Black Bird: The true story behind the Apple TV+ drama, explored

Black Bird, Apple TV's true crime drama, premiered in July 2022 and tells the story of James Keene, played by Taron Egerton. Based on Keene’s memoir, Black Bird narrates how Keene was sent to a high-security prison to get a confession out of Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser).

Keene was a budding footballer who, to match the wealth of his rich friends, began dealing with drugs and made a business worth $1 million. However, it all came crashing down when he was sentenced to 10 years in prison without the possibility of parole.

However, as depicted in Black Bird, Keene was offered a complicated deal by a U.S. attorney to get Larry Hall’s confession, which would give him a chance to walk free out of prison after his sentence was shortened.

The Apple TV show narrates how Keene took the deal and had to go in to befriend an accused serial killer, who is suspected of murdering numerous women across Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

Here’s the story behind the events depicted in Apple TV’s Emmy-nominated miniseries.

Black Bird: Keene befriended Larry Hall

As shown in Black Bird, Keene did take the deal and went to the prison where Larry was serving his sentence after being convicted of murdering Jessica Roach, a teenager. However, as the true story goes, Larry accepted and then retracted his statement of killing Roach, due to which they had to take a dangerous step and involve Keene, who is known for his charming and extroverted personality.

Just like it was shown in the Apple TV show, Keene went ahead with the mission and, fortunately, built a good rapport with the prisoners. One key moment that helped Keene get closer to Larry was when he attacked another inmate who wouldn’t let Larry watch America's Most Wanted, Larry’s favorite true crime show.

This incident helped Keene become Larry’s friend and began his actual mission of collecting information about Larry’s crimes. Larry began telling him about all his crimes, including Jessica Roach’s murder, which was difficult for Keene to hear as he shared with Dateline and said:

"To listen to this kind of stuff and not just rip him apart—but I knew what the mission involved and what was at stake for me and the families trying to find their daughters."

Other than Roach, Keene also asked him about the missing and presumed dead teen, Tricia Reitler. Keene told Dateline that Larry had shared about killing the girl and stated:

"He said that he had killed her and he knew he had done it again. He said he buried her way out in the woods."

Black Bird: Did Keene get a confession from Larry? Details explored

After months of pretending to be Larry's friend, the moment came that would get Keene out of prison, just as it was depicted in Black Bird. He found Larry with wood-carved Black Birds, sprawled across the map of cities of Wisconsin, Indiana, and Illinois.

When Keene asked about what all this was, Larry told him that these Black Birds watch over the dead, hinting at the numerous locations where he might have buried the bodies of the women he killed. This is the evidence that could prove that Larry was indeed a serial killer and had killed numerous women.

Therefore, Keene quickly left a message for the FBI about what he had found, but also revealed his true feelings about Larry, insinuating a conflict between the two, as he thought he was getting away from all this.

However, his hopes came crashing down, as the FBI did not receive the message as quickly as Keene had hoped. When they did and came by, all those Black Birds were gone, failing Keene’s attempt at being released from prison.

With the help of attorney Beaumont and a polygraph test, Keene was able to get out of prison, but not without the mental scars that were etched in his memory. Despite Keene's efforts, Larry Hall was never convicted of any murders. He remains in prison only for the kidnapping of Jessica Roach, for which he was serving a sentence in prison.

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