Black Bird: One Man's Freedom Hides in Another Man's Darkness

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The heart-pumping final episode of the series, which just started streaming on Apple TV+, concludes that journey, with Jimmy finally confronting Larry once and for all. Once a promising young football star who was offered several college football scholarships; instead he decided to stay in the Chicago area to be close to his thriving business. Larry admits that he would subdue women with a rag soaked in starting fluid to get them to stop fighting back against him, and his brother visits to inform him that the police are anticipating his release. Reluctantly, Keene agrees to do it, and the book chronicles his attempts to earn the confidence of a convicted murderer, as well as Keene’s and Hall’s backstories and the investigation that eventually landed Hall in prison.

It's like, Jimmy has this big, huge key ring and he keeps going through it to find the right key for this really obstinate lock. Given Jimmy's natural charming and charismatic personality and gift for talking, he was offered an opportunity for a fully commuted sentence with a clean record and no conditions by federal authorities.

In 2023, James Keene released his third book, titled The Chicago Phoenix: Jimmy Keene's Untold Story, which is the follow-up to Black Bird and relates to Keene's early years in Chicago and gives further details about his unique FBI life and the surrounding events in MCFP and where his life has taken him to today. His specialty is in the court of last resort—the various proceedings that come after a guilty verdict or plea. One of the most coveted designations in the book industry, the Kirkus Star marks books of exceptional merit. The 2017 Netflix series Mindhunter—which was loosely based on a 1995 nonfiction book by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker—understood the banality at the heart of serial killers’ evil; imprisoned murderers initially seem perfectly ordinary and reasonable, and then they calmly and matter-of-factly describe their horrific crimes to investigators.

In fact, they lost money, which put me back on my dealer treadmill, running that much harder to stay in place—until the Feds came “knocking” in 1996.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Before we dive into the finale, I'm curious about the real James Keene, who is an executive producer on the series, and how accessible he was to you when you set out to adapt his book. Didn't think a book about going undercover to catch a real serial killer could be so boring and laborsome, but somehow, it was. A violent prison riot sticks them together on cleanup duty, where Larry convinces Jimmy to tell him a story from his childhood, where he attempted to beat up his mother's abusive boyfriend because he believed that was what she wanted and failed miserably. Suddenly, the man who had argued so loudly to put him away was begging for Jimmy’s consideration and added, “I’m willing to make it worth your while.

If you've watched the Black Bird television series, the book clarifies a lot of what was unclear or muddled, leaving issues unanswered. Keene is a former high school sports star who started a lucrative marijuana business at thirteen years old and built it secretly for many years. An hour up the highway in one direction was his hometown of Kankakee, where he was busted for conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Without these cookies, we won't know if you have any performance-related issues that we may be able to address. Is this story just another way for Keene to turn his conviction for cocaine dealing into another easy paycheck, without doing the 9 to 5 manual labor that he so obviously regards as beneath him?Currently, Keene owns a highly successful private real estate development business and several other businesses.