2 New TV Series Examine Long Island Serial Killer Case

#1
http://www.newsday.com/entertainmen...focus-on-long-island-serial-killer-1.12564679

“People Magazine Investigates” is a new true-crime series launching Monday at 9 p.m. on Investigation Discovery, with a simulcast on TLC. And here’s why you might be especially interested: The two-hour, two-part opener focuses on the Long Island serial killer case.

The first hour (“The Lost Girls”) covers the death of Shannan Gilbert — a sex worker who disappeared in Oak Beach early on May 1, 2010; the second hour (“New Revelations”) picks up with the discovery later that year of four sets of human remains off Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach — a number that would eventually swell to ten, along with body parts found that belonged to remains later found in Manorville.
 
#2
http://nypost.com/2016/11/05/new-show-studies-mystery-of-unsolved-long-island-murders/

Filmmaker Joshua Zeman wanted nothing to do with another serial killer case after finishing his 2009 documentary “Cropsey,” about the kidnapping of five children on Staten Island. But when the bodies of 10 dead sex workers were found near Gilgo Beach, LI, in 2010 and 2011— and years went by without an arrest — he was intrigued.

Zeman, who was born on Long Island and raised on Staten Island from age 4, and his co-filmmaker, Rachel Mills, take on that unsolved case of the so-called Long Island Serial Killer in the new A&E docuseries “The Killing Season,” premiering Saturday at 9 p.m.
 
#4
‘The Killing Season’ review: Gilgo Beach docu-crime series humanizes, but doesn’t solve case
http://www.newsday.com/entertainmen...s-humanizes-but-doesn-t-solve-case-1.12597481

REVIEW
THE DOCU-SERIES “The Killing Season”

WHEN | WHERE Premieres Saturday at 9 p.m. on A&E

GRADE B-

WHAT IT’S ABOUT The premiere season of A&E’s new docu-crime series attempts to crack the Long Island serial killer case — which began with the 2010 discovery of the remains of four female “escorts” near Gilgo Beach. The eight-episode series is executive produced by Alex Gibney (“Going Clear,” “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”) and narrated and reported by producers Josh Zeman and Rachel Mills. The duo, who also appear frequently on air, explore various leads, and then head to Atlantic City, Florida, Oklahoma and Albuquerque to explore other serial murder cases. The first two hours, and parts of the eighth, are concerned with the so-called “Long Island serial killer.”

MY SAY After eight hours of navigating their way through some half-dozen other cold cases involving (perhaps) the murder of potentially hundreds of women, mostly sex workers, Zeman and Mills do not find the Long Island serial killer. That revelation hardly requires the obligatory “spoiler alert,” because if they had, you certainly wouldn’t be reading about this for the first time in a TV review.

Perhaps seeking the sort of spectacular closer that Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling achieved in HBO’s “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” they instead find . . . more bodies, or at least the grim, haunted places where their remains were found. Theirs is a trail of tears and horrors, unleavened by any sort of closure — either for them or the victims’ families and friends.

Yet, from a viewer perspective, it only gets worse. Marred by theatrics and typical gimcrackery of most true-crime docs — including a spooky synth music soundtrack and on-screen crosstalk between the producers of the faux-spontaneous variety — “The Killing Season” can also be messy and, at times, ethically questionable journalism. The activist-reporter/sleuths breathlessly pick up leads, then drop them. They hire a prostitute for an evening to drive her to her various appointments, which — they concede — is probably illegal. They scour a popular website, Websleuth, for information and sources, while picking up “tips” that even a casual Google search could turn up. That aforementioned crosstalk also yields occasionally painful malapropisms. For instance, here’s Mills, upon learning that the remains of a toddler and her mother were buried miles apart on South Shore beaches: “He could at least have had the decency to bury them together.”

Now that you have been warned, consider the virtues of “The Killing Season.” Like all intrepid activist-reporters, Mills and Zeman bring compassion to their quest, which at times actually ennobles it. Something horrific has happened to these women, who are — as one writer calls them — the “missing missing.” Per “Season,” most are unknown to police because they were never reported missing in the first place, or if they were, a dilatory response by the police virtually ensured they would never be found.

Mills and Zeman are looking for big patterns over these hours, and after a while, some of those become acutely self-evident. Among them is so-called “linkage blindness,” which has prevented law enforcement — they argue — from finding connections to the crimes simply because that would mean crossing state or jurisdictional boundaries.
Best of all are Mills and Zeman’s efforts to humanize some of those victims. Rather than settle for a headshot of a young woman who had become another statistic, they seek out friends and relatives. They want to find out who she was, and who she left behind. “Our loved ones are the victims,” concludes Zeman, “and no one has the right to deny them justice.”

However flawed they may be, these eight, hard hours make that irrefutably clear.

BOTTOM LINE Not nearly enough fresh information on the Long Island case, and cluttered with tangents that seem to lead nowhere, “The Killing Season” still makes its case — a terrifying one.
 
#5
Well, I just watched the two hours of the People Magazine Investigates shows on the ID network. The first hour was dedicated to the Shannan Gilbert case and covered all the players fairly thoroughly. Although it didn't reveal any new details, I still found it interesting. It would have been better, though, had they interviewed some of those "persons of interest" such as the John that hired her, the Doctor that claimed to have been treating her, the neighbor whose door she knocked on after running away from the John's house, or her driver. Instead, the only interviews were with Shannan's mother and sister. Also, the only mention of the mom's death - allegedly at the hands of another of her daughters two months after these interviews concluded - was only a footnote printed onscreen during the end credits.

