This is the only two-hour City Confidential I can recall seeing and probably the only one made. The rest are all one hour. Why so long? Well, it turns out this is an amazing story and you couldn't tell it all in one hour. It's almost beyond belief, but it's all true. Actually, about 90 minutes would have been perfect since a number of facts kept being repeated during the second hour, stretching the show out to fill in the time slot.
This is basically a story about the Carpenter family against the Clinton family, both residents in the suburbs of the northeast Connecticutt fishing town of New London. Also in the mix is a sleazy lawyer and the murder victim, who married one of the Carpenter girls. Neither family is rich, despite where they were living. These were two middle-class people, but ones with trailer-trash moral standards.
The story takes place in "an old fishing & whaling town with seafaring folk surrounded by strands of snooty suburbs." That's what we hear immediately from narrator Paul Winfield, who loves to always bash the rich suburbans and glorify the inner city folks. You have to know CC's bias and just ignore, concentrating on what you see and hear from both sides (if you get both sides). We get a good sampling of all sides in this bizarre tale, and that helps make it so fascinating.
However, these suburbans were anything but "snooty." I found almost everyone involved in this murder to be whacked, even the parents of the parties involved. It's strange to hear people who sound pretty educated and have some class but yet help sew outfits for their son, the male stripper! I'm telling you: there are so many odd things regarding the people in this case, it will make head swim trying to figure them out.
The big twist, as it turns out, is that the one person who looked above it all: a straight-A student and young lawyer who is the opposite of her tramp younger sister.....is the one has the murder committed! The whole thing is too complicated to go into a review here, but it's definitely worth your two hours to hear about this case which involves so many things it's mind-boggling. The more that was uncovered, the crazier it got. For instance, if I told you the murderer brought his 14-year-son along for the ride to show him "how it's done" and then has his kid run over the victim five times to make sure he's dead, you wouldn't believe it.....but it's true. Or, how about the head of the real estate law firm spending his nights at orgies, snorting cocaine, screwing the straight-A student and leading a group of wife-swappers doing their thing all the while having a squeaky-clean reputation in town? You need a scorecard to keep track of the players, many of whom change from good-to-bad or bad-to-good.
This case remains bizarre all the way to the end. You should see what happens to Haiman Clein (the lawyer) and Beth Carpenter (the mastermind behind the killing of her sister's husband). This is Peyton Place and The Godfather all rolled into one.
Amazing.
This is basically a story about the Carpenter family against the Clinton family, both residents in the suburbs of the northeast Connecticutt fishing town of New London. Also in the mix is a sleazy lawyer and the murder victim, who married one of the Carpenter girls. Neither family is rich, despite where they were living. These were two middle-class people, but ones with trailer-trash moral standards.
The story takes place in "an old fishing & whaling town with seafaring folk surrounded by strands of snooty suburbs." That's what we hear immediately from narrator Paul Winfield, who loves to always bash the rich suburbans and glorify the inner city folks. You have to know CC's bias and just ignore, concentrating on what you see and hear from both sides (if you get both sides). We get a good sampling of all sides in this bizarre tale, and that helps make it so fascinating.
However, these suburbans were anything but "snooty." I found almost everyone involved in this murder to be whacked, even the parents of the parties involved. It's strange to hear people who sound pretty educated and have some class but yet help sew outfits for their son, the male stripper! I'm telling you: there are so many odd things regarding the people in this case, it will make head swim trying to figure them out.
The big twist, as it turns out, is that the one person who looked above it all: a straight-A student and young lawyer who is the opposite of her tramp younger sister.....is the one has the murder committed! The whole thing is too complicated to go into a review here, but it's definitely worth your two hours to hear about this case which involves so many things it's mind-boggling. The more that was uncovered, the crazier it got. For instance, if I told you the murderer brought his 14-year-son along for the ride to show him "how it's done" and then has his kid run over the victim five times to make sure he's dead, you wouldn't believe it.....but it's true. Or, how about the head of the real estate law firm spending his nights at orgies, snorting cocaine, screwing the straight-A student and leading a group of wife-swappers doing their thing all the while having a squeaky-clean reputation in town? You need a scorecard to keep track of the players, many of whom change from good-to-bad or bad-to-good.
This case remains bizarre all the way to the end. You should see what happens to Haiman Clein (the lawyer) and Beth Carpenter (the mastermind behind the killing of her sister's husband). This is Peyton Place and The Godfather all rolled into one.
Amazing.