Princeton Preppy Murder · Abducted in Plain Sight · Bear Brook
Plus: Paul Holes and more Linda Fairstein shenanigans.
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Bill Skarsgård will take the lead in Gilded Rage, the big screen adaptation of the Princeton Preppy Murder. As we discussed earlier (in our first-ever issue, in fact!), Jake Gyllenhaal is working with Conde Nast to adapt Vanity Fair’s 2015 investigations into the slaying of investment banker Thomas Gilbert Sr. for the big screen, prompting many to wonder if the 38-year-old star was planning to play (at the time of the crime) recent Princeton grad Thomas Gilbert Jr.
Jr.’s patricide trial is currently underway in Manhattan Supreme Court, where his lawyers are arguing that he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and compulsive disorder. He’s apparently got little sympathy from the public, if this Page Six account from a few days ago is to be believed -- according to the piece, “high-society types who knew Gilbert” worry that the film will “glamorize” Gilbert Jr. According to one unnamed source (so, grain of salt!), “It’s so upsetting. Tommy can’t be the victim in this film -- people need to remember he was a monster -- a calculating, rage-filled psychopath.”
Perhaps that anonymous commentator will be assuaged at the news that the 28-year-old Skarsgård, who presumably got the “calculating, rage-filled psychopath” thing down while playing Pennywise the clown in It, will take on the the Jr. role. (I’ll also note that he nailed “rich asshole who might be mentally ill in addition to being a vampire or something” in Hemlock Grove, a show which has no relationship to true crime but I will recommend for the addictive properties of its first season.) I guess since we can’t go back in a time machine and get a 20-something Scott Speedman, this’ll have to do. -- EB
A second settlement with the Central Park Five has just been revealed. The Daily News reports that in addition to the $41 million awarded to Raymond Santana, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Kevin Richardson, and Korey Wise following their 2014 wrongful conviction suit against New York city, in 2016 the state of New York settled another suit with the men for a total of $3.9 million.
Of that, $500,000 went to Santana, $600,000 to McCray, Salaam and Richardson received $650,000 each, and Wise, who served almost twice as much jail time as the other men, was awarded $1.5 million. “I understand people say it’s a lot of money. The reality is there’s no amount of money that would adequately compensate them,” says Jonathan Moore, an attorney who worked on both suits. “They’ve suffered every day since 1989 and they’re still suffering.” -- EB
Jan Broberg says that it’s unfair for Abducted In Plain Sight viewers to blame her parents for her disappearance. The Blotter Presents has covered the Netflix doc twice -- once in a Brief, and again when Sarah interviewed director Skye Borgman. In an interview with People, Broberg (the titular abductee) defended her parents, who she says “are victims also.” Her folks were “the most wonderful, loving parents on the planet,” Broberg says, and says that her abductor, Robert Berchtold, “was at fault. He was masterful and premeditated… When people don’t see it that way, he wins -- and that’s hard for me. He should not be winning.” -- EB
Murder Squad host Paul Holes is hitting the road to promote his new Oxygen series on unsolved crimes. Holes, who as a Contra Costa County cold case investigator was involved in the Golden State Killer case, is pushing The DNA of Murder with Paul Holes. In the show, Holes will dive “into cold cases to analyze the violent interaction between the offender and the victim, exploring not only the physical DNA left behind but the emotional ‘DNA’ as well,” the network says via a less-than-scientifically-minded press release. He was at CrimeCon this past weekend to support the show, which has yet to announce a premiere date. You can see some of his appearance in the video above. -- EB
Another day, another Linda Fairstein item. At a PGA panel this past weekend, When They See Us producer Jane Rosenthal said that the makers of the show attempted to involve Fairstein with the series, even emailing with the real-life prosecutor in the Central Park Five case. But Fairstein reportedly refused to participate, as Rosenthal says “her point of view was that she didn’t want us talking to her if we were talking to the five men.” -- EB
There’s a bit of a credit scuffle breaking out between fans of the Bear Brook podcast and the New York Times. The podcast on a series of New Hampshire slayings made headlines this week for its role in the identification of three victims in the case -- according to amateur detective Rebekah Heath, it was the New Hampshire Public Radio pod that spurred her to continue her investigation into the case, eventually gathering information that led police to ID the deceased. Meanwhile, the NYT’s The Daily podcast discussed the case across multiple episodes last week, but didn’t mention the Bear Brook podcast at all. Ira Glass, and many other folks, suggested that Daily host Michael Barbaro give it a listen (or perhaps a nod), as (per film and TV director Chris Swartout) “it is a brilliant podcast, easily the best true crime one I have ever listened to.” -- EB
Wednesday on Best Evidence: It’s the 100th episode of The Blotter Presents! Party horn emoji goes here. Plus a potential true crime show set in New Orleans, and some dirt on Operation Varsity Blues. Let’s just say, I don’t want their lives.
What is this thing? This should help.
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