PODCAST: BLACK HANDS

PODCAST: BLACK HANDS

This is the story of a mass-murder that divided a nation - a story that began in a rickety old home on a cold June morning in 1994, where five members of a seemingly ordinary New Zealand family were gunned down. There were two suspects. One lay dead from a single bullet to the head. The other was the only survivor: David Bain. Since then the country has asked: who killed the Bain family? David or his father Robin? In this podcast, Martin van Beynen explores the case from start to finish, picking through evidence, the mysteries and motives, and interviewing never-before-spoken-to witnesses. He seeks to finally answer the question: Who was the killer?

MY VERDICT:

I did find this fascinating, it’s such a bizarre story it’s hard not to find interesting however this podcast did have many issues. Firstly, and I say firstly because it’s one of the first things you hear, I found the use of the emergency call in the intro to be manipulative and exploitative. Whether you believe that David Bain, the survivor of the family massacre, killed everyone else or not, this should, in my eyes, not have been used. Without concrete evidence, despite differing opinions, you can’t say he did it, however the journalist is not shy in claiming that he is guilty.  

I come to true crime podcasts to be told information, and I do like to come to my own conclusions, and yes, I agree with the journalist’s judgment but really a true crime podcast shouldn’t have one. These podcasts especially with no conviction taking place at the end should be unbiased, this is not. I don’t know if they’d be able to get away with this in America, but maybe he does it because he says ‘I think’ he did it?

However, I wouldn’t let this put you off listening to this podcast, it’s compelling, I listened to the whole series, which is only short, very quickly. There’s an interesting story being told and despite the biased nature of the narrator, you do get information from other sides. The main drawback and confusing thing is that you only seem to get audio from David’s second trial and not even a transcript of the first. I won’t spoil anything more for you…