Brian Reed’s S-Town is a devastating look at the necessities of legality
Masquerading as a true crime podcast, S-Town is not a podcast that explores the inhumanity of murder. It is the deeply human story of two men, of love and family, and how simple choices can cause devastating consequences.
Spoilers ahead.
In 2012, John B. McLemore, a listener of This American Life, reached out to producer Brian Reed in a cryptic and grim email, asking for help in exposing the depravities that haunt his rural town.McLemore explained that, in his destitute hometown of Woodstock, Alabama (or “Shit Town” as McLemore calls it), the son of a wealthy man has been going around bragging that he’s recently gotten away with beating a man to death.
After over a year of emailing and long-distance phone calls, Reed agreed to fly down to Woodstock to investigate the alleged murder and begin recording a podcast about the investigation.
While the premise of the podcast—the murder of Dylan Nichols—is initially intriguing, the real interest of the first two episodes comes from McLemore himself. He is a grim, pessimistic man. He’s also well-spoken, candid, eccentric, and undeniably a brilliant genius.
In one such instance, we hear McLemore launch into an explanation about fuel combustion, while Reed explains that he and McLemore’s closest friend Tyler Goodson (so poetically named, it’s hard to believe it’s coincidental) exchange amused, affectionate glances of incomprehension.
Something marvelous and sad and beautiful happens when we get to hear Goodson and McLemore together. 23-year-old Goodson—a victim of abuse from the hands of his biological father—and McLemore share a deep-rooted father-son relationship.
The loyalty and care the two men share becomes particularly touching given the homophobic and misogynistic reputations of the southern states.Goodson remarks to Reed that he knows McLemore’s “got a little sugar in his tank,” but concludes that it’s McLemore’s business and it doesn’t bother him. It’s a strange, sweet moment that stands out. These quiet, understated moments that the listener gets, where Reed manages to coax these anecdotal, offhand comments from one of the men about the other, are some of the most important moments I’ve ever experienced in any form of media.
While we think it’s a true crime podcast, by the end of episode two, we learn (painfully, heartbreakingly) that it isn’t. At the end of episode two, Reed receives a phone call from Goodson’s sister-in-law explaining that McLemore has committed suicide. The phone call is literally in the podcast. We hear Reed’s sharp intake of breath, the hitch in his voice, and the grief-stricken confusion that follows.
It’s brutal. It’s human. It’s a critical story.McLemore did not leave a will. He did not leave plans for the care of his elderly mother who suffers from dementia, or the thirteen dogs he’d adopted, and he didn’t leave anything for Goodson.
Suddenly, cousins appear from Florida and receive power of attorney over McLemore’s mother who is deemed medically-unfit to make decisions for her own treatment, or for the allotment of her estate.
S-Town becomes the unbearably sad story of a man who left shit-all for the people he loved most in his life. It’s complicated. It’s hard to listen to, but it’s a necessary story. It’s a word of warning.
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