In this podcast, we're going to talk frankly but sensitively about issues some people might find disturbing, including rape and suicide. If you or someone you know is suicidal in the US down nine to eighty eight, check out this podcast notes page for information on LGBT plus mental health resources in your community.
During the pandemic, I began this tradition of going on long walks, and going on the walk is one of the few things that will actually lower your blood pressure, and I definitely need to do that and clear my head and prepare for well, what we're about to do here. You see, I live near the famous Sunset Strip. Actually, let's walk down the strip.
Now.
If you walk rather than drive, you get a whole different point of view. You see all these beautiful cars, pretty people. There's palm trees, glitz, and a lot of dogs. I'm walking past a bunch of billboards. Sunset Boulevard is one of the most expensive places to put a billboard. And actually where this mall is, there's a gym where all the porn stars work out. And before it was a mall, it was Schwabs where Lana Turner was discovered.
Now just up the street is Laurel Canyon, where Joni Mitchell, Buffalo Springfield, the Mamas and the papas live their best life. And I'm walking near the Chateau Marmont, which is on the opposite side of the street. On this side of
the street, there's just a hole in the ground. It used to be the Garden of Alla, where everyone from f Scott Fitzgerald to Frank Sinatra got their freak on the chateau, though across the street is where Lindsay Lohan racked up a forty six thousand dollars tab and where John Belushi and Helmet Newton died. And if you walk down the hill, all things just get more ordinary. One hundred year old California bungalow, it's got to love them.
And they are these boxy apartment buildings that they call dingbats here mixed with new buildings that don't actually fit in. It's all, you know, typical Los Angeles, old and new, high and low. Well, I have finally reached my destination. This could be any apartment building in West Hollywood. There are actually fifteen thousand rent controled apartments in the city. But upstairs is that one apartment this street, this building, all of it unremarkable in almost every way, well unless
you know what happened here. I'm standing in front of one two three four North Laurel Avenue. It is a pretty street by West Hollywood standards, But this is Hollywood. Actually, this is West Hollywood. That distinction is super important because this is a city all of its own. It's actually the largest gay city per capita in the US. Hollywood or West Hollywood, in Tinseltown, nothing is exactly as it appears.
When you step behind the velvet rope and turn off the cleeg lights, you'll uncover a world that is definitely much darker. It was harrowing.
It was the most disturbing facts I can remember reading in my life. I was speechless. The accounts of the victims were just truly shocking. I had never seen anything quite like this, and I don't think I ever will again.
The woman you just heard, she's a federal prosecutor, And I got to tell you when a federal prosecutor shocked, you know, it's a real story. Now, what happened here at one two three four North Laurel Avenue, on this pretty West Hollywood street is more than just the story. It's as dark as you can get in a city that has a pretty dark history. But if you're gay and black like me, this is not a news story. There's been John Wayne Gacy. There was also Jeffrey Dahmer,
but in West Hollywood, we've had our own version. On the streets, they called him doctor Kravorkian. His real name is ed Buck.
He seemed to have no remorse for what he was doing. He was putting people's lives in danger on a regular basis, and not just people, but specifically vulnerable communities, and just really what he was doing was pretty horrific.
He would get angry, he would get nasty, he would get the violin.
So this was a part of his personality.
He didn't think that those were people who would be trusted and believed over him, who held himself out as this political donor and this powerful person who hung photos of himself with powerful people in his apartment where he was victimizing these people, I mean they were political figures, quite literally, lording over his victims.
Those are two of the prosecutors and one of the reporters who covered the case. This story changed many of the lives of the people involved in it, but what's crazy, And to be honest, what's fucked up is just how ordinary the story of ed Buck feels. Now, what's not ordinary is how the community responded. What's not ordinary is this podcast. I'm Sinari Glinton. I'm going to be your host,
me and my team of journalists, researchers and producers. We're going to walk you through a story that says Hollywood as Marilyn Monroe, John Belushi, Bill Cosby or the Sunset struggle, you see for every young starlet or celebrity or influence or a singer who comes here to make a living, there is another darker, shadowy side of this city.
They said that Buck is quote a predator with no regard for human life, who gave the victims dangerously large doses of narcotics.
We're going to take you inside the apartment of ed Buck. Some people have called it the gates of Hell, and we're going to try to tell the stories of why these particular black lives, the lives of Jamel Moore and Timothy Ding, why they matter. And here's the key. We're going to try to make sense of why it took so damn long to bring ed Buck to justice. Let's listen to a candlelight vigil held here on August eighteen, twenty seventeen, for one of the victims, James Goodford.
