DISTRICT 9 - The genesis of Neill Blomkamp's dystopian allegory

I'm old enough now that I can draw circles around genres which once excited publishers and Hollywood agents, but which were just as quickly discarded. Can you recall for instance, the sinister South African gangsters and rogue Apartheid agents who once populated movies like Lethal Weapon 2 and books like VORTEX the Larry Bond thriller?
The genre exploded in the late 1980s when the Soviet Union collapsed and fiction producers were suddenly desperate to find a viable alternative to the KGB. The nemesis for the 90s had to be a viable stereotype, and one which was hated by a broad demographic. Apartheid-era South Africans were perceived as vile villains who fit the Bill. They were after all, sophisticated, cunning, privileged and desperate to survive.

Well sir, our world changed too quickly. The mafia emerged as the new Russian strongmen and Muslim terrorists were a gift to our pop culture, scarier than the KGB ever was. As for the Republic of South Africa, the A.N.C. regime is already into its third president and a couple of million black kids were born under A.N.C. slogans and promises. Those who didn't like "the New South Africa" simply left, and now constitute an extremely tame diaspora in their adoptive countries. That said, a South African born Canadian has just crafted his first feature film, and his unique vision might trigger something akin to a new genre. That would be fun !Where CHARLIE JADE , the Canadian-funded South African television series failed, perhaps DISTRICT 9 the riskier Science Fiction - allegory may just succeed in stirring our imagination.

In 2005 Neill Blomkamp and friends crafted a six minute short called ALIVE IN JOBURG. The server couldn't keep up with the demand and the film became an Internet phenomenon. Peter Jackson was impressed and invited Blomkamp to try the creative atmosphere in New Zealand.

PART ONE: Original Sin

Neill Blomkamp arrived in Vancouver, B.C. with a South African high school diploma and a burgeoning talent for computer graphics. It seems he was not born with "original sin" as his family had avoided the taint of active participation in the organs of "White Rule". Neill never could wash the R.S.A. out of his hair, and so after some training here in computer VFX he secured steady employment and made it a personal priority to return to his native land each summer and discuss creative collaboration with young filmmakers who had stayed behind.

My research into Blomkamp's life shows that he has surprising depth, and that he will not shy from social issues that would crucify less sure men. With this movie, DISTRICT 9, Blomkamp is engaging in political allegory every bit as clever and biting as George Orwell pulled off with ANIMAL FARM several decades ago. We are witnessing a creative concept which is unique and possibly significant.

A production still from DISTRICT 9, a low budget Science Fiction - Allegory produced by Director Peter Jackson. The movie goes into general release on August 14. The INDEPENDENCE DAY type Alien spacecraft of Blomkamp's 2005 short, has been replaced by vessels equally sinister looking.

When SONY announced this project back in November of 2007, I was impressed by Blomkamp's tenacity and skill at getting the "Big Boys" to trust his creative judgement. The Fan Blogs are currently busy scraping up every studio dangle or minute clue needed to assemble a prediction of what this movie will look like. It is clear that the viral marketing campaign for the film has only succeeded in creating confusion, which is never a good thing in marketing. (see for example this site) A few leaked photos from the production show us a small outdoor set representing the entrance gate to DISTRICT 9. They confirm that production money was very tight, as does the Casting which was also very low budget.

We were told that Blomkamp co-wrote the DISTRICT 9 script with "his partner" Terri Tatchell. Now that's rather extraordinary. Blomkamp is certainly a wunderkind, but Ms. Tatchell has no S.F. track record whatsoever, except in her relations with Blomkamp. Tatchell attended the Vancouver Film School in 2001, earning her diploma in Writing for Film, Television & New Media. She then got a job at Rainmaker Studio under the late Bob Scarabelli, and was designated as Rainmaker's "Industry Relations Co-ordinator". At the same time she joined the Board of the Vancouver chapter of Women in Film and Television. (She served one term as its President but is no longer a member.) This thumbnail photo, which dates to 2003, is still archived on the WIFTV web page:It was at Rainmaker that Terri met Neill, who was then employed in VFX. She has no experience with Science Fiction and probably no cultural knowledge of South Africa beyond what she has picked up through Neill. Tatchell's best known creative effort is actually a stage play written for high school students, which is added to the curriculum of some schools because it teaches kids about the legal fight to gain Canadian women the vote. It's called "Woman Idiot Lunatic Criminal" and tells the story of a girl transported back to 1910 to meet her Suffragette great-grandmother. (The story takes its name from the awkward wording of the Canada Elections Act of 1918.) I'm not trying to pick on the lady but the truth is that while Neill was sequestered for most of last year directing the movie, Tatchell was back here in B.C. involved in her own thing. I can't believe she added much to the movie project, but who knows?

