Beatrice · Haggis · Balwani
Plus: Skye Borgman's latest
the true crime that's worth your time
The buzz is growing for Mind Over Murder, which premiered last night. This is the six-part HBO docuseries from Nanfu Wang (One Child Nation) about the 1985 slaying of Helen Wilson, a Beatrice, Nebraska grandmother, and the folks convicted — then exonerated — of killing her, a group known as the Beatrice Six. (Don’t click through on this Wikipedia link on the case if you want to be surprised by the twists and turns within the show.)
If you’ve got various Google alerts for true crime-related phrases, your inbox is full of links to coverage of the series, almost all of it praise. Here’s a sampling:
Recommended: Mind Over Murder on HBO [Primetimer]
BE pal and Sarah’s longtime podcast mate, Mark Blankenship, says the series “is a well-made, if somewhat traditional, true-crime documentary” for the first five episodes, then disrupts the genre (in a good way) when “in the sixth and final episode, the series transforms into something entirely different.”
HBO’s ‘Mind Over Murder’: TV Review [Hollywood Reporter]
”Mind Over Murder remains a provocative thing, defying any kind of simple hero/villain/victim classifications.”
‘Mind Over Murder’ Review: Misleading Memories [Wall Street Journal]
”Ms. Wang does a few amazing things that are more about the filmmaker than the filmmaking—she gets almost everyone important to talk, for one thing. (There are a couple of holdouts, and their absence indicts them.) The interviews are astonishing given the delicacy of the matters at hand. She has to confront the Wilson children and grandchildren with facts that belie what they’ve believed for years. (‘Just because their DNA wasn’t there doesn’t mean they weren’t there.’ Well, yes, in fact, it does.) She tries to get Mr. Searcey to admit he wasn’t the savior of Beatrice. In a town where everyone knows everyone else, she is the unwelcome confessor; her uncanny combination of empathy and cold-bloodedness is something you’d have to be born with.”
‘Mind Over Murder’ details the crime and punishments that still divide Beatrice, Nebraska [Chicago Sun-Times]
”Of all the true-crime documentary series we’ve inhaled over the last few years and all the times we’ve been perplexed and baffled and gobsmacked by the actions and words of certain individuals involved in various murders or kidnappings or heists or cons, the events of “Mind Over Murder” might just be the most mind-blowing of all.”
I tried, really tried, to find a midsize or above publication that didn’t applaud the series, and I came up dry, which is pretty wild in this era of many critics’ true crime fatigue. So, I feel a little silly about asking, but do you plan to watch Mind Over Murder? If not, what’s holding you back? — EB
There’s another allegation of sexual assault against screenwriter Paul Haggis. There was a period in the mid-aughts during which Haggis was basically everywhere: he was widely lauded for his work on Million Dollar Baby and Crash, two films that — to put it gently — have not aged terribly well.
A few years later, his name was in headlines again after he cut ties with Scientology, his longtime faith. You might recall this lengthy 2011 New Yorker piece on his departure from the religion over its unwillingness to support marriage equality, which included a front yard intervention from other Scientologists like Anne Archer — a moment that has made for a decade of wisecracks in my household if we happen to stumble on a broadcast of Fatal Attraction. (Which hasn’t aged well, either, but Glenn Close’s apartment in that movie is so terrific.)
Just a couple years after that NYer story, publicist Haleigh Breest says that Haggis raped her after the two attended a movie premiere. Breest didn’t report the alleged crime at the time, saying in a civil court filing in 2017 that hearing Haggis excoriate Harvey Weinstein was an impossible trigger to bear. Per the filing:
The truth she knows and has lived is that behind the façade of these comments lies another predator, a man willing to force himself on a young woman less than half his age and take pleasure in the fear and pain he caused her … Ms. Breest will not look the other way any longer.
According to Haggis, Breest’s lawyer said in a pre-filing phone call that they could settle for $9 million, which his attorney referred to as “ransom.” Instead, he counter-sued Breest, a claim that was swiftly dismissed. Three other women came out with additional allegations against Haggis after Breest’s civil case was filed; it is still ongoing but has been delayed (as so many things have been) by the pandemic.
In a court filing in 2021, Haggis said that he has basically been out of work since the suit was filed, and that he’s almost out of money. Per the declaration:
I have had discussions with producers and financiers, but have been repeatedly told that they cannot work with me until I clear my name … Others have demanded I remove my name from projects or they will not be produced or distributed … Potential employers and film financiers have even expressed that once this lawsuit is over and my name is cleared, they will be willing to hire me again.
