Andrew Tate · Car Break-Ins · Poltergeist Girl
the true crime that's worth your time
Hulu appears very eager for me to watch Demons & Saviors this weekend. What a terrible title, right? You expect a badly dyed Tom Hanks in the Vatican with a name like that.
But that’s not what it is — instead, this is an ABC News look at the 1992 death of three-year-old Amber Boyer, for which her mother, Christina, was controversially convicted. There’s long been a movement to reverse that conviction, with the arguably grabby news hook that while in her teens, Christina made headlines as an alleged telekinetic who was dubbed “poltergeist girl” by the media.
As someone who thinks supernatural stuff is interesting bunk (lowercase s, Sinner For Hire, don’t come for me!) I’m not completely against the idea of watching this, but ABC burned me so dreadfully with that crappy Ashley Madison series that I feel myself shying away. Has anyone here given Demons & Saviors a try yet who can weigh in on its merits?
I’m more likely to hop a flight to England this weekend to check out Code Blue: The Killing of June Fox-Roberts, the first part of which aired on ITV last night. The well-reviewed two parter tackles a 2021 dismemberment case with a lot of complicated aspects — the person convicted in Fox-Roberts’s slaying has a lengthy history of mental illness, and one of her kids is trans, which prompted a vocal contingent of bigoted online amateur detectives to declare that they must somehow have been involved with the death.
I’m interested in seeing how the show tackles those aspects of the matter, especially as it’s billed as having “exclusive access to the South Wales Police Major Crime team,” which makes it unlikely the cops’ actions in the case will be the focus of much scrutiny. But who knows?
Finally, there’s The Last Hours of Mario Biondo, a Netflix three-parter that dropped last night. Biondo was found dead in the home he shared with TV host Raquel Sánchez-Silva in 2013, in a hanging the police ruled was an autoerotic asphyxiation attempt gone wrong. Biondo’s mom disagrees, and since his death has made headlines in Italy and Spain for saying as much, implying as she did that Sánchez-Silva might be to blame.
I know from the news that there’s not going to be a satisfying conclusion to the series, as his death case remains closed. But I started seeing coverage this morning that even Biondo’s family is mad about the series, as (based on Google Translate, so this is just a ballpark understanding) they claim they were “deceived” by the production and that “documentaries like this … could distort this truth.” So now I want to see what they’re mad about; how perverse is that?
I feel like between those three shows, as well as the content I need to consume for next week’s review issue, my weekend is full — but I’m always happy to entertain other options. What true crime is on your agenda this weekend? — EB
Hearsay
Andrew Tate Is Released From House Arrest in Romania [New York Times]
The openly misogynistic influencer, who was reinstated on Twitter last fall and has since been welcomed into its creator monetization program, was released from house arrest today as he continues to await his human trafficking trial. Tate and his brother, Tristan, were charged in June; sadly the extremely CBS-prime-time procedural rumors on how his location was determined turned out to be false. Here’s the debunk:
Mr. Tate has been using Romania as a base since about 2016 and has not disguised his reasons for doing so to his fans.
“I like living in a society where my money, my influence and my power mean that I’m not below or beholden” to any laws, he told them.
He began drawing increased attention last December after he clashed online with the climate activist Greta Thunberg, asking for her email in a tweet so he could boast about his collection of cars and their “enormous emissions.”
Ms. Thunberg’s response, mocking Mr. Tate’s masculinity and suggesting that he needed to get a life, went viral.
There was also widespread speculation online about whether a distinctive pizza box featured in one of Mr. Tate’s tweets to Ms. Thunberg had alerted Romanian authorities to his presence in the country, but a Romanian official said that was not the case.
Mr. Tate, his brother and two others were arrested soon after and investigated for human trafficking, rape and forming an organized criminal group. Initially held in a Bucharest prison, the two were moved to house arrest three months later.
Tate must remain in Romania as part of his release deal, he continues to maintain his innocence. — EB
Penzler Publishers Announces “Crime Ink”: True Crime Imprint [Mystery Fanfare]
While more publishing outlets for true crime is news enough to merit inclusion of this headline, there’s also a fun media-moves note to this: If you know Manhattan store The Mysterious Bookshop, you might know Tom Wickersham, its former manager. (And if you don’t know the shop, it claims to be “The World's Oldest Mystery Fiction Specialty Store,” with an origin date of 1979.)
Wickersham is set to head up this new imprint, which plans on releasing four to six “literary true crime” books per year, a move that isn’t that surprising given that Crime Ink’s parent publishing company is owned by Otto Penzler, the founder of The Mysterious Bookshop (and founding editor of the Best American Crime Writing series).
Per a press release, the imprint’s first book will be “The Serial Killer’s Apprentice, the first modern examination of 1970s serial killer Dean Corll. Also under contract are a biography of New York crime journalist Jimmy Breslin, a comprehensive account of the Son of Sam killings, and a series in translation from France.” — EB
This San Francisco woman has a house full of stolen stuff. She’s on a mission to find the owners [San Francisco Chronicle]
Most of the national coverage of San Francisco these days is kind of bullshit — the tales of a “doom loop” and anarchy on the streets is certainly not my experience as a longtime resident (though, if that narrative means property prices or rent goes down, I’m not mad about it…).
One thing that is true is that car break-ins are and have always been rampant, a likely combination of a police force that is well known for doing little to prevent property crimes, an abundance of tourists from places where folks leave valuables in their vehicles and don’t realize that shit don’t play here, and a brutal income gap that leaves many feeling like the only way to survive is via illicit methods.
But this piece isn’t about that! In a nice change of pace from the mean world syndrome-inducing blotter items, this report from longtime local reporter Rachel Swan is about Andrea Carla Michaels, “a Harvard University graduate who designs crossword puzzles for the New York Times” (and, as you can see above, Wheel of Fortune winner) and who also collects seemingly stolen items discarded on SF streets and works to find their owners. It’s a story that will bring you delight, and my only complaint (which isn’t, really, I’m just goofing around) is that Swan didn’t get Michaels’s take on that improbable Birkin under the hedges plot from this season of And Just Like That. — EB
Next week on Best Evidence: Only Murders, “Manson Season,” and more.
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