WEBVTT - Ep. 1 - Shattering The System: "A West Hollywood True Crime" 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:03.080 In this podcast, we're going to talk frankly but sensitively 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:07.200 about issues some people might find disturbing, including rape and suicide. 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:10.520 If you or someone you know is suicidal in the 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:14.000 US down nine to eighty eight, check out this podcast 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:18.000 notes page for information on LGBT plus mental health resources 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:24.239 in your community. 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:28.600 During the pandemic, I began this tradition of going on 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:31.200 long walks, and going on the walk is one of 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:34.239 the few things that will actually lower your blood pressure, 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:37.080 and I definitely need to do that and clear my 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:40.400 head and prepare for well, what we're about to do here. 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:43.680 You see, I live near the famous Sunset Strip. Actually, 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:45.560 let's walk down the strip. 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:49.400 Now. 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:51.880 If you walk rather than drive, you get a whole 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:55.520 different point of view. You see all these beautiful cars, 0:00:55.960 --> 0:01:00.640 pretty people. There's palm trees, glitz, and a lot of dogs. 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:05.520 I'm walking past a bunch of billboards. Sunset Boulevard is 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:08.119 one of the most expensive places to put a billboard. 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:12.160 And actually where this mall is, there's a gym where 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:15.760 all the porn stars work out. And before it was 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:19.280 a mall, it was Schwabs where Lana Turner was discovered. 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.360 Now just up the street is Laurel Canyon, where Joni Mitchell, 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:28.840 Buffalo Springfield, the Mamas and the papas live their best life. 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:32.720 And I'm walking near the Chateau Marmont, which is on 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:34.840 the opposite side of the street. On this side of 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:37.040 the street, there's just a hole in the ground. It 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:40.160 used to be the Garden of Alla, where everyone from 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:42.920 f Scott Fitzgerald to Frank Sinatra got their freak on 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:47.240 the chateau, though across the street is where Lindsay Lohan 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:50.600 racked up a forty six thousand dollars tab and where 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:56.480 John Belushi and Helmet Newton died. And if you walk 0:01:56.560 --> 0:02:00.600 down the hill, all things just get more ordinary. One 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.520 hundred year old California bungalow, it's got to love them. 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:06.160 And they are these boxy apartment buildings that they call 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:11.680 dingbats here mixed with new buildings that don't actually fit in. 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:16.440 It's all, you know, typical Los Angeles, old and new, 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:24.040 high and low. Well, I have finally reached my destination. 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:28.760 This could be any apartment building in West Hollywood. There 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:31.840 are actually fifteen thousand rent controled apartments in the city. 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:39.119 But upstairs is that one apartment this street, this building, 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:44.520 all of it unremarkable in almost every way, well unless 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:51.640 you know what happened here. I'm standing in front of 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:55.640 one two three four North Laurel Avenue. It is a 0:02:56.080 --> 0:03:02.000 pretty street by West Hollywood standards, But this is Hollywood. Actually, 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:07.280 this is West Hollywood. That distinction is super important because 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:11.480 this is a city all of its own. It's actually 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:15.280 the largest gay city per capita in the US. Hollywood 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:19.840 or West Hollywood, in Tinseltown, nothing is exactly as it appears. 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:22.720 When you step behind the velvet rope and turn off 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:25.840 the cleeg lights, you'll uncover a world that is definitely 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:31.080 much darker. It was harrowing. 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:37.000 It was the most disturbing facts I can remember reading 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:42.000 in my life. I was speechless. The accounts of the 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:47.520 victims were just truly shocking. I had never seen anything 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:53.000 quite like this, and I don't think I ever will again. 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:57.800 The woman you just heard, she's a federal prosecutor, And 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:00.560 I got to tell you when a federal prosecutor shocked, 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:04.400 you know, it's a real story. Now, what happened here 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:07.280 at one two three four North Laurel Avenue, on this 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:11.240 pretty West Hollywood street is more than just the story. 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:14.280 It's as dark as you can get in a city 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.880 that has a pretty dark history. But if you're gay 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:21.000 and black like me, this is not a news story. 