Latest / Legally Brunette / Killer Thriller Docu: A Killer Story: A Murder, a Conviction, and Decades of Doubt
Transcript
- 0:13Speaker 1: Hi, guys.
- 0:14Speaker 2: I'm Jen Fessler. Welcome back to Killer Thriller Docu Edition.
- 0:18Speaker 2: So two people are murdered. A woman is convicted and
- 0:21Speaker 2: sentenced to life. But years later, a group of amateur
- 0:25Speaker 2: sleuths become convinced police got the wrong person, and their
- 0:28Speaker 2: investigation uncovers a possible alternative suspect. After six years digging
- 0:34Speaker 2: into the case, the filmmakers behind a killer story still
- 0:37Speaker 2: don't have a simple answer. In fact, they say they
- 0:40Speaker 2: wouldn't have convicted Dana Chandler. So did they get it wrong? Today,
- 0:44Speaker 2: director Matthew Galkin and executive producer Josh Levine take us
- 0:48Speaker 2: inside a killer story and the murder investigation that refuses
- 0:51Speaker 2: to stay buried. Thank you for joining.
- 0:54Speaker 3: Our pleasure.
- 0:55Speaker 4: Thanks for having us.
- 0:57Speaker 2: So here's the thing. I loved this documentary. And I
- 1:01Speaker 2: don't say that to everyone. Just in case you're wondering.
- 1:05Speaker 2: I thought it was so great. I thought it was
- 1:07Speaker 2: great for so many reasons. I mean, I always say that.
- 1:10Speaker 2: My cut's kind of gross, right?
- 1:11Speaker 1: It's about.
- 1:12Speaker 2: people being murdered. So there's that. But, um, the way
- 1:17Speaker 2: the story was so captivating and just even like, I
- 1:23Speaker 2: don't know, I kind of fell for Joe Sexton. I
- 1:25Speaker 2: thought he was so funny. And so maybe because he
- 1:29Speaker 2: like dropped the F bomb constantly, but I just, which
- 1:32Speaker 2: I sort of like, I just thought he was fascinating
- 1:35Speaker 2: to watch and to listen to. And, I don't know,
- 1:38Speaker 2: pen pal, the whole thing, I thought. And really, unfortunately, though,
- 1:42Speaker 2: very unsatisfying at the end. But I don't think there's
- 1:44Speaker 2: anything you could have done about that. But all right,
- 1:46Speaker 2: let's just kind of jump in, please. Tell me what
- 1:49Speaker 2: led you guys to this story. Why a killer story?
- 1:54Speaker 1: I mean, I was reached out to by Story Syndicate,
- 1:57Speaker 1: who's the production company that ultimately produced the documentary. This
- 2:00Speaker 1: had started with Joe Sexta actually receiving the tip from Eileen.
- 2:04Speaker 1: I mean, it's the whole genesis of this project was
- 2:07Speaker 1: literally how it was portrayed in the series. So Joe
- 2:11Speaker 1: brought it to Story Syndicate because I think he realized
- 2:13Speaker 1: quite early on that there is a great, you know,
- 2:17Speaker 1: he's a journalist. So like, I think his first thought
- 2:19Speaker 1: is like, okay, well, this could be a great series
- 2:21Speaker 1: of articles or a great book or a great piece
- 2:24Speaker 1: of long form journalism. But he saw the layers in
- 2:27Speaker 1: here that were very specifically about true crime TV and
- 2:31Speaker 1: true crime entertainment. And I think he's, initial thought is like, oh,
- 2:34Speaker 1: I should bring this to a production company that I
- 2:37Speaker 1: have a previous relationship with. And Story Syndicate is Liz Garbus'
- 2:41Speaker 1: and Dan Kogan's production company. It's great, you know, sort
- 2:44Speaker 1: of top of the mountain for documentary work. So he
- 2:47Speaker 1: brought it there.
- 2:48Speaker 4: They called me.
- 2:49Speaker 1: I instantly called Josh Levine. You know, we were both
- 2:53Speaker 1: incredibly drawn in. The details of the case are certainly interesting,
- 2:59Speaker 1: but then when you meet Joe Sexton... And you realize
- 3:03Speaker 1: what a phenomenal journalistic voice and character he is.
- 3:08Speaker 2: I'm so glad it wasn't just me.
- 3:10Speaker 3: Okay. No, no, no.
- 3:11Speaker 1: And then what kind of lens he can provide. You know,
- 3:14Speaker 1: we were both kind of film nerds in a lot
- 3:17Speaker 1: of ways. And there's, there was a lot of, there
- 3:19Speaker 1: are a lot of layers to the story that, that are,
- 3:21Speaker 1: reminded us of film noir, of crime stories from mid-20th century.
- 3:27Speaker 1: There's sort of Coen brothers aspects to this story.
- 3:31Speaker 4: We're all just sort of like, okay, this could be
- 3:34Speaker 4: stylistically very interesting and rich for us to explore. I'll
- 3:37Speaker 4: let Josh sort of continue that.
- 3:39Speaker 2: Well, let me just, I'm just going to jump in
- 3:40Speaker 2: if you don't mind, because I made these notes. Just,
- 3:42Speaker 2: there were so many in terms of stylistically, even like
- 3:47Speaker 2: when you guys zoomed in, I remember at the beginning of,
- 3:50Speaker 2: in the town on the sign that just said like museum.
- 3:53Speaker 2: And do you know what I'm talking about? And it
- 3:55Speaker 2: was like this really haunting, creepy, stupid.
- 3:59Speaker 3: It.
- 4:02Speaker 2: Really felt, this one for me felt like a story.
- 4:06Speaker 2: I didn't key in as much the true crime of
- 4:09Speaker 2: it all. I don't know if that's a good thing
- 4:11Speaker 2: or a bad thing because I found there were so
- 4:13Speaker 2: many parts of it maybe because of Joe that were comical. And, okay,
- 4:18Speaker 2: so tell me about that, please, Josh, I don't mean
- 4:20Speaker 2: to interrupt.
