The Big Picture

• Black Bird is a hit drama TV series that has received critical acclaim for its brilliant casting, Mindhunter-like cinematography, and faithful adaptation of James Keene's memoir.
• The series is based on the true story of Jimmy Keene, who went from a high school football star to a drug dealer and later became an FBI undercover agent to help solve the case of serial killer Larry Hall.
• Larry Hall, the real-life serial killer, was sent to prison for kidnapping a 15-year-old girl, but he was suspected of several other crimes, including the abduction and possible murder of several young women. He continues to be imprisoned and is estimated to have killed up to 40 young women.

Amongst Apple TV+’s latest streak of hit drama TV series is the understated but incredible true story of Jimmy Keene (Taron Egerton) and serial killer Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser), Black Bird. Owing to its brilliant casting, Mindhunter-like cinematography, and faithful adaptation of James Keene’s own 2010 memoir (In with the Devil), the series has received much critical acclaim, with many publications agreeing that the show is a fitting farewell to Goodfellas star Ray Liotta, in one of his last ever roles. Egerton’s performance as James (Jimmy) Keene himself is a brilliant focal point as well, where the actor plays the charming but arrogant, drug-dealing son of long-serving police officer (Liotta) with much vulnerability and pain underneath an apparent unflappable exterior.

Because of the show’s remarkable twists and turns, many viewers may be surprised to learn that even the strangest of plot lines in the series are in fact based on reality. In his memoir, Keene describes his own journey as the son of a former cop, who went from high school football star to big-time drug dealer. As shown in Black Bird, Keene is sentenced to several long years in prison, so he accepts an offer from the FBI to go undercover as an inmate in one of the US’s toughest maximum security prisons for the criminally insane, to help solve the case of a serial killer who was in incarceration at the time.

Larry Hall Was Suspected in the Disappearances of Several Women

In reality, the serial killer in question, Larry Hall, was indeed sent to USMFCP Springfield for kidnapping a 15-year-old girl who was reported missing in 1993, Jessica Roach. Played with a brilliant but unsettling eeriness by Hauser, the real Larry Hall was born in Wabash, Indiana, along with his twin brother Gary. Despite being identical twins, Larry was the one of the two who had a much lower IQ and a speech impediment, often bullied by his peers at school.

Although not a main focus of the show, Hall was in fact suspected of several crimes in his hometown of Wabash during his teenage years, including acts of arson and vandalism, as well as much more serious crimes involving the abduction of two young girls in Michigan and Indiana. It was only when the remains of Jessica Roach were discovered in 1993 that Hall started to come under suspicion from local police.

As depicted in the series, and backed up by claims from Keene’s own memoir, Hall became fascinated with Civil War and Revolutionary War reenactments in his later years, leading him to grow out his signature “burnsides,” or sideburns, to help him look more authentic as a general, as well as adding to his overall unnerving appearance. From the late '80s to the early '90s, Hall traveled across the Midwest to participate in these reenactments, and it is during this time that he is suspected to have been responsible for the disappearances and possible murders of several young women.

Keene Went Undercover To Gain Hall’s Trust in Prison

The real Larry Hall was also as frustrating to encounter for law enforcement as the show portrays, with recants of confessions and fake stories quickly becoming a well-known trend for the notorious killer. Hall even tried to take back his confession to the murder of Jessica Roach, which he was convicted for. However, with Keene on-board as an undercover agent for the FBI — a deal which did in reality take place as outlined in the series — he successfully gained Hall’s trust and was able to ascertain that he did without a doubt murder Jessica Roach, despite appealing his sentence many times.

In his memoir, Keene describes the arduous process of breaking down the ice with Hall: “I was right across the table from him for at least 15 minutes,” Keene remembers, “and he never said a word; never so much as made eye contact. When he was done, all he said was ‘I’ll see you later, James,’ and just walked out.” The same thing happened the next day and then the next.”

Something else that the series manages to capture in a particularly poignant way is Jessica Roach’s life before becoming just another of Hall’s victims. While we may tend to focus on the psychology and mind of the killer himself, it is important to remember victims like Jessica Roach as full and complete people who had their whole lives ahead of them, which Black Bird expresses in a poetic, dream-like sequence that effectively reinforces the sheer brutality of Hall’s crimes.

According to his memoir, Keene was additionally tasked with finding out about the murder of another missing young woman, Tricia Reitler. Keene describes how he was able to get Hall to admit to burying Reitler’s body “way out in the country.” In the series, we see how Hall eerily describes how Reitler’s grave was the “best grave” he ever dug. In previous episodes, Black Bird explores Hall’s early years, highlighting the unusual childhood job he had of digging graves with his father — to steal from the dead. In his speech about burying Tricia Reitler, Hauser adds new levels of horror to this strange aspect of Hall’s personal history, but Keene admits, in his book, that he was not able to extract a precise location from his target — ultimately leaving this assignment incomplete.

How Real Is the Map Depicted in 'Black Bird'?

Interestingly, it is reported that Keene did, in real life, find Hall with a map identifying several locations that are thought to have represented additional bodies, a scene of prominence in the series too, played with the perfect amount of concealed terror by Egerton in particular. In his memoir, Keene describes how he found Hall working on a black-and-white photocopy of the map of Illinois and Indiana, with several red dots scattered inside the borders, and 10 or 12 falcons etched across the top. When asked what the falcons were for, Hall replied, “They watch over the dead.”

Keene suspected he was onto something big, but an unfortunate heat-of-the-moment confrontation with Hall led to his being thrown into solitary confinement before he could alert the FBI. After his release from solitary, the map was gone. Despite this far-from-ideal turn of events, as the show correctly depicts, Keene was released from prison after serving a sentence of around 17 months in total, allowing him to spend a few more years with his father before his death in 2004.

Larry Hall Is Serving Out a Life Sentence

In real life, in the years after his encounter with Keene, Hall did eventually confess to several other murders —including Tricia Reitler — but then, unsurprisingly, he recanted all these, too. Despite the mysteries behind who and how many people Hall killed, the FBI estimate that it could have been up to 40 young women. Today, alleged serial killer Larry Hall continues to be imprisoned at a facility in North Carolina, where he is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole.

Black Bird is available to stream on Apple TV+ in the U.S.

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