Kim Kardashian · Adnan Syed · Chess
Are you watching 'The Watcher'?
the true crime that's worth your time
I almost gave in to The Watcher last night. The main thing that stopped me was my desire to get to bed at a reasonable hour, so I opted for Abbott Elementary over the Ryan Murphy adaptation of Reeves Wiedeman’s 2018 New York mag story, which now goes by the SEO-optimized hed “The Watcher: The True Story of the Haunting of 657 Boulevard.”
I’ll probably watch it tonight, though, as the mac and cheese I’ve pre-assembled bubbles away in my oven. (I do an adaptation — see, Murphy, you’re not the only one who adapts! — of this recipe, with smoked sharp cheddar and a full teaspoon of Frank’s Red Hot sted the 1/4 hot sauce recommended.) Because, why not, it feels vaguely Halloween-y (likely intended) and like light-lift fun.
But I can already tell it’s not a faithful retelling of what appears to have been a genuine — and legitimately scary — stalking case. And maybe that’s fine? I doubt that anyone watching Netflix cares all that much about accuracy, when they’ve got Bobby Cannavale up there filling out a suit. (Vanity Fair has a golden era of People mag-level piece on the feature; if you’re on the fence about watching it might push you one way or another. [“We’re also talking about it on Extra Hot Great next week, if that influences you!” — SDB])
The other true crime property I mean to dive into this weekend, after a couple weeks of procrastination, is Kim Kardashian’s podcast, The System. It’s three episodes in and has already generated praise from pubs like the Guardian for its focus on the case of Kevin Keith, who was convicted of a triple homicide in 1994 and has maintained his innocence ever since.
The show has already generated controversy: Quanita and Quentin Reeves, who were also shot in the slayings (they were kids at the time), say the show’s producers never contacted them for their side of the story, and that Keith is guilty.
It’s an assertion picked up by numerous websites, but the System’s producers told TMZ last week that “The production team of The System made multiple attempts to reach out to the Reeves siblings. At the time, they decided not to share their story and requested we no longer contact them.” The door’s publicly open for them to participate in the podcast now, so I’m interested to see if they walk through it.
In the meantime, I do want to listen to this show because, let’s face it, if this was just a Kardashian empire-building play, Kim wouldn’t do a podcast about a three-decade-old homicide, she’d do one about what it’s like to be Kim Kardashian. This is clearly an issue of import for the mogul, and I’m curious to see what was compelling enough to divert her from her more lucrative pursuits.
Now, you go. What true crime are you up for this weekend? — EB
Let’s catch up with the Jeff German case. As you all know, the slaying of the Las Vegas true crime author and reporter is an obsession of mine, so I’ve been saving links from the investigation for a day like today.
How a Las Vegas newsroom set out to solve a colleague’s killing [Washington Post]
It doesn’t seem like the suspect in German’s slaying worked too hard to cover their tracks, so it’s a stretch to say that reporters with the Las Vegas Review-Journal solved the crime: but they were neck-and-neck with the cops as the hunt for the killer kicked into gear. This is a fascinating tick-tock of how the newsroom gumshoes got their alleged guy.
Metro begins to release footage from scene of Jeff German’s killing [Las Vegas Review-Journal]
The footage doesn’t tell us much, as this is well after he was killed — it is, however, an solid peek into how officials actually approach crime scenes. Needless to say, CSI: Original Flavor gets it all wrong.
Judge keeps slain Vegas reporter’s files protected, for now [Associated Press]
This story finds the Review-Journal at odds with the cops: Prosecutors and police say they need access to everything German was working on to build a case against his alleged killer; but the paper asserts that German’s notes contain confidential information that is protected under journalistic shield laws.
A judge agreed Tuesday that officials can’t access German’s records until both sides of the discussion find a way that keeps everything unrelated to the case out of law enforcement hands. It’s an unexpected twist in the case, and a potentially precedent-setting one. Keep an eye on this to see how things play out.
With Serial out of the Adnan Syed business, it’s up to HBO to pick up the slack. The seminal podcast tweeted that it was done covering the story earlier this week, news likely welcome to those frustrated by how the first season of the podcast has aged (aka Sarah, among others). But HBO docuseries The Case Against Adnan Syed is hopping back into the pool, director Amy Berg tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Sarah and I discussed this series a couple years ago on The Blotter Presents, where I recall being fairly meh about it. Berg, for her part, says it had “the most unsatisfying ending of any film I’ve ever made.”