- 4:21Speaker 3: No, no, no, it's fine. I think, you know, that was,
- 4:24Speaker 3: Matthew and I have both done a lot of true crime.
- 4:26Speaker 5: And so I think that was the draw initially when
- 4:29Speaker 5: we started working on it. There was a question when
- 4:31Speaker 5: it came to us of like, do we include Joe
- 4:34Speaker 5: or not?
- 4:34Speaker 3: It was very clear, of course we need to.
- 4:38Speaker 5: And so the layers of the story provided opportunity for
- 4:44Speaker 5: it to be more than genre. And so we talk
- 4:47Speaker 5: about it a lot as a story about a story.
- 4:49Speaker 5: And I think that was really the most interesting part.
- 4:53Speaker 5: And then when we met Keenan and Eileen, it all
- 4:56Speaker 5: became really their relationship and their work as a base
- 5:01Speaker 5: or sort of a lens to see this crime through.
- 5:04Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 5:05Speaker 1: And a lot of the stylistic choices Because it is
- 5:08Speaker 1: a story about stories, because there are these kind of
- 5:11Speaker 1: crime slash entertainment layers to this, I think we approached this.
- 5:17Speaker 4: Stylistically in a very deliberate way.
- 5:20Speaker 1: More maybe in line with scripted narrative crime stories and
- 5:26Speaker 1: maybe less so in like a verite documentary kind of way,
- 5:28Speaker 1: even though there are elements. in the series of that,
- 5:31Speaker 1: but it was probably more deliberate than almost anything we
- 5:34Speaker 1: had ever done before because of, because of the story that.
- 5:38Speaker 4: We were trying to tell.
- 5:39Speaker 2: Well, listen, you don't need me to tell you this,
- 5:42Speaker 2: but it worked. I found the whole thing. And again,
- 5:45Speaker 2: I mean, I it's right. It's like a, it's a
- 5:47Speaker 2: little awkward to sit here and say that I found
- 5:49Speaker 2: the story about a true double homicide entertaining, but I
- 5:53Speaker 2: don't know. It's your fault, not mine. So anyway, that's
- 5:56Speaker 2: on you. um so and also the way that you
- 5:59Speaker 2: did highlight eileen and keen and i know i'm saying
- 6:02Speaker 2: that's how you say his name right keen yeah keen
- 6:06Speaker 2: um and their relationship and their i mean that has
- 6:10Speaker 2: nothing to do with this story and yet it does
- 6:12Speaker 2: it's i mean it certainly has to do with you
- 6:15Speaker 2: know the film and the way that this whole thing
- 6:17Speaker 2: unfolded they are the reason a big part of the
- 6:20Speaker 2: reason why right that that that Dana got focused on
- 6:25Speaker 2: again and they did so much work and all of that,
- 6:28Speaker 2: but just them, they are, they're such an interesting couple.
- 6:31Speaker 2: I still don't get it. Like, I still don't understand
- 6:33Speaker 2: what really makes these people tick. Like, what are you doing?
- 6:36Speaker 2: Why are you so, and I don't know if it's,
- 6:39Speaker 2: maybe it's Jesus. Maybe it's just their fascination for true crime,
- 6:45Speaker 2: but they are fascinating. The obsession, right? I mean, do
- 6:49Speaker 2: they have kids by the way? They do.
- 6:51Speaker 3: They have four sons.
- 6:53Speaker 2: Oh, come on. You gotta be kidding me.
- 6:55Speaker 1: And they're not allowed to speak of the Dana Chandler
- 6:58Speaker 1: case in the presence of their family.
- 7:00Speaker 2: Like you've lost your effing mind.
- 7:04Speaker 4: A little bit, yeah.
- 7:05Speaker 1: I mean, certainly there is a layer of obsession there. But,
- 7:09Speaker 1: I mean, they are true believers.
- 7:13Speaker 2: Still, are they?
- 7:14Speaker 4: They're full believers in Dana's innocence, for sure.
- 7:18Speaker 2: Okay.
- 7:18Speaker 1: But they are true believers in their faith. They're true
- 7:22Speaker 1: believers in justice and they're true believers in each other.
- 7:25Speaker 1: And I think that there's something incredibly earnest and sweet
- 7:29Speaker 1: about the way that they love each other and the
- 7:31Speaker 1: way they truly I'm married.
- 7:33Speaker 4: Like, I don't have that. I don't have that relationship
- 7:35Speaker 4: with my wife. I love her.
- 7:37Speaker 1: But like the way that they I mean, how many years, Josh,
- 7:40Speaker 1: have they been married? 30, 40 and more.
- 7:43Speaker 3: I mean, they've been together since they were in high school.
- 7:45Speaker 2: Yeah, I got good news for you. Nobody has that
- 7:47Speaker 2: relationship with their wife or their husband. I haven't seen that.
- 7:52Speaker 4: You can call them insane, but there's.
- 7:55Speaker 2: I like them so much.
- 7:58Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong. It almost becomes aspirational to me.
- 8:04Speaker 1: I don't believe in anything as much as they believe
- 8:06Speaker 1: in Dandana's innocence.
- 8:08Speaker 4: I find them quite moving.
- 8:13Speaker 3: In a lot of ways.
- 8:15Speaker 2: So do I. And even their story, they met, they
- 8:17Speaker 2: were babies, right? They were like, what, 15 or something ridiculous.
- 8:23Speaker 2: And just the whole way down. One of the parts
- 8:27Speaker 2: of this that did upset me, though, was that I
- 8:30Speaker 2: really hope that Keene did not have an ulterior motive
- 8:36Speaker 2: for the accusations against Jeff Sutton. I wish you could
- 8:40Speaker 2: have just like left that out because I only want
- 8:42Speaker 2: to see him as pure and good. I hope that really,
- 8:45Speaker 2: and I couldn't, I don't think so personally from having
- 8:48Speaker 2: watched it. What do you guys think?