To cover this family, it just shouldn't have happened. My son found police reports, his be cried out to so many people in It's crazy how the whole entire situation was handled. My son's dead, and five days later the case is closed. I just want justice. That's it.
Now.
The producers and I have asked ourselves a question, what does justice look like? How do you tell a story that needs to be told without causing more pain to the victims or sensationalizing the trauma of gay black men like myself. This is supposed to be a true crime podcast, but to be honest, as a black man and as a veteran of public radio, I hate true crime. And it's important that we tell you what happened. You know facts,
but we're not looking to wallow and gore. And if you want to hear laughing that human tragedy, well this show, ain't it. I've spent a lifetime telling stories, mainly public radio ones. One of our favorite course products.
In your Scenarios and Pierre Scenario, Glinton is in Japlin in Pira. Scenari Glinton reports from the Capital, and PR Scenario Clinton reports from Detroit.
Sabrina Fulton and Tracy Martin are the parents of Trayvon Martin.
Even if Scenari is the only one who's doing it like that impulse of just like I'm just gonna go for it. I'm going to say something that's ridiculous and just see if it works. I mean, you know, in the movies, that's what gets the girl in the movies, that's what makes you a hero.
That last voice you heard was Ira Glass. He's the voice everyone tried to emulate when podcasts where brand spanking new, and his influence is definitely all over my work. But what's happening to black folks or gay or trans people in America and the globe? I really needed to do journalism differently. The last thing we need in this age is another polite, fucking public radio report. This is shattering the system. As Oursie Lord said, the Master's tools will
never dismantle the Master's house. So we're going to do something different. The only way that I know to shatter the system is to shine a light, do the work, afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted, give voice to the voiceless. We're going to look at crimes that tell a larger story, help connect the dots, give you context, and maybe together we can learn how to shatter the system. But first, how West Hollywood is really just like your
hometown but not that's after a break. One of the most powerful testimonials you'll hear in this story is first person from the first victim, Jamel Moore. His diary, in many ways, is the reason this story could be told. Now. We want to bring his words to you in an audio form, so we hired an actor. Let's take a lesson.
Ed Buck is the one to think. He gave me my first injection of crystal men. It was painful, but after all the troubles, I became addicted to the pain and the fantasy.
It's that diary and those words that launched an investigation. That's what made us want to do shattering the system. Jamel Moore predicted his own death at the hands of a man who lived at this address one two three four North Laurel. Jamel's name, though, isn't as widely known as ay Avon Martin or George Floyd let's listen to a visual for Jamel Moore that took place near where I'm standing.
Allowed them to know that God and God is still in control.
You fight for the ones you love and I will not stop until I get justice. Ed Buck needs to be held to accountability for all the things that he's done.
It would take the death of another black gay man, Timothy Dean, and an unlikely group of women to get justice. And as we tell that story, there's also a story here about how local government works and doesn't, how the sex apps have changed the nature of gay life, media representation, what happens or does not happen when a black person goes missing, the opioid epidemic, and so much more. Jameel Moore went to ed hooks of Turban on Rural Avenue
and ed injected into it's been killed. It was really horrific.
Yeah, a young man whose friends who I've talked to say there was so much more to Jamel Moore.
That's Hank Scott. He is a pioneer in local journalism and for years he's one of the few people who took West Hollywood seriously. He's one of the dozens of people that we're going to interview for this series. Now, if we're going to make sense of one of the most bizarre stories in Hollywood history, we're going to have to give you context history. So we talked to a roommate of one of the victims who made us think not just about life in a neighborhood, but life in America itself.
I don't want to offend anybody, but you know, in the American society it does feel there is only one god, and the only god that there is money. You know, everybody is so attached to money, and you know, especially in la you can see a lot of behavior that you know, it's like you want to hang out with people that can progress your career, that can open doors for you, that can get you to the right party.
There are so many bizarre twists and connections to making the season. For example, let's listen to part of the interview that I did with Ludlow b. Query. He's a former NAACP intern. He's now a defense attorney for Ed Buck and he's the co counsul to Christopher Darden. You may remember Darden because he prosecuted O. J. Simpson for the murders of Ron Goldman. And Nicole Brown Simpson. He
lost that case. I have to ask the question that I feel like the average black Angelino might say, which would probably be something like, look, Chris Darden on the wrong side yet again. I mean that is that's definitely tell me that I'm wrong there.
