2012 Flashback: The Girl Who Became Three Boys
Plus: The Delphi murders and a true crime plea
the true crime that's worth your time
Welcome to day two of Margaret Howie’s 2012 Flashback Week! The beloved Best Evidence contributor is looking back at true crime properties from ten years ago, with an item running every day this week. Today is The Girl Who Became Three Boys, a British doc sure to enrage your conservative uncle based on the title alone…and when this catfishing tale gets to Mark Zuckerberg, that’s just one more square on the Angry Olds BINGO card, isn’t it?
We encourage you to chime in with your own recommendations from that year, from books to movies to podcasts (yes, we had podcasts back then) to cases that have stuck with you all this time. — EB
The crime
Six years after the launch of Facebook, two British teenagers discovered that the boyfriends they’d met via social media weren’t “Luke, Conor, and Aaron,” but were all inventions of a mutual friend of theirs, a girl called Gemma Barker. Barker was arrested for fraud and sexual assault, while the story became a UK tabloid sensation that went viral after Barker’s conviction.
The story
One of the opening lines of this made for TV documentary is, “Gemma Barker is an absolute master of disguise and deceit,” which is true in the same way that “Adam Levine is really good at sexting” is, i.e. not true at all. What The Girl Who Became Three Boys shows, in a mostly inept way, is how the combination of technology and adolescence can create tragedies. It’s also evidence that teens should probably not be allowed to go on camera and testify as to how they were bamboozled by the simplest of brazen con jobs.
When the best thing you can say about a documentary is that it’s not as transphobic or homophobic as you feared, alarm bells should start to ring. The Girl Who… is at best a reminder that teenage brains are imperfectly formed, delicate, hormone-afflicted, and full of unspeakable things; it’s also a relic of the days when catfishing was a neologism. [Catfish, the movie, came out in 2010, the series in late 2012. Those were the days! — EB]
“If Mark Zuckerberg didn’t invent Facebook, then none of this would have ever happened,” announces Jessica, one of Gemma’s two victims, “so he’s to blame.” This may be one of the few times Zuck is off the hook — Gemma’s use of Facebook to deceive wasn’t very complex, and it was augmented by her analogue lying.
The two victims were 15 and 16, and it’s worth keeping that in mind, because Barker’s con job was terrible. She disguised her face by keeping her hoodie up and hat on, would often only communicate via text message — even in person — and told lies so flimsy they wouldn’t pass muster on a Very Special Episode of Degrassi. This was not master of disguise stuff, this was desperation and cockiness, and probably some other brokenness that the documentary is in no way equipped to handle.
Instead, the voice over crows, “Despite the girls being left out in the cold… in the bedroom, things were getting hotter”, and if you’re not already experiencing a full-body cringe, then there’s the heartbreak of “Alice” (a pseudonym) and Jessica discussing their fraught first sexual encounters with what they thought were their boyfriends.
The documentary doesn’t provide Jessica or “Alice” with a lot of grace, treating them more as silly girls than victims of emotional and sexual abuse. The use of the blocky animations popularized by viral Taiwanese “news” studios from the early 2010s helps lower the taste level down to the tabloid level the title hints at. One of the talking heads is a gleeful journo from shlock standard bearers The Sun. The stakes here are low, it’s hinted at, because these are only teenagers, and not very posh ones at that.
That’s unfair, especially now that we have a decade’s worth of evidence of how destructive catfishing can be. That there are hundreds of thousands of views of this doc in various forms online suggests that this story is a key part of early 2010s internet lore.
Perhaps the new Manti Te’o documentary will be part of a rise in more empathetic stories about “love fraud” cases and help bring a little more dignity to victims of internet notoriety. It’s definitely a better watch than this grimy bit of business, although this does feature a real gem in Jessica’s gran Mary, a talking head MVP who doles out advice on prospective boyfriends staying over: “I had just one rule: keep your hand on your ha’penny, and he keeps his pecker in his pants.”
The Girl Who Became Three Boys is streaming on FreeVee (via Amazon) — Margaret Howie
If you like that throwback review, here’s your chance to “order” another one. My eyes are still stinging from Sarah’s bracing review of Keeper Of The Ashes: The Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders, which paid subscribers got in their inboxes just yesterday. Now it’s time to chose her November review, which includes an option from long before Sarah and I were born:
As I write this, the oldie has the lead, but there’s still time to turn over that cart (should you wish).
Ad if you missed yesterday’s review, it’s not too late! Paid subscribers get access to our full archives, as well as everything we send out going forward. Maybe it’s time to pony up!
Did they just solve the Delphi murders? The 2017 slayings of eighth graders Abby Williams and Libby German as they hiked on a rural Indiana trail attracted international attention, especially after police released video and audio of a potential suspect that was found on German’s phone.