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:25.440 There's been John Wayne Gacy. There was also Jeffrey Dahmer, 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:29.800 but in West Hollywood, we've had our own version. On 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:33.560 the streets, they called him doctor Kravorkian. His real name 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:34.839 is ed Buck. 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:43.000 He seemed to have no remorse for what he was doing. 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:46.480 He was putting people's lives in danger on a regular basis, 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:53.680 and not just people, but specifically vulnerable communities, and just 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.080 really what he was doing was pretty horrific. 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:58.800 He would get angry, he would get nasty, he would 0:04:58.800 --> 0:04:59.440 get the violin. 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:03.520 So this was a part of his personality. 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:05.760 He didn't think that those were people who would be 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:09.880 trusted and believed over him, who held himself out as 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:14.240 this political donor and this powerful person who hung photos 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:18.760 of himself with powerful people in his apartment where he 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:22.720 was victimizing these people, I mean they were political figures, 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:26.480 quite literally, lording over his victims. 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:29.240 Those are two of the prosecutors and one of the 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:33.120 reporters who covered the case. This story changed many of 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:36.440 the lives of the people involved in it, but what's crazy, 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:39.200 And to be honest, what's fucked up is just how 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:43.640 ordinary the story of ed Buck feels. Now, what's not 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:49.640 ordinary is how the community responded. What's not ordinary is 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:55.719 this podcast. I'm Sinari Glinton. I'm going to be your host, 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:59.560 me and my team of journalists, researchers and producers. We're 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.520 going to walk you through a story that says Hollywood 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:07.200 as Marilyn Monroe, John Belushi, Bill Cosby or the Sunset struggle, 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:14.240 you see for every young starlet or celebrity or influence 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:16.799 or a singer who comes here to make a living, 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:21.559 there is another darker, shadowy side of this city. 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:24.800 They said that Buck is quote a predator with no 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:28.760 regard for human life, who gave the victims dangerously large 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:30.440 doses of narcotics. 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:33.479 We're going to take you inside the apartment of ed Buck. 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:36.760 Some people have called it the gates of Hell, and 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.119 we're going to try to tell the stories of why 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:43.080 these particular black lives, the lives of Jamel Moore and 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:47.160 Timothy Ding, why they matter. And here's the key. We're 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:49.000 going to try to make sense of why it took 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:52.840 so damn long to bring ed Buck to justice. Let's 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:56.520 listen to a candlelight vigil held here on August eighteen, 0:06:56.800 --> 0:07:05.400 twenty seventeen, for one of the victims, James Goodford. 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:09.640 To cover this family, it just shouldn't have happened. My 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:13.520 son found police reports, his be cried out to so 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:17.640 many people in It's crazy how the whole entire situation 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:22.760 was handled. My son's dead, and five days later the 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.000 case is closed. I just want justice. That's it. 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:31.000 Now. 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:34.160 The producers and I have asked ourselves a question, what 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:37.320 does justice look like? How do you tell a story 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:39.840 that needs to be told without causing more pain to 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:43.880 the victims or sensationalizing the trauma of gay black men 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:49.440 like myself. This is supposed to be a true crime podcast, 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:51.880 but to be honest, as a black man and as 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:57.200 a veteran of public radio, I hate true crime. And 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:00.560 it's important that we tell you what happened. You know facts, 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:03.120 but we're not looking to wallow and gore. And if 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:06.840 you want to hear laughing that human tragedy, well this show, 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:11.400 ain't it. I've spent a lifetime telling stories, mainly public 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:13.360 radio ones. One of our favorite course products. 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:16.640 In your Scenarios and Pierre Scenario, Glinton is in Japlin 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:19.960 in Pira. Scenari Glinton reports from the Capital, and PR 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:22.040 Scenario Clinton reports from Detroit. 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:25.840 Sabrina Fulton and Tracy Martin are the parents of Trayvon Martin. 