If you look at it outside of the criminal justice sphere or the criminal justice space, then I can understand why people would say that. Yes, I mean ed Buck is ay he was doing horrible things that resulted in the deaths of two black men. He's accused of exploiting black men in particular.
Exploiting black men in particular queer men. The death of these men so close to my demographic, so close to my actual home, and this all requires something different. You know. A fan wrote to me that it never occurred to him that I was gay, or for that matter, black. That idea has genuinely come to horrify me. It occurred to me that so many gay journalists sanitize gay life. I know I avoided doing gay stories, and part of this season is to tell the part of the story
that we gay men leave out. I've never been into ed Buck's apartment, but I've been in apartments that are not too far off. Later in the season, we'll talk to a prosecutor who is using new tools to find the next head buck.
I think it's really important not to accidentally do any blame shifting or even sound like we're doing any blame shifting. It is a great thing that we've reached a place where gay people can be crowd and can be meeting easily and online and non in secret. That is fantastic. The problem is that there are bad people out there exploiting it.
The point is to expose the way that people use or abuse the system, not to select shame or blame the victims or turn anyone into a boogeyman. But we've got to spill the tea and show the part of gay life, gay black life that isn't RuPaul's drag race. There's another side to gay life that isn't singing Padam Padam.
On the way to pilates, he would dangle a disition payments for people to take more drugs than they were used to, or to slam or inject drugs when they would otherwise have chosen only to smoke them. He would put them in underwear and have them pose with very specific lighting that he orchestrated in the background and take photos of them, hundreds thousands of photos of them that we found on his hard drives. It was just very specific, and if you heard it only from one person, it
would be almost impossible to believe. But after the number of accounts that I heard, I could practically finish the victim's sentences because I was so attuned to this ritual.
We tell the story of what it takes to bring down a wealthy, gay, white political donor, and how can black queer men find justice in Boycetown. That and a whole lot After a break, Welcome to Shattering the System. I'm your host, Scenari Glinton. For years, I've walked past one two three FOURD North Laurel Avenue, our neighborhood polling place was actually across the street from this address. Apartment seventeen, though, was the home of Ed Buck. Actually, you know what
names tell you a lot. Edward Bernard Peter Buck Melter. He lived here for decades, essentially from the very beginning
of West Hollywood when it became a city. So what we're going to have to do for this show is kind of start at the end, because in twenty twenty one, ed Buck was convicted of two counts of distribution of methan fetamine resulting in death, four counts of distribution of methan fetamine, one count of maintaining a drug involved premises, and two counts of enticement to travel in interstate commerce for prostitution. He was sentenced to thirty years in a
federal prison. In April of twenty twenty two, he was convicted of giving fatal doses of meth amphetamine to two gay black men. Two gay black men died in ed Buck's apartment after he injected them with meth That's the end of the story. But this podcast is about uncovering hidden systems, remembering the forgotten and the forgotten heart. And it's often too easy for the media to run with just one version of who a victim is, to forget
that these people were deeply complex individuals. Let's listen to Octavia. He was Timothy Dean's roommate. Timothy died at the hands of ed Buck, but before that terrible night, he lived in an incredibly rich life.
You know, I want to contribute to leaving the right memory about him, and I want to say a good memory the right memory about him. I think that this is the story of a fifty year old man that went through hell, purgatory and heaven, experienced life to the fullest, made a lot of mistakes and a lot of right choices, but always got back on his feet and try to change his future for the better.
Why did it take so long for ed Buck to be arrested or tried. I'll tell you what. I'll give you a quick answer. Black bodies, actually, black queer bodies do not matter until they do. In the queer world. Black bodies are curiosities, commodities, toys, objects of hate. Did I say black bodies, I mean our bodies, my body. I am not surprised that this wasn't what the network's call breaking news. If these men were any other color, I wouldn't have to make a case for the national
or international implications of these lives that were lost. But we will, and in the process, we'll show you the systems that fail us, all the systems that make this tragedy possible, Systems like the one run by the former LA County District Attorney Jackie Lacy. Now these are protesters demanding her ouster after she failed to prosecute at Buck.