The case spawned multiple podcasts from outlets like HLN and TCO, in fact, podcasters even inserted themselves into the case on more than one occasion, here’s an example:
It was also the subject of too many episodic true crime TV shows to list here, but all this content had one thing in common: a dissatisfying conclusion, as the case remained unsolved.
That might change after this week, though. That’s when Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter announced that they believe they caught their man: 50-year-old Delphi resident Richard Allen, who was arrested late last week.
Per local broadcast station WISH8, Allen worked at an area CVS. “ The grandparents of German said they had previously interacted with Allen at his workplace, saying Allen had processed photos for them but did not charge them,” the station reports.
Allen faces two counts of murder in the case, and pled not guilty in his initial hearing. He returns to court on Jan. 10.
…and that’s all we know, which outlets like The Independent note is unusual in a case with this level of notoriety. Check out this snip for what I mean:
Not much is known about the circumstances of Allen’s arrest, or the evidence against him. During Monday’s press conference, the most repeated line had to do precisely with this opacity. The investigation is still active, and tip lines remain open for information about Allen “or anyone else”. Therefore, investigators are keeping pretty much everything they know about the case so far under wraps. “While I know you are all expecting final details today concerning this arrest, today is not that day,” Doug Carter, superintendent of the Indiana State Police, told the press on Monday.
The charging documents and probable cause affidavit have been sealed – a move that Nicholas McLeland, the county prosecutor, described as “unusual” in the county, where they would usually be made public. Pressed on the matter by one of the journalists present, McLeland reiterated that “the investigation is still open, and while all cases are important, the nature of this case has some extra scrutiny with it.” A public hearing will take place to decide whether those records should remain sealed.
The secrecy surrounding these documents and the strange nature of the press conference — in which police gathered media only to tell them repeatedly that they couldn’t share any details — has set off speculation. The still-open tip line and the mention of “anyone else” suggests police may suspect there could be others involved in the murders. It’s also reasonable to assume that law enforcement is treading extra carefully with a case that is known to have attracted global attention.
To me, this feels like police picked up Allen in hopes that they could convince him to speak — essentially, to build the case after the arrest, instead of before. It’s a risky move, one that — and I say this with respect to small towns everywhere — one that wouldn’t fly in a large city department, but might elicit results in a tinier community. It’s also a huge gamble, though, given the intense interest in the case and the scrutiny it’s bound to receive. Keep an eye on this one, and your theories in the comments. — EB
I am not a crackpot: if you describe a project as true crime, you need to mention the case in the writeup. I’m speaking to Mike Fleming Jr, Deadline’s co-editor-in-chief, film, when I say this, but I’m really talking to whoever leaked/planted the basis for “Just In Time For AFM: Imagine & Ron Howard Mount True Crime Thriller ‘Origin Of Species’”
The item is so brief that I feel bad about quoting any of it, but here goes:
The thriller is about an unlikely group of people who independently turn their backs on society. Each fueled by a deep desire for change, they leave everything behind and stake their futures on the most unlikely of places – the harsh landscape of The Galapagos.
The three-grafer says the movie is “a true crime thriller scripted by Noah Pink,” so that’s two “true crime”s regarding the film — but what is the case that inspired it?
If I had to guess, I’d say it might be the case detailed in The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden, a truly fantastic (as I recall, it’s been a while) doc about the 1930s-era disappearance of Eloise Wehrborn de Wagner-Bosquet and the other mysterious deaths that followed.
Here’s a timeline of that case, which is certainly cinematic! So, perhaps that’s it? It took me a couple minutes to figure out that that might be it, and I’m no national magazine editor. But there are plenty of ways to work around this if you don’t have confirmation, let me show you.
The thriller is about an unlikely group of people who independently turn their backs on society. Each fueled by a deep desire for change, they leave everything behind and stake their futures on the most unlikely of places – the harsh landscape of The Galapagos. While further details on the plot weren’t available, the details bear a striking similarity to a dramatic case in the 1930s, when several expat families clashed on the island of Floreana with deadly results.
See, now it doesn’t look like you’re just throwing around “true crime” for kicks, and you’ve actually added some value! Then again, Mike is busy slinging content, so looking around for potential plot pints might be too big an ask…that’s where his tipster, likely an interested party who wants to build buzz, should have done their job a bit better. After all, what might build buzz better than tidbits like Ron Howard to Direct True Crime Tale Involving Mummified Remains, Missing Royalty, and Poisoned Chicken? — EB
Wednesday on Best Evidence: Taking it back to 2012 in the discussion thread.
What is this thing? This should help. Follow Best Evidence @bestevidencefyi on Twitter and Instagram. You can also call or text us any time at 919-75-CRIME.