Grifter: True Crime

A young aspiring actor moved to New York in the 1980s, to pursue a life of fame and glamour. However, he never managed to land an audition, so he decided to direct himself and find his own stages - which ended up being the living rooms of wealthy and naive Manhattan elites. His various misdemeanours earned him a notorious reputation and inspired the hit play “Six Degrees of Separation”.

A Brazilian footballer signs with several top football clubs during his decades-long career. He's charismatic, funny and jovial, and charms everyone he meets. But every time he's asked to play, he mysteriously gets injured and has to stay off the pitch for several weeks. He convinced others of his talents and moved from club to club, avoiding football and partying hard. He was the footballer who never played football - not once - and still got signed. This episode details his incredible story.

A young boy is thrown into a troubled life on the road with his teenage mother, Sarah. He becomes addicted to heroin and gets infected with H.I.V. He suffers physical and sexual abuse and seeks violent relationships because of that abuse. Thankfully, with the help of a social worker and a psychiatrist, he gets his life back on track and becomes a published author. But the boy, always donning a blonde wig, fedora hat and dark sunglasses, is shrouded in mystery. It soon becomes apparent that the boy is not the person he's led the literary world to believe. 

In a twisted and painful tale littered with deception, erotica and suffering, the reality of JT LeRoy comes to surface in what would eventually become known as one of the greatest "literary hoaxes" of our time.  

Sources: 

1) Vanity Fair: https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2006/04/jtleroy200604 

2) The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jul/20/jt-leroy-story-modern-literary-hoax-

This episode follows the story of the sensational Hipster Grifter from Utah, a charming twenty-something girl from Utah who swindled her way through Brooklyn’s hipster community. She was sentenced to jail time for passing bad checks and taking thousands of dollars from her victims, while telling colourful stories about coughing up blood, cancer and unwanted pregnancies. 

Sources:  

1. The New York Observer: https://observer.com/2009/04/the-hipster-grifter/ 

2. ABC News: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/hipster-grifter-kari-ferrell-speaks-jail-bad-checks/story?id=8552059