The miniseries Black Bird follows how inmate-turned-FBI operative Jimmy Keene goes undercover to get a confession from Larry Hall, who was suspected of killing up to 40 women — and the story is shockingly true.
In 2022, the award-winning miniseries Black Bird premiered on Apple TV+. The show explores the extraordinary story of Jimmy Keene (portrayed by Taron Egerton), the former head of a lucrative Chicago marijuana business, and Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser), a suspected serial killer. But is Black Bird a true story?
TCD/Prod.DB / Alamy Stock PhotoA scene from the miniseries Black Bird depicting Paul Walter Hauser as Larry Hall (left) and Taron Egerton as Jimmy Keene (right).
Although Keene’s stint as an FBI operative working undercover to obtain a confession from Hall while behind bars may seem larger than life, the events really did play out almost exactly as seen on screen. In fact, the show is based on Keene’s 2010 memoir In with the Devil: A Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption.
While some scenes in the series are dramatized — such as Keene’s extortion by a prison guard — Keene’s work indeed ensured that Larry Hall would never walk free to harm more young women. It also cleared his own record, and today, Keene works as a motivational speaker, sharing his story with others in an effort to redeem his past.
In many ways, the true story of Black Bird is even stranger than fiction.
Jimmy Keene And The Real Story Behind ‘Black Bird’
The real story behind Black Bird begins with James “Jimmy” Keene, who was born and raised in Kankakee, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. When he was in high school, he started selling marijuana to help make ends meet following his parents’ divorce. Soon, his business was booming, and he was reportedly bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars by the time he graduated.
Though he’d been a star athlete, Keene turned down scholarships to large universities to stay closer to Chicago. “It wasn’t even a conscious thought at that age,” he told news.com.au in a 2023 interview. “If I’m making half a million, a million a year, and eventually way more, why would I walk away from the business when I could just go to college here in Chicago and build up my savings?”
Wikimedia CommonsJimmy Keene was a star football player in high school, but he turned down scholarships to continue running his Chicago marijuana business.
But the hustle didn’t last forever. In 1996, Keene fell under the radar of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and was arrested on conspiracy charges. He ultimately pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Just a few months into Keene’s incarceration, however, the FBI and federal prosecutor Lawrence “Larry” Beaumont presented him with the deal of a lifetime: If he could get a confession from Larry Hall, his record would be cleared and he would go free.
The true story of Black Bird closely matches the series up to this point, with just a few differences. Beaumont’s first name was changed to Edmund for the show to avoid having two main characters named Larry. In addition, FBI Special Agent Janet Butkus (portrayed by Sepideh Moafi) wasn’t present in real life when Keene was arrested or offered the deal, but she did come in after Keene agreed to help the FBI take down Hall.
However, getting Keene to agree was the first challenge.
How Jimmy Keene Became An FBI Operative
Initially, Keene wasn’t sure if he wanted to go undercover to get a confession from the suspected serial killer. It would be a dangerous task. Prosecutors believed that Larry Hall may have been responsible for the murders of up to 40 young women and girls throughout the 1980s and early ’90s.
Hall traveled the country to perform in Civil War reenactments, and wherever he went, people turned up missing. However, authorities weren’t able to pin him to any disappearances until 1993, when witnesses spotted his van in the cornfield where the police later found the body of 15-year-old Jessica Roach. Hall initially admitted to killing Roach and other young women, but he immediately recanted his confession. Prosecutors had no physical evidence that Hall had murdered Roach, so they could only charge him with kidnapping and rape.
Wikimedia CommonsLarry Hall is suspected of killing as many as 40 girls and young women in the 1980s and early ’90s.
In 1995, Hall was found guilty of the charges and sentenced to life in prison. However, the FBI was worried that he would win an appeal due to the lack of evidence and walk free to kill again. That’s where Jimmy Keene came in.
Keene maintained a strict no-snitching policy that had once allowed him to flourish in the Chicago drug business, so he almost turned the FBI down. However, as portrayed in the series, his father suffered a stroke around the same time, and Keene was worried he would die before he got out of prison if he didn’t take the FBI’s offer.
