The Blotter Presents

Latest Episodes:

The Summer Of Scam Jul 25, 2018

Show notes

Vulture.com has dubbed it The Summer Of Scam, and with a handful of sisters very much doing it for themselves, I've got your essential longform long-cons reading list. Later, we'll take a trip through the-blotter.com's archives with fake Rockefellers, French nationals in over their heads, and other grifty tramps and thieves in the Cold Case section. Lock down those last fours of your Socials: it's an all-new The Blotter Presents.

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The Summer Of Scam on Vulture
The Con Queen Of Hollywood from The Hollywood Reporter
Gabriella Paiella's 6 must-know scammers on The Cut
Jessica Pressler's Anna "Delvey" investigation for New York
Gothamist asks for first-person experiences with scammers
Rachel DeLoache Williams on her time with Delvey in Vanity Fair
Jezebel's DirtCast on scammers of note
Doree Shafrir on Kari "the hipster grifter" Farrell in The Observer
My review of The Man In The Rockefeller Suit
The Woman Who Wasn't There on Amazon
Maureen O'Hagan for the Seattle Times on Lori Ruff
My review of The Impostor
David Grann's New Yorker piece on Bourdin

18 July 2018 Jul 18, 2018

Show notes

A look back into the archives, and some reading recommendations.

SHOW NOTES
Find The Blotter on Twitter and Facebook
Find me on Goodreads
"Threeway Two Ways" on The Blotter

061: The Last Defense Jun 27, 2018

Show notes

Produced by, among others, national treasure Viola Davis, The Last Defense is the latest limited series to focus on death-row inmates who may have cases for new trials. The show hasn't gotten to Julius Jones yet, but based on its approach to the Darlie Routier investigation and trial, Dan Patrick Brady and I are looking forward to keeping up with the show during our vacation: there's some over-arty slo-mo, but there's also insightful talking-head interviews with one of my favorite Texas Monthlycrime reporters; excellent access to most of the parties involved in Routier's trial; and a compelling construction that kept one impatient side-Googler in the household from spoiling herself on the case's particulars.
And speaking of that vacation: change things are afoot at the Circle TBP, as the podcast takes a break to retool slightly...and then return with coverage of books, longform articles, other pods, and more. What's your ideal Blotter? Let me know at bunting at the-blotter dot com or here in the comments!
SHOW NOTES

Watch the first few episodes of The Last Defense (eps are also available on Hulu for a limited time after air, and on On Demand
The great Skip Hollandworth on Routier from Texas Monthly
Dig into the archives of famous original Blotter (now finally optimized for mobile)

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060: Drinks, Crime And Prohibition And Ken Burns's Prohibition Jun 20, 2018

Show notes

The Smithsonian Channel premiered a documentary special on Prohibition last week, and while my guest Toby Ball and I learned a lot of new cocktail recipes, we also kind of couldn't figure out who the show is for -- heritage-drinks fans? history buffs? the collectibles market? It's a serviceable show, but superfluous, because...
...we also watched Ken Burns's 2011 three-parter, Prohibition, which in addition to a firmer grasp of its brief and of building a historical narrative also features the Mayor of Hollywood; no distractingly cartoonish re-enactments; and the kind of voice-over writing that makes you want to learn more, not change the channel.
Both documentaries pointed up certain unsettling parallels to today's political landscape, and both made us endure jazz. Would we recommend either? Pour yourself an extra-dry paint-thinner-tini and find out in an all-new The Blotter Presents.
SHOW NOTES

Where to watch Drinks, Crime And Prohibitionnet
Watch the Ken Burns take on Netflix
Read Sarah's write-ups on Smithsonian Channel's The Missing Evidence and Sports Detectives
Episode 004 with Al Lowe on Disgraced
Crime Writers On... book club on In Cold Blood

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Episode 66: 059: The Staircase And Forensic Files Jun 13, 2018

