Off The Record /// My Son, The Killer | Forensic Files

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] several months ago we covered the case
of Luca magnata or as the captain would call him PCA not H and I couldn't agree more more but guess what there's a new
book coming out that we will be recommending this week on our show True Crime garage and that book's called my
son the Killer and this is by our friend Brian Whitney now he's also written several books that we have recommended
before I heard that the new book was coming out so I decided to jump on the phone and give Brian a call to ask him
all about it can you go ahead and give me the title um and I know it it just recently came
out yeah it just came on Tuesday and the book is called my son the killer the inside story of One Lunatic one ice
pick and this is about Luca magnata can you tell me do you remember hearing about his
crimes um yeah I I definitely do um I I it was I definitely was interested in his crimes and I actually also um I
ended up interviewing um for another book I did Mark Merrick who's a guy that um owns best gore
which is where the video was initially posted um and he ended up going to jail just for posting the video so it was
something that was on my radar um for quite a while and what did you initial reaction
what was what did you find most shocking about his crimes once we you know everything was linked up and connected
to him and he was finally arrested well I mean I didn't watch the video I didn't watch the video the first time
around you know I just um I heard of the case I followed the case and so on and so forth so at the time I mean I don't
know how shocked I was necessarily I I kind of became a little more shocked when I actually watched the uh when I
watched the video which I kind of had to do because I was writing this book obviously I had to I had to actually
check it out so um but the other part of him obviously is is his whole social media gig the way that he's constantly
kind of like trying to appear in a different way than he actually appears um and I think you know but I actually
interviewed him for this book which was also rather interesting um because even with that social media aspect he still
kind of disavowed the whole thing oh I didn't do that and I didn't do this these are just people that are obsessed
with me and so on and so forth so that whole vibe he has of doing these incredibly bizarre outlandish things and
then never really um never owning them if you got what I'm trying to say how did you become involved in this project
or this book because I know that you you have a a good history and extensive history with the several true crime
books were you approached to do this yeah his mom his mom actually wrote a book his mom is Anna yurkin who um I I
co-authored this with so she wrote a book and she sold it to a Canadian publisher a pretty big Canadian
publisher and for whatever reason they decided not to put it out so then Anna went with her manuscript to uh wild blue
press who I published a few books with but they didn't feel like it should come out as it was because it was really sort
of like oh hey you know like LC is my son and there was a there's a lot of like stuff in there that's obviously
very heart-wrenching and so on and so forth but they thought they needed to be sort of a journalistic approach because
you know they kind of felt they'd get murdered no pun intended if they just put out a book like
by Luca's mom you know it was it's not really PR Luca but it's it's it's a lot more kind to Luca than a lot of people
would anticipate so they they got me on the project to kind of lend some sort of
journalistic piece to it well she and forgive me if I'm wrong because I've not read the book yet it
just came out on Tuesday that's cool so she talks a lot about his childhood and some of the abuses he may
have suffered or um portions of his childhood that she thinks may have something to do with how he turned out
to be an you know as an adult yes I mean there's definitely a lot of it is about his childhood um
he she was his father was was abusive towards him then they they divorced and then his stepfather was even more
abusive towards him he was bullied constantly in school cuz he was obviously kind of a weird kid
um and he also this is kind of an interesting aspect of it but he's been diagnosed with schizophrenia his whole
life now when I interview him he disavows that he's like he's like I'm not schizophrenic you know like that
they just made that up and it's ridiculous and it's a joke and I'm completely saying but if you go back
through his his records and his history he he's been um diagnosed with severe mental illness pretty much since he was
like 15 years old and he and his mother their relationship became a strange at some
point when did about did that take place well that happened after the cat videos
um which you know what I'm talking about I assume yeah them with the vacuum going
yeah yeah and then there was another one with a snake um and he gave him all cute little
nam that were sort of like similar to the you know one L to there were like one boy and two kittens kind of things
but so basically um people from her family started getting in touch with Anna and saying like there's rumors that
Luca is responsible for these cat videos um she and he talked about it he he denied doing it but she watched the
video and she could see that it was him so it it caused a an estrangement um between them not necessarily because she
was like I don't ever want to talk to you again but it was so I guess uncomfortable would probably be the the
word and he kind of disappeared for a little while after that that's interesting I didn't know that the uh
