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

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Once out of prison, he spent the next five years with his father, James “Big Jim” Keene (Ray Liotta), who died in November 2004 at age 67. The Apple TV+ series based on Jimmy Keene’s autobiographical novel featured the talents of Paul Walter Hauser, who portrayed serial killer Larry Hall, earning Walter Houser a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The prosecutor had worn a full beard then—shot with gray—and Jimmy remembered how he stared down on him in the courtroom from a terrible height, like some Old Testament prophet, eyes blazing and voice booming. Only this time he was accompanied by Ken Temples, a benign, balding FBI agent Jimmy hadn’t seen before.

Beaumont had prosecuted him as well, and he explained to Keene that Hall was serving a life sentence for abducting the girl in the cornfield. I was kind of a natural for it with the charm I inherited from my parents, and the fearlessness that I felt from my experience in sports and martial arts. His muttonchops, emulating those of a Union general, were intended to make his face look as authentic as his uniform and rifle.Every major news outlet and many notable journalists, including Newsweek, CNN, and Paula Zahn have interviewed him. And though he won't be eligible for parole in his lifetime, he's also not been convicted of the dozens of murders and crimes he's been accused of.

And it was only when I was getting near the end of it that I thought, "Oh, wait a minute, what if we went a different journey here? Given Jimmy's natural charming and charismatic personality and gift for talking, he was offered an opportunity for a fully commuted sentence with a clean record and no conditions by federal authorities. Just a few months into Keene’s sentence, the federal prosecutor who put him behind bars approached him with an offer.Jimmy nonchalantly grabbed it with his cuffed hands and lifted up the flap, putting on his best poker face to mask his reaction to whatever he saw inside. His book is titled In with the Devil: A Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption.