Rottin' in Denmark

In the final chapter of our series on the D.C. sniper attacks, Mike finally tells Sarah about the D.C. sniper attacks. Digressions include “The Abyss,” Ed Rooney and Jack the Ripper. We begin the episode with an update on our quarantine plans. Sarah misremembers the name of the TV show she was on.

Links!

• “The Making of Lee Boyd Malvo”
• Mildred Muhammad’s book, “Scared Silent”
• “23 Days of Terror: The Compelling True Story of the Hunt and Capture of the Beltway Snipers”
• “Sniper: Inside the Hunt for the Killers Who Terrorized the Nation”
• “Three Weeks in October”
• “In Pursuit: The Hunt for the Beltway Snipers”
• Articles on criminal profiling and the sniper attacks from the Baltimore Sun, Slate and the American Psychological Association
• An academic dissection of the profiling issue

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Sarah tells Mike about a week in the life of Marcia Clark, who became America’s most famous prosecutor on June 13, 1994. Digressions include car phones, college group work and “Titanic” (as usual). In keeping with the theme of this episode, Sarah had a bad feeling about recording without her mic screen, but Mike said it would be fine. Please excuse our p-pops.

This episode contains descriptions of murder and sexual violence.

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Mike tells Sarah about the indoctrination of Lee Boyd Malvo and the beginning of the sniper attacks. Digressions include Jonestown, Greek tragedy and something called “creepy crawling.” The episode begins with a lengthy meta-discussion of true-crime tropes and whether we are playing into them. The final section includes a detailed description of a suicide attempt.

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Links!

• “The Making of Lee Boyd Malvo”
• “The Diary of the D.C. Sniper”
• Mildred Muhammad’s book, “Scared Silent”
• “23 Days of Terror: The Compelling True Story of the Hunt and Capture of the Beltway Snipers”
• “Sniper: Inside the Hunt for the Killers Who Terrorized the Nation”

Valentine’s Day re-release! Sarah and Mike reflect on one of the only love stories they’ve ever covered on the show.

“Every big fish you catch, you end up with a hole in the net.” Mike tells Sarah how America’s white-collar crime spree got so bad. Digressions include self-checkout kiosks, Barbie dolls and moonshine. Homeless shelters and teacher pay feature prominently. By the standards of this podcast, this episode is relatively upbeat.

This episode is based on an article by Mike and here it is!

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Mike tells Sarah how a nice Jamaican kid became the disciple of a mean American adult. Digressions include Tonya Harding (of course), “Sliding Doors” (again) and “Anne of Green Gables” (Sarah has an English degree). Mildred re-appears just after the hour mark. We are unable to conceive of a content warning comprehensive enough for all the horrors contained in this episode. There is less crying than last time, but only slightly.

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Links!

• “The Making of Lee Boyd Malvo”
• The 2004 Vanity Fair article on Lee
• Mildred Muhammad’s book, “Scared Silent”
• “23 Days of Terror: The Compelling True Story of the Hunt and Capture of the Beltway Snipers”
• Newsweek, “Descent Into Evil”
• “Sniper: Inside the Hunt for the Killers Who Terrorized the Nation”
• Congressional hearing on John’s Antigua document shenanigans

Sarah tells Mike the ending to the story of the mimbo houseguest and O.J.’s alibi. Digressions include O. Henry, Nigerian e-mail scams and Dave Coulier. Mike wildly over-simplifies the Brexit vote.

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“If you’re black, you can’t get work as a serial killer even if you’re manifestly qualified.” Mike tells Sarah how a military veteran became an abuser, a murderer and, eventually, a footnote in his own crime spree. Digressions include Jim Jones, the Addams Family and “The Gillooly Gang.” The episode gets super dark about two-thirds in, but brightens just before the big twist. We describe—again, unfortunately—domestic abuse in great detail.

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Links!

• Mildred Muhammad’s book, “Scared Silent”
• NPR interview with Mildred
• “23 Days of Terror: The Compelling True Story of the Hunt and Capture of the Beltway Snipers”
• “Sniper: Inside the Hunt for the Killers Who Terrorized the Nation”
• 2002 American Journalism Review article: “The news media, particularly cable channels, relied heavily on profilers during the sniper coverage”
• “African American Serial Killers: Over-Represented Yet Underacknowledged”
• “Black Criminal Stereotypes and Racial Profiling”
• A 2002 Newsweek article that includes some of the debate over John’s military service

Sarah tells Mike how an aspiring actor protected and then betrayed Nicole Brown Simpson without knowing he was doing either. Digressions include ’80s movie tropes, ski-resort etiquette and the need for a process of “un-faming.” Unfortunately, this episode contains graphic descriptions of violence and abuse.

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“There’s no precedent for women in this family being treated like they matter.” Sarah tells Mike about the Bronco chase as Paula Barbieri experienced it. Then, she recounts  how a poor kid from Panama City, Florida, made it all the way to the high-fashion world of Paris, France—and discovered that she had jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire. Sarah continues to compare everyone to Erin Brockovich.

This episode begins with a lengthy discussion of O.J. Simpson’s suicide attempt on the day of the Bronco chase. We go on to describe scenes of domestic violence and attempted sexual assault; Paula deserved better.

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Mike tells Sarah how NGOs, activists and George W. Bush resurrected the ‘stranger danger’ panic for the modern era. Digressions include Reply All, muffins and Yelp for massage parlors. Mike’s vocal fry is worse than usual.

