Unbelievable (Miniseries, Season 1. Netflix, 2019)
The epilogue in a Twilight Zone episode in its first season titled 'The Monsters are Due in Maple Street' goes like this...
It tells of a Martian experiment where a junior alien officer explains a scheme to create chaos on Earth to his superior. He suggests planting the seed of doubt to weaken and win over Earthlings.
Planting a seed of doubt is a dangerous thing. This uncertainty breeds suspicion of conspiracy. Putting two and two unrelated events suddenly appears crystal clear of the threat from the other. Even though this is a potentially self-defeating defence mechanism, it is nevertheless a survival instinct that may help a herd.
I heard this real-life story through a podcast. It told the story of a teenager, Marie Adler, with a troubled childhood. She had been living with many foster homes previously and had recently started living on her own when, in 2008, she reported that someone had broken into her Seattle hostel home and raped her.
The rapist had allegedly entered her home, tied her up with her shoelace, blindfolded her, threatened her with a knife, raped her and meticulously left without a trace of evidence, DNA or fingerprints.
Police did their official investigation. Along the course of the inquiry, her former foster parent, whom Marie is still close to, raised suspicion that her behaviour was unbecoming of someone who had undergone a traumatic event. Slowly, everyone agreed that Marie had always been an attention seeker. They wondered whether she could have faked the whole thing. The police also started investigating along this line.
A perplexed Marie, who was still fizzled by the whole event, started doubting her own complaint. She pondered whether it was all just a dream. Sure enough, she later a declaration that she could have falsely reported the whole thing and was even fined for it. The entire event left her traumatised very profoundly.
Three years later, in another state, Colorado, the police were out on a manhunt for a possible serial rapist. By a twist of fate, the wrangling of formalities, inside information and her near-obsessive nature as two policewomen, a link was made between Marie's cold case and that one.
Crimes were becoming more complicated to be solved, thanks to TV series like CSI and access to the public reading material of police procedural manuals. Secrecy among police departments, not wanting to share information, makes it easy for perpetrators to uproot their base to another locale and start incognito activity all over again.
It is not only fairytales that have happy endings. Occasionally it happens in real life, and a big fat chunk of damages paid by the State to the victim makes it even sweeter. Marie sued the City Police and got $150,000 in compensation. An intense drama. 4.5/5
The epilogue in a Twilight Zone episode in its first season titled 'The Monsters are Due in Maple Street' goes like this...
The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices – to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill – and suspicion can destroy – and a thoughtless frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own – for the children – and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is – that these things cannot be confined – to the Twilight Zone.
It tells of a Martian experiment where a junior alien officer explains a scheme to create chaos on Earth to his superior. He suggests planting the seed of doubt to weaken and win over Earthlings.Planting a seed of doubt is a dangerous thing. This uncertainty breeds suspicion of conspiracy. Putting two and two unrelated events suddenly appears crystal clear of the threat from the other. Even though this is a potentially self-defeating defence mechanism, it is nevertheless a survival instinct that may help a herd.
I heard this real-life story through a podcast. It told the story of a teenager, Marie Adler, with a troubled childhood. She had been living with many foster homes previously and had recently started living on her own when, in 2008, she reported that someone had broken into her Seattle hostel home and raped her.
The rapist had allegedly entered her home, tied her up with her shoelace, blindfolded her, threatened her with a knife, raped her and meticulously left without a trace of evidence, DNA or fingerprints.
Police did their official investigation. Along the course of the inquiry, her former foster parent, whom Marie is still close to, raised suspicion that her behaviour was unbecoming of someone who had undergone a traumatic event. Slowly, everyone agreed that Marie had always been an attention seeker. They wondered whether she could have faked the whole thing. The police also started investigating along this line.
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| The Monsters are Due on Maple Street TZ S1E22 |
A perplexed Marie, who was still fizzled by the whole event, started doubting her own complaint. She pondered whether it was all just a dream. Sure enough, she later a declaration that she could have falsely reported the whole thing and was even fined for it. The entire event left her traumatised very profoundly.
Three years later, in another state, Colorado, the police were out on a manhunt for a possible serial rapist. By a twist of fate, the wrangling of formalities, inside information and her near-obsessive nature as two policewomen, a link was made between Marie's cold case and that one.
Crimes were becoming more complicated to be solved, thanks to TV series like CSI and access to the public reading material of police procedural manuals. Secrecy among police departments, not wanting to share information, makes it easy for perpetrators to uproot their base to another locale and start incognito activity all over again.
It is not only fairytales that have happy endings. Occasionally it happens in real life, and a big fat chunk of damages paid by the State to the victim makes it even sweeter. Marie sued the City Police and got $150,000 in compensation. An intense drama. 4.5/5
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