Alec Baldwin · Black Wall Street · I-5 Strangler
Plus: a follow-up roundup of news of the day
the true crime that's worth your time
The I-5 Strangler is dead. 81-year-old Roger Kibbe had been in prison since 1991, when he was convicted of the rape and fatal strangling of Darcie Frackenpohl. In 2008, investigators used DNA to obtain additional convictions for six more sexual assault and homicide victims, all killed between 1977-1987.
As part of a plea deal intended to avoid the death penalty, Kibbe — who got the first half of his nickname because he found his victims on a Sacramento-area stretch of California’s Interstate 5 — agreed to a jailhouse interview with forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz for the MSNBC series Profiling Evil. You can find the full episode here. It’s pretty nasty stuff.
According to a statement from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Kibbe’s cellmate at Mule Creek State Prison, 40-year-old Jason Budrow, allegedly killed him late Saturday night/early Sunday morning.
Budrow has his own story. Back in 2010, Budrow, who SoCal newspaper the Press-Enterprise describes as “a self-described Satanist,” admitted to strangling his girlfriend, Margret Dalton, because he believed that she was a police informant, driving her body to an area police station and saying that “She had to die.”
That homicide followed a 2004 conviction for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, a crime that required him to wear an ankle-tracking device up to the time of Dalton’s murder (he removed it to drive to the station, one report at the time noted). Budrow was sentenced to life in prison in 2011.
Amador County Undersheriff Gary Redman tells the Sacramento Bee that the death was “being investigated as a homicide.” As of publication time, no motive has been publicly announced for the crime. — EB
Alec Baldwin isn’t a fan of Allen v. Farrow. Baldwin’s been a prominent supporter of Woody Allen’s over the years, even as allegations that he sexually assaulted his young daughter returned to the public eye in recent years.
That hasn’t changed with the release of the four-part docuseries on the claims against Allen (a show that Sarah called “well made, worthwhile, and very affecting” in her review on Primetimer), it appears. Baldwin, who apparently doesn’t know how to thread tweets, said across four missives that
It appears that the tweets were published around the time that Baldwin and his wife, Hilaria, apparently welcomed a newborn baby into their family. This isn’t a celebrity gossip newsletter, but just five months after Hilaria gave birth to son Edu, People reports that the couple “welcomed a new addition to the family,” another infant who appears in an Instagram post published Monday. The Today show’s online arm asks, “Did the Baldwins just adopt a new bundle of joy?” I don’t really care, but I think it’s safe to say that Alec Baldwin’s life is not like mine in, really, any way at all. — EB
A new documentary seeks to tell the story of the 1921 Tulsa massacre. The covered-up attack by white Oklahomans on the Black neighborhood of Greenwood left scores dead, but was all-but absent from history textbooks for nearly a century. The racist massacre gained a new level of public attention in 2019 when it opened HBO’s series Watchmen, spurring articles like this New York Times one on “where to learn more,” an arguably noble form of clickbait for Watchmen viewers googling to see if this was a real historical event.
Now the History Channel has announced a documentary called Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre, which is partially bankrolled by NBA great Russell Westbrook, Deadline reports. It’s directed by Stanley Nelson (The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution) and Marco Williams (The Undocumented) and, per a press release:
will take an in-depth, sobering look at the events of a century ago and how the impact is still being felt today. The documentary will focus on a specific period, from the birth of Black Wall Street, to its catastrophic downfall over the course of two bloody days, and finally the fallout and reconstruction. It will also incorporate rare archival footage and imagery from the time, as well as weave in present-day stories and interviews from historians from organizations including the Tulsa Historical Society & Museum, the John Hope Franklin Center for Reconciliation, the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, and the Historic Vernon AME Church, among others.
Via statement, Westbrook (who currently plays for the Washington Wizards) says that “The Tulsa Race Massacre was not something I was taught about in school or in any of my history books. It was only after spending 11 years in Oklahoma that I learned of this deeply troubling and heartbreaking event. … These are the stories we must honor and amplify so we can learn from the past and create a better future.”
The release of Tulsa Burning is set to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the May 31-June 1 attack, so expect it to drop sometime this coming spring. — EB
And now for a roundup of real-life crime stories we’ve been following:
“R. KELLY FULLY VACCINATED ... Got Both Doses in Prison” TMZ reports that Kelly has been “fully inoculated” while at MCC Chicago, where he’ll remain until his trial, which begins in September.
“Lawyer Seeks Criminal Investigation of T.I. and Tiny on Behalf of Multiple Women” As you might recall, the famous couple threatened legal action against women who posted allegations of sexual assault and trafficking to Instagram, but the New York Times reports that “a lawyer has approached law enforcement authorities in two states seeking criminal inquiries, on behalf of 11 people who said they were victimized by the couple or members of their entourage.”
“The man convicted of murdering WSJ reporter Daniel Pearl will be released from jail in Pakistan” [Poynter] Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh had been sentenced to death for the kidnapping and decapitation of reporter Daniel Pearl, but a 2-1 ruling by Pakistan’s Supreme Court means he’ll be released, instead. (You might remember that a 2007 film about the case, A Mighty Heart, was harshly critiqued over the casting of Angelina Jolie as Pearl’s wife.)
“More Allegations Come Out Against Alexander Wang” We talked about the Instagram-announced allegations against Wang back in January, but now there are more, New York magazine reports. Attorney Lisa Bloom is now representing 11 alleged victims, who say they suffered everything from nonconsensual groping to oral sex without their permission.
Wednesday on Best Evidence: OK now I’m really ready for that Nigerian Catfish story I mistakenly teased yesterday.
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