Stuff You Should Know · Confession Tapes · Running From Cops
Plus: President Trump's Central Park Five doubts and the "chaos" beat
the true crime that's worth your time
No one here is the intended audience for Stuff You Should Know’s look at the Tylenol murders. That’s my guess, at least, after listening to the popular explainer show’s two-episode arc on the wave of deaths caused by -- investigators said at the time -- potassium cyanide slipped into capsules of extra-strength Tylenol.
Seven Chicago-area people died after taking the doctored drug, causing a panic so severe police and firefighters drove down area streets yelling “don't take Tylenol!” into megaphones. The drugs were pulled from the shelves as Johnson & Johnson issued a recall that cost them an estimated $100 million (and ended up making changes to drug packaging that we’re all still plunging steak knives through today). Though a man named James Lewis was convicted of extortion for demanding $1 million from Johnson & Johnson in a letter that suggested that payment might end the matter, he has never been fully linked to the poisonings.
This is all good stuff, right? And it’s all stuff covered in the podcast, which provides a decent enough overview of the issue. But that’s also the problem, here. Stuff You Should Know’s seeming goal is to provide a serviceable and accessible overview of a perhaps confusing topic, and that’s fine -- for example, recent episodes cover the hygiene hypothesis and Capgras Syndrome. But when it comes to a more straightforward (and I know how that sounds when I’m talking about what appears to be random mass murder) matter like true crime, the show’s tried and true technique falls flat.
There isn’t anything in this nearly two hours (episode one and two both clock in at 48 minutes) that is particularly elevated by audio, nor are there any revelations or investigatory angles that are previously unexplored. Like I said, that’s not necessarily the show’s jam, and I don’t want to sound like a Yelp reviewer who’s bitching that the sub shop down the street doesn’t serve Chinese food. I just believe that podcast consumers -- not just folks like us, but listeners in general -- now have very high standards when it comes to true crime content. And while SYSK’s folksy format delivers like crazy when it comes to giving you ways to explain the gig economy to your great-uncle Larry, when it comes to breaking down homicide, it’s out of its depth. -- EB
Season two of The Confession Tapes drops on Netflix this weekend. The first season of the show was the topic of a The Blotter Presents episode back in 2017, and Sarah and guest AB Chao had a lot of positive things to say about the series. Since it’s been a couple years, we’ll recap -- the idea here is to deconstruct how people recant their confessions after they’re convicted (in the case of this show, for murder). While the idea was likely more novel in a pre-When They See Us world, it still provides a good reminder that just because someone said they did it, doesn’t mean they did it.
Featured in the show’s second season is Angelika Graswald, which some news orgs termed the Kayak Killer for her criminally negligent homicide conviction in the drowning of her fiancé. The case was also the subject of a 48 Hours episode entitled “Death On The Hudson,” and Graswald herself was the focus of this Elle profile from last February. (The 48 Hours ep is fine, but the Elle piece, by Kat Stoeffel, is remarkable. Recommended!) Given how deep my Netflix backlog is, I’ll likely start with that ep when the series is released on Friday, and go from there if the spirit moves me. -- EB
The case has received renewed attention in light of Ava DuVernay’s ‘When They See Us’. nbcnews.to/2KoOUV2 https://t.co/UFX7GIbF5D
While we’re on When They See Us (as we so often are -- not that I’m complaining!), you’ll be shocked to hear that President Trump has no intention of apologizing for the advertisements he took calling for the execution of the since-exonerated Central Park Five. When asked about the case on the grounds of the White House this week, Trump said “you have people on both sides of that, they admitted their guilt.” (See, this is why The Confession Tapes is still relevant!) “If you look at Linda Fairstein and if you look at some of the prosecutors, they think that the city never should have settled that case -- so we’ll leave it at that.”
The Washington Post notes that this isn’t the first time since their exoneration that Trump has claimed the men are actually guilty, as in 2016 he said "They admitted they were guilty. The police doing the original investigation say they were guilty. The fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them is outrageous. And the woman, so badly injured, will never be the same." It’s unclear what the president thinks about Matias Reyes, whose confession in the attack, bolstered by DNA evidence, helped exonerate the Central Park Five. -- EB
How far does that deal go? @headlong Running From COPS: Episode 3 is out right now.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/3-n…
Dan Taberski, the face of the Running From Cops podcast, has penned an op-ed in the New York Times that accuses the TV show Cops of problematic editing and ethically questionable perpetuation of racial stereotypes. This isn’t news to listeners of the podcast, perhaps -- but by placing his pod’s message on the national stage that is the Times, Taberski is taking a pretty big swing at the syndicated series. Here’s a snip:
What we found is that Cops is edited far more problematically than it lets on, that it consistently presents excessive force as good policing and that its structural reinforcement of racial stereotypes about criminality raises questions about the ethics of continuing to let the show remain on the air. Above all, the questionable legality of several actions taken by Cops producers and their Police Department partners should lead every American state and city to assess whether they should allow reality shows about the police to film in their jurisdictions.
I’ve heard rumors that the podcast has spurred discussions at local stations about whether to continue to syndicate Cops, and in a recent interview, Taberski said that two police departments in Michigan have ended their relationship with the series. If you’ve heard anything about a station in your area that’s dropped Cops, let us know! -- EB
This job description from the San Antonio Express-News won’t make you feel much better about newspaper crime coverage. The Texas-based daily says that they’re looking for a “Cops and Chaos Reporter,” which, as someone who has covered both over my career, inspires in me mixed emotions. Am I to applaud the paper for its candid expression of its stock in trade, which apparently requires a reporter with one year of experience who will “follow police scanners and be first to crime scenes”?
I guess it’s good that they’re busting any Woodward-and-Bernstein ink-stained-wretch fantasies at the jump, but at the same time, this feels just a little bit crass. Maybe they should just ask “when watching Nightcrawler, did you think Jake Gyllenhaal was an awesome dude?” If part of our goal here is to tell you how true crime is told and sold, it’s probably important that folks who read newspapers know how its editors view the crime beat, for better or worse. -- EB
Friday on Best Evidence: Killer Motive, talking about stalking, and is Joe Berlinger a little bit of a snob? Let’s discuss.
What is this thing? This should help.
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