- 8:49Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 8:49Speaker 5: I mean, I think that complication is one of the
- 8:52Speaker 5: things that's really interesting, you know, because that initially was
- 8:56Speaker 5: what drew them to the crime, their personal relationship, whether
- 8:59Speaker 5: or not that bias clouded them to the degree that,
- 9:05Speaker 5: you know, that they couldn't see the forest for the
- 9:07Speaker 5: trees here. I don't know, but that's certainly a big
- 9:10Speaker 5: part of it. And I think to leave that out
- 9:12Speaker 5: would have been a mistake because, Yeah. Because they're not
- 9:15Speaker 5: purely altruistic. Like they had this connection to Jeff Sutton.
- 9:20Speaker 2: You're breaking my heart, but okay.
- 9:22Speaker 4: I mean, you've seen, obviously you've seen all three episodes.
- 9:25Speaker 1: So, you know, I think to Josh's point, one of
- 9:29Speaker 1: the draws was that this became much more complicated than
- 9:32Speaker 1: maybe it appears on its surface in episode one.
- 9:35Speaker 4: There's just like layers. Oh yeah. We were, this was
- 9:39Speaker 4: rolling on in real time.
- 9:40Speaker 1: So we were, we started filming this in 2021. early 2020.
- 9:45Speaker 1: And so, you know, at that point, Dana had not
- 9:48Speaker 1: been retried. So when we jumped on the train, we
- 9:51Speaker 1: were just sort of experiencing these complications as they arose
- 9:55Speaker 1: through this case. So you know, the deeper we went,
- 10:02Speaker 1: the more layers sort of revealed themselves. And the fact
- 10:05Speaker 1: that you couldn't directly just say Keenan and Eileen were
- 10:08Speaker 1: 100 percent altruistic and like just questioning their motives became quite.
- 10:13Speaker 1: It was an interesting storytelling layer for us.
- 10:15Speaker 2: That was a bummer. But also the thing is when,
- 10:19Speaker 2: you know, getting the information that we did get on
- 10:21Speaker 2: Jeff Sutton, it certainly seemed his DNA obviously was not
- 10:26Speaker 2: the hair that was tied onto the bullet, but then again,
- 10:28Speaker 2: neither was Dana's, but it certainly seemed feasible, you know,
- 10:32Speaker 2: that he had, I'm not saying, I am not saying
- 10:35Speaker 2: that he did in fact commit this, these murders, but
- 10:39Speaker 2: you know, he had a background sort of shady more
- 10:42Speaker 2: so than Dana did. Right. So, That's the thing with that.
- 10:47Speaker 2: You're Josh. You're like, do you think Dana has a
- 10:50Speaker 2: shaky back?
- 10:51Speaker 5: No, I didn't mean to say it like that. It's,
- 10:52Speaker 5: I think, you know, they definitely had a case there
- 10:56Speaker 5: to be made against them. I think Dana had, you know,
- 10:59Speaker 5: I was shaking my head because I think Dana does
- 11:01Speaker 5: have a lot of stuff in her past that that's problematic.
- 11:03Speaker 2: Well, besides the emails, what besides obviously she didn't get custody.
- 11:06Speaker 2: She's an alcoholic, although, or excuse me, recovering alcoholic, but,
- 11:13Speaker 2: If I'm correct, Mike was also an alcoholic, right? So
- 11:17Speaker 2: they were both drinking.
- 11:19Speaker 5: They were both heavy drinkers, yeah. I just think they
- 11:21Speaker 5: had a contentious divorce. And I think there were a
- 11:24Speaker 5: lot of both allegations and proven instances where there was
- 11:29Speaker 5: a little bit of.
- 11:31Speaker 3: Stalking or spying on him. There was a lot of rapid.
- 11:33Speaker 5: Calling to the house at all hours. I think certainly
- 11:38Speaker 5: Mike and Karen's families had issues.
- 11:43Speaker 3: So I don't think it was out of left field.
- 11:45Speaker 3: I mean, but that contributed to their bias. Like it
- 11:48Speaker 3: has to be her.
- 11:50Speaker 5: And so I think it dovetails, you know, into the
- 11:53Speaker 5: story about who's telling what story.
- 11:56Speaker 3: And who do you believe?
- 11:59Speaker 5: Because, you know, I think he and Eileen are correct
- 12:03Speaker 5: in that there are a lot of good reasons to
- 12:04Speaker 5: believe that Jeff Sutton had it.
- 12:06Speaker 3: And I think a judge agreed, you know?
- 12:08Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, obviously not enough, but in my mind,
- 12:13Speaker 2: there's not enough, obviously, and I would think most of
- 12:17Speaker 2: the viewers would get on board with there is not
- 12:19Speaker 2: enough evidence.
- 12:20Speaker 3: Here, right?
- 12:21Speaker 2: For her to have been convicted, although she was. So,
- 12:25Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I wasn't in the jury, on
- 12:28Speaker 2: the jury, but that fact that she decided to represent
- 12:33Speaker 2: herself in real time and you guys had to watch
- 12:35Speaker 2: that happen, you must have died. Like if you're making
- 12:39Speaker 2: a film, okay, you're making it, I'm just picturing you're
- 12:41Speaker 2: making a true crime doc and this crazy person decides
- 12:45Speaker 2: to represent herself. Like what is better TV than that? Sorry,
- 12:48Speaker 2: but that's my guess. Am I right?
- 12:50Speaker 4: You're true, you are right.
- 12:52Speaker 1: And when we realized there was going to be a
- 12:54Speaker 1: third trial, you know, strictly from a storytelling point of view,
- 12:59Speaker 1: I think the worry is like, this is just going
- 13:00Speaker 1: to be a redux of the second trial because she
- 13:02Speaker 1: had the same legal team. There were the same, basically
- 13:05Speaker 1: the same details that they were going to argue. And
- 13:08Speaker 1: I think we all kind of figured, at least I did,
- 13:10Speaker 1: that it would probably be another hung jury and she'd probably.
