The Doodler · Anna Delvey · Rust Reactions
Plus: "Cold Justice" warms back up
the true crime that's worth your time
San Francisco police have upped the reward for information leading to the capture of The Doodler. SFPD made the announcement in a press release it sent Tuesday afternoon, which also included an uncredited “age progression” drawing of the suspect in the 1970s-era serial killer.
But as folks who read Elon Green’s 2014 piece on The Doodler know, barring a surprise witness who comes forward at this late date — or, as Green noted to me yesterday, a deathbed confession — it’s fairly unlikely that the cops will find this killer. Unlike many other cold cases, disgust with and bias against the city’s LGBTQ+ residents mean that SFPD put very little effort into investigating the slayings when they went down, so evidence from the scenes is scarce.
Per the SF Chronicle’s report on the release — a report that passes over the SFPD’s failures to investigate in the 1970s, and that also claims the Chron was solely responsible for bringing the case to public attention (see the link to Green’s piece, above, for how false that was) — the increased reward of $250,000 “is the maximum amount the department authorizes for rewards.”
However, while that’s a nice gesture (I guess), it’s likely the folks in charge know they probably won’t have to pay it out. As the SF Standard reported last October, the SFPD hasn’t paid out a reward since 2013, if that: in fact, its rewards program seems like a real shitshow:
Six years ago, Mayor London Breed spearheaded the San Francisco Homicide Reward Fund, which gives the police chief discretion over which cases get rewards, how much is paid and who gets to cash in. It requires the chief to get approval from the Board of Supervisors if the reward is over $100,000 and to report annually on how much was allocated from public agencies, how much came from private donations and how much of it was actually doled out for bounties.
But the department has failed to ever report to city leaders on those funds as required by law. It also doesn’t know why no tipsters have been paid since 2013.
SFPD spokesperson Robert Rueca said the department has no records of ever paying a reward, even if there is documentation showing payments were made nine years ago. The department also said it has no records of how much money it has in the bank for rewards and how that money has been managed.
“We do not have records that show that a reward has been given,” Rueca wrote in response to The Standard’s public records request.
When asked to explain the status of current funds, why the program seems to have garnered few tips and why the department has failed to report on its status to the city, Rueca did not respond.
Sounds like the SFPD might want to launch an investigation into its rewards program, huh? — EB
Everybody has an opinion on the Rust charges. Perhaps most amusing is the strange and inexplicable return of Hilaria Baldwin’s “Spanish” accent when addressing members of the media eager to speak with her husband, Alec, who faces involuntary manslaughter charges in the on-set death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
But there’s real news and punditry, too, so here’s a reading list for folks who hope to remain informed on the case. — EB
Alec Baldwin’s criminal charges and Rust’s chaotic production, explained [Vox]
If you need a refresher, or you just missed this case the first time, this well-researched explainer and analysis from Aja Romano is helpful, indeed.
'Rust' to be completed with Baldwin in lead role, lawyer says [Reuters]
“Baldwin will continue to play grandfather Harland Rust while Joel Souza will return as Rust director following his wounding in the October 2021 shooting, said Melina Spadone, an attorney for Rust Movie Productions … ‘The film is still on track to be completed,’” she said.
Actor Michael Shannon says the ‘Rust’ fiasco is about more than gun safety — ‘this is what comes of making a movie on the cheap’ [Chicago Tribune]
Shannon, no stranger to on-screen violence, walks us through how guns are used on movie and TV sets, a lot of what we’ve heard before. Then things get interesting:
The other thing you could do, I guess, is take the frickin’ gunplay out of movies in general. I mean, enough, already. You want to watch somebody shoot somebody? There are 500,000 movies already with plenty of it.
Q: Well, that would take care of “Bullet Train” and a few other movies you’ve ...
Yeah, but I mean, “Bullet Train” isn’t really based in any conceivable reality that I know. And most of the time I was using a sword in that one. Look, I’m not the poster boy for anything here. But it’s something to think about. Sometimes I wish or wonder if it’ll ever get old.
Farce on Top of Tragedy: ‘Rust’ Producers Escape Accountability [The Hollywood Reporter]
“The production may soon resume, the outlaw lead expected to still be portrayed by Alec Baldwin, now an accused criminal facing significant prison time. Quite the plot twist, driven by the fact that the investment must be recouped. As well as the unspoken — or at least only whispered — silver lining. If Rust can be completed, its ghoulishness may make what was otherwise just another American Film Market special into a cult hit.”
Alec Baldwin Needs to Be 'Contrite, Not Combative' at 'Rust' Shooting Trial, Says Crisis PR Expert [People]
Honk if you LOLed at the probability that Baldwin will take this advice. (BEEP.)
At what point will we hit critical Sorokin mass? Or do I mean Delvey fatigue?