In PART TWO of this article I plan to comment on some of the creative aspects of DISTRICT 9.

UPDATE: It seems that the makers of DISTRICT 9 have themselves shill over on Wikipedia. In my naivete (When will I EVER learn?) I decided to contribute a few helpful sentences to the Wiki page that was created for this flic. In FOUR minutes some creepy wiki-guardian had removed my contribution. Some techno-Hobbit down in New Zealand perhaps.

"British Columbia or Columbia?" - THE ECONOMIST

The B.C. drug culture and trigger happy Narco-thugs continue to give our province a sorry-ass reputation in the Global media. The most recent example of ugly headlines is in the current edition of THE ECONOMIST. Here is how it begins:

If you wish to read the entire article, here is the jump: BRITISH COLUMBIA OR COLUMBIA? So if we are being compared to Columbia, what has been happening below the equator this week? Here is a taste:

Actresses perform among a display photos of people allegedly murdered or abducted by Colombia's security forces and paramilitary groups. The event was a part of a protest against state violence held in Bogota, Colombia on May 29, 2009. (AP Photo)

Since our federal police have not seen the need to organize anything resembling a Columbian death squad, and even the looniest of our left-anarchist "activists" have yet to resort to kidnapping, it is obvious that the ECONOMIST is punching below the belt.

S.F.U. Graduate Film Screening 2009

Simon Fraser University has one of the busiest film schools in B.C., and an even more versatile program is in the offing. The January 2010 session will see a legion of very lucky novice filmmakers moving into spanking new digs at the SFU production facility being fitted with state-of-the-art gear, in downtown Vancouver.

On April 30th I had the pleasure of attending the "31st Annual" SFU Grad Film screening at Granville Cinema 7. The event showcased the creative talent of the last crop of students to use the old gear on the Burnaby Mountain campus. The evening offered an entertaining melody of 19 mini-movies which in turn charmed, dazzled and sometimes bemused. SFU Film Instructor Colin Browne admitted up front that they're not exactly sure this was the "31st annual screening" (the department flew by the seat of its pants in the late '70s), but they're pretty sure.

My ticket came courtesy of my son, a third year film student who worked on four of the films I would enjoy - as a sound designer, grip/dolly grip, a cast member or as sound recordist. I enjoyed every film, but I wouldn't be human if I didn't compare and sort my viewing into mental folders. That's part of the fun.

CATECHISM, by Jessica Moorhouse, was an obvious crowd-pleaser. It is the story of a young lass who struggles to reconcile her carnal urges with the dictates her "Catholic" upbringing. (The Ten Commandants are reduced to four ... it's a West Coast thing.) While I was a tad bemused by the mixing of the Catholic confessional with frequent dissolves into a Baptist-style angst over "what the Bible sez", I found CATECHISM a genuine laugh fest. The entire audience loved Jessica's casting of a Bobble-Head Jesus.

SQUADRON 5 was a brave attempt at a Science Fiction epic, and the hard work of Director Barry Liu shows throughout. Squadron 5 was also the only story film not produced in English. It was my first exposure to a Cantonese S.F. movie (with English subtitles) and it is evidence of the multicultural flavour of the Simon Fraser campus, although not enough Chinese youths choose film making. Mr. Google tells me that Al Leung, one of the actors featured in SQUADRON 5, has a webpage.

BOXED IN could have been produced by American International Pictures in the 1970's. Instead the splatter-comedy script had to wait for Kial Natale to be born and to choose film school. The movie a real hoot and the audience loved it. I don't know if the old guy who played Santa Claus was a professional actor or a talented rubby-dub the Director found on Hastings Street, but he was sure fun to watch.

There is a perky trailer posted for the Grad Film Screening. It's found at: http://www.sfufilm.ca/4thyear/ There can be no doubt that several of the 2009 graduate films are going to be entered in film festivals, where I hope you will encounter them.

