The Unsolved Murder of Beverly Lynn Smith

As Episode 1 of "The Unsolved Murder of Beverly Smith" (2022 release from Canada; 4 episodes of about 45 min each) opens, we are in "Oshawa, Ontario" and various talking heads, including crime reporter and author Jeff Mitchell, but also Wendy, the twin sister of Beverly, and Alan Smith, one of the original suspects, talk about the terrible events that resulted in the murder of Beverly Smith in December of 1974. At this point we are 10 min into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from Canadian director Nathalie Bibeau ("The Walrus and the Whistleblower"). Here she looks back to the events surrounding the murder of home maker Beverly Smith, whose husband may or may not have been involved in drug dealing. More importantly, Bibeau looks at the subsequent police investigation and the long-term fallout of same. I'll be honest: I was not impressed/taken in by the opening episode, and I was almost ready to bail on this, but for some reason I decided to give Episode 2 a chance, and by the time that was over, I just needed to stick around and find out how all of this played out. It was well worth it, as there are several unexpected (and major) developments (sorry, I can't spoil) that are sprung upon us in the last 2 episodes.

"The Unsolved Murder of Beverly Lynn Smith" premiered recently on Amazon Prime. I caught it this past weekend, and watched all 4 episodes in a single setting. Time just flew by. If you like true crime and documentaries, and you aren't impressed with the opening episode, be sure to give it one more episode. I think you won't regret it.

There's hundreds of hours of audio and evidence of Al talking about the murder, but the producers cherry-picked and left important facts out to fit their narrative.

Why didn't they have anyone that actually knew Al in the doc from before the age of 10? Just his sister that hadn't seen him in 25 years, 4 defence lawyers, and a journalist that's friends with his lawyer?

Why didn't they have Bev's sisters read the parts of the judge's decision where he said that Al lost his temper with "Jack" and threatened him after Jack had cancelled a meetup for payment? Or the part where Al went and dug up the boots he had buried of Jack's, took a picture of them, then wrote on it "Pay up, you dig?" Or the part where he said he doesn't believe the police had tunnel vision and only evidence led them to suspect Al and that the confession was "without prompting"?

They didn't even spell Bev's name right in the title.

Do your own research, please.

The sound quality on this is so poor that it is completely unwatchable. The background "music" is not background, and drowns out everything else. I'm disappointed, because I really wanted to watch this.

What a story. I think this could have been done with fewer episodes and not so much repetition. The case itself is interesting with twists and turns and kooky characters, but in the end there was no resolution. This is fine if they were just trying to bring a cold case to light and get some justice.

It also felt as if the family and others were all holding back information. This could have been the fault of the doc makers though.

I do suggest watching it if you like true crime and unsolved crimes.

I had no idea this happened in my neck of the woods. It's an important story. "Mr. Big" is very controversial here in Canada. I've interacted with police over the years in a work capacity, and I don't really like them. Policing needs to change. There remains an aura of "we will have our way".

The series could have been done perfectly in two episodes ..there was so much repetition. The set "scenes" were ridiculous, shabby retro, lampshades tilted, etc. Not necessary. The panning in and out of objects was really annoying. The last episode of the series is the best.

Overall this needed to be told.