that those two were directly connected uh you know those those videos and his mother and their strange relationship
and yeah first go ahead the I mean just the the cruelty of those videos alone I could imagine looking at a loved one
especially a son or daughter and going oh my godob what no well well and that's a big part of the whole book is is sort
of like you know still loving somebody that that has done all this incredibly incredibly awful stuff and
and the thing is too is you obviously you are very involved in the true CRI well as am I but when it comes to
animals man I just can't even deal you know like I I couldn't I didn't watch those videos I mean I just I just don't
want to watch them like I just I know I mean even wrote the book and I should watch him but I just don't want to watch
him um but yeah so and then what first happened was was that he said it wasn't him and then and then she was like yeah
that's you kind of thing and then he started going off into the Manny thing I don't know if you know what I'm talking
about there but he has this sort of this guy Manny that he claims makes him do all this stuff and would beat him
up and would do these things and Manny was the one he wanted to sell the cat videos on the internet and Manny forced
him into doing it and there's never no one's ever found this Manny guy or has ever met this Manny guy but Luca when I
talked to Luca because I talked to him on the phone and wrote him but he he still says
oh yeah Manny people that know me know Manny and so on and so forth but so then yeah he tried to blame it on Manny and
then he he just kind of bailed um you know for a period of months um after Manny does Manny doesn't actually do
anything himself he forces Luca to do these things yeah I mean he was involved in theory if you read like there's a
Watts report Jo Dr Joel Watts that that came out during the trial it was for and
so throughout that this is in the book too but throughout that he says Manny orchestrated the whole um ice pick video
as well um yeah but he's he's never provided enough information to lead anybody to this Manny who likely does
not even exist no and there was all those there's all those videos you know like in court you know that showed Luca
going in and out and in and out going in with going in with the victim and then going out with you know like carrying
the victim's body in different suitcases and stuff and there was never another there was never another guy you know
that that came in or out of that situation so and again no one's even ever um the interesting is about the book too
though is that the mother you know she does think that Manny's like a real person so that's you
know as far as I'm concerned I mean it stretches the imagination quite quite a lot wait let's back let's back up a
second she thinks that Manny is a real person yeah I mean there's that's probably the reason when I said that
originally about you know getting me involved in like the project there'd be certain parts of it where you know Luca
would tell her oh this happened or that happened and and and would be like you know man Manny
really you know he really screwed my son up here or whatever um and Manny really you know he
did these horrible things and poor Luca because of Manny and and you know it's it's it's um universally pretty much
accepted that there is no that there is no Manny right well well and and the interesting thing here is it's very you
know this isn't anything that we haven't seen before you know this is very reminiscent of of Dexter with his quote
unquote Dark Passenger that right accompanies him and assists him and directs him on killing and in a way
though too it's very similar to the the 1980s interviews with um FBI and Ted Bundy where Ted Bundy was willing to
talk about his crimes and some despicable things that he did but he he would talk to these FBI agents in third
person and refer to himself as the killer you know he' never name himself or say I did this he would say the
killer did this and the and the killer did that and it's almost a way of Luca being able to to confess but having
someone to pass the blame to and then his mother Anna adopting that same behavior right no it's almost textbook
in the sense of it you know at one point he um after the kitten videos he got in
touch with a a lawyer in New York named um Romeo salta and at one point he you know he was saying Manny made me do all
this stuff my pet is after me and everyone's after me and they're trying to catch me and but Manny made me do
this stuff and he did a list of everything like oh Manny would punch punch me in the head Manny would make me
eat feces Manny would he would tie me up and rape me and Manny would and this this incredible list of all this you
know abusive stuff that Manny would do to him to make him like kill the kittens um and you know it's all when somebody's
schizophrenic and they're they're behaving in that manner and then and then saying that and again he denies it
he's it's really interesting when you talk to him as you might imagine cu cu he has no real effect any of this stuff
it's just like you and I talking you know right um and you know we laugh and we tell jokes or whatever but when it
comes to the actual stuff that he did he doesn't like talking about it like at all like he shuts right down like you
can talk to him for the longest time or write them letters and don't answer questions about anything go off about
anything and tell you anything about Carlo Hoka like whatever but when you get to that kind of stuff he shuts right
down so like it's you know again it's almost textbook where like you know somebody you situation does something
