R Kelly · Southern Illinois Murders · Robert Chambers
Plus: A state attorney general with a podcast
the true crime that's worth your time
An executive with American Media Inc. allegedly proposed a hidden payoff to R. Kelly. The Daily Beast reports that Dylan Howard, the former editor of the National Enquirer, told a Kelly representative that the company would create a docuseries about Kelly that the publishers would present as “independent.” Then, using “a shell company and “secret licensing agreements,” AMI would pay Kelly for his cooperation, including use of music.
According to recordings reported on by the investigative team of Lloyd Grove, Pervaiz Shallwani, and Tracy Connor, Howard told Kelly rep Don Russell, “Obviously, we would be embedded with you so it’s not as if it really is independent, but it has to be sold to the market as independent.” In a statement sent to TDB, Howard says that the conversation was a “general exploratory discussion” and that “The suggestion that, had a deal been pursued, I would have misrepresented the transaction to potential outlets is both pure speculation and false.”
According to Steven Greenberg, Kelly’s defense attorney, when he asked Kelly for comment on the story, Kelly (who is currently in jail awaiting trial) responded, “I have no fucking idea what you’re talking about. I don’t have any fucking idea. I don’t know anything about it. People are always trying to do stuff—make money, cut a deal, and tell me they got this opportunity.” You can read The Daily Beast’s full investigation here. -- EB
An Illinois couple is growing a social media following via posts on murder sites. Athena and Brice Evans were brought to my attention by WSIL, an ABC affiliate that serves southern Illinois, western Kentucky, and southeast Missouri. According to the station, the pair launched Facebook and Instagram accounts last year to detail infamous local crime scenes.
The couple takes the “time to thoroughly research each murder including looking at old newspapers via microfilm at libraries, going to historical societies, reading books by local historians and talking to those who remember the events,” WSIL reports. As of publication time, their Facebook page has almost 3,000 followers, and their Instagram has even more. (Yup, I followed.) -- EB
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge has launched a true-crime podcast. The show, called Justice with Rutledge, dropped its first episode at the end of October, an interview with state Governor Asa Hutchinson, who as a U.S. Attorney went up against a white supremacist group called The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord.
According to a press release from Rutledge, the show will tell “real stories about our neighbors based on Arkansas facts not Hollywood fiction.” Arkansas Times columnist Max Brantley notes that Rutledge is a likely candidate in the state’s 2022 gubernatorial race, and suggests that the pod is an effort to attract voters to her cause. You can give the show a listen here. -- EB
The Washington Post’s TV reviewer covered The Preppy Murder: A Death In Central Park despite his disgust of true crime. The doc is the topic of tomorrow’s episode of The Blotter Presents, so I’m reserving judgment until I hear what Sarah and guest Piper Weiss think, of course. But that didn’t stop me from guzzling down Washington Post TV critic Hank Stuever’s take on the series, which he says “takes every advantage of our present-day cravings for meticulously paced tales of true crime, an obsession I lately find dispiriting and counterproductive, almost verging on repugnant.”
You have to wonder why someone who’s disgusted by a genre would be enlisted to review it (I wouldn’t ask a Fangoria reviewer to cover a rom-com, would you?), so it’s interesting to watch him wind his way through the story. You can read his take on the series here. --EB
Wednesday on Best Evidence: I just told you! It’s The Blotter Presents Episode 120, which will also look at Killer Legends.
What is this thing? This should help.
Follow The Blotter @blotterpresents on Twitter and Instagram, and subscribe to The Blotter Presents via the podcast app of your choice. You can also call us any time at 919-75-CRIME.