June 19, 2023

Putting the "duh" back in "double indemnity"

Plus monumental protests and missing caskets

the true crime that's worth your time

A happy Juneteenth to all! A truncated edition today to honor the holiday — but while I’ve got y’all here, if you have any Juneteenth-centric reading you’d like to share with us/your fellow readers, don’t hesitate! (Docs and pods always welcome too, of course; the Smithsonian has provided this list, which has its own sales agenda but does look pretty interesting.)

Leave a comment

I’d also love to hear about any genre reads and watches with an LGBTQ+ focus. It’s a tricky ask, at least from a bookshop-owner perspective1, because as garbage-y as a lot of the “relevant” content is at times — overly salacious jacket copy; references to a “lifestyle”; victim-blaming; dead-naming — there’s also the fact that, well, the genre is true crime. The cases often center on vicious hate crimes, plus queer victims don’t always get quite the vigorous investigations and prosecutions cis-het people do, so even a top-notch treatment of a given crime wears on the soul.

I’ll recommend Last Call again (it’s grim, but it keeps things moving), and The Times of Harvey Milk is streaming on Max if you subscribe and haven’t seen that one yet. Anything the rest of us need to read/watch/hear pronto? — SDB

Hearsay

ACTIVISTS PROTEST CONFEDERATE MONUMENTS WITH VIRTUAL BLACK HISTORY MEMORIALS [Southern Poverty Law Center] // Well, this sounds cool as hell:

When Juneteenth revelers walk through the county courthouse plaza in Florence, Alabama, this year, they will be able, for the first time, to see something other than the 20-foot-tall Confederate monument that has dominated the public square since the height of Jim Crow.

The marble statue dedicated in 1903 as an ode to white supremacy will still be there, impervious to years of efforts by local activists first to contextualize it, then to have it removed. But in an act that is part protest, part education, anyone will be able to hold their cellphone up to the statue and, by activating a cutting-edge augmented reality app, see instead a monument come to life of one of several figures essential to the Black historical experience.

More info at the link; I might spend part of the day replacing random trees around my neighborhood with Black-history modules.

A Profile of the Top-Ranked Podcasts in the U.S. [Pew Research Center] // You’ll just never guess which topic is the leader.

A couple wanted to share a burial plot. When the wife died 22 years after him, his body wasn’t there [L.A. Times] // The cemetery claims not to know where Sidney Cooper Sr. is; the family is suing; enter a company spokesperson with a hall-of-shame nothingburger of a statement:

Through a spokesperson, the cemetery said it was working to fix what happened and said the issue occurred under previous ownership.

“Greenwood Memorial Park and Mortuary has proudly and dutifully served families and the San Diego community with care for over 300 years,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement. “While the placement of this family’s loved one occurred over 20 years ago under previous ownership and management, we recently discovered an issue with placement and are diligently working to confirm the placement of the loved one. Our hope is to reunite the loved ones as intended as soon as possible.”

“An issue with placement.” Sure, Jans.

Man Charged With Killing Mother at Sea in Inheritance Scheme Dies in Jail [New York Times] // Nathan Carman, known in some quarters as “Murder Boy,” has died in jail while awaiting his trial, which was set for this coming October. No cause was given by authorities, who are evidently “investigating,” but it seems he left a note or notes for his attorneys.

I noted the case last year, primarily as an example of editorial laxity on Airmail’s part; the NYT gives a solid overview of the charges against Carman, who is also suspected of having killed his grandfather and whose aunts sued to prevent him from inheriting any money after his mother’s disappearance. If the full truth ever somehow comes out about any of Carman’s (alleged) dastardly deeds, the story has all the hallmarks of a Skye Borgman three-parter, but it might have to compete for Borgman’s attention with the fall of the House of Orsini…

Accused in Missing Man’s Grisly Killing: His Ex-Wife and Her Husband [NYT] // Steven Kraft disappeared three years ago. Last week, Jamie — Kraft’s ex-wife — and Nicholas Orsini were arrested on carjacking and conspiracy charges connected to Kraft’s disappearance. From the Times’s account of investigators’ theory of the crime:

Just before 9 p.m., Mr. Orsini, 35, drove Mr. Kraft’s car along the same route he had rehearsed just days before and left it on a street corner near the Newburgh waterfront. He then walked about a mile to a gas station, where he used a $100 bill to buy an energy drink and called a taxi back to Beacon from a burner phone.

Over the next several days, the complaint says, the Orsinis bought more burner phones, conducted suspicious Google searches — including “is galvanized steel fire-proof” — and bought materials that could be used to chop up and burn a body, including 31-gallon galvanized steel trash cans, an angle grinder, an ax and 16 bundles of firewood.

It would sound like a parody of a docuseries pitch — or a Coen brothers plot — if the Orsinis hadn’t (…allegedly) gone through with it. One legit amusing aspect of the coverage, though, is how many of the headlines call the Orsinis’ plot “sophisticated.” Cl…early not, just based on the search terms they’re said to have used after the alleged crime; “of byzantine complexity” is not exactly the same thing.

That the plot unfolded in Beacon, NY — an upstate town out of central casting that features several excellent bookstores — and features, among other goofy things, a Jets hoodie is the kind of detail genre producers must dream of, on one hand. On the other, sometimes even the Borgmans of the cultural world struggle to get more than 20 minutes out of “assholes weren’t as smart as they thought.” — SDB

Coming up on Best Evidence: Fugitive heiresses, seventies copaganda, and much more.

What is this thing? This should help. Follow Best Evidence @bestevidencefyi on Instagram, email us at editorial at bestevidence dot fyi, or call or text us any time at 919-75-CRIME.