Interrogating Oscar

Oscar10

Interrogating Oscar is a visual narrative of two ordinary people – South African photojournalist Nick van der Leek and California-based True Crime blogger Lisa Wilson – and their search for the truth of Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp. Based on their bestselling series of books.

The latest book titled, FUGITIVE, centered on Oscar’s intentionality, is receiving rave reviews.

Teaser Clip

Episode 1 / Part 1

Episode 1 / Part 2

Episode 1 / Part 3

Episode 1 / Part 4

Episode 1 / Part 5

Episode 2 / Part 1 – P.I. vs. Journo

Episode 2 / Part 2 – P.I. vs Journo

Episode 3 / Part 1 – Revelations

Episode 3 / Part 2 – Revelations

Episode 4 / What is Restoration for us?

Episode 5 / Forces of Nature

Episode 6 / Living off the Dead

Episode 7 / Intentionality

Episode 8 / Jump Start 

Additional episodes to follow…

Follow Nick and Lisa on Twitter at:

@HiRezLife

@lisawJ13

The Oscar Pistorius murder trial series of books is available on Amazon.

What does Oscar have to do with Jodi?

ariasI’ve been getting this question a lot this week. So appropriately, I’ll use the words of Jodi when I say… the simple answer is Mendacity.  They’re not who we think they are.

Is there any connection whatsoever to the lying, manipulating deviant that is Jodi Arias, and the once beloved athlete, Oscar Pistorius?  Jodi was found guilty of First Degree Murder. Oscar was found guilty of Culpable Homicide, even though he was charged with Murder.  There is a world of difference between the two.  The state in Oscar’s case has been granted leave to appeal based on an error in law committed by the Judge. The state will continue their pursuit of the original Murder charge.  Jodi remains on trial in a penalty phase, waiting to see if she’ll get life or death.

Is it possible these two crimes, these two criminals, one male, one female, separated by more than 16 000 km are made of the same stuff?

Can we find any similarity between the relationships of these two couples? Is there a match between the modus operandi of both crimes and both criminals?   What comparisons can we draw, and what insights do we gain from drawing them?

OP measurements2

 

The Jodi Arias case provides a dark mirror for the Oscar trial, and by implication, for ourselves. The sex, and religion, the borderline personality disorder and the mendacity underlying this case are several orders of magnitude greater than in the Oscar trial. But if Oscar manipulated us with his tears, if he came with several versions of his defense; Jodi made Oscar’s performance seem like a kindergarten dress rehearsal for her own.

If you’re reading this blog, chances are you’re a true crime junkie, and if you’re a true crime junkie then there’s surely been a time when you looked at a criminal and thought – how did they end up like this? How does somebody kill? Doesn’t it make sense then, we should be aware of the commonalities that exist in their minds as well as their motives. They’re not cultivated and motivated on their own. There’s a driving force behind their actions and the more we understand them, the more we understand ourselves.

To read more about the connection between the killers… check out Audacity

And if Oscar piques your interest… try one of these.

@lisawJ13

@HiRezLife

 

The Blade Rower

Who’s ready for something a little different?

After a long and tedious year of somber interrogation, we decided it was time to blow off some steam and have a bit of fun.

The BLADE Rower

By Nick van der Leek and Lisa Wilson

Rowing: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the star rower Nascar Shitstorius. His continuing mission: to explode into even more media, to seek out new models and new sponsors, to boldly row where no armless Olympian has rowed before.

Fullscreen capture 20141229 060747 PM

Be advised:  This book is a work of fiction and is not intended for the politically correct.

The Blade Rower is currently available on Amazon.

@lisawJ13

@HiRezLife

The Journey to 8Restoration

candle

Hidden behind monsters and walls of steel, lie treasure.

All of it within us, all of it created by us.

Breathless joy and crippling pain.

One does not exist without the other.  One can never grow without the other.

But what happens when our expectations of joy fall short?

What happens when the sting of pain festers too deep?

Do we erect a prison, safe within our walls, and wait for somebody to show up with a key?

Or do we close our umbrellas and dance in the rain?

Find a sword and face the dragon?

The journey to 8Restoration is not a carefully plotted trip to a far away land.  The path is not always clear or free of debris.  It’s a trek much closer to home; one that spans the terrain of our own minds.

And the answers you seek about Oscar and Reeva… They do not exist in a bathroom at 3am.  They do not exist in a fifteen minute window of time.  They exist over years, in the dark corners that nobody has addressed… that nobody wanted to see… nobody until now.   This journey to 8Restoration will open your eyes, make you pay attention and make you question everything you think you know.

I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can’t be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.

