Episodios

  • Closing Statements

    Closing Statements
    Aug 26 2020
    The story continues...

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    3 m
  • 155: Most Wanted and While The City Sleeps

    155: Most Wanted and While The City Sleeps
    Aug 19 2020
    Nope, that's not a typo: Best Evidence publisher Eve Batey joins me to talk about a movie that's still in "theaters," Most Wanted. Featuring Josh Hartnett's foxy 'stache and a breakout ugly performance from Jim Gaffigan, Most Wanted interrogates the role of budgetary concerns in law-enforcement corruption and/or incompetence...and we interrogate the crusading-reporter subgenre and whether it's true to life.

    We do it twice, as a matter of fact, as our Cold Case topic is While The City Sleeps, a movie that references the William Heirens case but is actually about whether media's attempts to "make" a story is itself the story...or criminal. The 1956 thriller stars Vincent Price, Drew Barrymore's dad, and a realistically sodden Dana Stevens in a tale about a callow press scion using a string of murders to pit his top men (...uch) against each other for a plum job. We recommend it, and not just because it kiiiind of makes John Douglas look like an ass for claiming nobody knew how to profile properly before 1974, so hike your pants up to your pits and have a listen to The Blotter Presents, Episode 155.

    SHOW NOTES
    • Where to watch Most Wanted
    • The Most Wanted/Target Number One Wikipedia page
    • Reply All's Compstat episode
    • Stephen McHattie's Zodiac credit
    • Kill The Messenger
    • While The City Sleeps on Amazon
    • My Ripped From The Headlines review
    • Eater NY on Marchi's (and the Eater's Digest podcast)
    • Wikipedia's William Heirens page

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    1 h y 10 m
  • 154: Surviving Jeffrey Epstein and The Con

    154: Surviving Jeffrey Epstein and The Con
    Aug 12 2020
    [CW: The episode reviews series that discuss sexual assault, harm to children, and suicide. Please listen with care.]

    Omar Gallaga returns to discuss two very grim and infuriating properties, starting with Lifetime's Surviving Jeffrey Epstein, which centers the survivors of Epstein's monstrousness while also indicting a society that let him manipulate it with shocking impunity. It's a good docuseries that's also a difficult sit, and the rare discussion of the case of late that had the capacity to tell us something new.

    The Con also told us something new, about a different kind of predatory behavior -- the outright frauds that led to the financial crisis of 2008. It's a straightforward narrative without a lot of production bells and whistles, but it's also a very careful accounting (so to speak) of all the different bad actors in the world of mortgage fraud, from inexperienced brokers to rapacious CEOs to the Wall Street traders who created the demand. The podcast may not be fast, but you'll be furious by the end of The Blotter Presents, Episode 154.

    SHOW NOTES

    • Surviving Jeffrey Epstein
    • My Primetimer review of Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich
    • Where to watch The Con
    • Guardian review of The Con 
    • Omar at LEVEL and Terribly Happy
    • Check out Native deodorant and Hello Fresh!
    • Best Evidence
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    1 h y 6 m
  • Wondery Presents Even The Rich: The House of Versace

    Wondery Presents Even The Rich: The House of Versace
    Aug 11 2020
    Wondery’s Even the Rich gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the stories of some of the greatest family dynasties in history. This season, three siblings — Gianni, Donatella, and Santo Versace — built one of the greatest fashion labels the world has ever seen. But when Gianni is murdered on the front steps of his Miami Beach mansion, the label loses its visionary. Can the House of Versace survive? On this four-episode series, we’ll dive into the origins of the Versace label and we’ll meet a few celebrities along the way, like Elton John, Princess Diana, and Madonna.

    Listen to the full episode: http://wondery.fm/ETR_BlotterPresents
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    7 m
  • 153: Ann Rule's Sleeping With Danger and The Last Narc

    153: Ann Rule's Sleeping With Danger and The Last Narc
    Aug 5 2020
    Two guests, no waiting this week, as ...These Are Their Stories co-host Kevin Flynn joins me to talk about Ann Rule's Sleeping With Danger, starring Elisabeth "Serena Southerlyn" Röhm and Leslie "ME Rodgers" Hendrix. It's a thumbs-sideways from both of us on the movie, which is not quite good, but not all that bad, and has some anachronism issues and PSA pacing that undercut surprisingly decent acting. Grab a Smoothie Of Doom to fortify yourself for...

    ...the second Most Wanted topic, Amazon's The Last Narc, a series Jessica Liese and I meant to talk about months ago, before Amazon yanked it unceremoniously. The case of what really happened to murdered DEA agent Kiki Camarena premiered last week, with nearly as little fanfare, and while we're still not clear on why it got disappeared, it's a compelling and confidently shot four-parter featuring clear explainers and flavorful anecdotes. But that doesn't mean we wouldn't have changed anything...or that we weren't happy to hear Robert Stack in a voice-over. Brace yourself for more government malfeasance: it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 153.

