In the Dark (podcast)
| In the Dark | |
|---|---|
| Presentation | |
| Hosted by | Madeleine Baran |
| Genre |
|
| Language | English |
| Updates | Weekly |
| Production | |
| Audio format | Podcast (via streaming or downloadable MP3) |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 21 |
| Publication | |
| Original release | September 7, 2016 – present |
| Cited for | Peabody Award (2017) |
| Cited as | "Transcending the [crime story] genre and advancing its scope of possibility" |
| Provider | American Public Media |
| Website | InTheDarkPodcast.org |
In the Dark is a podcast produced by American Public Media. Hosted and narrated by Madeleine Baran, the series features investigative journalism and in-depth reportage from APM Reports, the investigative reporting and documentary unit of APM.[1] The 10-episode first season, which explored the kidnapping/murder of Jacob Wetterling, was released between September and December 2016. Season 2, which explores the case surrounding convicted murderer Curtis Flowers, was released between May and July 2018.
Series overview
Season 1
Season 1 of In the Dark explored the case of Jacob Wetterling, an 11-year-old boy from St. Joseph, Minnesota who was kidnapped and murdered on the night of October 22, 1989. Wetterling's case went unsolved for 27 years until his remains were discovered in a pasture near Paynesville, Minnesota on September 1, 2016. The location was revealed by Danny Heinrich, a long-time person of interest in the abduction of another boy, Jared Scheierl, in the nearby town of Cold Spring. On September 6, 2016, Heinrich admitted to kidnapping and murdering Wetterling as well as the abduction and sexual assault of Scheierl.[2] Heinrich would be sentenced on November 21, 2016 to a 20-year prison term for a federal child pornography charge.[3]
Production on Season 1 had been underway for 9 months and was in its final stages (it was scheduled to premiere on September 13, 2016) by the time Wetterling's remains were discovered and Heinrich confessed to the crime. The developments, which host/lead reporter Madeleine Baran and the APM Reports team were not expecting ahead of time,[4] prompted them to re-edit and re-record the first two episodes (at least the first of which was already finished) and move up their release to September 7, one day after Heinrich's court appearance.[5]
The edits to the first two episodes of In the Dark turned out to be minimal, for by then, the reporting team's focus wasn't so much about who may have been responsible for Jacob Wetterling's disappearance but more about the investigation of the crime and its effects on the community. The team focused on systemic failures in the Wetterling investigation, in particular how the Stearns County Sheriff's Office handled not only the case but other similar cases. (The department's lack of transparency was partial inspiration for the series' title.)[1] Broader repercussions of the case also explored, including the impact on Jacob's family and friends (Jacob's parents, Jerry and Patty Wetterling, are extensively featured); its effect on the immediate Stearns County area; and national implications, including the establishment of a federal law, named in Jacob's honor, that requires states to implement and contribute to registries that track sex offenders and crimes against children. As Madeleine Baran admitted to Esquire, with In the Dark, as opposed to other true crime podcasts such as Serial, "We [APM Reports] didn't see ourselves as playing the role of detective in the case. We saw ourselves as investigating the investigation."[4]
Season 2
The second season of In the Dark began with the release of its first two episodes on May 1, 2018, with one new episode being released each Tuesday through July 3, 2018. Season 2 explored the legal odyssey surrounding Curtis Flowers, who was accused of shooting four people to death inside Tardy Furniture, a Winona, Mississippi store, in July 1996. Flowers, who had worked at Tardy Furniture for only a few days and who has long maintained his innocence, faced trial for the murders 6 times, with the first 5 trials seeing either convictions overturned on suspicious grounds or ending with hung juries. The 6th and most recent jury trial, in 2010, ended with Flowers' conviction on four counts of capital murder, though his case has been remanded on appeal by the United States Supreme Court to a lower court to review racial bias in jury selection.
