Yes. The Black Bird true story confirms that James "Jimmy" Keene was a star football player and captain of Illinois' Kankakee Eastridge High School football team in the early 1990s. According to CNN, he didn't have enough money to keep up with the rich kids at school, so he started dealing drugs. Upon finishing high school, Jimmy didn't get recruited by any major universities. He instead embraced dealing drugs.
James "Jimmy" Keene was a drug dealer in Chicago who was arrested in 1996 by the DEA and FBI. He had been earning more than a million dollars annually and had become one of the Chicago area's biggest independent drug dealers. He used the money in part to bail his father, Big Jim Keene, out of debt and then to financially support him (CNN). Jimmy was convicted of trafficking drugs and sentenced to ten years in a minimum-security prison with no chance of parole. Federal prosecutor Lawrence "Larry" Beaumont (renamed Edmund Beaumont in the series) had advised him to plead guilty in hopes that he would be given a lighter sentence. Unfortunately, the plan didn't work and Jimmy was sentenced to a decade behind bars.
In researching the true story, we discovered that federal prosecutor Lawrence Beaumont believed that suspected mass murderer Larry DeWayne Hall was responsible for more than 20 killings. Of Larry Hall's victims, only one body has been discovered, that of Jessica Roach. -In with the Devil
Yes. Exploring the Black Bird fact vs. fiction, we learned that James Keene's father, who is portrayed mostly by the late Ray Liotta in the Apple TV+ miniseries, had been a decorated police chief in the Chicago area. He went by the name Big Jim Keene. The actor pictured below (right) portrays Big Jim Keene during his younger years.
Yes. In 1998, ten months into Keene's ten-year sentence (with no possibility of parole), federal prosecutor Lawrence Beaumont presented him with a deal. If he agreed to transfer to a maximum-security prison in Springfield, Missouri that housed the criminally insane and was able to get alleged serial killer Larry Hall to divulge information about the murder of Tricia Reitler, including the location of her body, Keene would be granted an early release from prison. Hall had previously confessed to Tricia's murder but recanted his confession the following day. At first, Keene said no to Beaumont's proposition, believing that it would be too dangerous.
"What happens when I gotta deal with all these crazy killers and stuff, you know. What if I get shanked? What if I get killed? I mean, am I gonna survive this?" Keene recalled wondering at the time. -Dateline
Yes. The federal prosecutor, Lawrence Beaumont, was concerned that Larry Hall's defense would succeed in getting his conviction overturned, resulting in the suspected serial killer to walk free. In fact, when Beaumont and Jimmy Keene met to discuss the deal, Hall was waiting for the court to consider his appeal. Sending Keene in undercover to befriend Hall was the prosecution's best shot at getting additional incriminating information, including the burial location of another one of Larry Hall's victims.
Concocted by federal prosecutor Lawrence "Larry" Beaumont, Keene's cover story while in the prison for the criminally insane was that he was a convicted weapons runner who was pushed over the edge upon learning he would have to serve 40 years in prison. Keene could relate to the cover story since he had felt a somewhat similar sense of shock when he learned he would have to serve ten years for his drug dealing.
Sepideh Moafi's character, Lauren McCauley, seems loosely based on retired FBI Special Agent Janet Butkus, who worked for the FBI in Springfield, Illinois at the time of James Keene's arrest and undercover work in the maximum-security prison MCFP Springfield. The miniseries fictionalizes her character a bit. Unlike Agent Lauren McCauley in the miniseries, Janet wasn't present during Keene's arrest, nor was she present when he was presented with the deal to go undercover into MCFP Springfield. Federal prosecutor Lawrence Beaumont (renamed Edmund Beaumont in the series) was the one who presented the deal to Keene.
Yes. Keene and Hall were watching America's Most Wanted (one of Hall's favorite shows) in a prison TV room when a large muscular inmate came in and abruptly changed the channel. Seeing an opportunity to gain Hall's trust, Keene got up and changed the channel back. The inmate jumped up and threatened Keene before he again switched the channel. Once more, Keene switched it back. The man approached Keene and took a wild swing at him but missed. Keene landed an uppercut, kicked the inmate through some chairs, and then got on top of him and gave him a beating. Like in the Apple TV+ miniseries, analyzing the Black Bird fact vs. fiction confirms that the incident strengthened Keene's bond with Hall. -Dateline
Yes, but it wasn't enough information to be able to convict Larry Hall of murder. The Black Bird true story reveals that James Keene did befriend Larry Hall and gained his trust. The two began having regular conversations. Eventually, Keene brought up Tricia Reitler, one of the young women Hall was suspected of killing. According to Keene's book In with the Devil, he got Hall to admit to burying Tricia Reitler's body "way out in the country." However, he was unable to get a precise location.
"Without Tricia Reitler's body, I did not accomplish my assignment," Keene states in the book, "and I didn't know what [the prosecutor] Beaumont was going to do about that."
Yes. Keene had called the number for his FBI contact and left a message telling them to come get him. He told them he had seen Larry Hall's map and the wood-carved falcons. He believed he had completed his mission and would be going home within 24 hours as they'd promised him. He decided to finally let out the disgust and anger toward Hall that he had been bottling up ever since Hall had opened up about some of his brutal crimes against young women.
"I went across to his cell over there," recalled Keene. "The repulsiveness I felt about him throughout the whole time I had to stay being his friend and the disdain and dislike I had for him, that I thought it was good for me to unload on him and tell him what I really thought of him and who he really was. I said, 'You know, I'm gonna be going home tomorrow, Larry,' and I said, 'You're a crazy killer,' and I started calling him everything you can think of."
Keene's FBI contact never got back to him, and his only contact inside the prison, the chief psychiatrist, was on vacation. The FBI's promise of getting him out within 24 hours of completing his assignment was about to fall through. Larry Hall's psychologist at the prison scolded Keene for upsetting Hall and turning him into an emotional wreck. She told the guards, "Grab him, take him, and throw him in the hole." The federal prosecutor, Lawrence Beaumont, didn't know what had transpired or where Keene went. It was as if Keene had disappeared. It wasn't until two weeks later when Keene's internal contact in the prison, the chief psychiatrist, returned from vacation and discovered what had happened.
No. In researching how accurate is Black Bird, we discovered that by the time James Keene got out of solitary two weeks later and was extracted from the prison, Larry Hall had hidden or disposed of his map and wood-carved falcons. The FBI apologized for not acting on Keene's message. His other contact, the prison's chief psychologist, apologized for being unreachable due to the fact she was on vacation.
James Keene was released from prison in 1999 after serving a total sentence of approximately 17 months for his role in a large-scale drug-dealing operation. His father, Big Jim Keene, was still alive at the time, and he got to spend five more years with him before his death in November 2004 at age 67. Keene eventually found success in real estate. He also wrote the 2010 book In with the Devil with author Hillel Levin about his experience going undercover.
Prior to Taron Egerton portraying him in the Apple TV+ Black Bird miniseries, Brad Pitt had expressed interest in bringing Keene's story to the screen. Keene would go on to serve as an executive producer on the Apple miniseries and could be seen at the Los Angeles premiere.
No. A Black Bird fact-check verifies that despite confessing to the murder of Laurie Depies in 1992 and to the kidnapping, rape and murder of 15-year-old Jessica Roach in 1993, Larry DeWayne Hall was never convicted of murder due to a lack of evidence to substantiate his claims. Like in the Apple TV+ miniseries, he had recanted his confessions and claimed they had been events in dreams he had.
Alleged mass murderer Larry Hall is currently imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, North Carolina where he is serving a life sentence with no chance at parole.