Crime Archives - Award-Winning Writer and Graphic Designer

Exclusive Interview with Cannibal Cop About His ‘Raw Deal’

dorriolds — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 01:27:40 +0000

By Dorri Olds
The infamous case of Cannibal Cop Gilberto Valle illustrates the blurred facts and fantasy in a digital world. Valle was a New York City police officer arrested in 2012 for conspiracy to kidnap. He was convicted a year later and faced life in prison plus five years for another charge: accessing the federal National Crime Information Center database without authorization. After Valle served 21 months in prison, the judge, Paul Gardephe, shocked everyone by overturning the verdict. Now Valle has written a memoir, Raw Deal: The Untold Story of NYPD’s Cannibal Cop.
In 2012, Valle’s suspicious wife Kathleen installed spyware on their home computer and her snooping revealed gruesome chats on sexual fetish sites. In elaborate detail, Valle typed about rape, torture, murder, and eating women—including Kathleen.
In his defense, Valle swore it was all just pretend—innocuous role-playing like gamers do in World of Warcraft. But, although the intricate details sounded real, the ex-cop insists he never acted on his depraved sexual fantasies. No woman in the 3D world was ever abducted or violated. According to Valle, it was all talk merely to enhance pleasuring himself.
His arrest, trial, and conviction are reminiscent of the “Thought Police” in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Eerily, Valle was born in 1984. Oh, the irony in this creepy case. The New York Post had a ball with punny headlines. Examples include “Cannibal Cop dishes on how his twisted role plays came to a boil” and “Cannibal Cop says he’s a hot dish on the dating scene.”
SEE ALSO: PULP, CRIME AND THE HEADLINES OF THE NEW YORK POST
Honeysuckle’s Dorri Olds landed an exclusive interview with the Cannibal Cop.
Dorri Olds: When you spent seven months in solitary confinement did you fantasize about hogtied women to satisfy yourself sexually?
No, it wasn’t an environment conducive to pleasuring myself. It was depressing and thoughts raced through my head—the court case, my ex-wife, my daughter, my family. As it got closer to the trial, I was mostly thinking about the case. My lawyer sent paperwork. The government was turning over discovery and I was reading all that stuff and thinking about how to fight the case. The prosecutors made a lot of false allegations. I have a very good memory so I was able to [reconstruct] things to help my case.
Prosecutors accused me of being in lower Manhattan on a Saturday to [find] a woman but I took a friend to see Ground Zero and showed him around the city. That’s what I was really doing. I had to find proof of the truth. I spent a lot of time thinking about stuff like that.
Are you accusing the prosecuting attorneys of lying?
Yes, they lied about a lot of things. I was a cop for almost seven years so I had the mindset that cops and prosecutors were doing the right thing. Defense attorneys were looking for a technicality to put criminals back on the streets. But it turned out to be the complete opposite. What an eye-opener.
Now I’m on board with defense lawyers and automatically tuned to look for prosecutorial misconduct. I’m not saying that every prosecutor is like that—most are fair and just. The dishonesty in my case was frustrating. Those untruths stuck to me even though it’s been proven the prosecutors blatantly misrepresented facts and lied, yet nothing was done to them. It’s like, ‘So what they lied?’”
Sounds like what’s going on in the White House—Trump and his cabinet lie frequently but fans believe them, despite evidence. Trump is a misogynist—is that why your violent sexual fantasies excite you? Do you hate women?
I understand that women read about my fantasies and don’t want to be associated with me. They may hate or even fear me. But human sexuality is complicated. You don’t choose the things you’re aroused by. But I took no actions. This was all fictional, fantasy, role-play over the internet. It never affected my real life. I was a good husband, a good father. The fantasies were just something that existed inside me and I was able to live with that.
Obviously, I wish I wasn’t aroused by this stuff but it’s just there. The main question with this case, and my book, is that I’m not looking for people to be comfortable around me. I’m looking for people to look at everything and conclude that I should not have been in prison. No matter how horrible a person’s thoughts are, without action, that isn’t a crime. That’s freedom of speech, the First Amendment. Again, I’m not looking for friends or people to like me. I’m looking for those most disgusted and revolted to still conclude that I did nothing illegal.