So, Keene was transferred to the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, under an alias in order to gain Larry Hall’s trust and obtain a confession from him that would allow prosecutors to keep Hall behind bars for life.
How The True Story Of ‘Black Bird’ Compares To The Miniseries
As seen on the show, Keene was understandably nervous to take on the task of befriending Hall. He told CNN in 2015, “I started to get cold feet. And I looked at the U.S. Marshal and I said… how do we know Beaumont is going to live up to his word? They all assured me he would. And I said, well, you know, I’m not really sure if I can do this.”
But Keene’s courage quickly kicked in once he was in Springfield. He spotted Hall just hours after he arrived at the prison and put his plan into action.
“I made it a point for us to bump shoulders together,” Keene told CNN. “I said, ‘I’m new here… you wouldn’t happen to know where the library is, would you?'” The simple question led to a fast friendship — at least from Hall’s perspective. Keene really did even beat up another inmate who turned off a television show that Hall was watching, marking a turning point in their relationship. Soon, Hall began opening up to Keene about his crimes, telling him information about the murders that only the killer would know.
Apple TV+A scene from the show Black Bird depicting Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser) and Jimmy Keene (Taron Egerton).
Of course, not everything depicted in Black Bird really happened. No prison guard actually threatened to blow Keene’s cover unless he gave him money, for instance. However, some of the more unbelievable moments from the show are indeed true. Keene really did befriend Genovese crime family boss Vincent “The Chin” Gigante while behind bars. And Special Agent Butkus did pretend to be Keene’s girlfriend while visiting him in prison to get an update on his mission.
In fact, it’s one of the most dramatic scenes in the series that shows just how wild the true story of Black Bird actually was. Keene really did find Hall observing a map of the Midwest that he’d marked with red dots, likely representing where he had buried his victims. Hall had placed carved wooden falcons around the map and told Keene that they were there to “watch over the dead.”
Keene, convinced that he finally had enough evidence to take Hall down, angrily confronted him after leaving a message for his FBI contact, releasing all the disgust he’d felt toward him since the beginning. However, Keene’s message never made it to the right person. Instead of being released the very next day, he was thrown into solitary confinement for two weeks.
In the show, Hall mails the map and falcons to his family for them to destroy before they can be used as evidence against him. In the real story behind Black Bird, it’s unclear what actually happened to the items. Hall may have mailed them off, or he may have simply destroyed them while Keene was locked away in confinement.
The miscommunication was ultimately discovered, and Keene was indeed released from prison even though the map was long gone by the time the FBI learned about it. Thankfully, the grisly details Hall had given Keene about the crimes were enough for prosecutors to consider his work done.
Where Are Jimmy Keene And Larry Hall Today?
Following Jimmy Keene’s efforts as an FBI operative, Larry Hall’s appeal was rejected. He is currently serving out his life sentence at a prison in Butner, North Carolina.
Meanwhile, Keene was able to spend several more years with his father before his death in 2004.
“This man was a hero,” Keene told news.com.au. “I love him endlessly. I learnt more from my dad than I ever did in any college or out on the street, he gave me the best education of my life. He was my best friend.”
Following his release from prison, Keene published a memoir about his experiences that tells the true story behind Black Bird. He also started several businesses and now owns a real estate development company.
Jimmy KeeneJimmy Keene at the premiere of Black Bird.
However, Keene remains most proud of his role in taking down Larry Hall. His personal website notes that he was “irreversibly changed” by his experience with the criminal. From his book to Black Bird, Keene’s creative projects are more than entertainment — they are chances to seek redemption for his past and raise awareness about Hall’s crimes. He hopes that his actions will someday bring closure to the families of Hall’s victims.
As Keene told CNN, “Maybe the things I’ve done and am still doing will still shine a light and give them hope at some point.”
After reading about the true story behind Black Bird, go inside the real story of The Wolf of Wall Street. Then, learn about Richard Wershe Jr., or “White Boy Rick,” the youngest person to ever go undercover for the FBI.
