Q&A with Forensic Files Producer Paul Dowling

Covers of the book Forensic Files Now

What You’ve Been Dying to Know 

How did Forensic Files become the I Love Lucy of true-crime shows — with reruns on every day, everywhere from Montreal to Melbourne? The half-hour series has been compelling fans to procrastinate on their housework and homework and gym schedules for two decades.

Paul Dowling with his daughter, Brae

Since starting this blog last year, I’ve used it to answer lingering questions about specific Forensic Files episodes. With this post, I hope to solve some mysteries about the series as a whole.

Executive producer Paul Dowling, whose Medstar Television made all 400 episodes, allowed me to interrogate him during a phone call:

Forensic Files is shown in 142 countries — why are overseas viewers so interested in U.S. crimes? In many countries, cases aren’t covered in the media the way they are here.

Often the laws are different from American laws. In Great Britain, there is confidentiality until the case is decided. The crime files aren’t open the way they can be in the U.S. Same thing in Canada — you don’t learn about someone being arrested for rape or murder before the case is decided. And if he’s exonerated, you never know about it.

That can give people in other countries the wrong idea about the U.S. Brazil has a murder rate 3x higher than ours. Everyone has guns except for innocent law-abiding people, and when bad guys come to the door, they can’t defend themselves. And then they see American television and think the crime rate is much higher in the U.S.

There was a rape and murder in Brazil in front of 12 people and no one testified. People in Brazil asked me whether I’m afraid to walk the streets in the U.S. I said no, I’m afraid here.

When I was in Paris, I was told to dress like a bum [to prevent robbery].

How do you pack the whole story into 30-minute episodes? We have 22 minutes. It’s like a Broadway musical: Every line of that song has to move the story along.

As you are creating the story, you don’t think, “How will I write this?” You think, “How will I say this?”

You can tell a lot with the pictures you use. If we show a girl holding a fish [that she caught], it says something about who she was.

For every story we did, all 400, before the show aired, I sat down with three people and told them the story. It enabled me to see how the story worked. If their eyes glazed over, I knew the story was going too slowly.

It’s like campfire storytelling — if you want to keep boys and girls awake, you have to tell a good story.

How is it contending with the pressure for Nielsen ratings? Imagine you’re doing a Broadway musical and, at any moment, the audience can stay right in their same seats and have their choice of switching to 500 other musicals.

That’s TV.

TV producers are not evaluated on the value of their show — or how many people watch it. They are evaluated on how many viewers watch the ads during breaks.

You have to have a show that people are emotionally tied to so that they are afraid to get up.

Paul Dowling's dogs Chloe, a white and brown spaniel mix and Kimber, a toy-size Pomeranian
Chloe (left, with pal Kimber) often visited the studio behind the scenes

How do you keep viewers in their seats? When I started the show on TLC in 1996, they wanted us to use teasers. I said no: The show should provide the incentive  for viewers to come back. Toward the end of Jeopardy, when they come back from the break, Alex goes right into the Final Jeopardy question — there’s no recap. People don’t want to miss that question.

Viewers of Forensic Files want to know who killed that guy. That’s why you can’t open the show with any hint of who did it.

When we interviewed a killer on camera, we would go to the prison with our own [street] clothes for him to wear. That way, viewers don’t know yet that he did it.

We also use the passive tense in scripts, even though writers are taught not to in school. The passive tense lets you put information out there without saying who did it.

And we also don’t use big fancy words if there’s no need. A screenwriter had me look at a script once, and I said, “What does this word mean? I have two college degrees and I don’t know.” If you were at a picnic or dinner party and someone used that word, how would it make you feel?

Why do you interview the murder victims’ mothers and fathers separately — even if they’re still married? If you have two dogs in the house, there’s always one dominant one. Likewise, sometimes people say things in front of you they wouldn’t say in front of their spouse. There are interview tricks that work with one person but not two at the same time. People are often uncomfortable with silences, so sometimes they’ll blurt out something they wouldn’t [with a spouse present].

A lot of true-crime series show victims’ family members in tears. Why doesn’t Forensic Files?
Because it’s manipulative. There are techniques TV producers use to make a person cry. And the viewer feels sorry for the person and gets mad at the TV show for subjecting that person to heartache.