Show notes

De Lestrade and his team return once more with three new episodes of prestige-true-crime forerunner The Staircase, and Stephanie Early Green returns to discuss the end of the story. Did it need three more episodes? Does it do what it thinks it does in terms of casting Michael Peterson and his family as sympathetic, and Kathleen Peterson's sisters as obsessed harpies -- or the opposite? One of our theories of the case has changed somewhat since the last time we contemplated this twisty case, but as David Rudolf says, we just don't know. And like David Rudolf, we're about done thinking about this.
The case of Robert Bosley's murder is decidedly more straightforward -- in fact, we're not sure it's Forensic Files this killing should appear on, but a yet-to-be-produced show called, like, The Dumbshit-Crook Chronicles -- but the melodramatically intense scoring of S13.E22 makes this half-hour of stupid criminal tricks well worth the time. Crazy headstones, inappropriate affects, and much more in an all-new The Blotter Presents.
SHOW NOTES

Watch the compleat Staircase on Netflix
Listen to our previous discussion of The Staircase in Episode 051
Read The Ringer on The Staircase
Peep the Twitter revelation of Michael Peterson's alleged relationship with a Staircase editor
Watch S13.E22, "Dirty Laundry," of Forensic Files

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Episode 65: 058: Wrong Man And Behind Mansion Walls Jun 06, 2018

Show notes

Joe Berlinger returns with another limited series, this one -- Wrong Man, on Starz -- looking into possible wrongful convictions; Eve Batey returns to The Blotter Presents to talk about the all-star team assembled to look into these cases. Which attorney do we predict will go on to host her own show? Is Ron Kuby getting soft(er) in his old age? Would we watch a show that just ran footage of investigators Joe and Ira on stake-outs? And what is with that detective's pajama pants?
Later, Behind Mansion Walls delves with hilarious relish into the case of Indiana's most prolific (alleged) serial killer, Herb Baumeister. He and his wife Julie are re-enacted with brio, narrated by a Moth Story Slam veteran, and afflicted with deep denial, and while BMW isn't the greatest overview of the case, Eve is still obsessed with it now...and we talk about why we'd never heard of it before, what kind of kid thinks he's going to get to "keep" crime-scene evidence he found in the yard, and why Indianapolis law enforcement might not have leapt into action on this case in an all-new The Blotter Presents.
SHOW NOTES

Visit Starz's official Wrong Man site
Watch Behind Mansion Walls S02.E11
Watch Syfy's take on the Fox Hollow Farm "phenomenon"
Enjoy BMW presenter Mason's satirical-songs website
How investigators tried to pin another string of murders on Baumeister

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057: Dead North And Dark Angel May 30, 2018

Show notes

Dan Patrick Brady's back for a look at ID's latest miniseries, Dead North, which follows Upper Peninsula police chief Laura Frizzo in the search for a missing man, through a bizarre love quadrangle, to a gruesome discovery while filming in the woods...and a possible woman serial killer. It's not your average true-crime fare, and might have worked better as a podcast, but Dan and Sarah are in for Dead South should it become a thing. We're decidedly LESS eager to eat barbecued foods we didn't pack into the party ourselves, however.
Later, it's tea we're turned off of when we take on notorious poisoner Mary Ann Cotton and ITV's Dark Angel. A story we thought had a lot of potential is ruined by confusing time jumps, anachronistic dialogue, clonky exposition, and ironically bittersweet pronouncements of love punctuated by barfing. (Yes, that's the name of our second country album. No, you probably shouldn't listen to our last clip if you have a sensitive vom trigger.) We're hoping listeners can let us know whether the book Dark Angel's based on is worth reading, because Sarah could only get through one ep of the series.
Fargo, sexism in profiling, and the found art of the talking-head interview: it's an all-new The Blotter Presents.
SHOW NOTES

Watch Dead North on ID
Watch Dark Angel on Amazon Prime (or check local Masterpiece listings/the PBS app)

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056: The Case Of: Caylee Anthony And Confessions Of Crime May 23, 2018

