Heist 88 · YouTube · Dianne Feinstein
Plus: A Mississippi sheriff accused of misconduct? Say it ain't so, Joe.
the true crime that's worth your time
This weekend is a reminder not to sleep on Showtime. Sarah often reminds us that the Pepsi to HBO’s Coke produces some solid true-crime documentary projects — and Heist 88, based on its kinetic trailer, might be an adaptation worth some of our precious weekend…or not (more on that in a second).
The film (god bless you, Heist 88, for being a movie instead of a series) dropped today, with a cast that includes Courtney B. Vance and Keith David. The case its based on is surprisingly hard to Google, even in these days of content farming for every possible search on a subject (is that a sign of an expected lack of audience?), but the Chicago Sun-Times comes through:
Armand Moore was a common swindler with an uncommon ability to lure the law-abiding into doing his bidding — tempting them with dreams of owning Rolls-Royces, Rolex watches and lots and lots of cash.
And Moore — known as “The Chairman” — very nearly pulled off the heist of all bank heists in Chicago back in 1988, undone in the end by greed.
Moore’s name is changed to Jeremy Horne in the film, and director Menhaj Huda says that “the actual story wasn’t as relevant to him because the ending is very different from how the movie concludes.” But if you’re interested in the real story, Moore has a memoir, and this UPI story from 1989 recaps the case pretty succinctly:
The government claims that on May 13, 1988 -- a Friday -- Taylor, who worked in the bank's wire room, sent $24,375,000 from a Merrill Lynch account; $19,750,000 from a Brown-Foreman distilleries account and $25 million from the account of United Airlines to Austria via New York. The three transactions took just under one hour.
Moore, posing as various executives from the companies, allegedly ordered the transfers by phone from Bailey's South Side home.
The seven were arrested one week later after a United Airlines official discovered a massive overdraft on its account.
The Showtime version isn’t getting the best reviews, I’m afraid. Here’s a roundup, the punny headlines tell it all:
‘Heist 88’ Review: A Chicago Bank Robbery Phoned In [WSJ gift link]
‘Heist 88’: Drab Chicago crime thriller just robs you of your time [Chicago Sun-Times]
‘Heist 88’ Review: Courtney B. Vance Rounds Up a Crew for an Extremely Unimpressive Bank Robbery [Variety]
I’m going to give this one 20 minutes, and if I’m not engaged I’ll move on.
Two shows that dropped earlier this week are worth considering. I already mentioned Savior Complex here and on The Docket, and believe its three episodes are worth a look. There’s also docuseries 72 Seconds in Rittenhouse Square, which is available now on Paramount+. That project is about a controversial and troubling Philly stabbing case from 2018; the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote a nice piece about it this week.
The series was released with less fanfare than I’d expect, which suggests a lack of confidence from the network, but who the hell knows? I’m going to give it 20 minutes, too, and will keep going if it feels worth it.
I do think more of my time will go to rereading old coverage of the early days of Dianne Feinstein’s career. The 90-year-old senator died this morning, after what some suggest was years of failing health. Like many people on my side of the aisle, I’ve spent those years frustrated with Feinstein, who remained in power long after she probably should have.
These recent years made it hard to recall her heroism in the wake of the chilling, hateful assassinations in San Francisco’s city hall in 1978. You’ve seen Milk, you’ve probably even made wisecracks about the so-called “Twinkie Defense.” But watch that video above, where the then president of the city’s Board of Supervisors announces the case. Listen to the shocked reactions of the onlookers and media. Look at how she maintained, so soon after discovering Milk’s body and narrowly missing his killer, Dan White.
I asked Sarah if people outside the Bay Area think of Feinstein as a true crime figure, and she suggested stalwarts of the genre — that is, folks like you here — probably do. This bit from Feinstein’s Washington Post obit implies her early experiences set her on a road where crime and violence was always in the margins:
Mrs. Feinstein’s centrism dated to the earliest years of her political career. Her elevation to the office of mayor came on the heels of upheaval, including the mass suicide at Jonestown in Guyana — many followers of cult leader Jim Jones were from San Francisco — and attacks by the New World Liberation Front terrorist group, which placed a bomb outside the bedroom window of Mrs. Feinstein’s daughter. For a time, Mrs. Feinstein owned a handgun.
“The lesson Dianne took from this craziness was that she had been right — that all this polarization and bitterness that was extant in the town had now led to these murders,” her biographer, Jerry Roberts, once told the New Yorker magazine, referring to the assassinations of Moscone and Milk. “That’s when she started talking about how the center is so important.”
Of all the legislation that crossed Mrs. Feinstein’s Senate desk, the bill with which she was most associated was the assault weapons ban that President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1994. The uphill effort showcased Mrs. Feinstein at her most determined. When a more senior senator, Larry Craig (R-Idaho), questioned her experience on gun issues, she reminded him that she had become mayor of San Francisco as a result of a double assassination. “I know something about what firearms can do,” she said.
This is the Feinstein I want to remember this weekend, not the one of the last few years. So I’m going to be reading reporting from her time as Mayor, leading a San Francisco reeling from multiple tragedies.
What about you? What true crime is on your plate this fine fall weekend? — EB
New Clues Could Solve Case of the Dutch Girl Lost in Africa [The Daily Beast]
The death of 21-year-old Dutch medical student Sophia Koetsier was initially blamed on an animal attack, but family members continued to push for DNA testing of evidence from the scene. Now it’s possible that “at least one unknown male, but likely more, have left DNA on the various pieces of evidence,'“ this piece reports. It’s a good breakdown of what appears to be a seriously bungled investigation, further complicated by the challenging cultural dynamics of a white woman who disappears in the wilderness of Uganda. — EB
The Sheriff, His Girlfriend and His Illegal Subpoenas [New York Times gift link]
Bryan Bailey, the sheriff of Rankin County, Miss. “tapped into the power of a grand jury at least eight times over a year to spy on his married girlfriend and the school employee with whom she was also ‘unfaithful,’” an investigation by the Times and the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting at Mississippi Today claims. “Please keep this confidential between you and I,” he wrote in one subpoena note. It’s “and me,” pal.
Before you blow this off as another small-town bad cop bullshit story, know that Congress member Michael Guest, the chairman of the House Committee on Ethics, is also a player in this yarn; this is also the same department where just last month, six former officers Six white former law enforcement officers pleaded guilty to “state charges tied to a home raid they conducted in which prosecutors said they beat and tortured two Black men.” OK, I’m ready for a “Rotten in Rankin County” docuseries and/or podcast now, thank you! — EB
He live-streamed his attacks on Indian Muslims. YouTube gave him an award. [Washington Post gift link]
This longread on Hindu vigilante Monu Manesar’s YouTube fame is part true crime, part tech report, and part cultural explainer — so while you might have a great understanding of one of those areas of interest, it’s unlikely you understand them all. This is a sweeping longread on how seeming internet endorsement emboldens and validates criminal activities, so good luck, word, as with X (formerly Twitter) as it is now, we might see a lot more cases like this one. — EB
Monday on Best Evidence: This month’s budget-doc sweep is one for the books. Buckle in!
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