And oftentimes it’s a year or more after the crime, so people are more composed.

We give murder victims’ families a cleaned-up version of the episode they’re in.

You mean a version without graphic footage of wounds, autopsies, etc.? Yes, we tell them that this is the version they’ll want to watch and show their friends.

You recently tweeted that your dog Chloe had passed away at age 15. How was she involved in the show? She used to come in the editing room with us, next to the editor. I was working so hard that I wasn’t home a lot, and my kids would come in with sleeping bags and pizza and the dog would eat pizza behind our backs.

Chloe was here when we did reenactments with German shepherd-style attack dogs. She started running in circles and getting bent out of shape.

So you used real dogs and cats in the reenactments? Yes, and we had a trained squirrel and homing pigeons and a kangaroo once.

What about reenactments of vehicular accidents — did you use stock footage? No. Every crash you see on Forensic Files is something we created. We did a show about boat crashes, and we bought boats. We use cars that are the same model and color [as those in the real accidents]. Some movies edit crashes and fast-forward to a stock shot of the outcome. Forensic Files shows crashes without an edit.

With crashes, you can’t have gasoline in the cars — you don’t want explosions. So sometimes you have motorized pushers. But you have to be fair as far as the speeds used, so a defense attorney doesn’t come back and say to you, “Hey, the real crash was 30 mph, but the show’s was 70 mph.”

Doesn’t all that make accident reenactions awfully expensive? Yes, but there was never a budget limit for re-creations. I never wanted anyone to be hurt in an accident re-creation and to have the director say afterward, “Well, I only had $50,000.”

Were there any episodes that chilled you to the bone, that you couldn’t forget after you went home? Yes, if we hadn’t done one particular episode, three people would be in prison for something they didn’t do. It was for the Norfolk rape and killing of Michelle Moore-Bosko in 1997, and these three people didn’t do it. Someone else confessed to the crime, and the prosecutor wouldn’t act.

Tim Kaine was governor of Virginia then, and he saw the episode [“Eight Men Out,” 2001] and had the state police reinvestigate.

I read that “Bad Blood” — the story of a woman raped by a doctor (John Schneeberger) while she was unconscious — was your favorite episode of Forensic Files. Why? If a forensic hall of fame existed, that victim would belong in it.

The doctor’s DNA didn’t match the rapist’s. The victim was sure the hospital was being paid off to throw the tests or something. So she broke into the doctor’s things and got his Chapstick. She paid for a DNA test with her own money, and it matched the DNA from the rape.

It turned out the doctor had implanted a plastic tube into his arm with somebody else’s blood and was having that blood tested.

The doctor’s wife had been saying on TV that this woman was a slut. And then the wife’s daughter from another marriage who lived with them told her mother that the stepdad [Schneeberger] had been drugging and raping her.

Paul Dowling at the 2016 Mipcom trade show in Cannes. A German network licensed Forensic Files for 10 years because “there are people who aren’t born yet who’ll want to see it”

After talking to various people who watch Forensic Files, I haven’t really been able to identify a demographic pattern. Have you? One thing we know is that a lot of women watch the show for safety reasons — knowledge of safety they can pass along to their daughters.

Can you share any safety tips? We don’t get into victim-shaming, but we do show things that the victims shouldn’t have done regarding situational awareness.

Some girls and women don’t know that there are predators at bars and clubs casing them out. A predator will watch for things like two women walking in together late. He knows that later in the evening they will have parked farther away. So when they’re ready to leave, if one stays and the other goes out to get the car and drive it around, the predator will follow her out to the car.

I tell my daughter and her friends what the FBI says: When you go to your car, have your keys in your hand. If someone with a gun comes up and says to get in the car, throw your keys and purse in one direction and run in the other. The bad guy isn’t expecting this, so he thinks, “I can get the money and car instead of going after her.”


Update:  Read about the life and times of Forensic Files narrator Peter Thomas

41 thoughts on “Q&A with Forensic Files Producer Paul Dowling”

    1. The thing I find maddening is the lack of balance between the music and the dialogue. I find myself backing off on the volume of the music, but then the voices are too soft. This is my complaint with BBC productions as well. Booming music that overpowers voices. Technology exists to balance the two!