You just said you wish you didn’t have these fantasies. But you’ve also said that when you were younger, you didn’t see anything wrong with your fantasy life. Has your view changed simply because of the trial, jail, and public humiliation?
Yeah, that’s really it. My plan was to go through life without ever telling anyone about this stuff. I never thought there was anything wrong with me because it never affected my real life. Growing up, I was a great student, had lots of friends. I was a good baseball player and a typical American kid. Then [became] a cop. I was a good cop, a good husband and a good father.
Your wife stated that you didn’t have much of a sex life. She wanted both of you to see a sex counselor, right?
There was no talk about a sex counselor until after she found everything and left. She suggested that we maybe go to a couple’s therapist. That was her initial reaction upon finding everything.
Did you and Kathleen have a happy sex life?
Our sex life diminished a bit after the baby was born. I don’t think there’s anything unusual about that. We weren’t sleeping much and it was complicated because I worked nights.
Before the baby and working nights, were you able to have sex without fantasy?
Yeah, absolutely. Our sex life was fine. I was happy with it. She was happy with it. That’s as much as I want to say, because I don’t want to invade her space too much, but from our perspective, things were good. We were happy. Everything was going very well.
When did you last see your daughter?
She was one when I was arrested. She’s five years old now and has no idea who her dad is. That’s being worked out in family court. I petitioned for visitation rights. That’s as much as I can say, because it’s being done under seal. I’m the subject of a lot of jokes and I’m fine with that. I’d rather people laugh and make fun of me than be afraid of me. But the thing people are missing is that my family’s gone, my career is gone.
What does she know about her father?
I have no idea because I haven’t spoken to Kathleen or her family, not one word. Our communication is through lawyers. That’s unfortunate. I’m very optimistic that the judge is going to rule in my favor, that I’ll be able to reunite with my daughter. I’m also hopeful that as adults, Kathleen and I can find a way to be cordial for the sake of our daughter. I’m not sure if we’re going to get there. I hope we can.
How would you feel if a man fantasized about your daughter—tying her up, putting fruit in her mouth, cutting her up, cooking and eating her?
That’s a very tough question. No one has ever asked me that. Obviously, as a father, I want my daughter to be completely safe. That’s my number one concern. I would be uncomfortable with people thinking about her like that. On the other hand, if something’s going to happen to that person with those fantasies, then something would have had to happen to me too. It’s two sides of a coin. When it’s your own daughter, I guess I think about it differently. I wasn’t always circumspect when I was online. I think this experience has made me a little more careful and considerate about what other people would think. At the same time, if someone wants to think about stuff, they can’t be sent to prison. That doesn’t mean I’d be okay with it. I wouldn’t want my daughter anywhere near that person, but the issue is does a person belong in prison for thinking that? The answer would have to be no.
Is your father-in-law still in the picture? Is he alive?
I believe so. I’m not sure.
Did you ever have to look him in the eye during the court case?
No. The courtroom was completely packed. I didn’t notice him there.
Were your parents in the courtroom every day?
Yes, and at all the pretrial hearings. It was uncomfortable for them but it was good they came. They never believed the allegations.
What was their reaction to your sexual fantasies?
It was shocking to them. I never told anyone about this stuff. My brother is the person I’m closest to on this planet and I never told him. They knew me for 28 years, and knew I wasn’t capable of violence like this.
If you didn’t see anything wrong with your fantasies, why didn’t you tell anyone?
It wasn’t anything I spent a lot of time thinking about. When I say there was nothing wrong with my fantasies, I knew it was a little different, a little abnormal. That’s why I didn’t want to share it with anybody, because they would think I was some kind of freak. They would outcast me. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with me because my life was so perfect. Other than my parents separating when I was five, I had as good a life as a person could possibly have.
When your parents divorced, did your mother get full custody?
No. My mother was the one who left, and she wasn’t working, so my father had custody, and we would be at my mom’s every other weekend. Then school vacations we’d have a week with mom.
I could see how that would make a little boy very angry at his mother.
I was so young, I didn’t think about it that much. That environment was normal. My parents separating was normal for me and my brother. Both my parents were very involved in our upbringing. My mom was always close. It’s not like she went to another state. She was always very much a part of our lives. She came to our baseball games and everything.
Did you talk to her every day?
Not every day. Every couple days, she’d call.
Did your father have time to spend with you, or you were raised by a nanny?
We had a nanny. My father worked. He was a Wall Street broker. The nanny would come early in the morning. She’d walk us to school. She’d cook dinner. We had a comfortable middle-class upbringing. We never had a ton of money but we lived within our means.
Were your parents surprised that you wanted to be a cop?
Yeah, but they were supportive of me. I explained to them my goal was not to be in a patrol car my whole life. I have a college education, and have the brains to work my way up the ranks at a police department. I had actually passed a sergeant’s exam on my first attempt. I was about a month away from being promoted before I was arrested.

