During the Vietnam War, a student protest at Washington University in St. Louis erupted into violence, with a campus ROTC building being burned down. A student named Howard Mechanic was accused of the crime, and when he was sentenced to federal prison… he vanished. He had been represented by civil rights attorney Louis Gilden, and he and his daughter Nina obsessed over Mechanic’s whereabouts for years.
Now an award-winning documentary filmmaker and founding director of Washington U.’s Documentary Center, Nina Gilden Seavey joins us to tell the story of her ten year search for Howard Mechanic, the much larger story about government surveillance she uncovered, and how her 8-episode podcast that tells the story, My Fugitive, is ready to be made into a movie.
A.V. Club writer Mike Vago pitches stories that Hollywood needs to bring to the big screen, on his own, or with guests from the pop culture writing world. Also available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Overcast, and RadioPublic.