Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker 1: This is Gilbert King, producer and co host of Bone Valley. When I found out that Breton Alice from The Prosecutor's podcasts, We're going to be doing a deep dive into the murder of Michelle Schofield, I'll admit I was nervous. I've been a fan of their show for a long time, and I knew that the depth of their research and legal analysis is without equal in the world of true crime podcasting. I couldn't help asking myself over and over, is there anything I missed that they're going to find? It was nerve wracking, to say the least. Ultimately, I decided to follow the words of Leo Schofield. When we first met, Leo told me Gilbert, I believe in total transparency. I have nothing to hide because I know the truth is on my side. Those words from Leo guided my approach to The Prosecutor's podcast. It was quickly apparent that they were dialed into every aspect of Leo's case, and even though it felt at times like a legal colonoscopy, I could tell that Breton Alice took their works seriously. They told me over and over that they wanted to make sure they got all the details right. So I hope you are as riveted by the Prosecutor's analysis of the Michelle Schofield case as I was. Here's a ten minute excerpt from their first episode.
00:01:25
Speaker 2: I'm Brett and I'm Alice.
00:01:27
Speaker 3: And we are the Prosecutors today on The Prosecutors. It's the case made famous by the true crime podcast Bone Valley. On February twenty fourth, nineteen eighty seven, Michelle Schofield was murdered and her husband Leo was convicted of the crime, but didd he dealed. Hello everybody, and welcome to this episode of The Prosecutors. I'm Brett and I'm joined as always by my imaginative co host Alice.
00:02:28
Speaker 2: Hey, Brett, you know what, that was actually very kind. It looks like someone decided to be nice starting twenty twenty four, which I appreciate because I've just been speaking sweet nothings for like thirty five minutes while you've figured out your equipment, which, unfortunately for all our live folks they had to listen to me rant. But for all you listening on podcasts, our wonderful editor has cut it all out.
00:02:50
Speaker 3: Yes, that's the best part about listening to the podcast as opposed to listening or watching on YouTube. Jason takes care of it all, So thank you Jason the best. We love you and Alice. It is a new year. Happy new year to everyone. As we're recording this, it is the second day of January twenty twenty four. You know, Alice, when we started this podcast, we started talking about COVID, and when you know it, we sort of hope that maybe COVID would be gone in the future, and when you know it, I caught it over Christmas and it was knocked out for like two weeks. The voice was gone. So if I'm a little scratchy sort of left over from that, but I am feeling worlds better and happy to be back here recording with you and talking about what is I think an incredibly fascinating case with a lot of twists and turns, a lot of legal stuff to discuss a trial a murder, a man who claims he's innocent. Where we heard that before. It's not the first time that we've covered an innocence case, but I'm excited about this one. And one of the reasons I'm excited about it is Bone Valley. If you guys have not listened to Bone Valley. We've mentioned it before. However you come out on this case, whatever you end up thinking about Leo Schofield and his guilt or innocence. Moon Valley is an incredible podcast. One of my favorite, may be my favorite. I think it's planted Cereal. Cereal was sort of my favorite just because it was the first. But then you listen to Moon Valley and it's just it is so good and you're going to enjoy it. And like I said, I think you'll enjoy it whether you agree with the eventual outcome or not. So we definitely recommend listening to that, either while you listen to us, before you listen to us, or after you listen to us. I know, Alice, you've mentioned it before. That's one you really enjoyed.
00:04:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think during our Christmas wrap up, your end wrap up, I said that was my favorite podcast of last year, even though I think I was a little late to coming to it, but it's definitely worth a listen. I think the producer writer of that podcast, Gilbert King, did an incredible job. We'll talk a lot about kind of how you tell a story, even when you have a perspective that you're going in with and how you go about it in kind of in intellectually honest way, and I think he does a really good job of it, and having met him at Crime Con, he is just a lovely person as well and a really really good journalist. So great starting points for a podcast, So listen to them. I personally would say, maybe listen to us, because we're not going to go I think nearly as deep dive as him. And he also has a lot of primary sources. He talks to people firsthand. We've told you before we're not an investigative podcast, but we read the primary sources, and so I would definitely say go listen either before or after this podcast.
