Toward a Theory of True Crime Narratives A Textual Analysis PDF
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Toward a Theory of True Crime Narratives “With this book, Dr. Ian Punnett has staked out new and important territory in the study of true crime. This is essential reading for anybody interested in how and why true crime remains compelling to worldwide readers and audiences.” —Jean Murley, Queensborough Community College, CUNY, USA Toward a Theory of True Crime Narratives vivifies how nonfiction murder stories are told, what role they play in society, and in the form of true crime why they remain enduringly popular internationally on every platform. This book establishes for the first time the actual line—or dotted line—between mainstream journalism and the multimedia phenomena of true crime. Presenting a stable definition of what is—and what is not—true crime will either challenge or justify Truman Capote’s claims regarding the creation of a “new journalism” with In Cold Blood, and accordingly expose the reluctance of the promoters of NPR’s Serial, HBO’s The Jinx, and Netflix’s Making a Murderer to refer to their products as such. This research codifies true crime texts of various types on multiple platforms—radio, television, print, digital, and film—to reveal the defining characteristics of the genre. Ian Case Punnett is a professor of multimedia journalism who came back to graduate school after a successful decades-long career in commercial radio/television/print/digital media. Other books include A Black Night for the Blue Grass Belle (2016) and How to Pray When You’re Pissed at God (2013). Routledge Focus on Journalism Studies Metro Newspaper Journalists in China The Aspiration-Frustration-Reconciliation Framework Zhaoxi Liu Toward a Theory of True Crime Narratives A Textual Analysis Ian Case Punnett Toward a Theory of True Crime Narratives A Textual Analysis Ian Case Punnett First published 2018 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Taylor & Francis The right of Ian Case Punnett to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-0-8153-8570-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-351-18048-1 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC For my wife, Margery. Someday the sensational true crime story must be told of how you stole my heart. Contents Acknowledgments viii 1 An Outline in Chalk 1 Securing the Scene 1 The Background Check 5 2 The Exploratory Study: A Proper Search 16 Interrogating the Texts 22 Selection of True Crime Narratives: “The Usual Suspects” 25 Summation 82 3 The Findings: Two Sides to Every True Crime Story 84 The Prosecution: The Critic’s View 84 The Defense: True Crime as a Justice Mechanism 85 A Review of the Evidence 86 Summation 93 4 Conclusion and Discussion: The Verdict 95 A Theory of True Crime 95 Crimen Veritas 101 The International Man Hunt Is On 101 Accomplices After the Fact: NON-narrative True Crime Writing 103 Crime Porn 104 The Final Sentence 104 References 111 Index 122 Acknowledgments The author would like to thank Team Punnett at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University: Chris- topher Callahan, Dennis Russell, Bill Silcock, Joe Russomanno, Leslie-Jean Thornton, Marianne Barrett, Tim McGuire, John Dille, and Kristy Holt- freter from the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice for all the guid- ance, invigorating conversation, and friendship in the formation of this text. A monograph of this work is only possible because of Felisa Salvago- Keyes and Christina Kowalski at Taylor & Francis, Patterson Smith for his help in the artwork, and Filson Historical Society and John Wareham at the Minneapolis Star Tribune for tracking down and providing several key photographs. 1 An Outline in Chalk Securing the Scene The mass media genre known as “true crime” is experiencing international multi-platform success. According to Apple, Serial, the 12-part podcast investigation of a 1999 murder on NPR’s This American Life website, reached the five million downloads mark faster than any podcast in history (Dredge, 2014, para. 3). In 2017, as Siobhan A. McHugh of the Univer- sity of Wollongong, Australia, noted, the S-Town podcast had ten million downloads in the first four days, “far surpassing even Serial. It has been rapturously reviewed by The Atlantic, The New York Times and respected podcasting critic Nicholas Quah in Vulture” (McHugh, 2012, para. 2). Criti- cal praise for Serial was also effusive. Although The Telegraph called it “badly written” (Simons, 2014, para. 12), after The Guardian called Serial “a truly remarkable piece of journalism” (Simons, 2014, para. 8), Dwight Gardner of The New York Times admitted that, at its best, Serial had made “many of us drive a bit wobblier” as we experienced “the occasional tingle of campfire-narration awe” (Gardner, 2014, para. 2). Few scholars accu- rately identified that the podcast’s greatest appeal came from how the show “fit so squarely in true crime” conventions (Durrani, Gotkin, & Laughlin, 2015, p. 2). The same can be said for Andrew Jarecki’s The Jinx on HBO (Lawson, 2015, para. 4). His six-part serial exposed the murderous trail of billionaire Robert Durst, a reclusive man accused of killing three people over 30 years. With a Hollywood budget and high-television production values, including hours of crime scene reenactments, Jarecki narrated much of his sojourn as “the cat” to Durst’s “mouse”—an interplay that ended with Durst being caught on camera seemingly confessing to the three murders, one of which he had been tried for, but never convicted. Aired within months of each other, Serial set the stage for a new trial for a man who had been convicted, and The Jinx forced a new murder indictment
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