Beyond its ponies and bourbon, Louisville, Kentucky, is not all glitter balls and glamour.
The birthplace of the disco ball — locally called “glitter balls” — is also the tragic death place of Jamie Carroll. The hairdresser and drag performer was brutally murdered in 2010 by either Joey Banis or Jeffrey Mundt, depending on whom you believe. In HBO‘s two-part true-crime doc Murder in Glitterball City the former lovers point fingers at each other for the crime — only one, Banis, is currently in prison, even though both participated in the basement burial of Carroll following a wild night of sex, drugs and slaughter.
The separate trials — due to the he said-he said accusations, since Banis and Mundt could not be tried as co-defendants — as well as the two-part documentary series from Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato hinge on a “confession” video self-recorded by Banis. In a motel room, seemingly holding Mundt at gun point, Banis admits to the murder and absolves his partner of any wrongdoing.
It might be an open-and-shut case if not for the minutes-earlier footage that sees Mundt basically scripting the entire spiel for Banis. It appears Mundt is the one in control of the situation. So why would Banis play along? For starters, Bailey and Barbato say, crystal meth is a helluva drug.
“I think it was all part of this drug-fueled haze. It was a strategic, transactional act that Joey was making. It was all part of the confusion of the dynamics of this relationship. [Mundt] is saying [Banis] did it and [the confession] is real, and [Banis] was crazy,” Barbato told The Hollywood Reporter. “And [Banis] is saying, I [confessed] because [Mundt] asked me to do this — he demanded I do this for whatever reason.”
The defendants both said they feared one another. Regardless, the “confession” tape was used to convict Banis on a murder charge, and saved Mundt from the same fate.
“They were both on trial for the same crime, and yet, just wrapping your head around how the outcome was completely different is very — it’s kind of bizarre,” Bailey said.
Beyond the tape, Banis and Mundt were very different in their presentation. Mundt speaks intelligently (though condescendingly, as numerous doc participants point out) and sports a clean-cut, corporate look. On the other end, Banis sports a blue mohawk, piercings and landing-strip soul patch.
But appearances are often deceiving — especially in Glitterball City.
“You’re in Old Louisville, which is this haunted neighborhood where people dress up, pretending to be characters from the past and ghosts and things,” Bailey said. “Meth messes with your head, but [the setting] also messes with your head: Which dimension are we in?”
Kevin Asher in Murder in Glitterball City.
World of Wonder Productions/HBO
Murder in Glitterball City is more sympathetic to Banis, who participates from prison and has what Bailey calls a “slim” possibility of being granted an appeal, compared to Mundt. Barbato said they repeatedly “tried until very late in the process” to get in touch with Mundt for the doc, but “it was radio silence” on his end.
Though their doc takes a side, Bailey and Barbato aren’t necessarily all #JusticeForBanis — they want justice for Carroll, which in their eyes includes Mundt behind bars as well. The way they see it is, regardless of who wielded the knife and discharged the gun, anyone who buries a body in the basement and continues on with their lives for months on end — even if at times feeling under duress — should be behind bars.
Mundt is not unfindable, and despite double jeopardy laws, there is still probably a way to put him where Bailey and Barbato feel he belongs. That’s not the only goal, however, for Murder in Glitterball City.
Bailey says it’s important they use their platform to not allow society to dismiss murders in the LBGTQ community, which he says especially happens when the victim is involved in illicit acts.
“As queer filmmakers, what happened to Jamie and the way that maybe people look at drug dealers and drag queens, or trans or people who are engaged in illegal activity like drug dealing… the goal, our goal, was to tell the story as fully as we could,” he said.
Murder in Glitterball City, from World of Wonder Productions, premiered both episodes back to back on Thursday, Feb. 19 beginning at 8 p.m. on HBO. Both parts will be available to stream on HBO Max.