(l to r) Edward Zas, Julia Gatto, Gil Valle, Robert Baum (photo: Reuters).

You seem like a regular guy—sweet, caring, kind, moral—yet you have these dark fantasies.
Yeah, that was the reaction of a lot of people when I was arrested. I couldn’t read anything in solitary confinement but I caught up on reading since I got out of prison. Many people said, “I could never even imagine. He seemed like such a nice guy.” Those people were right, because I would never hurt anyone in real life.
There was a crime committed in this case. It was the FBI. Those people committed perjury. I’m hoping that someone reads my book and looks into this, because I’m not okay with these agents and these prosecutors continuing to practice. The way they behaved, they don’t belong within a hundred miles of a courthouse.
The judge acquitting me, that is so incredibly rare. That should show people what a travesty this prosecution was. His ruling was based on the lack of evidence. The jury’s verdict cannot stand because there’s no evidence to support it. He could have left it at that, but he even felt compelled to mention some of the misconduct that they engaged in, so I was happy to see that.
What about your charge for accessing the crime database without authorization?
They charged me with violating a hacking statute, for using the patrol car computer at work to run one woman’s name. It wasn’t 100 women. There was no hacking into a database. That was the complete misrepresentation. They charged me with hacking, which I didn’t hack into anything. At trial, the woman whose name I ran, she testified that she had asked me to look into something for her. What I did was a violation of NYPD policy, but it wasn’t a federal crime. I shouldn’t have been fired for that.
With your sexual fetishes out in public, do you meet women that are attracted to that?
Yeah, I have opportunities with women but I really can’t commit right now because I don’t know where I’m gonna be a year from now. I might be in Nevada. If the judge out there rules that I can reunite with my daughter, I’m probably gonna move out to Nevada, so I’m not in a position to settle down right now but eventually, yes, I would like to start over and meet the right woman and get married again and no secrets this time. Hopefully I can do it right. It’ll be a completely open and honest relationship.
That is one regret. Maybe if I hadn’t kept all this stuff from Kathleen, maybe if I was a little more open, who knows? But we’ll never know, so it’s unfortunate. I wish I was still married to her. I wish that none of this happened. I wish I was known for something else, but that being said, I have to continue to rebuild my life. I can’t let this hold me back. I’m doing my best to do everything a 32-year-old does. If I don’t rebuild my life, I feel like the prosecutors and the FBI, still win. The final piece of the puzzle is reuniting with my daughter. That’s the emptiness I feel every day.

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3 Films Every Science Student Must See

dorriolds — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 10:37:41 +0000

image: scene from Timecrimes

Movies for Science Students and Sci-Fi Lovers

If you’re a science student, chances are you don’t see the world through the same eyes as everybody else. You’re probably the one always looking for scientific inaccuracies in films and your friends probably love you or hate you for it. But there are some great films that will keep even the most skeptical of science students entertained. Here are three great movies every science student should watch.

Timecrimes

Timecrimes is the story of Hector, played by Karra Elejalde, an ordinary guy who decides to go on a trip to the countryside with his life partner, Clara, played by actress Candela Fernandez. But as soon as they get there, Hector sees something unusual while scoping the area with his binoculars: a beautiful woman taking her clothes off in the open. Hector decides to take a stroll to pay her a visit. Once he gets there, he sees the women dead lying on the floor and is attacked by a mysterious man. Hector then flees to what seems to be an abandoned building, which is really a private research facility operated by a mysterious scientist. The scientist decides to give refuge to Hector in a strange closet which happens to be a time machine.
This movie is a fast paced science fiction movie that every person seeking an online bachelor of science degree in medical laboratory science will love because of its many intricate scientific references.

