Criminal Adaptations
Criminal Adaptations is a True Crime/Movie Review Podcast discussing some of your favorite films, and the true crime stories that inspired them. With hosts Remi, who spent over a decade working in the film and television industry, and Ashley, a clinical psychologist and forensic evaluator. They discuss a new movie each week and compare the film to the real life events that the film is based on.
Criminal Adaptations
The Death of Dick Long
Before he won his Academy Awards for the smash-hit Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), Daniel Scheinert directed the dark comedy The Dead of Dick Long (2019), inspired by the death of Kenneth Pinyan in 2005. This case, dubbed the “Enumclaw horse sex case,” went on to fascinate and deeply disturb society and led to Washington making bestiality illegal in 2006. As we will learn, sometimes reality truly is stranger than fiction.
Primary Sources:
The Seattle Times (2005)
Seattle Times (2010)
New York Daily News (2018)
Herald Net (2014)
The London Free Press (2016)
Zoo (2007)
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Welcome to Criminal Adaptations, the show where we take a look at some of your favorite movies and the true crime stories that inspired them. I'm Ashley. I'm a clinical psychologist and forensic evaluator in the state of Oregon.
Remi:And I'm Remy. I spent over a decade working in the film and television industry in Los Angeles, California.
Speaker 4:Welcome back everyone. Episode two of season four. We are here with what is sure to be a controversial and potentially disturbing episode for some. We are talking about the death of Dick Long. Before we get into it, a little extra content warning here today. This episode is going to be talking a lot about bestiality and specifically men having sex with horses. So if that is something that leaves you with the ick factor, as usual we are going to be handling it as respectfully as possible. We don't get too graphic or into detail here, but there's no way to skirt around it. We are talking about bestiality and with that out of the way, remy, how are you doing today?
Remi:I'm doing fine. Considering the subject matter we are about to discuss, this is sure to be a divisive episode. We had this on the docket for the past three seasons actually, but after pitching this idea to some close friends of ours, they seemed pretty disgusted and repulsed by the entire idea. So we have continuously delayed and delayed and delayed this episode. But here it is, Episode two of season four. We are finally going to tackle the death of Dick Long. But why are we trying to tackle the death of Dick Long, Ashley, I know this movie has some cinematic and legal significance, believe it or not.
Speaker 4:It really does. Not only are we feeling ballsy and brave now that we've been doing this for several seasons now, I find this case very interesting on my end because it actually led to bestiality becoming illegal in Washington.
Remi:And as far as a film aspect goes, believe it or not, this film was directed by one half of the Academy Award winning duo that directed Everything Everywhere All at Once, and I know that is one of our favorite movies, Ashley. We've seen it quite a few times, I believe, but had no idea that it was directed by one of the people who also directed this movie. We watched this how long ago? It was several years ago and didn't really know it was a true story. I can't really remember.
Speaker 4:We watched it before Everything, everywhere, all at Once. So it wasn't really until we were diving into the IMDb that we saw this guy's name linked to both films and I think we might have heard it was a true story. I think we did know that, but we didn't know where or when, because I know it's not set in Washington. The movie is not.
Remi:And I remember we both found the movie unexpectedly hilarious during certain parts. It is a comedy, so we weren't laughing rudely at the situation going on and it's not really a humorous subject matter. But the film does have a lot of comedy around it without getting too graphic, which I really appreciated.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I remember we were very surprised by how much we enjoyed the movie. We kind of thought it was going to be gross and weird, but it was surprisingly good.
Remi:And how would you describe the research we had to do for this movie? Would you describe it in a similar fashion, as gross and weird? Because I sure would.
Speaker 4:There were definitely points where shit got real weird, as I was diving down the rabbit hole into uncovering the lives of the men that this movie is based on.
Remi:Well, with that, enough dilly-dallying, Shall we get into the Death of Dick Long.
Speaker 4:Let's do it.
Remi:Hey you motherfuckers wanna get weird. The Death of Dick Long is a 2019 A24 film directed by Daniel Scheinert and written by Billy Chu. The film stars Michael Abbott Jr, virginia Newcomb, andre Haland, sarah Baker, jess Wexler, roy Wood Jr, sunita Mani and Daniel Scheinert as Dick Long.
Speaker 4:That's a lot of names.
Remi:And most of them you will probably never see in another film again. They are not well-known actors. For the most part, I would say I believe that Sarah Baker is the only one in another film. Again, they are not well-known actors. For the most part, I would say I believe that Sarah Baker is the only one in this film that I have seen in other comedies.
Remi:The film's director, daniel Scheinert, first met his filmmaking partner, daniel Kwan, while they were both studying film at Emerson College in Boston, along with actress Sunita Mani, who later co-starred in the 2013 music video for DJ Snake and Little John's smash hit Turn Down for what, along with Daniel Kwan. The provocative video, which was co-directed by the duo, who are often referred to as the Daniels due to their shared first name, went on to garner over a billion views on YouTube by late 2020, which is a very impressive feat, to say the least. Beyond the staggering amount of views, the video was able to reach Turn Down For what additionally won the awards for Best International Dance Video and Video of the Year at the 2014 UK Music Video Awards, best Direction at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards and earned a nomination for Best Music Video at the 2015 Grammys.
Speaker 4:Wow, that really is something.
Remi:It is a raunchy video, like you said while we were watching it a second ago, but it is really really really well directed. Did you have a part that really stuck out to you while we were watching it?
Speaker 4:I like just all the dance moves of the main guy, which you told me is Daniel Kwan, the co-director.
Remi:He really does give it his all. He is dancing full force and busting a move and not holding back at all and he is definitely a highlight of the video. But I don't know what part of the video personally sticks out the most. I really do enjoy the part where he picks up the telephone to call someone and he yells, turn down for what? Into the phone and the person's face on the other end just melts into a skeleton. It's a very, very cool video, very original and, like most of the Daniels projects, it's probably not for everyone, I would say. But if you're into some weird shit, give it a watch.
Speaker 4:I do respect that these guys are willing to take on the ridiculous roles in their movies. Like I know, in everything, everywhere all at once. Daniel Kwan is the guy that runs and jumps on the dildo and I can't remember who the other Daniel is, but I know he's in that same scene.
Remi:The other. Daniel plays the S&M businessman and Daniel Kwan plays the. I think he's a security guard that starts a kung fu fight and he ends up with a dildo in his butt and fighting with another dildo. It's very memorable. The Daniels had previously directed music videos for artists such as Foster the People, the Shins and Tenacious D since 2011. And in 2018, kwan co-founded the group we Direct Music Videos, or WDMV, which he has described as a global community of music video directors who are committed to sustainable directorial labor practices. That's nice. Yeah, it's pretty commendable. By 2016, the Daniels had expanded into the realm of feature films by writing and directing Swiss Army man for A24, starring Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe. The film, which centers around the story of a lonesome man who befriends a flatulent corpse on a deserted island, only continued to fuel the Daniels' momentum after being well-received by both audiences and critics alike, as well as winning the duo the Directing Award at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.
Speaker 4:Another very, very, very weird movie.
Remi:All of their movies and music videos are pretty unusual, but they are all exceptionally well-shot and remarkably creative. For their next project together, the Daniels announced in 2017 that they would write, direct and produce a science fiction film that they had been working on since 2010, based on the multiverse concept. Normally, the duo would write their screenplay concurrently together, but after the exhausting experience of Swiss Army man, it was decided that Kwan should work on the first draft of their multiverse film, solo, while Scheinert went off to decompress by directing a smaller film grounded in reality, before returning to the duo's much more ambitious project. Meanwhile, scheinert's college friend, billy Chu, had been working at Panera Bread back in their home state of Alabama, working on his own script since graduation. So when the opportunity finally arose for Billy to turn his original screenplay into a feature film, he called up his old pal, daniel Scheinert to ask if he'd be interested in directing. Since Kwan was still off ironing out all of the plot details of their multiverse film and likely wouldn't be finished with the first draft for quite some time, scheinert gladly accepted Chu's offer to direct, considering the project as a welcome change of pace from the Daniels' previous cinematic endeavors.
Remi:Supposedly when Scheinert first revealed his intention of directing Chu's script. Scheinert's manager was vehemently opposed to his client choosing this particular script as his next project. I wonder why, in spite of this, scheinert still approached A24 to produce the film and, surprisingly, the company did agree to finance the project with a $1 million budget, based primarily on the goodwill Scheinert had attained due to the success of Swiss Army man With the wheels now fully in motion. It was officially announced in 2018 that Daniel Scheinert would be directing his first and, to date, only solo film from an original screenplay written by his college friend, billy Chu. The film is described as a black comedy-drama with the foreboding title the Death of Dick Long. When asked if he was at all nervous about directing the film without his partner, daniel Kwan, by his side, scheinert jovially retorted Normally I get to work with my best friend, daniel, but this gives me the opportunity to work with my other best friend, billy.
Speaker 4:Aww, that's nice.
Remi:Throughout the press tour, scheinert would also regularly joke that the script Billy had written was actually autobiographical. As far as casting goes, scheinert sought out actors with southern origins for authenticity, since the film would be shot entirely on location just a few miles away from Shynert's hometown of Birmingham, alabama. Because there was no casting director for the film, all of the roles were filled through local auditions and recommendations from Shynert's manager. At one point, shynert even tried searching on IMDb Pro for actors originally from the South, which led to Sarah Baker landing the part of Officer Dudley. Actress Virginia Newcomb, who is also from the South, later stated in interviews that during her audition, sheinert had her read for every single character before ultimately casting her as Zeke's wife Lydia Olsen. Before ultimately casting her as Zeke's wife Lydia Olsen Because of the film's severe subject matter, shiner would regularly have impromptu dance parties with the entire cast and crew after shooting any scene he felt was too emotionally dramatic. He did this in order to keep a light mood on set throughout the duration of filming.
Speaker 4:Probably playing turndown. For what?
Remi:I can only hope so. For the film's score, shiner enlisted the services of Andy Hull and Robert McDowell, who are both members of the band Manchester Orchestra and had composed the music for Shiner's previous film, swiss Army man. The remainder of the soundtrack is made up of songs that the director referred to as emotionally masculine, and includes music from Stained Creed, nickelback and Gucci Mane.
Speaker 4:I do not think that is going to be a record that I will be purchasing.
Remi:I remember when we were going over the soundtrack to try and find music for this episode, every song I was reading out, you were just like nope, nope, like, nope, nope, nope, nope. But enough pre-production. Should we get into Daniel Sheinhardt's the Death of Dick Long?
Speaker 4:let's do it.
Dick Long Scene:The time has come break it to me gently To me, gently, let me down the easy way.
Remi:Our story begins in a cramped garage with a band rehearsing a painfully off-key cover of Stain's 2001 hit song it's Been A While while. The band is composed of three members, including Zeke, played by Michael Abbott Jr, earl, played by Andre Hyland, and, of course, dick Long, played by the film's director, daniel Scheinert. The motley group of friends appear to effortlessly exude a naturally unpolished, lower-class southern redneck charm as they continue to stumble their way through the remainder of practice. Watching from the sidelines is Zeke's wife Lydia, played by Virginia Newcomb, alongside their young daughter Cynthia, who both soon head off to bed, leaving the men free to indulge in their own unique brand of unsupervised shenanigans. Once the coast is clear, dick turns to his other bandmates with a mischievous grin etched across his face and asks y'all want to get weird? From there, the night spirals into a series of increasingly rambunctious antics, which include shotgunning beers, smoking weed, using empty beer bottles as target practice and setting off a few fireworks.
Speaker 4:Obviously, shooting fireworks while you're drunk is not safe, but none of this seems too out of the ordinary yet.
Remi:We'll see if that continues, as, once sufficiently intoxicated, the trio staggers over to the barn, slipping inside and shutting the door behind them, just as the film's title appears on the screen.
Speaker 4:Ah, so that was like their pregame.
Remi:Yes, you gotta get good and crunk before you proceed to do what these guys do. Later that same night we cut to Zeke and Earl frantically racing through the streets of their quiet little town under the cover of darkness, desperately searching for a hospital, while Dick lays incapacitated in the back seat. The panic only intensifies as the trio park on a secluded street and clumsily attempt to carry Dick towards the emergency room, dropping him several times along the way. When they finally reach the hospital entrance, zeke removes Dick's wallet while muttering something about anonymity, before abandoning him on the sidewalk moments before a medical professional discovers Dick and rushes him inside.
Remi:Shortly after sunrise, the two return to Zeke's house, visibly shaken by the impending consequences of their chaotic night out with Dick. After Earl heads home, zeke slips inside and notices that his clothes have been stained with an alarming amount of blood during the course of their evening. Panicking, zeke hurriedly hides the evidence by stuffing the bloody clothing into the kitchen trash beneath a pile of empty frozen meal boxes, then proceeds to take a shower to scrub himself clean. Once finished, zeke sneaks into bed next to his sleeping wife as if he had been there all night, just as the morning alarm clock sounds, indicating that it is time to get up and start the day.
Speaker 4:If I were him, I'd be like honey. I'm pushing snooze a couple more times. You start the day. I'll be right behind you.
Remi:He's trying to keep a low profile. He's trying to act like he had a good night's sleep and nothing suspicious has occurred. That's the hand he's trying to play right now.
Speaker 4:There's no way she didn't hear the shotguns and the fireworks, so he could just chalk it up to a late night with the boys.
Remi:Despite being visibly drained from the previous night's events, Zeke still agrees to drive their daughter to school that day, so downs a cup of coffee in a futile attempt to overcome his exhaustion, before inevitably realizing that he is still in possession of Dick's wallet.
Speaker 4:This was a weeknight.
Remi:Yeah, if he's bringing his daughter to school the next day. This was a weeknight, or at least a Sunday. Much to Zeke's dismay, his daughter, cynthia, immediately notices that her father's wallet is not the same one she had gotten him as a gift some time ago. So Zeke is forced to quickly improvise a lie by claiming that he had found the wallet at a bar the other night. After his daughter's inquiry has been adequately placated, zeke instinctually keeps the wallet but discreetly removes Dick's driver's license from its contents. Meanwhile, over at Earl's trailer, earl is in the midst of frantically packing up nearly all of his belongings into the back of his pickup truck. When a neighbor played by Turn Down for what's Sunni Dem Money casually stops by to see what he's up to. Caught off guard, earl makes up a suspicious excuse that there's been a family emergency. So he'll be leaving town as soon as possible With all of his belongings. So he'll be leaving town as soon as possible with all of his belongings.
Remi:Concurrently, zeke's gradually escalating dilemma has only continued to worsen after realizing that the backseat of his car, which he had intended on driving his daughter to school in that day, is still utterly doused in a staggering amount of his friend's dark red blood. Acting swiftly, zeke scrambles to conceal the blood-soaked interior of his vehicle using some handy bedsheets, without arising his daughter's suspicion. Though not ideal, zeke's slapdash crime scene cover-up seems to be working well enough for the time being, with the car appearing ready as it'll ever be to transport Cynthia to school in. In an effort to further divert his daughter's attention, zeke playfully suggests that she sit up front with him during their drive. But ever the little stickler, cynthia still insists on sitting in the back seat, after reminding her father that it is not safe for children to ride up front. Resigned to his fate, zeke can do nothing but watch as Cynthia unwittingly settles into the saturated linens in preparation for their departure. You didn't say it, so I will Gross.
Speaker 4:I was thinking it. I feel like it would feel weird, make some weird sound. It would definitely smell.
Remi:And there is of course, the issue of where this blood had come from as well. So it's all sorts of nasty Across town. The police have been called into the local hospital to speak with the doctor who treated Dick for his injuries the previous night.
Dick Long Scene:You know, I normally don't call y'all about minor shit, but this just.
