A Killer Story review – this tale of two relentless armchair detectives is prestige true crime
Eileen and Keen Umbehr were convinced the wrong person was convicted for double-homicide. After sending Pulitzer-winning journalist Joe Sexton 2,714 emails about it, he agreed to investigate – and it led to a messy entanglement HBO is no stranger to true crime, though its offerings tend to be more prestige than your average, with documentaries such as the unrelenting sex cult nightmare The Vow and The Yogurt Shop Murders , a measured reinvestigation into the deaths of four teenage girls in Texas in the 90s. They have form, too, in drily funny sagas, such as McMillions , about a high-stakes conspiracy to fix the McDonald’s Monopoly promotion. Rarely are their documentaries both solemn and bizarro, with the exception perhaps of The Jinx. An unnerving tale of millionaire real estate heir turned convicted murderer Robert Durst, it occasionally lingered on the stranger points of his story, like the time he shoplifted a $6 sandwich for kicks. All this makes sense, really: it’s not like most homicides lend themselves to a deadpan retelling. A Killer Story is not laugh-out-loud funny, either. But this very meta three-parter manages to tell not one but two killer stories, one disturbing and the other absurd. The first concerns a woman, Dana Chandler, who is sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her ex-husband and his new girlfriend. The second is about a true crime-obsessed stranger, Eileen Umbehr, who becomes fixated on the case, spamming a journalist with tips. The emails from Umbehr were, says Joe Sexton – previously of the New York Times and investigative newsroom ProPublica – “a crazy assortment of shit … I [didn’t] know whether to call the cops on her or fucking hire her!” Continue reading...
The Guardian•Hannah J Davies11 Sept