2001 Space Odyssey

2001 Space Odyssey is a science fiction masterpiece by critically acclaimed director Stanley Kubrick. 2001 Space Odyssey takes us to the dawn of man, where a group of hominids encounter a strange looking black alien monolith on their path. As one of the hominids brandishes his weapon to attack the structure, the scene cuts to a 21st century spacecraft that is travelling over the Earth.
A US scientist by the name of Heywood Floyd, played by actor William Sylvester, goes to the moon to discover another black monolith on its surface. However, once the sunlight hits the monolith, a sharp sound is emitted, which stops the scientist and his crew in their path. The whole movie is based around the search of a source for the mysterious monolith and its role. The film was critically acclaimed for its realistic depictions of space travel and is a must-see for any student seeking a medical laboratory scientist program online from the University of Cincinnati.

Solaris

Solaris is a movie rendition of a popular science fiction novel by author Stanislaw Lem. George Clooney plays the role of Chris Kelvin, a psychologist and astronaut still coming to terms with the death of his wife Rheya, who is played by Natasha McElhone. He is then approached by one of his colleagues, Gibarian, who implores him to conduct an investigation on some strange happenings on the Prometheus space station. Once there, he finds out that Giberian has committed suicide and the rest of the crew are in a state of shock. They then tell him that they have been experiencing hallucinations and visits from spirits, which they believe came from the Solaris interstellar energy source. What ensues is series of twists and turns that will leave the most stoic science student on the hedge of their seat. This is a great movie for any science fiction lover.
If you’re a science buff, or if you’re simply a lover of science fiction, I suggest you give these movies a try.

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Pulp, Crime and the Headlines of the New York Post | Honeysuckle Magazine

dorriolds — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 06:31:23 +0000

Written for Honeysuckle Magazine
Click Here for PDF
New York Post Wins For Best Crime Headlines
Honeysuckle Magazine can’t get enough of the New York Post crime section. We’re lured in by the gallows humor and titillated by their tasty recipe of bloody, punny headlines and a fascination with the noir side of life. Our journalist Dorri Olds took a long, strange trip inside the Post’s scene of scribes who pen the trademark headlines and those who tell the dark tales of killers, liars and nutsos.
Jamie Schram has worked for the Post for 22 years. He began as a copy boy fetching coffee for editors but worked his way up. When the paper was short-staffed he was sent out to cover stories. He was assigned to the police bureau in lower Manhattan inside police headquarters where he shared space with journos from other outlets including Daily News, New York Times and Associated Press. Schram was promoted to police bureau chief and spent years at that gig, before moving to his current position, covering federal law enforcement in New York and Washington, DC.
Dorri Olds: Do you have direct contact with criminals?
Jamie Schram: Sure. I’ve spent many years interviewing serial killers—David Berkowitz, Richard Ramirez and I spent two years talking with Charles Manson over the phone. I’ve spoken to plenty of high profile and low profile serial killers.
Have you become desensitized to crime or do you have nightmares?
I’ve been doing this for sixteen years, and prior to that I was a crime reporter on the streets. Over time, you become desensitized, particularly here in New York, because, back in the day, there were a lot more murders, and crime. I’m originally from Jersey but came to New York in 1989. From ’89 to ’93, we had so many homicides. We’re not going through a crack epidemic like we did back then. In 1990, we had 2,245 homicides. This past year, we had 350, so you’re talking about a lot less murders, and overall, crime in general is down. Assaults and rapes and grand larcenies, everything is down.
Why do you think that is?
There are three factors: better police enforcement these days; a lot of bad guys from the ’80s and ’90s are dead or in prison; and New York is so expensive to live in now that lower income people have been pushed out of the city.
During your time off, do you read true crime books and watch cop shows?
I do. My favorite book is “Helter Skelter.” I read it as a kid, and that put the hook in me. I just finished a true crime book “Monster of Florence.” A very interesting read.
I love Ann Rule books. My favorite is “The Stranger Beside Me.”
Oh right, about Ted Bundy. Rule has a lot of fans and she’s done very well in her career.
What is your favorite part of the job?
I really enjoy the reporting aspect, especially when there’s a big story that involves a prominent individual who’s run afoul of the law, or has overdosed on drugs, in a nice section of Manhattan. I know that the paper is going to want every little detail about that crime or O.D. It pushes you to really tap into your sources and report the story better than your competitors. That has always been the inspiration.
Do you negotiate exclusives with the police department?
No, it’s mainly who you know. If you cover a beat for years, you’re going to know a lot of people. As you get to know them, they begin to trust you and give you the stories.

