AirTags · Glee · 911
Part two of our end-of-year budget doc cleanout
the true crime that's worth your time
It’s the last Best Evidence of 2022! And what a year it’s been. In case you missed them, here are our looks back on the year, a panel discussion with some of the smartest true crime followers we know:
It’s not too late to weigh in on any of these topics, or to bring up other high or low lights from this year — go for it! — EB
And now for part two of our end-of-year budget sweep (part one was yesterday)! Where were we? Oh, yeah…
CYBER: Cops and Courts Don’t Know How to Handle Apple’s AirTag Stalking Problem [Vice]
We’ve talked before here about the potential for abuse posed by Apple’s AirTags, that consumer-accessible GPS tracker that means anyone can arguably motion-bug your car/purse/dinner order for about $20 bucks. Here’s the Cyber podcast on how stalking cases centered on the devices are on the uptick as the legal system lags behind.
ID, Discovery+ true-crime series investigates dark side of Fox hit “Glee” [Collider]
ID docuseries The Price of Glee will detail the crime and crime-adjacent headlines associated with the jukebox Fox series, and the first comment beneath the YouTube trailer made me laugh a bit aloud: “I was under the impression this would be about the making of the series NOT the exploitation of Cory and Naya…this is disgusting and everyone involved should be ashamed. Notice how no one actually involved in glee is in this documentary.” Oh, poor sweet YouTube commenter, what do you think ID is in the business of, making-of DVD extras? Per Collider:
The ID original will also expand on the "Glee curse" theory, which originated from the amount of negative coverage of what took place both on set and after the finale aired. This approach of the documentary has left many fans and cast members upset due to its sensationalistic take. Instead of focusing on the fatalities through an investigative lens, the production seems to base itself on a conspiracy that is not backed up by evidence. Fans are also calling out on how the limited series seems to group Monteith and Rivera's accidental deaths with Salling's premeditated passing, which happened while he was awaiting sentencing.
If the series truly proposes a “Glee curse,” well, that would certainly be something, as ID does indeed present itself as a journalistic organization, and as far as I know curses aren’t generally accepted as fact. If I cared about Glee, maybe I’d be more interested in the show, but I think I was either too old or too cranky to fall into its clutches. How about you, are you ready to pay the ID (or Discovery+) price to watch The Price of Glee? — EB
ABC Drops Backstreet Boys Holiday Special Amid Nick Carter Rape Allegations [Hollywood Reporter]
While we’re on the fervent fans/nostalgia tip: new rape allegations against Backstreet Boy Nick Carter have proven sliiiightly harder to shake than similar claims made in 2017, it appears. Carter was accused of raping a then-teenage fan in 2001 in a suit filed earlier this month; he was similarly accused in 2017 by a former member of girl group Dream who said Carter raped her in 2003.
Carter’s attorney told Page Six that the newest alleged victim “has been manipulated into making false allegations about Nick – and those allegations have changed repeatedly and materially over time. No one should be fooled by a press stunt orchestrated by an opportunistic lawyer – there is nothing to this claim whatsoever, which we have no doubt the courts will quickly realize.” Despite that, ABC canceled a holiday special featuring the group earlier this month, a decision unmentioned in a puff piece about Carter published Wednesday by People that appeared to be a reblog of a holiday photo the musician, who has since been accused of rape by three other women, posted earlier this week. Great job, People, this is some reporting to be proud of. — EB
'Black Christmas' and the True Story that Inspired the First Slasher Film [Collider]
The groundbreaking horror film was, I was surprised to learn, inspired by a 1940s era crime, with nods to multiple other real-life cases. Per Collider:
Black Christmas is also based around true events that happened in the city of Westmount, Montreal in November 1943. The real life crime was that of George Webster, a 14-year-old boy who bludgeoned his mother to death with a baseball [bat] in their family home. His brother, sister, and a family friend also sustained head injuries from the bat, but did not die at the hands of George. A reason for the attacks was never described, and while he was deemed criminally responsible and charged with his mother's murder on February 28, 1944, he was declared unfit to stand trial and transferred to a mental hospital. There was some speculation that the movie was inspired by the murders of Wayne Boden, known as "The Vampire Rapist," that also took place in Montreal but between the years of 1969 and 1971. In 2020 Nick Mancuso, the actor who played the killer in Black Christmas, confirmed with The Telegraph that it was George Webster's crimes that were actually the inspiration Moore used.
