Table Of ContentToward a Theory of True
Crime Narratives
“With this book, Dr. Ian Punnett has staked out new and important territory
in the study of true crime. This is essential reading for anybody interested
in how and why true crime remains compelling to worldwide readers and
audiences.”
—Jean Murley, Queensborough Community College, CUNY, USA
Toward a Theory of True Crime Narratives vivifies how nonfiction murder
stories are told, what role they play in society, and in the form of true crime
why they remain enduringly popular internationally on every platform. This
book establishes for the first time the actual line—or dotted line—between
mainstream journalism and the multimedia phenomena of true crime.
Presenting a stable definition of what is—and what is not—true crime will
either challenge or justify Truman Capote’s claims regarding the creation
of a “new journalism” with In Cold Blood, and accordingly expose the
reluctance of the promoters of NPR’s Serial, HBO’s The Jinx, and Netflix’s
Making a Murderer to refer to their products as such. This research codifies
true crime texts of various types on multiple platforms—radio, television,
print, digital, and film—to reveal the defining characteristics of the genre.
Ian Case Punnett is a professor of multimedia journalism who came back
to graduate school after a successful decades-long career in commercial
radio/television/print/digital media. Other books include A Black Night for
the Blue Grass Belle (2016) and How to Pray When You’re Pissed at God
(2013).
Routledge Focus on Journalism Studies
Metro Newspaper Journalists in China
The Aspiration-Frustration-Reconciliation Framework
Zhaoxi Liu
Toward a Theory of True Crime Narratives
A Textual Analysis
Ian Case Punnett
Toward a Theory of True
Crime Narratives
A Textual Analysis
Ian Case Punnett
First published 2018
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Taylor & Francis
The right of Ian Case Punnett to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-8153-8570-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-18048-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For my wife, Margery. Someday the sensational true
crime story must be told of how you stole my heart.
Contents
Acknowledgments viii
1 An Outline in Chalk 1
Securing the Scene 1
The Background Check 5
2 The Exploratory Study: A Proper Search 16
Interrogating the Texts 22
Selection of True Crime Narratives: “The Usual Suspects” 25
Summation 82
3 The Findings: Two Sides to Every True Crime Story 84
The Prosecution: The Critic’s View 84
The Defense: True Crime as a Justice Mechanism 85
A Review of the Evidence 86
Summation 93
4 Conclusion and Discussion: The Verdict 95
A Theory of True Crime 95
Crimen Veritas 101
The International Man Hunt Is On 101
Accomplices After the Fact: NON-narrative True Crime
Writing 103
Crime Porn 104
The Final Sentence 104
References 111
Index 122
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Team Punnett at the Walter Cronkite School
of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University: Chris-
topher Callahan, Dennis Russell, Bill Silcock, Joe Russomanno, Leslie-Jean
Thornton, Marianne Barrett, Tim McGuire, John Dille, and Kristy Holt-
freter from the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice for all the guid-
ance, invigorating conversation, and friendship in the formation of this text.
A monograph of this work is only possible because of Felisa Salvago-
Keyes and Christina Kowalski at Taylor & Francis, Patterson Smith for his
help in the artwork, and Filson Historical Society and John Wareham at
the Minneapolis Star Tribune for tracking down and providing several key
photographs.
1 An Outline in Chalk
Securing the Scene
The mass media genre known as “true crime” is experiencing international
multi-platform success. According to Apple, Serial, the 12-part podcast
investigation of a 1999 murder on NPR’s This American Life website,
reached the five million downloads mark faster than any podcast in history
(Dredge, 2014, para. 3). In 2017, as Siobhan A. McHugh of the Univer-
sity of Wollongong, Australia, noted, the S-Town podcast had ten million
downloads in the first four days, “far surpassing even Serial. It has been
rapturously reviewed by The Atlantic, The New York Times and respected
podcasting critic Nicholas Quah in Vulture” (McHugh, 2012, para. 2). Criti-
cal praise for Serial was also effusive. Although The Telegraph called it
“badly written” (Simons, 2014, para. 12), after The Guardian called Serial
“a truly remarkable piece of journalism” (Simons, 2014, para. 8), Dwight
Gardner of The New York Times admitted that, at its best, Serial had made
“many of us drive a bit wobblier” as we experienced “the occasional tingle
of campfire-narration awe” (Gardner, 2014, para. 2). Few scholars accu-
rately identified that the podcast’s greatest appeal came from how the show
“fit so squarely in true crime” conventions (Durrani, Gotkin, & Laughlin,
2015, p. 2).
The same can be said for Andrew Jarecki’s The Jinx on HBO (Lawson,
2015, para. 4). His six-part serial exposed the murderous trail of billionaire
Robert Durst, a reclusive man accused of killing three people over 30 years.
With a Hollywood budget and high-television production values, including
hours of crime scene reenactments, Jarecki narrated much of his sojourn
as “the cat” to Durst’s “mouse”—an interplay that ended with Durst being
caught on camera seemingly confessing to the three murders, one of which
he had been tried for, but never convicted.
Aired within months of each other, Serial set the stage for a new trial for a
man who had been convicted, and The Jinx forced a new murder indictment