* * *
Deb Pines is an award-winning New York Post headline writer on the mostly-men’s team called the Copy Desk, where headlines for all sections are written. She’s also the author of a mystery series beginning with “In the Shadow of Death: A Chautauqua Murder Mystery.” Post Copy Chief Barry Gross assigns headlines to Pines and her coworkers. Writers are given specs of a story—length, dimensions and headline width. Then, at breakneck speed, they’re tasked with writing brilliant headers, making the stories fit and handing it all in on time to Gross.
Dorri Olds: Are there parameters for how far you can go with a racy title?
Deb Pines: We walk a fine line between humor and bad taste. With the tragic crime stories we try to be respectful but we make light of stupid criminal stories. You know, the guy who can’t shoot straight, or leaves his credit card behind, or snaps a selfie on a stolen phone, steals a car and gets caught.
Can you name some of your favorite headlines?
My best headline was about the Jet Blue pilot who had a mental breakdown. The concerned copilot locked him out of the cockpit and the passengers restrained him. A picture of him restrained was sent to the Post and I wrote for the front page, “This is Your Captain Freaking.”
In Times Square people are dressed as characters from Sesame street or Disney movies, and some are really just there to aggressively panhandle the tourists. When somebody dressed in a Cookie Monster costume menaced tourists and was accused of hitting a woman, I called him the “Crooky Monster.” In another I called Joan Rivers the “Joan of Snark.” I called supermodel Naomi Campbell “Striking Beauty” because she hits people. She has a pattern of striking her staff, throwing cell phones at them, knocking them around.
Then there was a controversy about a hotel on the Highline. Supposedly the hotel was encouraging people to take off their clothes and perform sex acts in front of the windows. Tourists were hanging out under the windows trying to catch pictures so I called it the “Eyeful Tower.”
Do you enjoy the dark humor?
Yes, being a tabloid we’re different from a more buttoned down broadsheet newspaper that treats things more soberly. We like to make light of things and give attitude because that’s who we are. When a terrorist was killed we wrote, “Rest in Pieces.” And we’re famous for, “Headless Body in Topless Bar.”
I like the whimsical headlines. The harsher or sexist ones maybe I’m less involved with because I’m the woman on staff. I did like “Deleter of the Free World” for Hillary’s email controversy and I loved when Pope Benedict stepped aside and we wrote, “Pope Gives God Two Weeks’ Notice.”
The Post is briefed when we’ve pushed the envelope. For example, Chinese groups picketed us when we wrote “Wok This Way.”
Those are hilarious.
This will probably get me in trouble, quoting me on this. But I didn’t think the “Wok This Way” was a major offense. We make light of all kinds of people, the same as late night television does. All the Anthony Wiener stuff we probably overdid, I guess, but people expected us to. If we don’t have a crude headline for the New York Post, people are disappointed. Readers expect that. We’ve had some very funny Wiener stuff and some very, you know, well, we’ve sort of gone a little too far. We got some pushback when we ran the cover, “Enjoy a Foot Long in Jail.” You can look at that as making light of prison rape or think it’s hilarious because Jared Fogle, the Subway spokesperson who pleaded guilty to paying for sex with minors, is a pedophile, the lowest of criminals.
See entire Noir issue at Honeysuckle Magazine

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“I Like ’em Crazy” — Luis Cortes Interview for Honeysuckle Magazine

dorriolds — Sat, 21 Mar 2015 21:14:37 +0000

Luis was born in the Bronx in 1963 to a psychotic mother who abused him and siblings -two sisters and a brother – with coat hangers and whatever else was in the house. He left home at the age of 11, dealt drugs as a teenager in the 80’s on the lower east side where it was normal to ‘pack’ guns and knives. After years of being homeless, he eventually ended up squatting in the Puppet Theater in Central Park. During a few dark nights, Luis actually witnessed and stopped rapes and crimes from taking place there. They Mayor at the time, Mayor Koch, caught wind of the situation and rewarded him for his help.