      1. Great comment, the background music ruins many episodes. There is no need for all of the music.
        We watch the show on a regular basis, and we continue to hope that sometime the music will be balanced or eliminated.

      2. The stupid / loud / annoying background music (loud piano keys being played and strings (cello?) being randomly plucked ) is ruining it for me and last night it was particularly bad / so loud, I switched off almost in a rage!

        I love the series, but once one starts to notice the annoying unecessary background music then one’s brain kinda stops even listening to the narrative!!

        PLEASE GET RID OF THE PLONKING PIANO AND THE PLUCKING STRINGS ETC!!!

      3. I have the SAME EXACT COMPLAINT !
        I can hardly watch the show. The music is so unpleasant and discordant (don’t know if that is a word). Tone it down!!!

      4. That’s how I feel, too. Have Forensic Files on right now and can barely hear what is being said because of the loud and intrusive background music. For the love of Mike, folks, tone down the music!!!!!

  1. Great interview. I had no idea so much art was involved in these shows. I’m impressed by how much respect he has for his subjects.

  2. Did not know that in other countries, court cases aren’t public till the perp is convicted. Seems good of them not to allow the media to influence the outcome. But as long as there is lurid media coverage in the US, one may as well enjoy Forensic Files. Along with everything else, it fills an organic need for a story. Great article!

  3. Great interview — he’s so generous to share his advice on what makes the show so compelling. Also, nice update to the blog header photo!

  4. Fascinating insights — what a great interview! I loved Dowling’s comment about how Alex Trebek goes right into the Final Jeopardy question with no recap of the prior action. The recaps after commercial breaks that some shows employ is a pet peeve of mine. Shows that run for an hour could be done in 30 minutes if they didn’t waste so much time retelling the whole story for the benefit of people who are channel surfing. One more thing to love about Forensic Files!

      1. So true I am trying to find the right person to explain how hard it is except to put closed caption on.. I love the show but the background noise makes it impossible for me to hear without turning the volume up so high. Please lower the music. I am disturbing my neighbors.

        1. Hi, Florence! I’ve been getting a lot of comments like yours over the past few months —I passed them along to one of the FF executives and hope there will be a solution!

  5. I wanted to watch “Eight Men Out” based on this interview, but can’t find it in this database or on YouTube. The case is also known as “The Norfolk 4.”

    I watched part of a tedious documentary on YouTube about it, enough to go find out what happened to the detective who got 4 men imprisoned based on false confessions.

    In 2011, “Retired Norfolk homicide detective Robert Glenn Ford was sentenced in federal court Friday to 12-1/2 years in prison for taking bribes from criminals and lying to the FBI about it.” So he’s still in prison.

  6. Mr Dowling isn’t quite correct here: “In Great Britain, there is confidentiality until the case is decided. The crime files aren’t open the way they can be in the U.S.” Although identity generally isn’t disclosed (and “crime files” – whatever they are – certainly not), it is in such circumstances as threat to life, the prevention or detection of crime or a matter of public interest and confidence. The latter clause – quite subjective – sees many charged with sex offences named, even though statistically they are unlikely to be found guilty, and it is a source of much controversy. Men, as the primary affected group, are in my view rightly angered that a mere allegation can ruin them.

    Is it right that untested allegation should be in the public domain? Surely not!

    1. Found the incel. Get a life!!! Maybe more men would be convicted of the violent sexual crimes they often commit if they weren’t generally being declared “innocent” by a judge & jury full of other men, based on laws & precedent that were developed by other men, in a system codified long before women were rightfully able to vote & participate in public life. I dearly wish we lived in a world where men’s lives WERE ruined by sexual assault accusations, instead of the clear reality in which men maintain their power, prestige, and wealth regardless of how many easily provable sexual assaults they have committed in the past.

  7. Check the update graphic text sentence added to the end of Episode 8 (The Wilson Murder). It claims Betty Wilson married the accuser White in prison in 2006. This is a bizarre error not to be corrected by now… the episode just aired again on HNL.