8Restoration is available on Amazon… here

@lisawJ13

@HiRezLife

Defense Team #B$

defense team

“As far as I could see people were always conning each other to get what they wanted. We even con ourselves. We talk ourselves into things, you know, we sell ourselves things. When we don’t even need or want, you know, we’re dressing ’em up. We leave out the risk, we leave out the ugly truth.” – Irving Rosenfeld, American Hustle

I want to hear from all of you…

What were the most notable bullshit moments from Oscar’s defense team during trial? 

Here are a few from my list:

1. Oscar screams like a woman. 

2.  Roux comparing Oscar to an abused woman in his closing.

3.  Oscar had Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). 

4.  Dixon, the Geologist. 

5.  Double Taps. 

Ok go… 

Roux

#8Restoration

@lisawJ13

@HiRezLife

Who Called the Ambulance… and When?

crime_1The Oscar Trial never disappoints with mysteries to unravel!

Let me know your theories and thoughts…

Who’s telling the truth?

Who’s lying?  And why?

 

OSCAR CALLS NETCARE AT 3:20AM

 

DR STIPP – DIRECT TESTIMONY:

Dr. Stipp went back outside (after examining Reeva) and asked Stander if the ambulance was on their way. Stander said no, he hadn’t called them yet so Stipp called the Wilgers Hospital emergency department and asked them to send an ambulance. They told him he had to call an emergency number directly, not them.  So Stander then dialed Netcare and handed his phone to Stipp who spoke to the dispatcher.  Stipp described the nature of Reeva’s injuries to them.

 

JOHAN STANDER – DIRECT TESTIMONY:

Stander states that while he was outside, shortly after arriving at OP’s, Dr. Stipp arrived. He introduced himself as Johan and stated that he was a medical doctor. Stander says that he asked Stipp to go inside and see if he could assist. He also asked Stipp for the number to an ambulance because he couldn’t get a hold of them. Stipp gave him the number 082911. Stander then phoned 082911 and managed to get through.

While he was speaking on the phone (he indicates for several minutes), Stipp came back out. Stander states he said to Stipp he was having a hard time explaining to the dispatcher how to get to the house, so he handed the phone to Stipp who then spoke with the dispatcher.

[NOTE:  On cross examination, Nel wants to know what they (Stander & Stipp) discussed. Did they discuss the injuries? Stander says no, Stipp just told him that she had a fatal head wound but he did not discuss any of the other injuries with him.  Nel asks him if Oscar or anybody else told him how many wounds she sustained. Stander says no. Nel then asks, “not even your daughter?” Stander pauses, then answers, “I can’t recall.”  But wasn’t Stander with Stipp when Stipp detailed Reeva’s injuries for the ambulance dispatcher?

 

CARICE STANDER – DIRECT TESTIMONY:

Oscar said “just take my car, put her in the car.” Carice said no, just put her down. So he placed Reeva on the ground.   At that moment, Carice’s Dad stepped outside to call the ambulance.  This was within moments of them arriving.

A few minutes later, Carice told Oscar that a doctor had arrived. She claims they were both relieved. Stipp walked in and Carice went back outside with her Dad who was still calling the ambulance. So at this point, just Stipp and Oscar were inside with Reeva, and Carice and Johan are outside on the phone.  Carice testifies that when she was outside with her Dad, she also spoke with the dispatcher.  Why?  How long does it take, and how many people does it take, to request an ambulance?

After examining Reeva, Stipp went back outside and Carice went back inside. They passed each other at the doorway. Carice said Stipp wasn’t in there very long.  Upon coming out, he stated, “it’s very bad.”

 

BABA – DIRECT TESTIMONY:

Oscar came down the stairs carrying Reeva in his arms. Baba was very shocked by what he was seeing that he couldn’t think for a few moments. How could everything be “fine” when Oscar was carrying a bleeding woman down the stairs? When Johan Stander said “OSCAR”, Baba snapped out of his shock.

At this point, Stander told Baba to go call police and the ambulance. He also gave the guards instructions to make sure that no cars were parked at Oscar’s house. Baba then left to go make the phone calls. He also called the control room office and informed the manager of what was happening. Baba never went in the house that night. He does confirm though that the lights were on inside the house.

AMBULANCE AND PARAMEDICS ARRIVE AT 3:42AM

Oscar Pistorius shooting

Police vehicles are parked outside the home of South African "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius in Pretoria

#8Restoration

@lisawJ13

@HiRezLife

Review of #RS

The RS of the title of this book stands for Reeva Steenkamp, a 29-year-old South African model and law graduate, shot dead by her new boyfriend, Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius. He is currently in jail, serving a five-year sentence for killing her which could see him released in less than half that time. Prosecutors are appealing.

Readers should be aware that it’s the seventh in a series of e-books on the crime and subsequent trial, and a certain amount of foreknowledge is presumed. Those looking for a straightforward, basic explanation of how, when and why Reeva Steenkamp was killed, might be advised to start with some background reading.

