Last September, I spoke to David Bushman, co-author of Murder at Teal's Pond: Hazel Drew and the Mystery That Inspired Twin Peaks. Although our conversation focused more on his earlier book Conversations with Mark Frost, we did discuss his true crime page-turner which at the time had yet to be released. Now that I've read Murder at Teal's Pond and found it riveting, it's time to talk about the book again with its other author, Mark Givens. I've followed Mark's work for years, since he debuted the podcast Deer Meadow Radio in 2016. That's where he first begin to dig into the century-old murder of Hazel Drew, a young woman living in upstate New York whose unsolved mystery inspired Mark Frost to invent Laura Palmer (Frost's grandmother used to tell him ghost stories about the victim, who supposedly haunted passerby near the pond where she was discovered). After years of extensive research, Mark and David (Givens and Bushman, not Frost and Lynch) uncovered a fascinating portrait not just of Hazel but of the very different worlds where she grew up and traveled between in her final days: the bustling, corrupt city of Troy and the remote, rural community around the Taberton woods. They even drew some conclusions about who might have killed her and why some avenues went unexplored back in 1908. Although the simple idea of a dead girl discovered by a body of water was what got Twin Peaks rolling, it turns out there are many other coincidental similarities, which Mark and I discuss.
The public portion of our conversation, running about thirty-five minutes after my usual introduction/update, is entirely focused on the book's rich texture and how it came together (including disagreements and different areas of interest between the two authors, and how those factored into the final text):
PART 1 on YouTube
The second part, longer than the first (as always) at fifty-five minutes and exclusive to $5/month patrons, continues this focus by discussing the detectives who ultimately came up short in their investigations, the politics of Troy, and other aspects of the book, before concluding with questions about season three, possibilities for future Twin Peaks, and even the early nineties Wiseguy tribute to Peaks, which both Mark and I have covered on our own.
Listen to...
Also listen to Deer Meadow Radio: episodes on Hazel Drew (from before the book was written) + Marilyn Monroe & Wiseguy
Journey Through Twin Peaks chapter 34 (seasons 1 & 2 collaborators): A Candle in Every Window (my video including clips from Wiseguy)
Twin Peaks Unwrapped interview w/ Mark Givens & David Bushman on Murder at Teal's Pond (audio-only video)
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