Speaker 1: Sea Fishman here from Orbit Media. You know. At Orbit
Speaker 1: we like to curate great true crime series for you. Also,
Speaker 1: from time to time we publish true crime episodes from
Speaker 1: creators we admire. Today we're sharing an episode from a
Speaker 1: podcast by our friends at campsiteh Vanessa. It's called Blood
Speaker 1: Will Tell, and I gotta say the plot is amazing.
Speaker 1: The podcast starts at a birthday party in a nice suburb,
Speaker 1: a birthday party that turns deadly. Eighteen year old identical
Speaker 1: twins are arrested for murder. One brother spends nearly two
Speaker 1: years in jail. Before the truth comes out, authorities locked
Speaker 1: up the wrong twin. Questions abound. How could one brother
Speaker 1: let his twin take the fall? And why would the
Speaker 1: other sacrifice his freedom for a crime he didn't commit.
Speaker 1: Blood Will Tell is about two brothers whose unbreakable bond
Speaker 1: is tested by silence, sacrifice, and an unthinkable choice. In
Speaker 1: the episode, you're about to hear a drunken fight at
Speaker 1: a birthday party turns deadly. Police narrow in on two suspects,
Speaker 1: identical twin brothers. When an eyewitness mistakes one for the other,
Speaker 1: a brother decides to make a heartbreaking sacrifice listen to
Speaker 1: more episodes of Blood Will Tell on Audible or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts, Campsite Media.
Speaker 2: In front of me, there's a group of acting students.
Speaker 2: The youngest ones are in their twenties, the oldest is
Speaker 2: over seventy, and they're intently focused on their teacher, woman
Speaker 2: with wiry salt and pepper hair, and she's leading them
Speaker 2: through an exercise.
Speaker 3: She calls out two conflicting emotions. Let's start with love
Speaker 3: and fear. So let your movements express love and fear.
Speaker 3: And suddenly these actors are circling the room.
Speaker 2: Silently pantomiming feelings of love and fear. They're warming up
Speaker 2: to rehearse the final act of Othello, a play about
Speaker 2: jealousy and deception. I'm here in California on assignment for
Speaker 2: the Washington Post. I'm reporting a piece about Shakespeare as therapy,
Speaker 2: how these stories about our deepest humanity can help people
Speaker 2: heal from their trauma because Shakespeare's plays, at a core level,
Speaker 2: they're about what human beings do to each other, what
Speaker 2: we're capable of at our best and our worst. I
Speaker 2: start talking to one of the actors. Trunk is friendly
Speaker 2: and soft spoken. Literally, I have to lean in close
Speaker 2: in order to hear him. He's mid twenties, clean shaven,
Speaker 2: with impeccably palmated hair. He tells me he's a substance
Speaker 2: abuse counselor, and that tracks the way he.
Speaker 3: Looks at me.
Speaker 2: I can tell he's really listening. And when I ask him,
Speaker 2: Trun says, there's a lot of reasons he wanted to
Speaker 2: join this Shakespeare group.
Speaker 4: I had a lot of he okays myself, and if
Speaker 4: I did a breakdancing too.
Speaker 2: He loves to perform, and he likes these plays, how
Speaker 2: they're universal.
Speaker 3: Themes of sacrifice.
Speaker 2: Loss, and love have helped him access his emotions, to
Speaker 2: see himself more clearly. He says, these plays have allowed
Speaker 2: him to confront the pain he's caused. I ask him
Speaker 2: what he means by that, and to my surprise, he
Speaker 2: doesn't hesitate. He launches into a story that I cannot
Speaker 2: believe is real, A story that feels like Shakespeare himself
Speaker 2: could have written it, A story that starts with Trung's
Speaker 2: identical twin brother.
Speaker 3: Shakespeare was fascinated by siblings. There's Ophelia and.
Speaker 2: Laertes, Edmund and Edgar, Sebastian and Viola in both his
Speaker 2: comedies and his tragedies.
Speaker 3: He makes them compete for the attention and approval of
Speaker 3: their parents.
Speaker 2: He tests the limits of their love for one another,
Speaker 2: and he pushes them apart, sometimes violently. Shakespeare himself was
Speaker 2: the father of twins, Judith and Hamnet, and when Hamnet
Speaker 2: died at the age of eleven, Shakespeare began to process
Speaker 2: this very particular or grief in his plays. He writes
Speaker 2: Twelfth Night about twins separated in a shipwreck. The action
Speaker 2: of the play is built around mistaken identities, but it's
Speaker 2: really about the unique bond these siblings share and what
Speaker 2: happens when that tie is broken. Trung knows all about this,
Speaker 2: and it's a tale he's now pouring out to me.
Speaker 2: Six years earlier, Trung tells me his twin On got
Speaker 2: into a fight at a birthday party. By the time
Speaker 2: it was over, the twins had embarked on a journey
Speaker 2: that would forever change both of them, not just who
Speaker 2: they were as individuals, but who they were to each other.
Speaker 3: So where's your brother?
Speaker 1: More?
