anything about this, but: Serial is back for Season 3. Stephanie Green is also back to discuss the first two episodes; the heralded podcast's less appealing qualities; and versions of S3's stories This American Life may have done better in the Most Wanted section.
As our Cold Case, we're looking at the rise and rise and fall of Theranos via John Carreyrou's outstanding bestseller, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. What's with Elizabeth Holmes's odd, affected voice? Which other con artists (Trump) and cults (Scientology) did the Theranos story remind us of? And can Carreyrou hurry up and write some more books? From the "mistake by the lake" to the city by the Bay, it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 70.
SHOW NOTES Serial (http://serialpodcast.com) 15 Gothic Street (http://www.joemcginniss.net/15-gothic-street) Bad Blood (https://amzn.to/2DwsKgZ) on Amazon Elizabeth Holmes on Mad Money (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGfaJZAdfNE) StephanieEarlyGreen.com (http://stephanieearlygreen.com/)

070: Serial's Third Season And Bad Blood

American Vandal Season...Number Two (tee hee) dropped (its brown friends by the lake, tee hee) last Friday, and Jeb Lund joins me for an...exposition dump? Tee hee. We're discussion the show's compassion for its characters, what it says about other crimes sand crime properties, and whether we liked S1 better.
Later, we'll talk about the Doodler murders, and why it's remained mostly overlooked as a major case. Should a Ryan Murphy or a Nick Broomfield take it on? And if not, why not? Put down that lemonade and give a listen to The Blotter Presents, Episode 69.
SHOW NOTES
American Vandal (https://www.netflix.com/title/80117545) on Netflix
Myles McNutt (https://twitter.com/Memles/status/1041168138014908416) on 13 Reasons Why and AV
Elon Green on the Doodler case (https://longform.org/posts/the-untold-story-of-the-doodler-murders) for The Awl
Murder Road Trip (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-road-trip/id1265659221?mt=2) Episode 27
This American Life (https://www.thisamericanlife.org/199/house-on-loon-lake) , "The House On Loon Lake"

069: American Vandal And The Doodler Murders

Toby Ball FINALLY returns to his dedicated spot on the Blotter HQ sofa to talk about the latest limited series from Joe Berlinger for Oxygen, Unspeakable Crime: The Killing Of Jessica Chambers. It's better than we expected, but we're still waiting for it to address certain issues teased in the opener -- inconsistent racism; the classism we're not sure we're supposed to note, or object to; the Heisenberging of the case by the internet -- and wondering whether the occasional meta moment is intentional. With bonus references to at least a dozen other crime properties both accoladed and annoying!
Later, we talk about Kennedy-assassination conspiracy journey The RFK Tapes, and what it says about the human drive to bring order out of chaos by seeing conspiracies in what might be straight-ahead murders. Toby adds to Sarah's history-book reading list, Sarah can't unknow Bugliosi sounds like a Simpsons character, and more as we discuss whether this well-regarded podcast is about Robert Kennedy's death, or about the listener.
(Corrections department! I mispronounced RFK host Zac Stuart-Pontier's last name at least once, and I apologize; pretty sure it's actually "Pon-tee-ay." As well, I guessed the wrong Kennedy as director of HBO docu Ethel; it's Rory, not Kerry.)
SHOW NOTES
Unspeakable Crime (https://www.oxygen.com/unspeakable-crime-the-killing-of-jessica-chambers/crime-time/preview-unspeakable-crime-the-killing-of-jessica-chambers) : The Killing Of Jessica Chambers
Katie J.M. Baker's "Troll Detective" (https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/who-set-jessica-chambers-on-fire-the-internet-is-trying-to-f) on Buzzfeed
The RFK Tapes (http://rfktapes.com/)
Dallas, 1963 (https://www.amazon.com/Dallas-1963-Bill-Minutaglio/dp/1455522090)
American Journey (https://www.amazon.com/American-Journey-Times-Robert-Kennedy/dp/0151910707/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1536693769&sr=1-5&keywords=plimpton+stein) : The Times Of Robert Kennedy
Prior discussions of Joe Berlinger's work: Ep 017 (Gone (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/17) ); Ep 032 (Cold Blooded (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/39) ); and Ep 058 (Wrong Man (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/65) )
Ethel (http://www.ethelmovie.com/)
Crime Writers On (http://www.crimewriterson.com/) and Ball's Deep Dive (https://www.patreon.com/partnersincrimemedia)