- 13:13Speaker 4: Walk and that would be the end of it. But
- 13:15Speaker 4: when she sort of pulled.
- 13:16Speaker 1: That left turn and decided to represent herself, it was,
- 13:21Speaker 1: we were, I mean, it was sort of like, let's
- 13:22Speaker 1: hang on for dear life.
- 13:23Speaker 3: This is crazy.
- 13:24Speaker 1: What it did do ultimately, which is, has been, had
- 13:27Speaker 1: been a creative challenge for us is because we don't
- 13:30Speaker 1: have a Dana interview.
- 13:32Speaker 4: She didn't sit for it.
- 13:34Speaker 3: Of course.
- 13:34Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 13:35Speaker 1: And she didn't sit for a jailhouse interview for, For us,
- 13:38Speaker 1: of course, we wanted to have her tell her own story.
- 13:42Speaker 1: But given what transpired in the third trial, she did
- 13:46Speaker 1: tell her own story. She put herself on the stand.
- 13:48Speaker 1: You know, we basically got Dana Chandler's story from Dana Chandler.
- 13:52Speaker 1: So it afforded us as storytellers, it was a real
- 13:56Speaker 1: luxury in that way.
- 13:57Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 13:58Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 13:59Speaker 2: I hate to say like you lucked out. I mean,
- 14:01Speaker 2: this is a true crime is so it's crazy, right?
- 14:03Speaker 2: Because we're talking about, and I have to always remind
- 14:06Speaker 2: myself of this, of real, we're talking about real people.
- 14:08Speaker 2: People were murdered here. This is not like all, but again,
- 14:12Speaker 2: it's your fault. I just, the whole, the film is
- 14:14Speaker 2: very entertaining and crazy and frustrating. And I still don't
- 14:21Speaker 2: think she did it. I don't. Do you?
- 14:25Speaker 3: I don't know.
- 14:26Speaker 4: Oh, you have to.
- 14:27Speaker 2: Come on. Stop it right now. I'm not going to
- 14:29Speaker 2: hold you to it.
- 14:30Speaker 4: What do you think? No, of course you're not. You can.
- 14:33Speaker 4: I don't care if you do it or not.
- 14:35Speaker 1: I really genuinely do not know whether she did it
- 14:38Speaker 1: or not. I would say if I were to place
- 14:41Speaker 1: bets that she would be a good bet. But without
- 14:44Speaker 1: there will never, ever be certainty. That's sort of what
- 14:47Speaker 1: Joe is getting at at the end. It's like without evidence.
- 14:50Speaker 1: How can you ever be certain either way that she
- 14:52Speaker 1: did it.
- 14:53Speaker 4: Or didn't do it?
- 14:54Speaker 3: I know. Yes.
- 14:55Speaker 4: You know, so I don't, you know, over the course of.
- 14:58Speaker 2: So you wouldn't have convicted her. I feel like you
- 15:00Speaker 2: guys have said.
- 15:01Speaker 4: Zero percent chance.
- 15:02Speaker 1: Because if I were to do my civic duty as
- 15:04Speaker 1: a juror and the and the duty, the bar to
- 15:07Speaker 1: clear is beyond a shadow of a doubt.
- 15:09Speaker 4: Like, how can you ever convict her? Because of course
- 15:12Speaker 4: there's the doubt. There's no evidence. So it's all circumstantial.
- 15:16Speaker 4: And the case against Sutton was all circumstantial. You know,
- 15:18Speaker 4: it's just it's it's so.
- 15:20Speaker 1: Well, this is one of these things that is so
- 15:21Speaker 1: fascinating to both Josh and I, and to Joe. This
- 15:24Speaker 1: is sort of like, it is just the deeper you go,
- 15:26Speaker 1: the more elusive the truth becomes. And again, as storytellers,
- 15:30Speaker 1: that's really interesting terrain to walk on.
- 15:33Speaker 2: Oh yeah. Josh, you're not getting off the hook here.
- 15:36Speaker 2: What do you think?
- 15:37Speaker 3: Well, no, I think it's also interesting.
- 15:39Speaker 5: I think similar to Matthew and Joe is that I
- 15:43Speaker 5: would not have voted to convict. There wasn't the evidence. And,
- 15:47Speaker 5: you know, her story really falls apart. So I think
- 15:50Speaker 5: she's certainly the one that makes sense the most. At
- 15:56Speaker 5: the same time, you know, not only the lack of
- 15:59Speaker 5: physical evidence, but just knowing what we know about the crime,
- 16:03Speaker 5: we don't know how it was possible for her to
- 16:06Speaker 5: have done it. I mean, there's just so many questions
- 16:08Speaker 5: about how she got into the house, how she would
- 16:10Speaker 5: have gotten an Uzi style weapon or Israeli made blue
- 16:13Speaker 5: tip bullets. It just doesn't make sense. Um, and so
- 16:18Speaker 5: the ending, if it's unsatisfying is that's real life, you know,
- 16:22Speaker 5: like we don't know what happened. And I think that
- 16:24Speaker 5: also plays into going against, you know, the true crime genre,
- 16:29Speaker 5: which is, you know, we didn't know.
- 16:31Speaker 3: Right.
- 16:32Speaker 2: Wrap it up.
- 16:33Speaker 5: So for the audience, the audience wants certainty and like,
- 16:36Speaker 5: we can't provide that. And so I don't think we
- 16:38Speaker 5: wanted to, when we didn't have it ourselves.
- 16:55Speaker 4: What did you want the ending to be like when
- 16:58Speaker 4: you were watching it? Where did you want to go?
- 16:59Speaker 2: I wanted her to get off. I wanted it. I wanted,
- 17:03Speaker 2: of course, I wanted her free and clear. And I
- 17:06Speaker 2: wanted it. I wanted it to be a fact that
- 17:08Speaker 2: she was, in fact, innocent. And really, I think a
- 17:11Speaker 2: lot of that was because I hate to say it,
- 17:15Speaker 2: but I always forget Keane. I always say his name wrong.
