Dressed to Kill · Joe Berlinger · Research Fraud
It's the July budget cleanout!
the true crime that's worth your time
If you’re new to Best Evidence, welcome to the messiest issue of the month. Twelve times a year, we take some Clorox, a sponge and a stiff broom to the document where we drop all the links we think we might want to write about.
I started doing this because I realized that Sarah and I share a hoarding tendency, a desire to keep things around because “I really want to write about this, just not today!” So, consider this monthly issue our way of setting those stories — and ourselves — free, but please do not think we are handing off these links because they no longer bring us joy. We just know when it’s time to move on.
See you in August! — EB
Pedro Pascal, David Harbour to Star in HBO Limited Series ‘My Dentist’s Murder Trial’ [Variety]
This is a dramatic adaptation of James Lasdun’s 2017 New Yorker piece of the same name, about the high-profile trial of Gilberto Nunez, who was also the subject of a 2018 Dateline episode entitled “Death and the Dentist.” That’s a photo of Nunez above, so assuming Pascal is playing him in the show, that’s the second time fortune has smiled on the New York practitioner. The series is only in the development stage, so no release date or additional details are available quite yet.
An Old Lawsuit Throws True Crime Podcasting Into Disarray [The Squeeze]
I don’t think any Substack has established itself as a defining voice in the field faster than The Squeeze. Best Evidence pal Skye Pillsbury’s new newsletter on the inside baseball of podcasting is only two issues in and already dug up loads of dirt on the In The Dark cancellation, and got way further than we could on the allegations against true crime celebrity Billy Jensen. I want you to read the whole thing, but I also want to call out the part I consider the most important, part of a discussion Pillsbury had with victim advocate and true crime podcaster Celene Beth Calderon-Olsen:
[Calderon-Olsen] said that there were others who were still noticeably quiet, including Jensen’s co-host on Murder Squad, as well as the hosts of The First Degree, a podcast in which Jensen is presented as an “expert correspondent.” Calderon-Olsen said that while the hosts had issued a statement, they’d chosen to do it behind a paywall. “Once again, these are individuals who are championing victims and survivors in their podcast. They should be saying something as well.”
I could understand Calderon-Olsen’s disappointment in watching peers hesitate to speak out about a man who, according to a growing number of people, had a known history of making women feel uncomfortable. As part of a podcast appearance that took place after Tisdale’s story emerged, lawyer and true crime podcaster Rabia Chaudry heavily hinted — careful to avoid naming names — that industry leaders, including the founders of Exactly Right, have been aware of Jensen’s patterns for years.
How a Sextortion Victim Hacked Back and Put Her Attacker in Jail [Bloomberg]
When an asshole sent nude photos of college sophomore Natalie Claus to over 100 people in her Snapchat contact list, some of her friends blamed her and the campus cops suggested that she’s brought this on herself. But her friend, Katie Yates, was prepared to take this one on. Using a pretty simple online tool, she revealed the sextortionist to be David Mondore, a New York chef who’d never met Claus and who had, per the DoJ, “gained unauthorized access to at least 300 Snapchat accounts.” Mondore, who was sentenced to six months in the attack, has yet to publicly explain the reasoning behind his crimes.
Sketching the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard Trial [Hyperallergic]
Artist Isabelle Brourman offers a first-person account of the scene at the Depp/Heard trial, interspersed with remarkable images that — as much as I hate to say it — feel in many ways like a fresher, more contemporary version of what Ralph Steadman once did for Depp’s idol, Hunter S. Thompson (another alleged abuser). Snip:
I recently told an inquiring friend that I felt very much as if I had cast myself in the Depp v. Heard play. Not only were the actors acting, but all those under the Court TV cameras adjusted to their roles: lawyers as unsympathetic bloodhounds and loyal knights; the judge: level-headed and occasionally candid in her exasperation; Johnny: warmly stoic, sometimes serious (I studied his shoulders), occasionally laughy in a “how absurd!” way; his fans: devoted, at the cost of their own well-being and finances; the deputies: protecting the sanctity of the courthouse with keen surveillance, ejecting fans if their phones went off or if the fans themselves nodded off; and Amber: sullen, smug, pained in her seat, chin tilted up or neck craned to glare unflinchingly into the shielded eyes of her ex-husband. And me, the sketch artist, arriving each day with my drawing materials and a ticket into the eye of culture’s most talked-about hurricane.
Two decades of Alzheimer's research may be based on deliberate fraud that has cost millions of lives [Daily Kos]
Sarah mentioned a Theranos-reminiscent case yesterday when she wrote about Lilly Frost, and now we have a case that I’m surprised isn’t described as “the next Theranos” in its coverage, but maybe, it’s actually worse:
Over the last two decades, Alzheimer’s drugs have been notable mostly for having a 99% failure rate in human trials. It’s not unusual for drugs that are effective in vitro and in animal models to turn out to be less than successful when used in humans, but Alzheimer’s has a record that makes the batting average in other areas look like Hall of Fame material.
And now we have a good idea of why. Because it looks like the original paper that established the amyloid plaque model as the foundation of Alzheimer’s research over the last 16 years might not just be wrong, but a deliberate fraud.
I’m thinking about the dedicated folks spending years of their life racing to cure this horrible disease, all that time wasted because their work is predicated on a lie. Right now, that makes me way angrier than anything Elizabeth Holmes did.