Dick Long Scene:This is a big deal, I get it.
Dick Long Scene:This dude's suffering Spence, and I don't think that this could have happened to him without the assistance of a second party. Well, what happened? Well, severe peritonitis of the colon. For starters, we didn't even realize he was dealing with that until he started bleeding all over the damn gurney.
Dick Long Scene:Lord.
Dick Long Scene:That's not even what did him in. Here's what did him in Rectohemorrhaging.
Remi:Rectal hemorrhaging. Rectal hemorrhaging. The doctor continues by explaining that Dick additionally sustained several cranial contusions that are inconsistent with the rectal hemorrhaging, indicating that Dick had suffered from some sort of a blunt force trauma to the head during his attack.
Speaker 4:So probably being dropped.
Remi:They did drop him several times on his way into the emergency room, but for whatever reason. I was assuming the horse kicked him in the head, but it could be just from them dropping him on the sidewalk three or four times on the way into the hospital.
Speaker 4:Yeah, because if you're dead, wait, your head is going to smack down unless it's protected.
Remi:With the autopsy still unfinished, the doctor can only assume at this point that Dick must have been the victim of a violent sexual assault, based on the amount of semen discovered in Dick's colon. We then cut back to Zeke gassing up his car on his way to drop Cynthia off at school. Officer Dudley, played by Sarah Baker, just so happens to pull up in her police cruiser and head into the gas station mini-mart where Cynthia is currently inside picking out some snacks. To make matters worse, Zeke also realizes that the blood he had assumed was still hidden from view in the back seat had gradually managed to soak through the bedsheets he had used as cover. So Zeke rushes into the store to retrieve his daughter before Officer Dudley is able to notice the red blood stains which have been absorbed into the back of Cynthia's dress.
Speaker 4:Did he use, like, white bedsheets for this or something? What the fuck.
Remi:It was just a lot of blood. And his daughter was wearing a light dress. Blissfully unaware of her father's predicament, cynthia begins chatting with Officer Dudley about the wallet her father claimed he had found at the bar last night. Left with no other choice, zeke reluctantly hands over Dick's wallet to Officer Dudley, while carefully shielding Cynthia's blood-stained backside from the officer's line of sight in the process. And just a personal note here this movie doesn't have any famous people, but if it did, I really think that Wyatt Russell should have played Zeke. The actors both look very similar and this seems like the type of role that he would be really hilarious in.
Remi:With Dick's wallet now in police custody, officer Dudley returns to the local police station where she is tasked with investigating Dick's homicide, but only after she has logged in the necessary information regarding the missing wallet she had been given by Zeke.
Remi:Down at the gas station, back with Zeke, we see that rather than bringing Cynthia to school clothed in her conspicuously soiled attire, he has wisely chosen to bring his daughter back home for a proper bath in order to wash off the remaining evidence.
Remi:Moments later, earl arrives after leaving work early to assist Zeke in covering up their tracks, only to learn that Dick's wallet is now in the possession of local police officers after being voluntarily handed over to them by Zeke. Earl is rightfully perturbed by his friend's revelation, which only worsens after Zeke receives an unexpected phone call from his wife, lydia, asking if he had heard anything about the man who was brutally raped and murdered the other night. With the news of Dick's death, along with the impending investigation into a potential homicide, the gravity of the two men's situation inevitably begins setting in. As Zeke justifiably starts to freak the fuck out, it is eventually decided that Earl will drive Cynthia to school that day, while Zeke stays behind to continue the cleanup effort. After unsuccessfully attempting to wash the bloodstains from the bedsheets, zeke then tries burning the evidence in an outside fire pit, but a light rainfall foils Zeke's ill-fated plans of incineration.
Speaker 4:I think at this point you just turn yourself in and say that your friend did this thing and you had no part in it but witnessed it.
Remi:Things just keep getting progressively worse and worse and worse for Zeke throughout the movie, less so for Earl. But yeah, zeke's life is in shambles by the end of this. Elsewhere, while dropping Cynthia off at school, earl runs into an unanticipated encounter as he comes face to face with Dick's wife, jane Long, played by Jess Wexler who works as a teacher at Cynthia's elementary school. Jane is understandably concerned that she has not seen or heard from her husband the entire morning and questions Earl about Dick's whereabouts. But Earl feigns ignorance like a preschooler under interrogation. Back at Zeke's, earl returns to lend a hand with scrubbing the interior of Zeke's vehicle. While remarking on the similarities between their current situation and a memorable scene from the classic Tarantino film Pulp Fiction. Before long the two men come to the conclusion that even if they do manage to get every last stain out, the police would still be able to test for DNA. So the duo hastily devises a brand new scheme to dispose of Zeke's vehicle and claim that it had been stolen. Do you think this is a good idea, ashley?
Speaker 4:I don't. I think they're just giving the police more crimes they can charge them with in this cover-up scheme.
Remi:Well, we then watch as another series of unfortunate events unfolds before our very eyes. As a failed attempt to sink Zeke's vehicle in a shallow lake results in the car only becoming partially submerged. With tensions running high, the ordeal culminates with both Zeke and Earl falling into the muddy water, resulting in a the two friends out of sheer frustration.
Dick Long Scene:I'm already being a dickhole Fuck.
Announcer:Stop it, dude, I'm fucking bleeding.
Dick Long Scene:Yeah, that's what's up. Sorry, Fuck dude, I think you made me chew my tooth, oh, seriously.
Speaker 4:The way that car just was going in the water and just stopped was priceless.
Remi:It was like a boot in mud. It just stuck and was not going anywhere, and I want to say that the actor who plays Earl, andre Hyland, does an amazing job playing this dumb redneck character in this movie. He is a standout performance in the film. Exhausted and now drenched in lake water, zeke and Earl trudge back to their homes, with Zeke discreetly tossing his license plate into the woods along the way. Arriving back at his humble abode, zeke finds Lydia already inside rhythmically chopping vegetables for dinner. On the counter directly next to her, glaringly out of place and seemingly mocking Zeke with its very existence, was Dick's driver's license. Without even thinking, zeke suddenly blurts out that his car was stolen, causing Lydia to become immediately concerned that the vehicular theft had in some way been connected to the murder she had heard about earlier.
Speaker 4:That's a leap.
Remi:Despite Zeke's repeated attempts to downplay the incident and dissuade his wife from taking any further action, lydia promptly contacts the police to file a report on her husband's stolen vehicle. Given the proximity of Zeke's home and the emergency room where Dick had been abandoned, the police also begin to suspect a connection between the two incidents. So Officer Dudley is soon dispatched to question Zeke and Lydia.
Speaker 4:I would never think these two things were related. The car was stolen like the next morning.
Remi:It's a very small town. It seems like the type of town where there really isn't much crime in general on a daily basis. So two things happening in one night. I can understand why the police may think there could be a connection.
Speaker 4:I'm surprised they haven't said oh, that wallet you found.
Remi:During the interrogation, zeke tells the police that he had gotten home at around four or 5 in the morning, shortly after the bar closed. But the timeline instantly raises a red flag, as most bars are not legally permitted to stay open that late. Lydia further complicates matters after mentioning that she had heard a car peeling out of their driveway sometime during the middle of the night. Matters only get worse from there when Officer Dudley starts to question Zeke about the car she had seen him driving at the gas station earlier that same morning. Clearly flustered Zeke fibs yet again by claiming that he had borrowed Earl's car to take his daughter to school that day. Fully aware of just how poorly all of his answers were going over with the police officer, zeke excuses himself to the other room in order to place an emergency phone call to his cohort Earl and update him on the dire situation currently at hand.
Remi:I love that most of the humor in this film is solely derived from the perspective of how would you handle it if you had done something this embarrassingly awful and it was about to get out to the world. And just how much Zeke is freaking out knowing that it's gonna happen. There's nothing you can do about it, and it's just the worst thing for anyone to ever find out that you did yeah, yeah, his life is over once people figure out he's fucking barnyard animals.
