How to Untangle a True Crime Scam

Stéphane Bourgoin was for decades a key figure in the media: an international expert on serial killers, author of 75 books on crime stories, producer of dozens of films on murder. He was also a fabulist, a film buff inspired by films such as The Silence of the Lambs whose success was built on lies.

Bourgoin distinguished himself from other crime-related media personalities by his origin story. As a young man living in the United States, he said he experienced firsthand the terror of a serial killer when he discovered the dismembered body of his girlfriend in their shared apartment. This seemingly forgotten anecdote became Bourgoin’s calling card, giving him access not only to the dozens of serial killers he interviewed over the years, but also to victims of violent crime and their families. And his star grew even as the facts about that girlfriend, “Eileen,” began to unfold.

That’s what director and executive producer Ben Selkow explores in the three-part series, Deadly Lies: Tracking a Con Man Who Committed a Real Crimehis matryoshka doll-like look at Bourgioin’s life and mind, which is based on a 2022 novel New Yorker An investigative feature from Lauren Collins (who appears in the series). It’s a story that involves a rebel union of online sleuths, secret families, betrayed trusts, and the worst impulses exploited. It’s also a record of our cultural obsession with crime and a sharp examination of how narratives are constructed, who tells the stories, and how consumers become guilty of perpetuating misinformation. Selkow spoke to GQ about making Murderous lies and what he hopes viewers will take away from it. Watch the series starting Wednesday, August 28 on National Geographic and the following day on Hulu.

GQ:What drew you to this story and what were the challenges in bringing Collins’ comprehensive article to the screen?

Ben Selkow: I’m really interested in our participation as filmmakers and as an audience, and how we contribute to the things that we watch.[Lauren’s piece]offered a really incredible avenue to probe and investigate, to question ourselves as creators, as storytellers, as well as an audience. I wanted to explore the question of how we got to this point, to this moment of true crime, while also telling a true crime story. So it became a kind of intricate weave of a meta-story, with a true crime story at its heart, which was a unique opportunity.

And this story stood out to me from a lot of other stories because of its approach. Stephane is the culprit and the agitator. He becomes the anti-hero and the antagonist at the center of the story. Lauren had already done an incredible job of digging into the story. The idea of ​​the series was to build on that story and look deeper into the genre of it. So it’s not just a regurgitation of her article, but an active, present-tense investigation.

There’s definitely a sense of tension building in the series, similar to what you’d see in a crime-solving movie, but it’s something different. How did the ambiguities shape the narrative?

The audience can participate. They can look at this character and say, “Is this Mr. Magoo, who just happened to stumble upon a new series of events and went through life or a series of accidents?” Or is there something more premeditated, more nefarious here? I think there’s a spectrum of compulsion and premeditation that allows the audience to investigate and, in a way, make their own judgment, which is what makes the show really fun. Because it’s still an interpretation that allows the audience to be sort of the final investigators.

What is your interpretation?

My theory is that he was a shrewd adaptor, that he was able to gauge the audience’s reaction. He was sort of prescient, he was sort of a pre-Internet troll, and the best trolls are actually key observers of the audience’s reaction.

The goal is to get attention. Attention is the most valuable currency for someone like Bourgoin. For him, it all starts with a movie that gets a little attention. It’s scandalous and salacious, and, you know, it gets and gets more attention. Then he writes a book, he becomes an expert, he goes on television. It becomes his world.