Welcome to our weekly review of the events at crimestory.com. FYI, this will be our last newsletter of the year. We will resume with a fresh newsletter review of Crime Story events on January 11.
This week each of our pieces, in its own way, reflects the cumulative power of Crime Story’s reporting in exploring the areas where crime, justice and storytelling meet.
Monday: Jury Duty – New Podcast Series – Ep. 2 – Covering Robert Durst
On Monday, we presented the second episode of Jury Duty, a new weekly podcast forum for the discussion of crime and justice storytelling, news and narrative analysis published by Crime Story Media. This episode featured a discussion between Crime Story, Publisher/Editor Kary Antholis and Crime Story Reporters Molly Miller and Sean Smith about the stories, themes and issues that have arisen in both reporters’ coverage of the Los Angeles Criminal Justice System. We paid particular attention to Sean’s coverage of the hearings leading up to the trial of Robert Durst for the murder of Susan Berman.
Tuesday: Strong Female Lead: A Reassessment Molly Miller
Thursday: Justice and Abuse Molly Miller
On Tuesday, we published Strong Female Lead: A Reassessment, Molly Miller’s meditation on the retrial of Andrea Moorer in the context of her experiences in the L.A. Criminal Courts of the past six months. On Thursday, we presented Justice and Abuse, a compilation Crime Story Podcast of the four articles by Molly which track the evolution of her perspective on issues of justice and abuse, along with some additional reflections from Molly.
Wednesday: A Congressional Crime Hearing in the City of Angels – Part 2 Sean Smith
On July 13, 2019, Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-CA) chaired a Congressional field hearing on criminal justice reform at a Los Angeles community center where she and her fellow legislators heard from two panels of witnesses. The first panel addressed the institutional and demographic consequences of California’s recent criminal justice reform ballot initiatives. Crime Story profiled their testimony in the Podcast Special: A Congressional Crime Hearing in the City of Angels – Part 1.
In Wednesday’s Podcast Special, we examined the testimony of the day’s second panel of witnesses: Susan Burton, “Big” John Harriel, and Stanley Bailey. These three former inmates detailed the incredible difficulties faced by the recently excarcerated as well as their experiences with re-entry and transition programs. Theirs were tales of post-release challenges and of personal redemption – made possible by vital institutional scaffolding that ultimately helped them to succeed.
Friday: The “Hollywood Ripper” Reports Chris Tarricone
This past summer, in a Los Angeles courtroom, Michael Gargiulo was tried and convicted on two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. In the media, he was given the tabloid name the “Hollywood Ripper.“
Crime Story reporter Chris Tarricone wrote four stories about the case, assessing the experiences of this media trial from the points of view of witnesses and defense attorneys.
In Friday’s podcast presentation, The “Hollywood Ripper” Reports, we presented all four of Chris’s stories in the sequence that they were published. Cumulatively, these stories offer powerful insight into the residual impact and traumas upon the participants in such a high profile murder trial.
For those of you wondering how you can catch up on previous Crime Story newsletters, just click here and your question shall be answered.
We close this week, as is our habit, with Hannah Teich’s curated selection of some of the more interesting stories from Crime Story Daily over the past week.
Hannah, who edits this Daily section, groups the aggregation into four general topic areas: criminal justice policy reporting; muckraking/watchdog reporting; complex crime storytelling; and stories that examine the impact of criminal justice and true-crime in the culture.
Click here to go to Hannah’s weekly essay.
Thanks for reading and listening.
Kary Antholis
Publisher/Editor, Crime Story