Much as In the Dark's first season focused on the conduct of those investigating Jacob Wetterling's disappearance, Season 2's storyline (which began with an e-mail tip to APM Reports and led to a nearly year-long investigation) pivoted from the murders Flowers has been tried and convicted for to the actions of the district attorney's office in Mississippi's Fifth Circuit Court District. The actions of two figures in the D.A.'s office are specified, D.A. Doug Evans (who prosecuted Flowers and remains certain of his guilt) and office investigator John Johnson (lead investigator in Tardy Furniture case). APM's investigation would reveal three actions by the D.A.'s office that appeared to ensure Flowers' conviction: Efforts to empanel all-white or majority-white juries against Flowers (who is black); the reliance on a key prosecution witness, Odell Hallmon, whose testimony that he heard Flowers confess to the murders turned out to be a falsehood; and the consideration of Flowers as the only suspect. In regards to the latter, APM Reports revealed in the season's 10th episode that Evans' office withheld from the defense the fact that an "alternative suspect," Willie James Hemphill, was held for questioning in the case; Flowers' legal team would specifically cite APM's revelation as part of their appeal.[6] Season 2 has also featured historical anecdotes about racial issues in Winona and northern Mississippi.[7]
Episode summary
Season 1
| No. | Title | Length (minutes:seconds) | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Crime" | 34:46 | September 7, 2016 |
| A look at the Jacob Wetterling abduction itself, as well as early actions by the Stearns County Sheriff's Office that would hobble their investigation for decades to come. | |||
| 2 | "The Circle" | 38:29 | September 7, 2016 |
| How investigators, rather than start in small circles, allowed the case to grow into a statewide and eventually national concern. | |||
| 3 | "The One Who Got Away" | 44:49 | September 13, 2016 |
| Jared Scheierl recalls his January 1989 assault by Danny Heinrich, as well as his efforts to investigate his own case (which Heinrich wouldn't confess to until decades later).[8] | |||
| 4 | "The Circus" | 36:34 | September 20, 2016 |
| The Wetterling case gains national attention, as everyone from national journalists to talk show hosts to psychics get involved. Meanwhile, local investigators entertain farfetched vagaries. | |||
| 5 | "Person of Interest" | 47:30 | September 27, 2016 |
| Twenty-one years after Jacob's disappearance, police declare local music teacher Dan Rassier a person of interest; their actions produce no evidence, yet ruin Rassier's reputation.[8] | |||
| 6 | "Stranger Danger" | 36:47 | October 4, 2016 |
| A look at how the Wetterling case, and other high-profile cases before and after it, created a national sense of worry over "pedophiles lurking around every corner," which results in the establishing of sex offender registries that Patty Wetterling believes may have gone too far. | |||
| 7 | "This Quiet Place" | 40:34 | October 11, 2016 |
| How a "lack of introspection and accountability" led to several unsolved cases in the Stearns County Sheriff's Office backlog, including cases that occurred long before Jacob's disappearance and that state investigators solved by asking questions the Sheriff's Office did not. | |||
| 8 | "What's Going On Down There?" | 46:06 | October 18, 2016 |
| A focus on accountability (or lack therof) in the Stearns County Sheriff's Office in particular and other sheriff's offices nationally, as it is revealed that Stearns County has a very low clearance rate in investigating serious cases such as murder. | |||
| 9 | "The Truth" | 42:00 | October 25, 2016 |
| A profile of Danny Heinrich and how the wrong moves of the Stearns County Sheriff's Office allowed him to go free — and commit other crimes. | |||
| 10 | "Update: Sentencing, A Demand, No Closure" | 36:36 | December 2, 2016 |
| In this follow-up, Madeleine Baran recounts the sentencing hearing for Danny Heinrich, speaks one more time with Jerry & Patty Wetterling, and reports on Dan Rassier's plans to sue the Stearns County Sheriff's Office over his wrongful implication in the Wetterling case. | |||
Season 2
| No. | Title | Length (hours:minutes:seconds) | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "July 16, 1996" | 42:22 | May 1, 2018 |
| A look at the day of the murders at Tardy Furniture, Curtis Flowers' personal background, and the first of six trials against him. | |||
| 2 | "The Route" | 52:39 | May 1, 2018 |
| Conversations with the witnesses who said they saw Flowers walking through downtown Winona the morning of the murders, and how and why some of their stories now waiver on key details. | |||
| 3 | "The Gun" | 47:03 | May 8, 2018 |
