Searching For the Truth About the Actual Murderer in The Exorcist |
In late 1972, Dr. Barton Lane was performing an angiogram at the Tisch Hospital (then called University Hospital) in the New York University radiology lab in Manhattan, when he got an unexpected visitor. In the days before HIPAA the doors were wide open for pretty much anyone to observe doctors at work, and this particular visitor was scouting a location and potential extras for a movie. At that time, an angiogram, a diagnostic test that takes x-ray pictures of blood vessels, was performed with a needle stuck into the patient's artery. When the needle would hit the artery, a jet of blood would shoot out. The visitor, director William Friedkin, saw the impressive spray of blood and knew he wanted this exact procedure in his horror film—an adaptation of the book, The Exorcist. The making of The Exorcist—known as one of the greatest horror movies of all time—has long been considered cursed. During production, a series of tragedies befell the cast and crew. Nine people connected to the film died during or shortly after the production, including actors Jack MacGowran and Vasiliki Maliaros, Linda Blair's grandfather, a security guard on set, and a special effects expert. Actress Ellen Burstyn suffered a permanent spinal injury while getting thrown from the bouncing bed (her real scream is heard in the film). The set for the MacNeil home burned down, mysteriously leaving Regan's bedroom untouched. In fact, the production had been surrounded by so much misfortune, a Jesuit priest, Thomas M. King, was brought in to bless the set. These are fairly well-known tales, and are passed around to add to the film's lore. But there's another story connected to The Exorcist that has remained largely overlooked. It's about the radiology technician in the film, Paul Bateson, who is often referred to among true crime and horror fans—and even Friedkin himself—as a serial killer. I spent months digging into archived articles, court documents, and speaking with the NYPD and those involved with the film trying to find the truth about Bateson and the crimes he did and did not commit. What I found was a very different story. |
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| Why Does the Wing-Nut Branch of the Republican Party Keep Winning? |
As August became September, and as the 2022 midterm elections gradually got close enough for everyone to get a clear look at them, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell had a very bad week at work. For months there had seemed a decent chance that, come January, he would transform into the majority leader again. Then suddenly, all hell broke loose around him. He was caught up in feuds with Senator Rick Scott, who was the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and with Peter Thiel, the fabulously wealthy cyber-millenarian who has grand dreams of turning the United States into a techno-oligarchy once we all give up that self-government business. In both cases, McConnell was the voice of reason. That was enough to stir up the extremists. |
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The 78 Scariest Movies of All Time |
At Esquire, Halloween movie season is here, people. There's no better time than right now to dim the lights and get the living shit scared right out of you. Netflix and HBO Max are full of terrifying fare, and some of the films on this list appear on each platform, conveniently enough. But sometimes you just want to know, outside of the constraints of that little rectangle app on your TV, what are the most unnerving, bizarre, deeply troubling movies of all time? (Right?) We're talking about the genuinely scary stuff. Jams from the minds of Kubrick, Argento, Peele. Tales of doomed cave-dives and camping trips gone wrong. That's this list. Here are the 78 scariest movies of all time. |
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Love, Marriage, Loss, and Apple Pie |
On a warm summer night, in our final meal together before he withered away into someone else, my father and I went for pie. It was late July 2015, and he was visiting me in Los Angeles. Over a week, I had ferried him to a legendary deli on Fairfax, a pancake temple in Hollywood, and a chic outdoor dinner in Malibu. He appreciated my efforts, but on our last evening before he flew home, I acquiesced to his favorite genre, so we visited Pie Hole, a hip dessert spot in L.A.'s Downtown Arts District. As we stood before the clear display case, a glistening array of artisan options tempted us: Mexican Chocolate Pie, Bananas Foster Pie, Earl Grey Pie, Maple Custard Pie, plus Chai Cheesecake. I'd watched many salivating customers deliberate for long minutes before this very case, but Dad reached a verdict almost immediately: "I'll have Apple Pie." He commanded a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a root beer, completing the all-American order. We took a small table outside. |
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Jerry Lee Lewis: What I've Learned |
I got good health, I still got pretty hair, I'm still rocking. That's sitting on top of the world about as high as you're going to get. I don't have a lot of talking to do, because I've got a show tonight. Oh, about three minutes. But putting the makeup on and getting ready and going out there, setting down, and going to the piano, and leading you out there, and setting down — by the time you do "Great Balls of Fire," which is a minute and forty seconds, you've done killed two hours. You might as well have done a whole show. I work to please my audience. I was watching those people last night. I was watching their eyes. And I got into it a little. They was getting into it. That's very important. I never set fire to a piano. I'd like to have got away with it, though. I pushed a couple of them in the river. They wasn't any good. |
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Everyone Hearken to the Esquire Politics Conference Call, Tuesday, November 1! |
Welcome, Esquire members, once again to the shebeen. Wherein this coming November 1, from 12 p.m. ET to 1 p.m. ET, all members in good standing are cordially invited to participate in a live conference call with proprietor and pundit Charles P. Pierce to discuss all things midterms, from the mid to the terminal. We will entertain likelihoods, impossibilities, and prospects for the next two years: the catastrophic candidates electioneering across the country! the catastrophic corrosion of democratic safeguards in our electoral processes! the catastrophic consequences of the bigotry, partisanship, and idiocy poisoning our politics! Is it all catastrophe and chaos? Let's find out! |
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