The Last Narc · Quiz · Hollywood Con Queen
Also: Stealing from Harry Winston
the true crime that's worth your time
A group of longform journalists have banded together to launch a podcast studio focused on “premium narrative non-fiction storytelling.” Deadline reports that reporters Josh Dean (The Clearing), Vanessa Grigoriadis (Vanity Fair), Matthew Shaer (NYT Magazine), and screenwriter/producer Adam Hoff have founded Campside, an investor-funded start-up with a current slate of 11 non-fiction podcasts.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the first show produced by Campside will be a 10-part series on the Hollywood con queen, which, thank god — that case is so good! Per THR, other shows will be “Masked, an investigation into a botched Seattle murder case that Shaer reported with journalist Eric Benson” and Hooked, a podcast in which “creator and host Dean will tell the story of a bank robbery spree set against the backdrop of America’s opioid crisis.”
It’s unclear when any of these shows will drop, but we should all expect those podcasts to spur televised adaptations too — John Ridley (12 Years A Slave) is already working on a TV version of Hooked, and Masked is likely to get an eventual adaptation, as well. — EB
You’ve still got a couple of days to vote on what Sarah reads for her May bonus book review! It’s currently tied between Edward Humes’s Burned and Macy’s Dopesick, and she’s desperate for a tiebreaker. To vote, hit this button:
The trailer for a docuseries on the slaying of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena. The case is likely familiars to viewers of Narcos — Michael Peña plays the doomed fed in Narcos: Mexico, and the death was also alluded to in the show’s first season. There’s also a great USA Today story on the case from February, but it’s looong, so set aside some time to read it.)
This telling of the tale comes from Amazon, and a four-parter directed by Tiller Russell, a guy with a lot of procedural TV under his belt. Will his time in the trenches be enough to tangle with the increasingly demanding true crime landscape? We’ll find out on May 15, when the series drops on Amazon Prime. — EB
I was watching this week’s episode of Killing Eve when I almost fast-forwarded through an ad for Quiz, a dramatic adaptation of a headline-grabbing scam in which a married couple conspired to win Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? The case is a great yarn: Charles and Diana Ingram were busted in 2001 after allegedly using a system of coughs to ensure Charles (the contestant) picked the right answers and won the million-pound prize.
The BBC’s got a good recap of the scandal here, and Bustle has a where-are-they-now item from just a couple weeks ago. The show already aired in the UK, garnering killer ratings as it did so. Which makes sense, look at this cast: Matthew Macfadyen (Succession) and Sian Clifford (Fleabag) play the couple, along with a host of other familiar faces. The three-part show will air in the U.S., on AMC, starting on May 31. — EB
As a person who loves magazines, I’m struggling these days. You folks know how I roll: I let a slew pile up, binge on some weekend or holiday, and it’s longread recommendations for days. But these days, it feels gross to even look at some of my mags. Why read Vogue when I only wear pajamas? And reading the New Yorker, jesus, it’s impossible to let that jibe with the city I see on the news or behind friends as we FaceTime.
But I did come across a good one the other day, a magazine item so engrossing it made me forget for a second that we had a “before”! It’s a Vanity Fair piece from former Vice editor Adam Gollner, and its about the theft of $37 million worth of diamonds from Harry Winston, Paris. According to Gollner, though the cops claim they caught the thieves, there’s compelling evidence to suggest that the real mastermind behind the heist remains at large. Here’s a snip:
The criminals left almost no clues behind. No fingerprints. No identifiable DNA traces. But despite the lack of evidence, there were suspects. "To hit high jewelers in the heart of Paris requires a level of systematic planning and experience: an organization, in short," explains avocat general Pascal Fourré, an attorney general who prosecutes organized crime at the Paris Court of Appeal. "Given the preparations involved, it looked like the work of hard-core gangsters from the banlieues"—or low-income suburbs—"outside Paris. Otherwise it could only have been les Pinks. "
Les Pinks are the Pink Panthers, a shadowy syndicate of jewel thieves hailing primarily from the Balkans. Over the past two decades, Interpol estimates that they've pulled off close to 400 jobs around the world, worth hundreds of millions of dollars. They got their name in 2003, when London police found a stolen blue diamond ring inside a container of face cream— a subterfuge lifted from the Inspector Clouseau film series. What Fourré and his colleagues wanted to know was: Were the Pink Panthers behind the Harry Winston heist?
It’s just a load of fun, and you can check it out here. — EB
Friday on Best Evidence: Why did ID change its logo? And: True Crime A To Z gets underway!
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 or text us any time at 919-75-CRIME.