Bites · Nurses · Journalism
Plus: Kim Kardashian's new podcast
the true crime that's worth your time
Please let me live through you. I’m visiting family this week, which means my usual weekend routine of watching true crime and napping with my dogs is out the window, in favor of cross country meets (spectating, not participating) and many pizza-based dinners. The closest I’ll come is listening to an advance episode of a new podcast from a true crime figure who until recently was adjacent to an alleged abuser, probably while driving to or from one of those meets — stay tuned for a review of that show late next week!
Anyway, while I don’t have a true-crime consumption plan to share for the next few days, I am hopeful you do! Let’s hear it. — EB
Guess it’s good I got to House of Hammer last weekend, then. Loyal readers might recall that my weekend plan last Friday was the three-parter on the well-known LA family with the allegedly cannibal-leaning scion. The series was enough of a meh to me that I didn’t bother to review it for y’all — like a food critic, I really only feel compelled to cover stuff that moves me one direction or the other.
But an image shown in the docuseries has undercut some of its credibility, Variety reports. In the portion of the show centered around the allegations against actor Armie Hammer — let’s face it, the only Hammer we really give a shit about — a photo that was presented as bite marks left by the Lone Ranger star was revealed to actually be a widely Pinterest-ed photo of a tattoo. From Variety’s reporting:
“He bites really hard,” Vucekovich says in “House of Hammer.” As she gives details on the alleged biting, a photo is shown of a bite mark. In the doc, Vucekovich says she believes the photograph is of her body and was taken by Hammer.
“He tells you to wear them like a badge of honor,” she says of Hammer’s alleged bite marks. “Almost like he convinced me that I’m lucky to have it. As fucked up as it sounds, at that time, I was interpreting that as love. Looking at it now, makes me sick. He pushes your boundaries a little bit at a time.”
Shortly after the docuseries premiered, social media users on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter noticed that the image looked similar to that of a bite mark tattoo photo that originated on the internet and appears to have been found on Pinterest.
I know that pretty much every workplace is short-staffed and doing the best they can, but this sort of stopped me in my tracks. As just a local reporter (or, hell, as someone who has watched Catfish) I know to Google Image Search any even remotely controversial/potentially viral photos to ensure I’m not putting out misinformation or hoax content. But the folks behind House of Hammer didn’t? Nor did Hammer abuse accuser Courtney Vucekovich, it appears. From a statement she sent to People:
When you are love-bombed, you receive multiple images in rapid succession. During my time with Armie, I received numerous messages including countless images and videos. The bite mark shown was a photo sent by Armie within our archived text thread and over a year later, I believed it to have been a photo of me given that I have dozens of photos depicting his abuse on my body.
In an interview that published before the show’s release and subsequent photo controversy, HoH co-director Julian P. Hobbs told Variety that they were “rigorous in vetting,” saying that “No film we have done has been more vetted than this film because we had to get it right. It wasn’t just double sourcing; it was triple sourcing. It was like, ‘When in doubt, leave it out.’ There was rigorous research, archival and legal review every step of the way of all materials of the film.”
Even now, the Hammer camp hasn’t responded to the show or questions raised about it, but at least one of Hammer’s alleged victims also takes issue with the series: “Effie,” who accused Hammer of rape in 2021. Effie (who has not provided her full name in an effort to preserve her privacy and safety) told HoH producers no, and that “It is extremely inappropriate of you to exploit such a tragic, vulnerable time in many people’s lives, with no regard whatsoever for our healing process and privacy.”
Despite her stated disinterest, the show still used Instagram posts and images from a press conference on Effie’s allegations. Speaking with the LA Times, Hobbs said that
There’s all types of laws around material and the use of material. And when she posted on a public forum … her allegations against Armie Hammer enter into the public discourse, right? So that’s been covered by numerous outlets. And that [press conference clip] has been covered by numerous outlets. So now you don’t have to get permission.
In a statement sent to the LAT, the Effie said of the series that “The way they’ve been exploiting my trauma is disgusting … When I keep screaming ‘no’ and they keep going, saying they don’t need my permission, they remind me of Armie.”
When asked about Effie’s response to the series, here’s what Hobbs had to say: “If you track her, that’s the way she conducts her social media presence, and we don’t want to say, ‘You cannot do this.’ She has a right to do what she wants to do.” Which is kind of…yikes.
Frankly, it’s all kind of yikes. Maybe that’s part of what put me off engaging with HoH enough to fairly review it: it just felt a little slimy under the skin, like a cherry at the bottom of the bag. Did anyone here watch it and has an opinion to share? If so, you know what to do. — EB
A high-profile Las Vegas official has been arrested in the death of a true crime author and journalist. I covered the slaying of Murder in Sin City author Jeff German at the top of the week:
And since then, there’s been a lot to unpack. The Las Vegas Review-Journal, where German worked at the time of his death, is doing all the heavy lifting — kind of remarkable, given that they’re basically all writing a story that German, himself, would have been charged with writing if he weren’t the subject.
