Talking Dateline: The Family Plot

Keith Morrison (0:05)

Hi there, I'm Keith Morrison, and this is Talking Dateline, and we are joined today by the illustrious Josh Mankiewicz. Actually, the real Josh Mankiewicz, as opposed to some fakery Josh Mankiewicz, which I've been seeing on social media lately.

Josh Mankiewicz (0:21)

I'm Josh Mankiewicz.

SPEAKER_3 (0:23)

I'm Josh Mankiewicz.

Keith Morrison (0:25)

Will the real Josh Mankiewicz please stand up?

Josh Mankiewicz (0:30)

I think an argument can be made that that's the real Josh Mankiewicz.

Keith Morrison (0:32)

Well, wait a minute. You're the fakery guy.

That's right. The other one was the real one. He looked like a nice fella.

Josh Mankiewicz (0:41)

So I'm here in Boston to meet in person somebody that I really only know from the online world. And here's the thing.

Joshua Mankiewicz (0:48)

His name is Joshua Mankiewicz.

Josh Mankiewicz (0:51)

Alert viewers of Dateline may have noticed that's also my name. So I thought it was time that we meet.

Josh Mankiewicz.

Keith Morrison (1:01)

Josh Mankiewicz.

Josh Mankiewicz (1:02)

Josh Mankiewicz.

Keith Morrison (1:03)

Good to meet you.

Josh Mankiewicz (1:03)

Nice to meet you. You're taller than I expected. You're taller than almost any other Mankiewicz that I know.

Keith Morrison (1:10)

Now, anybody who has not seen this reunion of the two Josh Mankiewicz's on social media might be able to find it. Anyway, we have Josh Mankiewicz to talk about the episode, our season premiere of our 35th season.

It was called The Family Plot. The story begins with a man shot to death in the foyer, I guess, or the hall of his in-law's house, mother-in-law's house. And then there's a long and twisted investigation to see what happened. And I will say that from very early on in this episode, nobody else may have noticed it, but I sure did, that that young detective, A, was very impressive, and B, looked so much like a guy you could see on Scandinavian murder mystery stories, on television, named Olafer Olufsen. Have you ever seen him?

Josh Mankiewicz (2:02)

Oh, he's the star of Trapped, which is...

Keith Morrison (2:05)

Exactly that.

Josh Mankiewicz (2:06)

Iceland, it's said in Iceland, so good.

Keith Morrison (2:09)

But the doggoness and the sincerity were also shared traits. And I was an admirer of that.

Josh Mankiewicz (2:17)

You did a great job.

Keith Morrison (2:18)

Yeah. Well, anyway, before we get to the story, why don't you listen to the episode if you haven't yet. You can find it right below this one or stream it on Peacock and then come right back here. And when you come back, we'll have more from Tracey Grist's police interview. The night Matt was killed and later we'll answer some of your questions from social media.

All right, let's talk Dateline. This was a good one. This was just, I loved the investigative part of it. It really followed this investigative trail. What was your impression of the thing when you began to hear the details?

Josh Mankiewicz (2:49)

Well, I mean, it is mind-boggling when you sort of look at this. I mean, they lured this guy from California to Utah. You know, mom sort of involved as many members of her family as she could in doing that, and they all kind of, I guess, did what she said. I guess they were kind of used to that over the years. And then they tell this phony story that Matt, the victim in this, you know, came in aggressively and pushed Kevin up against a wall, and he had a knife, and like instantly, you know, there's things wrong with that scenario. I mean, it fell apart from the beginning. I mean, Kevin, the brother who fired the shot, the shots, he was, Matt was shot seven times. He was taken into custody that night, despite his argument that it was a self-defense shooting. The cops didn't believe that for a second, and Kevin, I think, was never out of custody again.

Like, he went in instantly, and that was the end of that. And then the only question was, who else was involved?

Keith Morrison (3:55)

The hapless Kevin, I think you could say.

Josh Mankiewicz (3:57)

And by the way, if they thought they were gonna get away with it, that plot started crumbling from the beginning.

You know, he's shot through the wrist, but he's still holding the knife. He's holding the knife in his wrong hand. He took off his shoes before he came into the living room. Right? Something that home invaders generally don't do.

Keith Morrison (4:17)

Well, they clearly were a bunch of amateur murderers. No question about that.

Josh Mankiewicz (4:20)

I think the plan was to just make it sound like Matt was an angry, you know, vengeful guy, and he, you know, came over, barged in. You know, they'd taken the screen door off to make it easier for him to come in the house. And she says to him in the calls, like, you're coming in, right? You're gonna come in, I need your help with the kids. You know, getting all their stuff. And the kid's stuff was not packed, which it would have been if Matt's gonna collect them and they're gonna go home. Of course.