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:27.640 Even if Scenari is the only one who's doing it 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:30.040 like that impulse of just like I'm just gonna go 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:32.760 for it. I'm going to say something that's ridiculous and 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:36.680 just see if it works. I mean, you know, in 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.360 the movies, that's what gets the girl in the movies, 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:40.480 that's what makes you a hero. 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.640 That last voice you heard was Ira Glass. He's the 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:52.160 voice everyone tried to emulate when podcasts where brand spanking new, 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:55.840 and his influence is definitely all over my work. But 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:59.959 what's happening to black folks or gay or trans people 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.520 in America and the globe? I really needed to do 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:07.880 journalism differently. The last thing we need in this age 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:14.800 is another polite, fucking public radio report. This is shattering 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:26.040 the system. As Oursie Lord said, the Master's tools will 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:29.800 never dismantle the Master's house. So we're going to do 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.760 something different. The only way that I know to shatter 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:35.679 the system is to shine a light, do the work, 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:39.800 afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted, give voice to 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:42.920 the voiceless. We're going to look at crimes that tell 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:47.680 a larger story, help connect the dots, give you context, 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:54.960 and maybe together we can learn how to shatter the system. 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:58.600 But first, how West Hollywood is really just like your 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:08.000 hometown but not that's after a break. One of the 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:12.240 most powerful testimonials you'll hear in this story is first 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:16.600 person from the first victim, Jamel Moore. His diary, in 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:20.079 many ways, is the reason this story could be told. Now. 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:22.240 We want to bring his words to you in an 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:26.440 audio form, so we hired an actor. Let's take a lesson. 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:30.080 Ed Buck is the one to think. He gave me 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:34.720 my first injection of crystal men. It was painful, but 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:38.080 after all the troubles, I became addicted to the pain 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:39.920 and the fantasy. 0:10:42.000 --> 0:10:45.880 It's that diary and those words that launched an investigation. 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:49.199 That's what made us want to do shattering the system. 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:52.080 Jamel Moore predicted his own death at the hands of 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:55.280 a man who lived at this address one two three 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:59.320 four North Laurel. Jamel's name, though, isn't as widely known 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:03.880 as ay Avon Martin or George Floyd let's listen to 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:06.960 a visual for Jamel Moore that took place near where 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:07.520 I'm standing. 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:11.280 Allowed them to know that God and God is still 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:12.479 in control. 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:15.559 You fight for the ones you love and I will 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:19.360 not stop until I get justice. Ed Buck needs to 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:23.440 be held to accountability for all the things that he's done. 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:31.040 It would take the death of another black gay man, 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:35.360 Timothy Dean, and an unlikely group of women to get justice. 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:37.920 And as we tell that story, there's also a story 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:42.080 here about how local government works and doesn't, how the 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:46.320 sex apps have changed the nature of gay life, media representation, 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.760 what happens or does not happen when a black person 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:54.880 goes missing, the opioid epidemic, and so much more. Jameel 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:58.480 Moore went to ed hooks of Turban on Rural Avenue 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:06.199 and ed injected into it's been killed. It was really horrific. 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:10.800 Yeah, a young man whose friends who I've talked to 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:13.080 say there was so much more to Jamel Moore. 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:16.920 That's Hank Scott. He is a pioneer in local journalism 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:18.920 and for years he's one of the few people who 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:22.079 took West Hollywood seriously. He's one of the dozens of 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:25.520 people that we're going to interview for this series. Now, 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:27.160 if we're going to make sense of one of the 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:30.480 most bizarre stories in Hollywood history, we're going to have 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:34.520 to give you context history. So we talked to a 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:37.040 roommate of one of the victims who made us think 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.319 not just about life in a neighborhood, but life in 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:41.360 America itself. 