Kim Bolan exposes a dangerous ex-Mountie

Suddenly Vancouver gang reporting is less boring. I urge you to read Kim Bolan in THE VANCOUVER SUN today: "Ex-cop allegedly pretended to be IHIT member to locate Bacon brothers". We knew that local gangs had infiltrated the real estate industry, that they have lawyers, accountants and even members of the Canadian Border Service on their payroll... but here is something of greater enormity - the precedent of a turned cop begins to make the storyline of local gang wars begin to smell like the legal debacle over the AIR INDIA terrorism case. Once again there is no clear delineation between the good and the bad. Mr. Sidhu needs to get his side of the story before the public, perhaps through a lawyer, because this story has pinned him to the mat.

Ms. Bolan has so thoroughly "outed" Mr. Sidhu today, on the first strafing of her target, that it appears she believes Sidhu is guilty of darker deeds than merely breaching RCMP operational security. That is my impression but you should read the article and form your own conclusions.

This Vancouver SUN graphic accompanies Kim Bolan's hard-hitting page one article. She strips away the official secrecy surrounding the prosecution of disgraced Mountie Rapinder (Rob) Sidhu.

Rapinder (Bob) Sidhu... once an ornament of RCMP "minority hiring"... eleven years an RCMP officer... resigned from the force in July 2003 as a result of domesticate violence complaints... charged with fraud soon thereafter, and known to associate with gang figures... Bolan paints a very murky picture, and then she dismantles Sidhu's front operation - a supposed Private Investigations business called IMAX Investigational Group.

Sidhu posed as a serving officer to successfully breach RCMP security on July 31, 2007 ... was charged in January 2008.... and will finally have his case presented in court on June 17.

Ms. Bolan, while serving a generous dollop of information, including the fact that Rapinder (Rob) Sidhu "had been an undercover operator" while serving in the RCMP, leaves many pertinent questions unanswered. Did Constable Sidhu work undercover here in B.C.? Did Sidhu contribute anything of consequence to the Air India Task Force (acknowledged to be Ms. Bolan's journalistic bailiwick) and if not, what important cases does he carry in his memory? And most important, had any Vancouver Sun reporters ever been briefed by Constable Sidhu or his immediate RCMP coworkers, during those eleven years he served with the Force? Bolan knows virtually every Sikh in Vancouver who has worn a badge, or timed out, so it would be useful to know her earlier impressions of Rapinder Sidhu. Such details have a bearing on how he has been handled to date, and how he will be dealt with in court.

P.M. UPDATE : I thought to take a peak at Ms. Bolan's blog, and I note that she specifies that Sidhu worked on drug cases. Bolan also says, and this is interesting..."I tried to get Sidhu, calling his home and even driving out there Friday evening to knock on his door and leave a note requesting an interview when no one answered. I did finally get a call back from his lawyer Matt Nathanson, who said Sidhu is presumed innocent and will defend the accusations in court. I'll be watching that trial."Mr. Sidhu is now represented by lawyer Matthew Nathanson, a legal beagle frequently mentioned in Bolan crime stories.

The New Mounties and Reefer Madness

Maintiens Le Droit... "Uphold the law". It's the official motto of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and, until recently, the reliable code of constable conduct. They're stern words from a sterner era. Most military and police units in our nation's history preferred to use Latin phrases on their badges but when John A. Macdonald deployed N.W.M.P. troopers to quell the Louis Riel's rebellious Metis, the Mountie motto was French. So it remains, as does the "iconic" red serge tunic.

Here in B.C., with a boring provincial election underway, at least one party is advocating something novel - the cancellation of long standing Federal policing contracts and the reinstatement of the old B.C. Provincial Police. Jane Sterk, leader of the B.C. Green Party added that little gem to the Green plartform, along with a banning of Tasers. The predictable response of Gordon Campbell, Liberal party boss was "The fact of the matter is the RCMP is the provincial police force and it does an extremely good job across the province." Gordo will never discuss any idea which his own policy wonks did not originate. A pity that, because if the gold plated security component of the 2010 Olympics Budget shows us anything, it is that the real cost of federal troopers is unsustainable in the 21st Century.
You'll find a taste of the bitter truth reported in todays SUN: "Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit has announced it will pay $79.8 million for three cruise ships to house about 5,000 security personnel in Vancouver during the 2010 Games."
This doctored image, created by Taylor Rivard for his "Proud Smoke" cannabis webpage , depicts the RCMP insignia modified to reflect the current hiring policy of Canada's national police force.

