What Do You Do When a Family Member Commits a Terrible Crime? |
What Do You Do When a Family Member Commits a Terrible Crime?
The columnist M. Gessen sits down with the writer Harriet Clark to talk through the complexity of maintaining relationships with family members who have done unthinkable things.
By M. Gessen and Harriet Clark
Produced by Jillian Weinberger
Maintaining a relationship with a convicted family member can be complicated. The columnist M. Gessen would know.
In a new podcast series from Serial called “The Idiot,” M. grapples with the fact that their first cousin committed a terrible crime. In 2024, a federal judge sentenced Allen to 10 years in prison for taking out a hit on his ex-wife, the mother of his children.
Now, M. talks about their dilemma with their friend Harriet Clark, whose mother, Judy Clark, served 37 years in prison for driving the getaway car in a robbery that led to the deaths of three people. Harriet explains how the adults in her life gave her the opportunity to create and sustain a strong relationship with her mother, and why M. should do the same for Allen’s children.
What Do You Do When a Family Member Commits a Terrible Crime?
Below is a transcript of an episode of “The Opinions.” We recommend listening to it in its original form for the full effect. You can do so using the player above or on the NYTimes app, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.
The transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
M. Gessen: I’m M. Gessen, an Opinion columnist at The New York Times.
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M. Gessen is an Opinion columnist for The Times. They won a George Polk Award for opinion writing in 2024. They are the author of 11 books, including “The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia,” which won the National Book Award in 2017.