- 17:17Speaker 2: I just love. Keenan Eileen and I don't want them
- 17:20Speaker 2: to be upset. That's what it goes to. Like you
- 17:23Speaker 2: fall in love with this couple and you're like, aw.
- 17:27Speaker 1: But I mean, I feel like half the audience is
- 17:29Speaker 1: probably going to feel the opposite of you. They want
- 17:31Speaker 1: to put away because she seems guilty. I mean, in
- 17:35Speaker 1: the second trial out of a 12 person jury, seven
- 17:38Speaker 1: of them wanted to convict her.
- 17:39Speaker 2: I know, but I know, but I even watching it,
- 17:42Speaker 2: I mean, she, yes, she, she dug herself a hole.
- 17:45Speaker 2: She absolutely did.
- 17:47Speaker 1: But she hadn't done it in the second trial she
- 17:49Speaker 1: had not dug herself a hole yet. Well, she wasn't
- 17:51Speaker 1: representing herself.
- 17:52Speaker 6: Right.
- 17:52Speaker 2: I mean, so she was– nobody ever got to the
- 17:56Speaker 2: bottom of what she was thinking with that. I know that,
- 18:00Speaker 2: you know, Keenan and Eileen don't talk to her anymore.
- 18:02Speaker 2: They won't pick up the phone. I think their children
- 18:04Speaker 2: probably said, you know, if you do lose our numbers.
- 18:07Speaker 2: But I'm wondering if anybody got any insight into what
- 18:13Speaker 2: she was thinking. She knows her case better. I mean–
- 18:17Speaker 2: That's the only thing that would make me, that's almost
- 18:20Speaker 2: one of the only, not one of the only, but
- 18:22Speaker 2: the fact that she's so crazy to do that, that
- 18:25Speaker 2: doesn't help her case. Like you gotta be a certain
- 18:28Speaker 2: amount of nut job to do that.
- 18:29Speaker 4: 100%. And I think you hit it.
- 18:33Speaker 1: Like she felt that she was the person who knew
- 18:36Speaker 1: her case best. Joe says it so well in the
- 18:39Speaker 1: third episode of just like, just, you know, knowing your
- 18:42Speaker 1: case and arguing it effectively in court are very different things.
- 18:46Speaker 4: So like Dana certainly knew.
- 18:49Speaker 1: The details, but she ended up utilizing the third trial
- 18:53Speaker 1: in a lot of ways to sort of settle scores
- 18:55Speaker 1: with people that she had wanted to directly speak to
- 18:58Speaker 1: for 20 years. And it was, it became quite ugly
- 19:02Speaker 1: to watch real, real slow motion train wreck.
- 19:05Speaker 2: Did you guys feel like when, you know, the guilty
- 19:08Speaker 2: plea was read all three times, she was just like, Oh,
- 19:13Speaker 2: I didn't see any. She was like, all right, bye.
- 19:17Speaker 2: She was like waving to her family. Did you notice that?
- 19:19Speaker 2: Or was it just me?
- 19:22Speaker 4: No, she's not one of, she's not a human of
- 19:24Speaker 4: large emotions, at least, at least externally.
- 19:28Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 19:28Speaker 4: Which makes her more than all the more fascinating, at
- 19:31Speaker 4: least to me.
- 19:32Speaker 2: I have to tell you that, you know, you did,
- 19:34Speaker 2: you put a lot of focus as you should have
- 19:35Speaker 2: on her daughter, which I, That was so interesting because I,
- 19:40Speaker 2: at the beginning, and you tell me if this was
- 19:42Speaker 2: something you were going for, I was like, maybe the
- 19:44Speaker 2: daughter did it. I'm sorry for saying that out loud.
- 19:46Speaker 2: I hope the daughter never listens to this. Obviously you
- 19:49Speaker 2: didn't do it and you've been, through it. And I'm
- 19:50Speaker 2: so sorry. But again, your fault. I was like, is
- 19:54Speaker 2: it the daughter?
- 19:56Speaker 3: What made you think that?
- 19:57Speaker 2: You tell me. You made me think it. I mean,
- 19:59Speaker 2: you went, you zoomed right in on her face. There
- 20:02Speaker 2: was a lot of her face. There was a lot.
- 20:05Speaker 2: And I didn't have... The sympathy for her, I certainly,
- 20:13Speaker 2: in a big picture, this is a film, so if
- 20:17Speaker 2: I stop and I say this to real people, of
- 20:20Speaker 2: course I feel terrible for this person, but I don't know,
- 20:24Speaker 2: you didn't play her, she didn't play her, I don't know,
- 20:26Speaker 2: she didn't seem that sympathetic to me.
- 20:28Speaker 1: Was it because in the first 48 Hours episode, she
- 20:31Speaker 1: basically said her mother should receive the death penalty?
- 20:34Speaker 4: If she killed her father?
- 20:35Speaker 1: It's like, that's sort of the first thing you learn
- 20:38Speaker 1: about Hayley is that.
- 20:39Speaker 2: Thank you for reminding me. Yes. When, and yes, I
- 20:45Speaker 2: don't know. There was just, she seemed to have no
- 20:46Speaker 2: real feeling. And I guess I don't feel like I
- 20:50Speaker 2: had enough background in terms of what kind of a
- 20:52Speaker 2: mother she was. Maybe she was this, you know, total
- 20:55Speaker 2: monster as a mother when they were together. There's a
- 20:58Speaker 2: reason she obviously didn't get custody. So maybe I was
- 21:02Speaker 2: missing something, but Was that part of it, you guys,
- 21:05Speaker 2: to sort of, I don't know, what was your focus
- 21:08Speaker 2: with her?
- 21:09Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 21:10Speaker 2: Yeah, what? Start to what?
- 21:12Speaker 1: No, no, no, Matthew.
- 21:13Speaker 2: What are you hiding from me?
- 21:15Speaker 4: There's nothing.
- 21:16Speaker 1: I'm hiding nothing. I will just say that we turned
- 21:19Speaker 1: over every possible rock.
