Black Bird: One Man's Freedom Hides in Another Man's Darkness

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In with the Devil presents the true story of a young man destined for greatness on the football field—until a few wrong turns led him to a ten-year prison sentence.

His specialty is in the court of last resort—the various proceedings that come after a guilty verdict or plea.Mike Hale of The New York Times stated, "Despite that imbalance in the dramatic weight, Black Bird is mostly engaging — Hauser is onscreen a lot, and the production has a hushed quality, with occasional expressionistic touches, that is reminiscent of David Fincher’s crime stories.

After James “Jimmy” Keene had led his Kankakee Eastridge High School football team in the early ‘90s, the star athlete chose not to accept the out-of-state scholarships he received. Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, " Black Bird gains a tremendous amount of gravity from one of Liotta’s last screen appearances. The 2017 Netflix series Mindhunter—which was loosely based on a 1995 nonfiction book by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker—understood the banality at the heart of serial killers’ evil; imprisoned murderers initially seem perfectly ordinary and reasonable, and then they calmly and matter-of-factly describe their horrific crimes to investigators.When Keene’s lawyer, Jeff Steinback, told him that Beaumont was ready to talk about a deal for an early release, Jimmy says, “I immediately thought it was some kind of trap. This isn't a documentary, that's the easiest way to put it, so I wanted my Jimmy to go on a psychological and emotional journey that the real Jimmy to the best of my knowledge never went on. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. In 2022, James Keene released his second book titled Black Bird: One Man's Freedom Hides in Another Man's Darkness. He can either serve his complete minimum-security prison sentence (without the possibility of parole) or go undercover for the FBI in a maximum-security prison to get suspected serial killer Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser) to confess to several murders and reveal the locations of the victims’ bodies.

Miller gets Larry to confess to a murder, but during the trial, Larry claims that Miller manipulated him and coaxed a false confession, leading to the case going to appellate court. It is the first documentary to present a full portrait of JZD, the good and the very bad, including what he did to me to stop the book from getting published. In 1996, charming drug and arms dealer James "Jimmy" Keene, is arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison without bail. During a 2012 appearance on NBC’s Dateline, Keene told host Lester Holt that he’s especially proud that his book and expertise have led to the reopening of more cold case investigations, several of which involve Hall. Believing he’d uncovered sufficient evidence to fulfill his end of the deal and secure his release, Keene blew his cover and stopped pretending to be Hall’s friend.James Keene is the son of a former police officer who went from high school football star to major-league drug dealer. In 2010, Keene authored In with the Devil: A Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption, which details his real experiences helping the FBI stop a serial murderer. But then Steinback, who was shoved in next to Jimmy at the table, elbowed him in the side and held up his hand. Leading man Taron Egerton stars as Jimmy Keene and is now a contender for the winner of Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

The altercation landed Keene in solitary confinement, and by the time he got out, the map and falcons had disappeared. There's a number of ways that could have been portrayed, but for you in creating that moment, what was the most important thing to convey? Apple TV eventually purchased Keene's story and life rights from Paramount for the miniseries Black Bird with Taron Egerton as Keene and Paul Walter Hauser as the serial killer Larry Hall. Still stunned, Jimmy stared at the photos of the girls and listened to Beaumont talk about Hall, barely absorbing the details.In April 2023, Keene released his newest book, The Chicago Phoenix: Jimmy Keene’s Untold Story, which details his dangerously thrilling early life, his efforts to survive and thrive in the hazardous Chicago drug world starting at thirteen years old, his rise to the top of a secret empire, and his path to success and redemption after leaving prison with nothing but a cleared name and a clean record. The fact that the crimes he’s accused of are monstrous doesn’t make him some kind of supervillain; instead, he’s depicted as a deeply odd, socially awkward guy who tinkered with cars and grew massive muttonchops to fit in better while taking part in Civil War re-enactments. This odd choice of facial hair made it into the miniseries adaptation, although, in real life, Hall had shaved off the beard by the time Keene met him. Once there, Keene slowly but successfully gained Hall’s trust and said his fellow inmate eventually admitted to killing 19-year-old Tricia Lynn Reitler in 1993.