MY BROTHER’S KILLER Documentary

Documentarian Rachel Mason, whose film CIRCUS OF BOOKS (AFI FEST 2019) told the story of the notorious West Hollywood gay porn emporium operated by her parents, Barry and Karen, returns with another tale of West Hollywood: the long-unsolved 1990 murder of William Arnold Newton. A former teen runaway and occasional gay porn actor under the name Billy London, Newton’s severed head and body parts were discovered in a dumpster near La Brea Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard a few days before Halloween 1990. Despite an extensive investigation by LAPD detectives, no one was charged with his murder, and the case spent decades in the cold case files. Shortly after Mason begins investigating the unsolved murder, a 2020 episode of THE DINNER PARTY SHOW podcast revives a theory that Jeffrey Dahmer, visiting from Milwaukee, could be the killer. LAPD cold case detective John Lamberti revisits the Newton case files, and Mason meets amateur investigator Clark Williams, a dogged and insightful internet sleuth who sees some of his own life in Billy’s story. After sharing information and pooling resources among this motley crew of police detectives, podcasters, a documentarian and a gifted amateur investigator, the case is effectively re-opened. Mason and her cohort interview surviving knowledgeable sources from the early ‘90s West Hollywood gay porn scene, and re-examine various leads and persons of interest from the original investigation. Against the odds, new insights emerge and new leads are followed, ultimately resulting in solving a murder case more than 30 years after it was committed. –Todd Hitchcock