Eugène · Cops · eBay
Plus, crime-predicting algorithms!
the true crime that's worth your time
A new animated film tells the true-crime tale of a transman who was accused of murder. Variety reports that Eugène, an upcoming movie from a French animation house, is about Eugene Falleni, who was arrested in 1920 for allegedly killing his wife.
Though Falleni’s gender identity was male, his assigned sex at birth was female, which, as you can imagine, was no picnic in the early 1900s. The Wikipedia entry on his life is completely fascinating (and, based on that reading alone, I could go either way on the homicide allegations), and he’s been the subject of multiple other true-crime properties, including Eugenia: A true story of Adversity, Tragedy, Crime and Courage (apologies for the dead-naming, I saw no way around it).
Director Anaïs Caura tells Variety that Eugène “resonates very clearly with what we’re seeing today, with questions of trans identity, tolerance, and the impact of a society on one’s personal life.” It’s expected to wrap in 2023. — EB
Vanity Fair has the most fascinating set of true-crime-related videos. As I attempted to YouTube myself to sleep last night, I stumbled onto the glossy mag’s stash of “fact check” videos, all of which tackle dramatic crime properties (some based on fact, some not) and compare the fiction with the truth.
They are so good, especially if you are a hall monitor like me. The money-laundering one (above) just dropped last night, but there are also lawyers who call out courtroom dramas and even a former jewel thief poised to ruin the Ocean’s movies for you. You can find them all here, just keep scrolling until you get to the “True Crime” section. — EB
The Hollywood Reporter talked to several prominent true-crime documentarians about how they got their stories. Of particular interest are stories that pivoted as the films were in production: for example, when Geno McDermott started work on Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez, Hernandez had just been convicted; little did McDermott know he’d end up with a story about sexual orientation, CTE, and suicide. Or there’s Rebecca Chaiklin, who — it’s very clear if you think about it — wasn’t looking for true crime when she started work on Tiger King.
The whole article is interesting, and contains quotes from a lot of the year’s biggest names. Is this what we get in place of those Sundance TV roundtables? You can read the full report here. — EB
Today in Best Evidence history! Here’s what we were talking about on June 25, 2019:
Why is The Phantom Prince, the memoir by Ted Bundy girlfriend Elizabeth Kloepfer, so hard to find? Back then, copies were going for $999 on Amazon. Now it’s only $150, and the Kindle version is $9.99.
Why do people continue to say that the Central Park Five are guilty?
Elizabeth Holmes got married.
Alabama made their own Son of Sam law.
And more! Here’s the full issue for you to enjoy. Also, wow, we’ve been doing this for more than a year, now? Wow! Thanks to all of you who pay to read this thing, and if you don’t, well…it’s never too late to start!
Lonnngread roundup! Some of these guys have been in my far right tabs for a while, some are fresh and new, but all are delicious! Here’s what we’ve got.
You probably saw coverage of that weird case involving eBay executives who allegedly harassed a couple who wrote an eBay-focused newsletter. (So, yes, I’m invested.) The Wall Street Journal, which is expensively paywalled, published the definitive deep dive on this extremely bizarre tale today. I know you’re probably not a subscriber, and I just asked you to subscribe to this thing so the last thing I’m going to do is give you a link to a sketchy website that steals that paper’s reporting. HOWEVER, the WSJ has a deal right now where two months of access is $1, so set a Google Calendar alert to cancel, pony up that Washington, and there you go.
Do we care about “how cops are talking about George Floyd’s killing and the protests sweeping America”? Maybe? That’s Slate’s assumption, at least, so they talked to seven current and former cops, not all of whom use their full or real names, so get that grain of salt ready. It’s definitely a good read, but is it a truthful one? You be the judge.
As a fan of the movie Minority Report, I am minorly obsessed with Pine and Oats cereal and how we’re tracked for good, evil, and advertising. This Vice piece, headlined “Over 1,000 AI Experts Condemn Racist Algorithms That Claim to Predict Crime,” scratches that tracking itch. When people from places like MIT, Harvard, and Google say a crime-prediction app is racist and evil, you’ve got to assume that they know of what they speak. — EB
Friday on Best Evidence: Cops and their food problems, what’s going on there?
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