- 21:20Speaker 2: You think she did it?
- 21:22Speaker 3: No.
- 21:22Speaker 1: But at the beginning of the process, let's just say
- 21:25Speaker 1: all possibilities were on the table of who could possibly
- 21:30Speaker 1: have done this if it wasn't Dana.
- 21:33Speaker 2: You must be so impressed with yourselves because I'm picking
- 21:35Speaker 2: up everything you're laying down.
- 21:37Speaker 6: I am.
- 21:38Speaker 2: I don't know if you're going to tell me not,
- 21:41Speaker 2: but what do you mean? You thought that there was
- 21:43Speaker 2: a possibility that she was involved. You can't take it back.
- 21:45Speaker 2: You just literally said we pulled out all the stops.
- 21:48Speaker 3: I didn't.
- 21:49Speaker 4: I don't think she was involved. I don't either.
- 21:51Speaker 1: But at the beginning of the process of us making this,
- 21:56Speaker 1: we did have to look at every possibility.
- 22:01Speaker 2: I mean, but you're filmmakers, you're not detectives, you're not investigators. So,
- 22:05Speaker 2: so what do you mean?
- 22:06Speaker 5: Well, we're not investigators, but it is our job to
- 22:09Speaker 5: try to, you know, tell all sides. And I think,
- 22:12Speaker 5: you know, we talk, or Joe talks a lot about
- 22:14Speaker 5: the dangers of certainty. So going into it, you know,
- 22:17Speaker 5: we knew the story that other media had told, um,
- 22:21Speaker 5: the police, what they told. And I think, you know,
- 22:24Speaker 5: we needed to dig into what Keenan and Eileen were saying.
- 22:27Speaker 5: So we looked at everything, um, But yeah, I agree
- 22:31Speaker 5: with Matthew. I don't think she was involved. I think
- 22:34Speaker 5: it's really difficult to watch kids, you know, point to
- 22:39Speaker 5: their mother as the one that killed their father, but
- 22:42Speaker 5: they truly believe that.
- 22:43Speaker 2: When she said, that was, when she said, I still
- 22:46Speaker 2: love you, the way that she said it was so creepy.
- 22:51Speaker 2: And again, I don't think she did it. I don't think.
- 22:53Speaker 2: But it was this, almost this menacing, like manipulative.
- 22:58Speaker 4: You don't think she did it or you just wouldn't
- 23:00Speaker 4: convict her?
- 23:00Speaker 2: I definitely wouldn't convict her. And I don't, I don't
- 23:06Speaker 2: think that she did it. I wouldn't be, it's not like,
- 23:09Speaker 2: you know, that's out of the realm of possibility for me.
- 23:11Speaker 2: I think if you said she in fact did, I
- 23:16Speaker 2: wouldn't be completely astounded, but there's just nothing. There's nothing.
- 23:23Speaker 2: There's no evidence except that she was wacky with her
- 23:27Speaker 2: ex-husband and i have about 20 friends that i can
- 23:30Speaker 2: tell you are the same that have left nasty messages
- 23:35Speaker 2: that have lost their minds after divorces i'm not saying
- 23:38Speaker 2: that they're killers but they have you know they have
- 23:42Speaker 2: done they've acted in wacky ways.
- 23:46Speaker 1: We talked about that a lot making this i mean
- 23:48Speaker 1: you're basically zooming in on the worst moments of somebody's
- 23:51Speaker 1: life like post you know, when you're, when you're going
- 23:54Speaker 1: through a divorce, it's like, we've all, I mean, I
- 23:56Speaker 1: have not gone through a divorce, but I know many
- 23:59Speaker 1: people who have, and it's, it's ugly and it gets ugly.
- 24:01Speaker 1: And if you, if you pull that stuff out in
- 24:04Speaker 1: isolation and put it in a court, like it's just
- 24:07Speaker 1: going to, it's going to read like you're an insane person.
- 24:09Speaker 3: Right.
- 24:10Speaker 2: So, and now you add drinking to that newly divorced.
- 24:16Speaker 4: Angry, losing her, losing custody, custody.
- 24:20Speaker 2: She has your kids. You know, I don't know. I
- 24:24Speaker 2: don't have a lot of friends who've lost custody, but
- 24:26Speaker 2: I do have a lot of divorced friends who have
- 24:27Speaker 2: lost their minds and and started drinking more. And that
- 24:31Speaker 2: doesn't help that none of them are capable of murder.
- 24:36Speaker 2: And so, yeah, I mean, I don't know. Is that
- 24:39Speaker 2: is that, in fact, evidence?
- 24:41Speaker 1: If it wasn't for Dana's terrible storytelling around her alibi, terribly.
- 24:50Speaker 1: certainly in the third trial. And the fact that she
- 24:52Speaker 1: has had two different alibis in the second trial, that
- 24:55Speaker 1: was really the, the linchpin for me where I was like, Oh,
- 24:59Speaker 1: this is, this could be, this is a problem. And
- 25:02Speaker 1: this is like, okay, so if you knew where you
- 25:04Speaker 1: were and you weren't anywhere, you shouldn't have been, why
- 25:07Speaker 1: couldn't you just communicate that very directly to a, to
- 25:11Speaker 1: a jury? And she couldn't do it. And she had
- 25:13Speaker 1: 20 years to figure out what to say to a jury.
- 25:16Speaker 1: And she, It's like, it's brutal to watch yourself disrupt
- 25:20Speaker 1: on the stand in the third trial. But like, it's,
- 25:23Speaker 1: you know, so if you, everything that we just talked
- 25:24Speaker 1: about as far as, you know, being an alcoholic, losing
- 25:28Speaker 1: custody of her children, having a history of stalking Mike,
- 25:31Speaker 1: that's all circumstantial. And then, but then when you add
- 25:34Speaker 1: to it, like I couldn't communicate the alibi cleanly.
- 25:38Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 25:38Speaker 4: It becomes much more complicated.