And boy oh boy, it’s a doozy: Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles was arrested in the homicide following a brief standoff, based on DNA evidence from the scene and evidence at his home. From the Review-Journal:
German’s death came months after he reported that current and former employees alleged that Telles fueled a hostile work environment and carried on a relationship that impaired the office’s ability to deal with the public. The complaints led to co-workers secretly videotaping the two in the back seat of estate coordinator Roberta Lee-Kennett’s car in a parking garage. The story also included claims of bullying and favoritism by Telles.
Telles denied the accusations and said Lee-Kennett was simply one of the people he “could lean on” while he tried to change the office atmosphere. Telles, a Democrat, lost his re-election bid in the June primary after German’s findings were published.
German had recently filed public records requests for emails and text messages between Telles and three other county officials: Assistant Public Administrator Rita Reid, Lee-Kennett and consultant Michael Murphy. Lee-Kennett was identified in previous stories as a subordinate staffer allegedly involved in an “inappropriate relationship” with Telles.
“This was him lashing out, the defendant lashing out, at the cause of the unraveling of his life at this point,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Scow said, as the recent stories about Telles “ruined his political career, likely his marriage.” He’s being held without bail, and will be formally charged next week. — EB
I am about to link to a story where you see Kim Kardashian’s bare butt. I don’t have a beef with her baring it, to be clear: one of my greatest regrets is not being naked, like, all the time in my 20s, or at least getting better nude pictures taken. (Pre-digital days made documenting skin much more difficult!) I’m just warning you in case you’re somewhere a click through on that might get you in trouble. The photo, like what it’s captures, is ample.
But the piece in Interview (I’d forgotten that the venerable Warhol-founded mag was revived a few years ago) has relevance to our interests, for real. That’s because in the transcribed conversation with editor-in-chief Mel Ottenberg (yes, the stylist), Kardashian follows up on news Best Evidence covered back in 2020, when she first announced a Spotify deal for a show dealing with “themes of wrongful conviction and criminal justice reform, similar to the work she has done with the Innocence Project,” CNN reported at the time.
Here’s the section of the conversation that deals with the show:
KARDASHIAN: Well, I woke up and I worked out, and then I dropped my kids off at day camp. I’m shooting a little content for SKKN this morning, and I figured out how to do some voiceovers on Reels. Then, I’m going to record an episode of my podcast. I’m doing a true crime podcast on Spotify.
OTTENBERG: Wait, are you a true crime junkie like me?
KARDASHIAN: Oh my god, yeah. I’m obsessed. I had to stop watching Dateline and all the shows when I was studying in law school.
OTTENBERG: Because then it felt like work.
KARDASHIAN: Yeah. And then I have a two-hour study session, and then I have to go do voiceovers for the new Paw Patrol movie.
OTTENBERG: Amazing.
KARDASHIAN: And that’s as far as I’ve looked at my schedule.
OTTENBERG: Okay. As a true crime junkie can I ask you what this podcast is about?
KARDASHIAN: It’s called The System. The first season is about a really crazy case where a guy got the death sentence for a triple homicide that happened in Ohio. There are so many twists and turns with how it was handled—or mishandled—and we take the listener along for a journey in search of the truth.
Spotify has yet to announce a release date for The System, or any other details on the show, BUT since she mentioned Paw Patrol, I’m going to drop one of my favorite Paw Patrol-related bits of comedy here because it never gets old. — EB
I am kind of digging this recently-released trailer for The Good Nurse. This is the Netflix movie based on 2013’s true crime book The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder.
As you likely recall, though Charles Edmund Cullen admitted to killing 40 patients, some officials maintain he killed as many as 400. There’s a 2007 New York mag piece I come back to a lot when I think of this case (and so-called “Angel of Death” killers, in general) that’s well worth a reread…in fact, let’s make it our weekend longread, shall we?
It’s called “The Tainted Kidney” and it was written by Good Nurse scribe Charles Graeber years before his book’s publication, but in it you can see how the case has wormed its way into Graeber’s head, and that there’s no way he can walk away from the story even after this:
The Angel of Death looks sleepy. His face shows nothing. His eyes are closed. Charles Cullen sits motionless in the wooden defendant’s chair of the Somerset County Courthouse as, hour after hour, his victims’ families take the stand. They read poems and show photographs, they weep and yell. If Cullen hears them, he doesn’t say; he never does. During his three years in custody, Cullen has never apologized or made excuses. He has never issued a statement, offered a public word, never faced the families of his victims. In fact, the only reason he’s in court today is because he wants to give away one of his kidneys.
To that end, he has cut a deal with prosecutors, agreeing to appear at his sentencing on the condition that he be allowed to donate an organ to the dying relative of a former girlfriend. To many of the families of his victims, this deal is a personal insult—the man in shackles still calling the shots, the serial-killer nurse wanting to control the fate of yet another human life. But for the families of his New Jersey victims, this is the first and last chance to confront Charles Cullen. So they are here, and they are angry.
Anyway, it’s a masterful piece of work, and I doubt that’s what the Netflix movie is really about — much of it seems to center around his relationship with whistleblower/nurse/my personal dog photo #goal/Cullen colleague Amy Loughren, who’s widely credited with his eventual prosecution. But I’m just guessing, based on this trailer. We;ll know more when the movie drops on Netflix on October 26. — EB
Next week on Best Evidence: Paul Holes, CNN’s cops pivot, and Ann Rule.
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