Show notes

The Real Crime Profile team returns to TV with a three-part series on Oxygen that looks into the death of Caylee Anthony and the trial of her mother, Casey. The Crime Writers On team returns to The Blotter Presents in the person of Rebecca Lavoie, who does not think well of the The Case Of series; sexist assumptions about maternal grief; the prosecution's failure to execute on a narrative; or, well, Casey Anthony. Sarah D. Bunting also has some comments about Jim Clemente's hat and Jim Fitzgerald's linguistic analysis, but the good news is, we've ruled Kareem Abdul-Jabbar out as a suspect!
Later, we look at the Victrola of true-crime TV, Confessions Of Crime, and how its bar-mitzvah-video production values might actually make the horrific story of Cindy Ray's abduction and murder...well, not palatable, but at least less grim. Is there value in just getting in and out of a crime story in 21 minutes? Can we feel grateful that at least today's shows know how NOT to talk about childhood abuse? And should we have watched the TV movie about host Theresa Saldana's story instead? We'll try to answer all these questions -- plus an UPDATE! on Dan Brady's Unsolved Mysteries spot -- in The Blotter Presents, Episode 56.
SHOW NOTES

Watch The Case Of: Caylee Anthony and Confessions Of Crime
More on amazing survivor and activist Theresa Saldana
Listen to Crime Writers On and Real Crime Profile
Listen to the previous Caylee Anthony episode with Toby Ball

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055: Abuse Of Power And An Unsolved Unsolved Mysteries Mystery May 16, 2018

Show notes

Abuse Of Power is a professionally made, serviceable, and superfluous Teevee True-Crime Product that actually does a couple things well, or at least notably. But does it need to exist? Or does it just need to exist under another name? Dan Patrick Brady is back to talk about bad acting, sad cops, and Fred Tokars's similarities to Donald J. Trump.
Later, it's time for YOU the listener to track down Dan's Unsolved Mysteries episode. We run down everything Dan can remember about the segment, from year to topic to fellow re-enactors; if you spot Dan first in the Amazon Prime Stack-isodes, you could win a book! And everyone else can win never having to hear Buntsy whine about not being able to find this damn thing! Dan's contemporary headshot is below: g'head and get solving!
SHOW NOTES

The vile tale of Fred Tokars
Where to start combing through those Unsolved Mysteries eps

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Episode 61: 050: Evil Genius And FBI Files May 09, 2018

Show notes

The unfortunate Brian Wells walked into a bank in 2003 with a bomb around his neck; grabbed a lollipop from the counter; and set off (so to speak) a chain reaction of mayhem that led investigators back to a pair of "masterminds" who may have outsmarted themselves instead of law enforcement. Netflix's four-part docuseries Evil Genius drops Friday May 11 (so, warning: this section may contain spoilers), and returning guest Toby Ball and I watched two screeners and can't wait to see how the rest of the story unfolds. How much did Wells know? Is Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong really a black (common-law) widow? Does the latest true story from the Duplass bros have the same excellent build, but frustrating info gaps, as Wild Wild Country?
We stuck with the bank-robbery theme for our Cold Case topic this week, FBI Files's third-season episode on a prolific Seattle thief the feds named "Hollywood," and while there's lots to discuss about the case, the show is, alas, an example of how the non-fiction crime genre has evolved over the last decade and a half...and a cautionary tale about taking the FBI's "side" in your narrative when the case in question actually kind of points up their screw-ups. Special appearances by Sarah D. Bunting, Currency Cop; the Bhagwan; and the word "fugazi" in an all-new The Blotter Presents.
SHOW NOTES

Watch Evil Genius on Netflix
Watch FBI Files S03.E04, "Terror In Disguise"
Listen to Toby Ball, Sarah D. Bunting, Rebecca Lavoie, and Connie Walker on Killers Of The Flower Moon at the Crime Writers On Patreon page
More on Scott "Hollywood" Scurlock at The Seattle Times