Assurance sur la mort

John Dillmann was a highly-decorated, veteran Homicide Detective for the New Orleans Police Department. This movie, based on Dillmann's true crime book of the same name, details one of his more interesting cases. It actually happened in much the way it is depicted here, except that it actually happened in New Orleans, Louisiana, and not Phoenix, Arizona. It should be noted that Dillmann in real life is a lot more professional than he's depicted in this movie.

This incident was first reported as a 'routine' hit-and-run fatality accident in East New Orleans, and due to pressure from the victim's family, the case got bumped over to the Homicide Division. The victim, by the way, was a very pretty girl visiting New Orleans on her honeymoon! Dillmann got the case and, after speaking with the girl's family and checking the incident report, quickly realized that something far more sinister had actually transpired. The book is excellent; I wish the movie was as high quality an item.

I rate it 7 out of 10.

This is unreal. I know this case very well and even helped investigate it many years ago. The comment that Giesick was not pardoned was totally untrue. Unfortunately, Louisiana Legislators in their infinite wisdom passed a law that gave first offenders a full pardon upon completion of their sentences. Giesick definitely received his pardon over our objections.

As for doing our research, Giesick was never paroled. Never paroled!!! He was released after nearly 12 years under the good time law. He had completed his sentence with nearly 9 years of good time credit. These are the facts and any reference to his receiving a parole is fictitious or not properly researched by someone who only claims to know the facts.

As for the plea bargain, it was the only path to get the really guilty person, Sam Corey. Had Giesick not agreed to the plea bargain, there would have been no conviction for either. And if anyone wishes to condemn those of us who helped get the plea bargain they need to do their research and seek their facts. Just like the book, stating things in this column doesn't make them facts. And what about the three others involved that served not a day in prison and were not charged at all? To make such flagrant statements you need to be better informed. We worked hard on this case to get a conviction and simply do not deserve this criticism from someone falsely claiming to be knowledgeable in this matter.

As for the book, we addressed the inaccuracies with the publisher, author, and the authorities. Did your "research" show this? No, it didn't or these comments would not appear in this area of the internet.

As a retired investigator, I can only feel that someone is using this venue to air a grudge against Giesick and I'm dismayed that the owners of this venue allowed it to happen.

And for the record, I have met with Giesick on many occasions since his release. I can personally vouch that he neither scams, cons, lies to, or cheats anyone that I am aware of. Correct me with facts based on your research and I will be open to checking your facts.

Let's put this to sleep. Giesick has paid his debt to society under the law and deserves to be left alone. He's a productive member of our society in spite of the unchristian attacks on him based on 32 year old facts that have since had the "benefit of a doubt" cast on them.

I also know Jim, I worked with him after he served his time and even though I believe he did his time and is regretful. I was very young when I worked with him and even though I have never been a push over or easily intimidated by others, Jim could achieve it easily, Jim often called my by his murdered wife's name, usually acting as if he didn't know he did it, once my employers wife overheard him calling me Patricia, she informed me that I looked like Patricia. And even though this made me extremely nervous he never acted out of line with me. Jim was always nice to me and taught me much about computers, but there was always a nervous feeling I could not shake when alone with him, a feeling that Jim likes to play psychological games with the people around him, I suspect like many people he likes to see how far he can push, but despite this he always behaved in courteous manner. I knew Jim over 15 years ago, while prison and trying to build a new life with the prison counselor he married was still relatively fresh, he endured a lot and needs to be left alone unless he's breaking the law. We all have demons, some more than others.

I'm not sure where the movie was filmed except some of the the court room scenes. They were filmed in downtown Phoenix, AZ in the old courthouse across the street from Maricopa County Superior Court where I worked for 5 years. I took vacation for a week to be on the set as an extra and had a full change of clothes for each day of the courtroom filming. Sometimes, they filmed 2 days in one 8-hour day so it was something of mayhem.

It was an interesting experience. I was part of the courtroom audience and sat behind Charles Durning who later danced the tango with me in the hallway during a break. Awesome experience! Richard Cox and I discussed the many different dialects for the Southern cultures (he represented a Southern lawyer in the movie) and Michael O'Keefe gave me an autograph but wasn't up for much discussion. Patrick Duffy called me "Sarge" the whole week because I'm a veteran :) Very nice fella.

I'm thinking parts of the movie were also filmed in New Orleans but I'm not really sure. I watched the movie when it hit the airwaves and walked away from it feeling like they left some vital parts out of the story although I had never read or heard of it as it seemed a bit inconsistent and left me with a lot of questions. Based on the other reviews here, seems like I might benefit from reading the book.

After listening to ugly comments by the owner of an Austin computer store with a location here in Fredericksburg, several of us purchased this book and read it. We know Jim Giesick and enjoy his warm smile and open sense of humor. He's brought promptness and honesty for computer people back to our area. This owner from Austin has repeatedly made appointments and not shown up, crashed computer systems and made us pay for both his error and for someone to return and repair it. Jim Giesick may have been the monster in this book at one time, but today he's a generous, funny, talented, and WELCOME citizen of Fredericksburg. Jim openly speaks of this incident and you can see the remorse in his eyes. He's served his time and is now giving his time to help others. We love him here.