Crime Beat(s) · Taken At Birth · She Said
Plus: Making a...confession?
the true crime that's worth your time
This week sees a battle of “Crime Beat” podcasts. I get it, it’s hard to think of an unused title in these days of peak podcast, but what a pain. So, here’s the deal:
Crime Beat, a podcast hosted by reporter Nancy Hixt, dropped the first two episodes of its second season on Monday. Its first season made it one of Canada’s most popular podcasts ever, its press materials claim, and offered insights into the country’s “most high-profile cases.” In this season, Hixt will again “shine a light in some of the darkest places,” she says. So that’s one.
Then there’s Crime Beat, which returns with its second season today. This one is hosted by Southern California News Group reporter Keith Sharon, who notes in his OC Register bio that he also wrote the screenplays for the Robert DeNiro/Eddie Murphy film Showtime, which I had forgotten until this very moment. This season is subtitled “Mom vs. Murderer,” which might make it easier to search, and is about the slaying of “20-year-old Southern California honor student Cathy Torrez,” the Reading Eagle reports, and how her mother engaged in a “two-plus decade pursuit of justice.”
Which Crime Beat is for you (if any)? Who is more annoyed by their Google Alerts this week, Sharon’s or Hixt’s teams? So many questions, and so many Crime Beats. -- EB
Taken At Birth kicked off its “three-night television event” Wednesday. The show, which runs for six hours, total (9-11 PM Wednesday, tonight, and tomorrow), covers the “Hicks Babies,” about 200 infants who were illegally sold into black market adoptions from the 1940s through the 1960s. (Matthew Steven Bruen did a great piece on the case a couple years ago; check it out here.)
I’ve always been obsessed with this case and can’t wait to see if TLC does it justice --when you give that network six hours for one case, things can go…either way, if you know what I mean. You can catch the first episode of the series here, with subsequent eps presumably available for screening post airdate. -- EB
The guy who runs Insider is bonkers nuts about She Said. The book by New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey has garnered a lot of praise for its depiction of how the pair reported out the Harvey Weinstein case, but none as effusive as that from Nicholas Carlson, the Global Editor-in-Chief of Insider.
According to Carlson, after he finished the tome, he emailed everyone in the publication’s newsroom to tell them that it was “ among the best non-fiction fiction books I have ever read” and “is without a doubt the best book about journalism I have ever read.” I know he said this stuff because he also published that (extremely long) email on Insider’s site.
Now, if your chest is getting tight at the thought of some lengthy, not-quite-work-related email sent to all staff at (one might guess) a non-work hour, join the club -- and given the “content farm” allegations Insider regularly faces, it’s a bit of a head scratcher. (Also, it’s not like he ended the email with “and that’s why everyone who works here is getting a free copy of the book!”) But any amplified praise of two women’s hard work to unmask an alleged sexual predator is good, I think. Have you read She Said yet, and if so, do you think that it deserves Carlson’s hosannas? -- EB
Kathleen Zellner still thinks that that headline-grabbing “confession” from a Wisconsin is bunk. As you likely recall, the confession was announced by the maker of Convicting A Murderer a law-enforcement-friendly critical response to Making A Murderer. The supposed confessor is Joseph Evans Jr., a man convicted in 2009 for the slaying of his wife. The Guardian reports that Evans had shared his confession in the Teresa Halbach case with Zellner, the lawyer repping Steven Avery. After she rebuffed him, he turned to Shawn Rech, the guy behind Convicting…and that’s when he apparently got the attention he was seeking.
“Keep your panties on and skirt down because I’m not out to screw you,” Evans reportedly told Zellner. “This is a deal relationship you, me, you’ll win when I give all up and the full cover up story that took place and how the state and others used me to get to Steve. I’m done with all that. I’m jumping ship to look out for myself and my children, eight grandchildren. Your choice. I’m already set. Now, it’s up to you for the next move.” The confession, Zellner says, is “totally fabricated. It doesn’t fit any of the evidence. We’ve already talked to a witness who can place Evans somewhere else that day. This guy is obviously not too bright and he’s just listed things he got from public records. He’s just after the money. It’s unfortunate that this has gotten as much attention as it has. And who would more want it to be true than us?”
Presumably, Rech, who says he’s been corresponding with Evans for the past year, got a similar appeal for cash, so you have to wonder why he brought it to the media. A perhaps related fact: As of send time, a distribution channel has not been announced for Convicting A Murderer, and in these days of true-crime overload, publicity can be hard to come by. -- EB
Friday on Best Evidence: Why are courts still using hypnosis? This is the legal system, not dinner theater!
What is this thing? This should help.
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