Murder in the Bayou

I saw the 6.8 rating and was so stunned at the low rating that I thought I'd do what I could to help the show and add my two cent.. I'll start by saying that I only started watching the show because I couldn't find anything else on and was looking for an hour to kill but after the first episode I was so hooked I needed to know more so I ended up watching the following three episodes.. I also see that the former sheriffs family member must've wrote a review because they rated it a 1/10 and said it "lacking of solid, critical thinking or the hard, neutral questioning that good investigations put forward" and called into question the credibility of the witnesses which is crazy because the people who were put in charge of protecting the people of Jenning's seemed way more crooked than any witnesses/suspects in the docuseries and the relationships that these deputies had with their "informants" were borderline criminal activities and that's not even mentioning the alleged drug use by members of the JPD or the "mishandling" of evidence by its members.. I'm soooo glad I watched the series because one thing I learned besides being born on the wrong side of the tracks isn't just a saying where I live I also learned that if I ever need to go to Houston I'll be sure to take the long way around and stay off the I-10 through Jennings, La.

Interesting and sad true story but very slow and a little scattered in my opinion. Kind of takes a long loop to get to each detail. Also repeats same info. Just wish it had been produced better.

This was a Showtime network presentation, I found it available as a 5-part series on a set of DVDs from my public library.

I grew up not far from Jennings, as college students we drove through Jennings on weekends to get to the night spots in Lake Arthur. Four of us even spent part of a night in the Jennings jail for mischief in 1965. So I have a natural curiosity for these yet unsolved murders over a 4-year time period 40 years later in the Jennings area. The area seems to have seriously gone downhill over the past 40+ years.

While the subject is always interesting 4.5 hours is a long time to spend watching more and more of what is basically the same result. So I watched the first and the last episodes completely. The gist is the Jennings locals, particularly family and friends of the eight victims, are frustrated by what they judge is lack of interest and lack of effort by law enforcement, including the FBI. Conversely law enforcement think they are doing everything they can to solve the crimes.

There definitely is a "power of the pen" at work here, the way the journalist put together the material for his book and ultimately the documentary. While he can't declare this without facing libel, he strongly suggests that more than one person in law enforcement are responsible for the murders, after each victim came to know too much and put the men in danger. The victims in general were young street ladies who were involved in the local drug and prostitution activities, and certain statements indicate certain law enforcement men were in on the action.

Overall a very interesting, if perhaps a bit too long, presentation of a yet unsolved crime spree. If nothing else it puts a face of reality on how difficult it is to investigate and solve crimes like these, it seldom works out quickly and neatly as we see on fictional movie and TV murder cases in small communities.

To the person who says he will avoid Jennings when traveling by highway east or west, I say don't worry, I-10 only passes on the extreme north boundary of Jennings, you'll not really see Jennings unless you head south on highway 26.

I thought it was made well and it's very emotionally compelling. My main point of anger was when Ricky says something about how he highly doubts any cop in the state would assist in a cover up. I mean first, of course you'd say that as the sheriff potentially covering something up, why is your word enough? And second that's just factually incorrect. Louisiana is know for having a bad issue with police corruption and malpractice, a problem they are still fixing to this day. It's literal fact, Louisiana is just recently seeing results from starting to reform. Hell even when he was interviewed it was a known fact Louisiana had issues with corrupt police offices and were attempting to fix it. You as the sheriff being all sweaty and shifty and acting like it's ridiculous to insinuate that there could be a cover up in Louisiana? I mean shut up.

What a tragic story - 8 unsolved murders whose investigation was epically bungled by this small town's stereotypical hillbilly police department. The families of these women have had to live with not knowing the truth about how and why their loved ones died. The level of sheer incompetence of law enforcement in this town would be amusing if there weren't real people suffering because of it. Bring in some outside investigators, the homegrown yahoo cops aren't capable of getting the job done.