Ron Goldman’s Sister Makes Case For Involving Families In True Crime Dramas: “We’re Talking About Human Decency”
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In the wake of pushback by victims’ families to Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Kim Goldman is speaking out about TV producers who fail to alert survivors about their true crime TV shows.
Goldman – whose brother Ron was murdered alongside Nicole Brown Simpson in 1994 – said she was “not surprised” to learn that families were caught off guard by Ryan Murphy’s latest series for Netflix. The serial killer limited series starring Evan Peters hit the 1B hours mark within the first 28 days of its release window.
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“I’m not surprised,” Goldman told EW. “The same creator did the same thing to our family. I’ve seen [this type of backlash] from Gabby Petito’s family about the Lifetime movie. Lots of other families have talked about how their case has been exploited without any involvement or even a courtesy call. It’s pretty gross.”
Goldman recounted how she first learned about Murphy’s decision to make The People V. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story — and it wasn’t from production. “I was bombarded — bombarded — with news, and phone calls, and emails, and my feed, and I had no fricking idea what was going on,” she told EW. “So, either I had to choose to watch so that I could be part of the conversation or not. It’s unnecessary, to not be able to just send an email that says, ‘Hey, we’re doing this about your family. I’m so sorry. We hope that you’re proud of the work that we’ve done.'”
Goldman, who hosts the Media Circus podcast, acknowledges that true crime dramas are here to stay. She just would like producers to consider the families’ point of view before charging forward with a new tale of murder and intrigue.
“I think we can change the narrative about the way we tell stories and to make sure that we’re telling the stories that include the victimization, and that can allow people to understand that that’s part of the process,” Goldman said. “I think it’s changed a little bit over the last couple of years, but most of the shows are from the criminal’s perspective, from the law enforcement perspective, from the legal perspective. Very seldom do you often see it from a victim’s perspective. It paints a picture that victims and survivors are in the background, you know, in a fetal position on the floor. If we’re going to continue to have true crime, which I think we will, it’s irresponsible to not in some way include the families so that you can understand what they’re experiencing and to give a little bit more power back to them.”
Deadline has reached out to Netflix for comment.
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