The Blotter Presents

[Sarah D. Bunting]

We watched the third episode the other night. Doesn't work as well narratively as the first two, in our opinion. And it's a bit distressing to hear a show we thought was actually pretty well done by a network apparently trying to rise above its trashy-ish reputation was the result of shadiness.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

Just reread the piece even though I had read it before. Murtagh 2020. 

 

And it's definitely not better than the original, but it's also not trying to remake it, which is smart. It's just that, as I said, I don't know who it's trying to be for.

[KlavdiaVavilova]

Have you read Errol Morris's pro-Macdonald book? 

The mother's "Ok byeeee!" after her son's sincere request for help in that clip literally made me laugh out loud.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

IKR?! "Well, clearly you're not robbing frats, so: take care!" Jesus.

I own Morris's book but haven't been able to bring myself to read it because I know it's going to make me very angry.

[Primetimer]

Crime Writers On's Kevin Flynn on a surprisingly good documentary, and an unintentionally amusing Canadian crime show.

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[toodles]

I read Fatal Vision (for the first time) when it was first released.  This case has fascinated me since then.  For anyone who wants to really go down the rabbit hole, this is a great website.  It includes actual court documents.  

http://www.thejeffreymacdonaldcase.com/

I also read Final Vision.  I was disappointed by the ID movie.  It seems like all the true crime movies/mini-series' (the Mendendez Brothers series in particular) lately seem so one sided.  The Final Vision movie only spent about 10 minutes talking about the actual murders and left out so many important details.  I'm a big fan of the original Fatal Vision mini-series so I guess I'm hard to please.

I enjoyed the Blotter Presents podcasts very much though.  I listened to both the Fatal Vision and Final Vision.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

Thanks! And I'm with you. Gary Cole is so perfectly cast, it's hard to see why anyone would bother with another version, even if it's technically a different take.

[KlavdiaVavilova]

I watched the first episode of this ("Occult Killers") before I realised you were talking about this ep and as well as all the other foibles you covered it had a very strange extreme whiplash in point of view between "evil kids! they are driven to murder by Slayer and bad 80s Julian Sand movies! they loooove the devil!" and "well, really there are no occult murders, they are rebellious teens who latch on to the symbols for shock value." Whaaaaat, pick a side, show.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

^ Loved that one but I think it's from 2015, technically.

[Primetimer]

The top ten movies AND series in the genre for the year, with an assist from the listeners!

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[panthergirl13]

Sarah! "Hammock week"?? C'mon... I horrify my kids by calling in Taint Week! 

[Sarah D. Bunting]

Here's the full list in case you weren't in a position to take notes while listening :)

Here you go!

 

SERIESESES

1 The Keepers / Netflix

2 Cold Blooded / Sundance

3 Time: The Kalief Browder Story / Netflix

4 American Vandal / Netflix

5 Mindhunter / Netflix

6 Village Of The Damned / Investigation Discovery

7 Confession Tapes / Netflix

8 Live PD / A&E

9 Gone: The Forgotten Women Of Ohio / Spike

10 Guilty Rich / ID

 

MOVIES

1 Mommy Dead And Dearest / HBO

2 Tower / PBS

3-4 LA 92 and Burn Motherfucker Burn / NatGeo; Showtime

5 Disgraced / Showtime

6 The Family I Had / ID

7 Beware The Slenderman / HBO

8 Strong Island / Netflix

9 Biggie: The Life Of The Notorious BIG / A&E

10 Casting JonBenét / Netflix

[Primetimer]

Dan Patrick Brady and I point out a few issues with two New Year's Day offerings from Investigation Discovery.

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[EAG46]

Um, there's no link to the podcast.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

Weird. It's showing up fine in my podcast feed, so until we get it fixed you should use that.

 

ETA: Fixed now! Our apologies.

[EAG46]

Um, there's no link to the podcast.

Good episode!

[joan selby]

I am from the county in which this was tried, and I can tell you it was a lot more complicated and nuanced than it was portrayed . I noticed that they talked to both prosecutors, but none of the defense attorneys--she had several. this summer, when they were getting ready to try her for the third time, they reached a plea deal. I think she pled to manslaughter, and I do not think she was going to have to do much time.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

Correct: http://www.dispatch.com/news/20170317/mckernan-could-serve-3-12-years-under-plea-deal

[helent]

[Sarah D. Bunting]

HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAA totally.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

Hey guys. Chad Boushell, the Rob McKernan re-enactor from Bride Killa, is doing a little interview with me early next week. Any questions for him about what it's like to play a dead body, how he's directed in re-enactments, or anything else of that nature? You can post them here or hit me on email, sarah at previously dot tv.

[rwgrab]

Loved the episode, thanks for dissecting those shows for us! 

I don't think I'll be seeking out that Bride Killa show anytime soon, but if you're looking for the flipside of the Colleen McKernan story there was a recent episode of 48 Hours called The Evidence Room.  It was told 98% from the point of view of the defense and their attempts to explain to the jury the sequence of the shots fired.  I wound up walking away from that thinking there wasn't enough evidence to convict her, but my opinion was that she was the aggressor.  The autopsy showed that Rob didn't have any cocaine in his system by the time he was killed; just that he was definitely hammered.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

Quote

there wasn't enough evidence to convict her, but my opinion was that she was the aggressor.