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:43.280 I don't want to offend anybody, but you know, in the 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:45.680 American society it does feel there is only one god, 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:47.840 and the only god that there is money. You know, 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:52.320 everybody is so attached to money, and you know, especially 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:54.760 in la you can see a lot of behavior that 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:56.800 you know, it's like you want to hang out with 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:59.800 people that can progress your career, that can open doors 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:02.520 for you, that can get you to the right party. 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:07.280 There are so many bizarre twists and connections to making 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:10.000 the season. For example, let's listen to part of the 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:13.400 interview that I did with Ludlow b. Query. He's a 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:17.160 former NAACP intern. He's now a defense attorney for Ed 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.680 Buck and he's the co counsul to Christopher Darden. You 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:23.880 may remember Darden because he prosecuted O. J. Simpson for 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:27.520 the murders of Ron Goldman. And Nicole Brown Simpson. He 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:31.360 lost that case. I have to ask the question that 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:36.360 I feel like the average black Angelino might say, which 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:40.720 would probably be something like, look, Chris Darden on the 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:46.080 wrong side yet again. I mean that is that's definitely 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:48.720 tell me that I'm wrong there. 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:51.840 If you look at it outside of the criminal justice 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:57.000 sphere or the criminal justice space, then I can understand 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:59.680 why people would say that. Yes, I mean ed Buck 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:03.360 is ay he was doing horrible things that resulted in 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:07.400 the deaths of two black men. He's accused of exploiting 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:09.840 black men in particular. 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:20.880 Exploiting black men in particular queer men. The death of 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:24.280 these men so close to my demographic, so close to 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:28.400 my actual home, and this all requires something different. You know. 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:30.760 A fan wrote to me that it never occurred to 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:33.320 him that I was gay, or for that matter, black. 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:39.120 That idea has genuinely come to horrify me. It occurred 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:42.760 to me that so many gay journalists sanitize gay life. 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:45.760 I know I avoided doing gay stories, and part of 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:48.400 this season is to tell the part of the story 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:51.480 that we gay men leave out. I've never been into 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.800 ed Buck's apartment, but I've been in apartments that are 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.040 not too far off. Later in the season, we'll talk 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.240 to a prosecutor who is using new tools to find 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:02.480 the next head buck. 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:08.920 I think it's really important not to accidentally do any 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:12.520 blame shifting or even sound like we're doing any blame shifting. 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:17.360 It is a great thing that we've reached a place 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:23.600 where gay people can be crowd and can be meeting 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:28.880 easily and online and non in secret. That is fantastic. 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:33.360 The problem is that there are bad people out there 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:34.200 exploiting it. 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:38.160 The point is to expose the way that people use 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:41.360 or abuse the system, not to select shame or blame 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:44.920 the victims or turn anyone into a boogeyman. But we've 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:47.240 got to spill the tea and show the part of 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:51.400 gay life, gay black life that isn't RuPaul's drag race. 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:55.640 There's another side to gay life that isn't singing Padam Padam. 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:59.920 On the way to pilates, he would dangle a disition 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:04.080 payments for people to take more drugs than they were 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:08.360 used to, or to slam or inject drugs when they 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:12.400 would otherwise have chosen only to smoke them. He would 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:17.640 put them in underwear and have them pose with very 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:21.040 specific lighting that he orchestrated in the background and take 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:25.840 photos of them, hundreds thousands of photos of them that 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:29.520 we found on his hard drives. It was just very specific, 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:32.280 and if you heard it only from one person, it 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:36.880 would be almost impossible to believe. But after the number 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:39.800 of accounts that I heard, I could practically finish the 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:45.320 victim's sentences because I was so attuned to this ritual. 