Remi:In a moment of fleeting good fortune, zeke is granted a temporary reprieve from his inquisition when the police are called back to the hospital for an urgent update regarding Dick's autopsy results. After the officers leave, Zeke breathes an unfounded sigh of relief, just as Cynthia walks into the room and proceeds to totally contradict every single statement Zeke had just given.
Dick Long Scene:Are you okay? Yeah, I'm okay, are you gonna get it back?
Dick Long Scene:I don't know.
Dick Long Scene:When was it stolen?
Dick Long Scene:know when was it stolen last night?
Dick Long Scene:no, yeah, huh no, you drove me in it this morning. No, baby, that was earl's car. No, before that, at the gas station. Yeah, this morning, before he came and took a bath. What is she talking about, z?
Announcer:she's confused.
Dick Long Scene:Maybe it's not stolen. Sweetheart, did Daddy take you to school this morning? No, I don't know why it did. See. There you go. Daddy drove me to the gas station in his car. The rusty one Sweetheart. Dinner will be ready in a bit. Why don't you go run and play with your playmobiles? Did I get daddy in trouble?
Speaker 4:Yes, you did get daddy in trouble, you shut up.
Announcer:Thank you, baby.
Speaker 4:This little girl is so cute and I bet Zeke is so mad that he raised her so well. And to tell the truth, and to obey front seat passenger laws, she's a very honest, law-abiding little girl and, yeah, she's adorable.
Remi:Lydia continues to press Zeke for answers and after what I can only assume was an intense amount of shame-filled self-deliberation, zeke falteringly reveals the horrifying truth that his friend Dick had died while having sex with their family horse Comet. As Lydia attempts to process the barrage of emotions flooding through her body, her initial shock rapidly deteriorates into unmitigated disgust as Lydia soon realizes that her husband, zeke, has also repeatedly participated in various sexual encounters with Comet over the past eight years. Understandably distraught and unable to fully comprehend the earth-shattering news she had just been given, lydia breaks down into tears, vomits and vehemently banishes Zeke from the property.
Speaker 4:Understandably so.
Remi:Panicked that Lydia may now go to the authorities with this new information, zeke tries sneaking back into the house through a kitchen window, but only ends up badly injuring himself along the way. Contemporaneously, down at the hospital, the police have just learned, after further DNA testing, that the semen found in Dick's colon had in fact originated from a stallion. Back at the Olsen home, lydia silently bandages Zeke's injured hand, still visibly shaken by her husband's sexual deviancy. Once finished, zeke is expected to leave again, but first Lydia demands that he clarify a few more things before he finally hits the road. After some initial apprehension, zeke confesses that he and Earl had both been involved in a sexual relationship with Comet long before Zeke had ever met Lydia. But he still insists that neither of them had ever tried anything like Dick had tried that night.
Speaker 4:I'm calling bullshit.
Remi:Despite his transgressions, zeke laments that he is still in love with Lydia and Comet. But Lydia has had enough and cannot bear hearing another word, so storms out of the room overwhelmed by her feelings of betrayal and heartache. Despondent, and with his life crumbling all around him, zeke says a painful goodbye to his daughter before setting off on the long walk over to Earl's trailer. On the way, earl meets Zeke at a bar where Zeke eagerly downs six beers as Earl indulges in an order of crispy onion rings with a side of yellow mustard dipping sauce. Meanwhile, the police have finally deduced that the wallet that Zeke had given to Officer Dudley belonged to a man named Richard Long. As Earl is driving Zeke back to his trailer, zeke has a sudden change of heart about fleeing town and asks that Earl instead drop him back off at home. However, zeke isn't quite ready to face his family again just yet, so quietly sneaks down to the barn to have an intimate reunion with his old friend Comet.
Speaker 4:My god man.
Remi:He is discovered there sometime later shirtless, brushing Comet's mane, by Dick's wife Jane, who is still feeling uneasy about her husband's mysterious disappearance.
Speaker 4:Did she not report him as a missing person?
Remi:She has not. No, it's only been a day, so I think that she hasn't thought of something bad happening to him just yet.
Speaker 4:I guess I forgot that. This is all in a day. This is a lot for 24 hours.
Remi:Over a few beers. Jane nervously asks Zeke if Dick might be cheating on her. But Zeke reassures Jane that she has absolutely nothing to worry about.
Speaker 4:She has a lot to worry about.
Remi:Walking back from the barn, zeke and Jane spot Officer Dudley returning to the house for further questioning Inside. Zeke, jane Lydia and Officer Dudley all sit around the kitchen table engulfed in a ruminating tension so thick that it's nearly palpable. Unbeknownst to Zeke, officer Dudley is only there for a few simple follow-up questions regarding his stolen vehicle and because of this misunderstanding, zeke foolishly ends up incriminating himself without even realizing it it see, why didn't you just call us?
Ashley:mr olsen, I what I left his wallet here last night why didn't you just give it back to him tonight at practice then?
Dick Long Scene:I don't know, I don't know anything. I don't know anything. For God's sake, mr Olsen.
Announcer:Mr Olsen, lydia didn't know about any of this until tonight.
Speaker 4:Know about any of what. Mr Olsen, this is what happens when you come up with these little lies to cover your previous little lies. At some point they start to contradict each other and you are screwed.
Remi:Especially if you're just lying off the top of your head without giving any real thought into the lie ahead of time. This is the perfect example of why just making up lies on the fly is probably not the best idea when you're dealing with police officers.
Speaker 4:Or lying at all. Just get a lawyer.
Remi:Be like Cynthia, not like Zeke. Realizing the jig is up, zeke bolts from the house with Officer Dudley hot on his heels. In an act of sheer desperation, zeke runs to the barn and frees Comet the horse, but is promptly tackled to the ground and placed under arrest by Officer Dudley. In the days that follow, the police recover Zeke's abandoned vehicle and we learn that Zeke has been released from custody after Dick Long's death is ruled a misadventure rather than a homicide. Due to neither family wanting to draw any media attention from the incident, no further charges were filed, and I don't know if I would have filed any charges either.
Remi:This seems like the type of thing you'd rather not have other people know about. Despite this, officer Dudley is still awarded with a homemade quiche for cracking her first case, so a bit of good came out of this. Lydia and her daughter move in with Cynthia's grandfather, while Zeke reunites with his old friend Earl at a motel someplace outside of town with the intention of relocating and starting anew. The film concludes with Zeke and Earl sitting in front of their motel room haphazardly singing off-key Nickelback covers as the credits roll. And that was the Death of Dick Long. What do you think, ashley?
Speaker 4:What a wild, wild ride.
Remi:It is a good movie, in my opinion, and definitely not for everyone. But I am curious to see how much of this, if any, connects to the real story, because in all of the research I did, they did not ever acknowledge that this was based around a true story and never discussed the true story at all.
Speaker 4:And for everyone who is a little hesitant about watching this movie, one thing I do remember from it is that there's nothing shown about any inappropriate sexual behavior between the men and the horse. It's all implied, but it's not graphic or gratuitous or anything like that.
Remi:Yes, there's no nudity, and all of the horrific events are in most cases just alluded to, except when the doctor is describing what had happened to Dick. But everything else is kind of left to your imagination, and I know that the way they were promoting this film, they were trying to keep it a secret of how Dick died. So if you went into this movie blindly, you would slowly realize he had died from a sexual encounter with a horse, and if I didn't know that, going into this movie I would be pretty shocked. But let's get into the release of this film. The Death of Dick Long premiered on January 26th at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and received a limited release in just 30 theaters on September 27th of that same year. So not a lot of confidence in this movie. The film would later receive an additional theatrical release in Japan during the summer of 2020 under the alternate title how Did Dick Long Die? The Death of Dick Long currently has an approval rating of 75% on Rotten Tomatoes, with a critical consensus that reads the Death of Dick Long mixes dark humor with provocative ideas to produce a sharp blend that is admittedly uneven but uniquely satisfying, and, per usual, I agree with that.
