and trapped.
Karla wasn't a very good actress and by this time she'd had time to practice. Having sat through many police interrogations where both the interviewing officer and the eyes on the other side of the one-way glass are watching for any hint of a lie; I couldn't fathom how anybody had bought what she was selling. But they had. It was a good story and now they were all stickin' to it!
When Paul's Lawyer had the opportunity to cross-examine, he tore her tales apart. Within an hour I was convinced that while Paul was a nasty piece of work, Karla was beyond any evil I have ever encountered.
And this wasn't due to some brilliant lawyer building "reasonable doubt" in the Jury. It came from the words and actions of Karla herself. All around me the faces and the reactions were the same. Nobody believed a word she was saying. Not one word.
And then they played the tapes. Over and over and over. Minutely re-examining the hours before the murders in heart-breaking detail.
I won't describe what I heard. Not that I can't. I won't. Nobody else needs the images in their head that were put into mine that afternoon. What became obvious to every person in that courtroom was that despite the truly unspeakable things Paul Bernardo had done, it was Karly Curls who did the killing.
By the end of the day, the Reporter was devastated. She may not have been much of a journalist, but she knew what she'd witnessed could not be repeated. And I knew this was one script I would not write.
The Reporter flew home, but I went back. Not because I'm some kind of masochist, but because I had to understand. Not understand what had happened in that quaint suburban house of murders on the shores of Lake Ontario, that was painfully clear; but why the Canadian Justice system was so avidly pursuing such a massive miscarriage of Justice.
Don't get me wrong. Paul Bernardo deserves to spend every second of the rest of his life in prison. But he should have had company.
A couple of years later, the production company I was working for was asked to bid on a screenplay based on the case called "Invisible Darkness". It was well written and got to some of the "truth" but not in a way that would have made anyone question the "deal with the devil". About a year ago, a fairly trashy US film called "Karla" came and went in about a week. It too followed the official version.
I'm not one of those who thinks certain stories shouldn't be told. I've sat with the families of murder victims I've portrayed. I've seen
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Crime: Karla Curls, the schoolgirl killer
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