like that horrific and they they're they you know exactly they they put it on some other person oh this person forced
me to do that like it couldn't have been me to do that um but people don't talk about the Manny aspect that much or the
mental which is understandable because he just did something so incredibly screwed up it's hard to even get past
that and try to figure out why you know does he still have an obsession with Carlo
Hoka no but he claimed that's one of the things things that he claims you know the whole thing was like in theory he
had like about 80 different like social media accounts and like he would post on
one and be like like you know with a different name and say luuka magn is going out with KY Hoka and then like he
post on 50 others and go wow that Lucas sure is you know so it' be like one post
but he'd be like com commenting like 50 times like on each post if you get what I'm trying to say right so he denies all
of that he's like you know no I didn't do that that was just a bunch of people obsessed with me that were that were
doing that um so he doesn't even admit that he was in the first place but again he he has admitted it
before you know right take me through the process of of whomever getting you in touch with with Luca how does how
does that go down you I mean obviously I don't know how Canada works but here in
the states anybody could send a letter to just about any prisoner and then you kind of you're at the mercy of the
prison system if it actually gets to but as far as phone calls and letters and stuff how does that go right well two
things like one he has never like given an interview to um which is interesting because he he obviously was selling to
um people paying attention to him he's never given an interview since he's um since he's been arrested so that was
interesting unto itself um but it was basically because of my relationship by my mom that it happened but the other
thing is I used to um I used to work for the uh ACLU as a prisoner Advocate years
ago so like I actually have a lot of experience like going into prisons and writing prisoners and meeting with
meeting with prisoners inside in this particular situation it was just he's in Port cardier which is um in in Canada
obviously um the president is named port cardier and uh they basically the social
work he had to put me on a list say that that it was okay for him to talk to me the social
worker um the prison called and made sure it was cool and then basically he he called me and as far as the mail goes
I mean you can mail prisoners letters um if you work the organization needs to work for I could put legal on the letter
and then the in theory the the prison couldn't read the letter but um you know basically they can open the letters and
read what Lucas says and what I say if they want to they weren't open they were they were they were clean but it was
just basically um getting in contact and then answering the phone um not too complicated really all
right what does your gut tell you like you know it seems to me like he's uh when you talk about his crimes
or or or want to interact with him regarding specific crimes that he committed it seems like
he's why is he shutting down is he embarass do you think at that about I mean I don't I don't think
so because well oh the crimes themselves sorry I misunderstood what you're saying
yeah I think I think that might be embarrassment I also think it might be traumatic I mean the way Anna put it was
this that she just like it's really hard for him he that he just is like talking
about it he kind of like he kind of flips out so I mean I think when you talk to him you can be like oh what's
prison like and he's like oh prison's fantastic and I'm doing this and I'm doing that and I'm really happy in
prison and I get to do whatever I want if you T him about something else he's like oh yeah well I was a successful
model and I traveled all around the world but then you go into that St and I think he
just I mean I think he just shuts down not necessarily because this is a guess but kind of alluding to what his mother
said I just think it's really difficult I think there places that he probably doesn't especially if you think about
the fact that it was some sort of psychotic break and he's blaming it on another individual probably really
difficult for him to think about what he did I would imagine it would be difficult to think about that well and
with somebody that's obviously so so overly consumed with his personal image do you think he's embarrassed by
his mental health issues I think so for sure yeah yeah I mean he he is very concerned with his you
know that the letters themselves I mean it you can't ask him anything without him sort of going off on well I you know
I don't care he puts down everybody oh the media is stupid and most people are stupid and it's very apparent that he he
really wants to appear like a of everybody else um and so when it comes to that kind of thing I think his pride
is too much to even admit if he testified at that trial they tried to get him off on not criminally
responsible I mean if he testified at that trial and said some of the stuff that he actually
said you know to the psychiatrist behind closed doors he probably would have he might have gotten off but I don't think
he could have he claims he never wanted to do not criminally responsible he argued with his lawyer every day he
never been mentally ill and he fought and fought and fought and the psychiatrist is stupid he I I can
guarantee you at some point he's going to say I'm stupid you know um I mean there's no
doubt he's gonna be Brian Whitney's just you know just because I'm saying things
like this um he what does he say what does he say and I know he doesn't give interviews but what what would he say to