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Corrections: Mike gets the first name of Catharine MacKinnon wrong and says first-wave feminism when he means second wave. He’s extremely embarrassed.

Links!

• The Vanity Fair article debunking the Robert Kraft case
• The infamous Washington Post fact-check of the claim that 1 in 7 runaways are victims of sex trafficking
• Janie Chuang’s excellent article on “Exploitation Creep”
• Another Chuang article: “Rescuing Trafficking From Ideological Capture: Prostitution Reform and Anti-Trafficking Law and Policy”
• Excellent debunking of the “Seattle Review Board” case
• A terrific blog written by sex workers that includes a number of posts on trafficking
• The salty task force report
• A deep dive into trafficking statistics by Ron Weitzer
• “The NGO-ification of the Anti-Trafficking Movement In the United States”
• GAO study with lots of stats about T-visas
• “Human Trafficking: Sketchy Data And Policy Responses”
• “Sex, Trafficking, and the Politics of Freedom”
• “The Making of ‘The Trafficking Problem’”

Sarah tells Mike how Marcia Clark got the slam-dunk case that ended her career as a trial lawyer. Digressions include string cheese, “Inception” and what calling women “difficult” means in 2019. We go on the record in favor of a wide range of frivolous hobbies.

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“Centering conversations around blame is not the most useful thing for us to be doing.” Sarah tells Mike about the woman who broke up with O.J. Simpson on the morning of the murders — then stayed by his side through the trial. Michael Bolton makes an extended cameo appearance.

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Links!

Few topics have been suggested to us in the last year as often as the razor blade in the apple. Luckily we’ve got you covered with last year’s Urban Legend Spectacular! Come for the poisoned candy, stay for the high beams and rainbow parties.

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Links!

• “The Razor Blade in the Apple: The Social Construction of Urban Legends”
• Miriam Forman-Brunell’s awesome book on babysitters
• Snopes’ debunking of the “killer in the backseat” myth
• The terrible 2005 New York Times article asking whether “rainbow parties” are real
• Caitlin Flanagan’s 2006 “streetwalker” opus in the Atlantic

Corrections!

The first two times Sarah mentions Miriam Forman-Brunell’s book, she calls her “Miriam Forman-Brunelli.” Sorry!

Sarah takes Mike on a grisly journey from Wisconsin bachelor Ed Gein’s house to the horror movies he inspired. This is a re-broadcast of our 2018 Halloween episode, whose themes are evergreen.

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“You can’t expect people to know the exact kind of help they need.” We continue our deep dive into the O.J. Simpson case with the history of Nicole Brown Simpson’s marriage to O.J., their 1992 divorce and the last weeks of Nicole’s life. Digressions include Julia Roberts, Malibu real estate and Madonna’s “Erotica.” Mike is fighting a cold and apologizes for his raspiness. This episode contains even greater detail on the violence and domestic abuse Nicole suffered.

Plus, a correction! Sarah forgot to mention that O.J. Simpson received two years of probation for the 1989 incident.

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Mike and Sarah begin their epic journey into O.J. Simpson’s trial for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, beginning with the story of Nicole’s life with O.J. until their marriage in 1985. This episode contains descriptions of violence and domestic abuse. Like so many of the women we talk about, Nicole deserved better.

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Our first live show! Mike tells Sarah about Janet Jackson, the 2004 Super Bowl Halftime show and the 9/16ths of a second that destroyed her career. Digressions include Puff Daddy, Jessica Simpson and Edward James Olmos. Like all positive developments regarding this show, performing live is something we feel weird about and so we spent the first few minutes talking about it!

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Links!

• Broadcast Indecency Regulation in the Era of the Wardrobe Malfunction
• Everything you forgot about Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s 2004 Super Bowl controversy
• ‘Nipplegate’ revisited 
• Nipple Ripples: 10 Years of Fallout From Janet Jackson’s Halftime Show
• The Les Moonves story

Mike tells Sarah how the myth of meddling wives serves to exonerate terrible husbands. Digressions include “50 Shades of Grey,” Marie Antoinette and the end of the 1960s. This episode, we’re sorry to say, contains descriptions of domestic abuse.

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Links!

• Tim Riley’s “Lennon”
• Philip Norman’s “John Lennon: The Life”
• Jonathan Gould’s “Can’t Buy Me Love” (good on The Beatles, terrible on Yoko)
• Cynthia Lennon’s “John”
• “Feminism and 1960-1970s Popular Music”
• “Why The Beatles Broke Up”

“Isn’t it amazing how we can only imagine our monsters capitalistically?” Mike tells Sarah how police, prosecutors and journalists accidentally conspired to invent the perfect suburban menace. Digressions include IKEA, the “Godfather” trilogy and Fleetwood Mac. Mike takes big gulping breaths when he reads out loud.

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Links!

• Fabulous summary of all the studies that have debunked gang myths
• “Systemic Racial Bias and RICO’s Application to Criminal Street and Prison Gangs”
• “Myths and Realities of Youth Gangs”
• “Menacing or Mimicking? Realities of Youth Gangs”
• Terrific study of the gangs moral panic in Nevada
• Hilarious gang statistics from 1994
• Abysmal 1993 Newsweek article entrenching gang myths for suburban readers
• Nice Slate article on how the city’s gang crackdown in the 1990s led to the elevated murder rate today
• Law review article on California’s 2001 gang prohibitions
• “The Jets and Sharks Are Dead: State Statutory Responses to Criminal Street Gangs”