Tag Archives: crime

Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer

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This docuseries appeared on my Disney + feed a short time ago, listed as a Hulu original. I have always been fascinated by the study of serial killers and this three episode docuseries caught that interest directly.

When I was younger, I was engaged in reading a group of books written by an FBI profiler named John Douglas, including his well known novel Mindhunter. In those works, I actually recognized the name of the woman featured in this docuseries, Ann Burgess.

Ann Burgess was not an FBI agent, but instead a nurse who was interested in the behavioral science aspect of criminal cases. She, along with other FBI agents, got together in a way that would revolutionize the process of investigation of serial cases.

They actually did bring up John Douglas in this series, along with another agent Robert Ressler. Douglas was not portrayed as the best person in this series, implying an environment of sexist behavior. It was Ressler that Burgess was more interested in working with and this group of people changed the way law enforcement looked at murder or rape cases.

The docuseries was interesting, looking at a couple of specific cases, such as the Ski Mask Rapist, and the idea of talking to the victimizers as a way to discover any sort of pattern among the people committing these crimes.

The third episode dealt mostly with her time outside of the FBI profilers, including her work in favor of the Menéndez brothers case and her work in the revealing of Bill Cosby’s sexual assaults.

This was a fascinating watch and provided even more details into the world of profilers that have always been intriguing for me.

Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer is streaming on Hulu and on Disney + right now.

The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst S1 E4

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“The State of Texas vs. Robert Durst”

Okay, this is just astounding.

This episode featured the trial of Robert Durst in Galveston, Texas on the murder of Morris Black, Durst’s neighbor while he was hiding out in Galveston, pretending to be a woman.

There are so many unbelievable things that happened during the trial that would lead to his being found “not guilty” that it is difficult to understand how it could happen. The thing is as you are watching this trial unfold, including Durst’s own testimony on the stand, you can see why the jury made this remarkably unpopular verdict, freeing the NYC billionaire in what seemed to be a slam dunk case.

I may have missed this, but why in God’s name did the prosecutors in Galveston not include charges against Durst for cutting up the body, destroying evidence or anything else along with the murder charge? By not charging him with these other offenses, they gave Robert Durst a clever way to get away with what he had done.

The fact was that no one could conceivably say that how the event in the room happened. Was it a murder-execution style or was it an accidental death coming from self-defense? Once Robert explained the decapitation part, in a way that made somewhat of a sense, the jury only could decide whether Robert had committed murder. They could not determine if he had cut up the body and disposed of the evidence. None of that was relevant to this case because there were no charges stemming from that.

That entire jury may have believed that he had killed Morris, but there was no proof that he had done so.

The creators of the docuseries added something at the end of this episode that is foreshadowing the bombshell that would be dropped at the end of the series. Andrew Jarecki had asked Robert if he needed a break and during the break, Durst was practicing what he was going to say, which was being picked up on his hot mike.

Durst said, “I did not knowingly purposefully lie. I did not knowingly purposefully lie. I did not knowingly, purposefully, intentionally lie. I did make mistakes.“

I literally shook from this. Durst is such a chilling, manipulative person and his words both at trial and the interview with Jarecki is what makes this more than just any true crime story.

And by the way, why does nobody ask Durst what happened to the head?

This is amazing. I remember how much this stuck with me after the first watch and it absolutely holds up and a compelling piece of drama.

American Nightmare

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Unbelievable.

I have had this three episode true crime documentary on my list at Netflix for a few weeks now and I found a time to binge it tonight. What an unbelievable story. Shocking and outrageous in many ways.

Honestly, even the manner the show presented the story messed with the emotions and the comprehension of the audience. What actually happened? It laid out the story in a definite manner that was meant to have audience members draw their own conclusions… and then they flipped the script.

In 2015, Denise Huskins was the victim of a home invasion that led to her kidnapping. Her boyfriend Aaron Quinn reported the abduction the next day, claiming that he had been instructed that the kidnappers were watching him on a camera and that they would hurt Denise if he called the police.

The Vallejo Police investigated but the story of the kidnapping was so out there that they switched gears and began to believe that Aaron was responsible for Denise’s disappearance.

Then, she returned.

At this point, the police began thinking that this is a real-life case based on the Ben Affleck movie Gone Girl, and that this kidnapping was a hoax.

Except, it wasn’t.

This was amazingly compelling. The first episode focused on Aaron’s story and how the police were looking at the case. the POV of law enforcement was a major theme throughout all three episodes. I was shocked when Denise came strolling to her father’s house at the end of the first episode.

Episode two dealt with her story and the horrors that she went through. Again, her story was so wild that it was difficult to believe and it was much easier for the police to believe that a hoax was a much more likely scenario.

I really liked this doc because it had quite a bit of finality to it. A lot of these true crime docs that I have seen have an air of uncertainty to them, perhaps a mystery that is still unsolved. This may have had some unanswered questions (in particular, the kidnapper had told Denise that he had intended to kidnap Aaron’s ex instead of her), but there was a very definitive result which I truly appreciated.

It is a resounding accusation against police forces in the area that did not believe the stories of the women victims and instead, chose to relate it to a fictionalized movie. It also showed that there were police officers who took their jobs seriously and were dedicated to finding the truth, in particular Misty Carausu, a police officer with the Dublin Police Department in Dublin, California, who found the kidnapper, found goggles and a strand of long blonde hair that she eventually tied to Denise. It was the efforts of Misty Carausu that led to the arrest and conviction of the kidnapper/rapist, Matthew Muller.

This was an amazing documentary series, shocking and a powerful watch. I am very pleased that I decided to watch this compelling story.