In an earlier now legendary post we discussed the concept of "No Show without Punch", the idea that back in the long ago day, the British would always introduce the "Punch" puppet into a show whether it made sense or not and how BUGliosi, with his constant appearance on EVERY lame tv show was akin to punch.
Now that I have watched like ten parole hearings while transferring them to DVD, I guess that makes Stephen Kay fucking JUDY.
It fits. Judy is second to Punch, but she's also more dangerous, destructive and all around stupid than Punch is. Judy is unaware of what she is doing and why. Just like Kay.
Kay starts out in the TLB world as a sort of junior Prosecutor to the great Punch. He's there after Stovitz falls off the case, and sort of watches the drama unfold. More importantly, he watches the fame that attaches to BUG and I think decides "I gotta get me some of that."
His job during the main trials is to backup BUG. He does the legendary interview with Ronni Howard about Sinatra and Liz Taylor being on a kill list (an obvious Atkins lie). He spends a lot of time in the law library. Later, he becomes the backup guy on the Hinman and Shea trials. He must be relieved when, finally, the State has to retry Leslie and he gets the gig. But he isn't very good. Her first re-trial ends in a hung jury. But Judy keeps provoking and sure enough, he ends up with a conviction. Fine- he has done his job.
But then the fucking guy shows up to Parole Hearing after Parole Hearing- FIFTY times over thirty years. Like let it go already. And to make matters worse, half the time he invents shit to read into the record, like about Charlie wanting to shrink everyone to fit into the bottomless hole. Indeed, he seems to treat the BUG's book like gospel. It's pathetic man - Atkins is never gonna get out, so why waste your time blocking her? Oh, I see, yes- AFTER EVERY HEARING HE HOLDS A NEWS CONFERENCE ON THE PRISON LAWN. Punch got a lot of attention so now Judy wants some too.
This is the fool who stated that Leslie would have been paroled in 1985. In his most recent hearing statements he urges that she never be paroled. He also says, wrongly, that she was spared Death by the Supreme Court. Except that whole verdict was reversed for her by an appeals court. In her actual current sentence she is serving she never had a death sentence.
For years he would also offer up media interviews, even though he hasn't yet written his sure to come book. With his nasal voice and big ass glasses Kay actually at times seems like a puppet. I vaguely remember Nelson commenting that the Bug got pissed at all the credit Kay took over the years.
I mean I don't want Atkins out of jail either, but I don't want prosecutors lying about anything.
My realization of what a clown this guy was reached new heights a year and a half ago. This ludicrous new book BLACK DAHLIA AVENGER came out and a big selling point the author used was that it was fully endorsed by Stephen Kay, the Manson prosecutor. The book is a JOKE as you can see by scanning this SITE, and Judy signed her name to it.
Puppet shows do get tedious after a while.
5 comments:
Wideawakec- I think Kay tolerated Nelson because he helped bring relatives into the hearings... after Nelson's child molestation conviction surface I think he distanced himself from him. Bug I think took his calls, but Nellie used to quote them and you could see it was very surface "Hi how are you" stuff.
glh- Bug is actually legally entitled to sell a book based on the case, to sell it to Wolper in the 70s for an MOW and then to sell the remake rights in 04. (The perps can not profit but that is because of a later (1980s) law). He has made TENS of millions off the many versions of the book. That book has been in print for 30 years.
The site you linked to and the Black Dahlia Avenger book are two different things. I dunno if the book's true or not (not being as familiar with that case as I am with TLB) but while it gets a little over-the-top at times, I thought it made a pretty good case. (Again, I couldn't call him on factual inaccuracies.) The website you linked to points the finger at a completely different suspect (and does seem pretty lame).
Oh, and Kay's always annoyed me too, far more than The Bug.
Endless Mike- you need to navigate the site- it completely tears the book apart. I mean
"Oh I hated my Daddy and therefore he must be a legendary killer." Sure.
The book's premise is based on two photos found in the father's collection of the Dahlia except- they are NOT of the Dahlia!
OK, dug deeper into that site and found the debunking pages. Yeah, I had noticed that a quite a bit of his "evidence" was more leap-of-faith (esp. the photos) or stretching-the-facts-to-fit-a-theory kinda stuff.
It was Ellroy's endorsement that sold me on it. Didn't realize that even that was more luke-warm than I had been led to believe.
It doesn't seem that wierd that he went to a lot the killer's parole hearings. He went to the hearings as a representative of the District Attorney. Now that he's retired, someone else from the DA's office goes to each hearing. Maybe that explains why Bug doesn't go - he left the DA's office years ago.
Post a Comment