User blog:UnderAPineapple/Hamilton - My Upcoming Project

Hello guys and gals. Today, I am announcing my new project, and it's going to be a very interesting one.

This will be very, VERY similar to Hurricane Pineapple, but I feel it will be a lot more interesting. All these cases were written by me, similar to the fanon seasons written by you, and even if you're not a "legal eagle" or a "crime show junkie", you're probably going to be interested in what I have in store.

I'm introducing you to Hamilton, a fictional crime show that is similar to shows such as Cold Case Files or 48 Hours Mystery. Every episode of Hamilton will consist of one of the eight hosts, covering a crime story (fictitious), and showing it on these blogs. My plan is to have one episode every Monday, beginning soon. But before that, I have to introduce you to the hosts.



Neil Hamilton
Born: January 17, 1942 (age 76)

Birthplace: Atlanta, Georgia

Profile:

Neil Hamilton (who is often just called by his surname), is the main host of the show, as the show bears his last name. He has spent more than half a century working in the criminal justice system. He spent almost 30 years working as a criminal prosecutor in the state of Georgia, working almost all types of homicide cases, before being elected Attorney General of Georgia in 1998, and serving two terms. He is often considered to be the “most experienced prosecutor in the country”, and “a badass in the courtroom” because of him not holding back when interrogating defendants and while on trial or in office.

Hamilton graduated from Grady High School in 1960 and ended up attending the University of Pennsylvania to study law, in hopes of becoming a prosecutor. He graduated in the class of 1965 from the Ivy League school and was ranked #1 out of 608 students. Students were impressed by his cramming abilities, and his professors called him “one of the brightest men in our class. He’s going places, and he has goals”.

He became an elected official in Fulton County, Georgia in 1972, at the age of 30. From 1972-1999, he had been a prosecutor, working almost 200 homicide cases in the state. One of the most notable cases that he prosecuted, was in December 1979, when the defendant, a man named Stephen Charles Johnson, requested to testify in the courtroom. Hamilton managed to talk to Stephen for around five hours, and got Johnson to confess to the murder for which he was charged with. Stephen ended up getting a life sentence, and died in prison in 2011 at the age of 72.

Hamilton has prosecuted many defendants in both Fulton County and other counties in Georgia, who were sentenced to death, and/or were executed by the state. His first defendant to be executed was in 1983, when he waived his appeals and asked to be executed only four years after his sentence. His most recent defendant to be executed was in 2017, by lethal injection. In total, 31 defendants of his have been executed; almost half of the defendants who he has sent to death row. He also is known for never having been investigated for prosecutorial misconduct, despite trying hundreds of people in his time as a prosecutor.

As Attorney General, he added hundreds of law enforcement officers to the state department every year in hopes of stabilizing the crime rate, he introduced a bill that would expedite the execution process for death row inmates in Georgia, and he supported the “three-strikes law”, which would incarcerate repeat offenders who commit serious crimes. Although he was considering running for Governor in 2006, he chose not to, considering he had just lost his brother two years prior. Hamilton is a member of the Republican Party, but calls himself a “moderate Republican”.

You will probably see Hamilton more in a future blog unrelated to the show.

Tom Sugisaki
Born: February 6, 1933 (age 85)

Birthplace: Kyushu, Japan

Profile:

Naomori “Tom” Sugisaki was born in 1933 to a poor Japanese couple. When he was seven, he and his parents moved to the United States to avoid conflict in World War II – this was before Pearl Harbor occurred. Tom’s father ended up getting drafted in the war as an aviator, however, his plane was shot down in 1944, and he was killed as a result. Tom graduated from high school in 1951, and served in the Korean War for around a year before being discharged. He returned to where he was living in Los Angeles.

On November 28, 1958, an unknown assailant broke into the home of a 52-year old attorney, his 46-year old wife, and their 12 and 14-year old daughters, and stabbed all of them to death. Tom was brought in for questioning about the murder, in which he states that he was beaten, suspended from a ceiling, and had a gun to his head, with officers “forcing” him to confess to the murders. He was put on trial and was given the death penalty one year later.

Because of the lack of evidence – both physical and circumstantial – Governor Pat Brown was inclined to commute Tom’s sentence to life imprisonment when he was eligible to be sent to the gas chamber in May 1961. He spent two more years in prison before the U.S. Supreme Court declared that in August 1963, that there was reasonable doubt about him committing the crime, and he was exonerated and released from prison. In the years after his exoneration, Tom ended up getting into college to study criminal justice and journalism. He also became a very active opponent of the use of capital punishment in the United States.

Prior to being hired to work on Hamilton Tom worked as a legal analyst for CBS from 2011-2018, and prior to that, worked at NBC for 20 years as both a reporter and a legal analyst. He also wrote for newspapers as a legal columnist. He states that he believes he will be a very “unbiased reporter”, who treats all of his interviewees with respect and integrity, regardless of who they are. He believes that the three most important things in life are, “family, honesty, and trust”. Tom is a Buddhist.

Linda Ledbetter
Born: August 2, 1944 (age 74)

Birthplace: Des Plaines, Illinois

Profile:

Linda Ledbetter was born in 1944 to a primarily Christian household. Her father served in World War II and would become her “inspiration in life”. Linda was among the first class to graduate from Maine West High School in Des Plaines, Illinois. Throughout her life she has lived in Illinois and got her first job as a reporter for the local news when she was straight out of college.

Although not the most experienced person in crime reporting, Linda believes she will be an asset to the Hamilton cast because of her ability to talk to guests/people, and get answers without ruffling any feathers. She worked at a local news station in Des Plaines for 21 years before 1988, when she began working at NBC. Throughout her time at NBC, she was respected for having traveled around the world to report news in places such as Haiti, Iraq, and even in 2009, when she visited North Korea for a documentary.

Linda married Ralph Emery in 1969, and had three children – Ralph Jr. (b. 1971), Catherine (b. 1973), and Daniel (b. 1978) – and she currently has seven grandchildren, with an eighth one on the way. A registered Republican, she has been active in Conservative party politics, speaking at a 1980 rally for Presidential Candidate Ronald Reagan. When she was hired at NBC in 1988, the entire family moved to New York.

In 2012, Linda was diagnosed with cervical cancer, which she primarily said was because of a 40-year period of smoking. In 2015, she reported that she was “alive, well, and maybe even better”, after undergoing a hysterectomy.

Susan Summers
Born: December 30, 1957 (age 60)

Birthplace: Pensacola, Florida

Profile:

Susan Summers was born in 1957, and her life wasn’t as easy as she hoped. Her father was an alcoholic who ended up abusing Susan’s mother during her childhood. Spending all of her childhood in the state of Florida, she moved in with her grandparents when she was twelve. In 1970, her mother was killed by her father, who was in a drunken fit of rage. Susan’s father was given a life sentence, which devastated her grandfather (who was his father). Eventually in December 1971, Susan’s grandfather committed suicide, leaving her with her critically ill grandmother, who was 76 years old.

Susan always knew that she wanted to pursue a career in journalism, and finding the truth. She graduated magna cum laude in high school, and went to the University of Florida in Jacksonville, getting her Master’s Degree at the age of 24. She ended up working for a local news station in Pensacola, and she ended up covering the infamous 1985 murder trial of serial killer, Judy Buenoano. Before Buenoano was executed in 1998, Susan Summers interviewed her during her final days on death row. Susan also interviewed people such as William Bonin and Cameron Todd Willingham, the latter of which she believed was innocent.

In 2007, after more than two decades working for Pensacola’s local news station, she began working for ABC News in New York City. She interviewed Neil Hamilton, who in 2018 would eventually hire her for the show she’s about to work on. A registered Republican, Susan is a supporter of almost all things politically conservative. She is married to Keith Straughn, a Marine Corps veteran, and has two kids – Bradley and Kenna.

Susan’s father died on November 30, 2013 at the age of 77 while still in prison. At that time, he had spent more than 42 years behind bars for the murder of his wife. Susan stated that she had forgiven her father when she was in her thirties, but stated “it was not an easy process”.

Rachel Riley
Born: March 16, 1968 (age 50)

Birthplace: Syracuse, New York

Profile:

Rachel Riley is the only person on the Hamilton cast, aside from Hamilton himself, who does not have a degree in journalism. She was however, a district attorney for Tioga County, New York from 2003-2011. A politician and a prosecutor, Rachel is not afraid to do what it takes to get the truth out of people. She is often called by her co-workers as a “human polygraph”.

Rachel was born in 1968, and graduated from William Nottingham high school in 1986. She spent seven years at Syracuse University studying law, graduating with a Master’s Degree in 1993. For the next ten years, she worked as an assistant district attorney for Tioga County, eventually trying to make a run for chief district attorney in 1998, but losing the election by less than 4% of the vote.

Rachel is a registered Democrat but has been critical of her liberal colleagues of being, what she calls, “too soft on crime”. She believes working on Hamilton, will be a life-changing experience for her, citing that she’s working for someone who “understands how the justice system works, and knows what to do in hopes of getting justice”.

Rachel was married to a man named Bill Dempsey from 1993-2002, and birthed a daughter named Caitlyn in 1998. Bill and Rachel divorced in 2002 because of “irreconcilable differences”. She later met and married a fellow district attorney named Stephen Vandross, who ironically, is a Republican. Stephen has two kids – Gabriella and Stephen Jr. – from a previous marriage. Rachel’s stepson has Tourette’s Syndrome.

Kristina Phillips
Born: April 15, 1993 (age 25)

Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Profile:

Kristina Phillips considers herself as the Tomi Lahren of criminal justice. She was born in 1993 to a well-off family in Philadelphia. She was Class President in high school, and was the valedictorian of her class. She attended Harvard Law School and achieved a degree in criminology at the age of only 21 years old. Now at 25, she is the youngest person working at Hamilton.

Kristina spent four years working as a local reporter for WPSG in Philadelphia, and traveled throughout Pennsylvania, reporting on legal cases. For a high school project, she even made a documentary about the rise and fall of Bernard Madoff, the former non-executive chairman of NASDAQ. She is a huge fan of Neil Hamilton, who spent more than 30 years as a state and federal prosecutor.

Kristina is single, and lives in Los Angeles like the rest of the cast. She also has a dog named Luke, who she has had since August 2016. She believes she will be considered a “female Hamilton”, who will not hold back when it comes to interrogating people, and will not sugarcoat how she feels to those who openly commit heinous crimes.

Carl Fox
Born: July 1, 1947 (age 71)

Birthplace: Collings Heights, New Jersey

Profile:

Carl Fox was born in 1947. He is both an investigative journalist and an attorney, who studied at Yale University, graduating from Yale in 1972. During his teenage years, he was active in the Civil Rights movement, and ended up getting assaulted at the age of 16 by a group of white supremacists because he was outside of a “whites-only” grocery store. When reporting to police, he couldn’t identify the assailants, and therefore the police brushed it off as “boys being boys”.

From that moment, Carl made it a point to become notable, and to let his attackers know about it. He worked really hard in school, which allowed him to get a scholarship to Yale, where he studied for both law and journalism. He spent a few years after graduating, working as a pro-bono attorney, even working on a few murder cases. After around six years later, he stopped working as an attorney, and ended up putting his degree in journalism to work. He worked for a local news station in New Haven, Connecticut, becoming the first black journalist in New Haven in the late 1970’s. He would work there for 7 years before moving to CBS News. Carl even got the opportunity to meet Walter Cronkite several times.

Carl has been a friend of host, Neil Hamilton, since 1988, and is considered Hamilton’s “closest colleague”, considering he has known Hamilton for the longest time. Carl is excited to work on the show because he has always been interested in crime shows and investigative stories, and believes this will be a fun and interesting experience for him. He also admires Hamilton, who has spent more than five decades in the field of criminal justice.

Carl has been married for 48 and 1/2 years with his wife Joanne. Together, they have two children, Joel and Rachel Fox, aged 35 and 33 respectively. He got the opportunity to interview Donald Trump in 2012 while he was working at CBS News.

Daniel McKosky
Born: October 5, 1988 (age 29)

Birthplace: Lawrenceville, Georgia

Profile:

Daniel McKosky was born in 1988 to a devout Roman Catholic family, and attended church every Sunday for the first 15 years of his life. However, with this, came a horrifying encounter with a priest that would last over eight years. Daniel was sexually abused by this priest, often at times when it was so subtle that his parents were in the room, but couldn’t recognize it. When he was 13, this priest ended up coming to his birthday party, and assaulting him in his own basement. Two years later, Daniel confided in his mother, who got that priest arrested.

Daniel graduated from Lanier High School in Sugar Hill, Georgia, and enlisted in the United States Military, moving up to the rank of a Navy SEAL by the age of 23. He was deployed to Pakistan in May 2011, and became one of the many SEALS on the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Following this, he was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor by President Obama in October.

Upon arriving back in the States, Daniel attended college to get a degree in journalism. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in 2015, and a Master’s Degree two years later. Working on Hamilton will be the very first show that he is being a journalist/correspondent for, which makes him nervous, but equally excited for what’s to come. He is an admirer of Hamilton because of his work towards the criminal justice system, and also because he is from the state of Georgia.

Daniel is openly gay, and is currently engaged to his longtime partner, Robert, who is a legal analyst for NBC News.

And THAT is the cast of Hamilton for the first season. In this season there will be multiple crime stories written. Each episode one of these eight hosts will be narrating it, and interviewing people related to the story, and once again, whether you like to watch crime shows or not, I think you're going to love it a lot. I am not sure when the premiere date will be, but I can guarantee you that it will be fairly soon.

I hope you all have a good night, and let me know who is your favorite host in the comments based off of first impressions. :)