  8. In 1973 a college student at Maryville, Mo. was brutally murdered and that crime has never been solved. Rumor was that she was doing a thesis on drug traffic in her hometown of Chillicothe, Mo.

    Below is from the Facebook Group for anyone who may know something. Is there anything Forensic Files could do, or any suggestions?

    Was it jealousy, hatred, anger? Was the killer fueled by drugs? What could possibly cause someone to torture and murder little Tess Hilt, who fought so hard to live? Fought so hard that she aspirated her own hair trying to breath. Tess should be a grandmother now. She should be here with friends and family. She should have been here to help her Mom when her health failed.

    Can you help? Please email us at: Tips4Tess@aol.com

  9. I would like to know why the background music on some of the shows is so loud that you can’t hear the audio. It is very annoying. I love the show, but turn it off when I can’t hear it. Please turn the music off, or down, It does nothing for the show. Thanks.

    1. I have the same problem. I have difficulty hearing it because the background music is loud and distracting so I turn it off out of frustration.

  10. I really like the show but dislike the loud background music! It’s irritating because it overpowers the dialogue and I turn the channel.

  11. My husband and really really enjoy watching Forensic Files but the music it very distracting and way TOO LOUD. We are senior citizens and I have excellent hearing but my husband’s hearing isn’t good. He has hearing aids and he can’t hear the narrator with that awful music blaring. Please omit the music.

  12. I have no idea what these people are talking about re: the music. I suspect they are all very old. If it’s not too loud, it’s too spicy.
    I actually ended up here after specifically seeking out the name of the guy who does the sound effects/music as they are absolutely chilling and I think play a big role in giving the show its eerie atmosphere.
    I recently watched a short video on ‘delta p’ (a pressure phenomenon that kills divers) and strongly suspect the music is from the same guy. It sounds like the same narrator, too.

  13. what was the name of the show that things were done to soldiers over seas along time ago where a person they thought was their friend were saying coments to them all the time to mentally harm them when after the war the soldiers exfriend would come back to the US and find the soldier just to come and say hi to them and that would cause mental problems of deep thaught into thing that would make the soldier possibly end their lifes in severe memory loss. If they had a meeting with a law officer. Cause this was done to me. I have a truamatic brain injury and a business owner had a friend law officer come a use 2 sets of handcuffs on me during 1 of my many partial seizures. To cause extreme strain on my brain and the next day when I got to work the first thing the owner says to me is I’ve stoled everything. And doing this caused a extreme anxiety stress to me and lots of mental strain. In the show you said this was illegal to do to someone. I need to find that show to talk with people of what the business owner and law officer had done to me. If you can could you name or send me a copy of that show so I can show family and friends what wasa mentally done to me. And maybe help me after lots of yrs. with this mental problem get cured with my councilor.

  14. I can’t remember the episode but, it was about a funeral director that was killed by his son. I’ve seen the same story before and can’t remember if it was on FF or in Oxygen channel. All actors were the same and the story was the same except in one episode shows that the director had 2 sons and on FF shows one. I watched it twice on FF this month. So, it’s on the other show
    Please look into it and let me know. Thank you

  15. Kudos to Dowling. FF is a perfect balance of interviews, archival footage, credible recreations, graphics and narration. One reason it’s so compelling: whether the forensic evidence convicts the guilty or exonerates the innocent, justice always triumphs in the end, and we can rely on this in FF — as in a good work of fiction. Unfortunately, the justice that we all deeply crave does not always triumph in the real world. Many crimes, including murders, go unsolved. But forensic advances are constantly upping the ratio of solved:unsolved. Which means FF 2.0 will have plenty of new material to cover, such as geneaology DNA that identified the Golden State Killer and so many other very old cold cases now.

    1. I watch just about all the episodes of FF, BUT, I would really like to know why the background audio is SO loud, that it is hard to hear the people talking. Can’t that be turned down or eliminated all together. My friends have also complained about this also. ThankYou.

      Hope something can be done, which would make it more enjoyable

  16. When everyone is complaining about the background music, WHY don’t you do something about it. Or give us an answer as to WHY it is sooooo loud. Do you even read these comments?

  17. The background music is WAY TOO LOUD and not only that, it is UGLY. Please turn it down! It’s ruining your show!

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