I’ve been thinking about this since the notorious grifter was released from jail last year, spurring a flood of reporters to descend on the New York apartment from which Anna “Delvey” Sorokin is enjoying her house arrest. Like most folks, I sure did enjoy Inventing Anna (which I absentmindedly typed as “Dropout Anna” before I caught my mistake)…but I am starting to feel like Sorokin’s appeal was her air of mystery, and that the longer we can clearly see the monster in the horror movie, the less scary it becomes.
Putting this theory to the test in recent days is Vogue’s podcast, which, in its words,
…rolled up to the door of her fifth floor walk-up and she gamely welcomed us and let us poke around the most intimate areas of her apartment from her refrigerator—filled with an army of Poland Spring bottles, some fresh tarragon and some possibly expired yogurt—to her bathroom cabinet stocked with a rainbow of skincare bottles from The Ordinary to Charlotte Tilbury.
There are few things less mystery-busting than a trip to an enigma’s bathroom, I think we can all agree, and I wondered when I saw that episode drop why Sorokin is so eagerly squandering every last aspect of her privacy. But that was before I heard that she also — again, is the universe reading our discussion threads and kicking the ball back to me? — will be the subject of a reality show that, until now, seemed like more of a pipe dream. From The Hollywood Reporter:
The unscripted project finds Delvey (whose real name is Anna Sorokin) revisiting her socialite roots by taping a series of dinner parties at her home. (She was released from ICE custody this past October for overstaying her visa, having already completed her 2019 criminal sentence for attempted grand larceny.) Tentatively titled Delvey’s Dinner Club, the series intends to see her play host to a revolving group of actors, musicians, founders, socialites, journalists and, per the Wednesday press release, “other esteemed guests.” The project is being produced by Butternut, the lifestyle-focused venture from Brent Mongomery’s Wheelhouse and former Food Network president Courtney White.
“So where can I watch this bastard child of The Simple Life and Dinner For Five,” you might ask. Beats me, as THR reports that “There is currently no platform attached to the project, with producers said to be courting all unscripted buyers — at least those who aren’t anxious about flirting with a little scandal. After all, whoever buys Delvey’s series will be bankrolling its controversial star.” But I’m wondering if this is a ship that’s already sailed, or if the public still has an appetite for what Delvey (or more precisely, the chef the production hires) might have left in the oven. — EB
Season 7 of Cold Justice kicks off next month. The workmanlike true-crime series, which does nicely as background viewing during household chores, might be most notable for what it has under the hood: it’s a product of fictional TV crime emperor Dick Wolf and Magical Elves, the reality TV company that arguably invented the Project Runway/Top Chef-style reality competition format.
In a press release sent this week, Oxygen claims the show “has helped bring about 22 convictions and 56 arrests” during its time on the air, as prosecutor Kelly Siegler and a team of alleged experts travels “to small towns to dig into unsolved homicide cases.” (Too bad SF is a big city or The Doodler might be solved by now! How’s that for a callback?)
The series returns to TV on Saturday, Feb. 25, starting with “the biggest unsolved cold case in East Texas.” All the cases in the six-episode season sound fairly intriguing, but then there’s Siegler to contend with. As noted by the Houston Chronicle back in 2008, Siegler has faced claims that she’s tried to bar Black people from juries in which the accused was also Black, and once used an anti-Semitic slur then claimed she didn’t realize it was an anti-Semitic slur, saying, “I didn't even know I'd said anything offensive, because going back to where I grew up there weren't a lot of Jewish people.”
In 2019, Siegler also faced contempt of court charges for failing to respond to a death penalty appeal. From the Chron:
Officials tried eight times over two weeks in late March and early April to deliver paperwork ordering Siegler to appear, according to court documents. U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison in Houston said Thursday he might sanction her if she fails to accept his court order mandating her presence at a court hearing next week for Ronald Jeffrey Prible, a death row inmate convicted of killing a family of five.
The judge indicated in court he found Siegler’s lack of response to process servers disturbing, likely because court documents focus on her as a key witness in Prible’s appeal.
“I have to draw the harshest possible inference from that,” Ellison said at a status hearing. “I’m very disappointed an officer of the court would take that position, and I’m not ruling out a contempt proceeding.”
She was also accused of withholding evidence in a 2007 trial; State District Judge Larry Gist found 36 instances of misconduct overall during her prosecution. The conviction in that case “was ultimately overturned because of prosecutorial misconduct.” Another case that Siegler prosecuted in 2002 was overturned in 2020 after “U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison granted relief on six separate claims that Siegler hid exculpatory evidence from the defense, provided undisclosed favors to prison informants in exchange for them fabricating false confessions, and violated Prible’s right to representation by using prison informants as agents of the prosecution to illegally question him while he was in custody.”
I doubt those incidents will come up during this season of Cold Justice, but who knows? jk jk this is Oxygen, they aren’t gonna say a dang thing to suggest that Siegler is anything other than a red-blooded American hero. — EB
Later this week on Best Evidence: Violence in sports and a trashy UK scandal.
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