BunzelGram March 28, 2022 Issue #82 This Week's Thoughts On Mysteries, Thrillers, and All Things Crime |
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Men behaving badly. That’s my takeaway from last night’s Oscars, in which most of Hollywood and millions of moviegoers around the world witnessed first-hand two grown-ups acting like children. While there is no excusing Will Smith’s physical blow to comedian Chris Rock, any performer who knowingly makes the ailments of other people the punchlines of his/her jokes knows he/she is taking a risk. Even my wife knows that Jada Pinkett Smith suffers from alopecia, and thus Rock had to have known he was treading on thin ice when joking about her hair (or lack thereof). Will Smith definitely was in the wrong here for his ill-thought-out slap, but the entire display reminded me of a roadhouse brawl scene that escalates because one guy dissed another guy’s girl. Except in this case, black ties were involved and, in the end, cooler heads prevailed. —Reed Bunzel |
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The Duke Depicts The Only Art Theft Ever From UK’s National Gallery In 1961, a portrait of the Duke of Wellington completed by Francisco Goya in 1814 was stolen from the National Gallery in London. As reported by the BBC, the painting had been owned by John Osborne, Duke of Leeds, who sold it at auction to an American collector, Charles Wrightsman, for £140,000. The British Government was so loath to let it leave the country that the Treasury teamed up with the Wolfson Foundation and matched Wrightsman's bid: £2 million in today's prices. The Goya portrait was suddenly the most famous painting in Britain, and security was tight as visitors flocked to the National Gallery to see what all the money had been spent on. Yet, shortly before the Gallery opened on the morning of August 21, 1961, the guards realized that the painting had been spirited away. They didn't spot any intruders, no damage was done, and there were no traces of any equipment or weapons on the scene. Nothing like this had happened before in the gallery's 138-year history, and it would be four years before the artwork was recovered. Its theft and whereabouts during that time is the subject of a new comedy-drama released last Friday titled The Duke, starring Matthew Goode, Helen Mirren, Anna Maxwell Martin, and Jim Broadbent. | | |
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“Women-In-Peril” Novels Are Closer To The Truth Than You Might Think A woman in peril has long been a common theme in mysteries and crime novels. It dominated the subject matter of pulp fiction in first half of the twentieth century, and it persists today in publishing, television, and film. As bestselling author Nancy Allen wrote in a recent Crime Reads article, from a contemporary perspective, those lurid women-in-peril stories objectified women (and still do) for the sake of a solid plot line, and believes serving up women’s suffering as entertainment—with detailed descriptions of rape, torture, and murder—is indefensible. “It’s easy to understand why the trope has come under criticism,” she says. “Some people [believe] writers should desert the plot device of women in peril, and only create thrillers in which women suffer no violence, danger, or ill-treatment. I understand the argument, in principle. As a lifelong feminist, I find the oppression of women intolerable. But to ban the issue in fiction? I’m not down for that.” Why not, one might ask? As the author of numerous legal thrillers that center around a woman whose life or safety is in jeopardy— generally inspired by actual atrocities committed in the Ozarks—Allen is all-too-familiar with crimes against women, and she knows first-hand that many women are, in fact, in grave physical and psychological peril. “Rather than eliminate women in jeopardy from fiction, I prefer to applaud authors who do it right,” she explains. | | |
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PODCAST UPDATE Adnan Syed, Prosecutors Of Serial Podcast Seek Additional DNA Testing Both the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office and Adnan Syed, whose case became nationally known in the Serial podcast that ran in 2014, are requesting additional forensic testing that includes examining enhanced DNA samples. Syed is serving a life sentence after he was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery, kidnapping, and false imprisonment in February 2000 for the slaying of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. The pair were seniors at Woodlawn High School in Baltimore County in January 1999 when she disappeared; her body was discovered in a city forest three weeks later. Syed, now 40, has been appealing his convictions over the years. Syed's legal team reached out to State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby's office after Maryland passed a law last April allowing people who were convicted as juveniles to request a modified sentence after they've served at least 20 years in prison. "In the process of reviewing this case for a possible resentencing, it became clear that additional forensic testing—which was not available at the time of the original investigation and trial in this case—would be an appropriate avenue to pursue," Mosby said, adding the case is now "pending investigation." In the 2019 HBO docuseries The Case Against Adnan Syed, an attorney for Syed said his client's DNA was not found on any of the 12 samples retrieved from the victim's body and car. That testing was not part of the official investigation by authorities. | | |