you about his mother well his mother in here very close again now like they're they're
come very close like she goes and visits them they they actually have units in in
Canada at times where like she can go stay with them like in a trailer like outside of the actual prison I mean it's
still within a gate but you know what I'm saying so so um you know they're very close I think they still are but
I'm not sure it's weird because look he's not the first person that has murdered or
committed a crime to become famous and I know that's really kind of simplifying his
motivations but it's it's a weird end game to me because to get the notoriety for having committed the crime you have
to be the crime has to be solved you know you have to be named as the perpetrator of the crime and therefore
punished so it's it's a real weird end game for me it just doesn't really doesn't make it yeah I was thinking
about that um I was thinking about that yesterday CU I was talking to somebody about that yesterday and uh it's
interesting because he did he was kind of getting away with the cat thing okay and and he's it's possible that he
thought um very it's very bizarre but it's possible that he might have thought that that there would be a whole bunch
of people that would be like oh I bet this is Luca magn that they wouldn't be able to prove it and he would just
continue like taunting everybody because of course he nailed the hands in the feet you know so he was all about the
taunting um and there's a couple things too about that whole thing like one is that he
told me that he told me that he didn't even know that he was being looked for he was like oh no I was just over and um
I was just over in Europe just chilling out I had no idea people were even looking for me and I wasn't I wasn't
watching the uh I wasn't watching reading stories about myself in the internet cafe I was watching AA Gardner
movies like that's what you told me um Do You Believe do you believe that though because he he of course not right
always gives this he gives this Persona of being too cool for school that's what
I mean yeah yeah no I don't I don't believe it at all I mean that's what I mean like so
he's he's like acting like oh I didn't even know they were looking for me but the thing about the video when you say
that that kind of trips me out is at one point to me the weirdest part about it is at one point like I don't like being
too graphic when I so I won't be CU it's it's just just bizarre stuff but at one point he
flips the he flips the Torso over and he starts like kind of kind of like you know having sex with it but he's not
having sex with it you know he's simulating having sex with it and how like how weird is that if you get what
I'm trying to say like what do you what do you mean is is he using no he's still got his pants he's
still got his pants on and it's like and like if you if you look at it it's like
it's so you know all these people that are that are whether serial killers or spre Killers they're taken on by this
they kill someone in some sexual manner because they so desire to do this sexual
thing right and and Luca apparently is pretending to desire to do the sexual thing if you get what I'm saying like
he's oh yeah yeah you know he's he's not even doing it because he's driven to do
it he's doing it because he just wants to freak people out so badly um you know at one point he like like
masturbated with like the hand you know and so on and so forth like all this stuff that was like the video was like
edited you know it was like well you get what I'm saying I mean well for forgive me I I I've read like
what I did when we covered the case was I read descriptions of what people said they saw on the video because like you I
was like [ __ ] man for you for not watching it no good to you for not watching it because it's awful you know
seriously the only the only imagery I've seen of that video and of the cat videos
were still like I saw a couple Stills and yeah but but I refused to watch the video so if I'm a little out in left
field here no no I mean I think I think you kind of should be out in left field it's like it's like in all reality like
when I I mean I would recommend that anyone listening to this does not like watch the video you know it's like for a
couple reasons one because you know it's is just horrific and disgusting and two
I felt like writing it's one thing if you're doing a you know a podcast on it I felt like you know if I was writing a
book on it I had to like watch it you know it's like just for moments like this someone would be like oh what about
that and I was like oh I never I never saw it you know like I think that would just be you know but my point around all
this is then without getting into details he did a lot of things that were theatrical you know it wasn't it wasn't
a video that was just like I'm taking out all my sexual desires on this person and I'm going to videotape it for my own
pleasure later and that's disgusting and sick and I'm not saying that's better or
worse what I'm saying is that's fairly common what's not common in in my knowledge anyway is somebody filming
something like this for theatrical reasons the [ __ ] with people's heads excuse my language I can't say that
sorry the screw with people's heads it's a an adult show sorry I wasn't sure it's
screw with people's heads and trip them out and and it's just I can't think of anything else like it honestly like you
think about like there those videos like the the three guys of One Hammer videos
for example those Russian guys that they did there's certain videos that they did
that for themselves you know what I'm saying right like they never thought everyone else was gonna watch