One of the most popular Vancouver news stories last week was a piece written by Chad Skelton for the SUN [April 13]. It described Mr. Amyn Dharamshi, the inept ex-Mountie who lost his fat wallet back in 2005, which contained his RCMP ID, a baggie of marijuana, a package of Zig Zag cigarette papers and his "RCMP student-loan documents". (Who even knew there was such a thing an RCMP student loan!) The tattling tale, sans photo of course, was the delight of the Internet. Dharamshi was "suspended with pay"and used the appeals process for four years (on salary) before finally resigning. What I found astounding was not that he smoked dope or lied about it, but that he tried to implicate his brother, whom he claimed had "borrowed his wallet for a few days". There was an avalanche of opinion-posting when the story appeared, but the Net-signature is fast evaporating, and soon you will need the Wayback Machine to excavate the bones.

The wretched Dharamshi story must be assessed in combination with a CBC report which was published two weeks earlier, because the two are directly related. I say "published," but hasten to add that it was completely ignored by other media. An internal memo acquired by the CBC has revealed that RCMP recruiters will now "permit consideration of mitigating factors in all cases of criminal activity, which may include drug trafficking, etc." In other words we are living in a country where the heavily armed illegal drug industry has the upper hand, but also where the national police cannot manage to find recruits who have lived a life without illegal substances.

Screen shot of the March 27th CBC story revealing that RCMP recruiters no longer plans to exclude all drug users from serving on the force.


I have a big problem with the current decline in RCMP culture. Watering the vintage to serve a self absorbed population is unacceptable. I for one have never used any illegal drug, including marijuana, and I am proud of having lived my life with no more serious encounter with the police than a few speeding tickets. Quite frankly, we should be able to expect that an officer who approaches the car window has a character equal to, if not exceeding our own. That is not too much to ask. The RCMP and the poll-addicted politicians have to understand that if they lose the trust and cooperation of my generation, it matters not if they regain physical control of the streets. We have a thousand subtle or subversive ways of expressing our dissatisfaction with public employees who have lost their way. All of them legal.

A crowd of 5000 (VPD estimate) gathered in solidarity for National Pot Smoking Day, the "420" protest in Vancouver, held on Monday afternoon. The banner reads "HELP MAKE CANNABIS THE LOWEST POLICE PRIORITY". Clearly that was the case, as uniformed VPD officers politely observed the happy assembly.

TV Video of yesterday's "420 protest" was broadcast at noon today and it was obvious that the happy crowd was dragging extra hard on their cannabis in order to produce an impressive cloud of smoke. Bravo! Perhaps they could be persuaded to re-assemble and perform the feat at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Olympics. Now that is a stunt which would garner their cause some "World Class" media coverage, and for only a half hour of effort. They already know the VPD and RCMP will not intervene. Legal precedent is truly a modern marvel.

Fear and Loathing in Vancouver

Vancouver's gang war, the UN Gang vs Red Scorpions, got boring, so I had stopped commenting on it months ago. The police chief recently admitted on camera that local politicians had been twisting his arm, demanding he not admit what all the bodies in the gutter imply... that it is a war. Many of you get your daily drip of gore from the Vancouver SUN, which gooses each edition with crime news, and links news coverage to Bolan's Blog on the same website. The SUN is now requiring its writing staff to participate in building a web-presence for the newspaper...The inevitable is just over the horizon. The expensive printing and distribution crews will get their pink slips... look for it in 2012, and the paper will go to online subscription.

This morning's SUN story on the Bacon family appearing at the courthouse, featured handsome Jarrod Bacon looking like he wanted to audition for a part in a Bond movie. His photo prompts an anecdote shared with me last week by a Grade 12 student who had just taken his Transitions Exit Interview, a process required by the B.C. curriculum. The student wanted to impress, so he bought a new suit and had his hair cut for the interview. He told me that when he walked into the room the first words out of the teacher's mouth were, "Wow, you look just like a UN gang member!"

I found his story a tad funny because it indicates an apparent shift in local perceptions of criminality. We have a whole new image of what might now be making many local women jittery. Good looking young men... those who keep themselves fit and are well groomed and well dressed, may now be deemed physically threatening.

