Black Bird: One Man's Freedom Hides in Another Man's Darkness

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Featured on Dateline and CNN, Black Bird is the true story of a young man destined for greatness on the football field—until a few wrong turns led him to a ten-year prison sentence. Keene’s first book was adapted as a highly acclaimed miniseries titled Black Bird by Apple TV+ in July of 2022.

Levin, Keene's aide, was superfluous and made an excessive effort to incorporate the historical context of the prisons. The FBI offers Jimmy a one-of-a-kind deal for redemption, but once Jimmy clears his name, he’s left with nothing but the memory of his former financial success and a determination to mend his past mistakes. But behind his well-connected star athlete façade was the man who paid for it all: a money-obsessed drug dealer desperate to make the big score that will get him out of the business.Tune in to the awards show on January 15 th 2024 to watch as the cast and crew ready themselves to potentially receive these prestigious awards for their hard work and talent. Jimmy Keene has been secretly running a dangerous marijuana business since he was thirteen years old and has survived shootouts, brawls, robberies, and even a heist or two. An hour up the highway in one direction was his hometown of Kankakee, where he was busted for conspiracy to distribute cocaine. We later learn that Gary convinced his brother to confess to 15 murders, and in true Larry fashion, he later recanted. Closing titles reveal that Larry confessed to fifteen murders but later recanted, James died of a heart attack five years after Jimmy's release, and Jimmy went on to have a successful business career while still helping law enforcement profile serial killers.

More recently, Keene’s story appears in a 2023 episode of Very Scary People that focuses on serial killer Larry Hall. Instead of going to a big-name university where I could play football, I went to a community college in a suburb of Chicago where I could keep expanding my business. That's what I'm saying: [The real] Jimmy didn't go to this journey of confronting his own humanity or confronting his own misogyny.The best parts of Black Bird attempt to replicate Mindhunter’s tone, focusing on Hauser’s committed portrayal of Hall as a calm, soft-spoken presence; he’s upsetting, but in a subtle way, and he’s never a melodramatic, Hannibal Lecter-style monster. The series received critical acclaim with particular praise toward Jimmy Keene's original story and its cast.