it um it was just for them um so it's a very that to me is the kind of the odd part of the whole thing it's
like what was the endgame as you said before like I'm not not entirely sure that's what's
incredibly strange about Luca is that it's in a way he identifies with other monsters like himself but in other ways
he doesn't he he completely does not identify with them and it's like to me it's like what any normal human being
would do they watch a watch a music video per se and go all right well I like I like so and so well I want to
dress like them I want to dance like them I want to sing like them well in in his screwed up mind what he's doing is I
okay well what would this killer do what would that killer do what what would I do if I were uh right you know 100% like
this and it and it's like you said theatrical it's a put on it's a way of right right of getting people to go well
this guy's interesting because he's so was sicking to pray that he did this yeah and no I
agree and so for him look he we can all tell by videos that we saw of him that had nothing to do with murder but you
can tell by the way that he I mean this dude carries himself in different ways he talks in different ways with
different accents at different times yeah his his facial features one thing I noticed in some of his videos too it's
almost like can contort his face in different manners to be these different versions of Luca right and he and not
only can he do that to look that way but he can maintain that that facial uh version of himself for the entirety of
interviews or the entirety of videos that are out there yeah it's I think for me for me I think this is something
Beyond uh schizophrenic I I there's something else here that that doesn't either I I don't know the uh the
terminology for it or they haven't created one yet right yeah no I agree it's it's incredibly um you know we all
know that person you know and some of us even been that person you know in junior
higher high school just like you just said like oh well you know I'm not as popular as I want to be so if I pretend
to be like this or cut my hair like this or or like you know then I'll be like more popular but this guy like just he
starts off like that you know and then just he takes it like I said even the social media thing I mean he
had he would like put up some posts oh do you know Luca's doing this he would Photoshop like I think you're aware of
things like this but there there would be photoshopped versions of him like in sports car or he would always be oh I'm
in Russia doing this and there'd be or I'm in you know he would trying to create this whole thing like that he was
this really successful model and he was dating the serial killer and he was and really he was like a like a low rent um
male escort with some pretty bad mental illness you know and then it just kept going and going but like who would ever
think it would it would keep going to that point and like you said I'm not really sure either
like you know because I don't think there's ever been another case quite quite like it um when you think of
that sort of act for that reason regarding his uh okay so a couple things here you touched on something
that interesting earlier that if he would have been more honest than forthcoming during the course of the the
trial or made certain statements at during court you think that he could have got off or may have been sent to a
different facility which I think would be more likely um you know CA Canada and I forgive me I
don't have the guy's name in front of me but Canada's Got That famous case of of
the guy killing somebody on a Greyhound bus and eating part of his face and that
guy oh right yeah yeah yeah that guy from my understanding they they claimed he had you know severe mental health
issues and I believe he's out living in some neighborhood now I think you're right yeah I think I believe he only
served like seven years or something or was locked up for seven years so where talking about had Luca said certain
things made certain statements during the court proceedings we might be talking I mean
his crimes are what 2011 2012 2012 was when the murder was yeah 2011 the C thing I believe yeah and so I
mean here we are 2018 six years later we might be sitting in the same boat with luuka
magnata 2020 of this guy getting released yeah and I think it's a pride thing I mean you think back to like you
know like maybe the hillside stranglers with like Kennis biani like he he went he bent in every single direction to
like convince people that he was completely crazy you know that he had multiple personalities and so on and so
forth and was making the whole thing up and then you have somebody like Luca I just don't think you know again I know I
already said this but he was that's the one thing when you T to him he's the most adamant about he was like I never
wanted to go in for NCR my lawyer his lawyer's name is Luke laclair he's like you know my lawyer like he we fought
about it every day and I refused to like I mean he yeah if he got up there and he said
like you know this guy Manny was telling me what to do and ever since I was 16 I
you know he hears voices I mean he this is what it say there's an extensive like mental health records out
there on him and there's been stuff you know for forever that documenting all these different psychological breaks and
scenarios that he went through so who knows what might happen happened but the fact that he you know fought against it
the whole time with his own attorney definitely probably has something to do with the the sentence that he
received now I know early on he was trying to well I don't know trying is the right word but he was