Dorri Olds: How did you become homeless?

Luis Cortes: When I was young I ran away from an abusive home. I lived on the streets of New York — lower Manhattan and Central Park.

Were you hit as a child?

Oh yeah. My mom used to beat us with a baseball bat,
with the TV wire, whatever she had in her hand.

Was she on drugs?

No. She was just psychotic [Laughs]

Do you mean literally psychotic?

Yes. That’s how we looked at her. Every month she would tear the whole apartment up and my stepfather always refurnished the whole place again.

He didn’t try to stop her?

There was no stopping that woman, especially because she always had a knife in her hand and was trying to
destroy everything in the house.

Written for Honeysuckle Magazine

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An Exclusive Interview with Actor & Activist Edward James Olmos

dorriolds — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 12:44:05 +0000

Best Actor Academy Award-nominee Edward James Olmos (“Stand and Deliver”) turns 68 next month. He is one cool cat living nine lives all at once. Born in East Los Angeles, the Mexican-American actor is also a writer, director, producer, activist, philanthropist, father, husband and grandfather. Does this man ever sleep?

In 1980, he founded Olmos Productions and has produced a number of feature films and documentaries. Olmos was asked to produce the crime drama “Water & Power,” which premiered in May at CineLatino Film Festival. He’s been happy to do it but, surprisingly, he said, “We don’t need a Hispanic Heritage Month, and we need to eliminate Latino film festivals.”

When I asked, “Why?” he replied, “Because there is only one race, and that’s the human race.”

Is he active on social media? “Yeah, but I don’t really converse that way. I just post about things happening like I do on Facebook about my concern for our waterways and beaches. Once in a while I’ll be reading something and respond, but people freak out if I befriend them,” he said with a laugh.

His Twitter bio reads, “Had I followed my first love, I’d have been a professional baseball player, but a friend told me someone with a flair for the dramatic, should consider acting.”

I’d like to thank that friend of his. Olmos has entertained me since I was a kid via TV shows like “Hill Street Blues” and “Miami Vice” and later, “Battlestar Galactica.” And I gobbled him up as the insane Professor Gellar on the 2011 season of “Dexter.” He’s great at doing creepy.

But this is a man who has also dedicated his life to a number of causes including UNICEF, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and children’s hospitals in Miami and L.A. He is an activist and advocate for Latino culture, and it was an honor to sit down to talk with this icon.

Dorri Olds: I loved seeing you in “Go For Sisters.”

Edward James Olmos: That was probably one of the greatest movies I’ve ever made in my life. John Sayles did a fantastic job.

I met with him for an interview when it came out.

Did he like “Go For Sisters?”

Yes! He was very proud of it. Where do you find the scripts for Olmos Productions?

Different places. Through friends. I do a lot of the writing, too. I produced a lot of my own pieces like “American Me” and “Walkout.” Also “Stand and Deliver” and “Selena,” “Mi Familia” and “Zoot Suit.”

What was it specifically about the writing in “Water & Power” that touched you?

The intellectual stimulus of words. The way they are put together. “Water & Power” was a play, so the language is different. It captures you. It’s the story of two brothers nicknamed “Water” and “Power” told like a poem, and it’s a tragic tale with comedy and drama. It has all of the ingredients that make people feel. This is a very powerful piece whether you saw it on the big screen or you see it digitally. It comes out Jan. 20 online. I’ve got to tell you, man, a lot of people are going to watch it. It’s not your normal filmmaking. It’s very Richard Montoya culture-wise. He’s part of a group called Culture Clash.

What’s Culture Clash?

It was founded on Cinco de Mayo [May 5] in 1984. It’s a Mexican-American performance troupe. It’s great. You’ve got to go online and check it out!

What are some of your favorite movies?