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Epstein’s Notorious Private Islands Are On The Market For $125 Million Lawyers for Epstein’s estate confirmed this week that two islands owned by the late Jeffrey Epstein—Little St. James and Great St. James—have been listed for sale. This news is worthy for inclusion in BunzelGram for two reasons: 1) In the past I have referenced properties that are infamous for their involvement in real or fictional crimes, and 2) In the early 2000s my wife and I lived about five miles from them, and often would pass right by on our way from St. John to St. Thomas. Epstein bought the 90-acre Little St. James in the late 1990s for around $8 million, and then acquired the 161-acre Great St. James 20 years later for $22.5 million. Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 in what was ruled a suicide, reportedly maintained a permanent residence on Little St. James, where Virginia Giuffre—one of his alleged victims—claims Prince Andrew sexually abused her. U.S. Virgin Island Attorney General Denise George filed a lawsuit claiming Epstein sexually abused girls as young as 12 there, and a 15-year-old girl tried to escape from the island by swimming away before being captured and returned. Proceeds from the sale will be used by the estate for "the resolution of outstanding lawsuits and the regular costs of the estate's operations," Daniel Weiner, a partner at New York law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed and executor of the island properties, said in a statement. | | |
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RETROSPECTIVE After 48 Years, The Conversation Is Still As Relevant, Prescient As Ever I’ve written about Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation here in BunzelGram before, and for good reason: its story of a man recording a casual exchange between two people is both captivating and engrossing, and it has never been more prescient—and relevant—as today. Forty-eight years after its initial release in 1974, Kenneth Turman writes in the Los Angeles Times that the film's timelessness comes from how it combines an “exceptional character study, a thriller plot, and an ability to superbly convey the unease of a society where blanket surveillance is getting to be the norm." Harry Caul, impeccably played by Gene Hackman with a fine combination of technique and intuitive feeling, looks like the most ordinary of men as he schlumps around San Francisco, his translucent raincoat flapping in the wind, but he is anything but. "Brilliant, obsessive, deeply religious and possibly damaged, Harry is a master of surveillance technology, a legend his competitors call ‘the best bar none," Turman says. The film opens in San Francisco’s Union Square, where a young couple (Cindy Williams and Frederic Forrest) are wandering among the mimes and the homeless having what appears to be the most innocuous of conversations. But if their conversation is so innocent, why are Harry and his assistant Stan (John Cazale), as well as an entire team of surveillance technicians, using the most up-to-date technology to record their every word? When he is warned by an associate (Harrison Ford, in his last pre-Star Wars big screen role) not to “get involved with this,” Harry starts to fear that he has gotten in over his head. | | |
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ALSO: How “One-And-Done” Killers” Can Get Away With Murder Believe it or not, thousands of overlooked killers live among us. In the next installment of the Unraveled anthology, Alexis Linkletter and Billy Jensen investigate the most elusive criminal to ever strike: “one and done killers” whose single homicides have been committed without sufficient evidence to convict, and likely never kill again. [Apple Podcasts] Hacking, Heists, And Thrillers: Cutting-Edge Books Blending Tech And Suspense From hacking to heists, here are a few techno-thrillers that combine politics, spycraft, and cyberspace—as well as some sophisticated plotlines designed to keep you on your toes (and the edge of your seat). [Novel Suspects] First Mystery Writers’ Rule Of Thumb: Know Your Poisons Mystery writers spend hours researching the perfect way to kill a victim. Maybe this dentist in Germantown, Maryland, who has been charged with murdering his patient-turned-lover, should have been a bit more thorough. [The Daily Beast] |
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Now that my fifth Jack Connor crime novel, Indigo Road, is in the hands of my publisher, I invite you to catch up on the other books in the series (see link, below). Meanwhile, here’s what some notable bestselling authors have said about them: “Palmetto Blood is a winner. It sweeps you in with intrigue and authority and never lets you go. I want to go riding with Jack Connor again.” —Michael Connelly “Reed Bunzel peels away the layers of mystery like a master of the genre.” —T. Jefferson Parker “Reed Bunzel lights up the Southern sky with taut, exciting action and a memorable cast of characters led by Jack Connor, a protagonist sure to become a major favorite of crime fiction fans.” —Michael McGarrity "Tightly plotted and skillfully written, Carolina Heat makes clear that Reed Bunzel has created a winning series." —Alafair Burke | | |
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