Remi:Two years later, after reuniting with his filmmaking kindred spirit, daniel Kwan, the Daniels finally unveiled their multiversal magnum opus, everything Everywhere All at Once, on March 25th 2022. The film received widespread critical acclaim and was a significant box office success, earning the duo several awards and accolades, including Best Picture, best Original Screenplay and Best Director. At the 95th Academy Awards, the film received 11 Academy Award nominations in total, which was more than any other film nominated that year, and walked away with seven statues by the end of the evening Prior to the Oscars, the media website IGN had calculated that Everything Everywhere All at Once even managed to surpass 2003's the Lord of the Rings, the Return of King, as the most awarded film of all time. Everything Everywhere All at Once is also currently A24's highest grossing film and is commonly thought of as the company's most successful feature to date.
Speaker 4:I would definitely agree with that.
Remi:That same year, the Daniels signed a first look TV deal with A24, as well as a five-year film deal with Universal Pictures, and were featured on the 2022 Time 100 Next list, which recognizes leaders who are not waiting long in life to make an impact and are not following the traditional power structures and pathways that have determined what influence looked like in the past. So they're doing something new and I like that. Since their success, the Daniels have directed one episode of 2024's Star Wars Skeleton Crew and in February of 2024, it was announced that the Daniels' next feature film would be an event film released on June 12th 2026. And that was Daniel Scheinert's the Death of Dick Long, a film he seemingly made as just a break from the crazy stuff he was doing with the other Daniel, something where he got to go back to his hometown see a lot of his old friends work with his friend Billy.
Remi:And this film has no special effects. It has no stunts. It's very, very grounded, which is a weird word to use with this film, but it is a significant change from the films the Daniels usually make. Most of their projects I usually end up watching and I am just in awe of how much effort went into making it, especially everything everywhere all at once, the amount of cutaways, the amount of costumes, the amount of planning that needed to go into that film my brain begins melting just thinking about it. So this tiny film about a man who died while having sex with a horse was the other Daniel's way of taking a break from all of that. And then he went right back to it afterwards and made the biggest film of his career.
Speaker 4:And I'm sure their 2026 blockbuster film is going to be a great follow up to their last one.
Remi:There has been literally no information released about it. As of this podcast, if I had more info I'd give it, but I don't have anything. They're keeping it a secret, and I am going to be there the day it comes out, really looking forward to it. Can't wait to see what these guys do next. And. I also can't wait to hear how much of the death of Dick Long is actually true. So, ashley, do you want to hit me with the true story?
Speaker 4:Yes, be prepared to be shocked. The early morning hours of July 2nd 2005 started out like any other for the doctors at Enumclaw Community Hospital. Enumclaw, by the way, is a rural city in King County, washington, about 40 miles south of Seattle and half that distance from Tacoma. Sometime around 5.30 in the morning, a man was dropped off outside the hospital entrance. The driver sped away and it wasn't until the man was wheeled into a room that nurses realized he was already dead. According to the medical examiner's office, the man died of extensive internal bleeding caused by a perforated colon. Although the death was ruled accidental, law enforcement was obviously contacted. The driver's license in the man's pocket, which was used to track down his family and acquaintances, identified the decedent as 45-year-old Kenneth Pinion. Pinion worked as an engineer for Boeing for the past eight years, although from Seattle, he recently moved to Gig Harbor, washington, a beautiful city 45 miles south of Seattle. He moved there to build a new house and barn Bank records revealed he was about to begin making mortgage payments at the time of his death. He was divorced, but close to his ex-wife and son whom, according to the 2007 documentary Zoo, were visiting Seattle at the time of his death.
Speaker 4:With the man identified, investigators turned to the car that dropped Pinion off at the hospital. Surveillance cameras captured the license plate number and led authorities to 54-year-old James Michael Tate. Tate was a truck driver who lived in a trailer next to a 40-acre ranch that bred Arabian stallions in an uncorporated area five miles north of Enumclaw. It wasn't long before investigators learned that the farm was known in zoophile chat rooms as a destination for people wanting to have sex with livestock. A quick rundown on definitions here.
Speaker 4:Paraphilia is a term for atypical, intense and persistent sexual interest, urges or fantasies. Paraphilias can involve objects, activities or situations that are not typically associated with sexual gratification from inflicting pain, exhibitionism or flashing when someone gets excited by exposing their genitals to unsuspecting persons, and voyeurism or peeping, getting turned on by watching others naked or having sex without their knowledge. Zoophilia is a sexual disorder in which a person is sexually aroused by animals. Zoophilia refers to the actual sexual arousal, while bestiality is the actual act of having sex with an animal. Given the tabooness of this subject matter, it's hard to get an accurate estimate on how common paraphilias are. However, one study from 2021 estimated the prevalence rate of zoophilia to be about 2% of the population.
Speaker 4:Back to our story. During a raid of Tate's trailer, police seized about 100 videos amounting to hundreds of hours of men engaging in bestiality. One of the videos featured Pinion being penetrated by a large stallion the night he died. Tate Douglas Spink who I'll get into much more later and an unidentified man were believed to have been involved. So what in the world happened here, and how did Pinion get to the point of dying while fornicating with a horse? Well, several years prior, he reportedly lost the ability to experience certain sensations after a serious motorcycle accident.
Remi:So he had a diminished sense of pain. Reception.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and he couldn't experience sexual gratification.
Remi:Was he just numb from the waist down or something like that?
Speaker 4:I'm not really sure, but the pursuit of getting his rocks off led him to increasingly extreme sex acts, which culminated in anal sex with horses, made possible by the use of a horse breeding pheromone. I don't want to get too graphic into the other sexual escapades he tried, but they became gradually gradually more intense and severe. In the early 2000s he found a group of men online who referred to themselves as zoos and met at Tate's farm for communal bestiality weekends. These men filmed their endeavors and posted the videos online. Tate was selective about who could join the group, but about a year before his death Pinion received an invitation to one of these weekend parties. When he was featured in these films, he went by the alias Mr Hands. Pinion's family never suspected he was into bestiality. In fact, they were surprised to learn he purchased a stallion a year earlier and was boarding it at a friend's farm in Edomclaw until the construction of his barn in Gig Harbor was finished.
Remi:I feel like if you have a family and you have these sort of inclinations, unless they were aware of it from day one, this is not something you're going to say, you're getting into later on. You're probably going to keep this a secret.
Speaker 4:And because he was divorced and his kid lived with his mom out of state, it would have been much, much easier for him to hide this from others. Although the men typically used the horses on Tate's property for the sexual encounters, the chosen one on the night of Pinion's death, according to law enforcement, wasn't quote particularly receptive.
Remi:These poor horses.
Speaker 4:Since Tate just so happened to live next to a ranch that bred Arabian horses, the four men snuck into a barn to film the encounter that killed Pinion. The Seattle Times was the first to report on this case. Two weeks later, the initial story became the paper's most read article of 2005.
Remi:This may be a strange question, and if you don't know the answer, that's fine, but do you know the name of the horse?
Speaker 4:I do. It's not as cute as Comet. They just simply referred to this horse as Big Dick.
Remi:This horse was not being introduced to other people around town.
Speaker 4:No, because this horse wasn't owned by Tate or any of these men. They snuck onto his neighbor's property and just picked one of the stallions there. So that's kind of why they think that this happened, because, even though they had had sex with horses before, this one was a Arabian stallion that they had no experience with. So it sounds like they were used to the horses, or at least the one or two that they had on Tay's property, but they couldn't get the horses to mount them. So they snuck onto the property and just picked a random horse.
Remi:That seems ridiculously risky. Just going out and finding a random horse to try this sort of thing with. Then again, all of it sounds unnecessarily risky. So yeah, okay.
Speaker 4:The author of the Seattle Times article actually respected the family's privacy and request to not include any identifying details about Pinion, but his name and other information about him that I summarized previously leaked after other news agencies picked up on the story. The news outstandingly outraged the community of Enumclaw and led to an investigation into whether the other animals on the farm were victimized. The moral outrage created a desire to punish those involved, but since there was no evidence that any animals were injured during vet checkups or on the videos, animal cruelty charges were off the table.
Remi:Wait, wait, wait. So the animal needs to be injured for charges to happen. It can't just be animal abuse that they are forcing animals to participate in these acts that they clearly don't want to do.
Speaker 4:How it sounded to me is how that statute for animal cruelty was written in Washington. There had to be signs of physical harm and there were no signs of physical harm. Prosecutors also quickly discovered another legal loophole Bestiality was not illegal in Washington at the time. In the 1970s, many statutes that criminalized certain sex acts in various states were repealed, largely since they made oral and anal sex, referred to as sodomy between consenting adults, illegal. Washington repealed their sodomy law on September 1st 1976. Since bestiality was lumped in with that statute, it meant in Washington, along with 16 other states at the time, there was nothing on the books that made sex with animals illegal in 2005. The Enumclaw horse sex case rapidly prompted the Washington state legislator to take action. Senate Bill 6417 passed unanimously on February 11, 2006. Unanimously on February 11th 2006. The Senate leader that was behind all this joked that it was the easiest bill she ever passed, because who's gonna say no? It prohibited having sex with or videotaping sexual acts with any animal dead or alive.
Remi:And it's about time.
Speaker 4:The bill made bestiality a Class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. After the law passed, many zoofiles fled to other states where the practice was not yet illegal, including Tate, who moved to Tennessee for that very reason.
Remi:Is bestiality still legal in some states in America?
Speaker 4:Well, it took a while, but at the time of this recording there is only one holdout state without a bestiality law on the books. Can you guess what it is?
Remi:Mississippi.
Speaker 4:West Virginia.
Remi:Wow, I apologize to Mississippi.
Speaker 4:New Mexico and Connecticut were the last two states to create their own laws criminalizing the practice in 2023.
Speaker 4:James Tate was the only person to be charged with the crime following Pinion's death, since Doug Spink and the other unidentified male weren't actually seen on the video showing how Pinion died. However, since bestiality was legal and there was no evidence any of the horses were physically harmed, the state could only charge Tate with one count of criminal trespass in the first degree. This charge was possible because the owners of the farm where Pinion died were not aware the men entered their property On November 29, 2005, tate entered an Alford plea, which is like a guilty plea, but allows the defendant not to admit guilt on record. Instead, the defendant admits there is enough evidence to likely convict them, but they maintain the right to remain silent while accepting whatever sentence is determined by the judge. Tate received a one-year suspended sentence, which means he would not have to serve any jail time as long as he complied with the other terms of his sentence paying a $300 fine, completing one day of community service and never visiting his neighbor's farm ever again.
Remi:Wait, shouldn't he not be allowed 100 feet from a zoo or a barn or any establishment that has a variety of animals of any sort? This guy should be like banned from animals.
Speaker 4:He's just charged with trespassing, which means you illegally entered a place you shouldn't have. That is crazy, and it seems like it'd be easy for anyone to never go onto that farm ever again, except for possibly Zeke and the death of Dick Long.
Remi:He didn't sneak onto someone else's farm. This was his horse, comet, that he had known for over a decade.
Speaker 4:A documentary about this case and bestiality more broadly debuted at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Zoo was one of 16 documentaries selected out of 856 candidates and was nominated for the Documentary Grand Jury Prize. The documentary was well received, with Sundance critics calling it quote a humanizing look at the life and bizarre death of a seemingly normal Seattle man who met his untimely end after an unusual encounter with a horse.
Remi:Unusual, to say the least.
Speaker 4:Following Sundance, zoo was selected as one of the top five American films presented at the prestigious Director's Fortnight Sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was also nominated for the CICAE Award, a recognition reserved for arthouse films. I am shocked that this documentary which, by the way I have watched, was at both Sundance and Cannes. More so Cannes. That's crazy.
Remi:Was it a good documentary? I haven't seen it.
Speaker 4:I'm going to show you a bit of the trailer in a minute, so I'll get your thoughts on the trailer and then I'll tell you my thoughts on it. The directors became interested in the subject matter after Pinion's death became kind of a joke in the media. Their goal was to quote, revive the humanity of self identified zoo files and bring more awareness to the topic. Although Zoo was well-received at these prestigious film festivals, it didn't really land with all audiences.
Remi:This is not a topic that people are comfortable with for the most part.
Speaker 4:On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 36% audience rating compared to a 60% rating by critics with a consensus that reads quote while a marginally fascinating look at a taboo subject Zoo is bogged by its overly artistic presentation. So now, remy, I'll show you the trailer. We're not going to play the full two minute trailer in this video, but we'll clip it down and include some snippets from it for you guys to listen along.
Dick Long Scene:The owner died and the horse was left to fend for itself.
Remi:You don't know who else out there thinks how you think or feels how you feel.
Dick Long Scene:I just said, take me to the horse. Stallions can be very dangerous. Me personally. I don't need a whole lot of human contact, I'd rather just be with our animals. We didn't know what his interaction had been with humans. Was he going to try to mount me?
Announcer:Someone actually stood there and gave me some attention.
Dick Long Scene:There was a kind of a rope thing with a small noose and he said this is where he would work the horse. And I thought, well, what do?
Dick Long Scene:you mean.
Announcer:It's a very intense, wonderful kind of feeling.
Remi:I have actually seen this. I must have blocked it out of my memory long ago. But yeah, I saw this in film school. One of my friends had it on DVD. I don't think he owned it. I think we rented it from the school actually, and we watched it for humor purposes. We basically watched it to laugh about the ridiculous story which appears to be what this documentary is trying to prevent, and make people more aware of the real person behind this and all of that. But it is hard to sympathize with someone that carried out this sort of thing.
Speaker 4:It's a weird documentary. If you want to watch it, it is on YouTube. It's only an hour and 15 minutes, I think. It does have interviews with several people. They're all under aliases and they all knew Pinion and I don't know if one of them is Tate Actually I do, because he talks about how hard it was to move to a different state as a 54-year-old man, which is how old Tate was. But it has interviews with several of them and then most of it is just like reenactments of it, which I didn't really enjoy that much.
Remi:That's the stuff I remember. There's like slow motion shots that are really artsy fartsy, looking of like people in the barn doing things. That's what I remember most about this movie.
Speaker 4:That's what most of it is, and there actually is a 10 second audio clip that is apparently taken from the video with Pinion, and it's gross.
Remi:We will not be playing that.
Speaker 4:But if you're interested, you can find it on YouTube. It's not one I would recommend, but if you're interested in hearing about what people who engage in this practice are like and what their thoughts are, then you will get that. James Michael Tate moved to a farm in Maury County, tennessee, as soon as he was able. On October 11, 2009, an anonymous source sent police a picture of a man sexually abusing a Shetland pony on a farm. Two days later, tate, the farm owner, and a woman associated with both of them were arrested and charged with three counts of animal cruelty. So apparently, having sex with a horse is grounds for animal cruelty in Tennessee and should be everywhere.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I wonder if it's because their animal cruelty law had bestiality written into it.
Remi:That's the only thing that I can guess, because this seems like a no-brainer.
Speaker 4:According to the arrest warrant, Tate had been engaging in sex acts with a stud horse for several months, Allegations both men admitted to. Veterinarians were tasked with examining the horses and other animals on the farm, which included pigs, goats and dogs. In January 2010, Tate pled guilty and was placed on probation. And that's all you can find about this guy. I don't know if he's still alive. I don't know what he's been doing since All you can find about this guy.
Remi:I don't know if he's still alive. I don't know what he's been doing since Keeping a low profile, most likely, as anyone who was caught doing this sort of thing would be.