| The strange story of the man whose stolen gun investigators allege was used in the murders — even though it has never been found and may not have been the actual murder weapon. | |||
| 4 | "The Confessions" | 52:55 | May 15, 2018 |
| How three jail inmates claimed they heard Flowers confess to the murders, whether their stories have any veracity, and whether the prosecution and investigators had any influence in their testimony. | |||
| 5 | "Privilege" | 48:14 | May 22, 2018 |
| The focus turns to Odell Hallmon, a career criminal and the jailhouse witness the District Attorney relied on the most; Doug Evans' zeal to retain Hallmon as a witness against Flowers helped Hallman stay out of jail and become, as one law enforcement veteran put it, a "monster." | |||
| 6 | "Punishment" | 43:48 | May 29, 2018 |
| Now serving three consecutive live sentences without parole for a 2016 murder spree, Odell Hallmon surreptitiously reaches out to APM and makes an admission: His trial testimony against Flowers (in exchange for DA Doug Evans granting leniency for his own crimes) was a fabrication. The status of Flowers' appeal is profiled, as is the emotional toll his family and friends feel over his imprisonment. | |||
| 7 | "The Trials of Curtis Flowers" | 1:01:08 | June 5, 2018 |
| Examining the makeup of the juries in Flowers' trials, a pattern is revealed: The juries who convicted Flowers were all white or had only one juror of color, the result of DA Doug Evans seeking to use as many "strikes" as possible to seat as many white jurors as possible. Also examined is the plight of James Bibbs, a black juror in the 5th trial whose doubts about Flowers' guilt prompted a mistrial — and led to his own indictment, for perjury. | |||
| 8 | "The D.A." | 1:01:30 | June 12, 2018 |
| Before Madeleine Baran's brief interview with DA Doug Evans (during which he is noncommittal and holds to his belief of Flowers' guilt), a profile of Evans' background and rise to DA is featured, as is his office's history of disproportionately striking more blacks than whites for juries even outside of the trials against Flowers. | |||
| 9 | "Why Curtis?" | 56:32 | June 19, 2018 |
| Why did the D.A.'s investigation focus exclusively on Flowers? A look into John Johnson's background reveals an investigation based on uneasy feelings Tardy Furniture employees had for Flowers, an incident involving damaged golf cart batteries, failed attempts to get a recorded confession, and notes containing statements witnesses say weren't entirely true or were completely made up. | |||
| 10 | "Discovery" | 1:04:04 | June 26, 2018 |
| It is revealed that the prosecution withheld from Flowers' attorneys evidence that could have benefited Flowers' defense. A search of county records in a musty warehouse reveals that another person was questioned in the Tardy Furniture murders. That person, Willie James Hemphill, admits to APM that authorities held him as a suspect and collected evidence on him. | |||
| 11 | "The End" | 35:22 | July 3, 2018 |
| Winona resident Jeffrey Armstrong offers two revelations that suggest someone else may have committed the murders: His 2001 finding and turnover to Winona Police of a firearm similar to the one used at Tardy Furniture (which the state has no record of), and a path from where the gun was found the store that is in the opposite direction of Flowers' alleged route. An update on Flowers' appeal is offered, as are thoughts from his parents. | |||
Awards
In the Dark was honored in Spring 2017 with a Peabody Award, with the award's governing body applauding the program for its "immaculate storytelling talent and journalistic precision" in its investigation into the investigation of the Jacob Wetterling case as well as its "deftly incisive" way of telling the human side of the case and its broader policy implications.[9]
References
- 1 2 "APM investigative unit announces podcast series on Wetterling case," from Minnesota Public Radio, 8/29/2016
- ↑ Williams, Brandt, "Heinrich confesses to taking, killing Jacob Wetterling," from Minnesota Public Radio, 9/6/2016.
- ↑ "'Truly sorry for my evil acts': Jacob Wetterling's killer gets 20 years," from Minnesota Public Radio, 11/21/2016
- 1 2 "In the Dark Host Madeleine Baran Explains How the Year's Best True-Crime Podcast Was Made," from Esquire, 11/7/2016
- ↑ "Missing a Murderer: In the Dark Is Not Your Typical True-Crime Podcast," from Vulture.com, 9/15/2016
- ↑ [https://courts.ms.gov/appellatecourts/docket/sendPDF.php?f=dc00001_live.SCT.15.DR.591.115527.1.pdf&c=82231&a=N&s=2 "SUPPLEMENT TO REPLY IN SUPPORT OF MOTION TO LIFT STAY OF POST- CONVICTION PROCEEDINGS"] from Courts.MS.gov (filed 6/28/2018 and accessed 7/3/2018)
- ↑ In the Dark Season 2 trailer on APMReports.org (accessed 5/7/2018)
- 1 2 "True Crime Podcast In the Dark Is a Harrowing Spiritual Sequel to Serial," from Esquire, 10/5/2016
- ↑ In the Dark on PeabodyAwards.com (accessed 1/12/2018)