Ron Jeremy · Malcolm X · Gucci
A longread about an allegedly homicidal socialite? Yes, please.
the true crime that's worth your time
The men convicted of the slaying of Malcolm X have been exonerated, and a Netflix series gets part of the credit. A lifetime ago, in February 2020, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance announced that new evidence revealed in docuseries Who Killed Malcolm X? had prompted a review of the case: specifically, that Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam, who were convicted of the civil rights leader’s 1965 assassination, might have been victims of miscarriages of justice.
Now that review has born fruit, the New York Times reports, as Vance will announce today that both men will have “their convictions thrown out,” as “the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York Police Department … had withheld key evidence that, had it been turned over, would likely have led to the men’s acquittal.”
Both men were freed in the 1980s: Aziz got parole in 1985, Islam in 1987 (the latter died in 2009). Mujahid Abdul Halim, who was convicted along side the exonerated men, confessed to the crime at the time of his conviction, but has maintained for decades that the other two were innocent. He, too, has since been released from prison. His conviction stands, but when contacted this week said “God bless you, they’re exonerated.”
From the Times:
A trove of F.B.I. documents included information that implicated other suspects and pointed away from Mr. Islam and Mr. Aziz. Prosecutors’ notes indicate they failed to disclose the presence of undercover officers in the ballroom at the time of the shooting. And Police Department files revealed that a reporter for The New York Daily News received a call the morning of the shooting indicating that Malcolm X would be murdered.
Investigators also interviewed a living witness, known only as J.M., who backed up Mr. Aziz’s alibi, further suggesting that he had not participated in the shooting but had been, as he said at the trial, at home nursing his wounded legs.
…“This wasn’t a mere oversight,” said Deborah Francois, a lawyer for the men. “This was a product of extreme and gross official misconduct.”
If you want to read more, but are stymied by the NYT’s paywall, you can see excellent reports from NPR, Gothamist, and CBS. — EB
The Guardian is wondering if the true-crime genre is “outgrowing the big screen.” House of Gucci’s pending release (November 24 in the U.S.) appears to be the news hook for this essay, which I am still chewing over as I type. Culture writer Danny Leigh argues — I think? — that movies (more specifically, moviemaking) moves too slow for today’s true crime cycle, writing that “Had Maurizio Gucci been gunned down on Via Palestro last week, Netflix would already have the rights and the podcast would be on Spotify.” Here’s a snip:
Consider the classics: Fritz Lang’s trailblazing M sprang out of real child murders; Psycho saw Hitchcock repurpose the grim Ed Gein case. Beyond individual milestones, the very stuff of film storytelling – gangster movies, horror, thrillers, westerns – all grew out of true crime. It is less a sub-genre than the soul of cinema.
The big-screen genre became a sliding scale, from sober documentary to the starry and scandalous. House of Gucci is the latter, of course – a bloody soap.Of course Jared Leto is involved, and already a meme in his velvet suit at the London premiere. The red carpet hijinks feel old-fangled too. At the higher end, true crime now carries itself differently. Stories may still focus on the wealthy and notorious – but only with a certain gravity of purpose.
Take The People v OJ Simpson, 2016’s acclaimed longform dramatisation. Stylistically, it had everything a series gives and a movie cannot. The breathing space of its running time, the episodic structure, room for breadcrumb-trail detail – all this came with streaming and TV, which are perfect for true crime. But there was also a question of tone. After Serial, a bar had been set, whatever the medium. If a project was going to reopen a famous old wound such as, say, the killing of Nicole Brown Simpson, it would also have to widen the lens, humanise the victim, contextualise everything. The mere crime could not be the only story.
I am not so sure about his assertions — like any other kind of narrative, a true crime tale might work better in one medium than another, and that’s fine! There’s no reason that every case is presented best as a feature film, any more than every comic book or novel might be. But maybe I am missing his point? Tell me what you think in the comments, if you please. — EB
A whistleblower who gained national attention for exposing on-camera police abuse has been rejected by his union. Sgt. Javier Esqueda was a significant voice in USA Today’s police misconduct series, Behind the Blue Wall.
In its first installment, he explained to the paper that since he had shared video of his fellow officers at the Joliet Police Department “slapping and cursing a man dying of a drug overdose,” he was ostracized and slapped with criminal charges for “four counts of official misconduct” related to the leak, which union leaders characterized as “reprehensible.”
The Herald-News reports that union president and Joliet police Sgt. Patrick Cardwell said that Esqueda “publicly made slanderous comments against our members on social media and in the press, and our union board has decided to act and bring it to membership for a vote.”
Joliet officials have cleared the officers seen in the video, during which Eric Lurry Jr. was in and out of consciousness as an officer slapped him and called him a "bitch." Esqueda, “heard about the video and was concerned because one of his trainees was involved in the arrest,” USA Today reports. He is the only person facing criminal charges in the case. — EB
You can watch the BBC’s Ron Jeremy: Fall of a Porn Icon on YouTube. How long it will remain, I do not know — it’s unclear to me if the video (embedded above) is an allowed upload. Our friends in the UK/on a VPN can also watch the week-old show on the BBC site.
Here’s a bit of the logline:
It wasn’t until June 2020 that [Jeremy] was arrested and charged with 34 sex crimes against 21 women. He is currently in prison awaiting trial.
This explosive documentary hears for the first time from some of his alleged victims as well as those who helped raise the alarm about him … Jeremy - who has consistently denied all the allegations against him and has pleaded not guilty to all the charges - faces up to 330 years in prison if convicted.
Despite the allegations, he still has many supporters. Some friends and former colleagues believe Jeremy has become the #MeToo fall-guy for the adult industry … This documentary gains unfettered access behind the scenes of the often-secretive adult world and questions what Ron Jeremy’s arrest says about the changing industry.
The refreshingly short doc (31 minutes!) dropped last week and snagged some great reviews, with the Independent calling it “a thrilling reinvention of true-crime documentaries.” Plus, 31 minutes! — EB
I’ll leave you for the week with a longread. “The Notorious Mrs. Mossler” isn’t the kind of headline SEO experts would applaud, but this Texas Monthly piece from the always-reliable Skip Hollandsworth, about Houston socialite Candace Mossler is worth all the clicks you can give it. There’s rich people, murder plots, and allegations of incest. It’s like ancient Rome, but with folks who say “Bless your heart.” Allow me to reel you in:
Every reporter who interviewed her found her delightful, with one gushing over her “ceaseless effervescence” and another entranced by her “great beauty and charm.” Of course, in a manner common to journalists of her day, there was plenty more ink devoted to her looks. She was described as “shapely,” “lissome,” and “stylishly coiffed,” filled with “dash and flair.” Even the straitlaced Joyce Brothers, a celebrity therapist Time magazine once called “the gadabout lady psychologist,” was smitten. After interviewing Candace for her nationally syndicated newspaper column, Brothers characterized her as having “an appealing little-girl-lost quality.”
“Seriously, it was hard for anyone who met Candace to imagine that she could kill anything, even a flea,” [writer Mickey] Herskowitz told me. “She was so kind, so pleasant, so damn friendly.”
He shifted again on the couch. “To be honest, she haunts me to this day.”
The clock is ticking on an adaptation announcement for this one, I suspect. Get ahead of the series/feature by reading Hollandsworth’s report here. — EB
Friday on Best Evidence: A discussion thread! We will figure it out!
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