The second hour covered all the other suspected serial killer prostitute bodies that were found throughout Long Island. This includes the four burlap bag bodies found in Gilgo Beach as well as other bodeis scattered along Long Island barrier beaches. So, terming these findings the Gilgo Beach murders is a misnomer, since it involves more than just Gilgo Beach. I found the reporting leaving me with new questions rather than even answering any old ones. The only new information I heard was a report about a millionaire that committed suicide after one of the bodies was found and speculation that maybe he was part of some rich guy group that was responsible for these killings. That theory was debunked by one of the announcers though. Other theories include possible police involvement and/or coverup with the killings, including by James Burke, the since jailed SCPD Police Chief. Too much time was wasted on his story, in my opinion.

In fact, a lot of time was wasted over the entire two hours in repeating details and with the show logo. Whenever the show would either fade in or fade out, they played this annoying show ID. Although it was only a few seconds long, if you added it up over the whole two hours, it took up minutes of time that could have been used to provide useful content. Also, whenever the show would return after a commerical break, they would rehash the content that appeared right before the break and repeat it. More wasted time that could have gone to other reporting. Especially when you consider that they devoted one hour to one girl in the first part and then spent one hour on 10 or so victims in the second part. One last thing to note is that not only did they speculate that these LI murders might be connected to ones that occurred in Atlantic City, but there may be other bodies that are linked here. Although they did cover the AC murders in some detail, they offered absolutely no details on those others.

While I dread wasting more time on a rehash of this story, I am going to watch the A&E series simply to be able to compare it to People Mag's coverage. The A&E show airs tomorrow, as I've indicated in the post before this one.
 
#7
Update: Super is in more of the first episdoe than just the intro, where she is seen putting on her makeup. Late in the show, around the 45 minute mark, there is an arc where the two filmmakers are seen driving her to appointments. (A note comes on the screen that states that in addition to paying her for her time, the couple have agreed to drive her to appointments. Super even cautions them that this might be illegal.) But I found her part in the story to be useless in moving it along. I suspect she is there to point out how dangerous the job of an escort is. My suspicions are bolstered by an event where Super does not reply to their phone calls or texts after being on a date for over an hour. (Prior to this, she had revealed that she always uses a driver on an outcall and checks in with the driver at the start and end of the date. Further, if the driver has not heard from her within an hour, this could be an indication that something has gone wrong.) Eventually, Super returns to the car and reports that her phone died, she didn't have a charger, and the John wanted to keep her longer than she anticipated. But, I believe the entire scene was just a ruse to push their agenda. Unfortunately, as I stated earlier, it did nothing for the story.

There were two interesting new angles that I wasn't aware of regarding the Long Island Serial Killer (or LISK, as they refer to him). The first is the mention of websleths.com, a site where amateur sleuths discuss LISK and other crimes. The site owner is also shown speaking on her internet radio show. This also allows the filmmakers to bring in an amateur serial killer profiler to offer his theories on the killings. I'm not sure why they choose him out of all the people who either posted to the site or called into the radio show. Perhaps it's because he is German and they thought his heavy accent would bring some mystery to the story.

The second new tidbit is the information that Joe Foti, a former Suffolk County Corrections Officer, had his name posted on the Wiki website about the killings. A woman connected with the production staff or websleuths (I'm not certain) did some digging on Wiki and found an edit where Foti's name was listed as a person of interest, for lack of a more definitive description. Searching through IP addresses, she claimed that the post was made from a computer at the SCPD. She thens looks on the web further and finds two possible Joe Fotis. This leads the filmmakers on a chase to track him down in an effort to obtain his reaction to the allegation and to record his voice. They want to play this recording for the sister of the victim from the Gilgo Beach 4 (or GB4, as they term it), the four girls found near each other wrapped in burlap bags. You may remember the story that the younger sister of one of these girls received numerous calls from someone reporting himself to be the killer. (Police traced the calls to cell towers in Manhattan, but obviously could not locate him from this alone.) After going to the homes of both Joe Fotis and leaving their business card, the filmmakers eventually recieve a call from one of the Fotis, but nothing comes of it as far as any answers about his possible involvement in the slayings. All that is revealed is that he admits he was a former CO. The episode ends as the couple are driving on their way to play the tape for the younger sister. I guess that this is how the second episode will open. I will report more after I watch it.
 
#10
I have now watched the first four episdoes of the Killing Season. They have covered the bodies that were found on Gilgo Beach and other parts of LI, Atlantic City, and Florida in their search to find out if all of them are connected. Whenever they follow a lead, it never pans out. I find myself falling asleep trying to watch each one hour episdoe. Maybe it's the tedium of the case details. Or maybe it's the voice of the male filmmaker, who acts as the commentator throughout the series. But something about this show keeps putting me to sleep. I don't think I will be tuning in any more. Eagerly awaiting The Exiled's take on it.
 
#12
I have now watched the first four episdoes of the Killing Season. They have covered the bodies that were found on Gilgo Beach and other parts of LI, Atlantic City, and Florida in their search to find out if all of them are connected. Whenever they follow a lead, it never pans out. I find myself falling asleep trying to watch each one hour episdoe. Maybe it's the tedium of the case details. Or maybe it's the voice of the male filmmaker, who acts as the commentator throughout the series. But something about this show keeps putting me to sleep. I don't think I will be tuning in any more. Eagerly awaiting The Exiled's take on it.
Why would I watch it after what you just wrote??? Is it like the other crime shows on TV where there is a commercial every 10 minutes and when they come back they repeat for 5 minutes what they said before the commercial. Cause if it's like that I have zero interest.
 
#13
Then only watch the first episode to see Super. And this episode is the most LI centric one anyway. Just cause I found it to be boring at times doesn't mean you will.
The commercials aren't as frequent as that. The opening does repeat from the previous episdoe. Can't remember how frequent it repeats otherwise, but wan't enough to annoy me.
 
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