This prompts the question, "What is the investigative profile of the man who killed Wendy Ladner-Beaudry at Pacific Spirit Park last Friday?" The brutal death of Ms. Ladner, who was a member of Vancouver's ruling elite, has shocked fellow residents of the West Side, those who have always believed that money and class insulated them from the more sordid aspects of Vancouver's social evolution. Are the police looking for some bedraggled, long haired transient, or are the looking for some buffed up young bloke, who was seen in expensive runners and designer sunglasses? Ms. Ladner's husband insists that his wife would have met any attacker with a barrage of blows. It was interesting to read that, in spite of their being overtaxed by almost daily gang killings, the V.P.D. was able to deploy 75 officers and 20 vehicles to the scene of Ms. Ladner's murder, and maintain those assignments ever since. Apparently we have more law enforcement capability than we've been told.

And what to make of the recent Paul Rogers story "FROM HEAVEN TO HELL" published in the THE INDEPENDENT ? (Many opinions held by Vancouver residents are posted online under Rogers' article. Have a read.) Rogers, a visiting scholar at SFU, bit into some tender political flesh with that story. Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson and B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell offered reporters an identical denunciation - "a cheap shot", apparently annoyed that foreign media are unwilling to fall into lockstep with the local media.

Mr. Beaudry, who is distraught and angry, told the Vancouver Courier "If there's any good in this, it's that we can't give in to terror. We can't fold. Terror is a great tool, but we can't let terror take over."

Linda Lorraine Howe (seen here in Dec. 2008 Xmas party photo) alleges that she was allowed to slip through the mesh of Canada's social safety net.

What are we to make of Linda Howe? This is the woman who recently brandished two weapons inside a nursing home at Gibson's B.C., when attendants tried to evict her from a room she was no longer entitled to. Ms. Howe's response was to barricade herself in the room. After shooting an attendant she had to be taken down by a police tactical unit. I can understand how Ms. Howe managed to conceal a small Argentinian auto pistol in her room, but how did she manage to cache a .303 Enfield Rifle?

Ms. Howe is here seen in a surveillance photo, taken inside her room at the care home.

Linda Lorraine Howe of Gibsons, B.C. was armed with a 7.65 Bersa auto pistol, which was manufactured in Argentina in the 1970s. Which of her beau's was stupid enough to give this gun to a woman with emotional problems?

Ms. Howe has been alleging for years that our "system" has let her down. Which node of the system in particular? DND, ICBC, BC Health, et al. Howe has told anyone who will listen that she is a Canadian "veteran" of the Gulf War, suffering from "post Traumatic Stress Disorder". Her family have told news media that she made up the Gulf War service but I read in today's GLOBE AND MAIL that she enrolled in a Vancouver Military Reserve Unit for a few months in 1990. On the strength of that abortive attempt to fit in, the GLOBE today dubs Ms. Howe a "Veteran". How does someone who doesn't take enough reserve training to get Trade Qualified, warrant the honour of "Veteran"? Gee whiz !

This screen capture is precious, isn't it? Ms. Howe's crimes are deemed "alleged" but the neophyte reporter confirms her supposed status as a "military veteran". (Based on a few months on the nominal roll of reserve unit.) Ouch. I guess we really did let Linda down.

DEC. 20, 2010 - we learn today that Ms. Howe was sentenced to seven years of detention.

TRUE CRIME - But where is the Poetry?

I made only one New Year's Resolution, and until now I've kept it to myself. My resolve is to no longer write Blog articles about Vancouver Crime. Not because I have lost interest, but rather to devote more time to an allied creative pursuit - writing and producing documentary film. I am still interested in turning over stones in B.C.'s gangland graveyard, but I will be recording with HDvideo from here on in. My Blog intention for 2009 is to confine my discourse to crimes which are already entrenched in the public imagination in the context of Popular Culture - the movies, novels, graphic illustration, games and documentary film.


Serious books on Vancouver TRUE CRIMES do not appear with any frequency, and when top drawer B.C. criminals are committed to hard covers the prose are predominantly derived from old newspaper files. Most of these books, often written by Vancouver reporters who covered events for Pacific Press, I have found unreadable and I rarely bother to finish. I thought such disappointment was mine alone, but here is a corroborative and harsher view, expressed by a reviewer on the weekend: "I don't read true crime for good writing, and neither does anyone else. (Fortunately, because it's in short supply). I read it because I want to learn about a given case. Ann Rule hasn't sold a bajillion books because she's such a fantastic wordsmith; her prose is mediocre at best. But she knows how to identify a juicy story, she knows how to get access to everyone involved with it, and she knows how to keep it moving."