Speaker 4:And in my opinion, it sounds like this is the guy that Zeke is based on, since he's the one that owned the car and Tate's the one that dropped the body off at the hospital. But there's one more man involved in our story deserving of attention Douglas Spink, one of the men present the night of Pinion's death, who I'm assuming is Earl. He was born on March 17th 1971 and grew up in Harmony, pennsylvania. He went to a private school, enjoyed fox hunting and showed an early interest in horse jumping competitions, as well as training and breeding horses and dogs.
Speaker 4:In a 2018 book written by Karen Maloney, spink claimed he discovered his sexual attraction to animals when he was 12 years old, as he preferred to spend nights alone wandering the neighborhood with his golden retriever. He said he lived his childhood in fear someone would discover his predilections, but he decided to embrace it after he was outed in his 20s. After learning about factory farming from PETA, he reportedly became an intermittent vegetarian and self-proclaimed animal advocate. After Spink graduated high school, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology from Reed College and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He was married once and had relationships with both men and women. He began his career as an analyst with the Boston Consulting Group, where he consulted with Fortune 500 companies.
Remi:This character is definitely not Earl. They must have made Earl up.
Speaker 4:In the mid to late 1990s, he helped develop and support several early internet tech companies in Oregon. He became a multi-millionaire through the sale of several small businesses, but declared bankruptcy in 2002. After that, he started smuggling marijuana and cocaine in and out of Canada for a regional drug lord, while also working towards his PhD in systems science at Portland State University. In 2005, he was arrested while transporting nearly 375 pounds of cocaine, estimated to be worth $34 million.
Remi:This is an interesting human being.
Speaker 4:There were signs of Spink's deviant sexual interests during this arrest. First he was strangely protective of a female German shepherd, so much so that he seemed completely unconcerned about the legal predicament he found himself in. He also had bumper stickers with some unknown initials on his car. Law enforcement did some research into the stickers, in case they were involved with drug smuggling in some way. Instead, it led them to a group dedicated to animal-human love. While obviously concerning, law enforcement was more interested in the drug smuggling and catching larger fish.
Remi:So they were basically like well, that's weird. Okay, moving on.
Speaker 4:Pretty much. Yeah, they were like this doesn't really have anything to do with the drug smuggling and we don't really know what to make of it at this point, so it's just kind of noise. Since Spink cooperated with the investigation, he received a lenient three-year prison sentence, followed by five years of parole. In April 2010,. The investigators assigned to Tate's animal abuse case back in Tennessee were informed by Spinks' probation officer that he was involved with Tate in a prior case in Washington. They also learned Spink contacted Tate in jail and was speaking out about how he thought Tate was being wrongfully prosecuted. A Google search of his name led investigators to a website for Exit Point Stallions Limited, a horse breeding company operated by Spink. The website contained the following description Are we unconventional in our approach to stallion care? Absolutely. We don't wall off sexual energy in our stallions as something dangerous or inappropriate, but rather channel that energy towards positive, safe, appropriate paths. There's a proper time and place for it and we work towards those sorts of skills rather than fighting unwinnable fights against deeply rooted instincts.
Remi:What, the, what, the Fuck.
Speaker 4:It doesn't straight out say we have sex with horses, but if you kind of know everything this man is into, it is clear that that's what he is communicating there.
Remi:It's pretty obvious.
Speaker 4:On April 14th 2010,. Swat raided his compound near the Washington Canada border. 39-year-old Spink and a 51-year-old Taurus from England were arrested on the property and charged with animal cruelty. Swat found thousands of images of bestiality and child sex abuse material. Seven large-breed dogs and four stallions were seized by animal rescue groups. Most disturbingly, there were 13 mice with their tails cut off, covered in Vaseline with strings tied around them.
Remi:Lemmy winks no.
Speaker 4:They unfortunately had to be euthanized. The evidence led investigators to conclude Spink was running a full-on animal brothel and using them to produce bestiality porn. The judge also determined he lied to his probation officer, traveled across state lines and violated Washington's animal cruelty laws. However, washington declined to file charges for animal cruelty, saying it was unnecessary in light of the federal prosecution for probation violations, even though if they would have charged him with animal cruelty, it would mean he could never own animals in the state ever again. Spinks' lawyer tried to argue his client never engaged in bestiality, although a YouTube video where Spink references being in love with several dogs and refers to his horse, capone, as his long-term boyfriend would beg to differ.
Speaker 4:Although the typical sentence for a first probation violation was four to six months, the judge sentenced Spink to three years because he was an outspoken advocate for zoophilia, arguing that animals could consent to sex with animals. During a subsequent interview with Vice, spink went as far as to claim that if anyone believed animals couldn't consent to sex with humans, well then they couldn't consent to sex at all, which, quote means we live in a world of unrelenting, unpunished, unacknowledgeable rape. End quote raising legal funds for defendants charged with bestiality. His attorney testified that Spink thought zoophilia was quote a sexual orientation and that the arguments against it are the same ones made against homosexuality and miscegenation, which is sexual relationships between ethnic groups.
Remi:So this guy became a zoophilia bestiality advocate like an outspoken advocate.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he was very well known in this world.
Remi:That is quite the life path to choose for yourself.
Speaker 4:The tourist who was also arrested with Spank pled guilty to animal cruelty, spent 30 days in jail and was deported. Spank was paroled in late 2012 under the condition that he quote shut down his websites promoting zoophilia and bestiality and that he not possess, produce or distribute any bestiality videos or photos. He also had to agree to regular checks of his hard drives for inappropriate pornographic material and could not have any voluntary contact with animals. Almost immediately after he was released, he returned to a bestiality website, bought a dog and boarded horses on a nearby farm.
Remi:Who could have seen that coming?
Speaker 4:The farm actually belonged to a dog breeder who lived next door to a bank robber he met in prison Not long after Spink moved onto the property. The man's dog went missing under mysterious circumstances, possibly due to him backing out on a deal involving him breeding Spink's dogs. The owner believed Spink had something to do with the missing dog, since there was a hole cut in the fence separating their property. A female witness even claimed she once saw the dog in Spinks' house after it went missing. Although he filed a civil suit in December 2014, nothing ever came of it, since all the evidence against Spinks was circumstantial. Spinks was arrested while wearing a dog collar, I may add for violating several conditions of his parole on March 4th 2014. He was sentenced to nine months in prison in May, the longest the judge could impose in this situation.
Remi:I just want to point out how ironic it is that the sentence for trafficking drugs is much more severe than if you literally rape an animal.
Speaker 4:It's because he wasn't charged with any new crimes. He was just charged with the probation violations.
Remi:I have a feeling that he was doing some stuff behind the scenes.
Speaker 4:Around the time of the prosecution, he gave an interview to Vice News during which he had this to say a core precedent was set no longer can zoophobes in the country batter and coerce people like me into silence with threats of violence. Spink was released four months later and immediately entered Canada illegally by just walking across an unguarded section of the border. On August 9th 2015, canadian police responded to a call of a man acting erratically outside a roadside business. Three days later, spink was driven across the border and handed over to US authorities, but he was back in Canada by November when police received a call involving a house fire. That ended with Spink's arrest for combativeness. He spent five months in jail, was deported in 2016, and told he was never welcome back into the country. He died from cancer in his mom's Pennsylvania home at the age of 48 on January 23, 2020. And that is the true story of Daniel Scheinert's the Death of Dick Long. What do you think, remy?
Remi:What a crazy fucked up bunch of stories we have just heard today. Specifically, the life and death of this Spinks character was just a fucking whirlwind. Like my God, what a crazy, crazy existence that guy led. But I'll save a lot of my thoughts about how well it stacked up to the movie for our verdict. But it is a crazy, crazy story for our verdict. But it is a crazy, crazy story.
Remi:And it seems like this was a law that accidentally got repealed and, as a result, a few people got away with some pretty heinous acts. And the fact that this sphinx guy was literally out there as, like an advocate, like do you think he had rallies? Who's showing up to these rallies? Like I don't think this is something a lot of people want to be out and proud about. But yeah, I think that people can have their kinks, they can have their fetishes, they can be into what they want to. You know, you be you. But there are certain lines that must be drawn when it starts to affect another living being, and I think those lines were grossly crossed by the individuals in these stories. And I will go on record saying I do not think that an animal can consent to sex with a human. Call me crazy, but that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. What do you think, ashley?