DPB and I just watched this last night, and agree completely. I think it's shady that Bride Killa didn't mention the restraining orders against Rob and cast him as a completely henpecked and dominated victim, but at the same time, something about her tears in court felt performative and insincere to me. So I'm not sure I could have voted guilty either -- and certainly that Evidence Room shite wouldn't have swayed me either way. That Scott dude acts like it's the be-all of what happened, when he's using (fugazi, not for nothing) CGI to recreate whatever his client wants the jury to see as the scenario.

 

And there's nothing wrong with that if the judge allows it and it conforms to the rules of evidence, but his calling it "the truth" repeatedly was disingenuous at best. G'head and make your money and work for whomever, but let's not act like it's an objective truth you're uncovering. 

[EAG46]

PLEASE tell me you'll be watching the Jodi Arias story on ID.  It starts Sunday January 14 for 3 nights and looks to be right up your wheelhouse.  Warning: the site will auto-play a clip.  https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/tv-shows/jodi-arias-an-american-murder-mystery/    

[Sarah D. Bunting]

"Up my wheelhouse"? I AM A LADY!!

 

(I'm not. Not sure if I'm watching Jodi/whether we're covering it for the pod, though I'm personally fascinated by the case...)

[Primetimer]

Oxygen's new investigation series questions one mom's conviction; AB Chao and Sarah D. Bunting question another mom's diagnosis.

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[maxineofarc]

I like your migraine theory. Migraines can make even the most stable people act irrationally just to try to make it go away, and if Schuler had additional issues with substance abuse or something similar, that could easily have layered with a migraine.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

Totally. I don't think the migraine theory excludes her having some substance-abuse issues that she kept successfully hidden; the fact that that giant handle of vodka was even in the car is hard to explain away. But the two factors could have perfect-stormed together that day.

[veronicamers]

I don't think I've ever been more haunted by a story than Diane Schuler. Maybe it is because I had a newborn back in the summer of 2009 and was in the throes of new mom emotions, but the story and the documentary are embedded in my psyche.

Here is an interview with Liz Garbus, the director of the doc, in which she articulates some of the complicated thoughts I have about Diane and what demons lay unexorcised in her inner life.

https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/theres-something-wrong-with-aunt-diane/interview-with-liz-garbus 

[Sarah D. Bunting]

"I think though that nobody is equal to their single worst action." Good line.

[EAG46]

I meant no insult by the wheelhouse remark.   The case is fascinating, I admit, because I don't know if she's Guilty But Insane [which American courts should really adopt] or just plain Guilty.    As for questions for Mr. Boushell:  How long does he have to stop breathing to play dead, and is it weird interacting with the actor who's going to kill him ten minutes later?   [Or who just killed him ten minutes ago?]

[Sarah D. Bunting]

Still not sure we're going to cover it, just because there's a cluster of new stuff to choose from...is anyone still caring about Wormwood at this point?

[txhorns79]

I'll note that I'm fully in agreement that if you do not want children with your spouse, you should not have children with your spouse.   Having said that, I try to give Daniel Schuler some leeway in what he said about his kids, only because he's been through a terrible trauma and seems to not be coping well.  Maybe I need 100 cigarettes now.       

[TimeyWimey52]

I listened to the podcast last night and I re-watched most of the documentary. I think the migraine theory is sound. Especially since people at the McDonald's where they stopped said she didn't seem drunk, but then again she may simply have had a very high tolerance. If she did ask for Tylenol at the gas station and couldn't get any, did she then chug a giant bottle of vodka? Wouldn't that have been pretty obvious to the kids (the older niece did make a call but didn't say anything about her drinking). I just keep thinking that if I was in a lot of pain and my brother told me to stay put, that he was coming to help me, that I would have stayed put because I would not want to drive if I was so miserable. I would want to curl up by the side of the road and wait for help. I just don't understand the thought process that urged her to keep going. I guess that was the alcohol taking hold. But both alcohol and marijuana are depressants so you'd think that between all that it would have made her just want to stop and sleep or something. 

 

The husband is in so much denial though. Ugh. I hope things have gotten somewhat better for Bryan since this happened. 

[FozzyBear]

I have been haunted by this documentary too, which is strange because I wasn’t all that haunted by the case. I remember hearing about it and thinking it was awful, but it didn’t grab me immediately. This doc highlights what an obtuse person Diane was and to an extent what an obtuse life and marriage she built. I think the thing that haunts us is that she seems so unknowable and so does everyone in her life. This seems to be a family that barely knew who they were, forget about articulating it to anyone else. They lived in denial like a religion. It’s so unsettling, like you can’t quite trust anyone involved.

I hope the migraine theory is correct. I don’t suffer from them so maybe that’s why it never occurred to me. My gut after watching was that it was a suicide/Murder of the Family annihilator variety. But I want that to be wrong. I want to believe this was a series of unfortunate, but somewhat understandable mistakes that created an unthinkable tragedy. I know nothing to disprove that and would rather go down that rabbit hole.

