True Crime Takes
Where I speculate about who’s guilty, based on (admittedly) incomplete information and at times the smallest of clues…
Spoilers below….
- Serial (NPR)
- Deflategate & Tom Brady (NFL)
- The Staircase (Netflix)
- Amanda Knox (Netflix)
- A Murder in the Park (Netflix)
- The Murders at Starved Rock (HBO Max)
- Sophie: A Murder in West Cork (Netflix)
Serial (NPR)
Adnan Syed: Guilty. He reveals his guilt in the interviews with Sarah Koenig. He’s actually not a very good liar, and there are many things he says that show he regrets what he did. But there was so many small flaws in the case (the police account, the trial, the imperfect witnesses) that Koenig and most of her audience got distracted from the truth.
Deflategate (NFL)
Tom Brady: Guilty. His interviews with Bob Costas and Peter Alexander are tremendously damning. My favorite might be these exchanges:
Peter Alexander: “Is Tom Brady a cheater?”
Tom Brady: “I don’t believe so.”
Brady goes on to emphasize “It’s a very competitive league. Every team is trying to do the best they can to win every week.”
What would we think if I asked my students if they cheated on an exam, and their response was: “I don’t believe so…but it’s a very competitive class. Every student is trying to score as high as they can on the exam.” That sounds like a combo of confessing, excuse-making (that everyone is trying to get an edge), and rationalizing.
The Staircase (Netflix)
Michael Peterson: Undecided, but lean towards guilty. Full disclosure: I didn’t watch the whole documentary, much less watch it closely. But I was struck by Ep10 when Peterson is released and visits the gravesite with (whom I think is) the daughter of his dead wife.
Amanda Knox (Netflix)
Amanda Knox: Innocent; Rudy Guede: Guilty.
A Murder in the Park (Netflix)
Anthony Porter: Guilty; Alstory Simon: Innocent.
The Murders at Starved Rock (HBO Max)
Chester Weger: Guilty. His previous crime — the rape of a girl when he was younger — is not a coincidence. He confessed to police and didn’t discount that confession right after because it was genuine. He knew about the airplane flying above the day of the murder, and he wrote a letter to his father that borders on confessional and is riddled with guilt. Even if he didn’t kill the victims himself, he was involved in the murders and is guilty for that reason.
Sophie: A Murder in West Cork (Netflix)
Ian Bailey: Guilty. He’s a great talker and was pretty convincing about his innocence early on, but ultimately too much evidence stacked up. Bailey had a bad cut on his head and scratches on his arms the morning after the murder, but not the day before; he admitted he was guilty to multiple townspeople; he abused his partner in brutal ways that is completely consistent with a crime of passion. And he knew about the murder before he was formally notified. Now he’s a pathetic old man who got away with it, but he’s all alone.