Jeffrey Epstein · Lester Holt · Chanel Miller
Plus: A Confession shakes its audience (in a bad way)
the true crime that's worth your time
A high-profile podcast on the Jeffrey Epstein case will reportedly drop its first episode today. The show’s called Broken: Jeffrey Epstein, and it’s from Adam McKay (the director of The Big Short and Vice) and podcasters Adam Davidson and Laura Mayer (who launched a studio with Sony this summer). Its host is New Yorker staff writer Ariel Levy, and regular appearances by Julie K. Brown -- the Miami Herald reporter whose work seemed to precipitate the financier’s final arrest -- are also promised.
As of Best Evidence time, the first episode has yet to appear on podcasting platforms, but it’s been widely reported that today is the day. Until then, you can check out the trailer for the series, which will run on a weekly basis as it looks “in detail at the case and Mr. Epstein’s connections to the rich and powerful” as well as covers any new developments related to the case. -- EB
@LesterHoltNBC spent 3 days in Angola, where he stayed in a cell block reserved for high-risk offenders and spoke with guards and prisoners about what life is like inside the prison.
More Friday on @DatelineNBC.
#JusticeForAll
Lester Holt spent two nights and three days in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, for a segment on this week’s Dateline NBC. Speaking with the Associated Press, Holt says that the idea that he spend a couple days in the prison casually known as “Angola” -- after the plantation that previously occupied the spot -- came from his colleagues at the NBC newsmagazine show.
“At first, I was like, ‘it’s dangerous,’” Holt said. “This is one of the most notorious prisons of the world, and you want to lock me up? What about safety?” He also worried that it might seem like some sort of stunt, and I get that -- I can certainly imagine a ‘90s-era Geraldo Rivera doing a report like that, can’t you?
Holt says that he continued to feel unsafe throughout the project, only relaxing when the door to his death row cell was locked. Spending time in the prison “taught me a lot about our abilities as human beings to adapt,” Holt says, “because you look at it and think there’s no way I could do that without going crazy. But people figure it out. Prison is its own society and people figure out their own role.” You can see his report from Angola on Dateline’s September 6 episode, which will also run on Sunday, September 8 on MSNBC accompanied by a Holt-moderated town hall meeting inside New York’s Sing Sing prison. Both shows will air at 10 PM. -- EB
Citing motion sickness, some viewers are reportedly turning A Confession off. We’ve discussed the ITV adaptation of the Sian O'Callaghan case before, and viewers in the U.K. got to check out the Martin Freeman-starring drama earlier this week. But viewers prone to seasickness might want to skip the show, if Twitter users like these below are any indication:
According to The Sun, the show’s “continuous zooms” were to blame for the upset, not the show’s troubling subject matter. “The camera work in this show is horrendous - I’ve had a steadier hand in year 9 media studies,” one commentator said, expertly fulfilling the stereotype of the person who took a single class on a topic and now considers themselves an expert. (Stay tuned for my cornbread review site based on my seventh grade home economics experiences.)
Of course, now I’m wondering how shaky it actually is. Are we talking Blair Witch level stuff? If there are any Best Evidence readers out there who watched the show, please report back. -- EB
Chanel Miller is the real name of “Emily Doe,” the woman sexually assaulted by Stanford swimmer Brock Turner. As reported back in June, Miller struck a deal with Viking Books to write a memoir on the high-profile case, but at the time it was unclear if she would reveal her identity or continue to exist under the “Doe” pseudonym. The New York Times first reported that the book -- which is set for a September 24 release date -- will be called Know My Name, which obviously makes continued use of an alias moot.
Miller is set to give her first public interview on an episode of 60 Minutes scheduled for September 22. Meanwhile, as of June 2019, the 23-year-old Turner was (per the Daily Mail) earning $12 an hour as an entry-level employee at cooling technology firm Tark Inc. He reportedly continues to live with his parents in Centerville, Ohio. -- EB
The seventh season of Breakdown will cover the police shooting of unarmed Afghanistan war veteran Anthony Hill. The podcast, which is a product of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, will continue with host Bill Rankin (the paper’s courts and legal affairs reporter) and Christian Boone, the daily’s public safety reporter. The Season 7 trailer was released this week, and the AJC has more information on what to expect this go-round here.
Friday on Best Evidence: A couple Catholic crimes!
What is this thing? This should help.
Follow The Blotter @blotterpresents onTwitter,Facebook, andInstagram, andsubscribe to The Blotter Presents via the podcast app of your choice. You can also call us any time at 919-75-CRIME.