- 25:41Speaker 3: And her phone was off.
- 25:43Speaker 2: But she sat in a cell for years and years
- 25:46Speaker 2: and years. And she still couldn't get it right. I
- 25:50Speaker 2: don't know if that would mean that makes her more
- 25:52Speaker 2: likely to be guilty or just stupid or crazy. I
- 25:57Speaker 2: don't really know. Like, cause the thing is, if you
- 25:58Speaker 2: did it, you would think you would hone in on
- 26:02Speaker 2: what you're going to say on those details, right? You're
- 26:05Speaker 2: not going to screw that part up. If you are guilty,
- 26:08Speaker 2: you're very, very, very careful. Maybe that implies some, I
- 26:14Speaker 2: don't know. I mean, I'm just making this up.
- 26:16Speaker 4: Do you know what I mean?
- 26:18Speaker 2: I do.
- 26:18Speaker 1: And we, you know, there's like, we talked about, you know,
- 26:21Speaker 1: could Dana have hired a hit man to kill Mike
- 26:24Speaker 1: and Karen? And like, then you start to turn that
- 26:26Speaker 1: idea over. And if she did actually do that, why
- 26:31Speaker 1: would she then turn her phone off and go into
- 26:33Speaker 1: the mountains for two days? Like, why wouldn't you basically
- 26:35Speaker 1: like create a great alibi for yourself? Like I was home, look,
- 26:39Speaker 1: I have receipts from the pizza I ordered or whatever
- 26:41Speaker 1: it's going to be. You know, it's like, so there's
- 26:43Speaker 1: this hole in her, schedule over that weekend that is
- 26:48Speaker 1: just it will remain a giant question mark forever.
- 26:52Speaker 2: Don't say forever i can't live with forever it will
- 26:56Speaker 2: get solved so i.
- 26:56Speaker 4: Would say odds are at this point it will be
- 26:58Speaker 4: forever but who knows.
- 27:00Speaker 5: Eileen believes there's still a miracle out there so you
- 27:03Speaker 5: know she believes.
- 27:05Speaker 2: She's a true believer not dana but eileen i mean
- 27:09Speaker 2: i can't Well, what does they say to all of that?
- 27:26Speaker 2: Like when you say to them after the fact, you know,
- 27:29Speaker 2: I know they were so upset. They thought that she
- 27:31Speaker 2: made this, what she did this huge mistake by representing herself.
- 27:33Speaker 2: But when she, when they saw her fumble, that didn't,
- 27:38Speaker 2: they didn't have more questions after that. They didn't then say,
- 27:41Speaker 2: you know what, maybe nothing changed for them. They just,
- 27:46Speaker 2: from the beginning, innocent period, full stop.
- 27:49Speaker 1: I think they'd be the first to admit that that
- 27:51Speaker 1: was not Dana's best performance. But I think the thing
- 27:56Speaker 1: that knocked them even more sideways was when Dana decided
- 27:59Speaker 1: to represent herself. Because it was a very direct, it
- 28:02Speaker 1: was a bit of a fuck you to them.
- 28:04Speaker 2: Yeah, of course.
- 28:05Speaker 4: All of the people that had.
- 28:06Speaker 1: Worked so hard and spent so much money and their
- 28:08Speaker 1: resources and their time for decades to help Dana. And
- 28:13Speaker 1: just to do that in a one five-minute meeting with
- 28:16Speaker 1: the judge, it was like all of that.
- 28:18Speaker 4: Work has been erased. That was a really hard thing
- 28:22Speaker 4: for them as well.
- 28:23Speaker 3: Still is.
- 28:23Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 28:24Speaker 5: Even if Eileen, or sorry, I was just going to say,
- 28:26Speaker 5: even if Eileen believed that, you know, she did lie
- 28:30Speaker 5: about her alibi, I think she's upset because there's a jump,
- 28:34Speaker 5: you know, and she even uses this term.
- 28:35Speaker 3: It's like liar, liar, murderer.
- 28:38Speaker 5: Just because she lied doesn't mean that she killed Mike
- 28:41Speaker 5: and Karen. So I think even as problematic as that is,
- 28:45Speaker 5: she gets past it very quickly.
- 28:46Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 28:47Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I would suggest that she did get
- 28:50Speaker 2: past it because she, I would not want to live
- 28:53Speaker 2: my life thinking I had devoted all of these years,
- 28:55Speaker 2: all of these resources to something that turned out to
- 28:58Speaker 2: be a big scam.
- 29:00Speaker 1: And you, you know, we have to give one thing
- 29:02Speaker 1: we haven't talked about with Keenan Eileen is like, they
- 29:05Speaker 1: single-handedly brought that prosecutor down, which is really as a,
- 29:10Speaker 1: as sort of citizens. Um, it's, it's an extraordinary thing
- 29:15Speaker 1: to have done. And like, Jackie's paddling would probably still be,
- 29:19Speaker 1: you know, uh, practicing law to this day if it
- 29:22Speaker 1: wasn't for Keenan Eileen. Cause like no one, no one
- 29:25Speaker 1: was digging through that case except for the two of
- 29:27Speaker 1: them that we know of.
- 29:29Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 29:30Speaker 5: And what about the, um, Richard Bowley, who you see
- 29:33Speaker 5: on the stand a lot in the trials also retired.
- 29:36Speaker 2: Also a liar. What's with the liars? And where is
- 29:40Speaker 2: he now? I guess he has... No, there was... He's
- 29:43Speaker 2: not culpable. There's nothing. He's just living his life. Retired.
- 29:50Speaker 1: I don't know.
- 29:51Speaker 2: A woman went to jail based on these lies. Do
- 29:54Speaker 2: you guys.
- 29:55Speaker 4: Are you with me here?
- 29:55Speaker 3: Absolutely.
- 29:56Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 29:58Speaker 2: You think that too? Like, I don't get it.
- 30:01Speaker 4: I wish I had a clean answer for you.
- 30:03Speaker 1: I don't.