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:51.440 We tell the story of what it takes to bring 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:54.920 down a wealthy, gay, white political donor, and how can 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:59.480 black queer men find justice in Boycetown. That and a 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:13.000 whole lot After a break, Welcome to Shattering the System. 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:16.320 I'm your host, Scenari Glinton. For years, I've walked past 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:19.960 one two three FOURD North Laurel Avenue, our neighborhood polling 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:25.360 place was actually across the street from this address. Apartment seventeen, though, 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:28.160 was the home of Ed Buck. Actually, you know what 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:32.320 names tell you a lot. Edward Bernard Peter Buck Melter. 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:36.400 He lived here for decades, essentially from the very beginning 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:39.639 of West Hollywood when it became a city. So what 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:41.240 we're going to have to do for this show is 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.480 kind of start at the end, because in twenty twenty one, 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:48.199 ed Buck was convicted of two counts of distribution of 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:52.680 methan fetamine resulting in death, four counts of distribution of 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:56.200 methan fetamine, one count of maintaining a drug involved premises, 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:59.720 and two counts of enticement to travel in interstate commerce 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:03.199 for prostitution. He was sentenced to thirty years in a 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:06.479 federal prison. In April of twenty twenty two, he was 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:10.440 convicted of giving fatal doses of meth amphetamine to two 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:13.679 gay black men. Two gay black men died in ed 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:18.280 Buck's apartment after he injected them with meth That's the 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:22.000 end of the story. But this podcast is about uncovering 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:33.960 hidden systems, remembering the forgotten and the forgotten heart. And 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:36.359 it's often too easy for the media to run with 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:39.719 just one version of who a victim is, to forget 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:44.600 that these people were deeply complex individuals. Let's listen to Octavia. 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:48.320 He was Timothy Dean's roommate. Timothy died at the hands 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:51.480 of ed Buck, but before that terrible night, he lived 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:52.840 in an incredibly rich life. 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:59.320 You know, I want to contribute to leaving the right 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:01.280 memory about him, and I want to say a good 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:04.119 memory the right memory about him. I think that this 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:06.840 is the story of a fifty year old man that 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:15.440 went through hell, purgatory and heaven, experienced life to the fullest, 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:19.400 made a lot of mistakes and a lot of right choices, 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:24.639 but always got back on his feet and try to 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:25.960 change his future for the better. 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:35.840 Why did it take so long for ed Buck to 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:38.320 be arrested or tried. I'll tell you what. I'll give 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:42.720 you a quick answer. Black bodies, actually, black queer bodies 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:47.480 do not matter until they do. In the queer world. 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:52.360 Black bodies are curiosities, commodities, toys, objects of hate. Did 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:56.280 I say black bodies, I mean our bodies, my body. 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:59.600 I am not surprised that this wasn't what the network's 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:04.879 call breaking news. If these men were any other color, 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:07.240 I wouldn't have to make a case for the national 0:20:07.359 --> 0:20:11.439 or international implications of these lives that were lost. But 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:15.199 we will, and in the process, we'll show you the 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:18.320 systems that fail us, all the systems that make this 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:21.680 tragedy possible, Systems like the one run by the former 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:25.680 LA County District Attorney Jackie Lacy. Now these are protesters 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:29.080 demanding her ouster after she failed to prosecute at Buck. 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.600 You may not have thought much about West Hollywood. After all, 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:47.600 it's a relatively new city, carved out of the vastness 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:51.160 of La County in nineteen eighty four by an unlikely 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:56.000 coalition of gays, Lesbians, Russian immigrants, and rent control advocates. 0:20:56.920 --> 0:20:59.960 I've lived here for ten years. Maybe you haven't thought 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:02.520 about it, but West Hollywood is where if you've ever 0:21:02.560 --> 0:21:05.800 thought about moving to Hollywood, the image you have in 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:10.040 your mind, that's of West Hollywood, The Sunset Strip, the 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:14.120 Chateau Marmont, the whiskey of Go Go. That's all considered 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:17.919 what we lovingly call wee hoo ed Buck, or at 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:21.080 least his story is widely known here in West Hollywood, 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:23.040 and I just want to stop and talk to a 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:26.720 couple of neighbors to get some impressions. Hey, do you 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:29.000 mind if I asked your question or two? I'm a reporter. 