Girls · In The Dark · Oscar Isaac
Plus: Guess Eve's Kurt Vonnegut theory was wrong
the true crime that's worth your time
Because there isn’t enough content with “Girl” in the name (more on that in a second)… Keith Morrison/Dateline’s latest podcast kicked off Tuesday, a look at the 23-year-cold slaying of Michelle O’Keefe, a college student killed as she was “on her way home from appearing in a Kid Rock music video,” per Wikipedia.
Wikipedia, in fact, has a short and sweet recap of the twisty case, which includes a conviction and 11-years-later exoneration of an Iraq-war veteran accused of her death. That means that The Girl in the Blue Mustang — as the podcast is monikered — has something for two camps of those interested in true crime: the classic, America’s Most Wanted-style element of a beautiful young woman gone too soon; and for pinkos like Sarah and me, the wrongful conviction/prosecutorial shenanigans coda.
There’s also a promised meta element, if the press release on the show’s advent is to be believed: The show, which is hosted by Morrison, also explains “how a Dateline viewer changed the course of the case.”
Folks who subscribe to “Dateline Premium” (which, I don’t know what that is and don’t care to find out) have had access to the show for a week, us regular slobs got the first two episodes yesterday, with four more launching weekly after that. And if you’re curious about what any of the folks on this show look like, NBC has you covered/is handling that SEO: here’s a photo “Who’s Who” of the boldfaced names, which gives us a little hint about the Dateline viewer in question, an “autodidactic polymath who watched a repeat of Dateline one night and was troubled.” If all it takes to meet Keith Morrison is to be troubled by an episode of Dateline, maybe we all need to start lining up now! — EB
While we’re talking about “girls”…as promised in a BE from last month, a show called Mean Girl Murders hit screens this week. The ID series, presented as “the inner workings of cutthroat cliques, vicious backbiting and cruel intentions,” kicked off on Monday with the death of an Indiana high schooler, a slaying presented with problematically breathless writing by the Investigation Discovery marketing folks.
But if you’re interested in the case after watching, local broadcast covered the death of 17-year-old Stacy DeGrandchamp quite well, revealing in the process that the so-called mean “girl” accused of stabbing her classmate to death was 35 when she was arrested. In 2021, Holly Boisvert pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter: clearly a plea deal, as when arrested her charge was murder. Instead, she was sentenced to 25 years, and according to Indiana’s department of corrections, will be eligible for release on 3/25/2030. — EB
Nearly nine months after the abrupt cancellation of award-winning podcast In The Dark, the show has been picked up by Conde Nast. I guess the lead image to this item sort of gave that away — as you can see, the show’s branding across various podcast apps now reflects its new ties to the New Yorker, one of the publishing giant’s various brands.
As you likely recall, last June, Minnesota Public Radio shocked listeners by shutting the Peabody-recognized pod down, saying then that the decision followed “a thoughtful assessment of our portfolio.” Best Evidence pal Skye Pillsbury took a deep dive on how and why the show was killed in her Substack, The Squeeze: The show was mid-production on its third season when it was killed, eight staffers were laid off, and MPR said the show was shuttered so it could focus more on “topics that connect with audiences.” If you’re shaking your head with dismay remembering all this, you’re not the only one.
But that dismay can abate, I’m happy to say: as announced last week, Conde Nast and The New Yorker now own all of In The Dark’s past episodes, and hired its staff, including co-creators Madeleine Baran and Samara Freemark. (Neither side is saying how much the series was purchased for, but maybe Skye can find that out for us, too!)
It’s unclear what will happen with that abortive third season, as all the reporting around the acquisition focuses on a “new” season that will involve NYer staff. I’m curious to see how else the show will change under its new ownership, too.
I’ve certainly seen some folks grousing that the investigative series will lose its teeth under its glitzy ownership; when your Global Chief Content Officer is Anna Wintour, that’s going to come with the territory, I suppose. But I’d urge those folks to temper their concern, as 1) otherwise it would just be dead due to whatever the hell is up at MPR and 2) Conde is actually home to a couple legitimately great shows, including the NYer’s other audio products, Vanity Fair’s many podcasts, and Condé Nast Traveler’s unabashedly feminist Women Who Travel. Honestly, I think it really might be an OK home for In The Dark. We’ll keep you posted on any upcoming seasons, and if Skye uncovers any dirt on how the series changed hands, we’ll point you to that, too. — EB
It’s unfortunate placement that after I make that assertion about In The Dark I issue a mea culpa. In January of 2021 (my god, how was it that long ago??) I noted a bit of industry news around an upcoming true-crime drama on author Kurt Vonnegut’s involvement in the Tony Costa case. Here’s what I wrote:
Robert Downey Jr. and wife Susan Downey just snapped up the TV rights to Helltown, an as-yet unpublished novel with a true-crime thrust. Not to be confused with the Travel Channel movie of the same name, according to Boston.com the book is about Kurt Vonnegut and Norman Mailer’s “shared obsession with Provincetown serial killer Antone ‘Tony’ Costa, who was convicted of murdering two women in Provincetown in 1969,” dubbed the Cape Cod Vampire by prosecutors. As I type this, I am remembering how much I love Downey when he goes super-dark. I don’t know if there’s a place for him to do that in this show, but here’s hoping.
I promptly forgot about the whole thing, failing to notice a year and a half later when author Casey Sherman’s book finally dropped. The New York Journal of Books gave it an acerbic review, noting that the yarn “is a concoction of fact and fiction, filled with invented dialogue, reflecting [Sherman’s] belief (as expressed in an author’s note) that a work of fact can benefit from ‘elements of fiction storytelling.’” “The Vonnegut and Mailer stuff is totally irrelevant,” it says, and the book overall is a “lackluster disappointment.” Perhaps this is why it passed by me when it was released!
All that aside, the series continues to move forward, Variety noted this week, with a plan to stream it on Amazon. But while the Downeys continue on as producers (as they are on many properties), my theory that RDJ was circling the Vonnegut role is apparently a huge pile of crap.
Instead, it’s Oscar Isaac who’s in talks to play the Slaughterhouse-5 author, though no official decision has been publicly announced. What we do know is that the series will run eight episodes (which already feels like too many to me), and that Mohamad El Masri (Severance) will lead the writing and Ed Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front) will direct.
I don’t know how I feel about Isaac as Vonnegut; he’s remarkably versatile, but anyone who ever met Vonnegut can tell you that his imposing height (he was 6’ 2” but felt taller) was a significant part of his persona, Meanwhile, Oscar Isaac’s height is listed as 5’ 9'“, which means he’s probably 5’ 7”; I can’t think of a single role he’s ever played where he wasn’t serving major short-guy energy.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as some of my best friends are short guys! But, as Mailer was short, too (around 5’ 8”, folks say), I always wondered if part of their rivalry centered around height. (This is boy-world stuff I’m not qualified to dive into too deeply, but every man I know, and I’m counting successful and famous ones, seems to base a lot of their self-image around how tall they stand.) Can Oscar Isaac convince us that he’s looming over whoever ends up playing Mailer without wearing Drag Race-level platforms? — EB
Thursday on Best Evidence: Sarah’s last issue for over a week, as she’s taking next week off to celebrate her birthday! So get your wishes into her early when you get tomorrow’s BE in your inbox…and please do send me any extra tips, items ideas, etc. for next week’s issues, since I’ll be on my own.
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