You may not have thought much about West Hollywood. After all, it's a relatively new city, carved out of the vastness of La County in nineteen eighty four by an unlikely coalition of gays, Lesbians, Russian immigrants, and rent control advocates. I've lived here for ten years. Maybe you haven't thought about it, but West Hollywood is where if you've ever thought about moving to Hollywood, the image you have in your mind, that's of West Hollywood, The Sunset Strip, the
Chateau Marmont, the whiskey of Go Go. That's all considered what we lovingly call wee hoo ed Buck, or at least his story is widely known here in West Hollywood, and I just want to stop and talk to a couple of neighbors to get some impressions. Hey, do you mind if I asked your question or two? I'm a reporter. How long have you lived in West Hollywood? Twenty five years? You know, how would you describe West Hollywood to someone who has never been to Hollywood.
It's very vivid, it's a lot of different it's very diversified. A lot of different people live here. Also, young people that are some what some are gay, and they used to be more gay percentage than now. Now it's very mixed. I would say it's a quiet, safe neighborhood. It's convenient.
The walkability is what you're like.
Yeah, oh yes, everything's walking distance.
This is likely where your favorite star lived before they were famous, or lives now, or in some cases, where they were found dead. The difference between West Hollywood and the idea of West Hollywood is the dream of the thing and its reality. You know, like, literally less than one hundred yards away from here, I saw Keanu Reeves
driving looking exactly like Keanu Reeves in his Porsche. My favorite one is seeing Paul McCartney driving down Fountain in an Anti Corvette, singing to himself, this is the dream of Hollywood. Tell you what. I've never reported on Hollywood, but I've always wondered what would happen if we say, took the rigor that we turned on Chicago politics and put in on Hollywood. Hollywood is this crazy thing, y'all that distracts people. The desire to be in Hollywood is
what Hollywood is really about. For every Hollywood story, there's often a world that is so much darker here's ed Buck's defense attorney Ludlow query again, the La is a jungle. You got to be careful.
You know, this city is very deceptive because it's beautiful, the weather's beautiful, the people are beautiful. But there is so much darkness in this city. And it's always been there. It's always been there. You got to be careful.
That's what we're going to try to unpack here this season. And after a career of being polite and following the rules of journalism, we've gathered an amazing team to help me look beyond the obvious. I've always thought the way that Barack Obama must say he felt about Trayvon Martin, well that's the way I feel about these men whose lives ended in that Bucks apartment. I feel a responsibility. And most news organizations don't want to talk about sex or black men, or gay men, or about sex workers.
Let's listen to the former La County District Attorney Jackie Lacy.
We can't file a criminal case based on who has the loudest voice and we.
Go out there and arrest him.
Now, the clock starts ticking, and it wouldn't be ethical right now to arrest him until we really had the evidence.
And there were thousands of videos on his computer.
Ed Buck used the system because no one was supposed to believe gay black men. He counted on a lack of outrage. So what is this show? How are you going to go about this? Well, specifically, this is a story about homelessness, power, drugs, money, sex, race, sexual consent, HIV, stigma, and all of those things that came to a head in ed Buck's apartment one two three four North Laurel Avenue.
Just like there's a dark underbelly of Hollywood. This is a story about two men who died tragically, but it's also a story about strength and resilience, and that's why we want to tell it. But let's be clear. The only reason we are here today, and the only reason ed Buck is finally in jail, is because one of his victims predicted his own death and wrote about it. Jamelle Moore died on a cold mattress with no one there to comfort him, and nothing I can say in
this show will bring him back. However, he left the diary to tell us his story. You see, Matthew Shepherd was killed twenty five years ago this October, and the murder of a gay white man in Wyoming was covered wall the wall. They even did an HBO movie about his life in this park where I've made my way to and these bagpipes that you hear are in tribute to his memory. In many ways, Jamel Moore's words are
his memorial. So in our next episode, we hear from a victim in his own words, the power of Jamel Moore's diary. That's next Week. Shattering the System is a production of Macro Studios and iHeart Podcasts. I'm Your Host Scenari Englinton. Follow me at s O N A R I one on Instagram. Our series executive producers are Charles King, Asha Corpus, Win, Royo Reccio, Jonathan Hunger, Lindsay Hoffman, and
Scenari Lynton. That's Me. Our show is co written and produced by Ralph Cooper, The Iird and ben Corey Jones. Erica Rodriguez is our associate producer. Dana Conway is our archival producer, Chris Mann is our audio engineer, and Lisa Pollock is our consulting editor. Sound design and music provided by Chris Mann with pod Shaper Special thanks to Karen Griggsby Bates and Porsa, Mikas Robertson clips provided by TYT Network, The Young Turks, additional clips from Joville and Spectrum News.
We'll be back next week with they told him to go away. That's on the next shatter in the system. Thank you for listening.