Paul Bateson: podcast appearances and interviews

Paul Bateson was an American radiographer and convicted murderer. He appeared as a radiologic technologist in a scene from the 1973 horror film The Exorcist. The scene, depicting a cerebral angiography with notable blood detail, has been praised for its realism by medical professionals. In 1979, Bateson was convicted of the murder of film industry journalist Addison Verrill and was sentenced to at least twenty years in prison. He was released on parole in 2003 after serving five years of his sentence. Prior to his trial, he was implicated by police and prosecutors in the series of unsolved slayings of gay men in Manhattan known as the "bag murders." Bateson reportedly boasted about these killings while in jail; however, no additional charges were filed against him, and there is no definitive evidence linking him to the murders. His case influenced the film director William Friedkin, who learned of Bateson's involvement and later made the film Cruising, which incorporated elements of New York City's leather subculture. In 2012, Friedkin mentioned having had a conversation with Bateson that suggested he might have admitted to the murders or was considering doing so in exchange for a lighter sentence. Despite this, Bateson remains the most consistently proposed suspect for the series of murders, though conclusive evidence was lacking.