Apple+’s Black Bird boasts a strong cast and tells the true story of James Keene’s infiltration of MCFP (Springfield’s maximum security prison) and Larry Dwayne Hall, the real-life serial killer who has yet to be convicted for murder but is believed to be responsible for killing up to 18 young women.
Plot synopsis
Set in the mid-90’s, Black Bird’s James Keene (Taron Egerton) is a washed up high-school football star who’s knee-deep in the world of narcotics. After getting arrested for distribution of cocaine and the possession of assault weapons, Keene cuts a deal with the prosecutor for what he believes is a 5 year sentence.
However, at the last minute the judge reneges on the deal and sentences him to a decade in prison for possession of assault weapons with no chance of early parole. Keene, now facing 10 years to life in prison, is terrified of spending his best years in a minimum-security facility and, with his father (Ray Liotta) in poor health, is amenable to a deal with the FBI to transfer to a maximum-security prison for the criminally insane to steal a confession out of accused killer Larry Dwayne Hall in exchange for his freedom.
Apple+ is giving us a thrilling narrative, but is it the right one?
In all fairness, Apple+ wants to tell a great story in Black Bird; and James Keene’s is compelling. The series itself is very well-scripted, and the cast have done a terrific job thus far.
Taron Egerton fans will be pleased, and it is worth mentioning that this may be Ray Liotta’s last performance – there’s even a rumored tribute to him due after this Friday’s episode.
But after watching the first two episodes of Black Bird, its hard not to think about Larry Hall’s victims first.
There are rumored to be 18 victims, but one gives us a window into the mind of a serial killer more others
Michelle Dewey, a young mother with a newly born son, was last seen sun bathing in a lawn chair at her Irvington home on South Downey Avenue in 1991, according to her aunt.
A few hours later, Dewey was found strangled to death in her home, her infant son tucked away in a closet.
Her son Prescott, now 31 years old, says he often asks himself why he lived through the ordeal, “did this person have feelings for me to keep me alive?”
The answer is almost certainly, no.
According to his twin brother Gary, Larry put Prescott in the closet because he was screaming, and it frightened him.
Gary also believes there is no question that Larry committed the atrocious crime. “I believe Larry killed Michelle […] I believe he killed a lot of young women, I’m sorry to say.” He says that Larry even confessed to it and admitted on separate occasions that he was in the area at the time of the murder (recounting different versions at each retelling of the story).
“He confessed that his first killing was in 1979,” says Gary, “he’s confessed to 15 murders.”
But why did Larry murder Michelle and protect a newborn baby after its screams frightened him?
Despite the belief that most serial killers have a type (it has been reported that Paul Stefani chose victims who wore red, and Adam Lane would only kill those who didn’t have alarms or dogs), Paul Harrison, Briton’s Mindhunter and serial killer profiler would argue its more complex than that.
“Nearly all [serial killers] suffered some type of trauma, and they internalize that. It becomes hatred, they can’t control it, and while they aren’t initially looking for a kill, [the first time] they stumble on someone alone and say ‘that person’s on their own, I’ll be in control,’ and then it just happens. Once they’ve done it they get the ‘kick’, and then they make the conscious decision ‘I’m going to go do it again.’ But they often feel bad afterwards.”
Paul’s insight certainly falls in line with what we know about Larry Hall’s television persona, as he’s already admitted to folding one victim’s clothes after killing her because he “tore the zipper.”
Following this logic, it certainly makes sense that he could have murdered Michelle Dewey, immediately felt guilt (while frightened by Prescott’s screams), and decided to move the child out of harms way as an amends for his crime.
In any case, what is most horrific about Hall is that he is alleged to have done this to 18 women over the course of 15 years, and has yet to be convicted of a single murder.
The victims deserve closure
For all of the wildly unbelievable moments we’ve seen in Black Bird thus far, what may have stood out most in the first two episodes is the unprofessionalism of the local police.
It isn’t yet clear why they turned a blind eye to Larry – though they’ve said it is because he’s given false confessions before – but one thing is certain to almost anyone; Hall is immediately recognizable as a disturbed individual, something that most reports about him in real life seem to substantiate. With such a strange disposition, a vehicle matching the description in countless alleged stalking and missing persons reports, and a man who almost taunts the police with tales of murdering women in his dreams, the question is: can it really be true an entire police force was this incompetent?
Larry Hall’s victims deserve closure. Let’s hope Apple+ takes a break from James Keene’s fantastical tough-guy-that-just-wins-autobiography in the coming episodes to actually flesh out the real stories of the victims who lost their lives to the hands of a deeply disturbed and evil human being.