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Trial Watchers’ profiles a group of true
crime enthusiasts
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Authors Neil Gordon and Mike Petchenik. (Photo by Bob Pepalis)
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By Bob Pepalis
“Trial Watchers,” a
new book by Augusta’s
Neil Gordon with
Sandy Springs’ Mike
Petchenik, has its roots
in a group of true crime
enthusiasts including
Gordon’s wife, Melissa.
The authors will discuss the origins of
the nonfiction book at the festival on Nov.
4 at 7:30 p.m.
“My wife is the first trial watcher that
I’ve ever known,” Gordon said.
Melissa told him she wanted to take
on a personal project as a buddy trip
with a fellow photographer to attend the
Alex Murdaugh murder trial in the Low
Country of South Carolina. She made
that trip and met journalists and “regular
people” who came to watch the trial.
Melissa gained empathy for members
of the Murdaugh family at the trial.
Twenty-five years earlier, she was
attending the trial of her uncle, who, like
Alex Murdaugh, was an attorney accused
of murder. Melissa attended his trial for
weeks in Augusta, at first believing he
was innocent until the presentation of
evidence and his ultimate conviction.
Then she felt a sort of shame for being
associated with her uncle.
“Trial Watchers” tells his wife’s story
and those of several other trial watchers.
He coupled those stories with co-author
Petchenik’s look at other aspects of trial
watching, including the psychology of it.
Gordon first asked Petchenik to help
him develop a documentary series on true
crime enthusiasts after his PR firm helped
him out of a jam over a book he had
written on the Murdaugh trial.
Gordon had co-written “Behind
the Doors of Justice” with Becky Hill,
the former Clerk of Court for Colleton
County where the Murdaugh trial was
held. Allegations of her possibly tampering
with jurors after the
verdict resulted in
Gordon discovering
she had lifted an
entire section of
the book from
another writer’s
work. Publication
of the book was
subsequently
withdrawn.
Petchenik,
now CEO
of Petchenik
Media Group,
helped Gordon
navigate the PR
nightmare.
Local
residents
best know
Petchenik
from his news work with WSB-TV,
but his relationship with Gordon goes
much farther back, as Gordon hired him
for his first broadcasting job in Augusta,
GA.
Petchenik said the market for true
crime is incredibly robust. The fans they
encountered during the research for this
book follow cases closely on Court TV,
listening to podcasts or attending in
person.
What they learned was that the people
who became trial watchers weren’t doing
it as a hobby. They found some common
threads, starting with having had past
trauma in their own lives. An example
was two daughters whose father had been
murdered in Atlanta about 30 years ago.
“The killer was never brought to
justice, Petchenik said.
For years his daughters carried around
a piece of paper with the accused killer’s
name on it in their pocket because they
wanted to exact revenge on that person,
Petchenik said.
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