That name clearing grew more challenging this past week, when Haggis was arrested in Italy after another woman claimed he assaulted her multiple times over the course of two days. From the NYT:
According to a statement from the prosecutor’s office in the nearby city of Brindisi, which ordered the arrest, the accuser was not Italian. The statement identifies the man who was arrested as P.H., a Canadian; Vincenzo Leo, the duty officer of the local Italian police, confirmed it was Mr. Haggis.
The statement said that after two days of “nonconsensual intercourse,” he had brought the woman to the Papola Casale airport in Brindisi on Friday and left her there “at the first lights of dawn, despite the precarious physical and psychological conditions of the woman.”
The airport’s staff and the border police noticed her in the airport in a “confusional state,” assisted her and took her to the local police office, the statement continued. She was then brought to a hospital where she was treated following a protocol used in Italy for victims of violence against women; she subsequently reported the violence to the police.
According to Variety, Haggis “presided over the jury of the Monte-Carlo Comedy Film Festival” from April 25-30. He allegedly met the victim, “a British woman who is considerably younger than the 69-year-old filmmaker,” at the fest, then continued a conversation with her “via Instagram and text messages.” She reportedly flew to southern Italy to meet up with Haggis again on Sunday, June 12, after which the alleged assaults occurred. Haggis had remained in Italy, Variety reports,
to hold several master classes –– including with Jeremy Irons, Oliver Stone, Matt Dillon, Edward Norton and Marisa Tomei — at the Allora Fest, a new film event in Ostuni that Haggis was involved in launching in tandem with Los Angeles-based Italian journalist Silvia Bizio and Spanish art critic Sol Costales Doulton.
Allora Fest organizers — who on Sunday promptly removed Haggis from the event while expressing full solidarity with the alleged victim — kicked off the June 21-26 event on Tuesday without Haggis, but with all the aforementioned guests he had invited in attendance. “I am horrified about what has occurred and hope it will be clarified very soon,” Irons told newspaper Corriere della Sera.
When Haggis was accused of assault the first time, in 2017, Scientology gadflies Leah Remini and Mike Rinder mounted a vigorous defense, including a 2018 post on Rinder’s blog that claimed Breest’s suit was orchestrated by the Church. A snip:
We expect the next “revelations” about Paul Haggis in this campaign to destroy him to be based on information culled from his scientology files in the form of more “anonymous” accusers, hiding behind a lawyer who will never have to disclose who is paying their bill.
Those who accuse without going to law enforcement, those who seek hush money to keep their stories secret, those who make accusations to the media anonymously – they are suspect. And when the target of these tactics is someone who is a prominent critic of scientology, it is very suspect.
Binder and Remini have yet to comment on the current allegations, while Haggis is “is currently in custody at a 5-star hotel in Ostuni, in southern Italy,” Variety reports. His attorneys tell outlets including CNN that he is innocent of all the claims against him. — EB
The first trailer for Girl in the Picture is out. Skye Borgman’s (Abducted in Plain Sight) Netflix documentary concerns the case of Sharon Marshall, a child raised by — and later married to — convicted murderer and rapist Franklin Delano Floyd.
It’s a nasty case of abduction, abuse, exploitation and death, one you might know already from A Beautiful Child and Finding Sharon, two true-crime books by journalist Matt Birkbeck. Birkbeck is an executive producer on the doc, and appears in it throughout — that’s his voice you hear in the trailer.
The documentary drops on July 6, and there’s also an audio companion piece: Netflix’s You Can’t Make This Up podcast will devote five episodes to the film. The first podcast ep of that series will appear in feeds on June 29. — EB
Sunny Balwani’s trial will likely wrap up today. The San Jose trial for the far less compelling half of the Theranos team has reporters back in the courtroom for the first time in weeks today, as the closing arguments kicked off this morning. As we discussed here previously, it’s been a while since the major leagues were covering the trial, but folks from the NYT, Washington Post and ABC’s national desk are in the South Bay today, all awaiting the jury’s decision.
Despite expectations to the contrary, Elizabeth Holmes never took the stand in the trial, but that doesn’t mean her fate isn’t still intertwined with Balwani’s: as you might recall, her sentencing was delayed until September at the prosecution’s request, contingent on how the Balwani case resolves. (Assuming he’s convicted, they will be sentenced together.)
As I write this, the prosecution is still making its closing remarks. The defense goes after that, and the case should be handed off to the jury by the end of the week. — EB
Wednesday on Best Evidence: Criminal advice?
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.