Already being rooted in true crime, Black Christmas was almost named Stop Me. The reasoning for this possible name was to reference William Heirens, aka The Lipstick Killer, who killed three women in Chicago between 1945 and 1946. Heirens wrote "stop me" in lipstick at a crime scene and the alias stuck for him from that day forward.
And here’s January’s bonus review poll. Anyone can vote, but only paid subscribers will have access to Sarah’s look at one of these true crime properties. This month, it’s an all-podcast edition!
The Prisoner Swap Edition [Why is this interesting?]
Writer Colin Nagy argues that “Russia [is] snapping up American citizens with a convenient military background on trumped-up charges, and holding them as political chits,” with Brittany Griner just the latest example. Do you agree? — EB
Harlem park entrance dedicated to the exonerated 'Central Park 5' [Gothamist]
A nice postscript to When They See Us, as the “Gate of the Exonerated” is dedicated at the northeast entrance of Central Park in Harlem. A sculpture of the men who had been wrongly convicted of the 1989 rape was initially proposed, but “was quickly scrapped because the city does not allow monuments of living people.” Meanwhile, some of the region’s columnists spoke out against the renaming, with one (a former Giuliani flack, BTW) preposterously saying that the acknowledgement of past wrongs “whitewashes history and could reopen wounds and inflame racial tension in our city.” — EB
Dominican court convicts 10 of 13 accused in attack on David Ortiz [ESPN]
The trial in the 2019 shooting of former MLB star David "Big Papi" Ortiz came to an end this month, when 10 of those suspected in the attack were sentenced to between 5-10 years. Ortiz was reportedly not even the target of the shooting: per an earlier ESPN report:
The Dominican Republic's attorney general and the national police director told reporters that the attempted murder was ordered from the United States by Victor Hugo Gomez, an associate of Mexico's Gulf Cartel. They said Gomez had hired a gang of killers to eliminate his cousin, whom Gomez suspected of turning him in to Dominican drug investigators in 2011.
At the time of the shooting, Ortiz was at an outdoor café with his friend, Sixto David Fernandez, who DR officials say was Gomez’s actual target.
However, per the AP, Ortiz was indeed the man who Gomez wanted to die:
American private investigators hired by Ortiz said that the slugger affectionately known as Big Papi was targeted by a Dominican drug trafficker who was jealous of him.
The findings by former Boston police commissioner Edward Davis contradicted a previous theory by law enforcement in the Dominican Republic that the hitman was actually hired to shoot Ortiz's cousin Sixto David Fernandez, who was sitting at the same table.
Dominican authorities said the hitmen confused Fernandez with Ortiz, one of the country's most beloved ballplayers
It’s unclear what details officials finally settled on, but there is one thing we know: at the end of the trial, however, Gomez walked free, reportedly “due to insufficient evidence.” More might be revealed on February 8, when the full sentencing will be announced. — EB
They Called 911 for Help. Police and Prosecutors Used a New Junk Science to Decide They Were Liars. [ProPublica]
I apologize for ending the year with an infuriating longread, but here we are! This is the first installment in an ongoing investigative series on folks like former Dayton cop Tracy Harpster, who claims that his techniques of 911 call “linguistic detection” “can reveal a murderer on the phone.”
And he’s not the only one, as…
Junk science in the justice system is nothing new. But unvarnished correspondence about how prosecutors wield it is hard to come by. It can be next to impossible to see how law enforcement — in league with paid, self-styled “experts” — spreads new, often unproven methods. The system is at its most opaque when prosecutors know evidence is unfit for court but choose to game the rules, hoping judges and juries will believe it and vote to convict.
This first piece in the series is a deft dismantling of Harpster’s claims, and an illumination of the prosecutors who seemed to know he was full of shit and didn’t care. Wrongful convictions — slews of them — have ensued. This is a must read. — EB
Next week on Best Evidence: We’re officially observing the New Year’s Day holiday on Monday, and on Tuesday we’ll be back with, if nothing else, the results of yesterday’s cold case solvability poll. See you then, happy new year!
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