232: Cameron Diaz & the Murder of a Criminal Defense Lawyer

Cameron Diaz had a lot going on. Her latest movie, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, was about to hit theaters. With the release just days away, a photographer named John Rutter reached out to her. John had photos of Cameron from about a decade earlier, when she was a 19-year-old model. He’d shot the photos for a racy S&M lingerie editorial. He told Cameron that people were offering him millions of dollars for them. Then he offered to sell them to her, for a discount.

Then Brandi tells us about the murder of Leslie Vaughn. Leslie was a successful criminal defense attorney whose work sometimes put him in close contact with violent people. So when Leslie was shot in his home one evening, the list of potential suspects could have been long. But the behavior of Leslie’s son, Brian Vaughn, made investigators think that perhaps the killer was right under their nose.

And now for a note about our process. For each episode, Kristin reads a bunch of articles, then spits them back out in her very limited vocabulary. Brandi copies and pastes from the best sources on the web. And sometimes Wikipedia. (No shade, Wikipedia. We love you.) We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the real experts who covered these cases.

In this episode, Kristin pulled from:
“Photographer convicted of trying to blackmail Cameron Diaz,” by Michelle Caruso for the Seattle Times
“Cameron Diaz photographer convicted for topless photo plot,” by Gil Kaufman for MTV.com
“‘I’m proud of topless shots,’” by David Sanderson for the Evening Standard
“Cameron Diaz photographer headed to jail,” by Todd Peterson for People.com
“Actress takes the stand in trial of photographer,” by Cara Mia DiMassa for The Los Angeles Times
“Man who blackmailed Cameron Diaz over topless photos faces jail,” by Catherine Elsworth for the Daily Telegraph
“Photos develop into court case,” by Cara Mia DiMassa for The Los Angeles Times
“Jail for Diaz dirt,” by David K. Li for the New York Post

In this episode, Brandi pulled from:
“Shattered Innocence” episode Forensic Files
“Brian Vaughn: A Student-Athlete Kills” by Rebecca Reisner, forensicfilesnow.com
“Teen Convicted of Dad’s Murder” by Associated Press, The Marshall News Messenger
“Brian Leslie Vaughn v. State of Texas” justia.com

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