In the above tweet, Mr. Grossman asks an excellent question and I believe I can answer it.
This is how the story went...
"Billy the Artist" had already read The Ultimate Evil (11:43) by the time he noticed Maury Terry discussing the Son of Sam case on tv (4:07). This viewing is said to have happened some time around the 20th anniversary of Berkowitz's arrest (4:05).
Quick-thinking Billy immediately got to work on a scheme to take advantage of Mr. Terry for drug money (4:33, 30:04).
How Billy knew for certain he would get paid is still a mystery, but for the sake of this breakdown I’m going to ignore that Billy is an admitted liar, thief, vandal, and ex (?) addict and do my best to take him at his word. Just like Maury and just like Manny did.
Billy made a phone call to Maury (4:36). He told Mr. Terry that he knew there were others involved the Son of Sam shootings (4:38).
Maury, ever-eager for eye witnesses at a time when the investigation had begun to heat up again, took him at his word and agreed to meet with Billy.
This next part is key.
Maury showed Billy some photos (10:36, 11:22).
(11:22) "When he showed me pictures and I showed him those things, he said, 'wow, this is that guy Ken'..."
(29:28) "When he told me there was an old guy, I says, 'oh yeah, look, he looked like this' and he tells me, 'wow that's him'..."
The order of his recall is important here. It appears Maury Terry did the show and tell first; Billy, looking to swindle Maury out of drug money, did his best to tailor his responses.
If Manny insists that we take Billy at his word, the con he ran on Maury suddenly becomes clear.
Maury did not properly vet Billy, sure, but Maury also knew what it was like to not be believed.
Did Billy bring his drawings with him to that first meeting? I can't say for sure. But early on Billy not only knew the basic story, having read The Ultimate Evil, he also had an idea of what some of the cult members looked like thanks to the photos Maury shared with him. This might explain why some of the images do indeed look like they were copied from comics, "I had these drawings," (9:45), but others display little or no artistic skill for composite sketching whatsoever.
Take a look at these examples. I'm reposting "Mr. Real Estate/Gimil-Ishbi " from above for comparison.
This next drawing is supposed to be of a cult member named Jeff. Is it even from the same artist? And when was Jeff's portrait offered to Maury?
When Maury asked Billy what Ken sounded like, Billy offered a British accent. Unfortunately Maury, still believing Billy, chimed in and said, no Ken was Australian. But that was still a great "guess", having read Maury's work and knowing that The Process came from England.
As a decent con man, Billy not only knew the background story but he also got Maury to open up and offer details, it seems.
And got lucky.
(16:24) "BUT, the funny thing is, he [the deceased Moloch] looked exactly like the fucking picture [Gimil-Ishbi]."
Keeping in mind that Billy was still young at the time of the alleged cult meeting and most certainly not a professional artist, Maury was also impressed with the likeness.
...
Thanks for reading! Remember to share and discuss, pretty-please.
And don't forget...
I believe Napoleon Dynamite was the second artist. This was during his Liger period.
ReplyDeleteI'm inclined to agree!
DeleteManny Grossman claims that only Maury Terry endorsed and investigated the Cult Theory in SoS. That is false. Detectives Hank Cinotti, Kevin Murphy, and Don Mounts also concluded that there is a high possibility that there was a Cult involved in the Son of Sam killings. And as far as I know, the Queens DA, John Santucci, never publicly declared that Berkowitz acted alone. In fact, he kept the case open after the Queens DA Investigation. And of course he stated in 1979: "“I believe David Berkowitz did not act alone, that in fact others did cooperate, aid and abet him in the commission of these crimes. In fact, it has crossed my mind that this 44-caliber pistol was passed around among a number of people.”"
ReplyDeleteI've noticed Manny relies not only on a newspaper article about Detective Murphy getting injured in the line of duty to mischaracterize him as crazy, but also the word of people who have their reasons for throwing Murphy under the bus, let's put it that way.
DeleteThe fact that the pictures of the supposed Untermeyer dwelling Suzette and Mr. Real Estate look exactly like those comic book characters destroys Maury’s legacy. His vetting and research was trash journalism.
ReplyDeleteI disagree. I recognize that Manny has zoomed in on the word "crucial" (a word which can also simply mean, "of great importance") but the entire case never rested on Billy alone. Recall that Maury published two versions of The Ultimate Evil before Billy ever came along.
DeleteAs I stated, Tony arrived at a time when the case was heating up again. Maury was still actively pursuing leads and witnesses. This was good timing on Billy's part. That's what helped push the con over the top.
I do think the whole "debacle" does highlight a shortcoming of Maury's, which was his naivete on certain matters, but that's no reason to throw all of his work out.
If anyone's legacy is in danger it's Manny's.
I always thought Maury was a grifter, but when I saw those comic book characters I knew for sure.
ReplyDeleteSo? Who the fuck are you?
DeleteI just watched this and it’s wild if “Billy” and his friends graffiti is what was being referenced by Maury as the satanic symbols he saw (that’s what I get from a brief exchange about the graffiti that I really wish Billy had been asked to expand upon). Maybe there was additional vandalism up there, but just to flesh it out for people, Billy is talking about The Crazy Five aka TC5, possibly the most legendary graffiti crew of all time. When people talk about the origins of hip hop being in the Bronx, this is part of it. It was five kids from the Bronx. I think they first got together at the end of the 60’s as just a neighborhood garage band, but they were also into comic books and drawing, and they brought in a couple other artists. These were just young teenagers when they started and they became a groundbreaking crew in terms of not just tagging but that first generation of spray painting murals and pioneering doing entire subway cars. And one of the symbols that you still see the crew doing is a star/pentagram with the number 5 in the center. I heard about them as a kid in the 80’s because their pieces were in those original graffiti books like Subway Art and the documentary Style Wars. A couple members of that crew are considered true GOAT’s worldwide, like Blade and Seen and Doze. Look up a video of Seen and you’ll see this rough looking long haired white guy that sounds like a smarter variation of Billy lol. I met a few members over the years and can picture a younger version of Billy hanging out with them for sure lol. Boisterous, a bit arrogant, that rough NY attitude from the old days. And I got to say, the one member I talked to multiple times in the late 90’s (not one of the most legendary) was a cocky wise ass who definitely would hustle someone out of their cash with a wild story and then go get f’d up and laugh about it, and he was doing too much blow at the time, so it makes sense to me that his homeboy “Billy” might take a similar approach to life during that period. Do what you will with that lol.
ReplyDeleteArguably, no journalistic effort is perfect. Alex Haley's Malcolm X is full of examples like these but the book is still widely accepted, albeit criticized, for its look on Malcolm's life. I'd also argue that even the comic book figure resembles another: a Persian demon. Can't remember the name of the demon, though. Point is that appearances can resemble one another. I guess Manny doesn't recognize this despite going on and on about how he looks like a specific celebrity. . .
ReplyDelete