Podcasts
1976’s ‘Born For Hell’ Combines Richard Speck, Vietnam, and the Troubles [Murder Made Fiction]
For the final week of January, Jenn and I are once again discussing a fictional adaptation of spree killer Richard Speck. Last week we talked about Violated Angels, a Japanese film, and this week we’re looking at an international co-production of the Chicago story, which is set in Belfast, Ireland.
In Born for Hell (1976) – sometimes referred to as Naked Massacre – Cain Adamson (Mathieu Carrière) gets stranded in Belfast en route home to the US following his tour in Vietnam. Destitute and mentally unwell, Cain breaks into the apartment of a group of nurses live and proceeds to sexually assault and murder them over a single violence-filled night.
What could be a straightforward text, however, becomes something much more politically and historically relevant due to the inclusion of the Vietnam war and the Troubles – a fraught 30+ year conflict in Ireland. What’s fascinating is that audiences don’t need to be familiar with the specifics of these conflicts in order to understand the film (though it obviously benefits if you do).
The film’s sensational violence is extremely challenging to watch, but, as written by Clement Woods, Fred Denger, and Denis Héroux (who also directs), Born For Hell is much more than an exploitation film. It’s a surprisingly nuance consideration of how violence infiltrates society in different ways and the cost of turning a blind eye.
Next week, Jenn and I leave behind Mindhunter villains to tackle a more timely topic: athletes embroiled in crimes and murder, starting with the first of two weeks of Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan. We’ll have two episodes: one on 30 for 30: The Price of Gold (2014) and another on the NBC made-for-TV movie, Tonya and Nancy: The Inside Story (1994).
Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where we have ~130 hours of content including episode by episode coverage of Mindhunter season 1, plus episodes on 2025’s most notable true crime documentaries.
It’s been a busy month on Murder Made Fiction podcast. In addition to introducing a new co-host (Perfectly Good Moment‘s Amanda Jane Stern), we spent Pride Month tackling a wide variety of Leopold and Loeb fictional adaptations.
In 1924 Chicago, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb plotted to commit the perfect murder when they abducted and killed 14-year-old Bobby Franks. As Amanda outlines in her primer on the case, the men were caught almost immediately and the media circus that followed was billed “the trial of the century”.
Listen to Leopold and Loeb mini primer.
The fallout has reverberated throughout the last century as countless books, plays, musicals, and films have drawn on the case for inspiration. Some are more faithful than others, such as Richard Fleischer‘s 1959 drama Compulsion, which stars a young Dean Stockwell as Leopold and Orson Welles as the boys’ lawyer, John Darrow (named Jonathan Wilk in the film).
Listen to Leopold and Loeb: Compulsion (1959).
Then there are the texts that use the idea of queer-coded killers as a jumping off point, but confuse (or flat-out disregard) the details of the real life case in favour of jumbled fiction. That’s what happens in Barbet Schroeder‘s Murder by Numbers, which awkwardly introduces a tortured backstory for lead actress (and executive producer) Sandra Bullock. The result is an uneven film that misunderstands which of its two competing storylines are actually interesting (hint: it’s the Leopold and Loeb stuff with Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt).
Listen to Leopold and Loeb: Murder by Numbers (2002).
We ended up discussing other (often more successful) titles on Patreon, including 1992’s Swoon (a New Queer Cinema art-house take on the crime), Michael Haneke‘s 2007 Funny Games remake, and gay screenwriter Kevin Williamson‘s Scream, which proved to be a much more reverent and sly interpretation of L&L than we anticipated.
We wrapped up the month with a final summary episode about our favorite adaptations before chatting with author and archivist Erik Rebain, who literally wrote the book on Leopold (Arrested Adolescence) and maintains one of the foremost websites on the crime.
Watch our discussion on YouTube below (or listen here):
Next month: For July, we’re turning our attention to the Boston Strangler, with a look at films from 1964 and 1968, as well as the most contemporary version from 2023, starring Kiera Knightley and Carrie Coon.
Want even more true crime adaptations and Murder Made Fiction? Support the show on Patreon to listen to the aforementioned episodes, as well as a full-length primer on the case and 160+ hours of bonus content.
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