glamorizing his prison stay what what was his interaction with you regarding that you know same I was saying like
yeah completely like oh it's great and you know I I play Playstation he also told me he takes care of animals you
know like um you know that he has a great time and the guards are stupid but you know and he got married I think you
know too he got married to another another prisoner who also killed somebody um yeah and yeah just
completely glamorizes the whole thing again you he's fine everyone's stupid he he also uses a lot of interestingly
enough he uses a lot of trump things he says a lot about fake news and the failing media and um things of that
things of that uh matter um does that kind of stuff a lot what's your what's your U gut
telling you is he actually sitting around playing PlayStation and eating snacks and having a good old time I mean
there's no way anybody could I mean you know again I used to go into prisons and there were some guys
who'd kind of make their home there and they'd be okay but I mean just when you look at his when you look at his
history you know I mean it's sort of like if you got a boyfriend that cheats on you constantly and they just keep
cheating on you and they keep telling you they're not going to cheat on you and they're probably still cheating on
you so based on his history of him constantly just trying to present himself as doing so much better and being so
much cooler than he actually is I would assume that he's doing the same thing now um because he certainly hasn't
changed his his attitude about anything um and in his mind he never really quite
says even about the I didn't say this but even about the the incident he still says all I'm going to say about this is
a lot of other things that people don't know about that there are other people there and there are different situations
but in his mind like everything else like everything else I've been saying about him then L about about the kitten
videos about um all the different social media accounts it's all it's all just because people are obsessed with him and
they can't stop talking about him you know it's it's all lies made up by people that are haters and wannabes and
so on and so forth so he did interviews with you do you think that that was a um
you think that he did the interviews with you because he knew that his mom was speaking with you and this book was
coming out no matter what that was spin it spin it I I think that might have been why
but also what I did in the book um is that I didn't as far as his quotes I did one chapter that was just
completely an interview with Luca and then I just kind of put his quotes in through the rest of the book so I didn't
really editorialize on his quotes at all I just um I just put his actual um I just put his actual quotes in there and
he's he also like you know he he says things sort of like um there was one that he that he said I
remember that he was like the lies that people tell would separate me from the rest of the world world you know it's
that kind of thing like so with him it's like um you know everybody else is lying and he's um and he's telling the
truth um and that's kind of the thread that goes throughout uh the whole interview is that is that
everything has just been presented you know like almost like this all just happened to him by accident you
know that that he didn't really have a role in any of it does he still claim to have fans or or
does he believe that he has a following oh he does I mean I mean people you know
I've written a few books before and I've already I've gotten so many different odd emails already from people people
people being like well why' you say that about Luca and why'd you do this and that's not really what happened with
Luca and I know what happened with Luca and um you know he there are people out there that that are um I'm sure he still
gets his letters and so on and so forth I don't think his his fans so to speak I
mean they're probably pretty few but he definitely he definitely has people that
are still kind of obsessed with him I would say for whatever reason well I'm going to pick up the
book why don't you tell me where's the where's the best place to pick up the new book it's published by wild blue
press um you can find it on their website you can also find it on Amazon Barnes & Noble basically wherever you um
wherever you get your books online perfect well Brian it's good talking with you as always and I look
forward to your next project I always a pleasure man I really appreciate it yep have a great day you too man take care
so [Music] [Applause] that

Off The Record /// My Son, The Killer Episode: 29 Recorded: 11-12-2018 Nic talks with Brian Whitney about his new book: My Son, The Killer.

Brief Summary

Brian Whitney discusses his book on Luca Magnata, exploring his crimes, mental health, and complex relationship with his mother.

Key points

New Book on Luca Magnata. A new book titled 'My Son the Killer' explores the life of Luca Magnata.
Interviewing Luca Magnata. The author discusses his experience interviewing the notorious criminal.
Manny: The Mysterious Figure. Luca Magnata claims a figure named Manny forced him to commit his crimes.
Theatrical Horrors. Luca's actions were not just violent; they were designed to shock and disturb.
Glamorizing Prison Life. Luca presents his prison experience as enjoyable, raising questions about his mental state.
The Obsession with Luca. Despite his crimes, Luca still believes he has fans and followers.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I didn't watch the video the first time around.

Discussing initial reactions to Luca Magnata's crimes.

1:59WatchMar 15, 2024

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.