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's a difference between a fetish and a paraphilia. So most of the paraphilias that I described earlier pedophilia, voyeurism, exhibitionism, sadism those are crimes because they violate the autonomy of another person and in my opinion, I think having sex with an animal also violates the autonomy of that animal.
Remi:Sodomy is still illegal if it is non-consensual.
Speaker 4:Exactly so. There is a fine line between having certain predilections that sexually arouse you and having sexual predilections that arouse you but end up harming other people, and these are all examples of just that. But I agree with you. I think the story of Spink was the craziest part of this whole thing. Just everything that this guy got into after the death of Kenneth Pinion is just completely nuts.
Remi:He was the Larry Flint for bestiality.
Speaker 4:Two men I would not want to be associated with, that is for sure.
Remi:Well, I think we have heard enough traumatic details about these events, so let's dive into the next portion of the show, our objection of the week. Your Honor, I object. And why is that, Mr Reed?
Announcer:Because it's devastating, to my case, overruled, good call.
Speaker 4:Okay, I'll kick us off with this one. I have two that are contenders and I think I know why the change was made for one, so I won't say that. So the one I'm going to go with is that in the real story only Tate dropped off Pinion at the hospital, and in the movie it was both men that dropped him off.
Remi:That's pretty good, but let me first start off by saying, before I do mine, that this movie. Clearly there were a lot of changes made between the real story and the film, but the one that I thought was the most meaningless overall, which I do know why the director chose to do this, but for story purposes it was kind of pointless. The relocation of the story from Washington to Alabama, which I understand why the director did this. He is from Alabama and he had a lot of his old friends work on the film, but for the movie it didn't really need to be Alabama. So, yeah, why change it?
Speaker 4:one I had. I thought they changed it just to kind of protect the anonymity of this guy, but then again that wouldn't really make a lot of sense, since it was all over the news by this point. So, yeah, I guess he probably did do it just to be home. So since we both had that one on our list, that one can win. And that leads us to our verdict. This is something I am excited for.
Announcer:At the conclusion of each episode, our hosts will deliver a verdict based on the film's accuracy. If the film is an honest portrayal of the events, then it will earn a not guilty verdict. If the adaptation is mostly factual but creative liberties were taken for the sake of entertainment, the film will be declared a mistrial. But if the film ultimately strays too far from the entertainment, the film will be declared a mistrial. But if the film ultimately strays too far from the truth, then it will be condemned as guilty and sentenced to a life behind bars.
Speaker 4:Remy, since I kicked off with the objection, why don't you take the verdict this time?
Remi:Let me hear your arguments, Okay my closing statements for this film is as follows. This film clearly was inspired by the real events, but the director used this project as an excuse to kind of take some time off, make a film with some friends and go back home to Alabama for a little while, and as a result, he didn't seem really interested or concerned with the details of the true story. This film seemed like something he just did with his friends for fun, in between these other huge projects that were winning all these awards and getting so much attention. So the director made this as you know, just something more easy.
Remi:I can see the real story in there. There are aspects of it, but a lot was changed and in that respect I'm gonna go with a mistrial for the death of Dick Long. I think that the story is there and there are little details that matched up and there are little details that matched up. A lot of other stuff was changed, including the omission of a very crazy character in Spinks. Because of all that, I'm giving it a mistrial. But I will say it is on the very big contingent that this is not a story that you've heard a lot. This is not an incident that you hear in the news regularly at all. So in the fact that it is about this specific topic is why it is getting this pass in my mind. Just that alone seems to connect it enough. There's not going to be more movies about this. There's probably not going to be a lot more news stories about this. So it is the same story but a lot was changed.
Speaker 4:I am actually very surprised you went with mistrial. I'm giving this movie a guilty verdict.
Remi:Okay, plead your case.
Speaker 4:So similar to our other guilty verdicts. The one line synopsis of the true case is in the story. If you had to sum up this case, you would say it was about a group of men that had sex with horses and one died. That's what's in the movie, and how he died is the same, but everything else is completely changed and unrecognizable.
Speaker 4:This whole movie centers around really not even necessarily the death of Dick Long, but Zeke trying to get out of it and cover his tracks, and none of the antics that he does which makes up 80% of the movie happened at all.
Speaker 4:He doesn't even have a wife and a daughter. Those characters are fake. The only person that had a family was Dick Long, and even the little things like them removing the driver's license and handing it over to police In reality, no, his driver's license was in his pocket. They had video surveillance of the car and they tracked it down to Zeke very, very easily and uncovered this treasure trove that no one would want to find of bestiality and this whole zoophile sex ring that this guy was leading and putting on for years. So, in my opinion, just because you can tell that this case is in this story which, yeah, it's the only case I've ever heard of and I think probably exists of a man dying from a perforated colon by being penetrated by a horse. I think just because you can see the case in it doesn't necessarily mean that it deserves not to get a guilty verdict.
Remi:My counter argument for that would be what you said at the very beginning was that if you were to describe both of these stories, it would be that same sentence. Three guys were getting together to have sex with a horse. One of them died during the encounter and was dropped off at the hospital. Everything else is different, but because that main sentence is the same that is why I'm giving this a mistrial. If it was completely out there, like if we said the plot of Scream and the real person, they're not going to match up in that sentence. So because it's got that basic, basic, basic connection.
Remi:That is why I'm sticking with my mistrial.
Speaker 4:I think you need a little more than a one line sentence to be able to get the true essence of the story in the film.
Remi:I rest my case.
Speaker 4:I rest mine too Guilty.
Remi:Mistrial.
Speaker 4:But we're curious about what you guys think. Why don't you send us an email at criminaladaptations at gmailcom, or comment on our Instagram on the post about this episode, which is just criminal adaptations, or comment on TikTok, if the video of this is up, about what you think? The verdict is on this film.
Remi:I am a little behind on the TikTok, but I have time to catch up, so there will be updates in the future. And speaking of the future, what do we have coming up two weeks from now, ashley?
Speaker 4:We are covering a very fascinating case that I'm pretty sure everyone who is listening will have heard of, at least in some capacity. It is going to be about Mark David Chapman, the man who murdered John Lennon, and I have never seen the movie Remy. Why don't film school in LA?
Remi:and it is a well-made movie, I guess. But the standout of the film is Jared Leto's performance as Mark David Chapman. He completely disappears into the role and I remember me and my film school friends liking the movie. But it didn't really get much of a release because of the controversy surrounding it and I believe John Lennon's children, or even Yoko Ono, were very adamant that this not get a wide release. And I don't know all the details, that's just what I'm remembering off the top of my head. But it should be a very interesting story and a true story that I think most of our audience might be familiar with, but maybe not all aspects of.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I knew that John Lennon was assassinated, obviously, and that the guy went to prison. What I didn't know is how I don't want to say insane that this guy was, but he definitely had a lot of mental health issues for years leading up to this crime and for years after, and he's actually still alive and in prison today. So it'll be interesting. Usually when we talk about these really high profile murder cases, feel like the people are dead either from old age or execution, so it'll be really interesting to talk about someone who's still alive and kicking.
Remi:And been in jail for 40 years almost something like that now.
Speaker 4:Yeah, since the early 80s.
Remi:Well, with that, we will leave you with a trailer for chapter 27, which we will be discussing, and thank you all very much for joining us this week and until next time, court is adjourned.
Announcer:I think tomorrow will be a very rough day for me. When the time is right, it'll happen. You're not going to leave yet, are you? We haven't even seen John, maybe some other time. You're not gonna leave yet, are you? We haven't even seen John, maybe some other time. I am the catcher in the rye. Help me, devil, give me the power. One of these, mine, do it, do it, go, go, go, go, go go, mr Lennon.