    SHOW NOTES
    • Ann Rule's Sleeping With Danger
    • The Mets' starting catcher in 1978
    • The These Are Their Stories podcast
    • WATCH Crime Writers On…
    • The Last Narc on Amazon Prime
    • "Midnight In The Garden Of East Texas," by Skip Hollandsworth
    • Hector Berrellez alleges the CIA got the series taken off
    • Collider's interview with director Tiller Russell
    • Jessica at Rob Has A Website 
    • Check out Feals
    • Best Evidence
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    1 h y 24 m
  • 152: Fear City: New York vs. The Mafia and The Perfect Murder S05E09

    152: Fear City: New York vs. The Mafia and The Perfect Murder S05E09
    Jul 29 2020
    Is this the widest gulf in quality between the two shows under discussion in Blotter history? Maybe! But Netflix's new three-part series on the "Commission Case" that brought down the New York Mob is disciplined, compelling, and reminds me and guest Jeb Lund that Rudy Giuliani didn't always completely suck at everything...and that barbers really have a challenging job sometimes.

    The Perfect Murder, meanwhile, is also compelling, but risibly acted, weirdly production-designed, and hilarious in a way that brings to mind a certain [ploop!]. It's so memorably bizarre that at least it "honors" Gavin Smith by stamping his case indelibly into our memories, but we really shouldn't be giggling at a true-crime story. Wear a crop top to the cop shop for The Blotter Presents, Episode 152.

    SHOW NOTES

    • Fear City: New York vs. The Mafia 
    • Brian Tallerico's review at RogerEbert.com
    • The NatGeo series whose junket found SDB sitting next to Michael Franzese
    • The Perfect Murder S05.E09, "Jump Shot" 
    • "The Ploop Incident"
    • The Quaid In Full podcast
    • Jeb Lund on Twitter
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    52 m
  • 151: The Business Of Drugs and Summer Of Sam

    151: The Business Of Drugs and Summer Of Sam
    Jul 22 2020
    Filmmaker and baseball-Twitter-improver Randy Wilkins joins me to talk about Netflix's The Business Of Drugs, a six-part series hosted by Amaryllis Fox that tries to take a value-neutral look at the economics of black-market substances. But is it TOO neutral? Does it try to do too much in each episode? Might it have been better off only following a single figure through each drug's "story"? And what do coverage of cocaine cartels and MLB have in common?

    Later, we dig into Spike Lee's Summer Of Sam: why it was rejected by critics, how Lee uses local detail to get at universal truths, and whether Lee would come back to the chaotic summer of 1977 and David Berkowitz in a documentary format. All the nefariously used stuffed animals and Reggie Jackson crackpot theories you could ask for: it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 151.

    SHOW NOTES
    • The Business Of Drugs 
    • Where to watch Summer Of Sam 
    • Summer Of Sam reviews on Rotten Tomatoes 
    • Randy Wilkins on Twitter 
    • Randy's website, pamsson.com
    • Extra insight from Randy and Spike Lee about Dear… "Spike Lee" from The Root 
    • Views From 314 Ft. 
    • BestEvidence.fyi

    SPONSORS
    • Native 
    • Green Chef 
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    1 h y 16 m
  • 150: Athlete A and American Greed S13.E06

    150: Athlete A and American Greed S13.E06
    Jul 15 2020
    [content warning for discussions of child sexual abuse, suicide]

    Stephanie Green ventures back into the grim case against Larry Nassar with me this week, this time with Netflix's Athlete A, which sets itself apart from other properties by also making a case against USA Gymnastics, the Karolyi Ranch, and the messed-up ways we think about child athletes. If you watched At The Heart Of Gold, do you "need" to watch this one? And will you want a follow-up in a year's time?

    Later, we delved into the case of Scott Menaged as told by S13.E06 of American Greed. Despite Stacy Keach's gusto-rrific voice-over and a pretty decent explainer on recession-market house-flipping, Stephanie and I still had questions about Menaged's credit-card scam...and his terrible jeans. Come for the indictment of abusive coaches, stay for the elision of scam process: it's The Blotter Presents, Episode 150.

    SHOW NOTES

    • Athlete A
    • Stephanie and I talk about At The Heart Of Gold 
    • 30 For 30's "Heavy Medals" podcast season, on the Karolyi empire 
    • American Greed S13E06 
    • CNBC on "the risks of house-flipping"
    • StephanieEarlyGreen.com
    • Feals.com/blotter
    • bestevidence.fyi
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    55 m