End of Year Wrap-Up 2023

More or less complete vindication for the Truth Squad. It feels good, man.

I’m hard at work on a new video, this time about the DNA evidence. In the meantime, I thought I’d post an update on what’s happening with various players in this drama.

Me. My book on the case, “Martyr or Murderer: Jens Soering, the Media, and the Truth” is selling well has a 4.9 rating on Amazon as of this writing. I’m more than chuffed at the reception. I am working every day on a German translation of the book, which is proceeding more slowly than I hoped, but is still proceeding! Please have patience, German readers. I’m on it, and will get it to you as soon as I can.

Jens Söring. In early November, Söring released a round of videos criticizing Netflix and the German documentary filmmakers for producing six hours of documentaries which left most viewers convinced that Söring indeed killed the Haysoms (perhaps along with Elizabeth, if you buy the Netflix version). As usual, his videos were full of complex, nit-picking arguments which only case scholars would understand. Also as usual, Söring invented a few new claims designed for newcomers who have no clue about his case. For instance, he claims there must have been more people at the crime scene, because there were “four blood types” recovered there.

The reactions to these videos were mostly either emoji-filled declarations of love from lonely middle-aged women or people urging Söring to move on from the case and focus on the future. Söring’s fundraising appeal on GoFundMe is still well short of his €33,000 goal. It would seem many people are skeptical as to why Söring needs a “new start” in freedom (the title of his fundraising appeal) when he’s already been free for four years. He claims he will use the funds in part to file another petition for an absolute pardon from the Governor of Virginia. Since that has no chance of success — especially after all the documentaries — it’s not much of a hook. Donors may not realize that Söring has already applied for a pardon repeatedly. All he has to do is print out the old pardon petitions his lawyers filed, change a few phrases here and there, and send it in again.

Söring has not posted any videos about his case in weeks, but continues to release episodes of “Söring & Simmen”, a podcast in which he and a former Germany’s Next Superstar contestant named Dominik Simmen chat about various topics vaguely related to psychology. Söring has also started a new series called “Sympathy with the Devil”, in which he tells prison tales. Neither venture is attracting any attention outside Söring’s small existing fan base.

It would seem that after years of being courted by compliant German journalists, Söring is finally fading into obscurity.

Anita Elsani. Anita Elsani is a German film producer who announced in January 2022 that she has been hired, along with Neary Media, to create a “true-crime” series based on the Söring case. Since then, we’ve heard nary a peep about this project. The announcements assured us there were “significant open questions” about the case since DNA had shown there were other males at the crime scene. After The Soering System and the various documentaries, those theories have been blown out of the water.

An actress hired to portray Elizabeth actually tried to get in touch with her to “study” for the role in this production — which will likely imply that Elizabeth was at the crime scene, if not the actual murderer. Now that’s what I call chutzpah. Naturally, the Haysom family members told this person to take a long walk off a short pier. Given that the whodunit premise of this fictionalized “true-crime” story has just died a very public, agonizing death — and that major figures in the case like Terry Wright and Ricky Gardner will be watching every frame of it with their lawyers on speed-dial — I would be surprised if it ever gets released. If it does, the story will probably be so transformed it will be barely recognizable.

Karin Steinberger. More than anyone else, Karin Steinberger (along with Marcus Vetter) is responsible for selling a worldwide public on a false narrative about this case through her biased coverage in a major German newspaper and her 2016 pro-Söring film Killing for Love. In November 2023, an episode of the German documentary series ZAPP revealed that she had worked with pro-Söring activists behind the scenes to try to discredit me in retaliation for my critical coverage of her work (she has refused all of my public invitations to debate the case).

She was forced to admit that this was improper, and that her excessive closeness to Jens Söring had clouded her journalistic judgment. The result was a minor journalistic scandal which tarnished the reputation of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, the newspaper she works for. After first trying to defend the newspaper’s coverage by dismissing me and Terry Wright as unreliable sources, the editor in chief faced facts and apologized to readers for the bias in his paper’s coverage. Meanwhile, Killing for Love appears to have disappeared from all streaming platforms.

I will admit to a slight bit of Schadenfreude that Steinberger has taken a reputational hit. After all, she did attack me personally in private and public merely for publishing fact-based critiques of her journalistic work which even she has had to admit were on-point. Nevertheless, I’m glad she has admitted her mistake, and wasn’t fired. Her case is perhaps the most prominent illustration of a rule I’ve stated over and over: People who hitch their reputations to Jens Söring always come to regret it.

Daniela Hillers. Daniela Hillers is a ghostwriter and manager of a small publishing house in Hamburg, Germany. She announced she would be releasing a book, both in English and German, casting doubt on Söring’s conviction. She had originally planned it to come out the same time as the Netflix series (as my book did), but that didn’t happen. John Grisham had written a foreword for the book, but decided to withdraw it for reasons Hillers hasn’t made clear.

Another problem was that the book, if it is anything like Hillers’ other projects relating to the case, will likely contain false claims about Terry Wright and Ricky Gardner’s work on the case. Both men are, as the British say, “taking legal advice” on the matter. After decades of attacks, they are fed up with ignorant people attacking them for their outstanding police work based on false and misleading claims.

The book has been repeatedly delayed and is now scheduled to come out sometime in January. We’ll see.

Burkhard Benecken. Notorious German criminal-defense lawyer Burkhard Benecken released an error-filled “report” about the Söring case and three YouTube videos. Nobody cared.

Judge Ralph Guise-Rübe. President of the Hanover Regional Court Judge Ralph Guise-Rübe released an error-filled podcast (along with Hillers) about the Söring case. Nobody cared.

Chuck Reid. Chuck Reid released a “report” in Hillers’ Gallip Verlag which is printed in such a weird-looking font that it’s practically unreadable:

Apparently Chuck tried to give this report some authentic 1980s flair by writing it on a vintage Commodore® Amiga. I tried to read it, but I keep getting headaches after a few minutes.

Conclusion. I don’t want to sound too smug here, but I bask in a warm, fuzzy feeling of vindication. When I began writing about this case, I imagined I would just publish an essay challenging the dominant media narrative (something I enjoy doing) and move on. I couldn’t have known that Söring would be released the same day my first article came out, or that his supporters would go after me so aggressively. I decided to dig even deeper into the case, and found the entire world had been gaslighted by bad journalism into believing a preposterous lie.

After four years of hard, often frustrating work (made bearable by working with dozens of great collaborators) the truth has prevailed. Anyone with access to the Internet can now get the whole picture of the case, including the evidence proving Söring’s guilt. German journalists now have yet another cautionary tale about the risks of confidently denouncing a legal system they barely understand. Jens Söring has disappeared from mainstream talk shows with millions of viewers.

This blog will probably become somewhat more dormant as I move on to YouTube and media interest in Jens Söring dwindles ever further. Yet you never know — even at this very late date, Söring has still been able to recruit unsuspecting helpmeets to help him push his story. As long as that happens, I’ll be here to administer the necessary corrective. As always, I’d like to thank readers and subscribers for their kind words and support. Stay tuned for more from Andrew Hammel in various formats!