Harlan Coben reveals why ‘Final Twist’ Season 2 premiere case was too ‘bonkers’ even for a fiction writer
Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers’ discretion advised
Harlan Coben, the author behind the mystery novel ‘Fool Me Once,’ has been making twists and turns in fiction long enough, but the first case in ‘Harlan Coben’s Final Twist’ Season 2 sounded like something only real life could pull off. The series’ Season 2 premiere aired on CBS on October 5, focusing on the 2011 Missouri murder of Betsy Faria, which viewers might have seen in the 2022 NBC drama ‘The Thing About Pam,’ where Katy Mixon plays Betsy and Renée Zellweger plays her friend Pam Hupp. It all began as a suicide, turned out to be a wrongful conviction and a second murder.
Speaking with Forbes, Coben explained why real-life crime stories can be more unbelievable than fiction. He argued that reality does not have to follow the rules of storytelling. “Reality can be as bonkers or as insane or as crazy as we want it to be,” he said. Coben pointed to the Betsy Faria murder case as an example, saying that if he had written the same events into one of his novels or Netflix shows, audiences would likely complain about the “plot holes” and insist that no one would behave that way. “Fiction sort of has to follow rules, and reality doesn’t,” he said.
Betsy, 42, worked in insurance, had a part-time DJ gig, and was undergoing treatment for terminal breast cancer. Her friend Pam drove her home from chemo on December 27, 2011, and Betsy sent her husband, Russ Faria, a text message to let him know the same. When Russ returned home later that evening after his weekly game night, he found his wife lying on the living room floor with over 50 stab wounds and called 911, claiming she had taken her own life. It was revealed that only days earlier, Betsy had changed the beneficiary on her $150,000 life insurance policy from her daughters, Leah and Mariah, to Pam.
A week later, Russ Faria was arrested even though four of his friends provided an alibi for him, and prosecutors claimed he fabricated the 911 call. Pam was the star witness, claiming Betsy’s suicide was a result of marital problems, which the jury apparently found credible. Russ was convicted of first-degree murder in November 2013 and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. His conviction was overturned by a Missouri judge in 2015 when evidence emerged that was suppressed during the trial, including crime scene photos showing no signs of an altercation. Russ Faria was released after serving nearly three years.
The authorities turned their attention to Pam. In August 2016, she killed Louis Gumpenberger (a man with an intellectual disability) after luring him to her home. The police found $900 and a note in his pockets, suggesting that Russ had hired him to harm her and collect the insurance money. In 2019, Pam entered an Alford plea and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Prosecutors accused her of Betsy’s murder in 2021, and she has pleaded not guilty. This year, a new judge, Joseph Rathert, postponed her trial, initially scheduled for August 3, according to Fox 2. ‘Harlan Coben’s Final Twist’ airs on Monday at 10 p.m. ET on CBS and is available on Paramount+.
