The present podcast, “Happily Never After: Dan and Nancy,” from Wondery in partnership with The Oregonian/OregonLive, tells a narrative based mostly on a shocking 2018 Portland murder, through which a lady who as soon as wrote an essay titled “Easy methods to Kill Your Husband” was convicted of precisely that crime.
The podcast is one other instance of customers’ seemingly limitless urge for food for true crime tales, a style that, relying on the way it’s completed, can vary from illuminating to exploitative. Through the years, Oregon-related cases have been a part of the true crime menu, in every little thing from dramatized variations to journalistic explorations.
Right here’s a have a look at a number of the most notable Oregon-connected cases which have acquired nationwide media consideration.
Nancy Crampton Brophy: “Happily Never After: Dan and Nancy,” the podcast from Wondery and The Oregonian/OregonLive, is bringing the strange-but-true saga of a infamous Oregon homicide case to listeners from throughout. It started in June 2018, when college students of the now-closed Oregon Culinary Institute found one among their instructors, Daniel Brophy, had been fatally shot.
As investigators started trying into the case, Brophy’s spouse, a self-published writer of romance novels, emerged as a suspect. The case leapt into the nationwide highlight with the information that amongst Crampton Brophy’s works was a 2011 on-line essay, titled “Easy methods to Homicide Your Husband.”
Along with the podcast, the case has been the topic of a 2022 episode of “Dateline,” and impressed a 2023 Lifetime TV film, “How to Murder Your Husband: The Nancy Brophy Story,” which starred Cybill Shepherd as Crampton Brophy and Steve Guttenberg as Daniel Brophy.
(You possibly can watch the “Dateline” episode, “Homicide in Kitchen One,” by way of Fubo, which offers a free trial. You possibly can stream Lifetime movies on DirecTV Stream; on Philo, which offers a free trial; and on Fubo)
“Ghosts of Highway 20″/”Lost Women of Highway 20″: The Oregonian/OregonLive’s 2018 prize-winning venture, “Ghosts of Highway 20″ mixed reporting, pictures and video to analyze a collection of circumstances involving ladies who had been raped and killed over the course of a number of years within the neighborhood of Freeway 20, in Oregon. The newspaper’s tales dropped at gentle how the justice system had failed the ladies who had been victims. These interviewed included Marlene Gabrielsen, who in 1977 was assaulted and raped by a person named John Arthur Ackroyd. Authorities didn’t prosecute, and Ackroyd went on to be convicted in two Oregon homicide circumstances, and was, police consider, chargeable for extra.
The Oregonian “Ghosts of Freeway 20″ tales, photographs and five-part video collection impressed Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer to narrate and be an executive producer of “Misplaced Ladies of Freeway 20,” a 2023 documentary collection that aired on Investigation Discovery.
(The “Ghosts of Highway 20″ video series is on YouTube; “Lost Women of Highway 20″ streams on Philo)
D.B. Cooper: The thriller of who the skyjacker often called D.B. Cooper actually was, and what grew to become of him after he parachuted out of a airplane over Northwest skies in 1971, carrying $200,000, has by no means been solved. However that hasn’t confirmed down the onslaught of documentaries, and information journal episodes that interview supposed consultants who’ve theories about Cooper’s id and destiny.
Among the many examples of TV’s obsession with the Cooper saga are 2020′a “The Final Hunt for D.B. Cooper,” an episode of the Historical past Channel true crime collection, “Historical past’s Biggest Mysteries.”
Additionally in 2020, HBO aired “The Mystery of D.B. Cooper,” which informed the tales of 4 individuals who might need been Cooper.
In 2022, a film, “I Am D.B. Cooper,” provided a mixture of re-enactments, along with some interviews, together with a person in Mount Vernon, Washington, who claimed that he was the actual Cooper.
(”I Am D.B. Cooper” is accessible to lease or buy on websites together with Amazon Prime Video, DirecTV, and extra)
Diane Downs: Some of the stunning true crime tales in Oregon historical past concerned a lady named Diane Downs, who was convicted of shooting her own three children, and killing one. Downs was accused of making an attempt to homicide her kids, in 1983, after she grew to become infatuated with a married man. The case drew much more consideration when Downs turned up pregnant at her 1984 trial. In 1987, Downs briefly escaped from the Oregon Ladies’s Correctional Heart in Salem, and was quickly recaptured.
The sensational nature of the horrible crime caught the eye of the nationwide media early on. Seattle-based true crime writer Ann Rule’s 1987 ebook, “Small Sacrifices,” took the story of the girl whose full identify was Elizabeth Diane Downs to readers all around the nation. Rule’s ebook was tailored right into a 1989 two-part TV film, additionally titled “Small Sacrifices,” which starred Farrah Fawcett as Downs, and Ryan O’Neal as a married man with whom Downs was having an affair.
Among the many different media accounts was a “20/20″ episode in 2010, which included an interview with the now-grown baby with whom Downs had been pregnant throughout her trial, and one other episode in regards to the case, which aired in 2019.
Kyron Horman: The immensely unhappy story of Kyron Horman, who was 7 years old when he disappeared in 2010, has been informed many occasions in nationwide media. “Actual Life Nightmare,” a real crime collection on the HLN cable channel, devoted a 2020 episode, titled “Vanished from School,” to the case.
Different TV exhibits that appeared on the case embrace a 2020 Investigation Discovery documentary, “Little Boy Misplaced: An ID Thriller,” and a 2020 episode of “In Pursuit With John Walsh,” one other Investigation Discovery collection.
In a 2016 episode of “Dr. Phil,” Terri Horman, who was Kyron Horman’s stepmother, ssid she thought the boy was nonetheless alive. As The Oregonian/OregonLive reported, Kyron’s father, Kaine Horman, and organic mom, Desiree Younger, have urged that Terri Horman had one thing to do with Kyron’s disappearance.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reported that authorities consider that Terri Horman was the final particular person to see Kyron earlier than he went lacking from his college in Northwest Portland. No costs have been filed within the case. Terri Horman has denied that she was the final particular person to be seen with Kyron and has stated that she doesn’t know what occurred to him.
Rebecca Schaeffer: The previous Lincoln High School student from Portland was simply starting what appeared to be a promising appearing profession in Los Angeles, when she was shot at her residence by an obsessed fan, in 1989. The tragedy of Schaeffer’s homicide made nationwide headlines, and led to authorized modifications supposed to assist defend individuals from stalkers.
The case was revisited in a “20/20″ documentary that aired in 2019.
“The Happy Face Killer”: The story of convicted assassin Keith Jesperson continues to encourage new variations. Jesperson gained “The Pleased Face Killer” moniker after he confessed to killing ladies in a collection of nameless letters despatched to the Multnomah County District Lawyer’s Workplace and to The Oregonian, and included smiley-face signatures.
Lifetime aired one other of its ripped-from-the-headlines TV films in regards to the case, the 2014 title, “Pleased Face Killer,” which starred David Arquette as Jesperson.
Earlier this yr, the streaming service Paramount Plus introduced that Dennis Quaid would play Jesperson in a new TV series, “Happy Face,” which is scheduled for 2025. Within the collection, Annaleigh Ashford performs Melissa Moore, who tried to deal with studying that she was the daughter of Jesperson, who’s serving a life sentence on the Oregon State Penitentiary.
The Paramount Plus collection is impressed by the “Pleased Face” podcast, and the ebook, “Shattered Silence,” by Moore and M. Bridget Prepare dinner.
— Kristi Turnquist covers options and leisure. Attain her at 503-221-8227, [email protected] or @Kristiturnquist
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