In fact there are many well written TRUE CRIME books kicking around, but few were penned by Canadians. The first of the genre I encountered was probably Vince Bugliosi's HELTER SKELTER (1974) which alerted me to the possibilities. Plenty of the kids in our impoverished housing project were living on Welfare, as were we, and many I knew of were already seasoned shoplifters or housebreakers. Membership in the Book-of-the-Month Club and a library card kept me safe. They dubbed me "the Professor"... as in "Hey Professor... want a kick in the face?"


THE BOSTON STRANGLER
I had long neglected to read THE BOSTON STRANGLER. I knew I should, but I let it slide. Boston in the early 1960s went through the disruption of Urban Renewal demolition of old slums and it shared a long history of neglect (as well as old family ties) with my hometown, Saint John, N.B.
In May 2006 VANITY FAIR magazine rekindled my interest in Albert DeSalvo, with a splash excerpt from Sebastian Junger's book A DEATH IN BELMONT. Soon enough I acquired his book and ... what a gyp!... realized that everything pertinent was already in the V.F. article. The bulk of the book is padding, as Junger has the Ripperologist gene - each of them simply must add to the suspect list. 'Else why write a book at all?

Fortuitously, in mid-2008 I chanced upon the real thing - Gerold Frank's THE BOSTON STRANGLER. The 1967 paperback edition was mint and unread, as if someone had purchased a copy and sealed it in a plastic evidence bag for me to unseal 41 years later. I took that as an omen and proceeded to surrender a weekend to reading it with great care. Oh bliss!

The first paperback edition (1967) of THE BOSTON STRANGLER, written by Gerold Frank. It won Frank his second EDGAR AWARD for True Crime writing.

I was initially put off by Frank's use of pseudonyms for several Boston area criminals and for victims of sexual assault who were fortunate in not having been murdered during DeSalva. That is until I realized that they were needed only to establish patterns of behaviour and the innovation pioneered by investigators, some of whom were forced to reinvent how they went about doing their jobs. The sheer volume of work created by the case was unprecedented. The detail and depth of Frank's own analysis is phenomenal, and it dovetails nicely with a few of my biographical research interests. That's always a bonus for a serious reader.

No author since 1963 has had the access Frank was allowed, largely due to his connections in publishing and law enforcement. When Frank assumed the project he was just still enjoying the accolades of another crime book called THE DEED, (which won him an EDGAR award) an account of the trial of two Jewish assassins who murdered Lord Moyne in Cairo in 1944. Frank had reported on the wartime trial during "the terror" and he returned in 1961 to interview all surviving participants. Thus when he went to Boston he was working in the genre he was already celebrated for advancing. It is also worth noting that Frank had some film background, having written and directed a documentary in the 1930s on Jewish migration out of the Polish Ghettos. His ambition had been to become a poet but a circuitous journey took him to journalism and finally, writing biography. A vast body of knowledge left this earth when Gerold Frank died.

This 1963 photo, taken at the height of the Strangler scare, shows the type of desperate measures just one of many thousands of terrified Boston women employed to protect themselves. In every attack DeSalvo gained entry through cunning persuasion.



A Canadian book boasting of EXPO 67's accomplishments had this to say. "What Cubism was to painting before the First World War, Expo cinema was to the movies." Multi-screen projection, combined with multi-image composition, was a staple at many of the pavilions. Director Richard Fleischer attended the Montreal Expo and insisted upon using the same techniques in own project - THE BOSTON STRANGLER (1968). Split image and montage were used extensively in the superb STRANGLER film, which featured Tony Curtis in the best performance of his career.
KILLER KOMIX 2 (Pub. in 2000) was a homage to legendary serial killers, produced by creative team in Manchester, England. They strove to be offensive, but in a humorous spirit. The Strangler strip is built around the appearance of Dutch Psychic Peter Hurkos in the case, and lifted whole from Gerold Frank's best selling book. Hurkos was a minor celebrity in his time, who was featured in two episodes of ONE STEP BEYOND (available on DVD from Echo Bridge).
Early in 2008 VARIETY announced that Brian DePalma had acquired the rights to one of the books on the Boston Strangler, and was in pre-production on a movie. Since that book debunks the (I believe) reasonable assumption that DeSalvo's confession is valid, I assume that DePalma's film will have a more ambiguous conclusion. Ambiguity may not play well in an expensive feature film, but then again the success of any movie these days is a crap-shoot.