Even if readers are already familiar with the case, they should be prepared to go on an unpredictable journey that reaches to the stars and moon, and back. The book is a lesson in freedom, and freedom takes a wandering and often complicated path. ‘It’s complicated’ is a phrase repeated several times in the narrative, and it applies to the way this book sets out to tell of Reeva Steenkamp, as well as of the world which made her and ultimately took her away. The black hole her killing created truly is complicated; Reeva could not escape it, but it absorbed all around it and continued to grow until its mass was felt by much of the world.

photo

The collapsed, darkened star of Reeva Steenkamp drew the world in to share her darkness and in doing so, brought in the light of freedom.  With her death, and the ending of her life, Reeva was also set free. No person in the world can catch, harm, hold or control her. Nobody can trample her dreams – or make them come true. Nothing on earth can touch her. Perhaps Reeva might put up her thumb somewhere up there, as Neil Armstrong once did, and blot out the tiny star that is earth and its teeming humanity, if its light should ever pain her ageless eyes…

Read the rest of the review… here

Visit the findbobharrod Twitter page… here

@lisawJ13

@HiRezLife

 bob-powerpoint-shot

To the Moon and Back

“Science, Neil [Armstrong] tells us, has not yet mastered prophecy.  We predict too much for the next year and yet far too little for the next 10.  In much of society, research means to investigate something you do not know or understand.

The important achievement of Apollo was demonstrating that humanity is not forever chained to this planet and our visions go rather further than that and our opportunities are unlimited.”

Moon

The reason why #RS is so special to me is because it’s not just a tribute that focuses on one person… it’s a tribute that focuses on all of us.

For all of the world’s troubles and (to use Nick’s favorite word) fuckedupness… it’s hard to deny that there is far more beauty in this world than anything else.  Beauty in our surroundings and beauty in ourselves.

That beauty is a gift.

Some of it was given to us and some of it was created by us and creation comes from dreaming.     So when people ask, what does the first Man on the Moon have to do with a tribute to Reeva… well, in honor of Reeva’s legacy, it is the recognition of the power of our dreams.

While writing about Reeva and considering the life that she lived, I thought a lot about her parents, and I thought a lot about my mine.  Just like all families, my family has not been without struggle, as I discuss in the books.  But those struggles pale greatly in comparison to the love that we share for each other and it reminds me that we are nothing in this world without the people that we love and the people that support us.

The 1960’s were a pivotal time for America.  The decade began with the romance of Camelot and ended triumphantly with a Man on the Moon.  But in between, we suffered the loss of three great men who had done so much to change the minds and hearts of this world – JFK, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.  – and it could have been so easy for everybody to give up and stop chasing dreams in the wake of that devastation.  But the opposite happened.  Those losses fueled a fire that changed our ability to dream and explore forever.

I wanted to talk to my Dad about what it was like to live during that time and witness the broadcast of the

Man on the Moon

My Dad (and my Mom) have always encouraged my brother and I to be our very best and to shoot for the Moon.

They have selflessly pushed us to go after everything in life that inspires us and were always the ones cheering loudest from the sidelines.  This post is in honor of them!    Thanks, Mom and Dad.

I love you to the Moon and back.

a b c d e f g h i k l m o p q r

#RS is available on Amazon here

@lisawJ13

@HiRezLife

#RS Excerpt 2 – A Visit with Barry

sparkling_ocean_water

An excerpt from the chapter:

#MotherandDaughterandMother

Coming together as a community, in times of need and in times of grief, is a beautiful thing.  It restores our faith in that thing…the human spirit.  It lives in others and it lives in us.  It can be a resilient thing, phoenix-like, invulnerable and yet able to disappear and reappear in an instant, almost like magic.

As resilient as we are as human beings, there are moments in life when we just can’t make it on our own.   Moments of brokenness steal on us sometimes, and it’s then that we realise we need each other; we need to stand together, to lift each other up and be loud with our ideals in one collective voice. 

Yesterday, Twitter user, Sandy, and her husband, Denver, traveled to Port Elizabeth to meet Barry Steenkamp and delivered to him a beautiful card of condolences from people around the world.  It was a lovely moment that she wanted to share with all of you, via this audio below and further details in the book.

Barry was clearly very touched by this gesture. It’s a true testament to

the power of togetherness and the power of love.

holding hands

We left smiling and felt privileged to have met Reeva’s Dad, a gentle, friendly soul and also very kind… Meeting Barry reminded me of my late father. I can talk about my Dad now, but cry each time.  I was his ‘Treasure’.  I make the most of each day and enjoy it with Denver, who has loved me since I was a teenager…

family

To read another excerpt from #RS, visit the African Man website

#RS is available on Amazon here

@lisawJ13

@HiRezLife