A
fascinating Facebook post from Jamie Long today. Long was the woman who played
a primary role in helping convicted murderer Sarah Pender escape from a prison
outside Indianapolis in August 2008. Her 136 days on the run is the subject of
my book, Girl, Wanted: The Chase for Sarah Pender, which came out last year.
Long’s
post reads:
“To all my friends.
There has been a book written about Sarah's escape filled with misinformation
and misleading information that has hurt me and my family deeply. It is a great
work of fiction from my viewpoint, but omits so much of the real truth. Now there
is a movie coming out on Lifetime on Dec. 29th, that after reading the reviews,
I believe it is even more atrocious and filled with more lies than the book.
The production company will not respond to my emails which in itself says they
know how much a work of fiction and an overactive imagination and false
information it took to create this "real life" drama. If people want
to write about me or make a movie, at least get the facts and the story right.
The book is called "Girl Wanted; the Chase for Sarah Pender, and the movie
is titled "She Made Them Do It". I don't know how the writers of
either one can sleep at night with all the lies and BS they spread with their
stories.”
Of course I sent a letter to Long when I was writing the
book and she never replied. It’s always like that. This is what I sent her in
March, 2010, as the final edits were being done:
“Ms. Long –
I am finishing a book
on the escape of Sarah Pender and have reviewed your case file, included some
things from it, seen the arraignment video, the AMW stuff, and spoken with a
number of people about you. The book is mostly written and it is exhaustive.
But your input would be a positive thing for yourself. I seek at all times to
be fair and in doing so, invite anyone involved in a particular subject I write
on to tell their own story. So I ask you for your input and your side of this
tale. It will be a lot more flattering than the information that is
out there now, and there is little downside in visiting with me for an hour at
your place.
I’d be glad to come to
Indiana for a visit. “
She also refers to a Lifetime movie that hits in December,
which was done in a particularly unprofessional way; it used the book as a
blueprint – there was no other written material – and avoided paying the
writer.I recall talking with Adam Parfrey about What We Do is
Secret, the movie based on a book he co-wrote, Lexicon
Devil: The Fast Times and Short of Life of Darby Crash and the Germs.
While they wouldn’t pay Parfrey, who wrote the book with Brendan
Mullen and Don Bolles, the book, he told me, was all over the set of the
movie. I never checked the movie out, simply because I prefer real life over
fiction. More on that at a future date.
There have been a number of television episodes made on the Stephen Grant case without anyone involved ever talking with the authors of A Slaying in the Suburbs; The Tara Grant Murder, nor did anyone interview the prosecutors in the case, who did all of the heavy lifting. There is an episode of A & E's Biography on the Grant case coming up, in which I discuss the case. It's being done by Story House Media Group.
I’m sure Gary Tieche, who is credited as the writer of
this Pender movie based on the Pender book, has never seen the inside of a
court file not has he sat down with inmates or knocked on doors of murder
victims in doing a re-creation of an existing work. But the script was sold and
money was made, somewhere along the chain. I’d look for another movie based on
this book at some point. Only this will be the real deal.