00:05:31
Speaker 3: And the reason I mentioned Cereal is there's a lot of similarities there both in that it is a innocence case. It's a case where the person who's accused is very involved. In the podcast, you hear from them a lot, and so there's a lot of similarities between Cereal in Bone Valley. I think you'll see that. So if you lack cereally like Bone Valley and we have a story. I have a story to tell about Gilbert King because it's I think it's an interesting one, and I think it says a lot about him. So we were in the middle of our ad Non sayaed coverage. I think we had just done the episode about Jay, so it was like episode eight or nine or something, who knows, I've forgotten what it is. And at the time, as we've often told you guys, the thing about a podcast is while you're recording an episode, you have to be researching for the future, because otherwise, you know, when ad on Sayed ends, then what are we going to do? And we had sort of identified this case as a case we wanted to do in a case we wanted to spend a good amount of time on, and so we'd started researching it. I was listening to bon Valley, I think Alice was listening to bon Valley, had gotten a hold of some of the trial transcripts for reading the trial transcripts. And then one day, right around that time, when in the middle of add on Zad's really getting hot and people getting angry and everything else, Gilver King follows me on Twitter, and I thought, wow, that's serendipitous. We just so happened to be listening to his podcast, and so he followed us, and so I followed him. I thought, well, that's cool whatever, and then all of a sudden he's instant messaging us, and he's talking about how much he's enjoying our coverage, that he's listening to Murda and he's listening to adding On said, and he really had hoped that we would cover Leo Schofield's case. And I thought to myself, huh, that is unexpected because we're in the middle. I mean, by that point, I think it had become pretty clear what we thought about the add non Sie case, and we're in the middle of doing this very controversial thing, and then all of a sudden, this person who's done a podcast, who is very much on the side of innocence is coming to us and saying, I think it'd be great if he did this. And I think that says a couple of things about Gilbert. Number One, he is very confident in leosco Field's innocence, because I think if he wasn't, I don't know that he would do that. And the other thing, he's very confident in his own reporting. I think he knows that whatever happens here, whatever conclusion we come to, people are going to be able to listen to bone Valley too, and he's confident in what he said and the positions he's taken, and I think that's really commendable and a sign of the kind of journalists he is that he would want us anywhere near this case. So I thought that was really interesting. And like Ali said, we met him a crime con and not saying that we're necessarily going to come out the same way he did, or that we're going to come to the same conclusions on some of the evidence, But I have a lot of respect for him, and I wanted to share that little tidbit because I think it says a lot about him and how he goes about this whole project.
00:08:36
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, typically when you've done an entire podcast where you come out from the starting point trying to see whether the allegations that this man who's in prison has been convicted after trial is in fact innocent, you typically probably don't want to reach out to prosecutors and prosecutors who are in the middle of getting lambasted in the media, not media, social Twitter's world for coming out about how the trial showed that a man who was in prison was guilty as convicted and here is the thing when you listen to Bone Valley. He asks the hard questions, right, He asked the hard questions, even if they go against his hypothesis or even his argument. And he asks all those questions and seeks answers to them, and he gives the answers even if they don't fully support whatever he is hypothesizing, which is honest journalism. And I appreciate that. And you can there is almost no slam dunk case in anything in life, right and certainly not in the laws, certainly not in criminal cases. And so it would be suspect if you were getting a podcast where every argument was only going towards one side, and you don't get that from Bone Valley. You know, he comes out with a very strong conclusion, but he doesn't leave out the other parts, which I find very very full of integrity. So with all that said, a lot of you, I think have not actually heard of Leo Schofield and Michelle Schofield, So I am excited does not write the right word. But this is a very interesting case and there's a lot to dive into, and there's a lot of strange twists and turns in this case. And I think that you guys will really be able to sink your teeth into all that there is to debate about and also think about. And I hope this sparks you know what, Our listeners typically do very thoughtful conversation because there is a lot to discuss in this case.
00:10:27
Speaker 1: Please head over to the Prosecutor's podcast to listen to all nine episodes of their deep dive into Bone Valley and the Michelle Schofield Case.