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:32.240 How long have you lived in West Hollywood? Twenty five years? 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:35.480 You know, how would you describe West Hollywood to someone 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:38.080 who has never been to Hollywood. 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:43.120 It's very vivid, it's a lot of different it's very diversified. 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:47.080 A lot of different people live here. Also, young people 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:52.720 that are some what some are gay, and they used 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:57.400 to be more gay percentage than now. Now it's very mixed. 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:03.560 I would say it's a quiet, safe neighborhood. It's convenient. 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:05.600 The walkability is what you're like. 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:08.040 Yeah, oh yes, everything's walking distance. 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:12.239 This is likely where your favorite star lived before they 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:16.200 were famous, or lives now, or in some cases, where 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:22.000 they were found dead. The difference between West Hollywood and 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:25.399 the idea of West Hollywood is the dream of the 0:22:25.480 --> 0:22:28.320 thing and its reality. You know, like, literally less than 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:31.520 one hundred yards away from here, I saw Keanu Reeves 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:36.000 driving looking exactly like Keanu Reeves in his Porsche. My 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:39.639 favorite one is seeing Paul McCartney driving down Fountain in 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:45.879 an Anti Corvette, singing to himself, this is the dream 0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:55.399 of Hollywood. Tell you what. I've never reported on Hollywood, 0:22:55.480 --> 0:22:58.640 but I've always wondered what would happen if we say, 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:01.800 took the rigor that we turned on Chicago politics and 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:06.560 put in on Hollywood. Hollywood is this crazy thing, y'all 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:11.399 that distracts people. The desire to be in Hollywood is 0:23:11.480 --> 0:23:17.000 what Hollywood is really about. For every Hollywood story, there's 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:22.080 often a world that is so much darker here's ed 0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:26.240 Buck's defense attorney Ludlow query again, the La is a jungle. 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:27.960 You got to be careful. 0:23:28.440 --> 0:23:34.960 You know, this city is very deceptive because it's beautiful, 0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:39.760 the weather's beautiful, the people are beautiful. But there is 0:23:40.040 --> 0:23:43.480 so much darkness in this city. And it's always been there. 0:23:44.440 --> 0:23:46.200 It's always been there. You got to be careful. 0:23:47.920 --> 0:23:49.879 That's what we're going to try to unpack here this season. 0:23:50.280 --> 0:23:53.000 And after a career of being polite and following the 0:23:53.080 --> 0:23:56.320 rules of journalism, we've gathered an amazing team to help 0:23:56.359 --> 0:23:59.160 me look beyond the obvious. I've always thought the way 0:23:59.200 --> 0:24:01.720 that Barack Obama must say he felt about Trayvon Martin, 0:24:02.240 --> 0:24:04.240 well that's the way I feel about these men whose 0:24:04.320 --> 0:24:09.000 lives ended in that Bucks apartment. I feel a responsibility. 0:24:09.520 --> 0:24:12.520 And most news organizations don't want to talk about sex 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:15.960 or black men, or gay men, or about sex workers. 0:24:16.960 --> 0:24:20.280 Let's listen to the former La County District Attorney Jackie Lacy. 0:24:21.080 --> 0:24:25.760 We can't file a criminal case based on who has 0:24:25.840 --> 0:24:27.680 the loudest voice and we. 0:24:27.640 --> 0:24:28.720 Go out there and arrest him. 0:24:28.720 --> 0:24:31.880 Now, the clock starts ticking, and it wouldn't be ethical 0:24:31.960 --> 0:24:35.440 right now to arrest him until we really had the evidence. 0:24:36.320 --> 0:24:39.160 And there were thousands of videos on his computer. 0:24:44.200 --> 0:24:48.040 Ed Buck used the system because no one was supposed 0:24:48.080 --> 0:24:51.000 to believe gay black men. He counted on a lack 0:24:51.040 --> 0:24:58.919 of outrage. So what is this show? How are you 0:24:59.000 --> 0:25:02.480 going to go about this? Well, specifically, this is a 0:25:02.520 --> 0:25:12.080 story about homelessness, power, drugs, money, sex, race, sexual consent, HIV, stigma, 0:25:12.440 --> 0:25:14.520 and all of those things that came to a head 0:25:14.560 --> 0:25:18.720 in ed Buck's apartment one two three four North Laurel Avenue. 0:25:19.000 --> 0:25:22.199 Just like there's a dark underbelly of Hollywood. This is 0:25:22.240 --> 0:25:25.280 a story about two men who died tragically, but it's 0:25:25.320 --> 0:25:28.480 also a story about strength and resilience, and that's why 0:25:28.480 --> 0:25:31.240 we want to tell it. But let's be clear. The 0:25:31.280 --> 0:25:34.119 only reason we are here today, and the only reason 0:25:34.359 --> 0:25:37.199 ed Buck is finally in jail, is because one of 0:25:37.200 --> 0:25:40.919 his victims predicted his own death and wrote about it. 0:25:43.760 --> 0:25:46.360 Jamelle Moore died on a cold mattress with no one 0:25:46.359 --> 0:25:49.080 there to comfort him, and nothing I can say in 0:25:49.160 --> 0:25:52.240 this show will bring him back. However, he left the 0:25:52.280 --> 0:25:55.639 diary to tell us his story. You see, Matthew Shepherd 0:25:55.760 --> 0:25:58.960 was killed twenty five years ago this October, and the 0:25:59.040 --> 0:26:02.520 murder of a gay white man in Wyoming was covered 0:26:02.520 --> 0:26:05.440 wall the wall. They even did an HBO movie about 0:26:05.440 --> 0:26:07.840 his life in this park where I've made my way 0:26:07.880 --> 0:26:11.959 to and these bagpipes that you hear are in tribute 0:26:12.040 --> 0:26:15.720 to his memory. In many ways, Jamel Moore's words are 0:26:15.840 --> 0:26:19.800 his memorial. So in our next episode, we hear from 0:26:19.840 --> 0:26:24.040 a victim in his own words, the power of Jamel 0:26:24.119 --> 0:26:51.800