R Kelly · Charles Manson · Doordash
Plus: Odd podcast behavior
the true crime that's worth your time
Two true crime-adjacent properties have passed to new owners. First, there’s the LaBianca house, which “ghost hunter” Zak Bagans bought in 2019, reportedly to film a Manson-related show. The plan for that has apparently tanked, and Bagans put the spot on the market last October. Now, according to Newsmax, the Los Feliz home where followers of Charles Manson killed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in 1969 has sold for $1.875 million after multiple price cuts. Bagans bought the residence in September 2019 for $1,889,000, so that’s a bit of a loss for him.
In other crime real-estate news, the New York Post reports that R Kelly’s Atlanta home, which was characterized in a 2017 Buzzfeed report as the epicenter of his alleged “sex cult,” has sold for $2.1 million. According to women who claim they were victimized by Kelly, they were held in the residence against their will, and required to ask permission to do things like eat or “use one of the home’s eight bathrooms.” Meanwhile, Kelly remains in jail in Chicago, where he awaits trial. — EB
You might recall this headline from last year about a Doordash delivery driver who was carjacked while dropping off an order. Jeffrey Fang’s story made national news because his kids were in the car when the thieves took off with it — and his plight (he said he couldn’t afford childcare on the wages Doordash pays, which is why he had to ferry orders to upscale neighborhoods with his kids in back) briefly ignited a discussion on how these apps treat their workers. And then, silence.
Now Wired has a deep dive on Fang’s life, and breaks down exactly how Fang ended up on that Pacific Heights street back in February. This isn’t your typical true-crime narrative; it’s a twisty tale of aspiration, family pressures, and technology. Here’s a snip:
Now, in the mornings, Fang shepherded face-masked students to their private elementary schools for Kango, a hailing app for kids. By the late afternoon, he was delivering for DoorDash. He was eking out just over $800 a week before expenses, better than the federal poverty line for a family of five but well below San Francisco’s. Nearing 40, Fang’s hair was flecked with gray. He started tapping into his savings for living expenses.
Fang had taken the kids out on his deliveries twice before, to give his wife a break. His cars had been broken into in the past, but now he only delivered in wealthy neighborhoods, and he hadn’t yet heard about the carjackings that were skyrocketing during the pandemic. So, on February 6, he brought the kids to work again.
On a pizza delivery, Fang parked his Odyssey in front of a stately art deco apartment building near Billionaires’ Row. His 21-month-old was quiet, probably sleeping. He didn’t lock the minivan or turn off the engine, as doing so would cut off Shrek 2, which was entertaining his 4-year-old daughter in the back seat. He’d be gone less than a minute. Fang darted inside, dropping the pizzas in front of a ground-floor door. When he walked out, he saw a man with long curly hair sitting in the Odyssey’s driver’s seat.
You can read the whole story here. — EB
A guy who appeared on The Vanished to discuss his wife’s disappearance has now been arrested for her death. WBNS reports that Matheau Moore contacted The Vanished — a podcast about missing persons cases — after the May 24, 2020 disappearance of his wife Emily Noble. He appeared as a guest on an episode of the show, which ran in September of last year.
Even then, researcher Amanda Coleman says, Moore seemed odd. When asked to describe his wife, he said that she has “pretty legs, great arms,” which to Coleman was strange. “Interviewing someone that their spouse is missing, they’re in a state of grief, they’re in a state of desperation,” she says. “There are things that Matt said to me that I have never heard in an interview.”
And apparently police agree, as Moore was arrested last week, and on Friday was charged in Noble’s death. He’s now being held on $2.5 million bond. Authorities have yet to say why they believe Moore appeared on the podcast, which you can listen to above to form your own theories. — EB
Is it time to kill the police blotter? Like me, you probably grew up on blotter-style reporting, either in your local paper or via broadcast radio or TV. But lifelong journalist Doris Truong says that it’s time to drop that kind of journalism in favor of the public good.
We’ve talked about this before, from the eradication of mugshot galleries to AP’s decision not to name suspects accused of minor crimes. But journalists need to do more, Truong says, quoting Kelly McBride, the chair of the the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership.
“Local news reporters have amplified narratives that connect Black and brown communities to crime. As a result, we have fostered systemic racism through our crime coverage,” McBride says, and according to Truong, “it’s within our power as journalists to break that cycle.” A snip:
We don’t need to publicize the crime blotter simply because it fills airtime or generates clicks. We can decide that if we’re covering an arrest, we will follow the case through to its conclusion. We can evenly apply racial descriptors. If a defendant’s race is mentioned, should the prosecutor’s race also be mentioned? What about the race of the judge and the people sitting in the jury box? Every decision we make about the details we include — and what we exclude — sends a message to our audience.
Of course, what she’s asking is tough, given the shrinking staffs and drive for audience attention at most publications. Truong acknowledges at least part of that, saying that “Rewriting information provided by police requires little investment from the reporter, and metrics show that the audience is drawn to briefs about what their neighbors might be doing.”
So what she’s proposing basically requires everyone to play along — or the one publication that operates like it’s still the 1950s will get the lion’s share of the audience, as people will continue to be drawn to blotter-style news as long as it’s on the table. So far, she doesn’t seem to have a solution to propose for that conundrum. Sadly, neither do I. — EB
Wednesday on Best Evidence: Longreads and a Peacock original.
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