- 30:03Speaker 4: I mean, it's, it's a, it's a crazy thing to
- 30:05Speaker 4: have seen.
- 30:05Speaker 1: And then it's a, it's also a crazy thing to
- 30:07Speaker 1: have watched the prosecutor in the second trial, put a
- 30:10Speaker 1: witness on the stand that was basically telling lies.
- 30:15Speaker 2: What the hell was that? That's the thing. Like that
- 30:18Speaker 2: is the Terry Anderson, right?
- 30:20Speaker 3: Correct. Right.
- 30:21Speaker 2: Okay. The whole thing is so bizarre. And so that's
- 30:25Speaker 2: why I said it's a watching this documentary and I
- 30:28Speaker 2: have to remind myself these are real people. And so
- 30:31Speaker 2: I do always have guilt about it, but I really
- 30:33Speaker 2: enjoyed it, you guys. Well done. Seriously. I mean, if
- 30:36Speaker 2: that's your point, if that's what you're trying to accomplish here,
- 30:40Speaker 2: you know, you're telling a true story. So I'm sure
- 30:41Speaker 2: that I would think that would be the most important thing, right?
- 30:45Speaker 2: To get the story right. But we're talking about a
- 30:48Speaker 2: bunch of crazy people.
- 30:49Speaker 4: I agree.
- 30:51Speaker 1: And there's, I mean, look, we didn't set out to say, hey,
- 30:54Speaker 1: we're going to make some sort of dark comedy about
- 30:57Speaker 1: all of these tragedies in a row, but we do
- 31:00Speaker 1: have incredibly charismatic.
- 31:02Speaker 4: Characters in this.
- 31:03Speaker 3: Yes, you do.
- 31:04Speaker 4: They're characters, they're also real people, Keane and Eileen and Joe.
- 31:07Speaker 6: Yes, right.
- 31:08Speaker 1: There obviously were crazy twists and turns that we never
- 31:12Speaker 1: could have foreseen when we started this production. So of
- 31:14Speaker 1: course we're going to track those, but ultimately, I personally
- 31:19Speaker 1: don't feel like it lands in comedic territory by the
- 31:23Speaker 1: end of episode three. I think that there is actually a,
- 31:26Speaker 1: a tragedy at the center of this that I think
- 31:30Speaker 1: Joe quite eloquently communicates.
- 31:33Speaker 4: Um, you know, uh, he, for one thing, when.
- 31:37Speaker 1: He's talking about, um, Dana cross-examining her own daughter and
- 31:43Speaker 1: he says, he just realized that this was a room
- 31:46Speaker 1: full of broken people and like that this case had
- 31:49Speaker 1: just decimated numerous families that had been going on. This
- 31:53Speaker 1: had been going on for 20 years. But, you know,
- 31:56Speaker 1: Josh and I had other things on our mind that
- 31:58Speaker 1: we wanted to explore with this series. Things like the
- 32:01Speaker 1: collision of criminal justice and entertainment. The idea of, you know,
- 32:06Speaker 1: that just because....
- 32:11Speaker 4: You want a satisfying ending.
- 32:14Speaker 1: You know, if we're tracking a case, like that's not,
- 32:17Speaker 1: it might not be a satisfying ending for people.
- 32:19Speaker 4: That's real life. That has to be reflected in the show.
- 32:22Speaker 4: And there have been other true crime television episodes made
- 32:27Speaker 4: about this case that had a very specific, that had
- 32:30Speaker 4: a very specific ending, like 48 hours.
- 32:32Speaker 2: Right, right, right. They wrapped it up.
- 32:34Speaker 4: So it's, yeah, the need for.
- 32:39Speaker 1: The need for certainty for all of the people within
- 32:43Speaker 1: this story, and also as a viewer of true crime,
- 32:46Speaker 1: the need to feel like you have a tidy ending
- 32:49Speaker 1: to wrap up.
- 32:50Speaker 4: This was not that.
- 32:52Speaker 1: And we sort of knew it at the time. We
- 32:55Speaker 1: knew that this was a case that had no physical evidence.
- 32:58Speaker 1: There's probably never going to be real certainty of who
- 33:01Speaker 1: actually did this.
- 33:02Speaker 4: And so we.
- 33:04Speaker 1: Kind of knew that this was going to be an
- 33:05Speaker 1: ending that maybe some of the audience would find unsatisfying.
- 33:09Speaker 4: We find it, I find it deeply satisfying and it's uncertainty.
- 33:12Speaker 2: I'm happy for you. I do not. That's great.
- 33:16Speaker 4: I'm thrilled.
- 33:16Speaker 2: I'm thrilled that you're going to bed happy and sad. No,
- 33:19Speaker 2: it's going to keep me up for weeks now, but
- 33:22Speaker 2: nothing we can do about it. Listen, you guys, you
- 33:24Speaker 2: have to tell the truth. It is what it is.
- 33:26Speaker 2: The Terry Anderson of it all, that was just, I
- 33:29Speaker 2: feel like you guys stepped in a golden pile of
- 33:32Speaker 2: shit like one wacko after the next wacko what like
- 33:37Speaker 2: she's lying then you went to her house do you
- 33:39Speaker 2: feel bad about.
- 33:39Speaker 6: It yeah i feel bad about it okay like what
- 33:43Speaker 6: do you it was just unbelievable the characters were crazy
- 33:48Speaker 6: well done i am pissed but i would watch it
- 33:51Speaker 6: and probably will watch it again and maybe again and
- 33:55Speaker 6: i will tell all my friends to watch it so
- 33:56Speaker 6: thank you There's something to be said for that. Yeah.
- 33:59Speaker 2: I really enjoyed it, you guys. Good job. Thank you
- 34:02Speaker 2: so much for coming on. Please come back because I
- 34:04Speaker 2: know you have other stuff going on.
- 34:06Speaker 3: Yeah, sure.
- 34:07Speaker 2: Don't forget about me. Okay.
- 34:09Speaker 1: All right.
- 34:09Speaker 4: Thank you so much.