In the February webinar, managing editor Kim Green talks with Ellen McGarrahan, PI and author of a fantastic new true-crime book, Two Truths and a Lie: A Murder, a Private Investigator, and Her Search for Justice.
It’s the story of a decades-long obsession that began when McGarrahan witnessed a botched execution as a young Miami Herald reporter. She left journalism and became a private investigator, but that horrific memory never left her. She spent decades on a quest to find out the truth behind the tragic events that culminated in that Florida death chamber — questions had arisen about the defendant’s guilt. But along the way, McGarrahan discovered that facts can sometimes be impossible to pin down, and that guilt — and justice — can get very murky indeed.
“Old murder cases are like coffins,” she writes. “Buried deep, holding a world of hurt. I knew this from the death row cases I’d worked on over the last two decades as a private eye. I was not going to lie to myself about it. You have to be careful, opening them up. You may find things you cannot forget. That you’ll wish you’d never seen.”
In the webinar (link below), we discuss McGarrahan’s book, the obsession that drove her reinvestigation, and the nature of obsession itself — how it can drive brilliant work but also, sometimes, take over your life.
Click below to watch: