Sumith Prasad
In the third episode of Apple TV+’s mystery series ‘Lady in the Lake,’ Maddie Schwartz shows up in the office of The Baltimore Star with the hope of joining the newspaper as a reporter. She meets Bob Bauer, the journalist who previously talked to her about the murder of Tessie Durst, and expresses her wish to do a story about the same case. Even though he dismisses her first, Maddie manages to make Stephen Zawadzkie, the prime suspect, write to her, which convinces Bauer to give her a chance. Like the two murders in the narrative, which are inspired by two real-life disappearances, The Baltimore Star also has roots in reality!
The Reality Behind The Baltimore Star
The Baltimore Star is a fictional newspaper. It was conceived by Laura Lippman for her mystery novel ‘Lady in the Lake,’ the source novel of the series. Even though the media establishment doesn’t exist, the author’s experiences as a journalist inspired her to conceive the narrative of the literary work, which includes the fictional newspaper. She sees Maddie as an “iteration” of herself, which connects the fictitious establishment to her former workplace, The Baltimore Sun. Let us be clear: the Star is not an exact counterpart of the Sun. However, the experiences Lippman gained while working for the latter played an integral part in conceiving the former.
The similarity in the names of the two newspapers is a testament to such an influence. While working for the Sun, Lippman learned about the disappearance of Shirley Parker, the inspiration behind Cleo Johnson. Having said that, the author didn’t investigate the case as Maddie does in the novel. When Esther Lebowitz, the real-life counterpart of Tessie, was murdered, the writer was not even a reporter but just a ten-year-old. Maddie’s investigation into the little girl’s murder for the Star is completely fictional.
After deciding to write a novel about the murder and the disappearance, Lippman stayed away from the specifics concerning the cases rather than writing about them for the Sun. “Once I’ve decided that a real-life crime is going to be my inspiration, I do no more research about it. Because I don’t really want to know about that crime. I have been drawn to it because of some sort of thematic possibility… It’s like, this is the story I want to tell, so I can’t be weighed down by what’s true,” Lippman told NPR.
The Baltimore Sun is a newspaper founded in 1837 by Arunah Shepherdson Abell and his two associates, William Moseley Swain and Azariah H. Simmons. Over the years, the Sun has published the works of several acclaimed journalists and writers, including Murray Kempton, William Manchester, Rafael Alvarez, Richard Ben Cramer, Russell Baker, etc. The newspaper is owned by David D. Smith of Sinclair Broadcast Group and Armstrong Williams.
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