CRIME STORIES: MIAMI MANHUNT (TV)
Summary
One in this series of programs exploring true crimes and criminals. In this episode, the filmmakers examine the way in which police departments and the media feed off of each other in an effort to fulfill their respective agendas. Host Richard Belzer opens by providing some context for the case in question. A citywide search has been declared in Miami, Florida, for fugitive criminal Anthony Fail, known on the streets as "Little Bo." The manhunt for Fail, Belzer explains, coincides with an anti-gang program the Miami police department has instituted called "Operation Draw the Line." Fail, who grew up in the notorious Miami ghetto neighborhood called Liberty City, is wanted for questioning about a series of four homicides that took place in less than twenty-four hours. The filmmakers follow a police spokesman as he fills the media in on the search for Fail. It soon becomes clear that, while representatives of the media are happy to get a story that is as exciting and controversial as this one, the police want the story reported mainly in order to drum up support for their expensive anti-gang operation. The filmmakers interview Anthony Fail's family and friends and follow the police as they chase a number of leads concerning Fail's whereabouts. When they eventually catch him, the police concede that the statistics about the crimes of which Fail may be accused were inflated to obtain better media attention. The filmmaker ends up speaking face to face to Fail, who denies his involvement in the crimes. The police explain that they plan to use Fail as leverage to gain access to the wider-reaching "John Doe Gang." Commercials deleted.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by The New York Community Trust - Haas Foundation Fund.
Details
- NETWORK: Court TV
- DATE: November 30, 1998
- RUNNING TIME: 0:56:15
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:65414
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Crime and criminals; Public relations - Police
- SERIES RUN: Court TV/TruTV - TV series, 1998-2010
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Steven Rosenbaum … Executive Producer
- David Heilbroner … Senior Producer
- Anthony Horn … Senior Producer
- Jeffrey Tuchman … Supervising Producer
- Caroline Sommers … Producer
- Michelle Langer … Associate Producer
- Richard Belzer … Host
- Anthony Fail