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The ABC’s of Death director Simon Rumley, of the ‘P is for Pressure’ segment, has signed on for FilmDistrict’s The Last Word. Written by Ben Ketai, writer of the direct-to-video sequel 30 Days of Night: Dark Days and creator of the Crackle original series Chosen, the true story follows the supernatural aftermath of the trial of a man wrongly accused and put to death for the rape and murder of a nun.
The film will be produced by Peter Schlessel and Lia Buman of FilmDistrict, as well as Frank Mancuso, Jr. of Boss Media along with Peter Facinelli, Eric Gores, and Rob DeFranco of A7SLE Films.
After some sleuthing, and by sleuthing I mean Wikipedia, I came across Johnny Garrett. Garrett was executed in Huntsville, Texas on February 11, 1992 for the rape and murder of nun, Tadea Benz. In 2004 the murder of Narnie Bryson, an elderly woman killed in Amarillo four months prior to the brutal death of Sister Benz, was solved with DNA evidence linking to Cuban immigrant Leoncio Rueda.
It could be just coincidence that in both cases the killer left a white t-shirt behind, black curly head hairs (later linked to Rueda), fingerprints that were later identified as Rueda’s, and matching stab wounds. Sure, sure. But as Rueda was being interviewed while transferring to Texas for the trial, he admitted to the rape of Bryson as well as the rape and murder of a nun sometime later.
To make matters worse, the family of Johnny Garrett has appealed to the State of Texas multiple times for his exoneration with the newly found DNA evidence. The State of Texas responded by threatening the Garrett family with a lawsuit.
There wasn’t any information about the strange and tragic occurrences that followed, but I’m told you can find information about it in the documentary The Last Word (not to be confused with the up-coming movie of the same name).
The film will shoot this summer with an expected 2014 release date.
