The Blotter Presents The Blotter Presents

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Nope, that's not a typo: Best Evidence publisher Eve Batey joins me to talk about a movie that's still in "theaters," Most Wanted. Featuring Josh Hartnett's foxy 'stache and a breakout ugly performance from Jim Gaffigan, Most Wanted interrogates the role of budgetary concerns in law-enforcement corruption and/or incompetence...and we interrogate the crusading-reporter subgenre and whether it's true to life.

We do it twice, as a matter of fact, as our Cold Case topic is While The City Sleeps, a movie that references the William Heirens case but is actually about whether media's attempts to "make" a story is itself the story...or criminal. The 1956 thriller stars Vincent Price, Drew Barrymore's dad, and a realistically sodden Dana Stevens in a tale about a callow press scion using a string of murders to pit his top men (...uch) against each other for a plum job. We recommend it, and not just because it kiiiind of makes John Douglas look like an ass for claiming nobody knew how to profile properly before 1974, so hike your pants up to your pits and have a listen to The Blotter Presents, Episode 155.

SHOW NOTES



Where to watch Most Wanted

The Most Wanted/Target Number One Wikipedia page
Reply All's Compstat episode

Stephen McHattie's Zodiac credit

Kill The Messenger

While The City Sleeps on Amazon

My Ripped From The Headlines review

Eater NY on Marchi's (and the Eater's Digest podcast)
Wikipedia's William Heirens page

[CW: The episode reviews series that discuss sexual assault, harm to children, and suicide. Please listen with care.]

Omar Gallaga returns to discuss two very grim and infuriating properties, starting with Lifetime's Surviving Jeffrey Epstein, which centers the survivors of Epstein's monstrousness while also indicting a society that let him manipulate it with shocking impunity. It's a good docuseries that's also a difficult sit, and the rare discussion of the case of late that had the capacity to tell us something new.

The Con also told us something new, about a different kind of predatory behavior -- the outright frauds that led to the financial crisis of 2008. It's a straightforward narrative without a lot of production bells and whistles, but it's also a very careful accounting (so to speak) of all the different bad actors in the world of mortgage fraud, from inexperienced brokers to rapacious CEOs to the Wall Street traders who created the demand. The podcast may not be fast, but you'll be furious by the end of The Blotter Presents, Episode 154.

SHOW NOTES





Surviving Jeffrey Epstein
My Primetimer review of Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich

Where to watch The Con

Guardian review of The Con 

Omar at LEVEL and Terribly Happy

Check out Native deodorant and Hello Fresh!
Best Evidence

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

Listen to the full episode: http://wondery.fm/ETR_BlotterPresents

Two guests, no waiting this week, as ...These Are Their Stories co-host Kevin Flynn joins me to talk about Ann Rule's Sleeping With Danger, starring Elisabeth "Serena Southerlyn" Röhm and Leslie "ME Rodgers" Hendrix. It's a thumbs-sideways from both of us on the movie, which is not quite good, but not all that bad, and has some anachronism issues and PSA pacing that undercut surprisingly decent acting. Grab a Smoothie Of Doom to fortify yourself for...

...the second Most Wanted topic, Amazon's The Last Narc, a series Jessica Liese and I meant to talk about months ago, before Amazon yanked it unceremoniously. The case of what really happened to murdered DEA agent Kiki Camarena premiered last week, with nearly as little fanfare, and while we're still not clear on why it got disappeared, it's a compelling and confidently shot four-parter featuring clear explainers and flavorful anecdotes. But that doesn't mean we wouldn't have changed anything...or that we weren't happy to hear Robert Stack in a voice-over. Brace yourself for more government malfeasance: it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 153.

SHOW NOTES




Ann Rule's Sleeping With Danger

The Mets' starting catcher in 1978
The These Are Their Stories podcast
WATCH Crime Writers On…


The Last Narc on Amazon Prime

"Midnight In The Garden Of East Texas," by Skip Hollandsworth
Hector Berrellez alleges the CIA got the series taken off

Collider's interview with director Tiller Russell
Jessica at Rob Has A Website 
Check out Feals

Best Evidence

Is this the widest gulf in quality between the two shows under discussion in Blotter history? Maybe! But Netflix's new three-part series on the "Commission Case" that brought down the New York Mob is disciplined, compelling, and reminds me and guest Jeb Lund that Rudy Giuliani didn't always completely suck at everything...and that barbers really have a challenging job sometimes.

The Perfect Murder, meanwhile, is also compelling, but risibly acted, weirdly production-designed, and hilarious in a way that brings to mind a certain [ploop!]. It's so memorably bizarre that at least it "honors" Gavin Smith by stamping his case indelibly into our memories, but we really shouldn't be giggling at a true-crime story. Wear a crop top to the cop shop for The Blotter Presents, Episode 152.

SHOW NOTES






Fear City: New York vs. The Mafia 

Brian Tallerico's review at RogerEbert.com

The NatGeo series whose junket found SDB sitting next to Michael Franzese

The Perfect Murder S05.E09, "Jump Shot" 

"The Ploop Incident"
The Quaid In Full podcast
Jeb Lund on Twitter