In January 2022, as a blizzard moves into New England, 46-year-old Boston Police officer John O'Keefe's lifeless body is found on the front lawn of fellow Boston Police officer Brian Albert's 34 Fairview Road home in Canton, Massachusetts. Soon afterwards, O'Keefe's 44-year-old girlfriend, Karen Read, is arrested for his murder--accused of striking O'Keefe down in a fit of drunken rage with her SUV. Within a year, rumors and allegations of a conspiracy to frame Karen Read for O'Keefe's murder begin to spread, as a blogger by the name of Aidan "Turtleboy" Kearney develops Read as a secret source, fanning the flames of division in the community by reporting that John O'Keefe's murder is being covered up by a group of law enforcement and Canton elites who have big secrets to hide. Turtleboy creates a movement, #FreeKarenRead, spearheading a campaign--driven by Read herself pulling the strings--to thrust the "real" killers into the spotlight … as the town of Canton devolves into utter chaos, and Turtleboy is ultimately arrested and jailed.
Based on over 100 hours of interviews with dozens of sources, investigative journalist M. William Phelps digs in and, as ten episodes unfold over ten weeks, allows everyone a chance to speak, supplementing the narrative with exclusive audio, interviews and explosive information from Turtleboy himself, telling the story from down on the ground with the people who have lived it.
This is the first CROSSING THE LINE WITH M. WILLIAM PHELPS PRESENTS production, which will not have any affect on weekly episodes of Crossing the Line.
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M. William Phelps is the New York Times best-selling author of 46 nonfiction books and winner of the Excellence in (Investigative) Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Phelps has written for numerous publications1, including the Providence Journal, Connecticut Magazine and Hartford Courant. Diversifying his talents, Phelps consulted on the first season of the hit Showtime cable television series Dexter and has executive produced and starred in over 350 hours of true crime television. All of which gives him a confluence of expertise and experience to bring to true crime fanatics.
Phelps grew up in East Hartford, Connecticut, and now splits his time between Tolland County and N. Stonington, CT. In July 2017, he published his definitive, 10-year project about Happy Face Killer, Keith Hunter Jesperson, DANGEROUS GROUND: My Friendship with a Serial Killer.