“Nothing But a Man” with Ivan Dixon, which was produced by Robert M. Young in 1964. It was the first African-American film ever made where an African-American man and woman were just normal human beings. They weren’t slaves or being abused; they were just regular people. I also really appreciate David Eick’s work and Robert M. Young’s “Saving Grace” and “Caught.” Young is the father of independent films in America. He invented documentary filmmaking in the ’50s. He was one of the first men to ever go underwater with a camera. Also, David Lean who did “Doctor Zhivago,” “The Bridge on the River Kwai” and “Lawrence of Arabia.” These were all master storytellers.

Are you working on any new documentary projects?

Yes, if you go online at Latino Public Broadcasting, you’ll see the amount of work that I’m doing now. I created Latino Public Broadcasting back in 1998. We create public television programming that focuses on issues affecting Hispanics to give diverse perspectives in public television. “Exile Nation: The Plastic People” is a film that just became available. It’s about what happens to people that are deported from the United States and sent back to Mexico, and they’re left out on the border. Oh my god. It will shock you.

You do so much for others. Do you ever try to recruit other celebrities to use their fame for good?

No, I lead by example, but there are a lot of us working for the betterment of humanity, like Sean Penn, Angelina Jolie and all of the celebrities who give great support to UNICEF.

Is there anything I haven’t asked you that you want people to know about?

No! I think you’ve done the best job of anyone in a long time. [Laughs]

Watch “Exile Nation: The Plastic People” trailer:

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Go See ‘Kill The Messenger’ starring Jeremy Renner, Michael K. Williams

dorriolds — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 09:51:30 +0000

“Kill the Messenger” is a thriller based on the true story of Gary Webb (played by Jeremy Renner), a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist who uncovered the shocking truth that the CIA knew about large amounts of cocaine being smuggled into the U.S. from Nicaragua in the 1980s. They looked away as the crack epidemic ate up the U.S.’s underprivileged neighborhoods. Members of our government knew that the profits of drug sales were facilitating Contra rebels to buy more weapons.
Michael Kenneth Williams plays ‘Freeway’ Ricky Ross, a cocaine trafficker in Los Angeles in the 1980s. Williams has compassion for his characters. There are a lot of drugs and alcohol in his story. He thinks drug dealers get a bad rap in society. Read more

I learned so much about the charismatic Michael K. Williams during our interview. Williams talks a lot about helping others by giving back. He always digs deep to play characters with empathy and compassion — even when they’ve made the wrong decisions in life. He has launched his own nonprofit, Making Kids Win. In addition he has formed his own movie company, Freedome Productions. His motivation? To help talented actors get their start. What a lovely man. Read more
Michael Cuesta directs and Peter Landesman wrote the screenplay adapted from Webb’s book of the same name. The crime biography boasts a talented cast including Andy Garcia, Oliver Platt, Michael K. Williams, Michael Sheen, Tim Blake Nelson, Rosemarie DeWitt, Paz Vega, Barry Pepper, Lucas Hedges and a cameo by Ray Liotta.
Director Michael Cuesta feels passionately about moviemaking. He talks about what liberties he took and why. He talks about Lucas Hedges who plays Gary Webb’s son. He compares him to Paul Dano and talks about young actors conveying emotions.
Watch the VIDEO to hear Michael Cuesta talks about trusting the intelligence of an audience.

“Kill the Messenger” opens Oct. 10, 2014. Crime Drama. Rated R. 112 min.

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‘Life After Manson:’ Patricia Krenwinkel’s Journey from Monster to Mentor

dorriolds — Thu, 22 May 2014 12:17:40 +0000

The camera takes you inside a gray room, with gray walls, gray chairs, and a gray rug and reveals an inmate support group. A nondescript woman with gray hair is heading the discussion. Her hunched posture indicates a woman who thinks little of herself. Her face holds the harsh lines of a farmer who has spent a lifetime in the beating sun, but her coloring is as pasty as the gray room.
“I met her as Krenny in a prison support group,” said filmmaker Olivia Klaus. “I was volunteering at the California Institution for Women and knew that all of the women in the group had committed some sort of crimes, but I’d known Krenny for five years before another inmate told me she was Patricia Krenwinkel.”
Krenwinkel was a member of the Manson Family and, with a handful of other Charles Manson followers, killed seven people in August 1969. Krenwinkel has been an inmate for 45 years and is the longest incarcerated female in the history of California prisons.

Olivia Klaus. Photo by Dorri Olds.

I am very familiar with the story, having read the book, “Helter Skelter,” by Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor at Manson’s trial, and Curt Gentry. Since I was a kid in elementary school, I’ve been fascinated by stories of true crime. It’s my favorite genre, and I’ve read “Helter Skelter” at least four times. It is a deeply disturbing tale of a madman who was able to manipulate the minds of his followers and turn them into killers.
Krenwinkel was 18 when she hooked up with Manson. She was already taking drugs and drinking, as was typical of the times. When I was 18, it was a decade later, but I was high, too. Krenwinkel fell in love with Manson the night she met him. I often fell for guys that same way. She was insecure, and so was I. In the film, Krenwinkel estimates that she did up to 500 LSD trips during the year and a half she was with Manson. I can believe it. My acid trips add up to around 300. It is scary to think that what happened to her could’ve happened to me.
Klaus’s movie, “Life After Manson,” was one of my favorites at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, so I was thrilled when she agreed to an interview. The two of us met in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, a couple of blocks from my apartment.
The last interview Krenwinkel did was with Diane Sawyer more than 20 years ago. “She gets a lot of media requests, but the corrections department won’t let that happen,” Klaus said. “They censor the high-profile inmates from being interviewed. But since I was already documenting her support group, I was able to capture her. We set up cameras, and she just let the floodgates open. After 45 years in prison, she’s had more than enough time to reflect on where she went wrong. This was her opportunity to share with the world what happened to her.”
Klaus knows Krenwinkel as “Krenny, a model inmate who mentors other inmates, who trains dogs for the disabled, who goes to all of these support groups to help other women. For these 12 years I’ve gotten to know her, I know she is no longer a threat to society. She has changed.”
Many things Klaus said left an impression on me. One of them was that Krenwinkel has gone up for parole 13 times. In the film, there’s a powerful scene at a parole hearing. “She is belittled and degraded and made to be a puddle on the floor having to apologize,” Klaus said. “She can’t turn back time. What happened happened, and she is paying for it with 45 years in prison.”
I asked Klaus about Krenwinkel’s prison record. “She’s been a model inmate and gotten no disciplinary write-ups in all that time, which is unheard of in that hostile environment,” Klaus said. “You can get a write-up just for looking at a guard the wrong way or not being in line straight enough.”
I thought about how Krenwinkel and the other Manson girls threw their lives away before they were even old enough to make sound decisions. These days scientists agree that the part of the brain that makes decisions isn’t even fully formed until you’re 25.
“She is going to pay for her crimes for the rest of her life,” said Klaus. “She is a changed woman who has gone through the criminal system, which was set up to rehabilitate, and she has been rehabilitated.”
On my way home from the interview, I found myself leaning toward wanting Krenwinkel paroled. Many lifers get out after half the time she has spent locked up. But then I found myself having an argument in my head. What about the families of the victims? How would I feel if I were one of them? Surely I’d want her locked away until she’s dead.
When I got home, I went online to reread about Krenwinkel’s part in the murders. The truth is impossible to ignore:
Patricia Krenwinkel stabbed coffee heiress Abigail Folger over and over and over. To the point where Folger pleaded with Krenwinkel, “Stop, I’m already dead.” But Krenwinkel continued to stab her. The following night, Krenwinkel participated in tying up grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary and then torturing them. Mrs. LaBianca could hear her husband’s screams from the other room. Krenwinkel attempted to stab Mrs. LaBianca, but the kitchen knife was too dull. So Krenwinkel and the others stabbed her with a bayonet they had brought with them. Then Krenwinkel repeatedly stabbed the already-dead Leno LaBianca and left a carving fork embedded in his abdomen and a small steak knife protruding from his neck.
I realized that no matter how many drugs I was on, I cannot imagine myself capable of that sort of brutality, and I can’t find a way to reconcile the possibility of parole for Krenwinkel. What I do know is that it is a heartbreaking story and a masterfully and beautifully shot film.
Watch the trailer for “Life After Manson”:

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