Should this fraud turn out to be as extensive as it appears at first glance, the implications go well beyond just misdirecting tens of billions in funding and millions of hours of research over the last two decades. Since that 2006 publication, the presence or absence of this specific amyloid has often been treated as diagnostic of Alzheimer’s. Meaning that patients who did die from Alzheimer's may have been misdiagnosed as having something else. Those whose dementia came from other causes may have falsely been dragged under the Alzheimer’s umbrella. And every possible kind of study, whether it's as exotic as light therapy or long-running as nuns doing crossword puzzles, may have ultimately had results that were measured against a false yardstick.
It’s early days for this news, but if this doesn’t end up as a podcast, series, or more, I will eat my hat.
First Look at The Good Nurse: Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne Star in a True-Crime Thriller, With a Twist [Vanity Fair]
This is a Netflix movie based on Charles Graeber’s book from 2013, The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder, about New Jersey and Pennsylvania nurse Charles Cullen, who officials say killed 300 people or more. Redmayne is Cullen; Chastain is Amy Loughren, the co-worker who helped bring him to justice. (I’ve always been partial to this photo of Loughren, look at her little dog!)
As I am sure we’ve discussed before, The Good Nurse is directed by Tobias Lindholm, who also directed the Kim Wall series The Investigation (in fact, he ducked out of Good Nurse to do that gig), and is supposed to drop some time this fall.
'The Hillside Strangler,' A New Peacock Special, Dives Into Serial Killer Cousins Who Terrorized L.A. [Oxygen]
Are Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono having a bit of a moment? I feel like a lot of properties are flirting with the 1970s killer cousin case [“it’s definitely ‘doing business’ in the secondhand-book trade the last 4-6 weeks…” — SDB], and here’s Peacock with a four-part docuseries that claims to raise “new questions around the psychology of Kenneth Bianchi.” Given that the writeup uses dated phrases like “split personality,” I’m not totally buying it, but with “new and exclusive interviews with those close to the case, including Bianchi’s former girlfriend at the time of the Los Angeles killings, Sheryl Kellison,” I’m at least casually interested. The show drops on August 2.
Dressed To Kill: A True Crime Collection Of Criminal Clothing [Crimereads]
We’ve talked before about crime memorabilia collectors, those folks who drop a mortgage payment on a Gacy clown painting or the like. This piece focuses specifically on folks who pay big for articles of clothing once worn by prominent killers. Quotes include lines like “In fact, if I had to choose my favorite true crime possession, it would be a toss-up between my Charles Manson sweatpants and my Aileen Wuornos underwear and bra set,” and “I don’t care for school-shooter items, although I’ve got a few Columbine shirts.”
I don’t believe in cursed objects, but as far as I’m concerned, I’d rather go naked than put any of that stuff on or even let it into my house. Nope, nope, nope.
What it was like to cover the trial for serial rapist and teen killer Paul Bernardo [National Post]
This is a fairly breathless take on the work of reporting from the courtroom of a Canadian killer known as “The Scarborough Rapist.” The purpose of the article is to promote his paper’s new True Crime Byline podcast, but if you’re really curious about the case you could do worse than to pick up a used copy of Lethal Marriage, a book that prompted controversy when it was published after author Nick Pron allegedly fictionalized some events. I recall thinking it was pretty good when I read it as baby in 1996 or so, a time when I didn’t have an email address and was working as an orthodontic assistant. God only knows what ‘d think of it now.
Joe Berlinger Developing U.S. Remake Of Swedish Crime Series ‘The Truth Will Out’ With Endemol Shine North America [Deadline]
The series isn’t true crime — it’s a drama “based on an idea from famed Swedish author and criminologist Leif GW Persson.” And everyone here knows, Berlinger isn’t a fiction guy; his bones were made in the documentary sphere, much of which by way of true crime. The closest he’s come to drama is Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, his scripted Ted Bundy joint.
I have a lot of conflicting thoughts about a director’s (or, really, any creative’s) ability to flip from one side of the truth wall to the other — and I’m coming at it with my own baggage, I guess, as I occasionally flirt with the idea of penning fiction sometimes, then get super anxious and shy away from it with a shudder. I’m no Joe Berlinger, of course, just a journeyman writer, but it’s hard not to apply my hangups around switching sides (I mean, look how I’m referring to it as “sides”! I’m a mess!) and worry that Berlinger is going to either struggle with fiction…or do it a little toooo well, if you know what I mean.
‘Surviving R. Kelly’ Producer Dream Hampton Talks R. Kelly Sentencing, #MeToo “Blowback” and Her Hopes for Future Legal Action [The Hollywood Reporter]
This interview is interesting because Hampton clearly views the outcome of the case with some ambivalence, and continues to struggle with how it played out:
Hampton says Kelly deserved the 30-year sentence, but adds that she doesn’t believe the U.S. prison system is a place for rehabilitation or restorative justice for victims and survivors.
“I think this is an incredibly broken justice system,” Hampton says. “In the world where I’ve lived most of my life, in America as a Black person, I don’t always look to this criminal justice system for actual justice.”
And that’s a wrap on July 2022, folks! We’ll see you back here on Monday for our weekly subscriber only issue. Until then, we hope you’ll consider supporting our hard work on Best Evidence with a paid subscription — and to those of you who already do, thanks so much.
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