Where the Murder Lies: Death & Deception in West Hollywood

Interview with authors Burl Barer and Frank C. Girardot about their book Where the Murder Lies. The 2004 murder of a retired Los Angeles schoolteacher never made the evening news. Within hours, arrests were made, charges were filed, and a speedy conviction sent Jimmy Kitlas, an incredibly shy special-needs teenager with no criminal history, to prison.

Twenty years later, a woman named Kelley Leigh asked Barer and Girardot to investigate. She believed the case’s rapid resolution concealed a deeper and more troubling narrative—one marked by deception, manipulation, dishonesty, and a profound disregard for truth and justice.