Obviously, just because Berg’s series ended didn’t mean Syed’s case did, and with his release Berg sees a chance to finally gain satisfaction, it seems. In fact, she “has been filming a follow-up episode to the series since early 2021 with “exclusive access” to Syed; she was tweeting pictures from the Baltimore courthouse on the day when his conviction was vacated and was also filming on Tuesday, after receiving an early tip about the news.”
An important thing to note — especially since this item follows the Kardashian podcast item — is that Hae Min Lee’s survivors still won’t be participants. From Berg:
What happened that day was the hearing was set and there were conversations that had been had between the City State’s Attorney’s office and Hae Min Lee’s family. There was a lot of back and forth over how much notice they were given, and whether they were going to make a statement, they had the right to make a statement.
So eventually after their attorney was heard, we took a recess and then Hae Min Lee’s brother, Young Lee, spoke on the Zoom at the hearing. He said something that really struck me: He said that the state had always been on his side and now they’re on Adnan’s side. Which just tells you a lot about the relationship between the state and the Lee family and what they’ve been telling them. Because the state is supposed to be on the side of justice and if there was a wrongful conviction, or if the wrong person was convicted of murdering Hae Min Lee, then justice needs to still be done.
So that is my way of saying that I don’t think we will be able to speak with them. Of course, we’ll reach out to them again, but I think they just really feel that Adnan did it based on whatever they’ve been told for all these 23 years. Despite all the new evidence that we discovered when I was making the film, which was actually referenced in the vacatur hearing — they referenced two pieces of evidence that came from our film as evidence of Adnan’s innocence.
It’s unclear when the new pieces of The Case Against Adnan Syed will be released, but another thing to note is that Berg says “we’ll hopefully have something finished by the end of the year.” — EB
Everybody’s writing about chess cheating these days, so we’ll send you off on your weekend with two of the best.
Chess Investigation Finds That U.S. Grandmaster ‘Likely Cheated’ More Than 100 Times [Wall Street Journal]
It’s possible that you won’t be able to read this piece from here, as the WSJ’s paywall is notoriously hard to scale. (Check your Apple news, if you have it — a lot of the paper’s articles are published there.)
An investigation into Niemann’s play—conducted by Chess.com, an online platform where many top players compete—has found the scope of his cheating to be far wider and longer-lasting than he publicly admitted.
The report, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, alleges that Niemann likely received illegal assistance in more than 100 online games, as recently as 2020. Those matches included contests in which prize money was on the line. The site uses a variety of cheating-detection tools, including analytics that compare moves to those recommended by chess engines, which are capable of beating even the greatest human players every time.
The report states that Niemann privately confessed to the allegations, and that he was subsequently banned from the site for a period of time.
The Hans Niemann Report [Chess.com]
For chess superfans only, this is the full 72-page report the WSJ explained in the article above, which accuses Niemann of a longstanding pattern of fraud and cheating.
A Non-Exhaustive History Of The Theory And Practice Of Cheating In Chess [Defector]
Honestly, this is the fun one. If you only have time to read one chess cheating story, this is it.
Because it is a physically simple and mentally intricate game, chess is insulated from a variety of the more outré cheating methodologies. Nobody is going to de-inflate their opponent’s queen or guzzle illicit steroids, since the game has no physical element. But that doesn’t mean the history of chess is any less riddled with scandals and cheaters.
On the contrary, the history of chess is inextricable from the history of cheating in chess. Cheating is much easier now than it used to be, and since a cheating scandal at the highest level of the game has ignited into a genuinely global news story, it seems useful to contextualize the Hans Niemann vs. Magnus Carlsen imbroglio within chess’s rich, outrageous lore, and also explain the mechanics of how it works. Some methods of cheating—making illegal moves, agreeing to draw or lose to an opponent to manipulate a bracket—are boring. Almost all the other methods of cheating are interesting.
Your move, Best Evidence readers! See you on Monday. — EB
Next week on Best Evidence: Guess I should review that Kim K podcast, huh?
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