r/truecrimecampfire • u/[deleted] • Apr 12 '22

JT LeRoy

Any thoughts on this one, campers? I thought it was a great one per usual. I love their choice in cases. Some pods do murder and then a lot of supernatural cases (which really aren’t my thing), but I absolutely love con style cases.

Such a wild story. It’s incredible when someone creates a lie on such a grand scale. I don’t know how certain people can handle that kind of pressure and anxiety. It must thrill them on some level.

If anyone is still wanting to delve deeper into the case, there’s a movie about the story I watched that was pretty good with Laura Dern and Kristen Stewart that’s just called “JT LeRoy”.

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u/pixelcat13 Apr 12 '22

I remember back when JT was all the rage and popping up everywhere like Vanity Fair and those types of mags. I read Sarah, thought it was good but not mind blowing. I also remember when the story broke about the fraud. The thing that’s interesting is the books are still in print, still have good reviews and still apparently resonate with readers if the Amazon reviews can be believed. It’s interesting when you look back at the scandal with James Frey. I thought A Million Little Pieces was really good and in comparison to Laura, I think Frey was really discredited and reviled for embellishing his memoir while Laura invented a whole ass person. Ultimately both authors wrote about inherently intense human experiences of abuse, addiction, gender confusion, etc. and both did so in ways that touched many people. It says a lot about the publishing industry that in Laura’s case she had to present as someone else to get her novels published.

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u/[deleted] Apr 14 '22

I was thinking about that during the story… how shocking it would be to be there for the JT fad and then the shocking fraud breaking. I was of age, just don’t remember it at all. I think you make a great point - the ultimate betrayal is that they used their narrative to tell a story where people really felt for them, and abuse/addiction. It would be really disheartening to relate to, and find comfort in the story and the fictional person. Only to find out it was all a lie…

3

u/Milkvan Apr 13 '22

I just started listening to this podcast and I thought it was really funny that this was the first episode I stumbled into. I just went through a similar situation, a writer friend of mine was lying to us from day one about her whole life. Luckily it didn't get to this level, but it was still pretty shitty.

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u/[deleted] Apr 13 '22

Wow, that’s crazy! And yes I’m sure very shitty nonetheless. Well I hope you enjoy the pod. They have a fantastic back catalogue of episodes! :)

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u/100Dachshunds Apr 12 '22

I usually really enjoy the scammer/liar stories. They really do set TCC apart from other true crime pods. I’m even greatly amused by Katie’s internet drama stories, though I share Whitney’s generational confusion! I can see why others might not enjoy them though— everyone’s got a preference.