~ Art Imitating Life?? ~

Ethan’s article is definitely making the rounds and has generated a great deal of interest to other journalists.  Below are links to two recent articles that discuss possible parallels with the new HBO series True Detective (which I have not watched yet).

From the New York Observer:  Did the Jeff Davis 8 Inspire True Detective?

The similarities between this high-profile case and the otherwise overly-complicated weirdness of True Detective is no coincidence. Creator and sole writer Nic Pizzolatto grew up 30 minutes away from Jennings in Lake Charles, LA, where the cases were covered extensively by local media.

From uproxx.com:  ‘True Detective,’ The Jeff Davis 8, And The 5 Horsemen Theory

Earlier this month, Medium published a very lengthy, fascinating, and engrossing piece by Ethan Brown on the Jeff Davis 8, the unsolved murders from 1995 to 2010 of 8 women from Jeff Davis Parish, crimes that have long been connected to a serial killer. Before the piece, there was some suggestion that Nic Pizzolatto had perhaps gotten inspiration for True Detective from the Jeff Davis 8, and as a huge twist emerged in the narrative of the real-life case, the connection it has to True Detective has picked up more steam.

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~Ethan Brown – The Jefferson Davis 8 Documents ~

The Jefferson Davis 8 Documents

From 2005 to 2009, eight women—all mired in the local sex and drug trade—were murdered in southwestern Louisiana. A federal-state-and-local taskforce has pursued a theory that this is the handiwork of a serial killer, and all the killings remain unsolved. But Ethan Brown’smulti-year investigation has raised serious doubts about such a theory and about the conduct and possible involvement of local law enforcement. Here are some of his case files.

Read more at link.

~ Ethan Brown – The Jefferson Davis 8 Documents ~

By:  Ethan Brown in The Jeff Davis 8 Killings

My Investigation Into the Jeff Davis 8 Murders

A look at the documents that informed the story

Through numerous records requests under Louisiana’s Public Records Act to the Louisiana State Police, the Jefferson Davis Parish District Attorney’s Office, the Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Jennings Police Department, I received thousands of pages of records ranging Sheriff’s Office incident reports and personnel files to District Attorney case files. Excerpts are now available here.

More at link.

~ Who Killed the Jeff Davis 8? ~

Who Killed the Jeff Davis 8?

Article by:  Author and Investigative Journalist, Ethan Brown

A serial killer has allegedly been preying on Louisiana prostitutes. But a new investigation reveals a far scarier theory.

Over the past two years, I have obtained and reviewed hundreds of pages of task force witness interviews, the homicide case files on several of the victims, the Jeff Davis Parish sheriff’s office’s and Jeff Davis Parish district attorney’s files on all of the victims, federal and state court records, and the complete personnel files of the cops and sheriff’s deputies at the center of the case. I have interviewed friends and family of all of eight victims, as well as some of the possible suspects.

The details of the Jeff Davis 8 case can be murky; the connections between victims, suspects, and police tangled. My investigation, however, casts serious doubt on the theory that the Jeff Davis 8 is the work of a serial killer.

One fact is clear: local law enforcement is far too steeped in misconduct and corruption—and this extends to the task force, which is dominated by detectives and deputies from the sheriff’s office—to run an investigation with the integrity that the murdered women and their families deserve after nearly a decade in which no one has been brought to justice.

Read article in it’s entirety here.

~ Jennings 8: Unsolved Murders Haunt Town, Police ~

Jennings 8: Unsolved murders haunt town, police

wwltv.com
Special Investigation
Posted on January 30, 2014 at 10:30 PM
Updated Friday, Jan 31 at 9:15 AM

In south central Louisiana, in a small town on the edge of Cajun country, a string of eight young women were murdered between 2005 and 2009.

They all knew each other. Some were related by blood, others shared apartments; they frequented the same bars and low-rent motels. They used – and abused – drugs together.

And one-by-one, they all became murder victims.

Their killings have gained national notoriety, often portrayed as the work of a serial killer. But police documents obtained by WWL-TV suggest a very different – and potentially more sinister – theory: that police somehow were involved in the killings.

A wide range of circumstances have fueled the rumors that police have blood on their hands, whether with a direct hand in the violence or by covering up the horrible acts of others.

The speculation starts with one basic fact shared by the victims. Each of the murders remains unsolved.

Given the violent nature of the murders and the hasty manner in which the bodies were dumped, the lack of progress in solving the cases seems suspicious to many local residents.

Read entire article at WWLTV.  Video included at that link.

~ BRUTAL BAYOU ~

(Update 3/4/12:  Episode can be viewed here)

The JDP 8 unsolved female murders will be featured on Investigation Discovery’s new series, Dark Minds on Wednesday, February 29th, 10pm (check local listing for correct time zone).  The episode is titled BRUTAL BAYOU and below is the synopsis of the upcoming program:

Jennings, Louisiana is the largest city in Jefferson Davis Parish, about halfway between Houston and New Orleans. Around 11,000 people call this quiet rural town home, and nearly a third of the population lives below the poverty line.

~ A Serial Killer in Jennings, Louisiana – Part 12 ~

Behind The Yellow Tape – A Serial Killer in Jennings, LA – Part 12

Host:  Joey Ortega
Guest:  Kirk Menard & Michael Dubois
Airdate:  Fri, Sep 16, 2011

A little ‘disclaimer’ prior to the re-cap…..due to my own time constraints lately, the following was basically typed out without much regard to sentence structure, grammar or punctuation.  In other words…..it’s rather raw.  None-the-less, I trust that all reading will get the full gist of the interview.  I was ‘alerted’ via several emails, AND phone calls, that if I hadn’t listened to this particular show yet….I REALLY needed to soon.  It took me a little longer than I would have liked it to but, I did finally listen to it.  I have to say, those that ‘alerted’ me about the show WERE right!  Parts of it were quite surprising and really ‘eye opening’ and some of it rather shocking I must say.  As always, besides my feeble, typed re-cap….you can listen to the show in it’s entirety and verbatim at the link provided above.

Recap of the show:

Joey Ortega was joined on this show by Michael Dubois (brother of 4^th victim Whitnei Dubois) who has stirred up controversy in his own right.  People have questioned whether Mike was looking for publicity or if he really was on a “crusade” to find his sister’s killer.