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This is Later with Lee Matthews,
the Lee Matthews Podcast More What You Here

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Weekday Afternoon's on the Drive. He's
a Court TV anchor and also a lawyer

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and former prosecutor. Vinnie Politan has
been covering the world of crime and justice

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for over twenty years, and he
parleys all that experience into this new original

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ten episode documentary on Court TV.
Accomplice to Murder with Vinnie Politan. Accomplice

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to Murder with Billy Politan looks beyond
the usual suspects to tell the gripping stories

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of everyday people caught up in the
world of deception and manipulation. Welcome Vinnie,

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Thanks for having me. You know, we kind of have our own

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version of that. That just happened. Earlier this month, Jesse McFadden at

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a convicted sex offender, talked us. He got out early, talked his

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way into the life of a woman
named Holly and her three kids, married

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her, was about to go to
court from more sex crimes when he shot

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and killed the whole family in himself. It's these stories, these cases are

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always tough. You know. I'm
a former prosecutor and my approach to you

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know, my coverage of these investigations
and trials and everything is For years,

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I've always looked at things through the
filter of the victims and trying to um

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understand and tell their stories as well, because in our system of justice,

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right you go to trial, everything's
about the defendant, the suspect, you

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know, his or her rights,
The trial about what he or she did,

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who he or she is, and
sometimes the victims get lost in all

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of it. And I've always attempted
to make sure the victim doesn't get lost.

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And you know, I hear a
story like that and I'm like,

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wow, that's that. That's brutal. You know, obviously people who lose

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their lives are victims, but people
everyone's connected to them, family members,

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and it's tough stuff. He stuff, Well, are most of the cases

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that you're dealing with here? Are
they psychopaths? Well, here's the thing,

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right, You know, a lot
of trials, you'll hear criminal defense

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attorneys say why would he do this? Or why would he do that?

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Who would do that? And I
don't I can't believe someone would do that.

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And sometimes they hear the viewers you
know, on social media place and

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guests that I have saying, well, no, one would ever do that.

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You have to get into a different
place, you know, because like

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you and I and the folks listening, we think one way. Someone who

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is capable taking someone else's life,
they have a different, different wiring,

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a different value system, They see
the world differently. So I think we

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come across many who are literal psychopaths
who feel nothing for other humans, and

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others who are just so narcissistic that
they only see the world and how it

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affects them. So I think every
murderer that I've covered through the years,

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there is something wrong with them,
and there's probably some level of mental illness,

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not to be confused with legal insanity, which in some states as a

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defense, but all of them there
is something different, There is something wrong,

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and that's why I believe you take
a life, you should at a

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minimum serve your life, because you
are just different than the rest of us

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and are dangerous. Court TV lead
anchor Vinnie Politan of accomplice to murder with

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Vinnie Politan, what is it about
true crime that it just seems so delicious

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to people? It's yeah, and
it's never been more delicious than it is

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now. Incredibly, I think it's
it's about the relationships and the stories.

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You know, a lot of people
think it's the gruesomeness of the crime.

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You know, for some people it's
that, But to me, it's really

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the story. And it comes back
to that. What we find is that

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the trials that have the most that
generate the most buzz, are the ones

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with these stories that we have to
tell. Like we just came off the

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Murdoch trial in South Carolina, Alec
Murdoch, and it was a murder,

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it was a duber. We've covered
lots of double murders, but it was

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the backstory of this country lawyer who
was manipulating and lying to people for years.

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And then you want to try people
try to answer the questions based upon

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the story, well, how could
this happen? How did this happen?

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And to figure all that out,
you've got to dive into the weeds of

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the lives of these people, the
lives of the defendants, the victims,

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and everyone else connected to them.
So I think that's where the fascination comes.

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And what's remarkable is when you dive
into the demographics, it's women.

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It's women. It's women who are
like thirty five to fifty five, thirty

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five to sixty. Many of them
are just obsessed with it. I can't

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attest to why it's women that it
resonates with women. You'd have to ask

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one of the women. Go to
one of these attentions, or you go

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on my Facebook page. They are
there, and it's because of their their

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attraction to I think, to the
stories and the drama. Court TVs Vinnipolitan

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Accomplished to Murder is the ten part
series that is on Court TV Sunday nights.

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By the way, we and the
other thing about a lot of these

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cases, I mean you just mentioned
that, I mentioned the McFadden case.

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They are so u diabolical in many
cases that I don't know a television writer

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could have written something like this,
right, you know, we talk about

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this in a lot of their child's
recovery. He's like, hey, you

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know, if some scriptwriter wrote this, you know, to get rejected,

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no one would believe it's it's just
not real. No one would do this.

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But um, it happens. It
actually happens. And you know,

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when I'm on the air covering one
of these things, I try to take

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a moment to remind everyone at home, hey, you know this this actually

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happened. You know, no jury
would believe it, but yeah, it

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did. It actually did, and
you see and hear the evidence, and

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it's it's unreal. I always joke
with my brother and you know, you

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know, our lives are kind of
boring, and we've had exciting lives,

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but they're really boring compared to what
some of these folks do and the things

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that they get caught up with and
and and the relationships. It's it's amazing

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that this happened so frequently. Well, back to that McFadden case. Just

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recently, we had one of his
previous victims come forward and say, if

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I only knew he was manipulating this
family, I would have driven to their

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house and told them to stay away
from this man. I mean even she

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is still a victim, uh,
this many years after he actually assaulted her.

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Yeah, and you know, you
look at this is this is why

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punishment is important in our system of
justice. It's not you know, you're

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going to say, well, you
know, life sentence is kind of extreme,

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and no, you have to look
at this and you have to understand

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who these folks are. And I
think our system of justice has a couple

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of roles, right, One is
to punish people. The other part is

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to protect the innocent members of society. And you know, it depends on

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what they get caught doing the first
time and how many times they get away

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with it. And I don't know. I look at a lot of these

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defendants and I know when they get
out, things are not going to be

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much better. Yep, yep.
I say that on this program a lot

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vinnipolitane um. You know, if
you, if you all of a sudden,

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are going to be told all right, you're not gonna have to worry

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about what you wear. You're not
gonna have to worry about whether or not

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you have shelter. You're not gonna
have to worry about whether or not you

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are going to eat. You'll get
three meals a day. You're not gonna

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have to worry about never having access
to literature, because there's there'll be a

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library sometimes compute to access in some
cases, conjugal visits. If you're a

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psychopath, that's not a bad life, no, and we the rest of

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us end up a little bit safer. Yeah, Yeah, it's not a

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bad deal. You know, people
can debate the death penalty, and we

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do that all the time on Court
TV. And you know a lot of

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the states that we cover murder trials
and have the death penalty, and you

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know that's the next level, but
at a minimal at a minimal life without

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the possibility of the role. Well, that's what our state legislature is looking

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at right now, eliminating for sex
offenders the ability to get off with a

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good time or time served or earn
time off when you are serving your sentence.

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So I think that's the first step
to trying to keep this incident from

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happening again in Oklahoma. But you
can see more of these incidents and see

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the analysis from the experts Accomplished to
Murder with Vinnie Politan and it's available on

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Sundays on Court TV. I thank
you for joining us, Thanks so much.

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Thanks for listening to Later with Lee
Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast,

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and remember to listen to The Drive
Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation