Introducing | Firebug

Crimetown

Gimlet

Government, Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 14.6K Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2021

⏱️ 2 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From the creator of Crimetown and Morally Indefensible comes a new podcast, Firebug. In the early 1990s, a manuscript for a novel called “Points of Origin” lands at literary agencies across the country. It tells the story of a fictional serial arsonist who lights up southern California. The thing is… the fires described in the novel may actually be real. Was Points of Origin a work of fiction, or the confessions of a prolific arsonist and murderer? Host Kary Antholis goes on a journey to figure out where fiction meets reality. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	No one in Los Angeles does just one thing.
0:04.0	She's a model actress, he's a singer-songwriter, and almost everyone is a writer-director.
0:13.3	In LA Lingo they call these fancy titles, multi-hyphenates, and of course they're mostly
0:18.5	just talk.
0:20.4	Few of these wild-eyed dreamers ever make their mark in any of the things they claim to
0:24.0	do.
0:25.0	But not in this case.
0:27.9	This is the story of one of LA's most intriguing and original multi-hyphenates.
0:32.9	A writer, who in the 90s wrote a memorable novel about a sad loner who sets fires around
0:39.3	Los Angeles because it turns him on.
0:42.3	Sexually.
0:45.1	Chapter 1 is about a fire.
0:47.4	Chapter 2 is about a different fire.
0:50.2	Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Fire, Fire, Fire.
0:56.1	This book was not a great work of fiction.
0:59.8	But if you looked closer at the details of the different fires described in each chapter,
1:05.4	as investigators and prosecutors eventually did, you'd discover that this might not be
1:11.5	a work of fiction at all.
1:15.0	This book starts to look a lot like the real confessions of one of the most elusive
1:20.4	and prolific arsonists in American history.
1:23.7	A brush fire burned 67 homes.
1:27.3	29 other fires left in 18 million dollar trail of ashes.
	...

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