Speaker 2: Now, as Trung and I talk, his fellow Thespians are
Speaker 2: rehearsing right there beside us, and I hear Othello, mourn,
Speaker 2: you must speak of one that loved not wisely, but
Speaker 2: too well. I can see how Trung and On are
Speaker 2: guilty of having loved each other too well, if not
Speaker 2: always wisely.
Speaker 3: Twins bonded through.
Speaker 2: DNA and also hardship, brothers who were best friends, who
Speaker 2: trusted each other completely, who would have followed each other anywhere,
Speaker 2: even if it meant losing absolutely everything. From Wondery and
Speaker 2: camp side Media, I'm Jen Miller and this is Blood
Speaker 2: will Tell. This is episode one, Shakespeare in San Jose.
Speaker 2: It's a Saturday evening in January when eighteen year old
Speaker 2: Trung knocks on the door of his brother's bedroom. They
Speaker 2: live in the same home, but they haven't seen each
Speaker 2: other much lately. Trunk's been swamped juggling a sales job
Speaker 2: at T Mobile, a full course load at college, and
Speaker 2: finishing his Eagle Scout certification. And Trung is missing his
Speaker 2: best friend. But there's a party tonight.
Speaker 4: We were adulting pretty much for the first time like that,
Speaker 4: So these parties, like it felt like a drag, but
Speaker 4: at the same time, like, oh, let just go have fun.
Speaker 4: He sounds like a good way to relax.
Speaker 2: On looks up from his bed, which is littered with textbooks.
Speaker 4: How do you want to go my at homework?
Speaker 3: Trunk is surprised.
Speaker 2: He's the one typically concerned about how today's choice will
Speaker 2: impact tomorrow's outcome. That's how he's two semesters ahead in college.
Speaker 2: But more recently one has felt the pressure to keep
Speaker 2: up with trung On begs let me study, Trunks not
Speaker 2: having any of it.
Speaker 4: You know what we deserve this. Let's just go and
Speaker 4: have fun.
Speaker 2: Maybe this party will be a good way to blow
Speaker 2: off steam for both of them, So on relinse, all.
Speaker 1: Right, let's do it. Is hyped up.
Speaker 3: Figure outfits.
Speaker 2: The party is a twenty first birthday thrown by a
Speaker 2: friend of Trunk's girlfriend.
Speaker 3: There's a black and white theme.
Speaker 2: The twins pull on their true religion genes and long
Speaker 2: sleeve black shirts. When they were little kids, their parents
Speaker 2: often dressed them the same, so this it's like a
Speaker 2: fun throwback, and tonight it makes it almost impossible to
Speaker 2: tell them apart. They're both five to nine, around one
Speaker 2: hundred and sixty pounds. They have a few physical differences,
Speaker 2: though Trunk's face is clean shaven and more narrow, and
Speaker 2: On has a sparse mustache and the shadow of a
Speaker 2: mole over his lip. These minor physical differences are going
Speaker 2: to be crucial for what's to come for the both
Speaker 2: of them. After a final fit check in the mirror,
Speaker 2: they're ready to head out. Trung drives his brother and
Speaker 2: their girlfriends we're calling them Monica and Carly to a
Speaker 2: well appointed, split level home in.
Speaker 3: The foothills of San Jose, California.
Speaker 2: It's a short trip and a world away from the
Speaker 2: affordable housing complex where the twins grew up. They walk
Speaker 2: past a rock garden and flower beds. Following the thump
Speaker 2: of music, Trung enters the party and takes a quick scan.
Speaker 3: He's impressed.
Speaker 4: Looks like pretty bougie and had a DJ and everything.
Speaker 3: He goes to himself a drink.
Speaker 4: They opened like a cooler, and I saw shot glasses
Speaker 4: made out of ice.
Speaker 2: Trung makes his way through the house. The guests are
Speaker 2: mostly Vietnamese like him. Some of them are college kids,
Speaker 2: but he doesn't recognize them. They're at four year schools,
Speaker 2: not community college like him and on.
Speaker 3: Trung is relieved.
Speaker 2: In recent months, he has been trying and largely failing
Speaker 2: to avoid situations and people he knows are trouble.
Speaker 4: When we would go out with specific individuals, Sho would
Speaker 4: always pop off right. I would always feel the needs
Speaker 4: jump in and participate.
Speaker 3: But the vibes here are good.
Speaker 2: The booze is flowing, pop brownies are being passed around,
Speaker 2: and the music is pumping.
Speaker 4: It was turned down for what little John like? That
Speaker 4: song just came out.
Speaker 2: Trung and On make a bee line to the beer
Speaker 2: pong tape where they proceed to completely bite it.
Speaker 4: We played horribly because didn't we sat on that table. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we had to sit on the table man, which told
Speaker 4: Rug we didn't make any shots. It was embarrassing.
Speaker 3: Troung is so happy to have his brother here.
Speaker 2: It's been so long since they've simply hung out like
Speaker 2: this as brothers. Around them, everyone is getting drunk or
Speaker 2: high or both. Troung is fully in the moment. He's
Speaker 2: making the rounds a beer in his hand. For a while,
Speaker 2: he loses track of his girlfriend Monica, that is until
Speaker 2: she heads toward him, clearly upset.
Speaker 4: I wonder