[Primetimer]

Tara Ariano and Sarah D. Bunting on the unknowable Andrew Cunanan...and Chad Boushell on trying not to blink.

View the full article

[Stowaway]

I honestly thought that was Enrico Colantoni playing Versace up until about a week ago.

It's strange to hear you two refer to the case as something you barely remember. I met Cunanan a couple of times, about 8-10 months before he started killing people. We had mutual friends, several of whom were sources for Orth's article/book. Not that I have any special insight into him or the murders; I actually had to be sat down and forced to understand that the person on the news was someone I'd seen at parties. I'm not sure if I'll be able to stomach watching the show, but I feel that way going into every Ryan Murphy project, not just the ones I feel a weird personal connection to.

[sinkwriter]

Every time I see a commercial for this mini-series, I think it's Enrico Colantoni playing the role. So it's probably going to be a brief adjustment to watch this and remind myself that it's actually someone else.

[slitz]

Wow, I totally thought it was Enrico Colantoni playing Versace. Kinda disappointed now that I know it's not. Still want to watch this though.

[roadrunner05]

Any thoughts on Ryan Murphy's use of the word "assassination" in the show's title instead of the word "murder?" I thought the word "assassination" is typically reserved for the killing of political or revolutionary leaders. I just found the use of that word peculiar and somewhat off-putting.

[roadrunner05]

I read on a separate facebook page (back in December-2017) a theory about Diane displaying behavior consistent with carbon monoxide poisoning (exposure either from the campsite propane tank or from her own vehicle).  This would include the severe headache, impaired vision, dizziness, confusion, and irrational behavior.

There were issues with Ford Explorers in recent years where police officers were getting carbon monoxide poisoning from exhaust being recirculated back into the vehicle from the dashboard. Diane drove a 2003 Ford Windstar, in which that particular year, make, and model has one of the highest consumer complaints of all versions of the Windstar.  I can't source any CO poisoning complaints for the Windstar, but the person who was sharing this information supposedly found some consumer complaints for the 2003 Ford Windstar which included CO coming into the vehicle. 

[Earmuffs Mom]

The resemblance to Enrico Colantoni is uncanny and I can’t unsee it know.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

@roadrunner05 I'm okay with it. I think there's likely a twofold comment in it: the first on the rising position of celebrity qua celebrity in our collective esteem, which would equate all famous figures, rightly or wrongly, as "leaders"; and the second on the continuing struggle even today, but certainly in 1997, to have murders in the LGBTQ community taken seriously and worked for real, and not as...well, they had a term for this which I can't make myself type, so let's go with "them killing each other," but the idea's the same. In other words, to balance out the lack of urgency LE often felt/showed for cases involving the queer community with a grandeur of titling. If that makes sense. 

 

Or it's just a clickbait move. 

[Sarah D. Bunting]

Interesting idea; not sure I buy it given the kids apparently weren't affected -- and would have been sooner/more severely given their smaller body mass, no? I'm not a doctor.

[MCMLXXVII]

I remember closely following this case at the time as a Versace “fan” and but never really think of it except for when Shyne’s Andrew Cunanan lyric comes up in “Bad Boys”. I think there was some speculation of Cunanan being a disgruntled sex worker used and tossed aside by wealthy gay men, kind of  like the high budget male Aileen Wuornos?

Edited January 19, 2018 by MCMLXXVII

[Stowaway]

Wuornos and Cunanan were both gay and both sex workers, but I'm not sure I buy many similarities beyond that. Her childhood was the very worst of what America has to offer its white citizens; he grew up in relative affluence, and had the privilege of dropping out of a good college. (Not that his childhood was easy -- he seems to have inherited his Cluster B personality from his father.) Orth is caught between explaining the murders as a sociopathic extension of his sexual interest in S/M, and a narcissistic drive to be famous at any cost, for any reason.

As for the title, it's an improvement on Vulgar Favors, which sounds like the middle book in a series about sexy southern vampires.

[txhorns79]

Quote

Any thoughts on Ryan Murphy's use of the word "assassination" in the show's title instead of the word "murder?" I thought the word "assassination" is typically reserved for the killing of political or revolutionary leaders. I just found the use of that word peculiar and somewhat off-putting.

I think it's a little overdramatic in its use here.  I think Sarah's idea about how they want us to think as Versace as a leader has merit, and may be what they are going for in this instance.  Having said that, I don't really think of Versace like that, or think that the title works.  I understand how the story was big at the time, but I don't know if the case is really of lasting importance.  Though maybe I just wish they had done Toobin's book on Patty Hearst.  That seems like it has all the crazy campy drama that Ryan Murphy salivates over, and it could be role #4893 for Sarah Paulson to play.   

[Sarah D. Bunting]

@txhorns79 that one's in my to-read stack and I remember thinking the same thing about it...but then also thinking, well, then it's Toobin Crime Story since they used a book of his for the OJ season.

[Stowaway]

Would watch Toobin Crime Story.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

Same. And, having just discovered his first book was about the Oliver North case, double same.